In a previous article, I outlined an introductory lesson plan that engaged students in creating a timeline of major events in US I.  So what to do if you teach World History or US II?

Here’s a suggestion of ten to twelve major dates for those two courses.

US II

• 1898 - Spanish American War, the beginning of official US Imperialism
• 1914 - WW I Begins, the “start” of the 20th century
• 1929 - Stock market crash triggers the Great Depression
• 1939 - Germans invade Poland, WW II starts in Europe
• 1945 - Atomic Age begins, bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
• 1963 - Kennedy is assassinated, war in Vietnam is escalating
• 1974 - Nixon resigns, US is withdrawing from Vietnam
• 1983 - Reagan initiates SDI (Star Wars)
• 1991 - US-Iraq I; USSR dissolves, Cold War ends
• 2001 - 09/11, World Trade Center attacks
• 2003 - US-Iraq II launched

World History

It’s kind of tough to identify 10-12 important events in World History, but here’s an attempt.

• 3500 BC - Sumer emerges as civilization; Develops writing (Cuneiform)
• 430 BC - Peloponesian Wars, Greek civilization at its peak
• 0 AD - Christianity emerges in the Roman Empire
• 476 - Roman Empire in decline or “fallen”
• 632 - Muhammed dies, emergence of Islam in Middle East
• 1350 - Black Death, Plague kills large portion of Europe
• 1517 - Martin Luther’s 95 Theses, Beginning of the Protestant Reformation
• 1648 - Treaty of Westphalia; Emergence of the modern state; End to religious wars
• 1789 - Beginning of French revolution; Development of democracy in Europe
• 1857 - Failed war for independence in India; European colonialism/imperialism growing
• 1914 - World War I
• 1939 - World War II
• 1991 - Dissolution of the USSR

Feel free to adapt this to your own course.  For example, if you teach Western Civ instead of World History, and begin with the Renaissance, you can cut off the first half of the list and load up the second half.  Whatever you do, pick ten to twelve pivotal events that students can easily remember.

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 16th, 2007 at 4:12 pm and is filed under Ramblings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.