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Dwight D. Eisenhower
He was the general that led the USA to victory in Europe and also attained a truce from Korea. He was President from 1953-1961 (2 terms). He worked to ease the tensions in the Cold War.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/dwightdeisenhower -
Brown vs. Board of Education
The decision made by the U.S. Supreme Court on Brown vs Board of Education was that it ended legal segregattion in public schools. it was made up of 5 cases from Delaware, Kansas, District of Columbia, Virginia, and South Carolina. The cases were culminated thanks to the NAACP in their work to end segregation.
http://www.nps.gov/brvb/historyculture/index.htm -
Emmett Till
Emmett Till was a 14 year old boy who on August 24th, 1955 went into a store and flirted with the white cashier. Four days later he was kidnapped,beaten, and shot in the head by 2 white men. The men were tried for murder but were acquitted due to the fact it was an all-white jury. This intensified the upcoming civil rights movement.
http://www.biography.com/people/emmett-till-507515 -
Rosa Parks Bus Seat Event
Most historians count this as the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement. She refused to give up her seat to a white passemger on a Montgomery, Alabama bus and was later fined for violating a city ordinance.
http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/par0bio-1 -
Interstate Highway System
It is known as the greatest public works projects in history. It was started when Eisenhower signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956. It gave jobs to the unemployed and boosted the economy. One important use for these highways was that it would provide easy access to different areas of the country in case of a nuclear war.
http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/interstate/history.htm -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
The Montgomery Bus Boycott was started with the arrest of Rosa Parks. It lasted 13 months and it finally ended due to the U.S. Supreme Court's decison that segregation on public buses is unconstitutional. It was led by Martin Luther King Jr. who later turned out to be the biggest Civil Rights Movement leader.
http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/encyclopedia/encyclopedia/enc_montgomery_bus_boycott_1955_1956/ -
Little Rock Nine
The Little Rock Nine were the nine African-Americans that were not allowed to enter Little Rock Central High School. Despite the fact that all schools were to be desegregated, Orval Faubus, Arkansas governor, sent the Arkansas National Guard to bar their entrance. Later, Eisenhower federalized the National Guard to escort them into the school.
http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryid=723 -
John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy was inaugurated on January 2oth, 1961. He served in WWII in the U.S. Navy. He became the youngest president to be elected and was a Democrat. Unfortunately, he was later assassinated in Dallas, Texas in 1963 and Lyndon B. johnson, his vice-presdient, took over the presidency.
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAkennedyJ.htm -
Peace Corps
It was created by John F. Kennedy and it is an army of idealistic and youthful volunteers who bring American skills to underpriviledged countries. Has now served 139 countries around the world.
http://www.peacecorps.gov/about/ -
Bay of Pigs Invasion
The Bay of Pigs Invasion was meant to overthrow the Communist Fidel Castro with 1,400 Cuban exiles but was ultimately a failure. The first part of the plan was a failure due to the fact that 8 bomber planes missed their target which was the Cuban airfields and the seocnd part of the plan was to invade from the beaches of the Bay of Pigs but were met with heavy fire. Kennedy later took full responsibility for the invasion.
http://www.jfklibrary.org/JFK/JFK-in-History/The-Bay-of-Pigs.aspx -
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis began when an American spy plane took photos showing that the Soviet Union was building nuclear missile sites in Cuba. Kennedy responded by placing a "quarantine" on Cuba and demanding that they remove the missiles in Cuba and destroy the sites. The world waited as the Soviets and the U.S. were on the brink of nuclear war.
http://www.jfklibrary.org/JFK/JFK-in-History/Cuban-Missile-Crisis.aspx -
End of Cuban Missile Crisis
The threat of nuclear war was avoided when Khrushchev agreed to remove the Soviet missiles in Cuba on terms that the U.S. respect Cuba's territorial sovereignty. This rattled the relationship between Cuba and the Soviet Union and made U.S. allies angry with Kennedy for withholding information that could have led to a nuclear war.
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-cuban-missile-crisis-comes-to-an-end
http://20thcenturyhistory.blogspot.com/2010/10/october-22nd-cuban-missile-crisis-fi -
March on Washington
The March on Washington was held in the nation's capital and was attended by some 250,000 people so as to promote the Civil Rights Movement. It included speeches from the likes of John Lewis and Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his historical "I Have A Dream" speech there.
http://www.infoplease.com/spot/marchonwashington.html -
Assassination of Ngo Dinh Diem
President Ngo Dinh Diem of North Vietnam and his brother were assassinated following the overthrow of his government by the South Vietnamese military force the day before. His death was celebrated in South Vietnam but led to political chaos in the nation and the U.S. was forced to be more involved in the Vietnam situation.
