Later, the Black Power Movement
Eisenhower is the current U.S. president
John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon take part in the first televised debate
Democrats Kennedy & Johnson defeat Republicans Nixon &
Lodge in the presidential election
Student sit-in protests spread throughout the South (Civil
Rights Movement)
Clip from the 1st 1960 presidential debate between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon. Held on
September 26, 1960, it was the first presidential debate between two opposing political parties as well as the first one to be televised.
Television audiences thought
Kennedy won the debate by a landslide, while radio audiences thought Nixon won it by a landslide.
Nixon appeared emaciated, unhealthy, and awkward, while
Kennedy appeared handsome, tanned and confident.
The U.S. breaks off diplomatic relations with Cuba
Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human being to orbit the earth
The Bay of Pigs Invasion fails
The Freedom Riders begin their trip to confront segregation
The Berlin Wall is built
1962
Astronaut John Glenn orbits the earth
Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring is published, warning of the dangers of DDT
James Meredith becomes the first black to enroll at the University of Mississippi, forcing the Kennedy Administration to send U.S. marshals and troops to protect him
The twist becomes a dancing rage
Bob Dylan’s first published song appears
Cold War tensions come to a boil during the Cuban Missile Crisis
How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man?
Yes, 'n' how many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand?
Yes, 'n' how many times must the cannon balls fly
Before they're forever banned?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind,
The answer is blowin' in the wind.
How many years can a mountain exist
Before it's washed to the sea?
Yes, 'n' how many years can some people exist
Before they're allowed to be free?
Yes, 'n' how many times can a man turn his head,
Pretending he just doesn't see?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind,
The answer is blowin' in the wind.
How many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
Yes, 'n' how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, 'n' how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind,
The answer is blowin' in the wind.
President Kennedy addresses the nation on the Cuban
Missile Crisis
1963
Kennedy introduces the most extensive civil rights bill since Reconstruction
Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique is published
The first of several Buddhist monks immolates himself in South Vietnam to protest religious persecution
Civil Rights leader Medgar Evers is murdered
The U.S., Soviet Union, and Great Britain sign a test ban treaty halting all above-ground nuclear testing
The March on Washington occurs, culminating wit Martin Luther King, Jr’s famous “I have a dream” speech
80,000 black Mississippians vote in “Freedom Ballot”
South Vietnamese President Ngo Ding Diem is murdered
President Kennedy is assassinated; Lyndon Johnson becomes President
Lee Harvey Oswald, the man accused of assassinating JFK, is murdered by Jack
Ruby
http://www.upi.com/Audio/Year_in_Review/Events-of-1963/Lyndon-B.-
Johnson-Sworn-in/12386108698633-4/
1964
The Beatles’ “I Want to Hold Your Hand” becomes #1 song and the group makes its U.S. TV debut on the Ed Sullivan show
The Autobiography of Malcolm X is published
Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law
Barry Goldwater becomes Republican nominee for president
Major riots occur in Harlem, NY
Mississippi Freedom Summer Project begins
Congress passes the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, authorizing “all necessary measures” to “prevent further aggression” by North
Vietnam
Congress passes the Equal Opportunity Act as part of his War on
Poverty Program
MLK wins the Nobel Peace Prize
Lyndon Johnson wins a landslide election
Oh yeah, I'll tell you something, I think you'll understand. When I'll say that something I want to hold your hand, I want to hold your hand, I want to hold your hand.
Oh please, say to me You'll let me be your man And please, say to me You'll let me hold your hand. Now let me hold your hand, I want to hold your hand.
And when I touch you I feel happy inside. It's such a feeling that my love I can't hide, I can't hide, I can't hide.
Yeah, you've got that something, I think you'll understand. When I'll say that something I want to hold your hand, I want to hold your hand, I want to hold your hand.
And when I touch you I feel happy inside. It's such a feeling that my love I can't hide, I can't hide, I can't hide.
Yeh, you've got that something, I think you'll understand. When I'll feel that something I want to hold your hand, I want to hold your hand, I want to hold your hand.
