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Cuban Missiles Crisis-confrontation between US and Soviet Union in 1962.

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American-bancked Cuban exiles fail in an attempt to invade Cuba at the Bay of Pigs.

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President Johnson sings the Civil Rights act in 1964.

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The war in Vietnam ends in April 1975.

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Infoplease has everything you need to know about Vietnam. Check out our countryprofile, full of essential information about Vietnam'sgeography, history,government, economy, population, culture, religion and languages. If that's not enough, click over to our collection of world maps and flags.

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US serves diplomatic relations with Cuba in 1961.

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For nearly 60 years, the Castro family controlled Cuba. But in April 2018, it was announced that the island nation long dominated by the specter of its former dictator, Fidel Castro, and his family will get a new leader. On April 19, 2018, the 86-year-old Raúl Castro will step ...read more

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It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock 'N' Roll)

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It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock 'N' Roll)

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The March on Washington was a massive protest march that occurred in August 1963, when some 250,000 people gathered in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. Also known as the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom

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Richard Nixon resigned as president of the United States, and Vice President Gerald Ford became the 38th U.S. president.

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Early Years and Congressional Career Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. was born in Omaha, Nebraska, on July 14, 1913. His name at birth was Leslie Lynch King Jr., after his biological father. His mother, Dorothy, divorced King when her son was a baby and moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan. She then married Gerald R. Ford, a […]

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President Johnson signs the voting rights act in 1965

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U.S and Soviet Union sign strategic arms control agreements known as SALT I

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The Twenty-Sixth Amendment to the Constitution is ratified in  July 1, 1971.
The right of citizens of the United States, who are 18 years old or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of age.

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On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first human to step on the moon

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Six day war, was a bloody conflict between Israel and the Arab States of Egypt, this happen during 1967

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Jewish History | We Bring Jewish History To Life

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The Six Day War

Arguably the most dramatic and emotional event in recent Jewish history is the Six Day War.

The backdrop to the event is complicated, but its roots lay in the actions of Egyptian President Gamal Nasser. In his attempt to achieve the goal of pan-Arabism - i.e. bringing the Arab Middle East under his domination - he ran into many great problems... most of them with the Arabs. They were not willing to become his client-subjects. He had engaged Egypt in a bitter civil war in Yemen, which had the effect of quicksand. Over 50,000 Egyptian troops were entangled in a war they could not win. It was like the United States in Vietnam or the Soviet Union in Afghanistan.

Egypt's economy was faltering under the strain. He had mortgaged the entire Egyptian cotton crop to Russia to pay for armaments. Buckling under all this pressure, he sought a shortcut that would take care of all his problems in one fell swoop: war against the State of Israel. Victory would instantly turn him into the hero of the Arab world.

A Fool's Paradise

By 1967, world Jewry was rolling along in a fool's paradise. Israel would always be protected, it assumed; the world would protect it. That was further fueled by the fact that the United Nations had its peace-keeping force present in the Sinai Peninsula, as well as at the entrance to the Gulf of Aqaba to guarantee free passage of shipping. Even though Nasser had violated his word and did not allow any Israel shipping, or even ships sailing to Israel through the Suez Canal, the State of Israel felt it could live with that inconvenience.

However, in May Nasser received reports from his Russian advisors that the time to start a war with Israel was propitious. His army would be able to conquer the Israelis handily. He, therefore, decided not to delay any longer. War, he hoped, would solve his country's problems.

The Israelis celebrated their 19 th Independence Day in May 1967 blissfully oblivious to what was going to happen in the next three weeks.

Pushing the Envelope

Nasser suddenly announced that the Egyptian army was going to go on maneuvers in the Sinai, even though this was a violation of the agreement brokered by the United Nations between Israel and Egypt after the Sinai Campaign in 1956. The Egyptian army crossed the Suez Canal with great fanfare - and in extremely large numbers.

Israel protested. But nothing happened. Nasser tried to do what Hitler did, when he brazenly entered other territories or countries and waited to see if there were any repercussions.

When he saw that neither the United Nations nor anyone took any action, he moved to the second step: preventing shipping reaching Israel via the Gulf of Aqaba. This was in violation of free navigation of the waterways.

The United States considered sending one of its own flagships up the Gulf of Aqaba to test the blockade, but for all the good intentions - including soothing remarks from President Johnson - nothing happened. Israel saw a pattern beginning to emerge.

The next escalation occurred when Nasser ordered the United Nations peace-keeping troops off of Egyptian territory. He said that they were only there at the suffrage of the Egyptian government that had invited them there in 1957. Now, a decade later, he told them to leave.

