1960 • The
Student League for Industrial Democracy changes its name to
Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and first meets in
Ann Arbor, Michigan. SDS dissociates itself from
LID in 1965, and becomes the most notable radical student political organization of the counterculture era. • A
beatnik community in
Cornwall, UK noted for wearing their hair past their shoulders, and including a young
Wizz Jones, is interviewed by
Alan Whicker for BBC television. • Harvard University lecturer
Timothy Leary and assistant professor
Richard Alpert begin experimenting with
hallucinogens at Cambridge, Massachusetts. The highly controversial Leary soon becomes the most notable advocate of
LSD use during the era. • February 1: The first of the
Greensboro sit-ins in North Carolina sparks a wave of similar protests against segregation at Woolworth and other retail store lunch counters across the American South. • March 26: Governor
Buford Ellington of Tennessee orders an investigation into a CBS news crew that filmed a Nashville sit-in. • April: The
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) is organized by
Ella Baker at
Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina. • May 1:
U-2 Incident: a U.S. spy plane searching for Soviet nuclear installations is shot down deep within the U.S.S.R. Presumed dead by the U.S., the CIA pilot
Francis Gary Powers is captured alive and paraded in the Russian press after the White House enlists
NASA in a botched and quickly exposed deception claiming that the plane went missing during a weather flight. • May 9:
The Pill: The U.S.
Food & Drug Administration approves the use of the first reliable form of birth control: a 99%-effective pill. The
Sexual revolution commences, at first in the bedrooms of married couples. • May 13:
Anti-HUAC protest in San Francisco: 400 police using fire hoses force a student "mob" out of a
House Un-American Activities Committee hearing at City Hall in San Francisco. The counterculture era of student political protest, outside of the ongoing
civil rights movement, begins. • May 19: SANE, the
Committee for a SANE Nuclear Policy, holds an anti-
nuclear arms race rally at
Madison Square Garden in
New York City, attended by 20,000 people. • July 11:
To Kill A Mockingbird:
Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning story of racial inequality is published and becomes a classic of American literature. The story is adapted into a movie in 1962. • November 8:
John F. Kennedy is elected 35th president of the United States, defeating sitting Vice President
Richard Nixon in what is considered to be the closest and most intellectually charged US presidential election since 1916. Nearly 70 million ballots are cast, but the margin of victory is approximately 100,000 votes.
1961 • January:
Look Magazine journalist
George Leonard writes about "Youth of the Sixties: The Explosive Generation" and predicts that the "
quiet generation" of the 1950s "is rumbling and is going to explode". • January 17: U.S. President (and retired
5-Star Army General)
Dwight Eisenhower gives his farewell address to the nation, and uses much of his time to warn of the undue influence of the "
military–industrial complex". • January 20: In a
powerful inaugural address, new U.S. President Kennedy calls upon citizens to "ask not what your country can do for you–-ask what you can do for your country". • March 1: Kennedy signs an executive order creating the
Peace Corps. • March 28: Although he supported the program during the 1960 campaign, Kennedy orders final cancellation of full production of the oft-resurrected USAF
B-70 Bomber program, in a significant attempted to control the
nuclear arms race. • March 30: The United Nations
Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs is signed in New York City, tightening controls on international trade in
opiates. • April 12:
Vostok: Man in Space: The Western world is again shocked when the Soviet Union follows its Sputnik triumph by putting the first human in space,
Yuri Gagarin. • April 17:
Bay of Pigs: A secret CIA-led invasion force intent on overthrowing Communist dictator
Fidel Castro lands on a remote beach in Cuba. Anti-Castro Cuban expatriates and CIA mercenaries are overtaken and captured by Cuban forces. President Kennedy attempts to cut losses and refuses to provide additional U.S. air support, dooming the operation. • May 4:
Freedom Riders: Civil rights activists travel on public buses and trains across the American South to personally confront and challenge segregation. • June 4: Kennedy meets with Soviet Premier
Nikita Khrushchev in
Vienna, and reports no progress on issues concerning a
partitioned Germany. Another
Berlin Crisis ensues. • July:
Amnesty International is formed in London after British attorney
Peter Benenson is outraged by the arrest of two students who raise a toast to freedom in
Portugal. The human rights organization wins the
Nobel Peace Prize in 1977. • August 13:
Berlin Wall: To stem the massive tide of emigration from the Communist East into the democratic West (200,000 escape
East Germany in 1960 alone), the construction of a wall dividing the city of Berlin begins under Soviet direction. • October 25: U.S. and Soviet tanks face off at
Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin. • November 1:
Women Strike for Peace: 50,000 women march in 60 cities throughout the U.S. to demonstrate against nuclear weapons. • November 30:
Cuban Project: Aggressive covert operations against Fidel Castro's revolutionary rule in Cuba are authorized by President Kennedy and soon implemented under the direction of his brother, Attorney General
Robert F. Kennedy. Implementation of the plan is highly unorthodox, with command oversight bring given to the new Attorney General, and not career military or intelligence officers. • December 14: Kennedy signs an executive order establishing the
Presidential Commission on the Status of Women.
1962 • January:
Black is Beautiful: The African Jazz-Art Society stages "Naturally '62," a fashion show in
Harlem, popularizing the phrase which would become important to the culture of the
civil rights movement. • January 12:
Operation Chopper: U.S. forces participate in major combat in Vietnam for the first time. • January 18:
Operation Ranch Hand: The U.S. military begins the use of extremely toxic and carcinogenic defoliants in Vietnam. Use of the
dioxin-containing
Agent Orange begins in 1965. Agent Orange has profound effects on large numbers of Vietnam veterans after the war ends. • March 16: U.S. Defense Secretary
Robert McNamara reveals that American troops in Vietnam have engaged in ground combat. • March 19:
Bob Dylan's self-named
first album is released. It reaches #13 in the UK, but does not chart on the
Billboard 200 in the U.S. Dylan's second album, ''
The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan'', makes an enormous impact on the American
folk and
pop music scenes in 1963. • March 31:
Cesar Chavez begins organizing migrant farm workers in California. • June 15: The
SDS completes the
Port Huron Statement, its manifesto calling for
participatory democracy and non-violent
civil disobedience as well as outlining its perceived problems with modern society. • July–August: The
Albany Movement civil rights protest against segregation is active in Georgia. • August 4: Film star
Marilyn Monroe dies of a barbiturate overdose under suspicious circumstances in Los Angeles. Monroe's death is a precursor to an explosion of recreational use of highly addictive prescription drugs (and thousands of accidental pill overdose deaths) during the counterculture era, even as legitimate use of these drugs is already in decline. • September 12: John F. Kennedy
speaks at Rice University: "... we choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard ..." • September 27:
Silent Spring: Following a growing groundswell of reports on the deleterious effects of
DDT use on the
ecosystem,
Rachel Carson's exposé is published and the modern environmental movement begins. • October 1: Following a
riot which leaves 2 dead and over 300 injured on September 30,
James Meredith is the first African-American student to enter the University of Mississippi, known popularly as
"Ole Miss". • October 5: "
Love Me Do":
The Beatles' first single is released in Great Britain. From this modest beginning the group eventually goes on to sell over 600 million records worldwide and remains as of 2023 the best selling musical group of all time. Earlier in the year,
Decca Records and other labels chose not to sign the group to a contract. • October 16–28: The
Cuban Missile Crisis brings the world to the brink of nuclear war after the U.S.S.R. attempts to station missiles with nuclear warheads in Cuba. On October 22, President Kennedy bluntly addresses the nation on a matter of "highest national urgency" and discusses the possibility of global nuclear war. Kennedy's generals advise him to invade Cuba, but he orders a naval blockade instead. The Soviets back down and remove the missiles. • The
Esalen Institute is founded in
Big Sur, California by
Michael Murphy and
Dick Price. •
Sex and the Single Girl:
Helen Gurley Brown's post-pill career and dating manual becomes a best-seller. Brown's attempted stunt to have the book "banned" for marketing purposes fails, but early sales top two million copies. Brown goes on to edit the influential
Cosmopolitan Magazine for over 30 years. •
The Other America:
Michael Harrington's compelling study of the intractable plight of the poor in the U.S. is published. The book is later credited as an inspiration to President Lyndon Johnson's "
war on poverty". •
Ken Kesey's ''
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'' is published. The novel draws in part from Kesey's experiences as an MKUltra volunteer. An
Oscar-winning adaptation hits theaters in 1975. •
Seven Days in May, a novel depicting a foiled
military coup in the U.S., is published. A film follows in 1964 with an all-star cast.
