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The 1960s decade were the years from the start of 1960 to the end of 1969. The term also refers to an era more often called The Sixties, denoting the complex of inter-related cultural and political trends in the west, particularly United States, Britain, France, Canada, Brazil, Australia, Spain, Italy, and West Germany. Social and political upheaval was not limited to these countries, but included such nations as Japan, Mexico, and others.
In the United States, "The Sixties", as they are known in popular culture, is a term used by historians, journalists, and other objective academics; in some cases nostalgically to describe the counter-culture and social revolution near the end of the decade; and pejoratively to describe the era as one of irresponsible excess and flamboyance.
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Encyclopedia
The 1960s decade were the years from the start of 1960 to the end of 1969. The term also refers to an era more often called The Sixties, denoting the complex of inter-related cultural and political trends in the west, particularly United States, Britain, France, Canada, Brazil, Australia, Spain, Italy, and West Germany. Social and political upheaval was not limited to these countries, but included such nations as Japan, Mexico, and others.
In the United States, "The Sixties", as they are known in popular culture, is a term used by historians, journalists, and other objective academics; in some cases nostalgically to describe the counter-culture and social revolution near the end of the decade; and pejoratively to describe the era as one of irresponsible excess and flamboyance. The decade was also labeled the Swinging Sixties because of the libertine attitudes that emerged during this decade. Rampant drug use has become inextricably associated with the counter-culture of the era, as Jefferson Airplane co-founder Paul Kantner mentions: "If you can remember anything about the sixties, you weren't really there."
The 1960s have become synonymous with all the new, exciting, radical, and subversive events and trends of the period, which continued to develop in the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and beyond. In Africa the 1960s was a period of radical political change as 32 countries gained independence from their European colonial rulers.
Some commentators have seen in this era a classical Jungian nightmare cycle, where a rigid culture, unable to contain the demands for greater individual freedom, broke free of the social constraints of the previous age through extreme deviation from the norm. Booker charts the rise, success, fall/nightmare and explosion in the London scene of the 1960s. This does not alone however explain the mass nature of the phenomenon.
Several Western governments turned to the left in the early 1960s. In the United States President John F. Kennedy was elected as president. Italy formed its first left-of-centre government in March 1962 with a coalition of Christian Democrats, Social Democrats, and moderate Republicans. Socialists joined the ruling block in December 1963. In Britain, the Labour Party gained power in 1964.
Assassinations
The 1960s were marked by several notable assassinations.
- A Belgian and Congolese firing squad assassinated Patrice Lumumba, the Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo, on January 17, 1961, outside Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
- A member of the Ku Klux Klan assassinated Medgar Evers, an NAACP field secretary, on June 12, 1963, in Jackson, Mississippi.
- Duong Hieu Nghia and Nguyen Van Nhung assassinated Vietnamese president Ngo Dinh Diem, along with his brother and chief political adviser, Ngo Dinh Nhu, in the back of an APC on November 2, 1963.
- Lee Harvey Oswald, according to the report issued by the Warren Commission, assassinated US President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, in his car during a parade in Dallas, Texas. See JFK assassination for more details.
- Members of the Nation of Islam assassinated Malcolm X on February 21, 1965, in New York City, although there has been a dispute about which members killed Malcolm X.
- John Patler assassinated George Lincoln Rockwell, leader of the American Nazi Party, on August 25, 1967, in Arlington, Virginia.
- James Earl Ray was convicted of having assassinated civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee.
- Sirhan Sirhan assassinated Senator Robert F. Kennedy on June 5, 1968, in Los Angeles, California.
- Policemen assassinated the deputy chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party, Fred Hampton, on December 4, 1969, in Chicago, Illinois.
