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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 Vietna ...
;
the Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...
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 Neil Alden Armstrong (August 5, 1930 – August 25, 2012) was an American astronaut and aeronautical engineer who became the first person to walk on the Moon in 1969. He was also a naval aviator, test pilot, and university professor. ...
and Buzz Aldrin walk on the Moon during the
Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because t ...
-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; 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 (P ...
initiates the
Great Leap Forward The Great Leap Forward (Second Five Year Plan) of the People's Republic of China (PRC) was an economic and social campaign led by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 1958 to 1962. CCP Chairman Mao Zedong launched the campaign to reconstr ...
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 is
assassinated Assassination is the murder of a prominent or important person, such as a head of state, head of government, politician, world leader, member of a royal family or CEO. The murder of a celebrity, activist, or artist, though they may not have a ...
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 Vietna ...
rect 240 2 498 166
The Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...
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 wi ...
rect 196 169 317 296 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom rect 321 169 497 296 Woodstock 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 The Great Leap Forward (Second Five Year Plan) of the People's Republic of China (PRC) was an economic and social campaign led by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 1958 to 1962. CCP Chairman Mao Zedong launched the campaign to reconstr ...
rect 122 300 237 486 Stonewall riots rect 241 300 497 486
Apollo 11 Apollo 11 (July 16–24, 1969) was the American Human spaceflight, spaceflight that first Moon landing, landed humans on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin landed the Apollo Lunar Module Lunar Module Eag ...
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 "d ...
that began January 1, 1960 and ended December 31, 1969.Joshua Zeitz
"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''. Ho ...
. There was a revolution in social norms, including clothing, music (such as the
Altamont Free Concert The Altamont Speedway Free Festival was a Counterculture of the 1960s, counterculture rock concert in the United States, held on Saturday, December 6, 1969, at the Altamont Raceway Park, Altamont Speedway outside of Livermore, California. Appr ...
), drugs, dress, sexuality, formalities, civil rights, 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 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 ...
(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 A roots revival (folk revival) is a trend which includes young performers popularizing the traditional musical styles of their ancestors. Often, roots revivals include an addition of newly composed songs with socially and politically aware ly ...
, 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, 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 James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, (11 March 1916 – 24 May 1995) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from October 1964 to June 1970, and again from March 1974 to April 1976. He ...
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 Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (; ; (commonly abbreviated as CDG) 22 November 18909 November 1970) was a French army officer and statesman who led Free France against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government ...
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 tea ...
, Social Democrats, 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 econ ...
joined the ruling block too. Soviet leaders during the decade were Nikita Khrushchev until 1964 and Leonid Brezhnev. 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 politician who served as the 22nd president of Brazil from January 31 to August 25, 1961, when he resigned from office. He also served as the 24th ...
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,
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. Eisenhower was near the end of his term and left office in January 1961, and Kennedy was assassinated John Barth (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 a ...
'', 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 a ...
and staunch
anti-communist Anti-communism is political and ideological opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in the Russian Empire, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, when the United States and the ...
social reforms. These were passed under Johnson including civil rights for
African Americans 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 enslav ...
and healthcare for
the elderly Old age refers to ages nearing or surpassing the life expectancy of human beings, and is thus the end of the human life cycle. Terms and euphemisms for people at this age include old people, the elderly (worldwide usage), OAPs (British usage ...
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 University ...
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 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 ...
, direct tensions between the superpower countries of US and Soviet Union developed into a contest with proxy wars, insurgency funding, puppet governments and other overall influence mainly in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. This "
Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because t ...
" 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 Vietna ...
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 move ...
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 and other Warsaw Pact countries were improving quickly after rebuilding from WWII. Real GDP growth averaged 6% a year during the second half of the decade; 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 The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because t ...
(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 Vietna ...
(1955–1975) *** 1961 – Substantial (approximately 700) American advisory forces first arrive in Vietnam. *** 1962 – By mid-1962, the number of U.S. military advisers in South Vietnam had risen from 900 to 12,000. *** 1963 – By the time of U.S. President John F. Kennedy's death there were 16,000 American military personnel in South Vietnam, up from Eisenhower's 900 advisors to cope with rising guerrilla activity in Vietnam. *** 1964 – In direct response to the minor naval engagement known as the
Gulf of Tonkin incident The Gulf of Tonkin incident ( vi, Sự kiện Vịnh Bắc Bộ) was an international confrontation that led to the United States engaging more directly in the Vietnam War. It involved both a proven confrontation on August 2, 1964, carried out b ...
which occurred on 2 August 1964, the
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution or the Southeast Asia Resolution, , was a joint resolution that the United States Congress passed on August 7, 1964, in response to the Gulf of Tonkin incident. It is of historic significance because it gave U.S. pre ...
, a
joint resolution In the United States Congress, a joint resolution is a legislative measure that requires passage by the Senate and the House of Representatives and is presented to the President for their approval or disapproval. Generally, there is no legal differ ...
of the U.S. Congress, 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. 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 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 f ...
(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, 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 G ...
. 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 th ...
(early-20th century-present) ** Six-Day War (June 1967) – a war between Israel and the neighboring states of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. The Arab states of Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tunisia, Morocco 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 Gaza Strip, the West Bank,
East Jerusalem East Jerusalem (, ; , ) is the sector of Jerusalem that was held by Jordan during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, as opposed to the western sector of the city, West Jerusalem, which was held by Israel. Jerusalem was envisaged as a separat ...
, and the Golan Heights. The results of the war affect the
geopolitics Geopolitics (from Greek γῆ ''gê'' "earth, land" and πολιτική ''politikḗ'' "politics") is the study of the effects of Earth's geography (human and physical) on politics and international relations. While geopolitics usually refers to ...
of the region to this day. * The
Algerian War The Algerian War, also known as the Algerian Revolution or the Algerian War of Independence,( ar, الثورة الجزائرية '; '' ber, Tagrawla Tadzayrit''; french: Guerre d'Algérie or ') and sometimes in Algeria as the War of 1 November ...
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 f ...
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 and the People's Republic of South Yemen.


