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Vietnam War
The Vietnam War, also known as the Second Indochina War, and in Vietnam as the Resistance War Against America or simply the American War, was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1954 to 1975 -
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The Cold War
The Cold War was a global political and ideological struggle between capitalist and communist countries, particularly between the two surviving superpowers of the postwar world: the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) -
Emmett Till is Murdered in Mississippi
Till, visiting from Chicago and unfamiliar with the “etiquette” of Jim Crow, allegedly whistled at a white woman. Her husband, Roy Bryant, and another man, J. W. Milam, abducted Till from his relatives’ home, beat him, mutilated him, shot him, and threw his body in the Tallahatchie River. Emmett’s mother held an open-casket funeral so that Till’s disfigured body could make national news. The men were brought to trial. The evidence was damning, but a white jury found the two not guilty. -
Rosa Parks Refuses to Give up Her Seat on the Bus
Rosa Parks refused to surrender her seat on a Montgomery city bus and was arrested. Montgomery’s public transportation system had longstanding rules requiring African American passengers to sit in the back of the bus and to give up their seats to white passengers if the buses filled. Parks was not the first to protest the policy by staying seated, but she was the first around whom Montgomery activists rallied. -
Dwight D. Eisenhower Wins the Presidential Election Again
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Civil Rights Act of 1957
The act was compromised away nearly to nothing, although it did achieve some gains, such as creating the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Commission, which was charged with investigating claims of racial discrimination. And yet, despite its weakness, the act signaled that pressure was finally mounting on Americans to confront the legacy of discrimination -
USSR Launches Sputnik 1, First Human Made Satellite
They even used the same launch vehicle, (ICBM) on October 4, 1957, to send Sputnik 1, the world’s first human-made satellite, into orbit. It was a decisive Soviet propaganda victory.23 -
DARPA Founded
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military. -
NASA Created
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Fidel Castro Comes to Power in Cuba
On January 8, 1959, Fidel Castro and his revolutionary army initiated a new era of Cuban history. The new Cuban government soon instituted leftist economic policies centered on agrarian reform, land redistribution, and the nationalization of private enterprises. Cuba’s wealthy and middle-class citizens fled the island in droves. -
USSR Launches First Manmade Object that Touches Moon
the Soviet Union’s Luna 2 capsule became the first human-made object to touch the moon. -
John F. Kennedy Speaks on "Separation of Church and State"
American Anti-Catholicism had softened in the aftermath of World War II, but no Catholic had ever been elected president and Protestant Americans had long been suspicious of Catholic politicians when John F. Kennedy ran for the presidency in 1960. On September 12, 1960, Kennedy addressed the Greater Houston Ministerial Association and he not only allayed popular fears of his Catholic faith, he delivered a seminal statement on the separation of church and state -
Trade Embargo With Cuba Begins
On October 19, 1960, the United States instituted a near-total trade embargo to economically isolate the Cuban regime -
John F. Kennedy Wins the Presidential Election
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Yuri Gagarin Becomes First Man in Orbit
Despite countless failures and one massive accident that killed nearly one hundred Soviet military and rocket engineers, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was launched into orbit on April 12, 1961 -
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Bay of Pigs Invasion
On April 16, 1961, an invasion force consisting primarily of Cuban émigrés landed on Girón Beach at the Bay of Pigs. Cuban soldiers and civilians quickly overwhelmed the exiles, many of whom were taken prisoner. The Cuban government’s success at thwarting the Bay of Pigs invasion did much to legitimize the new regime and was a tremendous embarrassment for the Kennedy administration. -
Alan Shepard Becomes First American in Orbit
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Rachel Carson Publishes 'Silent Spring'
Silent Spring stood out as an unparalleled argument for the interconnectedness of ecological and human health. Pesticides, Carson argued, also posed a threat to human health, and their overuse threatened the ecosystems that supported food production. Carson’s argument was compelling to many Americans, including President Kennedy, but was virulently opposed by chemical industries that suggested the book was the product of an emotional woman, not a scientist.31 -
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Vatican II
Vatican II was an ecumenical council that took place in Vatican City. It proclaimed multiple reforms, including the vernacular mass (mass in local languages, rather than in Latin) and a greater role for laypeople, and especially women, in the Church. -
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Cuban Missile Crisis
American spy planes detected the construction of missile launch sites, and President Kennedy addressed the American people to alert them to this threat. Over the course of the next several days, the world watched in horror as the United States and the Soviet Union hovered on the brink of nuclear war. Finally the Soviet Union agreed to remove its missiles from Cuba in exchange for a U.S. agreement to remove its missiles from Turkey and a formal pledge that the United States would not invade Cuba. -
MLK Delivers His "I Have a Dream" Speach
On the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, King delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech, an internationally renowned call for civil rights that raised the movement’s profile to new heights and put unprecedented pressure on politicians to pass meaningful civil rights legislation.9 -
John F. Kennedy is Assassinated/ Lyndon Johnson is Sworn In.
The nation’s youthful, popular president was gone. Vice President Lyndon Johnson lacked Kennedy’s youth, his charisma, his popularity, and his aristocratic upbringing, but no one knew Washington better and no one before or since fought harder and more successfully to pass meaningful civil rights legislation. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964 is Signed into Law
The comprehensive act barred segregation in public accommodations and outlawed discrimination based on race, ethnicity, gender, and national or religious origin. -
Lyndon B. Johnson Wins the Presidential Election
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Congress Passes Gulf of Tonkin Resolution in Response to the USS Maddox Being Allegedly Fired Upon Thus Landing US Marines in Vietnam and Starting the US's Involvement
Although the details of the incident are controversial, the Johnson administration exploited the event to provide a pretext for escalating American involvement in Vietnam. Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, granting President Johnson the authority to deploy the American military to defend South Vietnam. U.S. Marines landed in Vietnam in March 1965, and the American ground war began. -
Malcolm X is Assassinated
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National Organization for Women Publishes Their, "Statement of Purpose"
The National Organization for Women was founded in 1966 by prominent American feminists, including Betty Friedan, Shirley Chisolm, and others. The organization’s “statement of purpose” laid out the goals of the organization and the targets of its feminist vision. -
The Cuban Adjustment Act is Signed by LBJ
In 1966 President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Cuban Adjustment Act, a law allowing Cuban refugees to become permanent residents. Over the course of the 1960s, hundreds of thousands of Cubans left their homeland and built new lives in America. -
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The Tet Offensive
North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces begin an offensive that will eventually hurl some 85,000 troops against five major cities, dozens of military installations, and scores of towns and villages throughout South Vietnam. The attacks, which eschew the guerrilla tactics traditionally employed by North Vietnamese forces, play directly to American and South Vietnamese strengths. The North Vietnamese suffer casualty rates approaching 60 percent. -
Martin Luther King Jr. is Assassinated
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Richard Nixon Wins the Presidential Election
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The First Men Set Foot on the Moon
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Environmental Protection Agency is Founded
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Richard M. Nixon Wins the Presidential Election Again
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The Last U.S. Military Unit Leaves Vietnam
The last U.S. military unit leaves Vietnam. In over a decade of fighting, some 58,000 U.S. troops have been killed. Vietnamese casualties include more than 200,000 South Vietnamese troops and more than 1,000,000 North Vietnamese soldiers and Viet Cong irregulars. Civilian deaths total as many as 2,000,000. -
The Personal Computer is Invented
