1960s

"'60s" redirects here. For decades comprising years 60–69 of other centuries, see List of decades.

"The Sixties" redirects here. For the Canadian radio show, see The Sixties (radio show).

(top left) The Beatles, one of the most popular bands of the decade, (top center) John F. Kennedy is elected president in 1960 and serves three years before being assassinated in 1963 in Dallas, (top right) Campbell's Soup I, one of Andy Warhol's artworks of pop art, (middle left) Cuban missile crisis, (first middle center) Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous I Have A Dream speech at Washington D.C., (second middle center) Helicopter in the Vietnam War, (middle right) Malcolm X, (bottom left) Che Guevara, the famous Argentine Marxist revolutionary, (first bottom center) A series of World Fairs, including Expo 67, reflect the technological advancement of the time, (second bottom center), The first moon landing in human history is achieved by Apollo 11 in 1969, (bottom right) Woodstock Festival in 1969 draws millions.

The 1960s was the decade that ran from January 1, 1960 to December 31, 1969. The 1960s term also refers to an era more often called The Sixties, denoting the complex of inter-related cultural and political trends in the west, particularly United States, Canada, Argentina, Brazil, Spain, France, United Kingdom, Italy, Australia and West Germany. Social and political upheaval was not limited to these countries, but included such nations as Japan, Mexico, Yugoslavia and others.

In the United States, "The Sixties", as they are known in popular culture, is a term used by historians, journalists, and other objective academics; in some cases nostalgically to describe the counter-culture and social revolution near the end of the decade; and pejoratively to describe the era as one of irresponsible excess and flamboyance. The decade was also labeled the Swinging Sixties because of the libertine attitudes that emerged during this decade. Rampant drug use has become inextricably associated with the counter-culture of the era, as Jefferson Airplane co-founder Paul Kantner mentions: "If you can remember anything about the sixties, then you weren't really there."

The 1960s have become synonymous with all the new, exciting, radical, and subversive events and trends of the period, which continued to develop in the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and beyond. In Africa the 1960s was a period of radical political change as 32 countries gained independence from their European colonial rulers.

Some commentators have seen in this era a classical Jungian nightmare cycle, where a rigid culture, unable to contain the demands for greater individual freedom, broke free of the social constraints of the previous age through extreme deviation from the norm. Booker charts the rise, success, fall/nightmare and explosion in the London scene of the 1960s. This does not alone however explain the mass nature of the phenomenon.

Several Western governments turned to the left in the early 1960s. In the United States John F. Kennedy was elected to the presidency. Italy formed its first left-of-centre government in March 1962 with a coalition of Christian Democrats, Social Democrats, and moderate Republicans. Socialists joined the ruling block in December 1963. In Britain, the Labour Party gained power in 1964. In Brazil, João Goulart became president after Jânio Quadros resigned.

Assassinations

The 1960s were marked by several notable assassinations.

• January 17, 1961 – Patrice Lumumba, the Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo. Assassinated by a Belgian and Congolese firing squad outside Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
• June 12, 1963 – Medgar Evers, a NAACP field secretary. Asassinated by a member of the Ku Klux Klan in Jackson, Mississippi.
• November 2, 1963 – Ngo Dinh Diem, President of Vietnam, along with his brother and chief political adviser, Ngo Dinh Nhu. Assassinated by Duong Hieu Nghia and Nguyen Van Nhung in the back of an APC.
• November 22, 1963 – John F. Kennedy, President of the United States. Assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald, according to the report issued by the Warren Commission, in his car during a parade in Dallas, Texas. See JFK assassination for more details.
• February 21, 1965 – Malcolm X. Assassinated by members of the Nation of Islam in New York City. There is a dispute about which members killed Malcolm X.
• August 25, 1967 – George Lincoln Rockwell, leader of the American Nazi Party. Assassinated by John Patler in Arlington, Virginia.
• April 4, 1968 – Martin Luther King, Jr., civil rights leader. Assassinated by James Earl Ray in Memphis, Tennessee.
• June 5, 1968 – Robert F. Kennedy, United States Senator. Assassinated by Sirhan Sirhan in Los Angeles, California.
• December 4, 1969 – Fred Hampton, deputy chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party. Assassinated by police in Chicago, Illinois.

Social and political movements

Counterculture/social revolution

See also: Counterculture of the 1960s

In the second half of the decade, young people began to rebel against the conservative norms of the time, as well as disassociate themselves from mainstream liberalism, in particular the high levels 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 social conformity of the 1950s, and the US government's extensive military intervention in Vietnam. The youth involved in the popular social aspects of the movement became known as hippies. These groups created a movement toward liberation in society, including the sexual revolution, questioning authority and government, and demanding more freedoms and rights for women and minorities. The Underground Press, a widespread, eclectic collection of newspapers served as a unifying medium for the counterculture. The movement was also marked by drug use (including LSD and marijuana) and psychedelic music.

Anti-war movement

The conflict in Vietnam would eventually lead to a commitment of over half a million American troops, resulted in over 55,000 American deaths and produced 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 in Vietnam continued to escalate so did civil unrest. 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 the Vietnam War, ending in the massive Moratorium protests in 1969, and also the movement of resistance to conscription (“the Draft”) for the war. The antiwar movement was initially based on the older 1950s Peace movement heavily influenced by the American Communist Party, but by the mid-1960s it outgrew this and became a broad-based mass movement centered on the universities and churches: one kind of protest was called a "sit-in." Other terms heard nationally 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." Many of the youth involved in the politics of the movements distanced themselves from the "hippies".

