The Young Republic, 1788-1815

1.  George Washington, 1789-1797

VP - John Adams
Secretary of State - Thomas Jefferson
Secretary of Treasury - Alexander Hamilton
Major Items:

  • Judiciary Act, 1789- created a hierarchical federal court system with thirteen district courts, one foe each state, and three circuit courts to hear appeals from the districts, with the Supreme Court having the final say.  
  • Tariff of 1789- raised revenue for the new gov’t by placing a tariff on importation of foreign goods and encouraging domestic production
  • Whiskey Rebellion, 1799- The Whiskey Rebellion was the first test of federal authority in the young republic. It was a lack of protection against Native American attacks and a high federal excise tax on domestically produced distilled spirits.
  • French Revolution - Citizen Genêt, 1793: Citizen Genêt was a French ambassador to the United States during the French Revolution. The French Revolution was the French wanting a more free country and to kill the king which they succeeded in.
  • Jay Treaty with England, 1795- The Jay Treaty between the United States and Great Britain delayed war, solved many issues left over from the Revolution, and opened ten years of trade, though hostile British actions continued. Signed in November 1794, ratified and put into effect in 1795, it was also known as Jay's Treaty or the Treaty of London.
  • Pinckney Treaty with Spain, 1795-United States had failed to honor the alliance of 1778. Spain at this time held the prized port of New Orleans at the mouth of the Mississippi River. Thomas Pinckney, U.S. minister to Britain, was dispatched to Spain and won two highly desirable concessions: Spain recognized U.S. borders at the Mississippi and the 31st parallel (the northern border of Florida, a Spanish possession). Spain granted Americans the right to deposit goods for transshipment at New Orleans.
  • Farewell Address, 1796- The Farewell Address was Washington's final statement to the American public. It was presented in the form of a newspaper essay, appearing first in the American Daily Advertiser in Philadelphia in September 1796; it was not a speech and was not delivered orally. James Madison made some contributions to the document, but the prime collaborator with the president was Alexander Hamilton.
  • First Bank of United States , 1791-1811-As Secretary of the Treasury in President George Washington's first cabinet, Alexander Hamilton negotiated the first loan obtained by the new government in 1789. The amount of $200,000 was issued by the Bank of New York (BNY), against which the treasury drew a series of warrants on the bank. Those warrants constitute a milestone in establishing the credit of the United States government and the economic independence of the young nation. Hamilton's economic vision and firm grasp of banking principles served the BNY well. The BNY became the First Bank of the United States.

2.  John Adams, 1797-1801

Federalist
VP - Thomas Jefferson
Major Items:

  • XYZ Affair, 1797- The XYZ Affair was a 1797 diplomatic episode that worsened relations between the United States and France and led to the undeclared Quasi War of 1798.
  • Alien Act, Sedition Act, 1798- The Sedition made it a crime to publish "false, scandalous, and malicious writing" against the government or its officials. Enacted July 14, 1798, with an expiration date of March 3, 1801.  The Alien Act authorized the president to deport any resident alien considered "dangerous to the peace and safety of the United States." Enacted June 25, 1798, with a two year expiration date and also to apprehend and deport resident aliens if their home countries were at war with the United States.
  • Naturalization Act- extended the duration of residence required for aliens to become citizens, from five years to 14. Enacted June 18, 1798, with no expiration date, it was repealed in 1802.
  • "Midnight Judges," 1801-The Midnight Judges were the last-minute appointments of judges made by United States President John Adams to the Judicial Branch just before the end of his presidential term in 1801.
  • Kentucky (Jefferson) and Virginia (Madison) Resolutions, 1798- Important political statements in favor of states rights written by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in 1798.

