Post-Cold War U.S. Before

Question 1

By marrying hypertext to the Internet, Tim Berners-Lee gave birth to the ____ ____ _____ in 1989.

Answer 1

World Wide Web (the www preceding an internet address)

The first web page was created in 1991. By 1995 the entire World Wide Web barely exceeded 3.5 gigabytes in space, making the task of the earliest search engines, such as Webcrawler, straightforward.

Question 2

During his presidency, how many emails did Bill Clinton send?

Answer 2

One

Many Americans did not send their first email until well into the 2000s. One internet provider, Prodigy, even charged per email.

Question 3

Concerned about skyrocketing debt, _____ _____ran as an independent candidate for President in 1992.

Answer 3

Ross Perot

Perot did fairly well, but the votes he took from George H.W. Bush threw the election to Bill Clinton.

Question 4

What issue of concern to voters did Bill Clinton emphasize in his 1992 Presidential Run?

Answer 4

Bill Clinton played up the economy. During the campaign, he kept a card with him that read “It’s the economy, stupid.”

His appeal to voters’ pocketbooks worked. While Clinton failed to capture a majority of the popular vote, he did manage to win a majority of the electoral college and secure the election.

Question 5

What did critics term Bill Clinton’s attempts to institute health care reform?

Answer 5

Critics termed it Hillarycare, after Clinton’s wife, to whom he’d designated responsibility for crafting the program.

The program was designed to provide universal health care, but it proved unable to pass the House. The attempt provoked outcry from many Americans, who feared the government takeover of healthcare.

Question 6

Although Clinton had asked Congress to allow homosexuals to serve in the military, Congress passed legislation known as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” in 1993. What did this legislation provide?

Answer 6

Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell allowed gays to serve in the military, but they could not openly reveal their sexuality.

Question 7

What 1994 document outlined the actions Republicans promised to take if they became a majority party in the House of Representatives?

Answer 7

In 1994, Republicans published The Contract with America, which outlined plans for cutting taxes, ending government waste, and shrinking government’s size.

The Contract with America was in direct opposition to President Clinton’s plans to increase the size of government. Voters approved of the Contract, and Republicans took control of the House for the first time in 40 years.

Question 8

What was NAFTA, passed in 1993?

Answer 8

NAFTA was the North American Free Trade Agreement that lowered trade barriers between Canada, the United States and Mexico. The NAFTA agreement had been negotiated by the George H.W. Bush and was supported by Clinton.

Question 9

Although Clinton had proved unable to pass universal health care coverage, he did provide health care coverage for what vulnerable group?

Answer 9

Children

The State Children’s Health Insurance Program would cover some 6.6 million children by 2006.

Question 10

After President Clinton vetoed the 1995-1996 budget passed by the House, how did Speaker Newt Gingrich respond?

Answer 10

Gingrich and House Republicans engineered a standoff, forcing the government to shut down, twice. Eventually, Gingrich gave in, and Congress passed continuing budget resolution.

During the shutdown Gingrich appeared less reasonable than the President; and Clinton’s performance during the crisis ensured his re-election.

Question 11

What was Operation Uphold Democracy?

Answer 11

In 1994, a military coup overthrew Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 940, and U.S. troops were dispatched to Haiti to restore the democratically elected Aristide to power.

Question 12

The Dayton Accords, signed in 1995, resolved what conflict?

Answer 12

The Dayton Accords put an end to the three-and-a-half year long war in Bosnia, which arose out of the Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia. President Clinton was instrumental in organizing the Accords and serving as mediator. NATO had previously conducted bombing raids to halt the conflict.

In 1999, war again broke out in the region, and NATO conducted a second set of raids.

Question 13

Who was the first female Secretary of State?

Answer 13

Madeline Albright was the first female Secretary of State, who was sworn in in 1997. Throughout his Administration, Clinton appointed women and minorities to Cabinet positions, embassy posts, and to the Federal Courts as part of his promise to make his Administration “look like America.”

Question 14

The Good Friday Agreement, reached in 1998, was an attempt to resolve what conflict?

Answer 14

President Clinton had dispatched George Mitchell, a former Senate Majority leader, to Ireland to broker a resolution to the fate of Northern Ireland, contested by Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland. An agreement was reached on Good Friday, 1998.

