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Newport Jazz Festival
The Newport Jazz Festival is an annual American multi-day jazz music festival held every summer in Newport, Rhode Island. Elaine Lorillard established the festival in 1954, and she and her husband Louis Lorillard financed it for many years. -
Nixon-Kennedy Debates (1st on Television)
Nixon and Democratic Senator John F. Kennedy. The first-ever televised debate between presidential candidates was held on September 26, 1960. Televised broadcasts of the debates in the 1960 presidential campaign were a response to the public's enthusiasm for this type of coverage. -
The Assassination of John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald Kennedy, often referred to as JFK, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. He was the youngest person elected president. -
The Beatles Appear for the first time on the Ed Sullivan Show
Their first appearance, on February 9, was seen by over 73 million viewers and came to be regarded as a cultural watershed that launched American Beatlemania (as well as the wider British Invasion of American pop music) and inspired many young viewers to become rock musicians. -
The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution or the Southeast Asia Resolution, Pub. L. 88–408, 78 Stat. 384, enacted August 10, 1964, was a joint resolution that the United States Congress passed on August 7, 1964, in response to the Gulf of Tonkin incident. -
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 North Vietnam from 2 March 1965 until 2 November 1968, during the Vietnam War. -
Mai Lai Massacre
The My Lai massacre was a war crime committed by United States Army personnel on 16 March 1968, involving the mass murder of unarmed civilians in Sơn Tịnh district, South Vietnam, during the Vietnam War. -
March on the Pentagon
The October 1967 Pentagon riot, the first national protest against the war, exemplified the agonizingly divisive debate over Vietnam. Ironically, the demonstrators helped the federal government confirm its own commitment to civilian control. -
Riots at the Chicago Democratic Convention
The 1968 Democratic National Convention protests were a series of protests against the United States' involvement in the Vietnam War that took place before and during the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois. The protests lasted approximately seven days, from August 23 to August 29, 1968. -
Chicago 8 Trial
The Chicago 8 Trial, infamous for its shocking excesses both in and outside a federal courtroom, presents a cross-cur- rents of democratic thinking that probes the foundational values of government of, by, and for the people. The seven defendants represented a generation of activists, who were suspicious and unsupportive of a foreign war, and a judge and legal system that embodied what younger Americans perceived to be a status quo that had gone unchallenged and unchecked for far too long -
Woodstock
Woodstock had a great influence on the pop culture of the late 60s and early 70s. It provided a soundtrack to the civil unrest sweeping the US. It provided a sense of unity through music for teens and twenty-somethings. The festival was remarkably peaceful given the number of people and the conditions involved, although there were three recorded fatalities: two drug overdoses and another caused when a tractor ran over a 17-year-old sleeping in a nearby hayfield. -
Kent State Protest
On May 4, 1970, members of the Ohio National Guard fired into a crowd of Kent State University demonstrators, killing four and wounding nine Kent State students. The impact of the shootings was dramatic. The event triggered a nationwide student strike that forced hundreds of colleges and universities to close. -
Roe vs. Wade
Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113, was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that the Constitution of the United States generally protected a right to have an abortion. -
The Beatles Break Up
In reality, the breakup of The Beatles was multifaceted and complex: money problems, Brian Epstein's death, John's relationship with Yoko, not to mention creative divergences, internal power struggles, and the evolving artistic impulses of all four Beatles. After The Beatles disbanded in 1970, each member pursued their own musical career and personal interests. John Lennon released several solo albums, including the critically acclaimed “Imagine,” before tragically being murdered in 1980.