POP CULTURE FROM 1965 TO 1968
Aiesha Pretlow
WORLD AND U.S. STATISTICS IN 1965
World population: 3.345 billion
U.S. population: 194,302,963
Life expectancy: 70.2 years
US Gross Domestic Product (GDP): $719.1 billion
Federal debt: $322.3 billion
Unemployment: 5.2%
Cost of a first-class postage stamp: $0.05
U.S. EVENTS
February 1: 2,600 arrested in Selma
February 21: Malcolm X assassinated at Harlem rally
August 11-16: African Americans riot in Los Angeles
 34 died, over 1,000 injured, 4,000 arrested
SPORTS
World Series
 LA Dodgers defeat Minnesota
Pro Football
 NFL Champions: Green Bay
 AFL Champions: Buffalo
NBA Championship
 Celtics defeat Lakers
NCAA Basketball
 UCLA defeats Michigan
NCAA Football
 Alabama and Michigan State share the title
ENTERTAINMENT
The Sound of Music premieres and
remains one of the most popular
musicals
Bill Cosby in I Spy
ABC pays the NCAA $32 million for a
four-year contract to broadcast college
football games on Saturday afternoons.
MOVIES
Dr. Zhivago
The Sound of Music
A Thousand Clowns
Darling
Best Picture: My Fair Lady
TV SHOWS
Bonanza
Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C.
Batman (5th)
Bewitched (7th)
The Beverly Hillbillies (8th)
BOOKS
James Baldwin, Going to Meet the Man
Amira Baraka, The Dead Lecturer
Heinrich Boll, The Clown
Alex Haley, The Autobiography of Malcom
X
Peter Mathiessen, At Play in the Fields of
the Lord
Ralph Nader, Unsafe at Any Speed
Sylvia Plath, Ariel, The Uncollected Poems
Eudora Welty, Thirteen Stories
MUSIC
Record of the Year: “The Girl From
Ipanema,” Stan Getz and Astrud Gilberto
Album of the Year: Getz/Gilberto, Stan
Getz and Joao Gilberto
Song of the Year: “Hello, Dolly!,” written by
Jerry Herman
“My Girl,” The Temptations
“I Got You Babe,” Sonny and Cher
“Get Off My Cloud,” Rolling Stones
FUN FACTS
Miss America: Vonda Van Dyke (Arizona)
James Russell created CDs
Joseph Licklider’s idea become reality: THE INTERNET!
The “Big Bang” theory is confirmed by Amo A. Penzias and Robert W. Wilson
The first commercial communications satellite is launched
 Early Bird
The first rendezvous with another spacecraft occurred
 Gemini VI and Gemini VII
Edward White becomes the first American to perform a spacewalk on June 3
Most Popular Christmas Presents
 Operation
 Bouncing Wham-O’s Super Balls
 Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots
First T.G.I. Fridays opens in Manhattan
BIRTHS
The Undertaker
Slash
J.K. Rowling
Shania Twain
Robert Downey, Jr.
