-
1950
President Truman approves Hydrogen bomb construction. -
1950
Cold war conflict between Communist and non-Communist forces on Korean Peninsula. North Korean communists invade South Korea. -
1950
President Truman, without the approval of Congress, commits American troops to battle -
1951
Twenty-Second Amendment to the Constitution is ratified, limiting the president to two terms -
1951
President Truman removes Gen. Douglas MacArthur as head of U.S. Far East Command -
1951
President Truman speaks in first coast-to-coast live television broadcast -
1954
McCarthy accuses army officials, members of the media, and other public figures of being communists during hearings -
1952
First hydrogen bomb is detonated by the U.S. on Eniwetok, an atoll in the Marshall Islands -
1953
Dwight Eisenhower is inaugurated as the 34th president -
1954
Hernandez v. Texas (Supreme Court Decision)
Unanimous decision declared that Mexican-Americans and other nationalities had equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment. Up to this time, non-White people were systematically excluded from serving on court juries. -
1954
Brown v. Board of Education (Supreme Court Decision)
Unanimous decision that determined that separate was not equal in schools and violate the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Overturned previous decision of Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) that had declared that separate was equal. -
1957
Eisenhower's second inauguration -
1958
Explorer I, first American satellite, is launched -
1961
U.S. severs diplomatic relations with Cuba (Jan. 3). John F. Kennedy is inaugurated as the 35th president (Jan. 20). Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba fails (April 17–20). A mixed-race group of volunteers sponsored by the Committee on Racial Equality—the so-called Freedom Riders—travel on buses through the South in order to protest racially segregated interstate bus facilities -
1962
Glenn becomes first U.S. astronaut to orbit Earth(Feb. 20). Cuban Missile Crisis: President Kennedy denounces Soviet Union for secretly installing missile bases on Cuba and initiates a naval blockade of the island -
1963
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 (Aug. 28). President Kennedy is assassinated
1963 in Dallas, Tex. (Nov. 22). He is succeeded in office by his vice president, Lyndon B. Johnson. -
1964
President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act (July 2) -
1964
North Vietnamese torpedo boats allegedly attack U.S. destroyer in Gulf of Tonkin off the coast of North Vietnam. -
1965
In his annual state of the Union address, President Johnson proposes his Great Society program (Jan. 4). L. Johnson's second inauguration (Jan. 20). State troopers attack peaceful demonstrators led by Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., as they try to cross bridge in Selma, Ala. (March 7). President Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits discriminatory voting practices (Aug. 6). In six days of rioting in Watts, a black section of Los Angeles, 35 people are killed and 883 injured -
1966
Compton’s Cafeteria Riot
San Francisco. Transgender and drag queens in San Francisco reacted to ongoing harassment by the police force. After several days, the protests stopped. One of the outgrowths was the establishment of the National Transsexual Counseling Unit (NTCU) in support of transgender people. -
1967
25th amendment to the Constitution is ratified, outlining the procedures for filling vacancies in the presidency and vice presidency (Feb. 10). -
1967
Loving v. Virginia (Supreme Court Decision)
Unanimous decision overturned state laws that prohibited inter-racial marriage or miscegenation laws. Agreed that anti-miscegenation laws violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. First miscegenation law was passed in 1691. -
1968
Martin Luther King, Jr., is assassinated in Memphis, Tenn. (April 4). Sen. Robert F. Kennedy is assassinated in Los Angeles, Calif. -
1969
Richard Nixon is inaugurated as the 37th president (Jan. 20).Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, Jr., become the first men to land on the Moon (July 20). -
1970
Four students are shot to death by National Guardsmen during an antiwar protest at Kent State University -
1970
The first gay pride marches were held in multiple cities across the United States on the first anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, including San Francisco and Los Angeles / West Hollywood. -
