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On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union orbited the first artificial satellite, arousing fears that the United States was falling behind the Soviets technologically.
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on April 1961 Kennedy authorized a plan that had been initiated under Eisenhower for a covert invasion of Cuba to overthrow the newly installed, Soviet-supported communist regime of Fidel Castro. The invasion was repulsed at the Bay of Pigs, embarrassing the administration and worsening relations between the United States and the Soviet Union.
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Kennedy then began to work toward improving international relations, and in July 1963 he concluded a treaty with Britain and the Soviet Union banning atomic tests in the atmosphere and underwater. His program of aid to Latin America, the Alliance for Progress, raised inter-American relations to their highest level since the days of Franklin Roosevelt.
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The latter issue, which had aroused national concern in 1962 when federal troops were employed to assure the admission of a Negro at the University of Mississippi, caused further concern in 1963, when similar action was taken at the University of Alabama and mass demonstrations were held in support of desegregation.
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n August 1963 as the apotheosis of the nonviolent struggle for civil rights. Some 200,000 people had come from all over the country to gather at the Lincoln Memorial, where Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech.
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With passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the civil rights movement saw many of its goals embodied in federal law.
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The Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 provided federal funding for public and private education below the college level.
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The Higher Education Act of 1965 provided scholarships for more than 140,000 needy students and authorized a National Teachers Corps.
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In 1965, mass demonstrations were held to protest the violence and other means used to prevent black voter registration. After a peaceful protest march was halted by police violence on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, Johnson responded with the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which abolished literacy
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The Immigration Act of 1965 abolished the discriminatory national-origins quota system. The minimum wage was raised and its coverage extended in 1966. In 1967, social security pensions were raised and coverage expanded.
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The Demonstration Cities and Metropolitan Area Redevelopment Act of 1966 provided aid to cities rebuilding blighted areas. Other measures dealt with mass transit, truth in packaging and lending, beautification, conservation, water and air quality, safety, and support for the arts.