One of the most well-known anti-war demonstrations was the Kent State shootings. In 1970, university students were protesting the war and the draft. Riots ensued during the weekend and the National Guard was called in to maintain the peace. However, by Monday, tensions arose again, and as the crowd grew larger, the National Guard started shooting. Four students were dead and nine injured. This event caused disbelief and shock throughout the country and became a staple of anti-Vietnam demonstrations.

The rise of feminism

Main article: Feminism

Feminism in the United States and around the world gained momentum in the early 1960s. At the time, a woman's place was generally seen as being in the home, and they were excluded from many jobs and professions. Commercials often portrayed women as being helpless if their car broke down. In the US, a Presidential 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. the Equal Pay Act of 1963, Title IX, etc.) which broke down the last remaining legal barriers to women's personal freedom and professional success. Feminists took to the streets, marching and protesting, writing books and debating to change social and political views that limited women. In 1963, with Betty Friedan's revolutionary book, The Feminine Mystique, the role of women in society, and in public and private life was questioned. By 1966, the movement was beginning to grow in size and power as women's group spread across the country and Friedan, along with other feminists, founded the National Organization for Women. In 1968, "Women's Liberation" became a household term as, for the first time, the new women's movement eclipsed the black civil rights movement when New York Radical Women, led by Robin Morgan, protested the annual Miss America pagent in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The movement continued throughout the next decades.

Hispanic and Chicano Movement

Another large ethnic minority group, Mexican-Americans among other Hispanics in the U.S. fought to end racial discrimination and socioeconomic disparity. The largest Mexican-American populations was in the Southwestern United States, such as California with over 1 million Chicanos in Los Angeles alone, and Texas where Jim Crow laws included Mexican-Americans as "non-white" in some instances to be legally segregated.

Socially, the Chicano Movement addressed what it perceived to be negative ethnic 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 official bilingualism 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, the League of United Latin American Citizens, was formed in 1929 and remains active today.

The movement gained momentum after World War II when groups such as the American G.I. Forum, which was formed by returning Mexican American veterans, joined in the efforts by other civil rights organizations.

Mexican-American civil rights activists achieved several major legal victories including the 1947 Mendez v. Westminster Supreme Court ruling which declared that segregating children of "Mexican and Latin descent" was unconstitutional and the 1954 Hernandez v. Texas ruling which declared that Mexican Americans and other racial groups in the United States were entitled to equal protection under the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

The most prominent civil rights organization in the Mexican-American community is the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), founded in 1968. Although modeled after the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, MALDEF has also taken on many of the functions of other organizations, including political advocacy and training of local leaders.

Meanwhile, Puerto Ricans in the U.S. mainland fought against racism, police brutality and socioeconomic problems affecting the 3 million Puerto Ricans residing in 50 states, the main concentration was in New York City. They formed political action groups, became further involved in city and national politics, and became proud of their heritage, in spite of stereotypes and being viewed as "foreign" despite Puerto Rico is US territory.

In the 1960s & the following 1970's, Hispanic-American culture was on the rebound like ethnic music, foods, culture and identity both became popular and assimilated into the American mainstream. Spanish-language television networks, radio stations and newspapers increased in presence across the country, especially in US-Mexican border towns and East Coast cities like New York City, and the growth of the Cuban American community in Miami, Florida.

New Left

The rapid rise of a "New Left" applied the class perspective of Marxism to postwar America, but had little organizational connection with older Marxist organizations such as the Communist Party, and even went as far as to reject organized labor as the basis of a unified left-wing movement. The New Left differed from the traditional left in its resistance to dogma and its emphasis on personal as well as societal change. SDS (Students for a Democratic Society) became the organizational focus of the New Left and was the prime mover behind the opposition to the War in Vietnam. The '60s left also consisted of ephemeral campus-based Trotskyist, Maoist and anarchist groups, some of which by the end of the 1960s had turned to militancy.

Crime

The 1960s has also been associated with a large increase in crime and urban unrest of all types. Between 1960 and 1969 reported incidences 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. Large riots broke out in many cities, such as Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, New York, N.Y., Newark and Oakland . By the end of the decade politicians such as Richard Nixon and George Wallace campaigned on restoring law and order to a nation troubled with the new unrest.

Technology

Space Exploration

The space race between the United States and the Soviet Union would dominate the 1960s. The Soviets put the first man into space in April 1961, and scored a host of other successes. But by the middle of the decade, the US was taking the lead. In May 1961, President Kennedy set for the nation the goal of a manned landing on the moon by the end of the 1960s. The tragic deaths of astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee in the Apollo 1 fire in January 1967 put a temporary brake on the space program, but afterwards progress was steady, with the Apollo 8 crew orbiting the moon during Christmas of 1968. Finally on July 20, 1969, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin of Apollo 11 landed on the moon.

The same could not be said of the Soviet program, which lost its sense of direction with the death of chief designer Sergei Korolev 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, and they could only watch the Apollo program helplessly.

A succession of unmanned American and Soviet probes travelled to the moon, Venus, and Mars during the 1960s, and commercial satellites also came into use.

Automobiles

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 '60s, with muscle cars sold by most makes. The compact Ford 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 '60s, but the demise of Studebaker in 1966 left AMC 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 included compact and mid-sized cars in addition to full-sized ones.

