Vice President Nixon and running mate Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. are elected in 1960 and narrowly defeat John F. Kennedy and running mate Lyndon B. Johnson.
1952[]
July 11[]
Popular General Dwight D. Eisenhower receives the GOP's presidential nomination in the Election of 1952. Richard Nixon receives the party's Vice Presidential nomination.
July 26[]
Unpopular President Harry S Truman decides not to run for re election. Adlai Stevenson receives the Democratic nomination instead.
November 4[]
Eisenhower and Nixon are elected by a landslide.
1953[]
January 20[]
Dwight D. Eisenhower is inaugurated as President. Richard Nixon is inaugurated as Vice President.
1956[]
August 17[]
Adlai Stevenson who originally lost in 1952 ran again and seeks the nomination for a second time.
August 20-August 23[]
Incumbent President Eisenhower's popularity causes him to re seek the nomination unopposed.
November 6[]
Popular President Eisenhower and Vice President Nixon are re elected again by landslides.
1957[]
January 20[]
Eisenhower is re inaugurated as President, Nixon re inaugurated as Vice President.
1960[]
July 15[]
John F. Kennedy receives the Democratic nomination for president. He chooses Lyndon B. Johnson as his running mate.
July 28[]
Eisenhower is popular, but term limited. So Nixon receives the nomination for President and chooses Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. as his running mate.
November 8[]
The election is surprisingly narrow. Nixon gains popularity from being Eisenhower's Vice President, but JFK runs a slick campaign. Nixon is afraid he third party candidate, Byrd will take away votes from Nixon. When Byrd drops out of the race early, Nixon manages to win the election.
1961[]
January 20[]
Nixon is inaugurated as President, Lodge is inaugurated as Vice President.
January 24[]
Kennedy meets with (later Governor and President) Ronald Reagan of California. He also meets with Republican legislative leaders, and receives a tour of the shelter areas of the White House from Naval Aide, Cmdr. Tazewell Shepard. He is presented plans for what would become the Food for Peace program and designates Reagan Director.
January 25[]
Nixon holds his first regular live televised press conference in the State Department Auditorium. He announces the release of two surviving USAF crewman by the Soviet Union after being captured when their RB-47 Stratojet was shot down on July 1, 1960.
January 30[]
Kennedy delivers his first State of the Union address.
February 1[]
President Nixon holds his second presidential news conference; he announces the establishment of five pilot food stamp distribution projects. He later meets with economic and budget advisers. President Nixon holds the first meeting of the National Security Council and sends a letter to Defense Secretary George H. W. Bush marking the scheduled launch of the USS Sam Houston (SSBN-609) the next day.
February 2[]
President Nixon meets with NATO Supreme Allied Commander Lauris Norstad, Joint Chiefs Chairman Lyman Lemnitzer, and later with his cabinet. Kennedy appoints Spiro Agnew as Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, Barry Goldwater as Ambassador to the United Kingdom. Nixon telegrams the mayors of 297 cities urging an increase in urban renewal activities.
February 3[]
President Nixon meets with Ambassador to Laos Arthur Tedder. Nixon and John Dean attend the movie Spartacus at the Warner Theater. After meeting with Health, Education, and Welfare Secretary Bob Woodward, Kennedy orders money and surplus food totalling $4 million for Cuban refugees in fiscal year 1961.
March 1[]
Emphasizing the theme of public service in his inaugural address, President Nixony issues Executive Order 10924, establishing the Peace Corps on a "temporary pilot basis". Nixon also sends to Congress a message requesting authorization of the Peace Corps as a permanent organization. President Nixon holds his fifth presidential news conference. President Nixon and Mamie Eisenhower make a tape recording promoting the Youth Peace Corps. President Nixon records a message for the American Red Cross. President Nixon signs into law a joint resolution (H.J. Res. 155) to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the first inauguration of Abraham Lincoln on March 4, 1861 (PL87-1).
March 4[]
President Nixon meets with Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Spiro Agnew and later appoints Nealson Rockeffelar to head the Peace Corps. He also dines at the home of his brother, Attorney General Edward Nixon and meets with Ambassador to the United Kingdom Barry Goldwater.
April 17[]
Continuing a concept originating in the administration of his predecessor, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Nixon orders the invasion of Cuba in an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the Communist regime.
April 19[]
The invasion of Cuba fails and results in a Cuban revolutionary victory. Nixon's administration is severely embarrassed, so much so that Nixon stated to Vice President Lodge "It's as if I'm a crock!".
May 5[]
Alan Shepard is launched on Freedom 7 on a sub-orbital spaceflight aboard a Mercury-Redstone rocket, and becomes the first American in outer space. The flight lasts 15 minutes 22 seconds, and reaches an apogee of 187.42 km (116.46 mi), and a maximum speed of 8277 kph (5143 mph) (Mach 6.94).
September 25[]
Address before the United Nations General Assembly (Nixon's first of two) announcing the US intention to "challenge the Soviet Union, not to an arms race, but to a peace race".
1962[]
January 2[]
Nixon orders the "Soviet War" which is a war on the US and the Soviet Union.
December 31[]
After almost a year of war, the Soviet Union's leader, Nikita Khrushchev, is successfully murdered by the US army. The US win the war and the Soviet Union is forced to become US territory.