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Bank Roberry
The Brinks robbery in Boston occurs when eleven masked bandits steal $2.8 million from an armored car outside their express office. -
Joseph McCarthyism
At the time, McCarthy was a first-term senator from Wisconsin who had won election in 1946 after a campaign in which he criticized his opponent’s failure to enlist during World War II while emphasizing his own wartime heroics.All of these factors combined to create an atmosphere of fear and dread, which proved a ripe environment for the rise of a staunch anticommunist like Joseph McCarthy. -
Vietnam War
Prolonged Conflict between communist forces of North Vietnam backed by China and the USSR, & non communist forces of south Vietnam backed by the U.S. -
Japanese Peace Treaty
Forty nations sign the Japanese Peace Treaty in San Francisco, officially ending World War II and reestablishing Japanese sovereignty. -
End Of War
Truman signs an act formally ending World War II. -
Mike Exploded
At Eniwetok Atoll in the Pacific Ocean, the first hydrogen bomb, named Mike, is exploded. -
Color TV Sold
The first color televisions go on sale. -
Vaccination
- The first large scale vaccination of children against polio begins in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
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Brown v. Board of Education,
Was a landmark United States Supreme Court case in which the Court declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students unconstitutional. -
Train The Troops
The United States government agrees to train South Vietnamese troops. -
Civil Rights Movement (Montgomery Bus Boyott)
Rosa Parks ignites 381-day bus boycott organized by Martin Luther King, Jr. -
All Schools Integrated
The Supreme Court of the United States orders that all public schools be integrated with deliberate speed. -
The Murder of Emmett Till
Emmett goes into the store to buy bubble gum. Some of the kids outside the store will later say they heard Emmett whistle at Carolyn Bryant. About 2:30 a.m., Roy Bryant, Carolyn's husband, and his half brother J. W. Milam, kidnap Emmett Till from Moses Wright's home. They later brutally beat him, taking him to the edge of the Tallahatchie River, shooting him in the head, fastening a large metal fan used for ginning cotton to his neck with barbed wire, and pushing the body into the river. -
Suez Crisis
Was a diplomatic and military confrontation between Egypt on one side, and Britain, France and Israel on the other, with the United States, the Soviet Union, and the United Nations playing major roles in forcing Britain, France and Israel to withdraw. -
FBI
The Federal Bureau of Investigation arrests labor leader Jimmy Hoffa under a bribery charge. -
The Space Race
It was a competition between the Soviet Union and the U.S. to be the first to get to Space. -
Attempt To Launch
The first attempt by the United States to launch a satellite into space fails when it explodes on the launchpad. -
Jet Airline
Jet airline passenger service is inaugurated in the United States by National Airlines with a flight between New York City and Miami, Florida. -
49th State
Alaska is admitted to the United States as the 49th state to be followed on August 21 by Hawaii. -
Mercury Seven
NASA selects the first seven military pilots to become the Mercury Seven, first astronauts of the United States. The Mercury Seven included John Glenn, Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, Gus Griscom, Wally Scare, Alan Shepard, and Deke Slayton. -
The Sit In
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. -
The Berlin Wall
Was a barrier constructed by the German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany) that completely cut off (by land) West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin. -
Integration in University of Alabama
A Federal district court in Alabama ordered the University of Alabama to admit African American students Vivien Malone and James Hood during its summer session. -
JFK
American politician who served as the 35th President of the United States from January 1961 until his assassination in November 1963. -
Nike ✔
The company was founded as Blue Ribbon Sports by Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight. -
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. -
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 -
Soviet Union
Jimmy Carter announces the embargo on sale of grain and high technology to the Soviet Union due to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. -
Winter Olympics
The opening ceremonies of the 1980 Winter Olympics Games are held in Lake Placid, New York. One of the most thrilling moments include the Miracle on Ice when a team of U.S. amateur ice hockey players defeated the vaunted Soviet Union professional all-star team in the semi-final game, then won the gold medal over Finland. U.S. speed skater Eric Heiden also concluded one of the most amazing feats in sports history when he won all five speed skating medals from the sprint at 500 -
HIV/AIDS
First case of AIDS was found in San Francisco. Started because of the Hippie Movement -
Ronald Reagan
President Ronald Reagan withstands an assassination attempt, shot in the chest while walking to his limousine in Washington, D.C. -
Assassination Attempt of Ronald Reagan
It happened 69 days into the presidency 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. -
Vietnam Veterans
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C., holding the names of the more than 58,000 killed or missing in action during the conflict -
Bomb Attack
A terrorist truck bomb kills two hundred and forty-one United States peacekeeping troops in Lebanon at Beirut International Airport. A second bomb destroyed a French barracks two miles away, killing forty there. -
World Exposition
The Louisiana World Exposition of 1984 opens along the Mississippi River waterfront in New Orleans. -
Cold War
Reagan's anti-communist position had developed into a stance known as the new Reagan's Doctrine which, in addition to containment, formulated an additional right to subvert existing communist governments. -
Leaders Meet
The first meeting in six years between the leaders of the Soviet Union and the United States occurs when Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan engage in a five hour summit conference in Geneva, Switzerland. -
MLK Day Is Known
Martin Luther King Day is officially observed for the first time as a federal holiday in the United States. -
Dismantle Missiles
The United States and the Soviet Union sign an agreement, the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, to dismantle all 1,752 U.S. and 859 Soviet missiles in the 300-3,400 mile range -
First Patent
The first patent for a genetically engineered animal is issued to Harvard University researchers Philip Leder and Timothy Stewart. -
Art Theft
The largest art theft in U.S. history occurs in Boston, Massachusetts, when two thieves posing as policemen abscond twelve paintings worth an estimated $100-200 million from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.
