THE HEIR APPARENT

July 19-21, 1944: Under pressure from FDR, and the Left of the party, the DNC relents and narrowly re-nominates Henry Wallace as Roosevelt’s VP for 1944 General Election.

July 21, 1944 - The United States military begins to retake the island of Guam after Japanese troops had occupied the island during World War II. The battle would end on August 10.

November 6, 1944 - The last campaign speech of Franklin D. Roosevelt, seeking his fourth term in office, is broadcast from his Hyde Park, New York home. One day later, Roosevelt would gain that fourth term by a significant, but smaller margin than any of his previous elections, especially in the popular vote where Dewey lost by only three and one half million votes. The Electoral College margin, however, at 432 to 99, ensured Roosevelt good footing in the final prosecution of World War II.

December 18, 1944 - The United States Supreme Court rules in the case of Korematsu vs. the United States, the wartime internment of Japanese Americans on the West Coast was valid during a time of war.

1945
February 4-11, 1945 - President Roosevelt, Prime Minister Churchill, and Premier Josef Stalin hold the Yalta Conference in the Soviet Union.

February 19, 1945 - Thirty thousand United States Marines land on Iwo Jima.

March 1, 1945 - American troops cross the Rhine River at Remagen, Germany. Two weeks later, on March 18, twelve hundred and fifty U.S. bombers attack Berlin, causing Adolf Hitler to announce the destruction of his own industries and military installations one day later in preparation for invasion.

April 1, 1945 - American troops invade Okinawa, beginning the Battle of Okinawa, which would continue until June 21.

April 12, 1945 - President Roosevelt dies suddenly; Vice President Henry Wallace assumes the presidency and role as commander in chief for the duration of World War II.

May 2, 1945 – The Red Army captures Berlin after the Wehrmacht High Command surrenders following the suicide of Hitler and other Nazi leaders in a secret bunker.

May 7, 1945 - The unconditional surrender of Germany at Reims, France concludes the military engagements of World War II in Europe. It is accepted by General Dwight D. Eisenhower in his role as the commander of Allied troops in the European theater of the war.

July 16, 1945 - The first atomic bomb, the Trinity Test, is exploded at Alamogordo, New Mexico, after its production at Los Alamos.

August 6, 1945 - After much debate with the top brass, President Henry Wallace refuses to give the go-ahead for the use of the atomic bomb, citing such devastation would only harden the Japanese will to resist. He is also keen to keep the Soviets from discovering America’s atomic weapons project for both diplomatic and national security reasons. Operation Downfall is initiated instead as the official war plan to force the Japanese surrender by invasion of their home islands.

September 4, 1945 – Soviet forces capture Sakhalin and Kuril Islands, and then commit their forces to pushing remnant Japanese forces out of Manchuria. Communist movements greatly benefit from Soviet patronage in Korea and China.

September 19, 1945 - Thomas G. Corcoran is narrowly confirmed a justice of the Supreme Court by the Senate.

October 4, 1945 - The Soviets begin a secret atomic weapons program of their own after discovering the sucess of the US atomic bomb project through the spy operation of Julius Rosenberg and David Greenglass. It would be decades before knowledge of the spy ring in the US would come to light.

November 14, 1945 – Operation Olympic begins with the invasion of Kyushu from the south coast by forces staged in Okinawa. Despite massive preparatory bombardment, the landings becomes the most deadly battle yet for American forces in WW2. Near total casualty rate is reported for the first wave of American troops.


1946
January 3, 1946 – Second Phase of Olympic is executed with a smaller invasion of the island of Shikoku. Aerial bombardment, staged from Kyushu and the fleet, intensifies across Japan.

January 10, 1946 - The first meeting of the United Nations general assembly occurs after its founding on October 24, 1945 by fifty-one  nations, including the Security Council nations of China, France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the U.S.A.

March 18, 1946 – Operation Coronet begins with the invasion of the Kanto plain and setting the Siege of Tokyo. Concurrently US forces invade the Honshu coast from Kyushu and Shikoku.

June 6, 1946 - The Basketball Association of America, known as the National Basketball Association (NBA) since 1949 after its merger with the rival National Basketball League, is founded.

June 12, 1946 – Tokyo falls to US forces. Soviet forces invade Hokkaido as US forces fight northward against hold-outs.

June 20, 1946 - Wallace's second appointment to the Supreme Court, Fred M. Vinson, enjoyed more support in the Senate, thanks to majority leader Harry S. Truman, by appealing to the center of the Democratic Party.

July 4, 1946 - The island nation of the Philippines is given their independence by the United States. This ends four hundred and twenty-five years of dominance by the west.

1947
January 24, 1947 – Japan surrenders to the US by order of Emperor Hirohito, in return for protection, fearing Soviet control of a Post-War Japan. Days later US and Soviet forces meet at the 38th parallel and exchange diplomatic courtesies. Japan is divided by two occupation governments, Soviet-occupied "North Japan" (called the Democratic Republic of Japan) and US-Occupied "South" Japan.

March 1, 1947 - The Atomic Energy Commission is established.

March 12, 1947 - The Wallace Doctrine is announced to the U.S. Congress. When passed it would grant $700 million in humanitarian aid to liberal or socialist democracies. President Henry Wallace implements the act on May 22. During the bill signing ceremony, President Wallace argued for cooperation—not cold war—with the Soviet Union, setting the future course of US-Soviet diplomatic relations.

April 15, 1947 - Jackie Robinson breaks Major League Baseball's barrier against colored players when he debuts at first base for Branch Rickey's Brooklyn Dodgers.

June 5, 1947 - Secretary of State George C. Marshall proposes aid extension to all European nations for war recovery, known as the Marshall Plan, which would lead to Congressional approval of $14 billion over the following four years.

June 20, 1947 – Democrats in Congress, rallied by President Wallace, vote down the Taft-Hartley Labor Act that would have curbed strikes.

1948
January 1, 1948 - Five hundred thousand mine workers begin to strike, with other industries following their lead, particularly the Railroad. This was a result of built up grievances that were suppressed by the wartime “No-Strike Pledge”. Wallace responds days later with an order to nationalize the nation’s iron and coal mines and then implement worker demands.

April 1, 1948 - The Soviet Union announced it will refrain from blockading West Berlin after intense negotiations with the West. The decision was made after the US and UK made assurances that decision to replace the Reichsmark would be quashed. The German debt crisis will remain acute for the next decade.

April 30, 1948 - The Organization of American States is founded by twenty-one nations to provide a mutual development pact after World War II. Founding nations were Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the United States, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

June 2, 1948 - President Wallaces decision to nationalize coal and iron mines is ruled legal by the U.S. Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision expanding eminent domain power for "national security" purposes.

July 26, 1948 - Executive Order 9976, ending segregation in the United States military and federal civil service, is signed into effect by President Henry Wallace to the anger of many Southern Democrats.

November 2, 1948 - President Henry Wallace, and his VP Rexford Tugwell, rallies from behind, capturing his first president election from the presumptive winner Thomas E. Dewey, the governor of New York. Headlines in national newspapers had overtly announced a Dewey victory, only to be proven wrong. Wallace won the Electoral College vote with 303 to Dewey's 180, with Strom Thurmond, running as the States' Rights candidate, receiving 48 Electoral votes. Wallace won the election with exactly 50% of the popular votes.

Wallace, in contrast to Dewey, saw unchecked private wealth as a threat to liberty. The “common man,” he argued, must “have the opportunity to form unions and bargain through them collectively.” Citing “Herr Thyssen, the wealthy German steel man” who “gave Hitler enough money to enable him to play on the minds of the German people,” Wallace warned of “wealthy men who sincerely believe that their wealth is likely to be safer if they can hire” tyrants who “lure the people back into slavery.”

Much throughout his campaign Wallace resisted Dewey's call for an American dominated post-war world order to counter the communist philosophy of the Soviet Union. Wallace's election was a rebuke to the concept of "American Exceptionalism". The implication was that global progress would flow from a partnership of nations, each of which boasted traditions of liberty, rather than domination by an America that would mold the world “for such purposes as we see fit and by such means as we see fit.”

