Presidents

  1. George Washington (1789-1797)

Born in 1732, George Washington first rose to prominence by fighting in the French and Indian War in 1753 as the Lieutenant Colonel of the Virginia militia. When the American Revolution broke out, George Washington was appointed as the general of the Continental Army and after months of defeats, he won the first battle in the Battle of Trenton on Christmas of 1776 after leading his army across the Delaware River. After the United States won the American Revolution and got its independence, there was at first no president under the Articles of Confederation because the United States did not want an executive branch but after it was replaced by the Constitution, George Washington was unanimously elected to be the first president. He established executive departments to enact order, each led by a secretary: the treasury department, the war department, the state department, and the justice department. In 1792, the Bill of Rights was adopted as the first ten amendments to the Constitution. Under Washington, his Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, consolidated all state debts into one national debt. When the French Revolution broke out, Washington refused to provide assistance to France and issued the Proclamation of Neutrality in 1793, declaring that the United States wouldn’t get involved in foreign affairs. Also under Washington’s presidency was Jay’s Treaty in 1794 in which Britain gave up their forts and posts along the western frontier, and Pinckney’s Treaty in 1795, which allowed Americans to use the Spanish port of New Orleans and established the United States’ southern border with Spanish Florida to be along the 31st parallel. When the federal army was used to stop the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794, this proved the strength of the Constitution but also increased the debates between supporters of federal power (federalists) and those who were against having a strong central government (anti-federalists). After two terms, George Washington chose not to seek re-election in 1797 and in his Farewell Address, he warned against creating political parties and getting involved in foreign conflict.

2. John Adams (1797-1801)

Born in 1735, John Adams was a Federalist who was Washington’s Vice President and beforehand, he had served as a diplomat to Europe during the American Revolution. His vice president would become the next president, Thomas Jefferson. During Adams’ presidency, a war broke out between Britain and France, in which France started seizing American trade ships headed towards Britain. This led to the XYZ Affair, in which three French diplomats demanded bribe money in order to speak with a United States delegation that was sent to negotiate. In addition, Adams passed the Alien and Sedition Acts, which allowed the government to imprison or deport any non-citizen they wanted, and made it illegal to criticize the government. These two events led to a large amount of public backlash from Anti-Federalists (also known as Democratic-Republicans) who saw it as an abuse of federal power and a violation of constitutional rights. As a result, Adams did not run for a second term.

3. Thomas Jefferson (1801-1809)

Born in 1743, Jefferson’s presidency marked the first peaceful transition of power from the Federalists to the Anti-Federalists. In 1786, he created the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, which separated church from state and gave freedom of religion. During Washington’s presidency, he was Washington’s Secretary of State. During Washington’s presidency, Jefferson’s supporters, the Jeffersonians, wanted the United States to help France during the French Revolution. During Adams’ presidency, after Adams passed the Alien and Sedition Laws, Jefferson and Madison wrote the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions which argued that the states had the right to nullify any federal legislation that they deemed unnecessary. When Jefferson became president, he abolished the Whiskey Tax that had been put in place during Washington’s presidency and he also minimized the military and reduced the amount of federal jobs that existed. He was against having a strong federal government but then in 1803, the Louisiana Purchase occurred, in which the United States bought 828,000 square miles of land west of the Ohio River Valley from France. A Corps of Discovery was created to explore the land. In 1803, the Supreme Court case Marbury v. Madison established that the Supreme Court was the final interpreter of the Constitution and had the power of judicial review, meaning they could review whether laws were unconstitutional or not. Additionally, since the 1790s, the U.S. had paid tribute to the Barbary States of North Africa for protection of U.S. merchant ships in that area but after Jefferson became president, he refused to pay higher payments and this set off a brief series of fighting between the U.S. Navy and the Barbary Pirates.

4. James Madison (1809-1817)

Born in 1751, Madison helped write The Federalist Papers from 1787 to 1788, a series of essays written to convince states to ratify the Constitution. During Adams’ presidency, after Adams passed the Alien and Sedition Laws, Jefferson and Madison wrote the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions which argued that the states had the right to nullify any federal legislation that they deemed unnecessary. During Jefferson’s presidency, Madison served as his Secretary of State and refused to give commissions to some judges that Adams had appointed before his presidency had ended. This led to the Supreme Court case Marbury v. Madison, which established the practice of judicial review by the Supreme Court and dictated that the Supreme Court was the final interpreter of the Constitution. When he became the next president after Jefferson, Madison was a Democratic-Republican and the Treaty of Fort Wayne was passed in 1809. This obtained almost 30 million acres of land from natives for the settlement of Illinois and Indiana. Also during this time, the War of 1812 occurred, in which, due to Britain coercing natives to attack Americans, America fought against Britain and won. The Federalist Party fell from popularity because they were against the war, leaving the Democratic-Republicans as the only major party. Madison rejected Henry Clay’s American System suggestion of internal improvements. But Madison accepted the suggestions of increased tariffs and creating the Second Bank of the United States.

