"Sixties", "'60s", "The Sixties", and "The 60s" redirect here. For decades comprising years 60–69 of other centuries, seeList of decades. For other uses, seeThe Sixties (disambiguation).
The1960s (pronounced "nineteen-sixties", shortened to the "'60s" or the "Sixties") was the decade that began on January 1, 1960, and ended on December 31, 1969.[1]
While the achievements of humans beinglaunched into space,orbiting Earth,performing spacewalks, andwalking on the Moon extended exploration, the Sixties are known as the "countercultural decade" in the United States and other Western countries. There was a revolution in social norms, including religion, morality, law and order, clothing, music, drugs, dress,sexuality, formalities,civil rights, precepts of military duty, and schooling. Some people denounce the decade as one of irresponsible excess, flamboyance, the decay of social order, andthe fall or relaxation of social taboos. A wide range of music emerged, from popular music inspired by and including theBeatles (in the United States known as theBritish Invasion) to thefolk music revival, including the poetic lyrics ofBob Dylan. In the United States the Sixties were also called the "cultural decade" while in the United Kingdom (especially London) it was called theSwinging Sixties.
After theCuban Revolution led byFidel Castro, the United States attempted to depose the new leader by training Cuban exiles andinvading the island ofCuba. This led to Cuba to ally itself to the Soviet Union, a hostile enemy to the United States, resulting in aninternational crisis when Cuba hosted Soviet ballistic missiles similar to Turkey hosting American missiles, which brought thepossibility of causingWorld War III. However, after negotiations between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R, both agreed to withdraw their weapons averting potentialnuclear warfare.
By the end of the1950s, post-war reconstructed Europe beganan economic boom. World War II had closed up social classes with remnants of the old feudal gentry disappearing. A developing upper-working-class (a newly redefined middle-class) in Western Europe could afford a radio, television, refrigerator and motor vehicles. TheSoviet Union and otherWarsaw Pact countries were improving quickly after rebuilding from WWII. Real GDP growth averaged 6% a year during the second half of the decade; overall, the worldwide economy prospered in the 1960s with expansion of the middle class and the increase of new domestic technology.
In the United Kingdom, theLabour Party gained power in 1964 withHarold Wilson as prime minister through most of the decade.[6] In France, theprotests of 1968 led to PresidentCharles de Gaulle temporarily fleeing the country.[7] Italy formed its first left-of-center government in March 1962 withAldo Moro becoming prime minister in 1963. Soviet leaders during the decade wereNikita Khrushchev until 1964 andLeonid Brezhnev.
During the 1960s, the world population increased from 3.0 to 3.7 billion people. There were approximately 1.15 billion births and 500 million deaths.
1961 – Substantial (approximately 700) American advisory forces first arrive inVietnam.
1962 – By mid-1962, the number of U.S. military advisers inSouth Vietnam had risen from 900 to 12,000.
1963 – By the time of U.S. presidentJohn F. Kennedy's death there were 16,000 American military personnel in South Vietnam, up from Eisenhower's 900 advisors to cope with rising guerrilla activity in Vietnam.[8]
1964 – In direct response to the minor naval engagement known as theGulf of Tonkin incident which occurred on 2 August 1964, theGulf of Tonkin Resolution, ajoint resolution of theU.S. Congress, was passed on 10 August 1964. The resolution gave U.S. presidentLyndon B. Johnson authorization, without a formaldeclaration of war by Congress, for the use of military force in Southeast Asia. The Johnson administration subsequently cited the resolution as legal authority for its rapid escalation of U.S. military involvement in the Vietnam War.[9]
1966 – After 1966, with the draft in place more than 500,000 troops are sent toVietnam by the Johnson administration and college attendance soars.
TheBay of Pigs Invasion (1961) – an unsuccessful attempt by a CIA-trained force of Cuban exiles to invade southern Cuba with support from U.S. government armed forces, to overthrow the Cuban government of Fidel Castro.
Portuguese Colonial War (1961–1974) – the war was fought betweenPortugal's military and the emerging nationalist movements inPortugal's African colonies. It was a decisive ideological struggle and armed conflict of theCold War in African (Portuguese Africa and surrounding nations) and European (mainland Portugal) scenarios. Unlike other European nations, thePortuguese regime did not leave its African colonies, or the overseas provinces, during the 1950s and 1960s. During the 1960s, various armed independence movements, most prominently led bycommunist-led parties who cooperated under theCONCP umbrella and pro-U.S. groups, became active in these areas, most notably inAngola,Mozambique, andPortuguese Guinea. During the war, several atrocities were committed by all forces involved in the conflict.
The massive1960 Anpo protests in Japan against theU.S.-Japan Security Treaty were the largest and longest protests in Japan's history.[11] Although they ultimately failed to stop the treaty, they forced the resignation of Japanese prime ministerNobusuke Kishi and the cancellation of a planned visit to Japan by U.S. presidentDwight D. Eisenhower.[12]
Cultural Revolution in China (1966–1976) – a period of widespread social and political upheaval in the People's Republic of China which was launched byMao Zedong, the chairman of theChinese Communist Party. Mao alleged that "liberal bourgeois" elements were permeating the party and society at large and that they wanted to restorecapitalism. Mao insisted that these elements be removed through post-revolutionaryclass struggle by mobilizing the thoughts and actions of China's youth, who formedRed Guards groups around the country. The movement subsequently spread into the military, urban workers, and the party leadership itself. Although Mao himself officially declared the Cultural Revolution to have ended in 1969, the power struggles and political instability between 1969 and the arrest of theGang of Four in 1976 are now also widely regarded as part of the Revolution.
TheNaxalite movement in India began in 1967 with anarmed uprising of tribals against local landlords in the village ofNaxalbari, West Bengal, led by certain leaders of theCommunist Party of India (Marxist). The movement was influenced byMao Zedong's ideology and spread to many tribal districts in Eastern India, gaining strong support among the radical urban youth. After counter-insurgency operations by the police, military and paramilitary forces, the movement fragmented but is still active in many districts.
