File:1960s montage.png, Clockwise from top left: U.S. soldiers during the Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...
; the Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the most influential band of all time and were integral to the developmen ...
led the British Invasion
The British Invasion was a cultural phenomenon of the mid-1960s, when rock and pop music acts from the United Kingdom and other aspects of British culture became popular in the United States and significant to the rising "counterculture" on ...
of the U.S. music market; a half-a-million people participate in the 1969 Woodstock Festival; Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin
Buzz Aldrin (; born Edwin Eugene Aldrin Jr.; January 20, 1930) is an American former astronaut, engineer and fighter pilot. He made three spacewalks as pilot of the 1966 Gemini 12 mission. As the Lunar Module ''Eagle'' pilot on the 1969 A ...
walk on the Moon during the Cold War-era Space Race
The Space Race was a 20th-century competition between two Cold War rivals, the United States and the Soviet Union, to achieve superior spaceflight capability. It had its origins in the ballistic missile-based nuclear arms race between the t ...
; the Stonewall Inn
The Stonewall Inn, often shortened to Stonewall, is a gay bar and recreational tavern in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York City, and the site of the Stonewall riots of 1969, which is widely considered to be the sin ...
; China's Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong pronounced ; also romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the founder of the People's Republic of China (PRC) ...
initiates the Great Leap Forward plan which fails and brings mass starvation in which 15 to 55 million people died by 1961, and in 1966, Mao starts the Cultural Revolution
The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goa ...
, which purged traditional Chinese practices and ideas; John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...
is assassinated in 1963, after serving as President for three years; Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...
makes his famous " I Have a Dream" speech to a crowd of 250,000., 408x408px, right
rect 2 2 237 166 Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...
rect 240 2 498 166 The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the most influential band of all time and were integral to the developmen ...
rect 2 169 192 296 Assassination of John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, was assassinated on Friday, November 22, 1963, at 12:30 p.m. CST in Dallas, Texas, while riding in a presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza. Kennedy was in the vehicle with ...
rect 196 169 317 296 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, also known as simply the March on Washington or The Great March on Washington, was held in Washington, D.C., on August 28, 1963. The purpose of the march was to advocate for the civil and economic rig ...
rect 321 169 497 296 Woodstock
Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held during August 15–18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, United States, southwest of the town of Woodstock. Billed as "an Aq ...
rect 2 300 117 392 Cultural Revolution
The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goa ...
rect 2 393 117 486 Great Leap Forward
rect 122 300 237 486 Stonewall riots
rect 241 300 497 486 Apollo 11
Apollo 11 (July 16–24, 1969) was the American spaceflight that first landed humans on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin landed the Apollo Lunar Module ''Eagle'' on July 20, 1969, at 20:17 UTC, ...
The 1960s (pronounced "nineteen-sixties", shortened to the "60s" or the "Sixties") was a
decade
A decade () is a period of ten years. Decades may describe any ten-year period, such as those of a person's life, or refer to specific groupings of calendar years.
Usage
Any period of ten years is a "decade". For example, the statement that "du ...
that began January 1, 1960 and ended December 31, 1969.
[Joshua Zeitz](_blank)
"1964: The Year the Sixties Began", ''American Heritage'', Oct. 2006.
In the United States and other Western countries, the Sixties is noted for its
counterculture
A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. Hou ...
. There was a revolution in social norms, including clothing, music (such as the
Altamont Free Concert
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 Livermore, California. Approximately 300,000 attended the concert, and some a ...
), drugs, dress, sexuality, formalities,
civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life o ...
, precepts of military duty, and schooling. Others denounce the decade as one of irresponsible excess, flamboyance, the decay of social order, and the fall or relaxation of social taboos. A wide range of music emerged; from popular music inspired by and including the
Beatles (in the United States known as the
British Invasion
The British Invasion was a cultural phenomenon of the mid-1960s, when rock and pop music acts from the United Kingdom and other aspects of British culture became popular in the United States and significant to the rising "counterculture" on ...
), the
folk music revival, to the poetic lyrics of Bob Dylan. In the United States the Sixties were also called the "cultural decade" while in the United Kingdom (especially London) it was called the
Swinging Sixties.
Organizations such as
those present at May 1968, the German
Red Army Faction
The Red Army Faction (RAF, ; , ),See the section "Name" also known as the Baader–Meinhof Group or Baader–Meinhof Gang (, , active 1970–1998), was a West German far-left Marxist-Leninist urban guerrilla group founded in 1970.
The ...
, and the Japanese
Zengakuren
Zengakuren is a league of university student associations founded in 1948 in Japan. The word is an abridgement of which literally means "All-Japan Federation of Student Self-Government Associations." Notable for organizing protests and marches, ...
tested
liberal democracy's ability to help people left out of society in the
post-industrial age hybrid capitalist economies. In the United Kingdom, the
Labour Party gained power in 1964 with
Harold Wilson as Prime Minister through most of the decade. In France, the
protests of 1968
The protests of 1968 comprised a worldwide escalation of social conflicts, predominantly characterized by popular rebellions against state militaries and the bureaucracies.
In the United States, these protests marked a turning point for the ci ...
led to President
Charles de Gaulle temporarily fleeing the country.
Italy formed its first left-of-center government in March 1962 with a coalition of
Christian Democrats
__NOTOC__
Christian democratic parties are political parties that seek to apply Christian principles to public policy. The underlying Christian democracy movement emerged in 19th-century Europe, largely under the influence of Catholic social ...
,
Social Democrats
Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote so ...
, and moderate
Republicans. When
Aldo Moro
Aldo Romeo Luigi Moro (; 23 September 1916 – 9 May 1978) was an Italian statesman and a prominent member of the Christian Democracy (DC). He served as prime minister of Italy from December 1963 to June 1968 and then from November 1974 to July 1 ...
became Prime Minister in 1963,
Socialists
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the eco ...
joined the ruling block too. Soviet leaders during the decade were
Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and chairman of the country's Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964. During his rule, Khrushchev s ...
until 1964 and
Leonid Brezhnev
Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev; uk, links= no, Леонід Ілліч Брежнєв, . (19 December 1906– 10 November 1982) was a Soviet politician who served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union between 1964 and ...
. In Brazil,
João Goulart
João Belchior Marques Goulart (1 March 1919 – 6 December 1976), commonly known as Jango, was a Brazilian politician who served as the 24th president of Brazil until a military coup d'état deposed him on 1 April 1964. He was considered the ...
became president after
Jânio Quadros
Jânio da Silva Quadros (; January 25, 1917 – February 16, 1992) was a Brazilian lawyer and Politics of Brazil, politician who served as the 22nd president of Brazil from January 31 to August 25, 1961, when he resigned from office. He als ...
resigned.
The United States had four presidents that served during the decade;
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...
,
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...
,
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), often referred to by his initials LBJ, was an American politician who served as the 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969. He had previously served as the 37th vice ...
and
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...
. Eisenhower was near the end of his term and left office in January 1961, and
Kennedy was assassinatedJohn Barth
John Simmons Barth (; born May 27, 1930) is an American writer who is best known for his postmodern and metafictional fiction. His most highly regarded and influential works were published in the 1960s, and include ''The Sot-Weed Factor'', a sa ...
(1984) intro to ''The Literature of Exhaustion ''The Literature of Exhaustion'' is a 1967 essay by the American novelist John Barth sometimes considered to be the manifesto of postmodernism.
The essay was highly influential and controversial.
Summary
The essay depicted literary realism as ...
'', in ''The Friday Book''. in 1963. Kennedy had wanted a
Keynesian
Keynesian economics ( ; sometimes Keynesianism, named after British economist John Maynard Keynes) are the various macroeconomic theories and models of how aggregate demand (total spending in the economy) strongly influences economic output an ...
and staunch
anti-communist social reforms. These were passed under Johnson including civil rights for
African Americans and healthcare for
the elderly and
the poor. Despite his large-scale
Great Society
The Great Society was a set of domestic programs in the United States launched by Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964–65. The term was first coined during a 1964 commencement address by President Lyndon B. Johnson at the Universit ...
programs, Johnson was increasingly disliked by the
New Left at home and abroad. 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
The term new social movements (NSMs) is a theory of social movements that attempts to explain the plethora of new movements that have come up in various western societies roughly since the mid-1960s (i.e. in a post-industrial economy) which are cl ...
.
After President
Kennedy's assassination, direct tensions between the
superpower countries of US and Soviet Union developed into a contest with
proxy war
A proxy war is an armed conflict between two states or non-state actors, one or both of which act at the instigation or on behalf of other parties that are not directly involved in the hostilities. In order for a conflict to be considered a pr ...
s, insurgency funding, puppet governments and other overall influence mainly in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. This "
Cold War" dominated the world's geopolitics during the decade. Africa was in a period of radical political change as 32 countries
gained independence from their European colonial rulers. The heavy-handed American role in the
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...
lead to an
anti-Vietnam War movement
Opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War (before) or anti-Vietnam War movement (present) began with demonstrations in 1965 against the escalating role of the United States in the Vietnam War and grew into a broad social mov ...
with outraged student protestors around the globe.
By the end of the 1950s, post-war reconstructed Europe and began an economic boom. World War II had closed up social classes with remnants of the old feudal gentry disappearing. A developing upper-working-class (a newly redefined middle-class) in Western Europe could afford a radio, television, refrigerator and motor vehicles. The
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
and other
Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Pact (WP) or Treaty of Warsaw, formally the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, was a collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland, between the Soviet Union and seven other Eastern Bloc socialist repub ...
countries were improving quickly after rebuilding from WWII. Real GDP growth averaged 6% a year during the second half of the decade; overall, the worldwide economy prospered in the 1960s with expansion of the middle class and the increase of new domestic technology.
During the 1960s, the world population increased from 3.0 to 3.7 billion people. There were approximately 1.15 billion births and 500 million deaths.
Politics and wars
Wars
* The
Cold War (1947–1991)
** The
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...
(1955–1975)
*** 1961 – Substantial (approximately 700) American advisory forces first arrive in
Vietnam
Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...
.
*** 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
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...
'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
The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washin ...
, was passed on 10 August 1964. The resolution gave U.S. President
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), often referred to by his initials LBJ, was an American politician who served as the 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969. He had previously served as the 37th vice ...
authorization, without a formal
declaration of war by Congress, for the use of military force in
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainlan ...
. 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 are sent to
Vietnam
Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...
by the Johnson administration and college attendance soars.
** The
Bay of Pigs Invasion
The Bay of Pigs Invasion (, sometimes called ''Invasión de Playa Girón'' or ''Batalla de Playa Girón'' after the Playa Girón) was a failed military landing operation on the southwestern coast of Cuba in 1961 by Cuban exiles, covertly fin ...
(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
The Portuguese Colonial War ( pt, Guerra Colonial Portuguesa), also known in Portugal as the Overseas War () or in the former colonies as the War of Liberation (), and also known as the Angolan, Guinea-Bissau and Mozambican War of Independence, ...
(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 The Conference of Nationalist Organizations of the Portuguese Colonies ( pt, Conferência das Organizações Nacionalistas das Colónias Portuguesas ''CONCP'') was an organization for coordination and cooperation between the national liberation move ...
umbrella and pro-U.S. groups, became active in these areas, most notably in
Angola
, national_anthem = " Angola Avante"()
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, capital = Luanda
, religion =
, religion_year = 2020
, religion_ref =
, coordina ...
,
Mozambique
Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...
, and
Portuguese Guinea
Portuguese Guinea ( pt, Guiné), called the Overseas Province of Guinea from 1951 until 1972 and then State of Guinea from 1972 until 1974, was a West African colony of Portugal from 1588 until 10 September 1974, when it gained independence as Gu ...
. During the war, several atrocities were committed by all forces involved in the conflict.
* The
Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation began in January 1963 and ended in August 1966.
* The
Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 began in September.
*
Arab–Israeli conflict
The Arab–Israeli conflict is an ongoing intercommunal phenomenon involving political tension, military conflicts, and other disputes between Arab countries and Israel, which escalated during the 20th century, but had mostly faded out by the ...
(early-20th century-present)
**
Six-Day War
The Six-Day War (, ; ar, النكسة, , or ) or June War, also known as the 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab states (primarily Egypt, Syria, and Jordan) from 5 to 10 Ju ...
(June 1967) – a war between
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
and the neighboring states of
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...
,
Jordan
Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...
, and
Syria. The Arab states of
Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...
,
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...
,
Sudan,
Tunisia
)
, image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg
, map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa
, image_map2 =
, capital = Tunis
, largest_city = capital
, ...
,
Morocco
Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria t ...
and
Algeria
)
, image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Algiers
, coordinates =
, largest_city = capital
, relig ...
also contributed troops and arms. At the war's end, Israel had gained control of the
Sinai Peninsula
The Sinai Peninsula, or simply Sinai (now usually ) (, , cop, Ⲥⲓⲛⲁ), is a peninsula in Egypt, and the only part of the country located in Asia. It is between the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Red Sea to the south, and is ...
, the
Gaza Strip
The Gaza Strip (;The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p.761 "Gaza Strip /'gɑːzə/ a strip of territory under the control of the Palestinian National Authority and Hamas, on the SE Mediterranean coast including the town of Gaza.. ...
, the
West Bank
The West Bank ( ar, الضفة الغربية, translit=aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah; he, הגדה המערבית, translit=HaGadah HaMaʽaravit, also referred to by some Israelis as ) is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...
,
East Jerusalem, and the
Golan Heights
The Golan Heights ( ar, هَضْبَةُ الْجَوْلَانِ, Haḍbatu l-Jawlān or ; he, רמת הגולן, ), or simply the Golan, is a region in the Levant spanning about . The region defined as the Golan Heights differs between di ...
. 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
The Nigerian Civil War (6 July 1967 – 15 January 1970), also known as the Nigerian–Biafran War or the Biafran War, was a civil war fought between Nigeria and the Republic of Biafra, a secessionist state which had declared its independence ...
began in 1967.
* Civil wars in
Laos and
Sudan rage on throughout the decade.
* The
Al-Wadiah War
The al-Wadiah War was a military conflict which broke out on 27 November 1969 between Saudi Arabia and the People's Republic of South Yemen after PRSY forces seized the town of al-Wadiah on the PRSY-Saudi Arabian border. The conflict ended on 6 ...
was a military conflict which broke out on 27 November 1969 between
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...
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
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...
.
*
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
Mao Zedong pronounced ; also romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the founder of the People's Republic of China (PRC) ...
, the chairman of the
Chinese Communist Party
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Civil ...
. Mao alleged that "liberal bourgeois" elements were permeating the party and society at large and that they wanted to restore
capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, priva ...
. 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
Red Guards () were a mass student-led paramilitary social movement mobilized and guided by Chairman Mao Zedong in 1966 through 1967, during the first phase of the Cultural Revolution, which he had instituted.Teiwes According to a Red Guard lead ...
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
Naxalbari (also spelled Naksalbari) is a village in the Naxalbari CD block in the Siliguri subdivision of the Darjeeling district in the state of West Bengal, India. Naxalbari is famous for being the site of a 1967 revolt that would eventua ...
,
West Bengal
West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fou ...
, led by certain leaders of the
Communist Party of India (Marxist)
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (abbreviated as CPI(M)/CPIM/CPM) is a Marxist–Leninist communist political party in India. It is the largest communist party of India in terms of membership and electoral seats and one of the na ...
. 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
The Troubles ( ga, Na Trioblóidí) were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it is sometimes described as an " ...
in Northern Ireland began with the rise of the
Northern Ireland civil rights movement in the mid-1960s, the conflict continued into the later 1990s.
* The
Compton's Cafeteria Riot
The Compton's Cafeteria riot occurred in August 1966 in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco. The riot was a response to the violent and constant police harassment of drag queens and trans people, particularly trans women. The incident was o ...
occurred in August 1966 in the
Tenderloin district of San Francisco. This incident was one of the first recorded
transgender
A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through ...
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
The Stonewall Inn, often shortened to Stonewall, is a gay bar and recreational tavern in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York City, and the site of the Stonewall riots of 1969, which is widely considered to be the sin ...
, in the
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...
neighborhood 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
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) movements are social movements that advocate for LGBT people in society. Some focus on equal rights, such as the ongoing movement for same-sex marriage, while others focus on liberation, as in the ...
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 involved. The most spectacular manifestation of this was the
May
May is the fifth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars and is the third of seven months to have a length of 31 days.
May is a month of spring in the Northern Hemisphere, and autumn in the Southern Hemisphere. Therefore, 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
Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...
they protested against restrictions on free speech by
communist regimes.
* The
Tlatelolco massacre
On October 2, 1968 in the Tlatelolco section of Mexico City, the Mexican Armed Forces opened fire on a group of unarmed civilians in the Plaza de las Tres Culturas who were protesting the upcoming 1968 Summer Olympics. The Mexican government and ...
– 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
The Plaza de las Tres Culturas ("Plaza of the Three Cultures") is the main square within the Tlatelolco neighborhood of Mexico City. The name "Three Cultures" is in recognition of the three periods of Mexican history reflected by buildings in ...
in the
Tlatelolco section of Mexico City.
Coups
Prominent
coups d'état of the decade included:
* On 27 May 1960, a coup in
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...
led by
Cemal Gürsel and
Cemal Madanoğlu overthrew the government of
Adnan Menderes.
* On 16 May 1961, a coup in
South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...
led by army officer
Park Chung-hee made the establishment of temporary military rule.
* In 1963, a coup in
South Viet Nam
South Vietnam, officially the Republic of Vietnam ( vi, Việt Nam Cộng hòa), was a state in Southeast Asia that existed from 1955 to 1975, the period when the southern portion of Vietnam was a member of the Western Bloc during part of th ...
leads to the death of President
Ngô Đình Diệm and the establishment of temporary military rule.
* On 31 March and 1 April 1964, a
military coup
A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...
in
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
overthrows President João Goulart and starts a 21-year period of
military dictatorship.
* On 21 April 1967, in Greece a group of colonels established a
military dictatorship for seven years.
* In 1968, a
coup in Iraq led to the overthrow of
Abdul Rahman Arif
Hajj ʿAbd al-Rahman Mohammed ʿArif al-Jumayli ( ar, عبد الرحمن محمد عارف الجميلي, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ʿĀrif; 14 April 191624 August 2007) was a career soldier and the third president of Iraq from 16 April 1966 to 17 Ju ...
by the
Arab Socialist Baath Party.
