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Cold War
The Cold War was a period of geopolitical tension between the Soviet Union with its satellite states, and the United States with its allies after World War II. -
End of World War Two
Germany had already surrendered, causing the Axis Powers to fall apart. It wasn't until the US dropped the Atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, forcing the Japanese to surrender. -
Truman Doctrine
The Truman Doctrine was an American foreign policy whose stated purpose was to counter Soviet geopolitical expansion during the Cold War. -
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McCarthyism/Red Scare
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Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan was an American initiative passed in 1948 to aid Western Europe, in which the United States gave over $12 billion in economic assistance to help rebuild Western European economies after the end of World War II. -
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Korean War
North Korea invades South Korea and continues on to the capital of Seoul. South Korea does not strong enough to stop it. President Truman sends troops to Korea. Other countries in the United Nations join the war because they want to stop communism from spreading to South Korea. In July of 1953, North Korea and South Korea sign an agreement to stop fighting. Korea is still divided, but the two countries agree to create a neutral zone called the Demilitarized Zone to separate the countries. -
Cuban Revolution
The Cuban Revolution was an armed revolt conducted by Fidel Castro's revolutionary 26th of July Movement and its allies against the authoritarian government of Cuban President Fulgencio Batista. The revolution began in July 1953, and continued sporadically until the rebels finally ousted Batista on 31 December 1958, replacing his government with a revolutionary socialist state. -
Brown v. Board of Education
A landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that American state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the segregated schools are otherwise equal in quality. Handed down on May 17, 1954, the Court's unanimous decision stated that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal," and therefore violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. -
Domino Effect
The domino theory was a Cold War policy that suggested a communist government in one nation would quickly lead to communist takeovers in neighboring states, each falling like a perfectly aligned row of dominos. In Southeast Asia, the U.S. government used the now-discredited domino theory to justify its involvement in the Vietnam War and its support for a non-communist dictator in South Vietnam -
Rosa Parks
Rosa's bravery started the Montgomery Bus Boycott. While riding a public bus, she was seated in the first row of the "black section." When a white man boarded and she was asked to move because the "white section" was full, she refused and was arrested. -
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Montgomery Bus Boycott
The Montgomery bus boycott was a political and social protest campaign against the policy of racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery, Alabama. It was a seminal event in the civil rights movement. The boycott ended when the federal ruling Browder v. Gayle took effect, and led to a United States Supreme Court decision that declared the Alabama and Montgomery laws that segregated buses were unconstitutional. -
Little Rock Nine
The Little Rock Nine was a group of nine African American students enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in 1957. Their enrollment was followed by the Little Rock Crisis, in which the students were initially prevented from entering the racially segregated school by Orval Faubus, the Governor of Arkansas. They then attended after the intervention of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. -
Sputnik Launched
Sputnik 1 was the first artificial Earth satellite. The Soviet Union launched it into an elliptical low Earth orbit on 4 October 1957, orbiting for three weeks before its batteries died, then silently for two more months before falling back into the atmosphere. The launching shocked many Americans since we suffered when it came to technology. -
Bay of Pigs
The Bay of Pigs Invasion was a failed military invasion of Cuba undertaken by the Central Intelligence Agency-sponsored rebel group Brigade 2506. A counter-revolutionary military group, trained and funded by the CIA, Brigade 2506 fronted the armed wing of the Democratic Revolutionary Front and intended to overthrow the increasingly communist government of Fidel Castro. Launched from Guatemala and Nicaragua, the invading force was defeated within three days. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis, also known as the October Crisis of 1962, the Caribbean Crisis, or the Missile Scare, was a 13-day confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union initiated by the American discovery of Soviet ballistic missile deployment in Cuba. The confrontation is often considered the closest the Cold War came to escalating into a full-scale nuclear war. -
Letter from Birmingham Jail
The Letter from Birmingham Jail, also known as The Negro Is Your Brother, is an open letter written by Martin Luther King Jr. The letter defends the strategy of nonviolent resistance to racism. It says that people have a moral responsibility to break unjust laws and to take direct action rather than waiting potentially forever for justice to come through the courts. Responding to being referred to as an "outsider," King writes, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere". -
March on Washington
