APUSH period 9

integrated circuits

Developed in the 1950s, integrated circuits pack the equivalent of thousands of vacuum tubes or transistors into a silicon chip about the size of your thumb.

US War in Afghanistan (2001-2021)

On September 11, 2001, al-Qaeda terrorists attacked the United States. They were able to plan and execute the attack because their Taliban hosts had given them safe haven in Afghanistan. The war was waged partly to retaliate against this hostile activity, partly to topple the Taliban regime, and partly to find Osama Bin Laden and bring him to justice (as well as disrupt and possibly eliminate his Al Qaeda network).

Bering Strait Theory

Scientists once theorized that the ancestors of today's Native Americans reached North America by walking across this land bridge and made their way southward by following passages in the ice as they searched for food. New evidence shows that some may have arrived by boat, following ancient coastlines.

Reagan Revolution

The Reagan Revolution of the 1980s sought to change Americans' attitudes toward their country, their government, and the world, as the United States emerged from the 1970s. Ronald Reagan entered the White House in January 1981 promising to restore Americans' faith in their nation and themselves, to shrink "Big Government," and to defend America more aggressively, especially against the Soviet Union. During his two terms in office, President Reagan continued his decades-long battle against Great Society liberalism, the activities and ideas of the 1960s' student rebels and 1970s' defeatists, and the spread of Communism. Reagan's American restoration delivered patriotism, prosperity, and peace. American pride revived as the economy soared and the Soviet domination of Eastern Europe collapsed. "All in all," Reagan said in his 1989 farewell address, "not bad, not bad at all." Critics consider the Reagan Revolution reactionary, an assault against the great liberal gains that, over the previous fifty years, had democratized and humanized America. They claim Reagan widened the gap between rich and poor, encouraged greed, and threatened the accomplishments of the civil rights, feminist, and environmental movements. The intensity of the ongoing debate more than three decades after his inauguration demonstrates the Reagan Revolution's continuing resonance. After losing the Republican nomination to President Gerald Ford in 1976, Reagan unseated the Democratic President Jimmy Carter in 1980. This became an "ABC" election, with many choosing "Anybody but Carter," yet Reagan claimed he had received a mandate for change. His Electoral College vote of 489 to 49 magnified his bare majority of 50.7 percent of popular votes cast. Carter received 41 percent and the Republican renegade John Anderson attracted 6.6 percent. Republicans also captured the Senate for the first time in thirty years, although the House of Representatives remained Democratic. As president, Reagan promised to cut the budget, reduce taxes, trim the bureaucracy, revive America, and subdue the Soviets. At his inauguration, he proclaimed: "In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem." During his first seven and a half months in office, Reagan unveiled "Reaganomics," securing the largest budget cut ever—some $35 billion in domestic spending from Jimmy Carter's request—and reducing the personal income tax rate by almost one quarter. In March 1981, a crazed gunman shot Reagan. The President's wisecracks throughout the ordeal increased his popularity, overcoming what had been growing opposition to the cutbacks. In the operating room, Reagan quipped, "I hope you are all Republicans." His surgeon, a Democrat, replied: "Today, Mr. President, we are all Republicans." By the summer of 1981, with Americans experiencing the highest unemployment rate since the Great Depression, Democrats attacked the "Reagan Recession." Getting traction on the "Fairness Issue," critics led by the Democratic Speaker of the House, Tip O'Neill, attacked the President as Mr. Magoo, a bumbling anti-Communist cowboy, a reverse Robin Hood, and a warmonger. They said he cut taxes for the rich and burdened the poor while risking nuclear war by calling the Soviet Union the "Evil Empire." They mocked his gaffes, from blaming air pollution on trees to falling asleep at Cabinet meetings—which he defused by insisting: "I have left orders to be awakened at any time in case of national emergency, even if I'm in a Cabinet meeting." In 1982, twenty-seven new Democratic House seats restored the losses from 1980, although the Senate remained Republican. Pundits eulogized Reagan's failed presidency. The economy revived before Reagan had to face the electorate for re-election. A ninety-six-month-long economic boom began, and ultimately yielded 20 million new jobs. Inflation dropped from double-digit levels under Carter to 8.9 percent in 1981, then to 4 percent in 1984. With American pride returning too, Reagan blessed the prosperity as "Morning in America." Reagan's second term was rockier than the first. The oldest president ever, he turned seventy-four shortly after his second inauguration. In 1985, his visit to a military cemetery in Bitburg, Germany, that also had the graves of Nazi SS killers shook his standing as America's popular patriot. In 1986, the Iran-Contra scandal, involving illegal arms shipments to Iran and Central America, along with the Democratic recapture of the Senate, further diminished his popularity and power. In 1987, Reagan could not even get Robert Bork, his first choice to fill a Supreme Court vacancy, confirmed by the Senate. Yet the Reagan Revolution was redeemed as the economic boom continued, pride in America surged, and the Cold War ended. Initially, Reagan, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and Pope John Paul II were ridiculed for believing Soviet Communism was beatable. By 1985, when the young reformer Mikhail Gorbachev rose to power in the Soviet Union, Soviet weakness became more obvious. Reagan had a surprising anti-nuclear, pacifist streak, despite his saber-rattling and massive defensive buildup. In summit meetings with Gorbachev, America's anti-Communist president proved friendly and flexible. In June 1987, when visiting West Berlin and standing at the Berlin Wall, which the Soviets had erected to prevent East Germans from fleeing to the free West, Reagan demanded: "Mr. Gorbachev tear down this wall." This dramatic moment helped Reagan claim that his approach beat Communism as the Berlin Wall fell, Soviet domination of Eastern Europe came to an end, and, by 1991, the Soviet Union disappeared. Although America's victory in the Cold War was a bipartisan triumph, stretching back to Harry Truman's "containment strategy," the Reagan Revolution deserves credit too. Ronald Reagan called his presidency "the great rediscovery"—"a rediscovery of our values and our common sense." He retired, still encouraging Americans to make America "a shining city upon the hill," frustrated that his "revolution" only slowed the rate of government growth. Reagan won a virtual third term as his vice president, George H.W. Bush, succeeded him. Three decades after the Reagan Revolution began we still live in a Reaganized America. With debates about "Big Government" and tax cuts continuing, the Reagan Revolution remains unfinished. But it is one of twentieth-century America's most significant political movements.

Operation Iraqi Freedom (2003)

20 March 2003 marked the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom with preemptive airstrikes on Saddam Hussein's Presidential Palace and military targets followed by approximately 67,700 "boots on the ground" with 15,000 Navy personnel on ships in the region. OIF was authorized when Iraq was found to be in breach of U.N. Security Council adopted Resolution 1441 which "prohibits stockpiling and importing weapons of mass destruction (WMDs)." Iraqi forces were overwhelmed quickly and Baghdad fell a mere five weeks after the invasion began. With the invasion complete, an insurgency and influx of al Qaeda inspired fighters poured into the country which sparked guerilla warfare tactics against U.S. troops and civil war between the Sunni and Shia tribes. On 15 December 2011, "The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and other top U.S. military leaders observed the official end of U.S. Forces Iraq's mission after nearly nine years of conflict that claimed the lives of nearly 4,500 troops (Torreon)." After U.S. forces withdrew from Iraq, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) invaded areas of Syria and Iraq causing widespread causalities, destruction of the country's infrastructure and barbaric practices against citizens. In response to the terrorists group, the United States's Operation Inherent Resolve began 17 October 2014.

Microprocessor

An integrated circuit that contains all the functions of a central processing unit of a computer.

