60's Timeline

  • New York World’s Fair begins

    On April 30, 1939, a very hot Sunday, the fair had its grand opening, with 206,000 people in attendance.
  • 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 airing of “The Flintstones”

    The very first episode aired on September 30, 1960. Titled "The Flintstone Flyer" (P-2), it was actually the second Flintstones episode produced (after The Swimming Pool, P-1), but the first to air.
  • President Kennedy is Elected

    The 1960 United States presidential election was the 44th quadrennial presidential election. In a closely contested election, Democratic United States Senator John F. Kennedy defeated the incumbent Vice President Richard Nixon, the Republican Party nominee.
  • First televised Presidential debate

    Which presidential campaign produced the first nationally televised debate? The typical answer to that question is 1960, Kennedy v. Nixon.
  • 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

    It was written by SDS members, and completed on June 15, 1962, at a United Auto Workers (UAW) retreat outside of Port Huron, Michigan (now part of Lakeport State Park), for the group's first national convention.
  • Marilyn Monroe Dies

    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

    Meredith was finally allowed to register for courses on Oct. 1, 1962.
  • “Dr. No” the first James Bond movie premiers

    The campaign also included the 007 logo designed by Joseph Caroff with a pistol as part of the seven. Dr. No had its worldwide premiere at the London Pavilion, on 5 October 1962, expanding to the rest of the United Kingdom three days later.
  • Cuban Missile Crisis

    The Cuban Missile Crisis, also known as the October Crisis of 1962, the Caribbean Crisis, or the Missile Scare, was a one-month, four-day confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union
  • 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 on August 28, 1963. In the speech, King called for civil and economic rights and an end to racism in the United States.
  • John F Kennedy is Assassinated

    John F. Kennedy was killed in parkland memorial hospital, Dallas Texas.
  • The Beatles Arrive in the United States

    The Beatles arrived at John F Kennedy airport in New York, greeted by thousands of screaming fans.
  • The Beatles appear on Ed Sullivan

    At 8 o'clock on February 9th 1964, America tuned in to CBS and The Ed Sullivan Show. But this night was different. 73 million people gathered in front their TV sets to see The Beatles' first live performance on U.S. soil.
  • Lyndon B Johnson defeats Barry Goldwater

    It was held on Tuesday, November 3, 1964. 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

    Malcolm X was an African-American Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a prominent figure during the civil rights movement. A spokesman for the Nation of Islam until 1964, he was a vocal advocate for black empowerment and the promotion of Islam within the black community.
  • Watts race riots

    The Watts riots, sometimes referred to as the Watts Rebellion or Watts Uprising, took place in the Watts neighborhood and its surrounding areas of Los Angeles from August 11 to 16, 1965. On August 11, 1965, Marquette Frye, a 21-year-old African American man, was pulled over for drunken driving.
  • “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

    hen some 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 of the NFL smash the American Football League AFL's Kansas City Chiefs, 35-10, in the first-ever AFL vs NFL World Championship, later known as Super Bowl I, at Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles.
  • Boxer Muhammed Ali refuses military service

    When Ali arrived to be inducted in the United States Armed Forces, however, he refused, citing his religion forbade him from serving. The cost for his refusal would prove to be drastic: the stripping of his heavyweight title, a suspension from boxing, a $10,000 fine, and a five-year prison sentence.
  • Beatles release Sgt. Pepper’s album

  • Thurgood Marshall nominated to the Supreme Court

    President Johnson nominated Marshall in June 1967 to replace the retiring Justice Tom Clark, who left the Court after his son, Ramsey Clark, became Attorney General.
  • 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.
  • The 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

    Baptist minister and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated by James Earl Ray in Memphis, Tennessee on April 4, 1968.
  • Robert Kennedy is assassinated

    He was pronounced dead at the PIH Health Good Samaratain Hospital in Los Angles, Californa.
  • 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 Stonewall riots were a series of spontaneous demonstrations by members of the gay community in response to a police raid that began in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City, New York, United States of America.
  • American astronauts land on the moon

    American astronauts Neil Armstrong (1930-2012) and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin (1930-) became the first humans ever to land on the moon.
  • Woodstock Concert

    Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to simply as Woodstock,
  • The Rolling Stones host the Altamont music festival

    On December 6, 1969, about 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.
  • Richard Nixon is Elected

    Defeating Hubert Humphrey and George Wallace in a close contest. Nixon formally ended American involvement in Vietnam combat in 1973, and with it, the military draft, that same year.