c100BC Chinese begin 1,000 year rule over Vietnam

c10 Confucianism spreads into Vietnam

c200 Buddhism spreads into Vietnam

c900 Vietnam gains independence from China

c1400 Vietnam again regains independence after 20 years under Chinese rule

c1600 French missionary arrives in Vietnam; adapts Vietnamese language to Roman alphabet

c1770 French missionary activity increases;
Catholicism spreads in Vietnam

1858-83 France takes control of Vietnam as a colony

1918-19 Nguyen Ai Quoc attends Versailles Peace Conference at end of World War I to support Vietnamese self-determination rights

1930 Indochinese Communist Party founded

1939-45 World War II:

1940-41 Japan attacks and takes control of French colonial government of Vietnam

1941 Vietminh founded

1943 Nguyen Ai Quoc changes name to Ho Chi Minh

1944 Vo Nguyen Giap forms Vietnam Liberation Army

1945 Japanese overthrow French in Vietnam; Vietminh seize power from Japan; Ho Chi Minh declares independence for Vietnam; Allies return authority of Vietnam to the French

1946 French and Vietminh negotiations for "free state" status of Vietnam within the French Union break down; First Indochina War , or Vietnamese War of Independence from France begins

1947 Former Emperor of Vietnam Bao Dai agrees to deal with France granting limited independence; Vietminh fail in attempt to capture city of Hue

1949 Bao Dai returns from exile to Vietnam to head France's puppet government there.

1950 Soviet Union and Red China recognize Ho Chi Minh's Communist government; Britain and U.S. recognize Bao Dai's government; U.S. grants military aid to French at war in Indochina.

1954 Vietminh defeat the French in a decisive battle at the fortress town of Dien Bien Phu; Ngo Dinh Diem becomes Prime Minister of Bao Dai's government; Geneva accords end war; French withdraw; Vietnam is temporarily divided in two, with Communists in the north and anti-communists under the Cathlolic Diem in the south; Vietnamese Civil War begins.

1955 U.S. begins sending aid to South Vietnam; Diem refuses to hold nationwide reunification election, rejecting Geneva accords, and U.S. supports this; Diem defeats Bao Dai in referendum, proclaims Republic of [South] Vietnam; Diem is President

1956 Diem's forces attack suspected communists and other groups who oppose his regime; U.S. sends military advisors to train South Vietnamese troops.

1957 Diem visits U.S. to drum up support which is reaffirmed by President Eisenhower; organized
Communist military activity begins in South black children are readmitted to formerly all-Vietnam against Diem's government and its supporters.

1959 North Vietnamese forces open the Ho Chi Minh Trail to send supplies and troops through Laos and Cambodia to Communists in South Vietnam; U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) air force, Air America, begins covert operations in South-East Asia

1960 North Vietnamese leaders form National Liberation front for South Vietnam (NLF), which Diem calls "Viet Cong," for Vietnamese Communists

1961 U.S. Vice-President Lyndon B. Johnson visits South Vietnam, and he and other advisors convince President Kennedy to send more aid

1962 U.S. Military Assitance Command - Vietnam
(MACV) formed in South Vietnam; American
advisors increased from 700 to 12,000

1963 Vietcong forces defeat South Vietnamese Army (ARVN) at battle of Ap Bac; Diem's forces
attack Buddhists in city of Hue, and Buddhist
monk sets fire to self and burns to death in
protest; U.S. supports ousting Diem; Diem is
assassinated by South Vietnamese generals

1964 Gen. Nguyen Kanh takes power in South Vietnam; North Vietnamese torpedo boats attack American destroyer in Gulf of Tonkin off North Vietnam; U.S. Congress approves Tonkin Gulf Resolution permitting American expansion of war

1965 U.S. bombs North Vietnam (Operation Rolling Thunder) and mines its harbors; U.S. combat troops arrive in South Vietnam - by year's end 150,000 American troops are there; Americans battle North Vietnamese regular army forces in South Vietnam; air general Nguyen Cao Ky takes power of South Vietnam's government

1966 American commitment to the war grew, with more than 400,000 Americans troops directly involved in the war in Southeast Asia; also in America, opposition to the war grows; influential U.S. Senator J. William Fulbright, Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee speaks our against U.S. involvemet in Vietnam

