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National Origins Act
The National Origins Act restricted immigration by establishing a system of national quotas that blatantly discriminated against immigrants from southern and eastern Europe and virtually excluded Asians. The policy stayed in effect until the 1960s. -
Roosevelt banned discrimination
On June 25 1941, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 8802 creating the Fair Employment Practices Committee. The order banned racial discrimination in any industries receiving federal contracts. He stated, "there shall be no discrimination in the employment of workers in defense industries or government because of race, creed, color, or national origin." The order also let the Fair Employment Practices Committee investigate complaints & take action against alleged employment discrimination -
Jackie Robinson joins Brooklyn Dodgers
In 1945, he was recruited by Dodgers' general manager, Branch Rickey, who was determined to end the unwritten segregation rule in the majors. In 1946, Robinson joined the Dodgers’ farm team, the Montreal Royals, & went on to lead the league in batting. 28-year-old Jackie Robinson made his Major League Baseball debut with the Dodgers, against the Boston Braves, in front of more than 25,000 spectators at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, New York. Robinson played first base and went 0 for 3 at the plate -
Truman Ordered Desegregation of the Military
On July 26, 1948, President Harry S. Truman signed this executive order establishing the President’s Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity in the Armed Services, committing the government to integrating the segregated military. -
Vietnam
One of the most unforgettable and famous wars in US history is a go. It was a war fought between the Com's of North Korean backed by China and The Com's of South Korea backed the US -
Korean War
The Korean War was between the North and South sides of Korea.
The US sided with and fought with the South. -
North Korea Vs Communist
North Korea gets invaded by South Korean Communists -
President Truman Doesn't Wait For Congress
President Truman orders US Troops to war with consulting congress or even without approval -
President Truman Taking Charge
President Truman removes General Douglas MacArthur as the leader of the Far East Command -
Eisenhower Took Office
As early as 1943 Eisenhower was mentioned as a possible presidential candidate. His personal qualities and military reputation prompted both parties to woo him. In June 1952 he retired from the army after 37 years of service, returned to the United States, and began to campaign actively -
"Armistice"
The Armistice Agreement is established and agreed upon. -
Eisenhower State of the Union Message
These speeches reflect Dwight D. Eisenhower's values and accomplishments as a military leader, statesman, and thirty-fourth President of the United States. -
Brown vs. Board of Education
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka was a landmark 1954 Supreme Court case in which the justices ruled unanimously that racial segregation of children in public schools was unconstitutional. Brown v. Board of Education was one of the cornerstones of the civil rights movement, and helped establish the precedent that “separate-but-equal” education and other services were not, in fact, equal at all -
Southeast Asia Treaty Organization
John Foster Dulles made an agreement establishing a military alliance that becomes the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization, it would contain any communist aggression in the free territories of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, or Southeast Asia in general. Signatories, including France, Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Pakistan, Thailand, and the United States, pledged themselves to “act to meet the common danger” in the event of aggression against any signatory state -
Rosa Parks gets arrested
By refusing to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Alabama, city bus, Rosa Parks helped initiate the civil rights movement in the US. The leaders of the local black community organized a bus boycott that began the day Parks was convicted of violating the segregation laws. Led by Martin Luther King Jr the boycott lasted over a year & ended only when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that bus segregation was unconstitutional. -
SCLC was founded
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) is a civil rights organization founded in 1957, as an offshoot of the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), which successfully staged a 381-day boycott of the Montgomery Alabama's segregated bus system. Martin Luther King, Jr., Bayard Rustin, Ralph Abernathy, Fred Shuttlesworth, and others, founded the SCLC in order to have a regional organization that could better coordinate civil rights protest activities across the South. -
Civil Rights Act is Passed
In 1957 the U.S. congress established a civil rights section of the Justice Department, along with a Commission on Civil Rights to investigate discriminatory conditions. -
Little Rock
The Little Rock Nine were a group of nine black students who enrolled at formerly all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, in September 1957. Their attendance at the school was a test of Brown v. Board of Education, a landmark 1954 Supreme Court ruling that declared segregation in public schools unconstitutional -
NASA
