HOW THE UNITED STATES BECAME THE MOST POWERFULCOUNTRY IN THE WORLD?

The dawning of a new century! Getting to the 20th century for the United States of America took two wars with Great Britain, a civil war that killed over a million Americans, two Presidential assassinations, and a whole lot of chaos. Surely history will calm down now, right? 1900s: As 1901 dawned, the McKinley administration was beginning its second term. The pro-business, imperialist Republican President had picked Progressive New York Governor Theodore Roosevelt as his Vice President - mostly to get him out of the way for the party bosses in NY. After all, the Vice President doesn’t actually have any power, so all McKinley had to do to keep him neutralized was stay alive - and that shouldn’t be a problem, right?

Leon Czolgosz has entered the chat. The radical anarchist ambushed McKinley at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo and shot him. McKinley survived the initial assassination, but just like President Garfield, that didn’t mean he was out of the woods. His condition seemed to be improving - but eight days after the shooting, he succumbed to an infection. This was the third Presidential assassination in fifty years, and more security for the President became a hot topic. Czolgosz was sentenced to death by electric chair, and Theodore Roosevelt was headed for the White House. And he would come to define the decade. Roosevelt was pro-business, but also pro-regulation, and he wanted to make sure the megacorps that were starting to form didn’t grow out of control. He passed business reforms that were popular with his progressive base, but it didn’t stop growth - this was the era when famous corporations like US Steel, the Ford Motor Company, and Harley Davidson were formed. The first World Series was played, and Roosevelt’s international policy continued with McKinley’s legacy of expansion. The US acquired the Panama Canal zone, Oklahoma became a state, and Roosevelt was seen as a widely successful president.

The former outcast was overwhelmingly re-elected. But there would be some rough waters ahead. Racial equality and women’s suffrage were both major topics, with new groups forming to advocate for their rights. America suffered two huge disasters in a two-year period with a massive earthquake in San Francisco and a devastating coal mine explosion in West Virginia. The FBI and Department of Commerce and Labor were both founded under Roosevelt, diplomatic relations with Japan were opened, and Roosevelt’s second term was a big success - enough for his Secretary of War William Howard Taft to easily win the 1908 election. Taft was a laid-back man who mostly continued with Roosevelt’s policies, and leveraged America’s wealth overseas as opposed to its military force. The NAACP was formed under his tenure - but he would soon hit some major stumbling blocks. Because his mentor wasn’t done just yet.

1910s: Taft’s Presidency was dominated by economic and labor affairs. More reforms were passed, and the Supreme Court broke up the massive Standard Oil corporation in 1911. That same year, the horrible Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York killed 146 garment workers - bringing new attention to the plight of the working class. New Mexico and Arizona were admitted as states, the Girl Scouts were founded, and the sinking of the Titanic - taking over two thousand passengers with it - shocked the world.

But the next election was going to be the craziest yet. Taft was largely seen as respectable but ineffectual, and had lost much of his support from the party. Roosevelt founded his own Bull Moose Party, while the Democrats nominated the little-known New Jersey Governor Woodrow Wilson - who had been a College President only two years before. Roosevelt even survived an assassination attempt on the campaign trail, but the split vote made it easy for Wilson to win the election - and the Democrats returned to the Presidency for only the third time since the Civil War. And he would be a big change in direction. Under Wilson, the income tax and direct election of US senators was established. The Federal Trade Commission was formed, the first assembly line was created by Henry Ford, and movies became much more popular - with the introduction of the racist southern revisionist film “The Birth of a Nation”. But Wilson’s term would be dominated by foreign affairs - as World War I broke out in Europe, soon pulling the entire continent in. Wilson was more isolationist than his predecessors, and vowed to avoid a major war - even when 128 Americans were killed in the German sinking of the British ship RMS Lusitania.

