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Dwight D. Eisenhower presidency
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Fall of Dien Bien Phu
With the loss of the vital fortress of Dien Bien Phu in northern Vietnam, the French were forced to give up their possession of Indochina. -
Brown v. Board of Education
In a landmark decision, the US Supreme Court deliberated that separate facilities are inherently unequal, and de jure segregation is in violation of the 14th Amendment. This decision paved the way for further civil rights activity. -
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Vietnam War
After removing the French, the now independent Vietnam was split between a communist north and a pro-west south. For 20 years the North Vietnamese tried to conquer South Vietnamese, fighting intervening Americans until 1973. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
In a famous moment, black woman Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus to a white passenger. Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. kicked off his civil rights career leading protesters in a boycott of the bus system, resulting in a Supreme Court decision that bus segregation was unconstitutional. -
AF of L merges with CIO
The conjoined AFL-CIO would go on to represent over 11 million unionized workers. -
Dwight D. Eisenhower reelected
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Little Rock Nine
Following Brown v. Board of Education, the NAACP registered 9 black students to attend Central High School in Little Rock in the 1957 school year. The school refused to let the students attend, and president Eisenhower responded by having the students escorted to class by a detachment of US Army Airborne troops. -
NDEA authorized education loans
After the Russians launched Sputnik in 1957, it became clear American needed to catch up in the fields of math and science, so the NDEA was signed in to provide for math and science educations as scientific research was overhauled. -
Hawaii and Alaska gain statehood
To expand US presence in the Pacific region, Hawaii and Alaska were admitted to the Union. -
Landrum-Griffin Act
Public opinion of organized labor began to decline as evidence surfaced of corruption and racketeering. The Landrum-Griffin Act responded by curbing the power of union officials. -
Sit-In Movement
When a group of nonviolent antisegregation protesters sat in a segregated Woolworth's in Greensboro, North Carolina, a wave of sit-ins began in segregated establishments across the South, raising public awareness of the scope of Southern segregation. The most successful wave of sit-ins took place in Nashville, Tennessee, where lunch counters were desegregated as a result. -
John F. Kennedy elected
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JFK presidency
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United States sends military advisers to Vietnam
Security of Defense Robert McNamara approves the sending of six divisions (200,000 men) of US troops to "advise" the South Vietnamese. -
Trade Expansion Act
In order to stimulate international trade, JFK lowered the American protective tariff. -
March on Washington
200,000 to 300,000 civil rights protesters in one of the largest civil rights rallies of all time in support of JFK's civil rights legislation. The rally is famous as the setting for Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, and for helping pass the Civil Rights Act (1964) and Voting Rights Act (1965). -
JFK assassination
JFK was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald, Lyndon Johnson was immediately sworn into the presdidency. -
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Lyndon B. Johnson presidency
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War on Poverty
During his State of the Union address, LBJ announced the War on Poverty, an undertaking which would be embodied by the Great Society in 1965, a series of New Dealish economic reforms. -
24th Amendment
The 24th Amendment to the Constitution abolished the use of a poll tax in national votes. From 1964 onward black communities wouldn't be subjected to poll taxes during elections. -
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
After a skirmish with North Vietnamese forces, Congress gave president Johnson a convetional military blank check in Southeast Asia, resulting in the sending of hundreds of thousands of US regular troops. -
Lyndon B. Johnson reelected
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Operation Rolling Thunder
Using his new power, president Johnson began a massive air bombing campaign against North Vietnam. By the end of the war more bombs were dropped on Vietnam than bombs dropped on the Axis during World War 2. -
Voting Rights Act
The culmination of much civil rights agitation for Black Americans, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 outlawed discriminatory voting practices by states aiming to disenfranchise minorities. -
Tet Offensive
On the Vietnamese new year (Tet), the NVA and Viet Cong launched a coordinated attack on South Vietnamese cities. Though they were beaten back with heavy losses, images of the fighting on the news hurt American enthusiasm for the war at home. -
Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination
The civil rights movement lost its de facto leader to James Earl Ray, who killed King in his motel in Memphis, Tennessee. The killing set off a spree of riots and saw the end of the nonviolent protest movement, with the militant black power phase picking up pace. -
Richard Nixon elected
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Richard Nixon presidency
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Stonewall Inn Riots
After a violent raid by New York police against gays in the Stonewall Inn, a wave of gay liberation riots began in protest across the country. This event is credited as the beginning of the gay rights movement. -
Clean Air Act
This legislation resulted in teh creation of the Environmental Protection Agency, a federal regulatory body dedicated to upholding the environmental regulations set in place by earlier Clean Air Acts. -
26th Amendment
The 26th Amendment to the Constitution reduced the legal voting age to 18, bringing in a generation of young voters. -
Equal Rights Amendment
Although sex discrimination in education was banned by Title IX of the Education Opportunities Act, the Equal Rights Act, which would outlaw sex discrimination in the workplace, was passed by Congress but failed to be ratified by the states. -
Richard Nixon reelected
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Roe v. Wade
In the most controversial Supreme Court decision of all time, abortion was rule legal by the court under chief justice Warren Burger. -
Wounded Knee Incident
Members of the American Indian Movement occupied Wounded Knee, South Dakota in a grassroots protest of their mistreatment, agitating for tribal sovereignty. The nation's attention was caught by the incident and the tribes would win a court victory in 1978's United States v. Wheeler. -
US withdraws from Vietnam
After securing the release of American POWs from Hanoi and a cessation of hostilities, president Nixon withdrew all American forces from Vietnam, leaving South Vietnam to face the communists alone. -
Richard Nixon resigns
After the Watergate Scandal, Nixon was forced to resign his presidency. -
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Gerald Ford
After Richard Nixon's resignation, Ford assumed the presidency until losing the 1976 election to Jimmy Carter. -
Fall of Saigon
By the end of 1975 the North Vietnamese had resumed their invasion and rapidly taken South Vietnam. Over 500,000 South Vietnamese fled Vietnam to escape the communists.