* On 1 September 1969, a small group of military officers led by the army officer
Muammar Gaddafi overthrows monarchy in
Libya
Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Suda ...
.
Nuclear threats
* The
Cuban Missile Crisis (16–28 October 1962) – a near-military confrontation between the U.S. and the Soviet Union about the presence of Soviet missiles in
Cuba
Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...
. After an American
Naval (quarantine) blockade of Cuba the Soviet Union under the leadership of
Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and chairman of the country's Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964. During his rule, Khrushchev s ...
agreed to remove their missiles from Cuba in exchange for the U.S. removing its missiles from Turkey.
* On 13 February 1960,
France detonated its first atomic bomb. France possessed a
hydrogen bomb by 1968.
* On 16 October 1964,
China detonated its first atomic bomb. China possessed a
hydrogen bomb by 1967.
Decolonization and independence
* The transformation of Africa from
colonialism
Colonialism is a practice or policy of control by one people or power over other people or areas, often by establishing colony, colonies and generally with the aim of economic dominance. In the process of colonisation, colonisers may impose the ...
to
independence
Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the statu ...
in what is known as the
decolonisation of Africa
The decolonisation of Africa was a process that took place in the mid-to-late 1950s to 1975 during the Cold War, with radical government changes on the continent as colonial governments made the transition to independent states. The process wa ...
dramatically accelerated during the decade, with 32 countries gaining independence between 1960 and 1968, marking the end of the European empires that once dominated the African continent. However, many of these new post-colonial states would struggle with internal and external issues including famine, corruption, genocide, disease, and violent conflicts in the 1960s and succeeding decades. Many of these issues were caused or exacerbated by American and Soviet involvement during the
Cold War with each side supporting various strongmen, dictators, and guerillas favorable to their causes in these countries.
Economic development
In the economics study of the public sector, economic and social development is the process by which the economic well-being and quality of life of a nation, region, local community, or an individual are improved according to targeted goals and ...
on the continent has been difficult, but many nations who decolonized in the 1960s began to see a rebound and unprecedented growth in the first quarter of the 21st century. As a whole, Africa's
GDP
Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the market value of all the final goods and services produced and sold (not resold) in a specific time period by countries. Due to its complex and subjective nature this measure is ofte ...
rose by an average of over 6% a year between 2013 and 2022, a rate only outpaced by China.
Prominent political events
North America
=United States
=
* 1960 –
1960 United States presidential election – The very close campaign was the series of four Kennedy–Nixon debates; they were the first presidential debates held on television. Kennedy won a close election.
* 1961 – President
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...
promised some more aggressive confrontation with the Soviet Union; he also established the
Peace Corps
The Peace Corps is an independent agency and program of the United States government that trains and deploys volunteers to provide international development assistance. It was established in March 1961 by an executive order of President John F ...
.
* 1963 –
Betty Friedan
Betty Friedan ( February 4, 1921 – February 4, 2006) was an American feminist writer and activist. A leading figure in the women's movement in the United States, her 1963 book ''The Feminine Mystique'' is often credited with sparking the se ...
published the book ''
The Feminine Mystique
''The Feminine Mystique'' is a book by Betty Friedan, widely credited with sparking second-wave feminism in the United States. First published by W. W. Norton on February 19, 1963, ''The Feminine Mystique'' became a bestseller, initially selling o ...
'', reawakening the feminist movement and being largely responsible for its second wave.
* 1963 – Civil rights becomes a central issue, as the
Birmingham campaign
The Birmingham campaign, also known as the Birmingham movement or Birmingham confrontation, was an American movement organized in early 1963 by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to bring attention to the integration efforts o ...
and
Birmingham riot lead to President Kennedy's
Civil Rights Address,
Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...
's "
I Have a Dream" speech at the
March on Washington
The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, also known as simply the March on Washington or The Great March on Washington, was held in Washington, D.C., on August 28, 1963. The purpose of the march was to advocate for the civil and economic righ ...
, and the
16th Street Baptist Church Bombing
The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing was a white supremacist terrorist bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, on Sunday, September 15, 1963. Four members of a local Ku Klux Klan chapter planted 19 sticks of dynami ...
* 1963 – Kennedy was assassinated and replaced by Vice President
Lyndon Johnson. The nation was in shock. For the next half-century, conspiracy theorists concocted numerous alternative explanations to the official report that a lone gunman killed Kennedy.
* 1964 – Johnson pressed for
civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life o ...
legislation.
Civil Rights Act of 1964 signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson. This landmark piece of legislation in the United States outlawed
racial segregation
Racial segregation is the systematic separation of people into race (human classification), racial or other Ethnicity, ethnic groups in daily life. Racial segregation can amount to the international crime of apartheid and a crimes against hum ...
in schools, public places, and employment. The first black riots erupt in major cities.
* 1964 – Johnson was reelected over Conservative spokesman Senator
Barry Goldwater by wide landslide; Liberals gained full control of Congress.
* 1964 –
Wilderness Act
The Wilderness Act of 1964 () was written by Howard Zahniser of The Wilderness Society. It created the legal definition of wilderness in the United States, and protected 9.1 million acres (37,000 km²) of federal land. The result of a lon ...
signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on 3 September.
* 1965 – After the events of the
Selma to Montgomery marches
The Selma to Montgomery marches were three protest marches, held in 1965, along the 54-mile (87 km) highway from Selma, Alabama, to the state capital of Montgomery. The marches were organized by nonviolent activists to demonstrate the ...
the
National Voting Rights Act of 1965
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a landmark piece of federal legislation in the United States that prohibits racial discrimination in voting. It was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson during the height of the civil rights movement ...
was lobbied for, and then signed into law, by President Lyndon B. Johnson. The Voting Rights Act outlawed discriminatory voting practices that had caused the widespread disenfranchisement of African Americans in the United States.
* 1968 – U.S. President
Richard M. Nixon was elected defeating Vice President
Hubert H. Humphrey
Hubert Horatio Humphrey Jr. (May 27, 1911 – January 13, 1978) was an American pharmacist and politician who served as the 38th vice president of the United States from 1965 to 1969. He twice served in the United States Senate, representing Mi ...
in November.
* 1969 – U.S. President
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...
was inaugurated in January 1969; promised "peace with honor" to end the
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...
.
=Canada
=
*
The Quiet Revolution
The Quiet Revolution (french: Révolution tranquille) was a period of intense socio-political and socio-cultural change in French Canada which started in Quebec after the election of 1960, characterized by the effective secularization of govern ...
in Quebec altered the province-city-state into a more secular
society
A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Soci ...
. The Jean Lesage
Liberal
Liberal or liberalism may refer to:
Politics
* a supporter of liberalism
** Liberalism by country
* an adherent of a Liberal Party
* Liberalism (international relations)
* Sexually liberal feminism
* Social liberalism
Arts, entertainment and m ...
government created a welfare state ''État-Providence'' and fomented the rise of active nationalism among Francophone French-speaking Quebecer Québécois.
* On 15 February 1965, the new Flag of Canada was adopted in Canada, after much anticipated debate known as the Great Canadian Flag Debate.
* In 1960, the
Canadian Bill of Rights becomes law, and suffrage, and the right for any Canadian citizen to vote, was finally adopted by John Diefenbaker's Progressive Conservative government. The new election act allowed
First Nations
First Nations or first peoples may refer to:
* Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area.
Indigenous groups
*First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including:
**First Natio ...
people to vote for the first time.
=Mexico
=
* The student and
New Left protests in 1968 coincided with political upheavals in a number of other countries. Although these events often sprung from completely different causes, they were influenced by reports and images of what was happening in the United States and France.
Europe
* British Prime Minister
Harold Macmillan delivered his "
Wind of Change" speech in 1960.
* Construction of the
Berlin Wall 1961 to prevent East Germans from escaping to the West.
*
Pope John XXIII
Pope John XXIII ( la, Ioannes XXIII; it, Giovanni XXIII; born Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, ; 25 November 18813 June 1963) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 28 October 1958 until his death in June 19 ...
calls the
Second Vatican Council
The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the , or , was the 21st ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church. The council met in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome for four periods (or sessions), each lasting between 8 and ...
of the Catholic Church, continued by
Pope Paul VI
Pope Paul VI ( la, Paulus VI; it, Paolo VI; born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini, ; 26 September 18976 August 1978) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 21 June 1963 to his death in Augus ...
(after John XXIII died in 1963), which met from 11 October 1962, until 8 December 1965.
* In October 1964, Soviet leader
Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and chairman of the country's Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964. During his rule, Khrushchev s ...
was expelled from office due to his increasingly erratic and authoritarian behavior.
Leonid Brezhnev
Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev; uk, links= no, Леонід Ілліч Брежнєв, . (19 December 1906– 10 November 1982) was a Soviet politician who served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union between 1964 and ...
and
Alexei Kosygin
Alexei Nikolayevich Kosygin ( rus, Алексе́й Никола́евич Косы́гин, p=ɐlʲɪkˈsʲej nʲɪkɐˈla(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ kɐˈsɨɡʲɪn; – 18 December 1980) was a Soviet statesman during the Cold War. He served as the Premi ...
then became the new leaders of the Soviet Union.
* In
Czechoslovakia
, rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי,
, common_name = Czechoslovakia
, life_span = 1918–19391945–1992
, p1 = Austria-Hungary
, image_p1 ...
, 1968 was the year of
Alexander Dubček
Alexander Dubček (; 27 November 1921 – 7 November 1992) was a Slovak politician who served as the First Secretary of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ) (''de facto'' leader of Czechoslovak ...
's
Prague Spring, a source of inspiration to many Western leftists who admired Dubček's "socialism with a human face". The Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in August ended these hopes and also fatally damaged the chances of the orthodox communist parties drawing many recruits from the student protest movement.
Asia
=China
=
* Relations with the United States remained hostile during the 1960s, although representatives from both countries held periodic meetings in Warsaw, Poland (since there was no U.S. embassy in China). President Kennedy had plans to restore Sino-US relations, but his assassination, the war in Vietnam, and the Cultural Revolution put an end to that. Not until Richard Nixon took office in 1969 was there another opportunity.
* Following Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev's expulsion in 1964, Sino-Soviet relations devolved into open hostility. The Chinese were deeply disturbed by the Soviet suppression of the Prague Spring in 1968, as the latter now claimed the right to intervene in any country it saw as deviating from the correct path of socialism. Finally, in March 1969, armed clashes took place along the Sino-Soviet border in Manchuria. This drove the Chinese to restore relations with the U.S., as Mao Zedong decided that the Soviet Union was a much greater threat against them.
=India
=
* In India a literary and cultural movement started in Calcutta, Patna, and other cities by a group of writers and painters who called themselves "Hungryalists", or members of the
Hungry generation. The band of writers wanted to change virtually everything and were arrested with several cases filed against them on various charges. They ultimately won these cases.
Africa
* On 1 September 1969, the Libyan monarchy was overthrown, and a radical, revolutionary, government headed by Col. Muammar al-Gadaffi took power.
* On 1 October 1960, Nigeria gained its independence from Great Britain.
South America
* In 1964, a
successful coup against the democratically elected government of Brazilian president João Goulart, initiated a
military dictatorship that caused over 20 years of oppression.
* The
Argentine revolutionary
Ernesto "Che" Guevara
Ernesto Che Guevara (; 14 June 1928The date of birth recorded on /upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/Ernesto_Guevara_Acta_de_Nacimiento.jpg his birth certificatewas 14 June 1928, although one tertiary source, (Julia Constenla, quoted ...
travelled to Africa and then
Bolivia in his campaigning to spread worldwide revolution. He was captured and executed in 1967 by the Bolivian army, and afterwards became an iconic figure for the left wing around the world.
*
Juan Velasco Alvarado took power by a coup in Peru in 1968.
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, 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 unemployment rate known as the
misery index (economics)
The misery index is an economic indicator, created by economist Arthur Okun. The index helps determining how the average citizen is doing economically and it is calculated by adding the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate to the annual inflatio ...
had exploded to nearly 10% with inflation at 6.2% and unemployment at 3.5% and by 1975 the misery index was almost 20%.
Assassinations and attempts
Prominent assassinations, targeted killings, and assassination attempts include:
Disasters
Natural:
* The
1960 Valdivia earthquake
The 1960 Valdivia earthquake and tsunami ( es, link=no, Terremoto de Valdivia) or the Great Chilean earthquake (''Gran terremoto de Chile'') on 22 May 1960 was the most powerful earthquake ever recorded. Various studies have placed it at 9.4– ...
, 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.
*
1963 Skopje earthquake
The 1963 Skopje earthquake ( mk, Скопски земјотрес од 1963 година, Skopski zemjotres od 1963 godina) was a 6.1 moment magnitude earthquake which occurred in Skopje, SR Macedonia (present-day North Macedonia), then part of ...
was a 6.1 moment magnitude earthquake which 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.
* 1963 –
Vajont dam disaster – The Vajont dam flood 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.
* 1964 – The
Good Friday earthquake
The 1964 Alaskan earthquake, also known as the Great Alaskan earthquake and Good Friday earthquake, occurred at 5:36 PM AKST on Good Friday, March 27. , the most powerful earthquake recorded in the U.S. and North America, struck
Alaska
Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S. ...
and killed 143 people.
* 1965 –
Hurricane Betsy caused severe damage to the U.S. Gulf Coast, especially in the state of
Louisiana
Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...
.
* 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.
* 1969 –
Hurricane Camille
Hurricane Camille was the second most intense tropical cyclone on record to strike the United States, behind the 1935 Labor Day hurricane. The most intense storm of the 1969 Atlantic hurricane season, Camille originated as a tropical depression ...
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 16 December 1960, a
United Airlines
United Airlines, Inc. (commonly referred to as United), is a major American airline headquartered at the Willis Tower in Chicago, Illinois. DC-8 and a
Trans World Airlines Lockheed Constellation
collided over New York City and crashed, killing 134 people.
* On 15 February 1961,
Sabena Flight 548
Sabena Flight 548 was a Boeing 707-329 flight operated by Sabena that crashed en route from New York City to Brussels, Belgium, on February 15, 1961. The flight, which had originated at Idlewild International Airport, crashed on approach to Br ...
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 16 March 1962,
Flying Tiger Line Flight 739, a Lockheed Super Constellation, inexplicably disappeared over the Western Pacific, leaving all 107 on board presumed dead. Since the wreckage of the aircraft is lost to this day, the cause of the crash remains a mystery.
* On 3 June 1962,
Air France Flight 007
Air France Flight 007 crashed on 3 June 1962 while on take-off from Orly Airport. The only survivors of the disaster were two flight attendants; the other eight crew members, and all 122 passengers on board the Boeing 707, were killed. The cra ...
, a Boeing 707, crashed on takeoff from Paris. 130 people were killed in the crash while 2 survived.
* On 20 May 1965,
PIA Flight 705 crashed on approach to
Cairo
Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the Capital city, capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, List of ...
,
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...
. 121 died while 6 survived.
* On 4 February 1966,
All Nippon Airways Flight 60, a Boeing 727, plunged into
Tokyo Bay
is a bay located in the southern Kantō region of Japan, and spans the coasts of Tokyo, Kanagawa Prefecture, and Chiba Prefecture. Tokyo Bay is connected to the Pacific Ocean by the Uraga Channel. The Tokyo Bay region is both the most populous ...
for reasons unknown. All 133 people on board died.
* On 5 March 1966,
BOAC Flight 911
BOAC Flight 911 (call sign "Speedbird 911") was a round-the-world flight operated by the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) that crashed near Mount Fuji in Japan on 5 March 1966, with the loss of all 113 passengers and 11 crew members ...
broke up in mid-air and crashed on the slopes of
Mount Fuji. All 124 aboard died.
* On 8 December 1966, the car ferry
SS ''Heraklion'' sank in the
Aegean Sea
The Aegean Sea ; tr, Ege Denizi (Greek: Αιγαίο Πέλαγος: "Egéo Pélagos", Turkish: "Ege Denizi" or "Adalar Denizi") is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea between Europe and Asia. It is located between the Balkans ...
during a storm, killing 217 people.
* On 16 March 1969, a DC-9 operating
Viasa Flight 742 crashed in the
Venezuela
Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...
n city of
Maracaibo. A total of 155 people died in the crash.
Social and political movements
Counterculture and social revolution
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 which 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 1950s, 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
The terms underground press or clandestine press refer to periodicals and publications that are produced without official approval, illegally or against the wishes of a dominant (governmental, religious, or institutional) group.
In specific rec ...
, 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
Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), also known colloquially as acid, is a potent psychedelic drug. Effects typically include intensified thoughts, emotions, and sensory perception. At sufficiently high dosages LSD manifests primarily mental, vi ...
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
The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...
, ending in the massive
Moratorium protests in 1969, as well as the movement of resistance to
conscription ("the Draft") for the war.
The
antiwar movement
A peace movement is a social movement which seeks to achieve ideals, such as the ending of a particular war (or wars) or minimizing inter-human violence in a particular place or situation. They are often linked to the goal of achieving world pea ...
was initially based on the older 1950s
Peace movement
A peace movement is a social movement which seeks to achieve ideals, such as the ending of a particular war (or wars) or minimizing inter-human violence in a particular place or situation. They are often linked to the goal of achieving world peac ...
, heavily influenced by the
American Communist Party
The Communist Party USA, officially the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), is a communist party in the United States which was established in 1919 after a split in the Socialist Party of America following the Russian Revo ...
, but by the mid-1960s it outgrew this and became a broad-based mass movement centered in universities and churches: one kind of protest was called a "
sit-in". Other terms heard in the United States included "
the Draft
Conscription (also called the draft in the United States) is the state-mandated enlistment of people in a national service, mainly a military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it continues in some countries to the present day un ...
", "
draft dodger
Draft evasion is any successful attempt to elude a government-imposed obligation to serve in the military forces of one's nation. Sometimes draft evasion involves refusing to comply with the military draft laws of one's nation. Illegal draft ev ...
", "
conscientious objector", and "
Vietnam vet
A Vietnam veteran is a person who served in the armed forces of participating countries during the Vietnam War.