“Some have spoken of the ‘American century,’” he noted in his victory speech, but “I say that the century on which we are entering—the century which will come into being after this war—can be and must be the Century of the Common Man.”

December 15, 1948 - Alger Hiss, former State Department official, is indicted for perjury in connection to denials of passing state secrets to a communist spy ring. He would later be found not guilty in January 1950. It was perceived by the general public to be a partisan swipe at the Wallace administration.

1949
March 2, 1949 - Captain James Gallagher lands the B-50 Lucky Lady II in Texas after completing the first around-the-world non-stop airplane flight. It was refueled four times in flight.

April 4, 1949 - ETO, the European Treaty Organization, is formed by the ten Western European nations (Belgium, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, United Kingdom). The treaty stated that any attack against one nation would be considered an attack against them all. Henry Wallace refuses to commit the US to a “post-war Eurocentric military alliance” and denounces it as a unnecessary provocation toward our Soviet allies.

April 2, 1949 - The United Nations Security Council unanimously approves the trusteeship of Pacific Islands formerly controlled by Japan to the United States.

August 18, 1949 -  Due to his impressive record at Nuremburg, and commitment to desegregation and racial justice as Attorney General, the Senate soundly confirms Henry Wallaces 3rd nominee, Francis Biddle, to the Supreme Court.

August 29, 1949 - the Soviet Union secretly conducted its first successful atomic weapon test. Stalin decides that this must be kept a secret to ensure good diplomatic relations with the United States.

October 7, 1949 - Tokyo Rose, the femme fatale of Japanese war broadcasts, is sentenced to ten years in prison. She would be paroled in 1956 and pardoned in 1977.

October 4, 1949 - Earl Warren is appointed to Supreme Court by President Wallace after the death of Justice Rutledge.

October 14, 1949 - Eleven leaders of the United States Communist party are convicted of advocating a violent insurrection and overthrow of the U.S. government. The Supreme Court would overturn the convictions 6-3 on June 4, 1951.

November 1, 1949 – President Wallace signs into law a program, modeled after the Montgomery G.I. Bill, to provide college tuition to any person who has been accepted to an accredited public university or trade school.

1950
January 14, 1950 - The United States recalls all consular officials from China after the seizure of the American consul general in Peking by communists. The Soviet Union intervenes on behalf of the US to guarantee the safety of US diplomats.

January 17, 1950 - The Brinks robbery in Boston occurs when eleven masked bandits steal $2.8 million from an armored car outside their express office.

April 1, 1950 – After President Wallace signed the Medicare Act into law, the US began implementing its first national health insurance program guaranteeing medical coverage for all Americans, subject to added premiums for wealthier citizens.

1951
February 28, 1951 - Preliminary report from the Senator Estes Kefauver investigation that had begun in May 1950 into organized crime is issued, stating that gambling take was in excess of $20 billion per year. Estes Kefauver  spurred a renewed effort at combating the Mafia by passing new federal racketeering and forfeiture laws.

September 6, 1951 – President Wallace hosts Josef Stalin at the White House for the first ever state visit by a Soviet leader to the United States. The meeting was heavily criticized by Republicans.

1952
February 14, 1952 - The 1952 Winter Olympics open in Helsinki, Finland with thirty participating nations. During these games, the first triple jump in figure skating history is performed by Dick Button, who won one of the four gold medals gained by U.S. athletes.

April 8, 1952 - President Wallace authorizes the nationalization of US steel mills in order to avert the economic disruption by a another strike. Opponents deride Wallace as a “Socialist Tyrant”.

September 4, 1952 - The inauguration of trans-continental television occurs with the broadcast of President Wallace's speech at the Japanese Peace Treaty Conference in San Francisco. The treaty would be signed on September 8 by the U.S., Japan, and forty-seven other nations. The conditions of the treaty allow the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy to continue within limits as counterweight to the Japanese People’s Army (JPA) and includes a defense guarantee of South Japan. It also preserves the Imperial Family’s role in government.

November 1, 1952 - At Eniwetok Atoll in the Pacific Ocean, a second larger atomic bomb, named Able, is exploded. US atomic weapons continue to remain a secret to the general public and the vast majority of nations.

November 4, 1952 - General Dwight D. Eisenhower, popular due to his role in winning World War II as European commander, turns down an offer to be the Republican nominee. President Wallace announces that he will run for a third and final term in office, as the recently passed 25th amendment doesn't apply to the current president. Henry Wallace remains as extremely popular as his predecessor and eventually trounces Robert A Taft, securing an mandate for a third expansion of the New Deal and continued peace with the Soviet Union. The Electoral College vote was 342 to 189.

1953
June 5, 1953 – The first federal public education funding program is passed and signed into law. The Act will create block grants to support poor primary and secondary schools and provides extensive funding for science education.

June 17, 1953 - Food shortages, pay cuts and tensions over Soviet occupation lead to riots across the GDR. The uprising is swiftly put down by Soviet troops.

July 24, 1953 – The Atoms for Peace initiative begins to improve atomic power technology for civilian use by improving agriculture through gene manipulation, to create powerful atomic batteries and create a emission free energy economy. Henry Wallace successfully lobbied Congress to fund his initiative and to pass a law to indemnify atomic power plants leading to the Atomic Industrial Revolution in America.

August 19, 1953 - Operation Ajax is presented to Wallace and he admonishes the intelligence community for even suggesting something so damaging to US foreign policy. Mossadegh is not overthrown and continues to rule Iran on a social democratic platform.

October 30, 1953 - President Henry Wallace approves a bill to reduce the size of the US military by 30% and to reduce naval tonnage in half. President Wallace also decided to secretly end US atomic weapons production by executive order. US stockpile was about 430 warheads.

December 30, 1953 - The first color televisions go on sale.


1954
January 26, 1954 - Bell Labs discontinues research into transistors in favor of miniturizing vacuum tubes and developing atomic-derived portable power sources.

February 23, 1954 - The first large scale vaccination of children against polio begins in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

March 4, 1954 - Henry Wallace appoints Senator Estes Kefauver as Justice to replace the late Justice Vinson, and is confirmed by his colleagues.

May 17, 1954 - Racial segregation in public schools is declared unconstitutional by the United States Supreme Court in Brown vs. the Board of Education. The ruling of the court stated that racial segregation violated the 14th Amendment's clause that guaranteed equal protection. The Monroe School in Topeka, Kansas had segregated Linda Brown in its classes.

July 18, 1954 - After protracted legal disputes with medical providers threatening to undermine the Medicare system, Henry Wallace rallies Congress to give him the power to nationalize for-profit hospitals under the National Health System.

August 19, 1954 -  Another series of protracted disputes resulting from the Phillips Petroleum Co. v. Wisconsin case, which upheld federal price controls on oil and gas producers, companies collude to restrict production. This was met with an Act of Congress authorizing President Wallace to nationalize the oil and gas industry.

September 8, 1954 - In Bangkok, Thailand, the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization is formed by the U.S., Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, France, the Philippines, Pakistan, and Thailand, creating a mutual defense pact against Red China.

In 1954, Ray Kroc founds the idea for the McDonald's corporation, agreeing to franchise the idea of Dick and Mac McDonald, who had started the first McDonald's restaurant in 1940 and had eight restaurants by 1954. Kroc would incorporate the entity on March 2, 1955 and open his first franchise on April 15 in Des Plaines, Illinois. He would buy out the McDonald's brothers in 1961.

1955
February 12, 1955 - The United States government agrees to provide more advisors to train South Japanese troops after Chinese and Korean anti-US rhetoric intensified the previous year.

February 23, 1955 -  The Supreme Court upholds the Congress's laws authorizing the nationalization of private hospital systems and the oil and gas industries in a 7 - 3 decision. Chief Justice Hugo Black declared in his ruling that "any Act of Congress authorizing a seizure under eminent domain is permissable as long as just compensation is made". The ruling is a win for the administration, but also slows the pace of nationalization through budget limitations for compensation payments.

