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End of WWII
The day that the Allies accepted the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany. It is called V-E Day. -
Brown vs. Board of Education Decision
A twentieth-century Supreme Court decision. An eight year old girl from Topeka, Kansas, was not permitted to attend her neighborhood school because she was an African American. The Brown Decision was made. -
Rosa Park Incident
Rosa Parks was an African American who boarded a bus and went and sat in an empty seat for African Americans. Then a white person got on the bus and since there wasn't anymore seats the bus driver requested that she give up her seat for the white person, and she refused. The bus driver called the police and she was arrested. -
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Montgomery Bus Boycott
Protest by African Americans in Montgomery, Alabama, against racial segregation in the bus system.*span -
Little Rock Nine Incident
The Little Rock school board wanted to try and integrate some of the schools, beginning with Central High School. Nine African Americans volunteered to enroll but the Arkansas governor, Orval Faubus opposed the idea and soldiers blocked the students way into the school. Many white people didn't want the African American students in their school and they became angry and the students were never able to enter the school. -
Sputnik Launched
The Soviet Union launched a 184 pound steel ball containing a small transmitter into an orbit of Earth. They called it Sputnik 1 and it made the Americans fear that their technology would no longer keep them ahead of the Soviet Union. -
U-2 Incident
A U.S. U-2 spy plane was shot down over Soviet Union airspace. The U.S. denied its purpose and mission but they later had to admitt to it. It was a great ambarrassment to the U.S. -
Bay of Pigs Invasion
CIA-led force of Cuban exiles attacked Cuba. The invasion was mismanaged with all but 300 of the 1,400 invaders killed or captured. It failed, strengthened Castro's position in Cuba, and turned many Cuban Americans against Kennedy. -
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Cuban Missile Crisis
1962 conflict between the U.S. and the Soviet Union resulting from the Soviet installation of nuclear missiles in Cuba.*span -
March on Washington
Demonstration in which more than 200,000 people rallied for economic equality and civil rights. -
Letter from Birmingham Jail
In 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. was arrested after having non-violent protests against segregation and discrimination in Birmingham, Alabama. When he was in jail he wrote a response to white Alabama clergymen who were urging King to be more moderate in his struggle. He responded that what he did was needed to achieve social justice.