1967 Nguyen Van Thieu elected president of South Vietnam; by year's end nearly 500,000 American troops are in Vietnam; North Vietnamese government says peace talks will start when bombing stops; U.S. President Johnson says bombing will stop when productive talks begin; U.S. Defense Secretary Robert McNamara asserts the bombing is ineffective; in America, antiwar protests rise

1968 Tet Offensive: During Tet, Vietnamese New Year, truce period, North Vietnamese forces lead attacks on cities throughout South Vietnam, including its capital, Saigon; although these attacks were beaten back, reports of their intensity and of the numbers involved, contradicting promises that the enemy was near defeat, turn American public opinion against the war; 550,000 American troops are in Vietnam by the end of the year

1969 Total of American and allied forces in Vietnam reaches high of 700,000; Paris peace talks expand to include Saigon government and Vietcong; "Vietnamization" and U.S. troop withdrawal begins; Ho Chi Minh dies; U.S. secretly bombs in Cambodia; news of U.S. Army massacre of civilians at My Lai reaches American public; massive antiwar demonstrations are held in Washington, DC; U.S. troop strength is reduced by 60,000 at year's end

1970 U.S. President Nixon reveals U.S. and South Vietnamese attacks made in Cambodia, sparking antiwar protests on college campuses; American troop strength down to 280,000 at end of year

1971 U.S. Army Lieutenant William Calley convicted of pre-meditated murder for My Lai massacre; U.S. troop withdrawal brings down total strength to 140,000 by year's end

1972 U.S. President Nixon reveals that Henry Kissinger has been holding secret peace talks with the North Vietnamese; Kissinger announces "peace is Hand;" North Vietnamese launch Easter Offensive into South Vietnam; last U.S. combat unit departs leaving behind 43,500 other army personnel

1973 U.S. signs cease-fire agreement with Vietnamese Communists; last American troops leave Vietnam; North Vietnam releases American prisoners of war; U.S. Congress prohibits further bombing of Cambodia; North and South Vietnam continue fighting

1974 Vietnamese Civil War continues; Cambodian Civil War continues
1974 Last Americans are evacuated from Saigon;
North Vietnamese forces capture Saigon; South
Vietnam surrenders; Cambodian Communists
capture U.S. merchant ship "Mayaguez," and 38
U.S. Marines are killed in rescue operation

1975 Communist government of reunified Vietnam begins "re-education" program; Saigon is renamed Ho Chi Minh City.

1980 Having conquered Cambodia, Vietnam has conflicts with Thailand on Cambodian-Laotian
border

1982

1995

c500BC Confucianism begins in China; Buddhism begins in India.

c100BC Birth of Roman Emperor Julius Caesar.

c30 Christianity begins in the Middle East.

c400 Fall of the Roman Empire.

c800 Charlemagne crowned Holy Roman Emperor in Europe.

c1400 Aztec Empire emerges in Mexico.

1492 Columbus discovers the New World

1607 First permanent English settlement in the New World at Jamestown, Virginia.

1775-81 American Revolution

1789-99 French Revolution

1861-65 American Civil War

1917-19 World War I ends; Russian Revolution; Gandhi begins civil disobedience against
British colonial government in India.

1929 Wall Street crash starts Great Depression

1939-45 World War II:

1940-41 Germany attacks and takes control of France

1941 Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor

1943 Germans retreat from Russia

1944 Allied invasion of Normandy

1945 Allies defeat Germany; United Nations Charter signed; Japan surrenders after U.S. drops atomic bombs on Japan; Chinese Civil War begins.

1946 Winston Churchill describes the Soviet bloc as the "iron curtain"; Philippines gains independence.

1947 Truman Doctrine states American oppo-sition to Communism worldwide; Marshall Plan gives U.S. aid to anticommunist Europe

1949 Communists win Chinese Civil War, estab-lishing the People's Republic of China

1950 Korean War begins as communist North Korea invades democratic South Korea; U.S. and U.N. intervene; cease-fire agreement three years later maintains division.

1954 U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy's "witch-hunt" investigations and charges of communist affiliations comes to an end as he is censured for questioning the U.S. Army; Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) formed to defend the area against Communist aggression.

