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At 2 am there was an unplanned presidential campaign speech, where John F. Kennedy talked to about 5,000 students and the University of Michigan, challenging them to contribute 2 years of their lives to help people in countries of the developing world.
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Weeks after his speech, President Kennedy signs Executive Order 10924 establishing the Peace Corps on a temporary pilot basis
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Sargent Shriver is elected by Kennedy to be the Peace Corp’s first Director. During his time from March 1961 to February 1966, Shriver developed programs in 55 countries with more than 14,500 volunteers
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Director Sargent Shriver tells the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the agency has received “about 11,000 completed applications” in the first few months
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Peace Corps Volunteers learn a cultural lesson when a postcard written by a fellow volunteer describing her first impressions of Nigeria’s living conditions is found by a local student. Not realizing her comparisons would be an affront to her local community and that the anonymous nature the U.S. postal process would not apply in another country. This short communication home made front-page news everywhere.
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The Peace Corps Partnership Program is started to provide a link between U.S. contributors and requests for project assistance from overseas.
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Peace Corps becomes an independent federal agency and is no longer a part of action.
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Carol Bellamy, a returned Peace Corps Volunteer from Guatemala, becomes the first returned Peace Corps Volunteer to serve as Peace Corps Director 1993-1995).
She is followed by Mark Schneider, who served in El Salvador (Director from 1999-2001); Ronald Tschetter, who served in India (Director from 2006-2008); and Aaron Williams, who served in the Dominican Republic (Director from 2009-Present). -
Then first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and Her Majesty Queen Noor of Jordan dedicate the Peace Corps' new building on 20th Street in Washington, D.C.