Donald Trump

During the 2016 primary, Trump defeated more than a dozen rivals to win the Republican nomination. While he lost the popular vote, Trump defeated former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the general election by winning a majority of Electoral College votes. His campaign slogan was "Make America Great Again." Without previous elected political experience, President Trump used unconventional methods to communicate his priorities. Most notably, he used the social media platform Twitter as a primary mechanism for direct communication with the American public, other politicians, and the press corps.As president, he signed a major tax reform bill into law and oversaw a reduction of federal regulations. His protectionist trade policies included tariffs in foreign aluminum, steel, and other products. The Trump administration also renegotiated trade agreements with Mexico, Canada, China, Japan, and South Korea. Other domestic priorities included Supreme Court and federal judiciary appointments, increased military budgets, aggressive border and immigration control, criminal justice reform, and the reduction of prescription drug prices. In foreign policy, the Trump administration moved the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and brokered normalization agreements between Israel and a number of countries. In 2018, President Trump attended a summit with Kim Jong Un, marking the first time a sitting president met with a North Korean leader. In 2018, there was a partial government shutdown as Trump disagreed with Congress over funding for a border wall between the United States and Mexico. The funding lapse lasted thirty-five days before it was resolved. In 2019, a federal whistleblower filed a complaint that Trump had pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden's son Hunter, who had served on the board of Bursima Holdings, a natural gas company in Ukraine. Later that year, the House of Representatives impeached President Trump based upon allegations of obstruction of Congress and abuse of power. In 2020, the Senate acquitted Trump on both articles of impeachment. The first confirmed case of COVID-19 was reported in the United States on January 20, 2020. The remainder of Trump's presidency was consumed with the coronavirus pandemic. Critics argued that Trump's response to the pandemic was delayed and did not sufficiently encourage public health practices to reduce the spread of the virus. However, the Trump administration's program "Operation Warp Speed" assisted in the private sector development of two approved vaccines. Nonetheless, by the time Trump left office, more than 400,000 Americans had died of COVID-19. Trump lost reelection to Democratic candidate Joe Biden, but publicly claimed widespread voter fraud had affected the outcome. Supporters of President Trump traveled to Washington, D.C. for a "Save America" rally on January 6, 2021. Trump spoke to the large crowd on the Ellipse near the White House and encouraged attendees to protest the counting of the Electoral College votes in Congress. The rally turned violent when the president's supporters overwhelmed law enforcement, breaching the United States Capitol and disrupting the vote count. Five people died as a result of the violence, and the Capitol complex suffered millions of dollars in damage. On January 13, 2021, Trump's actions resulted in the House of Representatives approving another article of impeachment: the incitement of insurrection. He is the only president in American history to be impeached twice by Congress.

Newt Gingrich

Newt Gingrich was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and spent his childhood on military bases in Europe and the United States. Gingrich earned a Bachelor's degree in history from Emory University in 1965 and a Ph.D. in modern European history in 1971 from Tulane University. He taught history at West Georgia College during the 1970s.Interested in politics since he was a young man, Gingrich joined the Republican Party and made two unsuccessful runs for the Congress of the United States in 1974 and 1976. He was elected to the U.S. House as a representative for Georgia in 1978 on a conservative platform advocating lower taxes.Active in federal committees, Gingrich co-founded the Congressional Military Reform Caucus and the Congressional Space Caucus in 1981. In 1983 he founded the Conservative Opportunity Society, a group of young Republicans in Congress that became known for holding long speeches on the floor of the House, mostly after hours. In 1987 Gingrich initiated ethics charges against Speaker of the House Jim Wright that eventually led to Wright's resignation. In 1989, when Wyoming representative Dick Cheney became secretary of defense, Gingrich succeeded Cheney as House minority whip.Gingrich was recognized for his single-minded pursuit of conservative ideals, a quality that invoked the ire of opponents as effectively as it helped unify political factions of fiscal conservatives. He advocated shrinking the size of the federal government in his "Contract with America," which summarized Republican proposals. This document was widely publicized and contributed to the results of the 1994 elections, when Republicans gained control of both the House and the Senate -- the first time they controlled the House since 1954. Gingrich was sworn in as Speaker of the United States House of Representatives at the start of the 104th Congress in January 1995, replacing Democrat Thomas Foley. The "Contract with America" became the Republican Party agenda for the first 100 days of the 1995 congressional session, during which Republicans introduced bills related to welfare reform, the federal budget, crime, congressional term limits, defense, taxation, social security, and other areas.The Republicans had mixed success in enacting their agenda as described in the "Contract with America." The presidential line-item veto became law in 1996, but legislation limiting congressional terms was defeated. Other issues such as welfare reform, social security, and tax cuts were the focus of a struggle between the president and Congress to balance the budget for the 1996 fiscal year. The budget struggle led to two partial closures of the federal government because money was unavailable for government operations. Gingrich worked with President Bill Clinton, Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, and other congressional leaders to negotiate a compromise, which was reached in April 1996.In 1995 Gingrich published two books -- one fiction, 1945, with William Forstchen, and one nonfiction, To Renew America. In 1998 he wrote another nonfiction book, entitled Lessons Learned the Hard Way. In 1996 the House Ethics Committee mildly reprimanded Gingrich for not registering his political action committee (PAC) with the Federal Election Commission. In January 1997 the House voted to reprimand Gingrich for ethics violations that included giving the Ethics Committee false information and using tax-exempt donations for political activities. As the first Speaker in history to be disciplined by the House, Gingrich was fined $300,000. He was reelected as speaker later that month, but he resigned from that position and from the House altogether in the wake of Republican losses in the November 1998 elections.

Effect of Computer Revolution on Americans' Lives

The computer revolution totally changed the lives of the majority of human beings living in the United States. All of a sudden, even greater wealth gaps than before appeared, since those who could master and use the new technologies could get paid more than those who did not possess those same skills. In addition to this, the speed at which business could be conducted accelerated wildly, increasing the pace, and some would say stress, of life in the United States. Too, the introduction of the internet changed human life so much that some have suggested that the Latin name for human beings "homo sapiens" (wise men) should be changed to "homo interneticus" (man dependent on the internet for survival). It became unthinkable for existence to happen without access to the internet. The internet became Americans' source of information, products, billing, as well as every other aspect of life in the United States. People began to substitute regular social life for life on social media platforms like Instagram and Discord. Contemporary business is unthinkable without the high speed information transmission allowed by the internet and the computer's ability to store massive amounts of information, in addition to the computer's ability to greatly facilitate communication between employees and between employees and customers. The internet also completely changed one of the United States's most hallowed institutions, democracy. Political success is often determined by politicians' ability to successfully manipulated people by the use of social media. Some of the greatest political examples of this phenomenon are Donald Trump (whose emotional and hyperbolic use of Twitter, and now his own platform, Truth Social, could be said to be one of the secrets of his political success) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (whose use of a youthful and sassy tone on her social media platforms have contributed to the creation of a political image that has turned her into a progressive icon). The fact that a lot of Americans get their news through social media has also drastically changed the political and social climate of the United States. Social media algorithms guarantee that only one ideological framework gets transmitted to news consumers on social media, which leads to a greater political polarization in the United States since people are only getting their own prejudices reinforced by news on social media (as opposed to getting more fair and balanced reporting through traditional news outlets [although even these "traditional" news outlets are becoming more and more biased as time goes on]). The textbook states that the computer revolution, and the concomitant development of the internet, is the greatest revolution in American culture since the advent of television. It could be argued that it has been a thousand times greater than the advent of television since the computer and the internet touch virtually every aspect of Americans' lives, while television really only affected culture and information, while leaving basic democratic and social institutions untouched.

German immigrants to America

1880s - In this decade, the decade of heaviest German immigration, nearly 1.5 million Germans left their country to settle in the United States; about 250,000, the greatest number ever, arrived in 1882. 1890 - An estimated 2.8 million German-born immigrants lived in the United States. A majority of the German-born living in the United States were located in the "German triangle," whose three points were Cincinnati, Milwaukee, and St. Louis. 1894 - About 800 German-language journals were being printed in the United States, the greatest number ever. A typical newspaper was the New York Staats Zeitung. 1910 - In this year, an estimated 2.3 million German-born immigrants lived in the United States. With declining immigration and increasing assimilation, the number of German-language publications fell to about 550. 1920 - Roughly 1.7 million German-born immigrants lived in the United States; the number of German-language publications fell to about 230.