Wilson stayed fast, even campaigning for re-election with the slogan “He kept us out of war”. He won a narrow victory over Charles Hughes in the same election where the first woman, Jeanette Rankin, was elected to Congress. But his campaign promise wasn’t to be. Not long after his election victory, the Zimmerman Telegram was intercepted. This was a message where the German empire promised to help Mexico reclaim lost territory if they assisted them against the Americans. That was enough, and the US entered World War I in 1917. It would be the most brutal war in the country’s history yet, with a massive draft sending over two million men abroad to fight. Over 100,000 ultimately died, and things were rough on the home front as well. The Espionage and Sedition Acts sent many anti-war activists to prison, and Wilson cracked down on the communist movement in what would become the first Red Scare. If you’re thinking all this calls for a stiff drink - think again! Prohibition was sweeping the nation, with alcohol banned in 29 states.

1918 would see the end of the war - but not the end of chaos. Republicans won back Congress right before the war ended, as change was in the air. Countless people celebrated the end of the war - right before the Spanish Flu Pandemic hit the US and killed over half a million Americans.

Shortly after signing the Treaty of Versailles and while planning the founding of the League of Nations, Wilson was felled by a major stroke that incapacitated him - but he didn’t leave office. Rather, his wife Edith essentially “ran his affairs” for the rest of his Presidency, leading many people to consider her the unofficial first female President. But it didn’t go too well - Congress rejected both the Treaty of Versailles and the League of Nations - although they did pass an amendment banning alcohol nationwide as the age of Prohibition began. Baseball fans had reason to drink, as the World Series was marred by cheating in the Black Sox scandal. The 19th Amendment, giving women the right to vote, was finally passed, and the economy went through another collapse just in time for an election - which led to the election of Republican Warren G. Harding. The 1920s would start off slow - but go out with an economic bang.

1920s: Warren G. Harding was a little-known Ohio Senator when he won the Presidency, and he didn’t seem to want to be a transformative President. He quietly signed separate treaties with the aggressors in World War I and appointed many of his allies and friends to powerful positions. He was seen as an extremely pro-business President - maybe too pro-business. He seemed uninterested in race issues, as a horrible race riot targeting an affluent black community in Tulsa, Oklahoma, didn’t gather much of a response. He was too busy engaging in blatant acts of patronage - plotting to sell off US assets to private oil companies. But he wouldn’t be held accountable for it.

Harding suddenly died in 1923 of a heart attack - just as the scandal was being exposed. Several of his cabinet officials went to prison in the aftermath, and his administration - already seen as hostile to labor interests - was seriously tarnished. He was replaced by his Vice President Calvin Coolidge, a mild-mannered Massachusetts Governor nicknamed “Silent Cal”. He earned praise for his support of racial equality, including granting citizenship to Native Americans, but he strictly regulated immigration. Under him, J. Edgar Hoover became director of the Bureau of Investigation - kicking off a decades-long career.

Coolidge was easily elected to a full term, and his second term was largely calm. Charles Lindbergh successfully flew across the Atlantic, the first “Talkie” motion picture was released, and the first Disney cartoon came out. But was there a ticking time bomb in the works? Coolidge’s tenure was calm and he was well-liked, but his hands-off approach to economic affairs meant that banks were making risky investments. When it came time for the next election, Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover won an easy victory over the first Catholic nominee, Al Smith. Hoover’s Vice President, Charles Curtis, was a Native American conservative and the first person of color ever elected to a federal executive role. But less than a year into his Presidency, a massive stock market collapse hit. Countless people lost everything, banks collapsed and took people’s life savings with them, and Hoover was seen as caught flat-footed by the whole thing. Democrats took back Congress by massive margins in 1930, and the first half of Hoover’s Presidency ended with him reeling. America was about to enter its most consequential decade in a long time.

1930s: Herbert Hoover tried to dig the US out of the Great Depression, but many of his attempts to help the economy - like vetoing a bonus for World War I soldiers - were deeply unpopular. Many Americans were desperate for help, struggling to find food for their family. This led to mass migration to cheaper areas of the country, as well as a boost in the popularity of socialism.

