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1960
⁃ 21 March: 69 black protestors killed in Sharpeville massacre by South African police ⁃ 26 September: First televised debate between Nixon and Kennedy ⁃ 8 November: JFK elected in national presidency vote, youngest elected president in history -
Period: to
The 1960’s
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1961
⁃ 15 March: South Africa withdraws from the Commonwealth ⁃ 17 April: CIA-funded invasion of the Bay of the Pigs fails ⁃ 13 August: Berlin Wall construction begins -
1962
⁃ 3 July: Algerian independence recognised by France ⁃ 10 July: Telestar launch successful, live TV pictures emitted from US to France ⁃ 5 August: Nelson Mandela arrested ⁃ 14 October: Cuban missile crisis commences -
1963
⁃ 19 February: ‘The Feminine Mystique’ by Betty Friedan makes milestone in US Women’s Movement
⁃ 8 August: Great Train Robbery in England
⁃ 28 August: Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I have a dream” speech, significant moment in US Civil Rights
⁃ 22 November: JFK’s assassination -
1964
⁃ 19 June: US Senate passes bill for Civil Rights ⁃ 5 August: US Air Force bombs North Vietnam by President Johnson’s orders ⁃ 15 October: Martin Luther King Jr. is awarded Nobel Peace Prize for campaigning towards racial equality ⁃ 15 October: Wilson Labour Party elected to government in UK -
1965
⁃ 24 January: Sir Winston Churchill’s death
⁃ 8 July: Great Train Robber (Ronald Biggs) escapes from London’s Wandsworth Prison
⁃ 28 July: Johnson increases America’s troops from 75,000 to 125,000
⁃ 11 August: Race Riots in Watts, LA, 36 people killed
⁃ 11 November: Ian Smith makes independence from Britain declaration, has economic consequences -
1966
⁃ 31 March: Wilson’s Labour Party returns to election with an increase in votes and majority ⁃ 15 October: Huey Newton and Bobby Seale form ‘Black Panther Party’ in US -
1967
⁃ 24 April: Muhammad Ali is stripped of world heavyweight boxing title for refusal to join US Army ⁃ 5 June: Israel starts ‘6 Day War’ by attacking Egypt ⁃ 6 July: Civil War commences in Nigeria ⁃ 2 December: Full colour TV service launched on Britain’s BBC. ⁃ 5 December: World’s first heart transplant conducted in Capetown by Dr. Christian Bernard -
1968
⁃ 16 March: ‘My Lai’ massacre in Vietnam ⁃ 4 April: Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination ⁃ May: Student protests and strike commence in France ⁃ 6 June: RFK’s assassination ⁃ 5 November: President Nixon elected -
1969
⁃ 2 Jan: Rupert Murdoch purchases Britain’s largest-selling ‘News of the World’
⁃ 20 April: British troops enter Northern Ireland
⁃ 28 June: Stonewall riots in NY mark beginning of Gay Rights movement
⁃ 21 July: Apollo 11’s Neil Armstrong walks on the moon
⁃ 21 October: Willy Brand becomes chancellor of West Germany
⁃ 6 December: Rolling Stones Altament violence ends the 1960s