1955 African-American Rosa Parks is arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, for refusing to give up her seat to a white man, sparking a bus boycott and civil rights protesting

1956 Fidel Castro leads the Cuban Revolution; Israel, France and Britain attacks Egypt to seize from it the Suez Canal; U.S. opposes this
action and U.N. peacekeeping forces occupy
Suez Canal until 1967

1957 U.S. President Eisenhower signs Civil Rights bill into law; U.S. Army troops guarantee 9 black children are readmitted to formerly all-white school in Little Rock, Arkansas

1959 Fidel Castro succeeds in turning Cuba into a Communist dictatorship; Yasar Arafat founds Palestine Liberation Movement; World War II general Charles DeGaulle becomes President of the Fifth Republic of France

1960 Senator John F. Kennedy defeats Vice-Pre-sident Richard M. Nixon to become President of the United States

1961 U.S. forces fail to overthrow Castro at Bay of Pigs in Cuba; Communist East Germany builds Berlin Wall dividing the city in two

1962 U.S. President Kennedy forces the Soviets to withdraw missiles from Cuba; movie actress Marilyn Monroe is found dead

1963 U.S., Britain and Soviet Union sign treaty banning nuclear tests; the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., delivers his "I Have a Dream" speech at Civil Rights rally in Washington, DC; U.S. President Kennedy was assassinated; V.P. Johnson succeeds

1964 World's Fair opens in New York; Martin Luther King Jr. wins Nobel Peace Prize; Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) founded; the Civil Rights Act of 1964 bans racial segregation in public facilities; the Beatles perform live on American TV for the first time

1965 U.S. astronaut Edward White becomes first American to "walk" in space; riots broke out in predominately black Watts section of Los Angeles, California; African-American Muslim Malcom X is assassinated; U.S. Congress makes it a crime to burn one's draft card

1966 U.S. President Johnson signed Freedom of Information Act; Supreme Court issues decision requiring police to inform people of their Constitutional rights when arrested but before questioning; National Organization for Women (NOW) founded; American Black Panther Party founded

1967 Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. speaks out against the war in Vietnam and joins in New York City the largest antiwar demonstration to date; a countermarch was later held there to support "our fighting men in Vietnam;" boxer Muhammed Ali is convicted of violating draft laws; Thurgood Marshall becomes the black Supreme Court justice

1968 U.S. President Johnson announces he will not run for re-election; Martin Luther King Jr. is assasinated; race riots break out in many cities in America; Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy is assassinated; antiwar protesting interrupts Democratic Convention in Chicago; Richard Nixon is elected President; Nixon appoints Henry Kissinger as national security advisor

1969 U.S. Astronaut Neil Armstrong takes first "small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" on the Moon; Woodstock music festival is held in New York state; Charles Manson is convicted in the brutal murder of Hollywood actress Sharon Tate; Golda Meir becomes Prime Minister of Israel

1970 Ohio National Guardsmen shoot college students at an antiwar demonstration at Kent State University, killing four; millions of Americans observe the first "Earth Day," promoting environmentalism

1971 The New York Times began publishing the "Pentagon Papers," a secret study of U.S. activity in VietNam; Amtrak begins its railroad service; Texas Instruments introduces the first portable calculator

1972 U.S. Presidential candidate George C. Wallace is shot and paralyzed; five men are arrested for breaking into at Democratic National Committee headquarters at Watergate in Washington, DC; Nixon visits China and Soviet Union, the first U.S. President to do so; Palestinian terrorists kill 11 members of the Israeli
Olympic team in Munich, West Germany

1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Roe vs. Wade legalizes abortions in the first trimester; Military Service Act of 1971 ends the draft, putting U.S. military on all-volunteer basis; War Powers Act restricts President from sending troops into action for more than 60 days without approval from Congress

1974 House Judiciary Committee holds impeachment hearings on Nixon revelations of Watergate breakin scandal; Nixon resigns; Vice President Gerald Ford becomes President; Ford pardons Nixon

1975 U.S. launches Viking spacecraft designed to land on Mars; U.S. Bicentennial celebration officially kicks off in Washington, D.C.

1976 Jimmy Carter is elected U.S. President; President Carter gives amnesty to draft dodgers in Canada

1980 American Psychiatric Association recognizes Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome, or Disorder (PTSD), as a mental illness suffered by many Vietnam veterans

1982 National Vietnam Veterans Memorial ("The Wall") is unveiled in Washington, D.C.

1995 New Jersey Vietnam Veteran's Memorial is dedicated