1960s

This article provides extensive lists of events and significant personalities of the 1960s. For an in-depth article on the cultural and social trends of the decade, please see The Sixties

Events and trends

The 1960s was one of the most turbulent decades experienced world-wide. Many of the trends of the 1960s were due to the demographic changes brought about by the baby boom generation, the height of the Cold War, and the dissolution of European colonial empires. The rise in social revolution, civil rights movements, human rights movement, anti-War movements, and the Counterculture movement are only some of the characteristics that defined the 1960s. Many experts attribute the 1960s "counter-culture revolution" as being the result of the major social and political factors that rose in the 1950s like brinksmanship, continued fighting in the 3rd world, and a return to pre-WWII lifestyle. The new generation was determined to reject a pre-WWII conformist lifestyle with men in suits and women in the kitchen. While many believed it to be just a "Western" phenomenon, the 60s revolution spread far beyond the borders of America and Western Europe. In South America, revolutions were at a height, in the Eastern Bloc, movements were made inspired by the Hungarian Revolution to reject Soviet domination, and in the Middle East attempted to resist Soviet and American domination (see Non-Aligned Movement). Overall, the 60s affected the entire globe (See The Sixties.)

Technology

• USSR puts first man (Yuri Gagarin) and first woman (Valentina Tereshkova) in space
• The United States puts man on Earth's Moon (see Apollo 11)
• Geosynchronous satellites revolutionize global communications
• Start of the development of algorithmic information theory
• The ARPAnet, precursor of the Internet, is founded in 1969 as a United States Department of Defense project. The numbered series of Request For Comments (RFC) documents begins in order to document the standards and practices of this network, and continues to this day
• Direct Use of the Sun's Energy by pioneer solar-energy scientist Farrington Daniels is published (1964)
• Compact audio cassette introduced; begins to displace reel-to-reel audio tape recording for home users

Science

• Discovery of plate tectonics revolutionizes understanding of continental drift
• Jacques Monod and Francois Jacob discover the lac operon
• Rise of the science of ecology in the awareness of the intelligentsia

War, peace and politics

• Cultural Revolution in mainland China causes political and economic chaos.
• Nigerian Civil War begins
• 6-Day War between Israelis and Arabs
• Beginning of The Troubles in Northern Ireland
• Berlin Wall built in 1961
• Bay of Pigs Invasion in 1961, the United States sponsored an attempt to overthrow Cuba's socialist government and Fidel Castro.
• Civil rights movement in the United States; end of official segregation and disenfranchisement of African-Americans; racial tensions continue with large race riots in Watts (Los Angeles) in 1966, Detroit in 1967, and Hough and Glenville in Cleveland
• Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.
• The Vietnam War and protests, leading to Kent State University shootings in May, 1970
• Suppression of uprising in Czechoslovakia
• The Stonewall Riots in New York City give birth to the gay rights movement, June 1969
• United Nations imposes sanctions against South Africa in protest at Apartheid
• Students protesting perceived problems with the status-quo are suppressed with violence by police and soldiers in USA, France, Mexico, Czechoslovakia. See New Left
• The Quiet Revolution (Révolution tranquille) begins in Quebec - precipitous decline of the Roman Catholic church, liberalism, social-democratic programs, and the birth of modern Quebec nationalism
• The rise of radical feminism

Economics

• Many countries in Western Europe experience high economic growth (4 to 8% per year)

Culture

• Rock and roll develops, diversifies, and becomes very hip. The Beatles eclipse Elvis Presley and become the biggest band in the world
• hits movie theaters
• Star Trek makes its debut in 1966
• James Bond movies begin. Dr. No is the first of the series in 1962, starring Sean Connery as Bond
• Hippies, drug culture & rock and roll converge at the Woodstock festival, 1969
• In the West, the growing popularity of religions other than Christianity (for example, as discussed in the writings of Alan Watts), and of atheism; Time Magazine asks: "Is God Dead?" See Fourth Great Awakening, Consciousness Revolution
• Memorable expositions, or "World's Fairs," are held in Seattle (1962), New York (1964/1965), Montreal (1967) and San Antonio (1968)
• Progressive rock emerges
• Fine Art begins to move away from exclusively consisting of painting, drawing, and sculpture and begins to incorporate elements from popular culture (Pop Art) and begins to favour the ideas behind a work, rather than the work itself (Conceptual Art)

Others

• Post-Colonialism; many new or previously colonized countries achieve independence in Africa, Asia
• U.S. president John F. Kennedy assassinated in 1963; his brother Robert F. Kennedy assassinated in 1968
• U.S. civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr assassinated on April 4, 1968
• Nation of Islam leader Malcolm X assassinated on February 21, 1965
• U.S. president Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society program
• In the United States, increase in crime; riots in Los Angeles in 1965 and Chicago at the 1968 Democratic National Convention
• Rise of the baby boom generation to adulthood
• First widespread availability of practical birth control pill for women; See sexual revolution
• Sweden switches from driving on the left to the right, in order to harmonise with neighbouring countries. See Rules of the road

