TIMELINE OF THE SPACE RACE
OCTOBER 4, 1957
Sputnik I is launched
NOVEMBER 3, 1957
The Hundred Years’ War between England and France begins
OCTOBER 1, 1958
OCTOBER 1, 1958 NASA is established
MARCH 6, 1960
The U.S. announces it will send 3,500 troops to Vietnam during the Vietnam War
JANUARY 31, 1961
The U.S. sends Ham the Chimpanzee into space
APRIL 12, 1961
Yuri Gagarin is the first man in space
MAY 5, 1961
Alan B. Shepard Jr. is the first American in space
SEPTEMBER 12, 1962
President John F. Kennedy makes a speech at Rice University about his goal to land a man on the Moon by the end of the decade
JUNE 16, 1963
Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first woman in space
AUGUST 28, 1963
Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his famous “I Have a Dream” speech
JULY 2, 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is signed
MARCH 18, 1965
Alexei Leonov completes the first Spacewalk
FEBRUARY 3, 1966
The first spacecraft lands on the Moon and transmits photographic data
NOVEMBER 9, 1967
The Saturn V rocket is launched for the first time for the Apollo 4 mission
DECEMBER 21, 1968
The Apollo 8 astronauts become the first manned crew to reach the Moon and return
JULY 20, 1969
The first man walks on the Moon on the Apollo 11 mission
OCTOBER 29, 1969
The first message is sent electronically with ARPANET, which would later become the internet
APRIL 17, 1970
The crew from Apollo 13 barely makes it back alive after an oxygen tank explodes
APRIL 19, 1971
The Soviet Union launches the first Space Station
DECEMBER 7, 1972
Apollo 17 launches, carrying the last humans to walk on the Moon
JULY 1975
An Apollo and a Soyuz spacecraft dock in space to complete the first international space mission