1960's
1960•4 students @ North Carolina A&T stage a sit-in; it sparks a national campaign
–Over 8 months, 70,000 sit-in•The 50 star flag is debuted (Hawaii was added in 1959)•Kennedy beats Nixon in the presidential election–1st televised debate
1961
•US severs ties with Cuba
•Bay of Pigs: Cuban exiles try to overthrow Castro•1st American in space: Alan B Shepard
191962
•1st black student, James Meredith, enters University of Mississippi•Cuban Missile Crisis begins–38 day standoff between US & USSR…the closest we come to war•John Glenn – 1st man to orbit the earth
1963
•Alcatraz Prison is closed down
•Supreme Court finds a law requiring the Lords Prayer or bible verses in school unconstitutional
•MLK gives his “I have a Dream” speech during the Civil Rights march
•During a motorcade through Dallas, TX, Kennedy is shot & killed by Lee Harvey Oswald.
•Oswald was killed on live television by Jack Ruby while being taken into police custody
1964
•The Beatles arrive in the US
•Muhammad Ali beats Sonny Liston for the title of World Heavyweight Boxing Champ
•Congress passes legislation – illegal to discriminate in jobs, voting, accommodations
•The US begins taking action in Vietnam
•Johnson elected president
1965
•Civil Rights march in Alabama
–Selma to Montgomery
•Watts race riots in LA
–34 dead, $200 million in property destroyed
Malcolm X assassinated
1966•Medicare begins
•1st black senator in 85 years is elected – Edward Brooke
•Black Panther Party is formed
•Draft protests begin
1967
•Numerous riots:
–Newark, NJ – 26 dead, 1500 injured
–Detroit, MI – 40 dead, 2000 injured, 5000
homeless
•Called 12th street riots, an entire neighborhood is
destroyed
1968
•Martin
Luther King is assassinated in Memphis, TN by James Earl Ray
•Presidential
candidate Robert Kennedy is shot & killed at a campaign celebration in Los
Angeles
•Richard
Nixon elected president
1969
•Nixon presents his plan for Vietnam
–Anti-war protests continue
•Neil Armstrong becomes the 1st man to set foot on the moon
•The Internet is invented by the
Department of Defense
1970
•@Kent State, 4 students are killed during
an anti-war protest
•1st Earth Day celebration is held
1971
•Banned:
cigarette ads on TV
•26th amendment changes voting age from 21 to
18
•1st VCR created
1972
•Nixon
meets with Soviet leader to discuss arms pact
•Watergate: 4 men arrested for breaking into the
Watergate hotel
•Nixon
wins presidential election
1973
•Roe v
Wade – women can’t be prevented from having abortions
•US
troops leave Vietnam
•Watergate
thieves tried; 4 members of Nixon's administration accused of obstructing
justice
–The
president refuses to release Watergate tapes
•VP
Spiro T Agnew is accused of tax evasion & resigns; Gerald Ford replaces him
•Embargo
on oil from the middle east begins
1974
•The impeachment process is started
against Nixon, saying that he was part of a criminal conspiracy to obstruct
justice
•Nixon resigns rather than be impeached
•Ford becomes president and pardons Nixon
1975
•All parties in the Watergate scandal are
found guilty
•Communists take over all of Vietnam
•Oil embargo continues
•Microsoft founded by Bill Gates &
Paul Allen
1976
•Bicentennial of the US is celebrated
•1st space probe lands on Mars
•Jimmy Carter becomes president
1977•Vietnam War draft evaders (10,000) are pardoned
•25
hour blackout in NYC
1978
US
votes to give the Panama Canal back to Panama in 1999
•Carter
gets the leaders of Israel & Egypt together at Camp David
•1st test-tube baby born
1979
•3 Mile Island nuclear power plant
meltdown; largest nuclear accident in the US
•Chrysler car co receives $1.5 billion
bailout
•Iran Hostage Crisis – 52 Americans are
taken hostage in Tehran by militants
1980
•US
begins grain embargo to the USSR; refuses to attend summer Olympics
•Mt.
