The 1960s Government, Politics, and Law: Chronology

1960:     May 5 A U-2 spy plane is shot down over Soviet territory, launching a crisis between the United States and Soviet Union, which results in the cancellation of a U.S.-Russian summit meeting.

1960:     May 6 The 1960 Civil Rights Act becomes law.

1960:     September 26 Presidential nominees Democrat John F. Kennedy and Republican Richard M. Nixon meet for the first-ever televised debate between presidential candidates.

1960:     November 8 John F. Kennedy is elected president.

1960:     December Kennedy names his brother Robert as U.S. attorney general.

1961:     January 3 The United States breaks off diplomatic relations with Cuba.

1961:     March 13 President Kennedy proposes that the United States and Latin American countries form an "Alliance for Progress" to promote economic and social reform and prevent the spread of communism.

1961:     April 17 Cuban exiles invade Cuba at the Bay of Pigs. They are defeated by April 20.

1961:     May 4 The Freedom Riders begin traveling throughout the American South to counteract racism and segregation.

1961:     August 13 Communist East Germany closes its borders with West Berlin and begins building the Berlin Wall.

1962:     October 22 President Kennedy announces the presence of Soviet missiles in Cuba. The resulting crisis ends one week later.

1963:     July 25 The United States, Soviet Union, and Great Britain sign the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.

1963:     August 28 Martin Luther King Jr. gives his famous "I Have a Dream" speech in Washington, D.C.

1963:     September 15 Four little girls are killed when a black Birmingham, Alabama, church is bombed.

1963:     November 1 South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem and his family are murdered in a U.S.-backed coup.

1963:     November 22 President Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas. Vice President Lyndon Johnson becomes the new chief executive.

1964:     January 8 In his State of the Union message, President Johnson declares a "War on Poverty."

1964:     June 14 The United Steelworkers of America union and eleven major steel companies sign an agreement to end racial discrimination in the industry.

1964:     July 2 The Civil Rights Act of 1964 becomes law.

1964:     July 18 Riots break out in New York City's Harlem and Brownsville, and spread to other cities.

1964:     September 30 President Johnson signs the Equal Opportunity Act, providing funding for youth programs, antipoverty measures, and small business loans.

1965:     February 21 Black nationalist leader Malcolm X is assassinated.

1965:     March 7 Alabama state and local police attack civil rights marchers in Selma, Alabama.

1965:     June 8 President Johnson authorizes American troops to engage in direct combat operations in Vietnam.

1965:     August 6 The 1965 Voting Rights Act becomes law.

1965:     August 11 Large-scale riots break out in Watts, a black Los Angeles neighborhood.

1965:     October 15 Anti-Vietnam War demonstrations occur in forty U.S. cities.

1966:     January Kentucky becomes the first southern state to pass a civil rights law.

1968:     January 30 North Vietnam launches a major attack known as the Tet Offensive.

1968:     March 10 U.S. soldiers kill hundreds of Vietnamese civilians in the My Lai Massacre.

1968:     April 4 Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee.

1968:     April 11 The Civil Rights Act of 1968 becomes law.

1968:     May 12 U.S.-North Vietnamese peace talks begin in Paris.

1968:     June 4 Robert Kennedy is assassinated.

1968:     August Police battle protesters outside the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

1968:     November 5 Richard M. Nixon is elected president.

1969:     April 3 American combat casualties in Vietnam since January 1, 1961, reach 33,641. This is 12 more than died in the Korean War.

1969:     July 8 The first U.S. troop reductions in Vietnam begin.

1969:     November 15 A quarter-of-a-million antiwar protesters march on Washington, D.C.