Incredibly, the General Secretary of the United Nations agreed! He flew to Egypt to speak to Nasser, but instead of defusing the situation he gave the order for his peace-keeping troops to evacuate. Now, nothing stood between Israel and the large Egyptian army in the Sinai moving toward its border.

Arab Alliances

Nasser did not want to face Israel alone. He was afraid deep in his heart that Israel would be able to mobilize an army sufficient enough to defend itself against his forces. He, therefore, had a conference with the Syrians in Damascus, who agreed to shell the Israeli positions in the Galilee from the strategic Golan Heights, which they controlled.

At the same time, he approached Jordan's King Hussein. He saw now that Syria and Egypt, his two arch enemies in the Arab world, had made an alliance. On paper, his military analysts showed him that there was a very strong likelihood that Egypt and Syria would win the war. They also convinced him that the world would do nothing diplomatically. Furthermore, he was afraid that once Egypt and Syria were successful, they would come not only against the Israeli part of Palestine, but the Jordanian part of it, too.

Therefore, King Hussein joined Nasser. The two archenemies were shown in The New York Times embracing each other in the anticipated victory over the state of Israel and throwing the Jews into the sea. He even went so far as to place his army under the command of an Egyptian general, who would unify the movements of all the Arab armies.

Israel knew now that there would be war. It was not a matter that would go away. Abba Eban, who then was the Israeli foreign minister, traveled the world, stopping at all the capitals, to enlist the good wishes of world leaders - but no one was willing to do anything to stop it.

The Specter of Another Holocaust

The Jews throughout the world were frightened. Here was the specter of the Holocaust happening all over again, not 25 years later. Synagogues in the United States were packed with Jews, including many who had not been in a synagogue for years.

The Israeli army mobilized - and they stood mobilized for almost two weeks. It was both incredibly expensive and emotionally draining.

The politicians formed a national unity government. Then, the prime minister, Levi Eshkol, made a speech to the nation, exhorting it to be strong - but he broke down in the middle of the speech! It was the most demoralizing moment.

On Monday morning, June 5, 1967, the war began.

When word reached America, many Jews did not go to work. Their worst fears were exacerbated by the fact that, as the Israeli news radio went on blackout during the first 18 hours of the war, the Arabs were broadcasting their glorious victories: They were bombing Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, destroying the enemy with impunity, etc.

What really happened was that on Monday morning the Israeli air force had launched a devastating surprise attack which destroyed virtually the entire Arab air force, including those in Egypt, Jordan and Syria - all in under three hours! About 500 Arab planes were destroyed at the loss of less than 40 for the Israelis. The Israelis had flown as low as six feet over the Mediterranean for almost seventy miles at over the speed of sound to avoid radar detection. It was an incredible feat of piloting acumen. Never before had there been such a lopsided battle of air forces.

There was still a war to fight, but the tactical advantage had changed immediately.

Israel now attacked on the Egyptian front, sending three main tank battle groups into Sinai. The three burst into the Sinai, smashing the Egyptian army and destroying it in three days. Countless trucks, tanks, artillery and other burned out Egyptian vehicles littered the desert when it was over. Over 5,000 Egyptian soldiers surrendered immediately. The Israelis were at the Suez faster than they were in the Sinai campaign.

There was now nothing between them and Cairo. After announcing repeatedly that Egypt was winning the war, Nasser was in a panic, on the verge of losing his country.

Jerusalem Recaptured

Meanwhile, King Hussein made the error of entering the war based on Nasser's public announcements. He thrust forward in the expectation of taking Jerusalem.

There were a number of pitched battles. One was on Ammunition Hill, which had been a British ammunition fortress protecting East Jerusalem where the Jordanians had set up extensive bunkers and defenses. On Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, Israeli paratroopers captured the hill, despite experiencing terrible casualties in the process.

With Ammunition Hill now in their hands, the Jordanians were outflanked and retreated. The Israelis captured the Old City all the way to the Western Wall, the Wailing Wall, the last remnant of the Temple that had last been in Jewish hands almost exactly 1,900 years earlier.

The liberation of Jerusalem forced the Jordanian army to vacate the entire West Bank. They were pounded by the Israeli air force across the Jordan River. Along with the Jordanians, about 100,000 Arabs there also fled, further compounding the Arab refugee problem.

One of the memorable images of the time is of King Hussein - unshaven, haggard, tired and beaten - getting on television and announcing his defeat, cursing out the other Arab nations for fooling him.

The Golan

The Israelis decided that now was the time to settle the score with Syria also.

Beginning on Friday morning they attacked, using many of the same troops that fought in the Sinai and Jerusalem. They were now fighting in their third major battle within the course of a week.