March 16, 1955 - Henry Wallaces 6th and last appointed supreme court Justice, WIlliam J. Brennan, gives the SCOTUS a solid 8-1 liberal majority and would ensure a left-leaning court for more than 30 years.

May 31, 1955 - The Supreme Court of the United States orders that all public schools be integrated with deliberate speed.

July 17, 1955 - Disneyland, the brainchild of Walt Disney, whose father had worked at previous world's fairs and inspired his son to build the iconic Magic Castle and other exhibits opens in Anaheim, California, with the backing of the new television network, ABC. Disneyland California remains today as one of the greatest theme park capitals of the world and some say is second only to his second park built some years later on the other side of the country, Disney World Florida. Disney World was additionally inspired by the subsequent New York World's Fair of 1964-5, with the original intention by Walt Disney to build the second park on the Flushing Meadows site of that event.

September 26, 1955 - President Henry Wallace hosts Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev at his private residence in Bloomington, IL during the first visit of the new Soviet leader to the United States.

December 1, 1955 - Rosa Parks, an African American seamstress, refuses to give up her seat on the bus to a white man, prompting a boycott that would lead to the declaration that bus segregation laws were unconstitutional by a federal court.

December 5, 1955 - The two largest American labor unions, the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations, merge to form the AFL-CIO, boasting membership of fifteen million.


1956
February 15, 1956 – President Wallace signs a law to extend welfare payments to non-disabled, single poor persons for limited periods of time.

March 12, 1956 - Congressmen from Southern states call for massive resistance, the Southern Manifesto, to the Supreme Court ruling on desegregation.

August 13-17, 1956 – After signing the Southern Manifesto, John Sparkman is kicked off the ticket by Democrat candidate Adlai Stevenson in favor of John W. McCormack, a progressive represenative from Massachusetts.

August 22, 1956 - Interstate highway system begins with the signing of the Federal-Aid Highway Act.

September 25, 1956 - The first transatlantic telephone cable begins operation.

October 8, 1956 - Don Larsen pitches the first no-hitter, a perfect game, in post-season baseball history when his New York Yankees best the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 5th game of the 1956 World Series.

October 23, 1956 - Hungarian opposition to Soviet rule leads to a weeks long uprising against the Socialist government after some members of state back the uprising.

November 6, 1956 - The presidential election Democrat nominee Adlai Stevenson and conservative firebrand Richard M. Nixon gains an easy victory for the incumbent president by a 457 to 73 margin in the Electoral College vote.

Biographer Jean H. Baker summarized Stevenson's 1956 campaign: "Uncomfortable with the carnival side of elections, Stevenson tried to be a man for the people, not of them; a man of reason talking sense, not manipulation or sentiment".

Stevenson weds the New Deal with the New Politics Movement, stressing strong support for civil rights legislation, while in foreign affairs the movement favored continuing a cooperative posture toward the Soviet Union. Younger adults accounted for many of its members, and provided it with an aura of youthful vibrance.

Against the advice of many of his political advisers, Stevenson insisted on calling for an International Peace Race, to aid social-democratic nations and commitment to not further develop atomic weapons, and for an end to the military draft as part of broader policy of reigning in the post-war "military-industrial complex".

He had the endorsement of Eleanor Roosevelt who helped sway party opinion into supporting his policy goals. Adlai Stevenson also had a personal feud with the Kennedys, in which he worked with Eleanor and former President Wallace to alienate them and their allies in the Party.

November 9, 1956 - Intensive diplomatic efforts by President Wallace sucessfully lobbies Khrushchev to withdraw the majority of Soviet occupation forces from Hungary and allow modest reforms (decentralizing economic planning to collectives and liberalizing political censorship) in return to US assistance for  modernizing Soviet argiculture and light industry.

1957
January 20, 1957 - President Adlai Stevenson is inaugurated for his first term in office. In his inauguration speech, Stevenson spoke of his plan for a "New America", which included expanding and modernizing New Deal programs in education, health care and poverty." He also planned to revolutionize American transportation, end air pollution with continued nuclear growth and invest in a national "Space Initiative".

March 13, 1957 – Labor leader Jimmy Hoffa successfully leads another nation-wide strike forcing the administration to compel arbitration with the Teamsters and Dockworkers Union for new contract with several major shipping companies.

April 29, 1957 - U.S. Congress approves the Civil Rights Act, the first of its kind since reconstruction, with additional protection of voting rights and outlawing segregation in public services, public accommodation and employment, and enacting the first federal anti-lynching law. President Stevenson sheparded the Bill, a pet project of outgoing President Walalce, seeing it narrowly pass despite filibusters from Southern Democrats. Stevenson uses considerable political capital threatening many Democrats that refused to play ball with funding cuts to their districts. This causes a major shift of Southern conservatives to jump to the Republican Party next election.

June 18, 1957 – Stevenson lobbies for a Medicare Prescription Drug Program, creating price-controls on drugs bought by Medicare, but it is narrowly defeated in the Senate.

July 12, 1957 - A bill to change the national motto to "In God We Trust" was defeated after only receiving support from a minority of conservatives protesting the progressive shift in US culture. "E Pluribus Unum" remains the creed of the US.

September 4, 1957 - National Guard called to duty by Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus to bar nine black students from attending previously all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. He withdrew the troops on September 21 and the students were allowed entrance to class two days later. A threat of violence caused President Stevenson to dispatch federal troops to Little Rock on September 24 to enforce the edict.

October 4, 1957 – The first artificial satellite to achieve stable orbit, named “Sputnik” is launched successfully by the Soviet Union.

November 1957 - Gordon Gould, an American physicist, invents the laser, It would take him until 1977 to win a protracted legal battle over patent rights, and he did not start receiving royalties on his work until 1988. Gould was elected to the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1991.

December 6, 1957 - The first attempt by the United States to launch a satellite into space fails when it explodes on the launchpad.

1958
January 31, 1958 - Explorer I, the first U.S. space satellite, is launched by the Army at Cape Canaveral. It would discover the Van Allen radiation belt.

March 1, 1958 – The Peace Corps and Job Corps are founded by an Act signed by President Stevenson.

April 17, 1958 - The first major world's fair since the end of World War II opens in Brussels, Belgium and evokes a Cold War debate between the pavilions of the Soviet Union and the United States. Their competing visions of the world vie for the attention of the over 41 million visitors to the event, also noted for the Atomium atom molecular structure that stood as the fair's theme. The expo, sanctioned by the Bureau of International Exhibitions, closed on October 19, 1958.

May 14, 1958 - Adlai Stevenson secures federal funding for the development of five major interurban high-speed projects to be complete by 1962.

December 10, 1958 - Jet airline passenger service is inaugurated in the United States by National Airlines with a flight between New York City and Miami, Florida.

December 20, 1958 - Nikita Khrushchev begins the last large-scale anti-religious campaign undertaken in the Soviet Union this year. It succeeded a comparatively tolerant period towards religion which had lasted from 1941 until the late 1950s.

1959
January 3, 1959 - Alaska is admitted to the United States as the 49th state to be followed on August 21 by Hawaii.

January 7, 1959 - The United States recognizes the new Cuban government under rebel leader Fidel Castro. Castro becomes elected the President of Cuba by referendum on February 16. President Stevenson promises to work with Castro to foster democratic values and send humanitarian aid for Cuba’s poor.

February 22, 1959 - The Daytona 500 stock car race is run for the first time with Lee Petty taking the first checkered flag.

April 9, 1959 - NASA selects the first seven military pilots to become the Mercury Seven, first astronauts of the United States. The Mercury Seven included John Glenn, Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, Gus Grissom, Wally Scare, Alan Shepard, and Deke Slayton.

April 25, 1959 - The St. Lawrence Seaway is opened along the Canada and United States borders, allowing increased ship traffic between the Atlantic Ocean and the Great Lakes.

