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The 1940 census indicates a United States population of 132,164,569.
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The United States government approves a sale of surplus war material to Great Britain
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On the same day Paris fell to the German army and Auschwitz received its first Polish prisoners, the Naval Expansion Act is signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, increasing the capacity of the U.S. Navy by 11%.
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The United States occupies Iceland, taking over its defense from Great Britain and attempting to thwart a potential invasion by Nazi Germany.
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Executive order 9066 is signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, confining 110,000 Japanese Americans, including 75,000 citizens, on the West Coast into relocation camps during World War II.
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30,000 United States Marines land on Iwo Jima.
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President Harry S. Truman gives the go-ahead for the use of the atomic bomb with the bombing of Hiroshima.
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The island nation of the Philippines is given their independence by the United States.
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The Soviet Union begins its land blockade of the Allied sectors of Berlin, Germany. A counter blockade by the west was put into effect, as well as a British and U.S. airlift of supplies and food, until both blockades were lifted on September 30, 1949.
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United States withdraws its troops from Korea.
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Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were found guilty of conspiracy of wartime espionage and sentenced to death. They were executed June 19, 1953.
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Fighting ceases in the Korean War. North Korea, South Korea, the United States, and the Republic of China sign an armistice agreement.
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The first large scale vaccination of children against polio begins in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
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Racial segregation in public schools is declared unconstitutional by the United States Supreme Court in Brown vs. the Board of Education.
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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
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U.S. Congress approves the first civil rights bill since the reconstruction with additional protection of voting rights
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Followed on August 21 by Hawaii
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The entire United States figure skating team is killed in a plane crash near Brussels, Belgium on their journey to the World Championships. Seventy-three people are killed.
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The last 27 prisoners of Alcatraz are ordered removed and the federal penitentiary is closed.
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The Supreme Court of the United States ruled laws requiring the recitation of the Lord's Prayer or Bible verses in public schools is unconstitutional. The vote was 8 to 1
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Including King's "I Have a Dream" speech.
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Newark, New Jersey: 26 deaths, 1500 injured, 1000 arrested (July 12 to 17.)
Detroit: 40 deaths, 2000 injured, 5000 homeless (July 23 to 30) -
Neil Armstrong becomes the first man to set foot on the moon four days after launch from Cape Canaveral.
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4 students from Kent State University in Ohio were killed and 9 wounded by National Guardsmen during a protest against the Vietnam War spread into Cambodia.
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The Senate approves a Constitutional Amendment, the 26th, that would lower the voting age from 21 to 18.
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In one of the most lopsided races in American Presidential election history, incumbent President Richard M. Nixon beat his Democratic challenger George S. McGovern, winning 520 Electoral College votes to McGovern's 17, and taking over 60% of the popular vote.
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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
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Impeachment hearings are begun by the House Judiciary Committee against President Richard M. Nixon in the Watergate affair. On July 24, the United States Supreme Court rules that President Nixon must turn over the sixty-four tapes of White House conversations concerning the Watergate break-in
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Nixon resigns the office of the presidency, avoiding the impeachment process and admitting his role in the Watergate affair
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29 people attending an American Legion convention in Philadelphia are killed by a mysterious ailment, one year later discovered as a bacterium
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Jimmy Carter defeats President Ford
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The majority of Vietnam War draft evaders, 10,000, are pardoned by Carter.
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The New York City blackout results in massive looting and disorderly conduct during its twenty-five hour duration.
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The king of rock and roll dies in his home in Graceland at age 42
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America's most serious nuclear power plant accident in its history.
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Becoming the first spacecraft to visit the ringed planet, albeit at a distance of 21,000 kilometers.
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Killing 57 people and economic devastation to the area with losses near $3 billion
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Sandra Day O'Connor is approved 99-0 by the United States Senate to become the first female Supreme Court associate justice in history
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By the end of November, over eleven million people would be unemployed.
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The first African American to be nominated to that post.
