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The SNCC is formed
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee was the principal channel of student commitment in the United States to the Civil Rights Movement during the 1960s. -
First Televised Presidential Debate
The first televised presidential debate between JFK and Nixon took place. This was a huge change in politics as Americans were actually able to see the politicians they were voting for and JFK's smooth-talking and good looks won the people over. -
First Airing of the Flintstones
The first episode of the cartoon, The Flintstones aired on TV in America. -
John F. Kennedy is elected president
JFK is elected president as a democrat against Nixon of the Republican Party. -
Russians send the first man into space
Aboard the spacecraft Vostok 1, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin becomes the first human being to travel into space. During the flight, the 27-year-old test pilot and industrial technician also became the first man to orbit the planet, a feat accomplished by his space capsule in 89 minutes. -
The construction of the Berlin wall began
The wall separating East and West Berlin were put up by the Soviets to keep their people from fleeing to the Capitalist side of Berlin. -
Roger Maris breaks Babe Ruth's record of Homeruns in one season
New York Yankee Roger Maris becomes the first-ever major-league baseball player to hit more than 60 home runs in a single season. The great Babe Ruth set the record in 1927; Maris and his teammate Mickey Mantle spent 1961 trying to break it. -
SDS releases its Port Huron statement
The Port Huron Statement is a 1962 political manifesto of the American student activist movement Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). The 25,700-word statement "articulated the fundamental problems of American society and laid out a radical vision for a better future". -
Marilyn Monroe Dies
Los Angeles police concluded that her death was “caused by a self-administered overdose of sedative drugs and that the mode of death -
James Meredith registers at Ole Miss
chaos broke out at the University of Mississippi — also known as Ole Miss — after an African-American man named James Meredith attempted to enroll. That night, students and other protesters took to the streets, burning cars and throwing rocks at the federal marshals who were tasked with protecting Meredith -
The First James Bond movie, "Dr. No." was released
In the film that launched the James Bond saga, Agent 007 (Sean Connery) battles mysterious Dr. No, a scientific genius bent on destroying the U.S. space program. It was the precedent for all of the other Bond movies to come. -
Cuban missile crisis
The Soviets started a trade deal and gave the Cubans nukes just off the coast of Florida. With nukes so close to us, there was a serious chance of nuclear annihilation. -
Dr. King's Speech " I Have A Dream"
"I Have a Dream" is a public speech that was delivered by American civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963, in which he called for civil and economic rights and an end to racism -
JFK is Assassinated
JFK was shot by a sniper while he was in a roofless car in a motorcade by an ex-marine named Lee Harvey Oswald. The assassin shot JFK from a warehouse and hid in a theater. -
The Beatles arrive in the United States
John, Paul, George, and Ringo arrived for their first U.S. visit. -
The Beatles appear on the Ed Sullivan show
The Beatles, with their Edwardian suits and mop-top haircuts, made their first American television appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. A record-setting 73 million people tuned in that evening making it one of the seminal moments in television history. -
Gulf of Tonkin incident
It involved one real and one falsely claimed confrontation between ships of North Vietnam and the United States in the waters of the Gulf of Tonkin. The original American report blamed North Vietnam for both incidents, but the Pentagon Papers, the memoirs of Robert McNamara, and NSA publications from 2005 proved that the US government lied to justify a war against Vietnam. -
New York World Fair begins
New York World's Fair was a world's fair that held over 140 pavilions, 110 restaurants, for 80 nations, 24 US states, and over 45 corporations to build exhibits or attractions at Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens, New York City. -
Lyndon B. Johnson is elected president
Incumbent Democratic United States President Lyndon B. Johnson defeated Barry Goldwater, the Republican nominee. With 61.1% of the popular vote, Johnson won the largest share of the popular vote of any candidate since the largely uncontested 1820 election. -
Malcolm X is assassinated
