Eddie Cochran


Elvis Presley

• Sharpville massacre leaves 56 dead in South Africa.
• Eddie Cochran killed in car crash.
• US spy plane is shot down over Russia.
• The laser is introduced to the public.
• America launches the USS Enterprise, the first nuclear powered aircraft carrier.
• Lady Chatterley's Lover obscenity trail begins.
• Elvis leaves the army.
• DJ Alan Freed indicted on payola charge.
• The Cavern Club drops It's jazz only policy - eventually the Beatles will emerge from this club.
• Aretha Franklin makes her first album for Columbia.
• 95% of soft drinks sold in the U.S. are furnished in reusable bottles. But in 1960 aluminium cans are used for the first time.
• Thomas S. Monaghan, borrows $500 to buy a pizza parlour in Detroit, and renames it "Domino's."
• Chubby Checker introduces The Twist at the Peppermint Lounge in New York.
• Castro nationalizes all banks and most industrial and commercial enterprises. This is Castro's communism.
• 2,000 computers are delivered in the U.S.
• The Academy award for Best Picture goes to "The Apartment."

Yuri Gagarin


Berlin Wall

Bob Dylan

• Bay of pigs - USA breaks off diplomatic relations.
• Contraceptive pill introduced.
• Protests in Alabama and Mississippi by Black Americans
  1000 whites attack a church where Martin Luther King is preaching.
• Iraq lays claim to Kuwait - British troops sent to defend against possible attack.
• Britain applies to become member of the Common Market.
• Yuri Gagarin becomes first man in space
• Ban the bomb demonstration in Trafalgar Square ends in violence.
• UN secretary Dag Hammarskjoeld dies in air crash.
• Adolf Eichmann on trial for war crimes against Jews.
• The Berlin wall goes up.
• Frank Sinatra launches his own 'Reprise' label.
• Bob Dylan makes his debut in Gerde's Folk City.
• The Beatles sign with Brian Epstein.
• Jackie Wilson shot in New York.
• Tamla Records has first million seller - Shop Around by Smokey Robinson and The Miracles.
• Berry Gordy forms Motown label.
• IBM introduces the Selectric typewriter
• April 12: Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin is the first man to travel into space, as he circles the earth in 90 minutes in the Vostok I 187 miles above the earth.
• May 5: Navy Commander Alan B. Shepard, Jr., blasts into space for a 20 minute ride "out of this world" in the Freedom 7. The space race is underway, but the U.S. is behind.

Nelson Mandela

President Kennedy

The Rolling Stones

• Nelson Mandela imprisoned for trying to organise a general strike.
• President Kennedy increases aid to Vietnam.
• Brazil wins world cup.
• Adolph Eichmann hanged in Israel.
• Martin Luther King jailed for one month for illegal march.
• Telstar TV satellite launched.
• Kennedy blockades Cuba - Krushchev backs down over Cuban missile crisis.
• Amnesty international founded.
• Soviet missile bases in Cuba destroyed.
• OAS gunmen try to assassinate De gaulle.
• Chinese troops invade India.
• Pop art makes the covers of 'Time', 'Life' and 'Newsweek'.
• Decca Records turns down The Beatles.
• Peter Paul and Mary sign for Warner Bros.
• Pete Best sacked by The Beatles.
• Rolling Stones play their first gig at the Marquee club.
• Chris Blackwell forms Island Records.
• John Glenn circles the earth 3 times in the Friendship 7.
• ABC begins broadcasting in color.
• The first K-Mart and Wal-Mart open.
• Polaroid introduces color film prints which develop in 60 seconds.
• Computer salesman H. Ross Perot forms a computer company called Electronic Data Systems (E.D.S.)
• Marilyn Monroe dies of an overdose of sleeping pills. She is 36.
• Film of the year is Too Kill A Mockingbird.
• President Kennedy federalizes Alabama's National Guard and orders Gov. George C. Wallace to allow two black students to be enrolled at the University of Alabama.

