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Rosa Parks
On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, an African American seamstress, refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white man. This prompted a boycott that lead to the declaration that bus segregation laws were unconstitutional by a federal court. -
Transatlantic Telephone
On September 25, 1956, the first transatlantic telephone cable began operating. -
Little Rock Nine
On September 4, 1957, the National Guard was called to duty by Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus to bar nine black students from attending previously all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. A threat of violence caused President Eisenhower to dispatch federal troops to Little Rock on September 24 to enforce the edict that allowed the students to attend the school. -
World Fair
On April 17, 1958, Brussels, Belgium held the first major world's fair since the end of World War II. This fair evoked a Cold War debate between the pavilions of the Soviet Union and the United States. -
Soviet/U.S. Visit.
On September 26, 1959, President Dwight D. Eisenhower hosted the Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev at his farm in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. This was the first visit of any Soviet Union leader to the United States. -
NC Sit-In
On February 1, 1960, Four black college students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College in Greensboro, North Carolina staged a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth lunch counter, to protest their denial of service. -
Bay of Pigs
On, April 17, 1961, the U. S. attempted to invade Cuba in its Bay of Pigs invasion. This completely failed and utterly embarrassed the Kennedy administration. -
First U. S. Earth Orbit
On February 20, 1962, Lt. Colonel John Glenn became the first U.S. astronaut in orbit in the Friendship 7 Mercury capsule. He circled the earth three times before returning to earth, remaining aloft for four hours and fifty-five minutes. -
Civil Rights March
On August 28, 1963, the Civil Rights march occurred. Dr. Martin Luther King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial greatly impacted many and resulted in over 200,000 people participating in the march for equal rights. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
On August 6, 1965, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 is signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson. There were two significant parts of the act. First, it outlawed the requirement of potential voters to take a literacy test in order to qualify for voting. Second, it provided federal registration of voters in areas with less than 50% of all voters registered.