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Research demonstrating the efficacy of the Salk polio vaccine is published. Following mass vaccinations, the illness, which has posed a significant danger for decades, would essentially vanish.
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Rosa Parks, a Black seamstress from Montgomery, Alabama, gets jailed after refusing to give up her seat on a municipal bus to a white man. The resulting boycott, led by a young Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., will be a watershed moment in the African-American liberation movement.
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Eisenhower signs the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, establishing the Interstate Highway System, one of the nation's largest public works projects.
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Explorer I, the United States' first satellite, is launched, signifying the United States' entry into the "space race" with the Russians.
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General Duong Van Minh of South Vietnam overthrows the Diem dictatorship with the help of the United States, and the next day orders Diem and his brother's death. The United States recognizes General Duong's military government. President John F. Kennedy is shot and murdered while traveling in a motorcade through Dallas, Texas. Lyndon B. Johnson, the vice president, is elected president.
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At the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, Martin Luther King, Jr. is killed. James Earl Ray, his assassin, admits he is guilty and receives a sentence of 99 years in jail.
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The total number of American forces in Vietnam reaches 543,000. President Richard Nixon reveals his strategy for "Vietnamization" of the war, which included training and transitioning South Vietnamese forces to take over responsibilities formerly performed by American troops, as well as the withdrawal of 25,000 American troops.
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The House and Senate agree to remove all American soldiers from Vietnam by the end of the year.
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Representatives from South Vietnam, North Vietnam, and the United States sign a peace treaty in which a ceasefire is declared, the United States agrees to withdraw combat troops, and the government of South Vietnam promises to hold free elections to allow the country's people to decide their own fate.
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For the United States, the Vietnam War is officially concluded. Although the final American combat soldier departs from Vietnam, military advisors and a few Marines remain. Over 3 million Americans have fought in the conflict; approximately 60,000 have died, 150,000 have been injured, and at least 1,000 have gone missing.