Lyndon B. Johnson Timeline

1908 Aug 27 Lyndon B Johnson is Born
Johnson was born near Stonewall, Texas, on August 27, 1908, in a small farmhouse on the Pedernales River. His parents, Samuel Ealy Johnson, Jr. and Rebekah Baines, had three girls and two...
1912 Dec 22 Lady Bird Johnson is Born
Claudia Alta "Lady Bird" Taylor Johnson (December 22, 1912 – July 11, 2007) was First Lady of the United States from 1963 to 1969 during the presidency of her husband Lyndon B. Johnson. T...
1926 Lyndon B Johnson Enrolls in Southwest Texas State
In 1926, Johnson enrolled in Southwest Texas State Teachers' College (now Texas State University-San Marcos). He worked his way through school, participated in debate and campus politics,...
1934 Nov 17 Lyndon B Johnson Marries Claudia Alta Taylor
Johnson married Claudia Alta Taylor (already nicknamed "Lady Bird") of Karnack, Texas on November 17, 1934 after having attended Georgetown University Law School for several months. They ...
1937 Apr 10
to 1949 Jan 3
 Lyndon B. Johnson Serves as US Representative for the 10th Congressional District of Texas
In 1937 Johnson successfully contested a special election for Texas's 10th congressional district, which covered Austin and the surrounding hill country. He ran on a New Deal platform and...
1948 Nov 2 Lyndon B. Johnson Wins Texas Senate Seat
Johnson defeats Republican candidate Jack Porter in the general election to win the Senate seat vacated by Senator W. Lee “Pappy” O'Daniel. During the dramatic 1948 campaign, he travels b...
1960 Nov 8 John F. Kennedy Elected 35th U.S. President
On Tuesday, November 8, Kennedy defeated Nixon in one of the closest presidential elections of the twentieth century. In the national popular vote Kennedy led Nixon by just two-tenths of ...
1961 May Vice President Johnson Tours Saigon
In May 1961, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson visited Saigon and enthusiastically declared Diem the "Winston Churchill of Asia." Asked why he had made the comment, Johnson replied, "Diem'...
1961 Jun 24 John F. Kennedy Assigns Lyndon Johnson The Task Of Unifying The U.S. Satellite Programs
On May 25, 1961, President Kennedy declared to a joint session of Congress his belief that the nation should commit itself to landing a man on the moon by the end of the decade. This miss...
1963 Nov 22 Lyndon B. Johnson is Sworn in as US President
Two hours and eight minutes after President Kennedy was assassinated in a motorcade at Dealey Plaza, Dallas, Texas, Johnson was sworn in as President on Air Force One in Dallas at Love Fi...
1963 Nov 29 Lyndon B. Johnson Establishes the Warren Commission to Investigate the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy
The President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, known unofficially as the Warren Commission, was established on November 29, 1963, by Lyndon B. Johnson to investigat...
1964 Jul 2 President Johnson Signs Civil Rights Act of 1964 into Law
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Pub.L. 88-352, 78 Stat. 241, July 2, 1964) was a landmark piece of legislation in the United States that outlawed racial segregation in schools, public place...
1964 Aug 2 Gulf of Tonkin Incident
Amid steadily rising tensions over North Vietnam's activities in Laos and South Vietnam, at the end of July 1964 USS Maddox entered the Gulf of Tonkin for a cruise along the North Vietnam...
1964 Aug 7 Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
The Tonkin Gulf Resolution (officially, the Southeast Asia Resolution, Public Law 88-408) was a joint resolution of the United States Congress passed on August 7, 1964 in response to two ...
1964 Sep 27 Warren Commission Report Released to the Public
The Warren Commission’s conclusion that Oswald was a "lone gunman" failed to satisfy some who witnessed the attack and others whose research found conflicting details in the commission’s ...
1964 Dec 14
to 1973 Mar 29
 Operation Barrel Roll Begins
On 12 December 1964, Barrel Roll was approved by Souvanna Phouma. The program originally consisted of only two U.S bombing sorties per week that were to be conducted by no more than four ...
1965 U.S. President Lyndon Johnson's Science Advisory Committee issues report on global warming
The report of the Environmental Pollution Panel, President's Science Advisory Committee, dated November 1965, is entitled "Restoring the Quality of Our Environment" (Government Printing O...
1965 Jan 20 Lyndon Baines Johnson, the 36th president of the United States, is inaugurated for his first full term
President Johnson had first taken the oath of office on board Air Force One on November 22, 1963, the day President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. The election of 1964 was a landsli...
1965 Feb Operation Flaming Dart
Operation Flaming Dart was a U.S. military operation, conducted in two parts, during the Vietnam War. United States President Lyndon B. Johnson in February 1965 ordered a series of rep...
1965 Jun 18 Operation Arc Light Begins
Operation Arc Light was the 1965 deployment of B-52F Stratofortress as conventional bombers from bases in the US to Guam. By extension, Arc light, and sometimes Arclight, is the code name...
1965 Jul 30 President Lyndon B. Johnson Signs The Social Security Act of 1965 into Law, Creating Medicare
While President Lyndon B. Johnson was responsible for signing the bill, there were many others involved in drafting the final bill that was introduced to the United States Congress in Mar...
1965 Aug 6 Lyndon B. Johnson Signs National Voting Rights Act of 1965 into Law
The National Voting Rights Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. § 1973–1973aa-6) outlawed discriminatory voting practices that had been responsible for the widespread disenfranchisement of African Amer...
1965 Nov 8 Ted Kennedy Wins Passage of a Bill Establishing the National Teacher Corps as Part of the Higher Education Act
The Higher Education Act of 1965 (Pub. L. No. 89-329) (the "HSA") was legislation signed into United States law on November 8, 1965 as part of President Lyndon Johnson's Great Society dom...
1967 Jun 13 President Lyndon Johnson Appoints Thurgood Marshall, First African-American Supreme Court Member
Thurgood Marshall (July 2, 1908 – January 24, 1993) was an American jurist and the first African American to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States. Before becoming a judge, he w...
1967 Aug 30 Thurgood Marshall Confirmed as Supreme Court Justice
On June 13, 1967, President Johnson nominated Marshall to the Supreme Court following the retirement of Justice Tom C. Clark, saying that this was "the right thing to do, the right time t...
1973 Jan 22 President Lyndon B. Johnson Dies
Lyndon Baines Johnson died at his ranch at 4:39 p.m. on January 22, 1973 at age 64, from a third myocardial infarction (heart attack). His death came two days after Nixon's second Inaugur...
2007 Jul 11 Lady Bird Johnson Dies
Claudia Alta "Lady Bird" Taylor Johnson (December 22, 1912 – July 11, 2007) was First Lady of the United States from 1963 to 1969 during the presidency of her husband Lyndon B. Johnson. T...