60's Era

  • Assassination Of John F. Kennedy

    On Friday, November 22, 1963, John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, was assassinated at 12:30 p.m. CST in Dallas, Texas, while riding in a presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza.
  • Newport Jazz Festival

    Chuck Berry, who died on Saturday at 90, was nothing short of a pioneer in American music: a guitar slinger who created the very template for rock 'n' roll; a singer who embodied the youthful, rambunctious desires of the age; a songwriter capable of compressing an epic tale into a few tight verses. He was also a runaway highlight of the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival, which made for more than a little controversy at the time.
  • Nixon Kennedy Debates

    Nixon fared better in the second and third debates, and on October 21 the candidates met to discuss foreign affairs in their fourth and final debate. Less than three weeks later, on November 8, Kennedy won 49.7 percent of the popular vote in one of the closest presidential elections in U.S. history, surpassing by a fraction the 49.6 percent received by his Republican opponent.
  • The beatles appear on the Ed Sullivan Show

    Feb. 9, 1964, The Beatles made their first live U.S. television appearance. More than 70 million Americans gathered around their televisions to watch four young men from Liverpool make history
  • Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

    On August 7, 1964, Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, authorizing President Johnson to take any measures he believed were necessary to retaliate and to promote the maintenance of international peace and security in Southeast Asia.
  • Operation Rolling Thunder

    Operation Rolling Thunder was a gradual and sustained aerial bombardment campaign conducted by the United States 2nd Air Division, U.S. Navy, and Republic of Vietnam Air Force against the Democratic Republic of Vietnam from 2 March 1965 until 2 November 1968, during the Vietnam War
  • Beatles Break Up

    Many trace the breakup of the Beatles to the death of their manager, Brian Epstein, on August 27, 1967. A record store owner with no experience managing bands, Epstein had nonetheless played a crucial role in their rise to worldwide fame
  • March on the Pentagon

    reports of isolated violent incidents during the demonstrations, including accounts of protestors taunting and throwing objects at marshals and military policemen and marshals striking demonstrators. Some demonstrators remain until the end of the day on October 22.
  • March on the Pentagon

    The March on the Pentagon was a massive demonstration against the Vietnam War on October 21, 1967. The protest involved more than 100,000 attendees at a rally by the Lincoln Memorial. Later about 50,000 people marched across the Potomac River to The Pentagon and sparked a confrontation with paratroopers on guard.
  • Mai Lai Massacre

    On 16 March 1968—fifty years ago—First Lieutenant William L. “Rusty” Calley, Jr., and his platoon murdered at least 300 Vietnamese civilians (and perhaps as many as 500) at a small South Vietnamese sub-hamlet called My Lai.
  • Riots at the CHicago Democratic Convention

    The 1968 Democratic National Convention protests were a series of protest activities against the Vietnam War that took place prior to and during the 1968 Democratic National Convention.
  • WoodStock

    The Woodstock Music Festival began on August 15, 1969, as half a million people waited on a dairy farm in Bethel, New York, for the three-day music festival to start. Billed as “An Aquarian Experience: 3 Days of Peace and Music,” the epic event would later be known simply as Woodstock
  • Chicago 8 Trial

    Chicago 8 Trial
    The trial for eight antiwar activists charged with inciting violent demonstrations at the August 1968 Democratic National Convention opens in Chicago before Judge Julius Hoffman. Initially, there were eight defendants, but one, Bobby Seale of the Black Panthers, denounced Hoffman as a racist and demanded a separate trial. The seven other defendants, including David Dellinger of the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam
  • Kent State Protest

    The Kent State shootings resulted in the killing of four and wounding of nine unarmed college students by the Ohio National Guard, on the Kent State University campus.