1960- 2000's notes

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

1992

•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

1993

•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”