3.  Thomas Jefferson, 1801-1809

Republican
VP - Aaron Burr
Secretary of State - James Madison
Major Items:

  • Marbury v. Madison, 1803- The court established its role as the arbiter of the constitutionality of federal laws, the principle is known as judicial review.
  • Louisiana Purchase, 1803-The French territory of Louisiana included far more land than just the current U.S. state of Louisiana. The lands purchased contained parts or all of present-day Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota west of the Mississippi River, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, New Mexico, northern Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, the portions of Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado east of the Rocky Mountains, the portions of southern Manitoba, southern Saskatchewan and southern Alberta that drain into the Missouri River, and Louisiana on both sides of the Mississippi River including the city of New Orleans.
  • Lewis and Clark Expedition, 1804-1805- The Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804–1806) was the first United States overland expedition to the Pacific coast and back, led by Captain Meriwether Lewis and Second Lieutenant William Clark of the United States Army.
  • 12th Amendment, 1804-The Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution altered Article II pertaining to presidential elections. Article Two stated that the Electoral College would elect both the President and the Vice President in a single election; the person with a majority would become President and the runner-up would become Vice President
  • Embargo Act, 1807-The Embargo Act of 1807 was an American law prohibiting all export of cargo from American ports. It was designed to force Britain to reconsider its restrictions on American trade, but failed, and was repealed in early 1809
  • Non-Intercourse Act, 1809-In the last days of President Thomas Jefferson's presidency, the United States Congress replaced the Embargo Act of 1807 with the almost unenforceable Non-Intercourse Act of March 1809. This Act lifted all embargoes on American shipping except for those bound for British or French ports. The intent was to damage the economies of the United Kingdom and France. Like its predecessor, the Embargo Act, it was mostly ineffective, and contributed to the coming of the War of 1812.

4.  James Madison, 1809-1817

Republican
VP - George Clinton
Secretary of State - James Monroe
Major Items:

·         Macon Act, 1810- The Macon Bill superseded the Non-Intercourse Act. The Macon Bill stated that if either Britain or France agreed to observe the neutrality of the United States, the US would resume trading with that country and continue the embargo on the other. The French soon agreed to American demands

·         Berlin and Milan Decrees- The Milan Decree was issued in 1807 by Napoleon I of France to enforce the Berlin Decree of 1806 which had initiated the Continental System that was the basis for his plan to defeat the British by waging economic warfare. The Decree stated that no European country was to trade with the United Kingdom.

·         Orders in Council

·         "War Hawks," 1811-1812- War Hawk is a term originally used to describe a member of the House of Representatives of the Twelfth Congress of the United States who advocated going to war against Great Britain in the War of 1812.

·         War of 1812- was fought between the United States of America and Great Britain and its colonies in British North America (later Canada) from 1812 to 1815 on land and sea.

·         Hartford Convention, 1814-The Hartford Convention was an event in 1814 in the United States during the War of 1812 in which New England's opposition to the war reached the point where secession from the United States was discussed. The end of the war with a return to the status quo ante bellum disgraced the Federalist Party, which disbanded in most places.

·         First Protective Tariff, 1816- Clay and Calhoun supported as part of American System; Southern cotton growers opposed.

Era of Good Feelings and the Era of the Common Man, 1815-1840

5.  James Monroe, 1817-1825

Republican
VP - Tompkins
Secretary of State - John Quincy Adams
Major Items:

  • Marshall's Decisions:  McCulloch v. Maryland, The court established its role as the arbiter of the constitutionality of federal laws, the principle is known as judicial review 1819; Dartmouth College v. Woodward, New Hampshire had attempted to take over Dartmouth College by revising its colonial charter. The Court ruled that the charter was protected under the contract clause of the U. S. Constitution; upholds the sanctity of contracts. 1819; Gibbons v. Ogden, Clarified the commerce clause and affirmed Congressional power over interstate commerce. 1824
  • Acquisition of Florida from Spain, 1819- Purchased from Spain for $5 million in assumed claims under Adams-Onís Treaty
  • Transcontinental or Adam-Oñis Treaty, 1819- Secretary of State John Quincy Adams and Spanish minister to Washington Luis de Onís addressed two major problems: (1) the concerns of Georgians who wanted the United States to control East Florida to end Seminole raids, and (2) the Spanish desire to clearly define the boundary between Mexico and the Louisiana Purchase.
  • Missouri Compromise, 1820- The Great Compromiser, Henry Clay, proposed the following elements of a sectional compromise: That Missouri be admitted to the Union as a slave state (as the population of the territory apparently desired). That slavery was to be prohibited from the new American territories in the Louisiana Purchase north of 36˚30’ north latitude (the southern boundary of Missouri). States to the south of the line (the new Arkansas Territory) would decide the slavery issue for themselves. That Maine (formerly part of Massachusetts) be admitted to the Union as a free state.
  • Monroe Doctrine, 1823- The Monroe Doctrine, in 1823, proclaimed the United States' opinion that European powers should no longer colonize the Americas or interfere with the affairs of sovereign nations located in America, such as the United States of America, Mexico, Latin America, and others. The United States planned to stay neutral in wars between European powers and in wars between a European power and its colonies.
  • Sectional Tariff, 1824- 1824 by raising rates (over 30% on average) and by including such products as glass, lead, iron and wool in the protected category. Northern and Western representatives joined together in passing the tariff, turning a deaf ear to complaints from the South. Cotton growers sold heavily to Britain and other European nations, and justifiably feared tariff retaliation. Northern manufacturers and Western farmers produced largely for the domestic market and were more immune from foreign tariff discrimination than Southern growers.
  • Favorite Sons Election- Election of 1824 between Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams, William Crawford and Henry Clay.