1963 •
Bob Fass begins the long-running late night
Radio Unnameable program on WBAI-FM in New York City, a non-commercial listener-supported station that is later remembered as "the pulse of the movement" by
Wavy Gravy. •
Principia Discordia is published, starting the
Discordian movement. • February 19: Influenced by
Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex,
Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique is published. The
modern feminist movement is born. • April: Chandler Laughlin organizes a
Native American Church peyote ceremony, a forerunner to the
Red Dog Experience. • April–May:
Birmingham Campaign: Civil rights activists organized by
James Bevel and
Martin Luther King are attacked by police in Birmingham, Alabama. Similar events occur at various locations across Southern states throughout the spring and summer. • May 1: Undercover Bunny:
Gloria Steinem's Playboy Club exposé appears in
Show Magazine. • May: The first organized
Vietnam War protests occur in England and Australia. • June 10:
A Strategy of Peace: President Kennedy delivers a powerful commencement speech at
American University. • June 11: Buddhist monk
Thich Quang Duc self-immolates in Saigon. AP photographer
Malcolm Browne's coverage of the horrific event reportedly motivates Kennedy to increase U.S. troop strength in the developing Vietnam War. • June 12:
NAACP Field Secretary
Medgar Evers is assassinated in Jackson, Mississippi. • June 17: The U.S. Supreme Court rules in the
Abington School District v. Schempp case that public school-sponsored Bible reading is not permitted by the
First Amendment of the Constitution. • July 26–28: The
Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island features Bob Dylan and fellow protest singers
Pete Seeger,
Joan Baez,
Phil Ochs, and
Peter, Paul & Mary. • August 28:
I Have a Dream: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gives his landmark speech before 200,000 on the
National Mall in Washington, D.C., during the
March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. • September 24: The
U.S. Senate ratifies The
Partial Test Ban Treaty as signed by the U.S., the Soviet Union, and the United Kingdom, ending testing of nuclear weapons under water, in the atmosphere, and in space. • September 26: The US Senate debates a report accusing
folk music of promoting
Communism. Two senators speak and conclude the musicians were entitled to speak their minds freely. The report was dismissed. • October 21, 1960: Publication of
Paul Goodman's
Growing Up Absurd, a deeply critical examination of American society, which Goodman held responsible for the widespread sense of alienation among American youth. The book was widely read by college students and young activists throughout the Sixties, and Goodman was invited to speak at hundreds of colleges. • October 27: 225,000 students in
Chicago public schools boycott classes in protest against ongoing segregation. • October 31:
Harvard University is scandalized by a disclosure that students have engaged in on-campus "sex orgies." • November 2: South Vietnamese President
Ngo Dinh Diem is assassinated in
Saigon. • November 22: U.S. President John F. Kennedy is
assassinated while traveling in an open-air motorcade during a visit to Dallas, Texas at age 46. Vice President
Lyndon Baines Johnson is sworn in as 36th president shortly thereafter, on a return plane to Washington before it takes off. • November 24: Suspected Kennedy assassin
Lee Harvey Oswald is himself murdered by a Dallas nightclub proprietor,
Jack Ruby, while he is being transported by inadequate police security in Dallas. The episodes adds further shock and anguish to an already-grief-stricken American public and creates doubt in the minds of those predisposed toward conspiratorial explanations of historical events. Such individuals begin circulating myriad
theories concerning the
original Kennedy Assassination and the veracity of later
government investigations.
1964 • January:
The Holy Modal Rounders' version of "Hesitation Blues" marks the first reference to the term
psychedelic in popular music. • January 8: President Johnson's State of the Union address features a declaration of a
War on Poverty. • January 13: ''
The Times They Are A-Changin''':
Bob Dylan's third album is released and the
title track is soon considered to be the most prophetic and relevant American
protest song of the era. Dylan disagrees with the interpretation, claiming instead that the song "is a feeling." • January 23: The
Twenty-fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution ratified: the U.S. Congress and states are prohibited from conditioning the right to vote in federal elections on payment of a
poll tax or other forms of tax. This is a direct attack on policies aimed to deter blacks from voting in Southern states. • February 1:
I Want to Hold Your Hand: The Beatles achieve their first hit No. 1 on
Billboard with a 7-week run on top.
Beatlemania has spread to America, and the monumental
British Invasion of music across the free world is underway. • February 3: Nearly half a million public school students participate in the
New York City school boycott of classes in protest against segregation patterns. • February 7–22: The Beatles make their first visit to the U.S. and are showcased three times on
The Ed Sullivan Show. The February 9 telecast is seen by over 73 million viewers, and remains the largest audience for an American network broadcast television program to date in the US. • February 25–26: Tens of thousands of school students in Boston and Chicago sit out of classes in protest against segregation in their respective cities. • April 4: Beatles singles occupy the top five slots on the Billboard Hot 100. This is an unprecedented chart achievement that has yet to be equaled by another recording artist. • April 13:
Sidney Poitier becomes the first man of African descent to win the Oscar for Best Actor in Santa Monica, California. • April 20: Approximately 85% of black students in Cleveland boycott classes to protest segregation. • May:
Robert Jasper Grootveld's surreal
happenings begin in
Spui square in
Amsterdam with his unpredictable performances and famous cries of "Klaas is Coming!" and "Uche, Uche, Uche". Later described as the "announcer of the international spirit of revolution," Grootveld gained a following of
Nozems (Dutch rockers) and inspired the start of the
Provo (Provocation) movement in both Holland and California, introducing a playful element into social protest. • May: Appearance of the
Faire Free Press (later the
Los Angeles Free Press), considered the earliest of many "underground" American newspapers of the
time. • May: San Francisco
Sheraton Palace Hotel sit-ins result in arrests of
University of California, Berkeley students protesting racially discriminatory hiring practices in the
Bay area of California. • May 7: President Johnson first refers to "the
Great Society" in a speech at
Ohio University. • May 12: The first public
draft-card burning takes place in New York City. • June 14:
The Merry Pranksters: Led by author
Ken Kesey, an assemblage of adventure seekers departs California in the repurposed school bus
Further en route to the
1964 World's Fair in Queens, New York City. • June 22:
I Know it When I See it: The U.S. Supreme Court overturns the obscenity conviction of an Ohio theater operator. Although local obscenity battles continue for years, the decision clears the way for the commercial exhibition of
sexually explicit film material throughout American, overriding state and local prohibitions. • July 2: The
Civil Rights Act of 1964 is signed by President Johnson.
Racial segregation in public places and race-based
employment discrimination are now banned under Federal law. Some Southern states and localities, however, begin a systematic program of opposition. • August 2: An Undeclared War: what were later revealed to be spurious incidents in the
Gulf of Tonkin off the coast of Vietnam lead to the nearly unanimous passage of the
a resolution by the U.S. Congress on August 7, giving the President broad authority, unprecedented in American history to engage in full "conventional" military escalation in
Southeast Asia without obtaining a formal
declaration of war. • August 28: The Beatles reportedly use
marijuana for the first time, allegedly supplied by Bob Dylan in New York City. • September: Two
National Farmers Organization members are killed when they and about 500 others attempt to stop a truck from taking cattle to market. • October 1: The
Free Speech Movement begins with a student sit-in at the University of California, Berkeley. • October 14: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wins the
Nobel Peace Prize. • October 25:
The Rolling Stones appear on
The Ed Sullivan Show and create so much audience disruption that Sullivan bans the "lewd" group from his show. Sullivan, however, would rescind his ban due to the rock group's immense popularity during the remaining seven years of his program's duration. • November 3: Sitting President Lyndon B. Johnson is elected in his own right, defeating Republican Arizona Senator
Barry Goldwater in a landslide. Goldwater campaigns on a hard-line conservative platform that includes opposition to Civil Rights measures and is accused by the Johnson campaign of favoring nuclear weapons to settle world conflicts, a point made in a television advertisement that is considered the first modern-day political "
attack ad." • November 4: Comedian
Lenny Bruce is convicted on obscenity charges in New York City after performing a routine about Eleanor Roosevelt's "
tits" and other "offensive" subject matter. Bruce is soon sentenced to a workhouse. • December 2: Put Your Bodies Upon the Gears: In a now-famous speech during a Berkeley sit-in, student
Mario Savio tells supporters of the Free Speech Movement to protest the "machine" of the University of California's administration.