Although years of stalemate followed the Good Friday Agreement, the agreement marked the start of a peaceful resolution of the Northern Ireland question.

Question 15

In 1998, the House of Representatives voted to impeach President Clinton for issues arising out of his relations with Monica Lewinsky. How did the Senate vote?

Answer 15

The Senate declined to remove Clinton from office, with the vote being almost entirely along partisan lines.

Question 16

In 2000, the Supreme Court was called upon to decide the Presidential election based on irregularities in Florida balloting. What decision did the Court reach in Bush v. Gore.

Answer 16

In Florida, each county adopted its own standard to determine whether a vote should count. The Court held that the differing standards were a violation of due process, and awarded the election to George W. Bush.

Question 17

On September 11, 2001, the terrorist organization Al Qaeda hijacked four airplanes. What were their targets?

Answer 17

Two planes were detailed to fly directly into the World Trade Centers, in downtown Manhattan. Both attacks were successful, and the Twin Towers fell that morning.

Two other planes were directed at the Pentagon and the White House. While the Pentagon attack was a success, passengers on Flight 93 fought back and the plane crashed in Pennsylvania.

Question 18

In response to the 9/11 attacks, President Bush created which cabinet-level Department?

Answer 18

To enhance the nation’s ability to fight terrorism, Bush created the Department of Homeland Security. The Department combined a number of agencies that had previously been administered by other Departments, such as the Immigration and Naturalization Service, Customs, Border Control, and the Coast Guard.

Question 19

In October 2001, President Bush dispatched U.S. forces to invade which country?

Answer 19

Bush authorized the invasion of Afghanistan, which had provided the training ground for the 9/11 terrorists. Many of the NATO nations contributed troops and material support to the campaign.

Question 20

What was the Bush Doctrine?

Answer 20

Under the Bush Doctrine, the United States announced that it would use pre-emptive strikes against any nation known to be aiding or abetting a terrorist group hostile to the United States. The doctrine was announced in 2002 during the State of the Union Address.

Question 21

What three countries did the Bush Administration call “The Axis of Evil.”

Answer 21

During his 2002 State of the Union Address, Bush called Iraq, Iran, and North Korea “The Axis of Evil,” asserting that they posed the biggest threat to world peace.

Question 22

What are WMDs?

Answer 22

WMD stands for Weapons of Mass Destruction. Saddam Hussein, the President of Iraq, had publicly stated that he possesed WMDs, which the United States used to justify an attack on the country without the U.N.’s backing.

Question 23

During President George W. Bush’s second term, Congress passed a tort reform measure, aimed at curbing abuses in what area of law?

Answer 23

The Class Action Fairness Act of 2005 (CAFA) was designed to modify class actions, a procedural device which allows one plaintiff to represent a large group of injured parties.

CAFA increased the jurisdiction of the federal courts to hear class action cases.

Question 24

In 2005, _____ _____ struck the Gulf Coast, flooding New Orleans and causing massive destruction.

Answer 24

Hurricane Katrina

Federal, state, and local government all proved ill-equipped to handle the disaster; and aid was slow and inefficient in arriving.

Question 25

In 2001, Congress passed and President George W. Bush signed No Child Left Behind, a landmark education bill. What did the bill provide?

Answer 25

No Child Left Behind requires any public schools receiving federal funding to administer a standardized test annually to all students. The goal of No Child Left Behind was to provide for better schools.

Question 26

After a Democratic Party’s landslide victory in the 2006 Congressional elections, who became the first female Speaker of the House?

Answer 26

Nancy Pelosi became the first female Speaker, after the Democrats gained control of the House in 2006.

In part, the Democratic Party’s victory stemmed from dissatisfaction with the War in Iraq and Bush’s handling of Hurricane Katrina.

Question 27

What triggered the financial collapse of 2008?

Answer 27

Large numbers of defaults on subprime mortgages triggered the 2008 financial collapse. Subprime mortgages were issued to borrowers with less than “prime” credit, many of whom defaulted. The large number of these loans were guaranteed by Fannie-Mae and Freddie-Mac, two Government Sponsored Entities (GSEs).

Although the Bush Administration called 17 times to reform the GSEs, these calls were ignored, and the Administration did little to follow up.