1970
U.S. troops invade Cambodia -
1971
The Twenty-Sixth Amendment to the Constitution is ratified, lowering the voting age from 18 to 21 -
1972
Nixon makes historic visit to Communist China (Feb. 21–27).U.S. and Soviet Union sign strategic arms control agreement known as SALT I (May 26). Five men, all employees of Nixon's reelection campaign, are caught breaking into rival Democratic headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington, DC (June 17). -
1973
Nixon's second inauguration. Senate Select Committee begins televised hearings to investigate Watergate cover-up Vice President Spiro T. Agnew resigns over charges of corruption and income tax evasion President Nixon nominates Gerald R. Ford as vice president Ford is confirmed by Congress and sworn in He is the first vice president to succeed to the office under the terms laid out by the Twenty-Fifth Amendment. -
1973
Roe v. Wade
By a vote of 7-2 determined that women have a right to privacy protected by the Fourteenth Amendment and choice regarding abortion. -
1974
House Judiciary Committee recommends to full House that Nixon be impeached on grounds of obstruction of justice, abuse of power, and contempt of Congress (July 27–30).Nixon resigns; he is succeeded in office by his vice president, Gerald Ford (Aug. 9). Nixon is granted an unconditional pardon by President Ford (Sept. 8). Five former Nixon aides go on trial for their involvement in the Watergate cover-up -
1975
South Vietnamese government surrenders to North Vietnam; U.S. embassy Marine guards and last U.S. civilians are
evacuated -
1977
Jimmy Carter is inaugurated as the 39th president (Jan. 20).President Carter signs treaty (Sept. 7) agreeing to turn control of Panama Canal over to Panama on Dec. 31, 1999. -
1978
President Carter meets with Egyptian president Anwar Sadat and Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin at Camp David(Sept. 6); Sadat and Begin sign Camp David Accord, ending 30-year conflict between Egypt and Israel (Sept. 17). -
1979
U.S. establishes diplomatic ties with mainland China for the first time since Communist takeover in 1949 (Jan. 1).Malfunction at Three Mile Island nuclear reactor in Pennsylvania causes near meltdown (March 28). Panama takes control of the Canal Zone, formerly administered by U.S -
1980
President Carter announces that U.S. athletes will not attend Summer Olympics in Moscow unless Soviet Union withdraws from Afghanistan (Jan. 20). FBI's undercover bribery investigation, code named Abscam, implicates a U.S. senator, seven members of the House, and 31 other public officials -
1981
Ronald Reagan is inaugurated as the 40th president (Jan. 20).U.S. hostages held in Iran are released after 444 days in captivity (Jan. 20). President Reagan is shot in the chest by John Hinckley, Jr. (March 30). Sandra Day O'Connor is sworn in as the first woman Supreme Court justice (Sept. 25). -
1982
Deadline for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution passes without the necessary votes (June 30). -
1983
U.S. invades Caribbean island of Grenada after a coup by Marxist faction in the government (Oct. 25). -
1985
Reagan's second inauguration (Jan. 21). -
1986
Space shuttle Challenger explodes 73 seconds after liftoff, killing all seven crew members (Jan. 28). It is the worst accident in the history of the U.S. space program. U.S. bombs military bases in Libya in effort to deter terrorist strikes on American targets (April 14). Iran-Contra scandal breaks when White House is forced to reveal secret arms-for- hostages deals (Nov.). -
1987
Congress holds public hearings in Iran-Contra investigation(May 5–Aug. 3). In a speech in Berlin, President Reagan challenges Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to ―tear down this wall and open Eastern Europe to political and economic reform (June 12). Reagan and Gorbachev sign INF treaty, the first arms-control agreement to reduce the superpowers' nuclear weapons (Dec. 8) -
1989
George H. W. Bush is inaugurated as the 41st president Oil tanker Exxon Valdez runs aground in Prince William Sound, spilling more than 10 million gallons of oil (March 24).It is the largest oil spill in U.S. history. President Bush signs legislation to provide for federal bailout of nearly 800 insolvent savings and loan institutions (Aug. 9). U.S. forces invade Panama in an attempt to capture Gen. Manuel Noriega, who previously had been indicted in the U.S. on drug trafficking charges