Internal conflicts

* The massive 1960 Anpo protests in Japan against the
U.S.-Japan Security Treaty The , more commonly known as the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty in English and as the or just in Japanese, is a treaty that permits the presence of U.S. military bases on Japanese soil, and commits the two nations to defend each other if one or th ...
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 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 goal ...
(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 (P ...
, the chairman of the Chinese Communist Party. 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, private pr ...
. Mao insisted that these elements be removed through post-revolutionary
class struggle Class conflict, also referred to as class struggle and class warfare, is the political tension and economic antagonism that exists in society because of socio-economic competition among the social classes or between rich and poor. The forms o ...
by mobilizing the thoughts and actions of China's youth, who formed Red Guards groups around the country. The movement subsequently spread into the military, urban workers, and the party leadership itself. Although Mao himself officially declared the Cultural Revolution to have ended in 1969, the power struggles and political instability between 1969 and the arrest of the Gang of Four in 1976 are now also widely regarded as part of the Revolution. *The Naxalite movement in India began in 1967 with an armed uprising of tribals against local landlords in the village of Naxalbari, West Bengal, led by certain leaders of the
Communist Party of India (Marxist) The 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 nat ...
. The movement was influenced by Mao Zedong's ideology and spread to many tribal districts in Eastern India, gaining strong support among the radical urban youth. After counter-insurgency operations by the police, military and paramilitary forces, the movement fragmented but is still active in many districts. * The Troubles in Northern Ireland began with the rise of the
Northern Ireland civil rights movement The Northern Ireland civil rights movement dates to the early 1960s, when a number of initiatives emerged in Northern Ireland which challenged the inequality and discrimination against ethnic Irish Catholics that was perpetrated by the Ulster ...
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 ...
occurred in August 1966 in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco. This incident was one of the first recorded transgender riots in United States history, preceding the more famous 1969 Stonewall Riots in New York City by three years. * The Stonewall riots occurred in June 1969 in New York City. The Stonewall riots were a series of spontaneous, violent demonstrations against a police raid that took place in the
Stonewall Inn 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 The National Farmers Organization (NFO) is a producer movement founded in the United States in 1955, by farmers, especially younger farmers with mortgages, frustrated by too often receiving crop and produce prices that produced a living that paid ...
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, Ma ...
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 Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (; ; (commonly abbreviated as CDG) 22 November 18909 November 1970) was a French army officer and statesman who led Free France against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government ...
. De Gaulle went off to visit French troops in Germany to check on their loyalty. Major concessions were won for trade union rights, higher minimum wages and better working conditions. * University students protested in the hundreds of thousands against the Vietnam War in London, Paris, Berlin and Rome. * In Eastern Europe students also drew inspiration from the protests in the West. In Poland and Yugoslavia they protested against restrictions on free speech by communist regimes. * The Tlatelolco massacre – was a government massacre of student and civilian protesters and bystanders that took place during the afternoon and night of 2 October 1968, in the
Plaza de las Tres Culturas 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 led by Cemal Gürsel and Cemal Madanoğlu overthrew the government of
Adnan Menderes Adnan Menderes (; 1899 – 17 September 1961) was a Turkish politician who served as Prime Minister of Turkey between 1950 and 1960. He was one of the founders of the Democrat Party (DP) in 1946, the fourth legal opposition party of Turkey. He ...
. * On 16 May 1961, a coup in South Korea led by army officer
Park Chung-hee Park Chung-hee (, ; 14 November 1917 – 26 October 1979) was a South Korean politician and army general who served as the dictator of South Korea from 1961 until his assassination in 1979; ruling as an unelected military strongman from 1961 ...
made the establishment of temporary military rule. * In 1963, a coup in South Viet Nam leads to the death of President
Ngô Đình Diệm Ngô Đình Diệm ( or ; ; 3 January 1901 – 2 November 1963) was a South Vietnamese politician. He was the final prime minister of the State of Vietnam (1954–1955), and then served as the first president of South Vietnam (Republic o ...
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 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 Arab socialism ( ar, الإشتِراكيّة العربية, Al-Ishtirākīya Al-‘Arabīya) is a political ideology based on the combination of pan-Arabism and socialism. Arab socialism is distinct from the much broader tradition of socialist ...
Baath Party The Arab Socialist Baʿath Party ( ar, حزب البعث العربي الاشتراكي ' ) was a political party founded in Syria by Mishel ʿAflaq, Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn al-Bītār, and associates of Zaki al-ʾArsūzī. The party espoused B ...
. * On 1 September 1969, a small group of military officers led by the army officer Muammar Gaddafi overthrows monarchy in Libya.


