1960's

  • SNCC formed

    SNCC formed
    The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC, often pronounced /snɪk/ SNIK) was one of the major Civil Rights Movement organizations of the 1960s. It emerged from the first wave of student sit-ins and formed at an April 1960 meeting organized by Ella Baker at Shaw University.
  • First televised Presidential debate

    First televised Presidential debate
    On Sept. 26, 1960, 70 million American viewers watched the first of four televised presidential debates between candidates Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy. They were the first debates ever to be held between the presidential nominees of the two major parties during the election season.
  • President Kennedy is elected

    President Kennedy is elected
    The United States presidential election of 1960 was the 44th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 8, 1960. In a closely contested election, Democrat John F. Kennedy defeated incumbent Vice President Richard Nixon, the Republican Party nominee.
  • Russians send the first man into space

    Russians send the first man into space
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    On 12 April 1961, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to travel into space when he launched into orbit on the Vostok 3KA-3 spacecraft (Vostok 1).
  • Berlin Wall is constructed

    Berlin Wall is constructed
    In an effort to stem the tide of refugees attempting to leave East Berlin, the communist government of East Germany begins building the Berlin Wall to divide East and West Berlin. Construction of the wall caused a short-term crisis in U.S.-Soviet bloc relations, and the wall itself came to symbolize the Cold War.
  • Roger Maris of the Yankees breaks Babe Ruth's single season home run record

    Roger Maris of the Yankees breaks Babe Ruth's single season home run record
    On October 1, 1961, New York Yankee Roger Maris becomes the first-ever major-league baseball player to hit more than 60 home runs in a single season. The great Babe Ruth set the record in 1927
  • SDS releases its Port Huron statement

    SDS releases its Port Huron statement
    The Port Huron Statement is a 1962 political manifesto of the North American student activist movement Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). It was written primarily by Tom Hayden, a University of Michigan student and then the Field Secretary of SDS, with help from 58 other SDS members, and completed on June 15, 1962, at a United Auto Workers retreat in Port Huron, Michigan (now Lakeport State Park), for the group’s first national convention.
  • Marilyn Monroe dies

    Marilyn Monroe dies
    Marilyn Monroe was found dead on August 5, 1962, at her 12305 Fifth Helena Drive home in Los Angeles of a barbiturate overdose. She was a major sex symbol and one of the most popular Hollywood stars during the 1950s and early 1960s. She was a top-billed actress for a decade, and her films grossed $200 million by 1962.
  • James Meredith registers at Ole Miss

    James Meredith registers at Ole Miss
    The Ole Miss riot of 1962, or Battle of Oxford, was fought between Southern segregationists and federal and state forces beginning the night of September 30, 1962; segregationists were protesting the enrollment of James Meredith, a black US military veteran, at the University of Mississippi (known affectionately as Ole Miss) at Oxford, Mississippi.
  • Cuban missile crisis

    Cuban missile crisis
    The Cuban Missile Crisis, also known as the October Crisis of 1962.was a 13-day (October 16–28 1962) confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union concerning American ballistic missile deployment in Italy and Turkey with consequent Soviet ballistic missile deployment in Cuba.
  • "Dr.No" the first James Bond movie premiers

    "Dr.No" the first James Bond movie premiers
    On May 21st 1963, with the release of Dr. No, moviegoers get their first look–down the barrel of a gun–at the super-spy James Bond (codename: 007), the immortal character created by Ian Fleming in his now-famous series of novels and portrayed onscreen by the relatively unknown Scottish actor Sean Connery
  • Dr.King's "I Have A Dream" Speech

    Dr.King's "I Have A Dream" Speech
    "I Have a Dream" is a public speech delivered by American civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963, in which he calls for an end to racism in the United States and called for civil and economic rights.
  • John F Kennedy is assassinated

    John F Kennedy is assassinated
    John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy, commonly referred to by his initials JFK, was an American politician who served as the 35th President of the United States from January 1961 until his assassination in November 1963.
  • The Beatles arrive in the United States

    The Beatles arrive in the United States
    Exactly 50 years ago today, John, Paul, George and Ringo arrived for their first U.S. visit with little idea what lay in store for them. The Beatles, from left to right, Ringo Starr, John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison, make a windswept arrival at JFK airport in New York City on Feb. 7, 1964.
  • The Beatles appear on Ed Sullivan

    The Beatles appear on Ed Sullivan
    On February 9th, 1964, The Beatles, with their Edwardian suits and mop top haircuts, made their first American television appearance—LIVE—on The Ed Sullivan Show. A record setting 73 million people tuned in that evening making it one of the seminal moments in television history.
  • New York World's Fair begins

    New York World's Fair begins
    The 1964/1965 New York World's Fair held over 140 pavilions, 110 restaurants, for 80 nations (hosted by 37), 24 US states, and over 45 corporations to build exhibits or attractions at Flushing Meadows Park in Queens, NY.
  • Gulf of Tonkin Incident

    Gulf of Tonkin Incident
    The Gulf of Tonkin incident, also known as the USS Maddox incident, was an international confrontation that led to the United States engaging more directly in the Vietnam War.
  • Lyndon B Johnson defeats Barry Goldwater

    Lyndon B Johnson defeats Barry Goldwater
    It was held on Tuesday, November 3, 1964. Incumbent Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson defeated Barry Goldwater, the Republican nominee. ... At the 1964 Democratic National Convention, Johnson also won the nomination of his preferred running mate, Senator Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota.
  • Malcolm X assassinated