1965 • February 8: Aerial bombing of North Vietnam by the U.S. commences with
Operation Rolling Thunder. • February 9–15: Thousands demonstrate against American attacks on North Vietnam at the U.S. Embassies in
Moscow,
Budapest,
Jakarta, and
Sofia. • February 21:
Malcolm X, an Islamic cleric and the putative leader of the militant wing of the Civil Rights movement, is assassinated in New York City. • March: Several protestors are arrested for publicly uttering profanity in the "
Filthy Speech Movement" at UC Berkeley. • March 7–25: The SCLC stages the watershed
Selma to Montgomery marches, initially organized by James Bevel. • March 8: 1,400 Marines of the U.S.
9th Marine Expeditionary Brigade begin to land on
beaches near Da Nang. The arrival of the Marines heralds the direct involvement of American combat units in Vietnam. • March 16:
Alice Herz, an 82-year-old German émigré, burns herself to death in Detroit while protesting escalation of military activities in Vietnam. Herz dies 10 days later. • March 24–25: The first major "
Teach-in" is held by the SDS in
Ann Arbor, Michigan. Some 3000 persons attend. • March 25:
For Your Love: Already a guitar legend, blues purist
Eric Clapton quits
The Yardbirds after the release of the proto-psychedelic hit. Clapton recommends
Jimmy Page to fill his spot. Page declines the offer, but suggests
Jeff Beck, who accepts. In 1966, Page joins the group. He and several other British musicians would start the pioneering "
heavy metal" band Led Zeppelin in 1968. • Spring:
Don't trust anyone over 30: Berkeley graduate student and Free Speech activist Jack Weinberg's quip is quoted in paraphrase, inadvertently generating a key catchphrase frequently used by people in that age group. • Spring: A circle of late-beat-era folk musicians including
John Phillips,
Michelle Phillips,
Cass Elliot, and
Denny Doherty rusticate in a communal beach tent on
St. Thomas to party and create music. The working vacation, financed on Phillips' American Express card, results in the formation of
The Mamas and the Papas, and a lucrative recording contract. The events are recounted in song on the group's hit 1967 single "
Creeque Alley". • April: Beatles
John Lennon and
George Harrison experience LSD for the first time at a British dinner party hosted by Harrison's dentist. • April: American combat troops in Vietnam total 25,000. • April 16:
Needle of Death: The debut album of Scottish folk musician
Bert Jansch features a song of warning concerning the deadly dangers of
heroin. • April 17: The first major anti-Vietnam War rally in the U.S. is organized by the SDS in Washington, D.C. 20,000 attend the
March Against the Vietnam War. Folk singers
Joan Baez,
Judy Collins, and
Phil Ochs perform. • May:
Owsley Stanley returns to the Bay Area of northern California with the first large batch of LSD to sell as a recreational drug. • May 5:
Draft card burnings take place in Berkeley. Several hundred University of California students confront the Berkeley Draft Board (BDB) and deliver a black coffin to the staff. • May:
Jerry Rubin,
Stephen Smale,
Paul Montauk,
Abbie Hoffman and other war opponents form the
Vietnam Day Committee. • May 20–22: The
Vietnam Day Committee organizes the largest Vietnam
teach-in to date. Some 30,000 reportedly attend the 36-hour event in Berkeley, including
Benjamin Spock,
Norman Thomas, Norman Mailer, Mario Savio,
Paul Krassner,
Dick Gregory and Phil Ochs. Hundreds march, again, to the local draft board office, where President Johnson is hanged in effigy, and many burn draft cards. • May:
Drop City: One of the earliest American
hippie communes is founded in Colorado. The Droppers build
geodesic domes constructed from trashed automobile hoods and roofs, notably involving collaborations with
Steve Baer and
Buckminster Fuller-inspired
Zomes. • June:
Kim Fowley releases the song "
The Trip" which contains one of the first explicit references to an
LSD trip in a commercially released rock song. • June–August:
Red Dog Experience comes into full flower at
Virginia City, Nevada's Red Dog Saloon – a full-fledged "hippie" identity takes shape. • June 7:
Griswold v. Connecticut: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that the Constitution's guarantee to a right to privacy invalidates a Connecticut statute banning use of contraceptives by married couples, a law enacted by a government composed largely of adherents to the
Roman Catholic faith, which has always held birth control to be a
sin worthy of eternal punishment. "
Comstock-era" laws are likewise now moot in other states. In 1972, the Court rules that the protections must be applied to unmarried couples as well. • June 11:
International Poetry Incarnation: Notables including
Allen Ginsberg,
Lawrence Ferlinghetti,
Michael Horovitz, and
William S. Burroughs participate in a breakthrough event for the
UK underground,
Royal Albert Hall, London. • June 11: The Beatles are appointed as Members of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (
MBE) by
Queen Elizabeth for their contributions to British arts and commerce. The myth that the group smoked marijuana in a Palace bathroom after the investiture ceremony in October is later debunked by George Harrison. • July 25: Bob Dylan
"goes electric" and is booed by some attendees at the Newport Folk Festival. • July 30:
Medicare is signed into law in the U.S., giving senior citizens the ability to afford health care, without worrying about being dependent upon children or losing their assets. • August: Phil Ochs releases the satirical "
Draft Dodger Rag" on the album ''
I Ain't Marching Anymore. He later performs the song on the CBS News special Avoiding the Draft''.
Pete Seeger's version appears in 1966. • August 6: The
Voting Rights Act is signed into law in the U.S.; "
Literacy tests",
poll taxes and other local schemes to prevent voting by blacks are newly or further banned under Federal law. • August 11: Watts:
Six days of massive race riots erupt in
the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles. 34 die, 1000 are injured, hundreds of buildings are looted or destroyed, and thousands of people are arrested. Meanwhile, smaller riots occur in Chicago. • August 24:
She Said She Said: Shortly after setting a concert attendance record at
Shea Stadium, Queens, New York, the Beatles briefly rest in
Benedict Canyon in Los Angeles, near the end of their grueling
American tour. With ongoing
Beatlemania preventing the band from leaving their rented home, they invite local company, including members of the
Byrds,
Peter Fonda,
Joan Baez, and
Peggy Lipton. An LSD trip inspires John Lennon to write a song, which appears on
Revolver in 1966. As the era progresses, nearby
Laurel Canyon becomes home to many prominent counterculture musicians. • August 30: Bob Dylan's
Highway 61 Revisited is released, featuring the six-minute single "
Like a Rolling Stone". • August 31:
Destruction of draft cards becomes formally prohibited by U.S. law. • September 5: The word
hippie is used in print by San Francisco writer Michael Fallon, helping popularise use of the term in the media. However, the term had appeared earlier, e.g. in a remark about marijuana cookies by syndicated journalist
Dorothy Kilgallen in her June 11, 1963, column. • September 8: Actress
Dorothy Dandridge, the first African-American nominated for a Best Actress Oscar, dies of an apparent accidental prescription drug overdose in Los Angeles, although a later analysis suggests a rare embolism may have been the cause. • September 15:
I-Spy: Comedian
Bill Cosby becomes the first African-American to star in a dramatic American television series. (
Amanda Randolph had starred in the comedy
The Laytons on the short-lived DuMont Network in the late 1940s.) • September 25:
The Beatles Saturday morning cartoon series debuts on U.S. television, aimed at an audience of children. • September 25:
Eve of Destruction:
Barry McGuire's version of
P.F. Sloan's work becomes the first protest song to hit No. 1 in the charts. However, it draws heavy criticism and is banned by numerous radio stations. • October: Australian
garage rock band
the Missing Links release the single "H'tuom Tuhs Part 1 / H'tuom Tuhs Part 2", which contains one of the earliest uses of
reverse tape effects on a
rock recording. • October: The Yardbirds, featuring Jeff Beck, release the single "
Shapes of Things" with the
B-side "Still I'm Sad." By this,
psychedelic rock first makes the charts. • October 1:
The East Village Other begins publication in
East Village, Manhattan, New York City. • October 15–16:
Vietnam War protests in cities across the U.S. draw 100,000. • October 16: A Tribute to Dr. Strange:
Dan Hicks helps organize a Family Dog event where 1,000 original San Francisco "hippies" party en masse at
Longshoreman's Hall. Still yet to be prohibited by Federal or state law, Owsley's "White Lightning" acid (
LSD) is made available to all. • November:
The Autobiography of Malcolm X is published posthumously by
Grove Press. Derived from interviews of the slain activist by writer
Alex Haley, it is considered to be one of the most influential works of non-fiction of the 20th century.