Hoover seemed like a dead man walking electorally, and for the second time in the 20th century, America looked to a Roosevelt. The young progressive Governor of New York, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, had survived a bout with Polio and successfully hid his disability on the campaign trail and was on his way to winning a massive electoral victory. But he almost didn’t make it to the White House. Not long after his victory, a far-left gunman who thought Roosevelt was a moderate fired at him and killed the Mayor of Chicago. That gave Roosevelt even more popular support when he took office, and he had big plans. With over 25 percent of Americans unemployed, he used his first “hundred days” to establish the New Deal - a massive social safety net that helped America recover from the Great Depression. Dozens of new government programs were established, the banks were reformed, and Social Security was introduced. He named the first female Cabinet official, Frances Perkins, and prohibition was repealed - saving the government a ton of money on enforcement and serving as a relief to many, no doubt.

When the Supreme Court challenged many of his policies, Roosevelt threatened to appoint extra judges to overrule them. This failed, as even his allies balked at this power grab - but several judges agreed to resign and give him a bigger say over the court.

It was a busy time - and Roosevelt was seen as a massive success. But trouble was brewing. The first few years of Roosevelt’s tenure were dominated by the battle to fix the economy, but abroad things were changing fast. The Japanese empire was waging a brutal war of conquest in Asia, and in Europe the racist populist Adolf Hitler had taken control in Germany. In addition to persecuting Jews, he was quickly trying to take back territory lost in the First World War. But America wanted to stay out of these conflicts - and Germany even hosted the Olympics during this era, with Black American athlete Jesse Owens humiliating Hitler by winning on his turf.

Roosevelt would be overwhelmingly re-elected to a second term, with Congress passing several acts designed to keep the US out of war despite German and Japanese provocations. The Hoover Dam and the Golden Gate Bridge would both be completed during this time period, Superman would make his comic book debut, and the Hatch Act was introduced to tackle political corruption. But everyone knew what was coming. In 1939, Nazi Germany invaded Poland and World War II was officially on. Most of America’s close allies in Europe were either conquered by the Nazis or battling them. So Roosevelt made the controversial decision to run for a third term. He instituted the first peacetime draft, which his opponent Wendell Wilkie supported, and cruised to another overwhelming victory. The 1940s would once again be defined by war.

1940s: As 1941 began, Roosevelt began supplying his allies with materials to help them fight the war while staying out of it directly. In Europe, Hitler seemed to be going mad by invading Russia, his former ally - and then Japan one-upped him in madness by attacking the US military base at Pearl Harbor. To no surprise, this got the US into the war immediately, and they then joined the European theater when Germany declared war. Soon, the US turned its entire industrial production towards the war, and domestically there were big changes as well. The draft ramped up and a total of sixteen million American men went off to war. The Japanese-American population was persecuted and sent to internment camps, and basic products like sugar and gasoline were rationed. But the US entry into the war would have a BIG impact. The struggling British war effort was boosted by American support, and the Japanese faced serious opposition in the Pacific. As the war ticked on, the Germans were placed on the back foot. They lost territory after territory, and the Allied invasion of France in 1944 turned the tide. Roosevelt, still riding high, ran for an unprecedented fourth term over token opposition and won.

After Hitler’s death in a Berlin bunker and Germany’s surrender, the US turned their full attention to a war in the Pacific. Now it was time to win the peace. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin met to carve up the post-war world at Yalta - but Roosevelt would not live to see the end of the war. He died of a stroke less than a year into his fourth term, and was succeeded by his VP Harry Truman. Truman would turn his full attention to the war in the Pacific, and the war would come to an end with two massive bombs detonating over Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The nuclear age had begun, and the United Nations would form in the aftermath. Now it was time to deal with the consequences of the conflict on the home front, as the war had led to stiff inflation and now millions of young men - many of them injured or traumatized - were returning. Truman did a good job with overseeing the recovery of Europe, and he desegregated the armed forces, but America seemed ready for a change. Was Governor Thomas Dewey truly the favorite in 1948? It turned out…no! The election was seen as such a sure thing that papers printed “Dewey Defeats Truman” headlines - which made one heck of a photo op for the victorious President Truman.

