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6
Robert Kennedy is assassinated
Kennedy is fatally shot. Shortly after midnight on June 5, 1968, Senator Robert Kennedy is shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles after winning the California presidential primary. -
8
President Kennedy is elected
The 1960 United States presidential election was the 44th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 8, 1960. In a closely contested election, Democratic United States Senator John F. Kennedy defeated the incumbent Vice President Richard Nixon, the Republican Party nominee. -
16
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 was a direct and dangerous confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War and was the moment when the two superpowers came closest to nuclear conflict. -
20
American astronauts land on the moon
The Apollo program, also known as Project Apollo, was the third United States human spaceflight program carried out by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which succeeded in preparing and landing the first humans on the Moon from 1968 to 1972. -
20
Richard Nixon is elected
Nixon received almost 18 million more votes than McGovern, and he holds the record for the widest popular vote margin in any post–World War II United States presidential election. -
22
John F Kennedy is assassinated
John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, was assassinated on Friday, November 22, 1963, at 12:30 p.m. CST in Dallas, Texas, while riding in a presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza. -
31
Tet Offensive
The Tet Offensive was a coordinated series of North Vietnamese attacks on more than 100 cities and outposts in South Vietnam. The offensive was an attempt to foment rebellion among the South Vietnamese population and encourage the United States to scale back its involvement in the Vietnam War. Jan 31, 1968 – Sep 23, 1968 -
New York World’s Fair begins
New York World's Fair opens in New York City. The opening ceremony, which featured speeches by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and New York Governor Herbert Lehman, ushered in the first day of television broadcasting in New York. -
SNCC formed
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) was founded in April 1960 by young people dedicated to nonviolent, direct action tactics. Although Martin Luther King, Jr. -
First televised Presidential debate
In 1960, John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon squared off in the first televised presidential debates in American history. -
First airing of “The Flintstones”
"The Flintstones" was already prehistoric by design when it premiered Sept. 30, 1960. Sixty years after its launch, primetime TV's first animated series seems even older in some ways, surprisingly contemporary in others and still gets callbacks in today's popular culture. -
Russians send the first man into space
On April 12, 1961, aboard the spacecraft Vostok 1, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin becomes the first human being to travel into space. During the flight, the 27-year-old test pilot and industrial technician also became the first man to orbit the planet, a feat accomplished by his space capsule in 89 minutes. -
Berlin Wall is constructed
East German soldiers laid down more than 30 miles of barbed wire barrier through the heart of Berlin. East Berlin citizens were forbidden to pass into West Berlin, and the number of checkpoints in which Westerners could cross the border was drastically reduced. -
Roger Maris of the Yankees breaks Babe Ruth’s single season home run record
On October 1, 1961, in New York's final game of the regular season, Yankees slugger Roger Maris hits his 61st home run, becoming the first player in Major League Baseball to hit more than 60 in a season. He tops former Yankees great Babe Ruth, who hit 60 home runs in 1927. -
SDS releases its Port Huron statement
The Port Huron Statement is about democratic ideals. It's about America's emergence from World War II as the beacon of those ideals and about our country's failure to be faithful to them. -
Marilyn Monroe dies
When they broke through her window, they realized the awful truth: Marilyn Monroe died in the waning hours of August 4, in what looked like a barbiturate overdose. She was just 36 years old. -
James Meredith registers at Ole Miss
Two days later, Meredith was escorted onto the Ole Miss campus by U.S. Marshals, setting off riots that resulted in the deaths of two students. He returned the next day and began classes. In 1963, Meredith, who was a transfer student from all-Black Jackson State College, graduated with a degree in political science. -
“Dr. No” the first James Bond movie premiers
