Happy October, St. Louis! The Gateway Arch’s 50^th anniversary month is finally here, and we can’t wait to celebrate with you on October 24 & 28. First, let’s take a trip down memory lane and see what was happening in the world in 1965.

• January 24: Journalist and former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, known for leading the fight against Adolf Hitler in World War II, died at his London home at age 90 after suffering a severe stroke nine days earlier.

• March 2: The Sound of Music, one of the top-grossing films of 1965, premiered. It remains one of film’s most popular musicals today.

• March 7: On a day that would later become known as “Bloody Sunday,” approximately 600 protesters attempting to march from Selma, Ala., to the state capital of Montgomery to protest voter-registration rules were met with violent resistance by state and local authorities. After multiple attempts organized by Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., protestors finally reached the capitol steps on March 25, with the crowd growing to 25,000.

• March 8: The first U.S. combat troops, the 9^th Marine Expeditionary Brigade, arrived in Vietnam. By the end of the year, over 200,000 American troops were in the area.

• June 3: During the Gemini 4 mission, Edward White II became the first American to walk in space. His spacewalk lasted slightly over 20 minutes. (Russian Alexei Leonov was the first person to walk in space, and he did so on March 19, 1965.)

• August 6: The Voting Rights Act was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson. The Act aimed to eradicate legal barriers at both the state and local levels that prevented African Americans from exercising their right to vote.

• October 14: The Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the Minnesota Twins in seven games to win the 1965 World Series.

• October 28: The final piece of the Gateway Arch was put into place, completing construction of the nation’s tallest man-made monument.