Woodstock kids

Major Events of the 1960s

By momalley2001

  • JFK Become President

    JFK Become President
    John F. Kennedy becomes the youngest man ever to be elected president of the United States, narrowly beating Republican Vice President Richard Nixon. He was also the first Catholic to become president. The campaign was hard fought and bitter. For the first time, presidential candidates engaged in televised debates. Many observers believed that Kennedy’s poised and charming performance during the four debates made the difference in the final vote.

  • Peace Corps Established

    Peace Corps Established
    Newly elected President John F. Kennedy issues an executive order establishing the Peace Corps. It proved to be one of the most innovative and highly publicized Cold War programs set up by the United States. It quickly changed into what we know it as today, and it still continues to help people struggling in third-world countries.

  • The Other America is Published

    The Other America is Published
    Michael Harrington’s The Other America, the book that first documented the existence of pervasive poverty within the postwar United States (then congratulating itself for being the world’s first majority-middle-class nation) struck American liberals like a thunderbolt after its publication 50 years ago.