Key Events and Figures in 20th Century History: A Comprehensive Guide
The **Kerner Report**, a report by an 11-member commission established by President Lyndon B. Johnson, investigated the causes of the 1967 race riots in the United States and provided recommendations for the future. Its finding was that the riots resulted from black frustration at a lack of economic opportunity.
**Freedom Summer** was a campaign in the United States launched in June 1964 to attempt to register as many African-American voters as possible in Mississippi, which had historically excluded most blacks from voting. Freedom Summer did not succeed in getting many voters registered, but it helped break down the decades of isolation and repression that had supported the Jim Crow system.
The **Marshall Plan** was an American initiative to aid Europe, in which the United States gave economic support to help rebuild European economies after the end of World War II in order to prevent the spread of Soviet Communism. The goals of the United States were to rebuild war-devastated regions, remove trade barriers, modernize industry, and make Europe prosperous again.
**NATO** (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) is an intergovernmental military alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty, which was signed on April 4, 1949. The organization constitutes a system of collective defense whereby its member states agree to mutual defense in response to an attack by any external party. During the Korean War, the organization’s member states were galvanized, and an integrated military structure was built up under the direction of two U.S. supreme commanders.
The **Domino Theory** existed from the 1950s to the 1980s. It was promoted at times by the United States government and speculated that if one state in a region came under the influence of communism, then the surrounding countries would follow in a domino effect. The domino theory was used by successive United States administrations during the Cold War to justify the need for American intervention around the world.
The **Peace Corps** is a volunteer program run by the United States government. The stated mission of the Peace Corps includes providing technical assistance, helping people outside the United States to understand American culture, and helping Americans to understand the cultures of other countries. The work is generally related to social and economic development.
**Beijing** is the capital of the People’s Republic of China.
**Chiang Kai-shek** was a Chinese political and military leader who served as the leader of the Republic of China between 1928 and 1975. Chiang led the Northern Expedition to unify the country, becoming China’s nominal leader, and led China in the Second Sino-Japanese War.
**Operation Overlord** was the code name for the Battle of Normandy, the Allied operation that launched the successful invasion of German-occupied western Europe during World War II. The operation commenced on June 6, 1944, with the Normandy landings (Operation Neptune, commonly known as D-Day).
The **Neutrality Acts** were passed by the United States Congress in the 1930s, in response to the growing turmoil in Europe and Asia that eventually led to World War II. They were spurred by the growth in isolationism and non-interventionism in the US following its costly involvement in World War I, and sought to ensure that the US would not become entangled again in foreign conflicts.
**Satyagraha** is a particular philosophy and practice within the broader overall category generally known as nonviolent resistance or civil resistance. The term “satyagraha” was coined and developed by Mahatma Gandhi. He deployed satyagraha in the Indian independence movement and also during his earlier struggles in South Africa for Indian rights. It influenced people like Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King Jr.
**John Maynard Keynes** was a British economist whose ideas have fundamentally affected the theory and practice of modern macroeconomics and informed the economic policies of governments. He is widely considered to be one of the founders of modern macroeconomics and the most influential economist of the 20th century. His ideas are the basis for the school of thought known as Keynesian economics and its various offshoots.
The **Russo-German Non-Aggression Pact**, also known as the **Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact**, was signed on August 23, 1939, by representatives from Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. The pact guaranteed that the two countries would not attack each other. By signing this pact, Germany had protected itself from having to fight a two-front war in the soon-to-begin World War II; the Soviet Union was awarded land, including parts of Poland and the Baltic States.
The **National Security Act of 1947** mandated a major reorganization of the foreign policy and military establishments of the U.S. Government. The act created many of the institutions that Presidents found useful when formulating and implementing foreign policy, including the National Security Council.
**Rosa Parks** was an African-American civil rights activist who refused to obey her bus driver’s order that she give up her seat in the colored section to a white passenger, after the white section was filled. Parks’ act of defiance and the Montgomery Bus Boycott became important symbols of the modern Civil Rights Movement.
The **Nation of Islam** is a syncretic new religious movement founded in Detroit, Michigan, by Wallace D. Fard Muhammad on July 4, 1930. The Nation of Islam’s stated goals are to improve the spiritual, mental, social, and economic condition of African Americans in the United States and all of humanity.
**Little Rock, Arkansas**, is the capital and the largest city of the U.S. state of Arkansas.
The **NAACP** (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) is an African-American civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909. Its mission is “to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination.” Its name, retained in accordance with tradition, uses the once common term “colored people.”
**Perestroika** was a political movement for reformation within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union during the 1980s (1986), widely associated with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and his **glasnost** (meaning “openness”) policy reform.
**Glasnost** was a policy that called for increased openness and transparency in government institutions and activities in the Soviet Union. It was introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev in the second half of the 1980s.