Historic timeline 1950s to present
Technology:
june 1950
The Zenith Radio Corporation created the very first television remote control in 1950 called "Lazy Bone." The Lazy Bone could turn a television on and off, and change channels. However, it was not a wireless remote control. The Lazy Bone remote control was attached to the television by a bulky cable. It turned out that consumers did not like the cable because it caused frequent tripping.
November 1, 1952
First hydrogen bomb is detonated by the U.S on Eniwetok in the Marshall Islands.
January 31, 1958
First American satellite is launched.
February 20, 1962
Lt. Col. John Glenn is first astronaut to orbit Earth.
July 20, 1969
Astronauts Neill Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin become first men to land on the moon.
March 28, 1979
Malfunction at Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania causes near meltdown
January 28, 1986
The challenger space shuttle explodes 73 seconds after liftoff killing all seven crew members on board.
Governmental:
January 20, 1953
Dwight Eisenhower is inaugurated as the 34th president of the U.S
January 21, 1957
Eisenhower’s second inauguration
January 20, 1961
John F. Kennedy is inaugurated as the 35th president
April 17-20, 1961
Bay of Pigs invasion on Cuba fails
October 22- November 20, 1962
The Cuban Missile Crisis; President Kennedy initiates a naval blockade on Cuba and denounces Soviet Union for installing missile bases on the Island.
November 22, 1963
President John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas Texas. Vice president Lyndon B. Johnson took office.
July 2, 1964
President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act
January 4, 1965
President Johnson proposes his Great Society program in the annual state of the union address.
January 20, 1965
Lyndon B. Johnson’s second inauguration.
August 6, 1965
President Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act, prohibiting discriminatory voting practices.
January 20, 1969
Richard Nixon is inaugurated as the 37th president
May 26, 1972
U.S and Soviet Union sigh “Strategic arms control agreement” known as SALT I
June 17, 1972
Five of President Nixon’s reelection campaign employees were caught breaking into rival democratic office at the Watergate complex in Washington, DC.
January 20, 1973
President Nixon’s second inauguration
May 17- August 7, 1973
Senate Select Committee begins public hearings to investigate the “Watergate cover up”
October 10, 1973
Vice president Spiro T. Agnew resigns from corruption charges and income tax evasion.
October 10- December 6, 1973
Gerald R. Ford was nominated for vice president and sworn in on Dec. 6th
July 27-30, 1974
The House Judiciary Committee recommends that President Nixon to be impeached for obstruction of justice, abuse of power, and contempt of congress.
August 9, 1974
Nixon resigns, stays in office by his vice president, Gerald Ford.
September 8, 1974
Nixon is granted an unconditional pardon by President Ford.
October 15, 1974
Five of Nixon’s former employees go on trial for the Watergate cover-up.
January 20, 1977
Jimmy Carter is inaugurated as the 39th president
September 6, 1978
President Carter meets with Egyptian president and Israeli prime minister at Camp David. On September 17 the two sign Camp David Accord, which ended the thirty year war between Egypt and Israel.
January 20, 1981
Ronald Regan is inaugurated as the 40th president.
January 20, 1981
U.S hostages are released after being held captive for over 400 days.
March 30, 1981
President Regan is shot in the chest by John Hinckley
September 25, 1981
Sandra Day O’Connor is sworn into as first woman in the Supreme Court justice.
January 21, 1985
Ronald Reagan’s second inauguration.
November 1987
Iran-Contra scandal is revealed when White House is forced to reveal secret arms-for-hostages deals.
May 5- August 3, 1987
Congress holds public hearing in the Iran-Contra investigation
June 12, 1987
President Reagan challenges Soviet’s leader Mikhail Gorbachev to open Eastern Europe to political and economic reform in a speech in Berlin.
December 8, 1987
Reagan and Gorbachev sigh the INF treaty, which was the first arms control agreement to reduce the problem of nuclear weapons.
January 20, 1980
George H. W. Bush is inaugurated as the 41st president
August 2, 1990
Iraqi troops invade Kuwait which leads to the Persian Gulf War.
July 31, 1991
U.S and Soviet Union sign the START I treaty agreeing to ruduce the use of nuclear arms.
February 1, 1992
President Bush and Russian president Boris Yeltsin meet at Camp David to declare the end of the cold war formally after the breakup of the Soviet Union in Dec. 1991
December 4, 1992
President Bush allows troops to be sent to Somalia as part of the UN relief effort.
December 24, 1992
President Bush pardons six officials convicted of being involved in the Iran-Contra scandal. which lead to many suspicious of a cover-up.
January 20, 1993
Bill Clinton is inaugurated as the 42nd president.
February 26, 1993
Bomb goes off in the World Trade Center Basement, killing 6, wounding 1,000, and caused more then $500 million in property damage.
June 26, 1993
President Clinton orders a missle attack on Iraq in spite of the alleged plot to assassinate former president Bush.
December 8, 1993
President Clinton signs the "North American Free Trade Agreement"
December 1995
President Clinton sends 8,000 of the 20,000 troops to Bosnia for a one year peacekeeping mission.
December 16- January 6, 1996
The budget standoff between congress and the president leads to a partial shutdown of the U.S goverment.
January 20, 1997
President Clintons second inauguration.
August 20, 1998
U.S launches missle attacks on Sudan and Afghanistan following the terrorist attacks on the U.S embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
December 16, 1998
U.S and Britain launch air strikes against weapon sites in Iraq.
December 19, 1998
House of Representatives vote to impeach president Clinton on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice.
Feb. 20, 1999
Senate acquits Clinton of impeachment charges.