Dr. No is a 1962 spy film directed by Terence Young. It is based on the 1958 novel of the same name by Ian Fleming. Starring Sean Connery, Ursula Andress, Joseph Wiseman, and Jack Lord, it is the first film in the James Bond series, and was adapted by Richard Maibaum, Johanna Harwood, and Berkely Mather. -
Dr. King’s “I Have A Dream” Speech
"I Have a Dream" is a public speech that was delivered by American civil rights activist and Baptist minister, Martin Luther King Jr., during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom -
The Beatles arrive in the United States
Pan Am Yankee Clipper flight 101 from London Heathrow lands at New York's Kennedy Airport—and “Beatlemania” arrives. It was the first visit to the United States by the Beatles, a British rock-and-roll quartet that had just scored its first No. -
The Beatles appear on Ed Sullivan
Sullivan and his producers swiftly recognized that The Beatles were something monumental by the end of 1963. He made sure that their first live televised performance in the US would be on his show, and, on February 9th, 1964, the Beatles performed on The Ed Sullivan Show. -
Lyndon B Johnson defeats Barry Goldwater
Incumbent Democratic United States President Lyndon B. Johnson defeated Barry Goldwater, the Republican nominee, in a landslide. With 61.1% of the popular vote, Johnson won the largest share of the popular vote of any candidate since the largely uncontested 1820 election -
Malcolm X assassinated
In New York City, Malcolm X, an African American nationalist and religious leader, is assassinated while addressing his Organization of Afro-American Unity at the Audubon Ballroom in Washington Heights. He was 39. -
Watts race riots
The immediate cause of the disturbances was the arrest of an African American man, Marquette Frye, by a white California Highway Patrol officer on suspicion of driving while intoxicated. -
LSD declared illegal by the U.S. government
LSD was declared a "Schedule I" substance, legally designating that the drug has a "high potential for abuse" and is without any "currently accepted medical use in treatment." LSD was removed from legal circulation. -
“Star Trek” TV show airs
Star Trek aired on NBC from September 8, 1966, to June 3, 1969. It was first broadcast on September 6, 1966, on Canada's CTV network. Star Trek's Nielsen ratings while on NBC were low, and the network cancelled it after three seasons and 79 episodes. -
San Francisco “Summer of Love” begins
30,000 people gathered in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. They came to take part in counterculture poet Allen Ginsberg and writer Gary Synder's "Human Be-In" initiative, part of the duo's call for a collective expansion of consciousness -
First NFL Football Super Bowl
The Green Bay Packers defeat the Kansas City Chiefs 35-10 in the first-ever Super Bowl -
Boxer Muhammed Ali refuses military service
Prior to his match against Foley, Ali received news he had been drafted to fight in Vietnam. When Ali arrived to be inducted in the United States Armed Forces, however, he refused, citing his religion forbade him from serving. -
Beatles release Sgt. Pepper’s album
Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Since then, the album has been hailed by critics and listeners as the greatest in the history of rock music. It has also been recognized as a groundbreaking work that pushed the recording-studio technology of the late 1960s to the limit -
Martin Luther King Jr. assassinated
Martin Luther King Jr. was an American Baptist minister and activist who became the most visible spokesman and leader in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination -
Protests at the 1968 Democratic National Convention
Protest activity against the Vietnam War took place prior to and during the 1968 Democratic National Convention. In 1968, counterculture and anti-Vietnam War protest groups began planning protests and demonstrations in response to the convention, and the city promised to maintain law and order. -
Stonewall riots
The purpose was to protest the treatment of gay people in Cuba and US employment discrimination. These pickets shocked many gay people and upset some of the leadership of Macttachine and the DOB. -
Woodstock concert
Woodstock was the most famous of the 1960s rock festivals. Its full name was The Woodstock Music and Art Fair. It took place on a farm property in Bethel, New York -
The Rolling Stones host the Altamont music festival
300,000 gathered at the Altamont Speedway in Tracy, California to see the Rolling Stones perform a free concert that was seen as a 'Woodstock West. ' It was also supposed to be a triumphant conclusion for the band that year, following their successful U.S. tour.