TheCompton's Cafeteria Riot occurred in August 1966 in theTenderloin district of San Francisco. This incident was one of the first recordedtransgender riots in United States history, preceding the more famous 1969 Stonewall Riots in New York City by three years.
TheStonewall riots occurred in June 1969 in New York City. The Stonewall riots were a series of spontaneous, violent demonstrations against a police raid that took place in theStonewall Inn, in theGreenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. They are frequently cited as the first instance in American history when people in the homosexual community fought back against a government-sponsored system that persecuted sexual minorities, and they have become the defining event that marked the start of thegay rights movement in the United States and around the world.
In 1967, theNational Farmers Organization withheld milk supplies for 15 days as part of an effort to induce a quota system to stabilize prices.
Mass socialist or Communist movement in most European countries (particularly France and Italy), with which the student-based new left was involved. The most spectacular manifestation of this was theMay student revolt of 1968 in Paris that linked up with a general strike of ten million workers called by the trade unions; and for a few days seemed capable of overthrowing the government ofCharles de Gaulle. De Gaulle went off to visit French troops in Germany to check on their loyalty. Major concessions were won for trade union rights, higher minimum wages and better working conditions.
University students protested in the hundreds of thousands against the Vietnam War in London, Paris, Berlin and Rome.
In Eastern Europe students also drew inspiration from the protests in the West. In Poland andYugoslavia they protested against restrictions on free speech bycommunist regimes.
TheTlatelolco massacre – was a government massacre of student and civilian protesters and bystanders that took place during the afternoon and night of 2 October 1968, in thePlaza de las Tres Culturas in theTlatelolco section of Mexico City.
Pictures of Soviet missile silos inCuba, taken by United States spy planes on 1 November 1962.
TheCuban Missile Crisis (16–28 October 1962) – a near-military confrontation between the U.S. and the Soviet Union about the presence of Soviet missiles inCuba. After an AmericanNaval (quarantine) blockade of Cuba the Soviet Union under the leadership ofNikita Khrushchev agreed to remove their missiles from Cuba in exchange for the U.S. removing its missiles from Turkey.
The transformation of Africa fromcolonialism to independence in what is known as thedecolonisation of Africa dramatically accelerated during the decade, with 42 countries gaining independence between 1960 and 1968, including 22 countries became independent from theFrench colonial empire, 12 from theBritish Empire, 5 fromPortugal and 3 fromBelgium, marking the end of the European empires that once dominated the African continent. However, many of these new post-colonial states would struggle with internal and external issues including famine, corruption, genocide, disease, and violent conflicts in the 1960s and succeeding decades.[13] Many of these issues were caused or exacerbated by American and Soviet involvement during theCold War with each side supporting various strongmen, dictators, and guerillas favorable to their causes in these countries.[14][15]Economic development on the continent has been difficult, but many nations who decolonized in the 1960s began to see a rebound and unprecedented growth in the first quarter of the 21st century. As a whole, Africa's GDP rose by an average of over 6% a year between 2013 and 2022, a rate only outpaced by China.[16][17]
1960 –1960 United States presidential election – The very close campaign was the series of four Kennedy–Nixon debates; they were the first presidential debates held on television. Kennedy won a close election.
1961 – PresidentJohn F. Kennedy promised some more aggressive confrontation with the Soviet Union; he also established thePeace Corps.
1963 –Betty Friedan published the bookThe Feminine Mystique, reawakening the feminist movement and being largely responsible for its second wave.
1963 – Kennedy was assassinated and replaced by Vice PresidentLyndon B. Johnson. The nation was in shock. For the next half-century, conspiracy theorists concocted numerous alternative explanations to the official report that a lone gunman killed Kennedy.
1964 – Johnson pressed forcivil rights legislation.Civil Rights Act of 1964 signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson. This landmark piece of legislation in the United States outlawedracial segregation in schools, public places, and employment. The first black riots erupt in major cities.
1964 – Johnson was reelected over Conservative spokesman SenatorBarry Goldwater by a wide landslide; Liberals gained full control of Congress.
1964 – TheWilderness Act was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on 3 September.
1965 – After the events of theSelma to Montgomery marches, theNational Voting Rights Act of 1965 was lobbied for (and then signed into law) by President Lyndon B. Johnson. The Voting Rights Act outlawed discriminatory voting practices that had caused the widespread disenfranchisement of African Americans in the United States.
The Quiet Revolution in Quebec altered the province-city-state into a more secular society. The Jean LesageLiberal government created a welfare state (État-Providence) and fomented the rise of active nationalism among Francophone French-speaking Quebecer Québécois.
In 1960, theCanadian Bill of Rights becomes law and suffrage (as well as the right for any Canadian citizen to vote) was finally adopted by John Diefenbaker's Progressive Conservative government. The new election act allowedFirst Nations people to vote for the first time.
The student andNew Left protests in 1968 coincided with political upheavals in a number of other countries. Although these events often sprung from completely different causes, they were influenced by reports and images of what was happening in the United States and France.[18]
By the late 1960s, Argentine revolutionaryChe Guevara'sfamous image had become a popular symbol of rebellion for the New Left
In October 1964, Soviet leaderNikita Khrushchev was expelled from office due to his increasingly erratic and authoritarian behavior.Leonid Brezhnev andAlexei Kosygin then became the new leaders of the Soviet Union.[21]
InCzechoslovakia, 1968 was the year ofAlexander Dubček'sPrague Spring, a source of inspiration to many Western leftists who admired Dubček's "socialism with a human face". The Sovietinvasion of Czechoslovakia in August ended these hopes and also fatally damaged the chances of the orthodox communist parties drawing many recruits from the student protest movement.[22]
1966 marked the beginning of the Cultural Revolution that was launched by Mao Zedong and lasted until he died in 1976. The goal of the revolution was to preserve Chinese communism by purging Chinese society of its traditional and remaining capitalist elements. Though it failed to achieve its main objectives, the revolution marked the effective return of Mao to the center of power.
