Popular Culture

During the Twentieth Century in America, society's view of the "norm" changed dramatically from decade to decade. With each passing generation, society's values, morals, and entertainment changed more and more.

Bible based communities eventually have transformed into diverse ones filled with what some view as corruption and a degredation of morals. Others, however, view this evolution as progress.

Progress was made in issues of discrimination as well as civil rights. These current events affected the American population dramatically in many different ways.







1900-1925 1926-1950 1951-1975 1976-2000 Back to Main





1900-1925



1905 - The San Fransisco earthquake hit the Californian population hard, causing much destruction and panic. This earthquake affected everyone in the surrounding community both physically and emotionally.



1908 - Henry Ford develops the assembly line method of automobile manufacturing. This idea greatly improved production and created innumerable jobs, thus improving the economy immensely and changing the way products were manufactured for the rest of the century.



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1912 - The Titanic was the largest and most luxurious ocean liner of its time. It displaced more than 53,000 metric tons of water and measured 882 1/2 feet in length. Many people believed the ship was unsinkable because its hull was divided into 16 watertight compartments. Even if 2 of those compartments flooded, the ship could still float. As a result of the collision with the iceberg, 6 compartments initially flooded. Titanic was a British passenger ship that struck an iceberg and sank in the North Atlantic Ocean in 1912. The disaster occurred on the liner's first voyage, from Southampton, England, to New York City. The Titanic sideswiped the iceberg at about 11:40 p.m. on April 14. The impact caused a number of small cracks and failed riveted seams in the ship's hull. Seawater flooded through the bow of the ship. About 2 1/2 hours later, the vessel broke in two and sank.



1914- The Archduke Ferdinand is assassinated, and World War I erupts.



1916 - Margaret Sanger opens the first U.S. birth-control clinic in Brooklyn, N.Y. Although the clinic is shut down 10 days later and Sanger is arrested, she eventually wins support through the courts and opens another clinic in New York City in 1923.



1917 - Congress declares war on Germany and its allies, and the US enters World War I. Men were ripped from their families in order to aid the war effort. The production of war goods helped to speed up the economy, and also helped increase national pride.



1918 - Germany surrenders to the Allied Powers and puts an end to WWI. As a result of this, the unemployed soldiers contribute to the already rapidly increasing rate. This eventually becomes a contributing factor of the Great Depression.



1919 - The Allied Powers meet at the Palace of Versailles in order to decide on the reparations Germany should be forced to pay to the winning countries. The Treaty of Versailles started a thirty year bitterness growing amongst the German people, leading to an atmosphere which made it easy for Hitler to gain power and support in the suffering country.



1920 - After a long and painful struggle, women receive the right to vote. This victory did not put an end to the discrimination the women faced daily. Some supporters of women's rights still argue today for their right to equality.



1925 - The Scopes Monkey trial bursts into the public scene when a teacher tries to teach evolution in the classroom. Two famous politicians, Darrow and Bryan fly in to defend either side of the arguement. The trial receives national attention. This marks one of the earliest conflicts over the division between church and state, an arguement that still continues today. The ongoing discussion over whether or not there should be silent prayer in public schools is one that is constantly debated.



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1926-1950



October 29, 1929- The stock market crashed, resulting in the Great Depression. The Great Depression imposed a major strain on countries worldwide. In the United States, the people reacted to this crisis by electing Roosevelt into office who vowed to experiment with unorthodox solutions for the economic dilemma.




1945- The Japanese attack Pearl Harbor, thrusting America into World War II. This was the first time that any one had dared attack American soil and theatened the US powers and put fear in the hearts of many who lived in the States.



October 14, 1947 - While flying the X-1 over California, test pilot Chuck Yeager became the first man to break the sound barrier.



1949 - The Great Depression officially declared to be at an end.



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1951-1975




1955 - Rosa Parks is arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, for refusing to give her bus seat up for a white person. This action results in the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The boycott draws attention to the conflict over the "separate but equal" ruling stated in the Plessy v. Ferguson trial, which was later overturned in the Brown v. Board of Education



1957 - The Soviet Union announced it had the world's first artificial moon (Sputnik 1) streaking around the globe 560 miles out in space. Because of the tension resulting from the cold war, it caused many Americans to panic, mistaking the sattelite for an intelligence device instead of a simple space advancement.



1960 - The Food and Drug Administration approves birth control pills, thus allowing women to have more control over their bodies.




