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The Decade I Was Born In
I was born at Sorrento Maternity Hospital, Anderton Park Road, Moseley, Birmingham in 1966. I am the youngest of one brother, Bill, and 4 sisters, Yvonne, Cathy, Janet and Julie. During the 60’s we all lived at Dollman Street, Vauxhall, Nechells, Birmingham. It was a back to back house that had a cellar, outside toilet, brewhouse and was old and run down which led to it being demolished less than a decade later.
My Dad proudly remembered his darting days for The Railway Club in pubs like The Rocket. My Mom fondly remembered the happy times despite us not having much, times when neighbours were friendly and you could leave your front door open without any fear. Hard times but pretty much everyone else was in the same boat but never complained and got on with it.
I don’t really have any memories from this decade as I was only a baby except that I do vaguely remember playing in what we called the train park nearby in Newdegate Street.
The information below was sourced from Wikipedia and is subject to change.
You can read other articles related to the 1960’s via Blog Posts below as well.
About The 1960’s
The cultural decade of the 1960’s is more loosely defined than the actual decade. It begins around 1963–1964 with the John F. Kennedy assassination, the Beatles’ arrival in the United States and their meeting with Bob Dylan, and ends around 1969 – 1970 with the Altamont Free Concert, the Beatles’ breakup and the Kent State shootings, or with the withdrawal of troops from Vietnam and the resignation of U.S. President Richard Nixon in 1974.
The term the Sixties is used by historians, journalists, and other academics in scholarship and popular culture to denote the complexity of inter-related cultural and political trends around the globe during this era. Some use the term to describe the decade’s counterculture and revolution in social norms about clothing, music, drugs, dress, sexuality, formalities, and schooling; others use it to denounce the decade as one of irresponsible excess, flamboyance, and decay of social order. The decade was also labelled the Swinging Sixties because of the fall or relaxation of social taboos that occurred during this time, but also because of the emergence of a wide range of music; from the Beatles-inspired British Invasion and the folk music revival to the poetic lyrics of Bob Dylan. Norms of all kinds were broken down, especially in regards to civil rights and precepts of military duty.
By the end of the 1950’s, war-ravaged Europe had largely finished reconstruction and began a tremendous economic boom. World War II had brought about a huge levelling of social classes in which the remnants of the old feudal gentry disappeared. There was a major expansion of the middle class in western European countries and by the 1960’s, many working-class people in Western Europe could afford a radio, television, refrigerator, and motor vehicle. Meanwhile, the East such as the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact countries were improving quickly after rebuilding from WWII. Real GDP growth averaged 6% a year during the second half of the decade. Thus, the overall worldwide economic trend in the 1960’s was one of prosperity, expansion of the middle class, and the proliferation of new domestic technology.
The confrontation between the US and the Soviet Union dominated geopolitics during the ’60s, with the struggle expanding into developing nations in Latin America, Africa, and Asia as the Soviet Union moved from being a regional to a truly global superpower and began vying for influence in the developing world. After President Kennedy’s assassination, direct tensions between the US and Soviet Union cooled and the superpower confrontation moved into a contest for control of the Third World, a battle characterized by proxy wars, funding of insurgencies, and puppet governments.
In response to nonviolent direct action campaigns from groups like the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), U.S. President John F. Kennedy, a Keynesian and staunch anti-communist pushed for social reforms. Kennedy’s assassination in 1963 was a shock. Liberal reforms were finally passed under Lyndon B. Johnson including civil rights for African Americans and healthcare for the elderly and the poor. Despite his large-scale Great Society programs, Johnson was increasingly reviled by the New Left at home and abroad. The heavy-handed American role in the Vietnam War outraged student protestors around the globe. The assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. while working with underpaid Tennessee garbage collectors and the anti-Vietnam War movement, and the police response towards protesters of the 1968 Democratic National Convention, defined politics of violence in the United States.
In Western Europe and Japan, organizations such as those present in May 1968, the Red Army Faction, and the Zengakuren tested liberal democracy’s ability to satisfy its marginalized or alienated citizenry amidst post-industrial age hybrid capitalist economies. In Britain, the Labour Party gained power in 1964. In France, the protests of 1968 led to President Charles de Gaulle temporarily fleeing the country. For some, May 1968 meant the end of traditional collective action and the beginning of a new era to be dominated mainly by the so-called new social movements. Italy formed its first left-of-centre government in March 1962 with a coalition of Christian Democrats, Social Democrats, and moderate Republicans. When Aldo Moro became Prime Minister in 1963, Socialists joined the ruling block too. In Brazil, João Goulart became president after Jânio Quadros resigned. In Africa, the 1960s was a period of radical political change as 32 countries gained independence from their European colonial rulers.
Popular Culture
The counterculture movement dominated the second half of the 1960’s, its most famous moments being the Summer of Love in San Francisco in 1967, and the Woodstock Festival in upstate New York in 1969. Psychedelic drugs, especially LSD, were widely used medicinally, spiritually and recreationally throughout the late 1960’s, and were popularized by Timothy Leary with his slogan “Turn on, tune in, drop out”. Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters also played a part in the role of “turning heads on”. Psychedelic influenced the music, artwork and films of the decade, and a number of prominent musicians died of drug overdoses (the 27 Club). There was a growing interest in Eastern religions and philosophy, and many attempts were made to found communes, which varied from supporting free love to religious puritanism.
Music
The rock ‘n’ roll movement of the 1950’s quickly came to an end in 1959 with the day the music died (as explained in the song American Pie), the scandal of Jerry Lee Lewis’s marriage to his 13-year-old cousin, and the induction of Elvis Presley into the U.S. Army. As the 1960’s began, the major rock ‘n’ roll stars of the ’50s such as Chuck Berry and Little Richard had dropped off the charts and popular music in the U.S. came to be dominated by girl groups, surf music, novelty pop songs, clean-cut teen idols, and Motown music. Another important change in music during the early 1960’s was the American folk music revival which introduced Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, The Kingston Trio, Harry Belafonte, Odetta, Phil Ochs, and many other singer-songwriters to the public.
Girl groups and female singers, such as the Shirelles, Betty Everett, Little Eva, the Dixie Cups, the Ronettes, Martha and the Vandellas and the Supremes dominated the charts in the early 1960’s. This style consisted typically of light pop themes about teenage romance and lifestyles, backed by vocal harmonies and a strong rhythm. Most girl groups were African-American, but white girl groups and singers, such as Lesley Gore, the Angels, and the Shangri-Las also emerged during this period.
Around the same time, record producer Phil Spector began producing girl groups and created a new kind of pop music production that came to be known as the Wall of Sound. This style emphasized higher budgets and more elaborate arrangements, and more melodramatic musical themes in place of a simple, light-hearted pop sound. Spector’s innovations became integral to the growing sophistication of popular music from 1965 onward.
Also during the early 60’s, surf rock emerged as a rock subgenre that was centred in Southern California and based on beach and surfing themes, in addition to the usual songs about teenage romance and innocent fun. The Beach Boys quickly became the premier surf rock band and almost completely and single-handedly overshadowed the many lesser-known artists in the subgenre. Surf rock reached its peak in 1963 – 1965 before gradually being overtaken by bands influenced by the British Invasion and the counterculture movement.
The car song also emerged as a rock subgenre in the early 60’s, which focused on teenagers’ fascination with car culture. The Beach Boys also dominated this subgenre, along with the duo Jan and Dean. Such notable songs include Little Deuce Coupe, 409, and Shut Down, all by the Beach Boys; Jan and Dean’s Little Old Lady from Pasadena and Drag City, Ronny and the Daytonas’ Little GTO, and many others. Like girl groups and surf rock, car songs also became overshadowed by the British Invasion and the counterculture movement.
