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~The Sixties~  

           ~A time of great change in American History~                  

 

1960 

  • A U.S. military transport plane collided with a Brazilian airliner near Rio De Janeiro, killing 62 persons, including 19 members of the U.S. Navy Band.

  • 16 members of the Cal State Polytechnic College football team died in an Arctic Pacific plane crash.
  • Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev canceled President Eisenhower's visit to the U.S.S.R. after the Soviets shot down a U.S. U2 spy plane. The pilot was exchanged two years later for a Soviet spy jailed in America.
  • After a series of televised debates, Democrat John F. Kennedy narrowly defeated Vice President Richard M. Nixon in the November presidential election.
  • Broadway was closed down for nearly two weeks due to an actors' strike.
  • 16-year-old Bobby Fischer won the U.S. Chess Championship.

    1961

  • Shortly before leaving office, President Eisenhower severed all U.S. ties with Cuba.
  • In his inaugural speech, John F. Kennedy called on Americans to "ask what you can do for your country."
  • President Kennedy established the Peace Corps.
  • America took a diplomatic bruise from the CIA's involvement in the Bay Of Pigs Invasion, an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow Communist Cuba's dictator, Fidel Castro.
  • Soviet Yuri Gagarin became the first man to slip from the bonds of Earth. Later in the year, the U.S. launched Alan Shepard, Jr. and Gus Grissom into space in separate missions.
  • President Kennedy ordered U.S. marshalls into Alabama due to violent clashes between a bi-racial anti-integration organization and integration advocates.
  • As the Soviets broke an international moratorium against nuclear bomb testing, President Kennedy urged Americans to build fallout shelters.
  • Nobel Prize-winning author Ernest Hemingway shot and killed himself.
  • Allen Funt's Candid Camera moved to CBS-TV. The series had begun as radio's Candid Microphone and made its 1948 television debut on ABC.
  • Hit songs included Big Bad John by Jimmy Dean, Hit The Road, Jack by Ray Charles and Running Scared by Roy Orbison.

    1962

  • President Kennedy rejected the Soviet Union's proposal to withdraw its offensive weapons from Cuba if America did the same in Turkey. The U.S. Navy was ordered to sink any ships en route to Cuba with weaponry.
  • John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth.
  • The World's Fair opened in Seattle with a "space age" theme, including the city's now-famous Space Needle and Monorail.
  • Marilyn Monroe died of an apparent overdose of sleeping pills in her Los Angeles mansion.
  • Incumbent Edmund Brown defeated Richard Nixon in his bid for governor of California.
  • The Beverly Hillbillies debuted on CBS-TV and shot straight to number one in the ratings.
  • Chubby Checker introduced America to its biggest dance craze of the century, The Twist.

    1963

  • A quarter-million people joined the civil rights March On Washington, at which Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his legendary "I Have A Dream" speech.
  • 20 weeks after civic leaders and civil rights groups negotated an integration plan in Birmingham, Alabama, a bomb killed four children at a black church.
  • The U.S. Post Office implemented the Zip Code, which replaced zone designations in large cities and added 5 digits to all American addresses.
  • President John F. Kennedy was assassinated during a motorcade procession in Dallas on November 22nd.
  •  Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as chief executive hours after the assassination. American TV networks dropped all programming and advertising to cover the event.
  • Two days after president's murder, alleged assassin Lee Harvey Oswald was shot and killed by Jack Ruby in the basement of the Dallas Municipal Building. A stunned audience watched the killing on live television as police were escorting Oswald to the county jail.
  • Little Stevie Wonder made his chart debut with Fingertips Part II, a harmonica instrumental. Other hits included It's My Party (And I'll Cry If I Want To) by Leslie Gore, He's So Fine by the Chiffons and the hootenanny hit Walk Right In by the Rooftop Singers.