    Malcolm X assassinated
    On February 21, 1965, Malcolm X was shot before he was about to deliver a speech about his new organization called the Organization of Afro-American Unity. Reporters inspect the scene of the assassination, inside the Audobon Ballroom in New York.
  • Watts race riots

    Watts race riots
    The Watts riots, sometimes referred to as the Watts Rebellion, took place in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles from August 11 to 16, 1965.
  • First airing of "The Flintstones"

    First airing of "The Flintstones"
    It was originally broadcast from September 30, 1960, to April 1, 1966, in a prime time schedule, the first such instance for an animated series. The continuing popularity of The Flintstones rested heavily on its juxtaposition of modern everyday concerns in the Stone Age setting.
  • "Star Trek" TV show airs

    "Star Trek" TV show airs
    Season 1 (1966–67) After Roddenberry's second pilot episode, "Where No Man Has Gone Before", received a more favorable response from NBC, Star Trek finally aired its first episode—"The Man Trap"—at 8:30PM on September 8, 1966.
  • LSD declared illegal by the U.S. government

    LSD declared illegal by the U.S. government
    The psychedelic drug (or entheogen) lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) was first synthesized on November 16, 1938 by the Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann in the Sandoz (now Novartis) laboratories in Basel, Switzerland.[1] It was not until five years later on April 16, 1943, that the psychedelic properties were found.
    First declared illegal in California then Federally banned the next year.
  • San Francisco "Summer of Love" begins

    San Francisco "Summer of Love" begins
    For the concurrent period of race riots during the American civil rights movement, see Long hot summer of 1967.
  • First NFL Football Super Bowl

    First NFL Football Super Bowl
    The first AFL-NFL World Championship Game in professional American football, known retroactively as Super Bowl I and referred to in some contemporaneous reports, including the game's radio broadcast, as the Super Bowl,[7] was played on January 15, 1967 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles, California. The National Football League (NFL) champion Green Bay Packers defeated the American Football League (AFL) champion Kansas City Chiefs by the score of 35–10.
  • Boxer Muhammad Ali refuses military service

    Boxer Muhammad Ali refuses military service
    On April 28, 1967, boxing champion Muhammad Ali refuses to be inducted into the U.S. Army and is immediately stripped of his heavyweight title. Ali, a Muslim, cited religious reasons for his decision to forgo military service.
  • Beatles release Sgt. Pepper's album

    Beatles release Sgt. Pepper's album
    Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is the eighth studio album by English rock band the Beatles. Released on 26 May 1967 in the United Kingdom and 2 June 1967 in the United States, it was an immediate commercial and critical success, spending 27 weeks at the top of the UK albums chart and 15 weeks at number one in the US.
  • Thurgood Marshall nominated to the Supreme Court

    Thurgood Marshall nominated to the Supreme Court
    President Lyndon Johnson appoints U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Thurgood Marshall to fill the seat of retiring Supreme Court Associate Justice Tom C. Clark. On August 30, after a heated debate, the Senate confirmed Marshall's nomination by a vote of 69 to 11.
  • Monterey Music Festival

    Monterey Music Festival
    The Monterey International Pop Music Festival was a three-day concert event held June 16 to June 18, 1967 at the Monterey County Fairgrounds in Monterey, California.
  • Tet Offensive

    Tet Offensive
    The Tet Offensive was a coordinated series of North Vietnamese attacks on more than 100 cities and outposts in South Vietnam.
  • Martin Luther KIng Jr. assassinated

    Martin Luther KIng Jr. assassinated
    On Thursday, April 4, 1968, King was staying in room 306 at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. The motel was owned by businessman Walter Bailey and named after his wife.
  • Robert Kennedy is assassinated

    Robert Kennedy is assassinated
    Robert Francis Kennedy was an American politician and lawyer who served as a United States Senator from New York from January 1965 until his assassination in June 1968.
  • Protests at the 1968 Democratic National Convention

    Protests at the 1968 Democratic National Convention
    On this day in 1968, at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, tens of thousands of Vietnam War protesters battle police in the streets, while the Democratic Party falls apart over an internal disagreement concerning its stance on Vietnam.
  • Richard Nixon is elected

    Richard Nixon is elected
    The United States presidential election of 1968 was the 46th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 5, 1968. The Republican nominee, former Vice President Richard Nixon, defeated the Democratic nominee, incumbent Vice President Hubert Humphrey.
  • Stonewall riots

    Stonewall riots
    The Stonewall riots (also referred to as the Stonewall uprising or the Stonewall rebellion) were a series of spontaneous, violent demonstrations by members of the gay (LGBT) community[note 1] against a police raid that took place in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City.
  • American astronauts land on the moon

    American astronauts land on the moon
    Apollo 11 blasted off on July 16, 1969. Neil Armstrong, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin and Michael Collins were the astronauts on Apollo 11. Four days later, Armstrong and Aldrin landed on the moon. They landed on the moon in the Lunar Module.
  • Manson family murders

    Manson family murders
    The Tate murders were a series of killings conducted by members of the Manson Family on August 8–9, 1969, which claimed the lives of five people, one of them pregnant. Four members of the Family invaded the home of married celebrity couple, actress Sharon Tate and director Roman Polanski at 10050 Cielo Drive in Los Angeles. They murdered Tate (who was eight and a half months pregnant)
  • Woodstock concert

    Woodstock concert
    The Woodstock Music & Art Fair—informally, the Woodstock Festival or simply Woodstock— was a music festival in the United States in 1969 which attracted an audience of more than 400,000.
  • The Rolling Stones host the Altamont music festival

    The Rolling Stones host the Altamont music festival
    WoodStock of the west.