In the United States | 1962-2011

1963

  • President John F. Kennedy assassinated
  • Lyndon B. Johnson became U.S. President

1964

  • The Civil Rights Act guaranteed equal treatment in voting, education, employment, and public accommodation

1965

  • Martin Luther King, Jr. received the Nobel Peace Prize
  • Medicare signed into law

1967

  • Thurgood Marshall became the first black person to serve on the U. S. Supreme Court

1968

  • April 4: Martin Luther King, Jr. assassinated
  • June 5: Senator Robert F. Kennedy assassinated

1969

  • U. S. Spacecraft Apollo 11 landed on the moon

1971

  • Mariner 9, launched to map the surface of Mars, sent back 7,000 photos

1972

  • First Earth Day

1974

  • President Richard Nixon resigns
  • Twin Towers of the N.Y. World Trade Center, were completed

1975

  • U. S. Ended two decades of involvement in Vietnam
  • Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas retires
  • President Ford survives two attempts on his life

1976

  • The United States celebrated the bicentennial of independence with activities cresting on July 4
  • Jimmy Carter defeated Gerald Ford to become President

1977

  • The United States Space Shuttle made its first free-gliding flight
  • President Carter established the Department of Energy

1978

  • President Carter hosted the successful peace talks between Israeli Premier Begin and Egyptian President Sadat at Camp David, Maryland
  • The United States and China agree to open diplomatic relations

1979

  • Three separate space probes sent back photographs of the planets Jupiter and Saturn
  • Sir Laurence Olivier receives a special Academy Award for his unrivaled services to theater and cinema

1980

  • Mount St. Helens in Washington State erupted violently
  • The US boycotted the 1980 Moscow summer Olympic Games to protest the invasion of of Afghanistan by Soviet forces

1981

  • U. S. Space shuttle Columbia made three day visit into Earth’s orbit
  • Sandra Day O’Connor becomes the first woman to serve on the U. S. Supreme Court

1984

  • The virus (HIV) causing AIDS was first identified

1986

  • The Statue of Liberty celebrates its 100th birthday

1989

  • Exxon Valdes ran aground off Alaska; responsible for worst ever oil spill

2000

  • November 7: In the election of Florida’s “hanging chads” George W. Bush defeated Al Gore for President of the United States

2001

  • June 11: Timothy McVeigh executed for the Oklahoma City bombing
  • September 11: 3,000 people are killed in suicide aircraft attacks on the World Trade Center in New York; the Pentagon in Virginia; and Shanksville, Pennsylvania

2003

  • November 18: President Bush makes a state visit to London, England, in the midst of massive protests

2004

  • February 3: The CIA admits there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq prior to the 2003 invasion
  • February 4: Facebook is founded in Cambridge, Mass
  • April 29: The last Oldsmobile rolls off the blocks

2005

  • August 12: Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is launched

2006

  • March 10: NASA’s Mars Orbiter enters Mars orbit

2007

  • October 8: Track and Field star Marion Jones surrenders 5 Olympic medals she won in the 2000 Sydney Games, after admitting the use of performance enhancing substances

2008

  • September 14: Lehman Brothers files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection - this marked the beginning of the financial collapse
  • October 29: Delta Air Lines merges with Northwest Air Lines forming the world’s largest commercial carrier
  • November 4: Barak Obama elected the 44th President of the United States and the first African American to hold this office

2009

  • June 25: Michael Jackson dies amid accusations of wrongful drug use and/or administration

2010

  • April 20: The Deepwater Horizon oil platform explodes in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 workers and causes one of the largest oil spill disasters in history

Sources - Inter Alia::
(1.) Beazley, Mitchell (ed.): Time Lines: World History Year by Year since 1492. New York Crescent Books, 1991
(2.) Grun, Bernard: The Timetables of History. New York, Simon Schuster/ Touchstone, 1991

By Brian du Toit - of the Transylvania Sesquicentennial Steering Committe
Historical photos are courtesy of the Rowell Bosse North Carolina room, Transylvania County Library

Share this