5. James Monroe (1817-1825)

Born in 1758, James Monroe was a Democratic-Republican. During his presidency, he rejected Henry Clay’s American System suggestion of internal improvements because he saw it as an overreach of federal power. He negotiated with Britain that the border between the United States and Canada would be at the 49th parallel. In 1817, he sent Andrew Jackson to Spanish Florida to stop people in Florida from crossing the border into the United States, which led to the First Seminole War. In 1819, the Adams-Onis Treaty was assigned which officially determined the border between the United States and Florida. That same year, a financial crisis, the Panic of 1819, occurred, which led to a desire for a more open democracy to hold politicians accountable if they cause future disasters. In 1820, the Compromise of 1820 was passed, which admitted Missouri as a free state, created Maine as a new free state, and established 36° 30’ as the line of determining whether a new state would be free or slave. Upon seeing many Latin American countries had freed themselves from colonial rule, Monroe created the Monroe Doctrine in 1823, which declared that European presence and intervention in the Western Hemisphere was not welcome. During his presidency, the Democratic-Republicans also split into the Democrats (mostly anti-federalists) and National Republicans (mostly federalists).

6. John Quincy Adams (1825-1829)

Born in 1767, John Quincy Adams was a National Republican and the son of second president John Adams. In 1819, under James Monroe, Adams negotiated the Adams-Onis Treaty which determined the border between the United States and Canada. In the Election of 1824, there were four candidates (John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, William Crawford, and Andrew Jackson). While Jackson won the most votes, he didn’t have a majority in the electoral college. As a result, when the House of Representatives was deciding the presidency, Clay had all of his supporters side with Adams, making Adams the president and Adams made Clay his Secretary of State. During Adams’ presidency, immigration increased, the Market Revolution started, and the United States began trading with countries further and further away. The Erie Canal was built in 1825, connecting Lake Erie to the Hudson River in New York. Also in 1825, the property requirement for voting was removed, meaning that now, all white men could vote, not just white men with land. He also passed the Tariff of 1828, which raised duties on imports by 35-45%. But Adams was very unpopular because he didn’t win the most votes and so Martin Van Buren, an ally of Jackson, took control of the House of Representatives and the Senate and blocked most of Adams’ decisions, making almost nothing get done during Adams’ presidency. By the time the Election of 1828 occurred, Jackson won 178 electoral votes compared to Adams’ 83.

7. Andrew Jackson (1829-1837)

Born in 1767, Andrew Jackson was a Democrat. In 1817, he was a general and was sent down to Spanish Florida by James Monroe to stop people in Florida from crossing the border. This led to the First Seminole War which lasted until 1818. In the Election of 1824, there were four candidates (John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, William Crawford, and Andrew Jackson). While Jackson won the most votes, he didn’t have a majority in the electoral college. As a result, when the House of Representatives was deciding the presidency, Clay had all of his supporters side with Adams, making Adams the president and Adams made Clay his Secretary of State. Jackson called this a corrupt bargain and his ally, Van Buren, blocked most of Adams’ decisions during Adams’ presidency, helping Jackson to win the Election of 1828. He supported the spoils system, in which he filled his office with his supporters instead of the most qualified people. John C. Calhoun, his vice president, wrote the South Carolina Exposition & Protest and outlined in the Doctrine of Nullification there that a state could nullify federal laws if it deemed them unconstitutional. After South Carolina used this to ignore the Tariff of 1828 and another tariff in 1832, Jackson passed the Force Bill in 1833 which gave him the authority to use military action in South Carolina if they kept ignoring the tariffs. The Compromise Tariff of 1833 was passed, which lowered the tariffs and established that states couldn’t nullify all federal laws. In addition, Jackson refused to recharter the National Bank in 1832 and spread the bank’s money between 23 state banks, causing the banks to start printing a lot of paper money and causing inflation. This led to The Specie Circular in 1836, which ordered that all federal land had to be purchased in gold and silver instead of paper money, and then the Panic of 1837, in which wages dropped, banks failed, and people went unemployed due to the excess paper money. In 1830, the Indian Removal Act was passed which relocated all natives east of the Mississippi to the Oklahoma Territory. Also during Jackson’s presidency, the National Republicans became more and more federalist and then became the Whig Party, led by Henry Clay. In 1836, the last full year of Jackson’s presidency, the Republic of Texas won its independence from Mexico but Jackson refused to annex it out of fear of starting a war.

