U.S. History Flashcards
1797 scandal under John Adams
Three French agents demanded a “loan” (bribe) from U.S. diplomats Pinckney, Gerry, & Marshall to meet Talleyrand
“Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute”
X.Y.Z. AFFAIR
1944 New Hampshire summit
Attended by J. M. Keynes
Created World Bank & IMF
BRETTON WOODS CONFERENCE
Starting in 1961, they rode buses to challenge enforcement of new anti-segregation laws
Supported by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)
FREEDOM RIDERS
1584-1656
English military leader
Mayflower passenger to Plymouth, Mass.
Subject of a Longfellow poem
MYLES STANDISH
2009, NYC
Pilot who landed the emergency “Miracle on the Hudson” with no deaths after Canada geese struck an Airbus, US Airways Flight 1549 from LaGuardia
Portrayed by Tom Hanks in 2016 film
CHESLEY “SULLY” SULLENBERGER
(Film: SULLY)
1892, Fall River, Massachusetts
Tried and acquitted of ax murder of her father & stepmother
Subject of Agnes de Mille’s ballet “Fall River Legend”
LIZZIE BORDEN
____ took an axe
and gave her mother forty whacks.
When she saw what she had done,
she gave her father forty-one.
-Old rhyme
LIZZIE BORDEN
1982
Convicted of attempted murder of wife Sunny
Acquitted
Subject of “Reversal of Fortune”, a 1985 book by Alan Dershowitz & a 1990 film with Jeremy Irons & Glenn Close
CLAUS VON BULOW
Remained in a coma from 1980 to her death in 2008
In 1982 her husband was convicted & acquitted of her murder
Portrayed by Glenn Close in 1990 film “Reversal of Fortune”
SUNNY VON BULOW
Esek Hopkins led the Continental Navy’s 1st victory in these islands
BAHAMAS
American commodore
Burned the captured USS Philadelphia in the Barbary Pirates War
“Our country […] successful, right or wrong,”
STEPHEN DECATUR
“Father of the American Navy”
Commanded the “Bonhomme Richard” against the British “Serapis”
“I have not yet begun to fight.”
Also commanded the “Ranger”
Later an admiral for Russia
Buried at USNA
JOHN PAUL JONES
Vermont “patriot”
Represents Vermont in Statuary Hall
Led the Green Mountain Boys
Namesake Amtrak rail runs NYC to Rutland, VT
Namesake of a furniture company
Brother of Ira
ETHAN ALLEN
Vermont militia, later absorbed into Continental Army
Members Seth Werner, and brothers Ethan & Ira Allen
Captured Fort Ticonderoga in 1775
Took part in Battle of Bennington, 1777
GREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS
South Carolina’s “Swamp Fox” of the Revolutionary War
FRANCIS MARION
Wife of James
First lady 1881 until his assassination
LUCRETIA “CRETE” GARFIELD
Maryland-born former slave & abolitionist
“Moses”
John Brown called her “General”
Union scout & spy
Played by Cynthia Erivo in 2019 film
HARRIET TUBMAN
Wealthy Chicago family
U. of Chicago school of medicine named for them
Founders of a 1979 architecture prize
PRITZKER