Taste of the Sixties
History
Year 8
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Images of the Sixties
 George Best (19462005) was regarded as
the greatest player ever
in British football. He
was signed by
Manchester United in
1961, helping them win
two First Division titles
(1965 and 1967) and the
European Cup in 1968.
Throughout his football
career he notched up
178 goals in 466 games.
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Have you seen her recently?
(the one on the right?)
 Twiggy only
modelled for four
years, but that was
enough to secure her
position as the face
of the 1960s and the
fashion icon for a
generation.
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 Mary Quant was one of the
originators of the 'mod' or
'Chelsea' look of the 1960s
that helped make London the
new centre of fashion. Along
with miniskirts, she gave the
world vinyl boots; dresses
with striking geometric
patterns and the wet look achieved by tightly fitted vinyl
clothing for a young and
avant-garde clientele.
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 Miniskirts reached the
'height' of their
popularity in 1967, by
which point every
teenage girl in Britain
– or at least those
with the legs for it –
owned one of these
thigh skimming
creations.
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 Martin Luther King, the famous
leader of the American Civil
Rights Movement, a political
activist and a Baptist minister,
was the youngest man ever to
be awarded the Nobel Peace
Prize.
 The most famous speech of
the decade was made on the
steps of the Lincoln Memorial
in Washington DC on 28th
August 1963
 He was assassinated on 4th
April 1968
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I Have a Dream
 I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the
difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a
dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
 I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live
out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be
self-evident: that all men are created equal."
 I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the
sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners
will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
 I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a
state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the
heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of
freedom and justice.
 I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in
a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their
skin but by the content of their character.
 I have a dream today.
He was assassinated on 4th April 1968
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 The Great Train
Robbery –
masterminded by
Ronnie Biggs and a 15strong gang – saw the
Royal Mail's Glasgow to
London train held up
and relieved of £2.3
million in £1, £5 and £10
notes
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 Andy Warhol's name is
synonymous with Pop
Art. In the sixties he
painted daily objects
such as Campbell Soup
cans and Coke bottles.
His screen print of
Marilyn Monroe is
perhaps his most
famous work.
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 July 20 1969 Neil
Armstrong landed
the lunar module
Eagle on the surface
of the moon. During
the launch,
Armstrong's heart
reached a top rate of
110 beats per
minute.
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 One of the darker
moments of the
1960s saw the
erection of the Berlin
Wall, an 'iron curtain'
which was to
separate East and
West Germany for 28
years.
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Old Blue
Eyes
 By the end of the 1960s,
Frank 'Old Blue Eyes'
Sinatra had spent 1,311
weeks in the US album
charts. His career spanned
seven decades, but it was
his contribution to music
and cinema in the 1960s for
which he is most revered.
Ocean's 11, the film that
would become the definitive
on-screen outing for The
Rat Pack, was the ninth
most successful film of
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1960.
 Jimi Hendrix insisted on
being the final performer at
the Woodstock music
festival of 1969. He was
scheduled to perform on
the final Sunday at
midnight but didn't take to
the stage until nine o'clock
on Monday morning, where
he played to a dwindling
audience for two hours.
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 Concorde
successfully
completed its first
supersonic flight on 1
October 1969, born
out of separate
French and British
projects which joined
forces in 1962.
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 Formed in London in
1962 by Brian Jones, and
eventually led by the
song writing partnership
of singer Mick Jagger
and guitarist Keith
Richards, the Rolling
Stones were born. And
still go on, and on, and
on…
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 The Vietnam War shook
America's military selfconfidence to the core.
More than 58,000 U.S.
soldiers died fighting a
war in which their
seemingly all-powerful
nation suffered a
humiliating defeat.
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 The popular president John
F. Kennedy was
assassinated in Dallas on 22
November 1963. Major
events during his presidency
include the Bay of Pigs
invasion, the Cuban Missile
Crisis, the building of the
Berlin Wall, the Space Race,
early events of the Vietnam
War, and the American Civil
Rights Movement.
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Homework
 If you can:
 Find someone who is over 55 and ask them about
‘The Swinging Sixties’
 What do they remember?
 What was it like for them?
 Or alternatively:
 Find someone you know who is as old as possible
and ask them to tell you about their childhood – in
particular about things that are different from the
way they are today
 Write a short (-ish) account of what you
found out
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