Technology #3 By Shawnalynnsm Period: 1942 to 1953 Events 1945 Harry S. Truman becomes the United States President after FDR dies. 1947 Jackie Robinson becomes a part of the Dodgers, becoming the first African-American to play baseball for the Major League. 1948 Israel is created as an independent Jewish state. 1950 Famous physicist Albert Einstein warns the world that a nuclear war would lead to mutual destruction. 1951 The United States ratifies the 22nd amendment, limiting a president to two terms. 1953 Jonas Salk develops the first polio vaccine. 1954 Ellis Island ceases to be a point of immigration into the U.S. when it officially closes 1955 Rosa Parks is arrested in Alabama after she refuses to give up her bus seat to a white passenger, sparking the Civil Rights Movement. Period: 1955 to 1975 Vietnam 1957 The "Baby Boom" peaks during this year. 1958 The Great Chinese Famine begins. 1959 The Cuban revolution ends and Fidel Castro comes to power, creating the first Communist nation in the West. 1960 The United States decides to send 3,500 U.S. troops to Vietnam. 1960 The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is created. 1961 Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first person in space. One month later, Alan Shepard becomes the first American in space. 1962 The Cuban Missile Crisis has the world on the edge of another World War as the United States and USSR come close to launching nuclear attacks. 1963 United States President John F. Kennedy is assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald. 1963 U.S. Civil Rights Leader Martin Luther King Jr. gives is famous "I Have a Dream" speech. 1964 United States President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law. 1965 The Voting Rights Act is signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson. 1966 The Soviet Union's Luna 9 unmanned spacecraft lands on the Moon. 1967 Thurgood Marshall is appointed to the Supreme Court and becomes the first African-American 1968 Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated in April by James Earl Ray. 1968 The Civil Rights Act of 1968 is signed into law by President Johnson. 1968 Richard Nixon wins the United States presidential election. 1969 Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin become the first men to arrive on the Moon during NASA's Apollo 11 mission. 1970 The USSR launches the Venera 7 spacecraft. 1980 Ronald Reagan is elected as the President of the United States. Period: 1980 to 2001 Modern Era 1981 Sandra Day O'Connor is nominated as the first female Supreme Court Justice by President Reagan. 1983 Sally Ride becomes the first American woman in space. 1984 India's Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, is assassinated. 1986 The Chernobyl nuclear reactor explodes in the USSR. 1986 Mad Cow Disease (BSE - Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy) is identified in Britain for the first time. 1988 The Soviet Union withdraws their troops from Afghanistan. 1988 The Iran-Iraq war ends. 1989 The Berlin Wall is torn down at the end of the Cold War. 1990 East and West Germany are reunited after the collapse of the Soviet Union. 1991 Operation Desert Storm takes place in Iraq and Kuwait. 1992 Democrat Bill Clinton is elected as the United States President. 1993 NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) is signed into law. 1996 Bill Clinton is elected for a second term as the United States President after he defeats Bob Dole. 1999 Helen Clark becomes the first female Prime Minister elected in New Zealand.