Timeline



Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his "I Have a Dream" speech. U.S.-USSR hotline is installed to avoid nuclear war. President John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas. Father Knows Best television series ends.






The Beatles appear in America on The Ed Sullivan Show. President Lyndon Johnson's "Great Society" launches Head Start, Medicare, VISTA, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination in public accommoda-
tions.
Student-led Berkeley Free Speech Movement ends with 796 arrests.






President Lyndon Johnson sends combat troops to Vietnam, and teach-ins and antiwar demonstrations follow. National Guard intervenes in Watts riots that leave 34 dead in Los Angeles. Pope Paul VI visits New York to address the United Nations on world peace. Los Angeles's Free Press becomes first major underground newspaper of the 1960s.






Time magazine asks, "Is God Dead?" and selects the "Under-25" generation as Man of the Year. Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and Black Panther Party call for Black Power. Miranda ruling by Supreme Court requires police to inform suspects of their right to counsel before interrogation. Ronald Reagan is elected governor of California with promises to crack down on rebellious students and obscenity.






Thurgood Marshall becomes first African American Supreme Court justice. Troop strength in Vietnam reaches 474,000; casualties exceed 13,000. Antiwar demonstrators march on the Pentagon. First issue of Rolling Stone magazine appears.






After Tet Offensive, Gallup Poll finds that 49 percent of Americans believe the use of U.S. troops in Vietnam is a mistake. Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy are assassinated. Hair!, the first rock musical, opens on Broadway to great acclaim and to controversy stirred by nudity and charges of flag desecration. Democratic Convention opens in Chicago as police and antiwar demonstrators clash.






First U.S. troops are withdrawn from Vietnam. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin are the first to walk on the moon. "America--Love It or Leave It" campaign begins. Students for a Democratic Society falters as radical Weathermen faction splits away.






First Earth Day is celebrated. President Richard Nixon announces the invasion of Cambodia. Six college students in Ohio and Mississippi are killed by National Guardsmen and state police during student protests. Commission on Campus Unrest calls gap between youth culture and mainstream society a threat to American stability.






The radical Weather Underground bombs the United States Capitol. Supreme Court upholds school busing to end segregation in Charlotte, North Carolina. Voting age is lowered to 18 by the 26th Amendment. TV's All in the Family premieres with Archie Bunker and his family debating issues of the sixties.






Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT I) passes U.S. Senate. Congress enacts Equal Employment Opportunity Act, allowing for preferential hiring and promotion of women and minorities. TV's M*A*S*H, set in Korea, is viewed as a commentary on Vietnam War. Gray Panthers form to combat discrimination against the elderly.






American Indian Movement militants occupy Wounded Knee, South Dakota. Last U.S. troops are withdrawn from Vietnam; 8,500 American civilian technicians remain. Senate Watergate hearings begin. The Joy of Sex, by Alex Comfort, is a nonfiction bestseller.



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