Other technological developments

• 1960 – The female birth control contraceptive, the pill, was released after FDA approval.
• 1960 – The first working laser was demonstrated in May by Theodore Maiman at Hughes Research Laboratories.
• 1961 – First human spaceflight to orbit the Earth: Yuri Gagarin, Vostok 1.
• 1962 – First trans-Atlantic satellite broadcast via the Telstar satellite.
• 1962 – The first computer video game, Spacewar!, is invented.
• 1963 – The first geosynchronous communications satellite, Syncom 2 is launched.
• 1963 – Touch-Tone telephones introduced.
• 1964 – The first successful Minicomputer, Digital Equipment Corporation’s 12-bit PDP-8, is marketed.
• 1964 – The programming language BASIC was created.
• 1965 – Sony markets the CV-2000, the first home video tape recorder.
• 1966 – Construction on the World Trade Center begins.
• 1966 – The Soviet Union launches Luna 10, which later becomes the first space probe to enter orbit around the Moon.
• 1967 – First heart transplantation operation.
• 1967 – PAL and SECAM broadcast color TV systems start publicly transmitting in Europe.
• 1967 – The first ATM is opened in Barclays Bank, London.
• 1968 – First humans to leave Earth's gravity influence and orbit another celestial body: Apollo 8.
• 1968 – The first public demonstration of the computer mouse, the paper paradigm Graphical user interface, video conferencing, teleconferencing, email, and hypertext.
• 1969 – Arpanet, the research-oriented prototype of the Internet, was introduced.
• 1969 – First humans to walk on the Moon: Apollo 11.
• 1969 – CCD invented at AT&T Bell Labs, used as the electronic imager in still and video cameras.
• The Bosonic string theory, the original version of string theory, is developed in the late 1960s.

Popular culture

The counterculture movement dominated the second half of the 1960s, its most famous moments being the Summer of Love in San Francisco in 1967, and the Woodstock Festival in upstate New York in 1969. Psychedelic drugs, especially LSD, were widely used medicinally, spiritually and recreationally throughout the late 1960s, and were popularized by Timothy Leary with his slogan "Turn on, tune in, drop out". Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters also played a part in the role of "turning heads on". Psychedelic influenced the music, artwork and movies of the decade, and a number of prominent musicians died of drug overdoses (see 27 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.

Music

Popular music entered an era of "all hits", as numerous artists released recordings, beginning in the 1950s, as 45-rpm "singles" (with another on the flip side), and radio stations tended to play only the most popular of the wide variety of records being made. Also, bands tended to record only the best of their songs as a chance to become a hit record. The developments of the Motown Sound (Marvin Gaye, The Supremes, The Marvelettes and so on), "folk rock" (The Byrds, Bob Dylan, Sonny & Cher and so on) and the British Invasion of bands from the U.K. (The Beatles, The Dave Clark Five, The Who, The Rolling Stones and so on), are major examples of American listeners expanding from the folksinger, doo-wop and saxophone sounds of the 1950s and evolving to include psychedelic music.

The rise of the counterculture movement, particularly among the youth, created a huge market for rock, soul, pop, reggae and blues music produced by drug-culture, influenced bands such as The Beatles, The Doors, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Cream, Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, Bob Marley, Deep Purple, The Who, Sly & the Family Stone, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Animals, and The Incredible String Band, also for radical music in the folk tradition pioneered by Bob Dylan, The Mamas & the Papas, and Joan Baez in the United States, and in England, Donovan was helping to create folk rock.

The San Francisco Sound began in this period with many popular bands coming out of the Haight-Ashbury district, well-known for its hippie culture. Such bands included Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead, Santana, and Big Brother and the Holding Company.

Significant events in music in the 1960s:

• Elvis Presley returns to civilian life in the USA after two years away in the U.S. Army. He resumes his musical career by recording It's Now or Never and Are You Lonesome Tonight? in March 1960.
• Motown Record Corporation founded in 1960. Its first Top Ten hit was "Shop Around" by the Miracles in 1960. "Shop Around" peaked at number-two on the Billboard Hot 100, and was Motown's first million-selling record.
• The Marvelettes scored Motown Record Corporation's first US #1 pop hit, "Please Mr. Postman" in 1961. Motown would score 110 Billboard Top-Ten hits during its run.
• The Four Seasons released 4 straight number 1s
• The Beatles went to America in 1964, spearheading the first British Invasion.
• The Supremes scored twelve number one hit singles between 1964 and 1969, beginning with "Where Did Our Love Go".
• The Grateful Dead was formed in 1965 (originally The Warlocks) thus paving the way, giving birth to Acid rock.
• Bob Dylan goes electric at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival.
• Cilla Black's number one hit Anyone who had a Heart still remains the top selling single by a female artist in the UK from 1964.
• The Rolling Stones have a huge #1 hit with their song (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction in the summer of 1965.
• Bob Dylan has a #1 hit in the summer of 1965 with his song "Like a Rolling Stone".
• The Beach Boys release Pet Sounds in 1966, ushering in the era of album-orientated rock.
• Bob Dylan is called "Judas" by an audience member during the legendary Manchester Free Trade Hall concert, the start of the Bootleg recording industry follows, with recordings of this concert circulating for 30 years – wrongly labeled as – The Royal Albert Hall Concert before a legitimate release in 1998 as The Bootleg Series Vol. 4: Bob Dylan Live 1966, The "Royal Albert Hall" Concert.
• In February 1966, Nancy Sinatra's song "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" became very popular.
• In 1966, The Supremes A' Go-Go was the first album by a female group to reach the top position of the Billboard magazine pop albums chart in the United States.
• The Seekers are the first Australian Group to have a number one with "Georgy Girl" in 1966.
• Jefferson Airplane release the influential Surrealistic Pillow in 1967.
• The Velvet Underground release their influential self-titled debut album The Velvet Underground & Nico in 1967.
• The Doors release their self-tilted debut album The Doors.
• Love release their masterpiece Forever Changes in 1967.
• The Jimi Hendrix Experience release two successful albums during 1967 Are You Experienced and Axis: Bold as Love that innovate both guitar, trio and recording techniques.
• The Beatles release the seminal concept album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in June 1967.
• The Moody Blues release the album Days of Future Passed in November 1967.
• Pink Floyd releases their debut record The Piper at the Gates of Dawn.
• Bob Dylan releases the Country rock album John Wesley Harding in December 1967.
• The Bee Gees release their international debut album Bee Gees 1st in July, 1967 which contains the pop standard "To Love Somebody".
• The Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 was the apex of the so-called "Summer of Love".
• Johnny Cash releases At Folsom Prison in 1968
• 1968: after The Yardbirds fold, Led Zeppelin is formed by Jimmy Page and manager Peter Grant, with Robert Plant,John Bonham and John Paul Jones; and, released their debut album Led Zeppelin.
• The Band releases the roots rock album Music from Big Pink in 1968.
• Big Brother and the Holding Company, with Janis Joplin as lead singer, becomes an overnight sensation after their performance at Monterey Pop in 1967 and release their massively successful second album Cheap Thrills in 1968.
• The Jimi Hendrix Experience release the highly influential double LP Electric Ladyland in 1968 that furthered the guitar and studio innovations of the previous two albums.
• Sly & the Family Stone revolutionize black music with their massive 1968 hit single "Dance to the Music" and by 1969 became international sensations with the release of their phenomenal hit record Stand!. The band cemented their position as a vital counterculture band when they performed at the Woodstock Festival.
• The Rolling Stones film the TV special Rock and Roll Circus in December 1968 which was never broadcast during its contemporary time. Considered for decades as a fabled 'lost' performance until released in North America on Laserdisc and VHS in 1995. Features performances from The Who; The Dirty Mac featuring John Lennon, Eric Clapton and Mitch Mitchell; Jethro Tull and Taj Mahal.
• The Who release and tour the first rock opera Tommy in 1969.
• Proto-punk band MC5 release the live album Kick Out The Jams in 1969.
• Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band release the avant garde Trout Mask Replica in 1969.
• The Stooges release their debut album in 1969.
• The Flying Burrito Brothers release their influential debut The Gilded Palace of Sin in 1969.
• The Woodstock Festival, and four months later, the Altamont Free Concert in 1969.