8. Martin Van Buren (1837-1841)

Born in 1782, Martin Van Buren was a Democrat. After Andrew Jackson lost his election to John Quincy Adams, Van Buren, an ally of Jackson, was able to get a majority in both the House of Representatives and the Senate and blocked most of Adams’ decisions. When Jackson refused to recharter the National Bank in 1832, this led to the Panic of 1837 which started off Van Buren’s presidency. Van Buren refused to convert paper money into gold and silver, and so he did very little to help the economy. His presidency was filled with border disputes with Canada but he refused to go to war. In addition, he refused to annex Texas after the Republic of Texas got independence from Mexico earlier in 1836. And so because of this, he failed to win a second term.

9. William Henry Harrison (1841-1841)

Born in 1773, William Henry Harrison was a Whig and was the first governor of Indiana. After his army won the Battle of Tippecanoe in Tecumseh’s War in 1811, he gained national fame and this helped him be elected as the ninth president in the Election of 1840. Then a month later, he took a walk in the rain, got sick, and died.

10. John Tyler (1841-1845)

Born in 1790, John Tyler was a Whig and was William Henry Harrison’s vice president for a month until Harrison died. In the last months of his presidency, John Tyler pushed to admit Texas as a state but he failed to finish doing so before his presidency ended. The Know-Nothing Party, a party against immigration, was created in 1844 during his presidency.

11. James K. Polk (1845-1849)

Born in 1795, James Polk was a Democrat who won the Election of 1844 on the campaign of annexing Oregon and Texas. During his presidency, Texas was admitted as a state and the Oregon Treaty was also ratified in 1846, admitting Oregon as a state. But the negotiations with Mexico went more poorly and the conflicts over where the border should be led to the Mexican-American War. Polk sent in General Zachary Taylor to fight this war and after the United States won, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed in 1848, outlining the Texas border and also establishing the Mexican cession, in which California and New Mexico would be ceded to the United States for $15 million. Earlier in 1846, the Wilmot Proviso, which suggested banning slavery in all lands obtained from the Mexican-American War, was rejected. Still, this suggestion set off heightened tension between the North and the South that would lead up to the Civil War. In 1848, the California Gold Rush also started during Polk’s presidency.

12. Zachary Taylor (1849-1850)

Born in 1784, Zachary Taylor was a Whig. He was sent by James K. Polk to fight in the Mexican-American War in 1845. and won. In July of 1850, he ate a lot of cherries and died of an ailment a few days later.

13. Millard Fillmore (1850-1853)

Born in 1800, Millard Fillmore was a Whig. He was Zachary Taylor’s vice president. The Compromise of 1850 was made in 1850, admitting California as a free state, dividing the New Mexico territory into the New Mexico and Utah territory, ending the slave trade in Washington D.C., and creating a Fugitive Slave Law, which required any escaping slaves to be returned to their owners at the threat of a fine.

14. Franklin Pierce (1853-1857)

Born in 1804, Franklin Pierce was a Democrat. The Gadsden Purchase was made in 1853, ceding the southern parts of Arizona and New Mexico to the United States from Mexico. In 1854, the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed, admitting Kansas and Nebraska as states that would decide slavery through popular sovereignty, despite both being above the 36° 30’ line. In 1855, Bleeding Kansas occurred, a violent eruption that broke out in Kansas over this decision. Two governments, one pro-slavery and one anti-slavery, emerged in Kansas. Pierce decided to recognize the pro-slavery one as the legitimate one. In May of 1856, violence erupted in Congress when Senator Charles Sumner was beaten with a cane while giving an anti-slavery speech. Also during this time, the Whig party split and ceased to exist while a new party, the Republican Party, was created made up of members of the Know Nothing Party, Northern Democrats, abolitionists, the Free Soil Party, Conscience Whigs (Whigs that were anti-slavery), and many others.

15. James Buchanan (1857-1861)

Born in 1791, James Buchanan was a Democrat. His presidency started off with the heavily controversial Dred Scott decision of 1857, in which the Supreme Court ruled that slaves were “property”, meaning that slave owners could take slaves anywhere they wanted without them being taken away, even to the North. But during the 1858 midterms, the Republicans did well in their congressional elections and the South began fearing the election of a Republican president.

