The 1960's Remembered

The 1960's is probably best classified as a Decade of Turmoil.

Just think about it. The Beat Generation's philosophy of non-conformity with traditional values was taking hold and passing on to the Baby Boomers.

In the meantime, international and national events exhibited a lot of chaos with Cold War tensions on the rise, rioting and protest marches were frequent, drug use had become prevalent, racial unrest skyrocketed. On top of all that there were THREE major assassinations!

Plus, the young men of our generation were being drafted to serve in a war that unlike WWI, WWII and the Korean War had questionable justification.

And technology in the 1960's was racing so fast that it seemed impossible to keep up with all the changes in our lifestyles.

Just look at some of the things that were going on:

• First TV Presidential Debates
• 900 U.S. military advisors in Vietnam (1960)
• Russian Maj. Gagarin first person to orbit the Earth
• Berlin Wall erected
• USSR detonates 50-megaton hydrogen bomb (The biggest explosion in history)
• 2,000 U.S. military advisors in Vietnam (1961)
• James Meredith escorted by Federal Marshalls enrolls at Ole Miss
• Lt. Col. Glenn first U.S. citizen to orbit the Earth
• Cuban missile crisis
• Freedom riders attacked and beaten in Alabama
• Carson publishes "Silent Spring"
• DeBaky implants first artificial heart in a human
• Supreme Court rules no locality can require recitation of The Lord's Prayer or Bible verses in public
• Dr. King delivers "I have a Dream" speech at Washington Civil Rights march
• President Kennedy assassinated

• Friedan publishes "The Feminine Mystique"
• 15,000 U.S. military advisors in Vietnam (1963)
• Three civil rights workers murdered in Mississippi
• Beatles appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show
• Dr. King and more than 2600 other African Americans arrested in Selma, AL
• Medicare begins (1965)
• African Americans riot for six days in Watts neighborhood of L.A.
• Nadar publishes "Unsafe at Any Speed"
• U.S. Catholics no longer need to abstain from meat on Fridays except during Lent
• Miranda decision by Supreme Court
• Six-Day War in Middle East
• Communist China announces explosion of hydrogen bomb
• Racial riots in Detroit, Spanish Harlem, Rochester, NY, Birmingham, AL and New Briton, CN
• Marshall sworn in as first African American Supreme Court Justice
• Dr. Barnard and associates perform first successful heart transplant
• The first Super Bowl
• "Summer of Love" in Haight-Asbury
• Tet Offensive in Nam
• My Lai massacre in Nam
• Dr. King assassinated

• Bobby Kennedy assassinated
• Herod's Temple foundation discoverd
• Stonewall Riot in NYC marks beginning of Gay Rights Movement
• Ted Kennedy pleads quilty to leaving scene of Chappaquiddick fatal accident
• Woodstock
• Sesame Street hits the airways
• ARAPNET - the percursor of the Internet goes online (1969)
• Gallup poll says that 70% of population believes the influence of religion in U.S. is on the decline
• Saturday Evening Post suspends publication
• Polanski and Tate murders by Charles Manson group
• Man walks on the moon!

WOW! And we've barely touched on all of the events!

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