Film

See also: History of film § 1960s, 1960s in film, and Time magazine's "All-TIME" 100 best movies

Popular American movies of the 1960s include Psycho, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Spartacus, Lawrence of Arabia, Carnival of Souls; The Birds, The Pink Panther, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb; The Sound of Music; Doctor Zhivago, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid; Bonnie and Clyde; Cool Hand Luke; The Graduate; Rosemary's Baby; Midnight Cowboy; Head; Medium Cool; 2001: A Space Odyssey; Faces; Night of the Living Dead; Easy Rider; Ice Station Zebra; Planet of the Apes; The Lion In Winter; The Wild Bunch.

The counterculture movement had a significant effect on cinema. Movies began to break social taboos such as sex and violence causing both controversy and fascination. They turned increasingly dramatic, unbalanced, and hectic as the cultural revolution was starting. This was the beginning of the New Hollywood era that dominated the next decade in theatres and revolutionized the movie industry. Films such as Arthur Penn's Bonnie and Clyde (1967), Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), and Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby (1968) are examples of this new, edgy direction. Films of this time also focused on the changes happening in the world. Dennis Hopper's Easy Rider (1969) focused on the drug culture of the time. Movies also became more sexually explicit, such as Roger Vadim's Barbarella (1968) as the counterculture progressed.

In Europe, Art Cinema gains wider distribution and sees movements like la Nouvelle Vague (The French New Wave) featuring French filmmakers such as Roger Vadim, François Truffaut, Alain Resnais, and Jean-Luc Godard; Cinéma Vérité documentary movement in Canada, France and the United States; Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman, Chilean filmmaker Alexandro Jodorowsky and Polish filmmakers Roman Polanski and Wojciech Jerzy Has produced original and offbeat masterpieces and the high-point of Italian filmmaking with Michelangelo Antonioni and Federico Fellini making some of their most known films during this period. Notable films from this period include: La Dolce Vita, 8½; La Notte; L'Eclisse, The Red Desert; Blowup; Satyricon; Accattone; The Gospel According to St. Matthew; Theorem; Winter Light; The Silence; Persona; Shame; A Passion; Au Hasard Balthazar; Mouchette; Last Year at Marienbad; Chronique d'un été; Titicut Follies; High School; Salesman; La Jetée; Warrendale; Knife in the Water; Repulsion; The Saragossa Manuscript; El Topo; A Hard Day's Night; and the cinema verite Dont Look Back.

In Japan, Academy Award winning Japanese director Akira Kurosawa produced Yojimbo (1961), and Sanjuro (1962), which both starred Toshiro Mifune as a mysterious Samurai swordsman for hire. Like his previous films both had a profound influence around the world. The Spaghetti Western genre was a direct outgrowth of the Kurosawa films. The influence of these films is most apparent in Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars (1964) starring Clint Eastwood and Walter Hill's Last Man Standing (1996). Yojimbo was also the origin of the "Man with No Name" trend which included Sergio Leone's For a Few Dollars More, and The Good, The Bad and The Ugly both also starring Clint Eastwood, and arguably continued through his 1968 opus Once Upon a Time in the West, starring Henry Fonda, Charles Bronson, Claudia Cardinale, and Jason Robards. The Magnificent Seven a 1960 American western film directed by John Sturges was a remake of Akira Kurosawa's 1954 film, Seven Samurai.

The '60s were about experimentation. With the explosion of light-weight and affordable cameras, the underground avant-garde film movement thrived. Canada's Michael Snow, Americans Kenneth Anger. Stan Brakhage, Andy Warhol, and Jack Smith. Notable films in this genre are: Dog Star Man; Scorpio Rising; Wavelength; Chelsea Girls;Blow Job; Vinyl; Flaming Creatures.

