July 9, 1947 - General Dwight D. Eisenhower appoints Florence Blanchfield to be a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army, making her the first woman in U.S. history to hold permanent military rank.

May 13, 1954 - President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed legislation authorizing the US-Canadian construction of the St. Lawrence Seaway.

February 2, 1955 - First presidential news conference on network TV, Eisenhower on ABC.

February 12, 1955 - President Eisenhower sends first U.S. advisors to South Vietnam.

February 23, 1955 - In the first council meeting of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles declares the United States is committed to defending the region from communist aggression. The meeting, and American participation in SEATO, set the stage for the U.S. to take a more active role in Vietnam; U.S. established SEATO primarily in response to what it viewed as a deteriorating situation in Southeast Asia; formally ceased operations in 1976.

April 5, 1955 - Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, the British leader who guided Great Britain and the Allies through the crisis of World War II, retires as prime minister of Great Britain; 1953 - knighted by Queen Elizabeth II and awarded the Nobel Prize in literature. After his retirement as prime minister, he remained in Parliament until 1964, the year before his death.

May 5, 1955 - The Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) becomes a sovereign state when the United States, France, and Great Britain end their military occupation, which had begun in 1945. With this action, West Germany was given the right to rearm and become a full-fledged member of the western alliance against the Soviet Union. Under the terms of an agreement reached earlier, West Germany would now be allowed to establish a military force of up to a half-million men and resume the manufacture of arms, though it was forbidden from producing any chemical or atomic weapons.

May 9, 1955 - Ten years after the Nazis were defeated in World War II, West Germany formally joins the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a mutual defense group aimed at containing Soviet expansion in Europe. This action marked the final step of West Germany's integration into the Western European defense system; also the final nail in the coffin as far as any possibility of a reunited Germany in the near future. For the next 35 years, East and West Germany came to symbolize the animosities of the Cold War. In 1990, Germany was finally reunified; the new German state remained a member of NATO.

May 14, 1955 - Soviet Union and seven of its European satellites (Albania, Poland, Romania, Hungary, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria) sign a treaty establishing the Warsaw Pact, a mutual defense organization that put the Soviets in command of the armed forces of the member states; called on the member states to come to the defense of any member attacked by an outside force and it set up a unified military command under Marshal Ivan S. Konev of the Soviet Union; March 1991 - military alliance component of the pact was dissolved; July 1991 - last meeting of the political consultative body took place.

June 7, 1955 - Eisenhower becomes first President to appear on color TV.

July 6, 1955 - South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem declares in a broadcast that since South Vietnam had not signed the Geneva Agreements, South Vietnam was not bound by them. Although Diem did not reject the "principle of elections," he said that any proposals from the communist Viet Minh were out of the question "if proof is not given us that they put the higher interest of the national community above those of communism.

July 9, 1955 - E. Frederic Morrow joined Eisenhower's White Hose as Administrative Officer for Special Projects from 1955 to 1961; first black executive on White House staff.

July 11, 1955 - Congress authorizes all U.S. currency to say "In God We Trust".

July 21, 1955 - President Dwight D. Eisenhower presents his "Open Skies" plan at the 1955 Geneva summit meeting with representatives of France, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union. The plan, though never accepted, laid the foundation for President Ronald Reagan's later policy of "trust, but verify" in relation to arms agreements with the Soviet Union.

July 22, 1955 - Richard Nixon became first Vice President to preside over cabinet meeting.

August 4, 1955 - Eisenhower authorizes $46 million for construction of CIA headquarters.

August 12, 1955 - President Eisenhower raises minimum wage from 75 cents to $1 an hour.

September 8, 1955 - United States, Australia, France, Great Britain, New Zealand, the Philippines, Pakistan, and Thailand signed the mutual defense treaty that established the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO).

August 28, 1955 - While visiting family in Money, Mississippi, 14-year-old Emmett Till, an African American from Chicago, is brutally murdered for flirting with a white woman four days earlier. His assailants--the white woman's husband and her brother--made Emmett carry a 75-pound cotton-gin fan to the bank of the Tallahatchie River and ordered him to take off his clothes. The two men then beat him nearly to death, gouged out his eye, shot him in the head, and then threw his body, tied to the cotton-gin fan with barbed wire, into the river. Three days later, his corpse was recovered but was so disfigured that Mose Wright could only identify it by an initialed ring. Authorities wanted to bury the body quickly, but Till's mother, Mamie Bradley, requested it be sent back to Chicago. After seeing the mutilated remains, she decided to have an open-casket funeral so that all the world could see what racist murderers had done to her only son. Jet, an African American weekly magazine, published a photo of Emmett's corpse, and soon the mainstream media picked up on the story. Less than two weeks after Emmett's body was buried, Milam and Bryant went on trial in a segregated courthouse in Sumner, Mississippi. There were few witnesses besides Mose Wright, who positively identified the defendants as Emmett's killers. On September 23, the all-white jury deliberated for less than an hour before issuing a verdict of "not guilty," explaining that they believed the state had failed to prove the identity of the body. Many people around the country were outraged by the decision and also by the state's decision not to indict Milam and Bryant on the separate charge of kidnapping. The Emmett Till murder trial brought to light the brutality of Jim Crow segregation in the South and was an early impetus of the African American civil rights movement.

September 16, 1955 - Effective date of the coming into force in the United States of the Universal Copyright Convention as signed at Geneva, Switzerland, on September 6, 1952. Proclaimed by President Eisenhower.