The early 1960’s also saw the golden age of another rock subgenre, the teen tragedy song, which focused on lost teen romance caused by sudden death, mainly in traffic accidents. Such songs included Mark Dinning’s Teen Angel, Ray Peterson’s Tell Laura I Love Her, Jan and Dean’s Dead Man’s Curve, the Shangri-Las’ Leader of the Pack, and perhaps the subgenre’s most popular, Last Kiss by J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers.
In the early 1960’s, Britain became a hotbed of rock ‘n’ roll activity during this time. In late 1963, the Beatles embarked on their first US tour and cult singer Dusty Springfield released her first solo single. A few months later, rock ‘n’ roll founding father Chuck Berry emerged from a 30-month prison stint and resumed recording and touring. The stage was set for the spectacular revival of rock music.
In the UK, the Beatles played raucous rock ‘n’ roll – as well as doo-wop, girl-group songs, show tunes – and wore leather jackets. Their manager Brian Epstein encouraged the group to wear suits. Beatlemania abruptly exploded after the group’s appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964. Late in 1965, the Beatles released the album Rubber Soul which marked the beginning of their transition to a sophisticated power-pop group with elaborate studio arrangements and production, and a year after that, they gave up touring entirely to focus only on albums. A host of imitators followed the Beatles in the so-called British Invasion, including groups like the Rolling Stones and the Kinks who would become legends in their own right.
As the counterculture movement developed, artists began making new kinds of music influenced by the use of psychedelic drugs. Guitarist Jimi Hendrix emerged onto the scene in 1967 with a radically new approach to the electric guitar that replaced Chuck Berry, previously seen as the gold standard of rock guitar. Rock artists began to take on serious themes and social commentary/protest instead of simplistic pop themes.
A major development in popular music during the mid-1960’s was the movement away from singles and towards albums. Previously, popular music was based around the 45 single (or even earlier, the 78 single) and albums such as they existed were little more than a hit single or two backed with filler tracks, instrumentals, and covers. The development of the AOR (album-oriented rock) format was complicated and involved several concurrent events such as Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound, the introduction by Bob Dylan of serious lyrics to rock music, and the Beatles’ new studio-based approach. In any case, after 1965 the vinyl LP had definitively taken over as the primary format for all popular music styles.
Blues also continued to develop strongly during the 60’s, but after 1965, it increasingly shifted to the young white rock audience and away from its traditional black audience, which moved on to other styles such as soul and funk.
Jazz music and pop standards during the first half of the 60’s was largely a continuation of 50’s styles, retaining its core audience of young, urban, college-educated whites. By 1967, the death of several important jazz figures such as John Coltrane and Nat King Cole precipitated a decline in the genre. The takeover of rock in the late 60’s largely spelt the end of jazz and standards as mainstream forms of music, after they had dominated much of the first half of the 20th century.
Country music gained popularity on the West Coast, due in large part to the Bakersfield sound, led by Buck Owens and Merle Haggard. Female country artists were also becoming more mainstream (in a genre dominated by men in previous decades), with such acts as Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, and Tammy Wynette.
Significant Events In Music In The 1960’s
Elvis Presley returned to civilian life in the U.S. after two years away in the U.S. Army. He resumes his musical career by recording It’s Now or Never and Are You Lonesome Tonight? in March 1960.
Country music stars Patsy Cline, Cowboy Copas, and Hawkshaw Hawkins were killed when their plane crashed in Camden, TN while returning home from a Kansas City benefit show in March 1963.
In July 1964, a plane crash claimed the life of another country music legend, Jim Reeves, when the plane he was piloting crashed in a turbulent thunderstorm while on final approach to Nashville International Airport.
Sam Cooke was shot and killed at a motel in Los Angeles, California (11th December 1964 at age 33) under suspicious circumstances.
Motown Record Corporation was founded in 1960. Its first Top Ten hit was Shop Around by the Miracles in 1960. Shop Around peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100, and was Motown’s first million-selling record.
Newcastle born Eric Burdon and his Band The Animals hit the No. 1 in charts in the U.S. with their hit single, The House of the Rising Sun in 1964.
Folksinger and activist Joan Baez released her debut album on Vanguard Records in December 1960.
The Marvelettes scored Motown Record Corporation’s first US number one pop hit, Please Mr. Postman in 1961. Motown would score 110 Billboard Top-Ten hits during its run.
The Four Seasons released three straight number one hits.
In a widely anticipated and publicized event, The Beatles arrive in America in February 1964, spearheading the British Invasion.
The Mary Poppins Original Soundtrack tops record charts.
Sherman Brothers receive Grammys and double Oscars.
Lesley Gore at age 17 hits number one on Billboard with It’s My Party and number two with You Don’t Own Me behind the Beatles I Want To Hold Your Hand.
The Supremes scored twelve number-one hit singles between 1964 and 1969, beginning with Where Did Our Love Go.
The Kinks release You Really Got Me in August 1964, which tops the British charts; it is regarded as the first hard rock hit and a blueprint for related genres, such as heavy metal.
John Coltrane released A Love Supreme in late 1964, considered among the most acclaimed jazz albums of the era.
The Grateful Dead was formed in 1965 (originally The Warlocks) thus paving the way for the emergence of acid rock.
Bob Dylan went electric at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival.
Cilla Black’s number-one hit Anyone Who Had a Heart still remains the top-selling single by a female artist in the UK from 1964.
The Rolling Stones had a huge No. 1 hit with their song (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction in the summer of 1965.
The Byrds released a cover of Bob Dylan’s Mr. Tambourine Man, which reached No. 1 on the U.S. charts and repeated the feat in the U.K. shortly thereafter. The extremely influential track effectively creates the musical subgenre of folk-rock.
Bob Dylan’s Like a Rolling Stone is a top-five hit on both sides of the Atlantic during the summer of 1965.
Bob Dylan’s 1965 albums Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited ushered in album-focused rock and the folk rock genre.
Simon and Garfunkel released The Sound of Silence single in 1965.
The Beach Boys released Pet Sounds in 1966, which significantly influenced the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album released the following year.
Bob Dylan was called Judas by an audience member during the Manchester Free Trade Hall concert, the start of the bootleg recording industry follows, with recordings of this concert circulating for 30 years – wrongly labelled as The Royal Albert Hall Concert – before a legitimate release in 1998 as The Bootleg Series Vol. 4: Bob Dylan Live 1966, The Royal Albert Hall Concert.
In February 1966, Nancy Sinatra’s song These Boots Are Made for Walkin’ became very popular.
In 1966, The Supremes A’ Go-Go was the first album by a female group to reach the top position of the Billboard magazine pop albums chart in the United States.
The Seekers were the first Australian Group to have a number one with Georgy Girl in 1966.
Jefferson Airplane released the influential Surrealistic Pillow in 1967.
The Velvet Underground released its self-titled debut album The Velvet Underground & Nico in 1967.
The Doors released its self-titled debut album The Doors in January 1967.
Love released Forever Changes in 1967.
The Procol Harum released A Whiter Shade of Pale in 1967.
Cream released Disraeli Gears in 1967.
The Jimi Hendrix Experience released two successful albums during 1967, Are You Experienced and Axis: Bold as Love, that innovate both guitar, trio and recording techniques.
The Moody Blues released the album Days of Future Passed in November 1967.
R & B legend Otis Redding has his first No. 1 hit with Sitting on the Dock of the Bay. He also played at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 just before he died in a plane crash.
Pink Floyd released its debut record The Piper at the Gates of Dawn.
Bob Dylan released the Country rock album John Wesley Harding in December 1967.