Nuclear threats

* The
Cuban Missile Crisis The Cuban Missile Crisis, also known as the October Crisis (of 1962) ( es, Crisis de Octubre) in Cuba, the Caribbean Crisis () in Russia, or the Missile Scare, was a 35-day (16 October – 20 November 1962) confrontation between the United ...
(16–28 October 1962) – a near-military confrontation between the U.S. and the Soviet Union about the presence of Soviet missiles in Cuba. After an American
Naval A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions. It includ ...
(quarantine) blockade of Cuba the Soviet Union under the leadership of Nikita Khrushchev 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 A thermonuclear weapon, fusion weapon or hydrogen bomb (H bomb) is a second-generation nuclear weapon design. Its greater sophistication affords it vastly greater destructive power than first-generation nuclear bombs, a more compact size, a lowe ...
by 1968. * On 16 October 1964, China detonated its first atomic bomb. China possessed a
hydrogen bomb A thermonuclear weapon, fusion weapon or hydrogen bomb (H bomb) is a second-generation nuclear weapon design. Its greater sophistication affords it vastly greater destructive power than first-generation nuclear bombs, a more compact size, a lowe ...
by 1967.


Decolonization and independence

* The transformation of Africa from colonialism 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 st ...
in what is known as the decolonisation of Africa 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 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 promised some more aggressive confrontation with the Soviet Union; he also established the Peace Corps. * 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'', 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 The Report to the American People on Civil Rights was a speech on civil rights, delivered on radio and television by United States President John F. Kennedy from the Oval Office on June 11, 1963 in which he proposed legislation that would later b ...
,
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 legislation.
Civil Rights Act of 1964 The Civil Rights Act of 1964 () is a landmark civil rights and labor law in the United States that outlaws discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. It prohibits unequal application of voter registration requi ...
signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson. This landmark piece of legislation in the United States outlawed racial segregation in schools, public places, and employment. The first black riots erupt in major cities. * 1964 – Johnson was reelected over Conservative spokesman Senator
Barry Goldwater Barry Morris Goldwater (January 2, 1909 – May 29, 1998) was an American politician and United States Air Force officer who was a five-term U.S. Senator from Arizona (1953–1965, 1969–1987) and the Republican Party nominee for presid ...
by wide landslide; Liberals gained full control of Congress. * 1964 – Wilderness Act 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 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 Vietna ...
.


=Canada

= * The Quiet Revolution in Quebec altered the province-city-state into a more secular society. 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 ...
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 The ''Canadian Bill of Rights'' (french: Déclaration canadienne des droits) is a federal statute and bill of rights enacted by the Parliament of Canada on August 10, 1960. It provides Canadians with certain rights at Canadian federal law in rel ...
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 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 The Berlin Wall (german: Berliner Mauer, ) was a guarded concrete barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and East Germany (GDR). Construction of the Berlin Wall was commenced by the governme ...
1961 to prevent East Germans from escaping to the West. * Pope John XXIII calls the Second Vatican Council of the Catholic Church, continued by Pope Paul VI (after John XXIII died in 1963), which met from 11 October 1962, until 8 December 1965. * In October 1964, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev was expelled from office due to his increasingly erratic and authoritarian behavior. Leonid Brezhnev 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, 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 Czechoslova ...
'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 Hungry Generation ( bn, হাংরি জেনারেশান) was a literary movement in the Bengali language launched by what is known today as the Hungryalist quartet, ''i.e.'' Shakti Chattopadhyay, Malay Roy Choudhury, Samir Roy ...
. 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 Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or (feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, s ...
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 , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...
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 Juan Francisco Velasco Alvarado (June 16, 1910 – December 24, 1977) was a Peruvian general who served as the President of Peru after a successful coup d'état against Fernando Belaúnde's presidency in 1968. Under his presidency, nationalism ...
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 inflation ...
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 ...
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 (or Vaiont Dam) is a disused dam in northern Italy. It is one of the tallest dams in the world, with a height of . It is in the valley of the Vajont River under Monte Toc, in the municipality of Erto e Casso, north of Venice. ...
– 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. * 1969 – The
Cuyahoga River The Cuyahoga River ( , or ) is a river located in Northeast Ohio that bisects the City of Cleveland and feeds into Lake Erie. As Cleveland emerged as a major manufacturing center, the river became heavily affected by industrial pollution, so m ...
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 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 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 Flying Tiger Line Flight 739 was a Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation propliner chartered by the United States military that disappeared on March 16, 1962, over the Western Pacific Ocean. The aircraft was transporting 93 U.S. soldiers and thre ...
, 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 Pakistan International Airlines Flight 705 (PK705) was a Boeing 720 airliner that crashed while descending to land at Cairo International Airport on 20 May 1965. Of the 121 passengers and crew on board, all but 6 were killed. Accident Flight ...
crashed on approach to
Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...
, Egypt. 121 died while 6 survived. * On 4 February 1966,
All Nippon Airways Flight 60 was a Boeing 727-81 aircraft making a domestic commercial flight from Sapporo Chitose Airport to Tokyo Haneda International Airport. On February 4, 1966, all 133 people on board died when the plane mysteriously crashed into Tokyo Bay abou ...
, a Boeing 727, plunged into Tokyo Bay 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 Viasa Flight 742 was an international, scheduled passenger flight from Caracas, Venezuela to Miami International Airport with an intermediate stopover in Maracaibo, Venezuela that crashed on 16 March 1969. After taking off on the Maracaibo to Miam ...
crashed in the Venezuelan 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, a widespread, eclectic collection of newspapers served as a unifying medium for the counterculture. The movement was also marked by the first widespread, socially accepted drug use (including LSD and marijuana) and psychedelic music.


