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President Kennedy is elected
JFK wins the 44th presidential election and beats Nixon. -
Roger Maris of the Yankees breaks Babe Ruth’s single season home run record
Maris' 60th blast came in his team's 158th game of the 1961 season. Five days later, Maris would set a new Major League single-season record of 61 home runs, a record that would hold for 37 years. -
SNCC formed
Some 200 students attended the conference at Shaw University from April 16-18, 1960, during which the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC, pronounced “snick”) was born. -
First televised Presidential debate
Nixon and Democratic Senator John F. Kennedy. The first-ever televised debate between presidential candidates was held on September 26, 1960. An estimated total of sixty to seventy million viewers watched the first and the successive debates, which came to be known as “the Great Debates.” -
First airing of “The Flintstones”
It was originally broadcast on ABC from September 30, 1960, to April 1, 1966, and was the first animated series with a prime-time slot on television. The show follows the lives of Fred and Wilma Flintstone and their pet dinosaur, Dino, and they later on have a baby girl named Pebbles. -
Berlin Wall is Constructed
The Berlin Wall became the symbol of the Cold War and a tangible manifestation of the world's separation into two distinct ideological blocs. Map from the era, illustrating Berlin's division between the Allied forces. -
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 was 36 years old when she died of an overdose. -
James Meredith registers at Ole Miss
James Meredith officially became the first African American student at the University of Mississippi on October 2, 1962. He was guarded twenty-four hours a day by reserve U.S. deputy marshals and army troops, and he endured constant verbal harassment from a minority of students. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis, also known as the October Crisis in Cuba, or the Caribbean Crisis, was a 13-day confrontation between the governments of the United States and the Soviet Union, when American deployments of nuclear missiles in Italy and Turkey were matched by Soviet deployments of nuclear missiles in Cuba. -
“Dr. No” the first James Bond movie premiers
Dr. No is a 1962 film directed by Terence Young and based off of Ian Fleming's novel of the same name. It is the first film to feature James Bond. -
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.
On November 22, 1963, John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, was assassinated while riding in a presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas. -
San Francisco “Summer of Love” begins
The Summer of Love was a major social phenomenon that occurred in San Francisco during the summer of 1967. -
New York World’s Fair begins
The fair was held at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens. -
The Beatles arrive in the United States
The Beatles arrived at Kennedy Airport in New York for the very first time to thousands of screaming fans. -
The Beatles appear on Ed Sullivan
The Beatles made several appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show, including three in February 1964 that were among their first appearances in front of an American audience. -
Lyndon B Johnson defeats Barry Goldwater
Election results by county. The election was held on November 3, 1964. Johnson beat Goldwater in the general election, winning over 61% of the popular vote. Johnson became the only Democrat between 1944 and 1976 to win a majority of the popular vote. -
Malcolm X assassinated
Malcolm X, an African American Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a popular figure during the civil rights movement, was shot multiple times and died from his wounds in Manhattan, New York City on February 21, 1965, at age 39. -
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 is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry that follows the adventures of the starship USS Enterprise. -
Thurgood Marshall nominated to the Supreme Court
Thurgood Marshall replaced the retiring Justice Tom Clark. -
First NFL Football Super Bowl
The first AFL–NFL World Championship Game was an American football game played on January 15, 1967, at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. -
Martin Luther King Jr. assassinated
Martin Luther King Jr., an African-American clergyman and civil rights movement 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. -
Beatles release Sgt. Pepper’s album
The Beatles' eighth album became the soundtrack to the "summer of love" but its appeal is timeless. -
Boxer Muhammed Ali refuses military service
Muhammad Ali Convicted for Refusing the Vietnam Draft. In an era defined by endless war, we should recognize a day in history that won't be celebrated on Capitol Hill or in the White House. On June 20, 1967, the great Muhammad Ali was convicted in Houston for refusing induction in the U.S. armed forces. -
Russians send the first man into space
Yuri Gagarin from the Soviet Union was the first human in space. His vehicle, Vostok 1 circled Earth at a speed of 27,400 kilometers per hour with the flight lasting 108 minutes. Vostok's reentry was controlled by a computer. Unlike the early US human spaceflight programs, Gagarin did not land inside of capsule. -
LSD declared illegal by the U.S. government
This resulted in LSD being viewed as a cultural threat to American values and the Vietnam war effort, and it was designated as a Schedule I (illegal for medical as well as recreational use) substance in 1968. -
Tet Offensive
a major escalation and one of the largest military campaigns of the Vietnam War. -
Robert Kennedy is assassinated.
RFK was shot by Sirhan Sirhan at the Ambassador Hotel. -
Protests at the 1968 Democratic National Convention
The 1968 Democratic National Convention protests were a series of protests against the United States' involvement in the Vietnam War that took place prior to and during the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois. The protests lasted approximately seven days, from August 23 to August 29, 1968. -
Richard Nixon is elected
Richard Nixon was elected as the 37th president. -
Stonewall riots
The June 1969 riots at New York City's Stonewall Inn marked a raucous turning point in the fight for LGBTQ rights. -
American astronauts land on the moon
Commander Neil Armstrong and Lunar Module Pilot Buzz Aldrin landed the Apollo Lunar Module Eagle -
Woodstock concert
Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held from August 15 to 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 show took place on the Altamont Speedway between Livermore and Tracy on Dec. 6, 1969. During the show, 18-year-old fan Meredith Hunter was stabbed to death by Hells Angels security — all while the Rolling Stones played on stage, unaware of what they were witnessing.