In Part 2 of this text, significant events of the last 40 years of U.S.
social and educational history, from the 1970s through 2000, are listed
in each chapter. As in Part 1, these events are illustrative; you might
have chosen different ones if you were constructing such a timeline. Most
of these events are not mentioned in the chapter and might lead you to
further inquiry. For the purposes of studying Chapter 9, you might ask
of each decade: Which five events from this decade (the 1970s, the 1980s,
and so on) have the most direct significance for the specific issues of
literacy and liberty as discussed in this chapter? Because the 1960s were in some ways a watershed decade for the latter
half of the 20th century, we have given extra attention to that decade
in this timeline. |
1960's |
| 1960 | Six years after the 1954
Brown v. Board of Education decision against school segregation, the modern
“sit‑in” movement begins when four black students from North Carolina
A&T College sit at a “whites‑only” Woolworth’s lunch counter and
refuse to leave when denied service |
| 1960 | President Dwight Eisenhower signs the Civil Rights Act of
1960, which acknowledges the federal government’s responsibility in matters
involving civil rights |
| 1960 | John F. Kennedy elected president |
| 1961 | Kennedy names Eleanor Roosevelt to chair Commission on the
Status of Women |
| 1961 | Michael Harrington publishes The Other America, revealing
widespread poverty in United States |
| 1962 | Students
for a Democratic Society formed at Port Huron, Michigan |
| 1962 | The All‑African Organization of Women is founded to
discuss the right to vote, activity in local and national governments, women
in education, and medical services for women |
| 1962 | The Supreme Court orders the University of Mississippi to
admit James H. Meredith; Ross Barnett, governor of Mississippi, tries unsuccessfully
to block Meredith’s admission |
| 1962 | Supreme Court upholds ban on public school prayer |
| 1963 | Publication of The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan revitalizes
the feminist movement |
| 1963 | More than 200,000 marchers from all over the United States
stage the largest protest demonstration in the history of Washington, D.C.;
the “March on Washington” procession moves from the Washington Monument
to the Lincoln Memorial; Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King delivers “I Have
a Dream” speech |
| 1963 | Medgar Evers, field secretary for the NAACP, is killed outside
his home in Jackson, Mississippi |
| 1963 | Assassination
of John F. Kennedy in Dallas |
| 1964 | Civil Rights Act passes Congress, guaranteeing equal voting
rights to African‑Americans |
| 1964 | Martin Luther
King is awarded Nobel Peace Prize |
| 1964 | Head Start, U.S. educational program for low‑income
preschool children, is established |
| 1964 | President Lyndon Johnson elected; calls for “Great Society”
programs as part of “war on poverty” |
| 1964 | Fannie Lou Hamer and Ruby Davis lead Freedom Democratic Party
at the 1964 Democratic Convention |
| 1964 | Civil Rights Act of 1964 is passed |
| 1964 | Escalation of U.S. presence in Vietnam after the alleged Gulf
of Tonkin incident |
| 1964 | Student Mario
Savio leads Free Speech Movement at University of California at Berkeley |
| 1964 | Economic Opportunity Act funds Job Corps and Head Start programs |
| 1965 | United Farm Workers strike |
| 1966 | The Medicare Act, Housing Act, Elementary and Secondary Education
Act, a new immigration act, and voting‑rights legislation are enacted |
| 1966 | The Autobiography of Malcolm X is published; he is assassinated
this year |
| 1966 | Black
Panther party founded by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale |
1970s |
| 1970 | A subcommittee of the House of Representatives holds hearings
on sex discrimination in education, the first in U.S. history |
| 1970 | Ohio National
Guardsmen kill four students who were protesting the Vietnam War at Kent
State University; students are also killed protesting at Jackson State University |
| 1970 | Supreme Court upholds new 18‑year‑old voting age |
| 1970 | Computer floppy disks introduced |
| 1971 | Busing to achieve racially balanced schools is upheld by the
Supreme Court |
| 1971 | New
York Times publishes top‑secret Pentagon Papers, revealing U.S. government
duplicity in Vietnam War |
| 1972 | Title IX Educational