The Bee Gees released their international debut album Bee Gees 1st in July 1967 which included the pop standard To Love Somebody.
The Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 was the beginning of the Summer of Love.
The Beatles released Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in 1967. It was nicknamed The Soundtrack of the Summer of Love.
Johnny Cash released At Folsom Prison in 1968.
1968 (after The Yardbirds fold) Led Zeppelin was formed by Jimmy Page and manager Peter Grant, with Robert Plant, John Bonham and John Paul Jones; and, released their debut album Led Zeppelin.
Big Brother and the Holding Company, with Janis Joplin as lead singer, became an overnight sensation after their performance at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 and released their second album Cheap Thrills in 1968.
Gram Parsons with The Byrds released the influential LP Sweetheart of the Rodeo in late 1968, forming the basis for country rock.
The Jimi Hendrix Experience released the influential double-LP Electric Ladyland in 1968 that furthered the guitar and studio innovations of his previous two albums.
Simon and Garfunkel released the single Mrs. Robinson in 1968; featured in the film The Graduate.
Country music newcomer Jeannie C. Riley released the country and pop hit Harper Valley PTA in 1968, which is about a miniskirt-wearing mother of a teenage girl who was criticized by the local PTA for supposedly setting a bad example for her daughter, but turns the tables by exposing some of the PTA members’ wrongdoings. The song, along with Riley’s mod persona in connection with it, apparently gave country music a sexual revolution of its own, as hemlines of other female country artists’ stage dresses began rising in the years that followed.
Sly & the Family Stone revolutionized black music with their 1968 hit single Dance to the Music and by 1969 became international sensations with the release of their hit record Stand! The band cemented their position as a vital counterculture band when they performed at the Woodstock Festival.
The Gun released Race with the Devil in October 1968.
After a long performance drought, Elvis Presley made a successful return to TV and live performances after spending most of the decade making movies, beginning with his ’68 Comeback Special in December 1968 on NBC, followed in 1969 by a summer engagement in Las Vegas. Presley’s return to live performing set the stage for his many concert tours and continued Vegas engagements throughout the 1970’s until his death in 1977.
The Foundations released Build Me Up Buttercup in December 1968
The Rolling Stones filmed the TV special The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus in December 1968 but the film was not released for transmission. Considered for decades as a fabled lost performance until released in North America on Laserdisc and VHS in 1996. Features performances from The Who; The Dirty Mac featuring John Lennon, Eric Clapton and Mitch Mitchell; Jethro Tull and Taj Mahal.
Spooky Tooth released their second album Spooky Two in March 1969. The album was an important hard rock milestone.
The Woodstock Festival, and four months later, the Altamont Free Concert were in 1969.
The Who released and toured the first rock opera Tommy in 1969.
Proto-punk band MC5 released the live album Kick Out the Jams in 1969.
Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band released the avant-garde Trout Mask Replica in 1969.
Creedence Clearwater Revival released Fortunate Son in 1969. The song amassed popularity with the Anti-War movement at the time and would later be used in films, TV shows, and video games depicting the Vietnam War or the U.S during the late 1960’s and early 1970’s.
The Stooges released their debut album in 1969.
The Beatles released Abbey Road in 1969.
King Crimson released their debut album In the Court of the Crimson King in 1969.
Led Zeppelin released two of their self-titled debut albums Led Zeppelin I and Led Zeppelin II in 1969.
Film
The highest-grossing film of the decade was 20th Century Fox’s The Sound of Music (1965).
Some of Hollywood’s most notable blockbuster films of the 1960’s include:
2001: A Space Odyssey.
The Birds.
Bonnie and Clyde.
Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
Bullitt.
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
Cleopatra.
Cool Hand Luke.
The Dirty Dozen.
Doctor Zhivago.
Dr. Strangelove.
Easy Rider.
Funny Girl.
Goldfinger.
The Graduate.
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.
How the West Was Won.
The Hustler.
In the Heat of the Night.
The Italian Job.
It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.
Jason and the Argonauts.
The Jungle Book.
Lawrence of Arabia.
The Love Bug.
Mary Poppins.
Midnight Cowboy.
My Fair Lady.
Night of the Living Dead.
The Pink Panther.
The Odd Couple.
Oliver!
One Hundred and One Dalmatians.
One Million Years B.C.
Planet of the Apes.
Psycho.
Rosemary’s Baby.
The Sound of Music.
Spartacus.
Swiss Family Robinson.
To Kill a Mockingbird.
Valley of the Dolls.
West Side Story.
The counterculture movement had a significant effect on cinema. Movies began to break social taboos such as sex and violence causing both controversy and fascination. They turned increasingly dramatic, unbalanced, and hectic as the cultural revolution was starting. This was the beginning of the New Hollywood era that dominated the next decade in theatres and revolutionized the film industry. Films of this time also focused on the changes happening in the world. Dennis Hopper’s Easy Rider (1969) focused on the drug culture of the time. Movies also became more sexually explicit, such as Roger Vadim’sBarbarella (1968) as the counterculture progressed.
In Europe, Art Cinema gains wider distribution and sees movements like la Nouvelle Vague (The French New Wave) featuring French filmmakers such as Roger Vadim, François Truffaut, Alain Resnais, and Jean-Luc Godard; Cinéma vérité documentary movement in Canada, France and the United States; Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman, Chilean filmmaker Alexandro Jodorowsky and Polish filmmakers Roman Polanski and Wojciech Jerzy Has produced original and offbeat masterpieces and the high-point of Italian filmmaking with Michelangelo Antonioni and Federico Fellini making some of their most known films during this period. Notable films from this period include La Dolce Vita, 8½; La Notte; L’Eclisse, The Red Desert; Blowup; Fellini Satyricon; Accattone; The Gospel According to St. Matthew; Theorem; Winter Light; The Silence; Persona; Shame; A Passion; Au Hasard Balthazar; Mouchette; Last Year at Marienbad; Chronique d’un été; Titicut Follies; High School; Salesman; La jetée; Warrendale; Knife in the Water; Repulsion; The Saragossa Manuscript; El Topo; A Hard Day’s Night; and the cinema verite Don’t Look Back.
In Japan, a film version of the story of the forty-seven ronin entitled Chushingura: Hana no Maki, Yuki no Maki directed by Hiroshi Inagaki was released in 1962, the legendary story was also remade as a television series in Japan. Academy Award-winning Japanese director Akira Kurosawa produced Yojimbo (1961), and Sanjuro (1962), which both starred Toshiro Mifune as a mysterious Samurai swordsman for hire. Like his previous films both had a profound influence around the world. The Spaghetti Western genre was a direct outgrowth of the Kurosawa films. The influence of these films is most apparent in Sergio Leone’s A Fistful of Dollars (1964) starring Clint Eastwood and Walter Hill’s Last Man Standing (1996). Yojimbo was also the origin of the “Man with No Name” trend which included Sergio Leone’s For a Few Dollars More, and The Good, The Bad and The Ugly both also starring Clint Eastwood, and arguably continued through his 1968 opus Once Upon a Time in the West, starring Henry Fonda, Charles Bronson, Claudia Cardinale, and Jason Robards. The Magnificent Seven a 1960 American western film directed by John Sturges was a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s 1954 film, Seven Samurai.
The 1960’s were also about experimentation. With the explosion of lightweight and affordable cameras, the underground avant-garde film movement thrived. Canada’s Michael Snow, Americans Kenneth Anger, Stan Brakhage, Andy Warhol, and Jack Smith. Notable films in this genre are Dog Star Man; Scorpio Rising; Wavelength; Chelsea Girls; Blow Job; Vinyl; Flaming Creatures.
