Glossary Term – Event
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the Mexican-American War. The US acquired California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, and parts of Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, and Wyoming.
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Showing results 11 – 20 of 54
Glossary Term – Event
Dorothea Lange documented migrants
Dorothea Lange, hired as a photographer for the Resettlement Administration (later called the Farm Security Administration), documented the plight of migrant workers in California. Her images were intended to promote New Deal relief programs and became emblematic of the Great Depression.
Glossary Term – Event
Robert Kennedy assassinated
Just a few hours after the close of the California Democratic primary, presidential hopeful Senator Robert F. Kennedy was shot by Sirhan Sirhan. Kennedy died a day later of his wounds.
Glossary Term – Event
San Francisco Earthquake of 1906
A major earthquake—later estimated to be between 7.7 and 7.9 on the Richter scale—struck San Francisco at 5:12 a.m. The devastation grew as broken gas lines caused widespread fires and much of the city was destroyed. As many as 3,000 people were killed, and more than half of the survivors found themselves homeless.
Glossary Term – Event
Migration to Oregon and California
About 300,000 people, with millions of oxen, cattle, mules and sheep, moved to Oregon and California.
Glossary Term – Event
Migration to California
80,000 people migrated to California—about 55,000 overland and 25,000 by sea. Only about 700 were women.
Glossary Term – Event
Grapes of Wrath
John Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath was published. The book told the story of an Oklahoma sharecropper family forced to migrate to California in search of work. The book instantly became a literary emblem of the Great Depression and soon earned the Pulitzer Prize and was instrumental in his selection for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Glossary Term – Event
Mexicans and Mexican Americans “repatriated”
Tens of thousands of Mexicans and Mexican Americans from California and the Southwest were “repatriated” to Mexico between 1929 and 1939. Hundreds of thousands of Mexican descent were forced to leave the US without due process.
Glossary Term – Event
Dust Bowl and westward migration
Dust Bowl conditions forced thousands of farmers from the plains to migrate west in search of work. Many settled in California.
Glossary Term – Event
House Un-American Activities Hollywood investigation
The House Un-American Activities Committee began an investigation of Communism in the American film industry, demanding to know, “Are you or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?” A group of screenwriters, directors, and producers known as the “Hollywood Ten” refused to answer the committee’s questions concerning their political beliefs. They were sentenced to prison terms of up to a year for contempt and many were blacklisted from the film industry for decades.