The term has been used to describe veterans who served in the armed forces of South Vietnam, the United States Armed Forces, and ot ...
". 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-1950s and continuing into the late 1960s, African-Americans in the United States aimed at outlawing
racial discrimination
Racial discrimination is any discrimination against any individual on the basis of their skin color, race or ethnic origin.Individuals can discriminate by refusing to do business with, socialize with, or share resources with people of a certain g ...
against
black Americans and
voting rights
Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise, is the right to vote in representative democracy, public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally i ...
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
An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with the ...
and
political
Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that stud ...
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
Nonviolence is the personal practice of not causing harm to others under any condition. It may come from the belief that hurting people, animals and/or the environment is unnecessary to achieve an outcome and it may refer to a general philosoph ...
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
The Montgomery bus boycott was a political and social protest campaign against the policy of racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery, Alabama. It was a foundational event in the civil rights movement in the United States ...
(1955–1956) in Alabama; "
sit-ins" such as the influential
Greensboro sit-ins
The Greensboro sit-ins were a series of nonviolent protests in February to July 1960, primarily in the Woolworth store—now the International Civil Rights Center and Museum—in Greensboro, North Carolina, which led to the F. W. Woolworth Comp ...
(1960) in North Carolina;
marches
In medieval Europe, a march or mark was, in broad terms, any kind of borderland, as opposed to a national "heartland". More specifically, a march was a border between realms or a neutral buffer zone under joint control of two states in which diff ...
, such as the
Selma to Montgomery marches
The Selma to Montgomery marches were three protest marches, held in 1965, along the 54-mile (87 km) highway from Selma, Alabama, to the state capital of Montgomery. The marches were organized by nonviolent activists to demonstrate the ...
(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
Civil Rights Act of 1964,
that banned discrimination based on "race, color, 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.
Hispanic and Chicano movement
Another large ethnic minority group, the
Mexican-Americans
Mexican Americans ( es, mexicano-estadounidenses, , or ) are Americans of full or partial Mexican heritage. In 2019, Mexican Americans comprised 11.3% of the US population and 61.5% of all Hispanic and Latino Americans. In 2019, 71% of Mexican ...
, are among other
Hispanics
The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad.
The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to viceroyalties forme ...
in the U.S. who fought to end racial discrimination and socioeconomic disparity. The largest Mexican-American populations were in the
Southwestern United States, such as
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
with over 1 million ''
Chicanos'' in Los Angeles alone, and
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...
where
Jim Crow laws included Mexican-Americans as "non-white" in some instances to be legally segregated.
Socially, the
Chicano Movement
The Chicano Movement, also referred to as El Movimiento, was a social and political movement in the United States inspired by prior acts of resistance among people of Mexican descent, especially of Pachucos in the 1940s and 1950s, and the Black ...
addressed what it perceived to be negative
ethnic stereotype
An ethnic stereotype, racial stereotype or cultural stereotype involves part of a system of beliefs about typical characteristics of members of a given ethnic group, their status, societal and cultural norms. A national stereotype, or nation ...
s of Mexicans in mass media and the American consciousness. It did so through the creation of works of literary and visual art that validated Mexican-American ethnicity and culture. Chicanos fought to end social stigmas such as the usage of the Spanish language and advocated official
bilingualism in federal and state governments.
The Chicano Movement also addressed discrimination in public and private institutions. Early in the twentieth century, Mexican Americans formed organizations to protect themselves from discrimination. One of those organizations, the
League of United Latin American Citizens
The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) is the largest and oldest Hispanic and Latin-American civil rights organization in the United States. It was established on February 17, 1929, in Corpus Christi, Texas, largely by Hispanics ...
, was formed in 1929 and remains active today.
The movement gained momentum after World War II when groups such as the
American G.I. Forum
The American GI Forum (AGIF) is a congressional charter, congressionally chartered Hispanic veterans and civil rights organization founded in 1948. Its motto is "Education is Our Freedom and Freedom should be Everybody's Business". AGIF operat ...
, which was formed by returning Mexican American veterans, joined in the efforts by other civil rights organizations.
Mexican-American civil-rights activists achieved several major legal victories including the 1947 ''
Mendez v. Westminster''
U.S. Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
ruling which declared that segregating children of "Mexican and Latin descent" was unconstitutional and the 1954 ''
Hernandez v. Texas'' ruling which declared that Mexican Americans and other racial groups in the United States were entitled to equal protection under the
14th Amendment of the
U.S. Constitution
The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, in 1789. Originally comprising seven articles, it delineates the nation ...
.
The most prominent civil-rights organization in the Mexican-American community, the
Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund
The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) is a national non-profit civil rights organization formed in 1968 by Jack Greenberg to protect the rights of Latinos in the United States."MALDEF" entry in ''Los Angeles A to Z: An ...
(MALDEF), was founded in 1968. Although modeled after the
NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund
The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (NAACP LDF, the Legal Defense Fund, or LDF) is a leading United States civil rights organization and law firm based in New York City.
LDF is wholly independent and separate from the NAACP. Altho ...
, MALDEF has also taken on many of the functions of other organizations, including political advocacy and training of local leaders.
Meanwhile,
Puerto Ricans in the U.S. mainland fought against racism, police brutality and socioeconomic problems affecting the three million Puerto Ricans residing in the 50 states. The main concentration of the population was in New York City.
In the 1960s and the following 1970s, Hispanic-American culture was on the rebound like ethnic music, foods, culture and identity both became popular and assimilated into the American mainstream. Spanish-language television networks, radio stations and newspapers increased in presence across the country, especially in U.S.–Mexican border towns and East Coast cities like New York City, and the growth of the
Cuban American
Cuban Americans ( es, cubanoestadounidenses or ''cubanoamericanos'') are Americans who trace their cultural heritage to Cuba regardless of phenotype or ethnic origin. The word may refer to someone born in the United States of Cuban descent or t ...
community in
Miami, Florida
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...
.
The multitude of discrimination at this time represented an inhuman side to a society that in the 1960s was upheld as a world and industry leader. The issues of civil rights and warfare became major points of reflection of virtue and democracy, what once was viewed as traditional and inconsequential was now becoming the significance in the turning point of a culture. A document known as the Port Huron Statement exemplifies these two conditions perfectly in its first hand depiction, "while these and other problems either directly oppressed us or rankled our consciences and became our own subjective concerns, we began to see complicated and disturbing paradoxes in our surrounding America. The declaration "all men are created equal..." rang hollow before the facts of Negro life in the South and the big cities of the North. The proclaimed peaceful intentions of the United States contradicted its economic and military investments in the Cold War status quo." These intolerable issues became too visible to ignore therefore its repercussions were feared greatly, the realization that we as individuals take the responsibility for encounter and resolution in our lives issues was an emerging idealism of the 1960s.
Second-wave feminism
A second wave of feminism in the United States and around the world gained momentum in the early 1960s. While the first wave of the early 20th century was centered on gaining suffrage and overturning ''de jure'' inequalities, the second wave was focused on changing cultural and social norms and ''de facto'' inequalities associated with women. At the time, a woman's place was generally seen as being in the home, and they were excluded from many jobs and professions. In the U.S., a
Presidential Commission on the Status of Women
The President's Commission on the Status of Women (PCSW) was established to advise the President of the United States on issues concerning the status of women. It was created by John F. Kennedy's signed December 14, 1961. In 1975 it became th ...
found discrimination against women in the workplace and every other aspect of life, a revelation which launched two decades of prominent women-centered legal reforms (i.e., the
Equal Pay Act of 1963
The Equal Pay Act of 1963 is a United States labor law amending the Fair Labor Standards Act, aimed at abolishing wage disparity based on sex (see gender pay gap). It was signed into law on June 10, 1963, by John F. Kennedy as part of his New Fro ...
,
Title IX
Title IX is the most commonly used name for the federal civil rights law in the United States that was enacted as part (Title IX) of the Education Amendments of 1972. It prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school or any other educat ...
, etc.) which broke down the last remaining legal barriers to women's personal freedom and professional success.
Feminists took to the streets, marching and protesting, authoring books and debating to change social and political views that limited women. In 1963, with
Betty Friedan
Betty Friedan ( February 4, 1921 – February 4, 2006) was an American feminist writer and activist. A leading figure in the women's movement in the United States, her 1963 book ''The Feminine Mystique'' is often credited with sparking the se ...
's book, ''
The Feminine Mystique
''The Feminine Mystique'' is a book by Betty Friedan, widely credited with sparking second-wave feminism in the United States. First published by W. W. Norton on February 19, 1963, ''The Feminine Mystique'' became a bestseller, initially selling o ...
'', the role of women in society, and in public and private life was questioned. By 1966, the movement was beginning to grow in size and power as women's group spread across the country and Friedan, along with other feminists, founded the
National Organization for Women
The National Organization for Women (NOW) is an American feminist organization. Founded in 1966, it is legally a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization. The organization consists of 550 chapters in all 50 U.S. states and in Washington, D.C. It ...
. In 1968, "
Women's Liberation
The women's liberation movement (WLM) was a political alignment of women and feminist intellectualism that emerged in the late 1960s and continued into the 1980s primarily in the industrialized nations of the Western world, which effected great ...
" became a household term as, for the first time, the new women's movement eclipsed the
civil rights movement
The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement throughout the Unite ...
when
New York Radical Women
New York Radical Women (NYRW) was an early second-wave radical feminist group that existed from 1967 to 1969. They drew nationwide media attention when they unfurled a banner inside the 1968 Miss America pageant displaying the words "Women' ...
, led by
Robin Morgan
Robin Morgan (born January 29, 1941) is an American poet, writer, activist, journalist, lecturer and former child actor. Since the early 1960s, she has been a key radical feminist member of the American Women's Movement, and a leader in the ...
,
protested the annual Miss America pageant in
Atlantic City, New Jersey. The movement continued throughout the next decades.
Gloria Steinem
Gloria Marie Steinem (; born March 25, 1934) is an American journalist and social-political activist who emerged as a nationally recognized leader of second-wave feminism in the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Steinem was a c ...
was a key feminist.
Gay rights movement
The United States, in the middle of a social revolution, led the world in LGBT rights in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Inspired by the civil-rights movement and the women's movement, early gay-rights pioneers had begun, by the 1960s, to build a movement. These groups were rather conservative in their practices, emphasizing that ''gay men and women are no different from those who are straight'' and deserve full equality. This philosophy would be dominant again after
AIDS, but by the very end of the 1960s, the movement's goals would change and become more radical, demanding a right to be different, and encouraging
gay pride
LGBT pride (also known as gay pride or simply pride) is the promotion of the self-affirmation, dignity, equality, and increased visibility of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people as a social group. Pride, as opposed to s ...
.
The symbolic birth of the
gay rights movement
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) movements are social movements that advocate for LGBT people in society. Some focus on equal rights, such as the ongoing movement for same-sex marriage, while others focus on liberation, as in the ...
would not come until the decade had almost come to a close. Gays were not allowed by law to congregate. Gay establishments such as the
Stonewall Inn
The Stonewall Inn, often shortened to Stonewall, is a gay bar and recreational tavern in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York City, and the site of the Stonewall riots of 1969, which is widely considered to be the sin ...
in New York City were routinely raided by the police to arrest gay people. On a night in late June 1969, LGBT people resisted, for the first time, a police raid, and rebelled openly in the streets. This uprising called the
Stonewall Riots began a new period of the LGBT rights movement that in the next decade would cause dramatic change both inside the LGBT community and in the mainstream American culture.
New Left
The rapid rise of a "
New Left" applied the class perspective of
Marxism
Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialectical ...
to postwar America but had little organizational connection with older Marxist organizations such as the
Communist Party
A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ...
, and even went as far as to reject organized labor as the basis of a unified left-wing movement. Sympathetic to the ideology of
C. Wright Mills
Charles Wright Mills (August 28, 1916 – March 20, 1962) was an American Sociology, sociologist, and a professor of sociology at Columbia University from 1946 until his death in 1962. Mills published widely in both popular and intellectual journ ...
, the New Left differed from the traditional left in its resistance to dogma and its emphasis on personal as well as societal change.
Students for a Democratic Society
Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) was a national student activist organization in the United States during the 1960s, and was one of the principal representations of the New Left. Disdaining permanent leaders, hierarchical relationships ...
(SDS) became the organizational focus of the New Left and was the prime mover behind the opposition to the War in Vietnam. The 1960s left also consisted of ephemeral campus-based
Trotskyist
Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a ...
,
Maoist
Maoism, officially called Mao Zedong Thought by the Chinese Communist Party, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed to realise a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of Ch ...
and
anarchist groups, some of which by the end of the 1960s had turned to
militancy
The English word ''militant'' is both an adjective and a noun, and it is generally used to mean vigorously active, combative and/or aggressive, especially in support of a cause, as in "militant reformers". It comes from the 15th century Latin " ...
.
Crime
The 1960s was also associated with a large increase in crime and urban unrest of all types. Between 1960 and 1969 reported incidence of violent crime per 100,000 people in the United States nearly doubled and have yet to return to the levels of the early 1960s. Large riots broke out in many cities like
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
,
Detroit
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...
, Los Angeles, New York City,
Newark, New Jersey
Newark ( , ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Essex County and the second largest city within the New York metropolitan area.[Oakland, California
Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...]
and Washington, D.C. By the end of the decade, politicians like
George Wallace and
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...
campaigned on restoring law and order to a nation troubled with the new unrest.
Science and technology
Science
Space exploration
The
Space Race
The Space Race was a 20th-century competition between two Cold War rivals, the United States and the Soviet Union, to achieve superior spaceflight capability. It had its origins in the ballistic missile-based nuclear arms race between the t ...
between the United States and the Soviet Union dominated the 1960s. The Soviets sent the first man,
Yuri Gagarin
Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin; Gagarin's first name is sometimes transliterated as ''Yuriy'', ''Youri'', or ''Yury''. (9 March 1934 – 27 March 1968) was a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut who became the first human to journey into outer space. T ...
, into
outer space
Outer space, commonly shortened to space, is the expanse that exists beyond Earth and its atmosphere and between celestial bodies. Outer space is not completely empty—it is a near-perfect vacuum containing a low density of particles, pred ...
during the
Vostok 1
Vostok 1 (russian: link=no, Восток, ''East'' or ''Orient'' 1) was the first spaceflight of the Vostok programme and the first human orbital spaceflight in history. The Vostok 3KA space capsule was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome on Apr ...
mission on 12 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 1960s.
In June 1963,
Valentina Tereshkova
Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova ( rus, Валентина Владимировна Терешкова, links=no, p=vɐlʲɪnʲˈtʲinə vlɐˈdʲimʲɪrəvnə tʲɪrʲɪʂˈkovə, a=Valentina Tereshkova.ogg; born 6 March 1937) is an engine ...
became the first woman in space during the
Vostok 6
Vostok 6 (russian: Восток-6, ''Orient 6'' or ''East 6'') was the first human spaceflight to carry a woman, cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, into space.
Mission
The spacecraft was launched on 16 June 1963. While Vostok 5 had been delayed by ...
mission. In 1965, Soviets launched the first probe to hit another planet of the
Solar System
The Solar System Capitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Solar ...
(
Venus
Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never f ...
),
Venera 3
Venera 3 (russian: Венера-3 meaning ''Venus 3'') was a Venera program space probe that was built and launched by the Soviet Union to explore the surface of Venus. It was launched on 16 November 1965 at 04:19 UTC from Baikonur, Kazakhstan ...
, and the first probe to make a soft landing on and transmit from the surface of the Moon,
Luna 9
Luna 9 (Луна-9), internal designation Ye-6 No.13, was an uncrewed space mission of the Soviet Union's Luna programme. On 3 February 1966, the Luna 9 spacecraft became the first spacecraft to achieve a survivable landing on a celestial body ...
. In March 1966, the Soviet Union launched
Luna 10
Luna 10 (or Lunik 10) was a 1966 Soviet lunar robotic spacecraft mission in the Luna program. It was the first artificial satellite of the Moon.
Luna 10 conducted extensive research in lunar orbit, gathering important data on the strength of ...
, which became the first
space probe
A space probe is an artificial satellite that travels through space to collect scientific data. A space probe may orbit Earth; approach the Moon; travel through interplanetary space; flyby, orbit, or land or fly on other planetary bodies; or ...
to enter orbit around the Moon, and in September, 1968,
Zond 5
Zond 5 (russian: Зонд 5, lit=Probe 5) was a spacecraft of the Soviet Zond program. In September 1968 it became the first spaceship to travel to and circle the Moon, the first Moon mission to include animals, and the first to return safely to ...
flew the first terrestrial beings, including two tortoises, to circumnavigate the Moon.
The deaths of astronauts
Gus Grissom
Virgil Ivan "Gus" Grissom (April 3, 1926 – January 27, 1967) was an American engineer, pilot in the United States Air Force, and member of the Mercury Seven selected by National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) as Project Mercur ...
,
Ed White, and
Roger B. Chaffee
Roger Bruce Chaffee (; February 15, 1935 – January 27, 1967) was an American Officer (armed forces), naval officer, United States naval aviator, aviator and Aeronautical engineering, aeronautical engineer who was a NASA astronaut in the Apoll ...
in the
Apollo 1
Apollo 1, initially designated AS-204, was intended to be the first crewed mission of the Apollo program, the American undertaking to land the first man on the Moon. It was planned to launch on February 21, 1967, as the first low Earth orbita ...
fire on 27 January 1967 put a temporary hold on the U.S. space program, but afterward progress was steady, with the
Apollo 8 crew (
Frank Borman
Frank Frederick Borman II (born March 14, 1928) is a retired United States Air Force (USAF) colonel (United States), colonel, aeronautical engineer, test pilot, businessman, and NASA astronaut. He was the commander of Apollo 8, the first missio ...
,
Jim Lovell
James Arthur Lovell Jr. (; born March 25, 1928) is an American retired astronaut, naval aviator, test pilot and mechanical engineer. In 1968, as command module pilot of Apollo 8, he became, with Frank Borman and William Anders, one of th ...
,
William Anders
William Alison Anders (born 17 October 1933) is a retired United States Air Force (USAF) major general, former electrical engineer, nuclear engineer, NASA astronaut, and businessman. In December 1968, he was a member of the crew of Apollo 8, t ...