Changes in the American Workplace (technological change, globalization, outsourcing)

A shifting economic landscape is driving significant changes in the American workplace. Employment opportunities increasingly lie in jobs requiring higher-level social or analytical skills, or both. Physical or manual skills, as much in demand as social or analytical skills some three decades ago, are fading in importance. Not coincidentally, employment is rising faster in jobs calling for greater preparation, whether through education, experience or other forms of training. These changes have played out surely and steadily in recent decades. A key factor is the decline in manufacturing employment by about a third just since 1990. Meanwhile, employment in knowledge-intensive and service-oriented sectors, such as education, health, and professional and business services, has about doubled. Underlying factors such as globalization, outsourcing of jobs and technological change are among the key forces contributing to the transformation. Americans are taking note of these trends. Respondents to the accompanying Pew Research Center survey report that interpersonal skills, critical thinking, and good writing and communications skills are the most important skills for doing their jobs. And the share of adults ages 25 and older with a bachelor's degree or higher level of education increased from 17% in 1980 to 33% in 2015. Most of these workers are engaged in jobs requiring higher-level social or analytical skills. The changes at the workplace have benefited some workers more than others. The earnings of workers in jobs requiring higher levels of social and analytical skills have risen proportionately more than the earnings of those in jobs requiring higher levels of physical skills. The growing inequity in earnings by skill type is also reflected in the rising inequality in earnings between workers with or without a college education. The shifting need for skills may have worked to the benefit of women, since they are more likely than men to be employed in occupations needing higher levels of social and analytical skills, whereas men are relatively more engaged in jobs calling for greater physical and manual skills. Because wages have risen faster in jobs requiring higher levels of social and analytical skills, this

Al Qaeda

AL-QAEDA INTERNATIONAL "Al-Qaeda" ("The Base") was developed by Usama Bin Laden and others in the early 1980's to support the war effort in Afghanistan against the Soviets. The resulting "victory" in Afghanistan gave rise to the overall "Jihad" (Holy War) movement. Trained Mujahedin fighters from Afghanistan began returning to such countries as Egypt, Algeria, and Saudi Arabia, with extensive "jihad" experience and the desire to continue the "jihad". This antagonism began to be refocused against the U.S. and its allies. Sometime in 1989, Al-Qaeda dedicated itself to further opposing non-Islamic governments in this region with force and violence. The group grew out of the "mekhtab al khidemat" (the Services Office) organization which maintained offices in various parts of the world, including Afghanistan, Pakistan and the United States. Al-Qaeda began to provide training camps and guesthouses in various areas for the use of Al-Qaeda and its affiliated groups. They attempted to recruit U.S. citizens to travel throughout the Western world to deliver messages and engage in financial transactions for the benefit of Al-Qaeda and its affiliated groups and to help carry out operations. By 1990 Al-Qaeda was providing military and intelligence training in various areas including Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Sudan, for the use of Al-Qaeda and its affiliated groups, including the Al-Jihad (Islamic Jihad) organization. One of the principal goals of Al-Qaeda was to drive the United States armed forces out of Saudi Arabia (and elsewhere on the Saudi Arabian peninsula) and Somalia by violence. Members of Al-Qaeda issued fatwahs (rulings on Islamic law) indicating that such attacks were both proper and necessary. Al-Qaeda opposed the United States for several reasons. First, the United States was regarded as an "infidel" because it was not governed in a manner consistent with the group's extremist interpretation of Islam. Second, the United States was viewed as providing essential support for other "infidel" governments and institutions, particularly the governments of Saudi Arabia and Egypt, the nation of Israel and the United Nations organization, which were regarded as enemies of the group. Third, Al-Qaeda opposed the involvement of the United States armed forces in the Gulf War in 1991 and in Operation Restore Hope in Somalia in 1992 and 1993, which were viewed by Al-Qaeda as pretextual preparations for an American occupation of Islamic countries. In particular, Al-Qaeda opposed the continued presence of American military forces in Saudi Arabia (and elsewhere on the Saudi Arabian peninsula) following the Gulf War. Fourth, Al-Qaeda opposed the United States Government because of the arrest, conviction and imprisonment of persons belonging to Al-Qaeda or its affiliated terrorist groups or with whom it worked, including Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, who was convicted in the first World Trade Center bombing. From its inception until approximately 1991, the group was headquartered in Afghanistan and Peshawar, Pakistan. Then in 1991, the group relocated to the Sudan where it was headquartered until approximately 1996, when Bin Laden, Mohammed Atef and other members of Al-Qaeda returned to Afghanistan. During the years Al-Qaeda was headquartered in Sudan the network continued to maintain offices in various parts of the world and established businesses which were operated to provide income and cover to Al-Qaeda operatives. "9/11" is shorthand for four coordinated terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda that occurred on the morning of September 11, 2001. Nineteen terrorists from al-Qaeda hijacked four commercial airplanes, deliberately crashing two of the planes into the upper floors of the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center complex and a third plane into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. The Twin Towers ultimately collapsed because of the damage sustained from the impacts and the resulting fires. After learning about the other attacks, passengers on the fourth hijacked plane, Flight 93, fought back, and the plane was crashed into an empty field in western Pennsylvania about 20 minutes by air from Washington, D.C. The attacks killed 2,977 people from 93 nations: 2,753 people were killed in New York; 184 people were killed at the Pentagon; and 40 people were killed on Flight 93.

automation

Accelerating AI capabilities will enable automation of some tasks that have long required human labor. These transformations will open up new opportunities for individuals, the economy, and society, but they will also disrupt the current livelihoods of millions of Americans. AI-driven automation will transform the economy over the coming years and decades. Although it is difficult to predict these economic effects precisely, the report suggests that policymakers should prepare for five primary economic effects: Positive contributions to aggregate productivity growth; changes in the skills demanded by the job market, including greater demand for higher-level technical skills; uneven distribution of impact, across sectors, wage levels, education levels, job types, and locations; churning of the job market as some jobs disappear while others are created; and the loss of jobs for some workers in the short-run, and possibly longer depending on policy responses. There is substantial uncertainty about how strongly these effects will be felt and how rapidly they will arrive. It is possible that AI will not have large, new effects on the economy, such that the coming years are subject to the same basic workforce trends seen in recent decades—some of which are positive, and others which are worrisome and may require policy changes. At the other end of the range of possibilities, the economy might experience a larger shock, with accelerating changes in the job market, and significantly more workers in need of assistance and retraining as their skills no longer match the demands of the job market. At a minimum, some occupations such as drivers and cashiers are likely to face displacement from or a restructuring of their current jobs. In addition, the economic effects of AI-driven automation may be difficult to separate from those of other factors such as other forms of technological change, globalization, reduction in market competition and worker bargaining power, and the effects of past public policy choices.

Barack Obama

As an incoming president in 2008, Barack Obama faced many challenges—an economic collapse, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the continuing menace of terrorism. Inaugurated before an estimated crowd of 1.8 million people, Obama proposed unprecedented federal spending to revive the economy and also hoped to renew America's stature in the world. During his first term he signed three signature bills: an omnibus bill to stimulate the economy, legislation making health care more accessible and affordable, and legislation reforming the nation's financial institutions. Obama also pressed for a fair pay act for women, financial reform legislation, and efforts for consumer protection. In 2009, Obama became the fourth president to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. In 2012, he was reelected over former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney by 332 to 206 electoral votes. The Middle East remained a key foreign policy challenge. Obama had overseen the killing of Osama bin Laden, but a new self-proclaimed Islamic State arose during a civil war in Syria and began inciting terrorist attacks. Obama sought to manage a hostile Iran with a treaty that hindered its development of nuclear weapons. The Obama administration also adopted a climate change agreement signed by 195 nations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and slow global warming. In the last year of his second term, Obama spoke at two events that clearly moved him—the 50th anniversary of the civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, and the dedication of the National Museum of African American History and Culture. "Our union is not yet perfect, but we are getting closer," he said in Selma. "And that's why we celebrate," he told those attending the museum opening in Washington, "mindful that our work is not yet done."

