the United States of America

United States, 1920 to today. Draft, not yet reviewed

The United States entered World War I alongside the Allies in 1917, helping to turn the tide against the Central Powers. The Wall Street Crash of 1929 had triggered the Great Depression, to which President Franklin D. Roosevelt responded with the New Deal plan of "reform, recovery and relief". The Fall of Communism and the dissolution of the Soviet Union from 1989 to 1991 marked the end of the Cold War and left the United States as the world's sole superpower.

Seat of power: Washington, D.C.

Rulers

Woodrow Wilson

President of the United States, 1913–1921

In April 1917, Wilson asked Congress for a declaration of war against Germany in response to its policy of unrestricted submarine warfare that sank American merchant ships. Wilson concentrated on diplomacy, issuing the Fourteen Points that the Allies and Germany accepted as a basis for post-war peace.

Portrait of Woodrow Wilson: Harris & Ewing, photographer, Public domain, file

Calvin Coolidge

President of the United States, 1923–1929

During his presidency, Coolidge restored public confidence in the White House after the Harding administration's many scandals. He signed into law the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924, which granted U.S. citizenship to all Native Americans.

Portrait of Calvin Coolidge: Harris & Ewing, Public domain, file

Herbert Hoover

President of the United States, 1929–1933

Hoover's term as president was dominated by the Great Depression. His ineffectual response to the growing economic calamity made him widely unpopular, and he lost reelection to Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1932 United States presidential election.

Portrait of Herbert Hoover: Underwood & Underwood, Public domain, file

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

President of the United States, 1933–1945

During his first 100 days as president, Roosevelt initiated the program to implement the New Deal. Major surviving programs and legislation implemented under Roosevelt include the Securities and Exchange Commission, the National Labor Relations Act, and Social Security. Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Roosevelt obtained a declaration of war on Japan, and subsequently on Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy.

Portrait of Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Leon Perskie, CC BY 2.0, file

Harry S. Truman

President of the United States, 1945–1953

He set up the Marshall Plan to rebuild the badly damaged economy of Western Europe. He established the Truman Doctrine and supported the founding of NATO to contain the expansion of Soviet communism. Truman authorized the first and only use of nuclear weapons in war against the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Portrait of Harry S. Truman: National Archives and Records Administration. Office of Presidential Libraries. Harry S. Truman Library., Public domain, file

Dwight D. Eisenhower

President of the United States, 1953–1961

Eisenhower's main goals in office were to contain the spread of communism and reduce federal deficits. During the Suez Crisis of 1956, he condemned the Israeli, British, and French invasion of Egypt, and he forced them to withdraw.

Portrait of Dwight D. Eisenhower: White House, Public domain, file

Lyndon B. Johnson

President of the United States, 1963–1969

Johnson's domestic policy agenda known as the Great Society was aimed at expanding civil rights, public broadcasting, access to health care, aid to education and the arts, urban and rural development, consumer protection, environmentalism, and public services. As part of these efforts, Johnson signed the Social Security Amendments of 1965, which resulted in the creation of Medicare and Medicaid. Johnson's civil rights legacy was shaped by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Civil Rights Act of 1968.

Portrait of Lyndon B. Johnson: Arnold Newman, Public domain, file

Richard Nixon

President of the United States, 1969–1974

Nixon ended American combat involvement in Vietnam in 1973, and the military draft the same year. His visit to China in 1972 led to diplomatic relations between the two nations, and he finalized the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with the Soviet Union. Nixon's second term ended early when he became the only U.S. president to resign from office, as a result of the Watergate scandal.

Portrait of Richard Nixon: Department of Defense. Department of the Army. Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations. U.S. Army Audiovis..., Public domain, file

Jimmy Carter

President of the United States, 1977–1981

As president, Carter pardoned all Vietnam draft evaders and negotiated major foreign policy agreements, including the Camp David Accords, the Panama Canal Treaties, and the second round of Strategic Arms Limitation Talks, and he established diplomatic relations with China. He signed bills that created the Departments of Energy and Education. Carter sought reelection in 1980, defeating a primary challenge by Senator Ted Kennedy, but lost the election to Republican nominee Ronald Reagan in a landslide.

Portrait of Jimmy Carter: Department of Defense. Department of the Navy. Naval Photographic Center, Public domain, file

Ronald Reagan

President of the United States, 1981–1989

In his first term as president, Reagan began implementing "Reaganomics", a policy involving economic deregulation and cuts to both taxes and government spending during a period of stagflation. On the world stage, he escalated the arms race, increased military spending, shifted Cold War policy away from détente, and ordered the 1983 invasion of Grenada.

Portrait of Ronald Reagan: Michael Evans, Public domain, file

George H. W. Bush

President of the United States, 1989–1993

Foreign policy drove Bush's presidency as he navigated the final years of the Cold War and played a key role in the reunification of Germany. He presided over the U.S. invasion of Panama and the Gulf War, ending the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait in the latter conflict. He championed and signed three pieces of bipartisan legislation in 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Immigration Act and the Clean Air Act Amendments.

Portrait of George H. W. Bush: David Valdez, Public domain, file

Bill Clinton

President of the United States, 1993–2001

Clinton presided over the longest American period of peacetime economic expansion at the time. He signed into law the North American Free Trade Agreement, the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act and the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act but failed to pass his plan for national health care reform. In foreign policy, Clinton ordered U.S. military intervention in the Bosnian and Kosovo wars, eventually signing the Dayton Peace agreement.

Portrait of Bill Clinton: Bob McNeely, The White House[1], Public domain, file

George W. Bush

President of the United States, 2001–2009

The September 11 attacks during 2001 decisively reshaped his administration, resulting in the start of the war on terror and the creation of the Department of Homeland Security. Bush ordered the invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to overthrow the Taliban, destroy al-Qaeda, and capture Osama bin Laden. He also ordered the 2003 invasion of Iraq to overthrow Saddam Hussein's regime, citing claims that it possessed weapons of mass destruction and had ties with al-Qaeda.

Portrait of George W. Bush: Eric Draper, Public domain, file

Barack Obama

President of the United States, 2009–2017

During his first term, his administration responded to the 2008 financial crisis with measures including the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to address the Great Recession. Obama also oversaw the end of the Iraq War and ordered Operation Neptune Spear, the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, who was the leader of al-Qaeda and was responsible for the September 11 attacks.

Portrait of Barack Obama: Official White House Photo by Pete Souza, Public domain, file

Donald Trump

President of the United States, 2025–2029

Trump began his second presidency by initiating mass layoffs of federal workers. He imposed tariffs on nearly all countries at the highest level since the Great Depression and signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

Portrait of Donald Trump: Daniel Torok, Public domain, file

Culture

In 1920, a constitutional amendment granted nationwide women's suffrage.
During the 1920s and 1930s, radio for mass communication and early television transformed communications nationwide.
The civil rights movement emerged, with Martin Luther King Jr. becoming a prominent leader in the early 1960s.
Armstrong's moonwalk was broadcast live to an estimated 600 million viewers, roughly one-fifth of the world's population, making it among the most-watched television events in history.

Picture

Apollo 11 (July 16–24, 1969) was the American spaceflight that first landed humans on the Moon, and the fifth crewed mission of NASA's Apollo program.

Image: Neil A. Armstrong, Public domain, file

Sources

Text adapted from the Wikipedia articles listed as sources, CC BY-SA 4.0.