) being the first manned mission to orbit another celestial body (the Moon) during Christmas of 1968.
On 20 July 1969,
Apollo 11
Apollo 11 (July 16–24, 1969) was the American spaceflight that first landed humans on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin landed the Apollo Lunar Module ''Eagle'' on July 20, 1969, at 20:17 UTC, ...
, the
first human spaceflight landed on the Moon. Launched on 16 July 1969, it carried mission Commander
Neil Armstrong, Command Module Pilot
Michael Collins Michael Collins or Mike Collins most commonly refers to:
* Michael Collins (Irish leader) (1890–1922), Irish revolutionary leader, soldier, and politician
* Michael Collins (astronaut) (1930–2021), American astronaut, member of Apollo 11 and Ge ...
, and the Lunar Module Pilot
Buzz Aldrin
Buzz Aldrin (; born Edwin Eugene Aldrin Jr.; January 20, 1930) is an American former astronaut, engineer and fighter pilot. He made three spacewalks as pilot of the 1966 Gemini 12 mission. As the Lunar Module ''Eagle'' pilot on the 1969 A ...
. Apollo 11 fulfilled President
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...
'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 25 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
Sergei Pavlovich Korolev (russian: Сергей Павлович Королёв, Sergey Pavlovich Korolyov, sʲɪrˈɡʲej ˈpavləvʲɪtɕ kərɐˈlʲɵf, Ru-Sergei Pavlovich Korolev.ogg; ukr, Сергій Павлович Корольов, ...
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 traveled to the Moon,
Venus
Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never f ...
, and
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Roman god of war. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin at ...
during the 1960s, and commercial satellites also came into use.
Other scientific developments
* 1960 – The female birth-control contraceptive,
the pill
The combined oral contraceptive pill (COCP), often referred to as the birth control pill or colloquially as "the pill", is a type of birth control that is designed to be taken orally by women. The pill contains two important hormones: proges ...
, was released in the United States after
Food and Drug Administration
The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a List of United States federal agencies, federal agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is respon ...
(FDA) approval.
* 1963 – The measles vaccine was released after being approved by the FDA
* 1964 – The discovery and confirmation of the
Cosmic microwave background
In Big Bang cosmology the cosmic microwave background (CMB, CMBR) is electromagnetic radiation that is a remnant from an early stage of the universe, also known as "relic radiation". The CMB is faint cosmic background radiation filling all spac ...
in 1964 secured the Big Bang as the best theory of the origin and evolution of the universe.
* 1965 –
AstroTurf introduced.
* 1967 – First
heart transplantation
A heart transplant, or a cardiac transplant, is a surgical transplant procedure performed on patients with end-stage heart failure or severe coronary artery disease when other medical or surgical treatments have failed. , the most common procedu ...
operation by Professor
Christiaan Barnard
Christiaan Neethling Barnard (8 November 1922 – 2 September 2001) was a South African cardiac surgeon who performed the world's first human-to-human heart transplant operation. On 3 December 1967, Barnard transplanted the heart of accident-v ...
in South Africa.
* 1967 – Discovery of the first known
pulsar (a rapidly spinning
neutron star
A neutron star is the collapsed core of a massive supergiant star, which had a total mass of between 10 and 25 solar masses, possibly more if the star was especially metal-rich. Except for black holes and some hypothetical objects (e.g. w ...
).
* During the late 1960s, the
Green Revolution
The Green Revolution, also known as the Third Agricultural Revolution, was a period of technology transfer initiatives that saw greatly increased crop yields and agricultural production. These changes in agriculture began in developed countrie ...
took a major leap in agricultural production.
Technology
Shinkansen
The , colloquially known in English as the bullet train, is a network of high-speed railway lines in Japan. Initially, it was built to connect distant Japanese regions with Tokyo, the capital, to aid economic growth and development. Beyond l ...
, the world's first
high-speed rail service began in 1964.
Automobiles
As the 1960s began, American cars showed a rapid rejection of 1950s styling excess, and would remain relatively clean and boxy for the entire decade. The horsepower race reached its climax in the late 1960s, with
muscle cars
Muscle car is a description according to ''Merriam-Webster Dictionary'' that came to use in 1966 for "a group of American-made two-door sports coupes with powerful engines designed for high-performance driving." The '' Britannica Dictionary'' ...
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 1960s, 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
Compact as used in politics may refer broadly to a pact or treaty; in more specific cases it may refer to:
* Interstate compact
* Blood compact, an ancient ritual of the Philippines
* Compact government, a type of colonial rule utilized in British ...
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
The Renault 16 (R16) is a D-segment family hatchback produced by French automaker Renault between 1965 and 1980 in Le Havre, France. The Renault 16 was the first French winner of the European Car of the Year award.
Market placement
In the early 19 ...
, 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
The Mini is a small, two-door, four-seat car, developed as ADO15, and produced by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) and its successors, from 1959 through 2000. Minus a brief hiatus, original Minis were built for four decades and sold during ...
, 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 bootlid.
Japanese cars also began to gain acceptance in the Western market, and popular economy models such as the
Toyota Corolla,
Datsun 510
The Datsun 510 was a series of the Datsun Bluebird sold from 1968 to 1973, and offered outside the U.S. and Canada as the Datsun 1600.
The 510's engineering was inspired by contemporary European sedans, particularly the 1966 BMW 1600-2 &mdash ...
, and the first popular Japanese sports car, the
Datsun 240Z
The Nissan S30 (sold in Japan as the Nissan Fairlady Z and in other markets as the Datsun 240Z, then later as the 260Z and 280Z) is the first generation of Z GT 3-door two-seat coupés, produced by Nissan Motors, Ltd. of Japan from 1969 until ...
, were released in the mid- to late-1960s.
Electronics and communications
* 1960 – The first working laser was demonstrated in May by
Theodore Maiman
Theodore Harold Maiman (July 11, 1927 – May 5, 2007) was an American engineer and physicist who is widely credited with the invention of the laser.Johnson, John Jr. (May 11, 2008). "Theodore H. Maiman, at age 32; scientist created the first LA ...
at
Hughes Research Laboratories
Hughes may refer to:
People
* Hughes (surname)
* Hughes (given name)
Places Antarctica
* Hughes Range (Antarctica), Ross Dependency
* Mount Hughes, Oates Land
* Hughes Basin, Oates Land
* Hughes Bay, Graham Land
* Hughes Bluff, Victori ...
.
* 1960 –
Tony Hoare
Sir Charles Antony Richard Hoare (Tony Hoare or C. A. R. Hoare) (born 11 January 1934) is a British computer scientist who has made foundational contributions to programming languages, algorithms, operating systems, formal verification, and ...
announces the
Quicksort
Quicksort is an efficient, general-purpose sorting algorithm. Quicksort was developed by British computer scientist Tony Hoare in 1959 and published in 1961, it is still a commonly used algorithm for sorting. Overall, it is slightly faster than ...
algorithm
In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific problems or to perform a computation. Algorithms are used as specifications for performing ...
, the most common sorter on computers.
* 1961 –
Unimate
Unimate was the first industrial robot,
which worked on a General Motors assembly line at the Inland Fisher Guide Plant in Ewing Township, New Jersey, in 1961.Mickle, Paul"1961: A peep into the automated future" ''The Trentonian''. Accessed Aug ...
, the first
industrial robot
An industrial robot is a robot system used for manufacturing. Industrial robots are automated, programmable and capable of movement on three or more axes.
Typical applications of robots include welding, painting, assembly, disassembly, pick ...
, was introduced.
* 1962 – First transatlantic satellite broadcast via the
Telstar
Telstar is the name of various communications satellites. The first two Telstar satellites were experimental and nearly identical. Telstar 1 launched on top of a Thor-Delta rocket on July 10, 1962. It successfully relayed through space the fi ...
satellite.
* 1962 – The first computer video game, ''
Spacewar!'', was invented.
* 1962 – Red
LEDs were developed.
* 1963 – The first
geosynchronous communications satellite, ''
Syncom 2'', is launched.
* 1963 – First transpacific satellite broadcast via the
Relay 1
The Relay program consisted of Relay 1 and Relay 2, two early American satellites in elliptical medium Earth orbit. Both were primarily experimental communications satellites funded by NASA and developed by RCA. As of December 2, 2016, both sate ...
satellite.
* 1963 –
Touch-Tone
Dual-tone multi-frequency signaling (DTMF) is a telecommunication signaling system using the voice-frequency band over telephone lines between telephone equipment and other communications devices and switching centers. DTMF was first developed ...
telephones introduced.
* 1963 –
Sketchpad
Sketchpad (a.k.a. Robot Draftsman) is a computer program written by Ivan Sutherland in 1963 in the course of his PhD thesis, for which he received the Turing Award in 1988, and the Kyoto Prize in 2012. It pioneered human–computer interaction ...
was the first touch interactive
computer graphics
Computer graphics deals with generating images with the aid of computers. Today, computer graphics is a core technology in digital photography, film, video games, cell phone and computer displays, and many specialized applications. A great de ...
program.
* 1963 – The
Nottingham
Nottingham ( , locally ) is a city and unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east of Sheffield and north-east of Birmingham. Nottingham has links to the legend of Robi ...
Electronic Valve company produced the first home
video recorder called the "Telcan".
* 1964 –
8-track tape
The 8-track tape (formally Stereo 8; commonly called eight-track cartridge, eight-track tape, and eight-track) is a magnetic tape sound recording technology that was popular from the mid-1960s to the early 1980s, when the compact cassette, wh ...
audio format was developed.
* 1964 – The
Compact Cassette was introduced.
* 1964 – The first successful
Minicomputer,
Digital Equipment Corporation
Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC ), using the trademark Digital, was a major American company in the computer industry from the 1960s to the 1990s. The company was co-founded by Ken Olsen and Harlan Anderson in 1957. Olsen was president un ...
's 12-bit
PDP-8
The PDP-8 is a 12-bit minicomputer that was produced by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). It was the first commercially successful minicomputer, with over 50,000 units being sold over the model's lifetime. Its basic design follows the pioneer ...
, was marketed.
* 1964 – The
programming language
A programming language is a system of notation for writing computer programs. Most programming languages are text-based formal languages, but they may also be graphical. They are a kind of computer language.
The description of a programming ...
BASIC was created.
* 1964 – The world's first
supercomputer, the
CDC 6600
The CDC 6600 was the flagship of the 6000 series of mainframe computer systems manufactured by Control Data Corporation. Generally considered to be the first successful supercomputer, it outperformed the industry's prior recordholder, the IBM ...
, was introduced.
* 1964 –
Fairchild Semiconductor released
ICs with
dual in-line packaging.
* 1967 –
PAL
Phase Alternating Line (PAL) is a colour encoding system for analogue television. It was one of three major analogue colour television standards, the others being NTSC and SECAM. In most countries it was broadcast at 625 lines, 50 fields (25 ...
and
SECAM
SECAM, also written SÉCAM (, ''Séquentiel de couleur à mémoire'', French for ''color sequential with memory''), is an analog color television system that was used in France, some parts of Europe and Africa, and Russia. It was one of th ...
broadcast color television systems started publicly transmitting in Europe.
* 1967 – The first
Automatic Teller Machine
An automated teller machine (ATM) or cash machine (in British English) is an electronic telecommunications device that enables customers of financial institutions to perform financial transactions, such as cash withdrawals, deposits, fun ...
was opened in
Barclays Bank
Barclays () is a British multinational universal bank, headquartered in London, England. Barclays operates as two divisions, Barclays UK and Barclays International, supported by a service company, Barclays Execution Services.
Barclays traces ...
, London.
* 1968 –
Ralph Baer
Ralph Henry Baer (born Rudolf Heinrich Baer; March 8, 1922 – December 6, 2014) was a German-American inventor, game developer, and engineer.
Baer's family fled Germany just before World War II and Baer served the American war effort, gain ...
developed his
Brown Box (a working prototype of the Magnavox Odyssey).
* 1968 – The
first public demonstration of the
computer mouse
A computer mouse (plural mice, sometimes mouses) is a hand-held pointing device that detects two-dimensional motion relative to a surface. This motion is typically translated into the motion of a pointer on a display, which allows a smooth ...
, the
paper paradigm Graphical user interface
The GUI ( "UI" by itself is still usually pronounced . or ), graphical user interface, is a form of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices through graphical icons and audio indicator such as primary notation, inst ...
,
video conferencing
Videotelephony, also known as videoconferencing and video teleconferencing, is the two-way or multipoint reception and transmission of audio signal, audio and video signals by people in different locations for Real-time, real time communication. ...
,
teleconferencing
A teleconference is the live exchange of information among several people remote from one another but linked by a telecommunications system. Terms such as audio conferencing, telephone conferencing and phone conferencing are also sometimes used t ...
,
email
Electronic mail (email or e-mail) is a method of exchanging messages ("mail") between people using electronic devices. Email was thus conceived as the electronic ( digital) version of, or counterpart to, mail, at a time when "mail" mean ...
, and
hypertext.
* 1969 –
ARPANET
The Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) was the first wide-area packet-switched network with distributed control and one of the first networks to implement the TCP/IP protocol suite. Both technologies became the technical fou ...
, the research-oriented prototype of the
Internet
The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...
, was introduced.
* 1969 –
CCD invented at AT&T
Bell Labs
Nokia Bell Labs, originally named Bell Telephone Laboratories (1925–1984),
then AT&T Bell Laboratories (1984–1996)
and Bell Labs Innovations (1996–2007),
is an American industrial Research and development, research and scientific developm ...
, used as the electronic imager in still and video cameras.
Additional notable worldwide events
* The
Manson Murders
Charles Milles Manson (; November 12, 1934November 19, 2017) was an American criminal and musician who led the Manson Family, a cult based in California, in the late 1960s. Some of the members committed a series of nine murders at four loc ...
occurred between 8–10 August 1969, when actress
Sharon Tate, coffee heiress
Abigail Folger
Abigail () was an Israelite woman in the Hebrew Bible married to Nabal; she married the future King David after Nabal's death (1 Samuel ). Abigail was David's second wife, after Saul and Ahinoam's daughter, Michal, whom Saul later married ...
, and several others were brutally murdered in the Tate residence by
Charles Manson's "family."
Rosemary LaBianca &
Leno LaBianca were also murdered by the Manson family the following night.
* Canada celebrated its 100th anniversary of
Confederation
A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a union of sovereign groups or states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical issu ...
in 1967 by hosting
Expo 67
The 1967 International and Universal Exposition, commonly known as Expo 67, was a general exhibition from April 27 to October 29, 1967. It was a category One World's Fair held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is considered to be one of the most su ...
, the World's Fair, in
Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...
,
Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
. During the anniversary celebrations, French president
Charles De Gaulle visited Canada, and caused a considerable uproar by declaring his support for Québécois independence.
Popular culture
File:The Beatles Story .jpg, The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the most influential band of all time and were integral to the developmen ...
released music throughout the 1960s. The music of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and George Harrison would stand the test of time.
File:Salahzulfikar&soadhosny.jpg, Salah Zulfikar
Salah El Din Ahmed Mourad Zulfikar ( ar, صلاح ذو الفقار; ; 18 January 1926 – 22 December 1993) was an Egyptian actor and film producer. He started his career as a police officer in the Egyptian National Police, before becoming an ac ...
and Soad Hosny
System of a Down (also known as SoaD or simply System) is an Armenian-American heavy metal band formed in Glendale, California, in 1994. Since 1997, the band has consisted of Serj Tankian (lead vocals, keyboards); Daron Malakian (guitar, voca ...
are considered two of the greatest middle eastern actors of all time and superstars of the 1960s
File:Bob Dylan in November 1963-2.jpg, Bob Dylan is often considered the greatest songwriter of all time, and along with The Beatles defined the explosion of musical ideas in the 1960s.
File:Deus Peace.png, Peace signs and flowers were an aesthetic of the 1960s and hippie culture.
File:Marijuana and pipe.jpg, Increased use of LSD
Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), also known colloquially as acid, is a potent psychedelic drug. Effects typically include intensified thoughts, emotions, and sensory perception. At sufficiently high dosages LSD manifests primarily mental, vi ...
and Marijuana occurred in the 1960s.
File:Woodstock redmond crowd.JPG, The Woodstock Music Festival
Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held during August 15–18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, United States, southwest of the town of Woodstock. Billed as "an Aquari ...
in 1969.
File:Aldrin Apollo 11.jpg, Buzz Aldrin
Buzz Aldrin (; born Edwin Eugene Aldrin Jr.; January 20, 1930) is an American former astronaut, engineer and fighter pilot. He made three spacewalks as pilot of the 1966 Gemini 12 mission. As the Lunar Module ''Eagle'' pilot on the 1969 A ...
(pictured) and Neil Armstrong walk on the Moon in July, 1969.
File:Lava lamp01.jpg, Lava Lamps
A lava lamp is a decorative lamp, invented in 1963 by British entrepreneur Edward Craven Walker, the founder of the lighting company Mathmos. It consists of a bolus of a special coloured wax mixture inside a glass vessel, the remainder of whic ...
released in the late 1940s became very prevalent in the 1960s.
The counterculture movement dominated the second half of the 1960s, its most famous moments being the
Summer of Love in San Francisco in 1967, and the
Woodstock Festival
Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held during August 15–18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, United States, southwest of the town of Woodstock. Billed as "an Aquar ...
in
upstate New York
Upstate New York is a geographic region consisting of the area of New York State that lies north and northwest of the New York City metropolitan area. Although the precise boundary is debated, Upstate New York excludes New York City and Long Is ...
in 1969.
Psychedelic drugs
Psychedelics are a subclass of hallucinogenic drugs whose primary effect is to trigger non-ordinary states of consciousness (known as psychedelic experiences or "trips").Pollan, Michael (2018). ''How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of ...
, especially
LSD
Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), also known colloquially as acid, is a potent psychedelic drug. Effects typically include intensified thoughts, emotions, and sensory perception. At sufficiently high dosages LSD manifests primarily mental, vi ...
