1960s America

1960-

Feb. 1 – Four black college students from NC A&T stage a sit in at the Woolworth lunch counter sparking a national campaign, waged by 70,000 students for Civil Rights

March 3 – Elvis Presley returns home from Germany after 2 years of military service

March 6 – The US announces that 3,500 American soldiers will be sent to Vietnam

May 6 – President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the Civil Rights Act of 1960

May 9 – Birth control pill is approved by the FDA

May 15 – Sputnik 4 is launched by USSR

Nov. 8 – John F. Kennedy is elected president.

Elvis Presley returning from Germany

1961-

Jan. 31 – Ham the Chimp is rocketed into space aboard Mercury-Redstone 2

April 17 – Bay of Pigs Invasion of Cuba begins

May 14 – A Freedom Riders bus is fire-bombed near Anniston, Alabama

Dec. 11 – The Vietnam War officially begins – first American helicopters arrive in Saigon

Arthur Miller and Marilyn Monroe

1963-

Jan. 14 – George Wallace becomes governor of Alabama, crying “Segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever!”

Feb. 19 – Betty Friedan’s The Feminist Mystique is published, reawakening the Women’s Movement

March 21 – Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary is closed

April 16 – Martin Luther King Jr. issues Letter from Birmingham Jail

May 2 – Bull Conner arrests thousands of protesters in Birmingham, uses fire hoses and police dogs on demonstrators

June 11 – After George Wallace blocks the door at the University of Alabama, John F. Kennedy delivers the Civil Rights Address, promising a Civil Rights Bill

June 12 – Medgar Evers is assassinated in Jackson, Mississippi

Aug. 28 – Martin Luther King delivers his “I Have a Dream” speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial

Sept. 15 – The 16^th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama kills 4 little girls

Nov. 22 – John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, TX.

Nov. 24 – Lee Harvey Oswald, assassin of JFK, is killed by Jack Ruby on live television

Dec. 26 – “I Want to Hold Your Hand” is released in the US, marking the beginning of Beatlemania

Vietnam War

1962-

Jan. 1 – Navy SEAL Team One is activated

Jan. 4 - New York City introduces a subway train that operates without a crew on board

Feb. 3 – US embargo against Cuba is announced

Feb. 14 – First Lady Jackie Kennedy does a television tour of the White House

June 25 – The US Supreme Court rules mandatory prayers in school unconstitutional

Aug. 5 – Marilyn Monroe is found dead at age 36

Oct. 14 – Cuban Missile Crisis begins

Nov. 7 – Former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt dies.

Nov. 20 – Cuban Missile Crisis ends

Arthur Miller and wife backstage at After the Fall premiere

1965-

Jan. 20 - Lyndon B. Johnson is sworn in for this first full term as president

Feb. 21 – Malcolm X is assassinated in Manhattan

March 2 – The Sound of Music premieres in New York City

March 7 – Bloody Sunday happens in Selma, Alabama: 200 Alabama State Troopers clash with 525 civil rights demonstrators. Later that week, Martin Luther King leads 4 more marches from Selma to Montgomery and a demonstration at the Montgomery Courthouse.

July 28 – President Johnson orders an increase of US troops in Vietnam, raising the numbers from 75,000 to 125,000 and raising monthly drafts from 17,000 to 35,000.

July 30 – President Johnson signs the Social Security Act of 1965, establishing Medicare and Medicaid

Aug. 6 – President Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act of 1965

Nov. 2 – Norman Morrison sets himself on fire outside the Pentagon to protest the Vietnam War

Martin Luther King in Birmingham Jail

1964-

Jan. 11 – US Surgeon General reports that smoking may be hazardous to one’s health

Jan. 23 – Arthur Miller’s After the Fall opens Off-Broadway

Feb. 9 – The Beatles appear on The Ed Sullivan Show, marking their first live performance on American television

Feb. 25 – Cassius Clay beats Sonny Liston and becomes the Heavyweight Champion of the World

March 9 – The first Ford Mustang rolls off the assembly line

May 2 – 1000 students march through Times Square to protest the Vietnam War

July 2 – President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964, abolishing racial segregation

Oct. 14 – Martin Luther King Jr. wins the Nobel Peace Prize

Dec. 6 – The stop motion Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer premieres on NBC

Star Trek 1966 Cast

1967-

Jan. 27 – Astronauts aboard the Apollo 1 are killed when a fire breaks out. US, Soviet Union and United Kingdom sing the Outer Space Treaty

Feb. 10 – The 25^th Amendment (presidential succession and disability) to the United States Constitution is ratified

March 26 – 10,000 people gather for a protest in Central Park

Aug. 30 – Thurgood Marshall is confirmed as the first African American Justice on the Supreme Court

Lyndon B. Johnson signs Civil Rights Act

1966-

Jan. 2 – Public transportation workers in New York City begin a 11 day strike

June 13 – The Supreme Court rules that police must read suspects their rights before questioning them

Aug. 1 – Charles Whitman kills 13 and wounds 31 people from atop the UT Austin building tower

Sept. 8 – Star Trek premieres on NBC

Dec. 15 – Walt Disney dies

Vietnam War Protests Central Park

1968-

Jan. 23 - North Korea seizes the USS Pueblo, claiming the ship violated its territorial waters. This began an 11 month crisis that worsened the Cold war tensions in the region.

Jan. 30 – North Vietnam launches the Tet Offensive against the US and South Vietnam, which marked the beginning of the end of US involvement in the Vietnam War as many Americans began withdrawing their support for the war.

Feb. 11 – Madison Square Garden opens in New York City

March 16 – My Lai massacre

March 16 – Robert F. Kennedy enters the race for Democratic Party presidential nomination

March 18 – Congress repeals the requirement for the Gold Standard

April 4 – Martin Luther King is shot and killed in Memphis, Tennessee. Riots erupt across the US, lasting several days.

June 5 – Robert F. Kennedy is assassinated in Los Angeles

Sept. 30 – Boeing introduces the first 747 Jumbo Jet

Oct. 11 – NASA launches Apollo 7

Oct. 16 – Tommie Smith and John Carlos protest the National Anthem during the Summer Olympics in Mexico City.

Oct. 31 – President Johnson announces the complete cessation of all air, naval, and artillery bombardment of North Vietnam

Nov. 5 – Richard Nixon elected president

Nov. 14 – Yale University begins admitting women

Dec. 24 – NASA launches Apollo 8 and its crew becomes the first people to see the far side of the moon and planet Earth as a whole

Robert Kennedy assassination

1969-

Jan. 13 – Elvis Presley begins recording “From Elvis in Memphis”

Feb. 24 – In Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, the Supreme Court rules that the First Amendments applies to public schools

March 3 – Sirhan Sirhan admits to assassinating Robert F. Kennedy

March 10 – James Earl Ray pleads guilty to assassinating Martin Luther King Jr.

June 8 – President Nixon meets with South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu. Nixon announces that he withdraw 25,000 troops by September

July 20 – Apollo 11 Lunar Module Eagle lands on the moon. Neil Armstrong takes his historic first steps on the moon.

July 25 – President Nixon declares the Nixon Doctrine, starting the Vietnamization of the war

Aug. 9 – The Manson family commits its first murder

Sept. 2 – The first ATM machine is installed in Rockville Centre, NY

Apollo 11 Moon Landing