8th Grade Identification
Below are all of the people and a their descriptions that you will need to know for Eighth Grade Social Studies. As you can see, it is divided according to chapter, making it easy to fill in Vocabulary/Identification sheets. Students who do not have Internet access at home may request a print out of these descriptions but only one time during the school year. Remember that you will be responsible for knowing each section's Vocabulary & Identification that we are covering and it makes up a good portion of all Social Studies tests. Also, remember that if you do not have your Vocabulary/Identification done and in class the day it is due, you will receive a zero (0 out of 10 possible points) for that chapter's vocabulary grade. You will find thumbnail pictures of each person on the 8th Grade Home Page. Click on these pictures for a larger image. Remember, you may be tested on these images.
Click on any of the buttons below to access the Identification on this page.
Chapter 12 - Reconstruction - 1865 to 1877:
John Wilkes Booth: popular actor of the time period who came up with the conspiracy to kill Abraham Lincoln and several of his cabinet members.
Thaddeus Stevens: Radical Republican Senator from Pennsylvania - authored the 14th amendment - wanted to punish the South for the Civil War.
Edwin M. Stanton: Secretary of War under Lincoln and Johnson; he was fired by Johnson under the Tenure of Office Act – prompting Johnson’s impeachment.
Ulysses S. Grant: Republican Civil War general and hero who won the presidential election of 1868 but whose administration was plagued by corruption.
Horace Greeley: Publisher of the New York Tribune who was the Democratic nominee for president in 1872.
Susan B. Anthony: Women's rights advocate who worked for female suffrage and was the first woman to have a U.S. coin minted in her honor.
William M. Tweed: political boss of New York City's Tammany Hall. He stole millions of dollars from the city, eventually was convicted of fraud and died in jail.
Thomas Nast: cartoonist for Harper's Weekly who drew embarrassing cartoons of Boss Tweed - refused Tweed's bribe to stop drawing the cartoons.
Rutherford B. Hayes: Republican governor of Ohio who won the disputed election of 1876 and whose election signaled the end of Reconstruction.
Samuel Tilden: Democratic governor of New York who won the majority of popular votes in the election of1876 but still lost.
Chapter 13 - Native American Conflicts - 1851 to 1890:
Cochise: Chiricahua Apache chief who led a war against the Americans in the 1860s.
Geronimo: Chiricahua Apache warrior who refused to surrender and eluded capture by the Americans for many years. After over 20 years, he finally surrendered.
George Crook: U.S. army general who fought against Geronimo in the Apache Wars and against Sitting Bull in the Black Hills War.
Red Cloud: Oglala Sioux chief who led a successful war against the United States in 1866 forcing the U.S. Army to abandon forts along the Bozeman Trail.
Crazy Horse: Sioux war chief who used brilliant strategy to defeat the U.S. Army during the Red Cloud War and against Custer in the Black Hills War of 1876.
Black Kettle: Cheyenne chief who swore peace with the Americans but whose people were attacked in the Chivington Massacre and who died in the Battle of the Washita.
John Chivington: U.S. Army Colonel who led an attack on a village of peaceful Cheyenne Indians in 1864. His soldiers slaughtered approximately 150 men, women, and children.
George Custer: U.S. Army Colonel attacked a peaceful Cheyenne village at the Washita River in Oklahoma. He was outnumbered and wiped out by the Sioux and Cheyenne at the Battle of Little Big Horn in 1876.
Sitting Bull: Sioux leader and medicine man. Helped plan the defeat of Custer.
Chief Joseph: Chief of the Nez Percé who tried to lead his people away from the U.S. Army into Canada but was captured before doing so.
Chapter 14 - Captains of Industry - Late 19th Century:
Thomas A. Edison: The “Wizard of Menlo Park” who came up with numerous inventions such as the light bulb and phonograph.
Cornelius Vanderbilt: Known as the "Commodore" - he became a millionaire in the shipping business - also controlled the New York Central Railroad.
Andrew Carnegie: Scottish immigrant who controlled the steel industry. After selling his company, he became a philanthropist, giving away most of his money.
John D. Rockefeller: Former bookkeeper who invested in oil, created the Standard Oil Trust & controlled a monopoly in oil.
Chapter 15 - The Gilded Age - 1878 to 1889:
Terence V. Powderly: Leader of the Knights of Labor who did not believe in using strikes.
James Garfield: Second president to be assassinated - served for less than a year.
Chester A. Arthur: President who took over for Garfield - reformed the Civil Service Commission.
Booker T. Washington: Black leader who helped found the Tuskegee Institute for Black students.
