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Salk polio vaccine
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Conference between Soviet and America, France, and Britain to start easing Cold War tensions
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In Montgomery, Alabama, the Black seamstress Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on a city bus to a white man and is arrested. The ensuing boycott, coordinated by a young Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., will mark an important turning point in the African-American freedom struggle.
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Eisenhower signs the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, which will create the Interstate Highway system, one of the biggest public works projects in U.S. history.
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The Soviets launch Sputnik, the first manmade satellite.
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The first full-scale nuclear power plant begins operation in Shippingport, Pennsylvania, supplying electricity to Pittsburgh.
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Explorer 1 is the first satellite launched by US
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John F. Kennedy becomes the youngest elected president.
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An American U-2 spy plane is shot down over the Soviet Union. Pilot Gary Powers survives the crash and admits spying. The incident sours U.S.-Soviet relations and dooms the Paris summit conference later in the month.
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A force of 1,500 Cuban exiles, trained and financed by the United States, lands at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba in an attempt to overthrow the Castro regime. The operation, initiated and planned during the Eisenhower administration but launched under Kennedy, is a fiasco that badly damages U.S. prestige.
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An American serviceman dies in Vietnam, the first combat death reported. For many Americans, the death will mark the beginning of the Vietnam War.
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With U.S. encouragement, South Vietnamese General Duong Van Minh overthrows the Diem regime, and the following day, he orders the execution of Diem and his brother. General Duong's military rule is recognized by the United States.
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While riding in a motorcade through Dallas, Texas, President John F. Kennedy is shot and killed. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson assumes the presidency.
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Martin Luther King, Jr. leads thousands of demonstrators to the United Nations building in New York, where he delivers a speech attacking U.S. foreign policy in Vietnam
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Republican Richard Nixon is elected President of the United States.
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Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. His assassin, James Earl Ray, pleads guilty and is sentenced to 99 years in prison.
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The House and the Senate vote to withdraw all U.S. troops in Vietnam by year's end.
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The 26th Amendment is ratified, lowering the national voting age from 21 to 18.
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Five men are caught burglarizing the headquarters for the Democratic National Committee, located at the Watergate hotel in Washington, D.C. Their arrests will set into motion the events that will eventually result in President Nixon's resignation.
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Representatives from South Vietnam, North Vietnam, and the United States sign a peace agreement in which a ceasefire is declared, the U.S. agrees to withdraw combat troops, and the government of South Vietnam promises to hold free elections to allow its people to decide their future.
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The last U.S. combat soldier leaves Vietnam, but military advisors and some Marines remain
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President Nixon resigns amidst the Watergate scandal; his vice president Gerald Ford takes office.