The _America Invents_ Act (2011)

At Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Virginia, President Obama signed the America Invents Act, historic patent reform legislation that was to help American entrepreneurs and businesses bring their inventions to market sooner, creating new businesses and new jobs. In addition, the President announced additional steps that would help convert the ideas from America's universities and research labs into new products, expanding the U.S.'s economy and create 21st century jobs. He stated, "I am pleased to sign the America Invents Act. This much-needed reform will speed up the patent process so that innovators and entrepreneurs can turn a new invention into a business as quickly as possible. I'm also announcing even more steps today that will help bring these inventions to market faster and create jobs. Here in America, our creativity has always set us apart, and in order to continue to grow our economy, we need to encourage that spirit wherever we find it." Passed with strong bipartisan support, the America Invents Act represented the most significant reform of the Patent Act since 1952. It gave a boost to American companies and inventors who had suffered costly delays and unnecessary litigation, and let them focus instead on innovation and job creation. These reforms were also a key recommendation of the President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, which had been a strong advocate for patent reform as a way to support job creation and strengthen the U.S.'s competitiveness in the global economy.

Eastern European Immigration to America

Between 1820 and 1920, somewhere between 3.7 and 5 million people emigrated from the Austro-Hungarian Empire to the United States. The emigrants were Czechs, Slavs, Slovaks, Ukrainians, Poles, Magyars, Austrians, and others. Between 1867 and 1914 some 1,815,117 Hungarians immigrated to the United States, making up nearly half of all the emigrants from Austria-Hungary. About four hundred thousand Czechs arrived during that time, making up about 10 percent of the Austria-Hungary immigrants. After Poland was divided between Russia, Austria-Hungary, and Prussia, so many Poles came to the United States that Polish America became known as the "Fourth Province" of Poland—the other three being those areas controlled by Russia, Austria, and Prussia.

Immigration to America Between 1965 to 2000

Between 1965 and 2000, the highest number of immigrants (4.3 million) to the U.S. came from Mexico, in addition to some 1.4 million from the Philippines. Korea, the Dominican Republic, India, Cuba and Vietnam were also leading sources of immigrants.

Mexican Immigration to America

By 1965, Mexico and Canada already accounted for roughly two thirds of all immigrants from Western Hemisphere nations, and for that reason no country limits were initially articulated. A rank-order set of preferences promoting family reunification was established, thus allowing the emigration first of unmarried children of American citizens, then the spouses and children of legal residents, professionals with exemplary skills, the married children of American citizens, the siblings of American citizens, followed by skilled and unskilled workers needed by particular industries. Refugees came last. Countries that previously had suffered tremendous restriction under the 1924 Johnson-Reed Act rapidly experienced relief. In 1964, Portugal was allowed 2,200 immigrant visas. By 1975, it had 11,000. India's 300 visa-authorized entries rose to 14,000. China went from 1,000 to 9,000. Sixty percent of all immigrants between 1924 and 1965 had come from Europe, 35 percent from Central and South America, 3 percent from Asia, and 1 percent from Africa. By 1975, these proportions were dramatically transformed. Now only 19 percent of all immigrants came from Europe, 43 percent from Central and South America, and 34 percent from Asia. Africa experienced little change, remaining at 1 percent. Mexico, which in 1964 supplied the United States with roughly 800,000 immigrant workers yearly, immediately felt the law's sting when it went into effect in 1968. Mexico now had to compete with Canada, Latin America, and the Caribbean for the 120,000 visa slots that favored family reunification. Instantly, the status of the roughly 600,000 unauthorized Mexican workers who had continued entering the United States, and who easily found work when they arrived, no longer had a legal way to change their status or be dried out. They were increasingly vilified as illegal aliens, as persons who broke the law, while their American employers suffered no significant consequences. So Mexicans again became America's dream workers—illegal, vulnerable, servile, deportable. The Hart-Celler Act, heralded for its liberalization of immigration law, in fact had the opposite effect on Mexico, dramatically narrowing the number of visa authorizations and instant

Bill Clinton

Clinton graduated from Georgetown University and in 1968 won a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University. He received a law degree from Yale University in 1973, and entered politics in Arkansas. He was defeated in his campaign for Congress in Arkansas's Third District in 1974. The next year he married Hillary Rodham, a graduate of Wellesley College and Yale Law School. In 1980, Chelsea, their only child, was born. Clinton was elected Arkansas Attorney General in 1976, and won the governorship in 1978. After losing a bid for a second term, he regained the office four years later, and served until he defeated incumbent George Bush and third party candidate Ross Perot in the 1992 presidential race. Clinton and his running mate, Tennessee's Senator Albert Gore Jr., then 44, represented a new generation in American political leadership. For the first time in 12 years both the White House and Congress were held by the same party. But that political edge was brief; the Republicans won both houses of Congress in 1994. In 1998, as a result of issues surrounding personal indiscretions with a young woman White House intern, Clinton was the second U.S. president to be impeached by the House of Representatives. He was tried in the Senate and found not guilty of the charges brought against him. He apologized to the nation for his actions and continued to have unprecedented popular approval ratings for his job as president. In the world, he successfully dispatched peace keeping forces to war-torn Bosnia and bombed Iraq when Saddam Hussein stopped United Nations inspections for evidence of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons. He became a global proponent for an expanded NATO, more open international trade, and a worldwide campaign against drug trafficking. He drew huge crowds when he traveled through South America, Europe, Russia, Africa, and China, advocating U.S. style freedom.

personal computer

Considered historically, computers are a strikingly new phenomenon. The ancestors of the first computers were developed in the 1940s using vacuum tubes and transistors. Integrated circuits were introduced in the 1950s and the first microprocessor in the 1970s. Prior to the decade of the 1980s, only the federal government and large corporations and institutions used computers, which were massive in size and expensive to purchase. In the 1980s, inventors and entrepreneurs developed the first "personal" computers, which could fit on desks or tables and were soon within the price range of ordinary families. The computers we know date from that decade.

The Computer Revolution

During the 1980s personal computers began to appear in many homes across the world. By the late 1990s, computers had become a staple in most industrialized country's homes. Bill Gates, Paul Allen, Steve Jobs, and Steve Wozniak were four entrepreneurs who pioneered the computer revolution in the late 1970s and 1980s. They took a technology that had been used exclusively for large-scale enterprises--the military and multinational corporations--and made it accessible to individual consumers. Scientists had devised the first computers for military purposes during World War II. Cold War military research subsequently funded the construction of large main-frame computers. But government and private-sector first-generation computers were bulky, cumbersome machines that had to be placed in large air-conditioned rooms. Between the 1950s and 1970s, concluding with the development of the microprocessor in 1971, each generation of computers grew faster and smaller. By the mid-1970s, a few microchips the size of the letter "O" on this card provided as much processing power as a World War II-era computer. The day of the personal computer (PC) had arrived. Working in the San Francisco Bay Area, Jobs and Wozniak founded Apple Computers in 1976 and within a year were producing small, individual computers that could be easily used by a single person. When Apple enjoyed success, other companies scrambled to get into the market. International Business Machines (IBM) offered its first personal computer in 1981, but Apple Corporation's 1984 Macintosh computer (later shortened to "Mac") became the first runaway commercial success for a personal computer. Meanwhile, two former high school classmates, Bill Gates, age nineteen, and Paul Allen, age twenty-one, had set a goal to put "a personal computer on every desk and in every home." They recognized that software was the key. In 1975, they founded the Microsoft Corporation, whose MS-DOS and Windows operating systems soon dominated the software industry. By 2000, the company's products ran nine out of every ten personal computers in the United States and a majority of those around the world. Gates and Allen became billionaires, and Microsoft exploded into a huge company with 57,000 employees and annual revenues of $38 billion. In three decades, the computer had moved from a few military research centers to thousands of corporate offices and then to millions of people's homes. Ironically, in an age that celebrated free-market capitalism, government research and government funding had played an enormous role in the development of the most important technology since television.

ARPANET

During the late 1960s, the U.S> Department of Defense, in conjunction with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, began developing a decentralized computer network, the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET). The Internet, which grew out of the ARPANET, was soon used by government scientists, academic specialists, and military contractors to exchange data, information, and electronic mail (e-mail). By the late 1980s, the Internet had spread to universities, businesses, and the general public.

Chinese immigrants to America

From 1882 to 1943 the United States Government severely curtailed immigration from China to the United States. This Federal policy resulted from concern over the large numbers of Chinese who had come to the United States in response to the need for inexpensive labor, especially for construction of the transcontinental railroad. Competition with American workers and a growing nativism brought pressure for restrictive action, which began with the Act of May 6, 1882 (22 Stat. 58). Passed by the 47th Congress, this law suspended immigration of Chinese laborers for ten years; permitted those Chinese in the United States as of November 17, 1880, to stay, travel abroad, and return; prohibited the naturalization of Chinese; and created the Section 6 exempt status for teachers, students, merchants, and travelers. These exempt classes would be admitted upon presentation of a certificate from the Chinese government.

