1950s 1950 - Senator Joseph McCarthy gains power, and McCarthyism (1950-1954) begins 1950 - McCarran Internal Security Act 1950 - Korean War begins 1950 - National Security Council Memo 68 1951 - 22nd Amendment 1951 - Mutual Security Act 1951 - General Douglas MacArthur fired by Truman for invading China 1952 - ANZUS Treaty 1952 - Immigration and Naturalization Act 1953 - Dwight D. Eisenhower becomes President 1953 - Rosenbergs executed 1953 - Armistice in Korea 1953 - Shah of Iran returns to power in CIA-assisted coup 1954 - Joseph McCarthy discredited in Army-McCarthy hearings 1954 - Saint Lawrence Seaway Act 1954 - Baghdad Pact 1954 - Brown v. Board of Education 1954 - SEATO alliance 1954 - Fall of Dien Bien Phu; French lose control of Vietnam 1954 - Geneva Conference 1954 - The People's Republic of China lays seige on Quemoy and Matsu Islands; Eisenhower sends in navy 1955 - Rosa Parks incites Montgomery bus boycott 1955 - AFL and CIO merge in America's largest labor union 1955 - Warsaw Pact 1956 - Interstate Highway Act 1956 - US refuses to support the Hungarian Revolution 1956 - US installs Diem as leader of South Vietnam 1957 - Eisenhower Doctrine 1957 - Civil Rights Act of 1957 1957 - Russians launch Sputnik; "space race" begins 1957 - First nuclear power plant goes into service 1957 - Little Rock, Arkansas school desegregation 1958 - National Defense Education Act 1958 - NASA formed 1959 - Cuban Revolution 1959 - Landrum-Griffin Act 1959 - Alaska and Hawaii become states 1960s 1960 - U-2 incident 1960 - Greensboro sit-in 1960 - Civil Rights Act of 1960 1960 - Viet Cong formed 1961 - John F. Kennedy becomes President 1961 - 23rd Amendment 1961 - Peace Corps 1961 - Alliance for Progress 1961 - Bay of Pigs 1961 - Trade embargo on Cuba 1961 - Berlin Crisis 1961 - Diem assassinated 1961 - OPEC formed 1962 - Trade Expansion Act 1962 - Cuban Missile Crisis 1962 - Baker v. Carr 1962 - Engel v. Vitale 1962 - Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) 1963 - John F. Kennedy assassinated 1963 - Lyndon Johnson becomes President 1963 - Atomic Test Ban Treaty 1963 - March on Washington; Martin Luther King, Jr "I have a dream" speech 1964 - Tonkin Gulf incident; Gulf of Tonkin Resolution 1964 - 24th Amendment 1964 - Great Society proposed 1964 - Economic Opportunity Act 1964 - Civil Rights Act of 1964 1964 - Full Employment Act 1965 - Immigration Act of 1965 1965 - Voting Rights Act 1965 - Medicaid and Medicare enacted 1965 - Higher Education Act - Federal Scholarships 1965 - Watts Riot; Detroit race riot; "long hot summer" 1966 - Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) established 1966 - Department of Transportation created 1966 - National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act 1966 - Miranda v. Arizona establishes "Miranda rights" 1966 - Feminist group National Organization for Women (NOW) formed 1967 - 25th Amendment 1968 - Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy assassinated 1968 - Viet Cong launch Tet Offensive 1968 - Civil Rights Act of 1968 1969 - Richard Nixon becomes President 1969 - "Vietnamization" begins 1969 - Neil Armstrong walks on the moon, Earth's only natural satellite 1969 - Conservative Warren E. Burger appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court to replace Earl Warren 1969 - U.S. bombs North Vietnamese positions in Cambodia and Laos 1930-1949 1950-1969 History of the United States 1970-present