Anti-war movement

The war in Vietnam would eventually lead to a commitment of over half a million American troops, resulting in over 58,500 American deaths and producing a large-scale antiwar movement in the United States. As late as the end of 1965, few Americans protested the American involvement in Vietnam, but as the war dragged on and the body count continued to climb, civil unrest escalated. Students became a powerful and disruptive force and university campuses sparked a national debate over the war. As the movement's ideals spread beyond college campuses, doubts about the war also began to appear within the administration itself. A mass movement began rising in opposition to the
Vietnam War 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 Vietna ...
, ending in the massive Moratorium protests in 1969, as well as the movement of resistance to
conscription 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 ...
("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 peac ...
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 pe ...
, 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 R ...
, 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 A sit-in or sit-down is a form of direct action that involves one or more people occupying an area for a protest, often to promote political, social, or economic change. The protestors gather conspicuously in a space or building, refusing to mo ...
". Other terms heard in the United States included " the Draft", "
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 A conscientious objector (often shortened to conchie) is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, or religion. The term has also been extended to object ...
", 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 oth ...
". 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 against
black 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 enslav ...
s and voting rights to them. This article covers the phase of the movement between 1955 and 1968, particularly in the South. The emergence of the Black Power movement, which lasted roughly from 1966 to 1975, enlarged the aims of the civil rights movement to include racial dignity, economic and political self-sufficiency, and
anti-imperialism Anti-imperialism in political science and international relations is a term used in a variety of contexts, usually by nationalist movements who want to secede from a larger polity (usually in the form of an empire, but also in a multi-ethnic so ...
. The movement was characterized by major campaigns of
civil resistance Civil resistance is political action that relies on the use of nonviolent resistance by ordinary people to challenge a particular power, force, policy or regime. Civil resistance operates through appeals to the adversary, pressure and coercion: it ...
. Between 1955 and 1968, acts of
civil disobedience Civil disobedience is the active, professed refusal of a citizen to obey certain laws, demands, orders or commands of a government (or any other authority). By some definitions, civil disobedience has to be nonviolent to be called "civil". Henc ...
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
boycott A boycott is an act of nonviolent, voluntary abstention from a product, person, organization, or country as an expression of protest. It is usually for moral, social, political, or environmental reasons. The purpose of a boycott is to inflict so ...
s 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-in A sit-in or sit-down is a form of direct action that involves one or more people occupying an area for a protest, often to promote political, social, or economic change. The protestors gather conspicuously in a space or building, refusing to mo ...
s" such as the influential Greensboro sit-ins (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 di ...
, 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 The Civil Rights Act of 1964 () is a landmark civil rights and labor law in the United States that outlaws discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. It prohibits unequal application of voter registration requi ...
, that banned discrimination based on "race, color, religion, or national origin" in employment practices and public accommodations; the
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 moveme ...
, that restored and protected voting rights; the
Immigration and Nationality Services Act of 1965 The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, also known as the Hart–Celler Act and more recently as the 1965 Immigration Act, is a federal law passed by the 89th United States Congress and signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson. The la ...
, that dramatically opened entry to the U.S. to immigrants other than traditional European groups; and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968 The Civil Rights Act of 1968 () is a landmark law in the United States signed into law by United States President Lyndon B. Johnson during the King assassination riots. Titles II through VII comprise the Indian Civil Rights Act, which appli ...
, 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 Mexica ...
, 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 for ...
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 with over 1 million ''
Chicanos Chicano or Chicana is a chosen identity for many Mexican Americans in the United States. The label ''Chicano'' is sometimes used interchangeably with ''Mexican American'', although the terms have different meanings. While Mexican-American ident ...
'' in Los Angeles alone, and Texas 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 civil rights movements, 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 ...
addressed what it perceived to be negative ethnic stereotypes 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 Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. More than half of all Eu ...
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 r ...
, 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, 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 ''Mendez, ''et al'' v. Westminister icSchool District of Orange County, et al'', 64 F.Supp. 544 (S.D. Cal. 1946), ''aff'd'', 161 F.2d 774 (9th Cir. 1947) (en banc), was a 1947 federal court case that challenged Mexican remedial schools in four dist ...
''
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 ''Hernandez v. Texas'', 347 U.S. 475 (1954), was a landmark case, "the first and only Mexican-American civil-rights case heard and decided by the United States Supreme Court during the post-World War II period." In a unanimous ruling, the court he ...
'' 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 nationa ...
. 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 ...
community in Miami, Florida. 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 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, Title IX, 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 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" 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 United ...
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, protested the annual Miss America pageant in
Atlantic City, New Jersey Atlantic City, often known by its initials A.C., is a coastal resort city in Atlantic County, New Jersey, United States. The city is known for its casinos, boardwalk, and beaches. In 2020, the city had a population of 38,497.
. The movement continued throughout the next decades. Gloria Steinem 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 Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual ma ...
, 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. 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 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 sociologist, and a professor of sociology at Columbia University from 1946 until his death in 1962. Mills published widely in both popular and intellectual journals, and ...