But as the 1940s ended, good news like Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier in baseball were overshadowed by the growing presence of communism. The Soviets tested their first atomic bomb, becoming the second nuclear nation, China fell to the communists, and the Cold War was on. What lay ahead in the 1950s?

1950s: The final days of the Truman Presidency would be dominated by fear over communism. Senator Joseph McCarthy began a crusade to root out communists in America - targeting many prominent Hollywood figures. When a civil war broke out in Korea between communists and western-aligned military figures, the US got involved and helped to lock down a two-state system that exists to this day. Truman barely survived an assassination attempt by two radical Puerto Rican independence activists, and the 22nd Amendment limited the President to two terms - no more Roosevelts! But it was clear the country was ready for a change. In 1952, the charismatic war hero General Dwight D. Eisenhower followed in the footsteps of Ulysses S. Grant. Picking the staunch anti-communist Richard Nixon as his VP, he easily won over Adlai Stevenson and began an era of prosperity for the country. This was the era known as the “Baby boom”, as post-depression and World War II birth rates skyrocketed. Families gathered round the TV as that became the primary form of entertainment, and the fear of communism led to interventions abroad - such as a coup in Iran that would haunt the country for decades.

But there was progress as well. The civil rights movement was picking up steam after the war, and the Brown vs. Board of Education Supreme Court ruling put an end to segregated schools - once the southern states were forced to comply. Other flashpoints, like the murder of young Emmett Till and Rosa Parks’ bus protest, would kick off the movement that would build for the next decade. The Polio vaccine put an end to a terrifying plague, Disneyland opened, and Elvis Presley began his rise to fame. Eisenhower was easily re-elected in 1956 as the good times rolled, and the first civil rights act of the era was passed in 1957. But international affairs were about to put a stop to the fun and games. The Space Race kicked off when the Soviets launched the Sputnik satellite - the first man-made object in orbit. The civil war in Vietnam and the Cuban revolution brought more communist governments to power, and the US officially completed its growth - with the addition of Alaska and Hawaii as states.

Eisenhower was still popular, but Nixon was less so, and in the 1960 election he was up against the charismatic Irish-Catholic Senator John F. Kennedy - who beat the vice president in the closest election in the 20th century.

The 1960s would be very different.

1960s: Kennedy took office alongside his vice president - Texas rival senator Lyndon B. Johnson. Eisenhower had recently broken off diplomatic relations with Fidel Castro’s Cuba, and this would be a flashpoint for his Presidency. A failed invasion and coup in Cuba embarrassed the administration and was followed by a trade embargo, and only a year later the US would come close to nuclear war when the Soviet Union placed nuclear missile facilities in Cuba. But Kennedy would have big wins in the space program - with Alan Shepard becoming the first American in space, and John Glenn following in his footsteps as the first American to orbit the earth. The civil rights leader Martin Luther King would give an inspiring speech known as “I Have a Dream” in a massive rally in Washington that would send the movement into overdrive.

But the 1960s were about to turn bloody. In 1963, John F. Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald with a sniper rifle. Oswald would be killed by a mob-connected nightclub owner the next day, spawning decades of speculation.

Lyndon B. Johnson took office amid national mourning and rose to the challenge - passing major economic reforms known as the Great Society, as well as a massive civil rights act that ended many forms of discrimination including segregation. It wasn’t a surprise when he was easily elected President by a massive margin the next year - although growing US involvement in Vietnam had people worried. He was riding high - but that wouldn’t last. As more US soldiers were deployed to Vietnam, anti-war protests started ramping up on college campuses. Johnson’s commitment to civil rights was impressive, as he signed a major voting rights act and appointed the first black judge to the Supreme Court. But it didn’t stop increased racial tensions, which led to riots around the country. And then came the wave of assassinations that shocked the world. First was civil rights activist Malcolm X, followed by the inspirational Martin Luther King Jr.