Following Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev's removal from power in 1964, Sino-Soviet relations devolved intoopen hostility. The Chinese were deeply disturbed by the Soviet suppression of thePrague Spring in 1968 as the latter now claimed the right to intervene in any country it saw as deviating from the correct path of socialism. In March 1969, armed clashes took place along theSino-Soviet border in the former Manchuria and this finally drove the Chinese to restore relations with the U.S. as Mao Zedong decided that the Soviet Union posed the bigger threat to China.
A literary and cultural movement started inCalcutta,Patna and other cities by a group of writers and painters who called themselves "Hungryalists", or members of theHungry generation. The band of writers wanted to change virtually everything and were arrested with several cases filed against them on various charges; they ultimately won these cases.[23]
On the same day,Major General Suharto successfully persuaded the soldiers on Merdeka Square to join forces with the IndonesianArmy Strategic Reserve Command divisions and launched a counterattack on the movement, ending the coup attempt. Three days later, the bodies of seven army officers were found buried in an old well inLubang Buaya and the bodies were recovered.
In the aftermath of the coup d'état attempt, the people blamed the attempt on theCommunist Party of Indonesia, prompting amass purge against leftists and communist sympathizers across the country. Around 500,000-1,000,000 casualties were massacred. The killings were mostly done by the locals with the help of the Army.
Soon, mass demonstrations and protests from theIndonesian Students' Action Front againstPresident Sukarno's government occurred. President Sukarno was notorious for his friendly approach towards the leftists, particularly the Communist Party of Indonesia.
In the climax of the protests, President Sukarno signed theSupersemar on 11 March 1966, effectively transferring authority to Major General Suharto to restore order and ensure security in the country. On 12 March 1967, President Sukarno was stripped of his political power by theProvisional People's Consultative Assembly (MPRS) and Major General Suharto becameacting president. Later, he became presidentformally on 27 March 1968. Sukarno lived under house arrest until his death in June 1970.
Japan's remarkable economic growth between the post-World War II era and the end of theCold War. During the economic boom, Japan rapidly became the world'ssecond-largest economy at the time (after the United States).
In 1960, Japan was wracked by the massiveAnpo protests against the revision of theU.S.-Japan Security Treaty, resulting in the resignation of Prime MinisterNobusuke Kishi; Kishi's successor,Hayato Ikeda, began implementing economic policies, known as theIncome Doubling Plan removed most of Japan's anti-monopoly laws and promised to double the size of Japan's economy within 10 years.Eisaku Satō became Prime Minister of Japan four years later, succeeding Ikeda due to health issues.
TheMay 16 coup and the establishment of theSCNR, led by Major GeneralPark Chung Hee on 16 May 1961, put an effective end to the Second Republic. Park was one of a group of military leaders who had been pushing for the de-politicization of the military.
TheMiracle on the Han River began with theFive-Year Plans of South Korea, a series of economic development projects implemented by President Park Chung Hee. South Korea received US$800 million from Japan under property claims and was mostly dependent onforeign aid (largely from the U.S. in exchange for South Korea's involvement in theVietnam War).
South Korea's first diplomatic relations with Japan were established under the Third Republic andSouth Korea-Japan relations were normalized in theTreaty on Basic Relations signed on 22 July 1965 and in an agreement ratified on 14 August 1965. Japan agreed to provide a large amount of compensation, grants, and loans to South Korea and the two countries began economic and political cooperation.
In 1963, Argentine military officers start a revolt to instigate the government to take a hardline stance against the political participation ofPeronist politicians. The revolt failed after some fighting that left 24 dead in both sides. This event is known in Argentine historiography asAzules y Colorados.
In 1964, asuccessful coup against the democratically elected government ofBrazilian presidentJoão Goulart initiated a military dictatorship that caused over 20 years of oppression.
TheArgentine revolutionaryErnesto "Che" Guevara travelled to Africa and thenBolivia in his campaign to spread worldwide revolution. He was captured and executed in 1967 by the Bolivian army and afterwards became an iconic figure for leftists around the world.
In 1969, the labour unionCGT of Argentina decided to do ageneral strike, which brought police repression and a civil uprising, an episode later known asCordobazo.
During the 1960s the United States was in thepostwar economic boom. The 1960s are remembered as a time period of rapid workforce growth (roughly 33% between February 1961 and December 1969),[25]tax cuts, low unemployment,[26][27] rapid GDP growth, gains in productivity and generally low inflation. After theRecession of 1960–1961 the United States experienced sustained rapid economic growth which began in February 1961 and ended with theRecession of 1969–1970. It lasted a total of 106 months, which made it the longest recorded economic expansion in the history of the United States until the1990s United States boom.
On January 20, 1961, John F. Kennedy became the president of the United States. In his campaign, John F. Kennedy promised to "get America moving again." His goal was economic growth of 4–6% per year and unemployment below 4%.[citation needed]To do this, he proposed a wide range of policies which embracedKeynesian economics (which he is the first president to do so). Among these policies included a 7% tax credit for businesses that invest in new plants and equipment,[citation needed] Incometax cuts and an increase in the federal minimum wage.
In contrast however, the government routinely produced fiscal deficits (as a result of the tax cuts and increased expenditure embarked under Kennedy), with only one surplus during this time period (as opposed to the 1950s which produced 3).[28] Furthermore, by 1966 inflation began to climb, which is a general trend that continued into the1970s. By the end of the decade under Nixon, the combined inflation and unemployment rate known as themisery index (economics) had exploded to nearly 10% with inflation at 6.2% and unemployment at 3.5% and by 1975 the misery index was almost 20%.[29] By the end of the decade, median family income had risen from $8,540 in 1963 to $10,770 by 1969.[30]
James L. Gordon, Filipino-American mayor ofOlongapo City, Philippines, wasassassinated within city hall by an escapee of the National Penitentiary; Gordon had survived three prior assassination attempts in the preceding two years.[40][41]
The1960 Valdivia earthquake, also known as the Great Chilean earthquake, is to date the most powerful earthquake ever recorded, rating 9.5 on the moment magnitude scale. It caused localized tsunamis that severely battered the Chilean coast, with waves up to 25 meters (82 ft). The main tsunami raced across the Pacific Ocean and devastatedHilo, Hawaii.
