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Warsaw Pact, which establishes a mutual defense treaty subscribed to by eight communist states in Eastern Europe (including the USSR)
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Rosa Parks remains seated on a bus, the incident which evolves into the Montgomery bus boycott
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"In God We Trust" adopted as national motto
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President sends federal troops to Central High School in Little Rock, Ark., to enforce integration of black students.
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Eisenhower Doctrine, wherein a country could request American economic assistance and/or aid from military forces if it was being threatened by armed aggression from another state
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primarily a voting rights bill, becomes the first civil rights legislation enacted by Congress since Reconstruction
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Explorer I, first American satellite, is launched.
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United States added Hawaii and Alaska.
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establishing federal inspection of local voter registration polls and penalties for those attempting to obstruct someone's attempt to register to vote or actually vote
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United States presidential election, 1960: John F. Kennedy elected president, Lyndon B. Johnson elected vice president
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U.S. severs diplomatic relations with Cuba.
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The Bay of Pigs Invasion was a failed military invasion of Cuba undertaken by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)-sponsored rebel group Brigade 2506 on 17 April 1961.
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Engel v. Vitale, determines that it is unconstitutional for state officials to compose an official school prayer and require its recitation in public schools
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March on Washington; Martin Luther King, Jr. "I Have a Dream" speech
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President Kennedy assassinated in Dallas; Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson becomes the 36th President.
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24th Amendment, prohibiting both Congress and the states from conditioning the right to vote in federal elections on payment of a poll tax or other types of tax
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Civil Rights Act of 1964, outlawing major forms of legalized discrimination against blacks and women, and ended legalized racial segregation in the United States
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United States presidential election, 1964: Johnson elected president for a full term, Hubert H. Humphrey elected vice president
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The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 also known as the Hart–Celler Act, is a federal law passed by the 89th United States Congress and signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson.
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Malcolm X an African-American Muslim minister, public speaker, and human rights activist is assassinated in Harlem, New York
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25th Amendment establishes succession to the Presidency and procedures for filling a vacancy in the office of the Vice President
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Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated
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United States presidential election, 1968: Richard Nixon elected president, Spiro T. Agnew elected vice president; Shirley Chisholm becomes first black woman elected to U.S. Congress
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The Environmental Protection Agency is created by Nixon.
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The 26th Amendment is ratified, allowing 18-year-olds to vote.
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Watergate scandal: Five men arrested for the burglary of the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C.
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U.S. presidential election, 1972: Richard M. Nixon re-elected president, Spiro T. Agnew reelected vice president
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President Nixon and Vice President Agnew begin second terms.
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Vice President Spiro T. Agnew resigns in disgrace as part of a plea bargain. Representative Gerald R. Ford of Michigan becomes the first person to be appointed Vice President under the 25th Amendment to the Constitution.
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Watergate scandal: The House Judiciary Committee votes to impeach the President
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President Nixon resigns, becoming the first and only U.S. President to step down. Vice President Ford becomes the 38th President. Nelson A. Rockefeller of New York becomes the second person to be appointed Vice President under the 25th Amendment to the Constitution.
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The Vietnam War ends.
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ill Gates founds Microsoft, which will eventually dominate the home computer operating system market.