1960 - Development and approval of the birth control pill
1960 - Laser. Working at Hughes Research Laboratories, physicist Theodore H. Maiman creates the first laser. The core of his laser consists of a man-made ruby -- a material that had been judged unsuitable by other scientists, who rejected crystal cores in favor of various gases.
1961 - A person orbited the earth for the first time (Yuri Gagarin)
1963 - Vine and Matthews discovered that rock layers with particular magnetic orientations, indicating reversals of the earth's magnetic field, are symmetrical about the mid-oceanic ridge, indicating that new crust is created at the ridge.
1963 - Gell-Mann proposed protons and neutrons are made of smaller particles (quarks)
1964 - Discovery of a quasar
1964 - Operating System. IBM rolls out the OS/360, the first mass-produced computer operating system. Using the OS/360, all computers in the IBM 360 family could run any software program. Already IBM is a giant in the computer industry, controlling 70% of the market worldwide.
1964 - Unmanned U.S. spacecraft transmitted television pictures of the moon before hitting the surface
1964 - Wilson and Penzias discovered the background microwave radiation of the universe
1965 - Digital Equipment introduces the PDP-8, the world's first computer to use integrated circuit technology. Because of its relatively small size and its low $18,000 price tag, Digital sells several hundred units.
1965 - The first "space walk" (Soviet Union)
1966 - The first unmanned soft landing on the moon (Soviet Union)
1967 - Salam and Weinberg developed a model to unite electromagnetism and the weak nuclear force.
1967 - Bell and Hewish discover pulsars
1967 - U.S. astronauts Grissom, White and Chaffee
killed during ground test; Apollo program delayed
1968 - Human beings orbited the moon for the first time (Apollo 8)
1969 - People walked on the moon for the first time (Apollo 11)
1969 - Meteorite in Australia found to contain amino acids
