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Payola
Revealed by a 1959 federal investigation, the “payola” scandal saw radio deejays taking bribes to promote certain songs and records. -
U-2 spy planes
Billy Joel wasn’t talking about the band. In 1960 an American U-2 reconnaissance plane was shot down over the Soviet Union, with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev calling the flight an “aggressive act” by the U.S. When the U.S. claimed that the flight hadn’t been authorized—even though its pilot, Francis Gary Powers, admitted to working for the CIA—the incident caused the collapse of a Parisian summit conference between the U.S., the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and France. -
Bay of Pigs
The CIA had planned an invasion of Cuba since 1960, shortly after Fidel Castro came to power and transformed Cuba into a communist state. They executed the plan in 1961, when three U.S. airplanes piloted by Cubans bombed Cuban air bases and, two days later, landed at several sites. But the small force of the Bay of Pigs invasion which contained nothing close to the strength of Castro’s troops. The CIA-directed agents were captured, and the invasion failed. -
Belgians in the congo
In 1960 the Democratic Republic of the Congo gained independence from Belgium, the country which, under Leopold II, was responsible for widespread atrocities there beginning in the 1880s. -
Hemmingway
With novels such as The Sun Also Rises (1926) and A Farewell to Arms (1929), Ernest Hemingway became a major voice of the Lost Generation, a group of American writers disillusioned with life after World War I. He committed suicide in 1961. -
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Berlin wall
From 1961 to 1989 the Berlin Wall separated West Berlin, a democratic state allied with the West, from East Berlin, a communist state aligned with the Soviet Union. -
john glenn
In 1962 John Glenn became the first American astronaut to orbit Earth, completing three orbits. (The Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin had completed a single orbit in 1961, making him the first person in space.) -
Lawrance of Arabia
Released in 1962, the historical epic Lawrence of Arabia became an almost-instant classic and made its relatively unknown lead actor Peter O’Toole into a major star. -
stranger in a strange land
Robert A. Heinlein’s 1961 novel Stranger in a Strange Land follows the challenges a human raised on Mars faces while trying to relate to customs on Earth. An icon of 1960s counterculture, the book won the Hugo Award for best novel in 1962. -
Eichman
In 1962 German Nazi official Adolf Eichmann was executed by the State of Israel for his extensive role in the Holocaust, which included organizing the transport of Jewish residents of Nazi-occupied states to death camps. -
Liston beats Patterson
American boxer Sonny Liston became the world heavyweight champion on September 25, 1962, when he knocked out Floyd Patterson in the first round of their match. -
Pope Paul
Giovanni Battista Montini was elected pope on June 21, 1963, choosing the name Paul VI. He oversaw much of the Second Vatican Council, which ran from 1962 through 1965, and his tenure affirmed the Roman Catholic Church’s opposition to birth control and its firm stance on priestly celibacy. -
birth control
Griswold v. State of Connecticut (1965) saw the U.S. Supreme Court rule in favor of married persons’ constitutional right to use birth control, striking down laws that made it a crime to use or recommend contraception in many U.S. states. -
Malcom X
The revolutionary civil rights leader Malcolm X was assassinated in 1965 while delivering a lecture in Harlem, New York. -
Ho Chi Minh
Ho Chi Minh, who was president of North Vietnam from 1945 to 1969, waged the longest—and most costly—battle against the colonial system of all 20th-century revolutionaries. His death in 1969 damaged chances for an early settlement of tensions between Vietnam and the United States. -
Moonshot
On July 20, 1969, the first human beings arrived on the Moon. American astronaut Neil Armstrong took the first step off the Apollo 11 spacecraft and onto the Moon’s surface, saying: “That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.” -
Woodstock
Woodstock in 1969, though the most famous of the 1960s rock festivals, was something of a disaster. Few people bought tickets, but some 400,000 people showed up, mostly demanding free entry—which they received, since the festival’s security was pretty much nonexistent. The event left its organizers practically bankrupt, though they were luckily able to salvage their finances by holding on to the film and recording rights of the “Three Days of Peace and Music.” -
