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| 7868266337 | Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, 1954 | Landmark Supreme Court decision that overturned Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) and abolished racial segregation in public schools. The Court reasoned that "separate" was inherently "unequal," rejecting the foundation of the Jim Crow system of racial segregation in the South. This decision was the first major step toward the legal end of racial discrimination and a major accomplishment for the Civil Rights Movement. | 0 | |
| 7868266338 | abstract expressionism | An experimental style of mid-twentieth-century modern art exemplified by Jackson Pollock's spontaneous "action paintings," created by flinging paint on canvases stretched across the studio floor. |  | 1 |
| 7868266339 | Army-McCarthy hearings, 1954 | (1954) Congressional hearings called by Senator Joseph McCarthy to accuse members of the army of communist ties. In this widely televised spectacle, McCarthy finally went too far for public approval. The hearings exposed the Senator's extremism and led to his eventual disgrace. | 2 | |
| 7868266340 | Beat Generation | A small coterie of mid-twentieth-century bohemian writers and personalities, including Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and William S. Burroughs, who bemoaned bourgeois conformity and advocated free-form experimentation in life and literature | 3 | |
| 7868266341 | Checkers Speech, 1952 | (1952) Nationally televised address by vice-presidential candidate Richard Nixon. Using the new mass medium of television shortly before the 1952 election, the vice presidential candidate saved his place on the ticket by defending himself against accusations of corruption. | 4 | |
| 7868266342 | Battle of Dien Bien Phu | Military engagement in French colonial Vietnam in which French forces were defeated by Viet Minh nationalists loyal to Ho Chi Minh. With this loss, the French ended their colonial involvement in Indochina, paving the way for America's entry.` |  | 5 |
| 7868266343 | Federal Highway Act of 1956 | Federal legislation signed by Dwight D. Eisenhower to construct thousands of miles of modern highways in the name of national defense. Officially called the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act, this bill dramatically increased the move to the suburbs, as white middle-class people could more easily commute to urban jobs. | 6 | |
| 7868266344 | Hungarian uprising of 1956 | Series of demonstrations in Hungary against the Soviet Union. Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev violently suppressed this pro-Western uprising, highlighting the limitations of America's power in Eastern Europe. | 7 | |
| 7868266345 | International Style | Archetypal, post-World War II modernist architectural style, best known for its "curtain-wall" designs of steel-and-glass corporate high-rises. |  | 8 |
| 7868266346 | Jim Crow | System of racial segregation in the American South from the end of Reconstruction until the mid-twentieth century. Based on the concept of "separate but equal" facilities for blacks and whites, the Jim Crow system sought to prevent racial mixing in public, including restaurants, movie theaters, and public transportation. An informal system, it was generally perpetuated by custom, violence, and intimidation. | 9 | |
| 7868266347 | kitchen debate, 1959 | Televised exchange in 1959 between Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev and American Vice President Richard Nixon. Meeting at the American National Exhibition in Moscow, the two leaders sparred over the relative merits of capitalist consumer culture versus Soviet state planning. Nixon won applause for his staunch defense of American capitalism, helping lead him to the Republican nomination for president in 1960. |  | 10 |
| 7868266348 | McCarthyism | 1950-1954, A brand of vitriolic, fear-mongering anti-communism associated with the career of Senator Joseph McCarthy. In the early 1950s, Senator McCarthy used his position in Congress to baselessly accuse high-ranking government officials and other Americans of conspiracy with communism. The term named after him refers to the dangerous forces of unfairness and fear wrought by anticommunist paranoia. | 11 | |
| 7868266349 | Montgomery Bus Boycott, 1955 | 1955- Protest, sparked by Rosa Parks's defiant refusal to move to the back of the bus, by black Alabamians against segregated seating on city buses. The bus boycott lasted from December 1, 1955, until December 26, 1956, and became one of the foundational moments of the Civil Rights Movements. It led to the rise of Martin Luther King, Jr., and ultimately to a Supreme Court decision opposing segregated busing. | 12 | |
| 7868266350 | Operation Wetback | A government program to roundup and deport as many as one million illegal Mexican migrant workers in the United States. The program was promoted in part by the Mexican government and reflected burgeoning concerns about non-European immigration to America. | 13 | |
| 7868266351 | Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), 1960 | (1960) Cartel comprising Middle Eastern states and Venezuela first organized in 1960. OPEC aimed to control access to and prices of oil, wresting power from Western oil companies and investors. In the process, it gradually strengthened the hand of non-Western powers on the world stage. | 14 | |
| 7868266352 | policy of boldness | Foreign policy objective of Dwight Eisenhower's Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, who believed in changing the containment strategy to one that more directly engaged the Soviet Union and attempted to roll back communist influence around the world. This policy led to a build-up of America's nuclear arsenal to threaten "massive retaliation" against communist enemies, launching the Cold War's arms race | 15 | |
| 7868266353 | rock 'n' roll | "Crossover" musical style that rose to dominance in the 1950s, merging black rhythm and blues with white bluegrass and country. Featuring a heavy beat and driving rhythm, rock 'n' roll music became a defining feature of the 1950s youth culture. | 16 | |
| 7868266354 | Southern Renaissance | A literary outpouring among mid-twentieth-century southern writers, begun by William Faulkner and marked by a new critical appreciation of the region's burdens of history, racism, and conservatism. | 17 | |