John Marshall Harlan: Supreme Court Justice who argued against overturning the Civil Rights Act of 1875 - said it would lead to more segregation.
Grover Cleveland: President who vetoed bills more than any president before him - was known for cost-cutting & eliminating government waste. Also the first president to marry in the White House.
Samuel Gompers: Founder of the American Federation of Labor - stayed out of politics & worked for improving working conditions in the U.S.
Benjamin Harrison: Grandson of president William Henry Harrison - defeated Grover Cleveland in the election of 1888.
Jane Addams: Among the first female college graduates, she went to England and returned with the idea of the Settlement House. She set up Hull House in Chicago.
Chapter 16 - End of the Century - 1890 to 1897:
Jacob Riis: Danish immigrant who exposed horrible living conditions of the poor in How the Other Half Lives.
Henry Clay Frick: He ran the Carnegie Steel Company - his goal was to break the union leading to the Homestead Strike of 1892.
George Pullman: Cut workers wages at his railcar company but didn't lower rent or prices in his factory town - led to a violent strike in 1894.
Eugene V. Debs: Head of the American Railway Union who organized a nationwide strike against Pullman - later became a socialist.
J. Pierpont Morgan: Powerful banker who financed a bailout of the U.S. government - most likely, the wealthiest man in America.
William Jennings Bryan: Democratic candidate who lost the elections of 1896 & 1900 - fought for Populist ideas - known for his "Cross of Gold" speech against gold standard.
William McKinley: Ohio governor who won the presidential elections of 1896 & 1900 - he supported the gold standard.
Mark Hanna: Ohio Republican who ran the McKinley campaigns, raising money - thought to control the Republican party.
Chapter 17 - American Empire - 1898 to 1900:
James Cook: English sea captain credited with discovery of the Hawaiian islands.
Queen Liliuokalani : Hawaiian ruler who attempted to take power for native Hawaiians but was defeated by foreign sugarcane growers.
Theodore Roosevelt: New York Republican who became a hero in the Spanish-American War - went on to become Vice President for McKinley.
José Martí: Cuban revolutionary who was exiled, studied in New York & was killed after returning to Cuba to fight the Spanish.
William Randolph Hearst: Owner of the New York Journal - used yellow journalism to for war against Spain.
George Dewey: U.S. Admiral who commanded the Pacific Fleet and destroyed the Spanish fleet in the Philippines.
Chapter 18 - The New Century - 1901 to 1913:
Carlos Juan Finlay: Cuban doctor who discovered the link between yellow fever and the mosquito.
George Goethals: Chief Engineer of the Panama Canal construction - appointed by Theodore Roosevelt in 1907.
Lincoln Steffens: his book The Shame of the Cities exposed political corruption in cities like St. Louis, Minneapolis & Philadelphia.
Upton Sinclair: his book The Jungle exposed the unhealthy meatpacking industry in Chicago.
Henry Ford: Used the assembly line process to develop cheap automobiles that the public could afford - had success with his "Model T."
William Howard Taft: Hand-picked successor to Roosevelt, won the presidential election of 1908; betrayed progressives by signing a high tariff bill; was opposed by Roosevelt in the election of 1912.
W.E.B. DuBois: reformer who helped found the NAACP; also the first African American to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard University.
Woodrow Wilson: Democrat who won the Election of 1912, introduced his "New Freedom" domestic plan, tried to keep the U.S. out of the war in Europe.
Chapter 19 - World at War - 1911 to 1919:
Franz Ferdinand: Archduke of Austria-Hungary - sympathetic to the plight of Bosnian Serbs but was assassinated by Serbian Nationalists starting World War I.
Francisco "Pancho" Villa: Mexican rebel leader who attacked Columbus, New Mexico killing soldiers & civilians - he became a folk hero in Mexico.
John Pershing: General in charge of the American Expeditionary Force in Europe during World War I. Before the war he was ordered by Wilson to chase down Pancho Villa.
Charles Evans Hughes: Republican candidate for president in 1916. He was a Supreme Court justice at the time. He lost a close election.
Czar Nicholas II: leader of imperial Russia during the war. He was overthrown by revolutionaries in spring 1917 and eventually killed with his family by the ruling Bolsheviks.
Kaiser Wilhelm: leader of Imperial Germany in World War I. He was forced to leave the throne at the end of the war.
Vladimir Lenin: leader of the Bolsheviks (communists) in Russia. After a revolution in November 1917, Lenin pulled Russia out of the war in the spring of 1918.
Henry Cabot Lodge: Republican Senator from Massachusetts - outspoken opponent to the ratification of the Treaty of Versailles.