, were widely used medicinally, spiritually and recreationally throughout the late 1960s, and were popularized by
Timothy Leary
Timothy Francis Leary (October 22, 1920 – May 31, 1996) was an American psychologist and author known for his strong advocacy of psychedelic drugs. Evaluations of Leary are polarized, ranging from bold oracle to publicity hound. He was "a her ...
with his slogan "
Turn on, tune in, drop out
"Turn on, tune in, drop out" is a counterculture-era phrase popularized by Timothy Leary in 1966. In 1967, Leary spoke at the Human Be-In, a gathering of 30,000 hippies in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco and phrased the famous words, "Turn on, ...
".
Ken Kesey
Ken Elton Kesey (September 17, 1935 – November 10, 2001) was an American novelist, essayist and countercultural figure. He considered himself a link between the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the hippies of the 1960s.
Kesey was born in ...
and the
Merry Pranksters
The Merry Pranksters were comrades and followers of American author Ken Kesey in 1964.
Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters lived communally at Kesey's homes in California and Oregon, and are noted for the sociological significance of a lengthy roa ...
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 (see
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 1950s quickly came to an end in 1959 with
the Day the Music Died
On February 3, 1959, American rock and roll musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and "The Big Bopper" J. P. Richardson were all killed in a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa, together with pilot Roger Peterson. The event later beca ...
(as explained in the song "
American Pie"), the scandal of
Jerry Lee Lewis
Jerry Lee Lewis (September 29, 1935October 28, 2022) was an American singer, songwriter and pianist. Nicknamed "The Killer", he was described as " rock & roll's first great wild man". A pioneer of rock and roll and rockabilly music, Lewis ma ...
' marriage to his 13-year-old cousin, and the induction of
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...
into the
United States Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...
. As the 1960s began, the major rock 'n' roll stars of the '50s such as
Chuck Berry
Charles Edward Anderson Berry (October 18, 1926 – March 18, 2017) was an American singer, songwriter and guitarist who pioneered rock and roll. Nicknamed the " Father of Rock and Roll", he refined and developed rhythm and blues into th ...
and
Little Richard had dropped off the charts and popular music in the U.S. came to be dominated by
girl groups,
surf music
Surf music (or surf rock, surf pop, or surf guitar) is a genre of rock music associated with surf culture, particularly as found in Southern California. It was especially popular from 1958 to 1964 in two major forms. The first is instrumental su ...
, novelty pop songs, clean-cut teen idols, and
Motown music. Another important change in music during the early 1960s was the
American folk music revival which introduced
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...
,
Joan Baez
Joan Chandos Baez (; born January 9, 1941) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and activist. Her contemporary folk music often includes songs of protest and social justice. Baez has performed publicly for over 60 years, releasing more ...
,
Pete Seeger
Peter Seeger (May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014) was an American folk singer and social activist. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, Seeger also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of the Weavers, notably ...
,
The Kingston Trio
The Kingston Trio is an American folk and pop music group that helped launch the folk revival of the late 1950s to the late 1960s. The group started as a San Francisco Bay Area nightclub act with an original lineup of Dave Guard, Bob Shane, ...
,
Harry Belafonte
Harry Belafonte (born Harold George Bellanfanti Jr.; March 1, 1927) is an American singer, activist, and actor. As arguably the most successful Jamaican-American pop star, he popularized the Trinbagonian Caribbean musical style with an interna ...
,
Odetta
Odetta Holmes (December 31, 1930 – December 2, 2008), known as Odetta, was an American singer, actress, guitarist, lyricist, and a civil rights activist, often referred to as "The Voice of the Civil Rights Movement". Her musical repertoire co ...
,
Phil Ochs, and many other
singer-songwriters to the public.
Girl groups and female singers, such as
the Shirelles
The Shirelles were an American girl group formed in Passaic, New Jersey in 1957. They consisted of schoolmates Shirley Owens (later Shirley Alston Reeves), Doris Coley (later Doris Kenner-Jackson), Addie "Micki" Harris (later Addie Harris McFad ...
,
Betty Everett
Betty Jean Everett (November 23, 1939 – August 19, 2001) was an American soul singer and pianist, best known for her biggest hit single, the million-selling " Shoop Shoop Song (It's In His Kiss)", and her duet " Let It Be Me" with Jerry Butle ...
,
Little Eva
Eva Narcissus Boyd (June 29, 1943 – April 10, 2003), better known by the stage name of Little Eva, was an American singer, well known for her 1962 hit "The Loco-Motion". Although some sources claim that her stage name was inspired by a charac ...
,
the Dixie Cups
The Dixie Cups (formerly known as The Meltones) are an American pop music girl group of the 1960s. They are best known for a string of hits including their 1964 million-selling record "Chapel of Love", " People Say", and " Iko Iko".
Caree ...
,
the Ronettes
The Ronettes were an American girl group from Washington Heights, Manhattan, New York City. The group consisted of lead singer Veronica Bennett (later known as Ronnie Spector), her older sister Estelle Bennett, and their cousin Nedra Talley. ...
,
Martha and the Vandellas and
the Supremes
The Supremes were an American girl group and a premier act of Motown Records during the 1960s. Founded as the Primettes in Detroit, Michigan, in 1959, the Supremes were the most commercially successful of Motown's acts and the most successf ...
dominated the charts in the early 1960s. 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
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...
, but white girl groups and singers, such as
Lesley Gore,
the Angels, and
the Shangri-Las
The Shangri-Las were an American pop girl group of the 1960s. Between 1964 and 1966 several hit songs of theirs documented teen tragedies and melodramas. They continue to be known for their hits "Remember (Walking in the Sand)", " Give Him a ...
also emerged during this period.
Around the same time, record producer
Phil Spector
Harvey Phillip Spector (born Harvey Philip Spector; December 26, 1939January 16, 2021) was an American record producer and songwriter, best known for his innovative recording practices and entrepreneurship in the 1960s, followed decades later by ...
began producing girl groups and created a new kind of pop music production that came to be known as the
Wall of Sound
The Wall of Sound (also called the Spector Sound) is a music production formula developed by American record producer Phil Spector at Gold Star Studios, in the 1960s, with assistance from engineer Larry Levine and the conglomerate of session ...
. 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 1960s,
surf rock emerged, a rock subgenre that was centered 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
The Beach Boys are an American rock band that formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. Distinguished by the ...
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
The British Invasion was a cultural phenomenon of the mid-1960s, when rock and pop music acts from the United Kingdom and other aspects of British culture became popular in the United States and significant to the rising "counterculture" on ...
and the counterculture movement.
The
car song also emerged as a rock subgenre in the early 1960s, which focused on teenagers' fascination with
car culture
Since the start of the twentieth century, the role of cars has become highly important, though controversial. They are used throughout the world and have become the most popular mode of transport in many of the more developed countries. In dev ...
. The Beach Boys also dominated this subgenre, along with the duo
Jan and Dean
Jan and Dean was an American rock duo consisting of William Jan Berry (April 3, 1941 – March 26, 2004) and Dean Ormsby Torrence (born March 10, 1940). In the early 1960s, they were pioneers of the California Sound and vocal surf music style ...
. Such notable songs include "
Little Deuce Coupe
''Little Deuce Coupe'' is the fourth album by the American rock band the Beach Boys, released October 7, 1963 on Capitol Records. It reached number 4 in the US during a chart stay of 46 weeks, and was eventually certified platinum by the RIA ...
", "
409", and "
Shut Down", all by the Beach Boys;
Jan and Dean
Jan and Dean was an American rock duo consisting of William Jan Berry (April 3, 1941 – March 26, 2004) and Dean Ormsby Torrence (born March 10, 1940). In the early 1960s, they were pioneers of the California Sound and vocal surf music style ...
's "
Little Old Lady from Pasadena" and "
Drag City",
Ronny and the Daytonas
Ronny & the Daytonas were an American surf rock group of the early 1960s, whose members included John "Bucky" Wilkin (aka Ronny Dayton) (songwriting, guitar, vocals), Paul Jensen (vocals, guitar), Thomas Ramey ( bass, guitar), Lynn Williams ( d ...
' "
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 1960s also saw the golden age of another rock subgenre, the
teen tragedy song
A teenage tragedy song is a style of ballad in popular music that peaked in popularity in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Examples of the style are also known as "tear jerkers", "death discs" or "splatter platters", among other colorful sobriquet ...
, which focused on lost teen romance caused by sudden death, mainly in
traffic accidents. Such songs included
Mark Dinning
Max Edward Dinning (August 17, 1933 — March 22, 1986), known by his stage name Mark Dinning was an American pop music singer.
In February 1960, the song " Teen Angel", written by his sister Jean (Eugenia) and her husband Red Surrey, reached nu ...
's "
Teen Angel",
Ray Peterson
Ray Peterson (April 23, 1935 – January 25, 2005) was an American pop music, pop singing, singer who is best remembered for singing "Tell Laura I Love Her". He also scored numerous other hits, including "Corrine, Corrina" which was compose ...
's "
Tell Laura I Love Her
"Tell Laura I Love Her" is a teenage tragedy song written by Jeff Barry and Ben Raleigh. It was a US top ten popular music hit for singer Ray Peterson in 1960 on RCA Victor Records, reaching No. 7 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart. Later th ...
",
Jan and Dean
Jan and Dean was an American rock duo consisting of William Jan Berry (April 3, 1941 – March 26, 2004) and Dean Ormsby Torrence (born March 10, 1940). In the early 1960s, they were pioneers of the California Sound and vocal surf music style ...
's "
Dead Man's Curve
Dead Man's Curve is an American nickname for a curve in a road that has claimed lives because of numerous crashes.
Examples
* A curve on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles memorialized in the hit song "Dead Man's Curve" by Jan and Dean. The son ...
",
the Shangri-Las
The Shangri-Las were an American pop girl group of the 1960s. Between 1964 and 1966 several hit songs of theirs documented teen tragedies and melodramas. They continue to be known for their hits "Remember (Walking in the Sand)", " Give Him a ...
' "
Leader of the Pack
"Leader of the Pack" is a song written by George "Shadow" Morton, Jeff Barry, and Ellie Greenwich. It was a number one pop hit in 1964 for the American girl group the Shangri-Las. The single is one of the group's best known songs as well as ...
", and perhaps the subgenre's most popular, "
Last Kiss" by
J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers.
In the early 1960s, 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
Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'Brien (16 April 1939 – 2 March 1999), known professionally as Dusty Springfield, was an English singer. With her distinctive mezzo-soprano sound, she was a popular singer of blue-eyed soul, pop and dram ...
released her first solo single. A few months later, rock 'n' roll founding father
Chuck Berry
Charles Edward Anderson Berry (October 18, 1926 – March 18, 2017) was an American singer, songwriter and guitarist who pioneered rock and roll. Nicknamed the " Father of Rock and Roll", he refined and developed rhythm and blues into th ...
emerged from a -year 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
Brian Samuel Epstein (; 19 September 1934 – 27 August 1967) was a British music entrepreneur who managed the Beatles from 1962 until his death in 1967.
Epstein was born into a family of successful retailers in Liverpool, who put him i ...
encouraged the group to wear suits.
Beatlemania abruptly exploded after the group's appearance on ''
The Ed Sullivan Show
''The Ed Sullivan Show'' is an American television variety show that ran on CBS from June 20, 1948, to March 28, 1971, and was hosted by New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan. It was replaced in September 1971 by the '' CBS Sunday Night M ...
'' in 1964. Late in 1965, the Beatles released the album ''
Rubber Soul
''Rubber Soul'' is the sixth studio album by the English rock band the Beatles. It was released on 3 December 1965 in the United Kingdom, on EMI's Parlophone label, accompanied by the non-album double A-side single " Day Tripper" / " We Can ...
'' 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
The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the g ...
and
the Kinks
The Kinks were an English rock band formed in Muswell Hill, north London, in 1963 by brothers Ray and Dave Davies. They are regarded as one of the most influential rock bands of the 1960s. The band emerged during the height of British rhyt ...
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 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-1960s 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 '60s, 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
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...
music and
pop standards
Traditional pop (also known as classic pop and pre-rock and roll pop) is Western pop music that generally pre-dates the advent of rock and roll in the mid-1950s. The most popular and enduring songs from this era of music are known as pop standard ...
during the first half of the 1960s was largely a continuation of 1950s styles, retaining its core audience of young, urban, college-educated whites. By 1967, the death of several important jazz figures such as
John Coltrane
John William Coltrane (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967) was an American jazz saxophonist, bandleader and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music.
Born and raise ...
and
Nat King Cole
Nathaniel Adams Coles (March 17, 1919 – February 15, 1965), known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an American singer, jazz pianist, and actor. Cole's music career began after he dropped out of school at the age of 15, and continued f ...
precipitated a decline in the genre. The takeover of rock in the late 1960s largely spelled 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
Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...
gained popularity on the
West Coast, due in large part to the
Bakersfield sound, led by
Buck Owens
Alvis Edgar Owens Jr. (August 12, 1929 – March 25, 2006), known professionally as Buck Owens, was an American musician, singer, songwriter, and band leader. He was the lead singer for Buck Owens and the Buckaroos, which had 21 No. 1 hits on ...
and
Merle Haggard
Merle Ronald Haggard (April 6, 1937 – April 6, 2016) was an American country music singer, songwriter, guitarist, and fiddler.
Haggard was born in Oildale, California, toward the end of the Great Depression. His childhood was troubled a ...
. Female country artists were also becoming more mainstream (in a genre dominated by men in previous decades), with such acts as
Patsy Cline
Patsy is a given name often used as a diminutive of the feminine given name Patricia or sometimes the masculine name Patrick, or occasionally other names containing the syllable "Pat" (such as Cleopatra, Patience, Patrice, or Patricia). Among I ...
,
Loretta Lynn
Loretta Lynn (; April 14, 1932 – October 4, 2022) was an American country music singer and songwriter. In a career spanning six decades, Lynn released multiple gold albums. She had numerous hits such as "You Ain't Woman Enough (To Take My Ma ...
, and
Tammy Wynette
Tammy Wynette (born Virginia Wynette Pugh; May 5, 1942 – April 6, 1998) was an American country music artist, as well as an actress and author. She is considered among the genre's most influential and successful artists. Along with Loretta Ly ...
.
Significant events in music in the 1960s
*
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...
returned to civilian life in the U.S. after two years away in the
U.S. Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...
. 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
Patsy is a given name often used as a diminutive of the feminine given name Patricia or sometimes the masculine name Patrick, or occasionally other names containing the syllable "Pat" (such as Cleopatra, Patience, Patrice, or Patricia). Among I ...
,
Cowboy Copas
Lloyd Estel Copas (July 15, 1913 – March 5, 1963), known by his stage name Cowboy Copas, was an American country music singer. He was popular from the 1940s until his death in the 1963 plane crash that also killed country stars Patsy Cline a ...
and
Hawkshaw Hawkins
Harold Franklin "Hawkshaw" Hawkins (December 22, 1921 – March 5, 1963) was an American country music singer popular from the 1950s into the early 1960s. He was known for his rich, smooth vocals and music drawn from blues, boogie and honk ...
were killed when their plane
crashed
"Crashed" is the third U.S. rock Single (music), single, (the fifth overall), from the band Daughtry (band), Daughtry's debut album. It was released only to U.S. rock stations on September 5, 2007. Upon its release the song got adds at those stat ...
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
James Travis Reeves (August 20, 1923July 31, 1964) was an American country and popular music singer-songwriter. With records charting from the 1950s to the 1980s, he became well known as a practitioner of the Nashville Sound. Known as "Gentleman ...
, when the plane he was piloting crashed in a turbulent thunderstorm while on final approach to
Nashville International Airport
Nashville International Airport is a public/military airport in the southeastern section of Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Established in 1937, its original name was Berry Field, from which its ICAO and IATA identifiers are derived. The ...
.
*
Sam Cooke was shot and killed at a motel in Los Angeles, California
1 December 1964
1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...
at age 33 under suspicious circumstances.
*
Motown Record Corporation
Motown Records is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. It was founded by Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on June 7, 1958, and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmanteau of ''moto ...
was founded in 1960. Its first
Top Ten hit was "
Shop Around
"Shop Around" is a song originally recorded by the Miracles on Motown Records' Tamla subsidiary label. It was written by Miracles lead singer Smokey Robinson and Motown Records founder Berry Gordy. It became a smash hit in 1960 when originally re ...
" 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
Eric Victor Burdon (born 11 May 1941) is an English singer. He was previously the lead vocalist of R&B and rock band the Animals and funk band War. He is regarded as one of the British Invasion's most distinctive singers with his deep, pow ...
and his Band "
The Animals
The Animals (also billed as Eric Burdon and the Animals) are an English rock band, formed in Newcastle upon Tyne in the early 1960s. The band moved to London upon finding fame in 1964. The Animals were known for their gritty, bluesy sound and ...
" hit the No. 1 in charts in the U.S. with their hit single, "
The House of the Rising Sun
"The House of the Rising Sun" is a traditional folk music, folk song, sometimes called "Rising Sun Blues". It tells of a person's life gone wrong in the city of New Orleans. Many versions also urge a sibling or parents and children to avoid th ...
" in 1964.
* Folksinger and activist
Joan Baez
Joan Chandos Baez (; born January 9, 1941) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and activist. Her contemporary folk music often includes songs of protest and social justice. Baez has performed publicly for over 60 years, releasing more ...
released her
debut album on
Vanguard Records
Vanguard Recording Society is an American record label set up in 1950 by brothers Maynard and Seymour Solomon in New York City. It was a primarily classical label at its peak in the 1950s and 1960s, but also has a catalogue of recordings by a n ...
in December 1960.
*
The Marvelettes
The Marvelettes were an American girl group that achieved popularity in the early to mid-1960s. They consisted of schoolmates Gladys Horton, Katherine Anderson, Georgeanna Tillman, Juanita Cowart (now Cowart Motley), and Georgia Dobbins, who wa ...
scored Motown Record Corporation's first US 1 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
The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the most influential band of all time and were integral to the developmen ...
arrive in America in February 1964, spearheading the
British Invasion
The British Invasion was a cultural phenomenon of the mid-1960s, when rock and pop music acts from the United Kingdom and other aspects of British culture became popular in the United States and significant to the rising "counterculture" on ...
.
* The ''
Mary Poppins It may refer to:
* ''Mary Poppins'' (book series), the original 1934–1988 children's fantasy novels that introduced the character.
* Mary Poppins (character), the nanny with magical powers.
