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Elvis Presley
January 28, 1956, Elvis Presley burst upon the American scene via The Dorsey Brothers Stage Show. "In his first appearance on the Dorsey Brothers' TV show, the young singer rocked the world". -
Ku Klux Klan
The KKK performed a huge act of rebellion with violence. The Klan placed a box on the steps of a the "Sixteenth Street Baptist Church". Soon after there was an explosion that caused the death of four black girls and 23 injured people. The man suspected was a member of the Klan. -
Assassination of John F. Kennedy
By the fall of 1963, President John F. Kennedy and his political advisers were preparing for the next presidential campaign. Then on November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated as he rode in a motorcade through Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas, Texas. -
Vietnam War Protest
In 1965, after the United States began bombing North Vietnam in earnest, the movement against U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War gained national prominence. Anti-war marches and other protests, such as the ones organized by Students for a Democratic Society, attracted a widening base of support over the next three years. -
Civil Rights Movement
The first March from Selma to Montgomery was held on this day. Also known as "Bloody Sunday" — when 600 marchers, protesting the death of Jimmie Lee Jackson and ongoing exclusion from the electoral process, were attacked by state and local police with billy clubs and tear gas. -
Hippie Culture
They made their way to Northern California this year. The Human Be-In in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco popularized hippie culture, leading to the legendary Summer of Love on the West Coast of the United States. -
Woodstock
The Woodstock festival was a music festival attracting an audience of over 400,000 people, scheduled over three days on a dairy farm in New York state from August 15 to 17, 1969, but which ran over four days to August 18, 1969. -
Ping-Pong Diplomacy
The Ping-Pong Diplomacy was an exchange of table tennis between the United States and People's Republic of China (PRC) in the early 1970s. The event marked a thaw in Sino-American relations that paved the way to a visit to Beijing by President Richard Nixon. -
Watergate Scandal
Several burglars were arrested inside the Watergate building in Washington, D.C. The prowlers were connected to President Richard Nixon’s reelection campaign, and they had been caught while attempting to wiretap phones and steal secret documents. -
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a long, costly armed conflict that pitted the communist regime of North Vietnam and its southern allies, known as the Viet Cong, against South Vietnam and its principal ally, the United States. The war ended in 1973 with the withdrawal of the US forces. -
John Lennons Murder
John Lennon was shot outside The Dakota apartment building in New York City by a prison inmate named Mark David Chapman on December 8, 1980. Chapman fired at Lennon five times, hitting him four times in the back. -
Assassination Attempt of Ronald Reagan
While leaving a speaking engagement at the Washington Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C., President Reagan and three others were shot and wounded by John Hinckley, Jr. It happened 69 days into the presidency of Ronald Reagan.