Aside from Walt Disney’s most important blockbusters One Hundred and One Dalmatians, Mary Poppins and The Jungle Book, Animated feature films that are of notable status include Gay Purr-ee, Hey There, It’s Yogi Bear!, The Man Called Flintstone, Mad Monster Party?, Yellow Submarine and A Boy Named Charlie Brown.
Significant Events In The Film Industry In The 1960’s
Removal of the Motion Picture Association of America’s Production Code in 1967.
The decline and end of the Studio System.
The rise of art-house films and theatres.
The end of the classical Hollywood cinema era.
The beginning of the New Hollywood Era due to the counterculture.
The rise of independent producers that worked outside the Studio System.
Move to all-colour production in Hollywood films.
The invention of the Nagra 1/4″, sync-sound, portable open-reel tape deck.
Expo 67 where new film formats like Imax were invented and new ways of displaying film were tested.
Flat-bed film editing tables appear, like the Steenbeck, they eventually replace the Moviola editing platform.
The French New Wave.
Direct Cinema and Cinéma vérité documentaries.
The beginning of the Golden Age of Porn in 1969, continued throughout the 1970’s and into the first half of the 1980’s.
Walt Disney, the founder of the Walt Disney Co. died on 15th December 1966, from a major tumour in his left lung.
Television
The most prominent American TV series of the 1960’s include: The Ed Sullivan Show, Star Trek, Peyton Place, The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, The Andy Williams Show, The Dean Martin Show, The Wonderful World of Disney, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Beverly Hillbillies, Bonanza, Batman, McHale’s Navy, Laugh-In, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Fugitive, The Tonight Show, Gunsmoke, The Andy Griffith Show, Gilligan’s Island, Mission: Impossible, The Flintstones, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, Lassie, The Danny Thomas Show, The Lucy Show, My Three Sons, The Red Skelton Show, Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie. The Flintstones was a favoured show, receiving 40 million views an episode with an average of 3 million views a day. Some programming such as The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour became controversial by challenging the foundations of America’s corporate and governmental controls; making fun of world leaders, and questioning U.S. involvement in and escalation of the Vietnam War.
The following is from A List Of Years In Television:
1960: First broadcast of The Andy Griffith Show, The Flintstones, Coronation Street and Tales of the Riverbank; Rankin/Bass Productions, Inc. is founded (as Videocraft International, Ltd.). American presidential candidates John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon debate live on television.
1961: The first broadcast of The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Yogi Bear Show, The Avengers, The Defenders, The Morecambe and Wise Show and Car 54, Where Are You?; First appearance of The Milky Bar Kid
1962: The first broadcast of The Beverly Hillbillies, Steptoe and Son, The Jetsons, University Challenge, Elgar, That Was The Week That Was, The Late Late Show (Ireland) and Sábado Gigante; first airing of Everyone Loves a Slinky; first satellite television relayed by Telstar.
1963: The first broadcast of Doctor Who, General Hospital, The Fugitive, Astro Boy, We Try Harder (Avis) and The Outer Limits; American Cable Systems is founded; Martin Luther King Jr. addresses his famous I Have a Dream speech to the world; The world watches in horror over the Assassination of John F. Kennedy.
1964: The first broadcast of Gilligan’s Island, The Munsters, Bewitched, The Man from U.N.C.L.E, The Addams Family, Top of the Pops, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Match of the Day, Jeopardy!, Jonny Quest and the Up series; First appearance of Lucky the Leprechaun (Lucky Charms); The controversial political advertisement Daisy airs only once, but is later considered to be an important factor in Lyndon B. Johnson’s landslide victory over Barry Goldwater in the 1964 United States presidential election, and an important turning point in political and advertising history; Broadcast of U.S. president Lyndon Johnson signing the Civil Rights Act Of 1964; The Beatles appear on The Ed Sullivan Show.
1965: The first broadcast of I Dream of Jeannie, Days of Our Lives, Get Smart, Thunderbirds, The Dean Martin Show, Hogan’s Heroes, Lost in Space, Till Death Us Do Part, Kimba the White Lion, Peanuts, Des chiffres et des lettres, Tomorrow’s World, The Magic Roundabout and The War Game; Tom and Jerry cartoons begin to be aired on television after previously only being theatrical short films; the first appearance of the Pillsbury Doughboy; Nigeria is the first African country to receive TV.
1966: First broadcast of Star Trek, Batman (the live-action TV series starring Adam West), Space Ghost, The Monkees, Dark Shadows, Happiness is a cigar called Hamlet, Ultra Series, Osomatsu-kun, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, That Girl, Cathy Come Home and Mission: Impossible; England win the World Cup Final, seen by tens of millions.
1967: First broadcast of The Carol Burnett Show, The Prisoner, The Flying Nun, News at Ten, Captain Birdseye, Speed Racer, Spider-Man, Princess Knight, The Phil Donahue Show and Ambassador Magma; PAL and SECAM colour standards introduced in Europe, with BBC2 making their first colour broadcasts.
1968: First broadcast of 60 Minutes, One Life to Live, Dad’s Army, Julia, Columbo, Elvis, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, The Archie Show, The Banana Splits, Hawaii Five-O, Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In and Adam-12; first appearance of the Keebler Elves and Cadbury’s Milk Tray Man
1969: The first broadcast of Sesame Street, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, The Pink Panther Show, Sazae-san, Monty Python’s Flying Circus, On the Buses, The Brady Bunch, Marine Boy; completion of Fernsehturm Berlin; The Apollo 11 Moon landing is broadcast live worldwide.
Literature
The following is from A List Of Years In Literature:
1960: William L. Shirer’s The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. Dr. Seuss’ One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish and Green Eggs and Ham. Edna O’Brien’s The Country Girls. John Updike’s Rabbit, Run. Agatha Christie’s The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding. Deaths of Albert Camus, Boris Pasternak, Nevil Shute and Richard Wright. Lady Chatterley trial.
1961: Joseph Heller’s Catch-22. V. S. Naipaul’s A House for Mr Biswas; Richard Yates’s Revolutionary Road. Walker Percy’s The Moviegoer. Muriel Spark’s The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Robert A. Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land. Stanislaw Lem’s Solaris. J. D. Salinger’s Franny and Zooey. Jean Genet’s The Screens. Roald Dahl’s James and the Giant Peach. Agatha Christie’s The Pale Horse and Double Sin and Other Stories. Deaths of Ernest Hemingway, Frantz Fanon, Dashiell Hammett and James Thurber.
1962: Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Anthony Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange. Vladimir Nabokov’s Pale Fire. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. Doris Lessing’s The Golden Notebook. Jorge Luis Borges’s Labyrinths. Philip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle. Carlos Fuentes’s The Death of Artemio Cruz. Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time; Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions; Stan and Jan Berenstain’s The Big Honey Hunt (first Berenstain Bears book). Mercè Rodoreda’s The Time of the Doves. Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes. Agatha Christie’s The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side. Deaths of Hermann Hesse, William Faulkner and E. E. Cummings
1963: Thomas Pynchon’s V. Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar. Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle. Pierre Boulle’s La Planete des Singes (Planet of the Apes). Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are. John le Carré’s The Spy Who Came In From the Cold. Václav Havel’s The Garden Party. Norman Bridwell’s Clifford the Big Red Dog. Agatha Christie’s The Clocks. Julio Cortazar’s Hopscotch. Deaths of Aldous Huxley, Robert Frost, Clifford Odets, Sylvia Plath, William Carlos Williams, C. S. Lewis and John Cowper Powys.