As the 1968 election approached, Johnson decided not to seek re-election due to his poor approval ratings, and now the race was in chaos. The Democratic National Convention was besieged by anti-war activists - which played right into the hands of the returning Richard Nixon, who was victorious and promised to take the fight right back to the communists. And his first year in office would be eventful. Nixon recommitted the US to Vietnam, seeking to turn the South Vietnamese army into a sustainable fighting force. The Stonewall riots in New York kicked off the modern gay rights movement, and the entire world watched as Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first men to walk on the moon. And as the decade ended, Sesame Steet premiered on TV! Surely the 1970s would be less chaotic…right? 1970s: The century would start with the Kent State shootings that saw several student protesters die at the hands of the National Guard. 1970 and 1971 also saw a shocking flood of celebrity deaths - with Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Jim Morrison all dying of drug overdoses at age 27.

The voting age was officially lowered to eighteen, and Richard Nixon became the first President to visit Communist China. He was a heavy favorite to win re-election - winning a shocking forty-nine states over staunch liberal George McGovern. No one paid much attention to the break-in at the Watergate office complex…at the time. But Nixon’s second term would be very different from the first. 1973 saw several major events, including the Roe vs. Wade ruling legalizing abortion, and the US ending direct involvement in Vietnam. Then Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned in disgrace over a corruption scandal - just as the government started investigating the break-in at the Democratic Party Headquarters at Watergate. As more evidence of Nixon’s direct involvement came out, Nixon started firing his attorney generals to protect himself. While the US suffered under an Arab oil embargo, a House committee voted to impeach Nixon - and he resigned in disgrace, leading to his appointed Vice President Gerald Ford taking over. Ford chose to pardon Nixon, ending that affair and causing no shortage of anger. And that would spell his own political end.

The Democrats controlled Congress, and they led the way to a full withdrawal from Vietnam - resulting to the fall of Saigon not long after. Ford was nearly assassinated by two women within a seventeen-day period, Microsoft and Apple were both founded a year apart, and Americans celebrated their bicentennial.

But as the election dawned, Ford seemed like a dead man walking. He barely won re-nomination over the charismatic conservative Ronald Reagan, limping into the general election. While the election was closer than expected, he lost re-election to Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter - becoming the only President to never be voted into office by the public. And Carter’s tenure wouldn’t be any smoother. As the 39th President, he would oversee an economic crisis, a massive blackout in New York in 1977, and have some success in international affairs. He successfully negotiated peace between Israel and Egypt, and the Senate voted to turn over the Panama Canal to Panama in 20 years time. But in 1979, the crisis that would define his Presidency began. An Islamic fundamentalist coup in Iran led to a hostage crisis at the US embassy that lasted over a year, coinciding with another energy crisis. Carter was seen as ineffectual, and his decision to boycott the 1980 Olympics in response to a Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia only made him more so. Much like Ford, Carter faced a fierce re-nomination battle from Ted Kennedy, and then was roundly defeated for re-election by Ronald Reagan.

Who’s ready for the 80s?

1980s: Ronald Reagan took office the same day that the hostages were released by Iran - an incident that some still find suspicious to this day. Many people feared the arch-conservative’s new policies - but he almost didn’t get to achieve any of them when he was seriously wounded by deranged assassin John Hinckley only two months after taking office. Reagan survived his wounds thanks to modern surgical techniques, Hinckley went to a mental institution. And Reagan was back at the Oval Office desk soon - signing tax cuts, firing striking air traffic controllers, and appointing Sandra Day O’Connor as the first woman on the Supreme Court. But soon his presidency would be dominated by foreign affairs. Tensions rose again with the Soviet Union under Reagan, and a deadly suicide bombing killed 241 US marines in Lebanon. The US also invaded Grenada amid political chaos in the island nation, and created the Strategic Defense Initiative missile system to fend off nuclear missiles.

