Civil Rights, Nixon, and Vietnam 1961–1973
U.S. History 1865–2004
Civil Rights, Nixon, and Vietnam 1961–1973
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African Americans lead push for civil rights equality for U.S. minorities
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United States plays aggressor in Cuba and Vietnam, hoping to forestall advance of Communism
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Student protests and counterculture of 1960s push U.S. society in radical turn away from conservative style of the 1950s
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Watergate scandal rocks U.S. government and forces Nixon from office
| 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 |