6.  John Quincy Adams, 1825-1829

National Republican
VP - John C. Calhoun
Secretary of State - Henry Clay
Major Items:

  • "Corrupt Bargain" - refers to charges by partisans of Andrew Jackson that John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay conspired to deny Jackson the presidency when the election of 1824 was thrown into the House of Representatives.
  • Erie Canal, 1825
  • Tariff of Abominations- a tax on imports created in order to protect the industry in northern states from competing with European goods by causing the prices of those goods to rise.
  • Calhoun's Exposition and Protest, 1828- a.k.a The Nullification Crisis, When John C Calhoun led the attack by South Carolinian politicians on the power of the central government under Andrew Jackson. It was an attack on the Tariff of 1818. The South Carolina Exposition and Protest argued that protective tariffs were unconstitutional, and that states retained their sovereignty when they entered the Union. South Carolina threatened to nullify the tariff. Andrew Jackson responded with the Force Act that authorized the use of military force against any state that resisted the tariff acts.

7.  Andrew Jackson, 1829-1837

Democrat
VP - John C. Calhoun and Martin Van Buren
Major Items:

  • Jacksonian Democracy
  • Tariffs of 1832 and 1833- response to Tariff of Abominations that gradually reduced of rates from 35% to 10%.
  • The 2nd Bank of the United States (due to expire in 1836)
  • Formation of the Whig Party, 1832- opponents to Andrew Jackson who favored a program of national development.

8.  Martin Van Buren, 1837-1841

Democrat
VP - Richard M. Johnson
Major Items:

  • Panic of 1837- an economic depression. The Panic occurred when every bank stopped payment in specie (gold and silver coinage). The Panic was followed by a five-year depression, with the failure of banks and record unemployment levels.
  • Specie Circular, no Bank of the United States
  • Unsound financing by state governments

Ante-Bellum Period, 1840-1860

9.  William Henry Harrison, 1841

Whig
VP - John Tyler
Secretary of State - Daniel Webster

10. John Tyler, 1841-1845

Anti-Jackson Democrat ran as VP on Whig ticket
Secretary of State - Daniel Webster
Major Items:

  • Webster-Ashburton Treaty, 1842 - Treaty between the U.S. and Britain establishing the northeastern boundary of the U.S.
  • Vetoes Clay's bill for 3rd Bank of the United States
  • Canadian Border set at 45th parallel

11.  James K. Polk, 1845-1849

original "dark horse" candidate
Democrat
VP - Dallas
Major Items:

  • Manifest Destiny – the phrase coined by John O. Sullivan meaning that the United States had the right and duty to expand throughout the North American continent.
  • Texas becomes a state, 1845
  • Oregon boundary settled, 1846
  • Mexican War, 1846-1848
  • Treaty of Guadeloupe-Hidalgo, 1848 - Treaty between the U.S. and Mexico that ended the Mexican War. For $15 million the U.S. received more than 525,000 sq miles of land and agreed to settle the more than $3 million in claims made by U.S. citizens against Mexico.
  • Wilmot Proviso- Proposal in the U.S. Congress to prohibit the extension of slavery to the new western territories. The Act was never passed but brought more tension between the North and South.

