1961
Jan 17 - Eisenhower warns of increasing power of "military-industrial complex"
Feb 1 - Four black students arrested at whites only lunch counter in Greensboro S. Carolina
Feb 18 - Bertrand Russell, 89, leads march of 20,000 & sit-down of 5,000 anti-nuke outside U.K. Defense Ministry and is jailed for 7 days
Mar - Richard Alpert (Ram Dass) takes psilocybin as part of the Harvard Project
Mar 1 - John Kennedy initiates 17 billion dollar nuclear missile program, increases military aid to Indochina & announces creation of the Peace Corps
Apr 11 - Bob Dylan's first billed performance at Gerde's Folk City
Apr 12 - Yuri Gagarin of the USSR is the first man in space
Apr 25 - Bay of Pigs, Cuba U.S. planned invasion is defeated by Castro
May 4 - Freedom Riders leave DC for a southern tour to test integration in bus stations
May 28 - Amnesty International Founded
July - Ban The Bomb Demonstrations start worldwide
July 19 - First Telstar Satellite Live TV Transmission across the Atlantic
Aug 13 - East German border guards begin construction of Berlin Wall
Sept 15 - U.S. starts underground nuclear testing
Oct 6 - President Kennedy advises Americans to build fallout shelters

1962
Feb 16 - Boston SANE & fledgling SDS hold first anti-nuclear march on Washington with 4000-8000 protesters
Apr 25 - U.S. resumes atmospheric nuclear testing after 3 year moratorium
Sept - Timothy Leary founds International Foundation for Internal Freedom (IFIF) to promote LSD research & publish The Psychedelic Review.
Oct 22 - Cuban Missile Crisis - Soviet missile bases in Cuba, Kennedy orders naval blockade.

1963
Jan - Alabama Gov. Wallace's "Segregation Forever" speech at inauguration
Apr 3 - SCLC & volunteers stage sit-in in Birmingham, Alabama
Apr 12 - Martin Luther King & Ralph Abernathy go to jail in Birmingham
Jun 11 - JFK Proposes the Civil Rights Bill
Jun 12 - Civil rights leader Medgar Evers assassinated.
July  - Timothy Leary hosts Freedom House groups in Zihuatanejo, Mexico, Dominica & then Antigua
July - Newport Folk Festival July 26-28, includes Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Phil Ochs and Pete Seeger
Aug 5 - First Nuclear Test Ban Treaty signed
Aug 28 - Martin Luther King's I Have a Dream speech, Wash DC Civil Rights March 1963, 200,000 attend
Aug 30 - U.S. -Soviet Hotline installed
Sept - Timothy Leary, Richard Alpert, and other Harvard alumni LSD researchers move to the Hitchcock's estate in Millbrook, New York.
Sept 24 - Nuclear Test Ban Treaty ratified by Senate
Oct 10 - Nuclear Test Ban Treaty takes effect
Oct 13 - Beatles on TV at London Palladium.  15 million get to see them perform "She Loves You" and "Twist and Shout".
Nov 22 - JFK Assassinated in Dallas, Texas, LBJ sworn in
Nov 22 - Aldous Huxley dies while tripping on LSD (intentionally!)
Nov 24 -  LBJ escalates the Vietnam War
Nov 29 - Beatles "I Want to Hold Your Hand" Released

1964
Jan 8 - LBJ declares "War on Poverty" in State of the Union address
Jan 11 - U.S. Surgeon General declares cigarettes cause lung disease
Jan 30 - New military junta takes over in South Vietnam
Feb 7 - Beatles arrive in New York to 10,000 screaming fans
Feb 9 - Beatles first appear on Ed Sullivan Show, 74 million people watch, the largest audience in the history of television.
Apr 23 - Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl
May - Bob Dylan's first visit to England, meets The Beatles & Rolling Stones; turns The Beatles on to marijuana.
July - Millbrook LSD sessions with Timothy Leary
July - Ken Kesey's First Magic Bus Trip to NY
July 2 - LBJ signs US Civil Rights Act: public facilities opened to all
July 18 - Race riot in Harlem, NY
July 23 - Senate passes $947 million antipoverty bill
Aug - Ken Kesey & his Merry Pranksters visit Timothy Leary & Richard Alpert at Millbrook.
