By the Decade

Meanwhile... Many important historical moments happened across the country & the rest of the world during this period.

1959 Hawaii becomes the 50th U.S. state

1968 Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated in Memphis, TN by James Earl Ray 1969 Neil Armstrong becomes the first person to walk on the moon 1970 Gas is 35 cents per gallon

1961 JFK is sworn in as the 35th and youngest president elected. In his inaugural address he challenged Americans to be active citizens: “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” He announces the U.S. goal of putting a man on the moon before the end of the decade.

1974 Richard Nixon resigns as President of the United States as a result of the Watergate scandal

1963 Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his “I have a dream” speech 1963 U.S. President John F. Kennedy is assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald while riding in a motorcade in Dallas, TX

1976 U.S. celebrates its bicentennial

1976 Apple computer is formed by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak

1964 Beatles appear on the Ed Sullivan Show, beginning the “British Invasion”

1977 Star Wars opens in cinemas; Elvis Presley dies at age 42

1964 The Civil Rights Act is signed into law. 1965 Two of the top 10 highest grossing films of all time are released: The Sound of Music and Dr. Zhivago

The Vietnam War e 60s and 70s were greatly influenced by world events, one of the most significant being the VietnamWar which lasted 20 years, from 1955 to 1975. President Kennedy and then

Lyndon Johnson sent US troops into the war without formally declaring. The war tore the country apart with many young people becoming protestors of the war and conscientious objectors to the draft. In 1973, Richard Nixon withdrew the United States from the VietnamWar with the Paris Peace Accord. The accord was broken immediately and fighting continued for two more years until the unconditional surrender of South Vietnam to North Vietnam in the fall of Saigon in April 1975. The war created “the Vietnam Syndrome,” an aversion to the United States involvement in overseas military operations.