The dizzying decade of the ’60s was
weird, wild, whacky, wonderful, worrying.
It was the start of ‘something big’
a period of ten years,
which shaped a generation and
left a lasting impression on successive ones.
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Some of the highlights:
a quick stroll down ’60s lane
Within each year group
events are isted in no particular order of chronology .
Just ‘letting it be’
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(’60s timeline details from jeffs60s.com):
’60
The Civil Rights Movement momentum: In Greensboro, North Carolina, (USA) four Black students begin a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth’s lunch counter. The incident sets in motion other similar nonviolent protests throughout the Southern United States.
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(image from hearmedaily.com):
‘Counter sit-in’ against racial segregation in the U. S.
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’61
The DNA genetic code is broken.
The Vietnam War officially begins
Russia sends the first man into space.
John F. Kennedy becomes the 35th President of the United States.
John F. Kennedy establishes the Peace Corps.
Construction of the Berlin Wall begins, restricting movement between East Berlin and West Berlin
Baseball player Roger Maris of the New York Yankees hits his 61st home run in the last game of the season, against the Boston Red Sox, beating the 34-year-old record held by Babe Ruth.
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(image from esa.int):
Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin
is the first ‘space man”
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(image from kbizam.com):
JFK and his wife Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy
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(image from cvce.eu):
Construction of the Berlin Wall by GDR (East Germany),
overseen by military troops
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(image from theculturezone.com):
“Charity (should) begin at home.”
Established by President John F. Kennedy,
the Peace Corps is a volunteer service run by the U. S. government
to assist people throughout the world who are in need.
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’62
In a televised address, U.S. President John F. Kennedy announces to the nation the existence of Soviet missiles in Cuba.
Dr. No, the first James Bond film, premiers in UK theaters.
Pull tabs on cans are introduced.
The term “personal computer” is first mentioned by the media.
The Beatles’ first record, “My Bonnie” is released.
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(image from coca-colacompany.com):
A modern beverage: Tab sugar free cola and pull-tab cans
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’63
President Kennedy is assassinated.
The U. S. Congress enacts “equal pay for equal work” legislature for women. (A goal yet to be fully achieved.)
World famous American actress Marilyn Monroe is found dead of an apparent overdose. It becomes the most controversial death on record.
Zip codes (post codes) are introduced in the U.S.
Beatles hits, ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’ and ‘I Saw Her Standing There’ are released in the U.S., launching the beginning of Beatlemania.
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(image from rateyourmusic.com):
LP album cover of the boys from Liverpool
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(image from pbs.org):
‘Sisterhood is powerful’
pressure on Congress results in equalizing legislation
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’64
Studebaker-Packard introduce seat belts as standard equipment.
Ford Motors introduces the “Mustang”.
3.5 billion dollars worth of vending machine sales.
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(image from fordreview.com):
Ford’s Mustang: “The poor man’s Ferrari”
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’65
Malcolm X is assassinated.
190,000 troops are in Vietnam.
32,000 people make 54-mile “freedom march” from Selma to Montgomery.
The Beatles performed the first stadium concert in the history of rock, playing at Shea Stadium in New York.
A Charlie Brown Christmas, the first Peanuts television special, debuts on CBS.
Medicare Bill passes in the U. S. (a social insurance programme).
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(image from britannica.com):
On patrol: U. S. combat troops in Viet Nam
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(from from my.raisingthegrade.ca):
“You’re a good man, Charlie Brown!”
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’66
How the Grinch Stole Christmas, narrated by Boris Karloff, is televised for the first time on CBS. It will become an annual Christmas tradition, and the best-loved film ever based on a Dr. Seuss book.
Trekkies, this one’s for you!: Star Trek, the classic science fiction television series, debuts with its first episode, titled ‘The Man Trap’.
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T. V. cult classic Star Trek: scene from episode 1, ‘The Man Trap’
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Taster’s Choice freeze dried coffee is introduced.
In an interview published in The London Evening Standard, The Beatle’s John Lennon comments, “We’re more popular than Jesus now,” eventually sparking a controversy in the United States.
The Beatles play their very last concert at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, California.
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’67
Dr. Christiaan Barnard performs the first heart transplant.
Love Is a Many Splendored Thing debuts on U.S. daytime television and is the first soap opera to deal with an interracial relationship between a White man and a Amerasian woman. CBS censors found it too controversial and ask for it to be stopped, causing show creator Irna Phillips to quit.
U. S. government declares LSD an illegal substance.
Rolling Stone Magazine is founded.
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(image fromboards.soapoperanetwork.com):
‘Not (quite) ready for primetime’:
Love is a Many Splendored Thing
first U. S. soap opera to present an interracial couple.
Storyline is banned by CBS network bosses.
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(image from time.com)
Dr. Christiaan Barnard
South African cardiac surgeon completes
the world’s first successful human-to-human heart transplant
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’68
The musical Hair officially opens on Broadway.
Richard Nixon is elected President.
Saddam Hussein becomes Vice Chairman of the Revolutionary Council in Iraq after a coup d’état.
A nation mourns: Robert Fitzgerald Kennedy is assassinated in California. Sirhan Sirhan is apprehended on the spot. Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. Riots erupt in major American cities for several days afterward.
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(image from cbsnews.com):
RFK
murdered on the campaign trail in his bid for the U. S. presidency
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MLK
slain U. S. civil rights leader
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’69
John Lennon returns his OBE to protest the British government’s support of the U.S. war in Vietnam.
Monty Python’s Flying Circus airs its first episode on the BBC.
Members of a cult led by Charles Manson murder Sharon Tate, (who was 8 months pregnant), and her friends at Tate and director-husband Roman Polanski’s home in Los Angeles.
U. S. astronaut Neil Armstrong is the first man to walk on the moon.
After 147 years, the last issue of The Saturday Evening Post is published.
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(image from english.cntv.cn)
“That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind”
said by astronaut Neil Alden Armstrong as he takes
the famous first step on the lunar surface
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Given its progressive pace, it is of little wonder that the ’60s have left an
indelible mark on almost every societal aspect:
politics, economics, art, science, behavior
and yes … the fashion!
More on that later. Stay tuned!
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For additional ’60s timeline details
and other bits of ’60s news and trivia,
have a look at:
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