Russian immigrants to America

Immigrants from Russia entered the United States at both coasts starting in the late 1800s. Nearly 3 million Russians entered during the first wave of open immigration that began in the late 19th century and continued into the early 20th century. However, only about 20,000 found their way into America during the period that followed the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 up through World War II. World War I, the Russian Revolution, and then the Bolshevik Revolution produced refugees who lost their homes and livelihoods. Nearly 1 million fled the country. Many Russians who ended up in Siberia and Manchuria, whether migrating for work or fleeing violent conflicts, found their way to the American West Coast -- first stop, the Angel Island Immigration Station, where the average stay of a Russian ranged from a few days to four months. But after World War I ended, the United States, which didn't ratify the League of Nations charter, became extremely isolationist. Americans were fearful of the troubles of the outside world and likewise of foreigners, so the U.S. immigration laws became more restrictive. The 1921 and 1924 U.S. immigration laws reduced the number of people allowed to come from southern and eastern Europe, which dropped the number of Russian immigrants to about 2,248 per year. Although they were not subjected to the extreme interrogations at Angel Island to which the Chinese were subjected, they could be excluded on the basis of extreme poverty which would make them "likely to become a public charge"; disease and chronic ill health, which would render them unable to work; and the subjective judgment that they might turn to prostitution to earn a living. Moreover, the 1917 immigration law required that immigrants be able to prove they were literate in their own language. If they were not able to read a paragraph in their own language, they would be marked for deportation. And finally, American reaction to the waves of domestic labor strikes and the Bolshevik Revolution resulted in the "Red Scare" of the 1920s. Thousands of Russian immigrants and labor activists were swept up in the Palmer Raids, named for then-U.S. Attorney General Mitchell Palmer, and held without trial. More than 500 individuals were deported on suspicion of so-called radical political activity.

Swedish Immigration to America

Immigration to the United States in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was a part of the economic and social transformation that affected both Europe and North America, when between 1850 and 1950 some fifty million Europeans settled in non-European areas. The mass exodus of some 1.3 million Swedes to the United States, often young and healthy men and women, during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was due to the economic and social circumstances in Sweden. "Push and pull" factors on both sides of the Atlantic, as well as the establishment of migration links, are other important factors that more precisely determined the scope and course of the migration patterns. A strong population growth in Sweden increased the pressure on a society that was fundamentally agricultural in nature, and moving to North America provided the Swedish emigrants with economic opportunity not available in the homeland. Religious and political reasons played a much smaller role for the move to America, although it was decisive in some instances. The trans-Atlantic mass exodus is one of the major events in Swedish history during the last two centuries, and the immense network of contacts that was established across the Atlantic has proven very important for the way in which Swedish society then and now has been oriented towards the United States.

Immigration to the United States

In the late 1800s, people in many parts of the world decided to leave their homes and immigrate to the United States. Fleeing crop failure, land and job shortages, rising taxes, and famine, many came to the U. S. because it was perceived as the land of economic opportunity. Others came seeking personal freedom or relief from political and religious persecution, and nearly 12 million immigrants arrived in the United States between 1870 and 1900. During the 1870s and 1880s, the vast majority of these people were from Germany, Ireland, and England - the principal sources of immigration before the Civil War. Even so, a relatively large group of Chinese immigrated to the United States between the start of the California gold rush in 1849 and 1882, when federal law stopped their immigration. With the onset of hard economic times in the 1870s, European immigrants and Americans began to compete for the jobs traditionally reserved for the Chinese. With economic competition came dislike and even racial suspicion and hatred. Such feelings were accompanied by anti-Chinese riots and pressure, especially in California, for the exclusion of Chinese immigrants from the United States. The result of this pressure was the Chinese Exclusion Act, passed by Congress in 1882. Immigrants entered the United States through several ports. Those from Europe generally came through East Coast facilities, while those from Asia generally entered through West Coast centers. More than 70 percent of all immigrants, however, entered through New York City, which came to be known as the "Golden Door." Throughout the late 1800s, most immigrants arriving in New York entered at the Castle Garden depot near the tip of Manhattan. In 1892, the federal government opened a new immigration processing center on Ellis Island in New York harbor. Although immigrants often settled near ports of entry, a large number did find their way inland. Many states, especially those with sparse populations, actively sought to attract immigrants by offering jobs or land for farming. Many immigrants wanted to move to communities established by previous settlers from their homelands. Once settled, immigrants looked for work. There were never enough jobs, and employers often

9/11 Attacks

It is difficult to think of an event that so profoundly transformed U.S. public opinion across so many dimensions as the 9/11 attacks. While Americans had a shared sense of anguish after Sept. 11, the months that followed also were marked by rare spirit of public unity. Patriotic sentiment surged in the aftermath of 9/11. After the U.S. and its allies launched airstrikes against Taliban and al-Qaida forces in early October 2001, 79% of adults said they had displayed an American flag. A year later, a 62% majority said they had often felt patriotic as a result of the 9/11 attacks. Moreover, the public largely set aside political differences and rallied in support of the nation's major institutions, as well as its political leadership. In October 2001, 60% of adults expressed trust in the federal government - a level not reached in the previous three decades, nor approached in the two decades since then. George W. Bush, who had become president nine months earlier after a fiercely contested election, saw his job approval rise 35 percentage points in the space of three weeks. In late September 2001, 86% of adults - including nearly all Republicans (96%) and a sizable majority of Democrats (78%) - approved of the way Bush was handling his job as president. Americans also turned to religion and faith in large numbers. In the days and weeks after 9/11, most Americans said they were praying more often. In November 2001, 78% said religion's influence in American life was increasing, more than double the share who said that eight months earlier and - like public trust in the federal government - the highest level in four decades. Public esteem rose even for some institutions that usually are not that popular with Americans. For example, in November 2001, news organizations received record-high ratings for professionalism. Around seven-in-ten adults (69%) said they "stand up for America," while 60% said they protected democracy. Yet in many ways, the "9/11 effect" on public opinion was short-lived. Public trust in government, as well as confidence in other institutions, declined throughout the 2000s. By 2005, following another major national tragedy - the government's mishandling of the relief effort for victims of Hurricane Katrina - just 31% said they trusted the federal government, half the share who said so in the months after 9/11. Trust has remained relatively low for the past two decades: In April of this year, only 24% said they trusted the government just about always or most of the time. Bush's approval ratings, meanwhile, never again reached the lofty heights they did shortly after 9/11. By the end of his presidency, in December 2008, just 24% approved of his job performance.

Indian Immigration to America

Large-scale Indian immigration to the United States is relatively recent, following the move by Congress in 1965 to abolish national-origin quotas that largely limited immigration to Europeans. The pace of arrivals from India and other non-European countries in subsequent decades has been rapid. Today, Indians represent the second largest U.S. immigrant group, after Mexicans and ahead of Chinese and Filipinos. The 2.7 million Indian immigrants living in the United States as of 2021 made up 6 percent of the total foreign-born population, and their numbers continue to grow. Unlike predominately low-skilled migrant workers who arrived from India during the 19th century and the early 20th century, most post-World War II Indian migrants came to work in professional jobs or study in U.S. colleges and universities. Today, most Indians arrive through employment- and family-based pathways. India is the source of the second largest number of international students enrolled in U.S. higher education and its nationals receive the majority of employer-sponsored H-1B temporary visas for high-skilled workers. These pathways are reflected in characteristics that set Indians apart: four-fifths of Indian immigrant adults have at least a bachelor's degree and their median household incomes are more than double those of all immigrants and the U.S. born.