1964: Marshall McLuhan’s Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. Thomas Berger’s Little Big Man. Leonard Cohen’s Flowers for Hitler. Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Hubert Selby, Jr.’s Last Exit to Brooklyn. Brian Friel’s play Philadelphia, Here I Come! was first performed. Philip Larkin’s The Whitsun Weddings. Harold Pinter’s The Homecoming. Gore Vidal’s Julian. Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree. Agatha Christie’s A Caribbean Mystery. Deaths of Brendan Behan, Ian Fleming and Seán O’Casey. Refusal of Nobel Prize by Jean-Paul Sartre.
1965: Alex Haley’s The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Saul Bellow’s Herzog. Norman Mailer’s An American Dream. John Fowles’s The Magus. John McGahern’s The Dark. Jerzy Kosinski’s The Painted Bird. Frank Herbert’s Dune. Harlan Ellison’s “Repent, Harlequin!” Said the Ticktockman. Václav Havel’s The Memorandum. Agatha Christie’s At Bertram’s Hotel and Surprise! Surprise! Deaths of T. S. Eliot and W. Somerset Maugham.
1966: Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita. Thomas Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49. Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea. Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood. Leonard Cohen’s Beautiful Losers. Larry McMurtry’s The Last Picture Show. Tom Stoppard’s play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead was first performed. Basil Buntings’ Briggflatts. The Witch’s Daughter by Nina Bawden. Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany. Agatha Christie’s Third Girl. Deaths of Frank O’Connor, Brian O’Nolan and Evelyn Waugh.
1967: Gabriel García Márquez’s Cien años de soledad (One Hundred Years of Solitude). Vladimir Nabokov’s Speak, Memory: An Autobiography Revisited. Bernard Malamud’s The Fixer. Flann O’Brien’s The Third Policeman. Milan Kundera’s Žert (The Joke). Marshall McLuhan and Quentin Fiore’s The Medium is the Massage: An Inventory of Effects. William Manchester’s The Death of a President. Robert K. Massie’s Nicholas and Alexandra. Allan W. Eckert’s Wild Season. Roger Zelazny’s Lord of Light. Harlan Ellison’s Dangerous Visions. Harlan Ellison’s I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream. S. E. Hinton’s The Outsiders. Agatha Christie’s Endless Night. Deaths of Victor Gollancz, Langston Hughes, Carson McCullers, John Masefield, Dorothy Parker, Siegfried Sassoon, Alice B. Toklas and Jean Toomer.
1968: Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Tom Wolfe’s The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. Arthur Hailey’s Airport. Albert Cohen’s Belle du Seigneur. Judith Kerr’s The Tiger Who Came to Tea. Carlos Castaneda’s The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge. Ursula K. Le Guin’s A Wizard of Earthsea. Samuel R. Delany’s Nova. Agatha Christie’s By the Pricking of My Thumbs. Marguerite Yourcenar’s The Abyss. Haddis Alemayehu’s Love to the Grave. Deaths of John Steinbeck, Edna Ferber, Upton Sinclair, Enid Blyton and Mervyn Peake.
1969: Inaugural Booker Prize awarded to P. H. Newby’s Something to Answer For. Mario Puzo’s The Godfather. Philip Roth’s Portnoy’s Complaint. Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five. Vladimir Nabokov’s Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle. Maya Angelou’s I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings. John Fowles’s The French Lieutenant’s Woman. Harlan Ellison’s A Boy and His Dog. Agatha Christie’s Hallowe’en Party. Sam Greenlee’s The Spook Who Sat By the Door. Deaths of Jack Kerouac, B. Traven and Leonard Woolf.
Sports
Association Football
There were two FIFA World Cups during the decade:
1962 FIFA World Cup – hosted in Chile, won by Brazil.
1966 FIFA World Cup – hosted and won by England.
Olympics
There were six Olympic Games held during the decade. These were:
1960 Summer Olympics – 25th August – 11th September 1960, in Rome, Italy.
1960 Winter Olympics – 18th – 28th February 1960, in Squaw Valley, California, United States.
1964 Summer Olympics – 10th – 24th October 1964, in Tokyo, Japan.
1964 Winter Olympics – 29th January – 9th February 1964, in Innsbruck, Austria.
1968 Summer Olympics – 12th – 27th October 1968, in Mexico City, Mexico.
1968 Winter Olympics – 6th –18th February 1968, in Grenoble, France.
Baseball
The first wave of Major League Baseball expansion in 1961 included the formation of the Los Angeles Angels, the move to Minnesota to become the Minnesota Twins by the former Washington Senators and the formation of a new franchise called the Washington Senators. Major League Baseball sanctioned both the Houston Colt .45s and the New York Mets as new National League franchises in 1962.
In 1969, the American League expanded when the Kansas City Royals and Seattle Pilots, were admitted to the league prompting the expansion of the post-season (in the form of the League Championship Series) for the first time since the creation of the World Series. The Pilots stayed just one season in Seattle before moving and becoming the Milwaukee Brewers in 1970. The National League also added two teams in 1969, the Montreal Expos and San Diego Padres. By 1969, the New York Mets won the World Series in only the 8th year of the team’s existence.
Basketball
The NBA tournaments during the 1960’s were dominated by the Boston Celtics, who won eight straight titles from 1959 to 1966 and added two more consecutive championships in 1968 and 1969, aided by such players as Bob Cousy, Bill Russell and John Havlicek. Other notable NBA players included Wilt Chamberlain, Elgin Baylor, Jerry West and Oscar Robertson.
At the NCAA level, the UCLA Bruins also proved dominant. Coached by John Wooden, they were helped by Lew Alcindor and by Bill Walton to win championships and dominate the American college basketball landscape during the decade.
Disc Sports
Alternative sports, using the flying disc, began in the mid-sixties. As numbers of young people became alienated from social norms, they resisted and looked for alternatives. They would form what would become known as the counterculture. The forms of escape and resistance would manifest in many ways including social activism, alternative lifestyles, experimental living through foods, dress, music and alternative recreational activities, including that of throwing a Frisbee. Starting with promotional efforts from Wham-O and Irwin Toy (Canada), a few tournaments and professionals using Frisbee show tours to perform at universities, fairs and sporting events, disc sports such as freestyle, double disc court, guts, disc ultimate and disc golf became these sports first events. Two sports, the team sport of disc ultimate and disc golf are very popular worldwide and are now being played semi-professionally. The World Flying Disc Federation, Professional Disc Golf Association and the Freestyle Players Association are the official rules and sanctioning organizations for flying disc sports worldwide. Major League Ultimate (MLU) and the American Ultimate Disc League (AUDL) are the first semi-professional ultimate leagues.
Racing
In motorsports, the Can-Am and Trans-Am series were both established in 1966. The Ford GT40 won outright in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Graham Hill edged out Jackie Stewart and Denny Hulme for the World Championship in Formula One.
Science And Technology
Science
Space Exploration
The Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union dominated the 1960’s. The Soviets sent the first man, Yuri Gagarin, into outer space during the Vostok 1 mission on 12th April 1961 and scored a host of other successes, but by the middle of the decade, the U.S. was taking the lead. In May 1961, President Kennedy set the goal for the United States of landing a man on the Moon by the end of the 1960’s.
In June 1963, Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space during the Vostok 6 mission. In 1965, the Soviets launched the first probe to hit another planet of the Solar System (Venus), Venera 3, and the first probe to make a soft landing on and transmit from the surface of the Moon, Luna 9. In March 1966, the Soviet Union launched Luna 10, which became the first space probe to enter orbit around the Moon, and in September 1968, Zond 5 flew the first terrestrial beings, including two tortoises, to circumnavigate the Moon.
The deaths of astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger B. Chaffee in the Apollo 1 fire on 27th January 1967 put a temporary hold on the U.S. space program, but afterwards, progress was steady, with the Apollo 8 crew (Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, William Anders) being the first manned mission to orbit another celestial body (the Moon) during Christmas of 1968.
