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Explorer I, the first American satellite, is launched.
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Alaska becomes the 49th state
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Hawaii becomes the 50th state
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Freedom Riders travel on buses through the South in order to
protest racially segregated interstate bus facilities. -
Was a major cold war confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union.Involved missiles in Cuba aimed at the United States backed by the Soviets.
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Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee
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The Twenty-Sixth Amendment to the Constitution is ratified, lowering the voting age from 21 to 18.
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A political scandal in the United States involving the administration of U.S. President Richard Nixon.