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Claiming he had a list of 205 people in the State Department who were known members of the American Communist Party. Relentlessly questioning numerous government departments and the panic arising from the witch-hunts and fear of communism became know as McCarthyism.
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President Truman, without the approval of Congress, commits American troops to battle. Armistice agreement was signed on July 27, 1953.
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The Constitution is ratified, limiting the president to two terms.
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Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are executed for passing secret information about U.S. atomic weaponry to the Soviets.
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rock and roll appeared and revolutioned musical tastes, at least among young people, and pretty much changed the world. this was very popular in the 50s.
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Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat at the front of the colored section of a bus to a white passenger, defying a southern custom of the time.
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President sends federal troops to Central High School in Little Rock, Ark., to enforce integration of black students.
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first American satellite, is launched.
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President Kennedy denounces Soviet Union for secretly installing missile bases on Cuba and initiates a naval blockade of the island.
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Martin Luther King, Jr., delivers his “I Have a Dream” speech before a crowd of 200,000 during the civil rights march on Washington, DC. Martin Luther King, Jr., is assassinated in Memphis, Tenn. on April 4, 1968.
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President John F. Kennedy is shot and killed as his motorcade drives through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas. Kennedy's suspected assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, was believed to have used a mail-order rifle in order to shoot the president from the sixth story window of the Texas School Book Depository.
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The company was founded as Blue Ribbon Sports by Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight,and officially became Nike, Inc. on May 30, 1978. The company takes its name from Nike the Greek goddess of victory.
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North Vietnamese torpedo boats allegedly attack U.S. destroyer in Gulf of Tonkin off the coast of North Vietnam. Congress approves Gulf of Tonkin resolution. First U.S. combat troops arrive in South Vietnam on March 8. Last U.S. troops leave Vietnam onMarch 29. South Vietnamese government surrenders to North Vietnam on April 30, 1975.
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Malcolm X, black nationalist and founder of the Organization of Afro-American Unity, is shot to death. It is believed the assailants are members of the Black Muslim faith, which Malcolm had recently abandoned in favor of orthodox Islam.
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Moments after declaring victory in the California Democratic primary. Escorted through a kitchen pantry in the Ambassador Hotel, RFK was assailed by Palestinian Sirhan Sirhan firing a .22 pistol. Kennedy was shot multiple times, which he died the following day.
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Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, Jr., become the first men to land on the Moon.
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Five men, all employees of Nixon's reelection campaign, are caught breaking into rival Democratic headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington, DC.
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A group of Iranian students stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, taking more than 60 American hostages. The immediate cause of this action was President Jimmy Carter’s decision to allow Iran’s deposed Shah, a pro-Western autocrat who had been expelled from his country some months before, to come to the United States for cancer treatment.
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the first cases of AIDS were identified among gay men in the United States.As is often the case with microbes, a jump from one species to another is probably to blame chimpanzees
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the driver slammed the truck, which filled with 12,000 pounds of dynamite, into the building. The explosion was heard throughout Beirut. It killed 241 Marines.
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Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein ordered the invasion and occupation of neighboring Kuwait.