Melissa McBride
Chris Rock
Martin Lawrence
Sarah Jessica Parke
Michael Bay
Kevin James
Brooke Sheilds
Charlie Sheen
Ben Stiller
DEATHS
Winston Churchill
Nat King Cole
T.S. Eliot
Adlai Stevenson
Malcom X
WORLD AND U.S. STATISTICS IN 1966
World population: 3.415 billion
U.S. population: 196,560,338
Life expectancy: 70.2 years
U.S. GDP: $787.8 billion
Federal debt: $328.5 billion
Unemployment: 4.5%
U.S. EVENTS
July 1: Medicare begins
Miranda v. Arizona
Stokely Carmichael elected president of
the SNCC
SPORTS
World Series
 Baltimore defeats LA Dodgers
NBA Championship
 Celtics defeat Lakers
NCAA Basketball
 Texas Western defeats Kentucky
Pro Football
 NFL Champions: Packers
 AFL Champions: Cheifs
NCAA Football
 Notre Dame and Michigan State share the title
ENTERTAINMENT
CBS decides not to broadcast Psycho for athome viewing
September 8: Star Trek Episode 1: “The Man
Trap” broadcasted
The new Metropolitan Opera house opens at
the Lincoln Center with Samuel Barber’s
Antony and Cleopatra
MOVIES
A Man for All Seasons
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Alfie
A Man and a Woman
Best Picture: The Sound of Music
TV SHOWS
Bonanza
The Red Skeleton Show
The Andy Griffith Show
The Jackie Gleason Show
BOOKS
John Barth, Giles Goat-Boy
Paul Bowles, Up Above the World
Truman Capote, In Cold Blood
Robert Coover, The Origin of the Brunists
Bernard Malamud, The Fixer
Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49
MUSIC
Record of the Year: “A Taste of Honey,” Herb
Alpert and the Tijuana Brass
Album of the Year: September of My Years, Frank
Sinatra
Song of the Year: “The Shadow of Your Smile”
from The Sandpiper, written by Paul Francis
Webster and Johnny Mandel
“These Boots Are Made For Walkin’,” Nancy
Sinatra
“Hanky Panky,” Tommy James
“I’m a Believer,” The Monkees
FUN FACTS
Miss America: Deborah Irene Bryant (Kansas)
Insulin synthesized in China
Har Khorana finishes deciphering the DNA code
FDA declares “the Pill” safe for human consumption
Charles Brenton Huggins and Francis Peyton Rous win the Nobel Prize for studies in
the hormone treatment of prostate cancer and the discovery of tumor-producing
viruses
Burger King coined the phrase, “Have it your way”
John Lennon declared that The Beatles were “bigger than Jesus”.
The Astro Dome gets AstroTurf
Ford installs 8-tracks in cars
Kevlar created
Allen Astles sets the record for the most
tiddlywinks
Most popular Christmas gifts:




Twister
Barrel of Monkeys
Spirograph
Crazy Maze
BIRTHS
Adam Sandler
Helena Bonham Carter
Abby Lee Miller
Cindy Crawford
Janet Jackson
Bill Goldberg
Halle Berry
Martina McBride
Mike Tyson
John Cusack
Gordon Ramsay
Tea Leoni
Patrick Dempsey
DEATHS
Montgomery Clift
Walt Disney
WORLD AND U.S. STATISTICS IN 1967
World population: 3.485 billion
U.S. population: 198,712,056
Life expectancy: 70.5 years
U.S. GDP: $833.6 billion
Federal debt: $340.4 billion
Unemployment: 3.8%
Median Household Income: $7,143
U.S. EVENTS
January 27: Astronauts Colonel Edward
White II, Colonel Virgil I. Grissom, and
Lutinent Commander Roger B. Chaffee killed
in fire during test launch
July 23: Detroit Riots
 7,000 National Guardsmen ordered to restore
peace
October 2: Thurgood Marshall sworn in as
Supreme Court justice
Abbie Hoffman and 50,000 followers visit
the New York Stock Exchange and the
Pentagon
SPORTS
World Series
 St. Louis Cardinals defeat Boston Red Sox
Super Bowl I
 Green Bay defeats Kansas City
NCAA Football Champion
 USC
NBA Championship
 76ers defeat San Francisco Warriors
NCAA Basketball Championship
 UCLA defeats Dayton
ENTERTAINMENT
Congress creates PBS
New York Magazine and Rolling
Stone debut
MOVIES
The Graduate
Bonnie and Clyde
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?
In the Heat of the Night
Cool Hand Luke
Best Picture: A Man for All Seasons
TV SHOWS
The Andy Griffith Show
Gunsmoke (4th)
Family Affair (5th)
The Dean Martin Show (8th)
MUSIC
Record of the Year: “Strangers in the Night,” Frank
Sinatra
Album of the Year: Sinatra: A Man and His Music
Song of the Year: “Michelle,” John Lennon and Paul
McCartney
The Beatles, Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club
Band
“Respect,” Aretha Franklin
“All You Need is Love,” The Beatles
“(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay,” Otis Redding
“Light My Fire,” The Doors
FUN FACTS
Miss America: Jane Anne Jayroe (Oklahoma)
Multiple Independently Targetable Reetry Vehilce (MIRV) is
developed
December 3: South African surgeons perform the first successful
human heart transplant
Slurpees became available in all 7/11 locations
Super bowl ad cost $42,000
First handheld calculator invented
Most Popular Christmas gifts: Kerplunk, Talking G.I. Joe action
figures, Ants in the Pants game
BIRTHS
Vin Diesel
R. Kelly
Kurt Cobain
David Guetta
Kane
Anna Nicole Smith
Julia Roberts
Philip Seymour Hoffman
Jamie Foxx
Harry Connick, Jr.
