|
|
1961
|
|
Freedom rides begin as riders test
integration standards on buses in Alabama; lead to violence, followed by
intervention by federal marshals
|
|
| |
United States–backed Bay of Pigs invasion of
Cuba fails completely
|
|
| |
Berlin Wall built, dividing Communist East
Berlin from free West Berlin
|
|
| |
Alliance for Progress renews U.S. pledge to form alliances with Latin
America
|
|
| |
W. E. B. Du Bois renounces U.S. citizenship, becomes citizen of
Ghana
|
|
|
1962
|
|
James Meredith, first black student at University of Mississippi,
enrolls with aid offederal marshals
|
|
| |
Berlin Wall begins with sit-ins, marches in
favor of civil rights reform
|
|
| |
Cuban Missile Crisis, standoff between
United States and USSR over Soviet missiles placed in Cuba, nearly results
in war
|
|
| |
Engel v. Vitale ruling finds school prayer
unconstitutional
|
|
|
1963
|
|
Martin Luther King Jr. begins Birmingham, Alabama, desegregation
crusade
|
|
| |
Federal marshals integrate University of Alabama by force, despite
physical interference by Alabama Governor George
Wallace
|
|
| |
More than 200,000 people participate in March on
Washington for civil rights, featuring
landmark “I have a dream” speech by Martin Luther
King Jr.
|
|
| |
NAACP leader Medgar Evers assassinated in
Jackson, Mississippi
|
|
| |
U.S. and USSR sign Limited Test Ban Treaty on
nuclear weapons
|
|
| |
Lee Harvey Oswald assassinates Kennedy in
Dallas; Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson becomes 36th
president
|
|
|
1964
|
|
Johnson announces domestic Great
Society program calling for “end to poverty and racial
injustice”
|
|
| |
Voter registration campaign launched in Mississippi
|
|
| |
Civil Rights Act of 1964 bans discrimination
in education, employment, and public accommodations
|
|
| |
Martin Luther King Jr. awarded Nobel Peace Prize
|
|
| |
African American leader Malcolm X breaks
with Nation of Islam, founds Organization for
Afro-American Unity
|
|
| |
Heavyweight boxing champion Cassius Clay converts to Islam, takes
name Muhammad Ali
|
|
| |
24th Amendment outlaws poll taxes
|
|
| |
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution broadens Johnson’s
military powers in Vietnam
|
|
| |
United States escalates conflict in Vietnam by bombing North
Vietnam
|
|
| |
Johnson elected president
|
|
|
1965
|
|
Medicare program begins to provide health
insurance for disabled and elderly
|
|
| |
Voting Rights Act of 1965 outlaws literacy
tests for voting
|
|
| |
Watts Riots in Los Angles leave 34 dead after
beating of black motorist
|
|
| |
Malcolm X assassinated in New York
City
|
|
| |
United States initiates Operation Rolling Thunder in
Vietnam
|
|
| |
Public protests against war grow with teach-ins on U.S. college campuses
|
|
|
1966
|
|
Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale found Black Panther
Party in Oakland, California
|
|
| |
Betty Friedan and others found National Organization for
Women (NOW)
|
|
| |
Miranda v. Arizona ruling states that police
must read suspects their rights
|
|
|
1967
|
|
“Long, hot summer” of race riots across
United States
|
|
| |
Antiwar rally in New York City draws 100,000 protesters
|
|
| |
Thurgood Marshall, NAACP lawyer for Brown v.
Board of Education, becomes first black justice on U.S. Supreme
Court
|
|
| |
Loving v. Virginia ruling declares laws
prohibiting interracial marriage unconstitutional
|
|
|
1968
|
|
North Vietnamese Army launches Tet
Offensive
|
|
| |
Johnson withdraws from presidential race
|
|
| |
James Earl Ray assassinates Martin Luther King
Jr. in Memphis, Tennessee
|
|
| |
Sirhan Sirhan assassinates Robert F. Kennedy, brother
of John F. Kennedy and Democratic presidential candidate, on night
of California primary
|
|
| |
U.S. military calls off Operation Rolling Thunder
|
|
| |
Richard Nixon elected 37th
president
|
|
|
1969
|
|
Operation Menu begins covert bombing of North Vietnamese forces
in Cambodia
|
|
| |
Apollo 11 astronauts walk on moon
|
|
| |
Woodstock Music and Art Festival in Upstate
New York draws crowd of 400,000
|
|
| |
My Lai massacre of Vietnamese villagers by
U.S. soldiers in 1968 exposed in U.S. news outlets; reports increase public
disillusionment over war
|
|
| |
FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover declares Black
Panther Party “public enemy number one”; police raid group’s
headquarters
|
|
|
1970
|
|
National Guardsmen shoot and kill several student antiwar protesters
at Kent State University (Ohio) and Jackson State
University (Mississippi)
|
|
| |
Governors of Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana vow to fight school
integration
|
|
|
1971
|
|
New York Times publishes Pentagon
Papers detailing U.S. involvement in Vietnam
|
|
|
1972
|
|
Nixon normalizes relations with China; visits
China and meets leader Mao Zedong
|
|
| |
Nixon pursues policy of détente with USSR,
attempting to ease tensions and limit threat of nuclear weapons
proliferation
|
|
| |
U.S. forces begin bombing Hanoi
|
|
| |
Nixon authorizes break-in and wiretapping of Democratic National
Committee headquarters at Watergate complex in Washington, D.C.
|
|
| |
Nixon reelected president in landslide over George
McGovern
|
|
| |
Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein expose
Watergate break-in and cover-up; Senate initiates Watergate
committee hearings in 1973
|
|
| |
U.S. forces mine harbor at major North Vietnamese port city of
Haiphong
|
|
|
1973
|
|
Vietnam Peace Accords signed; United States
withdraws from Vietnam
|
|
| |
Roe v. Wade ruling legalizes
abortion
|
|
| |
Vice President Spiro Agnew resigns; Gerald Ford appointed new vice
president
|
|
| |
Arab oil embargo, in retaliation for U.S.
support of Israel during Yom Kippur War, contributes to persistent U.S.
inflation
|
|
| |
Organization of the Petroleum Exporting
Countries (OPEC) cartel raises price of oil sharply,
leading to U.S. energy crisis and fuel shortages that
persist through 1974
|
Civil Rights, Nixon, and Vietnam 1961–1973