* ''Mary Poppins'' (film), a 1964 Disney film sta ...
'' Original Soundtrack tops record charts.
Sherman Brothers receive
Grammys
The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...
and double
Oscars
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
.
*
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
"I Want to Hold Your Hand" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles. Written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, and recorded on 17 October 1963, it was the first Beatles record to be made using four-track equipment.
With advance orders ...
".
*
The Supremes
The Supremes were an American girl group and a premier act of Motown Records during the 1960s. Founded as the Primettes in Detroit, Michigan, in 1959, the Supremes were the most commercially successful of Motown's acts and the most successf ...
scored twelve number-one hit singles between 1964 and 1969, beginning with "
Where Did Our Love Go
"Where Did Our Love Go" is a 1964 song recorded by American music group the Supremes for the Motown label.
Written and produced by Motown's main production team Holland–Dozier–Holland, "Where Did Our Love Go" was the first single by the Supr ...
".
*
The Kinks
The Kinks were an English rock band formed in Muswell Hill, north London, in 1963 by brothers Ray and Dave Davies. They are regarded as one of the most influential rock bands of the 1960s. The band emerged during the height of British rhyt ...
release "
You Really Got Me
"You Really Got Me" is a song written by Ray Davies for English rock band the Kinks. The song, originally performed in a more blues-oriented style, was inspired by artists such as Lead Belly and Big Bill Broonzy. Two versions of the song were ...
" 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
John William Coltrane (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967) was an American jazz saxophonist, bandleader and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music.
Born and raise ...
released ''
A Love Supreme
''A Love Supreme'' is an album by American jazz saxophonist John Coltrane. He recorded it in one session on December 9, 1964, at Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, leading a quartet featuring pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Jimmy ...
'' 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
Acid rock is a loosely defined type of rock music that evolved out of the mid-1960s garage punk movement and helped launch the psychedelic subculture. Named after lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), the style is generally defined by heavy, d ...
.
*
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...
went
electric
Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by ...
at the 1965
Newport Folk Festival
Newport Folk Festival is an annual American folk-oriented music festival in Newport, Rhode Island, which began in 1959 as a counterpart to the Newport Jazz Festival. It was one of the first modern music festivals in America, and remains a foca ...
.
*
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
The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the g ...
had a huge No. 1 hit with their song "
(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" in the summer of 1965.
*
The Byrds
The Byrds () were an American rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1964. The band underwent multiple lineup changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn (known as Jim McGuinn until mid-1967) remaining the sole cons ...
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
Folk rock is a hybrid music genre that combines the elements of folk and rock music, which arose in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom in the mid-1960s. In the U.S., folk rock emerged from the folk music revival. Performers s ...
.
* Bob Dylan's "
Like a Rolling Stone
"Like a Rolling Stone" is a song by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on July 20, 1965, by Columbia Records. Its confrontational lyrics originated in an extended piece of verse Dylan wrote in June 1965, when he returned exhausted fro ...
" 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
''Bringing It All Back Home'' (known as ''Subterranean Homesick Blues'' in some European countries; sometimes also spelled ''Bringin' It All Back Home'') is the fifth studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. It was released in Apri ...
'' and ''
Highway 61 Revisited
''Highway 61 Revisited'' is the sixth studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on August 30, 1965, by Columbia Records. Having until then recorded mostly acoustic music, Dylan used rock musicians as his backing band on ever ...
'' ushered in album-focused rock and the "
folk rock
Folk rock is a hybrid music genre that combines the elements of folk and rock music, which arose in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom in the mid-1960s. In the U.S., folk rock emerged from the folk music revival. Performers s ...
" genre.
*
Simon and Garfunkel
Simon & Garfunkel were an American folk rock duo consisting of the singer-songwriter Paul Simon and the singer Art Garfunkel. They were one of the best-selling music groups of the 1960s, and their biggest hits—including the electric remix of " ...
released "
The Sound of Silence" single in 1965.
*
The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys are an American rock band that formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. Distinguished by the ...
released ''
Pet Sounds
''Pet Sounds'' is the 11th studio album by American rock band the Beach Boys, released on May 16, 1966, by Capitol Records. It was initially met with a lukewarm critical and commercial response in the United States, peaking at number 10 on the ...
'' 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
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
Free Trade Hall concert, the start of the
bootleg recording industry follows, with recordings of this concert circulating for 30 years – wrongly labeled 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
The Seekers were an Australian folk-influenced pop quartet, originally formed in Melbourne in 1962. They were the first Australian pop music group to achieve major chart and sales success in the United Kingdom and the United States. They were ...
were the first Australian Group to have a number one with "
Georgy Girl
''Georgy Girl'' is a 1966 British romantic comedy-drama, starring Lynn Redgrave in the titular role, with Charlotte Rampling, Alan Bates, and James Mason. Directed by Silvio Narizzano, the film was based on the 1965 novel by Margaret Forster. ...
" in 1966.
*
Jefferson Airplane released the influential ''
Surrealistic Pillow'' in 1967.
*
The Velvet Underground
The Velvet Underground was an American rock band formed in New York City in 1964. The original line-up consisted of singer/guitarist Lou Reed, multi-instrumentalist John Cale, guitarist Sterling Morrison, and drummer Angus MacLise. MacLise ...
released its self-titled debut album ''
The Velvet Underground & Nico
''The Velvet Underground & Nico'' is the debut album by the American rock band the Velvet Underground and German singer Nico, released in March 1967 through Verve Records. It was recorded in 1966 while the band were featured on Andy Warhol's Ex ...
'' in 1967.
*
The Doors
The Doors were an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1965, with vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, guitarist Robby Krieger, and drummer John Densmore. They were among the most controversial and influential rock acts ...
released its self-titled debut album ''
The Doors
The Doors were an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1965, with vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, guitarist Robby Krieger, and drummer John Densmore. They were among the most controversial and influential rock acts ...
'' in January 1967.
*
Love
Love encompasses a range of strong and positive emotional and mental states, from the most sublime virtue or good habit, the deepest interpersonal affection, to the simplest pleasure. An example of this range of meanings is that the love o ...
released ''
Forever Changes
''Forever Changes'' is the third studio album by the American rock band Love, released by Elektra Records in November 1967. The album saw the group embrace a subtler folk-oriented sound and orchestration, while primary songwriter Arthur Lee ex ...
'' in 1967.
*
The Procol Harum released ''
A Whiter Shade of Pale
"A Whiter Shade of Pale" is a song by the English rock band Procol Harum that was issued as their debut record on 12 May 1967. The single reached number 1 in the UK Singles Chart on 8 June and stayed there for six weeks. Without much promotion, i ...
'' in 1967.
*
Cream
Cream is a dairy product composed of the higher-fat layer skimmed from the top of milk before homogenization. In un-homogenized milk, the fat, which is less dense, eventually rises to the top. In the industrial production of cream, this process ...
released "
Disraeli Gears
''Disraeli Gears'' is the second studio album by the British rock band Cream. It was released in November 1967 and reached No. 5 on the UK Albums Chart. Search "Cream" in ''Name of Artist'', and No. 1 on the Swedish and Finnish charts. The alb ...
" in 1967.
*
The Jimi Hendrix Experience
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942September 18, 1970) was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. Although his mainstream career spanned only four years, he is widely regarded as one of the most ...
released two successful albums during 1967, ''
Are You Experienced
''Are You Experienced'' is the debut studio album by the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Released in 1967, the LP was an immediate critical and commercial success, and it is widely regarded as one of the greatest albums of all time. The album feature ...
'' and ''
Axis: Bold as Love'', that innovate both guitar, trio and recording techniques.
*
The Moody Blues
The Moody Blues were an English rock music, rock band formed in Birmingham in 1964, initially consisting of keyboardist Mike Pinder, multi-instrumentalist Ray Thomas, guitarist Denny Laine, drummer Graeme Edge and bassist Clint Warwick. The g ...
released the album ''
Days of Future Passed
A day is the time period of a full rotation of the Earth with respect to the Sun. On average, this is 24 hours, 1440 minutes, or 86,400 seconds. In everyday life, the word "day" often refers to a solar day, which is the length between two sola ...
'' in November 1967.
* R&B legend
Otis Redding
Otis Ray Redding Jr. (September 9, 1941 – December 10, 1967) was an American singer and songwriter. He is considered one of the greatest singers in the history of American popular music and a seminal artist in soul music and rhythm and blues. ...
has his first No. 1 hit with "
Sitting on the Dock of the Bay". He also played at the
Monterey Pop Festival
The Monterey International Pop Festival was a three-day music festival held June 16 to 18, 1967, at the Monterey County Fairgrounds in Monterey, California. The festival is remembered for the first major American appearances by the Jimi Hendrix ...
in 1967 just before he died in a plane crash.
*
Pink Floyd released its debut record ''
The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
''The Piper at the Gates of Dawn'' is the debut studio album by English rock band Pink Floyd, released on 5 August 1967 by EMI Columbia. It is the only Pink Floyd album made under the leadership of founding member Syd Barrett (lead vocals, g ...
''.
*
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...
released the
Country rock album ''
John Wesley Harding
''John Wesley Harding'' is the eighth studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on December 27, 1967, by Columbia Records. Produced by Bob Johnston, the album marked Dylan's return to semi-acoustic instrumentation and fol ...
'' 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
The Monterey International Pop Festival was a three-day music festival held June 16 to 18, 1967, at the Monterey County Fairgrounds in Monterey, California. The festival is remembered for the first major American appearances by the Jimi Hendrix ...
in 1967 was the beginning of the "
Summer of Love".
*
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the most influential band of all time and were integral to the developmen ...
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
''Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison'' is the first live album by American singer-songwriter Johnny Cash, released on Columbia Records on May 6, 1968. After his 1955 song "Folsom Prison Blues", Cash had been interested in recording a performance at a p ...
'' in 1968.
* 1968: after
The Yardbirds
The Yardbirds are an English rock band, formed in London in 1963. The band's core lineup featured vocalist and harmonica player Keith Relf, drummer Jim McCarty, rhythm guitarist and later bassist Chris Dreja and bassist/producer Paul Samwell ...
fold,
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band formed in London in 1968. The group comprised vocalist Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham. With a heavy, guitar-driven sound, they are ci ...
was formed by
Jimmy Page and manager
Peter Grant, with
Robert Plant,
John Bonham
John Henry Bonham (31 May 1948 – 25 September 1980) was an English musician, best known as the drummer for the rock band Led Zeppelin. Esteemed for his speed, power, fast single-footed kick drumming, distinctive sound, and feel for groove ...
and
John Paul Jones
John Paul Jones (born John Paul; July 6, 1747 July 18, 1792) was a Scottish-American naval captain who was the United States' first well-known naval commander in the American Revolutionary War. He made many friends among U.S political elites ( ...
; and released their debut album ''
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band formed in London in 1968. The group comprised vocalist Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham. With a heavy, guitar-driven sound, they are ci ...
''.
*
Big Brother and the Holding Company
Big Brother and the Holding Company is an American rock band that formed in San Francisco in 1965 as part of the same psychedelic music scene that produced the Grateful Dead, Quicksilver Messenger Service, and Jefferson Airplane. After som ...
, with
Janis Joplin as lead singer, became an overnight sensation after their performance at the
Monterey Pop Festival
The Monterey International Pop Festival was a three-day music festival held June 16 to 18, 1967, at the Monterey County Fairgrounds in Monterey, California. The festival is remembered for the first major American appearances by the Jimi Hendrix ...
in 1967 and released their second album ''
Cheap Thrills'' in 1968.
*
Gram Parsons
Ingram Cecil Connor III (November 5, 1946 – September 19, 1973) who was known professionally as Gram Parsons, was an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, and pianist who recorded as a solo artist and with the International Submarine Band, ...
with
The Byrds
The Byrds () were an American rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1964. The band underwent multiple lineup changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn (known as Jim McGuinn until mid-1967) remaining the sole cons ...
released the influential LP ''
Sweetheart of the Rodeo
''Sweetheart of the Rodeo'' is the sixth album by American rock band the Byrds and was released in August 1968 on Columbia Records. Recorded with the addition of country rock pioneer Gram Parsons, it became the first album widely recognized as ...
'' in late 1968, forming the basis for
country rock.
*
The Jimi Hendrix Experience
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942September 18, 1970) was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. Although his mainstream career spanned only four years, he is widely regarded as one of the most ...
released the influential double LP ''
Electric Ladyland
''Electric Ladyland'' is the third and final studio album by the Jimi Hendrix Experience and the final studio album released before Hendrix's death in 1970. A double album, it was the only record from the Experience produced by Hendrix. The ba ...
'' in 1968 that furthered the guitar and studio innovations of his previous two albums.
*
Simon and Garfunkel
Simon & Garfunkel were an American folk rock duo consisting of the singer-songwriter Paul Simon and the singer Art Garfunkel. They were one of the best-selling music groups of the 1960s, and their biggest hits—including the electric remix of " ...
released the single "
Mrs. Robinson
"Mrs. Robinson" is a song by American music duo Simon & Garfunkel from their fourth studio album, '' Bookends'' (1968). Written specifically for the 1967 film ''The Graduate'', the song was released as a single on April 5, 1968, by Columbia Re ...
" in 1968; featured in the film ''
The Graduate
''The Graduate'' is a 1967 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Mike Nichols and written by Buck Henry and Calder Willingham, based on the 1963 novel of the same name by Charles Webb, who wrote it shortly after graduating from W ...
''.
* Country music newcomer
Jeannie C. Riley released the country and pop hit "
Harper Valley PTA
"Harper Valley P.T.A." is a country song written by Tom T. Hall which in 1968 became a major international hit single for country singer Jeannie C. Riley. Riley's record, her debut, sold over six million copies as a single, and it made her the f ...
" in 1968, which is about a
miniskirt
A miniskirt (sometimes hyphenated as mini-skirt, separated as mini skirt, or sometimes shortened to simply mini) is a skirt with its hemline well above the knees, generally at mid-thigh level, normally no longer than below the buttocks; and a ...
-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
Sly and the Family Stone was an American band from San Francisco. Active from 1966 to 1983, it was pivotal in the development of funk, soul, rock, and psychedelic music. Its core line-up was led by singer-songwriter, record producer, and multi- ...
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!
''Stand!'' is the fourth album by soul/funk band Sly and the Family Stone, released on May 3, 1969. Written and produced by lead singer and multi-instrumentalist Sly Stone, ''Stand!'' is considered an artistic high-point of the band's career. ...
''. The band cemented their position as a vital counterculture band when they performed at the
Woodstock Festival
Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held during August 15–18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, United States, southwest of the town of Woodstock. Billed as "an Aquar ...
.
*
The Gun released "Race with the Devil" in October 1968.
* After a long performance drought,
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...
made a successful return to TV and live performances after spending most of the decade making movies, beginning with his ''
'68 Comeback Special
''Singer Presents ... Elvis'', commonly referred to as the 68 Comeback Special'', is an Elvis Presley concert special that aired on NBC on December 3, 1968. It marked Presley's return to live performance after a seven-year period durin ...
'' in December 1968 on
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
, followed in 1969 by a summer engagement in
Las Vegas
Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...
. Presley's return to live performing set the stage for his many concert tours and continued Vegas engagements throughout the 1970s until his death in 1977.
*
The Foundations
The Foundations were a British soul band (m. 1967–1970). The group's background was: West Indian, White British, and Sri Lankan. Their 1967 debut single " Baby Now That I've Found You" reached number one in the UK and Canada, and number e ...
released
Build Me Up Buttercup in December 1968
* The Rolling Stones filmed the TV special ''
The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus
''The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus'' was a concert show organised by the Rolling Stones on 11–12 December 1968. The show was filmed on a makeshift circus stage with Jethro Tull (band), Jethro Tull, The Who, Taj Mahal (musician), Taj Mah ...
'' 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 (band), Jethro Tull and Taj Mahal (musician), Taj Mahal.
* Spooky Tooth released their second album Spooky Two in March 1969. The album was an important hard rock milestone.
* The
Woodstock Festival
Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held during August 15–18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, United States, southwest of the town of Woodstock. Billed as "an Aquar ...
, and four months later, the
Altamont Free Concert
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 Livermore, California. Approximately 300,000 attended the concert, and some a ...
in 1969.
* The Who released and toured the first rock opera ''Tommy (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, Anti-War movement at the time and would later be used in films, TV shows, and video games depicting the
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...
or the United States, U.S during the late 1960s and early 1970s.
* The Stooges released their debut album in 1969.
*
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the most influential band of all time and were integral to the developmen ...
released ''Abbey Road'' in 1969.
* King Crimson released their debut album ''In the Court of the Crimson King'' in 1969.
*
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band formed in London in 1968. The group comprised vocalist Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham. With a heavy, guitar-driven sound, they are ci ...
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 (film), The Sound of Music'' (1965).
Some of Hollywood's most notable Blockbuster (entertainment), blockbuster films of the 1960s include:
* ''2001: A Space Odyssey (film), 2001: A Space Odyssey''
* ''The Apartment''
* ''The Birds (film), The Birds''
* ''I Am Curious (Yellow)''
* ''Bonnie and Clyde (film), Bonnie and Clyde''
* ''Breakfast at Tiffany's (film), Breakfast at Tiffany's''
* ''Bullitt''
* ''Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid''
* ''Carnival of Souls''
* ''Cleopatra (1963 film), Cleopatra''
* ''Cool Hand Luke''
* ''The Dirty Dozen''
* ''Doctor Zhivago (film), Doctor Zhivago''
* ''Dr. Strangelove''
* ''Easy Rider''
* ''Exodus (1960 film), Exodus''
* ''Faces (1968 film), Faces''
* ''Funny Girl (film), Funny Girl''
* ''Goldfinger (film), Goldfinger''
* ''
The Graduate
''The Graduate'' is a 1967 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Mike Nichols and written by Buck Henry and Calder Willingham, based on the 1963 novel of the same name by Charles Webb, who wrote it shortly after graduating from W ...
