On October 22, 1962, the Cuban Missile Crisis began when U.S. President John F. Kennedy announced that the Soviet Union was building a secret missile base in Cuba, just 90 miles off the coast of Florida. Hoping to avoid an armed invasion of Cuba, Kennedy opted for a naval quarantine of the island and demanded that Russian Premier Nikita Khrushchev remove all weapons. In response to the blockade, Khrushchev authorized his field commanders to launch nuclear weapons if attacked by U.S. forces. The two nations remained deadlocked for seven days before Khrushchev reconsidered and gave in to Kennedy's demands.

The Arab Spring began in response to oppressive regimes and a low standard of living, starting with protests in Tunisia.

In 1920, the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution finally gave women the right to vote. It had been a long and hard fought battle, with many generations of supporters for women's suffrage lecturing, lobbying, and practicing civil disobedience to achieve what many Americans, at the time, considered a radical change to the Constitution.

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill, which leaked 4.9 million barrels (210 million US gal; 780,000 m³) into the Gulf of Mexico, was one of the worst environmental disasters in U.S. history.

On July 20 (July 21 GMT), 1969, American astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the Moon. As he stepped onto the Moon's surface, in the Sea of Tranquility, Armstrong uttered the now-famous words: "That's one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind."

On May 18, 1974, India exploded its first nuclear bomb in the Rajasthan Desert near the town of Pokhran, describing the event as a "peaceful nuclear explosion." According to various reports, the underground test produced a crater with a radius somewhere between 47 and 75 meters.

On November 3, 2020, Kamala Harris made history as the first female, first black and first Asian-American US vice-president.

It was first identified in December 2019 in Wuhan, China. The World Health Organization declared the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern in January 2020 and a pandemic in March 2020. As of 27 January 2021, more than 100 million cases had been confirmed, with more than 2.16 million deaths attributed to COVID-19.

Although construction began in 1792, it was not until 1901 that President Theodore Roosevelt officially gave the White House its current name. Previously, it had been known as the "President's House," the "President's Palace," and the "Executive Mansion."

In June of 2000, scientists at Celera Genomics announced that they had completed the first map of the human genome. This accomplishment was immediately recognized as one of the greatest achievements in scientific history. A more complete map was released in April of 2003.