Reagan was controversial, but his tough approach to foreign threats won him a lot of support - so it wasn’t surprising when he and his Vice President George Bush were re-elected in a landslide over Carter’s VP Walter Mondale.

But his second term would be rockier than the first. Concerns over Reagan’s age were growing, and it seemed the President was a little out of it. Amid this, the Iran Contra scandal involving illegal arms sales to Iran to benefit a far-right group in Nicaragua broke. The country was shocked when the Challenger space shuttle exploded shortly after taking off, killing everyone on board. But probably the biggest change was in the Soviet Union, where the previous hard-line Soviet leaders were replaced by Mikhail Gorbachev, who tried to liberalize the country and bring an end to the Cold War. Ironically, it would be Cold Warrior Reagan who would preside over the great thaw in relations. The two even signed a treaty reducing their nuclear stockpiles. Reagan was more than ready for retirement - but who was up next? More than two terms for a party is rare, and Bush was seen as an underdog to Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis. But when Dukakis was painted as soft on crime, Bush scored a massive victory and continued Reagan’s legacy.

His early presidency would be dominated by the environmental catastrophe of the Exxon Valdez oil spill, increased law enforcement against drugs, and a continuing thaw in relations with the Soviets. But as the 1990s approached, some big events were on the horizon.

1990s: When Saddam Hussein of Iraq invaded the oil-rich nation of Kuwait, the US was at war again. They joined 34 nations to fend off Saddam’s invasion, but the Iraqi dictator was left in power - something that would be followed up on later. That same year, Communist hardliners attempted to topple Gorbachev from power in Russia - but were fended off by the pro-democracy forces, leading the Soviet Union to collapse entirely. These foreign policy successes were enough to make Bush a heavy favorite for re-election. Or so it seemed.

1992 was a rough year. Race riots in Los Angeles and hurricanes in Hawaii and Florida scared many people. When Bush went back on his promise not to raise taxes, he lost much of his support. Texas billionaire Ross Perot waged an independent campaign for the Presidency - but he largely split the vote in favor of the Democratic nominee, a young Arkansas Governor named Bill Clinton who had gone from obscurity to the White House in just over a year. And Clinton’s presidency would be…interesting.

From the beginning, Clinton faced fierce opposition. He was accused of sexual harassment on the campaign trail, and he and his wife Hillary had their real estate dealings scrutinized. From the start, he was tested by foreign and domestic threats. A terrorist attack struck the parking garage of the World Trade Center in New York, killing six people, and a brutal standoff with a cult in Waco, Texas left eighty-one people dead. Earthquakes and storms killed hundreds, and in 1995 a massive terror bombing at an Oklahoma City federal building killed 168 people. Was America entering a dark new age? It became clear that while Oklahoma City was the work of a homegrown terrorist, many of the others were committed by radical Muslim terrorists from abroad. Amid more bombings - including a smaller attack at the Summer Olympics in Atlanta - Clinton was easily re-elected. He was still popular - but he was about to face his biggest challenge yet when he was accused of having a sexual relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. It sounded like a tabloid scandal - but the Republicans weren’t laughing, and when he lied about the relationship under oath, he was impeached - only the second President ever to be impeached by the full House. He was ultimately acquitted by the Senate, but his administration would be defined by it.

