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First Airing of the Flintstones
The Flintstones first were introduced to television audiences by ABC -
President Kennedy elected
This is the most recent election in which three of the four major party nominees for President and Vice-President were eventually elected President of the United States. Kennedy won the election -
Maris beats Ruth's single season HR record
On October 1, 1961, in New York's final game of the regular season, Yankees slugger Roger Maris hits his 61st home run, becoming the first player in Major League Baseball to hit more than 60 in a season. He tops former Yankees great Babe Ruth, who hit 60 home runs in 1927. -
Russians send the first man into space
Most of the cosmonaut candidates were between 25 and 30 years old and thus did not have the extensive test pilot experience of their U.S. counterparts. One of these 20 young men, Yuri Gagarin, became the first human in space with his April 12, 1961 -
Berlin Wall is constructed
The Berlin Wall was a guarded concrete barrier that divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989. It encircled West Berlin, separating it from East German territory. Construction of the wall was commenced by the German Democratic Republic on 13 August 1961. -
James Meredith registers at Ole Miss
On the night of Sep. 30, 1962, Meredith entered the campus to enroll, accompanied by U.S. Marshals. The marshals surrounded the Lyceum, an administration building in the center of campus, and a violent riot of white students and segregationists broke out, leaving two dead and hundreds injured. -
Marilyn Monroe Dies
Marilyn Monroe died of a barbiturate overdose late in the evening of Saturday, August 4, 1962, at her 12305 Fifth Helena Drive home in Los Angeles, California. She was 36 years old. -
Cuban missile crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis, also known as the October Crisis [of 1962] in Cuba, the Caribbean Crisis in Russia, or the Missile Scare, was a 35-day confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union -
MLK "I have a dream speech"
"I Have a Dream" is a public speech that was delivered by American civil rights activist and Baptist minister, Martin Luther King Jr., during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963. In the speech, King called for civil and economic rights and an end to racism in the United States -
JFK assassination
John Fitzgerald Kennedy, often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination near the end of his third year in office. Kennedy was the youngest person to assume the presidency by election -
Beatles arrival to the US
Bernstein couldn't get his agency interested in The Beatles, so he handled the job himself and paid the group $6,500 to come over from England to play two shows at Carnegie Hall (both on Feb. 12, 1964). Three days earlier, the Fab Four had performed on The Ed Sullivan Show on Broadway. -
Lyndon B Johnson defeats Barry Goldwater
The election was held on November 3, 1964. Johnson beat Goldwater in the general election, winning over 61% of the popular vote, the highest percentage since the popular vote first became widespread in 1824. Johnson became the only Democrat between 1944 and 1976 to win a majority of the popular vote. -
Malcom X assassination
Malcolm X was an American Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a prominent figure during the civil rights movement. A spokesman for the Nation of Islam until 1964, he was a vocal advocate for Black empowerment and the promotion of Islam within the Black community -
Watt's race riots
The Watts riots, sometimes referred to as the Watts Rebellion or Watts Uprising, took place in the Watts neighborhood and its surrounding areas of Los Angeles from August 11 to 16, 1965. On August 11, 1965, Marquette Frye, a 21-year-old African-American man, was pulled over for drunken driving -
San Francisco "Summer of Love" Begins
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. -
First NFL super bowl
The first AFL–NFL World Championship Game was an American football game played on January 15, 1967, at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles, California. The National Football League champion Green Bay Packers defeated the American Football League champion Kansas City Chiefs by the score of 35–10. -
Muhammad Ali refuses military service
When Ali arrived to be inducted into the United States Armed Forces, however, he refused, citing his religion forbade him from serving. The cost for his refusal would prove to be drastic: the stripping of his heavyweight title, a suspension from boxing, a $10,000 fine, and a five-year prison sentence. -
release of Sgt. Pepper's album
A signed copy of The Beatles' album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band has been bought at auction in the US for $290,500 (£191,000). The selling price far exceeded the $30,000 (£19,700) originally estimated for the rare LP record. -
Thurgood Marshall nominated to the Supreme Court
the Senate confirmed Thurgood Marshall as the first Black person to serve as a Supreme Court Justice. Marshall was no stranger to the Senate or the Supreme Court at the time. Marshall was confirmed in a 69-11 floor vote to join the Court. -
LSD declared illegal
This resulted in LSD being viewed as a cultural threat to American values and the Vietnam war effort, and it was designated as a Schedule I (illegal for medical as well as recreational use) substance in 1968. -
Tet Offensive
Major escalation and one of the largest military campaigns of the Vietnam war -
MLK assassination
Martin Luther King Jr. 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 -
Robert Kennedy Assassination
Robert Francis Kennedy, also known by his initials RFK and by the nickname Bobby, was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 64th United States Attorney General from January 1961 to September 1964, and as a U.S. Senator from New York from January 1965 until his assassination in June 1968. -
Richard Nixon Elected
The 1968 United States presidential election was the 46th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 5, 1968. -
Stonewall Riots
The Stonewall riots were a series of spontaneous protests by members of the gay community in response to a police raid that began in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in New York City -
American Astronauts land on the moon
American Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin became the first humans ever on the moon. -
Woodstock Concert
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, 40 miles southwest of the town of Woodstock. -
Rolling Stones host music festival
Mick Jagger (in red) and Keith Richards (in shades, natch), just off stage at the Altamont concert, hours before their segment turned deadly. Dec. 6, 1969.