The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, the March on Washington, or The Great March on Washington, was held in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, August 28, 1963. The purpose of the march was to advocate for the civil and economic rights of African Americans. At the march, Martin Luther King Jr., standing in front of the Lincoln Memorial, delivered his historic "I Have a Dream" speech in which he called for an end to racism. -
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Tet Offensive
Officially called The General Offensive and Uprising of Tet Mau Than 1968 by North Vietnam and the Viet Cong, was one of the largest military campaigns of the Vietnam War, launched by forces of the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese People's Army of Vietnam against the forces of the South Vietnamese Army of the Republic of Vietnam, the United States Armed Forces and their allies. It was a campaign of surprise attacks against military and civilian command and control centers throughout South Vietnam. -
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Kent State Shootings
The Kent State shootings, also known as the May 4 massacre or the Kent State massacre, were the shootings on May 4, 1970, of unarmed college students by members of the Ohio National Guard at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio, during a mass protest against the bombing of Cambodia by United States military forces. Twenty-eight guardsmen fired approximately 67 rounds over a period of 13 seconds, killing four students and wounding nine others, one of whom suffered permanent paralysis. -
Walt Disney World
The Magic Kingdom opens in Orlando, Florida, expanding the Disney Empire to the east coast of the United States -
Watergate
Watergate crisis begins when four men are arrested for breaking into the Democratic National Committee Headquarters in the Watergate office in Washington D.C. -
Roe v. Wade
a landmark decision issued in 1973 by the United States Supreme Court on the issue of the constitutionality of laws that criminalized or restricted access to abortions. The Court ruled 7–2 that a right to privacy under the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment extended to a woman's decision to have an abortion, but that this right must be balanced against the state's interests in regulating abortions: protecting women's health and protecting the potentiality of human life. -
The Watergate Trial begins
Two defendants in the trail are convicted. The remaining five had pleaded guilty earlier. -
The Watergate Trial widens!
The Watergate affair widens when four members of Nixon's administration resign under suspicion of obstructing justice. -
Watergate coverup confirmed!
John W. Dean, an aide to Nixon, admits that the administration conspired to cover up the facts of the case, leading to the refusal of the President to release tapes concerning Watergate. -
Watergate leads to impeachment!
Impeachment hearings begin in the House Judiciary Committee against President Nixon in the Watergate affair. On July 24th, the United States Supreme Court rules that he must turn over the 64 tapes of White House conversations concerning the Watergate break-in. -
Watergate...the end is near!
The first three articles of impeachment against Nixon is recommended in a 27-11 vote of the House Judiciary Committee, charging that Nixon had been part of a criminal conspiracy to obstruct justice in the Watergate affair. -
Nixon Resigns
President Nixon resigns from the office of presidency, avoiding the impeachment process and admitting his role in Watergate. We is replaced by Gerald Ford, who pardoned Nixon for his role. Nixon was the first president to ever resign. The Watergate affair came to a close on January 1, 1975 when all aides are found guilty. -
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The Iran Hostage Crisis
The Iran hostage crisis was a diplomatic standoff between the United States and Iran. Fifty-two American diplomats and citizens were held hostage for 444 days from November 4, 1979, to January 20, 1981, after a group of Iranian college students belonging to the Muslim Student Followers of the Imam's Line, who supported the Iranian Revolution, took over the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. It stands as the longest hostage crisis in recorded history. -
Operation Eagle Claw
The attempt to rescue the hostages held captive in the U.S. Embassy fails with eight Americans killed and five wounded during a mid-air collision. -
Reagan Inauguration/Release of Hostages
The inauguration of the 40th president was followed by the release of the 52 hostages in Tehran. The Iranian hostage crises was negotiated for the return of $8 billion in frozen Iranian assets. -
Attempted Assassination of Reagan
President Ronald Reagan and three others were shot and wounded by John Hinckley Jr. in Washington, D.C., as they were leaving a speaking engagement at the Washington Hilton Hotel. Hinckley's motivation for the attack was to impress actress Jodie Foster. -
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Iran-Contra Affair
The first reporting of diverting money from arm sales to Iran to fund Nicaraguan contra rebels, begins the largest crisis in the Reagan tenure. -
Iran-Contra Affair
President Reagan admits to a policy that went astray, but denied knowledge of the diversion of funds to the the contras. -
The Fall of the Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall, after 38 years of restricting traffic between East and West Germany, begins to crumble when citizens are allowed to travel freely between the two for the first time. One day later, the influx of crowds around and on the wall begin to dismantle it, ending its existence.