, 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 (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 r ...
,
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 Chi ...
and
anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not necessar ...
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, Detroit, Los Angeles, New York City, Newark, New Jersey, Oakland, California and Washington, D.C. By the end of the decade, politicians like
George Wallace George Corley Wallace Jr. (August 25, 1919 – September 13, 1998) was an American politician who served as the 45th governor of Alabama for four terms. A member of the Democratic Party, he is best remembered for his staunch segregationist and ...
and Richard Nixon 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. Tr ...
, into outer space 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 spaceflight, human orbital spaceflight in history. The Vostok 3KA space capsule was launched from Baikonur ...
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 became the first woman in space during the Vostok 6 mission. In 1965, Soviets launched the first probe to hit another planet of the Solar System ( Venus),
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. In March 1966, the Soviet Union launched Luna 10, which became the first space probe to enter orbit around the Moon, and in September, 1968,
Zond 5 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, Ed White, and
Roger B. Chaffee Roger Bruce Chaffee (; February 15, 1935 – January 27, 1967) was an American naval officer, aviator and aeronautical engineer who was a NASA astronaut in the Apollo program. Chaffee was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he became an Ea ...
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 Apollo 8 (December 21–27, 1968) was the first crewed spacecraft to leave low Earth orbit and the first human spaceflight to reach the Moon. The crew orbited the Moon ten times without landing, and then departed safely back to Earth. These t ...
crew ( Frank Borman,
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 the ...
, William Anders) 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 Human spaceflight, spaceflight that first Moon landing, landed humans on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin landed the Apollo Lunar Module Lunar Module Eag ...
, the first human spaceflight landed on the Moon. Launched on 16 July 1969, it carried mission Commander
Neil Armstrong Neil Alden Armstrong (August 5, 1930 – August 25, 2012) was an American astronaut and aeronautical engineer who became the first person to walk on the Moon in 1969. He was also a naval aviator, test pilot, and university professor. ...
, 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 ...
, and the Lunar Module Pilot Buzz Aldrin. Apollo 11 fulfilled President John F. Kennedy's goal of reaching the Moon by the end of the 1960s, which he had expressed during a speech given before a joint session of Congress on 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 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, and Mars 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: progesti ...
, was released in the United States after Food and Drug Administration (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 space ...
in 1964 secured the Big Bang as the best theory of the origin and evolution of the universe. * 1965 –
AstroTurf AstroTurf is an American subsidiary of SportGroup that produces artificial turf for playing surfaces in sports. The original AstroTurf product was a short-pile synthetic turf invented in 1965 by Monsanto. Since the early 2000s, AstroTurf has m ...
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). * 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 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 The Ford Mustang is a series of American automobiles manufactured by Ford. In continuous production since 1964, the Mustang is currently the longest-produced Ford car nameplate. Currently in its sixth generation, it is the fifth-best selli ...
, 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 American Motors Corporation (AMC; commonly referred to as American Motors) was an American automobile manufacturing company formed by the merger of Nash-Kelvinator Corporation and Hudson Motor Car Company on May 1, 1954. At the time, it was the ...
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 Britis ...
and mid-sized cars in addition to full-sized ones. The popular modern hatchback, with front-wheel-drive and a two-box configuration, was born in 1965 with the introduction of the Renault 16, many of this car's design principles live on in its modern counterparts: a large rear opening incorporating the rear window, foldable rear seats to extend boot space. The
Mini 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 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, Victoria ...
. * 1960 – Tony Hoare announces the Quicksort
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, was introduced. * 1962 – First transatlantic satellite broadcast via the Telstar satellite. * 1962 – The first computer video game, '' Spacewar!'', was invented. * 1962 – Red LEDs were developed. * 1963 – The first geosynchronous communications satellite, ''
Syncom 2 Syncom (for "synchronous communication satellite") started as a 1961 NASA program for active geosynchronous communication satellites, all of which were developed and manufactured by the Space and Communications division of Hughes Aircraft Comp ...
'', 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 sat ...
satellite. * 1963 – Touch-Tone telephones introduced. * 1963 – Sketchpad was the first touch interactive computer graphics program. * 1963 – The Nottingham 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 The Compact Cassette or Musicassette (MC), also commonly called the tape cassette, cassette tape, audio cassette, or simply tape or cassette, is an analog magnetic tape recording format for audio recording and playback. Invented by Lou Otten ...
was introduced. * 1964 – The first successful Minicomputer, Digital Equipment Corporation'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 pioneeri ...
, was marketed. * 1964 – The programming language
BASIC BASIC (Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) is a family of general-purpose, high-level programming languages designed for ease of use. The original version was created by John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz at Dartmouth College i ...
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 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, fund ...
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 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, video conferencing,
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, 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 foun ...
, the research-oriented prototype of the Internet, 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 scientific development company owned by mult ...
, 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 loca ...
occurred between 8–10 August 1969, when actress
Sharon Tate Sharon Marie Tate Polanski (January 24, 1943 – August 9, 1969) was an American actress and model. During the 1960s, she played small television roles before appearing in films and was regularly featured in fashion magazines as a model and cover ...
, 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 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 loca ...
's "family." Rosemary LaBianca &
Leno LaBianca James Douglas Muir Leno (; born April 28, 1950) is an American television host, comedian, writer, and actor. After doing stand-up comedy for years, he became the host of NBC's ''The Tonight Show'' from 1992 to 2009. Beginning in September 2009 ...