September 19, 1955 - President Juan Domingo Peron of Argentina was ousted after a revolt by the military; 1943 - he was a leader of a group of military conspirators that overthrew Argentina's ineffectual civilian government. Requesting for himself the seemingly minor cabinet post of secretary of labor and social welfare, he began building a political empire based in the labor unions; 1945 - he was also vice president and minister of war in the military regime. October 9, 1945 - arrested by enemies in the navy; October 17 - released; October 21 - marries Eva Duarte (Evita); 1946 - won a narrow, but complete, election victory;; came to power with the backing of the working classes, became increasingly authoritarian as Argentina's economy declined in the early 1950s; Evita served an important role in the government, unofficially leading the Department of Social Welfare and taking over her husband's role as caretaker of the working classes. She was called the "First Worker of Argentina" and "Lady of Hope," and was instrumental in securing passage of a woman suffrage law; 1950 - Argentina's postwar export boom tapered off, and inflation and corruption grew; 1951 - reelected, came more conservative and repressive and seized control of the press to control criticism of his regime. July 1952 - Evita died of cancer, and support for President Per n among the working classes became decidedly less pronounced. June 1955 - Church leaders excommunicated him or trying to force the separation of church and state, encouraging a clique of military officers to plot his overthrow. September 19, 1955 - the army and navy revolted, and Peron was forced to flee to Paraguay. 1960 - he settled in Spain. 1972 - Peron was allowed to visit Argentina. March 1973 - Peronists won control of the government in national elections, and Peron returned in June amid great public excitement and fighting among Peronist factions. October 1973 - Peron was elected president in a special election; his wife, Isabel Peron, an Argentine dancer he married in 1961, was elected vice president. July 1, 1974 - Peron died, his wife became president of a nation suffering from inflation, political violence, and labor unrest. March 1976 - she was deposed in an air-force-led coup, and a right-wing military junta took power that brutally ruled Argentina until 1982.

October 26, 1955 - Ngo Dinh Diem declares that pursuant to the wishes of the South Vietnamese people, as evidenced in a national referendum a few days before, the Republic of Vietnam is now in existence and that he will serve as the nation's first president. The referendum balloting was an embarrassment to all concerned (except Diem). Diem received 98.2 percent of the vote. (Just a short time earlier, President Eisenhower had criticized elections in Iron Curtain countries, claiming that no one receives over 90 percent of the vote in a truly free election.) Charges of corruption were immediately raised, and it was soon discovered that the 400,000 voters in Saigon cast over 600,000 ballots. Nevertheless, Diem succeeded. Bao Dai was out, and Diem's rule was complete. The United States, despite some qualms about exactly how "democratic" Diem's government would be, recognized the new president. The nation of South Vietnam was now a reality, and the United States had committed itself to its new government and leader. The event marked a crucial step in the deepening U.S. involvement in Vietnam, and gave evidence of some troubling aspects that would characterize Diem's eight years in power.

October 26, 1955 - The U.S. Air Force officially proclaimed that there were no such things as flying saucers.

November 2, 1955 - David Ben-Gurion forms Israeli government.

December 1, 1955 - Rosa Parks, a black seamstress, defied the law by refusing to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Alabama city bus. Ms. Parks was arrested, setting off a yearlong boycott of the buses by blacks. December 20, 1956 - Montgomery's buses were desegregated and the Montgomery Bus Boycott was called off after 381 days. Rosa Parks was among the first to ride the newly desegregated buses.

December 5, 1955 - Two of the nation's largest labor organizations, the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and the Congress of Industrial Organizations decided to join forces. AFL president George Meaney ascended to the top spot of the newly formed AFL-CIO.

February 16, 1956 - Britain abolishes death penalty.

February 25, 1956 - Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev harshly criticized the late Josef Stalin in a speech before a Communist Party congress in Moscow.

March 23, 1956 - Pakistan became an independent republic within the British Commonwealth.

May 20, 1956 - United States conducts the first airborne test of an improved hydrogen bomb, dropping it from a plane over the tiny island of Namu in the Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. The successful test indicated that hydrogen bombs were viable airborne weapons and that the arms race had taken another giant leap forward. The Limited Test Ban Treaty, signed in 1963 by the United States, the Soviet Union, and Great Britain, prohibited open-air and underwater nuclear testing.

June 23, 1956 - Gamal Abdel Nasser was elected president of Egypt which became a one-party socialist state with Islam as the official religion. One month later, President Nasser faced a major crisis when the United States and Great Britain reversed their decision to finance a high dam on the Nile River in light of an Egyptian arms agreement with the USSR. In response, Nasser nationalized the British and French-owned Suez Canal, intending to use tolls to pay for his high dam project. At the end of October 1956, Israel, Britain, and France attacked Egypt in a joint operation. The Suez Canal was occupied, but Soviet and U.N. pressure forced Israel, Britain, and France to withdraw, and the Suez Canal was left in Egyptian hands in 1957. The episode greatly enhanced Nasser's prestige in the Arab world, and in 1958 he oversaw the unification of Egypt and Syria as the United Arab Republic, of which he became president. 1961 - Syria withdrew from the entity following a military coup, leaving Egypt alone. Nasser was a consistently popular leader during his 18 years in power. His economic policies and land reforms improved the quality of life for many Egyptians, and women were granted many rights during his tenure. His ascendance ended 2,300 years of rule by foreigners, and his independent policies won him respect not just in Egypt but throughout the world.

