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Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin met to discuss the future of the post-WWII world and the end of the war. In exchange for land, Stalin agreed to join in the fight against Japan
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Manchester conference that focused on independence for African countries due to the detrimental effects of English rule
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Created a policy of intervention in foreign countries in order to contain the spread of communism
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Jackie Robinson joins the Dodgers: break in 'wall of segregation' due to success of groups lke CORE
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Sayyid Qutb traveled across America, forming an unfavorable impression of its culture that would shape anti-Western rhetoric for decades to come
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Alfred Kinsey's "Sexual Behavior in the Human Male" is published, paving the way for more open discussion of sexuality and revealing the truth about American sexuality
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The National Party is elected to South African government and immediately instates laws severely restricting the rights of black Africans
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After the creation of the Berlin Wall and subsequent blocks on shipping, etc., the US transported supplies by air to the Allied troops in West Berlin rather than give up their position
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Truman desegregates the army
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Created a military alliance between North American and several European nations to ensure mutual security and present a united front
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First gay rights activist group is founded in the US, focusing on gay men
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Ayman al-Zawahiri, who would later become bin Laden's strategist and the leader of al-Jihad, was born
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John O'Neill, who would become the head of American efforts against al-Qaeda, was born
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Campaign of mostly nonviolent apartheid protest, including a "case of 24 who entered a railway waiting room in Cape Town and were acquitted when the magistrate found that facilities for whites and non-whites were unequal."
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Nelson Mandela & Oliver Tambo open a legal firm by & for blacks
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Alfred Kinsey publishes the second volume of his reports, "Sexual Behavior in the Human Female", completing the set. America is forced to confront the truth about sexuality present in all members of society
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Overturned "separate but equal" and desegregated public schools
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Members of the Muslim Brotherhood attempted, but failed, to assassinate Egypt's Prime Minister Gamel Abdul Nasser
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Created a military alliance between the Soviet Union and its satellite states in direct opposition to NATO
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First lesbian activist group in the US is founded
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The poem "Howl" was ruled not obscene. This was a landmark victory for freedom of speech and counterculture
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Refused to give her bus seat to a white passenger
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Black community refused to ride buses in soliditary with Rosa Parks
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Supreme Court ruled segregation on buses unconstitutional
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Nelson Mandela (with 155 others) was charged with treason
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Osama bin Laden, who would later become the face of terrorism in the Middle East, was born
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Nonviolent demonstration including a speech for voting rights by Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Nine African-American children attempted to attend Central High School in order to test backing of the Brown v. Board ruling and were blocked by the state National Guard
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Established United States Civil Rights Commission to investigate civil rights violations
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UK movement that opposed nuclear weapons and later the Vietnam War. Also created the widely popular peace sign as their logo
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African nationalist movement split away from the ANC and named itself the PAC. "We aim, politically, at government of the Africans by the Africans, for the Africans, with everybody who owes his only loyalty to Africa and who is prepared to accept the democratic rule of an African majority being regarded as an African."
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Nonviolent protest upon refusal to serve black customers
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A riot breaks out after a protest of a law requiring black Africans to carry identifying passbooks. 69 people are killed
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Both the PAC and the ANC are banned following the Sharpeville Massacre
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Supreme Court ruled that segregation on interstate buses and waiting rooms was unconstitutional
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Freedom Ride begins. Its goal is to test enforcement of Boynton v. Virginia
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Freedom Ride buses are attacked by mobs and fireboms in Alabama
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Riders are escorted to Jackson by troops and subsequently arrested for disturbing the peace, but their point was made
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Poqo, an armed wing of the PAC, is formed to begin work on weaponized liberation efforts
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A military offshoot of the ANC known commonly as "MK" was launched in a move away from nonviolence
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Illinois becomes the first state to decriminalize homosexuality
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First meeting of the SDS, which would soon grow into a huge movement composed of tens of thousands of left-leaning student protesters, often concerned with peace and civil rights
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Nelson Mandela is arrested for his role in ANC-planned bombings and given a life sentence for treason
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James Meredith and Medgar Evers win a federal case to desegregate University of Mississippi
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James Meredith entered Ole Miss escorted by federal marshals. A riot ensued that injured 160 people
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A tense period sparked by the discovery of missiles in Cuba, prompting immediate peace talks between Kennedy and Krushchev along with a naval blockade and culminating in the removal of the missiles in exchange for a non-invasion pact on the part of the US
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Martin Luther King, Jr. joined marches in Birmighham despite a court order and was arrested, which didn't stop him from writing a compelling letter from jail
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32 African states come together to create a unified voice for the nation. Its goals included removing white minority rule.
