A.P. U.S. HISTORY PRESIDENTIAL SYNTHESIS
1. George Washington
1789-1797
VP-John Adams
Secretary of State – Thomas Jefferson
Secretary of Treasury- Alexander Hamilton
People:
Benjamin Banneker
Catherine Greene & Eli Whitney
Major Items:
Judiciary Act (1789)
First National Bank (1791-1811)
Whiskey Rebellion (1794)
Jay’s Treaty with England (1794)
Pinckney’s Treaty with Spain (1795)
Farewell Address (1796)
2. John Adams
Federalist
VP-Thomas Jefferson
People:
Major Items:
1797-1801
Gabriel Prosser
X, Y, Z Affair (1798)
Alien Act, Sedition Act, Naturalization Act (1798)
Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions (1798)
Midnight Judges (1801)
3. Thomas Jefferson
1801-1809
Republican
VP- Aaron Burr
Secretary of State – James Madison
People:
Zebulon Pike
Major Items:
Agrarian Republicanism
Marbury v. Madison (1803)
Louisiana Purchase (1803)
Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804-05)
12th Amendment (1804)
Embargo Act (1807)
Non-Intercourse Act (1809)
4. James Madison
1809-1817
Republican
VP – Clinton, Gerry
Secretary of State – James Monroe
People:
Tecumseh & the Prophet
Francis Cabot Lowell
Major Items:
War Hawks (1811-12)
War of 1812 (1812-1814)
Hartford Convention (1814)
First Protective Tariff (1816)
5. James Monroe
1817-1825
Republican
VP-Tompkins
Secretary of State – John Quincy Adams
People:
Denmark Vesey
Major Items:
Era of Good Feelings
American System
Marshall Court Decisions:
McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)
Dartmouth College v. Woodward (1819)
Gibbons v. Ogden (1824)
Rush-Bagot Treaty (1817), Convention of 1818
Adams-Onis Treaty (1819)
Missouri Compromise (1820)
Monroe Doctrine (1823)
Convention of 1824
6. John Quincy Adams
1825-1829
National Republican
VP-John C. Calhoun
Secretary of State – Henry Clay
Major Items:
New York’s Erie Canal (1825)
Tariff of Abominations (1828)
Calhoun’s Exposition and Protest (1828)
7. Andrew Jackson
1829-1837
Democrat
VP – John C. Calhoun, Martin Van Buren
People:
Joseph Smith
Horace Mann
William Lloyd Garrison
Alexis de Tocqueville
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Cyrus McCormick
John Deere
Samuel Houston
Major Items:
Spoils System
Nat Turner Rebellion (1831)
Nullification Crisis & Force Bill (1832)
Bank War (1832)
Formation of the Whig Party (1832)
Specie Circular (1836)
Gag Rule (1836)
8. Martin Van Buren
Democrat
People:
Major Items:
1837 – 1841
Angelina & Sarah Grimke
Panic of 1837
Trail of Tears (1837)
9. William Henry Harrison
1841
Whig
VP – John Tyler
Secretary of State – Daniel Webster
10. John Tyler
1841-1845
Whig
Secretary of State – Daniel Webster
People:
Dorothea Dix
Frederick Douglas
Major Items:
Webster-Ash Burton Treaty (1842)
Liberty Party forms (1844)
Texas becomes a state (1845)
“Manifest Destiny” (1845)
11. James K. Polk
Democrat
VP – Dallas
People:
Major Items:
1845-1849
Henry David Thoreau
Sojourner Truth
John C. Fremont
Oregon Boundary settled (1846)
Wilmot Proviso fails (1846)
Mexican War (1846-48)
Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo (1848)
Seneca Falls (1848)
Free Soil Party forms (1848)
12. Zachary Taylor
1849-1850
Whig
VP – Millard Fillmore
13. Millard Fillmore
1850-1853
Whig
Secretary of State – Daniel Webster
People:
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Major Items:
Personal Liberty Laws
Compromise of 1850
Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852)
Underground Railroad
14. Franklin Pierce
Democrat
VP-King
Major Items:
1853-1857
Admiral Perry “Opens” Japan (1853)
Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)
Bleeding Kansas
Ostend Manifesto (1854)
American and Republican candidates in election (1856)
15. James Buchanan
1857-1861
Democrat
VP – John C. Breckenridge
People:
Harriet Tubman
Major Items:
Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)
Panic of 1857
Lecompton Constitution (1857)
Lincoln-Douglas Debates (1858)
John Brown’s Raid (1859)
16. Abraham Lincoln
1861-1865
Republican
VP – Andrew Johnson
Secretary of State – W.H. Seward
Secretary of Treasury – Salmon P. Chase
People:
William Tecumseh Sherman
Major Items:
Civil War (1861-1865)
Morrill Tariff Act (1861)