Social:
September 4, 1950
President Truman speaks in the first coast to coast live television broadcast.
June 19, 1953
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed for passing information to the Soviets of the U.S Atomic weapons.
April 22- June 17, 1954
Senator Joseph McCarthy accused army officials and members of the media of being communists during publicized hearings.
May 17, 1954
The Supreme Court’s declared that racial segregation in schools is unconstitutional during the Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka case.
September 24, 1957
President Eisenhower sends troops to Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas to enforce acceptance of black students.
August 28, 1963
Martin Luther King Jr. “I have a dream” speech delivered during the civil rights march in Washington DC before 200,000 people.
March 7, 1965
State troopers attack Martin Luther King Jr. as he tries to cross a bridge in Selma, Ala.
August 6, 1965
Six days of rioting resulted in 35 killed and 883 injured in Watts, Los Angeles due to discrimination.
April 4th, 1968
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated in Memphis, Tenn.
June 5-6, 1968
Sen. Robert F. Kennedy is assassinated in Los Angeles, Cali.
May 1, 1970
Four students are shot to death by National Guardsmen during an antiwar protest at Kent state University.
January 20, 1980
President Carter announces that the U.S athletes will not attend the Summer Olympics in Moscow unless the Soviet Union withdraws from Afghanistan.
April 29, 1992
Several days of rioting break out in Los Angeles after four police officers were proven innocent of the 1991 beating of black man Rodney King. The riots led to 50 deaths, thousands of arrests and injuries, and over a billion in property damage.
April 19, 1993
Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas burns down killing 80 cult members inside afer a 51 day standoff.
October 3,4, 1993
18 U.S soilders are killed in an ambush in Mogadishu by Somali men.
April 19, 1995
Oklahoma City bombing of a federal office building kills 168 people.
May 6, 1994
Paula Jones of Arkansas files a federal lawsuit against President Clinton for sexual harassment.
January 17, 1998
President Clinton denies any sexual relationship between himself and a White house intern named Monica Lewinsky.
August 17, 1998
President Clinton admits to a sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky in a telivision broadcast.
April 20, 1999
School shooting at Columbine High School in Littleton, Col. left 14 students and 1 teacher dead (including the two students) 23 were left wounded.
Economical and cultural:
February 27, 1950
Twenty-second Amendment to the constitution is ratified, which limits the president to two terms.
July 25, 1952
Puerto Rico becomes a U.S commonwealth
January 3, 1959
Alaska becomes the 49th state.
August 21, 1959
Hawaii becomes the 50th state.
May 1961
A Mix-raced group of volunteers travel to the South to protest racially segregated bus companies. They were sponsored by the Committee on Racial Equality.
February 10, 1967
Twenty-Fifth Amendment was ratified to constitution. It outlines the procedures for filling vacancies in the presidency and vice presidency
July 1, 1971
The Twenty-Sixth Amendment was ratified to the constitution, lowering the voting age from 21 to 18.
January 22, 1973
In the Roe vs. Wade case the Supreme Court legalizes first trimester abortions.
September 7, 1977
President Carter signs a treaty turning over control of Panama Canal over to Panama on Dec. 31, 1999.
June 30, 1982
Deadline for the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment to the constitution passes without its needed votes.
July 11, 1995
The U.S and Vietnam establish full diplomatic relations.
Feb. 2, 1998
President Clinton released the 1999 federal budget plan. It was the first balanced budget since 1969.
November 15, 1999
U.S and China sign a historical trade agreement.
Wars:
(1950-1953) Korean War
-Conflict between communist and non- communist forces along the Korean Peninsula.
-June 25th, 1950
North Korean communists invade South Korea
-June 27, 1950
Without approval from congress, President Truman sends American troops to battle.
-April 11, 1951
President Truman removes General Douglas MacArthur as Head of the U.S East command.
-July 27, 1953
Armistice agreement is signed
In the agreement the fighting parties agreed to stop. This wasn’t done to end the war necessarily but, to give time to negotiate a lasting peace.
(1950-1975) Vietnam War
-May 1950
Vietnam War is prolonged between North Vietnamese communist, backed by China and the USSR and Non-communist Vietnamese from the South backed by the U.S.
-President Truman Authorized $15 million in aid to the French, who were fighting to regain control of French Indochina, which included Vietnam.
Along with the $15 million Truman also sends thirty-five military advisors.
-August 2, 1964
North Vietnamese Torpedo boats attack U.S destroyer in Gulf of Tonkin, off the coast of North Vietnam.
- August 7, 1964
The Gulf of Tonkin resolution approved by congress, authorizing President Johnson to take any measures necessary to defend U.S forces and prevent further aggression.
- February 1965
U.S planes begin bombing raids of North Vietnam
- March 8th, 9th, 1965
First U.S combat troops arrive in South Vietnam.
-January & February 1968
Viet Cong and North Vietnamese army attack Saigon and other cities in South Vietnam.
- March 16, 1968
U.S soldiers kill 300 Vietnamese villagers in My Lai Massacre
-May, 1, 1970
U.S troops invade Cambodia
- January 27, 1973
Representatives of North and South Vietnam, the Viet Cong, and The U.S sign a cease-fire agreement in Paris.
-March 29, 1973
Last U.S troops leave Vietnam
-April 30, 1975
South Vietnamese government surrenders to North Vietnam. The last U.S embassy marine guards and civilians are evacuated.
Persian Gulf War (1991)
-January 16- Feb. 28, 1991
U.S leads the international coalition in the military operation "Desert Storm" to drive the Iraqis out of Kuwait.
-April 6, 1991
Iraq accepts the terms of the UN ceasefire, which marked the end of the war.
