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SNCC formed
Some 200 students attended the conference at Shaw University from April 16-18, 1960, during which the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC, pronounced “snick”) was born -
First televised Presidential debate
Nixon and Democratic Senator John F. Kennedy. The first-ever televised debate between presidential candidates was held on September 26, 1960. An estimated total of sixty to seventy million viewers watched the first and the successive debates, which came to be known as “the Great Debates.” -
First airing of “The Flintstones”
It was originally broadcast on ABC from September 30, 1960, to April 1, 1966, and was the first animated series with a prime-time slot on television -
President Kennedy is elected
Kennedy ran in the 1960 presidential election. His campaign gained momentum after the first televised presidential debates in American history, and he was elected president, narrowly defeating Republican opponent Richard Nixon, the incumbent vice president. -
Russians send the first man into space
Yuri Gagarin from the Soviet Union was the first human in space. His vehicle, Vostok 1 circled Earth at a speed of 27,400 kilometers per hour with the flight lasting 108 minutes. -
Roger Maris of the Yankees breaks Babe Ruth’s single season home run record
Maris hit 61 home runs during the 1961 season breaking Babe Ruth's MLB single season home run record of 60 home runs at the time. -
Berlin Wall is constructed
The Berlin Wall became the symbol of the Cold War and a tangible manifestation of the world's separation into two distinct ideological blocs. -
SDS releases its Port Huron statement
It was written by SDS members, and completed on June 15, 1962, at a United Auto Workers (UAW) retreat outside of Port Huron, Michigan (now part of Lakeport State Park), for the group's first national convention. -
James Meredith registers at Ole Miss
James Meredith officially became the first African American student at the University of Mississippi on October 2, 1962. He was guarded twenty-four hours a day by reserve U.S. deputy marshals and army troops, and he endured constant verbal harassment from a minority of students. -
Marilyn Monroe dies
Marilyn Monroe / Cause of death
Murray alerted Greenson, who arrived soon after, entered the room by breaking a window, and found Monroe dead. Her death was officially ruled a probable suicide by the Los Angeles County coroner's office, based on information about her overdosing and being prone to mood swings and suicidal ideation. -
“Dr. No” the first James Bond movie premiers
The campaign also included the 007 logo designed by Joseph Caroff with a pistol as part of the seven. Dr. No had its worldwide premiere at the London Pavilion, on 5 October 1962, expanding to the rest of the United Kingdom three days later. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
In 1962 the Soviet Union began to secretly install missiles in Cuba to launch attacks on U.S. cities. The confrontation that followed, known as the Cuban missile crisis, brought the two superpowers to the brink of war before an agreement was reached to withdraw the missiles. -
Dr. King’s “I Have A Dream” Speech
In what became known as the “I Have a Dream” speech, King gave impassioned voice to the demands of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement — equal rights for all citizens, regardless of the color of their skin. -
John F Kennedy is assassinated
President John F. Kennedy was shot as he rode in a motorcade through the streets of Dallas, Texas; he died shortly thereafter. The thirty-fifth president was forty-six years old and had served less than three years in office. -
The Beatles arrive in the United States
The Beatles arrived at Kennedy Airport in New York for the very first time to thousands of screaming fans on Feb. 7, 1964. A throng of screaming fans was on hand to greet The Beatles as they stepped triumphantly off their plane at Kennedy Airport from London for the first time. -
The Beatles appear on Ed Sullivan
The Night That Changed Music Forever: The Beatles' American Debut on The Ed Sullivan Show turns 60. Sixty years ago, on February 9, 1964, four lads from Liverpool took to the stage for their first televised performance in America, forever altering the course of music history. -
New York World’s Fair begins
The 1964-65 World's Fair theme was “Peace through Understanding,” and hosted 80 countries, the United States government, 24 states, and the City of New York. Robert Moses served as president of the World's Fair Corporation and opened the fair on April 22, 1964. -
Lyndon B Johnson defeats Barry Goldwater
Incumbent Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson defeated Republican Senator Barry Goldwater in a landslide victory. Johnson was the fourth and most recent vice president to succeed the presidency following the death of his predecessor and win a full term in his own right. -
