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James Meredith earns his degree from Ole Miss

Eleven months after federal marshals walked him to class through riots, he leaves with a degree in political science.

In September 1962, James Meredith's enrollment at the University of Mississippi had touched off riots so violent that President Kennedy sent federal troops to Oxford to restore order. On August 18, 1963, Meredith walked across the stage and became the first African American to receive a degree from the university. He endured a year of isolation and harassment from classmates to get there. The ceremony closed a fight that began with his 1961 application and a federal court order…

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More from August 18

Tennessee ratifies; the 19th Amendment clears its final hurdle

A 24-year-old legislator's last-minute switch gives suffrage the 36th state it needed.

White comes home to Roanoke and finds it empty; the houses are taken down

He lands on his granddaughter's third birthday and finds only a carved word where his colony used to be.

Hall finds a second Martian moon, tucked in close to the planet

Six days after spotting Deimos, the Naval Observatory astronomer confirms an inner satellite so near Mars it nearly hides in the glare.

Through rain and mud, Union soldiers reach the Weldon Railroad, then dig in after a Confederate counterattack pushes them back a mile.

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More from Cold War America

A bomb tears through a Birmingham Sunday school; four girls are dead

The blast hit minutes after an anonymous caller warned the church secretary: three minutes.

Yeltsin stops at a Texas supermarket and asks what it costs to feed a family

Twenty minutes at Randalls #30 in Webster leaves the Soviet leader stunned into silence on the flight to Miami.

The law takes hold: America wakes to a Defense Department and a new spy agency

One day after Forrestal's confirmation, the government's wartime agencies formally give way to a unified national security machine.

A van bomb tears into the US embassy annex at Aukar, killing 23

Guards' gunfire kept the van from reaching the building; it still detonated close enough to rip off the front wall.

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