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Civil Rights Movement
1955 was also a landmark year for the Civil Rights Movement in America. In December of this year, Rosa Parks famously refused to obey a bus drivers’ order to get out of her seat to make room for a white passenger. This sparked several significant protests in her city of Montgomery, Alabama. -
Sit-In at the Lunch Counter
Four black college students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College in Greensboro, North Carolina stage a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth lunch counter, protesting their denial of service. This action caused a national campaign, waged by seventy-thousand students, both white and black, over the next eight months, in sit-ins across the nation for Civil Rights. -
Voting Rights
August 6, 1965 - The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson. Two significant portions of the act; the outlawing of the requirement of potential voters to take a literacy test in order to qualify and the provision of federal registration of voters in areas with less than 50% of all voters registered. -
Bullet Proof Vest Invented
Kevlar is developed by Dupont scientist Stephanie Louise Kwolek. She would patent the compound, used extensively in bullet proof vests, in 1966. -
First Black Senator
November 8, 1966 - 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. -
Diana Ross & Supremes last concert
Diana Ross and the Supremes perform their last concert in Las Vegas. -
Houston, We have a problem
Apollo 13 announces “Okay, Houston, we’ve had a problem here” as an oxygen tank explodes whilst they are on the way to the Moon. -
Voting Rights Act Amendments
U.S. President Richard Nixon signs the Voting Rights Act Amendments of 1970, a measure lowering the voting age to 18. June 24 -
Oil Shock
Henry Kissinger hints at military action against oil countries in case of "actual strangulation of the industrialized world" in the wake of oil shock -
Rubiks Cube
Ernő Rubik applies for a patent for his "Magic Cube" invention, later to be known as a Rubik's cub -
Watergate Scandal
Watergate figures John Mitchell, H. R. Haldeman & John D Ehrlichman sentenced to 2½-8 yrs for conspiracy and obstruction of justice -
African Baseball Manager
Frank Robinson debuts as 1st African American baseball manager (Cleveland Indians beat New York Yankees -
Natalie Cole
Natalie Cole releases her debut album "Inseparable