Malcolm X assassinated
Malcolm X, an African American Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a popular figure during the civil rights movement, was shot multiple times and died from his wounds in Manhattan, New York City on February 21, 1965, at age 39. -
Watts race riots
The leading cause of the Watts Riots was the arrest of Marquette Frye, an African-American man. A white California Highway Patrol officer arrested him for suspicion of drunk driving. The arrest resulted in a scuffle and attracted the attention of onlookers who joined in the fight. -
“Star Trek” TV show airs
The first regular episode of Star Trek, "The Man Trap", aired on Thursday, September 8, 1966, from 8:30 to 9:30 as part of an NBC "sneak preview" block. -
First NFL Football Super Bowl
In 1967 the National Football League's Green Bay Packers competed against the American Football League's Kansas City Chiefs for the first Super Bowl championship title. The Packers defeated the Chiefs 35–10. -
Boxer Muhammed Ali refuses military service
On April 28, 1967, with the United States at war in Vietnam, Ali refused to be inducted into the armed forces, saying “I ain't got no quarrel with those Vietcong.” -
Beatles release Sgt. Pepper’s album
Released on 1st June, 1967, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, the band's eighth album became the soundtrack to the "summer of love" but its appeal is timeless. -
Thurgood Marshall nominated to the Supreme Court
President Johnson nominated Marshall in June 1967 to replace the retiring Justice Tom Clark, who left the Court after his son, Ramsey Clark, became Attorney General. -
San Francisco “Summer of Love” begins
In 1967 the American counterculture movement exploded onto the mainstream with the Summer of Love, when roughly 85,000 young people convened on San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury neighborhood in search of a communal utopia. -
LSD declared illegal by the U.S. government
This resulted in LSD being viewed as a cultural threat to American values and the Vietnam war effort, and it was designated as a Schedule I (illegal for medical as well as recreational use) substance in 1968. -
Tet Offensive
North Vietnamese and communist Viet Cong forces launched a coordinated attack against a number of targets in South Vietnam. The U.S. and South Vietnamese militaries sustained heavy losses before finally repelling the communist assault. -
Martin Luther King Jr. assassinated
On the afternoon of April 1968, posing as John Willard, Ray rented a room at a Memphis roominghouse near the Lorraine Motel. That day, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated as he stood on the second-floor balcony of the Lorraine Motel. -
Robert Kennedy is assassinated
Robert F. Kennedy was shot by Sirhan Sirhan at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California and pronounced dead the following day. Robert F. Kennedy lies mortally wounded on the floor immediately after the shooting. -
Stonewall riots
In 1969, a series of riots over police action against The Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York City's Greenwich Village, changed the landscape of homosexual society quite literally overnight. Since then, the term 'Stonewall' itself has become almost synonymous with the struggle for gay rights. -
Protests at the 1968 Democratic National Convention
The most contentious issues of the convention were the continuing American military involvement in the Vietnam War and voting reform, particularly expanding the right to vote for draft-age soldiers (age 18) who were unable to vote as the voting age was 21. -
Richard Nixon is elected
The Republican nominee, former vice president Richard Nixon, defeated both the Democratic nominee, incumbent vice president Hubert Humphrey, and the American Independent Party nominee, former Alabama governor George Wallace. -
American astronauts land on the moon
American astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first person to walk on the Moon. He stepped out of the Apollo 11 lunar module and onto the Moon's surface, in an area called the 'Sea of Tranquility'. -
Woodstock concert
The festival was remarkably peaceful given the number of people and the conditions involved, although there were three recorded fatalities: two drug overdoses and another caused when a tractor ran over a 17-year-old sleeping in a nearby hayfield. -
The Rolling Stones host the Altamont music festival
The Altamont Speedway Free Festival was a counterculture rock concert in the United States, held on Saturday, December 6, 1969, at the Altamont Speedway outside of Tracy, California. Approximately 300,000 attended the concert, with some anticipating that it would be a "Woodstock West".