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In the Soviet Union, a United States U-2 spy plane is shot done by Soviet forces, leading to the capture of U.S. pilot Gary Powers.
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Election is won by Senator John F. Kennedy, the Democratic candidate from Massachusetts, over Richard M. Nixon.
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the Food and Drug Administration approves the first birth control pill for sale.
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President Kennedy initiates 17 billion dollar nuclear missile program, increases military aid to Indochina and announces the creation of the Peace Corps.
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The construction of the Berlin Wall begins by the Soviet bloc, segregating the German city. The wall would last for twenty-eight years.
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President Kennedy advises Americans to build fallout shelters.
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Nuclear Test Ban Treaty is ratified by Senate.
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Nuclear Test Ban Treaty takes effect.
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In Dallas, Texas, during a motorcade through downtown, President John F. Kennedy is mortally wounded by assassin Lee Harvey Oswald. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson is sworn into office later that day.
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First American soldier officially sets foot on Vietnam battlefields, First U.S. combat troops begin fighting in South Vietnam.
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Owsley starts LSD factory, making large quantities of acid available for the first time.
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the government medical program for citizens over the age of 65, begins.
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Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King is assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee while standing on a motel balcony by James Earl Ray.
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The Apollo program completes its mission. Neil Armstrong, United States astronaut, becomes the first man to set foot on the moon four days after launch from Cape Canaveral.
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The Internet, called Arpanet , begins development, and is invented by the Advanced Research Projects Agency at the U.S. Department of Defense.