Aug - Beatles first U.S. tour: 25 North American cities.
Aug 4 - Three missing civil rights workers found dead in Mississippi
Aug 11 - Beatles' A Hard Day's Night movie released
Aug 20 - LBJ signs anti-poverty program
Aug 23 - Beatles Hollywood Bowl concert
Aug 28 - Race riots in Philadelphia
Aug 31 - LBJ signs food stamp bill
Oct 14 - Martin Luther King Jr. wins Nobel Peace Prize
Dec 10 - Martin Luther King awarded Nobel Peace Prize
 
1965
Time Mag calls young people "generation of conformists"
Jan 4 - President Johnson outlines "Great Society"
Feb - Martin Luther King Jr. and 770 other protesters arrested in Selma, Alabama for picketing county courthouse to end discrim voting rights
Feb 8 - U.S. starts bombing North Vietnam
Feb 18 - Sect. of  Defense Robert McNamara calls for nationwide network of  bomb shelters
Feb 21 - Malcolm X shot and killed
Mar 3 - Owsley starts LSD factory, making large quantities of acid available for the first time
Mar 6 - First American soldier officially sets foot on Vietnam battlefields
Mar 7 - Alabama state troopers attack 525 civil rights workers as they prepare to march
Mar 8 - 3,500 Marines land to protect Da Nang air base
Mar 16 - Quaker Alice Herz, 82, immolates self in Detroit in protest of the Vietnam war
Mar 16 - Police break-up demonstration of 600 in Montgomery, Alabama
Mar 17 - 1,600 people demonstrate at Montgomery, Alabama courthouse
Mar 21 - Martin Luther King Jr. leads march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama joined by 25,000 marchers
Mar 24 - SDS organizes first Vietnam War teach-in at Univ. of Michigan 3000 show up
Mar 25 - Civil rights worker shot and killed by KKK in Alabama
Mar 28 - Martin Luther King calls for boycott of Alabama on TV
Apr - 25,000 U.S. troops stationed in Vietnam
Apr 2 - Ken Kesey busted for marijuana first time
Apr 17 - SDS leads first anti-Vietwar march in Washington. 25,000 attend including Phil Ochs, Joan Baez and J.Collins
Jun 11 - Beatles awarded the MBE by the Queen
July 8 - Chicago school integration protests
July 10 - Rolling Stones' I Can't Get No Satisfaction #1
July 24 - Bob Dylan's Like A Rolling Stone enters charts
July 25 - Dylan goes Rock at Newport Folk Festival
July 30 - LBJ signs Medicare bill
Aug - Ken Kesey meets Hunter Thompson who introduces the Hells Angels to the Merry Pranksters; Alan Ginsberg & Richard Alpert are at the party.
Aug 11 - Major race riot (6 days) in Watts, leaves 35 dead
Aug 13 - Nat'l Guard enters Watts riots in L.A.
Aug 14 - Sonny and Cher release "I Got You Babe"
Aug 23 - Premiere of Beatles' Help!
Aug 31 - Burning draft cards becomes illegal
Sept 5 - San Francisco writer Michael Fallon applies the term "hippie" to the SF counterculture in an article about the Blue Unicorn coffeehouse where LEMAR (Legalize Marijuana) & the Sexual Freedom League meet, & hippie houses.
Sept 25 - “Eve of Destruction”, sang by Barry McGuire top of the charts
Oct 1 - Anti-pollution bill sets emission standards for cars
Oct 16 - 100,000 anti-war protesters nationwide in 80 cities
Nov - "Unsafe at Any Speed" about the automobile industry's disregard for safety, published by Ralph Nader.
Nov 22 - Bob Dylan marries Sarah Lowndes & moves to Woodstock, N.Y.
Dec 25 - Timothy Leary busted for pot at the Mexican border
 
1966
Jan 3 - The Psychedelic Shop head shop opens on Haight Street, S.F.
Jan 14 - March on Atlanta to protest ouster of Julian Bond
Jan 17 - B52 collides, drops 4 10-megaton H bombs on Spain, none explode,  cover-up follows
Jan 20 - Ken Kesey busted again with Mountain Girl on the roof.
Jan 21 - First light show, Grateful Dead, 10,000 people in S.F.