Dr. Martin
Luther King

Lee Harvey Oswald

Timothy Leary

• First Kidney Transplant
• Martin Luther King marches to Washington with 200,000 people to demand equality with whites. Gives 'I have a dream' speech.
• 50,000 anti nuclear protestors march in London.
• Viet kong shoot down five US helicopters in the Mekong Delta.
• First issue of underground magazine 'Oz' comes out in Australia.
• President Kennedy sends federal troops to race riots in Southern States.
• Dr. Timothy Leary sacked from Harvard For experimenting on students with LSD.
• Black church service bombed in Birmingham, Alabama.
• President Kennedy assassinated by Lee Harvy Oswald - Oswald later Killed by Jack Ruby.
• Bob Dylan appears in a BBC TV play on his first trip to England.
• Dave Mickey changes AM rock radio with a 700 word a minute delivery. Parents are shocked.
• Whiskey A-Go-Go opens on Sunset Strip.
• Beatles first recording session at Abbey Road.
• Patsy Cline killed in air crash.
• Andrew Loog Oldham signs The Rolling Stones.
• Rolling Stones are snapped up by Decca, anxious not to repeat their previous mistake of failing to sign The Beatles.
• Elmore James dies.
• Roy Orbison tours UK with The Beatles and Gerry & The Pacemakers.

Cassius Clay

Vietnam War

The Beatles

• 'Fanny Hill' ruled obscene.
• Cassius Clay world heavyweight champion after defeating Sonny Liston.
• Malcolm X leaves black Muslims.
• Ronnie Biggs found guilty in 'great train robbery' trial.
• P.L.O founded in Jerusalem.
• Black riots all over USA. Martin Luther king jailed for civil rights action in Florida.
• Three civil rights workers go missing - later found dead in Mississippi, in white backlash.
• US army suffer heavy losses in South Vietnam as conflict escalates.
• South Africa banned from Olympics.
• Brezhnev ousts Khrushchev to become Russian Premier.
• Martin Luther king gets Nobel peace prize.
• Death penalty abolished in the UK.
• First Edition of Top Of The Pops, includes Rolling Stones, Dusty Springfield and Dave Clark Five.
• Beatlemania grips America as Fab Four tour the USA.
• The Beatles have twelve singles in us top 100, including the top five.
• The Rolling Stones tour US - cause hysteria on The Ed Sullivan Show.
• Sam Cook shot and killed in Los Angeles motel.
• Beach Boy Brian Wilson suffers a nervous breakdown.
• Pye Records of Britain signs The Kinks.
• Debut single by The High Numbers - soon to be The Who.
• Pirate radio's Caroline and Atlanta begin broadcasting from the North Sea. A survey shows Radio Caroline having more listeners than the BBC.

Malcolm X

The Yardbirds

Bob Dylan
"Highway 61
Revisited"

• American opinion is divided about involvement in Vietnam war. The first protestor is arrested.
• US troops go on the offensive in South Vietnam.
• Winston Churchill dies.
• Malcolm X is assassinated while speaking at The Harlem Ballroom.
• Police arrest mods and rockers in Brighton.
• Anti Vietnam demonstrations in Paris.
• US labour department refuses visas for British groups.
• The Cavern Club closes.
• Disc Jockey Alan Freed dies a pauper. He coined Phrase Rock ‘N Roll.
• Jeff Beck replaces Eric Clapton in The Yardbirds owing to musical differences.
• Hermans Hermits become unlikely targets for adulation in America, far outstripping their British success.
• Dave Clark Five movie opens - 'Catch Us If You Can'.
• First Berkeley Barb paper published.
• Dylan booed at The Newport Folk Festival for going electric.
• The Beatles play Shea Stadium.
• Andrew Loog Oldham forms Immediate Records.
• The Beatles are awarded MBE's.
• Dylan releases Highway 61 Revisited.

