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SNCC formed
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee was one of the major American Civil Rights Movement organizations of the 1960's. 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 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. -
First airing of "The Flintstones"
The very first "The Flintstones" episode aired on September 30, 1960. Titled "The Flintstone Flyer". Fred and Wilma were featured as the main characters of the show. -
President Kennedy is elected
The 1960 United States presidential election 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 the first man into space
Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin was a Soviet Air Forces pilot and cosmonaut who became the first human to journey into outer space, achieving a major milestone in the Space Race; his capsule Vostok 1 completed one orbit of Earth on 12 April 1961. -
Berlin Wall is constructed
Construction of the Wall was commenced by the German Democratic Republic 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
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
The Port Huron Statement was written in Port Huron, Michigan, at a meeting of Students for a Democratic Society. The Port Huron Statement reflects the dissatisfaction and disillusionment many young people were feeling in the 1960's. -
Marilyn Monroe dies
Marilyn Monroe died of a barbiturate overdose late in the evening of Saturday, August 4, 1962, at her home in Los Angeles, California. -
James Meredith registers at Ole Miss
Despite the fierce resistance, Meredith registered as the first African-American student at Ole Miss on October 1, 1962. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis, 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. 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
On a campaigning trip in Texas, JFK was assassinated as shots were fired from a Texas School Book Depository as he rode by in an open roof car. Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested soon after being suspected as guilty of the assassination. Oswald would then be murdered by a man in the crowd as he was being brought to county jail. -
The Beatles arrive in the United States
In February 1964, the Beatles arrived in the United States and their televised performances on The Ed Sullivan Show were viewed by approximately 73 million people. It established the Beatles' international stature, changed attitudes to popular music in the US and sparked the British Invasion phenomenon. -
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
The 1964/1965 New York World's Fair was a world's fair that held over 140 pavilions, 110 restaurants, for 80 nations, 24 US states, and over 45 corporations to build exhibits or attractions at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens, New York City. -
Gulf of Tonkin Incident
An international confrontation leading to the U.S. engaging more directly in the Vietnam War. It involved a confrontation between ships of North Vietnam and the United States in the water of the Gulf of Tonkin. -
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. At the 1964 Democratic National Convention, Johnson also won the nomination of his preferred running mate, United States Senator Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota. -
Malcom X assassinated
In New York City, Malcolm X, an African American nationalist and religious leader, was assassinated by rival Black Muslims while addressing his Organization of Afro-American Unity at the Audubon Ballroom in Washington Heights. -
Watts race riots
The Watts riots took place in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles from August 11 to 16, 1965. On August 11, 1965, Marquette Frye, an African-American motorist on parole for robbery, was pulled over for reckless driving. -
LSD declared illegal by the U.S. government
In 1966 Congress passed the Drug Abuse Control Amendment, which banned the individual manufacturing or sale of LSD and other similar hallucinogens. The law greatly restricted LSD by allowing only legitimate wholesale manufacturing, distribution, and use in research and medical situations. -
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 Super Bowl
The Green Bay Packers beat the Kansas City Chiefs in first Super Bowl. On January 15, 1967, the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League (NFL) smashed the American Football League'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
Clay v. United States, 403 U.S. 698 (1971), was 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. -
Monterrey Music Festival held
The Monterey International Pop Music Festival was a three-day concert event held June 16 to June 18, 1967, at the Monterey County Fairgrounds in Monterey, California. -
Thurgood Marshall nominated to the Supreme Court
President Lyndon Johnson appoints U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Thurgood Marshall to fill the seat of retiring Supreme Court Associate Justice Tom C. Clark. On August 30, after a heated debate, the Senate confirmed Marshall's nomination by a vote of 69 to 11. -
Tet Offensive
The Tet Offensive was a series of surprise attacks by the Vietcong and North Vietnamese forces, on scores of cities, towns, and hamlets throughout South Vietnam. It was considered to be a turning point in the Vietnam War. -
Martin Luther King Jr. assassinated
King was standing on the second-floor balcony of the Lorraine Motel, where he and his associates were staying, when a sniper’s bullet struck him in the neck. He was rushed to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead about an hour later, at the age of 39. The murderer was found to be James Earl Ray who was sentenced to life in prison. -
"Dr. No" the first James Bond movie premiers
In the film that launched the James Bond saga, Agent 007 (Sean Connery) battles mysterious Dr. No, a scientific genius bent on destroying the U.S. space program. -
Robert Kennedy is assassinated
Robert Kennedy had been giving campaign speeches in Los Angeles, California when he was assassinated in the Ambassador Hotel. Sirhan Sirhan would later be convicted for the 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. On August 28, 1968, around 10,000 protesters gathered in Grant Park for the demonstration. At approximately 3:30 p.m., a young man lowered the American flag that was there. The police broke through the crowd and began beating the young man, while the crowd pelted the police with food, rocks, and chunks of concrete. -
Richard Nixon is elected.
The 1968 United States presidential election was held on Tuesday, November 5, 1968. The Republican nominee, former Vice President Richard Nixon, defeated the Democratic nominee, incumbent Vice President Hubert Humphrey. -
"Star Trek" TV show airs
The series originally aired from September 1966 through June 1969 on NBC. This is the first television series in the Star Trek franchise, and comprises 79 regular episodes over the series' three seasons, along with the series' original pilot episode, "The Cage". -
American astronauts land on the moon
Apollo 11 blasted off on July 16, 1969. The astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin and Michael Collins were on Apollo 11. On July 20, 1969, Armstrong and Aldrin landed on the moon. They landed on the moon in the Lunar Module. -
Stonewall riots
The Stonewall riots were a series of spontaneous, violent demonstrations by members of the gay community against a police raid that began in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. -
Manson family murders Sharon Tate
Sharon Tate, an actress best known for 1967's Valley of the Dolls, was almost nine months pregnant when she was killed by Charles Manson's followers.She was murdered by Charles Manson and his "family members" in her Los Angeles home. -
Woodstock concert
Woodstock was a music festival held August 15–18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, 40 miles southwest of Woodstock. It attracted an audience of more than 400,000. -
The Rolling Stones host the Altamont music festival
The Altamont Speedway Free Festival was a counterculture rock concert held on Saturday during the Rolling Stones' 1969 U.S. tour.
