1960
1960: Presidential candidates Richard Nixon (left), later the 37th President of the United States, and John F Kennedy, the 35th President, during a televised debate. (Photo by MPI/Getty Images)
- Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho Released
- Brazil’s Capital Moves to Brand New City
- First Televised Presidential Debates
- Lasers Invented
- Lunch Counter Sit-In at Woolworth’s in Greenboro, NC
- Most Powerful Earthquake Ever Recorded Hits Chile
- Sharpeville Massacre in South Africa
- The Birth Control Pill Is Approved by the FDA
- Walsh and Piccard Become the First to Explore the Deepest Place on Earth
1961
- Adolf Eichmann on Trial for Role in Holocaust
- Bay of Pigs Invasion
- Berlin Wall Built
- Freedom Riders Challenge Segregation on Interstate Buses
- JFK Gives “Man on the Moon” Speech
- Peace Corps Founded
- Soviets Launch First Man in Space
- Two Russians, Yuri A. Gagarin and Gherman S. Titov, 1st astronauts to orbit the earth
- Stalin’s Body Removed From Lenin’s Mausoleum
- The Antarctic Treaty Goes Into Force
- Tsar Bomba, the Largest Nuclear Weapon to Ever Be Exploded
1962
- Andy Warhol Exhibits His Campbell’s Soup Can
- Cuban Missile Crisis
- Famous Escape From Alcatraz
- Feb. 20, 1962, John Glenn, 1st American astronaut to orbit the earth
- First James Bond Movie
- First Person Killed Trying to Cross the Berlin Wall
- First Wal-Mart Opens
- James Meredith Admitted Into the Segregated University of Mississippi
- Johnny Carson Takes Over the Tonight Show
- Marilyn Monroe Found Dead
- Marilyn Monroe Sings “Happy Birthday” to JFK
- Rachel Carson Publishes Silent Spring
1963
- 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing
- Betty Friedan Publishes The Feminine Mystique
- Buddhist Monk Sets Himself on Fire in Protest
- First Dr. Who Episode Airs
- First Woman in Space
- Great Train Robbery in England
- “Hot Line” Established Between U.S. and U.S.S.R.
- JFK Assassinated
- March on Washington
- Martin Luther King Jr. Makes His “I Have a Dream” Speech
- Medgar Evers Is Murdered
1964
- Beatles Become Popular in U.S.
- Cassius Clay (a.k.a. Muhammad Ali) Becomes World Heavyweight Champion
- Civil Rights Act Passes in U.S.
- Hasbro Launches GI Joe Action Figure
- Italy Asks for Help to Stabilize the Leaning Tower of Pisa
- Japan’s First Bullet Train Line Opens
- Nelson Mandela Sentenced to Life in Prison
- Warren Report on JFK’s Assassination Issued
1965
- British Sea Gem Oil Rig Collapses
- Los Angeles Riots
- Malcolm X Assassinated
- Miniskirt First Appears
- Nicolae Ceausescu Comes to Power in Romania
- New York City Great Blackout
- The Rolling Stones’ Mega Hit Song, “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”
- U.S. Sends Troops to Vietnam
Milton Glaser, Dylan poster, 1966
1966
- Nazi Albert Speer Released From Spandau Prison
- Black Panther Party Established
- First Kwanzaa Celebrated
- Mao Zedong Launches the Cultural Revolution
- Mass Draft Protests in U.S.
- National Organization for Women (NOW) Founded
- Star Trek T.V. Series Airs
- Two Multi-Ton Chunks of the Mundrabilla Meteorite Found
Wes Wilson, Otis Rush poster, 1967
1967
- Australian Prime Minister Disappears
- Che Guevara Killed
- First Heart Transplant
- First Super Bowl
- Six-Day War in the Middle East
- Stalin’s Daughter Defects
- Three U.S. Astronauts Killed During Simulated Launch
- Thurgood Marshall Becomes the First African-American U.S. Supreme Court Justice
Peter Max, Different Drummer, 1968
1968
- Japan’s 300 Million Yen Robbery
- Martin Luther King Jr. Assassinated
- My Lai Massacre
- Nerve Gas Leak in Utah Kills 6,000 Sheep
- Prague Spring
- Robert F. Kennedy Assassinated
- Spy Ship USS Pueblo Captured
- Tet Offensive
- Zodiac Killer Strikes
1969
- ARPANET, the Precursor of the Internet, Created
- Manson Family Murders
- Neil Armstrong Becomes the First Man on the Moon
- Rock-and-Roll Concert at Woodstock
- Senator Ted Kennedy Leaves the Scene of an Accident
- Sesame Street First Airs
- Yasser Arafat Becomes Leader of the PLO