Vietnamese Immigration to America

Large-scale immigration from Vietnam to the United States began at the end of the Vietnam War, when the fall of Saigon in 1975 led to the U.S.-sponsored evacuation of an estimated 125,000 Vietnamese refugees. As the humanitarian crisis and displacement of people in the Indochina region (Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos) intensified, more refugees and their families were admitted to the United States. The Vietnamese immigrant population has grown significantly since then, roughly doubling every decade between 1980 and 2000, and then increasing 26 percent in the 2000s. In 2017, more than 1.3 million Vietnamese resided in the United States, accounting for 3 percent of the nation's 44.5 million immigrants and representing the sixth-largest foreign-born group in the country. Unlike in the past when most Vietnamese were admitted as refugees, those who obtain lawful permanent residence in the United States today (also known as getting a green card) largely do so through family reunification; very few get green cards through employment or other channels. Vietnamese immigrants are more likely than the overall U.S. foreign-born population to be Limited English Proficient (LEP). Compared to the total immigrant population, a much greater share of Vietnamese are naturalized U.S. citizens; they are also less likely to live in poverty or lack health insurance. Using data from the U.S. Census Bureau (the most recent 2017 American Community Survey [ACS] as well as pooled 2012-16 ACS data) and the Department of Homeland Security's Yearbook of Immigration Statistics, this Spotlight provides information on the Vietnamese population in the United States, focusing on its size, geographic distribution, and socioeconomic characteristics.

Dominican Immigration to America

Massive emigration from the Dominican Republic to the United States began in 1966. A large contingent of Dominicans left their native land between 1963 and 1965 in the wake of political instability. Many of those who left during these years belonged to the elite classes of Dominican society. In 1966, however, Dominican migration changed: it became an enormous exodus of people looking for jobs. In 1960, fewer than 10,000 Dominicans resided in the United States. By 1980, the number of Dominicans in the United States had increased to 170,817, and by 2010, to over 1.4 million, according to the US Census. The majority of Dominicans came between 1990 and 2000. During that decade, almost 300,000 Dominicans obtained permanent residence, and 90 percent of them obtained it through the Family Reunification Act of 1965. Most Dominican migrants settled in New York. In 1980, over 73 percent of Dominicans resided in the state of New York, and New York City housed close to 95 percent of that population in the United States. In 1990, Dominicans were the largest immigrant group in New York City, with a population of 332,713. Their remarkable demographic growth resulted from immigration influxes combined with high fertility rates among Dominican women. The massive arrival of Dominicans coincided with a socioeconomic restructuring in the labor market; more jobs were being created in the service sector than in any other area, and stable, unionized blue-collar manufacturing jobs were rapidly disappearing. In 1990, the growth of the Dominican population in New York City decelerated. But, the Dominican population grew fast in other states across the United States, particularly in the Northeast, California, and Alaska. Such growth created Dominican communities with vibrant businesses, a cultural presence, and an active political life. A Dominican community today shows distress and progress simultaneously. In Florida, Dominican households' annual income in 2010 was half of the income of non-Hispanic whites; in New York, one-fourth of Dominican families lived below the poverty line, and more Dominicans were deported back than were those to all other Caribbean nations combined. Yet, Hollywood movie star Zoe Saldana became an American household name, Julissa Reynoso served as the youngest US ambassador at that time, Thomas Perez served as Assistant Attorney General for the civil rights division of the US Justice Department in the Obama administration, and Dominicans elect their own to political posts in many of the cities where they now live. The annotations reflect the above descriptions of US Dominicans. They also point out the most salient issues in Dominican scholarship, debates, and what remain unquestionable truths about the character of this group.

Donald Trump Administration's Changes to Many U.S. Immigration Policies

Over the course of four years, the Trump administration set an unprecedented pace for executive action on immigration, enacting 472 administrative changes that dismantled and reconstructed many elements of the U.S. immigration system. Humanitarian protections were severely diminished. The U.S.-Mexico border became more closed off. Immigration enforcement appeared more random. And legal immigration became out of reach for many. All of this was accomplished nearly exclusively by the executive branch, with sweeping presidential proclamations and executive orders, departmental policy guidance, and hundreds of small, technical adjustments.

Saddam Hussein

Saddam Hussein, also spelled Ṣaddām Ḥusayn, in full Ṣaddām Ḥusayn al-Tikrītī, (born April 28, 1937, Al-ʿAwjah, Iraq—died December 30, 2006, Baghdad), president of Iraq (1979-2003) whose brutal rule was marked by costly and unsuccessful wars against neighboring countries. Saddam began to assert open control of the government in 1979. He then became chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council and prime minister, among other positions. He used an extensive secret-police establishment to suppress any internal opposition to his rule, and he made himself the object of an extensive personality cult among the Iraqi public. His goals as president were to supplant Egypt as leader of the Arab world and to achieve hegemony over the Persian Gulf. Iraq was prohibited from producing or possessing chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons. In the wake of the September 11 attacks in the United States in 2001, the U.S. government, asserting that Saddam might provide terrorist groups with chemical or biological weapons, sought to renew the disarmament process. Though Saddam allowed UN weapons inspectors to return to Iraq in November 2002, his failure to cooperate fully with the investigations frustrated the United States and Great Britain and led them to declare an end to diplomacy. On March 17, 2003, U.S. Pres. George W. Bush ordered Saddam to step down from office and leave Iraq within 48 hours or face war; he also indicated that, even if Saddam left the country, U.S. forces might be needed to stabilize the new government and search for weapons of mass destruction. When Saddam refused to leave, U.S. and allied forces launched an attack on Iraq on March 20.

transistors

Silicon transistors worked wonderfully for computer production. With smart engineering, transistors helped computers power through huge numbers of calculations in a short time. The simple switch operation of transistors is what enables your computer to complete massively complex tasks. In a computer chip, transistors switch between two binary states -- 0 and 1. This is the language of computers. One computer chip can have millions of transistors continually switching, helping complete complex calculations. In a computer chip, the transistors aren't isolated, individual components. They're part of what's called an integrated circuit (also known as a microchip), in which many transistors work in concert to help the computer complete calculations. An integrated circuit is one piece of semiconductor material loaded with transistors and other electronic components.

Korean immigration to America

The 1965 Immigration and Naturalization Act revoked the national quota system and made family reunification possible. Recognizing America's need for skilled professionals, the government lifted the quota system and recruited experts and professionals from Asia. Their families accompanied them upon emigration. The annual number of Korean immigrants steadily increased beginning in 1965, and the 30,000 mark was reached in 1976.[10] From 1976 to 1990, the Korean diaspora community was the largest group of immigrants to move to the U.S., next to the Mexican and the Filipino community. The high unemployment rate, political insecurity, and military dictatorship caused massive numbers of Koreans to immigrate to the United States in the 1960s through the early 1980s. Their children, largely known as the "second generation," (gyopo in Korean) compose the present-day Korean-American community. Unlike the first and second wave of immigrants who were primarily laborers, war victims, or political refugees who had no choice but to immigrate, these Korean immigrants were white-collar workers in Korea who voluntarily moved to America.

Contract with America (1994)

The Contract with America was a document signed Sept. 27, 1994, on the Capitol steps in Washington, D.C., by members of the Republican minority before the Republican Party gained control of Congress in 1994. The "Contract with America" outlined legislation to be enacted by the House of Representatives within the first 100 days of the 104th Congress (1995-96). Among the proposals were tax cuts, a permanent line-item veto, measures to reduce crime and provide middle-class tax relief, and constitutional amendments requiring term limits and a balanced budget. With the exception of the constitutional amendment for term limits, all parts of the "Contract with America" were passed by the House, under the leadership of the speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich.