September 23, 1959 - During a goodwill tour of the US, Nikita Khrushchev and agriculturalist Roswell Garst arrange a deal for selling hybrid corn to the Soviet Union and helps develop a plan for increasing Soviet corn production.  Gross agriculture production increased by 57% from 1959 to 1965 due to the assistance and corn becomes a major staple of the Soviet diet.

October 3, 1959 – Adlai Stevenson signs into law the Head Start Act to give preschool services and infant health care to working class families. The Act permits wellness inspections by Child Welfare Services in exchange for assistance.

October 10, 1959: President Stevenson refused to undertake harsh measures against Cuba in response to nationalizations. OSS director is fired for insubordination after secret plans to overthrow Castro came to Stevenson’s attention. Stevenson publicly outed and upbraided the OSS as a rogue agency during a joint session of Congress.

November 12, 1959: The OSS is dismantled into two smaller agencies the Office of Intelligence (OOI) and the Office of Diplomatic Operations (ODO) by order of the President.


1960
April 1, 1960 - Tiros I, the first weather satellite, is launched by the United States. Twelve days later, the navigation satellite, Transat 1-b is launched.

May 1, 1960 - In the Soviet Union, a United States U-2 reconnaissance plane is shot done by Soviet forces, leading to the capture of U.S. pilot Gary Powers. On May 6, Powers is in exchange for a captured Soviet spy in Berlin. Stevenson called a conference with Khrushchev after the incident to agree to mutual ground rules designed to lessen the tensions caused by each nation's intelligence operations. These events were classified and would not be public knowledge until almost a decade later.

July 4, 1960 - The fifty star flag of the United States is debuted in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, reflecting the admission of Hawaii into the union in 1959.

November 8, 1960 - The presidential race against incumbent president Adlai Stevenson is won by Senator Nelson Rockefeller, the Republican candidate from New York. Rockefeller was a narrow victor in the popular vote, by slightly more than 120,000 votes, but won a more substantial victory in the Electoral College tally, 303 to 219. 62.8% of the voting age population took part in the contest.

The 1960 campaign for president had seen the first televised debate on September 26. Many saw the debate as one pitting New Deal progress vs increasing federal overreach in the economy. Rockefeller became perceived as a champion for middle-class taxpayers against an increasingly aloof and egg-headish President Stevenson. The new Republican coalition was also made possible in part by the “Southern Strategy” pulling away disaffected Southern Democrats.

1961
January 20, 1961 – President Nelson Rockefeller, the first Republican president since Herbert Hoover, is inaugurated.

March 19, 1961 – UniVac markets the new 50 watt tube Mini-Radio using advanced valve amplifier technology.

April 10, 1961: A bill to reduce the highest marginal tax rate from 90% to 60% is signed into law by President Nelson Rockefeller and is the first tax cut since WW2.

April 12, 1961: Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin pilots the first manned spaceflight in history. The Vostok 3KA space capsule was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome.

May 5, 1961 - The first U.S. manned sub-orbital space flight is completed with Commander Alan B. Shepard Jr. inside a Mercury capsule launched 116.5 miles above the earth from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Twenty days later, President Nelson Rockefeller announces his intention to place a man on the moon by the end of the decade.

August 13, 1961 - An agreement between the US, Soviet Union, GDR and FRG cedes West Berlin to the GDR unifying the city under the Soviet Bloc in exchange for maintaining free travel across the West-East German borders.

1962
February 7, 1962 - The first sign of a looming Japan conflict emerges when President Rockefeller admits that military forces already in South Japan would engage the enemy if fired upon. This was in response to recent border skirmished between Communist and US back soldiers across the DMZ. The Soviet Union and China both protest this bellicose candor from the US President.

February 20, 1962 - Lt. Colonel John Glenn becomes the first U.S. astronaut in orbit in the Friendship 7 Mercury capsule. He would circle the earth three times before returning to earth, remaining aloft for four hours and fifty-five minutes

March 3, 1962 - The first analog computer is invented at Caltech and later its patent is bought by General Electric.

April 21, 1962 - The Seattle Century 21 Exposition, the first world's fair held in the United States since World War II, opens under the theme of space exploration. Over 9.6 million visitors would attend the exposition over 184 days in central Seattle, whose monorail still travels inside the city today.

April 29, 1962 – On the 5th year anniversary of the historic Civil Rights Act, the Equality March on Washington, D.C. for Jobs and Progress culminates with Dr. Martin Luther King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Over 200,000 people participated in the march for equal opportunity and to fight racial prejudice.

October 1, 1962 - Three thousand troops quell riots, allowing James Meredith to enter the University of Mississippi as the first black student under guard by Federal marshals.

November 4, 1962 - Liberal-Republican Attorney General from NY, Edward Brooke, is appointed to the Appelate Circuit by Nelson Rockefeller.

1963
March 2, 1963 - The Japan Demarcation Crisis begins. In response to the China building offensive rockets and artillery in the DMZ, President Nelson Rockefeller orders a naval and air blockade of military equipment to North Japan. After thirty-one days of the blockade, an armed Chinese merchant vessel attempts to run the blockade and is sunk by US Forces placing the US and China in a state of war. The US blockade is extended to China by presidential order.

June 17, 1963 - The Supreme Court of the United States ruled in the case of Abington School District vs. Schempp that laws requiring the recitation of the Lord's Prayer or Bible verses in public schools is unconstitutional. The vote was 8 to 1.

1964
January 9, 1964 - The Koriyama incident occurs when North Japanese soldiers fire upon US and South Japanese troops that had errantly crossed the DMZ, leading to the deaths on both sides. The next day North Japan attacks across the DMZ resulting in a state of war with the US and the South. China allies with North Japan. The USSR decides to be neutral in this conflict to much derision from Chairman Mao Zedong.

January 10, 1964 - The Toyama Resolution is passed by the United States Congress, authorizing broad powers to the president to take action in Japan after North Japanese had violated the DMZ at the 38th parallel.

January 13, 1964 - Beatlemania hits the shores of the United States with the release of I Want to Hold Your Hand, which becomes the Liverpool group's first North American hit. One week later, their first U.S. album Meet the Beatles is released.

February 25, 1964 - 1960 Olympic champion Cassius Clay wins the World Heavyweight Championship in Boxing from current champ Sonny Liston.

March 9, 1964 – Surprise advances by North Japanese forces capture Shirakawa and most of Niigata province. US forces mount a successful counter-attack months later.

April 22, 1964 - The New York World's Fair opens in Queens, New York on the site of the 1939 event. One of the largest world's fairs in United States history, it was not a sanctioned Bureau of International Exhibitions event, due to conflict over the dates of the Seattle fair of 1962. This world's fair would last for two seasons, and included exhibits from eighty nations. Over 50 million visitors would attend. Its theme structure, the Unisphere, is still present, now seen each August outside the U.S. Tennis Open.

July 16, 1964 – Exposure of an FBI program to suppress “subversive” political groups comes to light by journalists at the Washington Post and creates a major scandal resulting in J. Edgar Hoover’s resignation.

November 3, 1964 - President Nelson Rockefeller wins re-election with a victory over Texas Senator Lyndon B Johnson by a 286 to 252 margin in the Electoral College and by a slim 900,000 advantage in the popular vote.

1965
February 7, 1965 - United States warplanes begin their bombing raids of Sendai and Sapporo, North Japan. By December of this year, the United States had 310,000 troops stationed in South Japan and engaged in combat with the North.

March 25, 1965 - Martin Luther King speaks at an anti-war rally in Washington. The event was not a popularized as his previous march.

August 11, 1965 - Appelate Judge Edward Brooke, is nominated to the Supreme as the first African-American justice of the Supreme Court by President Rockefeller. He replaces recently appointed and resigned Justice Goldberg, Rockefeller's first appointed Justice.

Kevlar is developed by Dupont scientist Stephanie Louise Kwolek. She would patent the compound, used extensively in bullet proof vests, in 1965. By this year, atomic energy plants power 90% of the US electrical grid.

1966
March 23, 1966 – After bitter winter stalemate the US begins a renewed offensive capturing Niigata and Sendai by late May.

