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Election of 1960
The election of 1960 was monumental because it held the first televised debates. The debates were a huge factor of why JFK beat Nixon in the election. -
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U.S. History chapter 30
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Bay of Pigs
In 1961, a group of Cuban exiles organized and supported by the CIA landed on the southern coast of Cuba in an effort to overthrow Fidel Castro. When the invasion ended in disaster, President Kennedy took full responsibility for the failure. -
Freedom Ride
Sponsored by the Congress of Racial Equality, a biracial group attempted to test a 1960 Supreme Court decision outlawing segregation in all bus and train stations used in interstate commerce. -
Berlin Wall
The Soviet Union built a high barrier to seal off their sector of Berlin in order to stop the flow of refugees out of the Soveit zone in Germany. The wall wasn't torn down until 1989. -
Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) created
The SDS was a popular college student organization that protested shortcomings in American life, notably racial injustice and the Vietnam War. -
Engel v. Vitale
This case ruled the ban on school prayers. The decision incensed many conservative Americans, who saw the Court as undermining moral values. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
In October 1962, the U.S. and the Soviet Union came close to nuclear war when President Kennedy insisted that Nikita Khrushchev remove the 42 missiles he had secretly deployed in Cuba, The Soviets eventually did so, nuclear war was averted, and the crisis ended. -
March on Washington
Civil rights leaders organized a massive rally in Washington to urge passage of President Kennedy's civil rights bill. The high point was when MLK gave his "I have a dream" speech. -
The assassination of John F. Kennedy
Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated JFK as the president rode in the motorcade in downtown Dallas. The shock of of losing the young president who had become a cymbol of hope, stunned the entire world. -
Free Speech Movement
A small group of radical students at Berkeley resisted university efforts to deny them a place to solicit volunteers and funds for off-campus causes. They struck back by occupying administration buildings and blocking the arrest of a nonstudent protester. -
War on poverty
Lyndon Johnson declared war on poverty in his 1964 State of the Union address. A new Office of Economic Opportunity oversaw a variety of programs to help the poor, inlcuding the Job Corps and Head Start. -
The 1964 Civil Rights Act
The act made illegal the segregation of African Americans in public facilities, established an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to lesson racial discrimination in employment, and protected the voting rights of African Americans. Gender discrimination was also added in the bill. -
The creation of Medicare
The Medicare Act provided Social Security funding for hospitalization insurance for people over age 65 and a voluntary plan to cover doctor bills paid in part by the federal government. -
USS Maddox
North Vietnamese torpedo boats attacked the Maddox, an American destroyer engaged in electronic intelligence gathering in the Gulf of Tonkin. -
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
After a Nroth Vietnamese attack on an American destroyer in the Gulf of Tonkin in 1964, President Johnson persuaded Congress to pass a resolution giving him the authority to use armed force in Vietnam. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
The act effectively banned literacy tests for voting rights and provided for federal registrars to assure the franchise to minority voters. -
Miranda v. Arizona
The outcome of this case declared that defendants could not be interrogated or unduced to confess to a crime without defense counsel being present. -
Creation of the National Organization for Women (NOW)
NOW called for equal employment opportunities and equal pay for women. NOW also championed the legalization of abortion and passage of an equal rights amendment to the Constitution. -
Tet Offensive
The Viet Cong launched a major offensive in the cities of South Vietnam. Although caught by suprise, American and South Vietnam forces successfully qushed this attack, the blow was a blow to American public opinion and led JLB to end the escalation of the war and seek a negotiated peace. -
MLK Jr. assassinated
He was assassinated in Memphis in early April, 1968. Both blacks and whites realized the nation had lost its most eloquent voice for racial harmony. His tragic death elevated King to the status of martyr, but it also led to one last outbreak of urban violence.
