Politics and Government Events

1955

Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on a bus; the Montgomery bus boycott follows.

Rosa Parks being booked

Martin Luther King, Jr., organizes demonstrations to demand civil rights for blacks.

The AFL and CIO merge.

There are sixteen women serving in the United States House of Representatives and one woman senator.

A woman is also a non-voting observer from Hawaii.

1956

Dwight D. Eisenhower is reelected.

The United States Supreme Court rules segregation in public schools is unconstitutional.

The Federal Highway Act provides money to build an interstate highway system.

Soviet tanks crush an uprising in Hungary.

In a dispute over the Suez Canal, Israeli-Anglo-French forces invade Egypt's Gaza Strip.

1957

President Eisenhower sends Army troops to Little Rock, Arkansas, to enforce integration of Central High School.

Army Troops escorting African Americans into Central High School.

The Vietnam war begins.

The Civil Rights Act of 1957 is passed in spite of Strom Thurmond's 24-hour fillibuster against it.

1958

The National Defense Education Act provides funding for more science education in schools.

NASA is formed.

Robert H. W. Welch founds the John Birch Society, an ultraconservative anitcommunist group.

1959

On January 3 Alaska becomes the 49th state.

On August 21 Hawaii becomes the 50th state.

Soviet Premier Khrushchev rejects President Eisenhower's proposal to end tests of nuclear weapons.

Nikita Krushchev