Curated playlist
Presidency of John F. Kennedy
- Cold WarWhy was the Cold War called a war when the two superpowers never fought each other directly?
- Assassination of John F. KennedyMoments before he was shot in Dallas, President Kennedy said his last words: "No, they sure can't."
- 1960 United States presidential electionThe 1960 United States presidential election was still undecided when The New York Times went to press with the headline "Kennedy Elected President." That was before midnight on the 8th of November 1960. Turner Catledge, the paper's…
- Vietnam WarOn March 8, 1965, 3,500 US Marines waded ashore near Da Nang, starting America's ground war in Vietnam.
- Space RaceThe Space Race began underground, in the firing pits of missile test ranges.
- Bay of Pigs InvasionKennedy canceled the second air strikes the night before the Bay of Pigs landing.
- Operation MongooseOperation Mongoose, a secret U.S. plan to topple Cuba's government, helped set up the Cuban Missile Crisis.
- We choose to go to the MoonKennedy wrote a football joke into his Moon speech by hand. He asked a Houston crowd, "Why does Rice play Texas?"
- Cuban Missile CrisisIn October 1962, a US spy plane pilot was shot down over Cuba by Soviet missiles.
- Partial Nuclear Test Ban TreatyIn 1957, underground nuclear tests could not be told apart from earthquakes. That complicated a full test ban.