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Truman Doctrine
An American foreign policy that pledges American "support for democracies against authoritarian threats." -
McCarthyism
The political practice of publicizing accusations of disloyalty or subversion with insufficient regard to evidence. -
Korean War
This war started when the Northern Korean People's Army invaded South Korea in a coordinated general attack at several strategic points along the 38th parallel. -
Brown v. Board of Education
The Supreme Court ruling that separating children in public schools on the basis of race was unconstitutional. -
Vietnam War
The USA was afraid that communism would spread to South Vietnam and then the rest of Asia, so we joined the war. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
This was a 13-month mass protest that ended with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that segregation on public buses is unconstitutional. -
Sputnik
This was the first artificial Earth satellite. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
This was a 13-day confrontation between the governments of the United States and the Soviet Union, when American deployments of nuclear missiles in Italy and Turkey were matched by Soviet deployments of nuclear missiles in Cuba. -
March on Washington
A quarter of a million people rallied in Washington, D.C. for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom to demand an end to segregation, fair wages and economic justice, voting rights, education, and long overdue civil rights protections. -
JFK assassinated
He was assassinated as he rode in a motorcade through Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas, Texas. -
Civil Rights Act
Prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin -
Tet Offensive
North Vietnamese and communist Viet Cong forces launched a coordinated attack against a number of targets in South Vietnam. -
MLK killed
Martin Luther King was shot dead while standing on a balcony outside his second-floor room at the Lorraine Motel. -
RFK killed
Robert F. Kennedy was shot by Sirhan Sirhan at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California. -
Moon Landing
Commander Neil Armstrong and Lunar Module Pilot Buzz Aldrin landed the Apollo Lunar Module Eagle and Armstrong became the first person to step onto the Moon's surface. -
Watergate break-in
A night guard at a D.C. hotel and office complex was making his rounds when he noticed a suspiciously taped-open exit door. He quickly alerted authorities, setting off a series of events that would forever change the nation. -
Roe v. Wade
It ruled that women's right to abortion was rooted in the language of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. -
Iranian hostage crisis
The Iran hostage crisis was an international crisis that began in November 1979 when militants seized 66 U.S. citizens in Tehrān and held 52 of them hostage for more than a year