Social and political movements
Counterculture/social revolution
Toward the later half of the decade, younger generations soon began to rebel against the conservative norms of the time, as well as disassociate themselves from mainstream liberalism, in particular they turned away from the high levels of materialism which was so common during the era. This created a counter-culture that eventually turned into a social revolution throughout much of the western world. It began in the United States as a reaction against the conservative social norms and stasis of the 1950s, the political conservatism (and social repression) of the Cold War period, and the US government's extensive military intervention in Vietnam. The more social/cultural youth from the movement were called hippies. Together they created a new liberated stance for society, including the sexual revolution, questioning authority and government, and demanding more freedoms and rights for women, homosexuals, and minorities. The Underground Press, a wide-spread, eclectic collection of underground newspapers served as a unifying factor for the counterculture. The movement was marked by drug use (including LSD and marijuana) and psychedelic music.
Anti-war movement
A mass movement began rising in opposition to the Vietnam War, ending in the massive Moratorium protests in 1969, and also the movement of resistance to conscription (the Draft) for the war. The antiwar movement was initially based on the older 1950s Peace movement heavily influenced by the American Communist Party, but by the mid-1960s it outgrew this and became a broad-based mass movement centered on the universities and churches: one kind of protest was called a "sit-in." Other terms heard nationally included the Draft, draft dodger, conscientious objector, and Vietnam vet. Voter age-limits were challenged by the phrase: "If you're old enough to die for your country, you're old enough to vote." Many of the youth involved in the politics of the movements distanced themselves from the "hippies".
The most well-known anti-war demonstration was the Kent State shootings. In 1970, university students were protesting the war and the draft. Riots ensued during the weekend and the National Guard was called in to maintain the peace. However, by Monday, tensions arose again, and as the crowd grew larger, the National Guard started shooting. Four students were dead and nine injured. This event caused disbelief and shock throughout the country and became a staple of anti-Vietnam demonstrations.
Civil rights
Much of the political movements and the people participating in them came from the civil rights struggle in the south in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Blacks began to challenge segregation in the south through various means, such as, boycotts, freedom rides, sit-ins, law suits and registering blacks to vote. Stimulated by this movement, but growing beyond it, were large numbers of student-age youth, beginning with the Free Speech Movement at the University of California, Berkeley in 1964, peaking in the riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago and reaching a climax with the shootings at Kent State University in 1970, which some claimed as proof that "police brutality" was rampant. The terms were: "The Establishment" referring to traditional management/government, and "pigs" referring to police using excessive force. 1969 also saw the Stonewall riots, the birth of the gay rights movement.
The rise of feminism
Feminism in the United States and around the world began in the early 1960s. In the US, 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, writing books and debating to change social views that limited women. In 1963, with Betty Friedan's revolutionary 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. In 1968, "Women's Liberation" became a household term as, for the first time, the new women's movement eclipsed the black civil rights movement when New York Radical Women, led by Robin Morgan, protested the annual Miss America pagent in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The movement continued throughout the next decades.
Chicano Movement
Socially, the Chicano Movement addressed what it perceived to be negative ethnic stereotype of Mexicans in mass media and the American consciousness. It did so through the creation of works of literary and visual art that validated the Mexican-American ethnicity and culture.
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, 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 Supreme Court ruling which declared that segregating children of "Mexican and Latin descent" was unconstitutional and the 1954 Hernandez v. Texas ruling which declared that Mexican Americans and other racial groups in the United States were entitled to equal protection under the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
The most prominent civil rights organization in the Mexican-American community is the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), founded in 1968. Although modeled after the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, MALDEF has also taken on many of the functions of other organizations, including political advocacy and training of local leaders.
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, and even went as far as to reject organized labor as the basis of a unified left-wing movement. The New Left differed from the traditional left in its resistance to dogma and its emphasis on personal as well as societal change. SDS (Students for a Democratic Society) became the organizational focus of the New Left and was the prime mover behind the opposition to the War in Vietnam. The sixties left also consisted of ephemeral campus-based Trotskyist, Maoist and anarchist groups, some of which by the end of the 1960s had turned to militancy.
