1955 – 1975

  • Period: to

    Montgomery Bus Boycott, Emergence of Martin Luther King, Jr.

    https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/montgomery-bus-boycott
    "Sparked by the arrest of Rosa Parks on 1 December 1955, the Montgomery bus boycott was a 13-month mass protest that ended with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that segregation on public buses is unconstitutional. The Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) coordinated the boycott, and its president, Martin Luther King, Jr., became a prominent civil rights leader as international attention focused on Montgomery. "
  • Sputnik I

    Sputnik I
    https://history.nasa.gov/sputnik/
    "History changed on October 4, 1957, when the Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik I. The world's first artificial satellite was about the size of a beach ball and took about 98 minutes to orbit the Earth on its elliptical path. That launch ushered in new political, military, technological, and scientific developments. While the Sputnik launch was a single event, it marked the start of the space age and the U.S.-U.S.S.R space race."
  • Little Rock Nine Crisis

    Little Rock Nine Crisis
    https://nmaahc.si.edu/blog-post/little-rock-nine
    "The "Little Rock Nine," as the nine teens came to be known, were to be the first African American students to enter Little Rock's Central High School. Three years earlier, following the Supreme Court ruling, the Little Rock school board pledged to voluntarily desegregate its schools. This idea was explosive for the community and, like much of the South, it was fraught with anger and bitterness."
  • John F. Kennedy Elected President

    John F. Kennedy Elected President
    https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/john-f-kennedy-elected-president
    "John F. Kennedy becomes the youngest man ever to be elected president of the United States, narrowly beating Republican Vice President Richard Nixon. He was also the first Catholic to become president. The campaign was hard fought and bitter. For the first time, presidential candidates engaged in televised debates."
  • President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act

    President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act
    https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=false&doc=97
    "This act signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson on July 2, 1964, prohibited discrimination in public places, provided for the integration of schools and other public facilities, and made employment discrimination illegal. This document was the most sweeping civil rights legislation since Reconstruction."
  • Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, Jr., become the first men to land on the Moon

    Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, Jr., become the first men to land on the Moon
    https://airandspace.si.edu/explore-and-learn/topics/apollo/apollo-program/landing-missions/apollo11.cfm
    "Apollo 11 was the first manned mission to land on the Moon. The first steps by humans on another planetary body were taken by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on July 20, 1969. The astronauts also returned to Earth the first samples from another planetary body."
  • Nixon makes historic visit to Communist China

    Nixon makes historic visit to Communist China
    http://www.americaslibrary.gov/jb/modern/jb_modern_nixchina_1.html
    "On February 21, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon arrived in China for an official trip. He was the first U.S. president to visit the People's Republic of China since it was established in 1949. This was an important event because the U.S. was seeking to improve relations with a Communist country during the Cold War. "
  • Watergate Scandal

    Watergate Scandal
    https://www.history.com/topics/1970s/watergate
    "The Watergate scandal began early in the morning of June 17, 1972, when several burglars were arrested in the office of the Democratic National Committee, located in the Watergate complex of buildings in Washington, D.C. This was no ordinary robbery: The prowlers were connected to President Richard Nixon’s reelection campaign, and they had been caught wiretapping phones and stealing documents."