1963 Skopje earthquake was a 6.1 moment magnitude earthquake which occurred in Skopje, SR Macedonia (present-day Republic of Macedonia) on 26 July 1963, which killed over 1,070 people, injured between 3,000 and 4,000 and left more than 200,000 people homeless. About 80% of the city was destroyed.
1963 –Vajont dam disaster – The Vajont dam flood in Italy was caused by a mountain sliding in the dam and causing a flood wave that killed approximately 2,000 people in the towns in its path.
1964 – TheGood Friday earthquake, the most powerful earthquake recorded in the U.S. and North America, struckAlaska and killed 143 people.
1965 –Hurricane Betsy caused severe damage to the U.S. Gulf Coast, especially in the state ofLouisiana.
1969 – TheCuyahoga River caught fire in Ohio. Fires had erupted on the river many times, including 22 June 1969, when a river fire captured the attention of Time magazine, which described the Cuyahoga as the river that "oozes rather than flows" and in which a person "does not drown but decays." This helped spur legislative action on water pollution control resulting in the Clean Water Act, Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, and the creation of the federal Environmental Protection Agency.
1969 –Hurricane Camille hit the U.S. Gulf Coast at Category 5 Status. It peaked and made landfall with 175 mph (280 km/h) winds and caused $1.42 billion (1969 USD) in damages.
On 15 February 1961,Sabena Flight 548 crashed on its way to Brussels, Belgium, killing all 72 passengers on board and 1 person on the ground. Among those killed were all 18 members of the US figure skating team, on their way to the World Championships.
On 8 January 1962, trains 164 and 464 collided in a head-on collision in theHarmelen train disaster near the towns ofHarmelen andWoerden in the Netherlands, killing 93 people and being the most deadly train accident in Dutch history to date.
On 16 March 1962,Flying Tiger Line Flight 739, a Lockheed Super Constellation, inexplicably disappeared over the Western Pacific, leaving all 107 on board presumed dead. Since the wreckage of the aircraft is lost to this day, the cause of the crash remains a mystery.
On 3 June 1962,Air France Flight 007, a Boeing 707, crashed on takeoff from Paris. 130 people were killed in the crash while 2 survived.
On 20 May 1965,PIA Flight 705 crashed on approach toCairo, Egypt. 121 died while 6 survived.
In the second half of the decade, young people began to revolt against the conservative norms of the old time, as well as remove themselves from mainstream liberalism, in particular the high level of materialism which was so common during the era. This created a "counterculture" that sparked a social revolution throughout much of the Western world. It began in the United States as a reaction against the conservatism and socialconformity of the 1950s, and the U.S. government's extensive military intervention in Vietnam. The youth involved in the popular social aspects of the movement became known ashippies. These groups created a movement toward liberation in society, including thesexual revolution, questioning authority and government, and demanding more freedoms and rights for women and minorities. TheUnderground Press, a widespread, eclectic collection of newspapers served as a unifying medium for the counterculture. The movement was also marked by the first widespread, socially accepted drug use (includingLSD andmarijuana) andpsychedelic music.
The war in Vietnam would eventually lead to a commitment of over half a million American troops, resulting in over 58,500 American deaths and producing a large-scale antiwar movement in the United States. As late as the end of 1965, few Americans protested the American involvement in Vietnam, but as the war dragged on and the body count continued to climb, civil unrest escalated. Students became a powerful and disruptive force and university campuses sparked a national debate over the war. As the movement's ideals spread beyond college campuses, doubts about the war also began to appear within the administration itself. A mass movement began rising in opposition to theVietnam War, including theNational Mobilization to End the War in Vietnam's 1967 march to the United Nations and itsMarch on the Pentagon, the1968 Democratic National Convention protests at which the slogan "The whole world is watching" became famous, and continuing in the massiveMoratorium protests in 1969 as well as the movement of resistance toconscription ("the Draft") for the war.[citation needed]
Theantiwar movement was initially based on the older 1950sPeace movement, heavily influenced by theAmerican Communist Party, but by the mid-1960s it outgrew this and became a broad-based mass movement centered in universities and churches: one kind of protest was called a "sit-in". Other terms heard in the United States included "the Draft", "draft dodger", "conscientious objector", and "Vietnam vet". Voter age-limits were challenged by the phrase: "If you're old enough to die for your country, you're old enough to vote."
Beginning in the mid-1950s and continuing into the late 1960s,African Americans in the United States organized a movement to end legalizedracial discrimination and obtainvoting rights. This article covers the phase of the movement between 1955 and 1968, particularly in the South. The emergence of theBlack Power movement, which lasted roughly from 1966 to 1975, enlarged the aims of the civil rights movement to include racial dignity,economic andpoliticalself-sufficiency, andanti-imperialism.
The movement was characterized by major campaigns ofcivil resistance. Between 1955 and 1968, acts ofcivil disobedience andnonviolent protest produced crisis situations between activists and government authorities. Federal, state, and local governments, businesses, and communities often had to respond immediately to these situations that highlighted the inequities faced by African Americans. Forms of protest and/or civil disobedience included boycotts such as the successfulMontgomery bus boycott (1955–1956) in Alabama,sit-ins such as the influentialGreensboro sit-ins (1960) in North Carolina,marches such as theSelma to Montgomery marches (1965) in Alabama, and other nonviolent activities.
Noted legislative achievements during this phase of the civil rights movement were passage ofCivil Rights Act of 1964[47] that banned discrimination based on "race, color, religion, or national origin" in employment practices and public accommodations, theVoting Rights Act of 1965 that restored and protected voting rights, theImmigration and Nationality Services Act of 1965 that dramatically opened entry to the U.S. to immigrants other than traditional European groups, and theFair Housing Act of 1968 that banned discrimination in the sale or rental of housing.
Another large ethnic minority group, theMexican-Americans, are among otherHispanics in the U.S. who fought to end racial discrimination and socioeconomic disparity. The largest Mexican-American populations were in the Southwestern United States, such as California with over 1 millionChicanos in Los Angeles alone, andTexas whereJim Crow laws included Mexican-Americans as "non-white" in some instances to be legally segregated.
