The 1960s Lifestyles and Social Trends: Chronology

1960:      Designer Pierre Cardin begins creating fashions for men, pioneering a trend away from the plain gray flannel suit.

1960:     February 1 Students stage a sit-in at a "whites-only" lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina.

1960:     September "The Twist," a pop song recorded by Chubby Checker, hits the number-one spot on the Billboard Top 40 charts.

1961:      Yo-yos become a national toy craze.

1961:      Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert, Harvard psychology professors, are fired because of their experiments with hallucinogenic drugs.

1961:      The President's Commission on the Status of Women is formed to study the legal and economic rights of women.

1961:     January 22–23 The National Council of Churches approves the use of birth control and family planning.

1961:     May 21–22 A bus carrying Freedom Riders is attacked by an angry mob in Montgomery, Alabama.

1962:      Fashion designer Yves St. Laurent opens his own couture house.

1962:      A televised tour shows First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy's redecoration of the White House, which she completed under the supervision of the National Fine Arts Commission.

1963:      Vidal Sassoon creates short, geometrically inspired bob hairstyles for women.

1963:      New York's Museum of Modern Art is remodeled by architect Philip Johnson.

1963:     November 22 President Kennedy is assassinated.

1964:     April 17 The Ford Motor Company unveils its new Mustang sports car.

1964:     September 28 The Warren Commission reports that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in killing President Kennedy.

1965:      The U.S. Congress passes the Motor Vehicle Air Pollution Act.

1965:      Paraphernalia, the first U.S. shop that sells "Mod" fashions exclusively, opens in New York.

1965:      Toy company Wham-O introduces the Superball.

1965:     March 21 Martin Luther King Jr. leads demonstrators on a civil rights march in Selma, Alabama.

1965:     April 9 The Houston Astrodome, an enclosed air-conditioned stadium 642 feet in diameter, opens.

1966:      The Black Panther Party is organized.

1966:      Manufacture, distribution, or possession of the hallucinogenic drug lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) is made illegal.

1966:     March An article in Time magazine warns of massive use of LSD among the young.

1966:     October Betty Friedan is elected the first president of the National Organization for Women (NOW).

1966:     December The Diggers, a group of urban street theater actors, accuse Haight-Ashbury merchants of profiting from the then-emerging Counterculture and lead hundreds of costumed marchers in a Death of Money parade.

1966:     December 2 U.S. Roman Catholics no longer are required to abstain from eating meat on Fridays, except during Lent.

1967:      Unisex clothing begins appearing in most of the major designers' fashion collections.

1967:      To counter the popularity of the Ford Mustang, Chevrolet introduces the two-seat Camaro SS.

1967:      The Human Be-In is held at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, inaugurating the "Summer of Love."

1967:     July 12–17 Race riots in Newark, New Jersey, leave twenty-six dead.

1967:     July 23–30 Race riots in Detroit, Michigan, leave forty-three dead.

1968:      Some established fashion couturiers offer maxi- and midi-length skirts as alternatives to the miniskirt.

1968:      The Volkswagen Beetle reaches record sales of 569,292 in the United States.

1968:      The 100-story John Hancock Building in Chicago becomes the world's tallest building.

1968:     June 3 Artist Andy Warhol survives being shot by Valerie Solanis, a self-described feminist-revolutionary.

1968:     September Feminists loudly protest against the Miss America pageant in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

1968:     November 14 Yale University admits its first female students.

1969:     December 6 Hell's Angels acting as security guards stab a concertgoer to death while the Rolling Stones are playing onstage at San Francisco's Altamont Music Festival.