El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, better known as Malcolm X, was an American Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a popular figure during the civil rights movement. He is best known for his staunch and controversial black racial advocacy, and for his time spent as the vocal spokesperson of the Nation of Islam. Malcolm X is assassinated by rival Black Muslims while addressing his Organization of Afro-American Unity at the Audubon Ballroom. -
Watt's Race Riots
The Watts riots sometimes referred to as the Watts Rebellion, took place in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles from August 11 to 16, 1965. On August 11, 1965, Marquette Frye, an African-American motorist on parole for robbery, was pulled over for reckless driving. It resulted in 34 deaths. -
“Star Trek” TV show airs
The Star Trek TV show marked the beginning of the science fiction genre becoming extremely popular on TV and movies. The show aired on NBC from September 8, 1966, to June 3, 1969. -
San Francisco " Summer of Love Begins"
The Summer of Love was a social phenomenon that occurred during mid-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. -
The First NFL Super Bowl
Packers beat Chiefs in the first Super Bowl. On January 15, 1967, the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League NFL smash the American Football League AFL's Kansas City Chiefs, 35-10. -
Boxer Muhammed Ali refuses Military Service
The appeal of his conviction in 1967 for refusing to report for induction into the United States military forces during the Vietnam War. His local draft board had rejected his application for conscientious objector classification. -
Monterey Music Festival held
The Monterey International Pop Music Festival was a three-day concert event held June 16 to June 18, 1967 at the Monterey County Fairgrounds in Monterey, California. -
Thurgood Marshall nominated to the Supreme Court
President Lyndon Johnson appoints U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Thurgood Marshall to fill the seat of retiring Supreme Court Associate Justice Tom C. Clark. On August 30, after a heated debate, the Senate confirmed Marshall's nomination by a vote of 69 to 11. -
The Tet Offensive
A coordinated offensive by the North Vietnamese attacked South Vietnam cities and outposts. It led to a demoralization of the US soldiers and dialed back the involvement of the US. -
Martin Luther King Jr was Assassinated
His assassination led to an outpouring of anger among black Americans, as well as a period of national mourning that helped speed the way for an equal housing bill that would be the last significant legislative achievement of the civil rights era. -
Robert Kennedy is Assassinated
The presidential candidate was shot on June 5, 1968. The presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy was mortally wounded shortly after midnight at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. -
Protests at the 1968 Democratic National Convention
The protest was against the Vietnam war and wanted to have the US "bring the boys back home" and pull out of Vietnam. -
LSD declared illegal by the U.S. government
LSD, or lysergic acid diethylamide, is a hallucinogenic drug that was first synthesized by a Swiss scientist in the 1930s. The drug was used by the CIA in an attempt to brainwash people. It became a big recreational drug and a symbol of the 1960s. -
Richard Nixon is elected
In the 46th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 5, 1968. The Republican nominee, former vice president Richard Nixon, defeated the Democratic nominee, incumbent vice president Hubert Humphrey. -
The Stone Wall Riots
The Stone Wall riots were a series of spontaneous violent riots by the gay community after a police raid at the Stonewall Inn in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. -
American Astronauts land on the moon
American Astronauts landed on the moon marking a historical event for all of mankind. Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong were the first men to walk on the moon on live TV. -
The Manson Family Murders
The Tate–LaBianca murders were perpetrated by members of the Charles Manson "Family" in Los Angeles, California who murdered five people on August 9–10, 1969, and two more the following evening -
Woodstock Concert
Woodstock was a music festival held August 15–18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York. 3 Days of Peace & Music" and alternatively referred to as the Bethel Rock Festival, it attracted an audience of more than 400,000. -
The Rolling Stones host the Altamont music festival
The festival featured many popular bands and artists of the time with the grand finale featuring the rolling stones. Scores were injured, numerous cars were stolen and then abandoned, and there was extensive property damage. Four Died at Rolling Stones' Altamont Concert. On Dec. 6, 1969, concertgoer Meredith Hunter was stabbed to death by a Hells Angel biker as he approached the stage with a gun. Three others at the Altamont Free Concert were killed in accidents.