The Golan was considered an impregnable fortress. It had a triple-layer system of mines, bunkers, artillery and machine guns built into the high ground that they occupied. The Israeli air force was of aid, but could not do it alone because it had to be conquered foot by foot, grenade by grenade.

In what was a textbook exhibition of how foot soldiers can dislodge an enemy no matter how strong, the Israelis were able to push the Syrians out of all three lines of defense. They finally captured the peak of Mount Hermon. It is such a strategic location that it is possible to see every plane landing at Damascus airport 20 miles away from its perch.

The entire Golan all fell under Israeli control. It would take them almost a decade to just remove all the mine fields.

No One Called

The Israelis sustained about 700 dead and 2,000 wounded, but the radiance of victory overshadowed the personal tragedy involved. Suddenly, from the small Jewish state on the verge of annihilation Israel was an "imperial power."

Russia immediately broke relations with Israel. The United Nations voted for a cease fire, which Egypt and Arabs accepted. The Israelis were convinced somehow that now the Arabs would make peace; that they would trade peace for the territory that Israel had acquired. Had the Arabs wanted to in 1967, they certainly could have struck the deal. Politically, every party in Israel would have allowed it. Aside from perhaps East Jerusalem and the Wailing Wall everything was on the table for negotiation. In Moshe Dayan's famous words, the day after the war was over, "I'm waiting at the phone."

But no one ever called.

A whole new viewpoint of Israel opened in the world. The Jews were enormously proud while many non-Jews had enormous resentment. In the United Nations and other diplomatic arenas a great deal of that resentment spilled over. It became fashionable not to look at Israel favorably. Aware of the change, Golda Meir famously stated that given a choice between the world's sympathy and Israel's survival she would always choose Israel's survival.

Be that as it may, rarely has a Jew had an opportunity to feel the emotions that Jews felt then. Jewish history and Jewish destiny converged in a brief moment in time. Unfortunately, it did not last. It is always hard to take the emotion of a momentous event and translate it into action.

To this date, the Jewish world has never come back to that level. Nevertheless, in terms of what was achieved at that moment it was one of the high watermarks of the generation. It was an indication of the capabilities and hidden resources of the unity and strength the lies within the Jewish people.

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Arguably the most dramatic and emotional event in recent Jewish history is the Six Day War. The backdrop to the event is complicated, but its roots lay in the actions of Egyptian President Gamal Nasser. In his attempt to achieve the goal of pan-Arabism - i.e.

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The detente period begins, it was a period of the easing of cold war tensions between US and Soviet Union during 1969

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Martin Luther King, Jr. Died on April 4, 1968

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When Was Martin Luther King Born?

Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia, the second child of Martin Luther King Sr., a pastor, and Alberta Williams King, a former schoolteacher.

Along with his older sister Christine and younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, he grew up in the city's Sweet Auburn neighborhood, then home to some of the most prominent and prosperous African Americans in the country.

Did you know? The final section of Martin Luther King Jr.'s eloquent and iconic "I Have a Dream" speech is believed to have been largely improvised.

A gifted student, King attended segregated public schools and at the age of 15 was admitted to Morehouse College, the alma mater of both his father and maternal grandfather, where he studied medicine and law.

Although he had not intended to follow in his father's footsteps by joining the ministry, he changed his mind under the mentorship of Morehouse's president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, an influential theologian and outspoken advocate for racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania, where he earned a Bachelor of Divinity degree, won a prestigious fellowship and was elected president of his predominantly white senior class.

King then enrolled in a graduate program at Boston University, completing his coursework in 1953 and earning a doctorate in systematic theology two years later. While in Boston he met Coretta Scott, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple wed in 1953 and settled in Montgomery, Alabama, where King became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

The Kings had four children: Yolanda Denise King, Martin Luther King III, Dexter Scott King and Bernice Albertine King.

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family had been living in Montgomery for less than a year when the highly segregated city became the epicenter of the burgeoning struggle for civil rights in America, galvanized by the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision of 1954.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, secretary of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ( NAACP), refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a Montgomery bus and was arrested. Activists coordinated a bus boycott that would continue for 381 days. The Montgomery Bus Boycott placed a severe economic strain on the public transit system and downtown business owners. They chose Martin Luther King Jr. as the protest's leader and official spokesman.

By the time the Supreme Court ruled segregated seating on public buses unconstitutional in November 1956, King-heavily influenced by Mahatma Gandhi and the activist Bayard Rustin -had entered the national spotlight as an inspirational proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

King had also become a target for white supremacists, who firebombed his family home that January.

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into a Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, "Are you Martin Luther King?" When he replied "yes," she stabbed him in the chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only reinforced his dedication to nonviolence: "The experience of these last few days has deepened my faith in the relevance of the spirit of nonviolence if necessary social change is peacefully to take place."