16. Abraham Lincoln (1861-1865)

Born in 1809, Abraham Lincoln was a Republican. He won the Election of 1860 against Stephen Douglas, who had proposed the Kansas-Nebraska Act. While Lincoln promised to not abolish slavery, many Democrats saw a Republican winning an election as unacceptable and a threat to the Southern economy and system of slavery. As a result, many Southern states seceded from the Union, starting the Civil War. During the war, Lincoln made the Emancipation Proclamation in 1862, which abolished slavery throughout the entire country and kept foreign countries from getting involved in the war. In addition, the Homestead Act was passed, which gave anybody who migrated out west 160 acres of free land for them to live on and farm. After 4 years, the Civil War ended in April 1865. Earlier in 1863, Lincoln had proposed the 10% Plan, declaring that southern states could rejoin the Union if 10% of their voters took a loyalty oath and if they ratified the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery. But before this could be fully enacted, Lincoln was assassinated a few days after the Civil War ended.

17. Andrew Johnson (1865-1869)

Born in 1808, Andrew Johnson was a Democrat. He was Abraham Lincoln’s vice president and became president after Lincoln was assassinated. While he did care about the reunification of the North and the South, he didn’t care about Lincoln’s plans for emancipation or racial equality and so as a result, the South mostly stayed the same as it had been before the war and was allowed to pass Black Codes which severely restricted the freedom of black people in the South. But a group known as the Radical Republicans established the Freedman’s Bureau and passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866 past Johnson’s veto. The Civil Rights Act was also turned into the 14th Amendment to make it permanent. In 1867, Alaska was purchased from Russia for $7.2 million. After Johnson tried to veto the Reconstruction Acts of 1867 and fired a member of his cabinet, the House impeached Johnson but failed to remove him by one vote. This left Johnson powerless to influence Reconstruction any further.

18. Ulysses S. Grant (1869-1877)

Born in 1822, Ulysses S. Grant was a Republican. Grant fought in the Civil War as a general and captured the city of Vicksburg in 1863, splitting the South in half along the Mississippi River. The Civil War ended at the Appomattox Court House after General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Grant. During Grant’s presidency, the KKK was formed, and Reconstruction began to fail. Grant’s presidency was filled with scandals and corruption such as the Panic of 1869, the Credit Mobilier Scandal, the Whiskey Ring, and the impeachment of his Secretary of War in 1876. In 1874, the Greenback Party, an anti-monopoly party that supported printing more paper money, was created.

19. Rutherford B. Hayes (1877-1881)

Born in 1822, Rutherford B. Hayes was a Republican. During the Election of 1876, neither Hayes nor his opponent won enough electoral votes to win the election and so a special electoral commission was made to decide the election, which ruled in favor of Hayes because they had a Republican majority. This outraged Democrats and in order to calm them down, he removed all federal troops in the South and brought an end to Reconstruction. In addition, during his presidency, people were getting tired of dealing with racial issues and were more focused on industry and manufacturing, causing the South to regain control of the South and continue discrimination. In 1877, the Great Railroad Strike occurred and Hayes sent in federal troops to stop the strike, leading to over 100 people dying.

20. James Garfield (1881-1881)

Born in 1831, James Garfield was a Republican. During this time, presidents practiced patronage, in which they gave federal jobs to people that supported them. But when Garfield didn’t give a job to one of his supporters, he was assassinated by them.

21. Chester A. Arthur (1881-1885)

Born in 1829, Chester A. Arthur was a Republican. He was Garfield’s vice president until Garfield’s assassination six months into his presidency. In 1881, the Pendleton Act was passed, which replaced federal jobs being granted through patronage with federal jobs being granted through a competitive examination. In 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was passed, which banned all immigration from China. Arthur also started the development of a modern American navy.

22 and 24. Grover Cleaveland (1885-1889) & (1893-1897)

Born in 1837, Grover Cleveland was a Democrat and the first president to serve two non-consecutive terms. During his first term, he vetoed hundreds of private pension bills from those who were lying about having served in the Civil War. He took back millions of acres from companies and also signed the Interstate Commerce Act and Dawes Severalty Act. He opposed high tariffs, imperialism, and government subsidies and also fought to try to bring an end to political corruption and patronage. During the Panic of 1893, Cleveland did mostly nothing to help the people as unemployment grew. As a result, Coxey’s Army occurred in 1894, which was a protest protesting for relief for the unemployed and for Congress to pass a bill to authorize the construction of more roads to put the unemployed to work. During this time, the Progressive Movement also gained momentum. In 1896, the Plessy v. Ferguson decision was passed, which established the idea that facilities which were “separate but equal” were constitutional. This led to many Jim Crow Laws being created in the South, which segregated society.

23. Benjamin Harrison (1889-1893)

Born in 1833, Benjamin Harrison was a Republican. The Sherman Antitrust Act was passed in 1890, which attempted to prevent the creation of monopolies but ended up doing mostly nothing. During the Election of 1892, the Populist Party was created. In 1893, the queen of Hawaii was overthrown by the United States.