Significant events in the film industry in the 1960s:

• Removal of the Motion Picture Association of America's Production Code in 1967.
• The decline and end of the Studio System.
• The rise of 'art house' films and theaters.
• The end of the classical hollywood cinema era.
• The beginning of the New Hollywood Era due to the counterculture.
• The rise of independent producers that worked outside of the Studio System.
• Move to all-color production in Hollywood movies.
• The invention of the Nagra 1/4", sync-sound, portable open-reel tape deck.
• Expo 67 where new film formats like Imax were invented and new ways of displaying film were tested.
• Flat-bed film editing tables appear, like the Steenbeck, they eventually replace the Moviola editing platform.
• The French New Wave.
• Direct Cinema and Cinéma vérité documentaries.

International issues

In Africa

The transformation of Africa from colonialism to independence in what is known as the decolonisation of Africa dramatically accelerated during the decade, with 32 countries gaining independence between 1960 and 1968. The high hopes these new countries had quickly faded, and many would fall into anarchy, dictatorships, and civil war.

In Canada

• Canada celebrated its 100th anniversary of Confederation in 1967 by hosting Expo 67, the World's Fair, in Montreal, Quebec. During the anniversary celebrations, French president Charles De Gaulle visited Canada, and caused a considerable uproar by declaring his support for Québécois independence.
• The Quiet Revolution in Quebec altered the province into a more secular society. The Jean Lesage Liberal government created a welfare state (État-Providence) and fomented the rise of active nationalism among Francophone Québécois.
• On February 15, 1965, Canada got the new maple leaf flag, after much acrimonious debate known as the Great Flag Debate.
• In 1960, The Canadian Bill of Rights becomes law, and Universal Suffrage, the right for any Canadian citizen to vote, is finally adopted by John Diefenbaker's Progressive Conservative government. The new election act allows first nations people to vote for the first time.

In China

China began the '60s suffering from the effects of the Great Leap Forward. Mao Zedong went into partial retirement, and the country gradually recovered. But by the middle of the decade, Mao decided to return to the spotlight, convinced that China was losing its revolutionary spirit. He thus launched the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, a mass movement to eradicate capitalism and bourgeoise influences from the country. Young people were encouraged to attack their elders and people in positions of authority. The result was three years of chaos and near-anarchy which severely weakened China socially and economically.

Relations with the United States remained hostile during the 1960s, although representatives from both countries held periodic meetings in Warsaw, Poland (since there was no US embassy in China). President Kennedy had plans to restore Sino-US relations, but his assassination, the war in Vietnam, and the Cultural Revolution put an end to that. Not until Richard Nixon took office in 1969 was there another opportunity.

Following Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev's expulsion in 1964, Sino-Soviet relations devolved into open hostility. The Chinese were deeply disturbed by the Soviet suppression of the Prague 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. Finally, in March 1969, armed clashes took place along the Sino-Soviet border in Manchuria. This drove the Chinese to restore relations with the US, as Mao Zedong decided that the Soviet Union was a much greater threat.

In October 1964, China exploded its first atomic bomb, and possessed a hydrogen bomb by 1967. President Johnson secretly considered a preemptive strike on China's nuclear facilities, but then dismissed the idea as too risky.

In the Commonwealth

Australia and New Zealand committed troops to the Vietnam war with controversy and war protests.

In India

In India a literary and cultural movement started in Calcutta, Patna, and other cities by a group of writers and painters who called themselves "Hungryalists", or members of the Hungry 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. This span of the movement was from 1961 to 1965.

Western Europe

• British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan delivers his Wind of Change speech in 1960.
• Pope John XXIII calls the Second Vatican Council of the Catholic Church, continued by Pope Paul VI, which met from October 11, 1962 until December 8, 1965.
• The May 1968 student and worker uprisings in France.
• Mass socialist or Communist movement in most European countries (particularly France and Italy), with which the student-based new left was able to forge a connection. The most spectacular manifestation of this was the May 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 of Charles 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 their hundreds of thousands in London, Paris, Berlin and Rome with the huge crowds that protested against the Vietnam War.

Eastern Europe

In Eastern Europe students also drew inspiration from the protests in the West. In Poland and Yugoslavia they protested against restrictions on free speech by Communist regimes.

In October 1964, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev was expelled from office due to his increasingly erratic and authoritarian behavior. Leonid Brezhnev and Alexey Kosygin then became the new leaders of the Soviet Union.

In Czechoslovakia 1968 was the year of Alexander Dubček’s Prague Spring, a source of inspiration to many Western leftists who admired Dubček's "socialism with a human face". The Soviet invasion 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.

In Mexico

The peak of the student and New 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. Students in Mexico City protested against the authoritarian regime of Gustavo Díaz Ordaz: in the resulting Tlatelolco massacre in which hundreds were killed.

• The October 2, 1968 Tlatelolco Massacre in Mexico City, of student protesters and uninvolved bystanders, by the Mexican military and police.

In the Middle East

• An all-out attempt by the Arab states to wipe Israel from the map led to the Six Days War in June 1967. The Arabs, and especially Egypt, were catastrophically defeated by the Israeli armies, who then went on to control the Sinai, West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Golan Heights. This failure completely discredited Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser.
• On September 1, 1969, the Libyan monarchy was overthrown, and a radical, anti-Israel, anti-Western government headed by Col. Muammar al-Qadaffi took power.

In South America

• In 1964, a successful coup against the democratically elected government of Brazilian president João Goulart, initiates a military dictatorship of over 20 years of oppression.
• The Argentine revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara travelled to Africa and then Bolivia in his campaigning 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.
• Juan Velasco Alvarado took power in Peru in 1968.

