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Period: to
Time Period 1942-1953
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Atomic Bomb Agreement
Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, sign into agreement the development of the first atomic bomb. -
Battle of Kasserine Pass Starts
The Battle of Kasserine Pass in Tunisia was the first major battle between U.S. and German forces and ended with the defeat of the American and British troops with heavy casualties. It ends February 24, 1943 -
Normandy Invasion (D-Day)
In the largest amphibious assault ever, over 155,000 Allied troops land on the beaches of Normandy to attack German forces there. The assault helps liberate Paris from German control and is one step closer to victory for the Allies on the European front. -
Dropping of the Atomic Bombs
President Harry Truman gives the okay to drop the atomic bombs and the city of Hiroshima is leveled. Nagasaki is also leveled three days later with a second bomb. Japan surrenders six days later, officially ending WWII. -
NATO Formed
NATO (North American Treaty Organization) is formed by the United States, Canada, and ten western European nations. The treaty states that any attack against one nation would be considered an attack against all. -
Korean War Starts
The three-year conflict in Korea known as the Korean War is between Communist North Korea and Democratic South Korea, with China aiding the north, and the U.S. aiding the south. It's one of the first wars that uses the Domino Theory. -
Korean War Ends
Fighting ceases in the Korean peninsula. All countries (South Korea, United States, North Korea, and the Republic of China) involved sign an armistice agreement. -
Double-Helix DNA
British physicist Francis Crick and American scientist James D. Watson publish their description of the double helix DNA molecule. In 1962 they, along with New Zealand-born scientist Maurice Wilkins, are awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discovery. -
Period: to
Time Period 1955 - 1975
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Explorer 1 Launch
The first U.S. satellite, the Explorer 1 is launched by the Army at Cape Canaveral. It discovered the Vans Allen Radiation Belt. -
Greensboro Sit-In
Four black college students stage a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth lunch counter, protesting their denial of service. Located at the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College in Greensboro. This action caused a national campaign, waged by seventy-thousand students, both white and black, over the next eight months, in sit-ins across the nation for Civil Rights. -
Sub-Orbital Space Flight
Commander Alan B. Shepard Jr. inside a Mercury capsule launched 116.5 miles above the earth from Cape Canaveral, Florida, completes the first U.S. manned sub-orbital space flight. President Kennedy soon after, announces his intention to place a man on the moon by the end of the decade. -
Orbit Around Earth
Lt. Colonel John Glenn becomes the first U.S. astronaut in orbit in the Friendship 7 Mercury capsule. He would circle the earth three times before returning to earth, remaining aloft for four hours and fifty-five minutes. This flight equalized the space race with the Soviet Union, whose Vostok I flight on April 12, 1961, with Yuri Gagarin had become the first manned spaceflight into orbit one year earlier. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis begins and lasts for 38 days. President John F. Kennedy orders a naval and air blockade of military equipment to Cuba, in response to the Soviet Union building offensive missiles on the island. An agreement is eventually reached with Soviet Premier Khrushchev on the removal of the missiles, ending the crisis. Many believe that this was the closest the Cold War came to breaking into armed conflict. -
I Have a Dream
The Civil Rights march on Washington, D.C. for Jobs and Freedom. Dr. Martin Luther King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech is given from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Over 200,000 people participated in the march for equal rights. -
Assassination of JFK
President John F. Kennedy is mortally wounded by assassin Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas, Texas, during a motorcade through downtown. Later that day Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson is sworn into office. Oswald was killed on live national television by Jack Ruby while being transported in police custody two days later. -
Assassination of MLK Jr.
James Earl Ray assassinates Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. while he is standing on a motel balcony in Memphis, Tennessee. -
Watergate Crisis/Okinawa Return
The Watergate crisis begins when four men are arrested for breaking into the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate office building in Washington, D.C. This happens on the day that Okinawa (under the control of the U.S.) is returned to Japan. -
Period: to
Time Period 1980-2001
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God's Always Stronger Than Man - Mt. St. Helens
Mt. St. Helens volcano, in Washington State, erupts, killing fifty-seven people and causing economic devastation to the surrounding area with losses near $3 billion. The blast was estimated to have five hundred times greater power than the Hiroshima atomic bomb. -
Soviet Union & United States Diplomatic Relations
The first meeting in six years between the leaders of the Soviet Union and the United States occurs when Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan engaged in a five-hour summit conference in Geneva, Switzerland. -
Challenger Space Shuttle
The Challenger Space Shuttle explodes after lift off at Cape Canaveral, Florida, killing seven people, including Christa McAuliffe, a New Hampshire school teacher. -
Berlin Wall Falls Down
The Berlin Wall begins to crumble when German citizens are allowed to travel freely between East and West Germany for the first time after thirty-eight years of restricting traffic between the sides of the city. One day later, the influx of crowds around and onto the wall begin to dismantle it, thus ending its existence. -
27th Amendment
The 27th Amendment to the Constitution is passed two hundred and two years after its initial proposal. It bars the United States Congress from giving itself a midterm or retroactive pay raise. This amendment had been originally proposed by James Madison in 1789, as part of the twelve amendments, of which ten would become the original Bill of Rights on December 15, 1791. -
Hannover 2000 World Expo
For the first time since 1851, the United States of America does not participate in a major World's Fair, the Hannover 2000 World Expo, despite a record number, 187, of international participants. Less than half, 18.1 million, of the original attendance estimated, 40 million, visit Hannover's event. -
Hillary Clinton Elected to Senate
Hillary Rodham Clinton wins a seat for the United States Senate from New York. It is the first time a former First Lady wins public office. -
9-11
Islamic fundamentalist terrorists hijack four U.S. airliners crashing them into the Pentagon and World Trade Center in New York City. The attack of two planes levels the World Trade Center and the crash of one plane inflicts serious damage to the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, causing nearly 3,000 deaths. The fourth plane is heroically crashed by passengers into a Pennsylvania cornfield when they learn of the plot, preventing the destruction of possibly the White House or Capitol building.