1960
• US Population is 179,323,173 [1-1-60]
• Gary Powers American “U2” spy plane shot down over the USSR [1-5-60]
• NASA launched ECHO [8-12-60]
• The first debate for a presidential election was televised between Senator John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon [9-26-60]
• Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho released
• Birth Control Pill invented
• Rome Summer Olympics – Wilma Rudolf won 3 gold metals [8-25-60 to 9-11-60]
• There are 900 military advisors in Vietnam
1961
• President John F. Kennedy stood before a joint session of Congress and stated that the United States should set as a goal the ‘landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth’ by the end of the decade [5-25-61]
• Bob Dylan is 19 and moves to NYC
• Berlin Wall Erected [construction begins 7-13-61]
• Bay of Pigs Invasion [4-17-61]
• Russian Yuri Gagarin becomes the first astronaut [4-12-61]
• First stereo radio broadcasting.
• Allan Shepard suborbital flight [5-5-61]
• President Kennedy tells Americans to build Fallout shelters [10-6-61]
• There are 2000 military advisors in Vietnam
1962
• Jackie Kennedy conducted a televised tour of the White House [2-14-62]
• John Glenn “Friendship 7” launch +3 orbits [2-20-62]
• K-Mart opens for business [3-1-62]
• Jack Paar hosted NBC’s “Tonight” show for the last time [3-29-62]
• Marilyn Monroe sings “Happy Birthday” to JFK at Madison Square Garden [5-19-62]
• Telstar Satellite launched [7-10-62]
• American intervention in Vietnam to counter Soviet help to the Vietcong.
• Cuban Missile Crisis [10-22-2 to 10-27-62]
• Marilyn Monroe found dead [8-5-62]
• Johnny Carson begins hosting NBC’s “Tonight” show [10-1-62]
• Linus Pauling wins Nobel Peace Prize [10-62] [Pauling is the only person with two (unshared) Nobel Prizes – 1954 in Chemistry, 1962 Peace]
1963
• Mutual of Omaha’s “Wild Kingdom” with Marlin Perkins begins on NBC [1-6-63]
• George Wallace is sworn in as governor of Alabama – pledges “segregation forever” [1–4-63]
• The first flight of the Boeing 727 [2-9-63]
• Patsy Cline (30) dies in a plane crash [3-5-63]
• USPS inaugurates five-digit ZIP codes [7-1-63]
• The nuclear-powered attack submarine USS Thresher fails to surface [129 officers, crewmen, military and civilian technicians lost at sea] [4-10-63]
• The Fugitive (starring David Jansen) premiered on ABC-TV [9-17-63]
• JFK Assassinated in Dallas [11-22-63]
• Jack Ruby shoots Lee Harvey Oswald on live TV [11-24-63]
• Martin Luther King Jr. Makes His “I Have a Dream” Speech [8-28-63]
• Martin Luther King Jr. receives the Nobel Peace Prize [12-10-64]
• There are 15,000 military advisors in Vietnam
1964
• LBJ – Gulf of Tonkin Resolution [8-7-64]
• Ed Sullivan presents the Beatles [2-9-64] The Beatles perform 3 consecutive
weekends in February.
• First commercial mainframe computer by IBM.
• Animals – “House of the Rising Sun” #1 Billboard hit – [9-5-64]
• Cassius Clay (a.k.a. Muhammad Ali) becomes World Heavyweight Champion
defeating Sonny Liston [2-25-64]
• Civil Rights bill was passed to stop racial discrimination.
• JBL elected President [11-3-64]
1965
• 3,500 U.S. Marines land near Da Nang in South Vietnam [3-8-65]
• Mini skirts become much shorter [summer-65].
• The Temptations “My Girl” reached #1 on Billboard charts [3-3-65]
• Los Angeles [Watts] Riots – $200M in damage [8-11-65]
• Malcolm X Assassinated [2-21-65]
• The world’s first roofed stadium was built, the Houston Astrodome [4-12-65]
• Rolling Stones – “Satisfaction” #1 Billboard hit [7-10-65]
1966
• Simon & Garfunkel’s “Sounds of Silence” is released [1-17-66]
• A US Air Force B-52 carrying four hydrogen bombs crashed on the Spanish coast [1-
17-66]
• MHS Seniors (Class of 1966) is released from scholastic jail [5-66]
• Lennon says the Beatles are more popular than Jesus [3-4-66]
• The Rolling Stones release “Paint it Black” [5-13-66]
• Groundbreaking ceremony for World Trade Towers in NYC [8-5-66]
• The Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act of 1965 (Public Law 89-92)
required that the warning “Caution: Cigarette Smoking May Be Hazardous to Your
Health” be placed on each cigarette package.
• Charles Joseph Whitman (25), architectural engineering student and ex-Marine, shot
and killed 14 people (wounded 31) from the University of Texas clock tower [8-1-66]
• Psychedelic clothing is very popular
• Star Trek TV series airs [9-8-66]
• The Monkees debuted on NBC-TV [9-12-66]
• The Zodiac killer murdered a female college student in Riverside CA [10-30-66]
• LSD was made illegal
• Walt Disney dies of cancer [12-5-01 to 12-15-66]
1967
• Three Apollo astronauts – Col. Virgil I. Grissom, Col. Edward White II, and Lt. Cmdr.
Roger B. Chaffee – killed in spacecraft fire during simulated launch [1-27-67]
• Summer of Love in San Francisco [summer-67]
• First Super Bowl – Packers and the Chiefs [1-15-67]
• Beatles – “Magical Mystery Tour” released [12-67]
• Six-Day War in the Middle East [6-5-67 to 6-10-67]
• Cassius Clay refuses induction to military service [4-28-67]
• Otis Redding dies in a plane crash [12-10-67]
• Cream releases “Disraeli Gears” [11-67]
• The Bad Seeds Band is formed in Kilgore, TX [9-12-67]
1968
• North Korea seizes U.S. Navy ship Pueblo and holds 83 on board as spies [1-23-68]
• The Vietcong Tet Offensive is launched [1-31-68]
• Planet of the Apes released [2-8-68]
• LBJ announces he will not seek re-election [3-31-68]
• Vietnam Peace Talks begin in Paris [5-10-68]
• Martin Luther King Jr. assassinated [6:01 p.m. on 5-4-68]
• James Earl Ray indicted in MLK murder [6-8-68]
• Robert F. Kennedy assassinated by Sirhan Sirhan [6-6-68]
• Easy Rider premieres [7-14-68]
• Barbarella released [10-10-68]
• Richard Nixon elected President [11-5-68]
• The Bad Seeds members Larry, Allan, and Dennis join the US Army.
1969
• Armstrong becomes the first man on the Moon – Apollo 11 – [7-20-69, 4:18 pm]
• US President Richard Nixon approves carpet bombing and land invasion of Cambodia.
• Charles Manson arrested at Spahn Ranch, Chatsworth, CA [8-16-69].
• Woodstock Festival at Max Yasgur’s farm in Bethel, NY [8-15-69 to 8-18-69].
• Sesame Street First Airs [11-10-69].
• Senator Edward Kennedy leaves the scene of an accident on Chappaquiddick Island
[7-18-69]. Mary Jo Kopechne was drowned, Kennedy gets two months suspended
sentence.
• Yasser Arafat becomes Leader of the PLO [2-2-69]
• DDT banned in the USA [11-20-69]
• Vietnam troop level reaches a maximum of 543,400 [1-18-69]
• Smothers Brothers TV show is canceled [4-4-69]