This is unquestionably the defining moment of Ford’s presidency and he had hoped the pardon would bring an end to the nation’s long nightmare. But the decision was sharply criticized immediately and remains controversial.

The world watched in shock as 11 Israeli athletes were killed in their Olympic Village apartment in a terrorist attack perpetrated by 8 members of the militant Palestinian organization, Black September.

On July 15,1979, President Jimmy Carter delivered from the Oval Office his famous or infamous malaise speech in which he described a crisis of confidence of the American people. For some it represented an honest assessment of the American mood. But others rejected his pessimism and thus opened the door for the election of Ronald Reagan.

On Feb. 27, 1973, 200 members of the Ogala Lakota tribe seized and occupied the town of Wounded Knee, South Dakota for 71 days to protest the failure of the American government to fulfill its treaty obligations with Native Americans

Sparked by the Bangladesh War of Independence, the Indo-Pakistani War represented the third religious conflict between Hindi India and Muslim Pakistan since the disastrous partitioning of the Indian subcontinent by the British in 1947.

The Boston Public schools were placed under the control of the courts for the purpose of desegregating the schools through enforced busing. This sparked a series of racial protests and riots.

In Operation Condor, the United States government created a military network to support right wing dictatorships and to assist in the elimination of their enemies in countries ranging from Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia and Brazil. These activities cemented the image of the ugly American in Latin America.

This landmark Supreme Court decision guaranteed, as constitutionally protected, a woman’s right to choose. For 50 years, through a series of court decisions, this right has been chipped away until finally being overturned in the Dobb’s decision.

Launched in 1966, its stated goal was to preserve Chinese Communism by the government and society of capitalist and traditional elements. But it devolved into a series of horrific massacres.