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President Kennedy initiates 17 billion dollar nuclear missile program, and announces the creation of the Peace Corps.
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Yuri Gagarin of the USSR becomes the first man in space.
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John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit the earth.
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Cuban Missile Crisis: Soviets establish missile bases in Cuba, Kennedy orders a naval blockade to divert any missiles from arriving in Cuba.
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President Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Texas by Lee Harvey Oswald.
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President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964, making segregation in public facilities and discrimination in employment illegal.
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There is a Race riot in Harlem, NY
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President Johnson reelected in a landslide over Barry Goldwater, but conservatives take over the Republican Party and remain a force in the party.
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Congress passes the Voting Rights Act of 1965, making it easier for Southern blacks to register to vote. Literacy tests and other such requirements that tended to restrict black voting become illegal.
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National Guard enters the Watts riots in L.A. in an attempt to stop the riots.
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The Walk for Love and Peace and Freedom in New York City takes place with 10,000 participants.
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US, USSR, UK sign treaty banning nuclear weapons in space.
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"Summer of Love" in San Francisco. As many as 100,000 people gathered in San Francisco creating a phenomenon of cultural and political rebellion.
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Martin Luther King shot and killed in Memphis at the age 39. King was shot as he stood on the balcony outside his hotel room. Escaped convict James Earl Ray later pleads guilty to the crime.
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Richard Nixon narrowly elected President, with Spiro T. Agnew, as his Vice-President.
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Armstrong landed the Eagle on the surface of the Moon. Armstrong was the first human to set foot on the moon.