Amendment passed, outlawing sex discrimination in educational institutions
receiving federal financial assistance |
| 1972 | Congress passes Equal Rights Amendment |
| 1972 | Five men arrested for breaking into Democratic National Committee
headquarters in Washington, D.C.; Nixon administration begins cover‑up
of its role in the break‑in. |
| 1973 | Supreme
court bars state restrictions on abortions (Roe v. Wade) |
| 1973 | Native Americans defy federal authority at Wounded Knee, South
Dakota |
| 1974 | Nixon resigns
due to public outcry over Watergate cover‑up; Vice President Ford
becomes president and pardons Nixon for all crimes |
| 1974 | Pocket calculator is marketed |
| 1975 | First desktop microcomputer becomes available |
| 1975 | Congress passes Education for All Handicapped Children Act
(Public Law 94‑142) |
| 1975 | Last Americans escape Vietnam as Saigon falls to North Vietnamese |
| 1975 | Congress votes to admit women to Army, Navy, and Air Force
academies |
| 1976 | Jimmy Carter defeats Ford for presidency |
| 1978 | Proposition 13 in
California begins U.S. “taxpayer revolt” against government spending |
| 1978 | In
University of California v. Bakke, Supreme Court disallows a quota system
in university admissions but gives limited approval to affirmative action
plans |
| 1978 | For the first time in American history, more women than men
enter college |
| 1979 | The Moral Majority is founded, forming a new coalition of
conservative and Christian fundamentalist voters in resistance to “liberal
excesses” of 1960s and early 1970s |
| 1979 | U.S.‑supported
dictator Shah of Iran flees revolution; Iranian militants seize 66 U.S.
hostages, and nightly television coverage for next 444 days of captivity
establishes news program, Nightline |
| 1979 | Inflation hits highest level in 33 years due to Mideast control
over oil prices |
| 1980 | One million African‑American students enrolled in colleges
and universities in the United States |
| 1980 | Ronald Reagan is elected president, promising to reverse the
“liberal trends in government” |
| 1980 | Microcomputers begin to appear in U.S. classrooms |
| 1981 | IBM personal computer is marketed |
| 1981 | Sandra
Day O’Connor becomes first woman U.S. Supreme Court justice |
| 1981 | Minutes after Reagan is sworn in, Iranian hostages released
after 444 days |
| 1982 | Equal Rights
Amendment fails to win state ratification |
| 1982 | Reagan establishes “new federalism,” transferring social programs
to local and state control |
| 1982 | Unemployment exceeds 10 percent for first time since great
depression of 1930s; federal budget deficit exceeds $100 million for first
time |
| 1983 | A Nation at Risk, a report by the Presidential Commission
on Excellence in Education, advocates a “back to basics” education; becomes
the first major document in the current reform movement |
| 1984 | Education for Economic Security Act (Public Law 98‑377)
passed, adding new science and math programs at all levels of schooling |
| 1984 | Carl D. Perkins Vocational Education Act continues federal
aid for vocational education until 1989 |
| 1986 | Reverend Jesse Jackson becomes first African‑American
to challenge for major party nomination for president but loses to Walter
Mondale and Geraldine Ferraro (first woman vice presidential candidate in
U.S. history); they are defeated in Ronald Reagan’s landslide reelection |
| 1986 | New Hampshire teacher
Christa McAulliffe killed along with six astronauts when space shuttle Challenger
explodes on national TV |
| 1987 | As national debt mounts, Reagan submits first trillion‑dollar
budget to Congress; later that year, stock market dives in worst one‑day
plunge in history |
| 1988 | George Bush becomes first sitting vice president elected president
since 1836 |
| 1989 | L. Douglas Wilder of Virginia becomes first African‑American
to be elected a state governor. |
1990s |
| 1991 | U.S. Operation Desert
Storm, in conjunction with UN forces, drives Iraq’s army out of Kuwait after
air bombardment and 100‑hour ground war |
| 1991 | Unemployment rate rises to highest level in a decade |
| 1992 | American with Disabilities Act, the most sweeping antidiscrimination
legislation since the Civil Rights Act of 1964, guarantees equal access
for disabled people |
| 1992 | With unemployment at 7.8 percent, Bill Clinton defeats George