Doubleday's cancellation of its original contract for the bestseller is later viewed by critics as the biggest mistake in publishing history. • November 2: Quaker leader
Norman Morrison self-immolates at
the Pentagon to protest the war. Secretary of Defense McNamara witnesses the scene from his office in the building. • November 5:
My Generation:
The Who speak to the new youth. "This is my generation!" and "I hope I die before I get old" become mantras of the rising counterculture. • November 9: Catholic peace activist
Roger Allen LaPorte self-immolates at the United Nations building in New York City. • November 19:
Fifth Estate: The first issue of the long-running
anti-authoritarian newspaper is published in Detroit. • November 20: 8,000 anti-war protesters march from Berkeley to Oakland in California. • November 27: Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters hold the first "
Acid Test" at Soquel, California. • November 27: Up to 35,000 anti-war protesters march in front of the
White House. • November 30:
Unsafe at Any Speed: Activist attorney
Ralph Nader's wake-up call concerning automotive safety is published and fuels the modern
Consumer Movement. Nader's ongoing work contributes to the passage of the U.S.
National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966. In 1972 alone, annual American
highway deaths peak at 54,589, approaching the total number of war dead during the entire duration of U.S. combat involvement in Vietnam. • December:
California Dreamin': A westward clarion call is released by
The Mamas and the Papas. • December: The
Pretty Things release
Get the Picture?. The album includes a song entitled
£.S.D. • December 3: The Beatles'
Rubber Soul is released in the United Kingdom with a visually distorted image of the group on the cover. The album contains "
Norwegian Wood", which sparks the "great
sitar explosion" in pop music. • December 23: Timothy Leary is
arrested for drug possession at the U.S.-Mexico border.
1966 • January 8: 2,400 attend when the "
Acid Tests" arrive at the
Fillmore West nightclub in San Francisco. • January 21–23:
Chet Helms' Family Dog "
Trips Festival" is attended by 10,000 in San Francisco; half are reputedly under the influence of LSD. • February 10:
Valley of the Dolls:
Jacqueline Susann's best-selling novel of sex and the perils of prescription drug abuse by women is published. • March 8:
London Free School is launched by
John "Hoppy" Hopkins and
Rhaune Laslett, leading to the start of the
International Times/IT, the
UFO Club and the
Notting Hill Carnival as a street party featuring some of the earliest performances of
Pink Floyd. • March 14:
Eight Miles High:
The Byrds' psychedelic
12-string-electric guitar anthem is released and briefly banned on radio due to perceived drug-culture subject matter. • March 16: 12 Australians burn their draft cards at a
Sydney rally against Australia's participation in the Vietnam War. • March 25–27: Anti-Vietnam War demonstrations take place in many cities across America and around the world. • April: What a Drag it is Getting Old: "
Mother's Little Helper", the Rolling Stones' single about prescription pill-popping housewives, is released in Great Britain. "
Doctor Robert", the Beatles' similar nod to a liberally prescribing physician,
appears in June. • April 5:
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration warns about the danger of LSD in a letter sent to some 2,000 universities. • April 7:
Sandoz, the sole legitimate manufacturer of pharmaceutical-grade LSD, stops supplying the drug to researchers. • April 17:
Millbrook: Under the auspices of then-prosecutor
G. Gordon Liddy, Timothy Leary is arrested for possession of marijuana at his upstate New York retreat, a haven of East Coast hippie activity. Liddy cannot, however, prosecute Leary for possessing LSD, which is still legal. • May:
Folk rock band
the Lovin' Spoonful were arrested in San Francisco, California, for possessing one ounce (28 g) of
marijuana. The
arrest marked the first time 1960s pop musicians were busted for possessing illegal drugs. • May 7:
Psychedelic bellwether "
Paint It Black" is released in the U.S. by the Rolling Stones. • May 12: Students take over the administration building at the
University of Chicago in protest against the draft. • May 15: 10,000 anti-war protesters picket the White House. • May 16:
The Beach Boys release the highly influential album
Pet Sounds. • May 18: 10,000 students rally against the draft at the
University of Wisconsin, Madison. • May 29: The phrase "
Black Power" re-emerges among contenders for Civil Rights. • May 30: Featuring
reversed sounds for the first time on a pop music recording, the Beatles' psychedelic "
Rain" is released as the B-side of "
Paperback Writer". • May/June:
Resurgence magazine is first published in the United Kingdom. Notable contributors will include
E. F. Schumacher,
Ivan Illich,
R. D. Laing and
The Dalai Lama. • June 4:
The New York Times publishes a petition to end the Vietnam War, containing 6,400 signatures, including many prominent scholars and clergy. • June 10: After appearing in a television documentary in January,
Donovan is arrested in London for possession of cannabis, and is perhaps the first notable counterculture musician to be targeted in the growing
war on drugs. The incident is later derided as "ridiculous" and "comical". • June 13:
Miranda v. Arizona: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution provides protection against self-incrimination, thus requiring Federal, state, and local law enforcement officials to advise a suspect interrogated while in custody of the right to remain silent and the right to obtain an attorney. • June 25:
Lenny Bruce performs for the last time. The show at the Fillmore West in San Francisco also showcases
Frank Zappa. • June 27:
Freak Out!, a pioneer
concept album, is released by Frank Zappa's
Mothers of Invention. • June 30: The
National Organization of Women (NOW) is founded in Washington, D.C. • June 30: In their tour press conference in Tokyo, the Beatles speak out publicly against the Vietnam War for the first time, defying their manager
Brian Epstein's insistence that they remain
apolitical. During the band's subsequent American tour, in August, George Harrison says: "War is wrong, and it's obvious it's wrong. And that's all that needs to be said about it." • July:
Beatle backlash: Some American disc jockeys in the Southern and Midwestern U.S., responding to pressure by conservative religious groups hostile to the counterculture, incite thousands to burn Beatles records after John Lennon uttered a comment claiming that his band was "more popular than Jesus." • July:
Sunshine Superman: Donovan's hit contains the first open reference to "tripping" in a chart-topping song. • July: After skipping
an invitation to a breakfast reception from Philippines' dictators
Ferdinand & Imelda Marcos, the Beatles find themselves stranded without police protection and in fear for their lives. John Lennon states that "if we go back, it will be with an H-Bomb." • July 16:
Wes Wilson's rock concert poster for
The Association, playing at
the Fillmore, is the first significant
psychedelic rock concert poster, after which many follow for other concerts, and the style becomes significant. • July 29: Bob Dylan crashes his motorcycle near
Woodstock, New York, and begins a period of much-needed retreat from public life. • July–September: Riots break out throughout the summer in several American cities, with deaths in Chicago and Cleveland (July),
Waukegan, Illinois, and
Benton Harbor, Michigan (August), and damage in many other cities. • August 3: Lenny Bruce, called "the most radically relevant of all contemporary social satirists" is found dead at age 40 from a
morphine overdose in Los Angeles. • August 5: The Beatles release their album
Revolver, which includes "
Tomorrow Never Knows", a song that came to be widely regarded as "the most effective evocation of a LSD experience ever recorded". The track is founded on a single-chord
tambura drone and features
tape loops, backward sounds and other
musique concrète elements, and lyrics taken from Timothy Leary's
The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead. • August 29:
Candlestick Park: The Beatles perform their final concert in San Francisco, before retiring from live performances. • September 9: LSD is banned in Great Britain. • September 19: Timothy Leary begins his "
Turn on, tune in, drop out" crusade in New York City, founding a
de facto religion centered around LSD titled "
League for Spiritual Discovery". • September 20: Anti-establishment publisher
Allen Cohen's underground newspaper The San Francisco Oracle begins publication in the
Haight-Ashbury district. • October 6: The use and sale of LSD is formally prohibited in the U.S. • October 6:
Love Pageant Rally: A gathering of hippies, including many notable Haight-Ashbury luminaries is held in San Francisco, marking the LSD ban. The
Grateful Dead and
Janis Joplin perform for free. Despite the Federal ban, the illicit manufacture and use of LSD continues. • October 10:
Good Vibrations: The Beach Boys release
Brian Wilson and
Mike Love's psychedelic
tour de force. • October 15: The
Black Panther Party is established by
Huey Newton and
Bobby Seale in
Oakland, California. • November 9: Beatle John Lennon first meets avant-garde Japanese artist and future wife
Yoko Ono at London's
Indica Gallery. • November 12:
For What It's Worth: The
Sunset Strip teen curfew riots in West Hollywood, California inspire
Stephen Stills to pen a protest song for his rock group
Buffalo Springfield. • December 8:
MGM releases the British film
Blow-Up without approval of the movie ratings group
MPAA, signalling the beginning of the end of enforcement of the
Hays Code. In late 1968, the MPAA institutes the first voluntary system of movie ratings, intended as a guide for viewers as to a film's content and age-appropriateness. • December 17:
Diggers "Death of Money"
happening on Haight Street. Two
Hells Angels who join the action are arrested, and a large crowd marches to the police station in spontaneous protest. • December 23 & 30:
UFO Club, London's first
psychedelic nightclub, opens. Hoppy and
Joe Boyd hire an
Irish venue, The Blarney Club, on
Tottenham Court Road, bringing the sound/light show of
Pink Floyd and
Soft Machine to the
West End. • December 30: Hoppy's London flat is raided. Hoppy and four others are arrested for possession of marijuana.