Homestead, Morill Land Grant,, Pacific Railway Acts (1862)
Emancipation Proclamation (1863)
Lincoln’s Assassination (1865)
17. Andrew Johnson
1865-1869
National Union Party
Secretary of State – William Seward
People:
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Major Items:
13th Amendment (1865)
Reconstruction Act (1867)
Tenure of Office Act (1867)
Adoption of Black Codes, Formation of KKK (1866)
14th Amendment (1868)
18. Ulysses S. Grant
Republican
People:
Major Items:
19. Rutherford B. Hayes
Republican
People:
Major Items:
1869-1877
Leland Stanford
Chief Joseph
William M. “Boss” Tweed
Thomas Nast
Transcontinental Railroad completed (1869)
Knights of Labor (1869)
15th Amendment (1870)
Enforcement Acts: Ku Klux Klan Act (1871)
Tweed Ring prosecuted (1871)
Credit Mobilier affair (1872)
Panic of 1873
Whiskey Ring (1875)
1877-1881
Helen Hunt Jackson
Thomas Edison
Compromise of 1877
The Great Uprising (1877)
Nez Perce surrender (1877)
Bland-Allison Act (1878)
20. James A. Garfield
1881
Republican
VP – Chester A. Arthur
Secretary of State – James A. Blaine
Major Items:
Garfield’s Assassination
Pendleton Civil Service Act (1883)
21. Chester A. Arthur
1881-1885
Republican
Secretary of State – James A. Blaine
People:
John D. Rockefeller
Booker T. Washington
Major Items:
Pendleton Act (1883)
22. Grover Cleveland
Democrat
People:
Major Items:
1885-1889
Andrew Carnegie
Haymarket Event (1886)
AFL founded (1886)
Wabash v. Illinois (1886)
Interstate Commerce Act (1887)
Dawes Severalty Act (1887)
23. Benjamin Harrison
1889-1893
Republican
Secretary of State – James A. Blaine
People:
Ida B. Wells
Jane Addams
James Naismith
Mary Elizabeth Lease
Major Items:
Sherman Anti-Trust, McKinley Tariff, Sherman Silver Purchase
Act, and the Pension Acts (1890)
Populist Party founded (1892)
Homestead Strike (1892)
24. Grover Cleveland
1893-1897
Second Administration
Democrat
People:
Eugene V. Debs
Major Items:
Panic of 1893
Repeal of Sherman Silver Purchase Act (1893)
Coxey’s Army (1894)
Pullman Strike (1894)
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
25. William McKinley
1897-1901
Republican
VP – Garet Hobart 1893-1900
VP – Theodore Roosevelt 1901
Secretary of State – John Hay
Major Items:
Dingley Tariff (1897)
Hawaii annexed (1898)
Spanish-American War (1898-1899)
Open Door Policy (1899)
Boxer Rebellion (1900)
McKinley’s Assassination (1901)
26. Theodore Roosevelt
1901-1909
Republican
Secretary of State – John Hay, Elihu Root
People:
Thorsten Veblen
Upton Sinclair
John Muir
Major Items:
Northern Securities Prosecution (1902)
Anthracite Coal Strike
Panama Canal (1903-1914)
“Square Deal” (1904)
Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine (1904)
Portsmouth Treaty (1905)
Forest service Act (1905)
Hepburn, Pure Food and Drug, and Meat Inspection Acts (1906)
Gentleman’s Agreement with Japan (1907)
27. William H. Taft
Republican
People:
Major Items:
1909-1913
28. Woodrow Wilson
Democrat
People:
Major Items:
1913-1921
Margaret Sanger
“Dollar Diplomacy”
Paine-Aldrich Tariff (1909)
NAACP founded (1909)
Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire (1911)
Hetch-Hetchy reservoir approved (1913)
John Dewey
“New Freedom”
“Moral Diplomacy”
Simmons- Underwood Tariff and Federal Reserve Acts (1913)
16th and 17thamendments (1913)
Federal Trade Commission and Clayton Anti-Trust Act (1914)
WWI (1917-1918)
Espionage (1917) and Sedition Acts (1918), Palmer Raids (1919)
Treaty of Versailles rejected (1920)
18th (1919) and 19th (1920) amendments
29. Warren G. Harding
1921-1923
Republican
VP – Calvin Coolidge
Secretary of the Treasury- Andrew Mellon
People:
Sinclair Lewis
Major Items:
Mellon Plan tax cuts
Immigration Act establishes quotas (1921)
Five-Power Treaty (1922)
Teapot Dome Scandal (1923)
30. Calvin Coolidge
Republican
People:
Major Items:
1923-1929
Langston Hughes
Dawes Plan (1924)
Johnson-Reed Immigration Act tightens quotas (1924)
Scopes Monkey Trial (1925)
Kellogg–Briand Pact (1928)
31. Herbert Hoover
Republican
Major Items:
1929-1933
Stock Market Crash (1929)
Hawley-Smoot Tariff (1930)
Reconstruction Finance Corporation (1932)
Bonus Army (1932)
32. Franklin D. Roosevelt
1933-1945
Democrat
VP – Garner, Wallace, Truman