Crime
The 1960s has also been associated with a large increase in crime and urban unrest of all types. Between 1960 and 1969 reported incidences 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, such as Newark, Los Angeles, Detroit, and Chicago. By the end of the decade politicians such as Richard Nixon and George Wallace campaigned on restoring law and order to a nation troubled with the new unrest.
Technology
The Soviet Union and the United States were involved in the space race. This led to an increase in spending on science and technology during this period. The space race heated up in 1961 when Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin orbited the Earth and President Kennedy announced Project Apollo. The Soviets and Americans were then involved in a race to put a man on the Moon before the decade was over. America won the race when it placed the first men on the Moon: Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, in July 1969.
American automobiles evolved through the stream-lined, jet-inspired designs for sports cars such as the Pontiac GTO and the Plymouth Barracuda, Ford Mustang, and the Chevrolet Corvette.
Syncom 2 is launched. 1963 - Touch-Tone telephones introduced. 1964 - The first successful Minicomputer, Digital Equipment Corporations 12-bit PDP-8, is marketed. 1964 - The programming language BASIC was created. 1965 - Sony markets the CV-2000, the first home video tape recorder. 1966 - The Soviet Union launches Luna 10, which later becomes the first space probe to enter orbit around the Moon. 1967 - First heart transplantation operation. 1967 - PAL and SECAM broadcast color TV systems start publicly transmitting in Europe. 1967 - The first minibank is opened in Barclays Bank, London. 1968 - First humans to leave Earth's gravity influence and orbit another celestial body: Apollo 8. 1968 - The first public demonstration of the computer mouse, the paper paradigm Graphical user interface, video conferencing, teleconferencing, email, and hypertext. 1969 - Arpanet, the research-oriented prototype of the Internet, was introduced. 1969 - First humans to walk on the Moon: Apollo 11. 1969 - CCD invented at AT&T Bell Labs, used as the electronic imager in still and video cameras. The Bosonic string theory, the original version of string theory, is developed in the late 1960s.
Popular culture
The overlapping, but somewhat different, movement of youth cultural radicalism was manifested by the hippies and the counter-culture, whose emblematic moments were the Summer of Love in San Francisco in 1967 and the Woodstock Festival in 1969. The sub-culture, associated with this movement, spread the recreational use of cannabis and other drugs, particularly new semi-synthetic drugs such as LSD toward the end of the decade. The era heralded the rejection and a reformation by hippies of traditional Christian notions on spirituality, leading to the widespread introduction of Eastern and ethnic religious thinking to western values and concepts concerning one's religious and spiritual development.
Psychedelic drugs, especially LSD, were popularly used medicinally, spiritually and recreationally throughout the late 1960s. Psychedelic influenced the music, artwork and movies of the decade.
Music
Popular music entered an era of "all hits", as numerous artists released recordings, beginning in the 1950s, as 45-rpm "singles" (with another on the flip side), and radio stations tended to play only the most popular of the wide variety of records being made. Also, bands tended to record only the best of their songs as a chance to become a hit record. The developments of the Motown Sound, "folk rock" and the British Invasion of bands from the U.K. (The Beatles, The Dave Clark Five, The Rolling Stones and so on), are major examples of American listeners expanding from the folksinger, doo-wop and saxophone sounds of the 1950s and evolving to include psychedelic music.
The rise of the counterculture, particularly among the youth, created a huge market for rock, soul, pop, reggae and blues music produced by drug-culture, influenced bands such as The Beatles, The Doors, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Cream, The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, Bob Marley, Deep Purple, The Who, Sly and the Family Stone, Jimi Hendrix Experience, and The Incredible String Band, also for radical music in the folk tradition pioneered by Bob Dylan, The Mamas and the Papas, and Joan Baez in the United States, and in England, Donovan was helping to create folk rock.
Significant events in music in the 1960s:
- Motown Record Corporation founded in 1960. Its first Top Ten hit was "Shop Around" by the Miracles in 1960. "Shop Around" peaked at number-two on the Billboard Hot 100, and was Motown's first million-selling record.
