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Period: to
United States 1955-1975
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Polio Vaccine
The first successful polio vaccine was created by U.S. physician Jonas Salk. Salk tested his experimental killed-virus vaccine on himself and his family in 1953, and a year later on 1.6 million children in Canada, Finland and the USA. The results were announced on 12 April 1955, and Salk’s inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) was licensed on the same day. By 1957, annual cases dropped from 58 000 to 5600, and by 1961, only 161 cases remained. -
Start of the Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was fought between communist North Vietnam, which was supported by the Soviet Union and China, and South Vietnam, which was supported by the United States. The bloody conflict had its roots in French colonial rule and an independence movement driven by communist leader Ho Chi Minh. -
Rosa Parks Arrested
In Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on a city bus to a white man and is arrested. The ensuing boycott, coordinated by Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., which marked an important turning point in the African-American freedom struggle. -
NASA Founded
In 1958, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was created as a successor to the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). -
Bay of Pigs
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, embarrassed Kennedy's administration by thwarting a takeover of Cuba by exiles and the CIA. -
Kennedy is Assassinated
While riding in a motorcade through Dallas, Texas, President John F. Kennedy was shot and killed, so Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson assumes the presidency. -
First U.S. Combat Units in Vietnam
On March 8, 1965, 3,500 Marines of the 9th Marine Expeditionary Brigade arrived in Da Nang to protect the U.S. airbase there from Viet Cong attacks which marked the first U.S. combat units to arrive in Vietnam. -
Martin Luther King Jr. Assassinated
Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. News of King’s assassination prompted major outbreaks of racial violence. His assassin, James Earl Ray, pleads guilty, confesses to the crime, and is sentenced to 99 years in prison. -
U.S. Puts a Manned Mission on the Moon
Apollo 11 was the American spaceflight that first landed humans on the Moon. The crew consisted of commander Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin which became the first humans to step foot on the moon. This was a big accomplishment for the U.S. in the "space race" considering before this, the U.S. was lagging behind. -
26th Amendment Ratified
The 26th Amendment is ratified which lowered the national voting age from 21 to 18. -
President Nixon Resigns
President Nixon resigns amidst the Watergate scandal, and his vice president Gerald Ford takes office. -
End of the Vietnam War
A peace agreement was signed on January 27, 1973 which allowed the United States to withdraw from the war, but neither of the Vietnamese parties abided by the settlement and the war continued. Having rebuilt their forces and upgraded their logistics system, North Vietnamese forces triggered a major offensive in the Central Highlands in March 1975. On April 30, 1975, NVA tanks rolled through the gate of the Presidential Palace in Saigon, effectively ending the war.