Taliban in Afghanistan

The Taliban is a Sunni Islamist nationalist and pro-Pashtun movement founded in the early 1990s that ruled most of Afghanistan from 1996 until October 2001. The movement's founding nucleus—the word "Taliban" is Pashto for "students"—was composed of peasant farmers and men studying Islam in Afghan and Pakistani madrasas, or religious schools. The Taliban found a foothold and consolidated their strength in southern Afghanistan. By 1994, the Taliban had moved their way through the south, capturing several provinces from various armed factions who had been fighting a civil war after the Soviet-backed Afghan government fell in 1992. By September 1996, the Taliban had captured Kabul, killed the country's president, and established the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. The Taliban's first move was to institute a strict interpretation of Qur'anic instruction and jurisprudence. In practice, this meant often merciless policies on the treatment of women, political opponents of any type, and religious minorities. In the years leading up to the 11 September 2001 attacks in the United States, the Taliban provided a safe haven for al-Qa'ida. This gave al-Qa'ida a base in which it could freely recruit, train, and deploy terrorists to other countries. The Taliban held sway in Afghanistan until October 2001, when they were routed from power by the US-led campaign against al-Qa'ida. In arguably the most significant development in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region since the May 2011 death of al-Qa'ida founder Usama Bin Ladin, the Taliban in July 2015 revealed that its reclusive leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, had died in 2013. Omar, who was the president of Afghanistan during the Taliban's rule and a major Bin Ladin supporter, was wanted by the US Government through the Rewards for Justice program. Mullah Akhtar Mohammed Mansur, who was Omar's second-in-command, in early August 2015 was selected as the new Taliban leader. Mansur is only the second leader that the group has ever had. The Afghan Taliban are responsible for most insurgent attacks in Afghanistan, which follow an established pattern of regular low-level ambush and hit-and-run attacks, coupled with periodic high-profile attacks. The Taliban have been moving aggressively in many parts of the country, evidenced by the fact that suicide and complex attacks increased by 78 percent countrywide in the first six months of 2015 compared with the same period in 2014. The Taliban between 7 and 10 August 2015 conducted a series of attacks in quick succession in Kabul that resulted in at least 60 deaths, marking the deadliest stretch in the capital since the US-led invasion in 2001. In the first attack, a suicide bomber detonated a large truck bomb in a residential area while attempting to target an Afghan Defense Ministry building, killing 15 civilians and wounding up to 400 others. On its own, the explosion caused an unprecedented number of casualties from a single attack in the capital in recent years—the Taliban is widely suspected of having conducted the attack although they did not claim responsibility for it because of the massive civilian casualties. Less than 24 hours later, over 40 cadets and civilians were killed when a suicide bomber dressed in police uniform blew himself up at the entrance of Kabul Police Academy. Later that day a Taliban squad targeted Resolute Support Mission installation Camp Integrity, killing at least nine, including one NATO serviceman. On 10 August a Taliban suicide bomber plowed a car into a checkpoint near the entrance to Kabul International Airport, killing at least 5 and wounding 15.

Bailout of banks during subprime mortgage and ensuing recession

The Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) was instituted by the U.S. Treasury following the 2008 financial crisis. TARP stabilized the financial system by having the government buy mortgage-backed securities and bank stocks. From 2008 to 2010, TARP invested $426.4 billion in firms and recouped $441.7 billion in return.

Department of Homeland Security

The United States Department of Homeland Security is an executive division of the U.S. federal government responsible for safeguarding the country against terrorist attacks and ensuring preparedness for natural disasters and other emergencies. In the wake of the September 11 attacks in 2001, Pres. George W. Bush created the Office of Homeland Security, to coordinate counterterrorism efforts by federal, state, and local agencies; and the Homeland Security Council, to advise the president on homeland security matters. Both offices were superseded in January 2003 with the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, which assumed control of several agencies responsible for domestic security and emergency preparedness, including the Customs Service and Border Patrol (now U.S. Customs and Border Protection), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the Secret Service, and the Coast Guard. The first secretary of the department was Tom Ridge, the former director of the Office of Homeland Security. The DHS has been nothing if not controversial. "DHS's overbroad mandate and unchecked powers have turned it into a tinderbox, now ignited by a president willing to trample on the constitutional limits of presidential powers," ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero wrote in August 2020. In July, the Trump administration had sent DHS personnel to racial justice protests across the country — as the nation collectively reckoned with the killing of George Floyd and its history of police brutality and racism.

Filipino Immigration to America

The United States is home to by far the largest number of Filipinos abroad. Other top destinations include Saudi Arabia (629,000), Canada (627,000), the United Arab Emirates (556,000), Australia (281,000), and Japan (256,000), according to mid-2019 United Nations Population Division estimates. Today, most Filipinos in the United States who obtain lawful permanent residence (LPR status, also known as getting a green card) do so through family reunification channels, either as immediate relatives of U.S. citizens or through other family-sponsored channels. Many also get green cards through employment preferences. Meanwhile, Filipinos are more likely than other immigrants to have strong English skills and have much higher college education rates than the overall foreign- and U.S.-born populations. They are also more likely to be naturalized U.S. citizens than other immigrant groups, have higher incomes and lower poverty rates, and are less likely to be uninsured. Using data from the U.S. Census Bureau (the most recent 2018 American Community Survey [ACS] as well as pooled 2014-18 ACS data) and the Department of Homeland Security's Yearbook of Immigration Statistics, this Spotlight provides information on the Filipino immigrant population in the United States, focusing on its size, geographic distribution, and socioeconomic characteristics. In the 2014-18 period, immigrants from the Philippines were highly concentrated in California (43 percent), followed distantly by Hawaii (6 percent). The next four most populous states—Texas, Illinois, New York, and Nevada—were home to 18 percent of the Filipino population collectively. The top four counties by Filipino concentration were Los Angeles and San Diego counties in California, Honolulu County in Hawaii, and Clark County in Nevada. Together these counties accounted for 25 percent of Filipinos in the United States. As of 2014-18, the U.S. cities with the largest number of Filipinos were the greater Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York metropolitan areas. These three metro areas accounted for about 31 percent of Filipinos in the United States. Filipinos participate in the labor force at a similar rate as all immigrants: About 66 percent of Filipino immigrants and all immigrants ages 16 and over were in the civilian labor force, compared to 62 percent of the native born. Filipinos were much more likely to be employed in management, business, science, and arts occupations than all immigrants (see Figure 5). Filipino immigrants represented 28 percent of all immigrants working as registered nurses in 2018.

Resistance to technology in education

The chief technology officer of eBay sends his children to a nine-classroom school. So do employees of Silicon Valley giants like Google, Apple, Yahoo and Hewlett-Packard. But theses schools' chief teaching tools are anything but high-tech: pens and paper, knitting needles and, occasionally, mud. Not a computer to be found. No screens at all. They are not allowed in the classroom, and these schools even frown on their use at home. Schools nationwide have rushed to supply their classrooms with computers, and many policy makers say it is foolish to do otherwise. But the contrarian point of view can be found at the epicenter of the tech economy, where some parents and educators have a message: computers and schools don't mix. This is true of the Waldorf School of the Peninsula, one of around 160 Waldorf schools in the country that subscribe to a teaching philosophy focused on physical activity and learning through creative, hands-on tasks. Those who endorse this approach say computers inhibit creative thinking, movement, human interaction and attention spans.

Internet (World Wide Web)

The debut in 1991 of the graphics-based World Wide Web--a collection of servers that allowed access to millions of documents, pictures, and other materials--enhanced the popular appeal and commercial possibilities of the Internet. By 2011, 78 percent of all Americans and more than two billion people worldwide used the Internet to send messages and view information. Businesses used the Internet to sell their products and services; e-commerce transactions totaled $114 billion in 2003, $172 billion in 2005, and neared $500 billion in 2010. The Web proved instantly democratic, proving ordinary people with easy access to knowledge.

Financial crisis of 2007

The financial crisis of 2007-08, also called the subprime mortgage crisis, was an economic crisis in which there was a severe contraction of liquidity in global financial markets that originated in the United States as a result of the collapse of the U.S. housing market. It threatened to destroy the international financial system; caused the failure (or near-failure) of several major investment and commercial banks, mortgage lenders, insurance companies, and savings and loan associations; and precipitated the Great Recession (2007-09), the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression (1929-c. 1939).