- The Marvelettes scored Motown Record Corporation's first US #1 pop hit, "Please Mr. Postman" in 1961. Motown would score 110 Billboard Top-Ten hits during its run.
- The Four Seasons released 4 straight number 1s
- The Beatles went to America in 1964, spearheading the first British Invasion.
- The Supremes scored twelve number one hit singles between 1964 and 1969, beginning with Where Did Our Love Go.
- Bob Dylan goes electric at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival.
- Cilla Black number one hit Anyone who had a heart still remains the top selling single by a female artsit in the UK from 1964
- The Beach Boys release Pet Sounds in 1966, ushering in the era of album-orientated rock.
- Bob Dylan is called "Judas" by an audience member during the legendary Manchester Free Trade Hall concert, the start of the Bootleg recording industry follows, with recordings of this concert circulating for 30 years wrongly labeled as The Royal Albert Hall Concert before a legitimate release in 1998 as The Bootleg Series Vol. 4: Bob Dylan Live 1966, The "Royal Albert Hall" Concert.
- In February 1966, Nancy Sinatra's song "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" became very popular.
- In 1966, The Supremes A' Go-Go was the first album by a female group to reach the top position of the Billboard magazine pop albums chart in the United States.
- The Seekers are the first Australian Group to have a number one with "Georgy Girl" in 1966.
- Jefferson Airplane release the influential Surrealistic Pillow in 1967.
- The Velvet Underground release their influential self-titled debut albumThe Velvet Underground and Nico in 1967.
- The Doors release their self-tilted debut album The Doors.
- Love release their masterpiece Forever Changes in 1967.
- The Jimi Hendrix Experience release two successful albums during 1967 Are You Experienced and Axis: Bold as Love that innovate both guitar, trio and recording techniques.
- The Beatles release the seminal concept album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in June 1967.
- The Moody Blues release the album Days of Future Passed in November 1967.
- Pink Floyd releases their debut record The Piper at the Gates of Dawn.
- Bob Dylan releases the Country rock album John Wesley Harding in December 1967.
- The Bee Gees release their international debut album Bee Gees 1st in July, 1967 which contains the pop standard To Love Somebody.
- The Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 was the apex of the so-called "Summer of Love".
- Johnny Cash releases At Folsom Prison in 1968
- 1968: after The Yardbirds fold, Led Zeppelin is formed by Jimmy Page and manager Peter Grant, with Robert Plant,John Bonham and John Paul Jones; and, released their debut album Led Zeppelin.
- The Band releases the roots rock album Music from Big Pink in 1968.
- Big Brother and the Holding Company, with Janis Joplin as lead singer, becomes an overnight sensation after their performance at Monterey Pop in 1967 and release their massively successful second album Cheap Thrills in 1968.
- The Jimi Hendrix Experience release the highly influential double LP Electric Ladyland in 1968 that furthered the guitar and studio innovations of the previous two albums.
- Sly and the Family Stone revolutionize black music with their massive 1968 hit single Dance to the Music and by 1969 became international sensations with the release of their phenomenal hit record Stand!. The band cemented their position as a vital counterculture band when they performed at the Woodstock Festival.
- The Rolling Stones film the TV special Rock and Roll Circus in December 1968 which was never broadcast during its contemporary time. Considered for decades as a fabled 'lost' performance until released in North America on Laserdisc and VHS in 1995. Features performances from The Who; The Dirty Mac featuring John Lennon, Eric Clapton and Mitch Mitchell; Jethro Tull and Taj Mahal.
- The Who release and tour the first rock opera Tommy in 1969.
- Proto-punk band MC5 release the live album Kick Out The Jams in 1969.
- Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band release the avant garde Trout Mask Replica in 1969.
- The Stooges release their debut album in 1969.
- The Flying Burrito Brothers release their influential debut The Gilded Palace Of Sin in 1969.
- The Woodstock Festival, and four months later, the Altamont Free Concert in 1969.
