Study Tool: Chronological Events of the 1960-1968 Era

Does not include issues on social history covered separately.

 

Date

Pres. … Event

Beyond America

Foreign Policy

Government Institutions

US Eco. Dev.

Issue/Org. Dev.

Political Party Dev.

1955-02

 

S. Vietnam: 1st US advisors[1]

 

 

 

 

 

1960-02

 

 

 

 

 

Greenboro, NC, sit-in

 

1960-11

“[M]easured approach”[2]

 

 

 

 

 

 

1961-03

Executive order: Peace Corps est.

 

23rd Amendment[3]

 

 

 

 

1961-04

 

USSR: Yuri Gagarin orbits[4]

CIA covert action: Bay of Pigs in Cuba

 

 

 

 

1961-05

 

 

 

 

 

Congress of Racial Equality[5] freedom riders

 

 

 

 

1961-06

 

 

Khruschev, Kennedy meeting

 

 

 

 

1961-08

 

USSR: Berlin Wall est.

 

 

 

 

 

1961-09

 

 

 

Ban segregated terminals for interstate carriers

 

 

 

1962

 

 

 

 

 

Michael Harrington, The Other America; Rachel Carson, Silent Spring

 

1962-04

 

 

 

 

Steel industry price rise, then retreat

 

 

1962-09

 

 

 

 

 

James Meredith, Ole Miss

 

1962-10

Troops, federalized State Guard

 

 

 

 

 

 

US: Cuba blockade

 

 

 

 

1963

 

 

 

 

 

Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique; James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time

 

1963-04

 

S. Vietnam: Buddhist protests

 

 

 

Cesar Chavez, United Farm Workers est.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bull Conner – Birmingham, Alabama

 

1963-07

 

US/USSR: hotline est.

 

 

 

 

 

1963-08

 

 

Test Ban Treaty

 

 

March on Washington; King’s “I Have a Dream”

 

1963-09

Vietnam = “their war”[6]

 

 

 

 

 

 

1963-11

Assassination; LBJ president

S. Vietnam: coups; Diem dead

 

 

 

 

 

 

1964-02

 

 

 

 

Tax cut and budget cut

 

 

1964-06

 

 

 

 

 

KKK/police murder of civil rights workers[7]

 

1964-07

 

 

 

Civil Rights Act[8]

 

Racial disturbances: Harlem, Rochester (NY); Philadelphia (PA), Paterson (NJ)

Divisive Republican convention

1964-08

 

 

 

 

Economic Opportunity Act[9]

 

 

1964-08

1st, bombing of N. Vietnam

 

2nd, Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

 

 

 

Fannie Lou Hamer, Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party

1964-11

Barry Goldwater vs. Lyndon Baines Johnson

 

 

24th Amendment[10]

 

 

Great Society; War on Poverty begins

1965-03

 

 

 

 

 

Selma March; deputies/state police attack

 

1965-08

 

 

 

Voting Rights Act

 

 

 

1965-08-11-16

 

 

 

 

 

Watts (Los Angeles) riot[11]

 

1965-08

 

 

 

Medicare/Medicaid est.

 

 

 

1965-10

 

 

 

Immigration law – no “national origins” quota[12]

 

 

 

1966

 

 

 

 

 

National Organization for Women

 

1966-10

 

 

 

Department of Transportation est.

 

 

 

1967-06

 

Six Day War

 

 

 

 

 

1968-01

 

Tet offensive

 

 

 

Hair[13]

 

1968-03-12

 

 

 

 

 

 

E. McCarthy primary in NH

1968-03-31

Withdrew candidacy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1968-04

 

 

 

 

 

Assassination of Martin Luther King

 

1968-06

 

 

 

 

 

Assassination of Robert Kennedy

 

1968-08

 

 

 

 

 

 

Divisive Democratic convention, Chicago, televised

1968-11

Richard M. Nixon vs. Hubert Humphrey vs. George Wallace (American Independent)

 

 

 

 

 

campaign to the “silent majority”



 

Copyright C. J. Bibus, Ed.D. 2003-2014

 

WCJC Department:

History – Dr. Bibus

Contact Information:

281.239.1577 or cjb_classes@yahoo.com

Last Updated:

2014

WCJC Home:

http://www.wcjc.edu/

 

 



[1] US-backed Ngo Dinh Diem rejects Geneva Accords over election to reunify North and South Vietnam, declares S. Vietnam a republic. US advisors increase in #s.

[2] To quote the Ayers text, Kennedy made moderate changes because he lacked the huge mandate given to FDR or Ike in their 1st terms:

34,227,096  Kennedy

34,108,546  Nixon

[3] District of Columbia voting rights

[4] US commitment to manned moon landing - US: Alan Shepherd, suborbital flight; John Glenn orbits.

[5] Est. 1942

[6] Televised interview Sept 02 with President Kennedy; refers to the Vietnamese conflict as “their war.”

[7] Mississippi voter registration attempts; white mobs; firebombing; murder of James Chaney, Andrew Goldman, Michael Schwerner (last 2 from North and white).

[8] Equal Employment Opportunities Commission est.; Title VII – race, creed, sex, and national origin.

[9] Job Corps, Neighborhood Youth Corps, VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America); food stamps, Head Start.

[10] Poll tax banned

[11] Later riots include 1966-07 Chicago (IL); 1967-07 Newark (NJ), Detroit (MI).  Black power events include new militancy of Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC); rise of Black Muslim leader Malcolm X, later assassinated by that group (1965); Black Panthers in CA.

[12] Shift in immigration from traditional areas to coming from Cuba, Dominican Republic, Mexico; India, Korea, Philippines, Taiwan.

[13] The counterculture movement is converted to a popular Broadway play.