34. The United States is tied to England by history, politics, government, values, and economics.Because the United States was once an English colony, and because we share political systems (democracy), social values (individual rights), and economic systems (capitalism) the United States supported England during both the First World War and during World War II.

35. Woodrow Wilson’s 14 Point PlanPresident Woodrow Wilson suggested the Fourteen Point Plan for peace in Europe following World War I. Many part of his plan were included in the Treaty of Versailles. The most important part of the plan to Wilson was the creation of the League of Nations – an international peacekeeping organization to be created in Europe.

36. The USA never signed the Treaty of Versailles and never joined the League of Nations.

37. The automobile changes life in America.The automobile changed the way Americans lived:

• People had greater and more reliable mobility.

• Jobs were created in road construction, parts stores, service stations, and tourism.

• People were able to live in the suburbs and drive to work in the city.

• In the 1950s, the Interstate Highway System was created by President Dwight David Eisenhower.

38. Guglielmo Marconi invented the radio.

39. David Sarnoff revolutionized the broadcasting industry – both in radio and television, with NBC: the National Broadcasting Company.

40. Electrification changed America by making work easier and life more entertaining.Labor saving products like washing

machines, stoves, and water pumps. Electric lighting increased

productivity and made homes safer and more comfortable.

Entertainment in radio and motion picture machines.

Communication improved due to

telephones and telegraphs.

41. During the Great Migration in the 1910s and 1920s, African-Americans moved North to take jobs in industrialized cities.

42. Artist Jacob Lawrence was an African-American painter most famous for his portraits of blacks in urban settings. His most famous trilogy of paintings features “The Great Migration.”

43. Langston Hughes was the leading poet of the Harlem Renaissance.

Dream Deferred

by Langston Hughes

What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up

like a raisin in the sun?

Or fester like a sore—

And then run?

Does it stink like rotten meat?

Or crust and sugar over—

like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags

like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

44. Jazz is an African-American musical innovation, born in New Orleans and featuring improvisation.

Louis Armstrong

Duke Ellington

Bessie Smith

New Orleans,

LA

45. Georgia O’Keeffe was an artist whose work featured flowers, symmetry and Southwestern themes.

46. Writer F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, was a description of life among the wealthy elite during the 1920s. He was a member of the so-called “Lost Generation.”

47. Author John Steinbeck wrote the Grapes of Wrath, a novel about a family which was forced to take work as migrants in California when the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression forced them off of their land.

48. Composers Aaron Copland and George Gershwin were musicians who wrote uniquely American songs.

Aaron Copland

George Gershwin

49. Buying stocks “on the margin” – or using borrowed money to purchase stocks – was one of the causes of the Great Depression.

50. The Great Depression’s impact on Americans.

Almost 10,000 banks failed – they had loaned money out to the stockbrokers who purchased shares “on the margin.”

Unemployment rates reached as high as 25% in 1933, the worst year of the Depression.

Millions were homeless and hungry during the Depression; under President Herbert Hoover, little was done to improve conditions, and shantytowns called “Hoovervilles” were established on the edges of towns.

Farm incomes dropped dramatically.

51. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal was an attempt by the federal government to solve the economic problems of the Depression.

52. The Social Security Act provided financial assistance for the elderly, the handicapped, and for dependent children in need. The program is still in effect today.

53. The New Deal created jobs programs to employ citizens in government jobs: The Works Progress Administration, the Public Works Administration, the Civilian Conservation Corps, and National Youth Administration just to name a few.

54. The Dust Bowl ruined crops on the Great Plains near Oklahoma, New Mexico, Texas, and Kansas.

55. World War II was caused by a many factors: Worldwide economic depression caused poverty

and desperation.

Germany owed billions of dollars to other European nations over World War I, and hyperinflation worsened the economic depression there.

Fascist dictators had risen to power with militarily aggressive plans to conquer territories:

Germany – Adolf Hitler

Italy – Benito Mussolini

Japan – Hideki Tojo

The Axis Powers

56. The Allied Powers in World War II:

Democratic Nations – with the exception of the communist Soviet Union.

France, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, and many other nations were occupied during the war.

England fought against Germany from 1939 to 1945. Winston Churchill was the Prime Minister of England.

The Soviet Union fought against Germany after they were invaded by the Soviets in 1940. Joseph Stalin was the leader of the nation.

The United States declared war on the Germans in late 1941. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the President from 1941 (the attack of Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941 – April of 1945.) Harry Truman was President of the United States at the end of World War II and chose to use atomic weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan.

57. At the start of World War II, the United States followed an isolationist foreign policy. Neutrality Acts were passed in

the United States to show commitment to the policy of isolationism. Groups like the America First Committee fought against US involvement in Europe.

Economic aid eventually began with the Cash and Carry policy and later the Lend Lease Act. Americans prepared for war with the Selective Service Act as well.

Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt agreed to end dictatorship and fascism in Europe with the Atlantic Charter before the United States even entered the war.

58. The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii in a surprise attack on December 7, 1941. The United States immediately declared war on Japan. Germany declared war on the United States.

59. German aggression had caused World War II to begin in Europe long before the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Germany had taken over the Rhineland, the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia, the remainder of Czechoslovakia, and Austria before the invasion of Poland on Sept. 1, 1939.

The Soviet Union had signed a non-aggression pact with Germany before the war, and invade the Baltics and Poland, as well.

Eventually, Germany would invade most of the nations in Europe, including Denmark, Belgium, Holland, France, and even the Soviet Union – they betrayed their own agreement.

German planes bombed Great Britain to rubble in the Battle of Britain in 1940.

Nevertheless, the United States would not become involved in World War II until the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

60. The turning point in World War II on the Eastern Front was the Battle of Stalingrad, fought in the Soviet Union in 1942 - Soviet oil reserves there made it an important strategic victory for the USSR..

61. The D-Day invasion was planned out by Dwight David Eisenhower, and was the turning point in World War II on the Western Front of Europe. D-Day was June 6, 1945.

62. The turning point in World War II in the Pacific, against the Japanese, was the Battle of Midway.

63. World War II ended when the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Japanese cities: Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 and Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. V-E day in Europe had been on May 8, 1945,

when Soviet soldiers captured Berlin and American and British soldiers took the Western portion of the city.

The nuclear weapons used on Japan in August of 1945 were authorized by President Harry S Truman, who had taken over the Presidency when FDR passed away in April of 1945.

The Japanese formally surrendered to the United States on September 2, 1945 on board the USS Missouri, at anchor in Tokyo Harbor.

64. During the Holocaust, Nazi Germany imprisoned and systematically murdered over six million Jewish people and close to thirteen million people overall in death camps. The anti-Semitism which existed throughout Europe made Nazi sympathizers and war criminals of those who cooperated in Hitler’s “Final Solution.” Dozens were put to death for crimes against humanity during the Nuremburg trials after World War II.

65. The Great Depression came to an end during World War II thanks to all of the factory jobs which opened up in the United States. Both women and minority groups were sought after to work in the war munitions plants during World War II.

Rosie the Riveter

African-Americans

66. Americans on the Homefront rationed food and resources to support the war effort during World War II (and had done so in World War I, as well!)

67. Japanese Americans were forced to give up their property and possessions and required to live in relocation camps during World War II.