Presidential Legacies

PRESIDENTIAL LEGACIES

www.americanpresidents.org

Due Dates

Tuesday, October 11 – declaration of topic

Thursday, October 13 – bibliography “cards”

Monday, October 17 – note cards

Monday, October 24 – note cards

Thursday, October 27 – rough draft

Final drafts are due 3 days after graded rough draft is returned.

This is a list of events that occurred while these men were President of the United States. You will choose one of these events and explain through your research how this event and its responsible President changed US/world history.

George Washington

· Bank of the United States

· Establishment of presidential cabinet

· Establishment of US Supreme Court

· Bill of Rights ratified

· Founding of political parties

· Washington refuses a third term as President

· Eli Whitney invents the cotton gin

John Adams

· Alien and Sedition Acts

· “Midnight appointments”

Thomas Jefferson

· Louisiana Purchase

· Lewis & Clark Expedition

· Elected by House of Representatives

· 12th Amendment ratified

· Barbary Wars

· Robert Fulton builds the Clermont

James Madison

· War of 1812

James Monroe

· Monroe Doctrine

· Missouri Compromise

· Erie Canal built

John Quincy Adams

· Elected by House of Representatives

· Elected to House of Representatives after serving as President

· Tariff of Abominations

Andrew Jackson

· first President nominated by a political party

· “spoils system”

· Force Bill

· Nullification Crisis

· Controversy over National Bank

· Indian Removal Act

· Texas Independence

Martin Van Buren

· Panic of 1837

· Texas annexation proposed and rejected

· Trail of Tears

William Henry Harrison

· First Presidential candidate with a campaign slogan

John Tyler

· Threatened with impeachment by Whigs and Democrats

· Texas annexation, 1845

· Preemption Act – 1841

· Mormon Trek to Utah

James K. Polk

· Mexican-American War

· First “dark horse” nominee of political party

· “Manifest Destiny” President

· Sarah Polk – helped husband with speeches and political advice

· Seneca Falls Convention (women’s rights)

Zachary Taylor

· First President not previously elected to any other public office

· Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, 1850 – treaty between US and Great Britain; any canal across Central America would be neutral & neither country would colonize any part of Central America

· California Gold Rush

· Compromise of 1850

Millard Fillmore

· Signed Compromise of 1850

· Authorized Matthew Perry’s trip to Japan

· Abigail Powers Fillmore – first lady to have job after marriage – established White House Library

· Massachusetts passes first compulsory school attendance laws

Franklin Pierce

· Gadsden Purchase

· Kansas-Nebraska Act

James Buchanan

· John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry

· Confederate States of America declare independence

· Dred Scott decision

· Comstock Lode

Abraham Lincoln

· Issued Emancipation Proclamation - 1863

· Homestead Act – 1862

· Morrill Act – 1862

Andrew Johnson

· First President to be impeached

· Purchase of Alaska – 1867

· Civil Rights Act of 1866

· 13th & 14th Amendments ratified

· First oil pipeline built

· Transcontinental Railroad finished

Ulysses S. Grant

· 15th Amendments ratified – 1870

· Whiskey Ring Scandal

· Credit Mobilier Scandal

· Women’s suffrage in Wyoming

Rutherford B. Hayes

· Ended Reconstruction & removed federal troops from the South

· Resumption of the Specie Act

· Civil Service Reform, 1877

James A. Garfield

· Establishment of American Red Cross

Chester A. Arthur

· Chinese Exclusion Act, 1882

· Pendleton Act

· Tuskegee Institute founded

Grover Cleveland

· Statue of Liberty unveiled in New York Harbor

· Dawes Severalty Act, 1887

· Interstate Commerce Act, 1887

· Pullman Strike , 1894

· American Federation of Labor founded

· Henry Ford builds first car

· Hawaii annexed to US

Benjamin Harrison

· North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana & Washington enter the Union