''
* ''Guess Who's Coming to Dinner''
* ''Head (film), Head''
* ''How the West Was Won (film), How the West Was Won''
* ''The Hustler''
* ''Ice Station Zebra''
* ''In the Heat of the Night (film), In the Heat of the Night''
* ''The Italian Job''
* ''It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World''
* ''Jason and the Argonauts (1963 film), Jason and the Argonauts''
* ''Judgment at Nuremberg''
* ''The Jungle Book (1967 film), The Jungle Book''
* ''Lawrence of Arabia (film), Lawrence of Arabia''
* ''The Lion in Winter (1968 film), The Lion in Winter''
* ''The Longest Day (film), The Longest Day''
* ''The Love Bug''
* ''A Man for All Seasons (1966 film), A Man for All Seasons''
* ''The Manchurian Candidate (1962 film), The Manchurian Candidate''
* ''
Mary Poppins It may refer to:
* ''Mary Poppins'' (book series), the original 1934–1988 children's fantasy novels that introduced the character.
* Mary Poppins (character), the nanny with magical powers.
* ''Mary Poppins'' (film), a 1964 Disney film sta ...
''
* ''Medium Cool''
* ''Midnight Cowboy''
* ''My Fair Lady (film), My Fair Lady''
* ''Night of the Living Dead''
* ''The Pink Panther (1963 film), The Pink Panther''
* ''The Odd Couple (film), The Odd Couple''
* ''Oliver! (film), Oliver!''
* ''One Hundred and One Dalmatians''
* ''One Million Years B.C.''
* ''Planet of the Apes (1968 film), Planet of the Apes''
* ''Psycho (1960 film), Psycho''
* ''Romeo and Juliet (1968 film), Romeo and Juliet''
* ''Rosemary's Baby (film), Rosemary's Baby''
* ''The Sound of Music (film), The Sound of Music''
* ''Spartacus (film), Spartacus''
* ''Swiss Family Robinson (1960 film), Swiss Family Robinson''
* ''The Sword in the Stone (1963 film), The Sword in the Stone''
* ''To Kill a Mockingbird (film), To Kill a Mockingbird''
* ''Valley of the Dolls (film), Valley of the Dolls''
* ''West Side Story (1961 film), West Side Story''
* ''Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (film), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?''
* ''The Wild Bunch''
The counterculture movement had a significant effect on film, cinema. Movies began to break social taboos such as sex in film, sex and violence in art, 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's'' Barbarella (film), Barbarella'' (1968) as the counterculture progressed.
In Europe, Art Cinema gains wider distribution and sees movements like French New Wave, 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 cinema, Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman, cinema of Chile, Chilean filmmaker Alexandro Jodorowsky and Polish cinema, Polish filmmakers Roman Polanski and Wojciech Jerzy Has produced original and offbeat masterpieces and the high-point of Italian cinema, 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'', ''8 1/2, ''; ''La Notte''; ''L'Eclisse'', ''The Red Desert''; ''Blowup''; ''Fellini Satyricon''; ''Accattone''; ''The Gospel According to St. Matthew (film), The Gospel According to St. Matthew''; ''Theorem (film), Theorem''; ''Winter Light''; ''The Silence (1963 film), The Silence''; ''Persona (1966 film), Persona''; ''Shame (1968 film), Shame''; ''The Passion of Anna, A Passion''; ''Au Hasard Balthazar''; ''Mouchette''; ''Last Year at Marienbad''; ''Chronique d'un été''; ''Titicut Follies''; ''High School (1968 film), High School''; ''Salesman (1969 film), Salesman''; ''La jetée''; ''Warrendale (film), Warrendale;'' ''Knife in the Water''; ''Repulsion (film), Repulsion''; ''The Saragossa Manuscript''; ''El Topo''; ''A Hard Day's Night (film), A Hard Day's Night''; and the cinema verite ''Dont 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 Cinema of Japan, Japanese director Akira Kurosawa produced ''Yojimbo (film), 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 (filmmaker), Walter Hill's ''Last Man Standing (1996 film), 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 1960s were also about experimentation. With the explosion of lightweight and affordable cameras, the underground New American Cinema, avant-garde film movement thrived. Canada's Michael Snow, Americans Kenneth Anger, Stan Brakhage, Andy Warhol, and Jack Smith (film director), Jack Smith. Notable films in this genre are: ''Dog Star Man''; ''Scorpio Rising (film), Scorpio Rising''; ''Wavelength (1967 film), Wavelength''; ''Chelsea Girls''; ''Blow Job (1964 film), Blow Job''; ''Vinyl (1965 film), Vinyl''; ''Flaming Creatures''.
Aside of Walt Disney's most important blockbusters ''One Hundred and One Dalmatians'', ''
Mary Poppins It may refer to:
* ''Mary Poppins'' (book series), the original 1934–1988 children's fantasy novels that introduced the character.
* Mary Poppins (character), the nanny with magical powers.
* ''Mary Poppins'' (film), a 1964 Disney film sta ...
'' and ''The Jungle Book (1967 film), The Jungle Book'', Animated feature films which are of notable status include ''Gay Purr-ee'', ''Hey There, It's Yogi Bear!'', ''The Man Called Flintstone'', ''Mad Monster Party?'', ''Yellow Submarine (film), Yellow Submarine'' and ''A Boy Named Charlie Brown''.
Significant events in the film industry in the 1960s
*Removal of the Motion Picture Association of America's Production Code in 1967.
*The decline and end of the Studio system, Studio System.
*The rise of "art house" films and theaters.
*The end of the classical hollywood cinema, 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-color production in Hollywood films.
*The invention of the Nagra 1/4", sync-sound, portable open-reel tape deck.
*
Expo 67
The 1967 International and Universal Exposition, commonly known as Expo 67, was a general exhibition from April 27 to October 29, 1967. It was a category One World's Fair held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is considered to be one of the most su ...
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, which continued throughout the 1970s and into the first half of the 1980s.
Television
The most prominent TV series of the 1960s include: Doctor Who, ''Doctor Who'', ''
The Ed Sullivan Show
''The Ed Sullivan Show'' is an American television variety show that ran on CBS from June 20, 1948, to March 28, 1971, and was hosted by New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan. It was replaced in September 1971 by the '' CBS Sunday Night M ...
'', Coronation Street, ''Coronation Street'', ''Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek'', ''Peyton Place (TV series), Peyton Place'', ''The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series), The Twilight Zone'', ''The Outer Limits (1963 TV series), The Outer Limits'', ''The Andy Williams Show'', ''The Dean Martin Show'', ''The Wonderful World of Disney'', ''Alfred Hitchcock Presents'', ''The Beverly Hillbillies'', ''Bonanza'', ''Batman (TV series), Batman'', ''McHale's Navy'', ''Laugh-In'', ''The Dick Van Dyke Show'', ''The Fugitive (1963 TV series), The Fugitive'', ''The Tonight Show'', ''Gunsmoke'', ''The Andy Griffith Show'', ''Gilligan's Island, Mission: Impossible (1966 TV series), Mission: Impossible'', ''The Flintstones'', ''The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet'', ''Lassie (1954 TV series), 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 Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...
.
Walt Disney, the founder of the Walt Disney Co. died on 15 December 1966, from a major tumor in his left lung.
Fashion
Significant fashion trends of the 1960s include:
*
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the most influential band of all time and were integral to the developmen ...
exerted an enormous influence on young men's fashions and hairstyles in the 1960s which included most notably the Beatle haircut, 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-bottoms, bell-bottom jeans, tie-dye and batik fabrics, as well as Paisley (design), paisley prints.
* The bikini came into fashion in 1963 after being featured in the film ''Beach Party''.
* Mary Quant popularised the
miniskirt
A miniskirt (sometimes hyphenated as mini-skirt, separated as mini skirt, or sometimes shortened to simply mini) is a skirt with its hemline well above the knees, generally at mid-thigh level, normally no longer than below the buttocks; and a ...
, which became one of the most popular fashion rages in the late 1960s among young women and teenage girls. Its popularity continued throughout the first half of the 1970s and then disappeared temporarily from mainstream fashion before making a comeback in the mid-1980s.
* Men's mainstream hairstyles ranged from the pompadour (hairstyle), 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 (hairstyle), beehive hairdos, the bird's nest hairstyle, and the chignon (hairstyle), chignon hairstyle in the early part of the decade, to very short styles popularized by Twiggy and Mia Farrow in Rosemary's Baby (film), Rosemary's Baby towards the latter half of the decade.
* African-American hairstyles for men and women included the afro.
File:Mop-top hair.jpg, The Beatle haircut, mop-top haircut, which became popular due to the Beatles but was considered at the time a rebellious hairstyle, was particularly fashionable among young men during the decade. In this photo, Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend, two members of The Who, are featured wearing mop-tops.
File:On the Beach at Tiberias.jpg, The bikini became a fashionable item in the Western world during the decade
File:Londons_Carnaby_Street,_1966.jpg, "Swinging London" fashions on Carnaby Street, c. 1966
File:TieDyeShirtMpegMan.jpg, Tie-dye shirt
Literature
Sports
Olympics
There were six Olympic Games held during the decade. These were:
* 1960 Summer Olympics 25 August – 11 September 1960, in Rome, Italy
* 1960 Winter Olympics 18–28 February 1960, in Squaw Valley, Placer County, California, Squaw Valley,
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
, United States
* 1964 Summer Olympics 10–24 October 1964, in Tokyo, Japan
* 1964 Winter Olympics 29 January – 9 February 1964, in Innsbruck, Austria
* 1968 Summer Olympics 12–27 October 1968, in Mexico City, Mexico
* 1968 Winter Olympics 6–18 February 1968, in Grenoble, France
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
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 Washington Senators (1901–60), former Washington Senators and the formation of a Washington Senators (1961–71), 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 National Basketball Association, NBA tournaments during the 1960s 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 (basketball), 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 (Frisbee)
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 Flying disc freestyle, freestyle, double disc court, Guts (flying disc game), guts, Ultimate (sport), disc ultimate and disc golf became this sports first events. Two sports, the team sport of Ultimate (sport), disc ultimate and disc golf are very popular worldwide and are now being played semiprofessionally.
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.
People
Activists
Some activist leaders of the 1960s period include:
*
Joan Baez
Joan Chandos Baez (; born January 9, 1941) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and activist. Her contemporary folk music often includes songs of protest and social justice. Baez has performed publicly for over 60 years, releasing more ...
* James Baldwin
* James Bevel
* Stokely Carmichael
* Rennie Davis
* David Dellinger
*
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...
* Medgar Evers
* Michael Farrell (activist), Michael Farrell
* Lawrence Ferlinghetti
* Allen Ginsberg
* Dick Gregory
* Abbie Hoffman
* Jesse Jackson
* Barbara Jordan
* Bernard Lafayette
*
Timothy Leary
Timothy Francis Leary (October 22, 1920 – May 31, 1996) was an American psychologist and author known for his strong advocacy of psychedelic drugs. Evaluations of Leary are polarized, ranging from bold oracle to publicity hound. He was "a her ...
* John Lennon
* John Lewis
*
Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...
* James Meredith
* Diane Nash
*
Phil Ochs
* Yoko Ono
* Jerry Rubin
* Mario Savio
* Fred Shuttlesworth
*
Gloria Steinem
Gloria Marie Steinem (; born March 25, 1934) is an American journalist and social-political activist who emerged as a nationally recognized leader of second-wave feminism in the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Steinem was a c ...
* Malcolm X
* Andrew Young
Actors / Entertainers
* Eddie Albert
* Jack Albertson
* Steve Allen
* Woody Allen
* Julie Andrews
* James Arness
* Fred Astaire
* Richard Attenborough
* Stéphane Audran
* Charles Aznavour
* Carroll Baker
* Barbara Bain
* Lucille Ball
* Martin Balsam
* Anne Bancroft
* Brigitte Bardot
* Richard Basehart
* Alan Bates
* Anne Baxter
* Warren Beatty
* Jean-Paul Belmondo
* Robert Blake (actor), Robert Blake
* Brian Blessed
* Dirk Bogarde
* Richard Boone
* Shirley Booth
* Ernest Borgnine
* Tom Bosley
* Stephen Boyd
* Marlon Brando
* Lloyd Bridges
* Charles Bronson
* Mel Brooks
* Jim Brown
* Lenny Bruce
* Yul Brynner
* Richard Burton
* Raymond Burr
* Sid Caesar
* Michael Caine
* Rory Calhoun
* Claudia Cardinale
* Yvonne De Carlo
* Leslie Caron
* John Carradine
* Diahann Carroll
* Johnny Carson
* John Cassavetes
* George Chakiris
* Julie Christie
* Lee Van Cleef
* Montgomery Clift
* Lee J. Cobb
* James Coburn
* Joan Collins
* Sean Connery
* Chuck Connors
* Robert Conrad
* Bill Cosby
* Tom Courtenay
* Bob Crane
* Johnny Crawford
* Bing Crosby
* Robert Culp
* Tony Curtis
* Peter Cushing
* Sammy Davis Jr.
* Doris Day
* Ruby Dee
* Sandra Dee
* Alain Delon
* Catherine Deneuve
* Brandon deWilde
* Angie Dickinson
* Troy Donahue
* Diana Dors
* Kirk Douglas
* James Drury
* Patty Duke
* Faye Dunaway
* Robert Duvall
* Dick Van Dyke
* Clint Eastwood
* Barbara Eden
* Anita Ekberg
* Peter Falk
* Mia Farrow
* Mel Ferrer
* José Ferrer
* Peter Finch
* Albert Finney
* Jo Van Fleet
* Henry Fonda
* Jane Fonda
* Peter Fonda
* Glenn Ford
* John Forsythe
* Anthony Franciosa
* Louis de Funès
* Clark Gable
* Eva Gabor
* Zsa Zsa Gabor
* James Garner
* Judy Garland
* Vittorio Gassman
* Jackie Gleason
* Cary Grant
* Stewart Granger
* Lorne Greene
* Andy Griffith
* Alec Guinness
* Fred Gwynne
* Gene Hackman
* Larry Hagman
* Jonathan Harris
* Richard Harris
* William Hartnell
* Tippi Hedren
* Van Heflin
* Audrey Hepburn
* Katharine Hepburn
* Charlton Heston
* Dustin Hoffman
* William Holden
* James Hong
* Dennis Hopper
* Bob Hope
* Rock Hudson
* Jeffrey Hunter
* Tab Hunter
* John Ireland
* Burl Ives
* Glynis Johns
* Carolyn Jones
* Shirley Jones
* Katy Jurado
* Anna Karina
* Danny Kaye
* Brian Keith
* George Kennedy
* Gene Kelly
* Grace Kelly
* Jack Kelly (actor), Jack Kelly
* Eartha Kitt
* Jack Klugman
* Don Knotts
* Martin Landau
* Burt Lancaster
* Angela Lansbury
* Peter Lawford
* Cloris Leachman
* Bruce Lee
* Christopher Lee
* Janet Leigh
* Jack Lemmon
* Jerry Lewis
* Robert Loggia
* Gina Lollobrigida
* Julie London
* Sophia Loren
* Peter Lorre
* Darren McGavin
* Fred MacMurray
* Shirley MacLaine
* Jayne Mansfield
* Karl Malden
* Dorothy Malone
* Dean Martin
* Lee Marvin
* James Mason
* Marcello Mastroianni
* David McCallum
* Roddy McDowall
* Steve McQueen
* Burgess Meredith
* Toshiro Mifune
* Vera Miles
* Sal Mineo
* Robert Mitchum
* Elizabeth Montgomery
* Roger Moore
* Marilyn Monroe
* Jeanne Moreau
* Rita Moreno
* Harry Morgan
* Robert Morse
* Don Murray (actor), Don Murray
* Patricia Neal
* Paul Newman
* Julie Newmar
* Barbara Nichols
* Nichelle Nichols
* Leslie Nielsen
* Leonard Nimoy
* David Niven
* Kim Novak
* Maureen O'Hara
* Laurence Olivier
* Peter O'Toole
* Geraldine Page
* Janis Paige
* Eleanor Parker
* Jack Palance
* Gregory Peck
* George Peppard
* Anthony Perkins
* Michel Piccoli
* Donald Pleasence
* Suzanne Pleshette
* Christopher Plummer
* Sidney Poitier
* Paula Prentiss
*
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...
* Vincent Price
* Anthony Quayle
* Anthony Quinn
* Tony Randall
* Lynn Redgrave
* Michael Redgrave
* Vanessa Redgrave
* Oliver Reed
* Robert Reed
* Carl Reiner
* Lee Remick
* Don Rickles
* Diana Rigg
* Thelma Ritter
* Robert Redford
* Burt Reynolds
* Debbie Reynolds
* Jason Robards
* Cliff Robertson
* Edward G. Robinson
* Cesar Romero
* Mickey Rooney
* Barbara Rush
* Eva Marie Saint
* George Sanders
* Telly Savalas
* John Saxon
* Maximilian Schell
* George C. Scott
* George Segal
* Jean Seberg
* Edie Sedgwick
* Peter Sellers
* Omar Sharif
* William Shatner
* Jean Simmons
* Frank Sinatra
* Ann Sothern
* Robert Stack
* Terence Stamp
* James Stewart
* Barbra Streisand
* Woody Strode
* Barry Sullivan (American actor), Barry Sullivan
* Ed Sullivan
* Donald Sutherland
* Max von Sydow
*
Sharon Tate
* Jacques Tati
* Elizabeth Taylor
* Rod Taylor
* Jean-Louis Trintignant
* Patrick Troughton
* Cicely Tyson
* Raf Vallone
* Robert Vaughn
* Robert Wagner
* Eli Wallach
* Burt Ward
* John Wayne
* Raquel Welch
* Adam West
* Stuart Whitman
* Richard Widmark
* Jonathan Winters
* Shelley Winters
* Natalie Wood
* Joanne Woodward
* Keenan Wynn
* Efrem Zimbalist Jr.