Secretary of Labor- Frances Perkins
People:
Huey Long
Father Coughlin
A. Philip Randolph
Fred Korematsu
“Rosie the Riveter”
Major Items:
First New Deal (1933)
Second New Deal (1935)
Neutrality Acts (1935-37)
Flint Sit-Down Strike (1936)
Court Packing (1937)
Congress of Industrial Organizations formed (1938)
Selective Service and Training Act (1940)
Lend-Lease Act, Atlantic Charter (1941)
Executive Order 9066 (Internment) (1942)
Operation Torch (1942) and Operation Overlord (1944)
Island-Hopping (1943)
G.I. Bill (1944)
Yalta conference (1945)
33. Harry S. Truman
Democrat
Major Items:
1945-1953
V-E Day and V-J Day (1945)
Taft-Hartley Act (1947)
Truman Doctrine (1947)
Marshall Plan (1947)
National Security Act (1947)
HUAC subpoenas “Hollywood 10” (1947)
“Fair Deal”
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (N.A.T.O) (1949)
Korean War (1950-1953)
34. Dwight D. Eisenhower
1953-1961
Republican
VP – Nixon
Secretary of State- John Foster Dulles
People:
Ethel & Julius Rosenberg
Jack Kerouac
Major Items:
Army-McCarthy Hearings (1954)
Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (S.E.A.T.O) formed (1954)
Montgomery Bus Boycott (1954)
Eisenhower Doctrine
Sputnik launched (1957)
U-2 incident (1960)
“Military-Industrial Complex” speech (1961)
35. John F. Kennedy
1961-1963
Democrat
VP – Lyndon B. Johnson
People:
Betty Friedan
Rachel Carson
Major Items:
“New Frontier”
Alliance For Progress and Peace Corps formed (1961)
Bay of Pigs invasion (1961)
Cuban Missile Crisis (1962)
March on Washington (1963)
Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty (1963)
Kennedy assassinated (1963)
36. Lyndon B. Johnson
1963-1968
Democrat
VP – Hubert Humphrey
People:
Malcolm X
Major Items:
Gulf of Tonkin (1964)
Great Society/War on Poverty (1964)
Civil Rights Act (1964)
Voting Rights Act (1965)
Immigration Act of 1965
1968
37. Richard M. Nixon
1968-1974
Republican
VP – Spiro Agnew, Gerald Ford
People:
Cesar Chavez
Major Items:
Environmental Protection Agency established (1970)
Invasion of Cambodia (1970)
New York Times Co. v. United States (1971)
Détente policy launched (1972)
Wounded Knee, S.D. (1973)
Paris Peace agreement ends war in Vietnam (1973)
CIA backed coup in Chile (1973)
Roe v. Wade (1973)
Watergate scandal, resignation (1972-74)
Arab oil embargo (1973)
38. Gerald Ford
Republican
Major Items:
1974-1976
39. Jimmy Carter
Democrat
People:
Major Items:
1977-1981
Nixon pardoned (1974)
Stagflation
Whip Inflation Now (WIN) (1974)
Phyllis Schlafly
Human Rights diplomacy
Panama Canal treaty (1977)
3 Mile Island Incident (1979)
Camp David Accords (1979)
Iran Hostage Crisis (1979)
Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan (1979)
SALT II Treaty rejected (1979)
Olympic Boycott (1980)
40. Ronald Reagan
Republican
VP – George Bush
Major Items:
1981-1989
41. George Bush
Republican
Major Items:
1989-1993
42. William Jefferson Clinton
Democrat
VP – Al Gore
People:
Major Items:
1993-2001
43. George Walker Bush
Republican
VP- Dick Cheney
Major Items:
2001-2009
44. Barack Hussein Obama
Democrat
VP- Joe Biden
Major Items:
2009-2017
Hostages freed by Iran (1981)
Reaganomics
First woman (O’Connor) appointed to Supreme Court (1981)
Strategic Defense Initiative (1983)
Marines sent to Beirut (1983)
Grenada invasion (1983)
Iran-Contra Hearings (1987)
Savings and Loan Scandal (1990)
Invasion of Panama (1990)
Dissolution of Soviet Union (1991)
Operation Desert Shield/Storm (1992)
Bill Gates
NAFTA (1993)
Somalia intervention (1993)
Oslo accords between Israel and the PLO (1993)
World Trade Organization created (1994)
Contract with America (1994)
Welfare Reform Act of 1996
Monicagate Impeachment (1998)
Budget surplus (2000)
Tax cuts (2001)
9/11 Terrorist Attacks (2001)
War on Terrorism/Patriot Act (2001 )
Invasion of Iraq (2003)
Federal Deficit
Roberts and Alito appointed to Supreme Court
2008 recession/Bank bail-outs
Economic Recovery Act (2009)
Tea Party movement emerges
Affordable Health Care Act/Obamacare (2010)
Occupy Wall Street protests
Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010)
Osama Bin Laden killed (2011)
United States v. Windsor declares DOMA unconstitutional (2013)