June 29, 1956 - President Dwight Eisenhower signed into law the Highway Revenue Act of 1956 (June 26, 1956 - Senate approved the bill by a vote of 89 to 1; House approved the bill by a voice vote); outlined a policy of taxation with the aim of creating a fund for the construction of over 42,500 miles of interstate highways; plan called for $50 billion over 13 years (total federal budget approached $71 billion). To pay for the project a system of taxes, relying heavily on the taxation of gasoline, was implemented (consumers pay 18.3¢ per gallon today). Eisenhower thought of the Federal Interstate System as his greatest achievement. 1919 - push for a national highway system began when the privately funded construction of the Lincoln Highway began.

July 26, 1956 - Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal. hoping to charge tolls that would pay for construction of a massive dam on the Nile River. In response, Israel invaded in late October, and British and French troops landed in early November, occupying the canal zone. Under Soviet, U.S., and U.N. pressure, Britain and France withdrew in December, and Israeli forces departed in March 1957. That month, Egypt took control of the canal and reopened it to commercial shipping.

July 30, 1956 - Two years after pushing to have the phrase "under God" inserted into the pledge of allegiance, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs a law officially declaring "In God We Trust" to be the nation’s official motto. The law, P.L. 84-140, also mandated that the phrase be printed on all American paper currency. The phrase had been placed on U.S. coins since the Civil War when, according to the historical association of the United States Treasury, religious sentiment reached a peak. Eisenhower’s treasury secretary, George Humphrey, had suggested adding the phrase to paper currency as well. The first paper money with the phrase "In God We Trust" was not printed until 1957.

August 16, 1956 - Adlai E. Stevenson was nominated for president at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

August 22, 1956 - President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Vice President Richard Nixon were nominated for second terms by the Republican National Convention in San Francisco.

October 15, 1956 - William J Brennan, Jr. appointed to Supreme Court.

October 23, 1956 - Conference on the Statute of the International Atomic Energy Agency passed the Statute of the IAEA; July 29, 1957 - International Atomic Energy Agency established within the United Nations.

October 23, 1956 - Thousands of Hungarians erupt in protest against the Soviet presence in their nation and are met with armed resistance. protests erupted into violence as students, workers, and even some soldiers demanded more democracy and freedom from what they viewed as an oppressive Soviet presence in Hungary. Hungarian leader Erno Gero, an avowed Stalinist, only succeeded in inflaming the crowds with praise for the Soviet Union's policies. Furious fighting broke out in Budapest between the protesters and Hungarian security forces and Soviet soldiers. In the next few days, hundreds of protesters in Budapest and other Hungarian cities were killed in these battles. Gero appealed for additional Soviet assistance and this was forthcoming in the form of an armored division that rolled into Budapest. Street fighting escalated in response to the Russian show of force. In an attempt to quell the disturbances, Communist Party officials in Hungary appointed Imre Nagy (who had earlier fallen out of favor with Party members) as the new premier. Nagy asked the Soviets to withdraw their troops from the capital so that he could restore order. Russian forces complied and withdrew from Budapest by November 1, but tensions remained high.

October 26, 1956 - The UN's International Atomic Energy Agency was formed.

October 29, 1956 - Israel invaded Egypt's Sinai Peninsula during the Suez Canal crisis; initiated the Suez Crisis. October 31 - French and British forces joined them in the canal zone, took control of the area around the Suez Canal, creating a serious Cold War problem in the Middle East. The catalyst for the joint Israeli-British-French attack on Egypt was the nationalization of the Suez Canal by Egyptian leader General Gamal Abdel Nasser in July 1956. The Israelis struck first, but were shocked to find that British and French forces did not immediately follow behind them. Instead of a lightening strike by overwhelming force, the attack bogged down. The United Nations quickly passed a resolution calling for a cease-fire. The Soviet Union began to issue ominous threats about coming to Egypt's aid. A dangerous situation developed quickly, one that the Eisenhower administration hoped to defuse before it turned into a Soviet-U.S. confrontation. Soviet leader Khrushchev railed against the invasion and threatened to rain down nuclear missiles on Western Europe if the Israeli-French-British force did not withdraw. The Eisenhower administration's response was measured. It warned the Soviets that reckless talk of nuclear conflict would only make matters worse, and cautioned Khrushchev to refrain from direct intervention in the conflict. However, Eisenhower also gave stern warnings to the French, British, and Israelis to give up their campaign and withdraw from Egyptian soil. Eisenhower was personally furious with the British, in particular, for not keeping the United States informed about their intentions. The United States threatened all three nations with economic sanctions if they persisted in their attack. The threats did their work. The British and French forces withdrew by December; Israel finally bowed to U.S. pressure in March 1957. While the U.S. action helped to avoid an escalation of the conflict in the Middle East, the damage to relations with France, Britain, and Israel took years to repair.

November 4, 1956 - Soviet tanks rolled into Budapest to stop Hungary's movement away from the communist bloc. Vicious street fighting broke out, but the Soviets' greater power insured the doom of the rebels. After the deaths and injuries of thousands of Hungarians, the protests were finally put down. Nagy was captured shortly thereafter and was executed two years later. The Soviet action stunned many people in the West. Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev had pledged a retreat from the Stalinist policies and repression of the past, but the violent actions in Budapest suggested otherwise. Inaction on the part of the United States angered and frustrated many Hungarians. Voice of America radio broadcasts and speeches by President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Secretary of State John Foster Dulles had recently suggested that the United States supported the "liberation" of "captive peoples" in communist nations. Yet, as Soviet tanks bore down on the protesters, the United States did nothing beyond issuing public statements of sympathy for their plight.

November 5, 1956 - Britain and France landed troops in Egypt during fighting between Egyptian and Israeli forces around the Suez Canal.