1965
Malcolm X is assassinated
Johnson orders bombing raids on North Vietnam
On “Bloody Sunday,” Alabama state police storm civil rights marchers at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma
Johnson sends the first U.S. infantry troops, the 9 th
Brigade, to Vietnam
Marine Expeditionary
U.S. marines are sent to the Dominican Republic to help the military regime repel the return of reformist Juan Bosch to power
20,000 attend a rally in Washington, DC against the Vietnam War
Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act of 1965 into law
Major black riot erupts in the Watts section of LA
Nguyen Cao Ky is appointed premier of South Vietnam
The Rolling Stones’ song “Satisfaction” reaches #1
Bob Dylan “goes electric” at the Newport Folk Festival
The largest draft call since the Korean War is issued
1 st draft card is burned at a NY protest; Congress responds by passing a law making draft-card burning a crime
The Vietnam Day Committee organizes the 1 st International
Days of Protest against the war; more than 100,000 protest in over 40 states
A halt in the bombing of North Vietnam is ordered for
Christmas
1966
The bombing of North Vietnam resumes as “peace efforts” fail
Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman J. Williams
Fulbright opens hearings on the Vietnam War
50,000 attend the 2 nd International Day of Protest in NYC; nationwide participation doubles
Black riots erupt in Cleveland, Brooklyn, and Chicago
20,000 march down NYC’s 5 th Ave in antiwar protest
National Organization of Women (NOW) is established
MLK leads an antidiscrimination march in Chicago and is stoned by the hostile crowd
Black Panther Party is founded in Oakland, CA
Striking CA farm workers march 250 miles to Sacramento
A sit-in takes place at the Dow Chemical Company, manufacturer of napalm and Agent Orange
Ronald Reagan is elected governor of CA
The U.S. troop level in Vietnam reaches 320,000
1967
Over 100,000 attend an antiwar demonstration in NYC organized by the Spring Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam;
MLK and others condemn the war, while over 70 students burn their draft cards in Central Park
65,000 march in a similar demonstration in San Francisco
Muhammed Ali is stripped of his heavyweight boxing crown for resisting the draft
The “Summer of Love” attracts many young people to San
Francisco; Scott McKenzie’s song “San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear
Flowers in Your Hair)” becomes a hit
The Monterey Pop Festival takes place
1967 Continued…
The “long hot summer” begins with a black riot in Boston’s
Roxbury section. Massive riots in Newark and Detroit leave many dead and millions of dollars of damage
The Beatles “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band” becomes hit album
Che Guevara is killed in Bolivia
American troop levels in Vietnam reach 460,000; U.S. deaths in
Vietnam total 13,000
Over 100,000 attend the March on the Pentagon in Washington, DC
Vietnam Veterans Against the War form
The movie The Graduate is released
If you're going to San Francisco
Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair
If you're going to San Francisco
You're gonna meet some gentle people there
For those who come to San Francisco
Summertime will be a love-in there
In the streets of San Francisco
Gentle people with flowers in their hair
All across the nation such a strange vibration
People in motion
There's a whole generation with a new explanation
People in motion people in motion
For those who come to San Francisco
Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair
If you come to San Francisco
Summertime will be a love-in there
If you come to San Francisco
Summertime will be a love-in there
1968
U.S. intelligence ship Pueblo is captured off North Korea
Johnson calls up 14,787 Air Force and Navy reservists
The massive Vietcong Tet Offensive begins
Eugene McCarthy stuns by finishing a close second to Johnson in the New Hampshire primary
Robert Kennedy announces his candidacy for president
Johnson reveals he will not run for a second term as president
MLK is assassinated
100,000 march in NYC
Hubert Humphrey announces his candidacy for president
1968 Continued…
The Poor People’s Campaign establishes Resurrection City in
Washington, DC
The Vietnam War peace talks open in Paris
Robert Kennedy is assassinated at the end of a successful CA primary campaign
Vietnam War becomes longest war in U.S. history
Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew gain the Republican nomination
The Democratic presidential convention in Chicago nominates Hubert
Humphrey amidst massive demonstrations organized by antiwar groups and the Youth International party (Yippies); street disorders and police brutality ensue while demonstrators chant “the whole world is watching.”
Women’s liberation activists picket the Miss America pageant
G.I.’s and vets hold a peace march in San Francisco
Richard Nixon is elected president by a close margin
1969
American troop levels in Vietnam reach a peak of 542,000
10,000 march against the tide on Pennsylvania Ave during a
“Counterinaugural” protest
Easy Rider is released
President Nixon authorizes the development of an anti-ballistic missile system against the prevailing advice of scientists
A Gallup poll shows 58% of Americans oppose the Vietnam War
Neil Armstong and Buzz Aldrin walk on the moon
Woodstock rock concerts occur
The Vietnam Moratorium Day is observed by millions of
Americans in thousands of cities, towns, and campuses across the country
The New Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam organizes the March Against Death in Washington; about
500,000 protestors attend week-long demonstrations
The first draft lottery of the decade is held
A young black youth is killed by Hell’s Angels during a Rolling
Stones concert at Altamont
The Charles Manson gang kills in LA
Joan Baez
Arlo Guthrie
Tim Hardin
Incredible String
Band
Ravi Shankar
Richie Havens
Sly and the
Family Stone
Bert Sommer
Sweetwater
Quill
Canned Heat
Creedence
Clearwater
Revival
Jefferson
Airplane
The Who
Grateful Dead
Keef Hartley
Band
Blood, Sweat and
Tears
Crosby, Stills &
Nash (&Young)
Santana
The Band
Ten Years After
Johnny Winter
Jimi Hendrix
Janis Joplin
Joe Cocker
Mountain
Melanie
Sha-Na-Na
John Sebastian
Country Joe and the Fish
Paul Butterfield
Blues Band
1970
A University of Wisconsin Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) building is fire-bombed, beginning a wave of some 500 bombings or arsons on college campuses
3 are killed when a Greenwich Village townhouse is destroyed by bomb being constructed by the Weatherman
The 1 st Earth Day is held with environmental celebrations nationwide
75,000 rally against the war on Boston Common
The Shea-Wells Bill passes the Massachusetts legislature, enabling
Massachusetts men to refuse combat duty in the absence of a declaration of war
1970 Continued…
Nixon announces the “incursion” of U.S. combat troops into
Cambodia; an average of 20 campuses initiate strikes each days after Nixon’s announcement
Four students are killed by the National Guard at a Kent State
University protest
2 black students are killed and 9 wounded by police gunfire at
Jackson State College in Mississippi
30 ROTC buildings are burned or bombed during the 1 st
May week in
100,000 in Washington, DC protest the invasion of Cambodia
1970 Continued…
Striking students converge on the Capitol to lobby for passage of the Cooper-Church and Hatfield-McGovern amendments to cut off funding for the Cambodian invasion and all Southeast Asian operations
U.S. troops withdraw from Cambodia
25,000 attend the National Chicano Moratorium antiwar demonstration in LA
The Army Mathematics Research Center, an object of antiwar protests at the University of Wisconsin, is blown up during the nights, killing a graduate student
Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin die of drug overdoses
Viet Cong:
Ho Chi Minh:
Ngo Dinh Diem
Nguyen Van Thieu
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
Tet Offensive