Socially, theChicano Movement addressed what it perceived to be negativeethnic stereotypes of Mexicans in mass media and the American consciousness. It did so through the creation of works of literary and visual art that validated Mexican-American ethnicity and culture. Chicanos fought to end social stigmas such as the usage of the Spanish language and advocated officialbilingualism in federal and state governments.
The Chicano Movement also addressed discrimination in public and private institutions. Early in the twentieth century, Mexican Americans formed organizations to protect themselves from discrimination. One of those organizations, theLeague of United Latin American Citizens, was formed in 1929 and remains active today.[48]
The movement gained momentum after World War II when groups such as theAmerican G.I. Forum, which was formed by returning Mexican American veterans, joined in the efforts by other civil rights organizations.[49]
Mexican-American civil-rights activists achieved several major legal victories including the 1947Mendez v. WestminsterU.S. Supreme Court ruling which declared that segregating children of "Mexican and Latin descent" was unconstitutional and the 1954Hernandez v. Texas ruling which declared that Mexican Americans and other racial groups in the United States were entitled to equal protection under the14th Amendment of theU.S. Constitution.[50][51]
Meanwhile,Puerto Ricans in the U.S. mainland fought against racism, police brutality and socioeconomic problems affecting the three million Puerto Ricans residing in the 50 states. The main concentration of the population was in New York City.
During the 1960s and 1970s, Hispanic-American culture experienced a resurgence as ethnic music, food, and traditions became increasingly popular and were incorporated into the American mainstream. Spanish-language television networks, radio stations, and newspapers expanded across the United States, particularly in U.S.–Mexican border towns, East Coast cities such as New York City, and in Miami, Florida, which saw significant growth in itsCuban American community.
The multitude of discrimination at this time represented an inhuman side to a society that in the 1960s was upheld as a world and industry leader. The issues of civil rights and warfare became major points of reflection of virtue and democracy, what once was viewed as traditional and inconsequential was now becoming the significance in the turning point of a culture. A document known as the Port Huron Statement exemplifies these two conditions perfectly in its first hand depiction, "while these and other problems either directly oppressed us or rankled our consciences and became our own subjective concerns, we began to see complicated and disturbing paradoxes in our surrounding America. The declaration "all men are created equal..." rang hollow before the facts of Negro life in the South and the big cities of the North. The proclaimed peaceful intentions of the United States contradicted its economic and military investments in the Cold War status quo." These intolerable issues became too visible to ignore therefore its repercussions were feared greatly, the realization that we as individuals take the responsibility for encounter and resolution in our lives issues was an emerging idealism of the 1960s.
A second wave of feminism in the United States and around the world gained momentum in the early 1960s. While the first wave of the early 20th century was centered on gaining suffrage and overturningde jure inequalities, the second wave was focused on changing cultural and social norms andde facto inequalities associated with women. At the time, a woman's place was generally seen as being in the home, and they were excluded from many jobs and professions. In the U.S., aPresidential Commission on the Status of Women found discrimination against women in the workplace and every other aspect of life, a revelation which launched two decades of prominent women-centered legal reforms (i.e., theEqual Pay Act of 1963,Title IX, etc.) which broke down the last remaining legal barriers to women's personal freedom and professional success.
The United States, in the middle of a social revolution, led the world in LGBT rights in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Inspired by the civil-rights movement and the women's movement, early gay-rights pioneers had begun, by the 1960s, to build a movement. These groups were rather conservative in their practices, emphasizing thatgay men and women are no different from those who are straight and deserve full equality. This philosophy would be dominant again after AIDS, but by the very end of the 1960s, the movement's goals would change and become more radical, demanding a right to be different, and encouraginggay pride.
The symbolic birth of thegay rights movement would not come until the decade had almost come to a close. Gays were not allowed by law to congregate. Gay establishments such as theStonewall Inn in New York City were routinely raided by the police to arrest gay people. On a night in late June 1969, LGBT people resisted, for the first time, a police raid, and rebelled openly in the streets. This uprising called theStonewall riots began a new period of the LGBT rights movement that in the next decade would cause dramatic change both inside the LGBT community and in the mainstream American culture.
The rapid rise of a "New Left" applied the class perspective ofMarxism to postwar America but had little organizational connection with older Marxist organizations such as theCommunist Party, and even went as far as to reject organized labor as the basis of a unified left-wing movement. Sympathetic to the ideology ofC. Wright Mills, the New Left differed from the traditional left in its resistance to dogma and its emphasis on personal as well as societal change.Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) became the organizational focus of the New Left and was the prime mover behind the opposition to the War in Vietnam. The 1960s left also consisted of ephemeral campus-basedTrotskyist,Maoist andanarchist groups, some of which by the end of the 1960s had turned tomilitancy.
The 1960s was also associated with a large increase in crime and urban unrest of all types. Between 1960 and 1969 reported incidence of violent crime per 100,000 people in the United States nearly doubled and have yet to return to the levels of the early 1960s.[53] Large riots broke out in many cities like Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, New York City,Newark, New Jersey,Oakland, California and Washington, D.C. By the end of the decade, politicians likeGeorge Wallace andRichard Nixon campaigned on restoring law and order to a nation troubled with the new unrest.
On 21 December 1968, theApollo 8 crew took a picture, for the first time in history, of the entire EarthTheApollo 11 mission landed the first humans on the Moon in July 1969.
TheSpace Race between the United States and the Soviet Union dominated the 1960s. The Soviets sent the first man,Yuri Gagarin, intoouter space during theVostok 1 mission on 12 April 1961, and scored a host of other successes, but by the middle of the decade the U.S. was taking the lead. In May 1961, President Kennedy set the goal for the United States of landing a man on the Moon by the end of the 1960s.
In June 1963,Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space during theVostok 6 mission. In 1965, Soviets launched the first probe to hit another planet of theSolar System (Venus),Venera 3, and the first probe to make a soft landing on and transmit from the surface of the Moon,Luna 9. In March 1966, the Soviet Union launchedLuna 10, which became the firstspace probe to enter orbit around the Moon, and in September 1968,Zond 5 flew the first terrestrial beings, including two tortoises, to circumnavigate the Moon.
