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SNCC formed
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee was one of the major American Civil Rights Movement organizations of the 1960s. It emerged from the first wave of student sit-ins and formed at a May 1960 meeting organized by Ella Baker at Shaw University. -
First Airing of "The Flinstones"
The very first episode aired on September 30, 1960. Titled "The Flinstone Flyer" (P-2), it was actually the second Flintstones episode produced (after The Swimming Pool, P-1), but the first to air. -
First televised Presidential debate
The first general election presidential debate was held on September 26, 1960, between U.S. Senator John F. Kennedy, the Democratic nominee, and Vice President Richard Nixon, the Republican nominee, in Chicago at the studios of CBS's WBBM-TV. -
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, Democrat United States Senator John F. Kennedy defeated incumbent Vice President Richard Nixon, the Republican Party nominee -
Russians send 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
Construction of the Wall was commenced by the German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany) on 13 August 1961. The Wall cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany, including East Berlin. -
Roger Maris of the Yankees breaks Babe Ruth's single season home run record
Roger Maris breaks 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; Maris and his teammate Mickey Mantle spent 1961 trying to break it. -
SDS releases its Port Huron statement
Early in 1960, the SLID changed its name into Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). The Port Huron Statement was adopted at the organization's first convention in 1962 based on an earlier draft by staff member Tom Hayden. -
Marilyn Monroe dies
Marilyn Monroe died of a barbiturate overdose late in the evening of Saturday, August 4, 1962, at her 12305 Fifth Helena Drive home in Los Angeles, California -
James Meredith registers at Ole Miss
The next day on October 1, 1962, after troops took control, Meredith became the first African-American student to enroll at the University of Mississippi. Meredith's admission is regarded as a pivotal moment in the history of civil rights in the United States. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
he Cuban Missile Crisis, also known as the October Crisis of 1962, the Caribbean Crisis, or the Missile Scare, was a 13-day confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union initiated by the American discovery of Soviet ballistic missile deployment in Cuba -
"Dr. No" the first James Bond movie premiers
The very first James Bond film sees Scottish actor Sean Connery bring the British character to life on the big screen. -
Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" Speech
"I Have a Dream" is a public speech that was 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 called for civil and economic rights and an end to racism in the United States. -
John F Kennedy is assassinated
Shortly after noon on November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated as he rode in a motorcade through Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas, Texas. -
The Beatles arrive in the United States
The Beatles' American invasion begins. 7 February 1964 was the day The Beatles' American invasion began. The band's Boeing 707, Pan Am flight 101, left London Airport early on the morning of 7 February 1964, bound for New York City -
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
It was 50 years ago today that the 1964–'65 World's Fair opened in New York City, bringing a plethora of innovative exhibits to Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens. But by the time it closed in October 1965, it was considered a massive money pit, losing millions of dollars for New York City. -
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
It was held on Tuesday, November 3, 1964. Incumbent Democratic United States President Lyndon B. Johnson defeated Barry Goldwater, the Republican nominee. 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 by rival Black Muslims while addressing his Organization of Afro-American Unity at the Audubon Ballroom in Washington Heights -
Watts race riots
Watts Riots of 1965, series of violent confrontations between Los Angeles police and residents of Watts and other predominantly African American neighborhoods of South-Central Los Angeles that began August 11, 1965, and lasted for six days. -
"Star Trek" TV show airs
The series was produced from September 1966 to December 1967 by Norway Productions and Desilu Productions, and by Paramount Television from January 1968 to June 1969. Star Trek aired on NBC from September 8, 1966, to June 3, 1969, and was actually seen first on September 6, 1966, on Canada's CTV network. -
San Francisco "Summer of Love" begins
The Summer of Love was a social phenomenon that occurred during the summer of 1967, when as many as 100,000 people, mostly young people sporting hippie fashions of dress and behavior, converged in San Francisco's neighborhood of Haight-Ashbury. -
First NFL Football Super Bowl
Packers beat Chiefs in first 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
Muhammad Ali's appeal of his conviction in 1967 for refusing to report for induction into the United States military forces during the Vietnam War. His local draft board had rejected his application for conscientious objector classification. -
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. Released on 26 May 1967 in the United Kingdom and 2 June 1967 in the United States, it spent 27 weeks at number one on the UK Albums Chart and 15 weeks at number one on the Billboard Top LPs chart in the US -
Thurgood Marshall nominated to the Supreme Court
LBJ nominates Thurgood Marshall to Supreme Court, June 13, 1967. On this day in 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson nominated Thurgood Marshall to fill the seat of retiring U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Tom Clark. -
Monterrey Music Festival held
The Monterrey International Pop Music Festival was a three-day concert event held June 16 to June 18, 1967, at the Monterrey County Fairgrounds in Monterrey, California. -
Tet Offensive
The Tet Offensive, or officially called The General Offensive and Uprising of Tet Mau Than 1968 by North Vietnam and the Viet Cong, was one of the largest military campaigns of the Vietnam War. -
Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated
Martin Luther King Jr., an American clergyman and civil rights leader, was fatally shot at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968, at 6:01 p.m. CST. He was rushed to St. Joseph's Hospital, where he died at 7:05 p.m. -
Robert Kennedy is assassinated
On June 5, 1968, presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy was mortally wounded shortly after midnight at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. Earlier that evening, the 42-year-old junior senator from New York was declared the winner in the South Dakota and California presidential primaries in the 1968 election. -
Protests at 1968 Democratic National Convention
For eight days the protesters were met by the Chicago Police Department in the streets and parks of Chicago while the U.S. Democratic Party met at the convention in the International Amphitheater, with the protests climaxing in what a major report later said was a "police riot" on the night of August 28, 1968. -
LSD declared illegal by the U.S. government
The effects of LSD are believed to occur as a result of alterations in the serotonin system. On October 24, 1968, possession of LSD was made illegal in the United States. -
Richard Nixon is elected
The 1968 United States presidential election was the 46th quadrennial U.S. presidential election. It was 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
The period immediately before June 28, 1969, was marked by frequent raids of local bars—including a raid at the Stonewall Inn on the Tuesday before the riots—and the closing of the Checkerboard, the Tele-Star, and two other clubs in Greenwich Village. -
American astronauts land on the moon
The first human-made object to touch the Moon was the Soviet Union's Luna 2, on 13 September 1959. The United States' Apollo 11 was the first manned mission to land on the Moon, on 20 July 1969 -
Manson family murders Sharon Tate
Tate and four others were murdered by members of the Manson Family in the home she shared with her husband, director Roman Polanski. At the time of her death, she was eight-and-a-half months pregnant with the couple's son. -
Woodstock concert
The Woodstock Music and Art Festival was a rock music festival at Max Yasgur's 601 acre dairy farm in the town of Bethel, New York from 15–18 August 1969. It might be the most famous rock concert and festival ever held. For many, it showed the counterculture of the 1960s and the "hippie era". -
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.
