Era · 1945 – present
From the Cold War and the Space Race to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the world we live in today.
Congress outlawed racial discrimination in voting and imposed federal oversight on states with a history of it, leading to a dramatic rise in Black voter registration in the South.
Malcolm X was killed by members of the Nation of Islam; two of the three men convicted were exonerated in 2021 after evidence was found to have been withheld.
After police violence on Bloody Sunday shocked the nation, a protected march reached Montgomery and built decisive support for the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Mariner 4 returned the first close-up images of another planet, revealing a cratered Mars with a very thin atmosphere and ending hopes of canals or abundant life.
Gemini 6A achieved the first rendezvous between two crewed spacecraft, proving a technique essential for the Apollo Moon landings.
Leonov became the first person to leave a spacecraft in orbit, and the crew survived a series of dangerous failures to land safely in the Urals.
D Company held its ground until relieved; 18 Australians were killed and at least 245 Viet Cong bodies were found, and the 1st Australian Task Force kept control of its area.
A decade of political persecution, violence and economic disruption ended after Mao's death in 1976 and the arrest of the Gang of Four; the Party later condemned it as a catastrophe.
The strike became a campaign for land; in 1975 the Gurindji received a lease over part of their country, a milestone towards Aboriginal land rights law.
A small neighbourhood fayre with a steel band procession grew into one of the largest street festivals in Europe and a celebration of Caribbean British culture.
The party grew into a national organisation known for armed self-defence and community programmes, but FBI repression, internal splits and legal battles led to its decline by the early 1980s.
Luna 9 became the first spacecraft to land softly on another world and returned panoramic pictures proving the lunar surface could support a landing craft.