In 1958, the U.S. Congress passes legislation establishing the National Aeronautics and Space Administration or NASA, a civilian agency responsible for coordinating America’s activities in space. NASA has since sponsored space expeditions, both human & mechanical, that have yielded vital information about the solar system & universe. It has also launched numerous earth-orbiting satellites that have been instrumental in everything from weather forecasting to navigation to global communications -
Castro overthrew Fulgencio Batista
On this day in 1959, facing a popular revolution spearheaded by Fidel Castro’s 26th of July Movement, Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista flees the island nation. -
Boynton v. Virginia
Bruce Boynton, an African American law student, bought a Trailways bus ticket from Washington, D.C. to Montgomery, Alabama. The bus route went through Richmond, Virginia. He sat down inside an only white restaurant.The waitress asked him to leave & he refused. -
Kennedy Wins
John Fitzgerald Kennedy captured the Democratic nomination despite his youth, a seeming lack of experience in foreign affairs, & his Catholic faith. On May 10, he won a solid victory in the Democratic primary in overwhelmingly Protestant West Virginia. His success there launched him toward a first ballot victory at the national convention in Los Angeles—although he did not reach the 761 votes required for the nomination until the final state in the roll call, Wyoming -
SDS
Widely considered one of the largest & most influential student activist groups in American history, the SDS championed a wide swath of left-wing causes ranging from global Cold War foreign policy to local labor laws. However, the group was best known for organizing resistance against the Vietnam War & military draft policies that began as nonviolent civil disobedience, but grew increasingly aggressive & militant as the war intensified. -
CORE freedom rides
In 1961 CORE aimed to desegregate public transportation throughout the south, known as the “Freedom Rides”. -
Berlin Wall
Two days after sealing off free passage between East & West Berlin with barbed wire, East German authorities begin building a wall to permanently close off access to the West. For the next 28 years, the heavily fortified Berlin Wall stood as the most tangible symbol of the Cold War–a literal “iron curtain” dividing Europe. -
Peace Corps was created
On March 1, 1961, President JFK issues Executive Order #10924 establishing the Peace Corps as a new agency within the Department of State. Then he sent a message to Congress asking for permanent funding for the agency, which would send trained American men & women to foreign nations to assist in development efforts. The Peace Corps captured the imagination of the U.S. public, & during the week after its creation thousands of letters poured into Washington from young Americans hoping to volunteer -
Bay of Pigs invasion
In 1959, Fidel Castro came to power in an armed revolt that overthrew Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. The US government distrusted Castro. Before his inauguration, John F. Kennedy was briefed on a plan by the CIA to train Cuban exiles for an invasion of their homeland. The plan anticipated that the Cuban people & elements of the Cuban military would support the invasion. The ultimate goal was to overthrow Castro and the establishment of a non-communist government friendly to the United States -
John Glenn: 1st American to orbit Earth
On February 20, 1962, NASA launched one of the most important flights in American history. In 1958, John Glenn participated in a series of tests designed to select the first group of astronauts for the newly formed NASA Manned Space Program. In April of 1959, John Glenn was selected as a member of the first group of astronauts, the "Mercury Seven." After three years of training, John Glenn rocketed into space. He became the third American in space and the first to orbit Earth -
Cuban Misstle Crisis
During the Cuban Missile Crisis, leaders of the U.S. and the Soviet Union engaged in a tense, 13-day political and military standoff in October 1962 over the installation of nuclear-armed Soviet missiles on Cuba, just 90 miles from U.S. shores -
Baker vs. Carr
Established the right of federal courts to review redistricting issues, which had previously been termed "political questions" outside the courts' jurisdiction. The Court’s willingness to address legislative reapportionment in this Tennessee case paved the way for the “one man, one vote” standard of American representative democracy -
Miranda vs. Arizona
Miranda rights are the rights given to people in the United States upon arrest. In the original case, the defendant, Ernesto Miranda, was a 24-year-old high school drop-out with a police record when he was accused in 1963 of kidnapping, raping & robbing an 18-year-old woman. He was unaware of his rights to have a lawyer & against self-incrimination. Their appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court would forever change U.S. criminal procedure. -
Martin Luther King Jr. Birmingham jail Letter
Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter From Birmingham Jail" is the most important written document of the civil rights era. The letter served as the long road to freedom in a movement that was largely centered around actions & spoken words not being seen or heard. He had broken wrote a letter to the newspaper explaining why he had broken the law. "I am here because injustice is here." The document is now considered a classic work of protest literature -
Birmingham Church Bombing
A bomb exploded before Sunday morning services at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, a church with a predominantly black congregation that also served as a meeting place for civil rights leaders. Four young girls were killed and many other people injured -