Feb 19 - Jefferson Airplane and Big Brother and the Holding Company with Janis Joplin perform at the Fillmore
Mar 3 - GI Bill grants veterans rights to education, housing, health and jobs
Mar 11 - Timothy Leary sentenced in Texas to 30 years for  trying to cross into Mexico with a small amount of marijuana
Mar 25 - Anti-Vietnam war protests in NY bring out 25,000 on 5th Ave.  Other protests in 7 US cities and 7 foreign cities.
Apr - FBI releases file on LSD, drug gets bad press
Apr - 30 Mississippi blacks build tent city under President Johnson's window to protest housing conditions in their state
Apr - Discotheques are the rage in NY and LA. Andy Warhol puts on light shows
Apr 7 - Sandoz stops supplying LSD to researchers
Apr 12 - NY Stock Exchange hit with anti-war leaflets
Apr 16 - Timothy Leary busted at Millbrook by G. Gordon Liddy & FBI  for possession of marijuana
May 15 - Antiwar demonstration in D.C., 10,000 attend
July 29 - Bob Dylan's motorcycle accident
Aug 5 - Lennon says Beatles more popular than Jesus
Aug 18 - Red Guard begins to wipe out western influence in China
Sept - George Harrison goes to India for 6 weeks to study sitar with Ravi Shankar.
Sept - Timothy Leary holds press conference at NY Advertising Club announcing formation of a psychedelic religion - League for Spiritual Discovery ("Turn on, tune in, drop out") & starts nightly presentations at the Village Theater.
Nov 5 - Walk for Love and Peace and Freedom: 10,000 + in New York City
Dec - Cream's first album: Fresh Cream released.  Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, and Ginger Baker.
 
1967
Jan 14 - Gathering of the Tribes, First Human Be-In, 20,000, S.F.
Jan 27 - US, USSR, UK sign treaty banning nuclear  weapons in space
Feb - 25,000 US troops sent to Cambodian border
Feb - Beatles release Strawberry Fields Forever, Penny Lane, Michelle, Yesterday
Mar - Scientist report LSD causes chromosome damage (never validated).
Mar - The Berkeley Barb starts the smokable banana rumor (based upon Donovan's song "Mellow Yellow")
Mar 3 - Alice B. Toklas dies
Mar 18 - First U.S. supertanker wreck. Torrey Canyon spills 90,000 tons of oil onto English shores
Mar 26 - Be-In at Central Park in NY. 10,000 attend
Apr 5 - Grayline starts hippie tours of Haight/Ashbury
Apr 10 - Vietnam Week starts.  Draft card burnings and anti-draft demonstrations
Apr 15 - Anti-Vietnam War protest. 400,000 march from Central Park to UN. Speeches by Martin Luther King, Stokely Carmichael and Dr. Benjamin Spock
May - Paul McCartney announces that all the Beatles have "dropped acid."
May 19 - First U.S. air strike on Hanoi
May 20 - Flower Power Day in NYC 1967
Jun 2 - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album by the Beatles released.
Jun 16 - Monterey Pop Festival
Jun 21 - Summer Solstice Party in Golden Gate Park
Jun 25 - Beatles sing "All You Need Is Love" on TV 1967
Jun 30 - 448,400 US troops now in Vietnam
July - The Summer of Love in San Francisco
July - Summer of Rioting in the US.  Blacks take to the streets in Chicago, Brooklyn, Cleveland and Baltimore
July 1 - Sgt. Pepper hits #1
July 11 - Newark riots start long hot summer
July 24 - 43 Die in Detroit rioting, worst in U.S. history
July 26 - H. Rap Brown arrested for inciting a riot in Maryland
July 29 - Door's Light My Fire and Procol Harem's Whiter Shade of Pale vie for #1
Aug 26 - Jimi Hendrix's "Are You Experienced" hits the charts
Aug 27 - Beatles in India with Maharishi informed of Brian Epstein's death
Sept - Richard Alpert meets Bhagwan Dass at the Blue Tibetan in Katmandu, stays in India & follows him until he meets his guru.
Sept 15 - Donovan performs at the Hollywood Bowl
Oct 3 - Woody Guthrie dies
Oct 8 - Che Guevarra killed in Bolivia by US-trained troops
Oct 12 - Big Brother and the Holding Company's Cheap Thrills with Janis Joplin at top of LP charts.