In the United States

• 1961 – Newly elected President John F. Kennedy and Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson take office in 1961; Kennedy establishes the Peace Corps.
• 1961 – The Bay of Pigs Invasion, took place when U.S.-trained force of Cuban exiles invaded south-west Cuba and attempted to overthrow the Cuban government of Fidel Castro. The failed invasion—planned and funded by the United States government beginning in 1960 under the auspices of Vice President Richard M. Nixon, the CIA and the Eisenhower administration—was launched in April 1961, less than three months after John F. Kennedy assumed the presidency in the United States.
• 1961 – Substantial (approximately 700), American forces first arrive in Vietnam in 1961.
• 1962 – By mid-1962, the number of U.S. military advisers in South Vietnam had risen from 700 to 12,000.
• 1962 – The Cuban Missile Crisis, in October 1962, was a near military confrontation between the U.S. and the Soviet Union about the presence of Soviet missiles in Cuba. After an American Naval (quarantine) blockade of Cuba the Soviet Union under the leadership of Nikita Khruschev agreed to remove their missiles.
• 1963 – Martin Luther King Jr.'s,"I Have a Dream" speech in Washington D.C. on August 28.
• 1963 – After the overthrow of the Diem Regime in early November 1963, Kennedy increased the number of U.S. military advisers from 800 to 16,300 to cope with rising guerrilla activity in Vietnam.
• 1963 – President Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963. Lyndon Johnson becomes president, and presses for civil rights legislation.
• 1964 – After the Gulf of Tonkin incident, on August 2, 1964 and the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution which was a joint resolution of the U.S. Congress passed on August 10, 1964 in direct response to a minor naval engagement known as the Gulf of Tonkin Incident. The resolution gave U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson authorization, without a formal declaration 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 conflict.
• 1964 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson is elected in his own right, defeating United States Senator Barry Goldwater in November.
• 1965 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson and Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey take office in January.
• 1965 – The assassination of Malcolm X on February 21, 1965
• 1966 – After 1966 with the draft in place more than 500,000 troops are sent to Vietnam by the Johnson administration and college attendance soars.
• 1968 – The assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968 and Robert Kennedy on June 5, 1968.
• 1968 – U.S. President Richard M. Nixon is elected defeating Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey in November.
• 1969 – U.S. President Richard Nixon is inaugurated in January 1969; promises "peace with honor" to end the Vietnam War; price inflation soars; Nixon imposes wage and price controls.
• 1969 – Stonewall riots in Greenwich Village, New York take place in June.
• 1969 – Manson Murders took place on August 8–10 which was sadly the death of Sharon Tate, Abigail Folger, along with several others in the Tate house. Killed on August 9, Rosemary LaBianca & Leno LaBianca. Some say this declared the "end" of the 1960s.

People

Trend-setters of the Sixties

Artists in the media

• Muhammad Ali
• Woody Allen
• Julie Andrews
• Kenneth Anger
• Michelangelo Antonioni
• Joan Baez
• Brigitte Bardot
• Syd Barrett
• Artur Barrio
• Harry Belafonte
• Ingmar Bergman
• Stan Brakhage
• Marlon Brando
• Lenny Bruce
• Johnny Cash
• Mama Cass
• Claude Chabrol
• Eric Clapton
• Montgomery Clift
• Leonard Cohen
• Clay Cole
• Judy Collins
• John Coltrane
• Sam Cooke
• David Crosby
• Miles Davis
• Donovan
• Judith Durham
• Bob Dylan
• Jane Fonda
• Peter Fonda
• Federico Fellini
• Lawrence Ferlinghetti
• Jerry Garcia
• Jean-Luc Godard
• Dick Gregory
• George Harrison
• Jimi Hendrix
• Audrey Hepburn
• Alfred Hitchcock
• Dennis Hopper
• Mick Jagger
• Brian Jones
• Janis Joplin
• Judith Durham
• Allan King
• Freddie King
• Jack Kirby
• Kris Kristofferson
• Stanley Kubrick
• Richard Leacock
• Stan Lee
• John Lennon
• Phil Lesh
• Louis Malle
• Bob Marley
• Albert and David Maysles
• Paul McCartney
• Joni Mitchell
• Elizabeth Montgomery
• Jeanne Moreau
• Jim Morrison
• Van Morrison
• Bob Neuwirth
• Odetta
• Yoko Ono
• John Lennon
• John Sinclair
• Jimmy Page
• D. A. Pennebaker
• Anthony Perkins
• Pier Paolo Pasolini
• John Phillips
• Roman Polanski
• Elvis Presley
• Lou Reed
• Alain Resnais
• Keith Richards
• Dick Rivers
• Jacques Rivette
• Éric Rohmer
• George Romero
• Diana Ross
• Jean Rouch
• Mort Sahl
• Edie Sedgwick
• Pete Seeger
• Peter Sellers
• Jean Shepherd
• Paul Simon
• Grace Slick
• Ringo Starr
• Jim Steranko
• Steven Stills
• Sly Stone
• Karlheinz Stockhausen
• François Truffaut
• Bob Weir
• Orson Welles
• Brian Wilson
• Frederick Wiseman
• Neil Young
• Frank Zappa

Intellectuals

• Richard Alpert aka Baba Ram Dass
• Louis Althusser
• Roland Barthes
• Simone de Beauvoir
• William F. Buckley
• Truman Capote
• Rachel Carson
• Noam Chomsky
• Jacques Derrida
• Michel Foucault
• Betty Friedan
• Milton Friedman
• Allen Ginsberg
• Václav Havel
• Jane Jacobs
• Ken Kesey
• Timothy Leary
• Norman Mailer
• Marshall McLuhan
• Arthur Miller
• Michael Novak
• Bertrand Russell
• Carl Sagan
• Jean-Paul Sartre
• Susan Sontag
• Hunter S. Thompson
• Alan Watts
• Tom Wolfe
• Samir Roychoudhury

