The '1960s'
decade refers to the years from
1960 to
1969, inclusive. The term also refers to an era more often called 'The Sixties', denoting the complex of inter-related cultural and political trends which occurred roughly during the years 1958-1974 in Western countries, particularly
Britain,
France, the
United States,
Italy and
West Germany. Social and political upheaval was not limited to these nations, but included such nations as
Japan,
Mexico,
Canada, and others. The term is used descriptively by historians, journalists, and others documenting our collective past; nostalgically by those who participated in the counter-culture and social revolution; and pejoratively by those who perceive the era as one of irresponsible excess. The decade was also labeled the
Swinging Sixties because of the libertine attitudes that emerged during this decade. Rampant drug use has become a
synecdoche for the counter-culture of the era, as exemplified by
Jefferson Airplane co-founder
Paul Kantner: "If you can remember anything about the sixties, you weren't really there."
The sixties were a time of immense change in all areas of public and private life, often referred to as a social revolution global in scale. In the United States, for example, social change was wrought by the
American civil rights movement, the rise of
feminism and
gay rights, invention of the microchip and formulation of
Moore's Law, and even the rise of
neoconservatism. The "Sixties" has become
synonymous with all the new, exciting, radical, subversive and/or dangerous (depending on one's viewpoint) events and trends of the period, which continued to develop in the
1970s,
1980s and beyond. In
Africa the 60s were a period of radical change as countries gained independence from their European colonial rulers, only for this rule to be replaced in many cases by civil war or corrupt dictatorships.
Government
Several Western governments turned to the
left in the early-1960s. In the United States President
John F. Kennedy was elected in 1960. Italy formed its first left of center government in March 1962 with a coalition of Christian Democrats, Social Democrats, and moderate Republicans. Socialists joined the ruling bloc in December 1963. In England, the Labour party gained power in 1964.
[1]
Liberal Programs
President
John F. Kennedy promoted the space program, math and science education, tax cuts and the
Peace Corps. It continued with President
Lyndon B. Johnson's projects of the Great Society, the
Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the
Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Assassinations
The 1960s were marked by several notable assassinations.
★ First Prime Minister of the
Democratic Republic of Congo,
Patrice Lumumba, is assassinated by Belgian/Congolese firing squad on
January 17,
1961
★
Medgar Evers, a
NAACP field secretary, is assinated by a
Klu Klux Klan member on
June 12,
1963.
★ First South Vietnamese president
Ngo Dinh Diem (Ngô Ðình Diệm) is assassinated in coup d'etat on
November 2,
1963.
★ US President
John F. Kennedy is assassinated on
November 22,
1963 in his car during a parade
★
Malcolm X is assassinated on
February 21,
1965
★ The assassination of
civil rights leader
Martin Luther King, Jr. on
April 4,
1968.
★ The assassination of presidential candidate Senator
Robert F. Kennedy on
June 6,
1968.
★ The assassination of social activist and deputy chairman of the
Illinois chapter of the
Black Panther Party (BPP),
Fred Hampton on
December 4,
1969 while he was asleep.
Social and Political Movements
Counterculture/Social Revolution
Many younger generations soon began to rebel towards the conservative norms of the time. This created a counterculture that eventually turned into a social revolution throughout much of the western world. It began in the United States as a reaction against the conservative social norms of the 1950s, the political conservatism (and perceived social repression) of the Cold War period, and the US government's extensive military intervention in Vietnam. The main group from the movement were called
hippies. Together they created a new liberated stance for society including the
Sexual Revolution, questioning authority and the government, and more freedoms and rights for women, gays, and minorities. The movement was marked with drug use (
LSD, and
Marijuana), and
Psychedelia music.
Anti-War Movement
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 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."
Civil Rights
Stimulated by this movement, but growing beyond it, were large numbers of student-age youth, beginning with the
Free Speech Movement at the
University of California, Berkeley in
1964, peaking in the riots at the
1968 Democratic National Convention in
Chicago and reaching a climax with the shootings at
Kent State University in
1970, which some claimed as proof that ''"police brutality"'' was rampant. The terms were: ''"
The Establishment"'' referring to traditional management/government, and ''"pigs"'' referring to police using excessive force.
New Left
The rapid rise of a "
New Left" employed the rhetoric of
Marxism but had little organizational connection with older Marxist organizations such as the
Communist Party, and even less connection with the supposed focus of Marxist politics, the organized labor movement, and consisted of ephemeral campus-based
Trotskyist,
Maoist and
anarchist groups, some of which by the end of the 1960s had turned to
terrorism.