July 1, 1966 - Medicare, the national health insurance program for all citizens, expands to cover mental health and addiction treatment for all citizens. This replaced an earlier, underfunded and inefficient, block grant program.

September 2, 1966 – China enters the war with a massive airborne landing to reinforce North Japan. US casualties increase and progress is halted after successive battles against Chinese forces that outnumber the Americans by 10 to 1. Daily strategic bombing begins against Chinese ports by order of President Rockefeller days later. This begins a year long air war over China and Korea.

October 15, 1966 - The National Historic Preservation Act is made law. It expanded the National Register of Historic Places to include historic sites of regional, state, and local significance.



1967
January 15, 1967 - The first Super Bowl is held in Los Angeles between the Green Bay Packers and the Kansas City Chiefs with Green Bay winning 35-10. Over fifty one million people watch on television.

January 27, 1967 - The Outer Space Treaty is signed into force by the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union, to take effect on October 10, 1967.

March 24, 1967 - President Rockefeller announces a slowing to the bombing of North Japan and China. Peace talks would begin April 6 in Brussels; all bombing of North Japan halted June 30.

July 15, 1967 – A ceasefire agreement is ratified between North and South Japan, China and the US ending the Japanese Conflict. The borders return to their original position at the 38th parallel. Nine million refugees liberated from the North are granted citizenship in the South.


1968
January 5, 1968 - Prague Spring reforms were a strong attempt by the Dubček reformist government to grant additional rights to the citizens of Czechoslovakia in an act of partial decentralization of the economy and democratization. The freedoms granted included a loosening of restrictions on the media, speech and travel. Dubček also oversaw the decision to split the nation into a Czech and Slovak federation.

January 23, 1968 - The U.S.S. Pueblo incident occurs in the Sea of Japan when Korea seizes the ship and its crew, accusing it of violating its territorial waters for the purpose of spying. They would later release the prisoners and the U.S.S. Pueblo on December 22.

August 18, 1968 - Negotiations between Dubček and Khrushchev avert a Soviet embargo by rolling back some democratic reforms, ensuring Socialist Party dominance in Czechoslovakia in return for an official Soviet endorsement of the Prague Spring. Czechoslovakia, like Hungary became another example of a decentralized economic planning model as sucessful alternative to socialist central planning.

November 5, 1968 - Vice President WIliam Scranton keeps the White House for the Republican party with his victory over Democrat challenger Robert S. Shriver. Scranton captures 301 Electoral College Votes to 248 for Shriver.

December 7, 1968 – The first commercial appliances to use the first atomic powered battery go on sale. The battery is interchangeable between most appliances and is claimed to last for a 100 years.

1969
January 12, 1969 - The New York Jets win Super Bowl III over the Baltimore Colts after a bold prediction by quarterback Joe Namath. This is the first victory in the National Football League for a former American Football League team.

March 18, 1969 - Nikita Khrushchev begins his Glasnot Reforms included a loosening of restrictions on the media, speech and travel. Political dissidents were granted amnesty in most cases. This change in policy is cemented by Khrushchev's blessing of contraversial and popular Soviet entertainer Vladimir Vysotsky's new music tour of the West, something that would been previously impossible to do.

November 20, 1969 - Alcatraz Island closes down after budget cuts left the island prison uneconomical.

1970
April 22, 1970 - The first Earth Day celebration is held with millions of Americans participating in anti-pollution demonstrations. These demonstrations included school children walking to school instead of riding the bus.

1971
January 2, 1971 - A ban on the television advertisement of cigarettes is defeated in Congress.

July 20, 1971 - The Apollo program completes its mission. Neil Armstrong, United States astronaut, becomes the first man to set foot on the moon four days after launch from Cape Canaveral. His Apollo 11 colleague, Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr. accompanies him.

September 11, 1971 - Premier Nikita Khrushchev dies in office setting off a competition for leadership of the Communist party between Alexei Kosygin and Leonid Brezhnev. The Reform wing of the party won against the hardliners desperately trying to roll back popular liberal reforms.

October 1, 1971 - Walt Disney World opens in Orlando, Florida, expanding the Disney empire to the east coast of the United States. Features exhibits on the growth of atomic technology and analog robotics in "The World of Tomorrow".

1972
May 22, 1972 - President Wiliam Scranton makes his first trip as President to Moscow meeting with the new Soviet leader Alexei Kosygin. On July 8, the White House would announce the sale of American consumer appliances and grain to the Soviet Union.

June 14. 1972 - The Kosygin Reforms begin as model for liberalizing the Soviet economy and adapting to the emerging global market.  A centerpiece of these changes was the introduction of profitability and sales as the two key indicators of enterprise success. It introduced taxation to the Soviet system for the first time, some of an enterprise's profits would go to three funds, used to reward workers and expand operations; most would go to the central budget. These reforms angered the remnant conservative wing in the CPSU, who attempted to limit local discretion in planning. The reforms were met with approval by the West seeking to make investments into renewed Soviet industry.

November 7, 1972 - In a landslide victory, incumbent President William Scranton defeats his opponent Hubert Humphrey, winning 402 Electoral College votes to Kennedy's 135, and taking 58% of the popular vote.

1973
January 22, 1973 - The United States Supreme Court rules in Roe vs. Wade that a woman can not be prevented by a state in having an abortion during the first six months of pregnancy.

June 9, 1973 - In one of the most awesome displays of dominance in sports history, Secretariat, wins the Belmont Stakes by 31 lengths, winning the Triple Crown of United States Thoroughbred Racing for the first time since 1948.

October 19, 1973 - The Arab Oil Embargo: Oil imports from Arab oil-producing nations are banned to the United States after President Scranton's decision aid to the IDF at the start of the Arab-Israeli war, creating the 1973 energy crisis. They would not resume until March 18, 1974. Efforts toward alternative-powered vehicles intensify among the Big Six automakers.

1974
May 4, 1974 - Expo '74, the Bureau of International Exhibitions sanctioned special exposition was held for six months in the Washington State city of Spokane, one of the smaller cities to host a BIE world expo in their history. Held on the theme "Celebrating Tomorrow's Fresh, Clean Environment," the event capitalized on the Earth Day sentiments of the time, and drew over 5 million visitors to eastern Washington State.

May 7, 1974 – The first miniature home fission reactor is available for sale and promises to take homes off the electric grid and power a home for 50 years without maintenance. This is part of the continued national effort to eliminate emissions from the US economy and to revolutionize energy technology worldwide.

July 8, 1974 – The Soviet Union places the first cosmonaut, Aleksey Leonov, on the moon aboard the Soyuz L2 continuing to match the US in space accomplishments.

August 10, 1974 – The B-74 Thunderfortress enters service as the largest strategic bomber ever created by the US. Another sign of an escalating arms races between Eastern and Western blocs.

1975
January 6, 1975 - The television show Wheel of Fortune premiers.

August 1, 1975 - Helsinki Declaration is signed by major world powers promising to adhere to certain standards of Human Rights.

September 18, 1975 - Heiress Patty Hearst launches a charity dedicated to funding science and math education programs in schools across California.

1976
July 4, 1976 - The Bicentennial of the United States is celebrated throughout the nation. The 200th anniversary included Operation Sail in New York City, as well as a Bicentennial Wagon Train that traversed the nation during the year.

July 20, 1976 - The Viking 1 space probe successfully lands on Mars. It would be followed by a second unmanned Viking II on the Utopia Plains on September 3. The first color photos of the surface of Mars are taken on these flights.

November 2, 1976 – Democrat George McGovern defeats Republican nominee Dick Lugar. McGovern received a slight majority of the popular vote, as well as an Electoral College victory of 297 to 240.

December 4, 1976 - The Ford Nucleon is the first commercially available atomic powered vehicle weighing 5,000 pounds with a top speed of 95 mph.

1977
May 25, 1977 - The movie Star Wars opens and becomes the highest grossing film at the time.

June 4, 1977 - The cabinet level Energy Department is created by President McGovern.