November 6, 1956 - President Dwight D. Eisenhower was re-elected; beat Democrat Adlai E. Stevenson.

November 13, 1956 - United States Supreme Court declared Alabama and Montgomery laws requiring segregated buses illegal; ended the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

December 5, 1956 - Under pressure from the United States and the United Nations, British and French forces occupying the Suez Canal in Egypt began their withdrawal from Egypt.

December 18, 1956 - Japan was admitted to the United Nations.

January 5, 1957 - In response to the increasingly tense situation in the Middle East, President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivers a proposal to Congress that calls for a new and more proactive U.S. policy in the region. The "Eisenhower Doctrine," as the proposal soon came to be known, established the Middle East as a Cold War battlefield; Egypt leader Gamal Nasser - anti-western nationalism, increasingly close relations with the Soviet Union; July 1956 - Nasser seized control of the Suez Canal, prompted coordinated attack by French, British, and Israeli military on Egypt; Eisenhower did not ask for a specific appropriation of funds at the time; nevertheless, he indicated that he would seek $200 million for economic and military aid in each of the years 1958 and 1959; summer 1958 - civil strife in Lebanon led that nation's president to request U.S. assistance; nearly 15,000 U.S. troops were sent to help quell the disturbances (first action taken in name of Eisenhower Doctrine).

January 10, 1957 - Harold Macmillan became prime minister of Great Britain following the resignation of Anthony Eden.

March 6, 1957 - The former British African colonies of the Gold Coast and Togoland became the independent state of Ghana.

March 8, 1957 - Egypt took over control of the Suez canal and reopened it to international commercial shipping, following Israel's withdrawal from occupied Egyptian territory under pressure from the United Nations, Britain and France; canal was so littered with wreckage from the Suez Crisis that it took weeks of cleanup by Egyptian and United Nations workers before larger ships could navigate the waterway. July 1956 - Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the canal, hoping to charge tolls that would pay for construction of a massive dam on the Nile River. In response, Israel invaded in late October, and British and French troops landed in early November, occupying the canal and other Suez territory. 1967 - Egypt shut down the canal again following the Six Day War and Israel's occupation of the Sinai peninsula.1975 - Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat reopened it in 1975 after peace talks with Israel.

February 17, 1957 - Andre Gromyko was installed as Soviet Foreign Minister.

March 25, 1957 - France, West Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg signed two treaties in Rome. One created the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) for the common and peaceful development of Europe's nuclear resources. The other created the EEC. In the Common Market, trade barriers between member nations were gradually eliminated, and common policies regarding transportation, agriculture, and economic relations with nonmember countries were implemented. Eventually, labor and capital were permitted to move freely within the boundaries of the community. The EEC, the ECSC, and Euratom were served by a single council of ministers, representative assembly, and court of justice. In 1967, the three organizations were fully merged as the European Community (EC).

June 30, 1957 - Reconstruction Finance Corporation closed following Eisenhower's 1953 signing of the RFC Liquidation Act into law; effectively stripped the organization of its duties as a lender. Formed in 1931 by President Hoover to prop up the nation's struggling banks and businesses, blossomed under FDR - made disbursements to America's burgeoning defense industry, as well as cash-strapped foreign governments. 1951 - riddled with corruption.

July 3, 1957 - Nikita Khrushchev takes control in the Soviet Union by orchestrating the ouster of his most serious opponents from positions of authority in the Soviet government. Removed the three main challengers to his authority: Vyacheslav Molotov, Georgi M. Malenkov, and Lazar Kaganovich were voted off the presidium and relegated to minor government positions. Khrushchev's action delighted the United States, which viewed him as a more moderate figure in the communist government of Russia. Following Stalin's death in 1953, the Soviet Union was ruled by a 10-member presidium. Khrushchev was only one member of this presidium, but during the following four years he moved steadily to seize total control.

August 1, 1957 - The United States and Canada reached agreement to create the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD).

August 29, 1957 - Sen. Strom Thurmond, D-S.C., ended the longest filibuster in Senate history after talking for 24 hours, 18 minutes against a civil rights bill.

August 29, 1957 - Congress passes Civil Rights Act of 1957.

September 4, 1957 - Arkansas Gov. Orval Faubus called out the National Guard to prevent nine black students from entering Central High School in Little Rock, AR. Fully armed, the troops kept the Negroes from the school grounds while an angry crowd of 400 white men and women jeered, booed and shouted, "go home, niggers." Several hundred militiamen, with guns slung over their shoulders, carrying gas masks and billy clubs, surrounded the school. In a news conference in his office, Governor Faubus said he would not permit Negroes to enter white schools in this city, despite the order from the Federal District Court. He insisted that he was not flouting the court's orders, but acting to preserve peace and to prevent bloodshed. The Governor declared that he would not cooperate with the Federal agents now investigating his use of troops to block integration here. Meanwhile, Mayor Woodrow W. Mann of Little Rock, the capital of Arkansas, denounced Governor Faubus for having sent the militia into the city. The open defiance of a Federal Court order by the Governor is the first time that the issue of Federal versus state authority has been reached on the integration problem. This action set the stage for the first major test of the United States Supreme Court's decision of May, 1954, that racial segregation in schools is unconstitutional.

September 9, 1957 - President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed into law the first civil rights bill to pass Congress since Reconstruction.

September 19, 1957 - The United States conducted its first underground nuclear test, in the Nevada desert; detonated in a horizontal tunnel, about 47 meters (1600 feet) into the mesa and 274 meters (900 feet) beneath the top of the mesa.