Film
Popular American movies of the 1960s include Psycho, Breakfast at Tiffany's, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Nutty Professor, My Fair Lady, The Pink Panther, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb; The Sound of Music; Doctor Zhivago, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid; Bonnie and Clyde; Cool Hand Luke; The Graduate; Rosemary's Baby; Midnight Cowboy; Head; Medium Cool; 2001: A Space Odyssey; Easy Rider; Ice Station Zebra; Planet Of The Apes; The Lion In Winter; The Wild Bunch.
The Counterculture Revolution had a big effect on cinema. Movies began to break social taboos such as sex and 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 movie industry. Films such as Arthur Penn's Bonnie and Clyde (1967), Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), and Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby (1968) are examples of this new, edgy direction. 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 (1968) as the counterculture progressed.
In Europe, Art Cinema gains wider distribution and sees movements like la Nouvelle Vague (The French New Wave); Cinιma Vιritι documentary movement in Canada, France and the United States; and the high-point of Italian filmmaking with Michelangelo Antonioni, Federico Fellini and Pier Paulo Pasolini making some of their most known films during this period. Notable films from this period include: 8½; L'avventura; La notte; Blowup; Satyricon; Accattone; The Gospel According to St. Matthew; Theorem; Breathless;Vivre sa vie; Contempt; Bande ΰ part; Alphaville; Pierrot le fou; Week End; Shoot the Piano Player; Jules and Jim; Fahrenheit 451;Last Year at Marienbad;Dont Look Back; Chronique d'un ιtι; Titicut Follies; High School; Salesman; La Jetιe; Warrendale.
The sixties were about experimentation. With the explosion of light-weight and affordable cameras, the underground avant-garde film movement thrived. Canada's Michael Snow, Americans Kenneth Anger. Stan Brakhage, Andy Warhol, and Jack Smith. Notable films in this genre are: Dog Star Man; Scorpio Rising; Wavelength; Chelsea Girls;Blow Job; Vinyl; Flaming Creatures.
Significant events in the film industry in the 1960s:
International issues
In Africa
The transformation of Africa from colonialism to independence in what is known as the decolonisation of Africa dramatically accelerated during the decade, with 32 new countries declaring independence between 1960 and 1968.
In Canada
- Canada celebrated its 100th anniversary of Confederation in 1967 by hosting Expo 67, the World's Fair, in Montreal, Quebec.
- The Quiet Revolution in Quebec altered the province into a more secular society. The Jean Lesage Liberal government created a welfare state (Ιtat-Providence) and fomented the rise of active nationalism among Francophone Quιbιcois.
- On February 15, 1965, Canada got the new maple leaf flag, after much acrimonious debate known as the Great Flag Debate.
- In 1960, The Canadian Bill of Rights becomes law, and Universal Suffrage, the right for any Canadian citizen to vote, is finally adopted by John Diefenbaker's Progressive Conservative government. The new election act allows first nations people to vote for the first time.
In China
In the People's Republic of China the mid-1960s were also a time of massive upheaval and the Red Guard rampages of Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution had some superficial resemblances to the student protests in the West. The Maoist groups that briefly flourished in the West in this period saw in Chinese Communism a more revolutionary, less bureaucratic, model of socialism. Most of them were rapidly disillusioned when Mao welcomed Richard Nixon to China in 1972. People both in China and America, however, saw the Nixon visit as a victory in the relationship between US and China(this was the Party stance on the visit in late 1971 and early 1972).
In the Commonwealth
Australia and New Zealand committed troops to the Vietnam war with controversy and war protests.
In India
In India a literary and cultural movement started in Calcutta, Patna, and other cities by a group of writers and painters who called themselves "Hungryalists", or members of the Hungry generation. The band of writers wanted to change virtually everything and were arrested with several cases filed against them on various charges. They ultimately won these cases. This span of the movement was from 1961 to 1965.
In Europe
- British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan delivers his Wind of Change speech in 1960.
