The 1960s Interactive Timeline

The 1960s

A year-by-year look at major events from the decade.
 1960

  • Presidential debates televised for first time (Kennedy-Nixon)

  • Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" is released

  • John F. Kennedy wins presidential election

  • U.S. U-2 spy plane shot down over USSR
    •  1961

  • Bay of Pigs invasion debacle

  • Berlin Wall is constructed

  • Soviets launch first man into space
    •  1962

  • Cuban Missile Crisis

  • Marilyn Monroe found dead

    		•
     1963

  • JFK is assassinated

  • Martin Luther King delivers "I Have A Dream" speech

  • U.S.-USSR hotline connection established
    •  1964

  • Beatlemania sweeps the U.S.

  • Civil Rights Act is passed

  • Hasbro introduces GI Joe action figure

  • Nelson Mandela sentenced to life in prison in South Africa

  • Cassius Clay (a.k.a. Muhammad Ali) wins heavyweight boxing title
    •  1965

  • U.S. combat troops arrive in Vietnam

  • Blackout hits New York City

  • Watts race riots in Los Angeles

  • Medicare funding begins
    •  1966

  • Mao Zedong launches Cultural Revolution in China

  • "Star Trek" first airs

  • Mass draft protests in U.S.

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     1967

  • First heart transplant is performed

  • First Super Bowl is held

  • Three U.S. astronauts killed during launch simulation

  • Che Guevara killed in Bolivia
    •  1968

  • Martin Luther King Jr. assassinated

  • Robert F. Kennedy assassinated

  • Richard Nixon elected president
    •  1969

  • Neil Armstrong becomes first man to walk on moon.

  • Charles Manson and the Manson "family" arrested in Tate/LaBianaca murders

  • Sesame Street airs for first time

  • Woodstock Music Festival held

  • Yasser Arafat becomes leader of the PLO
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    Credits:

    CBS/AP