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Polio Vaccine
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. -
Geneva Summit
The first summit conference between Soviet and American leaders, along with those of France and Great Britain, begins in Geneva, Switzerland. No important agreements are forged, but the meeting eases some Cold War tensions. -
Minimum Wage / Eisenhower's Heart Attack
Eisenhower signs the Minimum Wage Act, raising the minimum wage from $ .75 to $ 1.00 per hour.While vacationing in Colorado, Eisenhower plays 27 holes of golf and eats a hamburger with raw onion. That night, he suffers a heart attack and he'll remain in the hospital until November 11th. -
Rosa Parks Arrested
In Montgomery, Alabama, the Black seamstress Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on a city bus to a white man and is arrested. The ensuing boycott, coordinated by a young Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., will mark an important turning point in the African-American freedom struggle. -
Interstate Highway System
Eisenhower signs the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, which will create the Interstate Highway system, one of the biggest public works projects in US history. -
Little Rock Desegregation
Eisenhower sends federal troops to Little Rock, Arkansas, to enforce the court-ordered desegregation of the city's public schools. As a result, nine Black students are allowed to attend classes at Little Rock Central High School. -
First Nuclear Power Plant
The first full-scale nuclear power plant begins operation in Shipping port, Pennsylvania, supplying electricity to Pittsburgh. -
Nixon Reelected
Nixon defeats Democratic candidate Senator George McGovern in the presidential election. McGovern has run on an anti-war platform that would grant amnesty to draft evaders who have left the country, and would exchange American withdrawal from Vietnam for the return of American prisoners of war (POWs).