On 20th July 1969, Apollo 11, the first human spaceflight landed on the Moon. Launched on 16 July 1969, it carried Mission Commander Neil Armstrong, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins, and the Lunar Module Pilot Buzz Aldrin. Apollo 11 fulfilled President John F. Kennedy’s goal of reaching the Moon by the end of the 1960s, which he had expressed during a speech given before a joint session of Congress on 25th May 1961: “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth.”
The Soviet program lost its sense of direction with the death of chief designer Sergey Korolyov in 1966. Political pressure, conflicts between different design bureaus, and engineering problems caused by an inadequate budget would doom the Soviet attempt to land men on the Moon.
A succession of unmanned American and Soviet probes travelled to the Moon, Venus, and Mars during the 1960’s, and commercial satellites also came into use.
Other Scientific Developments
In 1960 the female birth-control contraceptive, the pill, was released in the United States after Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval.
In 1963 the measles vaccine was released after being approved by the FDA
In 1964 the discovery and confirmation of the Cosmic microwave background in 1964 secured the Big Bang as the best theory of the origin and evolution of the universe.
In 1965 AstroTurf was introduced.
In 1967 was the first heart transplantation operation by Professor Christiaan Barnard in South Africa.
In 1967 was the discovery of the first known pulsar (a rapidly spinning neutron star).
During the late 1960’s, the Green Revolution took a major leap in agricultural production.
Technology
Shinkansen the world’s first high-speed rail service began in 1964.
Cars
As the 1960’s began, American cars showed a rapid rejection of 1950’s styling excess and would remain relatively clean and boxy for the entire decade. The horsepower race reached its climax in the late 1960’s, with muscle cars sold by most makes. The compact Ford Mustang, launched in 1964, was one of the decade’s greatest successes. The Big Three American automakers enjoyed their highest ever sales and profitability in the 1960’s, but the demise of Studebaker in 1966 left American Motors Corporation as the last significant independent. The decade would see the car market split into different size classes for the first time, and model lineups now included compact and mid-sized cars in addition to full-sized ones.
The popular modern hatchback, with front-wheel-drive and a two-box configuration, was born in 1965 with the introduction of the Renault 16, many of this car’s design principles live on in its modern counterparts: a large rear opening incorporating the rear window, foldable rear seats to extend boot space. The Mini, released in 1959, had first popularised the front-wheel-drive two-box configuration, but technically was not a hatchback as it had a fold-down boot lid.
Japanese cars also began to gain acceptance in the Western market, and popular economy models such as the Toyota Corolla, Datsun 510, and the first popular Japanese sports car, the Datsun 240Z, were released in the mid-to-late-1960’s.
Electronics And Communications
In 1960 the first working laser was demonstrated in May by Theodore Maiman at Hughes Research Laboratories.
In 1960 Tony Hoare announces the Quicksort algorithm, the most common sorter on computers.
In 1961 Unimate, the first industrial robot was introduced.
In 1962 the first transatlantic satellite was broadcast via the Telstar satellite.
In 1962 the first computer video game, Spacewar!, was invented.
In 1962 red LED’s were developed.
In 1963 the first geosynchronous communications satellite, Syncom 2, is launched.
In 1963 the first transpacific satellite broadcast via the Relay 1 satellite.
In 1963 Touch-Tone telephones were introduced.
In 1963 Sketchpad was the first touch interactive computer graphics program.
In 1963 the Nottingham Electronic Valve company produced the first home video recorder called the Telcan.
In 1964 the 8-track tape audio format was developed.
In 1964 the Compact Cassette was introduced.
In 1964 the first successful Minicomputer, Digital Equipment Corporation’s 12-bit PDP-8, was marketed.
In 1964 the programming language BASIC was created.
In 1964 the world’s first supercomputer, the CDC 6600, was introduced.
In 1964 Fairchild Semiconductor released ICs with dual in-line packaging.
In 1967 PAL and SECAM broadcast colour television systems started publicly transmitting in Europe.
In 1967 the first Automatic Teller Machine was opened in Barclays Bank, London.
In 1968 Ralph Baer developed his Brown Box (a working prototype of the Magnavox Odyssey).
In 1968 the first public demonstration of the computer mouse, the paper paradigm Graphical user interface, video conferencing, teleconferencing, email, and hypertext.
In 1969 ARPANET, the research-oriented prototype of the Internet was introduced.
In 1969 CCD was invented at AT&T Bell Labs, used as the electronic imager in still and video cameras.
People
Musicians
For a list of 1960’s Musicians and information about them click here.
Bands
For a list of 1960’s Bands and information about them click here.
Filmmakers
For a list of 1960’s Filmmakers and information about them click here.
Actors / Entertainers
For a list of 1960’s Actors / Entertainers and information about them click here.
Writers
For a list of 1960’s Writers and information about them click here.
Sports Figures
For a list of 1960’s Sports Figures and information about them click here.
Activists
For a list of 1960’s Activists and information about them click here.
Fashion
Significant fashion trends of the 1960’s include:
The Beatles exerted an enormous influence on young men’s fashions and hairstyles in the 1960’s which included most notably the mop-top haircut, the Beatle boots and the Nehru jacket.
The hippie movement late in the decade also had a strong influence on clothing styles, including bell-bottom jeans, tie-dye and batik fabrics, as well as paisley prints.
The bikini came into fashion in 1963 after being featured in the film Beach Party.
Mary Quant popularised the miniskirt, which became one of the most popular fashion rages in the late 1960’s among young women and teenage girls. Its popularity continued throughout the first half of the 1970’s and then disappeared temporarily from mainstream fashion before making a comeback in the mid-1980’s.
Men’s mainstream hairstyles ranged from the pompadour, the crew cut, the flattop hairstyle, the tapered hairstyle, and short, parted hair in the early part of the decade, to longer parted hairstyles with sideburns towards the latter half of the decade.
Women’s mainstream hairstyles ranged from beehive hairdos, the bird’s nest hairstyle, and the chignon hairstyle in the early part of the decade, to very short styles popularized by Twiggy and Mia Farrow in Rosemary’s Baby towards the latter half of the decade.
African-American hairstyles for men and women included the afro.
Read more about 1960’s Fashion here.
Economics
The decade began with a recession from 1960 to 1961, at that time unemployment was considered high at around 7%. In his campaign, John F. Kennedy promised to “get America moving again.” His goal was economic growth of 4–6% per year and unemployment below 4%. To do this, he instituted a 7% tax credit for businesses that invest in new plants and equipment. By the end of the decade, the median family income had risen from $8,540 in 1963 to $10,770 by 1969.
Although the first half of the decade had low inflation, by 1966 Kennedy’s tax credit had reduced unemployment to 3.7% and inflation remained below 2%. With the economy booming Johnson began his “Great Society” which vastly expanded social programs. By the end of the decade under Nixon, the combined inflation and the unemployment rate is known as the misery index (economics) had exploded to nearly 10% with inflation at 6.2% and unemployment at 3.5% and by 1975 the misery index was almost 20%.
Disasters
Natural
The 1960 Valdivia earthquake, also known as the Great Chilean earthquake, is to date the most powerful earthquake ever recorded, rating 9.5 on the moment magnitude scale. It caused localized tsunamis that severely battered the Chilean coast, with waves up to 25 meters (82 ft). The main tsunami raced across the Pacific Ocean and devastated Hilo, Hawaii.
The 1963 Skopje earthquake was a 6.1-moment magnitude earthquake that occurred in Skopje, SR Macedonia (present-day Republic of Macedonia) on 26 July 1963 which killed over 1,070 people, injured between 3,000 and 4,000 and left more than 200,000 people homeless. About 80% of the city was destroyed.