Technology
The
Soviet Union and the
United States were involved in the
space race. This led to an increase in spending on science and technology during this period. The space race heated up when Soviet
cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin orbited the Earth and President Kennedy announced
Project Apollo in 1961. The Soviets and Americans were then involved in a race to put a man on the Moon before the decade was over. America won the race when it placed the first men on the Moon:
Neil Armstrong and
Buzz Aldrin, in July 1969.
American automobiles evolved through the stream-lined,
jet-inspired designs for sportscars such as the
Pontiac GTO and the
Plymouth Barracuda,
Ford Mustang, and the
Chevrolet Corvette.
★ 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.
★ 1965 -
Sony markets the
CV-2000, the first home video tape recorder.
★ 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.
★ 1968 - First humans to leave Earth's gravity influence and orbit another world:
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.
Popular Culture
The overlapping, but somewhat different, movement of youth cultural radicalism was manifested by the
hippies and the
counter-culture, whose emblematic moments were the
Summer of Love in
San Francisco in
1967 and the
Woodstock Festival in
1969. The sub-culture, associated with this movement, spread the recreational use of
cannabis and other drugs, particularly new semi-synthetic drugs such as
LSD. The era heralded the rejection and a reformation by
hippies of traditional Christian notions on spirituality, leading to the widespread introduction of Eastern and ethnic religious thinking to western values and concepts concerning one's religious and
spiritual development.
Psychedelic drugs, especially
LSD, were popularly used medicinally, spiritually and recreationally throughout the 1960s.
Psychedelia influenced the music, artwork and movies of the decade.
Music
Popular music entered an era of "all hits" as numerous singers 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'', ''"
folk rock"'' and the ''
British Invasion'' of bands from the
U.K. (
The Beatles,
The Dave Clark Five,
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
psychedelia music.
The rise of an
alternative culture among affluent youth, creating a huge market for
rock and
blues music produced by drug-culture, influenced bands such as
The Beatles,
The Rolling Stones,
The Grateful Dead,
Jefferson Airplane,
Janis Joplin,
Jimi Hendrix Experience and
The Doors, and also for radical music in the
folk tradition pioneered by
Bob Dylan,
The Mamas and the Papas, and
Joan Baez in the United States, and in England,
Donovan was helping to create folk rock.
Significant events in music in the 1960s:
★
Motown Record Corporation founded in 1960. It's 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 between 1961 and 1971.
★ The
Beatles went to
America in 1964, spearheading the start of the
British Invasion.
★
Bob Dylan goes
electric at the 1965
Newport Folk Festival.
★
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'' .''
★ 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.
★
Jefferson Airplane release the influential
Surrealistic Pillow in 1967.
★
The Velvet Underground release their influential self-titled debut album''
The Velvet Underground and Nico' in 1967.
★
The Doors release their self-tilted debut album''
The Doors'' an early progenitor of the
Heavy Metal Music and
Punk Rock genres.
★
The Jimi Hendrix Experience release two albums in the
United Kingdom (U.K.) during 1967 ''
Are You Experienced'' and '' 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.
★
Bob Dylan releases the
Country Rock album ''
John Wesley Harding'' in December 1967, making the genre acceptable.
★ The
Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 was the apex of the so-called
Summer of Love.
★
The Band releases the
roots rock album ''
Music from Big Pink'' in 1968.
★
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.
★
Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band release the
avant garde album ''
Trout Mask Replica'' in 1969.
★ The
Woodstock Festival, and four months later, the
Altamont Free Concert in
1969.
Film
Popular American movies of the 1960s include ''
Psycho'', ''
Breakfast at Tiffany's'', ''
To Kill a Mockingbird,
My Fair Lady,
The Pink Panther, ;
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; ;
Easy Rider.''
The Counterculture Revolution had a big 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 '' (''
1968''), and
Roman Polanski's ''
Rosemary's Baby (film)'' (''
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
Sexual Revolution progressed.
In Europe,
Art Cinema gains wider distribution and sees movements like
la Nouvelle Vague (The French New Wave);
Cinéma Vérité documentary movement in Canada, France and the United States; and the high-point of Italian filmmaking with
Michelangelo Antonioni,
Federico Fellini and
Pier Paulo Pasolini making some of their most known films during this period. Notable films from this period include: ''
8½''; ''
L'avventura''; ''
La notte''; ''
Blowup''; ''
Satyricon''; ''
Accattone''; ''
The Gospel According to St. Matthew''; ''
Theorem''; ''
Breathless'';''
Vivre sa vie''; ''
Contempt''; ''
Bande à part''; ''
Alphaville''; ''
Pierrot le fou''; ''
Week End''; ''
Shoot the Piano Player''; ''
Jules and Jim''; ''
Fahrenheit 451'';''
Last Year at Marienbad'';''
Dont Look Back''; ''
Chronique d'un été''; ''
Titicut Follies''; ''
High School''; ''
Salesman''; ''
La Jetée''; ''
Warrendale''
The sixties 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 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 the United States
★ President
John F. Kennedy and Vice President
Lyndon B. Johnson take office in
1961; Kennedy establishes the
Peace Corps.