1978
March 3, 1978 - In one of the first articles on the subject of human cloning, the New York Post prints an article on the book The Cloning of Man which supposes the cloning of a human being.

October 16, 1978 - Pope Michael VII, Giuseppe Siri of Genoa, is elected Pope at Vatican City.

1979
March 28, 1979 - An accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Middletown, Pennsylvania almost causes a core meltdown before fail-safes cools the reactor. A tense situation ensued for five days until the reactor was deemed under control.

April 12, 1979 - Protests by conservative elements in Iran reach critical mass demanding the resignation of democratic socialist government over the pace of modernization. Soviet troops are requested to assist the Iranian government in surpressing the protests. Most western nations are unsympathetic to Khomeini's radical Islamist faction and look the other way.

September 1, 1979 - The American Pioneer Eleven passes the planet Saturn, becoming the first spacecraft to visit the ringed planet, albeit at a distance of 21,000 kilometers.

September 22, 1979 - Alexei Kosygin abruptly resigns due to poor health sending Soviet politics into uncertainty again.

October 6, 1979 - The Federal Reserve system changes its monetary policy goals from interest rate based to a money supply target orientation.

November 1, 1979 - The Chrysler Bailout is approved by President McGovern after Congress voted to pass it. A $2.5 billion loan-guarantee plan is floated to assist the third largest car maker in the United States provided they expand production of atomic powered vehicles.

1980
January 4, 1980 - A coup amongst military leaders in Afghanistan overhrows the Communist regime after newly appointer Soviet Premier Valentin Pavlov decides against drawing the Soviet troops into a possible civil war while its troops are already in neighboring Iran dealing with radical Islamic militants.

February 13, 1980 - The opening ceremonies of the 1980 Winter Olympics Games are held in Lake Placid, New York. One of the most thrilling moments include the Miracle on Ice when a team of U.S. amateur ice hockey players defeated the vaunted Soviet Union professional all-star team in the semi-final game, then won the gold medal over Finland. U.S. speed skater Eric Heiden also concluded one of the most amazing feats in sports history when he won all five speed skating medals from the sprint at 500 meters to the marathon 10,000 meter event.

April 12, 1980 – US Olympic Team is congratulated by President George McGovern for their hard work preparing in the upcoming Moscow Summer Olympic Games.

May 18, 1980 - The Mt. St. Helens volcano, in Washington State, erupts, killing fifty-seven people and economic devastation to the area with losses near $3 billion. The blast was estimated to have the power five hundred times greater than the Hiroshima atomic bomb.

October 10, 1980 - President McGovern signs legislation establishing Boston African American National Historic Site, which includes the oldest black church in America and other historic sites of the Black Heritage Trail in Boston, Massachusetts.

November 4, 1980 – President George McGovern beats Republican John B. Anderson, and independent candidate David Nolan, in a landslide victory, earning another term as president. The victory in the Electoral College, 489 to 49, as well as an 8 million vote margin in the popular vote over Anderson, ensured a mandate for the incumbent president.

1981
February 6, 1981 - Protests in Poland over economic mismanagment and political repression force the resignation of the Communist leadership under Jaruzelski in Warsaw. The Solidarity movement gains poltical clout by forcing the government to permit them to run for democratic elections set for 1986.

April 12, 1981 The first arm-servo analog industrial robot is employed at the Ford Assembly Plant in Detroit, MI.

April 18, 1981 - The first launch of the first manned lunar mission in 7 years from Cape Canaveral and the Stevenson Space Center occurs with the Atlas 1. The multi-mission Atlas Lunar Program was created to explore mineral resources and establish a temporary moon base over the next 10 years.

June 8, 1981 - During a visit to Moscow, George McGovern presses Soviet premier Valentin Pavlov on human rights issues throughout the Soviet bloc as a precondition for new trade agreements.

July 29, 1981 - Tax cut legislation proposed by President George McGovern, the first since 1961, is passed by both houses of the U.S. Congress. It would reduce top marginal rate from 60% to 52% over the next five years. Many Democrats rankle at their own members and the president crossing the aisle on tax cuts while the tax cuts remain mostly popular among voters.

September 21, 1981 - Shirley Hufstedler is approved unanimously, 99-0, by the United States Senate to become the first female Supreme Court associate justice in history.

1982
January 8, 1982 - ATT wins its lawsuit with the U.S. Justice Department. The agreement would have forced the independence of the twenty-two regional Bell System companies. McGovern tempers calls from the left to nationalize much to the chagrin of fellow Democrats.

March 2, 1982 – George McGovern vetoes a bill that would eliminate the practice of busing to achieve racial integration angering working class whites and galvanizing civil rights organizations.

May 1, 1982 - The Knoxville World's Fair opens on the topic of computing technology by President McGovern. A special category exposition sanctioned by the Bureau of International Exhibitions, the Knoxville event would draw over eleven million people to the Tennessee valley over the next six months.

November 5, 1982 - The lowest unemployment rate since 1960 is recorded at 3.4%.

November 13, 1982 - The 2nd World War Veterans Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C., holding the names of the more than 484,000 killed or missing in action during the conflict.

1983
March 23, 1983 - The initial proposal to develop technology to develop ballistic missiles, the Strategic Defense Initiative Program is made by President George McGovern after military intelligence revealed that the Soviets had embarked a similar program starting in 1982.

April 20, 1983 - President McGovern signs legislation to expand benefit amounts for Social Security while securing a higher payroll tax on wealthier Americans to balance the Trust Fund.

June 18, 1983 - Astronaut Sally Ride becomes the first American woman to travel in space and walk on the Moon on the Atlas 2 lunar mission.

August 21, 1983 - The United States agrees the request of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States to embargo Grenada after a Marxist regime comes to power. However, President McGovern makes clear that he had no intention of using US armed forces to intervene.

1984
May 12, 1984 - The Louisiana World Exposition of 1984 opens along the Mississippi River waterfront in New Orleans. The event, the last world's fair held in the United States, was plagued with financial trouble, and drew significantly fewer visitors than predicted over the next six months, 7.3 million, although it was regarded as the catalyst in the recovery of the waterfront and warehouse district to public use.

July 28, 1984 - The opening ceremony of the Los Angeles Olympic Games is held. The games run by Peter Ueberroth, prove a financial and U.S. success. The US and USSR continue their streak of being the top two medal earners.

November 6, 1984 - Democratic Senator Walter Mondale loses his election bid to Republican Senator Bob Dole in a stunning upset by a margin of 325 to 213.

1985
April 9, 1985 - A major agreement between Saudi Arabia and the Soviet Union to cut production the keep the price of oil high is agreed to helping both nations profit. Saudi-US relations however remain at their lowest since the fallout over the 1973 embargo.

July 13, 1985 - A famine relief concert organized by British artist Bob Geldof and held simultaneously in London and Philadelphia is seen in one hundred and fifty-two countries. The seventeen hour concert raised $70 million for relief efforts in Ethiopia and other African nations.

September 11, 1985 - Pete Rose breaks Ty Cobb's record for most career hits in Major League Baseball history. He would be banned from baseball in 1989 for gambling, thus making him ineligible for election into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.

November 19, 1985 - The first meeting ever between the leaders of the People’s Republic of China and the United States occurs when Chairman Hua Guofeng and President Bob Dole engage in a five hour summit conference in Geneva, Switzerland. This marks a radical shift in China-US relations that have been icy ever since the Third Sino-Japanese War.

November 20, 1985 – The first communications satellite enters stable low-earth orbit and is owned by Bell Telephone.

December 11, 1985 - General Electric Corporation agrees to buy RCA Corporation for $6.28 billion in the largest corporate merger ever.

May 25, 1986 - Five million people make a human chain across the United States in the Hands Across America campaign to fight hunger and homelessness.

June 14, 1986 - Solidarity forms a majority coalition with a newly liberalized Polish United Workers' Party in the first democratic election since before WW2. The Soviets retain their promise to not interfere in the democratic process and Poland becomes the first Soviet influenced nation to end communist rule.

