Quiz: Answer

A failed coup to liberate Cuba ended in fiasco.

General Lopez led a band of Spanish refugees and Southerners on an unsuccessful raid to free Cuba from Spain. Narciso Lopez was captured and executed.

America had been victorious in its foreign war back in the ’40s, but was now involved in a new war that divided the nation.

The foreign war that America fought in the 40s was the Mexican War, from 1845 to 1847. The new controversial war that divided the nation was our own Civil War.

The women’s movement was strong and fighting for an equal rights amendment to the Constitution.

The womens’ movement was strong under leadership by Susan B. Anthony and they fought for the equal rights amendment to the Constitution. It eventually passed in 1919 as the 19th Amendment recognizing women’s right to vote.

Johnson did not suspect that he would succeed to the presidency, but was sworn in after the president was assassinated.

Vice-president Andrew Johnson succeeded to the presidency after Lincoln was shot in 1865.

President Andrew Johnson would see the Civil Rights Act passed during his term.

The Civil Rights Act passed in 1866 as the 14th Amendment that guaranteed due process and equal protection for both whites and blacks.

The first successful artificial insemination of a human being took place around this time.

The first successful artificial insemination in American took place reportedly in the latter half of the 19th century.

Trouble came to Washington. Congress and the conservative Republican president were at odds over the president’s alleged abuses of power and there were enough votes in the Senate to impeach him. Despite the strong Republican reelection in ’72, many administrative figures were implicated by scandal that broke in the newspaper. Financial crisis and downturn in ’73 did not make things easier. While still in office, however, the president opened the door to a major power overseas who had formerly been our adversary. Though he lived with failure after leaving the White House, the president’s memoirs would become an acclaimed work.

The conservative Republican president impeached by Congress was Andrew Johnson after Congress accused him of violating the Tenure of Office Act. The Republican president reelected in 1872 was Ulysses S. Grant. His administration was plagued by the Credit Mobilier Scandal that broke in the New York Sun. The nation suffered financial crisis in the Depression of 1873. Grant opened the door overseas to our former adversary, Great Britain, as the Treaty of Washington resolved issues with Britain’s building of Confederate ships. Grant suffered bankruptcy from questionable investments after leaving the White House, but in retirement, he wrote his “Personal Memoirs” which are acclaimed as a great military narrative.

The solar powered motor was designed in ’76.

John Ericsson published “Solar Investigations” in 1876 in which he described a solar-powered electric motor.

Telecommunications advanced in ’80 when Bell transmitted sound on a beam of light.

Telecommunications advanced in 1880 when Alexander Graham Bell patented the “photophone” that transmitted sound on a beam of light and made wireless communications possible.

In ’81, the president was resting under the care of doctors after being struck by a bullet.

In 1881 President James A. Garfield was shot. He lived for eighty days.

The government authorized a military build up in ’83 that used new technology.

In 1883 Congress authorized the building of three steel cruisers and a dispatch boat. This new technology improved on wooden vessels.

In the ’90s, America liberated a small land from a powerful aggressor in a war that gained strong public support back home. The war was won in surprisingly brief time with record low war casualties for America.

The Spanish American War took place in 1898. It ended in just four months with only 379 combat deaths.

The election of ’92 ended a one-term presidency for the incumbent Republican. Democrats took the White House with their first candidate that could win two elected terms to the presidency since the ’30s. Sexual scandal plagued the president, however. His affairs outside marriage made him the object of widespread jokes and media coverage with a great deal of talk among the people.

Incumbent Republican President Benjamin Harrison served one term then lost the election of 1892 to Grover Cleveland. This was Cleveland’s second term, having won the election of 1884, just before Harrison. The sexual scandal that plagued Cleveland revealed that he probably fathered the child of an unwed mother. The slogan in the papers was, “Mommy, Mommy, where’s my Pa? Gone to Washington, Ha! Ha! Ha!”