25. William McKinley (1897-1901)

Born in 1843, William McKinley was a Republican. During the Election of 1896, the Democrat votes were split between the Democratic candidate and the Populist candidate, allowing the Republicans to win the election. After this, the Democrats began adopting many Populist views. In 1898, the USS Maine exploded in Havana, Cuba, and this, along with yellow journalism, caused McKinley to issue an ultimatum to Spain and led to the Spanish-American War. After the war, the United States took control of Cuba, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Guam. In 1899, the Open Door Policy with China was established, which guaranteed that the United States would have free unrestricted trade with China despite all the other European powers present. He was assassinated in 1901.

26. Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909)

Born in 1858, Theodore Roosevelt was a Republican. During McKinley’s first term, Roosevelt was his assistant secretary of the navy and attacked the Spanish fleet in the Philippines during the Spanish-American War. After the war, the Philippines was ceded to the U.S. for $20 million. He was McKinley’s vice president from March 1901 to September when McKinley was assassinated. In 1901, the Socialist Party of America was created. Roosevelt also established the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, which stated that Europeans should stay out of the Western Hemisphere. Roosevelt practiced his Square Deal, which emphasized conservation, control of corporations, and consumer protections. He enforced the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 and sued many companies to dissolve trusts. But he differentiated between good and bad trusts. During his presidency, the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act were passed. He was also a conservationist and turned 230 million acres of public land into national forests, national parks, national monuments, and many more.

27. William Howard Taft (1909-1913)

Born in 1857, William Howard Taft was a Republican. He was Roosevelt’s Secretary of War and during Taft’s presidency, he continued Roosevelt’s practices of trustbusting and prosecuted twice as many trusts as Roosevelt. In 1912, the Lodge Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine was established, which stated that non-European powers were excluded from owning any territory in the Western Hemisphere. In 1913, the 16th Amendment was passed, giving the government the right to tax income. Throughout his presidency, Progressives in many states got the initiative, referendum, and recall processes passed in their state legislations. But he also prosecuted U.S. Steel, a company that included a merger that had been approved by Roosevelt. Roosevelt saw this as a personal attack and ran for a third term in the Election of 1912 as a result. This led to Republican votes being divided between Taft and Roosevelt and caused the Democratic candidate, Woodrow Wilson, to win the election along with the Democrats gaining control of both the House and Senate.

28. Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921)

Born in 1856, Woodrow Wilson was a Democrat. In the Election of 1912, the use of direct primaries in elections received its first major test. He won the election because the Republican votes were divided between Taft and Roosevelt. In 1913, the 17th Amendment was passed, changing the election of senators to be done through popular voting. He launched a Progressive program called New Freedom to control the government’s power and increase competition between businesses. He lowered tariffs, created the Federal Reserve System, and passed the Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914. During his presidency, World War I started and Wilson wanted the United States to not get involved but after the sinking of the Lusitania and the Zimmermann Telegram, the United States joined the war on the Allies’ side and won. In 1916, the National Defense Act was passed to increase the regular army to 175,000 soldiers. In 1917, the Selective Service Act was passed as a wartime draft along with the Immigration Act which banned immigration from Asia. During the war, the Espionage and Sedition Acts were also passed which made it illegal to speak out against the government, interfere with the draft, or spy on the United States. After the war, Wilson presented his Fourteen Points to the other countries to try and prevent future wars and guarantee future peace along with the creation of a League of Nations. But Britain and France wanted vengeance, and Wilson got sick, so his Fourteen Points failed and the League of Nations was created without the United States. The Palmer Raids happened after the war, in which many suspected socialists were captured, arrested, and deported. In 1919 and 1920, the 18th and 19th Amendments were passed, the 18th prohibiting the production and sale of alcohol, and the 19th giving women the right to vote.

29. Warren G. Harding (1921-1923)

Born in 1865, Warren G. Harding was a Republican. He was elected by promising a return to normalcy after World War I. The Emergency Quota Act of 1921 was passed during his presidency to set limits on immigration. Under his presidency, there was a reduction in income tax, an increase in tariffs such as the Fordney-McCumber Act, and the establishment of the Bureau of the Budget. But his presidency was filled with scandals such as the teapot Dome Scandal and Harding’s attorney general taking bribes. Harding died of cardiac arrest two years into his presidency.

30. Calvin Coolidge (1923-1929)

Born in 1872, Calvin Coolidge was a Republican. Coolidge was Harding’s vice president and became president after Harding died. The National Origins Act of 1924 was passed during his presidency to set limits on immigration. He supported a smaller government and laissez-faire economics. He chose to not run for a second term.

