The 1960s (pronounced “nineteen-sixties”, shortened to the “’60s” or the “Sixties”) was a decade that began 1 January 1960 and ended December 31, 1969.
In the United States and other Western countries, the Sixties is noted for its counterculture. There was a revolution in social norms, including clothing, music (such as the Altamont Free Concert), drugs, dress, sexuality, formalities, civil rights, precepts of military duty, and schooling. Others denounce the decade as one of irresponsible excess, flamboyance, the decay of social order, and the fall or relaxation of social taboos. A wide range of music emerged; from popular music inspired by and including the Beatles (in the United States known as the British Invasion), the folk music revival, to the poetic lyrics of Bob Dylan. In the United States the Sixties were also called the “cultural decade” while in the United Kingdom (especially London) it was called the Swinging Sixties.
Organizations such as those present at May 1968, the German Red Army Faction, and the Japanese Zengakuren tested liberal democracy’s ability to help people left out of society in the post-industrial age hybrid capitalist economies. In the United Kingdom, the Labour Party gained power in 1964 with Harold Wilson as Prime Minister through most of the decade. In France, the protests of 1968 led to President Charles de Gaulle temporarily fleeing the country. Italy formed its first left-of-center government in March 1962 with a coalition of Christian Democrats, Social Democrats, and moderate Republicans. When Aldo Moro became Prime Minister in 1963, Socialists joined the ruling block too. Soviet leaders during the decade were Nikita Khrushchev until 1964 and Leonid Brezhnev. In Brazil, João Goulart became president after Jânio Quadros resigned.
The United States had three presidents; Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. Eisenhower was near the end of his term, while Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. Kennedy had wanted a Keynesian and staunch anti-communist social reforms. These were passed under Johnson including civil rights for African Americans and healthcare for the elderly and the poor. Despite his large-scale Great Society programs, Johnson was increasingly disliked by the New Left at home and abroad. For some, May 1968 meant the end of traditional collective action and the beginning of a new era to be dominated mainly by the so-called new social movements.
After President Kennedy’s assassination, direct tensions between the superpower countries of US and Soviet Union developed into a contest with proxy wars, insurgency funding, puppet governments and other overall influence mainly in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. This “Cold War” dominated the world’s geopolitics during the decade. In Africa was in a period of radical political change as 32 countries gained independence from their European colonial rulers. The heavy-handed American role in the Vietnam War lead to an anti-Vietnam War movement with outraged student protestors around the globe.
By the end of the 1950s, post-war reconstructed Europe and began an economic boom. World War II had closed up social classes with remnants of the old feudal gentry disappearing. A developing upper-working-class (a newly redefined middle-class) in Western Europe could afford a radio, television, refrigerator and motor vehicles. The Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact countries were improving quickly after rebuilding from WWII. Real GDP growth averaged 6% a year during the second half of the decade; overall worldwide economic prospered in the 1960s with expansion of the middle class and the increase of new domestic technology. (Wikipedia)
Alan Shepard waits to become the first American in space, Cape Canaveral, 1961.Dummy pilot and seat soar, as engineers test a catapult escape system in Arizona, March 1963.Marine infantry in Taiwan practice using flame throwers in a simulated battle, January 1969.Two women gaze at heavy surf while lying on boulders on the coast of Nova Scotia, December 1961.Neon signs blur the night scene as marines walk on the street in San Diego, California, July 1969.Children play outside a Hudson Bay Company store in Ontario, Canada, 1963.A railway encircles thirty-five blocks of shops, offices, and hotels in Chicago, June 1967.Irish Guards remain at attention after one guardsman faints in London, England, June 1966.Cat and white rat abide in peace. When different species grow up together, they often lose their enmity, April 1964.Martin Luther King Jr. speaks at a rally for the Chicago Freedom Movement at Soldier Field in Chicago, Illinois on July 10, 1966.Vietnamese monk Thich Quang Duc immolates himself in protest of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem’s violent persecution of Buddhists. Saigon. June 11, 1963.Ecstatic fans give in to the music at the Isle of Wight festival. 1969.In late July 1964, police beat a man during the Harlem riots sparked by the questionable shooting of a 15-year-old African-American boy by a police officer.Jimi Hendrix performs at California’s Monterey International Pop Festival on June 18, 1967.A young hippie sits cross-legged in a New York City park. 1969.On March 26, 1964, Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, the decade’s two most prominent civil rights leaders, shared their only meeting.A U.S. helicopter pilot runs from his aircraft after Vietnamese forces shoot it down in early 1965.Muhammad Ali knocks out Sonny Liston after a one-minute-long championship match in Lewiston, Maine on May 25, 1965.Ed White floats just outside the Gemini 4 capsule hatch on June 3, 1965. This made White the first American to ever perform a spacewalk, which lasted 23 minutes.On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn.American forces interrogate a Viet Cong prisoner near Thuong during the Vietnam War. 1960sA female demonstrator offers a flower to military police on guard at the Pentagon during an anti-Vietnam demonstration. 1960sOn June 5, 1968, Sirhan Sirhan assassinated Senator Robert Kennedy in Los Angeles.Smoke break, Vernon and Central Avenues, Los Angeles, 1965.The expressions on the faces of Elizabeth Taylor and husband Eddie Fisher watching a boxing match, 1960.New York firemen play a game after putting out a fire that broke out in a billiard parlor, 1969.Rod Serling narrating “The Twilight Zone” in 1964.Groucho Marx dances with a 22 year-old Diana Ross at a barbecue hosted by Bobby Darin at his Bel Air home. 1966Dinosaurs transported on the Hudson River, on their way to the 1964 World’s Fair.Clint Eastwood skateboarding around Rome, Italy. 1963An 18 year-old Annette Funicello with her mom Virginia at their Encino home. 1960Sophia Loren gazes at the ‘Mona Lisa’ while visiting the Louvre in 1964.A young woman at work in a textile factory in Russia, 1960.Liza Minnelli in 1969.Marilyn Monroe during hair tests for ‘The Misfits,’ 1960.A performer backstage at Ringling Brothers Circus in Baltimore, Maryland, 1966.Natalie Wood, 1960s.Steve McQueen, Bullitt, 1968.Ford Cougar, 1962.New York fashion, 1969Grace Lee Whitney as Janice Rand from the television series Star Trek (1966)Downtown London, 1960sPrincess Margaret, Princess Anne, and the Queen Mother attended the investiture of Prince Charles (1969)Little girls racing their sheep (1969)Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton take a smoke break between their performances. (1967)Waiting in a terminal to ride the Greyhound Bus (1960s)This infamous toy was introduced in 1960 and is still just as popular today.The Beatles stop to get gas for their van while on tour in 1963.Audition day for the part of a black cat in a film. Hollywood, 1961
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