September 21, 1957 - Olav V, becomes king of Norway.

September 25, 1957 - Under escort from 300 troops from the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division, nine black children were escorted to Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, days after unruly white crowds had forced them to withdraw. Three weeks earlier, Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus had surrounded the school with National Guard troops to prevent its federal court-ordered racial integration. The President's decision to send troops to Little Rock was reached at his vacation headquarters in Newport, R.I. It was one of historic importance politically, socially, constitutionally. For the first time since the Reconstruction days that followed the Civil War, the Federal Government was using its ultimate power to compel equal treatment of the Negro in the South. During the day and night 1,000 members of the 101st Airborne Division were flown to Little Rock. Charles E. Wilson, Secretary of the Defense, ordered into Federal service all 10,000 members of the Arkansas National Guard.

October 4, 1957 - The Space Age began as the Soviet Union launched Sputnik (Russian word for "satellite"), the first man-made satellite, into orbit from the Tyuratam launch base in the Kazakh Republic. Sputnik had a diameter of 22 inches and weighed 184 pounds and circled Earth once every hour and 36 minutes. Traveling at 18,000 miles an hour, its elliptical orbit had an apogee (farthest point from Earth) of 584 miles and a perigee (nearest point) of 143 miles. January 1958 - Sputnik's orbit deteriorated, as expected, and the spacecraft burned up in the atmosphere. Soviet space program went on to achieve a series of other space firsts in the late 1950s and early 1960s: first man in space, first woman, first three men, first space walk, first spacecraft to impact the moon, first to orbit the moon, first to impact Venus, and first craft to soft-land on the moon.

October 10, 1957 - President Dwight D. Eisenhower apologized to Komla Agbeli Gbdemah, the finance minister of Ghana, after the official had been refused service in a Dover, DE restaurant.

October 21, 1957 - President Eisenhower decided to embark on a speaking tour in an effort to bolster the nation's sagging economic spirit and generate support for his economic and defense policies. Ike called on Americans to "cast aside any morbid pessimism" about the nation's fiscal future and to reaffirm their faith in private enterprise.

November 3, 1957 - The Soviet Union launched into orbit Sputnik 2, the second manmade satellite; a dog on board named Laika was sacrificed in the experiment.

November 7, 1957 - The final report from a special committee called by President Dwight D. Eisenhower to review the nation's defense readiness, headed by Ford Foundation Chairman H. Rowan Gaither, indicates that the United States is falling far behind the Soviets in missile capabilities, and urges a vigorous campaign to build fallout shelters to protect American citizens. Report concluded that the United States was in danger of losing a war against the Soviets. Only massive increases in the military budget, particularly an accelerated program of missile construction, could hope to deter Soviet aggression. It also suggested that American citizens were completely unprotected from nuclear attack and proposed a $30 billion program to construct nationwide fallout shelters. President Eisenhower was less impressed with the report. Intelligence provided by U-2 spy plane flights over Russia indicated that the Soviets were not the mortal threat suggested by the Gaither Report. Eisenhower, a fiscal conservative, was also reluctant to commit to the tremendously increased military budget called for by the committee. He did increase funding for the development of intercontinental ballistic missiles and for civil defense programs, but ignored most of the other recommendations made in the report. Democrats instantly went on the attack, charging that Eisenhower was leaving the United States open to Soviet attack. By 1960, Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kennedy was still hammering away at the supposed "missile gap" between the United States and much stronger Soviet stockpiles.

December 6, 1957 - America's first attempt at putting a satellite into orbit blew up on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Florida.

December 17, 1957 - The United States successfully test-fired the Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile.

January 1, 1958 - Treaties establishing the European Economic Community went into effect.

January 31, 1958 - The United States entered the Space Age with its first successful launch of a satellite into orbit, Explorer I.

February 5, 1958 - Clifton R. Wharton confirmed as first U.S. black foreign ambassador (Romania).

February 5, 1958 - Gamel Abdel Nasser was nominated to become the first president of the new United Arab Republic.

March 17, 1958 - The U.S. launched its first object into space from Cape Canaveral, Florida; developed from scratch in only 2 years, 6 months, and 8 days, three-pound Vanguard I satellite carried a radio transmitter, orbited every 107.9 minutes; still in orbit as a complete high-performance three-stage launching vehicle, a highly accurate worldwide satellite tracking system, an adequate launching facility and range instrumentation.

March 27, 1958 - Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev ( 63-year-old former mine mechanic before joining the Soviet Communist Party in 1918) became Soviet premier in addition to First Secretary of the Communist Party (first leader since Joseph Stalin to simultaneously hold the USSR's two top offices); elected Mr. Khrushchev chairman of the Council of Ministers- the Premier- to succeed Marshal Nikolai A. Bulganin, who submitted his resignation; Supreme Soviet was told at once that the new Premier would remain First Secretary and therefore leader of the ruling Communist party; acknowledged architect of all Soviet foreign and domestic policies but the leader of the disciplined party ranks and the extensive ministerial apparatus that administers and enforces the policies.

April 2, 1958 - The National Advisory Council on Aeronautics was renamed NASA.

April 28, 1958 - Vice President Richard Nixon begins goodwill tour of Latin America.

