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The campaign was hard fought and bitter. For the first time, presidential candidates engaged in televised debates. Many observers believed that Kennedy's poised and charming performance during the four debates made the difference in the final vote. John F. Kennedy becomes the youngest man ever to be elected president of the United States, narrowly beating Republican Vice President Richard Nixon. He was also the first Catholic to become president.
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First American in Space was on May 5, 1961, Astronaut Alan B. Shepard Jr. launched off in his Freedom 7 capsule atop a Mercury-Redstone rocket. His 15-minute sub-orbital flight made him the first American in space.
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The Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 was a direct and dangerous confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War and was the time when the two superpowers of the world came closest to nuclear war.
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In November of 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. This event caused America to become very sad over the tragedy. At the same, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson became the President, causing Americans to doubt if he would follow the same structure as Kennedy.
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In August of 1964, North Vietnamese torpedo boats supposedly attacked the USS Maddox in the Gulf of Tonkin. This incident causes the U.S. to involve itself in the Vietnam conflict.
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In New York City, Malcolm X, an African American nationalist and religious leader, is assassinated by rival Black Muslims while addressing his Organization of Afro-American Unity at the Audubon Ballroom in Washington Heights.
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In January of 1969, North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces launch a massive assault on South Vietnamese and American forces in South Vietnam. The South Vietnamese and American forces were able to repel the assault and recapture most lost territories. This battle showed that Communist forces were still strong as ever. At the same time American support for the Vietnam War started to decrease dramatically. Americans were now opposing the war and wanted the troops to come back
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After winning the California and South Dakota primary elections for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States, Kennedy was shot as he walked through the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel and died in the Good Samaritan Hospital twenty-six hours later.
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Tens of thousands of Vietnam War protesters battle police in the streets, while the Democratic Party falls apart over an internal disagreement concerning its stance on Vietnam.
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Apollo 11 was the spaceflight that landed the first humans on the Moon, Americans Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on July 20, 1969. Armstrong became the first to step onto the lunar surface and become known as the first man to walk on the moon.
