The 1960s Science and Technology: Chronology

1960      A synthetic ruby is used to produce a laser.

1960:      Artificial suntanning cream is developed.

1960:      The solar system is estimated to be 4.9 billion years old.

1960:      The USS George Washington, a state-of-the-art nuclear-powered submarine, is launched.

1960:     April 1 Tiros 1, the first weather satellite, is launched.

1961:      The USS Enterprise aircraft carrier, run by eight nuclear reactors, is launched.

1961:      Texas Instruments patents the first silicon chip used for electronic circuits.

1961:     January 3 Three maintenance crew members are killed by a nuclear explosion in the Stationary Low Power Reactor Number One at the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission's National Reactor Testing Station in Idaho Falls, Idaho.

1961:     January 31 The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) launches into space a capsule containing a chimpanzee, and successfully recovers the animal.

1961:     April Chemists form Element 103 (lawrencium), a radioactive chemical element, by showering californium with boron nuclei.

1961:     April 12 Cosmonaut Yuri A. Gagarin becomes the first Russian launched into space.

1961:     May 5 Astronaut Alan B. Shepard Jr. becomes the first American launched into space.

1962:      The U.S. scientific space probe Mariner 2 reaches Venus 109 days after its launch.

1962:      Kelvinator produces a dishwasher that employs high-frequency sound waves, rather than soap and water.

1962:      Powdered orange juice is patented.

1962:     June 16 Cosmonaut Valentina V. Tereshkova becomes the first woman in space.

1963:      The USS Atlantis II clearly photographs the ocean floor.

1964:      The Verrazano Narrows Bridge, the world's largest suspension bridge, opens in New York City.

1964:      IBM produces a new product, the word processor, a hybrid of the typewriter and computer.

1964:     August 5 Congress establishes the National Commission on Technology, Automation and Economic Progress, to analyze the impact of automation on unemployment.

1965:      Traffic control in Chicago, New York, and Detroit becomes computerized.

1965:      A computer at the New York Stock Exchange answers questions over the telephone using an artificial voice.

1965:     February 17 Ranger 8, a moon probe, blasts off into space and sends back more than seven thousand images of the moon's surface before crashing into the lunar Sea of Tranquility.

1965:     July 15 Mariner 4 sends the first close-up photographs of Mars.

1966:      Radar is used to measure the polar ice thickness.

1966:     June 2 Sorcerer I makes the first soft landing on the moon.

1967:      Computer keyboards are developed, allowing immediate access between the operator and the computer.

1967:      RCA develops a compact television camera weighing just over two pounds.

1967:      A cordless, battery-powered telephone is developed.

1967:      A solar-powered house is built.

1967:     January 27 A launch pad fire kills American astronauts Virgil "Gus" Grissom, Edward H. White, and Roger B. Chaffee during a test for what would have been the first space mission with a three-person crew on board.

1967:     March 1 The first overseas direct telephone dialing begins.

1968:      Scientists use radar to map the surface of Venus.

1968:      The picosecond, the smallest period of time detectable, is measured at Bell Laboratories.

1968:     August 16 The Poseidon 3, a new missile that can be launched from submarines, is tested.

1968:     October 11 Apollo 7, the first manned Apollo flight, begins a seven-day mission.

1969:     January 22 The Atomic Energy Commission announces completion of the world's largest superconducting magnet.

1969:     July 16 Apollo 11 is launched. This flight culminates in the landing of the first human on the surface of the moon.

1969:     November 18 Americans land on the moon for the second time in Apollo 12.