Indira Ghandi

Laugh In

Frank Zappa &
Mother's of Invention
"Freak Out"


The Monkees

• Vietnam war escalates as Americans launch their biggest attack yet on Vietcong forces.
• Indira Ghandi is elected as India's Prime minister.
• England wins the world cup.
• Race riots hit New York, Chicago, and Cleveland.
• Reagan elected governor of California.
• TV Show Laugh In debuts.
• LSD declared illegal by law.
• Zappa and Mother’s of Invention release Freak Out.
• Dylan retreats to Woodstock after motorcycle accident.
• John Lennon meets Yoko Ono.
• George Harrison marries Patti Boyd.
• "The Monkees" TV show gets its first airing.
• Cliff Richard rumoured to be leaving the pop business to teach religion.
• Mia Farrow marries Frank Sinatra.
• Joan Baez arrested at anti - Vietnam demonstration.
• Cigarette advertising is banned on British TV.
• Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters take LSD.
• Indian and Pakistan dispute Kashmir. India invades Pakistan.
• Kenneth Tynan utters television's first four - letter word on BBC2.
• Christmas truce in Vietnam.
• Martin Luther King attempts march from Selma to Alabama State Capitol
• Protests continue in the US, despite civil rights bill.
• Three days of rioting in Watts LA., 18,000 national guards are needed to quell the violence.
• Hanging is abolished in UK
• The worst power failure in history blacks out Ontario and nine U.S. states, including New York. The power is out for 12 hours; nine months later, a whole lot of post-boomer babies are born.

Brian Jones

Woody Guthrie

Grateful Dead

Brian Epstein

Allen Ginsberg

Rolling Stone
Magazine #1

• Six day war in the Middle East - Israel defeats Arabs.
• Death of the revolutionary Che Guevara, becomes a martyr and cult figure.
• Canada celebrates Centennial - Montreal hosts World’s Fair.
• Keith Richards busted by Drug Squad.
• 100 British Labour MP's vote to condemn US bombing in Vietnam.
• American troops attack Ho Chi Minh trail on Cambodian border.
• Manufacturers of Thalidimide go on trail in Germany.
• 400,000 protest outside UN building in New York against Vietnam War.
• Military Coup In Greece.
• Muhammed Ali loses world title by refusing the draft.
• First heart transplant performed in South Africa by Dr Christian Barnard.
• Mick Jagger and Kieth Richards jailed on drugs charges. Later Mick Jagger released on appeal.
• Brian Jones arrested for possessing drugs. Put on probation.
• Jann Werner publishes first Rolling Stone paper. It’s a single page and he delivers it from the trunk of his car.
• Race riots in Boston and Newark.
• Legalise pot rally in London’s Hyde Park - pro cannabis advertisement, signed by celebrities, placed in Times.
• Homosexuality legalized in Britain.
• 'Death of Hippie' ceremony in Haight - Ashbury.
• Janis Joplin commissions artist R. Crumb for her new LP cover - Cheap Thrills
• Founding of 'Yippies' - Youth International Party.
• Anti - Draft demonstrations in New York.
• Brian Epstein commits suicide.
• Beatles make 'Magical Mystery Tour'.
• BBC bans The Beatles A Day In The Life from Sgt Pepper.
• Warner - Reprise signs Jimi Hendrix.
• Monterey Pop Festival - Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Otis Redding, The Byrds, Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother and The Holding Company, Ravi Shankar, Mamas and Papas.
• Jimi Hendrix dropped from Monkees US tour for being too erotic.
• Mothers Of Invention play The Albert Hall.
• The Grateful Dead busted in their San Francisco mansion.
• Otis Redding killed in air crash.
• First 'Be - In' in in San Francisco, with poetry and music by Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger Service and Grateful Dead.
• Free concert in Hyde Park addressed by beat poet - hippie Allen Ginsberg.
• Britain's offshore pirate radios forced to close by government.
• Robert Stigwood signs The Bee Gees.
• Elvis Presley marries Priscilla.
• Fleetwood Mac debut at The National Jazz and Blues Festival at Windsor - UK.
• Woody Guthrie dies.

