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Period: to
Events
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Korean War begins
Armed forces from communist North Korea smash into South Korea, setting off the Korean War. The United States, acting under the auspices of the United Nations, quickly sprang to the defense of South Korea and fought a bloody and frustrating war for the next three years. -
President Truman makes first transcontinental television broadcast
On this day in 1951, President Harry S. Truman's opening speech before a conference in San Francisco is broadcast across the nation, marking the first time a television program was broadcast from coast to coast. -
Truman Signs Peace Treaty With Japan, Officially Ending WWII
Truman's acceptance of a treaty that officially ended America's post-World War II occupation of Japan. -
Harry Truman
Truman publicly announced that had directed the Atomic Energy Commission to proceed with the development of the hydrogen bomb. -
The First Playboy Magazine
27-year-old Hugh Hefner published the very first Playboy magazine. This first edition of Playboy was 44-pages long and had no date on its cover because Hefner wasn't sure there would be a second edition. In that first run, Hefner sold 54,175 copies of Playboy magazine at 50 cents each. -
U.S Senator Joseph McCarthy
Begins televised hearings into alleged Communists in the army.And also spent five years trying in vain to expose communists and other left-wing “loyalty risks” in the U.S. government. -
BROWN V. BOARD OF EDUCATION
United States Supreme Court handed down its ruling in the landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. The Court’s unanimous decision overturned provisions of the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson decision, which had allowed for “separate but equal” public facilities, including public schools in the United States. -
Disneyland Opens
Disneyland opened for a few thousand specially invited visitors; the following day, Disneyland officially opened to the public. Disneyland, located in Anaheim, California on what used to be a 160-acre orange orchard, cost $17 million to build. The original park included Main Street, Adventureland, Frontierland, Fantasyland, and Tomorrowland. -
Emmett Till Death
14-year-old Emmett Till, an African American from Chicago, is brutally murdered for flirting with a white woman four days earlier. The two men then beat him nearly to death, gouged out his eye, shot him in the head, and then threw his body, tied to the cotton-gin fan with barbed wire, into the river. -
Rosa Parks Refuses to Give Up Her Bus Seat
a 42-year-old African-American seamstress, refused to give up her seat to a white man while riding on a city bus in Montgomery, Alabama. For doing this, Rosa Parks was arrested and fined for breaking the laws of segregation. -
Marilyn Monroe is found dead
Marilyn Monroe is found dead in her home in Los Angeles. She was discovered lying nude on her bed, face down, with a telephone in one hand. Empty bottles of pills, prescribed to treat her depression, were littered around the room. -
CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS
In a TV address on October 22, 1962, President John Kennedy (1917-63) notified Americans about the presence of the missiles, explained his decision to enact a naval blockade around Cuba and made it clear the U.S. was prepared to use military force if necessary to neutralize this perceived threat to national security. -
Martin Luther King's I Have a Dream
Martin Luther King Jr. worked with a number of civil rights and religious groups to organize the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful political rally designed to shed light on the injustices African Americans continued to face across the country. -
President John F. Kennedy's Assassination
On November 22, 1963, the youth and idealism of America in the 1960s faltered as its young President, John F. Kennedy, was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald while riding in a motorcade through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas. -
The Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964, which ended segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin, is considered one of the crowning legislative achievements of the civil rights movement. -
Malcolm X Assassinated
More sophisticated than in his Black Muslim days and of growing moral stature, he was assassinated by a Black Muslim at a rally of his organization in New York on February 21, 1965 -
U.S. Sends Troops to Vietnam
When the North Vietnamese fired directly upon two U.S. ships in international waters on August 2 and 4, 1964. This resolution gave the President the authority to escalate U.S. involvement in Vietnam. President Lyndon Johnson used that authority to order the first U.S. ground troops to Vietnam in March 1965. -
First Super Bowl
Super Bowl was played on January 15, 1967 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles, California. The National Football League (NFL) champion Green Bay Packers defeated the American Football League (AFL) champion Kansas City Chiefs by the score of 35–10. -
Martin Luther King Jr. Assassinated
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was hit by a sniper's bullet. King had been standing on the balcony in front of his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, when, without warning, he was shot. King was immediately taken to a nearby hospital but was pronounced dead at 7:05 p.m. -
Robert Kennedy Assassination
Robert F. Kennedy was shot three times by Palestinian immigrant Sirhan Sirhan after giving a speech at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California. Robert Kennedy's assassination later led to Secret Service protection for all future major presidential candidates. -
Kent State Shootings
Ohio National Guardsmen were on the Kent State college campus to maintain order during a student protest against the Vietnam War. For a still unknown reason, the National Guard suddenly fired upon the already dispersing crowd of student protesters, killing four and wounding nine others. -
U.S. Pulls Out of Vietnam
President Richard Nixon announces that 50,000 additional U.S. troops will be pulled out of South Vietnam by April 15, 1972. This was the third reduction since the June Midway conference, when Nixon announced his Vietnamization program. -
