60's Timeline

  • SNCC

    SNCC

    The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) was founded in 1960 in the wake of student-led sit-ins at segregated lunch counters across the South and became the major channel of student participation in the civil rights movement
  • First televised Presidential debate

    First televised Presidential debate

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

    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

    President Kennedy is elected

    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
  • Russians send the first man into space

    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

    Berlin Wall is constructed

    On the night of August 12-13, 1961, 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

    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

    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 died

    Marilyn Monroe died

    Marilyn Monroe died at age 36 of a barbiturate overdose late in the evening of Saturday, August 4, 1962, at her 12305 Fifth Helena Drive home in Los Angeles, California. Her body was discovered before dawn on Sunday, August 5
  • James Meredith registers at Ole Miss

    James Meredith registers at Ole Miss

    Meredith wanted to take a stand against segregation and white supremacy, and Ole Miss was the place to do it.
  • “Dr. No” the first James Bond movie premieres

    “Dr. No” the first James Bond movie premieres

    n fact, the producers chose Dr. No as the first Bond movie because it would be "the easiest... in terms of below-the-line costs"
  • Cuban Missile Crisis

    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
  • Dr. King’s “I Have A Dream” Speech

    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 is assassinated

    November 22, 1963, Parkland Memorial Hospital, Dallas, TX
  • The Beatles arrive in the United States

    The Beatles arrive in the United States

    On February 7, 1964, Pan Am Yankee Clipper flight 101 from London Heathrow lands at New York's Kennedy Airport—and “Beatlemania” arrives
  • The Beatles appear on Ed Sullivan

    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.
  • New York World’s Fair begins

    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.
  • Lyndon B Johnson defeated Barry Goldwater

    Lyndon B Johnson defeated 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 assassinated

    Three members of the Nation of Islam were charged with the murder and given indeterminate life sentences, but in November 2021, two of the men were exonerated
  • Watts race riots

    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” TV show airs

    Star Trek is an American science-fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry that follows the adventures of the starship USS Enterprise
  • LSD declared illegal by the U.S. government

    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.
  • San Francisco “Summer of Love” begins

    San Francisco “Summer of Love” begins

    The Summer of Love began on January 14, 1967, when 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

    First NFL Football Super Bowl

    On January 15, 1967, the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League (NFL) smash the American Football League (AFL)'s Kansas City Chiefs, 35-10, in the first-ever AFL-NFL World Championship, later known as Super Bowl I, at Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles
  • Boxer Muhammed Ali refuses military service

    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

    Beatles release Sgt. Pepper’s album

    Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is the eighth studio album by the English rock band the Beatles
  • Thurgood Marshall nominated to the Supreme Court

    Thurgood Marshall nominated to the Supreme Court

    On June 13, 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson nominated distinguished civil rights lawyer Thurgood Marshall to be the first African American justice to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States
  • 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

    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 in 1968
  • Robert Kennedy is assassinated

    Robert Kennedy is assassinated

    June 6, 1968, PIH Health Good Samaritan Hospital, Los Angeles, CA
  • Protests at the 1968 Democratic National Convention

    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.
  • Richard Nixon is elected

    Richard Nixon is elected

    In 1968, he made another run for the presidency and was elected, defeating Hubert Humphrey and George Wallace in a close contest.
  • American astronauts land on the moon

    American astronauts land on the moon

    On July 20, 1969, American astronauts Neil Armstrong (1930-2012) and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin (1930-) became the first humans ever to land on the moon
  • Stonewall riots

    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.
  • Woodstock concert

    Woodstock concert

    Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to simply as Woodstock, was a music festival held August 15–18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, 40 miles southwest of the town of Woodstock
  • The Rolling Stones host the Altamont music festival

    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.