Timeline 1945-1975

1946 More than 1 million GIs enrolled in college, inflation soars more than 18%, Dr. Spock Baby and Child Care, 1st computer begins operation

1947-Jackie Robinson becomes the first African American to play baseball for the Major Leagues, Truman Doctrine

1948-Truman bans racial segregation in the armed forces, Israel founded, Berlin blockade and airlift, Marshall Plan approved, Truman elected

1949-The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is established, East and West Germany founded as separate nations, Communist victory in China, USSR detonates atomic bomb

1950-Truman authorizes the production of the H-bomb, Senator Joseph McCarthy begins anti-communist crusade, Korean War begins, Rosenbergs arrested for atomic spying

1951-Presidents limited to 2 terms, end to US occupation of Japan, MacArthur dismissed from Korean command, Rosenbergs convicted of espionage

1952 1st hydrogen bomb exploded, Ike elected president

1953-The Rosenbergs are executed for traitorous espionage, Earl Warren appointed Chief Justice

1954-The Nationally televised Army-McCarthy hearings lead to Senator Joseph McCarthy's downfall, Brown v. Board of Education, Topeka, KS, Congress adds the words "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance and requires "In God We Trust" to appear on all American currency the next year, fall of Dienbienphu

1955-Rosa Parks arrested (Montgomery bus boycott), polio vaccine developed, Rebel without a Cause

1956-The Montgomery bus boycott, Interstate Highway Act, Suez crisis, Ike relected

1957-Integration of Central High School (Little Rock, Arkansas), Eisenhower Doctrine, Sputnik, Baby Boom peak (4.3 million birth)

1958-The first U.S. satellite (Explore 1) goes into orbit, US troops to Lebanon, NASA founded

1959-The U.S. severs its diplomatic with Cuba after Fidel Castro rises to power and Cuba becomes communist.

1960-U-2 spy plane incident, NLF of South Vietnam established, Birth-control pill marketed

1960-Kennedy/Nixon debates, JFK elected

1961-Peace Corps created, Bay of Pigs invasion, Freedom rides, Berlin Wall erected, Roger Maris hit 61 homeruns

1962-John Glenn orbits the earth, Cuban missle crisis, James Meredith becomes the first African American student to attend the University of Mississippi, a highly segregated southern school, President Kennedy issues the order that protects federal employees' right to organize and bargain collectively, but not to strike, Rachel Carson Silent Spring, Engel v. Vitale

1963- Kennedy assassinated, Abington v. Schempp, Gideon v. Wainwright, Jacobellis v. Ohio, Birmingham demonstrations, March on Washinton, US-USSR test ban treaty, Betty Friedan The Feminine Mystique

1964-Congress ratifies the Civil Rights Act, New York Times v. Sullivan, Freedom Summer, Gulf of Tonkin incident and Resolution, Economic Opportunity Act (war on poverty), LBJ elected

1965- Malcom X assassinated, Johnson quickly increases the number of troops in Vietnam, bombing of North Vietnam, Selma to Montgomery march, Voting rights act, Watts riots (LA)

1966-NOW founded, Black Panther party founded, Miranda v. Arizona

1967-Antiwar demonstrations, urban race riots, Loving v. Virginia

1968-Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. assassinated (race riots), Katzenbach v. Morgan, Tet offensive, LBJ not seek reelection, student take-over Columbia U., violence at Democratic convention, Vietnam Peac talks (Paris), Nixon elected

1969-Apollo 11 moon landing, Vietnamization, Woodstock, Calley charged with murder for My Lai massacre

1970-Environmental Protection Agency established, US invades Cambodia, students killed at Kent State and Jackson State, OSHA created, 1st earth day

1971-The 26th Amendment lowering the voting age to 18 in all elections was ratified, US invades Laos, Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenbrg Board of Education, NYT publishes Pentagon Papers, Nixon freezes on prices and wages.

1972-A break-in at the Democratic headquarters sets off the Watergate Scandal, ERA passed by Congress (never ratified), SALT I, Nixon reelected in landslide