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End of World War II
World War II ended with the unconditional surrender of the Axis powers. -
Brown v. Board of Education decision
the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education ruling that "separate but equal is inherently unequal." They ruled that no state had the power to pass a law that went against the 14th amendment of the United States Constitution. Chief Justice Earl Warren announced the decision, his first as a Supreme Court justice. This ruling ended legal segregation. -
Rosa Park Incident
Rosa Parks was a United States civil rights leader who refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man in Montgomery Alabama and so it triggered the national Civil Rights movement. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
December 1, 1955 - December 20, 1956.
The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a political and social protest campaign started in 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, intended to oppose the city's policy of racial segregation on its public transit system. -
Little Rock Nine Incident
The Little Rock Nine were a group of African-American students who were enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in 1957. The ensuing Little Rock Crisis, in which the students were initially prevented from entering the racially segregated school by Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus, and then attended after the intervention of President Eisenhower. It is considered to be one of the most important events in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. -
Sputnik Launch
Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik I. The world's first artificial satellite was about the size of a beach ball 58 cm.or 22.8 inches in diameter, weighed only 83.6 kg. or 183.9 pounds, and took about 98 minutes to orbit the Earth on its elliptical path. That launch ushered in new political, military, technological, and scientific developments. While the Sputnik launch was a single event, it marked the start of the space age and the U.S.-U.S.S.R space race. -
U-2 Incident
On May 1, 1960, a U-2 spy plane piloted by Francis Gary Powers was brought down near Svedlovsk, Soviet Union. This event had a lasting negative impact on U.S. - U.S.S.R. relations. -
The Bay of Pigs Invasion
The Bay of Pigs Invasion was an unsuccessful attempt by a CIA-trained force of Cuban exiles to invade southern Cuba with support from US government armed forces, to overthrow the Cuban government of Fidel Castro. -
Cuban Missile Crisis October 14-28 1962.
Major confrontation between the U.S. and the Soviet Union over the presence of Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba. A U.S. spy plane detected a ballistic missile on a launching site in Cuba. President Kennedy placed a naval blockade around the island, for several days the U.S. and the Soviet Union hovered on the brink of war. Khrushchev finally agreed to remove the missiles.The incident increased tensions during the the Cold War and fueled the nuclear arms race between the two countries. -
Letter from Birmingham Jail
King wrote the letter from the city jail in Birmingham, Alabama, where he was confined after being arrested for his part in the Birmingham campaign, a planned non-violent protest conducted by the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights and King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference against racial segregation by Birmingham's city government and downtown retailers. -
March on Washington
The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was a large political rally that took place in Washington, D.C.
