Transcript of John Glenn’s Official Communication with the Command Center (1962)
John Glenn conducted the first manned space orbit of the earth on February 20, 1962. This is the transcription of his in-flight communication with Mission Control in Florida. Soviet scientists stunned the world on October 4, 1957, when they launched a satellite, called Sputnik I, into orbit around the earth. It weighted 184 pounds. A month […]
Executive Order 10730: Desegregation of Central High School (1957)
This executive order of September 23, 1957, signed by President Dwight Eisenhower, sent Federal troops to maintain order and peace while the integration of Central High School in Little Rock, AR, took place. On May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Topeka Board of Education that segregated schools were “inherently unequal” and ordered […]
National Interstate and Defense Highways Act (1956)
This act authorized the building of highways throughout the nation, which would be the biggest public works project in the nation’s history. Popularly known as the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act of 1956, the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 established an interstate highway system in the United States. The movement behind the construction of […]
Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
In this milestone decision, the Supreme Court ruled that separating children in public schools on the basis of race was unconstitutional. It signaled the end of legalized racial segregation in the schools of the United States, overruling the “separate but equal” principle set forth in the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson case. On May 17, 1954, U.S. Supreme […]
Senate Resolution 301: Censure of Senator Joseph McCarthy (1954)
On December 2, 1954, the Senate voted to censure Senator Joseph McCarthy, who had led the fight in Congress to root out suspected Communists from the Federal Government. The censure described his behavior as “contrary to senatorial traditions.” The early years of the Cold War saw the United States facing a hostile Soviet Union, the […]
Armistice Agreement for the Restoration of the South Korean State (1953)
This armistice signed on July 27, 1953, formally ended the war in Korea. North and South Korea remain separate and occupy almost the same territory they had when the war began. The Korean War, which began on June 25, 1950, when the North Koreans invaded South Korea, officially ended on July 27, 1953. At 10 […]
Press Release Announcing U.S. Recognition of Israel (1948)
At midnight on May 14, 1948, the Provisional Government of Israel proclaimed a new State of Israel. On that same date, the United States, in the person of President Truman, recognized the provisional Jewish government as de facto authority of the Jewish state (de jure recognition was extended on January 31, 1949). In 1917 Chaim […]
Executive Order 9981: Desegregation of the Armed Forces (1948)
On July 26, 1948, President Harry S. Truman signed this executive order establishing the President’s Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity in the Armed Services, committing the government to integrating the segregated military. In 1940 the U.S. population was about 131 million, 12.6 million of which was African American, or about 10 percent of […]
Marshall Plan (1948)
On April 3, 1948, President Truman signed the Economic Recovery Act of 1948. It became known as the Marshall Plan, named for Secretary of State George Marshall, who in 1947 proposed that the United States provide economic assistance to restore the economic infrastructure of postwar Europe. When World War II ended in 1945, Europe lay […]
Truman Doctrine (1947)
On March 12, 1947, President Harry S. Truman presented this address before a joint session of Congress. His message, known as the Truman Doctrine, asked Congress for $400 million in military and economic assistance for Turkey and Greece. On Friday, February 21, 1947, the British Embassy informed the U.S. State Department officials that Great Britain […]