November 1, 1955 – April 30, 1975
A conflict between North Vietnam and the Viet Cong on one side and South Vietnam, backed by the United States and its allies, on the other; it ends with the fall of Saigon in 1975.
Results of a mass field trial show Jonas Salk's polio vaccine to be safe and effective, opening the way to mass vaccination.
Delegates from 29 Asian and African nations meet in Bandung to promote Afro-Asian cooperation and oppose colonialism, a forerunner of the Non-Aligned Movement.
After the 23 October referendum deposing Bảo Đại, Ngô Đình Diệm proclaims the Republic of Vietnam with himself as president.
Rosa Parks is arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger, sparking a year-long bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama.
During the 300-day free-movement period after the Geneva Accords, roughly 800,000 to one million people, many of them Catholics, move from North to South Vietnam.
The Việt Minh assault the French garrison at Điện Biên Phủ; their victory on 7 May leads to the Geneva Accords.