1967 • January 12: LSD is the subject of
the debut "Blue Boy" episode of the topical, but
square and sermon-laden television police drama ''
Dragnet '67''. The program is a revival of a popular 1950s show and incessantly promotes the need for "
law and order" in American life. Jack Webb, who portrays a middle-aged detective and produces the program, parlays the show's success among conservative and patriotic audiences into several other successful programs in the 1970s. • January 14:
Human Be-In: "The joyful, face-to-face beginning of the new epoch" is held in
Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. 20,000 attend. • January 28:
The Million Volt Light and Sound Rave: The Beatles contribute a to-date unreleased experimental "sound collage" for early
raves at the
Round House Theatre, London. • January 29: The
Mantra-Rock Dance is held at the
Avalon Ballroom in San Francisco. The
Hare Krishna religion is promoted, and the Grateful Dead,
Big Brother and the Holding Company and
Moby Grape perform. Ginsberg, Leary and Owsley attend. • February:
Surrealistic Pillow by
Jefferson Airplane is released.
Grace Slick becomes the first major female
rock music performer.
Psilocybin mushrooms are visible on the album cover. Tracks include "
White Rabbit", and "D.C.B.A.-25", referring to the song's chords and LSD-25. • February:
Noam Chomsky's anti-Vietnam War essay
The Responsibility of Intellectuals is published in
The New York Review of Books. • February 5: The
Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour debuts on CBS television and soon pushes the boundaries of
acceptable broadcast content to the limit. • February 10:
A Day in the Life: The Beatles stage a gathering of rock and other celebrities including Donovan, Keith Richards, Mick Jagger,
Mike Nesmith and
Pattie Boyd to observe the recording of the final orchestral overdubs for ''
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'' at
Abbey Road Studios in London. • February 11: New York disc jockey
Bob Fass uses the airwaves to inspire an impromptu gathering of thousands at
Kennedy Airport, in what is later called a "prehistoric
flash mob". • February 13: The Beatles issue John Lennon's psychedelic masterwork "
Strawberry Fields Forever" as part of a double A-side with "
Penny Lane". Either the words "Cranberry sauce" or "
I buried Paul" is heard after the song fades out, something disputed fiercely by listeners. • February 14: London's first
Macrobiotic Restaurant run by
Craig Sams opens at
Centre House and also supplies food to the UFO Club. • February 17: The cover of
Life Magazine features
Ed Sanders of
The Fugs below "HAPPENINGS – The worldwide underground of the arts creates – THE OTHER CULTURE." • February 22:
MacBird! opens at the
Village Gate in New York City and runs for 386 performances. The controversial play compares Lyndon Johnson to Shakespeare's
Macbeth, who caused the death of his predecessor. • March 26: 10,000 attend the New York City "
Be-In" in
Central Park. • April 4: "
Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence": Martin Luther King Jr. delivers a monumental anti-war speech. • April 8–10: Race riots break out in
Nashville, Tennessee. Activist
Stokely Carmichael and Allen Ginsberg are present. • April 15:
National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam: An estimated 400,000 protest the escalating Vietnam War in New York City, marching from Central Park to
UN Headquarters. Martin Luther King Jr.,
James Bevel, Benjamin Spock, and
Stokely Carmichael speak. 75,000 assemble in San Francisco where Coretta Scott King speaks. • April 28: Boxing champion
Muhammad Ali refuses induction into the U.S. Army in Houston, Texas, on the grounds that he is a
conscientious objector to the war in Vietnam. • April 29:
The 14 Hour Technicolor Dream: Pink Floyd featuring
Syd Barrett headlines for 7,000 attending a groundbreaking televised psychedelic rave to promote love and peace at
Alexandra Palace, London. • May: The radical left-wing underground newspaper
Seed begins publication in Chicago. • May 2: Armed
Black Panthers led by
Bobby Seale enter the chambers of the
California State Assembly in
Sacramento, protesting a bill to outlaw open carry of loaded firearms. Seale and five others are arrested. • May 5:
Mr. Natural:
Robert Crumb's soon-to-be ubiquitous
underground comix counterculture icon makes his first appearance in the premiere issue of
Yarrowstalks. • May 10: Rolling Stone
Brian Jones is arrested for drug possession. He is arrested again in 1968. Jones' conviction record renders him largely unable to tour outside of Great Britain. • May 15–17: Student protesters confront police at the historically African-American
Texas Southern University in
Houston, resulting in the death of a police officer and over 400 arrests. • May 20–21: The
Spring Mobilization Conference is held in Washington, D.C. Seven hundred anti-war activists gather to discuss the April 15 protests, and to plan future demonstrations. • June:
Vietnam Veterans Against the War is formed in New York City. • June–July: Race riots create upheaval in cities across the U.S. • June–September: The "
Summer of Love" in
Haight-Ashbury,
San Francisco and recognition of the
hippie movement. • June 1: The Beatles' ''
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'' is released and widely recognized as the high-water mark of the brief
psychedelic rock era. Some critics would, years later, rate it as the greatest rock album of all time. • June 10–11:
Fantasy Fair and Magic Mountain Music Festival: The Summer of Love kicks off at
Mount Tamalpais,
Marin County, California. Over 30,000 see the Byrds, Doors, Jefferson Airplane,
Country Joe & the Fish, and dozens of other acts perform in the first rock festival gathering of its kind. • June 12: The U.S. Supreme Court, in
Loving v. Virginia, rules that state laws prohibiting interracial marriage are unconstitutional. • June 16: Paul McCartney is the first Beatle to publicly discuss LSD use. Quotes from a British magazine are re-published in a
Life Magazine article entitled "The New Far-Out Beatles." McCartney is interviewed on film concerning the controversy on the 19th. • June 16–18: The
Monterey Pop Festival in
Monterey, California, organized principally by
John Phillips of
The Mamas and the Papas, draws thousands and is the first large, extended festival of the rock era.
Jimi Hendrix returns from the U.K. and makes his U.S. "debut."