★ Substantial American forces first arrive in
Vietnam in
1961.
★ 1963 - After Kennedy's assassination,
Lyndon Johnson becomes president, and presses
civil rights legislation; college attendance soars.
★ 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.
In Canada
★
Canada celebrated its 100th anniversary of
Confederation in 1967 by hosting
Expo 67, the World's Fair, in
Montreal,
Quebec.
★ The
Quiet Revolution in
Quebec modernized the province into a more secular society. The
Jean Lesage Liberal government created a
welfare state (''État-Providence'') and fermented 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 the UK
★
British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan delivers his
Wind of Change speech in
1960.
In Europe
★
Pope John XXIII calls the
Second Vatican Council of the
Catholic Church, continued by
Pope Paul VI, which met from Oct. 11, 1962 until Dec. 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.
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 Commonwealth
Australia and
New Zealand committed troops to the Vietnam war with controversy and war protests.
Canada celebrated its 100th anniversary of confederation in 1967 by hosting
Expo 67, the World's Fair, in
Montreal,
Quebec.
In 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
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
Warsaw Pact 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.
★ The popular uprising in
Czechoslovakia, known as
Prague Spring, which was ended by a
Soviet invasion
In Africa
The transformation of
Africa from
colonialism to
independence dramatically accelerated during the decade.
In China
In the
People's Republic of China the mid-1960s were also a time of massive upheaval and the
Red Guard rampages of
Mao Zedong's
Cultural Revolution had some superficial resemblances to the student protests in the West. The
Maoist groups that briefly flourished in the West in this period saw in Chinese Communism a more revolutionary, less bureaucratic, model of
socialism. Most of them were rapidly disillusioned when Mao welcomed
Richard Nixon to China in
1972. People in China, however, saw the
Nixon visit as a victory in that they believed the United States would concede that
Mao Zedong-thought was superior to
capitalism (this was the Party stance on the visit in late 1971 and early 1972).
In South America
The
Argentinian revolutionary
Ernesto "Che" Guevara travelled to
Africa and then
Bolivia in his campaigning to spread worldwide revolution. He was killed in 1967 by Bolivian government forces, but in the process became an iconic figure for the student left.
People
Artists, intellectuals, political figures, writers and the rest
Sport
There were six
Olympics held during the decade. These were:
1960 XVII Summer Olympics —
Rome,
Italy
1960 VIII Winter Olympics —
Squaw Valley,
USA
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
There were two
FIFA World Cups during the decade:
1962 FIFA World Cup —
Chile (winner
Brazil)
1966 FIFA World Cup —
England (winner
England)
The ten
European Cup winners during the decade were:
★ First British club to win the European Cup, Celtic triumphed over Internazionale 2-1 in a stunning victory. See
European Cup 1966-67 or
Lisbon Lions.
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
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
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 won
Super Bowl I
1967 -
Green Bay Packers won
Super Bowl II
1968 -
Baltimore Colts
1969 -
Minnesota Vikings
The
American Football League champions during the decade were:
1960 -
Houston Oilers
1961 -
Houston Oilers
1962 -
Dallas Texans
1963 -
San Diego Chargers
1964 -
Buffalo Bills
1965 -
Buffalo Bills
1966 -
Kansas City Chiefs
1967 -
Oakland Raiders
1968 -
New York Jets won
Super Bowl III
1969 -
Kansas City Chiefs won
Super Bowl IV
The
National Hockey League's
Stanley Cup champions of the decade were:
1960 -
Montreal Canadiens
1961 -
Chicago Black Hawks
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
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
References
1. Arthur Marwick, T''he Sixties: Cultural Revolution in Britain, France, Italy, and the United States, c.1958-c.1974'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), 247-248.
External links
★
The 1960s: A Bibliography
★
American Cultural History 1960–1969
★
CBC Digital Archives — 1960s a GoGo
★
San Francisco — diary of the 1960s by Peter Vincent
★
The Sixties Project
★
The Zone Radio Station — The 60's Show & more
★
The Baby Boomer Years — Reminisce with other UK baby boomers.
★
The 60's: Literary Tradition and Social Change, exhibit at the
University of Virginia, Library, Special Collections.
★
Elliott Landy's Photographs of the 1960s
★
American Sixties Radio
★
British Sixties Radio
★
Radio Yé-Yé: Sixties Music from France
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