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ackie Robinson signs highest contract ($35,000) in Dodger history
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Marshall Voroshilov of USSR announces they developed atomic bomb
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FBI's "10 Most Wanted Fugitives" program begins
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Edith Sampson named 1st black US delegate to UN
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WTAR (now WTKR) TV channel 3 in Norfolk, VA (CBS) begins broadcasting
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UN member states begin using integrated forces against North Korea
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US sends 35 military advisers to South Vietnam
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Law of Return passes, guarantees all Jews right to live in Israel
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US forces invade Korea by crossing 38th parallel
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The U.S. Federal Communications Commission issues the first license to broadcast television in color, to CBS
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US pres Harry Truman proclaims emergency crisis caused by communist threat
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The US sets off its first hydrogen bomb on the South Pacific island of Eniwetok. The blast is even larger than expected, enough to destroy an entire city. Possession of such a lethal weapon vastly increases the dangers of any nuclear confrontation.
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Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin dies from a cerebral hemorrhage at age 73. A battle for succession among Kremlin insiders will last almost two years before Nikita Khrushchev emerges as the undisputed Russian leader.
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The show "Disneyland" premiers on television to promote the amusement park set to open in Anaheim, California in the summer of 1955.
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A study showing the Salk polio vaccine to be effective is released. Mass inoculations will follow and the disease, which has been a serious threat for generations, will virtually disappear.
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USSR announces Francis Gary Powers confessed to being a CIA spy
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1st underwater launching of Polaris missile
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USSR recovered 2 dogs; 1st living organisms to return from space
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International Development Association (UN agency) comes into existence
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Democratic candidate John F. Kennedy is elected president of the United States. His margin of victory over Republican candidate Richard M. Nixon is just over 100,000 votes. Kennedy wins 300 Electoral College votes to Nixon’s 219.
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John F. Kennedy is inaugurated president of the United States. In a memorable address he urges Americans to “ask not what your country can do you—ask what you can do for your country.”
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President John F. Kennedy issues an executive order establishing the Peace Corps. The Corps aims to disseminate good will and practical knowledge by enlisting volunteers, most under age 30, to two-year terms of service.
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The first sign of a looming Vietnam conflict emerges when President Kennedy admits that the military advisors already in Vietnam would engage the enemy if fired upon.
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The 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, in what many think was the closest the Cold War came to breaking into armed conflict.
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President John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Texas. Vice President Lyndon Baines Johnson is sworn in as president the same day.
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President Lyndon Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The act outlaws discrimination in public facilities, such as parks, and in public accommodations, such as hotels and restaurants, and it prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, or gender
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President Lyndon Johnson signs the bill creating Medicare, a national health insurance program for the elderly. Companion legislation creates Medicaid, providing health care for people on welfare. Later, Medicaid will be broadened into a more comprehensive program financing health care for low-income persons.
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United States warplanes begin their bombing raids of Hanoi and Haiphong, North Vietnam. By December of this year, the United States had 385,300 troops stationed in South Vietnam with sixty thousand additional troops offshore and thirty-three thousand in Thailand.
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The first black United States Senator in eighty-five years, Edward Brooke, is elected to Congress. Brooke was the Republican candidate from Massachusetts and former Attorney General of that state.
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Ford's Theatre, the site of the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln in 1865 in Washington, D.C., reopens to the public. It had been restored to its original appearance and use as a theatre, now comprising the Ford's Theatre National Historic Site.
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Five members of the Chicago 7 are convicted of crossing state lines to incite riots during the 1968 Democratic Presidential Convention in Chicago.
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The first Earth Day celebration is held with millions of Americans participating in anti-pollution demonstrations. These demonstrations included school children walking to school instead of riding the bus.
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The Senate approves a Constitutional Amendment, the 26th, that would lower the voting age from 21 to 18. House approval came on March 23. It was ratified by the states by June 30 and received certification by President Richard M. Nixon on July 5.
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Walt Disney World opens in Orlando, Florida, expanding the Disney empire to the east coast of the United States.
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The journey for peace trip of the U.S. President to Peking, China begins. The eight day journey by Richard M. Nixon and meetings with Mao Zedong, unprecedented at the time, began the process for normalization of relations with China.
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The largest attacks by North Vietnam troops across the demilitarized zone in four years prompts bombing raids to begin again by United States forces against Hanoi and Haiphong on April 15, ending a four year cessation of those raids.
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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. on the same day that Okinawa is returned from U.S. control back to Japan.
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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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The first of three articles of impeachment against President Richard M. Nixon is recommended in a 27-11 vote of the House Judiciary Committee, charging that Nixon had been part of a criminal conspiracy to obstruct justice in the Watergate affair.
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Communist forces complete their takeover of South Vietnam, forcing the evacuation from Saigon of civilians from the United States and the unconditional surrender of South Vietnam.
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The Viking 1 space probe successfully lands on Mars. It would be followed by a second unmanned Viking II on the Utopia Plains on September 3. The first color photos of the surface of Mars are taken on these flights.
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Microsoft becomes a registered trademark, one year after its name for microcomputer software is first mentioned by Bill Gates to Paul Allen in a letter.
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The New York City blackout results in massive looting and disorderly conduct during its twenty-five hour duration.
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The cabinet level Energy Department is created by Jimmy Carter.
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Fifteen nations, including the United States and the Soviet Union, sign a nuclear-proliferation pact, slowing the spread of nuclear weapons around the world.