The 1963 Vajont dam disaster in Italy was caused by a mountain sliding in the dam and causing a flood wave that killed approximately 2,000 people in the towns in its path.
The 1964 Good Friday earthquake, the most powerful earthquake recorded in the U.S. and North America, struck Alaska and killed 143 people.
The 1965 Hurricane Betsy caused severe damage to the U.S. Gulf Coast, especially in the state of Louisiana.
In 1969 the Cuyahoga River caught fire in Ohio. Fires had erupted on the river many times, including 22 June 1969, when a river fire captured the attention of Time magazine, which described the Cuyahoga as the river that “oozes rather than flows” and in which a person “does not drown but decays.” This helped spur legislative action on water pollution control resulting in the Clean Water Act, Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, and the creation of the federal Environmental Protection Agency.
The 1969 Hurricane Camille hit the U.S. Gulf Coast at Category 5 Status. It peaked and made landfall with 175 mph (280 km/h) winds and caused $1.42 billion (1969 USD) in damages.
Non-Natural
On 16th December 1960, a United Airlines DC-8 and a Trans World Airlines Lockheed Constellation collided over New York City and crashed, killing 134 people.
On 15th February 1961, Sabena Flight 548 crashed on its way to Brussels, Belgium, killing all 72 passengers on board and 1 person on the ground. Among those killed were all 18 members of the US figure skating team, on their way to the World Championships.
On 16th March 1962, Flying Tiger Line Flight 739, a Lockheed Super Constellation, inexplicably disappeared over the Western Pacific, leaving all 107 onboard presumed dead. Since the wreckage of the aircraft is lost to this day, the cause of the crash remains a mystery.
On 3rd June 1962, Air France Flight 007, a Boeing 707, crashed on takeoff from Paris. 130 people were killed in the crash while 2 survived.
On 20th May 1965, PIA Flight 705 crashed on approach to Cairo, Egypt. 121 died while 6 survived.
On 4th February 1966, All Nippon Airways Flight 60, a Boeing 727, plunged into Tokyo Bay for reasons unknown. All 133 people on board died.
On 5th March 1966, BOAC Flight 911 broke up in mid-air and crashed on the slopes of Mount Fuji. All 124 aboard died.
On 8th December 1966, the car ferry SS Heraklion sank in the Aegean Sea during a storm, killing 217 people.
On 16th March 1969, a DC-9 operating Viasa Flight 742 crashed in the Venezuelan city of Maracaibo. A total of 155 people died in the crash.
Social And Political Movements
In the second half of the decade, young people began to revolt against the conservative norms of the time, as well as remove themselves from mainstream liberalism, in particular the high level of materialism that was so common during the era. This created a counterculture that sparked a social revolution throughout much of the Western world. It began in the United States as a reaction against the conservatism and social conformity of the 1950’s, and the U.S. government’s extensive military intervention in Vietnam. The youth involved in the popular social aspects of the movement became known as hippies. These groups created a movement toward liberation in society, including the sexual revolution, questioning authority and government, and demanding more freedoms and rights for women and minorities. The Underground Press, a widespread, eclectic collection of newspapers served as a unifying medium for the counterculture. The movement was also marked by the first widespread, socially accepted drug use (including LSD and marijuana) and psychedelic music.
Anti-War Movement
The war in Vietnam would eventually lead to a commitment of over half a million American troops, resulting in over 58,500 American deaths and producing a large-scale antiwar movement in the United States. As late as the end of 1965, few Americans protested the American involvement in Vietnam, but as the war dragged on and the body count continued to climb, civil unrest escalated. Students became a powerful and disruptive force and university campuses sparked a national debate over the war. As the movement’s ideals spread beyond college campuses, doubts about the war also began to appear within the administration itself. A mass movement began rising in opposition to the Vietnam War, ending in the massive Moratorium protests in 1969, as well as the movement of resistance to the conscription for the war.
The antiwar movement was initially based on the older 1950’s Peace movement, heavily influenced by the American Communist Party, but by the mid-1960s it outgrew this and became a broad-based mass movement centred in universities and churches: one kind of protest was called a sit-in. Other terms heard in the United States included the draft, draft dodger, conscientious objector, and Vietnam vet. Voter age limits were challenged by the phrase: “If you’re old enough to die for your country, you’re old enough to vote.”
Civil Rights Movement
Beginning in the mid-1950’s and continuing into the late 1960’s, African-Americans in the United States aimed at outlawing racial discrimination against black Americans and voting rights to them. This article covers the phase of the movement between 1955 and 1968, particularly in the South. The emergence of the Black Power movement, which lasted roughly from 1966 to 1975, enlarged the aims of the civil rights movement to include racial dignity, economic and political self-sufficiency, and anti-imperialism.
The movement was characterized by major campaigns of civil resistance. Between 1955 and 1968, acts of civil disobedience and nonviolent protest produced crisis situations between activists and government authorities. Federal, state, and local governments, businesses, and communities often had to respond immediately to these situations that highlighted the inequities faced by African Americans. Forms of protest and/or civil disobedience included boycotts such as the successful Montgomery bus boycott (1955 – 1956) in Alabama; sit-ins such as the influential Greensboro sit-ins (1960) in North Carolina; marches, such as the Selma to Montgomery marches (1965) in Alabama; and a wide range of other nonviolent activities.
Noted legislative achievements during this phase of the civil rights movement were passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which banned discrimination based on race, colour, religion, or national origin in employment practices and public accommodations; the Voting Rights Act of 1965, that restored and protected voting rights; the Immigration and Nationality Services Act of 1965, that dramatically opened entry to the U.S. to immigrants other than traditional European groups; and the Fair Housing Act of 1968, that banned discrimination in the sale or rental of housing.
To read more about Social And Political Movements click here.
Assassinations And Attempts
Prominent assassinations, targeted killings, and assassination attempts include:
12th October 1960: Inejiro Asanuma, leader of the Japan Socialist Party
17th January 1961: Patrice Lumumba, the Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo; Maurice Mpolo, Minister of Youth and Sports; Joseph Okito, vice-president of the Senate. Assassinated by a Belgian and Congolese firing squad outside Lubumbashi.
20th February 1961: Alphonse Songolo, former Minister of Communications of the Democratic Republic of the Congo; Gilbert Pongo, intelligence officer and communications official. Shot in Kisangani.
30th May 1961: Rafael Trujillo Dictator of the Dominican Republic for 31 years, by a number of plotters including a general in his army.
13th January 1963: Sylvanus Olympio, the Prime Minister of Togo, is killed during the 1963 Togolese coup d’état. His body is dumped in front of the U.S. embassy in Lomé.
27th May 1963: Grigoris Lambrakis, Greek left-wing MP by far-right extremists with connections to the police and the army in Thessaloniki.
12th June 1963: Medgar Evers, an NAACP field secretary. Assassinated by Byron De La Beckwith, a member of the Ku Klux Klan in Jackson, Mississippi.
2nd November 1963: Ngô Đình Diệm, President of South Vietnam, along with his brother and chief political adviser, Ngô Đình Nhu. are assassinated by Dương Hiếu Nghĩa and Nguyễn Văn Nhung in the back of an armoured personnel carrier.
22nd November 1963: John F. Kennedy, President of the United States was assassinated allegedly by Lee Harvey Oswald while riding in a motorcade through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas.
24th November 1963: Lee Harvey Oswald, the suspected assassin of President of the United States John F. Kennedy and Dallas Police Department officer J. D. Tippit was assassinated by Jack Ruby on live television in the basement of the Dallas Police Department headquarters.
19th July 1964: Jason Sendwe, President of North Katanga Province, the Democratic Republic of the Congo was executed by Simba rebels in Albertville.