David Crosby uses his time at the microphone to brashly condemn the
Warren Report. • June 25: The Beatles' contribute a performance of their summer U.K. hit
All You Need Is Love to the
first live global satellite TV broadcast, reaching an estimated 200–400 million people worldwide via the BBC. • July 7: The cover of
Time features "The Hippies: The Philosophy of a Subculture." • July 15–30:
Dialectics of Liberation Congress: A gathering of leftist intellectuals in London finds itself on the receiving end of a prank, when
Digger Emmett Grogan delivers a speech to rousing applause. The audience then becomes irate when Grogan reveals that his words are culled entirely from a 1937 speech by
Adolf Hitler. The episode later inspires a scene in the fictional 1971 cult film
Billy Jack. • July 16:
Hyde Park Rally: 5,000 gather in London to protest "immoral in principle and unworkable in practice" British marijuana laws. A petition signed by many notables is published. • July 23–27:
Detroit Riots: An arrest made on an early Sunday morning at a party where illegal liquor is sold provokes a youngster on a street outside to call for massive resistance to law enforcement, rapidly releasing years of aggravating tension between Detroit's Black community and the city's mostly White police force and local leaders. Within hours, the incident erupts into the worst outbreak of urban lawlessness of the century to date: 43 deaths, 467 injuries, over 7,200 arrests, and the burning of over 2,000 buildings to the ground. • August 27:
Death of Brian Epstein: the man credited with "discovering" the Beatles, their manager and friend, dies of a prescription drug overdose in London at age 32. • September 17:
The Doors perform their hit "
Light My Fire" on
The Ed Sullivan Show, but fail to remove the perceived drug term "higher" from the lyric as instructed by producers. • September 30: Hip
Radio 1 commences broadcast over the legitimate airwaves of the BBC following the U.K. ban on offshore "pirate" radio transmissions. • September: 18-year-old folk singer-songwriter
Arlo Guthrie releases the 18-minute song ''
Alice's Restaurant Massacree''. It becomes a staple of FM rock radio every Thanksgiving afterward. • October 2: 710 Ashbury Street: Members of
the Grateful Dead and others are busted for drug possession when their communal home is targeted and raided in San Francisco. • October 6: The "Death of Hippie" march is held in Haight-Ashbury by the Diggers as a mock funeral meant to signal the end of the
Summer of Love and stop further commercialization of the hippie movement. • October 9:
Death of Che Guevara: The Argentine revolutionary is executed in Bolivia. • October 17:
Stop the Draft Week: Demonstrators attack the U.S. Army Induction Center in Oakland, California. Singer Joan Baez is among those arrested. Some are charged with
sedition. • October 17:
Hair: a timely stage play featuring controversial full-frontal nudity premieres to mature audiences off-Broadway in New York City. The play becomes a Broadway smash in 1968. • October 19: Thousands of students clash with police at
Brooklyn College in New York after two military recruiters appear on campus. Students strike the following day. • October 20–21:
"Mobe's" March on the Pentagon: 100,000 protest the war in Washington, D.C. Jerry Rubin, Abbie Hoffman and others lead attempts at "exorcism" and levitation of the
Pentagon. • October 27:
Baltimore Four: Catholic priest
Philip Berrigan and three others are jailed after pouring blood on conscription files in the
SSS office, protesting the bloodshed in Vietnam. Berrigan is later convicted. • October 28: Black Panther leader
Huey Newton is stopped by Oakland police. A shootout resulting in the death of an officer leads to Newton's conviction, which is later overturned. • November 9:
Rolling Stone Magazine: John Lennon is featured on the cover of the first issue in a photo from the film
How I Won The War.
Rolling Stone becomes a focal point for news and reviews aimed at young people during the era, and continues to the present day. • November 10:
Disraeli Gears:
Cream's quintessential psychedelic rock album is released. • November 10: The
Moody Blues' masterpiece
Days of Future Passed, featuring psychedelic themes and the
London Festival Orchestra, is released. • November 20: Police, using tear gas, charge a large student demonstration against corporate recruiters for
napalm manufacturer Dow Chemical at
San Jose State College in California. • November 24:
I Am the Walrus: The Beatles release John Lennon's psychedelic
coda. The album
Magical Mystery Tour is released on November 27. • December 4–8: Anti-war groups across the U.S. attempt to shut down draft board centers. Dr. Benjamin Spock and poet Allen Ginsberg are among the 585 arrested in association with the initiative. • December 10: Monterey Pop Fest stand-out and soon-to-be soul legend
Otis Redding dies in a plane crash at age 26. • December 22: Owsley Stanley is found in possession of 350,000 doses of LSD and 1,500 doses of STP, arrested, and sentenced to three years in prison. • December 31:
Yippies: "Yippie" is coined by radicals Jerry Rubin, Abbie Hoffman,
Anita Hoffman,
Dick Gregory,
Nancy Kurshan and
Paul Krassner. In January, the Youth International Party is formed. Inspired by the Diggers, the humorous Yippies also take the counterculture protest movement into the realm of performance theater. • Originally a surgical anesthetic,
PCP begins to appear as a recreational drug.
1968 •
Tom Wolfe's The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test is published. • January: Owsley-inspired pioneer
heavy metal rock band
Blue Cheer release
Vincebus Eruptum, while early metal ground-breakers
Iron Butterfly release their debut,
Heavy. • January 22:
Laugh-In: The sketch comedy "phenomenon that both reflected and mocked the era's counterculture" and brought it into "mainstream living rooms" debuts on American television, on the NBC network. • January 31: The
Tet Offensive is launched by the North Vietnamese Army and the Viet Cong (sympathizers of the North in South Vietnam). Western forces are victorious on the battlefield, but press coverage, especially that by television, begins to turn public opinion against American military operations there. • February 1: Following the free-form programming experimentations at
KFRC-FM in San Francisco,
WABX-FM in Detroit and some other stations nationwide begin to officially change their formats. FM playlists and other content are increasingly chosen by local disc jockeys, instead of corporate executives or record companies. The
Progressive Rock format takes hold. • February 4: Beat figure and Merry Prankster
Neal Cassady dies in Mexico of unknown causes at age 41. • February 8:
Orangeburg Massacre: Police fire on and kill three people protesting segregation at a South Carolina bowling alley. • February 15:
The Beatles in India: All four Beatles, along with fellow devotees such as Mike Love, Donovan and
Mia Farrow, journey to
Rishikesh in India to study
Transcendental Meditation under
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
John Lennon and
George Harrison are the last of the celebrities to leave; they depart amid unsubstantiated rumors of the Maharishi's sexual impropriety toward some of the female students and the band members' suspicions that he was using their fame for self-promotion. • February 29: Kerner Report: The
Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders is released after seven months of investigation into American urban rioting, and states that "our nation is moving towards two societies, one black, one white – separate and unequal." • March 16:
My Lai Massacre in Vietnam. An apparently wanton rape and murder of civilians by American soldiers creates an enormous new anti-war outcry when the incident becomes public knowledge in 1969. • March 17: London police stop 10,000 anti-war marchers from violently storming the U.S. Embassy. Two hundred persons are arrested. The protest serves as partial inspiration for the Rolling Stones' most notable political foray, "
Street Fighting Man". • March 18:
RFK In: U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy (D-New York), a long-time supporter of American policy in Vietnam, speaks out against the war for the first time, and announces his candidacy for president. • March 22: 3,000 Yippies take over
Grand Central Station in New York City, staging a "Yip-In" that ultimately results in what was then termed an "extraordinary display of unprovoked police brutality" and 61 arrests. • March 31: LBJ Out: Embattled President Lyndon Johnson addresses the public about Vietnam on prime-time television and shocks the nation with his closing remark that, in order to focus on the war effort, he would forego pursuing a second elected term as president. The national political culture is thrown into chaos as a result. • Spring:
Reggae: "Nanny Goat" by
Larry Marshall, and
Do the Reggay by
Toots and the Maytals mark the arrival of a new musical genre to American shores.
Johnny Nash ("Hold Me Tight"), and Paul McCartney ("
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da") are inspired by the Jamaican sound. • March–May:
Columbia University protests occur in New York City. "
Up Against the Wall Motherfuckers" becomes a protest slogan at this time, as well as the name of a radical activist group. • April: The U.S. Department of Defense begins calling-up reservists for duty in Vietnam. The Supreme Court turns down a challenge to that mobilization in October. • April 4:
Martin Luther King Jr. assassinated: The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated on the balcony of a Memphis, Tennessee motel while in the city to assist a sanitation workers' strike.
James Earl Ray, a St. Louis, Missouri-area native who had no permanent residence, is soon arrested for the murder. The King family later expresses complete doubt as to Ray's guilt. Violence erupts in cities across the nation, with thousands of Federal troops dispatched. Memphis, Chicago, Baltimore, Kansas City, and Washington, D.C., in particular experience strong rioting. • April 5: A Yippie plot to disrupt the upcoming Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August is reported by
Time. • April 6: Oakland Shootout: Black Panther
Bobby Hutton is killed, and another,
Eldridge Cleaver, is wounded in a gun battle with police. Cleaver later claims that Hutton was murdered while in police custody. • April 8: The U.S.
