Selected Events for Kennedy Era |
| Year | Month | Day | Event | Related Resource |
| 1960 | September | 26 | Kennedy-Nixon televised presidential debates. Archive of American Television. | Link |
October | 19 | Martin Luther King & 35 students are arrested for a sit-in at the snack bar of Rich's Department Store, Atlanta, GA. He is sentenced to four months hard labor for violating a suspended sentence he received for a 1956 traffic violation. John and Robert Kennedy use their influence to secure King's release from Reidsville Prison on October 27. | Link | November | 09 | John F. Kennedy defeated Richard Nixon in a close Presidential election. Kennedy was the youngest President elected and the first Roman Catholic. | | | 1961 | March | 01 | The Peace Corps is founded by President John F. Kennedy. | Link |
April | 21 | President Kennedy speaks about the failed Bay of Pigs invasion. | | May | 04 | Interracial groups board buses destined for the South to test the Supreme Court's 1946 decision, which declared segregated seating of interstate passengers unconstitutional. The Freedom Riders meet violent mobs in Anniston and Birmingham. | Link | May | 25 | President Kennedy proposes an American space effort greater than all previous efforts combined and designed to put an American space team on the moon within the decade. | Link | June | 03 | John F. Kennedy meets Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev in Vienna. | | August | 13 | The German Democratic Republic begins to construct the "Berlin Wall" (known as the "Antifascist Protection Wall" in East Germany). | Link | December | 16 | Martin Luther King, Jr. is arrested in Albany, Georgia at a demonstration to desegregate public facilties. | Link | | 1962 | February | 20 | American John Glenn orbits the earth 3 times in the spacecraft, Friendship 7. | Link |
October | 01 | James H. Meredith is officially registered as a student at the University of Mississippi, marking the school's integration, following a night of rioting that claims the lives of two students and injures 160 federal marshals. | Link | October | 22 | John Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev face off over Soviet missiles and antiaircraft installations in Cuba. | Link | | 1963 | April | 16 | Martin Luther King, Jr. is arrested in Birmingham, Alabama for participating in a demonstration to end segregated facilities. During his 11 day imprisonment he writes the "Letter from Birmingham Jail." | Link |
May | 03 | Birmingham Public Safety Director, "Bull" Connor permits the use of police dogs and fire hoses against civil rights protesters. Over 2,400 persons are arrested between May 2-7. | Link | May | 20 | The U.S. Supreme Court declares Birmingham, Alabama segregation ordinances unconstitutional. | Link | June | 11 | Alabama Governor George Wallace tries to stop the court ordered integration of the University of Alabama by standing by the door and personally refusing entrance to black students and Justice Department officials. | Link | June | 12 | Medgar Evers, NAACP field secretary and civil rights activist, is murdered at his home in Jacksonville, Mississippi . Evers, a Sergeant in the United States Army, is buried in Arlington Cemetery in Washington, DC | Link | August | 28 | The 1963 March on Washington is the first integrated civil rights demonstration. The March is organized to present the civil rights agenda to Congress. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivers the famous the "I Have A Dream" speech at the Lincoln Memorial to a crowd of 250,00 | Link | September | 15 | Four small black girls are killed in a Birmingham, Alabama church bombing. | Link | November | 22 | President John F. Kennedy was assassinated as he rides in a motorcade through the streets of Dallas, Texas. At his death, the 35th president was 46 years old and had served less than three years in office. | Link | | 1968 | June | 05 | Senator Robert F. Kennedy is assassinated in Los Angeles, California, after winning the California primary for the upcoming Presidential election. Sirhan Sirhan is serving a life sentence for the commission of the crime. | |