Mikhail Gorbachev

The man partly credited with bringing an end to the Cold War was born into a peasant family on March 2, 1931, near Stavropol. As a boy, he did farm work along with his studies. He joined the Communist Party in 1952 and completed a law degree at Moscow University the following year. During the early 1960s Gorbachev became head of the agriculture department for the Stavropol region. By the end of the decade he had risen to the top of the Party hierarchy in the region. He came to the attention of Politburo members Mikhail Suslov and Yuri Andropov, who got him elected to the Central Committee in 1971 and arranged foreign trips for their rising star. In 1978 he was back in Moscow, and the next year he was chosen as a candidate member of the Politburo. His stewardship of Soviet agriculture was not a success. As he came to realize, the collective system was fundamentally flawed in more than one way.A full Politburo member since 1980, Gorbachev became more influential in 1982 when his mentor, Andropov, succeeded Leonid Brezhnev. He built a reputation as an enemy of corruption and inefficiency. Gorbachev finally rose to the top party spot in March 1985 after Andropov's short term was followed by a brief leadership period of Konstantin Chernenko. Almost from the start, he strove for significant reforms, so that the system would work more efficiently and more democratically. Hence the two key phrases of the Gorbachev era: "glasnost" (openness) and "perestroika" (reform). Hoping to shift resources to the civilian sector of the Soviet economy, Gorbachev also began to argue in favor of an end to the arms race with the West.Throughout his six years in office, Gorbachev always seemed to be moving too fast for the Party establishment, which saw its privileges threatened, yet too slow for radical reformers, who hoped to do away with the one-party state and the command economy. Desperately trying to stay in control of the reform process, he seemed to have underestimated the depth of the economic crisis. He also seemed to have had a blind spot for the power of the nationality issue: Glasnost created ever-louder calls for independence from the Baltics and other Soviet republics. His foreign policy efforts, however, proved relatively successful. While his arms control agreements with the United States could be considered as beneficial to Soviet interests as well, the peaceful breakaway of the countries of Eastern Europe, followed by German unification and NATO membership for the new Germany, appeared to old-line Communists more a sell-out.In August 1991 hard-liners had had enough. While Gorbachev was on vacation on the Crimea, the hardline communist leaders launched a coup attempt. However, they failed because of incompetence, lack of support from the military and massive street protests in Moscow. After the coup, Gorbachev lost the political initiative. This now belonged to the leaders of the various Soviet republics, in particular the president of Russia, Boris Yeltsin. At the end of the year, Gorbachev was forced to resign as president of a Soviet Union no longer in existence. Since that time, he has been blamed by many Russians for their current political and economic predicament. In the West, he remains the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize winner who helped end the Cold War.

Sunni Islam and Shia Islam

The primary ideological difference relates to questions of religious authority and the leadership of all Muslims following the death of the Prophet. Those who followed the Prophet's closest companion (Abu Bakr) became known as Sunni (the followers of the Prophet's example - Sunnah). Those who followed the Prophet's cousin and son-in-law ('Ali) became known as Shi'a (the followers of the Party of 'Ali - Shi'atu Ali). Sunnis focus on following the Prophet's example whereas Shi'a focus on the lineage of Muhammad's family through a series of Imams.

Cuban Immigration to America

The wave of Cuban immigration from about 1965 to 1974,featured orderly departure programs administered by the U.S and Cuban governments. The so-called "freedom flights" brought middle and working class Cubans to the United States. The third wave began in 1980 with the Mariel boatlift, a chaotic exodus that was in many ways distinct from previous migrations. The Marielitos, as they are known, came from virtually every segment of Cuban society, including the poor. The fourth wave, which continues to the present, began after the collapse of Communism in 1989 and the tightening of the U.S. embargo in 1992. It includes balseros, or rafters, who float to Florida aboard improvised vessels as well as the beneficiaries of a special visa lottery system the two governments agreed to implement in 1994. Because political allegiances often determine economic and educational opportunities in Castro's Cuba, unraveling the economic and political motivations for migration has often proven difficult. Perceptions of economic deprivation and opposition to the Castro regime have gone hand in hand for many Cuban migrants over the past four and a half decades. In contrast, most migration from the rest of Latin America, with a few notable exceptions, has been driven by economic motives. Throughout all four phases, U.S. policy has been far more welcoming towards Cubans than to any other migrants from Latin America. Virtually all Cuban migrants have been admitted under a special parole power exercised by the U.S. Attorney General that immediately grants them full legal status and puts them on a path to U.S. citizenship. Under current U.S. policy, Cuban migrants apprehended at sea are returned to Cuba while those who are able to reach U.S. soil are allowed to stay.

Patriot Act (2001)

USA PATRIOT Act, also called PATRIOT Act, in full Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001, U.S. legislation, passed by Congress in response to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and signed into law by Pres. George W. Bush in October 2001, that significantly expanded the search and surveillance powers of federal law-enforcement and intelligence agencies. The USA PATRIOT Act, as amended and reauthorized from 2003, made numerous changes to existing statutes relating to the privacy of telephone and electronic communications, the operation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, money laundering, immigration, and other areas. It also defined a host of new crimes and increased penalties for existing ones.

digital economy

Using the ITIF industry definition, in 2020, the IT sector accounted for 3.5 percent of all business establishments and 4.4 percent of private sector employees, meaning the average IT firm was about 27 percent larger than the average private sector firm.19 However, because the IT industry pays so well, it accounted for 9.5 percent of all private sector wages. As a measure of industry contribution to the economy, the most accurate measure is value added, the result of subtracting the cost of purchased inputs (e.g., raw materials, energy, etc.) from final sales. In 2020, the IT industry generated $1.2 trillion in domestic value added, approximately 5.5 percent of the U.S. economy. Value added in the IT sector grew by $600 billion (109 percent) from 2010 to 2020, with data processing, Internet publishing, and other information services growing the fastest at 215.1 percent. Overall, U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) grew 39 percent over the same period. The Department of Commerce found that the digital economy accounted for 10.2 percent ($2.14 trillion of value added) of U.S. GDP in 2020. According to the Department, from 2012 to 2020, the digital economy's average real (inflation-adjusted) annual growth in value added was 6.3 percent. The Department's data also highlights that the digital economy's real value added grew 151.4 percent from 2005 to 2020.

Vacuum Tubes (1940's)

Vacuum Tubes (1940's) - They were electronic devices that controlled the flow of electricity in and out of a computer. They looked like long light bulbs.

Vikings in North America

Vikings came to North America nearly 500 years before Columbus, study of wood reveals. Viking sailors landed on the shores of North America nearly half a millennium before Christopher Columbus, new research reveals.

Wages Since 1980

Wages in the U.S. have stagnated since the early 1970s. Between 1979 and 2020, workers' wages grew by 17.5% while productivity grew over three times as fast at 61.8%."It's not true that wages haven't grown at all," said Allison Schrager, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. "They have, but they haven't grown as quickly as they had in the past." Previously, globalization and automation have been blamed as primary causes of slow wage growth. But more economists suggest that labor dynamism plays a crucial role as well. American workers today are changing jobs less frequently than before, even though job switching leads to strong take-home pay growth. And while some Americans don't switch their jobs out of a desire for stability, others feel they can't because of limited job mobility. In many local markets, companies use the lack of competition to suppress their workers' wages.

Minimum Wage Does Not Cover Cost of Living

While the minimum wage has been adjusted numerous times since its implementation in 1938, it has failed to keep up with inflation and the rising cost of living. The purchasing power of minimum wage reached its peak in 1968 and steadily declined since. If it had kept up with inflation from that point it would have reached at least $10.45 in 2019. Instead, its real value continues to go down, meaning minimum wage employees are essentially being paid less each year. Additionally, some economists argue if minimum wage increased with U.S. productivity over the years, it would be set currently at $26 per hour today and poverty rates would be close to non-existent with little negative impact on the economy. However, because gradual change was avoided, the extra funds were instead shifted to CEO compensation. A sudden change in wages now could possibly make a more noticeable impact on the economy, which is often cited as reasoning for a slower increase over time moving forward. Gradual increases with inflation and productivity could have avoided any potential economic ripple effects from wage increases and should be considered in ongoing plans. Because of pandemic-induced labor shortages, many industries saw modest wage increases over the past year. Annual wages grew 4.8 percent for workers earning the lowest 25 percent in August, according to the Federal Reserve of Atlanta. On the surface, this seems promising. However, when adjusting for inflation, wages actually fell 1.8 percent in 2021, assuming all workers face the same inflation rate. In fact, because lower-income households spend a larger portion of their income on commodities that saw the largest price increases, they face a higher inflation rate. Research shows the annual inflation experienced by the lowest-earning income quartile was 0.3 percent higher than for the top-earning quartile from 2003-2018.