What's Going on the the World in the 1960s besides perfume?

What's Going on in the World in the 1960s

The 1960s was a decade of protest and reform. Young Americans demonstrated against the Vietnam War, African Americans demonstrated for civil rights and women demonstrated for equal treatment. It was also a time of great social change. The voting age was lowered to eighteen by the end of the 1960s. It was the era of rapid technological progress, the age of the car, and man walking on the moon. The 60s changed attitudes and ended on a note of optimism for a better and brighter future.

The 1960s was the decade of great music - the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Dusty Springfield, the Who, Procol Harum - the list could go on and on. Music itself changed radically in the 60s. The Beatles went from suited mods in the early sixties to hip guys in the middle sixties then to full blown hippies by 1967. It was the first full decade of rock and roll and the biggest hit was Chubby Checker's "The Twist". The Beatles had two of the top twenty songs of the 1960s - "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" and "Hey Jude". Towards the end of the decade, soul became more popular and included songs like Otis Redding's "Sittin' On The Dock Of The Bay" and Marvin Gaye's "I Heard It Through the Grapevine". In the latter half of the 1960s, psychedelic music reflected the growing hippie culture. Prog-rock began to emerge out of the British psychedelic scene in 1967, specifically a strain of classical/symphonic rock by The Nice, Procol Harum and The Moody Blues.

Television tried to attract younger audiences and shows like American Bandstand, The Ed Sullivan Show and other TV variety shows began showcasing rock bands. In 1967 the first outdoor rock music festival (The Monterey Pop Festival) was held and attracted 55,000 fans per day to a three-day concert. Then in the summer of 1969, the Woodstock Music and Art Fair drew 500,000 people to a three-day concert in Bethel, New York.

1960

First Televised Presidential Debates
Lunch Counter Sit-In at Woolworth's in Greenboro, NC
Most Powerful Earthquake Ever Recorded Hits Chile
Sharpeville Massacre in South Africa
Kennedy is Elected as Youngest President
The Birth Control Pill Is Approved by the FDA

1961

Bay of Pigs Invasion
Berlin Wall Built
JFK Gives "Man on the Moon" Speech
Peace Corps Founded
Soviets Launch First Man in Space
Stalin's Body Removed From Lenin's Masoleum

1962

Andy Warhol Exhibits His Campbell's Soup Can
Cuban Missile Crisis
First Person Killed Trying to Cross the Berlin Wall
James Meredith Admitted Into the Segregated University of Mississippi
Marilyn Monroe Found Dead

1963

Betty Friedan Publishes The Feminine Mystique
Great Train Robbery in England
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 US
Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) Becomes World Heavyweight Champion
Civil Rights Act is signed by President Johnson.
Nelson Mandela Sentenced to Life in Prison
Warren Report on JFK's Assassination Issued

Los Angeles Riots
Malcolm X Assassinated
Miniskirt First Appears
New York City Great Blackout
US Sends Troops to Vietnam
President Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act

1966

First Kwanzaa Celebrated
Mao Zedong Launches the Cultural Revolution
Mass Draft Protests in U.S.
National Organization for Women (NOW) Founded

1967

Che Guervara Killed
First Heart Transplant
First Super Bowl
Six-Day War in the Middle East
Three U.S. Astronauts Killed During Simulated Launch
Thurgood Marshall Becomes the First African-American U.S. Supreme Court Justice

1968

Japan's 300 Million Yen Robbery
Martin Luther King Jr. Assassinated
My Lai Massacre
Robert F. Kennedy Assassinated
Tet Offensive
Republican candidate Richard Nixon is elected president of the United States.

1969

Manson Family Murders
Neil Armstrong Becomes the First Man on the Moon
Woodstock Concert
Yasser Arafat Becomes Leader of the PLO