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Central Intelligence Agency is established
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Presidential Succession Act is signed into law by President Truman.
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U.S. and Great Britain begin airlift of food and fuel to West Berlin.
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Truman's second inauguration.
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Soviets end blockade of Berlin
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Period: to
Vietnamese War
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North Korean communists invade South Korea.
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President Truman, without the approval of Congress, commits American troops to battle.
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Twenty-Second Amendment to the Constitution is ratified, limiting the president to two terms.
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Puerto Rico becomes a U.S. commonwealth.
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Dwight Eisenhower is inaugurated as the 34th president.
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Armistice agreement is signed.
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Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kans.: Landmark Supreme Court decision declares that racial segregation in schools is unconstitutional.
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Eisenhower's second inauguration.
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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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Explorer I, first American satellite, is launched.
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Hawaii becomes the 50th state.
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Alaska becomes the 49th state.
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U.S. severs diplomatic relations with Cuba.
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John F. Kennedy is inaugurated as the 35th president.
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Bay of Pigs invasion fails
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Lt. Col. John Glenn becomes first U.S. astronaut to orbit Earth.
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Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., delivers his “I Have a Dream” speech
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President Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Tex. He is succeeded in office by his vice president, Lyndon B. Johnson
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President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act.
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L. Johnson's second inauguration.
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President Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits discriminatory voting practices.
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Twenty-Fifth Amendment to the Constitution is ratified
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Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., is assassinated in Memphis, Tenn.
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Richard Nixon is inaugurated as the 37th president.
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Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, Jr., become the first men to land on the Moon
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The Twenty-Sixth Amendment to the Constitution is ratified, lowering the voting age from 21 to 18.
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U.S. and Soviet Union sign strategic arms control agreement known as SALT I.
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Nixon's second inauguration.
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Nixon resigns from presidency; he is succeeded in office by his vice president, Gerald Ford.
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Jimmy Carter is inaugurated as the 39th president.
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President Carter signs treaty agreeing to turn control of Panama Canal over to Panama on Dec. 31, 1999.
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Ronald Reagan is inaugurated as the 40th president
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President Reagan is shot in the chest by John Hinckley, Jr.
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Sandra Day O'Connor is sworn in as the first woman Supreme Court justice.
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Reagan's second inauguration.
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Space shuttle Challenger explodes 73 seconds after liftoff, killing all seven crew members.
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Reagan and Gorbachev sign INF treaty, the first arms-control agreement to reduce the superpowers' nuclear weapons.
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George H. W. Bush is inaugurated as the 41st president.
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Oil tanker Exxon Valdez spills more than 10 million gallons of oil. It is the largest oil spill in U.S. history.
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Period: to
Persian Gulf War
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U.S. and Soviet Union sign START I treaty, agreeing to further reduce strategic nuclear arms.
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Bill Clinton is inaugurated as the 42nd president.
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Paula Jones, a former Arkansas state employee, files a federal lawsuit against President Clinton for sexual harassment.
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Clinton's second inauguration
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President Clinton denies having had a sexual relationship with a White House intern named Monica Lewinsky.
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U.S. and China sign historic trade agreement.
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George W. Bush is inaugurated as the 43rd president.
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Attack on the World Trade Center
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President Bush labels Iran, Iraq, and North Korea an “axis of evil” and declares that U.S. will wage war against states that develop weapons of mass destruction.
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War waged by the U.S. and Britain against Iraq begins.
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President Bush signs $350 billion tax-cut bill.
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Period: to
Hurricane Katrina wreaks catastrophic damage on Mississippi and Louisiana
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California Democrat Nancy Pelosi becomes the first woman Speaker of the House of Representatives.
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The minimum wage in the U.S. increases to $5.85, up from $5.15
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After months of unraveling, the economy finally comes crashing down in 2008, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbling 4.4% in one day
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Barack Obama becomes the first African-American to be elected President
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Barrack Obama is inaugurated as the 44th President
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Obama’s second term as President begins
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Donald Trump is inaugurated as the 45th President