April 20, 1986 – This Earth Day marks the conspicuous accomplishment of near zero emissions economy fueled by nuclear power, air pollution levels are there lowest in recorded history and fossil fuels become a rarity in transportation, power production and industry.

September 18, 1986 - A tentative agreement on trade between the US and China will supply much needed agricultural products to China in exchange for cheap textiles and plastics. The CCP remains hardline on economic issues unwilling to follow the Soviet lead in economic liberlization.

1987
March 1, 1987 – General Electric, now the largest electronics & media company in the US, changes its name to General Atomic to mark the popularity shift in atomic powered products.

June 29, 1987 - The stock market crash known as Black Monday occurs on the New York Stock Exchange, recording a record 42.6% drop in one day. Stock markets around the world would mirror the crash with drops of their own. This would be known as the first market devaluations caused by supply shocks unable to meet accelerating materials and uranium demands.

October 23, 1987 - President Dole’s nominee to the Supreme Court Robert Bork, is confirmed by the U.S. Senate, 54-46 bringing the Court back to a conservative majority for the first time since the New Deal.

December 8, 1987 - The United States, Canada, European Economic Community and the Soviet Union sign an agreement regarding territorial mineral rights to Arctic resources.

1988
January 28, 1988 – The first manned installation on the lunar surface (Moon Base Alpha) begins its first 6 month mission with a crew of 3 delivered by Atlas 8.

February 3, 1988 - The United States House of Representatives approves the request of President Dole for $46.25 million to fund the Nicaraguan Contras in attempt to counter Chinese-aligned Communist influence in central America.

April 12, 1988 - The first patent for a genetically engineered animal is issued to Harvard University researchers Philip Leder and Timothy Stewart.

November 8, 1988 - President Dole claims victory in the presidential election over Democratic challenger Al Gore, Senator from Tennessee. The Electoral College vote tallied 426 for Dole and 111 for Gore.

 Novermber 14, 1988 - Multiparty elections are held in Czechoslovakia ending communist rule there.

December 1, 1988 – The first commercial hybrid analog-digital computer (the General Electric C350) that can fit on a desktop goes on the market in time for the Holiday Season and is powered by an atomic battery.

1989
January 6, 1989 - Economic reports on the previous year from the Labor Department indicate a growth rate of 1.8%, the smallest in four years, and an unemployment rate of 5.3%, a slight increase over the past 5 years.

March 9, 1989 - Hungary follows the lead of Poland and Czechoslovakia and hold multiparty elections, in this instance the Socialist party retains a majority.

August 9, 1989 - The Savings and Loan Bailout is approved by Congress and signed into law by President Bob Dole. The total cost of the bill would approach $600 billion over thirty years to close and merge insolvent Savings and Loans.

August 10, 1989 - Army General Colin Powell is elevated to the position of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, becoming the first African American to be nominated to that post. Strategic planning around Chinese containment becomes a priority for the Pentagon.

December 14-20, 1989 - After the violent surpression of pro-democracy protests in Romania, an uprising ousts the Communists from power and Nicolae Ceaușescu and wife are captured and executed.

1990
March 18, 1990 - The largest art theft in U.S. history occurs in Boston, Massachusetts, when two thieves posing as policemen abscond twelve paintings worth an estimated $100-200 million from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

April 24, 1990 – Moon Base Alpha is evacuated by the final Atlas mission after systems inspections make a total system failure highly likely in the next year. The base is abandoned and never inhabited again.

1991
July 29, 1991 - Bank of Credit and Commerce International is indicted in New York for the largest bank fraud in history.

1992
May 7, 1992 - The 27th Amendment to the Constitution is passed two hundred and two years after its initial proposal. It bars the United States Congress from giving itself a midterm or retroactive pay raise. This amendment had been originally proposed by James Madison in 1789, as part of twelve amendments, of which ten would become the original Bill of Rights on December 15, 1791.

April 2, 1992 - The dissolution of Yugoslavia becomes a new diplomatic battle ground with the Soviets backing the Socialist government in Belgrade and the ETO supporting the nationalists of the seperatist Croat state.

August 21, 1992 - The Siege of Ruby Ridge is begun by United States Marshals, lasting ten days. The incident would end with the acquittal of all but one minor charge against the Weaver family and lead to admonishment of the handling of the deadly incident by Federal authorities.

November 3, 1992 - In a three way race for the presidency of the United States, Democratic candidate Bill Weld defeats Republican George H.W. Bush. Weld received only 43% of the popular vote, but 370 Electoral votes to Bush with 37.4% and 168 Electoral College votes. 3rd party candidate Lyndon LaRoche garnered 18.9% of the popular vote, but no Electoral College delegates.

1993
March 4, 1993 - Alexander Yakovlev, ranking member of the Politburo, replaces Pavlov as the next Soviet Premier winning over liberals and reformers alike in the discourse over adopting democratic reforms to the Soviet poilitcal and electoral process. Yakovlev champions these changes as a means for securing popular support for the CPSU into the future.

May 27, 1993 - The United Nations Security Council unanimously votes to adopt Resolution 721, which would lead the way to establishing peacekeeping forces in Yugoslavia. Three months later, another resolution would approve a peacekeeping force be sent.

November 20, 1993 - The Senate Ethics Committee censures California Senator Alan Cranston for his participation with Charles Keating in the Savings and Loan scandal. The scandal had begun in the 1980s due to a wave of mismanagement, failed speculation, and fraud within the industry.

1994
April 16, 1994 -  Major fighting between Croats and Serbs has ceased with a peace treaty brokered by European and Soviet powers. Left out of the deal is the Bosnian minority which will see their community divided between the right-winged Croatia and socialist Serbia. Bosnian nationalists and islamic fundamentalists will wage an insurgency against both nations for the next 10 years.

June 12, 1994 - The bodies of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman are found outside her home in Los Angeles, California. Five days later, her husband, former football star O.J. Simpson is arrested for the crime, but is later acquitted on October 3, 1995. The Simpson case was one of the highest profile murder cases in the nation's history.

August 17, 1994 - Microscale vacuum-channel transistor (MVCT) is invented leading to “economical scaling” of computers and electronics.

September 14, 1994 - For the first time since 1904, the World Series of Major League Baseball is cancelled, this time due to a player's strike begun in August by the Major League Baseball Players Association.

1995
January 31, 1995 - U.S. President Bill Weld invokes emergency powers to extend a $20 billion loan to Mexico to avert a financial disaster that had begun on December 19, 1994 during a planned exchange rate correction between the Mexican peso and American dollar.

March 6, 1995 - Albania's newly elected liberal government decides to end trade and treaty agreements with the Soviet Union over their support of Serbia subjegation of ethnic Bosnians.

July 27, 1995 - The Sino-Japanese War Memorial in Washington, D.C. is dedicated in ceremonies presided by President Bill Weld.

November 9, 1995 - Without Soviet support, the Communist government in East Germany dissolved amidst increasing unrest. This was precipitated by a massive emigration crisis from the East into the West, that the GDR Army attempted to surpress by temporarily closing the border. A year later East Germany would be reabsorbed into the West by an accord agreed to by the UN Permanent Security Council.

1996
July 5, 1996 - At the Roslin Institute in Scotland, Dolly, the sheep, becomes the first mammal to be cloned. This begins a rampant debate on the ethics of the procedure in animals and the viability and morality of cloning in human beings.

July 19, 1996 - The Summer Olympics Games are opened in Atlanta, Georgia by U.S. President Bill Weld. The games are positively known for the achievements of American track and field athlete Michael Johnson, who won both the 200 and 400 meter races, setting a new World Record in the 200, and for the victory of the American women's gymnastics team. Soviet Union gave a solid second place standing in medal counts.

November 5, 1996 - First-term Virginia Senator Oliver North defeats Incumbent president Bill Weld, as well as the independent progressive Al Gore. North gained 40.2% of the popular vote, and increased his total in the Electoral College to 379. Weld gained 42.7% of the popular tally and 159 in the Electoral College. Al Gore gained an impressive 8% for an independent run

December 5, 1996 - A speech by the Federal Reserve Board Chairman Jim Rogers suggests that consumer downturn may be causing a slump in stock market growth and unsurety of how the Soviet collapse will effect international markets.

