1960s

Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century

Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s - 1960s - 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s

Years: 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969

Events and Trends

The 1960s was a turbulent decade of change around the world. Many of the trends of the 1960s were due to the demographic changes brought about by the baby boom generation and the dissolution of European colonial empires. (See The Sixties.)

Post-Colonialism; many new or previously colonized countries achieve independence in Africa, Asia.
Cultural Revolution in mainland China causes political and economic chaos.
Civil War begins in Nigeria
Beginning of The Troubles in Northern Ireland.
Six-Day War between Israelis and Arabs.
Berlin Wall built, in 1961.
United Nations imposes sanctions against South Africa in protest at Apartheid.
Bay of Pigs Invasion
Civil rights movement; end of official segregation and disenfranchisement of African-Americans
Cuban Missile Crisis
John F. Kennedy assassinated in 1963; his brother Robert F. Kennedy assassinated in 1968.
Martin Luther King Jr assassinated on April 4, 1968.
LBJ's Great Society program
Hippies, drug culture & Rock and roll converge at the Woodstock Festival & Concert, 1969.
Worldwide expansion of surrealism.
Students protesting perceived problems with the status-quo suppressed with violence by police and soldiers in USA, France, Mexico, Czechoslovakia.
Increase in crime, Los Angeles Watts Riot, 1965, Chicago riot, 1968 Democratic National Convention
Rise of the Baby Boom generation to adulthood; Sesame Street debuts on PBS.
First widespread availability of practical birth control pill for women; sexual revolution
The rise of radical feminism
Growing popularity of religions other than Christianity in the West, and of atheism; Time Magazine asks: "Is God Dead?"
The Vietnam War and protests, leading to Kent State University shootings in May, 1970
Growing hegemony of liberalism and socialist ideology in some universities; Reassessment of the Western canon
Rock and roll develops, diversifies, and becomes very hip. The Beatles eclipse Elvis Presley.
Widespread riots in France
Suppression of uprising in Czechoslovakia
Sweden abandons driving on the left side.
USSR puts first man Yuri Gagarin and first woman Valentina Tereshkova in space.
The United States puts man on Earth's Moon; geosynchronous satellites revolutionize global communications.
Start of the development of algorithmic information theory
2001: A Space Odyssey hits movie theaters.
James Bond movies.
The Quiet Revolution (Révolution tranquille) begins in Quebec - precipitous decline of the Roman Catholic church, liberalism, social-democratic programs, and the birth of modern Quebec nationalism
Early days of American gay rights movement, which explodes into the Stonewall riots of 1969
The Boston Celtics continue their record-breaking streak of NBA championships (which began in 1959) from 1960 to 1966.

World Leaders

Chairman Liu Shaoqi (People's Republic of China)
President Chiang Kai-shek (Republic of China on Taiwan)
President Gamal Abdel Nasser (Egypt)
President Charles de Gaulle (France)
Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru (India)
Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri (India)
Prime Minister Indira Gandhi (India)
Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion (Israel)
Prime Minister Levi Eshkol (Israel)
Emperor Hirohito (Japan)
Pope John XXIII
Pope Paul VI
Prime Minister Basil Brooke (Northern Ireland)
Prime Minister Terence O'Neill (Northern Ireland)
Prime Minister James Chichester-Clark (Northern Ireland)
Taoiseach Sean Lemass (Republic of Ireland)
Taoiseach Jack Lynch (Republic of Ireland)
Nikita Khrushchev (Soviet Union)
Leonid Brezhnev (Soviet Union)
Queen Elizabeth II (United Kingdom)
Prime Minister Harold Macmillan (United Kingdom)
Prime Minister Harold Wilson (United Kingdom)
President Dwight D. Eisenhower (United States)
President John F. Kennedy (United States)
President Lyndon Johnson (United States)
Chancellor Konrad Adenauer (West Germany)
Chancellor Ludwig Erhard (West Germany)
Chancellor Kurt Georg Kiesinger (West Germany)
Governor Luis A. Ferre (Commonwealth of Puerto Rico)

Sports figures

Entertainers

See also: List of rock and roll albums in the 1960s