Chapter 20 - The Roaring Twenties - 1920 to 1928:
A. Mitchell Palmer: Attorney General under President Wilson who rounded up suspected communists & anarchists in the Red Scare.
Al Capone: famous gangster who controlled the illegal liquor trade in Chicago during prohibition.
Alice Paul: suffragist who was jailed while protesting in front of the White House for women's voting rights.
Carrie Chapman Catt: suffragist who was president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association and founded the League of Women Voters.
Warren G. Harding: Ohio Senator who won the presidential election in 1920 - appointed corrupt officials and died in 1923.
Nicola Sacco & Bartolomeo Vanzetti: Italian immigrants who were anarchists & atheists - they were convicted of robbery and murder & executed most likely because of their beliefs.
Albert Fall: Secretary of the Interior who received bribes in the Teapot Dome scandal.
Calvin Coolidge: Became president in 1923; cleaned up scandals of previous administration and believed that government should leave business alone.
Babe Ruth: one of the greatest baseball players ever - set homerun records; won 4 World Series with New York Yankees.
Charlie Chaplin: famous silent film comedian - starred, wrote, directed his own movies; starred as the "Little Tramp"
Louis Armstrong: perhaps the greatest jazz trumpet player - his career stretched from the 1920s to the 1960s
John Scopes: High School science teacher convicted of teaching evolution in the town of Dayton, Tennessee.
Robert Goddard: inventor of the rocket - his technology would lead to exploration of outer space.
Charles Lindbergh: first person for fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean - became an instant hero
Herbert Hoover: Republican candidate who won the election o f 1928 - promised "a chicken in every pot."
Chapter 21 - The Great Depression - 1929 to 1938:
Franklin Delano Roosevelt: New York Democratic governor elected president in 1932 - introduced "New Deal" reforms to help the country get out of the depression.
Eleanor Roosevelt: famous First Lady - she served as the president's eyes, ears & legs; she held her own press conferences; worked hard for women and minority rights.
Huey Long: Louisiana Senator who criticized President Roosevelt for not placing a larger tax on the wealthy and distributing that money to the poor.
Charles Coughlin: anti-communist priest who had his own radio show - he criticized President Roosevelt for not getting tougher with the banks.
Alfred Landon: governor of Kansas who ran as the Republican candidate for president in 1936.
Chapter 22 - World War II - 1938 to 1945:
Adolf Hitler: leader of the Nazi Party & dictator of Germany; brought about the Holocaust in Europe.
Benito Mussolini: leader of the Fascist Party & dictator of Italy.
Josef Stalin: came to power as dictator of the Soviet Union after the death of Lenin; his paranoia was responsible for killing millions of his own people.
Winston Churchill: Prime Minister of Great Britain during most of the war; promised to never surrender to the Nazis.
Erwin Rommel: outstanding German general known as the "Desert Fox"; fought in North Africa & Europe.
Dwight D. Eisenhower: Supreme Commander of the Allies in Europe; was responsible for the D-Day invasion.
Jimmy Doolittle: Air Force leader who came up with and flew the B-25 bombing raid over Tokyo in April 1942.
Isoroku Yamamoto: Japanese Admiral who planned the Pearl Harbor attack and the unsuccessful invasion of Midway Island.
Douglas MacArthur: Supreme Commander of the Allies in the Pacific; promised to return to the Philippines in 1942 - returned in 1945.
Harry Truman: President of the United States who made the decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan.
Heinrich Himmler: leader of the Nazi SS; was responsible implementing the "Final Solution" - the killing of Europe's Jews.
Chapter 23 - The Cold War Begins - 1945 to 1959:
Nikita Khrushchev: leader of the Soviet Union after the death of Josef Stalin.
George Marshall: former general & Secretary of State under Truman who came up with a plan to rebuild the economies of Europe after World War II.
Jackie Robinson: the first African-American baseball player in modern Major League Baseball.
Thomas Dewey: Republican candidate for president in 1944 and 1948.
Chiang-Kai-shek: leader of the Nationalist Chinese - his government was forced to Taiwan in 1949.
Mao Zedong: leader of the Communist Chinese - became leader of the People's Republic of China.
Dwight D. Eisenhower: President of the United States 1953 to 1960 - foreign policy focused on stopping the spread of communism.
Joseph McCarthy: Republican Senator from Wisconsin who claimed to know of communists who were infiltrating the U.S. government.
Thurgood Marshall: lawyer for Oliver Brown in the Brown v. Board of Education case - he argued that segregation in schools was a violation of the 14th amendment - later became the first African-American Supreme Court Justice.
