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Malcolm X
Born May 19, 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska, this fiery Black Nationalist leader was a charismatic spokesman for the Nation of Islam until breaking with the group shortly before his 1965 assassination. -
Martin Luther King Jr
was born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia. King, both a Baptist minister and civil-rights activist, had a seismic impact on race relations in the United States, beginning in the mid-1950s. Among many efforts, King headed the SCLC. Through his activism, he played a pivotal role in ending the legal segregation of African-American citizens in the South and other areas of the nation, -
Cold war
The Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States was a half century of military build-up that began in the late 1940s and continued into the early 1990s. Both sides of the conflict wanted to avoid direct military action because of the threat of mutual nuclear destruction -
The Korean War
The Korean War (1950-1953) began when the North Korean Communist army crossed the 38th Parallel and invaded non-Communist South Korea. As Kim Il-sung's North Korean army, armed with Soviet tanks, quickly overran South Korea, the United States came to South Korea's aid. -
The first credit card
The first credit card (Diners) invented by Ralph Schneider. -
Joseph McCarthy in McCarthyism
February 9, 1950, to the Republican Women's Club of Wheeling, West Virginia. He produced a piece of paper which he claimed contained a list of known Communists working for the State Department. McCarthyism is the practice of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence -
Technological advances
Charles Ginsburg invented the first video tape recorder (VTR). -
Technological advances
Power steering invented by Francis W. Davis. -
Technological advances
The first patent for bar code issued to inventors Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver -
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon B. Johnson, the 36th president of the United States, was born in Texas on August 27, 1908. He was elected vice president of the United States in 1960, and became the 36th president in 1963, after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. -
Brown V. Board of education, 1954
One of the most historical court cases especially in terms of education was Brown v Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 (1954). This case took on segregation within school systems, or the separation of white and black students within public schools. Up until this case, many states had laws establishing separate schools for white students and another for black students. This landmark case made those laws unconstitutional -
Emmett Till’s murder
Fourteen-year-old Emmett Till was visiting relatives in Money, Mississippi on August 24, 1955 when he reportedly flirted with a white cashier at a grocery store. Four days later, two white men kidnapped Till, beat him, and shot him in the head. The men were tried for murder, but an all-white, male jury acquitted them. Till's murder and open casket funeral galvanized the emerging civil rights movement. -
The first computer hard disk used.
The first computer hard disk used. -
The “Little Rock Nine”
After the US Supreme Court’s decision in the Brown v. Board of Education court case in 1954, the Little Rock school board announced its intention of complying with the federal constitutional requirements. This requirement was the integration of blacks and whites in the same schools. -
The Space Race
Between 1957 and 1975, the Cold War rivalry between the two nations focused on attaining firsts in space exploration, which were seen as necessary for national security and symbolic of technological and ideological superiority. The Space Race involved pioneering efforts to launch artificial satellites, sub-orbital and orbital human spaceflight around the Earth, and piloted voyages to the Moon -
HIV
infection is a condition caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The condition gradually destroys the immune system, which makes it harder for the body to fight infections -
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was the prolonged struggle between nationalist forces attempting to unify the country of Vietnam under a communist government and the United States (with the aid of the South Vietnamese) attempting to prevent the spread of communism. -
Civil Rights Movement
The civil rights movement was a series of worldwide political movements forequality before the law that peaked in the 1960s. In many situations it took the form of campaigns of civil resistance aimed at achieving change by nonviolent forms of resistance. -
Hippie Culture
The hippie subculture developed as a youth movement that began in the United States during the early 1960s and spread around the world. Its origins can be traced back to classical culture and to European social movements in the early 20th century. Fabians and Bohemians. From around 1967, its fundamental ethos — including harmony with nature, communal living, artistic experimentation particularly in music, and the widespread use of recreational drugs — spread around the world. -
George Wallace
On January 14, 1963, George Wallace is inaugurated as the governor of Alabama, promising his followers, "Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever!" His inauguration speech was written by Ku Klux Klan leader Asa Carter, who later reformed his white supremacist beliefs and wrote The Education of Little Tree under the pseudonym of Forrest Carter. -
Assassination of John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States, was assassinated at 12:30 p.m. Central Standard Time (18:30 UTC) on Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dealey Plaza, Dallas, Texas. -
War Protests
The movement against U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War began small--among peace activists and leftist intellectuals on college campuses--but gained national prominence in 1965, after the United States began bombing North Vietnam in earnest. Anti-war marches and other protests, such as the ones organized by Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) -
Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy
Robert Kennedy was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, on November 20, 1925. After managing his Brother John's presidential campaign, Robert was appointed Attorney General of the United States in 1960. As AG, he fought organized crime and was a key supporter of the civil rights movement. After JFK's assassination, Robert was elected to the U.S. Senate representing the state of New York. RFK was himself assassinated on June 5, 1968 during the California Democratic presidential primary. -
Woodstock 1969
The pop culture music event of the decade and arguably to this day the single most profound event in the history of musicWoodstock 1969 defined an entire generation and its effects on music and American culture can still be felt today -
Disco music and Culture
Disco is a genre of music which was popular from the mid to late 1970s. Its initial audiences were club-goers from the African American, gay, Latino, Italian American, and psychedelic communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Disco also was a reaction against both the domination of rock music and the stigmatization of dance music by the counterculture during this period -
Richard Nixon in the Watergate scandal
Early in the morning of June,17, 1972 several burglars were arrested inside the office of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), located in the Watergate building in Washington, D.C. This was no ordinary robbery: 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. -
Jimmy Carter in the Iran Hostage Crisis
On November 4, 1979, Iranian students seized the embassy and detained more than 50 Americans, ranging from the Chargé d’Affaires to the most junior members of the staff, as hostages. The Iranians held the American diplomats hostage for 444 days. While the courage of the American hostages in Tehran and of their families at home reflected the best tradition of the Department of State, the Iran hostage crisis undermined Carter’s conduct of foreign policy. -
AIDS
AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) is the final stage of HIV disease, which causes severe damage to the immune system -
Ronald Reagan and Reaganomics
Reaganomics refers to the economic policies promoted by U.S. President Ronald Reaganduring the 1980s. These policies are commonly associated with supply-side economics, referred to as trickle-down economics by political opponents. -
John Lennon’s Murder
was an English musician who gained worldwide fame as one of the founders of The Beatles, for his subsequent solo career, and for his political activism and pacifism. He was shot by Mark David Chapman at the entrance of the building where he lived, The Dakota, in New York City on 8 December 1980. Lennon had just returned from Record Plant Studio with his wife, Yoko Ono. -
Assassination attempt of Ronald Reagan
The Reagan assassination attempt occurred on Monday, March 30, 1981, just 69 days into the presidency of Ronald Reagan -
The Falling of the Berlin wall
The Berlin Wall was both the physical division between West Berlin and East Germany from 1961 to 1989 and the symbolic The Berlin Wall was erected in the dead of night and for 28 years kept East Germans from fleeing to the West. Its destruction, which was nearly as instantaneous as its creation, was celebrated around the world. -
Fall of communism
1917 when Czar Nicholas II was overthrown.
The Bolsheviks seized power in Russia during the October Revolution phase of the Russian Revolution of 1917, and founded the Soviet Union. Communism ended in Russia in 1991 -
The breakup of the Soviet Union
In December of 1991, as the world watched in amazement, the Soviet Union disintegrated into fifteen separate countries. Its collapse was hailed by the west as a victory for freedom, a triumph of democracy over totalitarianism, and evidence of the superiority of capitalism over socialism
