1. The Brown vs. Board of Education trial is one of the most important trials in the 1950s and even in America's history. It is a significant decision made by the U.S. Supreme Court which outlawed racial segregation of public education facilities (schools run by the government). In the 1950s it was common for segregation in public schools even though they were supposed to be equal. In one instance Linda Brown, a third-grader in Topeka, Kansas, had to travel a mile to get to her black elementary school, even though there was a white school only seven blocks away. Linda's father, Oliver, once tried to enlist Linda into the white school but the principal refused. Oliver then contacted William Everett Glenn, Sr., a Topeka attorney and Mckinley Burnett, the head of the Topeka NAACP branch, about his concerns regarding "separate but equal policies" of Topeka schools. The separate but equal doctrine came about in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson which stated that having blacks and whites in separate equal facilities did not violate the Equal Protection Clause. On May 17, 1954 the United States Supreme Court decided unanimously that The Board of Education acted unconstitutionally and that they violated the 14th Amendment by separated children if for no other reason than for their race.
Webber, Andrew "Brown v. Board of Education about the case" [online] available http://brownvboard.org/summary/ The unanimous court decision announced by Chief Justice Earl Warren was the turning point in the struggle to eradicate all forms of racial segregation. 4
2. The Watergate Incident is one of the most controversial acts of corruption in American History. “The Watergate Tapes” (or Nixon Tapes). These tapes were a set of recordings between President Richard Nixon and many Government Officials such as White House Counsel- John Dean. The discovery that Nixon had misused campaign funds led to the Campaign Reform Act in 1974, which limits campaign contributions and expenditures in presidential elections. In 1978, Congress also provided that the attorney general, under certain circumstances, could ask for court-appointed special prosecutors to investigate the president and other high-ranking executive officers. These special prosecutors, who can be removed by the attorney general only for supportable reasons, are virtually free of any Presidential control. What exactly happened? President Nixon orchestrated the entire cover up going so far as to involve the CIA in trying to thwart the FBI investigation. The most abusive of power in presidential history. 3
http://watergate.info/
3. The Manhattan project was a secret government project created to research, develop, and test atomic weapons in 1942. It was created over concerns that the Germans were on the verge of creating an atomic bomb for themselves. The project manager for the entire project was Lt. General Leslie Richard Groves and the led physicist was J. Robert Oppenheimer. The first blast site of the atomic bomb is Hiroshima. A Uranium bomb (which weighed in at over four & one-half tons) nicknamed "Little Boy" was dropped on Hiroshima August 6th, 1945. In the flash of an instant, 66,000 people were killed and 69,000 people were injured by a 10 kiloton atomic explosion. The second was a Plutonium bomb nicknamed "Fat Man" was dropped on the city. Even though the "Fat Man" missed by over a mile and a half, it still leveled nearly half the city. Nagasaki's population dropped in one split-second from 422,000 to 383,000. 39,000 were killed, over 25,000 were injured. That blast had the power of 10 kilotons as well.
http://www.nuclearfiles.org/menu/key-issues/nuclear-weapons/history/pre-cold-war/manhattan-project/ Was the final decision to deploy the weapon based on the need to avert casualties in an invasion, was the war already finished or was the decision based on demonstrating American power and determination to halt soviet expansion? This is what makes the decision controversial. 3
4. The Bay of Pigs was an unsuccessful attempt by the United States to overthrow the government of the Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. Castro was a leftist, that quickly rose to power and he made sure he would stay in power for a long time. President Dwight D. Eisenhower wanted to break off diplomatic relations with Cuba in January 1961 because of Castro‘s leftist regime and his growing relationship with Nikita Khrushchev. Before Eisenhower even thought of breaking off with Cuba, the CIA was already training anti-revolutionary Cuban exiles for a possible invasion. This plan was passed by the newly elected, John F. Kennedy. On April 17, 1961 about 1300 or 1400 “trained” exiles, armed with U.S. weapons landed on the Bay of Pigs, a bay on the southern coast of Cuba. The plan was to cross the island to Havana. Little did they know, Castro’s army would be waiting for them at the Bay of Pigs. This later would make him seek alliance with the Soviets leading to the Cuban Missile crisis in 1962. For thirteen days, the United States held its breath, fearing the ultimate destruction of the nation by nuclear weapons. This was the Cuban missile crisis, a struggle fought between the world's two largest superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, which nearly provoked a nuclear catastrophe on both sides from October 16, to October 28, in 1962.
http://www.jfklibrary.org/JFK/JFK-in-History/The-Bay-of-Pigs.aspx The CIA fiasco at the Bay of Pigs was due in part to a lack of secrecy which changed the invasion strategy with horrific results. Thereafter, JFK began to use U.S. special forces. 3
5. The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) was the first large regional planning agency created by the United States Government in May of 1933. The TVA was one of the most innovative and significant ideas of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to help tackle the economic, social, and political problems in the Tennessee Valley, a region with no economic growth and was heavily impacted before and after the Great Depression. The TVA established environmental regulations and resource management. TVA had impacted many aspects of American politics and economics. The TVA definitely established economic growth and nurtured it through providing jobs. The TVA held its strategy to its solution even as the issues changes over the years. It also had changed the lives of farmers because farming became much more productive and efficient due to its modernized devices. To this day TVA continues to strengthen its position as a leader in energy and environmental issues.
TVA – Patricia Bernard Ezzell < http://www.tva.com/abouttva/history.htm> A successful example of Keynesian economic theory, having the government invest in less expensive power to create the incentive for private sector job growth. 4