    1964

  • The British music invasion began with the Beatles' chart-topping I Want To Hold Your Hand and their debut on The Ed Sullivan Show. Their first major-label U.S. album, Meet The Beatles, became America's best-selling LP of all time within a week of its release. In April, the Beatles occupied the top five positions on the U.S. singles chart.
  • The "long, hot summer" of civil unrest resulted in major riots in Harlem, Philadelphia, Chicago and Jacksonville.
  • President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
  • Martin Luther King, Jr. received the Nobel Peace Prize.
  • Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev was removed from the Communist Party
  • The Futurama exhibit by General Motors was the most popular attraction at the World's Fair in New York.
  • An unmanned U.S. spacecraft captured the first detailed pictures of the crater-ridden lunar surface.
  • Campaigning with his Great Society theme, President Johnson was elected to his first full term, in a landslide vote over Republican Barry Goldwater.
  • The Warren Commission determined that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone Kennedy assassin and there was no conspiracy in the Dallas shooting.
  • Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore received Emmys for best actor and actress and their Dick Van Dyke Show was named best comedy series.
  • McDonald's Restaurants expanded into the eastern states and became a national chain.

    1965

  • America accomplished the first space walk as part of NASA's preparation for humans to reach the moon.
  • Four radicals were arrested after a thwarted attempt to blow up the Statue of Liberty.
  • Black Nationalist founder Malcolm X, who had been moving towards a stance of cooperation with whites, was assassinated by rival Black Muslims. Muslim headquarters in San Francisco and New York were torched two days later.
  • The Boston Celtics won their seventh straight NBA championship.
  • The world's first communications satellite, the ComSat Early Bird, was successfully launched, substantially improving the video and sound quality of network TV.
  • Over 5,000 were injured and 280 were killed when no less than 35 tornadoes ripped through six midwestern states.
  • President Johnson authorized the first bombing raids in the Viet Nam War and began increasing troop levels dramatically.
  • Due to increasing anti-Viet Nam War protests, the federal government made it a crime to burn draft cards.
  • The northeastern states and eastern Canada were darkened by a 16-hour blackout, which was later blamed on a squirrel short-circuiting a power transformer in upstate New York.
  • Construction was completed on St. Louis' Gateway Arch.
  • Popular toys included the Tick Toy Clock, Mr. Machine, G.I. Joe and the Dick Tracy 2-Way Wrist Radio.
  • English pop and Detroit's Motown sound dominated the charts.

    1966

  • Four H-bombs were lost — but quickly recovered — after an American B-52 collided with a cargo jet over Spain.
  • 10,000 protested the Viet Nam War outside the White House. Over 60,000 signed a protest sign at the Washington Monument pledging to vote for anti-war candidates.
  • The Supreme Court's Miranda decision declared that arresting officers must inform suspects of their rights.
  • 43 perished when the American carrier Oriskany burned in the Gulf of Tonkin.
  • Shortly after completing the first docking of two spacecraft, Gemini 8 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Dave Scott were thrown into a spin and forced to make an emergency landing. Technical problems plagued subsequent Gemini flights throughout the year.
  • The Beatlesque TV series The Monkees took the Emmy for best comedy. Mission: Impossible premiered during the summer and won the Emmy for best drama series.
  • The Baltimore Orioles took the World Series from the L.A. Dodgers. For the first time since 1912, the New York Yankees finished last in the American League.

    1967

  • Astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chafee died in a fire while testing an Apollo space craft.
  • North Viet Nam's Ho Chi Minh refused to engage in peace talks, resulting in an escalation of the war effort, followed by increasing protests against the war.
  • Nearly 700 people were arrested when 50,000 peace demonstrators stormed the Pentagon.
  • A pro-war parade in New York to show support for the troops in Viet Nam drew 70,000.
  • America's young people at home, united against the war, were forming a counterculture based on peace, drug use and psychedelic music. Sgt. Pepper by the Beatles signaled the start of the "psychedelic era."
  • Thurgood Marshall became the first black Supreme Court justice. Carl Stokes became the first black mayor of Cleveland.
  • A Union Oil Of California tanker broke apart in the English Channel polluting beaches from from southwestern England to Normandy, France.
  • 56 people died and over 1,000 were injured when a string of tornadoes ripped through Illinois.
  • Super Bowl I was covered by both NBC and CBS.
  • The highest-rated night on TV came when Americans tuned in to see a commercial which had been hyped in newspaper and magazine ads:  the introduction of the 1968 Ford Mustang.
  • The first world-wide live TV broadcast, using communications satellites, was carried by America's National Educational Television, the forerunner of PBS. The Beatles closed the broadcast by premiering their new single, All You Need Is Love.