Homeless vets from the vietnam war
after the Vietnam war, most if not all of the veterans where rejected by society due to their involvement in a war that everyone hated, even if it was involuntary. this then forced a situation where veterans with little support from anyone and the little money that army salaries gave meant that most went homeless before the year was done -
Punk Rock scene takes off
Punk rock as a scene took off after an age of rock music being mostly higher and happier tones, which strayed away from the origins of rock music. people hated what rock had become and wanted to create a counterculture of it and wanted a space where they could rebel against society, and to create a space for those who felt abandoned, rejected, and exploited. -
Palestine
Arab-Israeli tensions over land occupation mounted in the 1970s. In March 1977 U.S. President Jimmy Carter spoke of the need for a Palestinian homeland and described Palestinian participation in the Arab-Israeli peace process as crucial. Israel’s cabinet continued to reject the suggestion of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s participation. -
Ayatollah’s in Iran
In 1979 the Shiʿi cleric Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini led a revolution that overthrew Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, the Western-aligned leader of Iran. Khomeini served as Iran’s ultimate political and religious authority for the next 10 years. -
russians in afghanistan
In 1979 Soviet troops invaded Afghanistan, intervening in support of the Afghan communist government in its conflict with anti-communist Muslim guerrillas. The Soviets remained there for nearly a decade. -
the crack epidemic
a significant increase in the use of crack cocaine, an affordable, highly addictive, and smokable form of cocaine. As Reagan intensified the U.S. government’s “War on Drugs,” defendants in federal crack cocaine cases were penalized more harshly than defendants in cases involving other drugs. “Mandatory minimum” prison sentences for drug offenses meant that possession of 5g of crack gave an automatic 5 year sentence while it took possession of 500g of coke to give the same sentence. -
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Reagan Presidency
in this time Reagan would implement economic policies that would cripple the american people in the future and would create blatantly racist policies while covering it up as a "war on drugs" -
AIDS epidemic
the CDC published a report describing disease affecting five gay men in LA. in the next year, they discovered to affect not only gay men but also drug users and women with male partners, became known as acquired AIDS. Though the epidemic first spread during the Reagan administration, homophobic characterization of AIDS as a “gay plague” meant that Reagan himself kept quiet about it for years. He refused to say the word “AIDS” in public until 1985, when the epidemic had already killed thousands. -
Sally Ride
On June 18, 1983, astronaut Sally Ride became the first American woman in space. She was preceded by two Soviet women: cosmonauts Valentina Tereshkova in 1963 and Svetlana Savitskaya in 1982. -
Heavy Metal suicide
The heavy metal subgenre known as death metal, populated by artists such as Ozzy Osbourne and Judas Priest, garnered criticism for lyrics encouraging self-harm when three young fans attempted or committed suicide from 1984 to 1985. -
Hypodermics on the shore
In July 1988 more than 70 syringes and vials of blood washed up on New York’s Staten Island beach. The cause was improper disposal of medical waste at the area’s largest landfill: instead of following the proper procedures, workers were sending medical waste and other garbage out to sea. -
Bernie Goetz
Bernhard Goetz was a self-proclaimed vigilante who was, in reality, a mass shooter: he shot four Black men who he claimed were planning to rob him on a New York City subway on December 22, 1984. By saying he acted in self-defense—even though there was no evidence that the men planned to rob him—Goetz was eventually found not guilty of attempted murder. He was convicted only of illegal weapons possession and served less than a year in prison. -
China's under martial law
Following weeks of student-led protests in Tiananmen Square and elsewhere in China demanding democratic reforms, martial law was declared in Beijing. When Chinese troops attempted to reach the square, they were initially thwarted by thousands of Beijing citizens blocking their way to protect the protesters. The military eventually broke through, however, and hundreds were killed and thousands wounded.