Oct 20 - Seven KKK members convicted of conspiracy in 1964 murders of three civil rights worker
Oct 21-22 - Anti-war protesters storm the Pentagon
Oct 21 - "Diggers" exorcise the Pentagon.  35,000 Demonstrate, 647 arrested
Oct 26 - Draft deferments eliminated for those who violate draft laws or interfere with recruitment
Nov 14 - Air Quality Act provides $428 million to fight air pollution
Nov 20 - National Commission on Product Safety established
Dec - Beatles release "Magical Mystery Tour"
Dec - 486,000 American troops in Vietnam, of the 15,000 killed to date, 60% died in 1967.
Dec - "Stop the Draft" movement organized by 40 antiwar groups, nationwide protests ensue.
Dec 5 - 1000 antiwar protesters try to close NYC induction center.  585 arrested including Allen Ginsberg and Dr. Benjamin Spock
Dec 5 - Beatles open Apple Shop in London
Dec 8 - Otis Redding records "Dock of the Bay"
Dec 10 - Otis Redding dies in plane crash
Dec 22 - Owsley busted, stops making acid
Dec 31 - Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, Paul Krassner, Dick Gregory, & friends pronounce themselves "Yippies"
 
1968
Jan 16 - Youth International Party (Yippies) founded
Jan 18 - Eartha Kitt visiting LBJ at White House speaks out against the war
Jan 22 - B-52 carrying H-bomb crashes in Greenland
Jan 23 - USS Pueblo seized by Korea
Jan 31 - Viet Cong launch Tet Offensive
Feb - Timothy Leary evicted from Millbrook house
Feb - Beatles go to India to visit Maharishi Mahesh Yogi at Rishikesh on the Ganges river.  Mia Farrow, Donovan follow.
Feb 8 - George Wallace announce candidacy for President on law and order platform
Mar 12 - Eugene McCarthy wins 42% of New Hampshire vote in presidential primary
Mar 16 - My Lai massacre 200 - 500 Vietnamese villagers killed
Mar 16 - Robert F. Kennedy announces candidacy for President
Mar 31 - LBJ announces decision not to run again and offers partial Vietnam bombing halt
Apr 4 - Martin Luther King shot and killed in Memphis
Apr - The week following Martin Luther King Jr.'s murder sees black uprisings in 125 cities across the U.S.
Apr 6 - Oakland Police ambush Black Panthers. Eldridge Cleaver arrested with a bullet-shattered leg. Bobby Hutton shot and killed.
Apr 8 - Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs established (DEA)
Apr 11 - LBJ signs civil rights bill banning housing discrimination
Apr 11 - Major call-up of reserves for duty in Vietnam
Apr 14 - Love-in at Malibu Canyon, Calif.
Apr 15 - Start of Spring Mobilization against the Vietnam war
Apr 23 - SDS lead students take over 5 buildings at Colombia Univ for a week. 700 arrested
Apr 24 - 300 Black students occupy admin. building at Boston Univ. demanding black studies and financial aid
Apr 25 - Paul Horn records in the Taj Mahal
Apr 29 - The rock musical HAIR opened on Broadway at the Biltmore Theater
May 10 - Vietnam peace talks begin in Paris
Jun 3 - Andy Warhol shot by woman
Jun 5 - Bobby Kennedy assassinated by Sirhan Sirhan moments after winning California primary.
Jun 14 - Dr. Benjamin Spock convicted of conspiracy to abet draft evasion
July 1 - Nuclear nonproliferation treaty signed by 61 nations
Aug 1 - 541,000 U.S. Troops in Vietnam
Aug 8 - Nixon and Agnew nominated during Miami riots
Aug 20 - Soviets invade Czechoslovakia
August 25-29 - Democratic Convention in Chicago  demonstrations & police riot 10,000 +/- demonstrators vs.  11,000 Chicago police; 6,000 National Guard; 7,500 U.S. army troops; and 1,000 FBI, CIA &  other services agents  (Humphrey nominated on platform supporting the war)
Aug 28 - Humphrey and Muskie nominated amid violent antiwar protests in Chicago.  Bystanders and press also beaten by police
Oct 18 - John & Yoko Busted
Nov - First "Whole Earth Catalog" published by Stewart Brand.