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/ngo-dinh-diem-assassinated-in-south-vietnam
http://freedomforvietnam.wordpress.com/tag/ngo-dinh-diem/ -
Lyndon B. Johnson
He envisioned "A Great Society' in America and served briefly in the Navy in WWII. He campaigned in the 1960 election as Vice-President to John F. Kennedy but when Kennedy was shot on November 22nd, 1963 he was sworn in as president on Air Force One minutes after the assassination of JFK.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/lyndonbjohnson -
Malcolm X
On December 4th, 1963 Malcolm X(previously known as Malcolm Little) was suspended from the Nation of Islam. He was a black Civil Rights leader who was the exact opposite of Martin Luther King Jr. He responded with violence and believed in fighting back. He was later assassinated on February 21st, 1965.
http://www.colostate.edu/orgs/MSA/find_more/m_x.html -
Mississippi Freedom Summer
This was the first day summer volunteers began training in Oxford, Ohio. The goal of these volunteers was to register black voters and teach literacy and civics at Freedom schools. Unfortunately, a week later, 3 of these volunteers were reported missing and were killed.
http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/encyclopedia/encyclopedia/enc_freedom_summer_1964/
http://www.kpbs.org/photos/2010/apr/06/4215/ -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
This civil rights act outlawed discrimination on the basis of sex and race when it came to hiring, firing, and promoting people. This finally gave African-Americans the equaltiy they were hoping for.
http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/civil-rights-act/
http://asianamerican1.blogspot.com/2010/11/civil-rights-act-of-1964.html -
Gulf of Tonkin Incident
The Gulf of Tonkin Incident was arroused by North Vietnamese warships attacking U.S. warships(U.S.S. Maddox and U.S.S.C Turner Joy). President Johnson claimed that the U.S. did not provooke these attacks but later evidence proved otherwise. This increased U.S. involvement in Vietnam even more.
http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=1598
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_of_Tonkin_incident -
Economic Opportunity Act
The Economic Opportunity Act was part of President Johnson's "War on Poverty" which was in turn part of his "Great Society" program. it gave job training, loans to small businesses, and adult education to combat unemployment and poverty throughout the nation.
http://wps.prenhall.com/wps/media/objects/751/769950/Documents_Library/eoa1964.htm
http://mrcapwebpage.com/vcsushistory/johnsonandthegreatsociety.html -
Black Opposition in Vietnam
The Vietnam War had the highest proportion of African-Americans. However, they also had a very high fatality rate. Blacks in the ranks were frustrated with the war and with delay of racial progress. Blacks also had received as much hostility from their fellow soldiers as they had received from their enemies in previous wars but this one was different.
http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/s_z/stevens/africanamer.htm
http://www.amistadresource.org/civil_rights_era/black_opposition_to_vietn -
Battle of La Drang
The Battle of La Drang was the first major battle between the U.S. and North Vietnamese forces. The U.S. won the battle but it signified that the North Vietnamese could stand and fight huge battles despite the great amount of casualties.
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/major-battle-erupts-in-the-ia-drang-valley
http://historywarsweapons.com/battle-of-ia-drang/ -
Tet Offensive
On January 31st, 1968 the Tet Offensive was launched by some 70,000 North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces which consisted of 100 cities in South Vietnam being fiercely attacked. It was meant to start a rebellion in South Vietnam and encourage the U.S. to back off.It was the turning point that led the U.S. to evetually leave.
http://www.history.com/topics/tet-offensive
http://vietnamhistoryswogger.wikispaces.com/Tet+Offensive -
Communists End Tet
The Tet Offensive officially ended when the South Vietnamese and the U.S. took back the ancient capital of Hue from communist control. The Tet Offensive included communist attacks on all major South Vietnamese cities. This was the deciding point of the opinion of the population of the USA.
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/tet-offensive-halted
http://www.historycentral.com/Vietnam/tetcease.html -
Richard M. Nixon
Nixon's first order of business was to reconcile the nation. With the turmoil in the cities and the war overseas, the USA was torn apart. Some of his accomplishments included stopping the fighting in Vietnam and improving relations betweenn the USSR and China. However, the Watergate Scandal left a lasting stain on his record and forced him to resign.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/richardnixon -
Apollo Test Project
On May 24th,1972 the U.S. and the Soviet Union signed a document so that an Apollo could be docked to a Soyuz in Earth orbit in July 1975. This would pool both nation's information together so as to further space development.
http://www.century-of-flight.net/Aviation history/space/Apollo-Soyuz Test Project.htm -
Watergate Scandal
On June 7th, 1972 a few burglars broke into the Democratic National Committee in the Watergate building in Washington 's D.C.. These 'burglars' were connected with Nixon's reelection campaign and were caught wire-tapping phones and attempting to steal secret docuents. Nixon then http://www.emersonkent.com/history_dictionary/watergate_scandal.htmproceeded to hush the whole event.
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/american_originals/nixon.html -
President Nixon Resigns
President Nixon at long last resigned due to the great Watergate Scandal. He was the first president to ever resign from the presidency. He signed the document addressed to the Secretary of State to officially resogn at 11:35 AM on August 9th, 1974.
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/american_originals/nixon.html -
Gerald R. Ford
He was the first president to take the place of a president who resigned and the first president not voted upon to enter the presidency. He was left to somehow revive a stagnant economy, mastering inflation, solving chronic energy shortages, and ensure world peace.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/geraldford -
President Ford Excuses Watergate Scandal
President Ford decided to grant Nixon a full pardon a month after Nixon had been removed from office. This pretty much signified that Ford would not be reelected in 1976. The pardon eliminated the possibility of an embarrased Nixon to go on trial for crimes he commited during his presidency.
http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/ford.htm
