President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act, outlawing discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin.
A clash between USS Maddox and North Vietnamese torpedo boats leads Congress to pass the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, enabling US escalation.
A smaller Viet Cong force repels an attack by South Vietnamese troops with US advisers near Mỹ Tho.
Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his famous speech at the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
Generals led by Dương Văn Minh overthrow President Ngô Đình Diệm, who is killed with his brother Ngô Đình Nhu the next day.
US President John F. Kennedy is shot and killed while riding in a motorcade in Dallas, Texas.
A sustained US aerial bombing campaign against North Vietnam.