People

World leaders

• Prime Minister John Diefenbaker (Canada)
• Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson (Canada)
• Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau (Canada)
• Chairman Mao Zedong (People's Republic of China)
• President Chiang Kai-shek (Republic of China on Taiwan)
• President Gamal Abdel Nasser (Egypt)
• President Charles de Gaulle (France)
• Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru (India)
• Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri (India)
• Prime Minister Indira Gandhi (India)
• Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion (Israel)
• Prime Minister Levi Eshkol (Israel)
• Emperor Hirohito (Japan)
• Pope John XXIII
• Pope Paul VI
• Prime Minister Basil Brooke (Northern Ireland)
• Prime Minister Terence O'Neill (Northern Ireland)
• Prime Minister James Chichester-Clark (Northern Ireland)
• Governor Luis A. Ferré (Commonwealth of Puerto Rico)
• Taoiseach Sean Lemass (Republic of Ireland)
• Taoiseach Jack Lynch (Republic of Ireland)
• Nikita Khrushchev (Soviet Union)
• Leonid Brezhnev (Soviet Union)
• Queen Elizabeth II (United Kingdom)
• Prime Minister Harold Macmillan (United Kingdom)
• Prime Minister Harold Wilson (United Kingdom)
• President Dwight D. Eisenhower (United States)
• President John F. Kennedy (United States)
• President Lyndon Johnson (United States)
• President Richard Nixon (United States)
• Chancellor Konrad Adenauer (West Germany)
• Chancellor Ludwig Erhard (West Germany)
• Chancellor Kurt Georg Kiesinger (West Germany)
• President for Life Josip Broz Tito (Yugoslavia)

Writers and intellectuals

• Truman Capote
• Judith Crist
• Philip K. Dick
• Ken Kesey
• Timothy Leary
• Norman Mailer
• Marshall McLuhan
• Carl Sagan
• John Steinbeck
• Gore Vidal
• Tom Wolfe
• Milton Friedman
• Frank Herbert

Sports figures

• Muhammad Ali (U.S. boxer)
• Lance Alworth (U.S. American football player)
• Nino Benvenuti (Italian boxer)
• Jim Brown (U.S. American football player)
• Wilt Chamberlain (U.S. basketball player)
• Bobby Charlton (English soccer player)
• Jim Clark (Scottish racing driver)
• Roberto Clemente (Puerto Rican baseball player)
• Bob Cousy (U.S. basketball player)
• Eusebio (Portuguese soccer player)
• Bob Gibson (U.S. baseball player)
• Cookie Gilchrist (U.S. American football player)
• Gordie Howe (Canadian ice hockey player)
• Bobby Moore (English soccer player)
• Joe Namath (U.S. American football player)
• Sonny Liston (U.S. boxer)
• Sandy Koufax (U.S. baseball player)
• Floyd Patterson (U.S. boxer)
• Frank Robinson (U.S. baseball player)
• Willie Mays (U.S. baseball player)
• Stan Mikita (Slovak-Canadian ice hockey player)
• Bobby Orr (Canadian ice hockey player)
• Pelé (Brazilian soccer player)
• Richard Petty (U.S. NASCAR racing driver)
• Bill Russell (U.S. basketball player)
• Oscar Robertson (U.S. basketball player)
• Garfield Sobers (Barbadian cricketer)
• Alfredo di Stefano (Argentinian/Spanish soccer player)
• Fred Trueman (English cricketer)

Entertainers

• Julie Andrews
• Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello
• Joan Baez
• Brigitte Bardot
• The Beach Boys
• The Beatles
• The Byrds
• Violet Carson
• Sean Connery
• Tony Curtis
• Neil Diamond
• The Doors
• Patty Duke
• Bob Dylan
• Peter Fonda (Easy Rider)
• Eileen Fulton
• Cary Grant
• Andy Griffith
• Jimi Hendrix
• Alfred Hitchcock
• Dustin Hoffman
• Dennis Hopper (Easy Rider)
• Rock Hudson
• Janis Joplin
• Led Zeppelin
• Jack Lemmon
• Jerry Lewis
• Gina Lollobrigida
• Sophia Loren
• Dean Martin
• Steve McQueen (Bullitt)
• The Monkees
• Paul Newman
• The Rolling Stones
• Roy Orbison
• Patricia Phoenix
• Sidney Poitier
• Peter Sellers
• Frank Sinatra
• Sonny and Cher
• John Wayne
• The Who
• Raquel Welch

Other

• Charles Manson

See also

• List of rock and roll albums in the 1960s