· Sherman Anti-Trust Act, 1890

William McKinley

· Spanish-American War

· US received Philippines, Guam & Puerto Rico from Spain

· US annexed Hawaii

· Open Door Policy, 1899-1900

Theodore Roosevelt

· First President to win Nobel Peace Prize

· Responsible for building of Panama Canal

· Panic of 1907

· Oklahoma admitted to the Union

· Wright brothers successfully fly powered airplane

· US Pure Food and Drug Act passed

· Panic of 1907

William Howard Taft

· New Mexico and Arizona enter the Union

· 16th Amendment passed

Woodrow Wilson

· 17th Amendment passed

· World War I fought

· 18th Amendment (Prohibition) passed

· 19th Amendment passed – voting by women

· Henry Ford pioneers assembly line techniques

· Panama Canal opens

· First transcontinental telephone call

· First meeting of League of Nations

Warren G. Harding

· Teapot Dome Oil Scandal

· Refused US admittance to League of Nations

Calvin Coolidge

· Charles Lindbergh first to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean

· Immigration Act, 1924

· The Air Commerce Act

· Kellogg-Briand Act (also known as Pact of Peace)

· Scopes Trial

· Charles Lindbergh flies “Spirit of St. Louis” non-stop to Paris

· Amelia Earhart first woman to fly across the Atlantic

Herbert Hoover

· 1929 Stock Market Crash

· Star Spangled Banner adopted as national anthem

· Responsible for building of Boulder Dam (Hoover Dam)

Franklin D. Roosevelt

· 21st Amendment passed, repealing 18th (Prohibition)

· Only President elected 4 times

· World War II

· Social Security Tax passed

· Period of Great Depression

· Appointed first woman to Cabinet position – Frances Perkins, Secretary of Labor

· Fair Labor Standards Act

· US goes off gold standard

· Tennessee Valley Authority created

· Penicillin successfully used to treat chronic diseases

Harry S Truman

· Made decision to drop atomic bombs on Japan

· President during Korean War

· Approved creation of NATO

· Passage of Truman Doctrine

· 22nd Amendment passed

Dwight D. Eisenhower

· Responsible for creation of NASA

· To enforce integration, ordered National Guard into Little Rock High School, Little Rock, Arkansas

· Marshall Plan

John F. Kennedy

· Soviets built the Berlin Wall

· Cuban Missile Crisis erupted

· Established the Peace Corps

· First televised Presidential election debates

· Bay of Pigs invasion

· 23rd Amendment passed

Lyndon B. Johnson

· Established VISTA

· 24th Amendment passed

· 25th Amendment passed

· Medicare signed into law

· Civil Rights Act passed

· Voting Rights Act passed

· Nominated Thurgood Marshall, first African American Supreme Court Justice

· Wife, Lady Bird Johnson, supported Head Start project

· Troops fire on students at Kent State University

Richard M. Nixon

· 26th Amendment passed

· SALT agreement passed

· Watergate Scandal

· Only President to have resigned from office

· President when American troops withdrew from Vietnam

Gerald M. Ford

· Only President to take office having not been elected to either the Vice Presidency or the Presidency

· Declared amnesty to Vietnam War resisters

· Wife, Betty Ford, activist for Equal Rights Amendment

James (Jimmy) Carter

· Presided over creation of Department of Energy

· Panama Canal Treaty signed

· Camp David Accord signed

· US boycotted Olympics in Moscow to protest Russian invasion of Afghanistan

· 50 Americans taken hostage by Iran

Ronald Reagan

· Appointed the first woman to the Supreme Court, Sandra Day O’Connor

· Submitted first trillion dollar budget to Congress

George H. W. Bush

· Presided over American invasion of Panama

· Presided over Operation Desert Storm in Kuwait

· Savings and Loan crisis occurred

· 27th Amendment ratified

William J. Clinton

· Appointed Madeleine Albright first woman Secretary of State

· Balanced the federal budget

George W. Bush

· No Child Left Behind initiative

· September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States

· Established Department of Homeland Security

· Passage of Patriot Act

· Appointed first African American woman as Secretary of State

Barack Obama

· First African American elected to the Presidency