Nov 5 - Nixon elected President, Spiro T. Agnew, VP
Nov 6 - Student Strike at SF State
 
1969
Jan 28 - Santa Barbara, Ca. oil well blowout
Feb - Massive strike at U.C. Berkeley for ethnic studies
Feb 11 - 200 students smash computers with axes & set computer center on fire during sit-in protesting prof's racism at St. George Williams College, Montreal
Feb 13 - 33 students arrested at admin bldg sit-in at Univ of Mass.
Feb 18 - Students seize building and  boycott started at Howard University
Feb 24 - Students occupy Admin bldg at Penn State
Feb 27 - Police charge student picket lines, club and arrest two Chicano leaders at U.C. Berkeley
Feb 27 - Thousands rampage thru nine buildings at U of Wisconsin, Madison over black enrollments
Mar 12 - Paul McCartney marries Linda Eastman
Mar 20 - John & Yoko fly to Gibraltar,  get married then fly to Amsterdam for one week "lie-in" for peace
Mar 20 - James Earl Ray sentenced to 99 years for murder of Martin Luther King Jr.
Apr - 543,000 US troops now in Vietnam
Apr 4 - Smothers Brothers tv show canceled because it is too controversial
Apr 9 - 300 Harvard students led by SDS seize Univ Hall and evict eight deans
Apr 10 - Police called into Harvard, 37 injured, 200 arrested
Apr 11 - Start of 3 day student strike at Harvard
Apr 22 - Harvard faculty votes to create black studies program &
  give students vote in selection of its faculty
Apr 22 - City College of NY closed after black & Puerto Rican students lock selves inside asking higher minority enrollment
Apr 23 - Sirhan Sirhan sentenced to death for murder of Bobby Kennedy
Apr 24 - U.S. B-52s launch biggest attack on North Vietnam. Protests in 40 cities
May 15 - Hippies in People's Park in Berkeley attacked by police and Nat'l Guard
July - Stephen Gaskin starts The Farm commune in Tennessee.
July 3 - Brian Jones of Rolling Stones dies
July 14 - Easy Rider premieres
July 20 - Men walk on the Moon
July 27 - Police raid on gay bar in Greenwich Village, NYC results in Stonewall Uprising. 2000 protesters battle 400 police, start of Gay Liberation Movement
Aug - Blind Faith forms, with Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker from Cream and Steve Winwood from Traffic.
Aug 9 - Sharon Tate & LaBiancas found murdered by Charles Manson & Crew
August 15 - 17 WOODSTOCK Festival 500,000 people gathered for three days of music and peace that changed the world
Aug 24 - Movie 'Alice's Restaurant released with Arlo Guthrie
Aug 26 - FBI reports 98% increase in marijuana arrests from 1966 - 1968
Sept 3 - Ho Chi Min, leader of North Vietnam, dies
Sept 24 - Chicago Eight trial begins. Tom Hayden, Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin et. al charged with conspiracy to incite riots
Oct - Is Paul dead? Beatles controversy
Oct 8-11 - The Weatherman "Days of Rage"
Oct 15 - Peace Day. 500,000 protesters nationwide. First Vietnam Moratorium
Oct 21 - Jack Kerouac, beat author of "On the Road" dies.
Oct 30 - Supreme Court orders desegregation nationwide
Nov 15 - 500,000 + march in Wash. DC for peace. Largest antiwar rally in U.S. history. Speakers: McCarthy, McGovern, Coretta King, Dick Gregory, Leonard Bernstein. Singers: Arlo Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Peter, Paul, & Mary, John Denver, Mitch Miller, touring cast of Hair
1969
Nov 17 - First round of SALT talks in Helsinki
Nov 20 - 78 American Indians seize Alcatraz Island and demand its return
Nov 20 - DDT use banned in residential areas
Nov 24 - Lt. William Calley charged with murdering 102 So. Vietnamese civilians at My Lai
Nov 25 - President Nixon orders all US germ warfare stockpiles destroyed
Dec - Over 100,000 US troops dead or injured in Vietnam.
Dec 1 - First draft lottery since W.W.II held in NYC
Dec 8 - Raid on Black Panther headquarters in LA - four hour shoot-out
Dec 24 - Rolling Stones "Altamont" concert erupts in violence, one spectator killed