1941
Japanese attack Pearl Harbor; United States declares war on Japan
1942
Internment of Japanese Americans
1943
Keith Little enlists in the Marine Corp
1944
Congress passes GI Bill
1945
Successful test of Atomic Bomb, Alamagordo, New Mexico;
Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombed; Japan surrenders
1946
Benjamin Spock releases Baby and Child Care; American plan
for control of atomic energy fails; the Atomic Energy Act
1947
House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) investigates
the movie industry
1949
Soviet Union tests atomic bomb
1950
Truman authorizes development of the hydrogen bomb; NSC-68; Sen.
Joseph McCarthy accuses State Department of harboring communists
1952
Dwight S. Eisenhower elected president; McCarthy heads Senate
Permanent Investigations Subcommittee
1953
Defense budget of $47 billion
1954
Army–McCarthy hearings
1955
Polio vaccine approved for use
1956
Interstate Highway Act; majority of U.S. workers hold white-collar jobs;
Eisenhower re-elected
1957
Baby Boom peaks; Russians launch Sputnik satellite
1959
Nixon-Khrushchev Kitchen Debate
1963
Rachel Carson releases Silent Spring
1968
Navajo code declassified
