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400,000 mine workers went on strike, and other industries following their lead.
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The Philippines are given their independence by the United States, ending 425 years of being dominated by the west.
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The Atomic Energy Commission is established.
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The Truman Doctrine is announced to the U.S. Congress (meant to grant $400 million in aid to Greece and Turkey to battle Communist terrorism).
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Jackie Robinson breaks the MLB barrier against colored players when he debuts at first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers.
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The Organization of American States is founded by twenty-one nations to provide a mutual security pact after World War II, including Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the US, Uruguay, and Venezuela.
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Executive Order 9981, is signed into effect, ending segregation in the United States military.
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Alger Hiss, a former State Department official, was indicted for perjury in connection to denials of passing state secrets to a communist spy ring.
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The North American Treaty Organization, is formed by the United States, Canada, and ten Western European nations, stating that any attack against one nation would be considered an attack against all of them.
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The Korean War begins its three year conflict when troops of North Korea, backed with Soviet weaponry, invade South Korea.
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The United States, Australia, and New Zealand sign a mutual security pact known as the ANZUS Treaty.
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At Eniwetok Atoll in the Pacific Ocean, the first hydrogen bomb, named Mike, exploded.
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The description of a double helix DNA molecule is published by British physicist Francis Crick and American scientist James D. Watson.
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Racial segregation in public schools was declared unconstitutional by the United States Supreme Court in Brown vs. the Board of Education.
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Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on the bus to a white man, prompting a boycott that would lead to the declaration that bus segregation laws were unconstitutional by a federal court.
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The first transatlantic telephone cable begins operation.
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Black riots erupt across U.S. cities. In Newark, New Jersey, 26 are killed, 1500 injured and 1000 arrested from July 12 to 17. One week later, 40 are killed, 2000 injured, and 5000 left homeless after riots in Detroit, also known as the 12th Street Riots, decimating a black ghetto. The riots are eventually stopped by over 12,500 Federal troopers and National Guardsmen.
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The first attempt by the United States to launch a satellite into space fails when it explodes on the launchpad.
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Alaska is admitted to the United States as the 49th state (later Hawaii becomes the 50th state)
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The construction of the Berlin Wall begins by the Soviet bloc, segregating the German city, previously held in four sectors by Allied forces, including the United States, and lasting for 28 years.
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The Civil Rights march on Washington, D.C. for "Jobs and Freedom" culminates with Dr. Martin Luther King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Over 200,000 people participated in the march for equal rights.
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Medicare, the government medical program for citizens over the age of 65, begins.
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The first black United States Senator in 85 years, Edward Brooke, is elected to Congress.
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The Outer Space Treaty is signed into force by the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union, to take effect on October 10, 1967.
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Thurgood Marshall is sworn into office as the first black Supreme Court Justice.
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Ford's Theater, the site of the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln in 1865, reopens to the public after being restored to its original appearance and use as a theater.
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Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King is assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee while standing on a motel balcony, by James Earl Ray.
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Presidential candidate, Robert F. Kennedy, was shot at a campaign victory celebration in Los Angeles, by Sirhan Sirhan.
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The Apollo program completes its mission. Neil Armstrong becomes the first man to set foot on the moon four days after launch, accompanied by his Apollo 11 colleague, Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr.
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The Internet, called Arpanet during its initial development, is invented by the Advanced Research Projects Agency at the U.S. Department of Defense.
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The first Earth Day celebration is held with millions of Americans participating in anti-pollution demonstrations, including school children walking instead of riding the bus to school.
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The Senate approves the 26th Amendment, lowering the voting age from 21 to 18.
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Walt Disney World opens in Orlando, Florida, expanding the Disney empire to the east coast of the United States.
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President Richard M. Nixon makes the first trip of the U.S. President to Moscow. The week of many discussions would lead to a strategic arms pact called SALT I that would be signed by Nixon and Premier Leonid Brezhnev on May 26.
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The Watergate crisis begins when four men are arrested for breaking into the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate office building in Washington, D.C.
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The Supreme Court rules in Roe vs. Wade stating that a woman cannot be prevented by a state in having an abortion during the first six months of pregnancy.
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Two defendants in the Watergate break-in trial are convicted. The remaining five defendants had pleaded guilty to the crime two weeks earlier.
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Impeachment hearings were started by the House Judiciary Committee against President Richard M. Nixon in the Watergate affair.
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President Richard M. Nixon resigned to avoid the impeachment process and admitted his role in the Watergate affair. He was replaced by Vice President Gerald R. Ford (pictured).
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The television show Wheel of Fortune premiers.
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Communist forces completed the takeover of South Vietnam, which forced Saigon of civilians to evacuate from the United States.
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The Viking 1 space probe successfully landed on Mars, followed by a second unmanned Viking II on the Utopia Plains on September 3. The first color photos of the surface of Mars are taken on these flights.
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Microsoft became a registered trademark a year after its name for microcomputer software was first mentioned by Bill Gates to Paul Allen in a letter.
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The movie Star Wars opens and becomes the highest grossing film at the time.
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Fifteen nations, including the United States and the Soviet Union, sign a nuclear-proliferation pact, slowing the spread of nuclear weapons around the world.
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The first balloon, Double Eagle II, to cross the Atlantic Ocean landed in Miserey, France, after one hundred and thirty-seven hours of flight from Presque Isle, Maine.
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Pope John Paul II, Karol Wojtyla of Poland, was elected Pope at Vatican City.
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An accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Middletown, Pennsylvania occured when a partial core meltdown was recorded. A tense situation ensued for five days until the reactor was deemed under control. It is the largest accident in U.S. nuclear power history.
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The Iran Hostage Crisis began when sixty-three Americans were among ninety hostages taken at the American embassy in Tehran by three thousand militant student followers of Ayatollah Khomeini, who demanded that the former Shah return to Iran to stand trial.
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The attempt to rescue the American hostages held captive in the U.S. Embassy in Iran failed when a mid-air collision occurred, killing eight Americans and wounding five, in Operation Eagle Claw.
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The Mt. St. Helens volcano in Washington State erupted, killing 57 people with losses near $3 billion. The blast was estimated to have the power 500 times greater than the Hiroshima atomic bomb.
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The inauguration of Ronald Reagan as the 40th president of the United States occured in Washington, D.C., followed by the release of the fifty-two Americans still held hostage in Tehran.
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President Ronald Reagan withstood an assassination attempt. He was shot in the chest while walking to his limousine in Washington, D.C.
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Astronaut Sally Ride became the first American woman to travel into space.
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President Ronald Reagan won the reelection over Democratic challenger Walter F. Mondale.
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The first meeting in six years between the leaders of the Soviet Union and the United States occurred when Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan engaged in a five hour summit conference in Geneva, Switzerland.
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Martin Luther King Day is officially observed for the first time as a federal holiday in the United States.
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Five million people made a human chain across the United States in the Hands Across America campaign to fight hunger and homelessness.
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The first patent for a genetically engineered animal was issued to Harvard University researchers Philip Leder and Timothy Stewart.
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The Berlin Wall, after thirty-eight years of restricting traffic between the East and West sides of the city, began to crumble when German citizens were allowed to travel freely between East and West Germany for the first time.
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The Hubble Telescope was placed into orbit by the United States Space Shuttle Discovery. A month later, the telescope became operational.