But hey, look at that calendar! The year 2000 was almost upon us, and scientists worked round the clock to prevent the Y2K bug from knocking all computer systems for a loop. An attack on the USS Cole, a Naval Destroyer, was the latest strike by the terror group Al Qaeda led by Osama Bin Laden, a Saudi radical angry about US presence in the Middle East. And it was almost election time - which would pit Clinton’s VP Al Gore against George W. Bush, the son of the man Clinton defeated. America watched and waited for the results…and waited, and waited, as the election came down to several hundred votes in Florida! Both sides sued to have the recount conducted their way, and ultimately the Supreme Court stepped in and ruled in Bush’s favor, essentially making him the President elect. One person who enjoyed that election night more than anyone? Hillary Clinton, who ran for and won a senate seat while still first lady!

A new millennium…a new start?

2000s: The early days of Bush’s Presidency seemed surprisingly calm, with the President focusing on education reform - and then eight months after taking office, the world changed. Four hijacked planes destroyed the World Trade Center in New York and hit the Pentagon in Washington - while the fourth crashed in an empty Pennsylvania field. In total, three thousand Americans were killed in what turned out to be a massive strike by Osama Bin Laden against the heart of America. Only days later, packages containing deadly anthrax started showing up in mailboxes, although this would turn out to be unrelated. In response to the attacks, Bush passed a series of anti-terror acts and launched a major military operation against Afghanistan, where Bin Laden was hiding under the protection of the radical Taliban government.

The 2000s would be defined by the September 11th, 2001 attacks. America continued to be haunted by the terror attacks, and a series of sniper attacks around DC ramped up the tension. The Republicans regained control of the Senate, and in 2003 Bush asked Congress to authorize an invasion of Iraq - to take Saddam Hussein out of power once and for all. He claimed Saddam had weapons of mass destruction - although they were never found - but many assumed Saddam’s attempt to kill his father in the 1990s may have been a factor as well. Saddam was deposed from office and captured less than a year into the war, but the US would be fighting loyalists there for many years.

Bush’s decision to invade Iraq was controversial, but he would narrowly win reelection in 2006 over John Kerry. Maybe Kerry was overshadowed by a charismatic young state senator named Barack Obama who spoke at the convention. But Bush’s second term would not be what he was hoping for. Tension over the Iraq war continued to grow, as anti-war forces condemned it. A massive hurricane in New Orleans devastated the city and Bush’s team was condemned for their slow response. The Democrats took back Congress in 2006, with Nancy Pelosi becoming the first female Speaker of the House. And as 2008 rolled around, a massive recession and stock collapse devastated the economy. It seemed the Democrats had it in the bag. The favored candidate was Hillary Clinton, who had been building her network for years - but she was shockingly upset in the primary by Barack Obama, who emphasized his opposition to the Iraq War. And in the 2008 election, Obama easily won, becoming the first Black President of the United States. But would he be up to the task of fixing the country’s many problems?

For Obama’s first two years, he had a filibuster-proof trifecta and used it to pass massive economic stimuli and health care reform. He passionately advocated for racial justice - but his opponents considered him a radical. Massive “Tea Party” protests around the country formed to oppose him. Republicans took back the House of Representatives in the next election, and Obama’s agenda seemed to be stalled. As the former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney consolidated support to become the next President, Obama seemed to be on the ropes - until one day in 2011, when he announced that US special forces had finally killed Osama Bin Laden! This led to a massive boost in support for the Obama administration, and he and VP Joe Biden were handily re-elected in 2012.

And Obama’s second term would be as eventful as his first. A terror attack on the Boston Marathon shocked the country, and Hurricane Sandy devastated the eastern seaboard. Gay marriage was federally legalized by the Supreme Court, and the shooting death of Michael Brown in Missouri led to nationwide protests against police brutality in what would become the Black Lives Matter movement. Amid it all, Obama remained a steady but controversial figure, coming down strongly in favor of civil rights and change as the 2016 election neared. And that election would surely be business as usual.

Wait, who’s that coming down the staircase? Want to know more about one of the biggest events of this period? Watch “The Sinking of the Titanic Hour By Hour”, or check out “Weirdest World War 2 Weapons You Never Heard Of” instead.