were also murdered by the Manson family the following night. * Canada celebrated its 100th anniversary of Confederation 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, Quebec. During the anniversary celebrations, French president
Charles De Gaulle Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (; ; (commonly abbreviated as CDG) 22 November 18909 November 1970) was a French army officer and statesman who led Free France against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government ...
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 music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...
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 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, voc ...
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 and Marijuana occurred in the 1960s. File:Woodstock redmond crowd.JPG, The Woodstock Music Festival in 1969. File:Aldrin Apollo 11.jpg, Buzz Aldrin (pictured) and
Neil Armstrong Neil Alden Armstrong (August 5, 1930 – August 25, 2012) was an American astronaut and aeronautical engineer who became the first person to walk on the Moon in 1969. He was also a naval aviator, test pilot, and university professor. ...
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 which ...
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 The Summer of Love was a social phenomenon that occurred during the summer of 1967, when as many as 100,000 people, mostly young people sporting hippie fashions of dress and behavior, converged in San Francisco's neighborhood of Haight-Ashbury. ...
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 Aquari ...
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, especially LSD, 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 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 The 27 Club is an informal list consisting mostly of popular musicians, artists, actors, and other celebrities who died at age 27. Although the claim of a "statistical spike" for the death of musicians at that age has been refuted by scientific ...
). 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 (as explained in the song " American Pie"), the scandal of Jerry Lee Lewis' marriage to his 13-year-old cousin, and the induction of Elvis Presley into the United States Army. 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 "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Father of Rock and Roll", he refined a ...
and Little Richard had dropped off the charts and popular music in the U.S. came to be dominated by
girl group A girl group is a music act featuring several female singers who generally harmonize together. The term "girl group" is also used in a narrower sense in the United States to denote the wave of American female pop music singing groups, many of wh ...
s,
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 The American folk music revival began during the 1940s and peaked in popularity in the mid-1960s. Its roots went earlier, and performers like Josh White, Burl Ives, Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly, Big Bill Broonzy, Billie Holiday, Richard Dyer-Ben ...
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,
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, a ...
, Harry Belafonte, Odetta, Phil Ochs, and many other singer-songwriters to the public.
Girl group A girl group is a music act featuring several female singers who generally harmonize together. The term "girl group" is also used in a narrower sense in the United States to denote the wave of American female pop music singing groups, many of wh ...
s and female singers, such as the Shirelles,
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 But ...
,
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 chara ...
,
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". Career ...
, the Ronettes,
Martha and the Vandellas Martha and the Vandellas (known from 1967 to 1972 as Martha Reeves & The Vandellas) were an American vocal girl group formed in Detroit in 1957. The group achieved fame in the 1960s with Motown. An act founded by friends Annette Beard, Rosali ...
and the Supremes 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 ensla ...
, but white girl groups and singers, such as Lesley Gore, the Angels, and the Shangri-Las also emerged during this period. Around the same time, record producer Phil Spector began producing girl groups and created a new kind of pop music production that came to be known as the
Wall of Sound 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 mu ...
. 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 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 ...
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 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 deve ...
. The Beach Boys also dominated this subgenre, along with the duo Jan and Dean. 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 __NOTOC__ Year 409 ( CDIX) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. In the Roman Empire, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Honorius and Theodosius (or, less frequently, year ...
", and " Shut Down", all by the Beach Boys; Jan and Dean's "
Little Old Lady from Pasadena "The Little Old Lady (from Pasadena)" is a song written by Don Altfeld, Jan Berry and Roger Christian, and recorded by 1960s American pop singers, Jan and Dean. Singer/songwriter P.F. Sloan sings the falsetto part usually sung by Dean Torrence, ...
" 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 ( dru ...
' " 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, 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 singer who is best remembered for singing "Tell Laura I Love Her". He also scored numerous other hits, including " Corrine, Corrina" which was composed especially for C ...
's " Tell Laura I Love Her", Jan and Dean'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 song ...
", the Shangri-Las' " Leader of the Pack", and perhaps the subgenre's most popular, "
Last Kiss "Last Kiss" is a song released by Wayne Cochran in 1961 on the Gala label. It failed to do well on the charts. Cochran subsequently re-recorded his song for the King label in 1963. It was revived by J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers, who to ...
" 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 dr ...
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 "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Father of Rock and Roll", he refined a ...
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 Beatlemania was the fanaticism surrounding the English rock band the Beatles in the 1960s. The group's popularity grew in the United Kingdom throughout 1963, propelled by the singles "Please Please Me", "From Me to You" and "She Loves You". By ...
abruptly exploded after the group's appearance on '' The Ed Sullivan Show'' in 1964. Late in 1965, the Beatles released the album '' Rubber Soul'' which marked the beginning of their transition to a sophisticated power pop group with elaborate studio arrangements and production, and a year after that, they gave up touring entirely to focus only on albums. A host of imitators followed the Beatles in the so-called British Invasion, including groups like the Rolling Stones and the Kinks who would become legends in their own right. As the counterculture movement developed, artists began making new kinds of music influenced by the use of psychedelic drugs. Guitarist Jimi Hendrix emerged onto the scene in 1967 with a radically new approach to 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 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 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 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. 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 ...
,
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 M ...
, 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 L ...
.


