President Jimmy Carter pardons nearly all American Vietnam War draft evaders, some of whom had emigrated to Canada.

US President Jimmy Carter signs legislation creating the United States Department of Energy.

U.S. President Jimmy Carter declares a federal emergency at Love Canal.

U.S. President Jimmy Carter announces that the United States will recognize the People's Republic of China and cut off all relations with Taiwan

Convicted bank robber Patty Hearst is released from prison after her sentence is commuted by President Jimmy Carter.

U.S. President Jimmy Carter signs the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul.

U.S. President Jimmy Carter gives his so-called "malaise" speech, where he characterizes the greatest threat to the country as "this crisis in the growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives and in the loss of a unity of purpose for our nation" but in which he never uses the word ''malaise''

US President Jimmy Carter announces a United States boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow to protest the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan.

President Jimmy Carter signs the Crude Oil Windfall Profits Tax Act in an effort to help the U.S. economy rebound.

President Ronald Reagan is shot in the chest outside a Washington, D.C., hotel by John Hinckley, Jr.

John Hinckley is found not guilty by reason of insanity for the attempted assassination of U.S. President Ronald Reagan.

President Ronald Reagan calls the Soviet Union an "evil empire".

US troops withdraw from Beirut. President Ronald Reagan had sent the troops as a peacekeeping force in August 1982.

The ''Iran-Contra Affair'': The American press reveals that U.S. President Ronald Reagan had authorized the shipment of arms to Iran.

Cold War: In Geneva, U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev meet for the first time.

Iran-Contra scandal: U.S. President Ronald Reagan announces the members of what will become known as the Tower Commission.

Cold War: At the Brandenburg Gate U.S. President Ronald Reagan publicly challenges Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall.

President Ronald Reagan proclaims September 11, 1987 as 9-1-1 Emergency Number Day.

Iran-Contra Affair: The United States House of Representatives rejects President Ronald Reagan's request for $36.25 million to aid Nicaraguan Contras.

Gulf War: U.S. President George H. W. Bush announces that "Kuwait is liberated".

A 'joint understanding' agreement on arms reduction is signed by U.S. President George H. W. Bush and Russian President Boris Yeltsin (this would be later codified in START II).

U.S. President Bill Clinton signs the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act (the Brady Bill) into law.

The North American Free Trade Agreement is signed into law by US President Bill Clinton.

Former Arkansas state worker Paula Jones files suit against President Bill Clinton, alleging that he had sexually harassed her in 1991.

Monica Lewinsky scandal: US President Bill Clinton admits in taped testimony that he had an "improper physical relationship" with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. On the same day he admits before the nation that he "misled people" about the relationship.

Lewinsky scandal: The United States House of Representatives Judiciary Committee begins impeachment hearings against U.S. President Bill Clinton.

President Bill Clinton is acquitted by the United States Senate in his impeachment trial.

President Bill Clinton announces that accurate GPS access would no longer be restricted to the United States military.

US President Bill Clinton awards former President Theodore Roosevelt a posthumous Medal of Honor for his service in the Spanish-American War.

In his State of the Union Address, President George W. Bush describes "regimes that sponsor terror" as an ''Axis of Evil'', in which he includes Iraq, Iran and North Korea.

Former US President Jimmy Carter arrives in Cuba for a five-day visit with Fidel Castro becoming the first President of the United States, in or out of office, to visit the island since Castro's 1959 revolution.

Barack Obama becomes the first African-American to be elected President of the United States.