1997
February 9, 1997 - The Simpsons, a ribald cartoon about a family of misfits, becomes the longest running prime-time cartoon television series in history, surpassing the Flintstones.

March 4, 1997 - Federal funding for any research into genomic research, including gene sequencing and stem cell research, is signed into law by President Oliver North.

May 25, 1997 - Strom Thurmond becomes the longest serving member of the United States Senate at forty-one years and ten months.

During this year CRT Televisions powered by atomic battery max out at 52”. Efforts to miniaturize now become priorities for appliance firms.

1998
February 23, 1998 - Osama bin Laden publishes his fatwa that announced a jihad against all Communist regimes after high profile crackdowns in Xinjiang against native Muslim Uyghurs. This announcement would push forward the Islamic fundamentalist agenda toward terrorism against Communist Chinese interests.

May 18, 1998 - The United States Department of Justice and twenty states file the anti-trust case, U.S. versus General Electric. On November 5, 1999, a preliminary ruling stated that General Atomic had monopoly power recommending divesture of some of its major holdings in robotics and communication network industries.

April 4, 1998 - Democratic elections in Russia see the Communist Party sink to 3rd place in the Duma for the first time and forces them from wielding executive power in the new social-liberal coalition government. Soviet officials attempt to decertify the electoral results resulting in massive demonstrations erupting across the Soviet Union. Coincidentaly socialist parties still enjoy majority status and popularity in Bulgaria, Hungary, and Serbia.

August 7, 1998 - Attacks on two Chinese embassies in Belgrade, Serbia and Almaty, Kyrgyzstan kills one hundred and twenty-two and injures three thousand four hundred. The attacks are linked to Osama Bin Laden and his Al-Qaeda organization. On August 9, the China launches military operations against Al-Qaeda camps in Kyrgyzstan and suspected dissidents in Xinjiang province.

September 6, 1998 – Soviet Union faces a short economic downturn from contracted investment from the West precipitated by an short-lived American recession.

October 29, 1998 - John Glenn, thirty-six years after becoming the first American astronaut to orbit the earth, becomes the oldest astronaut in space at seventy-seven years old.

1999
January 1, 1999 - The Euro currency is introduced as a competitive tool to stem the power of the dollar and maximize the economic power of the member states of the European Federation.

February 7, 1999 – Soviet officials relent after massive democratization protests and allow the newly elected Duma to be seated without a Communist majority. Some hardliners discuss a coup plot against the reformers but decide against it as it would mean the end of the CPSU. Alexander Yakovlev resigns after internal opinion turns against the incumbent CPSU leadership.

March 29, 1999 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average falls by nearly 5,000 points beginning a massive recession in the United States that will later reverberate through European markets due to decreasing energy and material stocks.

May 3, 1999 - A series of tornadoes strikes Oklahoma, including an F5 category storm that slams Oklahoma City, killing thirty-eight. The fastest wind speed ever recorded on earth is measured by scientists at 509 km (318 mph) during this tornado.

2000
June 1, 2000 - The Hannover Millennium World Expo, starts with a record number, 187, of international participants. President Oliver North expresses the commitment of the US to continue to be a leader in technological innovation. Over 40 million would visit the Hannover event.

November 7, 2000 – President Oliver North wins re-election against popular Democratic insurgent, and perennial challenger, Al Gore in a close race with Electoral College divided 271-266, with President North edging out the challenger by just 450,000 votes, the closet Al Gore would come in his three bids for president.

December 28, 2000 - Montgomery Ward expands to purchase Marshall Fields. This adds to their portfolio of merchandisers. Upstarts like the Walton Family Co. found themselves outcompeted by established competitors protected by tariffs.

2001
January 8, 2001 - In an agreement between nationalist factions and Moscow, Ukraine and the Baltic states are granted a considerable degree of autonomy while still remaining federated with the Soviet Union.

April 1, 2001 - U.S.-China air incident. An American recon plane collides with a fighter plane of China and makes an emergency landing in Hainan, China. The U.S. crew is convicted of espionage 4 days later. The US responds with a full embargo and President North vows to return the sailors back home.

April 8, 2001 - Tiger Woods becomes the first golfer to hold all four major golf titles simultaneously by winning the Master's tournament in Augusta, Georgia. This followed a remarkable run in 2000 when Woods claimed victory at the final three majors of that season; the U.S. Open, the British Open, and the PGA Championship.

September 11, 2001 – Military exercises begin in the Strait of Taiwan and South China Sea as response to China’s imprisonment of US servicemen.

December 9, 2001 – The Magnavox Family Computer 2 is the latest model desktop affordable to the average America utilizing Microscale vacuum-channel transistors (MVCT). Its also the first computer capable of running magnetic cartridge based video-game software. First 8-bit games published for the system are Minesweeper, Worm Attack and Oregon Trail.

2002
February 8, 2002 – The Winter Olympic Games are opened by President Oliver North in Salt Lake City, Utah.

March 22, 2002 - Despite the economic recession due to a mismanaged market transistion within the Soviet Union, the Social-Liberal coalition is relected to power, despite a growing resurgence in the CPSU fueled by growing income disparity and the steady rise of political violence between the hard-left and new right.

May 21, 2002 - The United States State Department issues its report on communist human rights violations in support of an administration move to impose economic sanctions and diplomatic pressure on socialist or marxist aligned nations, particularly Red China for it recent aggressions.

2003
July 2, 2003 - The International Olympic Committee votes in Prague that the Winter Olympic Games are coming back to North America, selecting Vancouver, Canada as host of the XXI Olympic Games in 2010.

2004
November 2, 2004 – Democrat Senator Jerry Brown of California wins over Republican senator George P. Shultz from New York. He wins 50.7% of the popular vote and 286 votes in the Electoral College.

December 26, 2004 - The southeast Asian tsunami occurs following a 9.3 Richter scale earthquake in the Indian Ocean. Two hundred and ninety thousand people die from Sri Lanka to Indonesia, creating one of the greatest humanitarian tragedies in history. A worldwide relief effort, led by the United States and many other nations, is mobilized to assist.

2005
August 29, 2005 - Hurricane Katrina strikes the Gulf Coast, inundating the city of New Orleans with water from Lake Pontchartrain when the levees that maintain the below sea level city break. Over one thousand three hundred people perish from Alabama to Louisiana in one of the worst natural disasters to strike the United States.

October 24, 2005 - Civil Rights activist, Rosa Parks, dies.

November 5, 2005 - The security situation is perilous in the Soviet Union, since the political shift in Moscow many nationalistic movements have been challenging Soviet rule. This has led to armed insurgencies in Ukraine, Checnya and other islamic majority soviet republic. In addition the Soviet Army has been recently deployed to deal with a Chinese border dispute that has no evolved into series of escalating border skirmishes with the PLA. This situation undermines the competency of the new social-liberal coalition in power.

2006
March 26, 2004 - Gennady Zyuganov defeats disgraced acting incumbent Sergei Stepashin in a resounding electoral victory bringing the Communist Party back to power again with a renewed zeal for reuniting a fractured Soviet Union, defending against Chinese aggression  and halting Western economic infiltration.

September 25, 2006 - In New Orleans, the Louisiana Superdome reopens after repairs caused by Hurricane Katrina damage. The repairs included the largest re-roofing project in U.S. history and took thirteen months following the destruction to the Gulf Coast region.

November 7, 2006 - In the mid-term elections, both houses of Congress change back to Democratic hands for the first time since 1994.

December 1, 2006 - United States manufacturing capacity steadily rises to meet the demand for increasingly smarter computer, media and communication technology.

2007
July 4, 2007 - The fifty star flag of the United States of America becomes the longest flying flag in American history after flying over forty-seven years.

Throughout 2007, Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology is used in conjunction with existing MVCT to create the first integrated circuit boards. This technology unleashes new potential to revolutionize computing capabilities.