1955-1975

  • Rosa Parks Bus Boycott

    Rosa Parks rode at the front of a Montgomery, Alabama, bus on the day the Supreme Court's ban on segregation of the city's buses took effect. A year earlier, she had been arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a bus.
  • Civil Rights Act of 1957

    The Act marked the first occasion since Reconstruction that the federal government undertook significant legislative action to protect civil rights.
  • Explorer 1

    Explorer 1 was the first satellite launched by the United States, and was part of the U.S. participation in the International Geophysical Year.
  • NASA

    National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the federal agency that is responsible for aerospace research, aeronautics, and the civilian space program.
  • Alaska and Hawaii become states

    Alaska was bought by the US in 1867 and became the 49th state in 1959. Hawaii ceded itself to the USA in 1898 and became a state in 1959 being the 50th state.
  • President Kennedy was assassinated

    He was killed riding through Dallas, Texas.
  • Vietnam War

    On March 8, 1965, the first American combat troops – the 9th Marine Expeditionary Brigade – waded ashore at China Beach north of Da Nang.
  • Martin Luther King Jr. assassinated

    MLK led the civil rights movement from 1955. Ames Earl Ray ended up shooting Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968.
  • Man on the Moon

    Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin, both American, landed the Apollo Lunar Module Eagle on July 20, 1969. The American economy made a lot of money off this event.
  • 26th amendment was passed

    The 26th Amendment is ratified, allowing 18-year-olds to vote.