- Pope John XXIII calls the Second Vatican Council of the Catholic Church, continued by Pope Paul VI, which met from Oct. 11, 1962 until Dec. 8, 1965.
- 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 able to forge a connection. The most spectacular manifestation of this was the May student revolt of 1968 in Paris that linked up with a general strike of ten million workers called by the trade unions;and for a few days seemed capable of overthrowing the government of Charles de Gaulle. De Gaulle went off to visit French troops in Germany to check on their loyalty. Major concessions were won for trade union rights, higher minimum wages and better working conditions.
- University students protested in their hundreds of thousands in London, Paris, Berlin and Rome with the huge crowds that protested against the Vietnam War.
In Eastern Europe
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.
In Czechoslovakia 1968 was the year of Alexander Dubceks Prague Spring, a source of inspiration to many Western leftists who admired Dubcek's "socialism with a human face". The Warsaw Pact 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.
In Mexico
The peak of 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.
Students in Mexico City protested against the authoritarian regime of Gustavo Dνaz Ordaz: in the resulting Tlatelolco massacre in which hundreds were killed.
- The October 2, 1968 Tlatelolco Massacre in Mexico City, of student protesters and uninvolved bystanders, by the Mexican military and police.
In the Middle East
In South America
- A successful coup against the democratic government of Brazil begins 20 years of oppression and dictatorship.
- The Argentine revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara travelled to Africa and then Bolivia in his campaigning to spread worldwide revolution. He was killed in 1967 by Bolivian government forces, but in the process became an iconic figure for the student left.
- Juan Velasco Alvarado took power in Peru in the year 1968.
In the United States
- 1961 - Newly elected President John F. Kennedy and Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson take office in 1961; Kennedy establishes the Peace Corps.
- 1961 - The Bay of Pigs Invasion, took place when U.S.-trained force of Cuban exiles invaded south-west Cuba and attempted to overthrow the Cuban government of Fidel Castro. The failed invasion planned and funded by the United States government beginning in 1960 under the auspices of Vice President Richard M. Nixon, the CIA and the Eisenhower administration was launched in April 1961, less than three months after John F. Kennedy assumed the presidency in the United States.
- 1961 - Substantial (approximately 700), American forces first arrive in Vietnam in 1961.
- 1962 - By mid-1962, the number of U.S. military advisers in South Vietnam had risen from 700 to 12,000.
- 1962 - The Cuban Missile Crisis, in October 1962, was a near military confrontation between the U.S. and the Soviet Union about the presence of Soviet missiles in Cuba. After an American Naval (quarantine) blockade of Cuba the Soviet Union under the leadership of Nikita Khruschev agreed to remove their missiles.
- 1963 - Martin Luther King Jr.'s,"I Have a Dream" speech in Washington D.C. on August 28.
- 1963 - After the overthrow of the Diem Regime in early November 1963, Kennedy increased the number of U.S. military advisers from 800 to 16,300 to cope with rising guerrilla activity in Vietnam.
- 1963 - After Kennedy's assassination, on November 22, 1963, Lyndon Johnson becomes president, and presses for civil rights legislation.
- 1964 - After the Gulf of Tonkin incident, on August 2, 1964 and the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution which was a joint resolution of the U.S. Congress passed on August 10, 1964 in direct response to a minor naval engagement known as the Gulf of Tonkin Incident. The resolution gave U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson 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 conflict.
- 1964 - U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson is re-elected defeating United States Senator Barry Goldwater in November.
- 1965 - U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson and Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey take office in January.
- 1965 - The Assassination of Malcolm X on February 21, 1965
- 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.
- 1968 - The Assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968 and Robert Kennedy on June 5, 1968.
- 1968 - U.S. President Richard M. Nixon is elected defeating Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey in November.
- 1969 - U.S. President Richard Nixon is inaugurated in January 1969; promises "peace with honor" to end the Vietnam War; price inflation soars; Nixon imposes wage and price controls.
- 1969- Stonewall riots in Greenwich Village, New York take place in June.