SCLC targeted Birmingham
The Birmingham Campaign was the beginning of a series of lunch counter sit-ins, marches on City Hall and boycotts on downtown merchants to protest segregation laws in the city. -
march on washington
The March took place in Washington, D.C., on August 28, 1963. Attended by almost 250,000 people, it was the largest demonstration ever seen in the nation's capital, & one of the first to have extensive television coverage. 1963 was known for racial unrest & civil rights demonstrations. Nationwide outrage was sparked by media coverage of police actions in Birmingham, Alabama, where attack dogs & fire hoses were turned against protestors, many of whom were in their early teens or younger. -
JFK assassinated
Kennedy is assassinated while traveling through Dallas, Texas, in an open-top convertible. The Kennedys and Connallys waved at the large & enthusiastic crowds gathered along the parade route. As their vehicle passed the Texas School Book Depository Building at 12:30 p.m., Lee Harvey Oswald allegedly fired 3 shots from the sixth floor, fatally wounding President Kennedy and seriously injuring Governor Connally. Kennedy was pronounced dead 30 minutes later at Dallas’ Parkland Hospital -
Economic Opportunity Act
The EOA provided for job training, adult education, and loans to small businesses to attack the roots of unemployment and poverty -
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution authorized President Lyndon Johnson to “take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression” by the communist government of North Vietnam. It was passed on August 7, 1964, by the U.S. Congress after an alleged attack on two U.S. naval destroyers stationed off the coast of Vietnam. The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution effectively launched America’s full-scale involvement in the Vietnam War. -
Freedom Summer Campaign
This campaign was a voter registration drive sponsored by civil rights organizations including the Congress on Racial Equality & the SNCC. Aimed at increasing black voter registration in Mississippi, the Freedom Summer workers included black Mississippians & more than 1,000 out-of-state, predominately white volunteers -
Reynolds vs. Sims
In Reynolds v. Sims (1964), the Supreme Court ruled that the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment requires that the legislative districts across states be equal in population. -
24th Amendment
Many Southern states adopted a poll tax in the late 1800s. This meant that even though the 15th Amendment gave former slaves the right to vote, many poor people, both blacks and whites, did not have enough money to vote. At the ceremony in 1964 formalizing the 24th Amendment, President Lyndon Johnson noted that: "There can be no one too poor to vote." Thanks to the 24th Amendment, the right of all U.S. citizens to freely cast their votes has been secured. -
Beatles
On February 7, 1964, Pan Am Yankee Clipper flight 101 from London Heathrow lands at New York. It was the first visit to the United States by the Beatles, a British rock-and-roll quartet that had just scored its first No. 1 U.S. hit six days before with “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” At Kennedy, the “Fab Four”–dressed in mod suits and sporting their trademark pudding bowl haircuts–were greeted by 3,000 screaming fans who caused a near riot when the boys stepped off their plane and onto American soil -
Torpedo Boat's Take The US By Surprise
Torpedo Boat's from North Vietnamese forces supposedly attack the US forces in the Gulf of Tonkin -
Immigration & Nationality Act
The immigration & Nationality Act abolished an earlier quota system based on national origin and established a new immigration policy based on reuniting immigrant families and attracting skilled labor to the United States -
Operation Rolling Thunder
Operation Rolling Thunder was the codename for an American bombing campaign during the Vietnam War. U.S. military aircraft attacked targets throughout North Vietnam from March 1965 to October 1968 -
Medicare & medicaid
Medicare, a health insurance program for elderly Americans, into law. The Medicare program, provided hospital and medical insurance for Americans 65 or older. Medicaid is a state & federally funded program offers health coverage to certain low-income people. -
bloody sunday
Activists organized a march for voting rights, from Selma, Alabama, to Montgomery. On March 7, about 600 people assembled at a church, prayed, & began walking silently through the city streets. One minute & five seconds after a two-minute warning was announced, troops advanced, wielding clubs, bullwhips, and tear gas. John Lewis, who suffered a skull fracture, was one of fifty-eight people treated for injuries at the local hospital. The day is remembered in history as “Bloody Sunday.” -
National Traffic & Motor Vehicle Safety Act
The National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966 was enacted to reduce traffic accidents as well as the number of deaths and injuries to persons involved in traffic accidents. The act required regulators to establish federal motor vehicle safety standards to protect the public against "unreasonable risk of accidents occurring as a result of the design, construction or performance of motor vehicles" -
Clean Water Restoration Act
The Clean Water Act is the nation's primary protector of water quality. Its basic goal is to restore and maintain our lakes, rivers and wetlands, to ensure that we have clean water for fishing, swimming and drinking -
Air Quality Act
The Air Quality Act authorized enforcement procedures for air pollution problems involving interstate transport of pollutants.
