Glossary Term – Event
Jimmy Carter elected president
In a close contest, Democratic nominee Jimmy Carter, a former peanut farmer and one-term Georgia governor, won the presidential election of 1976 over Republican incumbent Gerald Ford.
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Showing results 61 – 70 of 124
Glossary Term – Event
Panama Canal treaties
President Jimmy Carter and Panamanian leader Omar Torrijos signed the Panama Canal Treaties of 1977. The treaties provided for an end to US control over the canal by the year 2000, with the US reserving the authority to defend the canal as an internationally used waterway.
Glossary Term – Event
Department of Energy created
President Jimmy Carter, a proponent of conservation, signed an act that created the Department of Energy, a Cabinet-level agency responsible for national energy policy.
Glossary Term – Event
American Indian Religious Freedom Act
The American Indian Religious Freedom Act guaranteed American Indians the “right of freedom to believe, express, and exercise the traditional religions” and allowed the “use and possession of sacred objects, and the freedom to worship through ceremonials and traditional rights.”
Glossary Term – Event
US recognition for People’s Republic of China
The United States and the People’s Republic of China officially established diplomatic relations. The United States declared that it “recognizes the People’s Republic of China as the sole legal government of China.”
Glossary Term – Event
Iranian revolution and hostage crisis
Iranian rebels and religious leaders overthrew the American-backed government of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini assumed power. With the shah exiled and anti-Western sentiment growing in Iran, President Carter ordered Americans out of the country. On November 4, 1979, Americans remaining at the embassy in Tehran were kidnapped in retaliation for the US freezing funds for Iran and taking in the former shah. Sixty-six American hostages were held captive for 444 days, until their release on Jimmy Carter’s last day in...
Glossary Term – Event
Three Mile Island disaster
An accident at a nuclear power plant on Three Mile Island, near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, caused the release of radioactive gases. The plant narrowly avoided a meltdown when the reactor was shut down. It was the most serious nuclear power accident in American history and prompted many companies to drop nuclear energy projects.
Glossary Term – Event
Susan B. Anthony dollar released
The US Mint released the Susan B. Anthony dollar, marking the first time an image of a historical woman appeared on American currency.
Glossary Term – Organization
New Left
The New Left, a radical political movement, began in the early 1960s and was embodied by anti-capitalist and anti-war groups such as Students for a Democratic Society. The manifesto of Students for a Democratic Society, the Port Huron Statement, was a platform of the New Left and called for “participatory democracy” and “revolutionary leadership.”
Glossary Term – Organization
Viet Cong
The Viet Cong were Vietnamese Communist rebels from South Vietnam who fought against the South Vietnamese government and the United States. In the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, the Viet Cong used guerrilla attacks and developed a sophisticated network of logistics and command structure in the fight to reunify Vietnam under a Communist regime.