Watergate Scandal Begins
Several burglars were arrested inside the office of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), located in the Watergate building in Washington, D.C. This was no ordinary robbery: The prowlers were connected to President Richard Nixon’s reelection campaign, and they had been caught while attempting to wiretap phones and steal secret documents. -
U.S. Vice President Resigns
Cold WarPresident Dwight D. Eisenhower apologizes to African diplomat, 1957 CrimeA former postal worker commits mass murder, 1991 DisasterGreat Hurricane ravages West Indies, 1780 General InterestBattle of Tours, 732 Birth of the U.S. Naval Academy, 1845 October Crisis in Canada, 1970 Vice President Agnew resigns, 1973 HollywoodSuperman Christopher Reeve dies at age 52, 2004 LiteraryDarwin publishes work on mold and worms, 1881 MusicPorgy and Bess, the first great American opera, premieres on B -
U.S. President Nixon Resigns
Nixon resigned the office of the presidency on August 9, 1974, after addressing the nation on television the previous evening. The resignation speech was delivered from the Oval Office and was carried live on radio and television. Nixon stated that he was resigning for the good of the country and asked the nation to support the new president, Gerald Ford -
Microsoft Founded
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in software, services, and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential. -
Elvis Found Dead
Elvis body was found in the upstairs bathroom by his girlfriend Ginger Alden at his home Graceland in Memphis. He was one of the most admired American singers of the 20th century -
Mother Teresa Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
The Norwegian Nobel Committee has awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 1979 to Mother Teresa. Thirty years ago Mother Teresa left her teaching post at a Roman Catholic girls' school in Calcutta in order to devote her life to working among the poorest of the poor in the slums of that city. -
Nuclear Accident at Three Mile Island
The Three Mile Island Unit 2 (TMI-2) reactor, near Middletown, Pa., partially melted down on March 28, 1979. This was the most serious accident in U.S. commercial nuclear power plant operating history, although its small radioactive releases had no detectable health effects on plant workers or the public. -
Sony Introduces the Walkman
On July 1, 1979, Sony Corp. introduced the Sony Walkman TPS-L2, a 14 ounce, blue-and-silver, portable cassette player with chunky buttons, headphones and a leather case. It even had a second earphone jack so that two people could listen in at once. -
Mount St. Helens Erupts
The eruption of Mt. St. Helens in 1980 was the worst volcanic disaster in U.S. history; however, it offered scientists an exceptional opportunity to examine and study a large volcanic eruption, which has enriched scientific knowledge of volcanoes. -
John Lennon Assassinated
John Lennon was an English musician who gained worldwide fame as one of the founder members of The Beatles, for his subsequent solo career, and for his political activism and pacifism. He was shot by Mark David Chapman at the entrance to the building where he lived, The Dakota, in New York City on 8 December 1980. Lennon had just returned from Record Plant Studio with his wife, Yoko Ono. -
Reagan Assassination Attempt
On March 30, 1981, 25-year-old John Hinckley Jr. opened fire on U.S. President Ronald Reagan just outside the Washington Hilton Hotel. President Reagan was hit by one bullet, which punctured his lung. Three others were also injured in the shooting. -
First Woman Appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court
July 7, 1981, President Ronald Reagan nominated Sandra Day O'Connor to be the first woman on the U.S. Supreme Court. On September 21, the United States Senate confirmed O'Connor in a vote of 99 for and zero against. Sandra Day O'Connor was officially sworn in and took her seat on the U.S. Supreme Court on September 25, 1981. -
Vietnam War Memorial Opened in Washington, DC
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is a national memorial in Washington, D.C. It honors U.S. service members of the U.S. armed forces who fought in the Vietnam War, service members who died in service in Vietnam/South East Asia, and those service members who were unaccounted for (Missing In Action) during the War. -
New Plague Identified as AIDS
*By 1982 the illness had a name—acquired immune deficiency syndrome. AIDS has since killed around 25 million people worldwide, orphaning 12 million children in Africa alone. *The first known case of HIV in a human occurs in a person who died in the Congo, later confirmed as having HIV infection from his preserved blood samples. -
First American Woman in Space
On June 18, 1983, Sally Ride became the first American woman to fly in space when the space shuttle Challenger launched on mission STS-7. -
Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster
At 11:38 a.m. on Tuesday, January 28, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger launched from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida. As the world watched on TV, the Challenger soared into the sky and then, shockingly, exploded just 73 seconds after take-off. All seven members of the crew, including social studies teacher Sharon "Christa" McAuliffe, died in the disaster. An investigation of the accident discovered that the O-rings of the right solid rocket booster had malfunctioned. -
Black Monday (1987)
In finance, Black Monday refers to Monday, October 19, 1987, when stock markets around the world crashed, shedding a huge value in a very short time. The crash began in Hong Kong and spread west to Europe, hitting the United States after other markets had already declined by a significant margin. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) dropped by 508 points to 1738.74 (22.61%).
In Australia and New Zealand the 1987 crash is also referred to as Black Tuesday because of the timezone difference -
The Fall of the Berlin Wall
In the evening of November 9, 1989, East German government official Günter Schabowski stated during a press conference that travel through the border to the West was open.
