1953

Korean War ends

The big cobra scare gains the city national publicity

The first television station, KTTS, goes on the air in the city

The council-manager form of government is approved by Springfield voters

1954

Supreme Court orders desegregation of public schools in Brown vs. Board of Education

1955

School Foundation program passed by referendum

U.S. agrees to help train South Vietnamese Army

1957

Springfield is named an All-American City

1958

Explorer 1, first earth-orbiting satellite, launched at Cape Canaveral, FL

1959

Alaska and Hawaii become 49th and 50th states

1961

Bay of Pigs invasion fails to overthrown Fidel Castro

Alan Shepard, Jr., becomes first American in space

First U.S. combat troops are sent to Vietnam

1962

John Glenn becomes first American to orbit the earth

Supreme Court bans prayer in public schools

1963

John F. Kennedy assassinated in Dallas, Lyndon Johnson becomes 36th president

1965

Keystone placed in Gateway Arch in St. Louis

President Johnson signs Voting Rights Act and bill enacting Medicare

1966

U.S. spacecraft Surveyor lands on moon and transmits TV images

1968

Martin Luther King, Jr., assassinated in Memphis

Senator Robert F. Kennedy assassinated in Los Angeles

1969

Anti-war demonstrations in U.S. peak

Neil Armstrong becomes first person to walk on the moon