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A study showing the Salk polio vaccine to be effective is released. Mass inoculations will follow and the disease, which has been a serious threat for generations, will virtually disappear.
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The first summit conference between Soviet and American leaders, along with those of France and Great Britain, begins in Geneva, Switzerland. No important agreements are forged, but the meeting eases some Cold War tensions.
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Eisenhower is elected to a second term as president.
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Officials of the Soviet Union announced that they have launched the first intercontinental ballistic missile. The Americans will have such a weapon of their own ready for launch four months later.
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The Soviets launch Sputnik, the first manmade satellite. The achievement shocks Americans, who begin to fear that the Russians are pulling ahead in technology.
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The first full-scale nuclear power plant begins operation in Shippingport, Pennsylvania, supplying electricity to Pittsburgh.
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Eisenhower sends federal troops to Little Rock, Arkansas, to enforce the court-ordered desegregation of the city's public schools. As a result, nine Black students are allowed to attend classes at Little Rock Central High School.
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The U.S. launches its first satellite, Explorer I, marking U.S. entry into the "space race" with the Russians.
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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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John F. Kennedy becomes the youngest elected president. Eisenhower is disappointed by Kennedy's defeat of his former running mate Richard Nixon in a close election.
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Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson visits South Vietnam and offers military and economic aid to Diem.
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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. 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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The USS Maddox reports a second assault by North Vietnamese gunboats, though evidence of such an attack is inconclusive. President Lyndon B. Johnson orders retaliatory strikes. The U.S. bombs North Vietnam for the first time.
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Lyndon B. Johnson wins the presidential election in a tremendous landslide
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The first U.S. combat units arrive in Vietnam.
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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 war in Vietnam—its beginning marked by the first death of an American serviceman reported on December 22nd, 1961—becomes the longest war in American history.
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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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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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Nixon defeats Democratic candidate Senator George McGovern in the presidential election. McGovern has run on an anti war platform that would grant amnesty to draft evaders who have left the country, and would exchange American withdrawal from Vietnam for the return of American prisoners of war (POWs).
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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 Vietnam War is officially over for the United States. The last U.S. combat soldier leaves Vietnam, but military advisors and some Marines remain. Over 3 million Americans have served in the war, nearly 60,000 are dead, some 150,000 are wounded, and at least 1,000 are missing in action
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President Nixon resigns amidst the Watergate scandal; his vice president Gerald Ford takes office.