31. Herbert Hoover (1929-1933)

Born in 1874, Herbert Hoover was a Republican. His presidency started off with the Great Depression, caused by buying on margin, the stock market crash of 1929, overproduction, tariffs, failing banks, and the rise in unemployment along with the crash of market demand. Hoover believed in laissez-faire economics and so as a result, he did very little to help the economy. In 1930, he passed the Hawley-Smoot Tariff, which raised tariffs by 20% and caused other countries to set up retaliatory tariffs. Many criticized Hoover’s lack of response to the Depression and many went unemployed. He lost the Election of 1932 to Franklin D. Roosevelt, who promised heavy government intervention to stop the Great Depression.

32. Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933-1945)

Born in 1882, Franklin D. Roosevelt was a Democrat. He won the Election of 1932 in a landslide through his promise of heavy government intervention to stop the Great Depression. He transformed the United States into a limited welfare state and started the New Deal, a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations meant to relieve the effects of the Great Depression. His presidency also passed the 21st Amendment, reversing the ban on alcohol. In 1933, at the Seventh Pan-American Conference in Uruguay, the United States pledged to never intervene in the internal affairs of a Latin American country ever again. FDR began a series of Fireside Chats, which were a series of presidential radio addresses to the people. Between 1934 and 1936, the Nye Committee exposed that many companies had profited off of World War I. Due to some criticisms of the New Deal, FDR proposed the Judicial Procedures Reform Bill of 1937 in order to control the Supreme Court. This was shut down by both houses of Congress. When World War II started, the United States did not get directly involved but they helped Britain through the Cash and Carry program, the Destroyers for Bases deal, and the Lend-Lease Act. In 1940, the Selective Service Act was passed as the first peacetime draft in U.S. history. But after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor in December of 1941, the United States joined the war. The War Production Board and the Office of War Mobilization were created, women were encouraged to work to help with the war, minorities fought in the war, and the increased production in the war brought the United States out of the Great Depression. In 1942, the Bracero Program was launched to allow Mexican farm workers to farm in the U.S. without going through immigration procedures. But FDR also passed Executive Order 9066, which relocated many Japanese-Americans to internment camps. With the United States joining the war, the Allies started winning in both Europe and in the Pacific. The Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944 was passed to provide aid to returning World War II veterans. Before the war ended, the Yalta Conference occurred between Churchill (UK), FDR, and Stalin (USSR) to decide what to do about Germany and Eastern Europe after the war. But FDR died in April of 1945 before the war ended. It was his presidency that aligned the Democratic and Republican parties to what they are today.

33. Harry Truman (1945-1953)

Born in 1884, Harry Truman was a Democrat and was FDR’s vice president during his fourth term as president until FDR died in April of 1945. When Truman became president, he was informed of the Manhattan Project, a secret project that involved the research and development of nuclear bombs. In August of 1945, he authorized the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, which led to Japan’s surrender and the end of World War II. After the war, the U.S. became the most powerful nation in the world. The United Nations was created after World War II. The United States enacted the Marshall Plan which gave billions of dollars to Western Europe to help them rebuild so they wouldn’t turn communist like the Soviet Union. In 1947, Truman announced the Containment Policy, in which the U.S. would try to stop the spread of communism rather than stop it in where it already existed. A Loyalty Review Board was also set up to investigate more than 3 million federal employees. Additionally, the McCarren Internal Security Act was passed, which made it illegal to support totalitarian governments and allowed for the creation of detention camps. The Taft-Hartley Act was passed to restrict the power of unions. He created the Truman Doctrine, in which the U.S. would provide military aid to countries threatened by communism like Greece and Turkey. After Soviet forces blockaded Berlin in 1948, the Berlin Airlift was created to bring supplies to West Berlin. Then the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), an alliance of the U.S., ten western European nations, and Canada, was created to defend against communism. Both the Chinese Civil War and the Korean War happened during Truman’s presidency and Truman tried to provide aid to both countries. But China fell to communism. In 1950, Senator Joseph McCarthy declared that he had a list of over 200 communists in the government and this led to a 4.5-year-long period of hunting down communists in the government known as McCarthyism. This led to turmoil in the Truman administration. Truman also launched the Fair Deal, which provided healthcare and federal aid to education, and he was also a supporter of civil rights. In 1948, he ended racial discrimination in the federal government.

34. Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953-1961)

Born in 1890, Dwight D. Eisenhower was a Republican. When NATO was created, Truman made Eisenhower the supreme commander of NATO. In July of 1953, Eisenhower negotiated an armistice with China and North Korea, ending the Korean War. Also in 1953, he passed Executive Order 10450, which banned homosexuals from working in the government. During Eisenhower’s presidency, he called for a slowdown in the arms race. In 1954, McCarthy accused the leaders of the army of being communists and was censured, ending the period of McCarthyism. During the Geneva Convention in 1955, the “open skies” policy was proposed, which would allow both sides to perform aerial photography over the other’s territory, but the Soviets rejected this. In 1960, there was the U-2 Incident, in which the Russians shot down a high-altitude U.S. spy plane over the USSR and exposed that the U.S. had been conducting spy flights over Soviet territory. After Fidel Castro overthrew the Cuban government and it became a communist state, Eisenhower authorized the training of anti-communist Cuban exiles to overthrow the Cuban government. Eisenhower’s presidency saw the rise of Modern Republicanism, in which many of the New Deal programs were extended. He opposed federal healthcare and federal aid to education. In 1956, the Interstate Highway System was passed to build 42,000 miles of interstate highways to connect all of the nation’s major cities and create jobs. During his presidency, Plessy v. Ferguson was overturned, Brown v. The Board of Education occurred, and the Montgomery Bus Boycott happened, turning the Civil Rights Movement into a major non-violent movement. Eisenhower also tried getting natives to leave their reservations and assimilate into society. Near the end of his presidency, Eisenhower warned against the Military-Industrial Complex, the growing relationship between the military and industrial production. He sent over a billion dollars in aid to Vietnam during the Vietnam War.

35. John F. Kennedy (1961-1963)

Born in 1917, John F. Kennedy was a Democrat. He launched the Bay of Pigs Invasion to overthrow the communist government of Cuba in April of 1961, which failed. After missiles were discovered in Cuba in 1962, this led to the Cuban Missile Crisis and after a few stressful days, the U.S. and USSR negotiated the removal of these missiles and the establishment of a hotline between Moscow and Washington D.C. to speed up communication. During the Vietnam War, he increased the amount of aid sent to South Vietnam but did not get involved in the war. After protests in Birmingham went violent in May of 1963, the JFK administration intervened and ended discrimination in the city. In June, the Equal Pay Act was passed, guaranteeing equal pay for men and women. JFK was assassinated in November of that year.

36. Lyndon B. Johnson (1963-1969)

Born in 1908, Lyndon B. Johnson was a Democrat. He was JFK’s vice president until his assassination. During his presidency, he had a congressional majority. In 1964, the Civil Rights Act was passed, which forbade racial discrimination, and the 24th Amendment was ratified. After an American destroyer was attacked in the Gulf of Tonkin near Vietnam, LBJ ordered retaliatory air strikes and passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution which allowed him to take “all necessary measures” needed to protect American interests in Vietnam. This led to full-scale involvement in Vietnam by 1965. After the Selma to Montgomery marches occurred in 1965, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed, which forbade racial discrimination in the voting booth. Also in 1965, LBJ passed Executive Order 11246, creating the idea of “affirmative action”. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 was passed to remove the immigration quotas of the 1920s. At home, LBJ launched many programs under the Great Society to fight against poverty, such as creating Medicare and Medicaid, passing the Food Stamp Act, passing the Higher Education Act, and passing the Child Nutrition Act. Concerning the Vietnam War, LBJ ordered bombing raids and increased the amount of troops in Vietnam to half a million by the end of 1967. But then the Tet Offensive occurred in 1968 and the destruction that occurred in Vietnam afterwards led to public opinion turning against LBJ. He chose to not run for a second turn.

37. Richard Nixon (1969-1974)

Born in 1913, Richard Nixon was a Republican. His actions with China and the USSR led to détente, or a relaxation of tensions between the world powers. He withdrew troops from Vietnam and established the Nixon Doctrine, which declared that while future Asian countries would receive U.S. support against communism, the U.S. would not intervene with their military. In 1970, the Clean Air Act was passed and the Environmental Protection Agency was created. In 1972, Nixon established an American liaison mission in Beijing and agreed to an arms control pact with the USSR. Also in 1972, the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act were passed, and Nixon signed SALT I with Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, which limited the two superpowers to just two hundred anti-ballistic missiles each. In June of 1972, the Watergate office complex in D.C. was burglarized and this was traced back to Nixon. In the Election of 1972, Nixon appealed to the “silent majority” and Republicans won the vote in every southern state. But then it was discovered that Nixon had authorized a secret bombing campaign in Cambodia, back in 1969, as part of the Vietnam War. As a result of this, Congress passed the War Powers Act. In 1973, the Paris Peace Accords was signed, which removed the United States from the Vietnam War, and the amount of money that had been spent during the war would damage the American economy for several years. Also in 1973, Arab nations formed the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in order to control the prices of oil they were exporting. This ended up increasing the price of oil in the United States. The Supreme Court ruled in Roe v. Wade in 1973 that prohibiting abortions was unconstitutional and was a violation of the right to privacy. But then Nixon was impeached due to the Watergate Scandal and resigned in August of 1974.

