What was so important about 1960's?

Answer 1

The 1960's was a time of great social and political change in the United States, some of which was good and some has shown to be not so good. Certainly one of the premier events of the decade was the 1964 Civil Rights Act that was authored and pushed through Congress by Senator Everett Dirksen a Republican from Illinois that made open discriminatory practices to be violations of Federal law. John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1960, the first Roman Catholic President which was an issue because there was widespread discrimination against Catholics holding national political office. Of course, he was killed shortly into his first term and did not really accomplish a great deal. One thing he did do, and many political cultists who worship his memory do not like to note, is that JFK sent combat troops to Vietnam, oversaw the assasination of the President of South Vietnam, and put the country on a war course that would last for many years. His successor was Lyndon Baines Johnson who put the country on the course of social justice though again, political cultists do not like to acknowledge that because he was a southern President and "talked funny". But he began what he termed the War on Poverty that began many of the social programs that we live with today including free lunches, Federal aid to schools, programs to combat poverty and affirmative action which was meant to overcome job discrimination not only by race but religion and ethnic origin as well. The War of Poverty changed the nation greatly and continues to be in effect today. The attitude that the Federal government could and should work to change the lives of citizens in all states is still very much part of the Federal approach to returning money to the people. All the while he fought the war on poverty Johnson continued the policies of JFK in Vietnam and tried to gain a military victory that could not be obtained. At the end of the decade Richard Nixon was elected President and, again, it is not popular to say but Nixion ended the War in Vietnam and obtained the return of American POWs being held in North Vietnam. The country faced cultural changes in music, the arts and morals during the 60s. The music of the 60's is still alive today on radio stations and the literature of the time is still widely read. The young people of that decade were called Baby Boomers (because they were born in droves after WWII) and BBs made some terrible changes in the culture (as well as good) but the most serious was the acceptance of violence and drugs into popular society. The "do your own thing" philosophy allowed drugs to become a part of everyday life and up to that time it was a minor influence. The greatest thing about the 60's was the concept of social justice, the worst was the emergence of drug use a way of life.

Answer 2

It was time of crisis and protest movements.

The Birth Control Pill
Cuban Missile Crisis
British Invasion by the Beatles
JFK's assasination
Civil Rights Movement
Martin Luther King's assasination
The Vietnam War
The Berlin Wall was built
China becomes a Communist country
Robert Kennedy's assasination
Richard Nixon as 37th President of the U.S.
Apollo 11 lands on the Moon

Answer 3

Good lord... there were a thousand important things about the 1960s... could you be more specific? Political? Scientific? Spiritual?

Some things:
JFK assassinated
First landing on the moon
Birth control pill introduced
Recreational drug experimentation
The Beatles
Vietnam war
Color TV became prominent
Popular music changed radically

and on and on

Answer 4

It depends on the perspective you are looking from---in one sense, the demonstrations against the war in Viet nam (which effectively drove a sitting president out of office)---in another the culmination of the Apollo program with the lunar landing-----in another, the Cuban missile crisis (which brought the entire world closer to total annihilation than anything before or `since.)

More:
The first performances by the Beatles
The Civil rights movement in it's evolution from passive resistance to black militancy
The development of the first portable cellular phones
Woodstock

So you get the idea. Anybody's list is as good as anybody else's. There are many, many more examples, but you can easily research this yourself, even by such a simple thing as talking about the period with someone who lived it.

Answer 5

The British Music Invasion
Civil Rights
Womens Rights
Gay Rights
Woodstock
The Space Program
The Cuban Missle Crisis
JFK, RFK, MLK assisinations
Vietnam

The beginnings of a cultural change (time for another)

Answer 6

Civil Rights Movement

Woodstock

Answer 7

Change in attitudes culturally.
MINISKIRTS!
Music, the Beatles
Cars
Space travel, man on the Moon
Polyester clothes
3 speed bikes from England

Answer 8

go to the library and look in the fiction section for woman's rights