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First Large Scale Vaccination distributed amongst kids to fight Polio
Polio is a life threatening disease that usually affected the spinal cord, leaving the victim with Paralysis. The polio epidemic started in the US in the late 1800’s, and would continue to prevalent until the vaccine was invented. Today it is not a problem in the US because kids are vaccinated at a young age -
McCarthyism
Joseph McCarthy begins televised Senate hearings into alleged Communist influence in the United States Army. Although it would be this same year that he would be condemned by the senate for these hearings -
Brown V. Board
Racial segregation in public schools is declared unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court. This would reverse the Plessy V. Ferguson decision which declared Seperate but Equal constitutional. -
Integrate Schools
The Supreme Court ordered that all public schools be integrated with deliberate speed -
Vietnam War Starts
Despite the US government starting to train South Vietnamese soldiers in February, the official war between Ho Chi Mihn’s North Vietnam and the US backed South Vietnam would start November 1st -
Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat to a white man, which led to her arrest. This would prompt a boycott of the Bus systems, which eventually got the government to declare bus segregation laws unconstitutional -
AFL-CIO
The two largest American labor unions, the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations, merge to form the AFL-CIO, boasting membership of fifteen million laborers -
Federal- Aid Highway Act
Interstate highway system begins with the signing of the Federal-Aid Highway Act. -
Transatlantic Cable
The first transatlantic telephone cable begins operation. Even though it was made for telegraphs, it is still in use today with more modern technology. -
Eisenhower Re-elected
President Dwight D. Eisenhower is inaugurated for his second term in office. -
Little Rock Nine
National Guard activated by Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus to bar nine black students from attending previously all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. He withdrew the troops on September 21 and the students were allowed entrance to class two days later. A threat of violence caused President Eisenhower to dispatch federal troops to Little Rock on September 24 to enforce the edict. -
Explorer 1
Explorer I, the first U.S. space satellite, is launched by the Army at Cape Canaveral. It would discover the Van Allen radiation belt. -
NASA
NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration begins operation as a federal agency -
Alaska and Hawii
Alaska becomes the 49th State on 1/3/1959. Hawii would become the 50th state on 8/21/1959 -
Sit-ins Begin
Four black college students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College in Greensboro, North Carolina stage a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth lunch counter, protesting their denial of service. This action caused a Widespread movement of sit-ins across the nation -
Gary Powers Captured
In the Soviet Union, a United States U-2 plane is shot down by Soviet forces, leading to the capture of U.S. pilot Gary Powers. On August 19, Powers is sentenced by the Soviet Union to ten years in prison for espionage. On February 10, 1962 , he would be exchanged for a captured Soviet spy in Berlin. -
New Flag
A new fifty star flag is debuted in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. -
JFK Elected
JFK defeated Richard Nixon to become the 35th President of the US -
US cuts ties with Cuba
Disputes over the nationalization of United States businesses in Cuba cause the U.S. Government to sever diplomatic and consular relations with the Cuban government. -
Bay of Pigs
The Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba is repulsed by Cuban forces in an attempt by Cuban exiles under the direction of the United States government to overthrow the regime of Fidel Castro. -
First American in Space
On May 5, 1961, Alan B. Shepard became the first American in space during a suborbital flight aboard his Mercury capsule named Freedom 7 -
Construction of the Berlin Wall
The construction of the Berlin Wall begins by the Soviet bloc, segregating the German city, previously held in four sectors by Allied forces, including the United States. The wall would last for twenty-eight years -
Cuban Missile Crises begins
In response to the Soviet Union building offensive missiles in Cuba, President John F. Kennedy orders a naval and air blockade of military equipment to the island. An agreement is eventually reached with Soviet Premier Khrushchev on the removal of the missiles, ending the potential conflict after thirty-eight days -
Alcatraz Closed
The last twenty-seven prisoners of Alcatraz, the island prison in San Francisco Bay, are ordered removed by Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, and the federal penitentiary is closed. -
Nuclear Test Ban
The United States, Soviet Union, and Great Britain agree to a limited nuclear test-ban treaty, barring all nuclear testing above ground. -