Rosa Parks: African-American woman who refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama bus to a white passenger - she was arrested, sparking the Montgomery bus boycott.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: African-American Baptist preacher who organized the Montgomery bus boycott - went on to become a leading member of the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s.
Fidel Castro: leader of the Cuban revolution of 1958-59 - he became the Communist dictator of Cuba.
Chapter 24 - The Turbulent Sixties - 1960 to 1969:
Richard Nixon: Republican candidate in 1960 who lost to Kennedy in a close election but eventually became president after winning the 1968 election.
John F. Kennedy: Democratic Senator from Massachusetts who won the election of 1960 - he became the 4th president assassinated in 1963.
Robert Kennedy: Attorney General under President Kennedy; he ran for president in 1968 when he was assassinated in California.
Nikita Khrushchev: leader of the Soviet Union, he challenged President Kennedy during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Lee Harvey Oswald: accused assassin of John F. Kennedy - he was killed before standing trial.
Jack Ruby: Dallas nightclub owner who shot Lee Harvey Oswald while he was leaving the Dallas jail.
Lyndon Baines Johnson: Texan who became president after Kennedy's death; he is best remembered for his Great Society plan to help the poor.
Ngo Dinh Diem: Dictator president of South Vietnam; he used violence against his own people; was overthrown with approval of U.S.
Ho Chi Minh: communist leader of North Vietnam who wanted a united Vietnam, free of foreign control.
William Westmoreland: U.S. general in charge of American forces in Vietnam until 1968.
James Earl Ray: he was convicted of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Hubert H. Humphrey: vice president under LBJ; was the Democratic candidate for president in 1968.
Richard J. Daley: mayor of Chicago during the 1960s; he ordered Chicago police to crack down on anti-war protestors during the Democratic convention in 1968.
George Wallace: Democratic governor of Alabama and strong supporter of segregation; ran as a third party candidate for president in 1968 ultimately hurting the Democrats.
Chapter 25 - The Far-Out Seventies - 1970 to 1979:
Daniel Ellsberg: Defense Department analyst who leaked the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times. It revealed that the government had secretly expanded the war in Vietnam.
George McGovern: U.S. Senator from South Dakota who ran as the Democratic candidate for president in 1972. He lost in a landslide to Richard Nixon.
César Chávez: co-founder of the National Farm Workers Association - worked to end discrimination (especially toward migrant, Hispanics) using non-violent protests.
Spiro Agnew: vice president under Nixon who resigned due to charges of bribery while governor of Maryland.
Gerald Ford: first vice president appointed under the 25th amendment - became President of the U.S. when Nixon resigned due to the Watergate Scandal.
Nelson Rockefeller: former Republican governor of New York appointed vice president under Gerald Ford.
Jimmy Carter: former Democratic Georgia governor who defeated President Ford in the election of 1976.
Anwar Sadat: President of Egypt who became the first Arab leader to visit Israel.
Menachem Begin: Prime Minister of Israel who negotiated the first peace treaty between Israel and an Arab nation (Egypt)
Shah of Iran: Iranian supreme leader who was forced out of his country during a revolution. His cancer treatment in the U.S. led to the taking of American hostages in Tehran.
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini: Islamic cleric who became the top religious and government leader after the Iranian Revolution.
Chapter 26 - The End of the 20th Century - 1980 to 1989:
Ronald Reagan: former actor and Republican governor of California who won the election of 1980 - survived an assassination attempt.
George H.W. Bush: vice president under Reagan - won the election of 1988.
Mikhail Gorbachev: last leader of the Soviet Union - introduced reforms and negotiated nuclear arms reduction treaties.
Walter Mondale: vice president under Carter who lost the election of 1984.
Geraldine Ferraro: first woman to become a major party (Democratic) candidate for vice president in 1984.
Oliver North: NCS military aide who ran the arms for hostages during the Iran-Contra scandal.
John Poindexter: ran the NCS during the Iran-Contra scandal.
Boris Yeltsin: President of Russian Federation who put down a coup attempt to overthrow Gorbachev.
Saddam Hussein: dictator of Iraq who invaded Kuwait in 1990.
Bill Clinton: Democrat governor of Arkansas who won the election of 1992..
Ross Perot: Texas businessman who ran as an independent candidate for president in 1992 & 1996.
Hillary Clinton: first lady who ran a task force to provide a Universal Health Care plan.
Bob Dole: Republican Kansas senator who lost the election of 1996.
Kenneth Starr: Independent Counsel who ran the Whitewater Investigation of the Clintons.
Monica Lewinski: 22-year-old White House intern who had a sexual relationship with President Clinton - leading to his impeachment.