| 7868266355 | Spunik, 1957 | (1957) Soviet satellite first launched into Earth orbit on October 4, 1957. This scientific achievement marked the first time human beings had put a man-made object into orbit and pushed the USSR noticeably ahead of the United States in the Space Race. A month later, the Soviet Union sent a larger satellite, Sputnik II, into space, prompting the United States to redouble its space exploration efforts and raising American fears of Soviet superiority. | 18 | |
| 7868266356 | Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), 1960 | (1960) Youth organization founded by southern black students in 1960 to promote civil rights. Drawing on its members' youthful energies, SNCC in its early years coordinated demonstrations, sit-ins, and voter registration drives. | 19 | |
| 7868266357 | Suez crisis, 1956 | (1956) International crisis launched when Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal, which had been owned mostly by French and British stockholders. The crisis led to a British and French attack on Egypt, which failed without aid from the United States. The Suez Crisis marked an important turning point in the post-colonial Middle East and highlighted the rising importance of oil in world affairs. | 20 | |
| 7868266358 | The Feminine Mystique | Best-selling book by feminist thinker Betty Friedan. This work challenged women to move beyond the drudgery of suburban housewifery and helped launch what would become second-wave feminism. |  | 21 |
| 7868266359 | Fidel Castro | Cuban revolutionary who overthrew Batista dictatorship in 1958 and assumed control of the island country. Castro's connections with the Soviet Union led to a cessation of diplomatic relations with the United States and such international affairs as the Bay of Pigs invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis. A controversial figure, Castro oversaw his country through the end of the Cold War, when financial and military support from the Soviet Union dissipated, and through nearly a half-century of trade embargo with the United States. He remained the head of Cuba's government until his retirement in February 2008. | 22 | |
| 7868266360 | John Dulles | American politician principally known for serving as Eisenhower's Secretary of State. An ardent Cold Warrior, he drafted the "policy of boldness" designed to confront Soviet aggression with threat of "massive retaliation" via thermonuclear weap | 23 | |
| 7868266361 | Dwight D. Eisenhower | 1890-1969): Supreme Commander of U.S. Forces in Europe during World War II, Eisenhower the war hero later became the thirtyfourth president of the United States. During his two terms, from 1952 to 1960, Eisenhower presided over the economically prosperous 1950s. He was praised for his dignity and decency, though criticized for not being more assertive on civil rights. | 24 | |
| 7868266362 | Ralph Ellis | Oklahoma-born and Tuskegee-educated novelist best known for writing Invisible Man, one of the great novels of the twentieth-century African-American experience. | 25 | |
| 7868266363 | Betty Friedan | 1921-2006. American feminist, activist and writer. Best known for starting the "Second Wave" of feminism through the writing of her book "The Feminine Mystique". | 26 | |
| 7868266364 | Allen Ginsberg | New Jersey-born poet who served as spokesman of the Beat Generation. The 1956 publication of his Howl and Other Poems sparked a San Francisco literary renaissance and a local obscenity trial that brought nationwide publicity to the bohemian Beat movement. | 27 | |
| 7868266365 | Ho Chi Minh | Vietnamese revolutionary nationalist leader. Beginning in 1941, Ho organized Vietnamese opposition to foreign occupation, first against the Japanese and then, after World War II, against the French. His Viet Minh forces were victorious against French colonialists in 1954, after which Ho became the leader of North Vietnam. He led the war to unify the country in the face of increased military opposition from the United States. | 28 | |
| 7868266366 | Lyndon B. Johnson | 36th President of the United States, 1963 to 1969. A Texas Democrat who rose to tremendous power in the Senate during the New Deal, Johnson was tapped to be John F. Kennedy's running mate in 1960. Chosen largely to help solidify support for the Democratic ticket in the anti-Catholic South, he assumed the presidency after Kennedy's assassination in 1963. As president, he was responsible for liberal programs such as the Great Society, War on Poverty, and civil rights legislation, as well as the escalation of the Vietnam War. After a series challenges from within his party, he chose not to run for reelection in 1968. | 29 | |
| 7868266367 | Gamel Abdel Nasser | President of Egypt from 1956 to 1970. Nasser was known for his pan-Arab nationalism and opposition to colonialism, specifically in his decision to nationalize the Suez Canal in 1956. Although his reputation was tarnished somewhat by his country's military failure against Israel in the 6 Days War of 1967, he remained a popular leader in Egypt and throughout the Arab world. | 30 | |
| 7868266368 | Nikita Khrushchev | Premier of the Soviet Union from 1958 to 1964. Khrushchev was a Communist Party official who emerged from the power struggle after Stalin's death in 1953 to lead the USSR. As Soviet premier, he notably renounced Stalin's brutality in 1956, the same year that he crushed a pro-Western uprising in Hungary. In 1958, he issued an ultimatum for Western evacuation of Berlin, from which he backed down a year later. Khrushchev defended Soviet-style economic planning in the Kitchen Debate with American Vice President Richard Nixon in 1959, and attempted to send missiles to Cuba in 1962 but backed down when confronted by John F. Kennedy during the Cuban Missile Crisis. | 31 | |
| 7868266369 | Joseph Mccarthy | Senator from Wisconsin who rose to infamy by accusing the State Department of employing communists. McCarthy conducted high-profile red-baiting hearings that damaged countless careers before he finally over-reached in 1954 when he went after the U.S. Army. Following the Army-McCarthy hearings, he was censured by Senate and died of alcoholism shortly thereafter | 32 | |
| 7868266370 | Jackson Pollock | New York-based painter who became the father of abstract expressionism with his spontaneous "action paintings." | 33 | |
| 7868266371 | Earl Warren | Liberal California politician appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court by Dwight Eisenhower in 1953 (served until 1969). Warren was principally known for moving the Court to the left in defense of civil and individual rights in such cases as Brown v. Board of Education (1954), Griswold v. Connecticut (1965), and Miranda v. Arizona (1966 | 34 |