March On Washington
The Civil Rights march on Washington, D.C. for Jobs and Freedom culminates with Dr. Martin Luther King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Over 200,000 people participated in the march for equal rights. -
JFK Assassinated
Dallas, Texas, during a motorcade through downtown, President John F. Kennedy is mortally wounded by assassin Lee Harvey Oswald. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson is sworn into office later that day -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson. -
Watts Race Riot
The Watts race riots in Los Angeles begin a five day siege, culminating in the death of thirty-four people and property destruction in excess of $200 million. -
Anti- War Students
The first public burning of a draft card occurs in protest to the Vietnam War. -
Medicare
Medicare, the government medical program for citizens over the age of 65, begins. -
National Historic Preservation Act
The National Historic Preservation Act is made law. It expanded the National Register of Historic Places to include historic sites of regional, state, and local significance. -
Thurgood Marshall
Thurgood Marshall is sworn into office as the first black Supreme Court Justice -
MLK Assassinated
Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King is assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee while standing on a motel balcony by James Earl Ray. -
Robert F. Kennedy Assinated
Presidential candidate, the Democratic Senator from New York, Robert F. Kennedy, is shot at a campaign victory celebration in Los Angeles by Sirhan Sirhan, a Jordanian, after primary victories, and dies one day later. -
Richard Nixon Elected
Richard Nixon defeats Hubert H. Humphrey to become the 37th president of the United States -
American Forces Withdrawn from Vietnam
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Neil Armstrong becomes first man on the mooon.
The Apollo program completes its mission. Neil Armstrong, United States astronaut, becomes the first man to set foot on the moon -
26th Ammendment
The Senate approves a Constitutional Amendment, the 26th, that would lower the voting age from 21 to 18 -
Watergate Crisis
The Watergate crisis begins when four men are arrested for breaking into the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate office building in Washington, D.C. Their mission was to spy and sabotage evidence. -
The Arab Oil Embargo
The Arab Oil Embargo: Oil imports from Arab oil-producing nations are banned to the United States after the start of the Arab-Israeli war, creating the 1973 energy crisis. They would not resume until March 18, 1974. -
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Richard Nixon Impeachment
Impeachment hearings are begun by the House Judiciary Committee against President Richard M. Nixon in the Watergate affair. On July 24, the United States Supreme Court rules that President Nixon must turn over the sixty-four tapes of White House conversations concerning the Watergate break-in. The first of three articles indeed in a 27-11 vote to impeach. This would lead to Nixon’s resignation of the presidency to avoid being convicted. -
Jimmy Carter Elected
Jimmy Carter defeated Gerald Ford by 27 electoral votes to become the 39th president -
Draft Dodgers Pardoned
The majority of Vietnam War draft evaders, ten thousand in number, are pardoned by President Jimmy Carter -
US votes to return Panama Canal to Panama
The United States Senate votes to return the Panama Canal back to Panama on December 31, 1999. -
Soviet Union Embargo
President Jimmy Carter announces the embargo on sale of grain and high technology to the Soviet Union due to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan -
Ronald Reagan Elected
Ronald Reagan defeated Jimmy Carter in a landslide win. (489 to 49) He becomes the 40th President -
Assassination Attempt on Reagan
President Ronald Reagan withstands an assassination attempt, shot in the chest while walking to his limousine in Washington, D.C. -
First Woman SCJ
Sandra Day O'Connor is approved unanimously, 99-0, by the United States Senate to become the first female Supreme Court associate justice in history -
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C., holding the names of the more than 58,000 killed or missing in action during the conflict. -
Reagan signs legislation to rescuer the Social Security System from Bankruptcy
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Tensions continually build between the US and Iran which would eventually spark the GUlf War in 1990
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President Reagan wins re-election over Walter F. Mondale
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MLK Day becomes officially observed as a federal holiday
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Challenger Space Shuttle Explodes at Cape Canaveral killing 7 people including a school teacher
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George H W Bush becomes 41 president in win over Michael Dukakis (Govener of Massachusetts)
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Berlin Wall Destroyed