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Emboldened by the success of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, in 1957 he and other civil rights activists-most of them fellow ministers-founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), a group committed to achieving full equality for African Americans through nonviolent protest.

The SCLC motto was "Not one hair of one head of one person should be harmed." King would remain at the helm of this influential organization until his death.

In his role as SCLC president, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled across the country and around the world, giving lectures on nonviolent protest and civil rights as well as meeting with religious figures, activists and political leaders.

During a month-long trip to India in 1959, he had the opportunity to meet family members and followers of Gandhi, the man he described in his autobiography as "the guiding light of our technique of nonviolent social change." King also authored several books and articles during this time.

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved to Atlanta, his native city, where he joined his father as co-pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This new position did not stop King and his SCLC colleagues from becoming key players in many of the most significant civil rights battles of the 1960s.

Their philosophy of nonviolence was put to a particularly severe test during the Birmingham campaign of 1963, in which activists used a boycott, sit-ins and marches to protest segregation, unfair hiring practices and other injustices in one of America's most racially divided cities.

Arrested for his involvement on April 12, King penned the civil rights manifesto known as the " Letter from Birmingham Jail," an eloquent defense of civil disobedience addressed to a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on Washington

Later that year, Martin Luther King Jr. worked with a number of civil rights and religious groups to organize the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful political rally designed to shed light on the injustices Black Americans continued to face across the country.

Held on August 28 and attended by some 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the event is widely regarded as a watershed moment in the history of the American civil rights movement and a factor in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Have a Dream" Speech

The March on Washington culminated in King's most famous address, known as the "I Have a Dream" speech, a spirited call for peace and equality that many consider a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial -a monument to the president who a century earlier had brought down the institution of slavery in the United States-he shared his vision of a future in which "this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.'"

The speech and march cemented King's reputation at home and abroad; later that year he was named "Man of the Year" by TIME magazine and in 1964 became, at the time, the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

In the spring of 1965, King's elevated profile drew international attention to the violence that erupted between white segregationists and peaceful demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where the SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) had organized a voter registration campaign.

Captured on television, the brutal scene outraged many Americans and inspired supporters from across the country to gather in Alabama and take part in the Selma to Montgomery march led by King and supported by President Lyndon B. Johnson, who sent in federal troops to keep the peace.

That August, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act, which guaranteed the right to vote-first awarded by the 15th Amendment-to all African Americans.

Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

The events in Selma deepened a growing rift between Martin Luther King Jr. and young radicals who repudiated his nonviolent methods and commitment to working within the established political framework.

As more militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism to address issues such as the Vietnam War and poverty among Americans of all races. In 1967, King and the SCLC embarked on an ambitious program known as the Poor People's Campaign, which was to include a massive march on the capital.

On the evening of April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on the balcony of a motel in Memphis, where King had traveled to support a sanitation workers' strike. In the wake of his death, a wave of riots swept major cities across the country, while President Johnson declared a national day of mourning.

James Earl Ray, an escaped convict and known racist, pleaded guilty to the murder and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. He later recanted his confession and gained some unlikely advocates, including members of the King family, before his death in 1998.

MLK Day

After years of campaigning by activists, members of Congress and Coretta Scott King, among others, in 1983 President Ronald Reagan signed a bill creating a U.S. federal holiday in honor of King.

Observed on the third Monday of January, Martin Luther King Day was first celebrated in 1986.

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While his "I Have a Dream" speech is the most well-known piece of his writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, include "Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story," "Why We Can't Wait," "Strength to Love," "Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?" and the posthumously published "Trumpet of Conscience" with a foreword by Coretta Scott King. Here are some of the most famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."

"Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed."

"The time is always right to do what is right."

"True peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice."

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."

"Free at last, Free at last, Thank God almighty we are free at last."

"Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase."

"In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."

"I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant."

"I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear."

"Be a bush if you can't be a tree. If you can't be a highway, just be a trail. If you can't be a sun, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win or fail. Be the best of whatever you are."

"Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?'"

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Martin Luther King Jr: Day, Death, Quotes | HISTORY

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Martin Luther King Jr. was a social activist and Baptist minister who played a key role in the American Civil Rights Movement until his assassination in 1968.

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November 22,1963

President Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Texas

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November 22nd 1963 - John F. Kennedy assassination | HISTORY CALENDAR

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On July 10, 1962

Telstar was launched as the first working communications satellite

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Video rewind: July 10, 1962 -- Telstar launch

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The inauguration of John F. Kennedy as the 35th President of the United States was held on Friday, January 20, 1961