The deaths of astronautsGus Grissom,Ed White, andRoger B. Chaffee in theApollo 1 fire on 27 January 1967, put a temporary hold on the U.S. space program, but afterward progress was steady, with theApollo 8 crew (Frank Borman,Jim Lovell,William Anders) being the first crewed mission to orbit another celestial body (the Moon) during Christmas of 1968.
On 20 July 1969, thefirst humans landed on the Moon. TheApollo 11 mission, launched on 16 July 1969, carried mission CommanderNeil Armstrong, Command Module PilotMichael Collins, and Lunar Module PilotBuzz Aldrin, and Aldrin and Armstrong flew the Lunar ModuleEagle to the lunar surface. Apollo 11 fulfilled PresidentJohn F. Kennedy's goal of reaching the Moon by the end of the 1960s, which he had expressed during a speech given before a joint session of Congress on 25 May 1961: "I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth."
The Soviet program lost its sense of direction with the death of chief designerSergey Korolyov in 1966. Political pressure, conflicts between different design bureaus, and engineering problems caused by an inadequate budget would doom the Soviet attempt to land men on the Moon. Shortly after the American Apollo 1 disaster, tragedy struck the Soviet program when cosmonautVladimir Komarov was killed when the parachutes on hisSoyuz 1 flight failed.
A succession of uncrewed American and Soviet probes traveled to the Moon,Venus, andMars during the 1960s, and commercial satellites also came into use.
1964 – The discovery and confirmation of theCosmic microwave background in 1964 secured the Big Bang as the best theory of the origin and evolution of the universe.
As the 1960s began, American cars showed a rapid rejection of 1950s styling excess, and would remain relatively clean and boxy for the entire decade. The horsepower race reached its climax in the late 1960s, withmuscle cars sold by most makes. The compactFord Mustang, launched in 1964, was one of the decade's greatest successes. The "Big Three" American automakers enjoyed their highest ever sales and profitability in the 1960s, but the demise ofStudebaker in 1966 leftAmerican Motors Corporation as the last significant independent. The decade would see the car market split into different size classes for the first time, and model lineups now includedcompact andmid-sized cars in addition tofull-sized ones.
The popular modern hatchback, with front-wheel-drive and a two-box configuration, was born in 1965 with the introduction of theRenault 16, many of this car's design principles live on in its modern counterparts: a large rear opening incorporating the rear window, foldable rear seats to extend boot space. TheMini, released in 1959, had first popularised the front wheel drive two-box configuration, but technically was not a hatchback as it had a fold-down bootlid.
Japanese cars also began to gain acceptance in the Western market, and popular economy models such as theToyota Corolla,Datsun 510, and the first popular Japanese sports car, theDatsun 240Z, were released in the mid- to late-1960s.
Canada celebrated its 100th anniversary ofConfederation in 1967 by hostingExpo 67 inMontreal,Quebec. During the anniversary celebrations, French presidentCharles De Gaulle visited Canada and caused a considerable uproar by declaring his support for Québécois independence.
TheZodiac killer first became active after murdering five known victims in the San Francisco Bay Area between December 1968 and October 1969, operating in rural, urban and suburban settings.
The Beatles (consisting ofJohn Lennon,Paul McCartney,George Harrison, andRingo Starr) released music throughout the 1960s, and are often considered the most popular band in global history.Beatlemania was/is the fanaticism surrounding The Beatles. The Beatles experienced intense fan worship during the '60s era.
Bob Dylan is often considered to be one of the greatest songwriters of all time, and through a process of mutual influence with The Beatles and other artists, helped define the explosion of musical ideas in the 1960s.
Thecounterculture movement dominated the second half of the 1960s, its most famous moments being theSummer of Love in San Francisco in 1967, and theWoodstock Festival inupstate New York in 1969.Psychedelic drugs, especiallyLSD, were widely used medicinally, spiritually and recreationally throughout the late 1960s, and were popularized byTimothy Leary with his slogan "Turn on, tune in, drop out".Ken Kesey and theMerry Pranksters also played a part in the role of "turning heads on".Psychedelic influenced the music, artwork and films of the decade, and a number of prominent musicians died of drug overdoses (see27 Club). There was a growing interest in Eastern religions and philosophy, and many attempts were made to found communes, which varied from supporting free love to religious puritanism.
The Miracles pictured in 1962. Known asMotown's "soul supergroup", The Miracles were one of the first commercially successful acts of the 1960s and propelled both Motown and itsTamla label to international fame.
The arrival ofthe Beatles in the U.S. during 1964, and particularly their appearance on television'sThe Ed Sullivan Show, marked the beginning of theBritish Invasion in the history of music, in which a large number of rock and pop music acts from the United Kingdom gained enormous popularity in the U.S.
Around the same time, record producerPhil Spector began producing girl groups and created a new kind of pop music production that came to be known as theWall of Sound. This style emphasized higher budgets and more elaborate arrangements, and more melodramatic musical themes in place of a simple, light-hearted pop sound. Spector's innovations became integral to the growing sophistication of popular music from 1965 onward.
Also during the early 1960s,surf rock emerged, a rock subgenre that was centered in Southern California and based on beach and surfing themes, in addition to the usual songs about teenage romance and innocent fun.The Beach Boys quickly became the premier surf rock band and almost completely and single-handedly overshadowed the many lesser-known artists in the subgenre. Surf rock reached its peak in 1963–1965 before gradually being overtaken by bands influenced by theBritish Invasion and the counterculture movement.
In the early 1960s, Britain became a hotbed of rock 'n' roll activity during this time. In late 1963, the Beatles embarked on their first US tour and cult singerDusty Springfield released her first solo single. A few months later, rock 'n' roll founding fatherChuck Berry emerged from a2+1⁄2-year prison stint and resumed recording and touring. The stage was set for the spectacular revival of rock music.