Significant events in music in the 1960s

* Elvis Presley 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, ...
. 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 ...
,
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 an ...
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 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 "Gentlem ...
, when the plane he was piloting crashed in a turbulent thunderstorm while on final approach to Nashville International Airport. * Sam Cooke was shot and killed at a motel in Los Angeles, California 1 December 1964at age 33 under suspicious circumstances. * Motown Record Corporation 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, powe ...
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" 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 nu ...
in December 1960. * The Marvelettes scored Motown Record Corporation's first US  1 pop hit, "
Please Mr. Postman "Please Mr. Postman" is a song written by Georgia Dobbins, William Garrett, Freddie Gorman, Brian Holland and Robert Bateman. It is the debut single by the Marvelettes for the Tamla (Motown) label, notable as the first Motown song to reach the ...
" 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 music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...
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 star ...
'' Original Soundtrack tops record charts. Sherman Brothers receive Grammys and double Oscars. * Lesley Gore at age 17 hits number one on ''Billboard'' with "It's My Party" and number two with "You Don't Own Me" behind the Beatles " I Want To Hold Your Hand". * The Supremes scored twelve number-one hit singles between 1964 and 1969, beginning with " Where Did Our Love Go". * The Kinks release "
You Really Got Me "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 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 Ga ...
'' in late 1964, considered among the most acclaimed jazz albums of the era. * The
Grateful Dead The Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in Palo Alto, California. The band is known for its eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, country, jazz, bluegrass, blues, rock and roll, gospel, reggae, world music, a ...
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 ...
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 focal ...
. *
Cilla Black Priscilla Maria Veronica White (27 May 1943 – 1 August 2015), better known as Cilla Black, was an English singer, actress and television presenter. Championed by her friends the Beatles, Black began her career as a singer in 1963. Her ...
's number-one hit " Anyone Who Had a Heart" still remains the top-selling single by a female artist in the UK from 1964. * The Rolling Stones had a huge No. 1 hit with their song "
(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" is a song recorded by the English rock band the Rolling Stones. A product of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards' songwriting partnership, it features a guitar riff by Richards that opens and drives the song. The riff ...
" in the summer of 1965. *
The Byrds The Byrds () were an American Rock music, 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 th ...
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 eve ...
'' 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 released " The Sound of Silence" single in 1965. * The Beach Boys 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 ''Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'' is the eighth studio album by the English rock band the Beatles. Released on 26May 1967, ''Sgt. Pepper'' is regarded by musicologists as an early concept album that advanced the roles of sound composi ...
'' album released the following year. * Bob Dylan was called "Judas" by an audience member during the Manchester Free Trade Hall concert, the start of the
bootleg recording A bootleg recording is an audio or video recording of a performance not officially released by the artist or under other legal authority. Making and distributing such recordings is known as ''bootlegging''. Recordings may be copied and traded ...
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 were the first Australian Group to have a number one with " Georgy Girl" in 1966. * Jefferson Airplane released the influential '' Surrealistic Pillow'' in 1967. * The Velvet Underground released its self-titled debut album ''
The Velvet Underground & Nico ''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 music, 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 ro ...
released its self-titled debut album ''
The Doors The Doors were an American Rock music, 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 ro ...
'' in January 1967. * Love 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 expl ...
'' 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" 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 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 solar ...
'' in November 1967. * R&B legend Otis Redding has his first No. 1 hit with " Sitting on the Dock of the Bay". He also played at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 just before he died in a plane crash. * Pink Floyd released its debut record '' The Piper at the Gates of Dawn''. *
Bob Dylan 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 Country rock is a genre of music which fuses rock and country. It was developed by rock musicians who began to record country-flavored records in the late 1960s and early 1970s. These musicians recorded rock records using country themes, vocal ...
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 folk ...
'' in December 1967. * The
Bee Gees The Bee Gees were a musical group formed in 1958 by brothers Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb. The trio were especially successful in popular music in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and later as prominent performers in the disco music era i ...
released their international debut album '' Bee Gees 1st'' in July 1967 which included the pop standard " To Love Somebody". * The Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 was the beginning of the "
Summer of Love The Summer of Love was a social phenomenon that occurred during the summer of 1967, when as many as 100,000 people, mostly young people sporting hippie fashions of dress and behavior, converged in San Francisco's neighborhood of Haight-Ashbury. ...
". *
The Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...
released ''
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band ''Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'' is the eighth studio album by the English rock band the Beatles. Released on 26May 1967, ''Sgt. Pepper'' is regarded by musicologists as an early concept album that advanced the roles of sound composi ...
'' 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 ...
'' in 1968. * 1968: after The Yardbirds fold, Led Zeppelin was formed by
Jimmy Page James Patrick Page (born 9 January 1944) is an English musician who achieved international success as the guitarist and founder of the rock band Led Zeppelin. Page is prolific in creating guitar riffs. His style involves various alternative ...
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; and released their debut album '' Led Zeppelin''. *
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 some in ...
, with Janis Joplin as lead singer, became an overnight sensation after their performance at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 and released their second album '' Cheap Thrills'' in 1968. * Gram Parsons with
The Byrds The Byrds () were an American Rock music, 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 th ...
released the influential LP '' Sweetheart of the Rodeo'' in late 1968, forming the basis for
country rock Country rock is a genre of music which fuses rock and country. It was developed by rock musicians who began to record country-flavored records in the late 1960s and early 1970s. These musicians recorded rock records using country themes, vocal ...
. *
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 ban ...
'' in 1968 that furthered the guitar and studio innovations of his previous two albums. * Simon and Garfunkel 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 Jeannie C. Riley (born Jeanne Carolyn Stephenson; October 19, 1945) is an American country music and gospel singer. She is best known for her 1968 country and pop hit "Harper Valley PTA", which missed by one week simultaneously becoming the ''B ...
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 ...
" in 1968, which is about a miniskirt-wearing mother of a teenage girl who was criticized by the local PTA for supposedly setting a bad example for her daughter but turns the tables by exposing some of the PTA members' wrongdoings. The song, along with Riley's mod persona in connection with it, apparently gave country music a "sexual revolution" of its own, as hemlines of other female country artists' stage dresses began rising in the years that followed. * Sly & the Family Stone revolutionized black music with their 1968 hit single " Dance to the Music" and by 1969 became international sensations with the release of their hit record ''
Stand! ''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. Re ...
''. 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 Aquari ...
. * The Gun released "Race with the Devil" in October 1968. * After a long performance drought, Elvis Presley made a successful return to TV and live performances after spending most of the decade making movies, beginning with his ''
'68 Comeback Special ''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 ...
, followed in 1969 by a summer engagement in Las Vegas. Presley's return to live performing set the stage for his many concert tours and continued Vegas engagements throughout the 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 el ...
released
Build Me Up Buttercup "Build Me Up Buttercup" is a song written by Mike d'Abo and Tony Macaulay, and released by the Foundations in 1968 with Colin Young singing lead vocals. Young had replaced Clem Curtis during 1968, and this was the first Foundations hit on which ...
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, The Who, Taj Mahal, Marianne Faithfull, and The Rolling S ...
'' 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 The LaserDisc (LD) is a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium, initially licensed, sold and marketed as DiscoVision, MCA DiscoVision (also known simply as "DiscoVision") in the United States in 1978. Its diam ...
and VHS in 1996. Features performances from The Who;
The Dirty Mac The Dirty Mac was a name given by John Lennon to a temporary supergroup he organised in December 1968 that featured Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Mitch Mitchell and himself (as "Winston Leg-Thigh"). The band assembled for a one-off performanc ...
featuring John Lennon, Eric Clapton and Mitch Mitchell; Jethro Tull and
Taj Mahal The Taj Mahal (; ) is an Islamic ivory-white marble mausoleum on the right bank of the river Yamuna in the Indian city of Agra. It was commissioned in 1631 by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan () to house the tomb of his favourite wife, Mu ...
. * 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 Aquari ...
, and four months later, the
Altamont Free Concert The Altamont Speedway Free Festival was a Counterculture of the 1960s, counterculture rock concert in the United States, held on Saturday, December 6, 1969, at the Altamont Raceway Park, Altamont Speedway outside of Livermore, California. Appr ...
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 Vietna ...
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 music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...
released ''Abbey Road'' in 1969. * King Crimson released their debut album ''In the Court of the Crimson King'' in 1969. * Led Zeppelin released two of their self-titled debut albums ''Led Zeppelin I'' and ''Led Zeppelin II'' in 1969.