People
Artists, intellectuals, political figures, writers and the rest
Artists in the media
Intellectuals
Political figures
Writers
Visual artists, painters and sculptors
The Rest
Sports
There were six Olympics held during the decade. These were:
1960 XVII Summer Olympics Rome, Italy
1960 VIII Winter Olympics Squaw Valley, United States
1964 XVIII Summer Olympics Tokyo, Japan
1964 IX Winter Olympics Innsbruck, Austria
1968 XIX Summer Olympics Mexico City, Mexico
1968 X Winter Olympics Grenoble, France
There were two FIFA World Cups during the decade:
1962 FIFA World Cup Chile (winner Brazil)
1966 FIFA World Cup England (winner England)
The ten European Cup winners during the decade were:
1960 European Cup Final - Real Madrid
1961 European Cup Final - Benfica
1962 European Cup Final - Benfica
1963 European Cup Final - A.C. Milan
1964 European Cup Final - Internazionale
1965 European Cup Final - Internazionale
1966 European Cup Final - Real Madrid
1967 European Cup Final - Glasgow Celtic
1968 European Cup Final - Manchester United
1969 European Cup Final - A.C. Milan
The ten Formula One World Championship Winners were:
1960 Jack Brabham
1961 Phil Hill
1962 Graham Hill
1963 Jim Clark
1964 John Surtees
1965 Jim Clark
1966 Jack Brabham
1967 Denny Hulme
1968 Graham Hill
1969 Jackie Stewart
In baseball, the World Series champions during the decade were:
1960 - Pittsburgh Pirates
1961 - New York Yankees
1962 - New York Yankees
1963 - Los Angeles Dodgers
1964 - St. Louis Cardinals
1965 - Los Angeles Dodgers
1966 - Baltimore Orioles
1967 - St. Louis Cardinals
1968 - Detroit Tigers
1969 - New York Mets
The National Football League champions during the decade were:
1960 - Philadelphia Eagles
1961 - Green Bay Packers
1962 - Green Bay Packers
1963 - Chicago Bears
1964 - Cleveland Browns
1965 - Green Bay Packers
1966 - Green Bay Packers won Super Bowl I
1967 - Green Bay Packers won Super Bowl II
1968 - Baltimore Colts
1969 - Minnesota Vikings
The American Football League champions during the decade were:
1960 - Houston Oilers
1961 - Houston Oilers
1962 - Dallas Texans
1963 - San Diego Chargers
1964 - Buffalo Bills
1965 - Buffalo Bills
1966 - Kansas City Chiefs
1967 - Oakland Raiders
1968 - New York Jets won Super Bowl III
1969 - Kansas City Chiefs won Super Bowl IV
The National Hockey League's Stanley Cup champions of the decade were:
1960 - Montreal Canadiens
1961 - Chicago Black Hawks
1962 - Toronto Maple Leafs
1963 - Toronto Maple Leafs
1964 - Toronto Maple Leafs
1965 - Montreal Canadiens
1966 - Montreal Canadiens
1967 - Toronto Maple Leafs
1968 - Montreal Canadiens
1969 - Montreal Canadiens
The National Basketball Association champions of the decade were:
1960 - Boston Celtics
1961 - Boston Celtics
1962 - Boston Celtics
1963 - Boston Celtics
1964 - Boston Celtics
1965 - Boston Celtics
1966 - Boston Celtics
1967 - Philadelphia 76ers
1968 - Boston Celtics
1969 - Boston Celtics
The Canadian Football League's Grey Cup champions of the decade were:
1960 - Ottawa Rough Riders
1961 - Winnipeg Blue Bombers
1962 - Winnipeg Blue Bombers
1963 - Hamilton Tiger-Cats
1964 - British Columbia Lions
1965 - Hamilton Tiger-Cats
1966 - Saskatchewan Roughriders
1967 - Hamilton Tiger-Cats
1968 - Ottawa Rough Riders
1969 - Ottawa Rough Riders
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