12.  Zachary Taylor, 1849-1850

Whig
VP - Millard Fillmore

13.  Millard Fillmore, 1850-1853

Whig
Secretary of State - Daniel Webster
Major Items:

  • Compromise of 1850- Series of measures passed by the U.S. Congress to settle slavery issues and avert secession. In an attempt to satisfy pro- and antislavery forces, Sen. Henry Clay offered a series of measures that admitted California as a free state, left the question of slavery in the new territories to be settled by the local residents.
  • Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, 1850 (Britain and U. S. agree not to expand in Central America if the Panama canal is built)
  • Uncle Tom's Cabin, 1852

14.  Franklin Pierce, 1853-1857

Democrat
VP - King
Major Items:

  • Kansas-Nebraska Bill, 1854- Legislation that organized the territories of Kansas and Nebraska according to the doctrine of popular sovereignty to stop the sectional division over slavery.
  • popular sovereignty
  • Japan opened to world trade, 1853
  • Underground Railroad
  • Bleeding Kansas- sequence of violent events involving Free-Staters and pro-slavery group that took place in Kansas–Nebraska Territory and the western frontier towns of Missouri in the attempts to influence whether Kansas would enter the union as a free or slave state.
  • Ostend Manifesto, 1854- Secret document written by U.S. diplomats at Ostend, Belgium, describing a plan to acquire Cuba from Spain. Ordered by William Marcy, James Buchanan, John Y. Mason, and Pierre Soulé-devised a plan to purchase or, if necessary, seize Cuba for the U.S.

15.  James Buchanan, 1857-1861

Democrat
VP- Breckinridge
Major Items:

  • Dred Scott decision, 1857- ruling of the Supreme Court of the United States that made slavery legal in all U.S. territories.
  • Lincoln-Douglas Debates, 1858- Series of seven debates between Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln and Democratic Sen. Stephen A. Douglas in the 1858 Illinois senatorial campaign. They focused on slavery and its extension into the western territories. Lincoln criticized Douglas for his support of popular sovereignty and the Kansas-Nebraska Act, while Douglas accused Lincoln of advocating racial equality and disruption of the Union. Douglas won reelection.

 

Civil War, 1861-1865

16.  Abraham Lincoln, 1861-1865

Republican
VP - Andrew Johnson
Secretary of State - William H. Seward (New York)
Secretary of Treasury - Salmon P. Chase
Secretary of War - Edwin M. Stanton
Major Items:

  • Civil War, 1861-1865
  • Emancipation Proclamation, 1863
  • Homestead Act, 1862
  • Morill Act, 1862 (created agricultural colleges)
  • Assassinated April 14th, 1865, by John Wilkes Booth

Reconstruction, 1865-1877

17.  Andrew Johnson, 1865, 1869

Republican
Secretary of State - William H. Seward
Major Items:

  • 13th Amendment, 1865
  • 14th Amendment, 1868
  • Reconstruction Act, 1867
  • Tenure of Office Act, 1867
  • Impeachment Trial, 1868
  • Formation of KKK
  • Adoption of Black Codes in the South

18. Ulysses S. Grant, 1869-1877

Republican
VP - Colfax, Wilson
Secretary of State - Hamilton Fish
Major Items:

  • 15th Amendment, 1870
  • First Transcontinental Railroad, 1869
  • Tweed Ring
  • Panic of 1873
  • Crédit Mobilier
  • Whiskey Ring
  • Indian Ring

Gilded Age, 1877-1900

19.  Rutherford B. Hayes, 1877-1881

Republican
VP - Wheeler
Major Items:

  • Bland-Allison Act, 1878 (free coinage of silver)
  • Troops withdrawn from the South, 1877

20.  James A Garfield, March 4 to September 19, 1881

Republican
VP - Chester A. Arthur
Secretary of State - James A. Blaine
Major Items:

  • Assassinated by C. Julius Guiteau

21.  Chester A. Arthur, 1881-1885

Republican
Secretary of State - James A. Blaine
Major Items:

  • Pendleton Act, 1883 (set up civil service commission)

22.  Grover Cleveland, 1885-1889

Democrat
VP - Hendricks
Major Items:

