Survey of America and Achievement

AMERICA AND ACHIEVEMENT: Education, Literature, Music and Theatre

Bullet points in Bold signifies material that could appear on final exam.

1636 Harvard College founded to train puritan ministers
1693 William & Mary becomes nation’s second college.
1732 Ben Franklin publishes Poor Richard’s Almanack
1744 Moravian community established Collegium Museaum for non-religious chamber music
1776 Phi Beta Kappa founded at W& M as a social club.
1780’s American’s establish their own playing companies
1783 Noah Webster publishes the American Spelling Book
1787 The Young Ladies Academy in Philadelphia opens, seeking to train wives and mothers in the new republic
1789 UNC is chartered at the first state university
1793 GWashington accepts architectural design for Washington DC
1800 Library of Congress established
1814 Star-Spangled Banner written, becoming official national anthem in 1831
1818 Boston establishes public elementary schools
1821 First high school in Boston established
1822 Philadelphia establishes first public school for blacks.
1824 The first public school for girls opens in Massachusetts.
1824 Dartmouth College admits first black students
1826 US Capitol construction complete
1827 Every town with 500 or more families is required to have a high school
1830’s: first wave of American literature: (Poe, Melville, Dickinson, Hawthorne, Thoreau, Whitman, Emerson
1833 Oberlin College first co-educational university.
1842 New York Philharmonic is founded
1845 The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
1852 Uncle Tom’s Cabin sells 300,000 thousand copies within first six months.
1861 The first PhD is awarded at Yale.
1862 Morrill Land Grant Acts set aside public lands for state colleges.
1867 Howard University founded to educate newly emancipated slaves.
1870 563 Colleges and women make up 21% of student population
1873 Chautauqua Movement seeks to provide adult education
1880’s golden age of theatre, growth of broadway.
1881 Boston Symphony founded
1883 Home Insurance Building first skyscraper with metal skeleton.
1884 Mark Twain writes Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
1890 4% of 14-17 year olds are enrolled in high school, 40% of colleges are co-educational
1897 Mississippi Rag first ragtime music
1900 6,000 high schools in US, up from 160 in 1870
1903 Babes in Toyland, first American operetta. Silent film Great Train Robbery is 12 minutes long
1910 1000 colleges, women are 40% of student population
1916, Bureau of Education reports southern states spend $10.32 for white students and $2.89 for black students.
1916 Norman Rockwell paints first of 300 covers for Sat. Evening Post.
1917 Livery stable Blues first Dixieland jazz band recording
1920 Harrison Frazee sells Babe Ruth to Yankees to finance No, No Nanette production.
1920’s 2nd wave of American Lit: Fitzgerald, Hemingway, William Faulkner, T.S. eliot), height of the silent movie popularity.
1924 Lincoln Memorial statue is installed.

1925 Scopes Monkey Trial. Scopes arrested for teaching evolution (after answering ad from ACLU)

1926 Louis Armstrong brings national face to jazz scene.
1928 Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse makes debut in Steamboat Willie.
1930 Ansel Adams publishes Tao Pueblo
1930’s Jazz moves north to cities.
1932 Men at Work, photography series shows construction of Empire State building.
1934 Benny Goodman popularizes swing music
1934 School of American ballat is founded
1935 10 southern states spend $49 on white students and $17 on each black student.
1937 Count Basie Orchestra organizes popular swing bands. Walt Disney’s first full feature film, Snow White.
1940 Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger give folk voice
1942 Bing Crosby sings “White Christmas”
1944 GI Bill provides money for war veterans to go to school, within 10 years, 10 million veterans go back to school.
1946 NYC Ballet, second major classical dance company founded

1947 “Zeal for Democracy” campaign implemented nationwide (yet does not last, US is only industrial nation not to have a national curriculum)

1947 Movie popularity reaches height, before intro of television.
1950’s Off-Broadway movement grows.
1950 Jackson Pollock shocks the world with Abstract expressionism.

1954 Brown V. Board of Education has public schools desegregated.

1954 Alan Freed coins term Rock and roll
1956 Elvis Presley becomes famous
1957 Troops sent by Eisenhower to Arkansas to make sure schools desegregated.
1960 To Kill a Mockingbird written by Harper Lee.
1960’s folk music grows with Joan Baez, Boby Dylan, Peter Paul and Mary
1962 Andy Warhol paints pop art Campbell’s Soup Can
1965 Lyndon Johnson starts Job Corps and Head Start
1965 National Endowment for the Arts established by congress
1967 Monterey Pop Festival first major rock festival, followed by 1969 Woodstock
1968 Sesame Street starts
1969 Vassar College admits males.
1971 Supreme Court rules that busing is appropriate means to achieve racial balance. One year later, Nixon orders moratorium.
1974 Mikhail Baryshnikov defects to the US from Russia.
1977, Star Wars released, revolutionizes movies with idea of prequel and sequels.
1981 “Video Killed the radio Star by the Buggles is the first music video played on MTV
1990, 80 years later, National Cathedral completed.
1994 Independent films grow in popularity
1997 Concert Halls open in Newark, Seattle, Houston and Forth Worth
1997 Paul Getty Center, costliest art center built (1 billion dollars)