It also authorized expanded research activities -
Tet Offensive
The Tet Offensive was a coordinated series of North Vietnamese attacks on more than 100 cities and outposts in South Vietnam -
nixon wins
Eight years after being defeated by John F. Kennedy in the 1960 election, Richard Nixon defeats Hubert H. Humphrey and is elected president. -
My Lai Massacre
My Lai Massacre was the mass killing of as many as 500 unarmed villagers by U.S. soldiers in the hamlet of My Lai on March 16, 1968, during the Vietnam War. Although they encountered no resistance, the soldiers continued to kill the innocent people because they were given order to by William Calley. Over the next hour, groups of women, children, & elderly men were rounded up & shot at close range. U.S. soldiers also committed numerous rapes. -
Martin Luther King Jr. died
Martin Luther King was assassinated. He had led the civil rights movement since the mid-1950s, using a combination of impassioned speeches and nonviolent protests to fight segregation and achieve significant civil-rights advances for African Americans. His assassination led to an outpouring of anger among black Americans, as well as a period of national mourning that helped speed the way for an equal housing bill that would be the last significant legislative achievement of the civil rights era. -
Robert. F Kennedy assassination
Senator Robert Kennedy was shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles after winning the California presidential primary. Immediately after he announced to his cheering supporters that the country was ready to end its fractious divisions, Kennedy was shot several times by the 22-year-old Palestinian Sirhan Sirhan. He died a day later. Robert F. Kennedy's assassination was just 5 years after his older brother's, John F. Kennedy, murder and 2 months after Martin Luther King Jr's death. -
War in Canadian borders
Privately, some Canadians contributed to the war effort. Canadian corporations sold war materiel to the Americans. In addition, at least 30,000 Canadians volunteered to serve in the American armed forces during the war. At least 134 Canadians died or were reported missing in Vietnam -
Kent State/ Jackson State Anti-War Rally
Four Kent State University students were killed & nine were injured on May 4, 1970, when members of the Ohio National Guard opened fire on a crowd gathered to protest the Vietnam War -
Pentagon Papers
The Pentagon Papers was the name given to a top-secret Department of Defense study of U.S. political and military involvement in Vietnam. More than 500,000 U.S. troops in Vietnam by 1968, came to oppose the war, & decided that the information contained in the Pentagon Papers should be available to the American public. Daniel Ellsberg photocopied the report & in March 1971 gave the copy to The New York Times, which published a series of scathing articles based on the report’s most damning secrets -
Lieutenant Calley Court Case
Lieutenant William Calley, as leader of one group, played an active role in the My Lai massacre. With the help of one of his soldiers, he fired on a group of some 80 civilians, which had been assembled in the village square. The quasi-totality of these people were shot to death. He also ordered his soldiers to kill approximately another 80 people who had been gathered together in a ditch. He himself took an active part in these executions. -
Paris Peace Accord
The United States, South Vietnam, Viet Cong, and North Vietnam formally sign “An Agreement Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Vietnam” in Paris -
War Powers Act
The War Powers Act is a congressional resolution designed to limit the U.S. president’s ability to initiate or escalate military actions abroad