May 1, 1958 - President Eisenhower proclaims Law Day to honor the role of law in the creation of the United States of America. Three years later, Congress followed suit by passing a joint resolution establishing May 1 as Law Day. The American Bar Association defines Law Day as: "A national day set aside to celebrate the rule of law. Law Day underscores how law and the legal process have contributed to the freedoms that all Americans share." The language of the statute ordaining May 1 calls it "a special day of celebration by the American people in appreciation of their liberties and… rededication to the ideals of equality and justice under law…." Law Day celebrates the legal construct for the determination of rights that the revolutionary leaders of the 1770s, hoping to prevent the sort of class warfare that went on to rack Europe form 1789 to 1917, were so eager to create.

May 8, 1958 - Vice President Richard Nixon was shoved, stoned, booed and spat upon by anti-American protesters in Lima, Peru.

May 13, 1958 - During a goodwill trip through Latin America, Vice President Richard Nixon's car is attacked by an angry crowd in Caracas, Venezuelaand and nearly overturned. The incident was the dramatic highlight of trip characterized by Latin American anger over some of America's Cold War policies. In the next few months, the United States increased both its military and economic assistance to the region. However, it was not until communist Fidel Castro's rise to power in Cuba beginning in 1959 that the United States truly realized the extent of discontent and rebelliousness in Latin America.

May 19, 1958 - The United States and Canada formally established the North American Air Defense Command.

June 1, 1958 - During a French political crisis over the military and civilian revolt in Algeria, Charles de Gaulle is called out of retirement to head a new emergency government. Considered the only leader of sufficient strength and stature to deal with the perilous situation, the former war hero was made the virtual dictator of France, with power to rule by decree for six months. April 28, 1969 - Charles de Gaulle, at 79 years old, retired permanently.

June 16, 1958 - Imre Nagy, a former Hungarian premier and symbol of the nation's 1956 uprising against Soviet rule, is hanged for treason by his country's communist authorities. 1953 - became premier of communist Hungary, Nagy enacted a series of liberal reforms and opposed Soviet interference in his country's affairs. 1955 - removed from office; 1956 - expelled from the Hungarian Communist Party. October 23, 1956 - in response to the communist backlash against Nagy and his reforms, Hungarian students and workers took to the streets of Budapest in anti-Soviet demonstrations. Within days, the uprising escalated into a full-scale national revolt, and the Hungarian government fell into chaos. Nagy joined the revolution and was reinstated as Hungarian premier, but his minister Janos Kadar formed a counter-regime and asked the USSR to intervene. November 4, 1956 - a massive Soviet force of 200,000 troops and 2,500 tanks entered Hungary. Nagy took refuge in the Yugoslav embassy but was later arrested by Soviet agents after leaving the embassy under a safe-conduct pledge. Nearly 200,000 Hungarians fled the country, and thousands of people were arrested, killed, or executed before the Hungarian uprising was finally suppressed. Nagy was later handed over to the regime of Janos Kadar, who convicted and executed him for treason. June 16, 1989 - as communism crumbled in Hungary, Nagy's body was officially reburied with full honors. Some 300,000 Hungarians attended the service.

July 3, 1958 - President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the Rivers and Harbors Flood Control Bill, which allocates funds to improve flood-control and water-storage systems across the country. Eisenhower had sent back two earlier bills to Congress, but was pleased with the revisions included in Senate Bill 3910. The bill was introduced in the wake of disastrous and deadly floods caused by Hurricanes Connie and Diane, which hit the northeastern United States in August 1955. Bill contained specific provisions for hurricane flood protection.

July 7, 1958 - President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Alaska statehood bill.

July 14, 1958- Saddam Hussein and Iraqi army overthrew the monarchy; General Abdul K Kassem formed military government.

July 29, 1958 - President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act, which created NASA (from the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics and other government agencies), a civilian agency responsible for coordinating America's activities in space. NASA was created in response to the Soviet Union's October 4, 1957 launch of its first satellite, Sputnik I. The 183-pound, basketball-sized satellite orbited the earth in 98 minutes. The Sputnik launch caught Americans by surprise and sparked fears that the Soviets might also be capable of sending missiles with nuclear weapons from Europe to America. November 3, 1957 - the Soviets launched Sputnik II, which carried a dog named Laika. December 1957 - America attempted to launch a satellite, called Vanguard, but it exploded shortly after takeoff. January 31, 1958 -  U. S. launched Explorer I, the first U.S. satellite to successfully orbit the earth.

September 2, 1958 - National Defense Education Act was signed; purpose : to ensure a sufficient supply of scientists, mathematicians, engineers and foreign linguists to meet the national security mission of the Department of Defense; established to educate, train, recruit and retain US Citizens in skills and disciplines considered critical to the national security mission.

September 22, 1958 - Sherman Adams, assistant to U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, resigned amid charges of improperly using his influence to help a businessman.

October 2, 1958 - Former French colony of Guinea declares its independence with Sekou Toure as the new nation's first leader. Guinea was the sole French West African colony to opt for complete independence, rather than membership in the French Community, and soon thereafter France withdrew all aid to the new republic. He was fiercely nationalistic and anti-imperialist, and much of his wrath and indignation was aimed at the United States for its alliances with colonial powers such as Great Britain and France and its refusal to openly condemn the white minority government of South Africa. Openly courted Soviet aid, money and military assistance.

December 9, 1958 - The anti-Communist John Birch Society was formed in Indianapolis.

December 18, 1958 - The first communications satellite broadcast was made when President Dwight Eisenhower delivered his Christmas message.