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President Kennedy called civil rights a "moral issue" and proposed broad legislation on the matter to Congress
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Nonviolent protest with 200,000+ protestors. Included King's "I Have a Dream" speech
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Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, formerly SCLC headquarters, was destroyed by a bomb that killed four young girls
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Sayyid Qutb's book "Milestones" is published. It contains plans to recreate the Muslim world according to Islamist practices and law
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Poll tax prohibited
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The "Southern Bloc" of the Senate tried to block the passage of the bill through filibuster, but eventually enough votes were reached to end the blockade
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One of the UK's first gay rights movements is founded. It is later renamed to the Campaign for Homosexual Equality after male homosexuality is decriminalized
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British counterculture begins to form. Barry Miles describes the underground as "a catch-all sobriquet for a community of like-minded anti-establishment, anti-war, pro-rock'n'roll individuals, most of whom had a common interest in recreational drugs. " (http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2011/jan/30/underground-arts-60s-rebel-counterculture)
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Large-scale attempt to register African-American voters in Mississippi which resulted in the murder of three civil rights workers and a failed attempt at forming a new Democratic party
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Banned public facility segregation and gave courts the right to prosecute people who discriminated/violated civil rights
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Passed by Congress, allowing President Lyndon Johnson to use any means necessary to defend South Vietnam, thus effectively approving the Vietnam War
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Free Speech Movement is born at Berkeley
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Bombing campaign in Vietnam
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Owsley begins to mass produce LSD, allowing the general public to begin forming a drug culture
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Police attacked voting rights protestors in Selma
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First US combat troops arrive in Vietnam
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Banned literacy tests and allowed the federal government to supverise voting registration to check for discrimination
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Violent race-based rioting in the West
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The term "hippie" is coined by Michael Fallon, in an article referring to San Fransico counterculture, including a movement to legalize marijuana
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David Miller arrested for burning a draft card in protest
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A San Francisco hippie movement involving large gatherings of said hippies, free love, free drugs, and other such countercultural trappings
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Arab-Israeli conflict that ended in a victory for Israel along with their capture of Jerusalem. This war increased tension in the Middle East
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Male homosexual activity is decriminalized in England and Wales, with some restrictions such as a higher age of consent
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Brief period of democratic growth in Czechoslovakia led by Alexander Dubček
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Vietcong & North Vietnamese troops strike back, proving that they will not give up and causing a loss of public support for continued US involvement in the war
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Report by the Kerner Commission revealed that racism was everywhere in the United States and caused violence
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Martin Luther King, Jr. was murdered by James Earl Ray in the midst of planning for a "Poor People's Campaign"
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In the Star Trek episode "Plato’s Stepchildren", Uhura and Kirk kissed, marking the first time when a white man and an African-American woman had ever kissed on television
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Conference of East & Central African states in Lusaka comes to the conclusion that South Africa must be aided in its " armed liberation struggles against white minority regimes".
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When police raid the Stonewall Inn, gay and trans youth begin to riot, sparking a more fervent approach to the movement
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Huge concert described as “three days of peace, music, and love" (http://www.cliffsnotes.com/more-subjects/history/us-history-ii/the-new-frontier-and-the-great-society/the-counterculture-of-the-1960s). Also three days of drugs
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Senator Gaylord Nelson created this event, claiming that "We only have one earth, so we need to take care of her." It sparked a grassroots (pun intended) environmentalist movement that directly opposed the consumerist/industrial nature of American society at the time