The Volstead Act was a piece of legislation passed in 1919. It enabled the United States government to enforce the 18th Amendment to the Constitution and is formally known as the National Prohibition Act. In combination with the 18th Amendment…
The Tuskegee Experiment was a notorious medical experiment carried out in the United States between 1932 and 1972, in which almost 400 black Americans with syphilis were offered no medical treatment, allowing researchers to see the course of the disease.…
The Loma Prieta earthquake was a major earthquake that caused extensive damage throughout Northern California on 17 October 1989. Known variously as the '89 quake or the World Series earthquake, the quake is believed responsible for about 60 deaths and…
The Gadsden Purchase, which is known as Venta de La Mesilla in Mexico, is a region of land inside of what is now the southern part of the states Arizona and New Mexico. The land in this purchase includes the…
In April of 1861, the South Carolina State Militia opened fire on Fort Sumter at the entrance to the port of Charleston, South Carolina. Thus began the bloodiest war in U.S. history, the American Civil War. Over 620,000 soldiers would…
The Alaska Purchase refers to the American acquisition of Alaska from Russia in 1867. For Russia, this sale was largely a tactical move which prevented a potential seizure of the territory by the British. The purchase was negotiated by US…
The Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 is an amendment to Title VII of the United States Civil Rights Act of 1964. It essentially makes it illegal for companies that have at least 15 employees to discriminate against women because they…
The Philadelphia Convention, now often referred to as the Constitutional Convention, was a meeting held in 1787 by delegates from the 13 states that then comprised the United States. At first, the purpose of the convention was to address the…
The Missouri Compromise involved a series of acts by the United States Congress in 1820-1821 to even out the number of free states and slave states in the Union. When Missouri petitioned for statehood in 1819, the number of free…
The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) is a highly secretive and very notorious white supremacist organization based in the American South. There have actually been three separate incarnations of the KKK, a result of repeated efforts to curtail the more radical…