On January 23, the Twenty-fourth Amendment to the Constitution, which abolishes the poll tax in federal elections, becomes law with its ratification by South Dakota.
On February 19, Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique is released. The book would initiate the second wave of feminism and eventually sell over three million copies.
Massachusetts Senator John Kennedy defeats Vice President Richard Nixon on November 8 in one of the closest elections in U.S. history. The senator becomes the thirty-fifth President of the United States.
The National Defense Education Act, which authorized federally supported loans and grants to college students, was signed into law by President Eisenhower on September 2.
The Little Rock School Desegregation Crisis begins on September 4. President Eisenhower calls in the 101st Airborne Division of the U.S. Army to protect the nine children attempting to integrate the school. Elements of the Division remain there until May 1958.