38. Gerald Ford (1974-1977)

Born in 1913, Gerald Ford was a Republican and was Nixon’s vice president. After the Watergate Scandal, Ford pardoned Nixon of all federal crimes he committed and this led to massive backlash against Ford for the next two years, causing Ford to lose the Election of 1976 to Jimmy Carter.

40. Ronald Reagan (1981-1989)

Born in 1911, Ronald Reagan was a Republican. He won the Election of 1980 due to a general dislike for Carter’s presidency. Reagan practiced Reaganomics, which advocated for supply-side economics, and made many tax cuts to increase investment and production in the private sector. But this also increased wealth inequality. In 1981, the Economic Recovery Act was passed, which reduced personal income taxes by 25% over the next three years. Reagan also greatly increased military spending in the United States, causing the United States to become a debtor nation by 1985. Back to 1981, Reagan vowed to crack down on drugs and greatly increased penalties for drug crimes, increasing the prison population for drug offenses from 50,000 to over 400,000 from 1980 to 1997. The AIDS epidemic started during his presidency and due to the slow reaction of his administration, more than 300 thousand people died from it by 1996. He appointed three conservative judges during his presidency and the Supreme Court became highly conservative during this time, weakening affirmative action and limiting Roe v. Wade. The Cold War also ended during his presidency due to increased military spending, improved relations between the U.S. and USSR (including the Intermediate Nuclear Forces treaty), and the support of anti-communist revolutions. But then there was the Iran-Contra Affair, in which the Reagan administration would sell arms to Iran and use the profits from the sale to support the Contras in Nicaragua, who the United States were supporting to overthrow the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, who were accused of being socialist.

41. George H. W. Bush (1989-1993)

Born in 1924, George H. W. Bush was a Republican. In 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait to take control of its oil reserves. This led to the Persian Gulf War and in response, H. W. Bush persuaded Congress to approve the use of military force to liberate Kuwait in Operation Desert Storm. Then, in 1991, Kuwait was liberated and the price of oil fell.

42. Bill Clinton (1993-2001)

Born in 1946, Bill Clinton is a Democrat. Compared to the other recent presidents, he is not as important for AP United States History.

43. George W. Bush (2001-2009)

Born in 1946, George W. Bush is a Republican. He is the son of former president George H. W. Bush. In the Election of 2000, he ran against Al Gore, Bill Clinton’s vice president. The election was so close that it mandated a recount in Florida and required the Supreme Court to decide the election. On September 11, 2001, 9/11 happened when a terrorist organization, al Qaeda, hijacked planes and drove them into the Twin Towers. This led to the passing of the Patriot Act and the War on Terror. W. Bush created the Bush Doctrine, which declared that the U.S. had the right to do “pre-emptive strikes” against enemies before they attacked the U.S. This led to a war in Afghanistan and the overthrowing of the Taliban government. In addition, W. Bush accused Iraq of having weapons of mass destruction, and even though there was no evidence, the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003 but many Americans began criticizing the war. Under his presidency, there were tax cuts that benefitted the rich. In 2008, the Great Recession happened and the housing market collapsed. After a Wall Street bank went bankrupt, the Economic Stabilization Act was passed in 2008 which created the Troubled Assets Relief Program to purchase failing mortgages and assets from banks.

44. Barack Obama (2009-2017)

Born in 1961, Barack Obama is a Democrat. In 2009, he passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which provided tax cuts, to encourage spending and to promote economic recovery. In 2011, Osama bin Laden, the leader of al Qaeda, was killed in Pakistan. Obama established the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program in 2012 to protect undocumented children in the United States from being deported. But Obama was also heavily criticized for deporting more undocumented immigrants than any previous president. In 2014, the U.S. began withdrawing from Afghanistan. In the Paris Climate Accords in 2015, the United States agreed to keep the rise in mean global temperature to below 2 degrees Celsius of pre-industrial levels.

45. Donald Trump (2017-2021)

Born in 1946, Donald Trump is a Republican. In the Election of 2016, Donald Trump ran his campaign on the opposition to immigration. After 2016, the AP United States History curriculum mostly ends there.

39. Jimmy Carter (1977-1981)

Born in 1924, Jimmy Carter is a Republican. In 1979, Carter signed SALT II with the USSR, which banned new missile programs and limited the size of each superpower’s nuclear delivery system. Additionally, Carter issued the Carter Doctrine which halted grain exports and technology to the USSR and boycotted the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games after the USSR invaded Afghanistan in 1979. Carter’s presidency saw the rise of inflation and a stagnant economy.