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Grunge music is an independent-rooted music genre that was inspired by hardcore punk, thrash metal, and alternative rock. The genre became commercially successful in the late 1980s and early 1990s, peaking in mainstream popularity between 1991 and 1994. Bands from cities in the U.S. Pacific Northwest such as Seattle, Washington, Olympia, Washington, and Portland, Oregon, were responsible for creating grunge music and later made it popular with mainstream audiences. The genre is closely associated with Generation X, due to its popularization being in tandem with the popularizing of the generation's name. The popularity of grunge was one of the first phenomena that distinguished the popular music of the 1990s from that of the 1980s. Grunge music is generally characterized by "dirty" guitar, strong riffs, and heavy drumming. The "dirty" sound resulted both from a stylistic change in the standard method of playing punk rock, and from the common use of guitar distortion and feedback. Grunge involves slower tempos and dissonant harmonies that are generally not found in punk.

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The 1964 New York World's Fair was the second World's Fair to be held at Flushing Meadows Park in the Borough of Queens, in New York City in the twentieth century. It opened on April 22, 1964 and ran for two six-month seasons concluding on October 17, 1965. It was the largest World's Fair to be held in the United States, occupying nearly a square mile (2.6 km²) of land. Hailing itself as a "Universal and International" exposition, the Fair's theme was "Peace Through Understanding," dedicated to "Man's Achievement on a Shrinking Globe in an Expanding Universe." The theme was symbolized by a twelve-story high, stainless-steel model of the earth called Unisphere. United States corporations dominated the exposition as exhibitors at the expense of international participation. The Fair is best remembered as a showcase of mid-twentieth century American corporate culture. The nascent Space Age, with its vista of promise was well-covered by the exhibits. More than fifty-one million people attended the Fair, but this was less than the hoped-for seventy million.

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The Galveston Hurricane of 1900 made landfall on the city of Galveston, Texas, on September 8, 1900. It had estimated winds of 135 miles per hour (215 km/h) at landfall, making it a Category 4 storm on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale. The hurricane caused great loss of life. The death toll has been estimated to be between 6,000 and 12,000 individuals, depending on whether one counts casualties from the city of Galveston itself, the larger island, or the region as a whole. The number most cited in official reports is 8,000, giving the storm the third-highest number of casualties of any Atlantic hurricane, after the Great Hurricane of 1780, and 1998's Hurricane Mitch. The Galveston Hurricane of 1900 is to date the deadliest natural disaster ever to strike the United States. By contrast, the second-deadliest storm to strike the United States, the 1928 Okeechobee Hurricane, caused approximately 2,500 deaths, and the deadliest storm of recent times, Hurricane Katrina, has caused approximately 1,600 deaths.

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The Space Race was the competition between the United States and the Soviet Union roughly from 1957 to 1975, involving their efforts to explore space with satellites and to eventually land a human being on the Moon and return him to Earth. Though its roots lie in early rocket technology and in the international tensions following World War II, the Space Race effectively began with the Soviet launch of Sputnik in 1957. The term was coined as an analogy to the arms race. The Space Race became an important part of the cultural and technological rivalry between the USSR and the U.S. during the Cold War. Space technology was a particularly important arena in this conflict, both because of its military applications and due to the psychological benefit of raising morale.

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Four Iowa class battleships were built in the early 1940s in the United States. Two others were laid down but were scrapped prior to completion. Built with cost as no object, the Iowas are arguably the finest battleships ever built. The Iowa-class was preceded by the South Dakota class, and would have been succeeded by the Montana class if the Montanas had not been cancelled prior to construction. The design of the Iowa class was based upon that of the South Dakota class but with more powerful engines, larger guns and an additional 200 feet (60 m) of length for improved seakeeping. The Iowa class was the last battleship line built by the United States, as naval power had shifted to being primarily aircraft carrier based. These ships were launched during the Second World War, and all of them saw action throughout the 20th century. All four of the completed ships were recommissioned in the 1980s, only to be decommissioned in the 1990s after the Cold War ended.

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African American literature is literature written by, about, and sometimes specifically for African Americans. The genre began during the 18th and 19th centuries with writers such as poet Phillis Wheatley and orator Frederick Douglass, reached an early high point with the Harlem Renaissance, and continues today with authors such as Toni Morrison and Maya Angelou being ranked among the top writers in the United States. Among the themes and issues explored in African American literature are the role of African Americans within the larger American society, African American culture, racism, slavery, and equality. As African Americans' place in American society has changed over the centuries, so too has the focus of African American literature. Before the American Civil War, African American literature primarily focused on the issue of slavery, as indicated by the popular subgenre of slave narratives. During the American Civil Rights movement, authors like Richard Wright and Gwendolyn Brooks wrote about issues of segregation and black nationalism. Today, African American literature has become accepted as an integral part of American literature, with books in the genre, such as Roots: The Saga of an American Family by Alex Haley and The Color Purple by Alice Walker, achieving both best-selling and award-winning status.

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