In the UK, the Beatles played raucous rock 'n' roll – as well as doo wop, girl-group songs, show tunes – and wore leather jackets. Their managerBrian Epstein encouraged the group to wear suits.Beatlemania abruptly exploded after the group's appearance onThe Ed Sullivan Show in 1964. Late in 1965, the Beatles released the albumRubber Soul which marked the beginning of their transition to a sophisticated power pop group with elaborate studio arrangements and production, and a year after that, they gave up touring entirely to focus only on albums. A host of imitators followed the Beatles in the so-called British Invasion, including groups likethe Rolling Stones,the Who andthe Kinks who would become legends in their own right.
As the counterculture movement developed, artists began making new kinds of music influenced by the use of psychedelic drugs. GuitaristJimi Hendrix emerged onto the scene in 1967 with a radically new approach to electric guitar that replaced Chuck Berry, previously seen as the gold standard of rock guitar. Rock artists began to take on serious themes and social commentary/protest instead of simplistic pop themes.
A major development in popular music during the mid-1960s was the movement away from singles and towards albums. Previously, popular music was based around the 45 single (or even earlier, the 78 single) and albums such as they existed were little more than a hit single or two backed with filler tracks, instrumentals, and covers. The development of the AOR (album-oriented rock) format was complicated and involved several concurrent events such as Phil Spector's Wall of Sound, the introduction by Bob Dylan of "serious" lyrics to rock music, and the Beatles' new studio-based approach. In any case, after 1965 the vinyl LP had definitively taken over as the primary format for all popular music styles.
Blues also continued to develop strongly during the '60s, but after 1965, it increasingly shifted to the young white rock audience and away from its traditional black audience, which moved on to other styles such as soul and funk.
Jazz music andpop standards during the first half of the 1960s was largely a continuation of 1950s styles, retaining its core audience of young, urban, college-educated whites. By 1967, the death of several important jazz figures such asJohn Coltrane andNat King Cole precipitated a decline in the genre. The takeover of rock in the late 1960s largely spelled the end of jazz and standards as mainstream forms of music, after they had dominated much of the first half of the 20th century.
In July 1964, a plane crash claimed the life of another country music legend,Jim Reeves, when the plane he was piloting crashed in a turbulent thunderstorm while on final approach toNashville International Airport.
Sam Cooke was shot and killed at a motel (at the age of 33) in Los Angeles, California on 11 December 1964, under suspicious circumstances.
Motown was founded in 1960. Its firstTop Ten hit was "Shop Around" by the Miracles in 1960. "Shop Around" peaked at number-two on theBillboard Hot 100 and was Motown's first million-selling record.
The Byrds released a cover of Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man", which reached No. 1 on the U.S. charts and repeated the feat in the U.K. shortly thereafter. The extremely influential track effectively creates the musical subgenre offolk rock.
Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone" is a top-five hit on both sides of the Atlantic during the summer of 1965.
Country music newcomerJeannie C. Riley released the country and pop hit "Harper Valley PTA" in 1968, which is about aminiskirt-wearing mother of a teenage girl who was criticized by the localPTA for supposedly setting a bad example for her daughter but turns the tables by exposing some of the PTA members' wrongdoings. The song, along with Riley'smod persona in connection with it, apparently gave country music a "sexual revolution" of its own as hemlines of other female country artists' stage dresses began rising in the years that followed.
Sly & the Family Stone revolutionized black music with their 1968 hit single "Dance to the Music" and became international sensations by 1969 with the release of their hit recordStand!. The band cemented their position as a vital counterculture band when they performed at theWoodstock Festival.
The Gun released "Race with the Devil" in October 1968.
After a long performance drought,Elvis Presley made a successful return to TV and live performances after spending most of the decade making movies, beginning with his'68 Comeback Special in December 1968 onNBC, followed by a summer engagement inLas Vegas in 1969. Presley's return to live performing set the stage for his many concert tours and continued Vegas engagements throughout the 1970s until his death in 1977.
The counterculture movement had a significant effect on cinema. Movies began to break social taboos such assex andviolence causing both controversy and fascination. They turned increasingly dramatic, unbalanced, and hectic as the cultural revolution was starting. This was the beginning of theNew Hollywood era that dominated the next decade in theatres and revolutionized the film industry. Films of this time also focused on the changes happening in the world.Dennis Hopper'sEasy Rider (1969) focused on thedrug culture of the time. Movies also became more sexually explicit, such asRoger Vadim'sBarbarella (1968), as thecounterculture progressed.
The decade also marked the start of theJames Bond film series, starting withDr. No withSean Connery asJames Bond, and has continued with latest installments and actors portraying 007 to this very day.
Thebikini came into fashion in 1963 after being featured in the filmBeach Party.
Mary Quant popularised theminiskirt, which became one of the most popular fashion rages in the late 1960s among young women and teenage girls. Its popularity continued throughout the first half of the 1970s and then disappeared temporarily from mainstream fashion before making a comeback in the mid-1980s.
Men's mainstream hairstyles ranged from thepompadour, thecrew cut, theflattop hairstyle, the tapered hairstyle, and short, parted hair in the early part of the decade, to longer parted hairstyles withsideburns towards the latter half of the decade.
Women's mainstream hairstyles ranged frombeehive hairdos, the bird's nest hairstyle, and thechignon hairstyle in the early part of the decade, to very short styles popularized byTwiggy andMia Farrow inRosemary's Baby towards the latter half of the decade.
African-American hairstyles for men and women included theafro.
Members of Argentine rock bandLos Gatos sportingmop-top haircuts, which were considered at the time a rebellious hairstyle.
Thebikini became a fashionable item in the Western world during the decade
In 1969, theAmerican League expanded when theKansas City Royals andSeattle Pilots, were admitted to the league prompting the expansion of the post-season (in the form of theLeague Championship Series) for the first time since the creation of the World Series. The Pilots stayed just one season in Seattle before moving and becoming theMilwaukee Brewers in 1970. The National League also added two teams in 1969, theMontreal Expos andSan Diego Padres. By 1969, the New York Mets won theWorld Series in only the 8th year of the team's existence.
