Out of This World Conflicts
Built by the USSR in 1961, this physical barrier became the ultimate symbol of Cold War division.
What is the Berlin Wall?
He wrote the "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" arguing that waiting for justice was no longer acceptable and defending nonviolent civil disobedience.
Who is Martin Luther King Jr.?
This was the widespread fear that if Vietnam fell to communism, the rest of Southeast Asia would collapse.
What is the Domino Theory?
This massive 1969 music festival symbolized the peaceful idealism of the youth movement and proved to the counterculture that their vision of a peaceful, alternative society could actually exist.
What is Woodstock?
Because secret Oval Office tapes proved he directly ordered a cover-up, he faced certain impeachment and chose to become the first U.S. president to resign in 1974.
Who is Richard Nixon?
In 1962, U.S. spy planes discovered Soviet nuclear missile sites being built in this country, just 90 miles from Florida.
What is Cuba?
Following the violence in Selma, this 1965 law officially outlawed literacy tests and sent federal workers to the South to ensure Black Americans could register to vote.
What is the Voting Rights Act?
This 1964 congressional resolution gave President Johnson the power to take "all necessary measures" to fight, essentially acting as a blank check to escalate the war without a formal declaration.
What is the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution?
The FDA's approval of this in the 1960s allowed women to confidently delay having children so they could enter college and the workforce in record numbers.
What is the Birth Control Pill?
During the 1973 Oil Crisis, this organization imposed an embargo that caused massive fuel shortages, soaring gas prices, and odd-even rationing at the pumps.
What is OPEC?
This U.S. agency was created in 1958 to lead space exploration and counter Soviet influence after the launch of Sputnik.
What is NASA?
DAILY DOUBLE
Founded by César Chávez and Dolores Huerta, this union successfully used nonviolent strikes and national boycotts to protect heavily exploited Latino agricultural laborers.
What is the United Farm Workers?
In 1970, National Guard troops fired into a crowd of unarmed students at this university, killing four and injuring nine.
What is Kent State University?
LBJ's ambitious domestic vision aimed at eliminating American poverty, which massively expanded the social safety net by creating Medicare and Medicaid.
What is the Great Society?
This rare and terrible economic combination of high inflation, high unemployment, and stagnant growth plagued the United States during the 1970s.
What is stagflation?
During this single year of continuous national trauma, the Tet Offensive shattered public trust, MLK and RFK were assassinated, and a police riot erupted at the Democratic National Convention.
What is 1968?
This failed 1961 CIA-backed mission used Cuban exiles to try and overthrow Fidel Castro.
What is the Bay of Pigs Invasion?
This 1969 police raid on a gay bar in Greenwich Village, NYC, sparked days of protest and is widely considered the launch point of the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement.
What are the Stonewall Riots?
Secret documents leaked by Daniel Ellsberg in 1971 that proved multiple presidents had consistently lied to the public about privately knowing the conflict was unwinnable.
What are the Pentagon Papers?
This 1962 book by biologist Rachel Carson exposed how pesticides like DDT were poisoning the food chain, sparking the modern environmental movement.
What is Silent Spring?
DAILY DOUBLE
After the U.S. backed Shah was overthrown, angry militants stormed the American embassy in Tehran, taking 52 Americans hostage for 444 days and destroying Jimmy Carter's image.
What is the Iran Hostage Crisis?
JFK's domestic agenda aimed to tackle social inequality, push the Space Race, and support desegregation.
What is the New Frontier?
Former SNCC leader Stokely Carmichael popularized this phrase, which represented a massive generational shift toward demanding self-determination rather than just integration.
What is Black Power?
President Nixon introduced this strategy to slowly withdraw American troops while making the South Vietnamese military take over the fighting.
What is Vietnamization?
This psychologist famously told the 1960s generation to "turn on, tune in, drop out," encouraging them to completely reject the capitalist rat race.
Who is Timothy Leary?
This Republican political plan was designed to win over white Southern Democrats who were angry about civil rights advancements by using coded language like "law and order" to appeal to racial anxieties.
What is the Southern Strategy?