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Senator Joseph McCarthy makes a speech declaring several members of the State Department as communists, which spirals into more and more accusations in an unruly repression of innocent people. -
North Korea invades South Korea, starting the Korean War. -
After being developed and theorized since the Manhattan Project, the hydrogen bomb is tested at Enewetak Atoll. It is several hundred thousand times as powerful as a nuclear bomb. -
Dwight D. Eisenhower is elected president. -
NSC-68, the top-secret document that provided the basis of policy for the Cold War, is completed. It suggests the policy of building up the military and global containment as a countermeasure against communism. -
An armistice is signed between the United States and North Korea ending the Korean War, although it merely results in an indefinite stalemate, leaving the situation no better than it was at the beginning of the war and leaving both sides dissatisfied. -
RCA releases the first electronic color television, and major channels begin broadcasting in color. -
The Supreme Court rules that schools be desegregated, ushering in a new precedent for civil rights. -
Rosa Parks, a black civil rights activist, refuses to give up her seat on a bus to a white man, leading to her incarceration and sparking a boycott of the public transit system that marked a major change in the civil rights movement. -
The Little Rock 9 are a group of 9 African-American children who were denied entry into Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas on this date. Less than three weeks later, President Eisenhower sends in the military to enforce the decision made in Brown v. BOE. Despite constant harassment, eight of the nine students complete high school. -
After running in three other theaters across the US, the musical West Side Story, known for its social commentary and dark themes, makes its way to Broadway. -
Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, goes into orbit. -
In direct response to Sputnik 1 and 2, launched prior, the US launches Explorer 1, the first US satellite and the first satellite with scientific instruments. -
The National Aeronautics and Space Act creates NASA, which opens for business a little over two months later. -
Fidel Castro takes control of Cuba after the Cuban Revolution, turning it into the first communist country in the Western Hemisphere.