    1968

    •
  • At Columbia University, students claiming to be "the New Left" occupied several campus buildings until forcibly removed by the National Guard.
  • At San Francisco State College, students staged a sit-down strike, calling for changes in the Black Studies program. After four months, college president S.I. Hayakawa had the protesters removed by police in a bloody confrontation.
  • In major cities, FM "underground" stations, shunning the commercial hits in favor of psychedelic and folk-rock album tracks, grew so much in popularity they became the commercial successes they claimed they were countering.
  • Drug-soaked riffs from Jerry Garcia's Grateful Dead and other eclectic bands set the soundtrack for a youth population which was overwhelmingly anti-war. Pro-war youth had very few voices in the U.S. because most of them were fighting overseas.
  • Dr. Benjamin Spock was indicted for conspiracy to aid and abet draft evasion. He and "beat poet" Allan Ginsberg had been arrested in an attempt to shut down the draft induction center in New York City.
  • Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated at a motel in Memphis, shortly after giving a speech in which he hinted that his days were numbered.
  • North Korea seized the U.S.S. Pueblo, claiming the ship had violated their territorial waters.
  • President Johnson announced he would not seek re-election.
  • Chicago Police and the National Guard attempted to control anti-war protesters with violence at the Democratic National Convention. Bystanders, politicians and news reporters were beaten on live television in the ensuing mayhem.
  • Senator Robert F. Kennedy, brother of the slain president, was assassinated moments after he learned he'd won the Democratic primary election in California. Jordanian Sirhan Sirhan was charged with the killing.
  • Republican Richard M. Nixon narrowly defeated Democrat Hubert H. Humphrey for the presidency. Independent George Wallace received over 9,000,000 popular votes.

    1969

  • The world's largest TV audience to date watched astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin become the first humans to walk on the moon.
  • As President Nixon took office, the American death toll in the Viet Nam war reached 34,000.
  • Senator Ted Kennedy was charged with leaving the scene of an accident after he drove a car off a bridge in Chappaquidick, Massachusetts. A campaign aide, Mary Jo Kopechne, drowned.
  • Millions of Americans participated in a Viet Nam Moratorium Day, with candelight vigils and prayers for peace. President Nixon chose to ignore the event.
  • Veterans' Day ceremonies around the country consisted of pro-America demonstrations.
  • 340 Harvard students took over the university's administration building. 400 state troopers and police officers cleared them out with tear gas and beatings from nightsticks. At Cornell University, a 36-hour sit-in was held in the student union building by black militants brandishing automatic weapons. At Berkeley, a National Guard helicopter dropped caustic chemicals on a protesters' area called People's Park. 19 University of California faculty members were among those burned by the substance.
  • Max Yasgur's farm near Bethel, New York became the second-largest city in New York, when nearly 400,000 converged on the area for the Woodstock Music And Art Fair. Police looked the other way as the counterculture celebrated its largest gathering with peace, music, sex, drugs and rock and roll.
  • Charles Manson and several members of his cult were charged with the brutal murders of actress Sharon Tate and four others in Los Angeles.

  • Leonard Bernstein stepped down as director of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.
  • Judy Garland died of a drug overdose at age 47.
  • Charmin Bathroom Tissue went from obscurity to America's best-seller, due to an ad campaign featuring grocer Mr. Whipple portrayed by character actor Dick Wilson.


 

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