Film

The highest-grossing film of the decade was 20th Century Fox's ''The Sound of Music (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 star ...
'' * ''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 star ...
'' 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'', 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 Vietna ...
. 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 music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...
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, 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, 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 * 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 * 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 Sharon Marie Tate Polanski (January 24, 1943 – August 9, 1969) was an American actress and model. During the 1960s, she played small television roles before appearing in films and was regularly featured in fashion magazines as a model and cover ...
* 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 "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Father of Rock and Roll", he refined a ...
* 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 ...
* Rosemary Clooney * Nat "King" Cole * Sam Cooke * Leonard Cohen * John Coltrane * 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 * 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 *
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 M ...
* 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 * Ray Price (musician), Ray Price * Charley Pride * Lou Rawls * Jerry Reed * Jimmy Reed * Lou Reed * Della Reese * Otis Redding * Cliff Richard * Little Richard *
Jeannie C. Riley Jeannie C. Riley (born Jeanne Carolyn Stephenson; October 19, 1945) is an American country music and gospel singer. She is best known for her 1968 country and pop hit "Harper Valley PTA", which missed by one week simultaneously becoming the ''B ...
* Tex Ritter * Max Roach * Marty Robbins * Jimmie Rodgers (pop singer), Jimmy Rodgers * Sonny Rollins * Neil Sedaka * Pete Seeger * 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 music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...
* The Beach Boys * The Supremes * 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 * Jefferson Airplane * The Mamas & the Papas * Creedence Clearwater Revival * Simon and Garfunkel *
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 music, 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 ro ...
*
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 Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in Palo Alto, California. The band is known for its eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, country, jazz, bluegrass, blues, rock and roll, gospel, reggae, world music, a ...
* The Velvet Underground * The Shadows * The Yardbirds * Moody Blues * The Who * The Kinks * 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 * 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 music, 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 ro ...
, 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
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* 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 GoGo

The Sixties Project

Heroes of the 1960s
slideshow by ''Life magazine''
The 60s: Literary Tradition and Social Change
exhibit at the University of Virginia, Library, Special Collections.
1960s protest movements in America

The 1960s in Europe (Online Teaching and Research Guide)
*
The 1960s
articles, video, pictures, and facts {{Authority control 1960s, 20th century 1960s decade overviews