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November 8th 1960, John F. Kennedy wins the presidential election. His margin of victory over Republican candidate Richard M. Nixon is just over 100,000 votes. Some of the reason he won were because of his selection of vice president Lyndon Johnson, inexperience and health, and Republican errors. These all had a large playing card in his winning factors. However, Kennedy won above all because he was Nixon's equal in substance and superior in style. -
President John F. Kennedy issues an executive order establishing the Peace Corps. The Corps aim was to disseminate good will and practical knowledge by enlisting volunteers. Most were under the age of 30, and served to two-year terms of service. This executive order was put in place on March 1st, 1961. With an estimated 240,000 volunteered American's traveling abroad to promote and create friendship with other countries. -
Michael Harrington publishes the The Other America, a shocking expose about poverty in the wealthiest nation in the world. John F. Kennedy himself would be influenced by this book. He and his successor, Lyndon Johnson, declare war on poverty. And proceed to launch a decade long political mission to try and reduce unemployment. They also tried to increase federal support for schools and adult education, and expanding the network of government programs assisting the poor and elderly. -
U.S. Steel announces that it's raising prices just weeks after President Kennedy convinced the steel workers union to temper its wage demands. Kennedy was outraged with the Steel company and shared with the press and Attorney General Robert Kennedy adds further to business anxieties by convening a grand jury investigation of the steel giant. And within the following weeks the stock market will fall, with the climax of the fall being 6% on May 28th. -
President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. President Lyndon Baines Johnson is sworn in as president the same day, November 22nd, 1963. The man who killed Kennedy was Lee Harvey Oswald. He used a 6.5×52mm Italian Carcano M91/38, a bolt-action rifle. And a 38 Smith & Wesson "Victory" Model 10, a revolver. The Texas governor was also shot but did not die, he was only injured. -
In September 1963, president John F. Kennedy raised the minimum wage from $1 per hour to $1.25 per hour. The bill passed to raise minimum wage which also meant that they were now covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act. This jump was a lot more compared to recent years. The original minimum wage was once 40 cents. It then moved up to 75 cents, then a 1$ and hour. -
Like the late JFK, LBJ continues the war on poverty him and JFK started. He outlines an ambitious domestic agenda aimed at reducing unemployment. It also aimed at increasing support for education and job training, and expanding public services for the poor. He was doing this all just a month after being sworn in on the same day of the assassination. -
President Lyndon Johnson signs the bill creating Medicare, a national health insurance program for the elderly. While Companion Legislation creates Medicaid, which provides healthcare for people on welfare. Later Medicaid will be broadened into a more large program to give health care for low income persons. These programs were able to help people because of LBJ signing the Social Security Amendments of 1965. -
On April 23rd, 1968, Students at Columbia University seize several campus buildings to protest the university’s involvement with the Institute for Defense Analysis. It was supposed to be a Defensive think tank, and the university planned to build a gym on a park on a park in a neighboring Black community. The protesters/students will be removed from the campus buildings on April 30th after a violent battle with the police. -
In 1970, three members of the Weathermen, a radical political organization growing out of the Students for a Democratic Society, were killed after a bomb they had been constructing blows up in their Greenwich Village townhouse. There was later a second bomb found by the military and the terrorist group, the Weathermen or Weatherman took blame for both explosives. A year after the groups forming they had planted 25 bombs and made them successfully go off.