Political figures

• Konrad Adenauer
• Ella Baker
• Stokely Carmichael
• Fidel Castro
• César Chávez
• Sir Winston Churchill
• Ramsey Clark
• Moshe Dayan
• Abba Eban
• Charles de Gaulle
• Barry Goldwater
• Andrei Gromyko
• Che Guevara
• David Ben-Gurion
• Averill Harriman
• Tom Hayden
• Abbie Hoffman
• J. Edgar Hoover
• Hubert Humphrey
• Lyndon Baines Johnson
• John F. Kennedy
• Robert F. Kennedy
• Martin Luther King Jr.
• Nikita S. Khrushchev
• Harold Macmillan
• Eugene McCarthy
• Robert McNamara
• Golda Meir
• Robert Menzies
• Ho Chi Minh
• Robin Morgan
• Gamal Abdel Nasser
• Huey P. Newton
• Richard M. Nixon
• Lester B. Pearson
• Ronald Reagan
• Jackie Robinson
• Nelson A. Rockefeller
• Eleanor Roosevelt
• Dean Rusk
• Mario Savio
• Bobby Seale
• Margaret Chase Smith
• Soong Ching-ling
• Gloria Steinem
• Adlai Stephenson
• U Thant
• Pierre Elliot Trudeau
• Earl Warren
• Harold Wilson
• Malcolm X
• Mao Zedong

Writers

• Edward Albee
• Isaac Asimov
• Paul Avery
• J. G. Ballard
• Amiri Baraka
• Gwendolyn Brooks
• Anthony Burgess
• Basil Bunting
• William S. Burroughs
• Arthur C. Clarke
• Truman Capote
• Gregory Corso
• Noël Coward
• R. Crumb
• Philip K. Dick
• Jules Feiffer
• Louise Fitzhugh
• Paul Goodman
• Seamus Heaney
• Robert A. Heinlein
• Joseph Heller
• Frank Herbert
• S.E. Hinton
• Ken Kesey
• John Knowles
• Philip Larkin
• Harper Lee
• Arthur Miller
• Thomas Pynchon
• Jean Rhys
• J.D. Salinger
• Charles Schulz
• Dr. Seuss
• Terry Southern
• John Steinbeck
• Tom Stoppard
• Hunter S. Thompson
• Gore Vidal
• Kurt Vonnegut
• Jack Kerouac
• Malay Roy Choudhury

Spiritual leaders

• A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
• Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

Visual artists, painters and sculptors

• Francis Bacon
• Jo Baer
• Walter Darby Bannard
• Peter Blake
• Larry Bell
• Lynda Benglis
• Louise Bourgeois
• Joan Brown
• Sir Anthony Caro
• John Chamberlain
• Dan Christensen
• Chryssa
• Bruce Connor
• Joseph Cornell
• R. Crumb
• Gene Davis
• Ronald Davis
• Jay DeFeo
• Richard Diebenkorn
• Marcel Duchamp
• Marisol Escobar
• Jules Feiffer
• Dan Flavin
• Sam Francis
• Helen Frankenthaler
• Red Grooms
• Mimi Gross
• Philip Guston
• Grace Hartigan
• Michael Heizer
• Al Held
• Eva Hesse
• David Hockney
• Hans Hofmann
• Jack Jackson, aka Jaxon
• Jasper Johns
• Donald Judd
• Allan Kaprow
• Alex Katz
• Ellsworth Kelly
• Elaine de Kooning
• Willem de Kooning
• Lee Krasner
• Ronnie Landfield
• Roy Lichtenstein
• Sol LeWitt
• Morris Louis
• Robert Mangold
• Brice Marden
• Agnes Martin
• Peter Max
• Joan Mitchell
• Robert Morris
• Robert Motherwell
• Bruce Nauman
• Manuel Neri
• Louise Nevelson
• Barnett Newman
• Kenneth Noland
• Claes Oldenburg
• Jules Olitski
• Nam June Paik
• Larry Poons
• Robert Rauschenberg
• Bridget Riley‎
• Larry Rivers
• James Rosenquist
• Mark Rothko
• Robert Ryman
• Lucas Samaras
• George Segal
• Richard Serra
• David Smith
• Tony Smith
• Robert Smithson
• Frank Stella
• Clyfford Still
• Mark Di Suvero
• Paul Thek
• Ernest Trova
• Richard Tuttle
• Andy Warhol
• John Wesley
• Tom Wesselmann
• Hannah Wilke
• Peter Young
• Larry Zox

Sports

Boxing

• Muhammad Ali
• Cus D'Amato (trainer)
• Angelo Dundee (trainer)
• Joe Frazier
• Eddie Futch (trainer)
• Sonny Liston
• José Torres

Baseball

See also: History of baseball in the United States

Major League Baseball expansion in 1961 included the formation of the Los Angeles Angels, the move to Minnesota to become the Minnesota Twins by the former Washington Senators and a the formation of a new franchise called the Washington Senators. Major League Baseball sanctioned both the Houston Colt .45s and the New York Mets as new National League franchises in 1962.

In 1969, the American League expanded when the Kansas City Royals and Seattle Pilots, were admitted to the league prompting the expansion of the post-season for the first time since the creation of the World Series. The Pilots stayed just one season in Seattle before moving and becoming the Milwaukee Brewers in 1970. The National League also added two teams in 1969, the Montreal Expos and San Diego Padres. By 1969, at the end of the 1960s the New York Mets won the World Series in only the 8th year of the teams existence.

