• Forrest Gump is regarded as a
contemporary American cultural
classic. Through three turbulent
decades of his life, what major
political and cultural events and
celebrities in contemporary American
history has Forrest experienced and
met?
Timeline of Historical Events and
celebrities:
1.
2.
Ku Klux Klan (first organized in 1866 )
Elvis Presley (The King or The King of
Rock’n’Roll/The Hillbilly Cat )
3. Desegregation of the University of Alabama/
George Wallace (Civil Rights Movement/Negro
Revolution)
4. President Kennedy /Assassination of JFK
Assassination of RFK
5. Bob Dylan /Blowing in the Wind
6. Vietnam War
7. Lieutenant Dan’s Family Background
(American Revolution/American Civil War/World
War I/World War II)
8. President Johnson
9. Black Panthers
10. The Landing of Apollo 11 on the moon
11. Ping Pong Diplomacy
12. John Lennon
13. The Watergate Scandal/President Nixon
14. Apple Computer Inc. (Gump’s Investment)
15. Assassination of President Reagan
16. AIDS
Ku Klux Klan (“Ku Klux” from Greek
“KuKloo”，意为集会; Klan意为种族。)


a secret terrorist society of white Southerners
founded during Reconstruction after the Civil War
its objective
costume&
tactic
resist the emancipation (setting free) of slaves
dedicated to the supremacy(至上) of white people
opposed to equal rights for black people
often engaged in violence against blacks
wear white hoods(头巾) and robes
burn a wooden cross outside the house of someone whom
they wish to threaten
KKK
• Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 –
August 16, 1977; middle name sometimes
written Aron) was an American singer,
actor, and musician. A cultural icon, he is
commonly known simply as "Elvis", and is
also sometimes referred to as "The King
of Rock 'n' Roll" or "The King".
• In 1954, Presley began his career as one
of the first performers of rockabilly(乡村
摇滚乐 ), an uptempo (节奏雷厉紧凑)fusion
of country and rhythm and blues with a
strong back beat. His novel(新颖的)
versions of existing songs, mixing "black"
and "white" sounds, made him popular—and
controversial—as did his uninhibited stage
and television performances.
• In the 1960s, Presley made the majority
of his 31 movies—mainly poorly reviewed,
but financially successful, musicals. In
1968, he returned to live music in a
television special, and performed across
the U.S., notably in Las Vegas. He is one of
the best-selling and most influential
artists in the history of music. Health
problems, drug dependency and other
factors led to his death at age 42.
Elvis Presley:
Rock 'n' roll began with him in mid-50s. He defined
its genre and gave its power.
"it was Elvis who made rock 'n' roll the international
language of pop."
"an American music giant of the 20th century who
single-handedly changed the course of music and
culture in the mid-1950s."
"Before Elvis, there was nothing.“
-----------John Lennon
Elvis Presley
• On June 11, 1963, George
Wallace, blocked the door to the
school’s registration building to
keep the new black students
from registering, and finally
compromised.
• George Wallace is famous for his
strongly fighting against the
Desegregation. He was on the
position of the Governor of
Alabama for four terms. And he
was involved in the election for
presidency from 1964 to 1972
and ended up with four failures
(as a Democrat three times and
in the American Independent
Party once). He was assassinated
in 1972 and then paralyzed.
(August 25, 1919 –
September 13, 1998), the
45th Governor of Alabama,
serving four terms: 1963–
1967, 1971–1979 and
1983–1987. "The most
influential loser" in 20thcentury U.S. politics
Civil Rights Movement--a challenge to segregation


Black Freedom Movement / Negro Revolution / Second
Reconstruction
political, legal, and social struggle
purpose
to gain full citizenship rights
to achieve racial equality
activities
protest marches
boycotts
refusal to abide by segregation laws
Beginning---- the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955
Ending---- the Voting Rights Act of 1965


John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May
29, 1917 – November 22, 1963),
often referred to by his initials
JFK, was the 35th President of
the United States, serving from
1961 until his assassination in
1963.
To date, he is the only Catholic to
be president. He was the secondyoungest President (after
Theodore Roosevelt), and the
youngest elected to the office, at
the age of 43. Kennedy is also
the only president to have won a
Pulitzer Prize. Events during his
administration include the Cuban
Missile Crisis, the building of the
Berlin Wall, the Space Race, the
African American Civil Rights
Movement and early events of
the Vietnam War.

Kennedy was assassinated on November 22,
1963, in Dallas, Texas. Lee Harvey Oswald
was charged with the crime but was murdered
two days later by Jack Ruby before he could
be put on trial. Today, Kennedy continues to
rank highly in public opinion ratings of former
U.S. presidents.

Bob Dylan (born
Robert Allen
Zimmerman on
May 24, 1941) is
an American
singersongwriter,
author, poet, and
painter, who has
been a major
figure in popular
music for five
decades.