  • Knights of Labor, 1886
  • Haymarket Riot, 1886
  • Interstate Commerce Act, 1887
  • Washburn v. Illinois, 1886

23.  Benjamin Harrison, 1889-1893

Republican
VP - Morton
Secretary of State - James A. Blaine
Major Items:

  • Sherman Anti-trust Act, 1890
  • Populist Party Platform, 1892
  • North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Washington become states, 1889
  • Idaho and Wyoming become states, 1890
  • McKinley Tariff, 1890
  • Sherman Act, 1890

24.  Grover Cleveland, 1893-1897

Second Administration (only President to serve two non-consecutive terms)
Democrat
VP - Stevenson
Major Items:

  • Panic of 1893
  • Hawaiian incident, 1893
  • Venezuelan Boundary Affair, 1895
  • Pullman Strike, 1894
  • American Federation of Labor
  • Wilson-Gorman Tariff, 1894

25.  William McKinley, 1897-1901

Republican
VP - Garet Hobart, 1896-1900
VP - Theodore Roosevelt
Secretary of State - John Hay
Major Items:

  • New Imperialism
  • Spanish-American War, April 1898 - February 1899
  • Open Door Policy, 1899
  • Boxer Rebellion, 1900
  • McKinley was assassinated by Leon Czolgosz, 1901

Progressive Age, 1900-1920

26.  Theodore Roosevelt, 1901-1908

Republican
VP - Fairbanks
Secretary of State - John Hay, Elihu Root
Major Items:

  • Panama Canal, 1903-1914
  • "Square Deal"
  • Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, 1904
  • Portsmouth Treaty, 1905
  • Gentleman's Agreement with Japan, 1904
  • Hague Conferences, 1899 and 1907
  • Hepburn Act, 1906
  • Pure Food and Drug Act, Meat Inspection Act, and "muckrakers", 1906
  • Political reforms of the Roosevelt Era
  • Trust-busting
  • Coal Strike
  • Conservation
  • Venezuelan Debt Controversy, 1902
  • Dominican Republic Crisis, 1902
  • Algerian Conference over Morocco, 1906

27.  William Howard Taft, 1909-1913

Republican
VP - Sherman
Major Items:

  • Paine-Aldrich Tariff, 1909
  • Pinchot-Ballinger controversy, 1909 (conservation v. reclamation)
  • "Dollar Diplomacy"

28.  Woodrow Wilson, 1913-1921

Democrat
VP - Marshall
Major Items:

  • Underwood Tariff, 1913
  • 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th Amendments
  • Federal Reserve System, 1913
  • Glassower Act, 1913
  • Federal trade Commission, 1914
  • Clayton Anti-trust Act, 1914
  • Troops to Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Virgin Islands, Mexico
  • The Lusitania, May 1915
  • "Fourteen Points," January 1917
  • Treaty of Versailles, 1919-1920
  • "New Freedom"

Roaring Twenties, 1920-1929

29.  Warren G. Harding, 1921-1923

"Dark Horse" candidate
Republican
VP - Calvin Coolidge
Secretary of State - Charles Evans Hughes
Major Items:

  • Teapot Dome Scandal
  • Washington Conference, 1921-1922
  • Fordney-McCumber Tariff, 1922

30.  Calvin Coolidge, 1923-1929

Republican
VP - Dawes
Secretary of State - Frank Kellogg
Major Items:

  • Kellogg-Briand Pact, 1928

31.  Herbert Hoover, 1929-1933

Republican
VP - Curtis
Secretary of State - Henry L. Stimson
Major Items:

  • National Origins Immigration Act, 1929
  • Panic and Depression
  • Stock market Crash, 1929
  • Hawley-Smoot tariff, 1930

The New Deal and the Era of Reform, 1920-1945

32.  Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1933-1945

Democrat
VP - Garner, Wallace, Truman
Major Items:

  • New Deal
  • "Alphabet soup" bureaucracies
  • World War 2
  • Labor reforms

33.  Harry S. Truman, 1945-1953

Democrat
VP - Barkley
Major Items:

  • World War 2 ends
  • Atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, August 1945
  • Taft-Harley Act, 1947
  • Truman Doctrine, 1947
  • Marshall Plan, 1947
  • North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), 1949
  • Korean War, 1950-1953
  • "Fair Deal"

