Unit 7-Unit 12 BONUS Vocabulary Review (61-90)

The Pentagon Papers

A classified study of the Vietnam War that was carried out by the Department of Defense. An official of the department, Daniel Ellsberg, gave copies of the study in 1971 to the New York Times and Washington Post. Freedom of the press is the constitutional issue raised by the release of the Pentagon Papers.

1979 Iran Hostage Crisis

A diplomatic crisis between Iran and the United States. Fifty-two American diplomats and citizens were held hostage for 444 days (November 4, 1979, to January 20, 1981), after a group of Iranian students supporting the Iranian Revolution took over the US Embassy in Tehran. This crisis severely damaged public confidence in the Carter administration.

The War Powers Act of 1973

A federal law intended to check the president's power to commit the U.S. to an armed conflict without the consent of Congress. This act basically allows the U.S. Congress to limit the military authority of the executive branch.

wildlife corridor

A habitat corridor, wildlife corridor or green corridor is an area of habitat connecting wildlife populations separated by human activities or structures (such as roads, development, or logging).

Clinton v. City of New York (1998)

A legal case in which the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the line-item veto as granted in the Line Item Veto Act of 1996 violated the Presentment Clause of the United States Constitution because it impermissibly gave the President of the United States the power to unilaterally amend or repeal parts of statutes that had been duly passed by the United States Congress. The decision of the Court, in a six-to-three majority, was delivered by Justice John Paul Stevens. This is an example of checks and balances in the type of government that we have.

Watergate scandal

A major political scandal that occurred in the United States in the 1970s as a result of the June 17, 1972 break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C., and the Nixon administration's attempted cover-up of its involvement. The Watergate scandal is one of the reasons why public confidence in government eroded in the 1970s and into the early 1980s.

The Iran Contra Affair

A political scandal in the United States that came to light in November 1986. During the Reagan administration, senior administration officials secretly facilitated the sale of arms to Iran, the subject of an arms embargo, to support anti-communist Contra rebels in Nicaragua after Congress cut funding for military aid through the Boland Amendment.

hybrid vehicle

A vehicle is a hybrid if it utilizes more than one form of onboard energy to achieve propulsion. In practice, that means a hybrid will have a traditional internal combustion engine and a fuel tank, as well as one or more electric motors and a battery pack.

USA PATRIOT Act of 2001

An Act of Congress that was signed into law by President George W. Bush on October 26, 2001. From broad concern felt among Americans from both the September 11 attacks and the 2001 anthrax attacks, Congress rushed to pass legislation to strengthen security controls.

Tim Berners-Lee

An English engineer and computer scientist, best known as the inventor of the World Wide Web. He is currently a professor of Computer Science at the University of Oxford. He made a proposal for an information management system in March 1989, and he implemented the first successful communication between a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) client and server via the internet in mid-November the same year.

Earth Day

An annual event celebrated on April 22. Worldwide, various events are held to demonstrate support for environmental protection. First celebrated in 1970, Earth Day events in more than 193 countries are now coordinated globally by the Earth Day Network. Earth Dayterm-4 was created for the purpose of raising awareness of environmental issues.

renewable resource

Any resource, such as wood or solar energy, that can or will be replenished naturally in the course of time. Some renewable resources have essentially an endless supply, such as solar energy, wind energy and geothermal pressure, while other resources are considered renewable even though some time or effort must go into their renewal, such as wood, oxygen, leather and fish.

Telecommunications

Communication over a distance by cable, telegraph, telephone, or broadcasting.

environmental change

Humans are modifying the world in many ways, and not all of them for the better. The changes we cause are often severe challenges to animals, plants and microbes in nature, from the introduction of pathogens or exotic invasive species to adding toxic substance or excessive nutrients, or causing climatic change. Often several changes occur at once. A marked change in the environment favors some characteristics of plants, animals and microbes over others.

World Trade Organization

It is an organization that intends to supervise and liberalize international trade. The organization officially commenced on 1 January 1995 under the Marrakech Agreement, replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which commenced in 1948. These trade principles under the WTO have affected U.S. markets by stimulating consumer demand for products.

26th Amendment

It prohibits the states and the federal government from setting a voting age higher than eighteen. It was adopted in response to student activism against the Vietnam War and to partially overrule the Supreme Court's decision in Oregon v. Mitchell. It was adopted on July 1, 1971.

1973 Arab oil embargo

It started in October 1973, when the members of Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries proclaimed an oil embargo against the United States for its support of Israel during the 1973 Arab-Israeli War. By the end of the embargo in March 1974, the price of oil had risen from US$3 per barrel to nearly $12.

The Fall of Saigon (1975)

It was the capture of Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, by the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) and the Viet Cong on 30 April 1975. The event marked the end of the Vietnam War and the start of a transition period to the formal reunification of Vietnam into the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

government shutdowns

Since 1976, when the current budget and appropriations process was enacted, there have been twenty-two gaps in budget funding, ten of which led to federal employees being furloughed. Prior to 1990, funding gaps did not always lead to government shutdowns, but since 1990 the practice has been to shut down the government for all funding gaps. A lack of cooperation between the legislative and executive branches has contributed to the shutdown of the federal government.

heat shield

The Space Shuttle thermal protection system (TPS) is the barrier that protected the Space Shuttle Orbiter during the searing 1,650 °C (3,000 °F) heat of atmospheric reentry. A heat shield material designed to act as an insulating barrier is now used to protect high-rise buildings from fires. The technology was originally developed primarily to protect the space shuttle on reentry.

War on Drugs

The War on Drugs is a phrase used to refer to a government-led initiative that aims to stop illegal drug use, distribution and trade by dramatically increasing prison sentences for both drug dealers and users. The movement started in the 1970s and is still evolving today. The term was popularized by the media shortly after a press conference given on June 18, 1971, by President Richard Nixon. In 1971 President Richard Nixon declared war on drugs. He proclaimed, "America's public enemy number one in the United States is drug abuse."

Aerospace

The branch of technology and industry concerned with both aviation and space flight. Ultraviolet-filtering lenses, high-resolution optical scanners, remote medical diagnostics, and Earth-imaging technology has been derived from the aerospace industry.

Environmental Protection Agency

The federal government created the EPA to oversee environmental issues.

AIDS epidemic

The first cases of what would later become known as AIDS were reported in the United States in June of 1981. Today, there are more than 1.1 million people living with HIV and more than 700,000 people with AIDS have died since the beginning of the epidemic.

Sandra Day O'Connor

The first woman named to the U.S. Supreme Court; she provided swing votes in important cases.

Hurricane Katrina

The levee system was unable to hold back floodwater when Hurricane Katrina made landfall along the Gulf Coast and as a result it led to massive flooding in the city of New Orleans in late August of 2005.

September 11, 2001

The response of the U.S. government to the attacks on 9/11 was to begin military operations in Afghanistan.

Nixon's trip to China

U.S. President Richard Nixon's 1972 visit to China (officially the People's Republic of China or PRC) was an important strategic and diplomatic overture that marked the culmination of the Nixon administration's resumption of harmonious relations between the United States and China (normalizing relations between the U.S. and China).

Barack H. Obama

US Democratic statesman, 44th president of the US 2009-17. He was the first African American to be elected to the presidency, and was re-elected in 2012 for a second term. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009.

Kent State Shootings

When four Kent State University students were killed by Ohio National Guardsmen, on May 4, 1970, it increased support for the antiwar movement.