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A U.S spy plane discovers that Soviets are hiding nuclear missiles in Cuba. President Kennedy orders a naval blockade of Cuba.Negotiations go on for a week. Russia agrees to remove the missiles in exchange for the US removing missiles from Turkey.
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Martin Luther King, Jr delivers one of his most famous speeches at the Civil Rights March on Washington. He stood in front of the Lincoln Memorial and spoke to 250,000 people about his vision of segregation ending
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The Civil Rights Act makes discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin illegal
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Malcolm X, the leader of the Nation of Islam and an African American is killed while delivering a speech for the Organization of Afro-American Unity at the Audubon Ballroom in Washington Heights
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Anti-war teacher and Students for Democratic Society protest the US involvement in the Vietnam War. 3,000 people attend.
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President Lyndon B. Johnson announced his intention to pass a federal Voting Rights Act to ensure that no federal, state, or local government could in any way impede people from voting because of their race or ethnicity.
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Race Riots in Watts, California go on for six days. 34 people die and there is $200 million in damages.
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MLK believed that the Vietnam War diverted money and attention from domestic programs created to aid the Black poor.
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In a atypical style, Walter Cronkite shares his personal feelings while reporting from Vietnam. He believed there would be no winner. Insiders think that this is a key reason for President Johnson's decision to negotiate and not run for reelection is 1968.
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Judy Garland's funeral attracts gay mourners to Stonewall Tavern in New York. A fight with police occurs when someone resists arrest. The Gay Liberation Movement is launched after this event.