Dr. King


Robert Kennedy

Jimi Hendrix

• Viet Cong launch Tet Offensive against cities in South Vietnam.
• Anti Vietnam protest in Grosvenor Square, London, turns to battle with police.
• Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated in Memphis.
• Enoch Powell gives his famous 'Rivers Of Blood speech in Birmingham.
• France grinds to a halt as workers strike in support of Student riots.
• Senator Robert Kennedy is shot and killed in Los Angeles.
• Astronauts from Apollo 8 circle the moon.
• TV Show 60 Minutes debuts on CBS.
• Rock FM is introduced in Canada by Doug Pringle and David Marsden.
• Eldrige Cleave shot and arrested. Escapes and disappears for seven years.
• Syd Barrett leaves Pink Floyd.
• The Beatles close their Apple boutique.
• Mick Jagger appears in film 'Performance'.
• Yardbirds evolve into Led Zeppelin.
• Cream play farewell concert at The Albert Hall.
• Graham Nash leaves The Hollies.
• Hendrix makes a heroes return to his home town, Seattle.
• The Hippie musical Hair opens on Broadway.

Moon Walk

Charles Manson

Woodstock

John Lennon &
Yoko Ono

Jim Morrison

Ho Chi Minh

• Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong become the first men to walk on the moon.
• British Troops sent to Northern Ireland as season of riots begin in Londonderry.
• US troops massacre 600 women, kids and old men at Mai Lai.
• Border Clashes between China and the USSR.
• America withdraws 25000 troops from Vietnam. Total US dead stands at 35,630
• Charles Manson and followers carry out the Sharon Tate murder.
• Police fight with anti - racist demonstrators in London.
• Student Jan Palach dies by setting fire to himself in protest against Soviet occupation in Prague.
• New York campus closes after student rioting.
• Anti - war protest in New York.
• Woodstock takes place at Max Yasgur’s farm.
• Yasser Arafat becomes leader of the PLO.
• James Earl Ray jailed for 99 years.
• De Gaulle resigns. George Pompidou elected new leader.
• Mary Jo Kopechne drowns at Chappaquiddick in Senator Edward Kennedy's car.
• Jimi Hendrix arrested in Toronto for possessing heroin.
• Ho Chi Minh dies.
• Anti Apartheid protesters hound the UK tour by the South African Springboks.
• Segregation is outlawed in the American South by US Supreme Court.
• Mick Taylor becomes new Rolling Stone.
• John Lennon sends back his MBE.
• Atlantic achieves 23 gold records in one year.
• Jim Morrison arrested in Miami for exposing himself during a Doors concert.
• Blind Faith supergroup is formed.
• Fairport Convention in M1 crash. Drummer Martin Lamble and designer Jeannie Franklin killed.
• NME starts publishing top 20 albums.
• Noel Redding leaves Jimi Hendrix.
• Neil Young joins supergroup Crosby Stills and Nash, (and start a fashion for calling group names after all the members.)
• Christine Perfect leaves Chicken Shack.
• Woodstock Festival is attended by 400,000 people.
• First Isle Of Wight festival, with Dylan and The Band, Hendrix, and The Who.
• Disaster at Rolling Stones concert at Altamont. Hell's Angels run riot and kill a member of the audience.
• Beatles make their last appearance together on the roof of Apple building.
• Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash collaborate at CBS studios in Nashville.
• John and Yoko go to bed for peace in Amsterdam and Toronto.
• The Beach Boys sue Capitol Records, claiming $2,000,000 in unpaid royalties.
• Spencer Davis Group split up.
• 'Paul is dead' rumours are rife. Many clues in pictures and lyrics are said to support claim.
• John Lennon refused visa to USA on grounds of a previous drug conviction.