Bureau of Narcotics (Treasury Department) and
Bureau of Drug Abuse Control (of the Food and Drug Administration) merge into the
Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, substantially ramping up efforts to rid the country of illegal substances. • April 14: The Easter Sunday "Love-In" is held in Malibu Canyon in California. • April 27: Anti-war protesters march in several American cities, including 87,000 in New York City's Central Park. • May:
The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers first appear in
The Rag, an Austin, Texas underground paper. • May 2:
MAI 68: Massive student protests erupt in France which escalate and spread, leading to a general strike and widespread civil unrest during May and June, bringing the country to a virtual standstill. • May 10: The
Paris Peace Talks commence in France, with the war in Southeast Asia the subject of the negotiations. • May 12: Martin Luther King's
Poor People's Campaign establishes "Resurrection City", a shanty town on the
National Mall in Washington, D.C., which around 5,000 protesters occupy. • May 17:
Catonsville Nine: Catholic priests opposed to the war, including
Daniel Berrigan, destroy records at a Maryland draft office. • May 24–27:
Louisville Riots: After a claim of police brutality, police and thousands of National Guard in Kentucky confront rioting protesters and looters. Two Black teenagers die before order is restored. • June 3: Artist
Andy Warhol is shot and wounded by a self-described "radical feminist" writer. • June 5:
Robert F. Kennedy assassinated: Senator Robert Francis Kennedy, winner of the California Democratic Presidential Primary earlier that day, and the new presumptive front-runner in that hotly contested race, is mortally wounded at a hotel in Los Angeles during a victory party. He dies June 6. • June 19: A "Solidarity Day" protest at Resurrection City draws 55,000 participants. • June 24: Remnants of "Resurrection City," with only some 300 protesters still remaining, are razed by riot police. • July 17: The Beatles' post-psychedelic,
pop-art animated film
Yellow Submarine is released in the U.K. (November 13 in the U.S.). • July 28–30: The University of California, Berkeley campus is shut down entirely by protests. • August 21:
Prague Spring: Communist tanks roll into Czechoslovakia and crush the popular anti-Soviet uprising which began in January. • August 25–29:
Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The proceedings are overshadowed by massive
protests staged by thousands of demonstrators of every political or social stripe.
Mayor Daley's desire to enforce rigid order in the city prompts local police to deal with the mostly peaceful protestors violently, a scene televised on national airwaves alongside the convention's proceedings. On the third night, police indiscriminately attack protesters and bystanders, including journalists
Mike Wallace and
Dan Rather and
Playboy publisher
Hugh Hefner. The next night police attack anti-war protesters in front of the Conrad Hilton Hotel as demonstrators chant "
The whole world is watching". The spectacle amounts to a turning point for both supporters and critics of the larger movement. • August 26:
Revolution?: Lennon's B-side to McCartney's smash "
Hey Jude" is released. Its eschewing of violent protest is seen as a betrayal by some on the left. A version recorded earlier is released in
November and suggests indecision as to Lennon's stance on violence. • August 31: First
Isle of Wight Festival featuring Jefferson Airplane,
Arthur Brown,
The Move,
T-Rex and
The Pretty Things takes place in Great Britain. • September 7:
Miss America Protest:
Feminists demonstrate against what they call "The Degrading Mindless-Boob-Girlie Symbol," filling a "freedom trash can" with housekeeping items such as mops, pots and pans, copies of
Cosmopolitan and
Playboy magazines, false eyelashes, high-heeled shoes, curlers, hairspray, makeup, girdles, corsets, and bras. The widely reported "burning of bras," despite not being substantiated by eyewitness evidence, becomes a potent
urban legend for the burgeoning "women's lib" movement. • September 24:
The Mod Squad: "One Black, One White, One Blonde" is the tagline for a hip, troubled-kids-turned-cops television police drama, which debuts on this date on ABC. It runs until 1973. • September 28: Ten thousand people in Chicago protest on the one-month anniversary of the Convention violence. • Fall: Stewart Brand begins publication of
The Whole Earth Catalog. • October 2:
Tlatelolco massacre: Students and police violently clash in Mexico City. • October 16:
Mexico '68: Medal-winning American sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos raise their gloved hands on the Olympic award podium to protest global human rights shortcomings. Their demonstration is met with both international praise and death threats alike, a sign of the polarization that is occurring among Americans outside youth and left-wing circles. • October 18: John Lennon and Yoko Ono are arrested for drug possession in London. Lennon is only fined for his first offence, and more serious obstruction charges against the pair are dropped, but the arrest will later serve as a pretext for a politically motivated attempted deportation of Lennon from the U.S. in the 1970s. • October 25:
Emile de Antonio's highly controversial and Oscar nominated anti-war documentary
In the Year of the Pig (per the Chinese "Year of the Pig") is released. Although it is otherwise reported, as de Antonio aspires to the leftist badge of honor, he never actually appears on President
Nixon's Enemies List. • October 27: Twenty-five thousand march in London against the Vietnam War, and particularly British participation in it. • October 31: President Johnson orders a halt to the aerial bombing of North Vietnam. • November 5: Former Vice President Richard Milhous Nixon, who served during the Administration of
Dwight David Eisenhower from 1953 to 1961, defeats both the sitting Vice President
Hubert Humphrey and the far-right
George Wallace/Curtis Lemay independent ticket in a close race. Nixon in January becomes the 37th president of the United States, ending eight years of Democratic Party control of the White House. • November 6:
Head: The Monkees delve into psychedelia in an ambitious but unpromoted and little-seen film co-written and co-produced by
Jack Nicholson. • November 6: Students demanding minority studies courses begin a strike at
San Francisco State College, where demonstrations and clashes last into March 1969, making it the longest student strike in American history. • November 11:
Two Virgins: John Lennon and Yoko Ono's experimental album is released. Beatles distributors EMI (for Parlophone/Gramophone labels) and Capitol (for the group's Apple vanity label) refuse distribution of the recording, as the cover features the couple with no clothes on at all. Lennon later describes the cover, considered obscene by general American moral standards of the time, as a "depiction of two slightly overweight ex-junkies." • November 22: The Beatles'
self-titled double album, also known as the "White Album," is released. Band members grow their hair very long, and the musical content moves away from psychedelia. • December 24:
Earthrise: A striking photograph of the Earth taken by
Bill Anders of
Apollo 8 from lunar orbit is called "the most influential environmental photograph ever taken."
1969 • January 8–18: Students at
Brandeis University occupy Ford and Sydeman Halls, demanding creation of an Afro-American department, which is approved by the University on April 24. • January 28:
Santa Barbara Oil Spill: The environmental movement moves into high gear after an offshore oil well blows out and dumps 100,000 barrels of crude oil onto the California coast, killing wildlife and fouling beaches for years to come. • January 29:
Sir George Williams Computer Riot: the largest student campus occupation in Canadian history results in millions of dollars in damage in Montreal. • January 30:
Let it Be: The Beatles, plus
Billy Preston, perform in public as a group for the
last time on the roof atop their offices in London. Footage of the performance appears on the
film documenting the sessions for the album. • January 30 – February 15: The Administration building of
University of Chicago is taken over by around 400 student protesters in a "sit-in". • February:
Esquire Magazine features a cover story declaring: "Chicks Up Front! How Troublemakers Use Girls to Put Down the Cops" and other tactics of the radical left. • February 13: National Guard troops, armed with tear gas and riot sticks, crush demonstrations at the
University of Wisconsin, Madison. • February 16: After three days of clashes between police and
Duke University students in North Carolina, the school agrees to establish a Black Studies program. • February 24:
Tinker v. Des Moines: The U.S. Supreme court affirms public school students' First Amendment rights to protest the Vietnam War. • March 1:
Do You Want to See My Cock?: Arrest warrants are issued for Doors frontman Jim Morrison after he allegedly exposes himself and simulates masturbation and fellatio at a concert in Miami, Florida. In 2010, Morrison is posthumously pardoned by the state's Clemency Board. • March 12: George Harrison and Pattie Boyd are arrested for marijuana possession in London. • March 22: President Nixon condemns trend of campus takeovers and violence. • March 25–31: Following their wedding at Gibraltar, John Lennon and Yoko Ono hold a "
bed-in" peace event in Amsterdam. • April: American troop strength in Vietnam peaks at over 543,000 military personnel. • April 3–4: The National Guard is called into Chicago, and Memphis residents are placed on curfew on the first anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination. • April 4: After a decline in ratings and ongoing pressure by advertisers and the general public over the program's highly controversial content, CBS cancels the
Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. Writers for the program, including