Will Ferrell
Vanilla Ice
Tim McGraw
Faith Hill
Keith Urban
Pamela Anderson
DEATHS
Ernesto “Che” Guevara
Spencer Tracy
Woody Guthrie
Langston Hughes
Alice B. Toklas
John Coltrane
Otis Redding
WORLD AND U.S. STATISTICS IN 1968
World population: 3.556 billion
U.S. population: 200,706,052
Life expectancy: 70.2 years
U.S. GDP: $910.6 billion
Federal debt: $368.7 billion
Median Household Income: $7,743
Unemployment: 3.8%
Cost of a first-class postage stamp: $0.06
U.S. EVENTS
March 31: President Johnson announces he will
not seek reelection
April 4: Martin Luther King, Jr. killed in Memphis
 James Earl Ray sentenced to 99 years
June 6: Robert F. Kennedy dies from gunshot
wound in Los Angeles
Petroleum discovered in Alaska
Apollo 8 orbits the moon
SPORTS
World Series
 Detroit defeats St. Louis Cardinals
Super Bowl II
 Green Bay defeats Oakland
NCAA Football Champion
 Ohio State
NBA Championship
 Celtics defeat Lakers
NCAA Basketball Champion
 UCLA defeats North Carolina
OLYMPICS IN MEXICO CITY
Countries
United
States
Soviet Union
(USSR)
Hungary
East
Germany
Japan
Gold
Silver
Bronze
Sum.
45
28
34
107
27
30
30
87
10
10
12
32
5
11
10
26
11
7
7
25
OLYMPICS IN GERNOBLE
Rank
1
2
3
4
9
Nation
Norway
Soviet Union
France
Italy
United
States
Gold
6
5
4
4
1
Silver
6
5
3
0
5
Bronze
2
3
2
0
1
Total
14
13
9
4
7
ENTERTAINMENT
60 Minutes airs on CBS
 Longest-running prime-time news magazine
Hair opens on Broadway
MOVIES
2001: A Space Odyssey
Romeo and Juliet
Funny Girl
The Lion in Winter
Oliver!
Best Picture: In the Heat of the Night
TV SHOWS
Rowan and Martin’s Laugh In
Mayberry R.F.D. (4th)
Julia (7th)
Here’s Lucy (9th)
BOOKS
William H. Gass, In the Heart of the
Heart of the Country
Gore Vidal, Myra Breckenridge
MUSIC
Record of the Year: “Up, Up, and Away,” 5th
Dimension
Album of the Year: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club
Band, The Beatles
Song of the Year: “Up, Up and Away,” written by
Jimmy L. Webb
“Mrs. Robinson,” Simon & Garfunkel
“Hey Jude,” The Beatles
“I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” Marvin Gaye
FUN FACTS
The motion picture rating system debuts
Miss America: Debra Dene Barnes (Kansas)
Roy Jacuzzi invents the first whirlpool bath, the Jacuzzi
Super bowl ad cost $54,000
Most popular Christmas gifts:




Don’t Break the Ice
Hot Wheels
Silly Putty
Battling Tops
BIRTHS
Will Smith
Kenny Chesney
Tony Hawk
Guy FierI
Celine Dion
Lisa Marie Presley
LL Cool J
Terry Crews
Marc Anthony
Lucy Liu
Ashley Judd
Rachel Ray
Molly Ringwald
Gary Coleman
Shaggy
DEATHS
MLK
Robert Kennedy
Marcel Duchamp
Helen Keller
Upton Sinclair
John Steinbeck