American Cinema of the 1960s: Themes and Variations

Timeline: The 1960s

T I M E L I N E The 1960s ■■■■■■■■■■ 1960 24 JANUARY Insurrection against French rule breaks out in Algiers. State of siege declared. 29 FEBRUARY Hugh Hefner opens the first Playboy Club in Chicago. 6 MAY President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the Civil Rights Act of 1960, intended to remove barriers for Blacks who want to vote in the South. 16 MAY Berry Gordy founds Motown records in Detroit. 8 NOVEMBER John F. Kennedy (D) defeats Richard M. Nixon (R) in the U.S. presidential election. 16 NOVEMBER Clark Gable dies of a heart attack days after completing The Misfits. ■■■■■■■■■■ 1961 3 JANUARY The United States terminates diplomatic relations with Cuba. 17 JANUARY In his farewell address President Eisenhower warns of “the military-industrial complex.” 23 JANUARY Bob Dylan makes his debut performing at an open-mike hootenanny at the Café Wha? in Greenwich Village, New York City. 12 APRIL Yuri Gagarin of the USSR becomes the first man to orbit the Earth. 17 APRIL The failed Bay of Pigs invasion takes place. 13 AUGUST Construction begins on the Berlin Wall. 22 DECEMBER James Davis of Livingston, Tennessee, becomes the first American soldier to die in Vietnam. ■■■■■■■■■■ 1962 20 FEBRUARY John Glenn orbits the Earth three times in Friendship 7. 3 JULY France cedes independence to Algeria. xi 9 JULY Andy Warhol’s first art exhibit, consisting of thirty-two paintings of Campbell’s soup cans, opens at Ferus Gallery in West Hollywood, California. 23 JULY Jackie Robinson becomes the first African American to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. 4 AUGUST Marilyn Monroe dies at age thirty-six from an overdose of prescription drugs. 22 OCTOBER The Cuban missile crisis begins. ■■■■■■■■■■ 1963 17 JUNE The U.S. Supreme Court rules that no state or locality may require recitation of the Lord’s Prayer or Bible verses in public schools. 28 AUGUST At a civil rights demonstration in Washington, D.C., Martin Luther King Jr. gives his “I Have a Dream” speech. 30 AUGUST An emergency hotline between Washington and Moscow is set up. 27 SEPTEMBER Joseph Valachi identifies Mafia families in his testimony before the McClellan Committee on national television. 22 NOVEMBER JFK is assassinated in Dallas; Lyndon B. Johnson is sworn in as the thirty-sixth president. ■■■■■■■■■■ 1964 7 FEBRUARY The Beatles arrive in the United States for the first time at the newly renamed JFK Airport in New York. Two days later, the band makes its first appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” viewed by more than 72 million. 13 APRIL At the 1963 Academy Award ceremonies, Sidney Poitier wins an Oscar for Best Actor for Lilies of the Field, the first African American actor to win the award. 7 AUGUST Congress passes the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, approving U.S. action in Vietnam and giving President Johnson discretionary power. 27 SEPTEMBER The Warren Commission releases its report on the investigation into the assassination of JFK, claiming that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. 1 OCTOBER The first student arrest in the Free Speech Movement at the University of California, Berkeley. Two months later over seven hundred demonstrators are arrested during a demonstration on campus. xii TIMELINE — THE 1960s ■■■■■■■■■■ 1965 21 FEBRUARY Influential and militant black nationalist Malcolm X is murdered by three gunmen while giving a speech in Harlem in New York City. 13 MARCH LBJ authorizes the use of napalm in Vietnam. MID-JULY Mariner 4 Mars probe flies to within 6,100 miles of Mars, sending back pictures of the planet’s surface. 11 AUGUST Six days of rioting begins in the Watts section of Los Angeles. 4 OCTOBER Pope Paul VI, the first pope to visit North America, arrives in New York City. 18 OCTOBER The first public burning of a draft card is carried out by David Miller in New York City. ■■■■■■■■■■ 1966 22 JUNE Samuel Goldwyn wins an out-of-court settlement of a sixteenyear -long antitrust suit against Twentieth Century Fox and other companies. 30 JULY The United States bombs the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) in Vietnam for the first time. 13 AUGUST The Cultural Revolution is officially announced as state policy in China. 8 SEPTEMBER The first episode of “Star Trek” (“The Man Trap”) is broadcast on NBC. 29 OCTOBER The National Organization of Women is officially launched, with Betty Friedan as president. 15 DECEMBER Walt Disney dies of...