December 21, 1958 - Three months after a new French constitution was approved, Charles de Gaulle is elected the first president of the Fifth Republic by a sweeping majority of French voters. The previous June, France's World War II hero was called out of retirement to lead the country when a military and civilian revolt in Algeria threatened France's stability. In 1958, however, a revolt by French colonists in Algeria led to a severe political crisis in France, and de Gaulle agreed to head a new emergency government. Considered the only leader of sufficient strength and stature to deal with the perilous situation, he was made the virtual dictator of France, with power to rule by decree for six months. A new constitution of his design was approved in a national referendum in September, and on December 21 he was elected president of the Fifth Republic. During the next decade, President de Gaulle granted independence to Algeria and attempted to restore France to its former international stature by withdrawing from the U.S.-dominated NATO alliance and promoting the development of French atomic weapons. Student demonstrations and workers' strikes in 1968 eroded his popular support, and in 1969 his proposals for constitutional reform were defeated in a national vote. On April 28, 1969, Charles de Gaulle, at 79 years old, retired permanently. He died the following year.

January 1, 1959 - Fidel Castro led Cuban revolutionaries (popular movement spearheaded by Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement) to victory over Fulgencio Batista (strong man of Cuban politics for most of the period since 1933, came to power in 1952) who resigned as President of rebellion-torn Cuba and fled to exile in the Dominican Republic. The rebel forces of Fidel Castro moved swiftly to seize power throughout the island.

January 3, 1959 - President Eisenhower signed a proclamation admitting Alaska to the Union as the 49th state (an anti-climactic end to a forty-two-year struggle for statehood); President Williams Howard Taft signed the forty-eighth statehood proclamation--on Arizona--on February 14, 1912; 1741 - Europeans discovered Alaska when a Russian expedition led by Danish navigator Vitus Bering sighted the Alaskan mainland; 1860s - a nearly bankrupt Russia decided to offer Alaska for sale to the United States, which earlier had expressed interest in such a purchase; March 30, 1867 - Secretary of State William H. Seward signed a treaty with Russia for the purchase of Alaska for $7.2 million (though roughly two cents an acre, Alaskan purchase was ridiculed in Congress and in the press as "Seward's folly," "Seward's icebox," and President Andrew Johnson's "polar bear garden."); 1898 - discovery of gold brought a rapid influx of people to the territory.

January 7, 1959 - The United States recognized Fidel Castro's new government in Cuba; six days after the fall of the Fulgencio Batista dictatorship in Cuba; despite fears that Fidel Castro, whose rebel army helped to overthrow Batista, might have communist leanings, the U.S. government believed that it could work with the new regime and protect American interests in Cuba; new government, temporarily headed by provisional president Manuel Urrutia; February 16, 1959 - Fidel Castro, who was sworn in as the premier of Cuba; relations between Cuba and the United States almost immediately deteriorated as U.S. officials realized that Castro wielded the real power; his policies concerning the nationalization of American-owned properties and closer economic and political relations with communist countries convinced U.S. officials that Castro's regime needed to be removed.

February 6, 1959 - The United States successfully test-fired for the first time a Titan intercontinental ballistic missile from Cape Canaveral.

February 16, 1959 - Fidel Castro was sworn in as prime minister of Cuba.

February 19, 1959 - An agreement was signed by Britain, Turkey and Greece granting Cyprus its independence.

March 18, 1959 - President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Hawaii statehood bill.

April 9, 1959 - NASA announced the selection of America's first seven astronauts for project Mercury: Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Gus Grissom, Wally Schirra, Alan Shepard and Donald Slayton.

April 15, 1959 - Cuban leader Fidel Castro arrived in Washington, DC, to begin a goodwill tour of the United States; four months after leading a successful revolution in Cuba; became clear that President Dwight D. Eisenhower had no intention of meeting with Castro; met with Vice President Richard Nixon. In less than a year, President Eisenhower ordered the CIA to begin arming and training a group of Cuban exiles to attack Cuba (the disastrous attack, known as the Bay of Pigs invasion, was eventually carried out during the Kennedy administration). The heated Cold War animosity between America and Cuba would last for over 40 years.

April 25, 1959 - The St Lawrence Seaway was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II and President Eisenhower, linking the Atlantic with ports on the Great Lakes.

May 20, 1959 - Japanese-Americans regain their citizenship.

June 17, 1959 - Eamon de Valera elected President of Ireland.

June 26, 1959 - St. Lawrence Seaway officially opened in a ceremony presided over by U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Queen Elizabeth II; created a navigational channel from the Atlantic Ocean to all the Great Lakes. The seaway, made up of a system of canals, locks, and dredged waterways, extends a distance of nearly 2,500 miles, from the Atlantic Ocean through the Gulf of St. Lawrence to Duluth, Minnesota, on Lake Superior. 1954 - Work on the massive project was initiated by a joint U.S.-Canadian commission.

July 4, 1959 - America's 49-star flag, honoring Alaskan statehood, was officially unfurled.

July 5, 1959 - David Ben-Gurion's Israeli government resigns.

July 24, 1959 - During a visit to the Soviet Union, Vice President Richard M. Nixon got into a discussion at a U.S. exhibition with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev that was dubbed the ''kitchen debate.'' Vice President Richard M. Nixon and Premier Nikita S. Khrushchev debated in public today the merits of washing machines, capitalism, free exchange of ideas, summit meetings, rockets and ultimatums. Mr. Nixon cut a symbolic red ribbon and formally opened the American National Exhibition. He said the fair was representative of the American way of life and called for peaceful competition, spiritual as well as material, between the United States and the Soviet Union. The exchanges started in Mr. Khrushchev's quiet offices in the Presidium Building of the Kremlin. They reached a high point in an hour-long debate in the kitchen of a model house at the exhibition, and they wound up with laughs, finger-shakings and more argument at the formal opening of the exhibition. In the course of the discussion, Mr. Khrushchev accused Mr. Nixon of trying indirectly to threaten the Soviet Union. Mr. Nixon rejoined that Mr. Khrushchev, by saying that the Soviet Union had better weapons than the United States, was also making an indirect threat. But both agreed that each nation wants peace.