11th December 1964: Sam Cooke, American singer-songwriter and civil rights activist, was shot at the age of 33 in the Hacienda Motel, in Los Angeles, California.
13th February 1965: Humberto Delgado. Assassinated by Portuguese dictator Salazar’s political police PIDE in Spain, near the Portuguese border.
21st February 1965: Malcolm X was assassinated by members of the Nation of Islam in New York City. There is a dispute about which members killed Malcolm X.
6th September 1966: Hendrik Verwoerd, Prime Minister of South Africa and architect of apartheid was stabbed to death by Dimitri Tsafendas, a parliamentary messenger. He survived a previous attempt on his life in 1960.
25th August 1967: George Lincoln Rockwell, leader of the American Nazi Party was assassinated by John Patler in Arlington, Virginia.
9th October 1967: Che Guevara was assassinated by the CIA and Bolivian army.
4th April 1968: Martin Luther King Jr., civil rights leader was assassinated by James Earl Ray in Memphis, Tennessee.
3rd June 1968: Andy Warhol, American pop artist, film director, and producer was shot by radical feminist Valerie Solanas at his New York City Studio, The Factory; he survives after a 5-hour operation.
5th June 1968: Robert F. Kennedy, United States Senator was ssassinated by Sirhan Sirhan in Los Angeles, after taking California in the presidential national primaries.
4th December 1969: Fred Hampton was assassinated in Chicago by the Chicago Police Department.
Politics And Wars
Wars
The Cold War (1947 – 1991).
The Vietnam War (1955 – 1975).
1961: Substantial (approximately 700) American advisory forces first arrive in Vietnam.
1962: By mid-1962, the number of U.S. military advisers in South Vietnam had risen from 900 to 12,000.
1963: By the time of U.S. President John F. Kennedy’s death there were 16,000 American military personnel in South Vietnam, up from Eisenhower’s 900 advisors to cope with rising guerrilla activity in Vietnam.
1964: In direct response to the minor naval engagement known as the Gulf of Tonkin incident which occurred on 2 August 1964, the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, a joint resolution of the U.S. Congress, was passed on 10 August 1964. The resolution gave U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson authorization, without a formal declaration of war by Congress, for the use of military force in Southeast Asia. The Johnson administration subsequently cited the resolution as legal authority for its rapid escalation of U.S. military involvement in the Vietnam War.
1966: After 1966, with the draft in place more than 500,000 troops were sent to Vietnam by the Johnson administration and college attendance soars.
The Bay of Pigs Invasion (1961): An unsuccessful attempt by a CIA-trained force of Cuban exiles to invade southern Cuba with support from U.S. government armed forces, to overthrow the Cuban government of Fidel Castro.
Portuguese Colonial War (1961 – 1974): The war was fought between Portugal’s military and the emerging nationalist movements in Portugal’s African colonies. It was a decisive ideological struggle and armed conflict of the cold war in African (Portuguese Africa and surrounding nations) and European (mainland Portugal) scenarios. Unlike other European nations, the Portuguese regime did not leave its African colonies, or the overseas provinces, during the 1950s and 1960s. During the 1960s, various armed independence movements, most prominently led by communist-led parties who cooperated under the CONCP umbrella and pro-U.S. groups, became active in these areas, most notably in Angola, Mozambique, and Portuguese Guinea. During the war, several atrocities were committed by all forces involved in the conflict.
The Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 began in September: Arab–Israeli conflict (early-20th century-present)
Six-Day War (June 1967): A war between Israel and the neighbouring states of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. The Arab states of Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria also contributed troops and arms. At the war’s end, Israel had gained control of the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights. The results of the war affect the geopolitics of the region to this day.
The Algerian War came to a close in 1962.
The Nigeria Civil War began in 1967.
Civil wars in Laos and Sudan rage on throughout the decade.
The Al-Wadiah War was a military conflict that broke out on 27th November 1969 between Saudi Arabia and the People’s Republic of South Yemen.
Internal Conflicts
The massive 1960 Anpo protests in Japan against the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty were the largest and longest protests in Japan’s history. Although they ultimately failed to stop the treaty, they forced the resignation of Japanese Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi and the cancellation of a planned visit to Japan by U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Cultural Revolution in China (1966 – 1976): A period of widespread social and political upheaval in the People’s Republic of China which was launched by Mao Zedong, the chairman of the Communist Party of China. Mao alleged that “liberal bourgeois” elements were permeating the party and society at large and that they wanted to restore capitalism. Mao insisted that these elements be removed through post-revolutionary class struggle by mobilizing the thoughts and actions of China’s youth, who formed Red Guards groups around the country. The movement subsequently spread into the military, urban workers, and the party leadership itself. Although Mao himself officially declared the Cultural Revolution to have ended in 1969, the power struggles and political instability between 1969 and the arrest of the Gang of Four in 1976 are now also widely regarded as part of the Revolution.
The Naxalite movement in India began in 1967 with an armed uprising of tribals against local landlords in the village of Naxalbari, West Bengal, led by certain leaders of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). The movement was influenced by Mao Zedong’s ideology and spread to many tribal districts in Eastern India, gaining strong support among the radical urban youth. After counter-insurgency operations by the police, military and paramilitary forces, the movement fragmented but is still active in many districts.
The Troubles in Northern Ireland began with the rise of the Northern Ireland civil rights movement in the mid-1960’s, the conflict continued into the later 1990’s.
The Compton’s Cafeteria Riot occurred in August 1966 in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco. This incident was one of the first recorded transgender riots in United States history, preceding the more famous 1969 Stonewall Riots in New York City by three years.
The Stonewall riots occurred in June 1969 in New York City. The Stonewall riots were a series of spontaneous, violent demonstrations against a police raid that took place in the Stonewall Inn, in the Greenwich Village neighbourhood of New York City. They are frequently cited as the first instance in American history when people in the homosexual community fought back against a government-sponsored system that persecuted sexual minorities, and they have become the defining event that marked the start of the gay rights movement in the United States and around the world.
In 1967, the National Farmers Organization withheld milk supplies for 15 days as part of an effort to induce a quota system to stabilize prices.
The May 1968 student and worker uprisings in France.
Mass socialist or Communist movement in most European countries (particularly France and Italy), with which the student-based new left was able to forge a connection. The most spectacular manifestation of this was the May student revolt of 1968 in Paris that linked up with a general strike of ten million workers called by the trade unions, and for a few days seemed capable of overthrowing the government of Charles de Gaulle. De Gaulle went off to visit French troops in Germany to check on their loyalty. Major concessions were won for trade union rights, higher minimum wages and better working conditions.
University students protested in the hundreds of thousands against the Vietnam War in London, Paris, Berlin and Rome.
In Eastern Europe students also drew inspiration from the protests in the West. In Poland and Yugoslavia, they protested against restrictions on free speech by communist regimes.
The Tlatelolco massacre was a government massacre of student and civilian protesters and bystanders that took place during the afternoon and night of 2 October 1968, in the Plaza de las Tres Culturas in the Tlatelolco section of Mexico City.
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Additional Notable Worldwide Events
The Manson Murders occurred between 8th – 10th August 1969, when actress Sharon Tate, coffee heiress Abigail Folger, and several others were brutally murdered in the Tate residence by Charles Manson’s “family.” Rosemary LaBianca and Leno LaBianca were also murdered by the Manson family the following night.
Canada celebrated its 100th anniversary of Confederation in 1967 by hosting Expo 67, the World’s Fair, in Montreal, Quebec. During the anniversary celebrations, French president Charles De Gaulle visited Canada and caused a considerable uproar by declaring his support for Québécois independence.
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