1961 - The Communists barred East Germans from West Berlin, either to work or visit, in an attempt to dam the flow of refugees to the west.




1961 - President Kennedy ordered a blockade clamped on deliveries of offensive arms to Cuba, because the Soviet Union had placed missiles on the island which were pointed at Florida. This conflict later became known as the Cuban Missle Crisis.




1963 - John F. Kennedy is assassinated, devastating the American population. This charasmatic man had been a sign of new hope for the Americans, and his death was taken harshly and deeply by everyone.



1964 - Title VII of the Civil Rights Act bars discrimination in employment on the basis of race and sex. At the same time it establishes the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to investigate complaints and impose penalties.




1965 - More than 2,000 African Americans, including teachers and school children, marched to the Dallas County Courthouse in Selma, Alabama in a massive demonstration underscoring their voter registration drive, led by Martin Luther King, Jr.




1967- The United States enter the Vietnam civil war to fight Communism in order to preserve democracy. This soon becomes an issue of great debate and protest. Many Americans felt that our aid was an interferance and waste of American money andd lives. The war wound up being futile in the end, with the American's stuck on the loosing side.



1968 - Martin Luther King Jr., father of non-violence in the American civil rights movement, was assassinated.



1969 - California becomes the first state to adopt a "no fault" divorce law, which allows couples to divorce by mutual consent. By 1985 every state has adopted a similar law. Laws are also passed regarding the equal division of common property.




1969 - Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin become the first person to walk on the moon.



1970 - Four students at Kent State University in Ohio are slain by National Guardsmen at demonstration protesting incursion into Cambodia. This act devastates and terrifies the American public. (Mrs. Germain was a student at Kent State at the time this occured and witnessed the protest.)



1971 - Supreme Court rules unanimously that busing of students may be ordered to achieve racial desegregation. Also in 1971, the Twenty-sixth Amendment to U.S. Constitution lowers voting age to 18.



1972 - Five men are apprehended by police in attempt to bug Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington, D.C.'s Watergate complex—start of the Watergate scandal.



1973 - Vietnam War ends with the signing of peace pacts.




1974 - The House Judiciary Committee adopts three articles of impeachment charging President Nixon with obstruction of justice, failure to uphold laws, and refusal to produce material subpoenaed by the committee (July 30). Richard M. Nixon announces he will resign the next day, the first president to do so, and Vice President Gerald R. Ford of Michigan is sworn in as 38th president of the U.S. Ford grants “full, free, and absolute pardon” to ex-president Nixon.



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1976-1999







1977 - President Jimmy Carter pardons Vietnam draft evaders.



1980 - John Lennon of the Beatles shot dead in New York City.



1981 - President Ronald Reagan nominates Judge Sandra Day O'Connor, 51, of Arizona, as first woman on Supreme Court. Also in this year, AIDS is first identified.



1983 - Sally K. Ride, 32, becomes the first U.S. woman astronaut in space as a crew member aboard space shuttle Challenger.



1989 - A ruptured tanker Exxon Valdez sends 11 million gallons of crude oil into Alaska's Prince William Sound. Also, tens of thousands of Chinese students take over Beijing's Tiananmen Square in rally for democracy and thousands are killed as Chinese leaders take hard line toward demonstrators. Also, after 28 years, Berlin Wall is open to West.



1990 - The World Wide Web makes its debut, and popularizes Internet. Also, Iraqi troops invade Kuwait and seize petroleum reserves, setting off Persian Gulf War. East and West Germany finally become reunited.



1992 - Bill Clinton is elected president, with Al Gore as his vice president.



1995 - Scores of people were killed as terrorist's car bomb blows up block-long Oklahoma City federal building, and Timothy McVeigh, 27, Army veteran, was arrested as a suspect.



1997 - Hale-Bopp comet was the closest it will be to Earth until 4397. Heaven's Gate cult members commit mass suicide in California. Also in this year, Princess Diana, 36, was killed with two others in Paris car crash.



1998 - President Clinton was accused in White House sex scandal - he denied the allegations of an affair with White House intern, Monica Lewinsky. The House later that year impeaches President Clinton along party lines on two charges, perjury and obstruction of justice.



1999 - Two Colorado students went on a shooting spree in Columbine High School, killing 15, including themselves. This tragic event both shocks the nation and starts a trend, spurring more school shootings to occur in the next few years.











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