St. Helens erupts; 57 killed
–Blast
500 times more powerful than Hiroshima
•Ronald
Regan becomes president
•Attempt
to rescue the hostages in Iran fails
1981
•Hostages freed in exchange for $8 billion
in frozen assets
•Reagan survives an assassination attempt
•1st space shuttle launched from Cape
Canaveral
•IBM releases 1st PC
1982
•Senate votes to stop busing (shipping
kids from one area to a school in another area)
•Unemployment at its highest since 1940
•Vietnam Memorial is finished
1983
•Reagan proposes the Star Wars program to
intercept incoming missiles
•Sally Ride – 1st woman in space
•US invades Grenada to kick out the
Marxists
1984
•Walter Mondale selects Geraldine Ferraro
as his vice presidential running mate
•Russia boycotts the olympics in LA
•Reagan is elected as president
1985
•Pete Rose breaks the record for most
career hits in MLB
–He is banned from baseball in 1989 for
gambling
•Reagan and Gorbachev hold a conference in
Geneva
1986
•Martin
Luther King Day becomes a holiday
•Space
shuttle Challenger explodes on takeoff, killing all 7 astronauts
•Reagan
& Gorbachev agree to ban mid-range missiles
•The
Iran-Contra scandal begins: $$ from
weapon sales was used to fund the Contras in Nicaragua
1987
•Reagan denies knowing that $$ went to the
Contras
•Black Monday: stock market crash
•US & Russia sign the INF treaty,
agree to dismantle mid-range missiles
1988
•1st patent for a genetically engineered
animal is issued
•George Bush becomes president
1989
•The Exxon Valdez oil tanker crashes in
Alaska
–11 million gallons of oil is spilt
•$400 billion bill to help Savings &
Loans approved
•Colin Powell becomes first African
American Chairman of the Joint Chiefs
1990
•Nelson Mandela Freed
•Re-unification of Germany
•The Hubble Space Telescope is placed into
orbit
•The UN gives Iraq until Jan ’91 to
withdraw from Kuwait
–Gulf War begins (Aug 1990-Feb 1991)
1991
•Operation Desert Storm begins with air
strikes against Iraq
•Gulf War ends in February
•Soviet Union officially dismantled by new President Boris Yeltsin
•Magic Johnson retires from NBA
•Riots
in L.A. after Rodney King trial
•27th Amendment passed (100 years after it was
proposed)
•Bill
Clinton wins election over then-president Bush and Ross Perot
•Bosnian
genocide begins
•World
Trade Center is bombed
•Brady
Handgun Violence prevention act passed by Clinton
•Michael
Jordan retires from NBA to play baseball
•The
internet becomes wildly available
1994
•NAFTA
(North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement) created
•OJ
Simpson arrested for murder
•Clinton
signs Assault Weapons Ban
•More
troops sent to Kuwait to keep Iraqi forces out
•Genocide
in Rwanda
1995
•World
Trade Organization created
•Oklahoma
City Bombing
•Nuclear
Non-Proliferation treaty extended indefinitely
• eBay
begins
•OJ
found not guilty
•Korean
War Memorial dedicated
1996
Bombing
at the Olympics in Atlanta
•Unabomber
is arrested
•Clinton
wins election
1997
The 1st Harry Potter book is printed
•Scientists
clone sheep (Dolly)
•Hale-Bopp
Comet becomes visible
1998
•President
Clinton Impeached
•Osama
Bin Laden appears on the scene
•John
Glen becomes the oldest man in space
•Microsoft
brought to court for being a monopoly
1999
•Panama
Canal returns to Panama
•Columbine
Shooting
•Euro
is introduced
•Clinton
is acquitted
•WTO
opening ceremonies in Seattle are cancelled after huge anti-globalization
protests
2000
•George
W Bush wins election over Al Gore
•Hillary
Clinton becomes senator for New York
2001
•Presidential
election is confirmed
•Terrorists
hijack planes and crash them into the Pentagon and the World Trade Center
•Beginning
of the “War on Terror”