Throughout his career, Dylan has won many awards
for his songwriting, performing, and recording. His
records have earned Grammy, Golden Globe, and
Academy Awards, and he has been inducted into
the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Nashville
Songwriters Hall of Fame and Songwriters Hall of
Fame. In 2008, a "Cultural Pathway" was named in
Dylan's honor in his birthplace, Duluth. In 2008, he
was awarded a Pulitzer Prize Special Citation for his
"profound impact on popular music and American
culture, marked by lyrical compositions of
extraordinary poetic power."
Vietnam War (from 1959 to April 30, 1975 )---America's
Longest War
North Vietnamese &
National Liberation Front (NLF)
Vietnamese Communists
War
VS
United States forces &
South Vietnamese army
non-Communist Vietnamese
Fear of spread of Communism
Vietnam was reunified
in 1975
defeated by North Vietnamese
Anti-Vietnam War
movement(1965–73)





3.2 million Vietnamese
58,000 Americans
more than 2 million American veterans
over $150 billion dollars
demonstrations and marches by college
students, elected politicians, clergy, ect.
Vietnam War
Soldiers carry a wounded comrade
through a swampy area
amid the dense jungles of South Vietnam.
Anti-war protest
The 'March on the Pentagon' in October 1967 drew over 50,000 protestors
and marked the beginning of large-scale anti-war protests.
songs
• Lyndon Baines
Johnson (August 27,
1908 – January 22,
1973), often referred
to as LBJ, was the
36th President of the
United States (1963–
1969) and 35th Vice
President of the
United States (1961–
1963).
• Johnson, a Democrat, succeeded to the
presidency following the assassination of
President John F. Kennedy, completed Kennedy's
term and was elected President in his own right in
a landslide victory in the 1964 Presidential
election. Johnson was a major leader of the
Democratic Party and as President was
responsible for designing the "Great Society"
legislation that included civil rights laws,
Medicare (government-funded health care for the
elderly), Medicaid (government-funded health
care for the poor), aid to education, and the "War
on Poverty." Simultaneously, he escalated the
American involvement in the Vietnam War from
16,000 American soldiers in 1963 to 500,000 in
early 1968.
• Johnson died after suffering his third heart
attack, on January 22, 1973.
• The Black Panther Party
(originally the Black
Panther Party for SelfDefense) was an AfricanAmerican organization
established to promote
Black Power and selfdefense through acts of
social agitation(鼓动, 煽
动). It was active in the
United States from the
mid-1960s into the 1970s.
• Wesley: the president of Berkeley of
SDS（Students for a Democratic
Society）
• Berkeley: American youth culture
movement center in 1960s
• The Apollo 11
mission was the
first manned
mission to land on
the Moon. It was
the fifth human
spaceflight of
Project Apollo and
the third human
voyage to the Moon.
It was also the
second all-veteran
crew in manned
spaceflight history.
• Launched on July 16, 1969, it carried
Commander Neil Alden Armstrong,
Command Module Pilot Michael Collins and
Lunar Module Pilot Edwin Eugene 'Buzz'
Aldrin, Jr. On July 20, Armstrong and
Aldrin became the first humans to land on
the Moon, while Collins orbited above.
• “One small step for man, one giant leap for
mankind”
Ping-Pong diplomacy
Ordinary people affect Chinese-U.S. relations
Ping Pong Diplomacy (Chinese: 乒乓外交) refers
to the exchange of ping pong players of the
United States and People's Republic of China
(PRC) in the 1970s. The event marked a thaw(融
化, 解冻) in U.S.–China relations that paved the
way to a visit to Beijing by President Richard
Nixon.
Premier Zhou said: "By visiting our country you have
opened the gate for the exchanges between the
people of the two nations. We believe that a
friendly exchange will win approval and support
from both the Chinese and American peoples."

Richard Milhous Nixon
(January 9, 1913 – April
22, 1994) was the 37th
President of the United
States (1969–1974) and
the only president to
resign the office. He
was also the 36th Vice
President of the United
States (1953–1961).
John Winston Lennon (later John Ono
Lennon): (Oct 9, 1940– Dec 8, 1980)
He was best known as a singer, songwriter, and
guitarist for The Beatles. His creative career
also included the roles of solo musician,
political activist, artist, actor and author.
He is recognized as one of the musical icons of
the 20th century.
In 2002, the BBC conducted a vote to discover
the 100 Greatest Britons of all time, and the
British public voted Lennon into 8th place.
John Lennon
Watergate Scandal

In the 1972, Nixon sought a re-election for
presidency against his Democratic challenger. A
group of burglars working for the Committee to Reelect the President broke into the headquarters of
the Democratic National Committee at the
Watergate office-apartment complex in Washington,
D.C., apparently in search of political intelligence.
Nixon’s own White House tape recordings revealed
that the president and his assistants had engaged in
an obstruction of justice. On Aug. 9, 1974, Nixon
resigned his office.
Watergate Scandal
The Watergate Scandal:
the name given to illegal activities designed to help President
Nixon win re-election in nineteen seventy -two.
suffix -gate : scandals associated with the government.
zippergate(拉练门)
Irangate(伊朗门)
Informationgate（情报门）
Watergate Scandal

Break in ---In June of 1972, 5 young men break
into the Watergate Hotel trying to bug(装窃听器)
telephones

Deep Throat: the informant(告密者) who gave
Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl
Bernstein information that helped to expose the
Nixon administration's role in the Watergate Scandal.