Notable 1960s players

• Lou Brock
• Johnny Bench
• Rod Carew
• Steve Carlton
• Bob Gibson
• Reggie Jackson
• Juan Marichal
• Willie McCovey
• Joe Morgan
• Jim Palmer
• Tony Perez
• Gaylord Perry
• Brooks Robinson
• Pete Rose
• Nolan Ryan
• Tom Seaver
• Don Sutton
• Carl Yastrzemski
• Sandy Koufax
• Don Drysdale
• Ernie Banks

Olympics

There were six Olympic Games held during the decade. These were:

• 1960 XVII Summer Olympics—Rome, Italy
• 1960 VIII Winter Olympics—Squaw Valley Ski Resort, United States
• 1964 XVIII Summer Olympics—Tokyo, Japan
• 1964 IX Winter Olympics—Innsbruck, Austria
• 1968 XIX Summer Olympics—Mexico City, Mexico
• 1968 X Winter Olympics—Grenoble, France

Soccer

There were two FIFA World Cups during the decade:

• 1962 FIFA World Cup—Chile
• 1966 FIFA World Cup—England

The ten European Cup winners during the decade were:

• 1960 European Cup Final – Real Madrid
• 1961 European Cup Final – Benfica
• 1962 European Cup Final – Benfica
• 1963 European Cup Final – A.C. Milan
• 1964 European Cup Final – Internazionale
• 1965 European Cup Final – Internazionale
• 1966 European Cup Final – Real Madrid
• 1967 European Cup Final – Glasgow Celtic
• 1968 European Cup Final – Manchester United
• 1969 European Cup Final – A.C. Milan

Racing

In motorsports, the Can Am and Trans-Am series were both established in 1966. The Ford GT40 would win outright in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The ten Formula One World Championship Winners were:

• 1960—Jack Brabham
• 1961—Phil Hill
• 1962—Graham Hill
• 1963—Jim Clark
• 1964—John Surtees
• 1965—Jim Clark
• 1966—Jack Brabham
• 1967—Denny Hulme
• 1968—Graham Hill
• 1969—Jackie Stewart

Champions

In Australian Football, the AFL (then the VFL) premiers during the decade were:

• 1960 – Melbourne
• 1961 – Hawthorn
• 1962 – Essendon
• 1963 – Geelong
• 1964 – Melbourne
• 1965 – Essendon
• 1966 – St.Kilda
• 1967 – Richmond
• 1968 – Carlton
• 1969 – Richmond

In baseball, the World Series champions during the decade were:

• 1960 – Pittsburgh Pirates
• 1961 – New York Yankees
• 1962 – New York Yankees
• 1963 – Los Angeles Dodgers
• 1964 – St. Louis Cardinals
• 1965 – Los Angeles Dodgers
• 1966 – Baltimore Orioles
• 1967 – St. Louis Cardinals
• 1968 – Detroit Tigers
• 1969 – New York Mets

The American National Football League champions during the decade were:

• 1960 – Philadelphia Eagles
• 1961 – Green Bay Packers
• 1962 – Green Bay Packers
• 1963 – Chicago Bears
• 1964 – Cleveland Browns
• 1965 – Green Bay Packers
• 1966 – Green Bay Packers
• 1967 – Green Bay Packers
• 1968 – Baltimore Colts
• 1969 – Minnesota Vikings

The American Football League champions during the decade were:

• 1960 – Houston Oilers
• 1961 – Houston Oilers
• 1962 – Kansas City Chiefs
• 1963 – San Diego Chargers
• 1964 – Buffalo Bills
• 1965 – Buffalo Bills
• 1966 – Kansas City Chiefs
• 1967 – Oakland Raiders
• 1968 – New York Jets
• 1969 – Kansas City Chiefs

The North American National Hockey League's Stanley Cup champions of the decade were:

• 1960 – Montreal Canadiens
• 1961 – Chicago Blackhawks
• 1962 – Toronto Maple Leafs
• 1963 – Toronto Maple Leafs
• 1964 – Toronto Maple Leafs
• 1965 – Montreal Canadiens
• 1966 – Montreal Canadiens
• 1967 – Toronto Maple Leafs
• 1968 – Montreal Canadiens
• 1969 – Montreal Canadiens

The American National Basketball Association champions of the decade were:

• 1960 – Boston Celtics
• 1961 – Boston Celtics
• 1962 – Boston Celtics
• 1963 – Boston Celtics
• 1964 – Boston Celtics
• 1965 – Boston Celtics
• 1966 – Boston Celtics
• 1967 – Philadelphia 76ers
• 1968 – Boston Celtics
• 1969 – Boston Celtics

The Canadian Football League's Grey Cup champions of the decade were:

• 1960 – Ottawa Rough Riders
• 1961 – Winnipeg Blue Bombers
• 1962 – Winnipeg Blue Bombers
• 1963 – Hamilton Tiger-Cats
• 1964 – British Columbia Lions
• 1965 – Hamilton Tiger-Cats
• 1966 – Saskatchewan Roughriders
• 1967 – Hamilton Tiger-Cats
• 1968 – Ottawa Rough Riders
• 1969 – Ottawa Rough Riders

External links

• 60s music videos www.grattia.com
• The 1960s: A Bibliography
• CBC Digital Archives — 1960s a GoGo
• The Sixties Project
• The 60s: Literary Tradition and Social Change, exhibit at the University of Virginia, Library, Special Collections.
• 1960s protest movements in America
• The 1960s in Europe (Online Teaching and Research Guide)
• "1960s Fashion Feature, including biographies, interviews, clothing and resources". Victoria and Albert Museum.