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The Korean War begins
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Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were found guilty of conspiracy of wartime espionage and sentenced to death
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At Eniwetok Atoll in the Pacific Ocean, the first hydrogen bomb, named Mike, is exploded
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The first color televisions go on sale
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The first large scale vaccination of children against polio begins in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
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Racial segregation in public schools is declared unconstitutional by the United States Supreme Court in Brown vs. the Board of Education
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Rosa Parks, an African American seamstress, refuses to give up her seat on the bus to a white man
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Interstate highway system begins with the signing of the Federal-Aid Highway Act
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U.S. Congress approves the first civil rights bill since reconstruction with additional protection of voting rights
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Explorer I, the first U.S. space satellite, is launched by the Army at Cape Canaveral. It would discover the Van Allen radiation belt
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Alaska is admitted to the United States as the 49th state to be followed on August 21 by Hawai