Bush and Ross Perot for presidency; Bush pardons six Reagan administration
officials for involvement in scandal involving trading arms to Iran for
money to be used in secret U.S. involvement in Nicaragua |
| 1993 | United States follows other industrialized nations with Family
Leave Act that guarantees workers up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for medical
emergencies |
| 1993 | Supreme Court rules unanimously that public schools must permit
religious groups to use their buildings after hours if they allow community
groups to do so |
| 1993 | Pentagon rules “don’t ask, don’t tell”: gays and lesbians
may serve in military but may not proclaim or openly practice their sexual
orientation |
| 1994 | Dollar dips below Japanese yen in value, a post–World War
II low |
| 1994 | Number of prisoners
in state and federal U.S. prisons tops 1 million, giving United States the
highest incarceration rate in the world |
| 1995 | Economy signals strong recovery, with Dow Jones index topping
4,000 for the first time |
| 1995 | Supreme Court rules against any affirmative action program
that is not “narrowly tailored” to accomplish a “compelling government interest” |
| 1995 | Walt Disney Company acquires Capital Cities/ABC for $19 billion;
Chase Manhattan Corporation merges with the Chemical Banking Corporation
to create the largest bank in United States |
| 1996 | Hubble Space Telescope reveals new “truths” about the universe:
there are 50 billion galaxies, or five times the number thought to exist,
and the sun is one of 100 billion stars in the Milky Way |
| 1996 | Census Bureau reports that the gap between the richest 20
percent of Americans and everyone else has reached postwar high |
| 1996 | Federal
Trade Commission approves merger between Turner Broadcasting and Time‑Warner,
creating largest media company in the world |
| 1996 | Clinton signs welfare reform legislation, ending more than
60 years of federal cash assistance to the poor and replacing it with block
grants for states to administer |
| 1996 | Clinton signs the Defense of Marriage Act, denying federal
recognition to same‑sex marriages |
| 1996 | U.S. economy continues to grow, driving unemployment below
5 percent for first time in 24 years; Dow Jones industrial average tops
7,000 in February and 8,000 in July; mergers and acquisitions of major corporations
reach all‑time high |
| 1997 | Supreme Court rules 5–4 that public school teachers can work
in parochial schools that need remedial or supplemental classes |
| 1998 | Students
at schools in Jonesboro, Arkansas, and Springfield, Oregon, open fire on
students and teachers, killing seven and injuring many others |
| 1998 | Merger mania continues: Citicorp and Travelers Group merge
to create world’s largest financial services business, NationsBank merges
with Bank America, and BancOne merges with First Chicago; SBC Communications
acquires Ameritech to create nation’s largest local phone company |
| 1998 | President Clinton announces budget surplus of over $70 billion,
the first since 1969 and the largest ever |
| 1998 | U.S. House of Representatives approves, strictly along party
lines, two articles of impeachment against Clinton: perjury and obstruction
of justice |
| 1999 | Full U.S.
Senate acquits Clinton on both articles of impeachment, falling short of
even a majority |
| 1999 | In
Littleton, Colorado, 2 students kill 12 other students and 1 teacher, wounding
20 before killing themselves |
| 1999 | Viacom acquires CBS for $37.3 billion |
| 1999 | Dow Jones hits record high above 11,000 shares |
| 1999 | Kansas Board of Education votes against testing any Kansas
students on science curriculum related to theory and science of evolution
(but it would be restored in 2001 by new School Board) |
| 1999 | Federal Communications Commission loosens restrictions on
any one company controlling too much of the cable industry, allowing AT&T
to win more than a third of the nation’s TV, phone, and high‑speed
Internet franchises |
| 1999 | For fourth straight year, Senate Republicans kill legislation
to reform nation’s campaign finance system by using filibuster to prevent
cloture vote |
2000 |
| 2000 | Campaigning
on a platform emphasizing ethical character, George W. Bush loses popular
vote to Vice President Al Gore but wins the Presidency by a 5–4 Supreme
Court ruling ending the recount of disputed votes in Florida |
2002 McGraw-Hill Higher Education