File:Sean Connery 1964.png, Sean Connery, 1964
Image:Paul Newman Harper.jpg, Paul Newman, 1966
File:Audrey Hepburn (cropped).jpg, Audrey Hepburn, 1963
File:Clint Eastwood - 1960s (cropped).JPG, Clint Eastwood, 1964
File:Brigitte_Bardot_-_1962.jpg, Brigitte Bardot, 1962
Filmmakers
* Alfred Hitchcock
* Stanley Kubrick
* Ingmar Bergman
* Federico Fellini
* Orson Welles
* Roman Polanski
* Akira Kurosawa
* Ishiro Honda
* Jean-Luc Godard
* Pier Paolo Pasolini
* François Truffaut
* Sergio Leone
* David Lean
* Sidney Lumet
* John Ford
* Dennis Hopper
* John Huston
* John Sturges
* Sam Peckinpah
* Billy Wilder
* Blake Edwards
* Arthur Penn
* Michelangelo Antonioni
* Alain Resnais
* Claude Chabrol
* George Romero
* Eric Rohmer
* Don Siegel
* Jean Rouch
* Robert Mulligan
* Andrei Tarkovsky, Andreï Tarkovsky
* Luchino Visconti
* Jerry Lewis
* Luis Buñuel
* Joseph Losey
* Richard Fleischer, Richard Fleisher
* Joseph L. Mankiewicz
* John Huston
* Luigi Comencini
* Elia Kazan
* Stuart Rosenberg
* Woody Allen
* Mike Nichols
* Robert Wise
* Norman Jewison
* Mario Bava
* Lucio Fulci
* Robert Aldrich
* Stanley Kramer
* Howard Hawks
* Jacques Tati
* Lewis Milestone
* Mikhail Kalatozov, Mikhaïl Kalatozov
* Stanley Donen
* George Cukor
* John Frankenheimer
* Sydney Pollack
* Ken Loach
* Michael Powell
* Anthony Mann
* Jack Clayton
* Vittorio De Sica
Image:Hitchcock,_Alfred_02.jpg, Alfred Hitchcock
File:Ingmar Bergman Smultronstallet.jpg, Ingmar Bergman
File:Federico Fellini NYWTS 2.jpg, Federico Fellini
File:Kubrick on the set of Barry Lyndon (1975 publicity photo).jpg, Stanley Kubrick
Musicians
* Paul Anka
* Louis Armstrong
* Eddy Arnold
* Chet Atkins
* Burt Bacharach
*
Joan Baez
Joan Chandos Baez (; born January 9, 1941) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and activist. Her contemporary folk music often includes songs of protest and social justice. Baez has performed publicly for over 60 years, releasing more ...
* Pearl Bailey
* Tony Bennett
*
Chuck Berry
Charles Edward Anderson Berry (October 18, 1926 – March 18, 2017) was an American singer, songwriter and guitarist who pioneered rock and roll. Nicknamed the " Father of Rock and Roll", he refined and developed rhythm and blues into th ...
* Art Blakey
* Bobby Bland
* Pat Boone
* David Bowie
* James Brown
* Solomon Burke
* Jerry Butler
* Glen Campbell
*
Johnny Cash
* Ray Charles
* Chubby Checker
* Lou Christie
* Eric Clapton
* Dee Clark
* Petula Clark
*
Patsy Cline
Patsy is a given name often used as a diminutive of the feminine given name Patricia or sometimes the masculine name Patrick, or occasionally other names containing the syllable "Pat" (such as Cleopatra, Patience, Patrice, or Patricia). Among I ...
* Rosemary Clooney
* Nat "King" Cole
*
Sam Cooke
* Leonard Cohen
*
John Coltrane
John William Coltrane (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967) was an American jazz saxophonist, bandleader and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music.
Born and raise ...
* King Crimson
* Bing Crosby
* Bobby Darin
* Miles Davis
* Sammy Davis Jr.
* Delia Derbyshire
* Neil Diamond
* Bo Diddley
* Dion DiMucci
* Fats Domino
*
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...
* Duke Ellington
* Art Farmer
* Eddie Fisher (singer), Eddie Fisher
* Ella Fitzgerald
* Tennessee Ernie Ford
* Aretha Franklin
* Marvin Gaye
* Robin Gibb
* Dizzy Gillespie
* Eydie Gormé
* Buddy Guy
*
Merle Haggard
Merle Ronald Haggard (April 6, 1937 – April 6, 2016) was an American country music singer, songwriter, guitarist, and fiddler.
Haggard was born in Oildale, California, toward the end of the Great Depression. His childhood was troubled a ...
* Lena Horne
* Burl Ives
* Etta James
* Sonny James
* Waylon Jennings
* George Jones
* Quincy Jones
* Tom Jones (singer), Tom Jones
*
Janis Joplin
* B.B. King
* Ben E. King
* Freddie King
* Eartha Kitt
* Frankie Laine
* Brenda Lee
* Peggy Lee
*
Jerry Lee Lewis
Jerry Lee Lewis (September 29, 1935October 28, 2022) was an American singer, songwriter and pianist. Nicknamed "The Killer", he was described as " rock & roll's first great wild man". A pioneer of rock and roll and rockabilly music, Lewis ma ...
*
Loretta Lynn
Loretta Lynn (; April 14, 1932 – October 4, 2022) was an American country music singer and songwriter. In a career spanning six decades, Lynn released multiple gold albums. She had numerous hits such as "You Ain't Woman Enough (To Take My Ma ...
* Manfred Mann
* Bob Marley
* Dean Martin
* Johnny Mathis
* Curtis Mayfield
* Barry McGuire
* Roger Miller
* Charles Mingus
* Guy Mitchell
* Joni Mitchell
* Thelonious Monk
* Bill Monroe
* Wes Montgomery
* Jim Morrison
* Ricky Nelson
* Sandy Nelson
* Willie Nelson
* Roy Orbison
*
Buck Owens
Alvis Edgar Owens Jr. (August 12, 1929 – March 25, 2006), known professionally as Buck Owens, was an American musician, singer, songwriter, and band leader. He was the lead singer for Buck Owens and the Buckaroos, which had 21 No. 1 hits on ...
* Dolly Parton
*
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...
* Ray Price (musician), Ray Price
* Charley Pride
* Lou Rawls
* Jerry Reed
* Jimmy Reed
* Lou Reed
* Della Reese
*
Otis Redding
Otis Ray Redding Jr. (September 9, 1941 – December 10, 1967) was an American singer and songwriter. He is considered one of the greatest singers in the history of American popular music and a seminal artist in soul music and rhythm and blues. ...
* Cliff Richard
*
Little Richard
*
Jeannie C. Riley
* Tex Ritter
* Max Roach
* Marty Robbins
* Jimmie Rodgers (pop singer), Jimmy Rodgers
* Sonny Rollins
* Neil Sedaka
*
Pete Seeger
Peter Seeger (May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014) was an American folk singer and social activist. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, Seeger also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of the Weavers, notably ...
* Nina Simone
* Frank Sinatra
* Hank Snow
* Rod Stewart
* Joan Sutherland
* Hank Thompson (musician), Hank Thompson
* Conway Twitty
* Ernest Tubb
* Big Joe Turner
* Ike & Tina Turner
* Sarah Vaughan
* Bobby Vee
* Gene Vincent
* Porter Wagoner
* Dionne Warwick
* Dinah Washington
* Muddy Waters
* Kitty Wells
* Dottie West
* Howlin' Wolf
* Andy Williams
* Jackie Wilson
* Nancy Wilson (jazz singer), Nancy Wilson
* Stevie Wonder
* Faron Young
* Neil Young
* Frank Zappa
File:Willie Nelson Grand Ole Opry publicity - cropped.jpg, Willie Nelson, 1965
File:Aretha Franklin 1968.jpg, Aretha Franklin, 1968
File:JohnnyCash1969.jpg, Johnny Cash, 1969
Bands
*
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the most influential band of all time and were integral to the developmen ...
*
The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys are an American rock band that formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. Distinguished by the ...
*
The Supremes
The Supremes were an American girl group and a premier act of Motown Records during the 1960s. Founded as the Primettes in Detroit, Michigan, in 1959, the Supremes were the most commercially successful of Motown's acts and the most successf ...
* Rolling Stones, The Rolling Stones
*
The Jimi Hendrix Experience
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942September 18, 1970) was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. Although his mainstream career spanned only four years, he is widely regarded as one of the most ...
*
Pink Floyd
*
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band formed in London in 1968. The group comprised vocalist Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham. With a heavy, guitar-driven sound, they are ci ...
*
Jefferson Airplane
* The Mamas & the Papas
* Creedence Clearwater Revival
*
Simon and Garfunkel
Simon & Garfunkel were an American folk rock duo consisting of the singer-songwriter Paul Simon and the singer Art Garfunkel. They were one of the best-selling music groups of the 1960s, and their biggest hits—including the electric remix of " ...
*
The Animals
The Animals (also billed as Eric Burdon and the Animals) are an English rock band, formed in Newcastle upon Tyne in the early 1960s. The band moved to London upon finding fame in 1964. The Animals were known for their gritty, bluesy sound and ...
*
The Doors
The Doors were an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1965, with vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, guitarist Robby Krieger, and drummer John Densmore. They were among the most controversial and influential rock acts ...
*
Cream
Cream is a dairy product composed of the higher-fat layer skimmed from the top of milk before homogenization. In un-homogenized milk, the fat, which is less dense, eventually rises to the top. In the industrial production of cream, this process ...
* The Jackson 5
* The Righteous Brothers
*
Grateful Dead
*
The Velvet Underground
The Velvet Underground was an American rock band formed in New York City in 1964. The original line-up consisted of singer/guitarist Lou Reed, multi-instrumentalist John Cale, guitarist Sterling Morrison, and drummer Angus MacLise. MacLise ...
* The Shadows
*
The Yardbirds
The Yardbirds are an English rock band, formed in London in 1963. The band's core lineup featured vocalist and harmonica player Keith Relf, drummer Jim McCarty, rhythm guitarist and later bassist Chris Dreja and bassist/producer Paul Samwell ...
* Moody Blues
* The Who
*
The Kinks
The Kinks were an English rock band formed in Muswell Hill, north London, in 1963 by brothers Ray and Dave Davies. They are regarded as one of the most influential rock bands of the 1960s. The band emerged during the height of British rhyt ...
* Iron Butterfly
* Blood, Sweat and Tears
* The Four Tops
* The Temptations
* The Zombies
* Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass
* The Ronettes
* The Mothers of Invention
* The Hollies
* The Stooges
* Santana (band), Santana
*
The Marvelettes
The Marvelettes were an American girl group that achieved popularity in the early to mid-1960s. They consisted of schoolmates Gladys Horton, Katherine Anderson, Georgeanna Tillman, Juanita Cowart (now Cowart Motley), and Georgia Dobbins, who wa ...
* Procol Harum
* The Monkees
* The Miracles
* The Impressions
* Gladys Knight & the Pips
File:Sullivan Beach Boys (cropped).jpg, Beach Boys, 1964
File:The Doors in Copenhagen 1968.jpg, The Doors
The Doors were an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1965, with vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, guitarist Robby Krieger, and drummer John Densmore. They were among the most controversial and influential rock acts ...
, 1968
File:CreamDutchTV1968.jpg, Cream
Cream is a dairy product composed of the higher-fat layer skimmed from the top of milk before homogenization. In un-homogenized milk, the fat, which is less dense, eventually rises to the top. In the industrial production of cream, this process ...
, 1968
Writers
* Kurt Vonnegut
* Isaac Asimov
* Ray Bradbury
* Dr. Seuss
* Gabriel Garcia Marquez
* Arthur Miller
* Sylvia Plath
* Philip K. Dick
* Carlos Castaneda
* Truman Capote
* John Steinbeck
* Arthur C. Clarke
* Harper Lee
* Jack Kerouac
* Robert Heinlein
*
Ken Kesey
Ken Elton Kesey (September 17, 1935 – November 10, 2001) was an American novelist, essayist and countercultural figure. He considered himself a link between the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the hippies of the 1960s.
Kesey was born in ...
* Joseph Heller
* Henry Miller
* Hunter S. Thompson
* Edward Albee
* Gore Vidal
* William S. Burroughs
* Frank Herbert
* Charles M. Schultz
* Anthony Burgess
* Thomas Pinchon
* Tom Stoppard
* Seamus Heaney
* Joseph Campbell
* Edward Abbey
* Norman Podhoretz
* Amiri Baraka
* James Graham Ballard
* Noël Coward
* Philip Larkin
* Agatha Christie
* James Baldwin
* Lorraine Hansberry
File:Isaac.Asimov01.jpg, Isaac Asimov
File:Arthur C. Clarke 1965.jpg, Arthur C. Clarke
File:Philip K Dick in early 1960s (photo by Arthur Knight) (cropped).jpg, Philip K. Dick
Sports figures
* Hank Aaron
* Muhammad Ali
* Ernie Banks
* Gordon Banks
* Elgin Baylor
* Yogi Berra
* George Best
* Abebe Bikila
* Lou Brock
* Jim Brown
* Giacomo Bulgarelli
* Matt Busby
* Dick Butkus
* John Carlos
* Věra Čáslavská
* Wilt Chamberlain
* Bobby Charlton
* Jack Charlton
* Roberto Clemente
* Otis Davis
* Alfredo Di Stefano
* Yukio Endō
* Lee Evans (sprinter), Lee Evans
* Eusebio
* Garrincha
* Bob Gibson
* Charles Greene (athlete), Charles Greene
* John Havlicek
* Bob Hayes
* Jim Hines
* Geoff Hurst
* Giacinto Facchetti
* Peggy Fleming
* Paul Hornung
* Vince Lombardi
* Rafer Johnson
* Sam Jones (basketball, born 1933), Sam Jones
* K. C. Jones
* Kipchoge Keino
* Mickey Mantle
* Vincent Matthews (athlete), Vincent Matthews
* Willie Mays
* Willie McCovey
* Bobby Moore
* Pedro Morales
* Joe Namath
* Jack Nicklaus
* Ray Nitschke
* Al Oerter
* Arnold Palmer
* Pelé
* Richard Petty
* Ferenc Puskás
* Alf Ramsey
* Oscar Robertson
* Frank Robinson
* Bobby Robson
* Bill Russell
* Satch Sanders
* Gale Sayers
* Bill Shankly
* Ronnie Ray Smith
* Tommie Smith
* Bart Starr
* Giovanni Trapattoni
* Johnny Unitas
* Jerry West
* Fred Williamson
* Mamo Wolde
* Lev Yashin
See also
* 1960s decor
* Baby Boomers (people who were children or teenagers during this decade)
* List of underground newspapers of the 1960s counterculture
* ''The Sixties Unplugged'' (book)
Timelines
The following articles contain brief timelines which list the most prominent events of the decade:
1960 • 1961 • 1962 • 1963 • 1964 • 1965 • 1966 • 1967 • 1968 • 1969 • Timeline of 1960s counterculture
Notes
References
Further reading
* Anastakis, Dimitry, ed. ''The Sixties: passion, politics, and style'' (McGill-Queen's Press-MQUP, 2008.) Canadian emphasis
* Baugess, James S., and Abbe Debolt, eds. ''Encyclopedia of the Sixties: A Decade of Culture and Counterculture'' (2 vol, 2012; also E-book) 871pp; 500 entries by scholar
excerpt and text searchonline review* Berton, Pierre. ''1967: the Last Good Year'' (Toronto: Doubleday Canada, 1997). Canadian events
* Brooks, Victor. ''Last Season of Innocence: The Teen Experience in the 1960s'' (Rowman & Littlefield, 2012) 207 pp.
* Brown, Timothy Scott. ''West Germany and the Global Sixties'' (2013)
* Christiansen, Samantha and Zachary Scarlett, ed. ''The Third World and the Global 1960s'' (New York: Berghahn, 2013
Introduction* Farber, David, and Beth Bailey, eds. ''The Columbia guide to America in the 1960s'' (Columbia University Press, 2003).
* Farber, David, ed. ''The Sixties: From Memory to History'' (1994), Scholarly essays on the United States
* Flamm, Michael W. and David Steigerwald. ''Debating the 1960s: Liberal, Conservative, and Radical Perspectives'' (2007) on USA
* Isserman, Maurice, and Michael Kazin. ''America divided: The civil war of the 1960s'' (6th ed. Oxford UP, 2020).
* Marwick, Arthur. ''The Sixties: Cultural Revolution in Britain, France, Italy, and the United States, c.1958-c.1974'' (Oxford University Press, 1998, )
* Matusow, Allen, ''The Unraveling of America: A History of Liberalism in the 1960s'' (1984
excerpt* Padva, Gilad. Animated Nostalgia and Invented Authenticity in Arte's ''Summer of the Sixties''. In Padva, Gilad, ''Queer Nostalgia in Cinema and Pop Culture'', pp. 13–34 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014, ).
* Palmer, Bryan D. ''Canada's 1960s: The Ironies of Identity in a Rebellious Era''. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2009.
* Sandbrook, Dominic. ''Never Had It So Good: A History of Britain from Suez to the Beatles'' (2006) 928pp
excerpt and text search* Sandbrook, Dominic. ''White Heat: A History of Britain in the Swinging Sixties'' (2 vol 2007)
* Strain, Christopher B. ''The Long Sixties: America, 1955–1973'' (Wiley, 2017). xii, 204 pp.
* Unger, Debi, and Irwin Unger, eds. '' The Times Were a Changin': The Sixties Reader'' (1998
excerpt and text search
Historiography
* DeKoven, Marianne. ''The Sixties and the Emergence of the Postmodern'' (Duke University Press, 2004)
* Farber, David R. ''The Sixties: From Memory to History'' (1994
excerpt and text search*
* Hunt, Andrew. "When Did the Sixties Happen? Searching for New Directions", ''Journal of Social History'' (1999) 33#1 pp 147–161.
* Meyer, James
(University of Chicago Press, 2019).
* Pensado, Jaime. "The (forgotten) Sixties in Mexico." ''The Sixties: A Journal of History, Politics and Culture''(2008) 1#1: 83–90.
* Rising, George Goodwin. "Stuck in the sixties: Conservatives and the legacies of the 1960s." (PhD U. of Arizona, 2003).
Ira Chernus, "When Did "the '60s" Begin? A Cautionary Tale for Historians" 4 Feb 2014, History News Network"1964" (PBS documentary, 2013)*
External links
CBC Digital Archives 1960s a GoGoThe Sixties ProjectHeroes of the 1960sslideshow by ''Life magazine''
The 60s: Literary Tradition and Social Change exhibit at the University of Virginia, Library, Special Collections.
1960s protest movements in AmericaThe 1960s in Europe (Online Teaching and Research Guide)*
The 1960sarticles, video, pictures, and facts
{{Authority control
1960s,
20th century
1960s decade overviews