The Cold War, 1945-1968

34.  Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1953-1961

Republican
VP - Nixon
Major Items:

  • 22nd Amendment
  • Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas
  • Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO)
  • Suez Crisis, 1956
  • Eisenhower Doctrine
  • the "race for space"
  • Alaska and Hawaii become states, 1959

35.  John F. Kennedy, 1961-1963

Democrat
VP - Lyndon B. Johnson
Major Items:

  • Alliance for Progress
  • Baker v. Carr, 1962
  • Peace Corps
  • Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962
  • "New Frontier"
  • Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty
  • Assassinated in Dallas, Texas, November 22, 1963, by Lee Harvey Oswald

36.  Lyndon B. Johnson, 1963-1968

Democrat
VP - Humphrey
Major Items:

  • The "Cold War"
  • Cuban Policy
  • Income tax cut
  • Wesberry v. Sanders, 1964
  • Civil Rights Act, 1964
  • Voting Rights Act, 1965
  • Anti-Poverty Act, 1964
  • Elementary and Secondary education reform
  • Medicare
  • "Great Society"

Detente and Rapprochement, 1968 - present

37.  Richard M. Nixon, 1968-1974

Republican
VP - Spiro Agnew, Gerald Ford
Major Items:

  • "Imperial Presidency"
  • Landing on the moon, July 1969
  • Warren Burger, Chief Justice, 1969
  • Woodstock, August 1969
  • Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) established, 1970
  • 16th Amendment, 1971
  • Visit to China, February 1972
  • Visit to Russia, May 1972
  • Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT), 1972
  • Kissinger and "shuttle diplomacy," 1973-1975
  • Wounded Knee, South Dakota, 1973
  • Allende regime in Chile overthrown with the help of the CIA, September 1973
  • Agnew resigns, 1973
  • Nixon resigns, August 9, 1974
  • Pentagon Papers, August 30, 1971 (superior court allows the NY Times to publish)

38.  Gerald Ford, 1974-1976

Republican
1st appointed President
VP - Nelson Rockefeller
Neither President nor Vice-President had been elected
Major Items:

  • Pardons Richard Nixon
  • OPEC crisis, 1974

39.  Jimmy Carter, 1977-1981

Democrat
VP - Walter Mondale
Major Items:

  • Panama Canal Treaty signed, September 1977
  • Established diplomatic relations with China and ended recognition of Taiwan
  • Three-Mile Island Incident, March 1979 (nuclear reactor leak in Pennsylvania)
  • Egypt and Israel peace treaty; Sadat and Begin win the Nobel Prize, 1979
  • Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979 (rescue attempt, 8 killed, April 1980)
  • Seizure of Afghanistan by Soviets, 1979
  • "Stagflation"
  • Boycott of Olympics in Moscow to protest invasion of Afghanistan

40.  Ronald Reagan, 1981-1989

Republican
VP - George Bush
Major Items:

  • Hostages returned
  • Falkland Islands Crisis, 1982 (U. S. supports England)
  • 1500 Marines sent to Beirut, 1983; withdrawn in 1984
  • Grenada, October 1983
  • Nicaragua, 1984
  • Sandra Day O'Connor, first woman appointed to the Supreme Court
  • "Supply-side economics"
  • Iran-Contra Hearings, Summer 1987 (Oliver North)

41.  George Bush, 1989- 1993

Republican
VP - Dan Quayle
Major Items:

  • Savings and Loan Scandal, 1990
  • Berlin Wall came down leading to the reunification of Germany
  • Invasion of Panama, 1990
  • Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm (the Gulf War), January to August 1992

42.  Bill Clinton, 1993-2001

Democrat
VP - Al Gore
Major Items:

  • North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), 1993
  • Proposes a national health care system, 1993
  • Participates in air strikes in Bosnia, 1994
  • Participates in air strikes in Iraq
  • Sex scandal, 1998
  • Participates in air strikes on Serbia, 1999

43. George W. Bush, 2001-

Republican
VP - Dick Cheney
Major Items:

  • Disputed election, eventually decided by the Supreme Court
  • "Compassionate Conservatism"
  • War on Terrorism, post-September 11, 2001
    • Attacks terrorist forces in Afghanistan