Mason Williams,
Carl Gottlieb,
Bob Einstein,
Rob Reiner,
Steve Martin, and
Pat Paulsen, move on to other projects. • April 9: Three hundred students "sit-in" at offices of
Harvard University protesting the presence of an ROTC program on campus. Four hundred policemen restore order on April 10. The university makes ROTC an extracurricular activity, rather than a mandatory curriculum, on April 19. • April 19: Armed Black students take over
Willard Straight Hall at
Cornell University in
Ithaca, New York. The university accedes to their demands the following day, promising an Afro-American studies program. • April 25–28: Activist students takeover Merrill House at
Colgate University, demanding Afro-American studies programs. • May 7: Students at
Howard University in Washington, D.C., a historically Black college, occupy eight buildings. The buildings are cleared by U.S. Marshals two days later. • May 8:
City College of New York closes following a 14-day-long student takeover demanding minority studies; riots among students break out when CCNY tries to reopen. • May 9–11:
Zip to Zap: Several thousand college students flock to a party event in rural North Dakota, which degenerates into a "riot" later dispersed by the National Guard. • May 15:
Bloody Thursday: Alameda County Sheriff's deputies and National Guardsmen authorized by governor
Ronald Reagan move to eject protestors deemed unlawful from the
People's Park in Berkeley. Law enforcement and soldiers open fire with buckshot-loaded shotguns, mortally wounding student James Rector, permanently blinding carpenter Alan Blanchard, and inflicting lesser wounds on several others. • May 21–25:
1969 Greensboro uprising: student protesters battle police for five days on campus of
North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University; one student is killed on May 22. National Guardsmen assault the campus using tear gas, going so far as to drop it by helicopter. • May 23:
Tommy:
The Who's Rock Opera becomes one of the most celebrated albums of the era. • May 26 – June 2:
Give Peace a Chance: Celebrities gather as John and Yoko conduct their second
bed-in in Montreal, where the anti-war anthem is recorded live. • June:
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask) is published and becomes a bestseller. • June 18: Students for a Democratic Society convenes in Chicago; the groups ousts its
Progressive Labor Party faction on June 28, which, in turn, sets up its own rival convention. • June 22:
Judy Garland, superstar of stage, screen, television, and song, and an early icon for the LGBT community, dies of an accidental barbiturate overdose in the Chelsea section of London. • June 28: The
Stonewall Riots in New York City, provoked by an erstwhile routine police raid, are the first major gay-rights uprisings in the U.S. • July 3:
Brian Jones, founder of the Rolling Stones, dies "by misadventure" in his swimming pool in East Sussex, England under undetermined circumstances at age 27. • July 5:
The Stones in the Park: Shocked by the overdose death of former bandmate Brian Jones, the grieving Rolling Stones continue with their much-anticipated free concert before a massive crowd at Hyde Park in London. • July 14:
Easy Rider: A low-budget, cocaine-dealing biker road movie is released and becomes a
de facto cultural landmark. The film's success helps open doors for independent filmmakers during the 1970s. The soundtrack includes
Steppenwolf's seminal ode to bikers, "
Born to be Wild," and an early anti-drug dirge, "
The Pusher." • July 15: Cover story on
LOOK: "How Hippies Raise their Children" • July 18: Cover story on
Life: "The Youth Communes – New Way of Living Confronts the U.S." • July 20:
Apollo 11's
Apollo Lunar Module lands. Humans walk on the Moon.
A plaque with the inscription "We Came in Peace for All Mankind" is left by the astronauts on the lunar surface. • July 21: Andy Warhol's
Blue Movie premieres at the
New Andy Warhol Garrick Theatre. The movie becomes a seminal film in the
Golden Age of Porn and helps inaugurate the "
porno chic" phenomenon in modern American culture, and later, in many other countries throughout the world. • July 25:
Vietnamization: The U.S. President's
Nixon Doctrine calls on Asian regional allies, who were formerly guaranteed protection under treaty, to fend for themselves in non-nuclear conflicts. This ostensibly is part of a campaign directed at reducing domestic tension and violence at home. • August 9–10:
Helter Skelter: Actress
Sharon Tate, Tate's unborn baby, and five others are viciously murdered at knifepoint by cult members acting under the direction of psychopath
Charles Manson during a two-day killing spree in California. The events shock an already-overwhelmed nation. As such, many see the crimes and Manson's "family" as products of the counterculture. • August 15–18:
Woodstock: An estimated 300,000–500,000 people gather in upstate New York for a festival of "3 Days of Peace & Music," a watershed event in American youth culture. • August 19: Immediately following Woodstock, David Crosby, Stephen Stills,
Joni Mitchell and Jefferson Airplane appear on the
Dick Cavett Show. The Airplane's lyric "Up against the wall, motherfuckers!" in the performance of its "
We Can Be Together" slips past ABC censors and airs on national television. • August 30–31: The Second
Isle of Wight Festival attracts 150,000 people to see acts including Bob Dylan and
The Band,
The Who,
Free,
Joe Cocker, and the Moody Blues. • September:
Penthouse: The first U.S. issue of
Robert Guccione's explicit monthly magazine hits newsstands, and is later called "the adult magazine that wormed its way into the kinkier recesses of the libidinal subconscious and, arguably, did more to liberate puritan America from its deepest sexual taboos than any magazine before or since." • September 1–2: Race rioting in Hartford, Connecticut and Camden, New Jersey takes place. • September 2:
Ho Chi Minh, President of Communist North Vietnam, aggressor and prime mover of the Second Indochina War, dies. Ho's war rages on after his death, with his subjects refusing to be demoralized by the death. • September 24: The Chicago Eight trial commences.
Rennie Davis,
David Dellinger,
Tom Hayden,
Abbie Hoffman,
Jerry Rubin et al. face charges, including a conspiracy to incite riots during the 1968 Democratic National Convention. They become the
Chicago Seven on November 5 after defendant
Bobby Seale is bound, gagged, and severed from the proceedings. • September 29: "
Okie from Muskogee": Country music legend
Merle Haggard's song is a huge hit with rural, blue-collar, and religious Americans (primarily Southerners and Midwesterners) opposed to drug use among young people and the protest activities of the counterculture. Personally, Haggard neither affirmed nor denied the perceived jingoistic and conservative politics contained within the lyrics during his lifetime. • October 4: Television personality
Art Linkletter's daughter
Diane, 20, jumps to her death from the sixth story of an apartment building. The elder Linkletter, an outspoken political conservative, claimed for years that Timothy Leary and LSD were responsible. • October 8–11:
Days of Rage: Elements of the SDS and the Weather Underground faction continue radical efforts to "bring the war home" in Chicago, and exchange brutalities with Chicago Police. • October 15:
Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam: Massive anti-war demonstrations occur across the U.S. and worldwide. • October 21:
Jack Kerouac dies from complications of
alcoholism in Florida at age 47. • October 29: "
login": The first message on the ARPANET – precursor to the internet and World Wide Web – is sent by
UCLA student programmer Charley Kline. • November 13: Vice President
Spiro T. Agnew publicly criticizes the three mainstream television networks for a supposed bias against the Administration because they are perceived by him and President Nixon to hold sympathy with liberal and radical causes. That narrative developed steadily in American conservative circles over the next 50 years, eventually engendering by the 2000s a separate news culture, enabled mostly by technologies such as cable television and the internet that displaced traditional providers of American journalism. • November 15: Moratorium redux: over 500,000 march in Washington, D.C. It is the largest anti-war demonstration in American history. • November 20: Native American protesters begin the
Occupation of Alcatraz, which continues for 19 months. • December: Total U.S. casualties (dead and seriously wounded) in Vietnam total some 100,000. • December 1: The first draft lottery in the U.S. since World War II is held in New York City and broadcast live on CBS television. Later statistical analysis indicates that the lottery method (birthdates in capsules pulled from a hand-rotated drum) is flawed, leaving certain birth dates more likely to be drawn than others. • December 4: Black Panther
Fred Hampton is killed by combined elements of Federal, Illinois, and Chicago law enforcement under circumstances which, to some, suggest political assassination. • December 6:
Altamont: The Rolling Stones help organize and headline at a free concert attended by 300,000. The event, intended as a "Woodstock West," devolves into chaos and the killing of one young person at a speedway between Tracy and Livermore, California. Improper and capricious security enforcement by the
Hells Angels is partly blamed for the incident. • December 27–31:
Flint War Council, Michigan. The SDS is abolished, with the Weathermen becoming autonomous, and one of the most significant
seditious revolts since the American Civil War emerges. • Wavy Gravy's
Hog Farm Hippie
commune is established near Llano, New Mexico. •
Friends of the Earth is founded in the U.S. It becomes an international network in 1971. •
Making of a Counter Culture: Theodore Roszak's
Reflections on the Technocratic Society is published. Roszak is later credited with coining the term "counterculture" in print. ==1970s==