In October 1957, a beach-ball sized metal globe hurtled through space a couple hundred miles above the United States. That orb was the first artificial Earth satellite — Sputnik. Sergei Khrushchev, former missile engineer and son of Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev, remembers the US-Soviet race into space.
In an April 1965 address to the nation, President Lyndon Johnson laid out his argument for expanding US involvement in Vietnam. From archival audio, we now know that Johnson had believed for at least a year that the conflict was a disaster in the making. Why did he continue to push for escalation in a war he didn't think was worth fighting?
Historians still argue about what exactly happened in the Gulf of Tonkin in August of 1964. What’s not in dispute is the aftermath: A resolution from the Senate passed by a vote of 98 to 2 authorizing President Lyndon Johnson to use whatever force he thought he needed against North Vietnam. The resolution was a major escalation of US involvement in Vietnam and helped Johnson win the presidential election. But it was built on a lie.
The desegregation of hospitals in the South was just one of many things to come from the Medicare law.
NASA's black engineers, mathematicians and technicians didn't just help American win the space race, they also played a key role in reshaping the American South.
For 50 years, the hotline between Washington, D.C., and Moscow has helped protect the peace and avoid nuclear confrontation. But the popular image of a red telephone on the president's desk is actually a far cry from what the hotline really is.
In 1963, at the height of the Cold War, a hotline was set up to enable communication between the world's two biggest powers. First established by President Kennedy and Soviet Premier Khrushchev, it provided a vital link between the leaders of two nations.
Medgar Evers, a NAACP field secretary and civil rights activist, was shot in the back at his home in 1963. The murder is considered a turning point in the Civil Rghts movement, in part thanks to the artists who used his name as a rallying cry. Fifty years later, we remember Evers through the music he inspired.