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Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat for a white passenger and she was thrown in jail.
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The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a civil-rights protest during which African Americans refused to ride city buses in Montgomery, Alabama, to protest segregated seating.
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The Little Rock Nine was a group of nine African American students enrolled in Little Rock Central High School.
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The Soviet Union successfully launches Sputnik I, the first artificial satellite. Marking the dawn of the Space Age, the event pushes the US government into action and leads to the formation of National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
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In a closely contested election, Democrat John F. Kennedy defeated incumbent Vice President Richard Nixon, the Republican Party nominee.
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East Germany begins construction of the Berlin Wall, which closes all land routes between East and West Berlin.
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Reconnaissance reveals Soviet missiles in Cuba. The United States blockades Cuba for 13 days until the Soviet Union agrees to remove its missiles.
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John F. Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald during a motorcade in Dallas, Texas. Not soon after Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as president.
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Martin Luther King Jr., an American clergyman and civil rights leader, was fatally shot by James Earl Ray at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. He later died at the St. Joseph's Hospital.
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Apollo 11 was the spaceflight that landed the first two people on the Moon.
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Earth Day, an event to increase public awareness of the world’s environmental problems, is celebrated in the United States for the first time.
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The Watergate scandal began when several burglars were arrested in the Watergate complex of buildings. The burglars were connected to President Richard Nixon’s reelection campaign, and they had been caught wiretapping phones and stealing documents.