At theNCAA level, theUCLA Bruins also proved dominant. Coached byJohn Wooden, they were helped byLew Alcindor and byBill Walton to win championships and dominate the American college basketball landscape during the decade.
Alternative sports, using the flying disc, began in the mid-sixties. As numbers of young people became alienated from social norms, they resisted and looked for alternatives. They would form what would become known as thecounterculture. The forms of escape and resistance would manifest in many ways including social activism, alternative lifestyles, experimental living through foods, dress, music and alternative recreational activities, including that of throwing aFrisbee.[60] Starting with promotional efforts fromWham-O andIrwin Toy (Canada), a few tournaments and professionals usingFrisbee show tours to perform at universities, fairs and sporting events, disc sports such asfreestyle,double disc court,guts,disc ultimate anddisc golf became this sports first events.[61][62] Two sports, the team sport ofdisc ultimate anddisc golf are very popular worldwide and are now being played semiprofessionally.[63][64] TheWorld Flying Disc Federation,Professional Disc Golf Association and the Freestyle Players Association are the official rules and sanctioning organizations for flying disc sports worldwide.Major League Ultimate (MLU) and theAmerican Ultimate Disc League (AUDL) are the first semi-professional ultimate leagues.
Inmotorsports, theCan-Am andTrans-Am series were both established in 1966. TheFord GT40 won outright in the24 Hours of Le Mans. Graham Hill edged out Jackie Stewart and Denny Hulme for the World Championship in Formula One.
^"The Economy: We Are All Keynesians Now".Time. 31 December 1965. Archived fromthe original on 21 September 2007. Retrieved1 January 2011.Keynesianism made its biggest breakthrough under John Kennedy, who, as Arthur Schlesinger reports in A Thousand Days, "was unquestionably the first Keynesian President."
^Arthur Marwick,The Sixties: Cultural Revolution in Britain, France, Italy, and the United States, c.1958-c.1974 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998,ISBN978-0-19-210022-1), 247–248.
^Ocran, Matthew Kofi (2019), Ocran, Matthew Kofi (ed.), "Post-Independence African Economies: 1960–2015",Economic Development in the Twenty-first Century: Lessons for Africa Throughout History, Palgrave Studies in Economic History, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 301–372,doi:10.1007/978-3-030-10770-3_9,ISBN978-3-030-10770-3,S2CID159395862
^Jaime Pensado, "The (forgotten) Sixties in Mexico."The Sixties: A Journal of History, Politics and Culture (2008) 1#1: 83–90.
^Curtis Cate,The Ides of August: The Berlin Wall Crisis–1961 (1978).
^Giuseppe Alberigo, and Matthew Sherry,A Brief History of Vatican II (2006)
^William Taubman,Khrushchev: The Man and His Era (2003),
^Günter, et al. eds. Bischof,The Prague Spring and the Warsaw Pact Invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 (Lexington Books, 2010)
^U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, All Employees, Total Nonfarm [PAYEMS], retrieved from FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis;https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PAYEMS, January 3, 2024.
^Holland, Susan S. “Long-Term Unemployment in the 1960’s.” Monthly Labor Review, vol. 88, no. 9, 1965, pp. 1069–76. JSTOR,http://www.jstor.org/stable/41836225. Accessed 4 Jan. 2024.
^U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Unemployment Rate [UNRATE], retrieved from FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis;https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/UNRATE, January 3, 2024
^U.S. Office of Management and Budget and Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, Federal Surplus or Deficit [-] as Percent of Gross Domestic Product [FYFSGDA188S], retrieved from FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis;https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FYFSGDA188S, January 3, 2024.
Anastakis, Dimitry, ed.The Sixties: passion, politics, and style (McGill-Queen's Press-MQUP, 2008.) Canadian emphasis
Baugess, James S., and Abbe Debolt, eds.Encyclopedia of the Sixties: A Decade of Culture and Counterculture (2 vol, 2012; also E-book) 871pp; 500 entries by scholarsexcerpt and text search;online review
Berton, Pierre.1967: the Last Good Year (Toronto: Doubleday Canada, 1997). Canadian events
Brooks, Victor.Last Season of Innocence: The Teen Experience in the 1960s (Rowman & Littlefield, 2012) 207 pp.
Brown, Timothy Scott.West Germany and the Global Sixties (2013)
Christiansen, Samantha and Zachary Scarlett, ed.The Third World and the Global 1960s (New York: Berghahn, 2013)Introduction
Farber, David, and Beth Bailey, eds.The Columbia guide to America in the 1960s (Columbia University Press, 2003).
Farber, David, ed.The Sixties: From Memory to History (1994), Scholarly essays on the United States
Flamm, Michael W. and David Steigerwald.Debating the 1960s: Liberal, Conservative, and Radical Perspectives (2007) on USA
Isserman, Maurice, and Michael Kazin.America divided: The civil war of the 1960s (6th ed. Oxford UP, 2020).
Marwick, Arthur.The Sixties: Cultural Revolution in Britain, France, Italy, and the United States, c.1958-c.1974 (Oxford University Press, 1998,ISBN978-0-19-210022-1)
Matusow, Allen,The Unraveling of America: A History of Liberalism in the 1960s (1984)excerpt
Padva, Gilad. Animated Nostalgia and Invented Authenticity in Arte'sSummer of the Sixties. In Padva, Gilad,Queer Nostalgia in Cinema and Pop Culture, pp. 13–34 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014,ISBN978-1-137-26633-0).
Palmer, Bryan D.Canada's 1960s: The Ironies of Identity in a Rebellious Era. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2009.
Sandbrook, Dominic.Never Had It So Good: A History of Britain from Suez to the Beatles (2006) 928pp;excerpt and text search
Sandbrook, Dominic.White Heat: A History of Britain in the Swinging Sixties (2 vol 2007)
Strain, Christopher B.The Long Sixties: America, 1955–1973 (Wiley, 2017). xii, 204 pp.
Unger, Debi, and Irwin Unger, eds. The Times Were a Changin': The Sixties Reader (1998)excerpt and text search
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