July 28, 1959 - In preparation for statehood, Hawaiians voted to send the first Chinese-American, Hiram L. Fong, to the Senate and the first Japanese-American, Daniel K. Inouye, to the House of Representatives.

August 21, 1959 - President Eisenhower signed an executive order proclaiming Hawaii the 50th state of the union.

August 24, 1959 - Three days after Hawaiian statehood, Hiram L. Fong was sworn in as the first Chinese-American U.S. senator, while Daniel K. Inouye was sworn in as the first Japanese-American U.S. representative.

September 4, 1959 - Congress passed The Labor Reform Act; move to reign in the nation's unions.

September 11, 1959 - Congress authorized the first U.S. food stamps.

September 14, 1959 - Soviet space vehicle Lunik 2 became the first manmade object to reach the moon when it impacted with the lunar surface; October 7, 1959 - Lunik 3 flew around the moon and transmitted back to Earth the first images of the dark side of the moon.

September 15, 1959 - Nikita Khrushchev becomes the first Soviet head of state to visit the United States. Khrushchev announced that he had arrived in America "with open heart and good intentions. The Soviet people want to live in friendship with the American people."

September 19, 1959 - Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev explodes with anger when he learns that he cannot visit Disneyland. The incident marked the climax of Khrushchev's day in Los Angeles, one that was marked by both frivolity and tension. Government authorities feared that the crowds would pose a safety hazard for the premier. Khrushchev, still fuming about the debate with Twentieth Century Fox President Spyros P. Skouras, exploded. "And I say, I would very much like to go and see Disneyland. But then, we cannot guarantee your security, they say. Then what must I do? Commit suicide? What is it? Is there an epidemic of cholera there or something? Or have gangsters taken hold of the place that can destroy me?" Khrushchev left Los Angeles the next morning.

October 21, 1959 - President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs an executive order transferring the brilliant rocket designer Wernher von Braun and his team from the U.S. Army to the newly created National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). on Braun oversaw construction of the large Saturn launch vehicles that kept the United States abreast of Soviet space achievements in the early and mid 1960s.

January 2, 1960 - Sen. John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts announced his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination.

February 1, 1960 - Four black college students (freshmen at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College) began a sit-in protest at a lunch counter at a downtown variety store in Greensboro, NC, where they'd been refused service. About 4:45 P.M. they entered the F. W. Woolworth Company store on North Elm Street in the heart of Greensboro. Mr. Joseph said he bought a tube of tooth paste and the others made similar purchases. Then they sat down at the lunch counter. The students then asked a white waitress for coffee. "I'm sorry but we don't serve colored here," they quoted her. The four students sat, coffee-less, until the store closed at 5:30 P. M. Then, hearing that they might be prosecuted, they went to the executive committee of the Greensboro N.A.A.C.P. to ask advice.

April 23, 1960 - Brazil inaugurated its new capital, Brasilia, transferring the seat of national government from Rio de Janeiro.

May 1, 1960 - The Soviet Union shot down an American U-2 reconnaissance plane conducting espionage over the Soviet Union near Sverdlovsk and captured its pilot, Francis Gary Powers. The incident derailed an important summit meeting between President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev that was scheduled for later that month. The CIA assured President Eisenhower that the Soviets did not possess anti-aircraft weapons sophisticated enough to shoot down the high-altitude planes. The CIA reassured the president that, even if the plane had been shot down, it was equipped with self-destruct mechanisms that would render any wreckage unrecognizable and the pilot was instructed to kill himself in such a situation. Based on this information, the U.S. government issued a cover statement indicating that a weather plane had veered off course and supposedly crashed somewhere in the Soviet Union. With no small degree of pleasure, Khrushchev pulled off one of the most dramatic moments of the Cold War by producing not only the mostly-intact wreckage of the U-2, but also the captured pilot-very much alive. A chagrined Eisenhower had to publicly admit that it was indeed a U.S. spy plane. May 16, a major summit between the United States, the Soviet Union, Great Britain, and France began in Paris. Issues to be discussed included the status of Berlin and nuclear arms control. As the meeting opened, Khrushchev launched into a tirade against the United States and Eisenhower and then stormed out of the summit. The meeting collapsed immediately and the summit was called off. Eisenhower considered the "stupid U-2 mess" one of the worst debacles of his presidency. The pilot, Francis Gary Powers, was released in 1962 in exchange for a captured Soviet spy.

May 6, 1960 - President Eisenhower signs Civil Rights Act of 1960.

May 7, 1960 - Leonid Brezhnev, one of Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev's most trusted proteges, is selected as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet--the Soviet equivalent to the presidency (replaced Marshal Kliment Voroshilov). This was another important step in Brezhnev's rise to power in Russia, a rise that he later capped by taking control of the Soviet Union in 1964. Brezhnev held that post for 18 years until his death in 1982.

May 10, 1960 - John F. Kennedy wins primary in West Virginia.

May 16, 1960 - Eisenhower and Khrushchev arrived in Paris to begin a summit meeting. In the wake of the Soviet downing of an American (CIA) U-2 spy plane and capturing of the pilot, Gary Francis Powers, on May 1 (United States issued public denials that the aircraft was being used for espionage, claiming instead that it was merely a weather