TIMELINE resources

• April 12: First human spaceflight: Yuri Gagarin (Soviet Union)

• May 5: First pilot-controlled spaceflight: Alan Shepard (United States)

• August 13: Construction of the Berlin Wall begins

• First oral polio vaccine

• May 30: First performance of Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem

• July 1: Republic of Rwanda gains independence from Belgium as part of the decolonization of Africa

• September 12: John F. Kennedy's "We choose to go to the Moon" speech

  • NASA: John F. Kennedy Moon Speech - Rice Stadium

  • The 55th Anniversary of the Rice University Speech

  • JFK Library: Address at Rice University, Houston, Texas, 12 September 1962

• September 27: Rachel Carson's book, Silent Spring, is published

  • How Silent Spring Ignited the Environmental Movement

• October 16-28: Cuban Missile Crisis

• April 6: Samuel A. Kirk uses the term "learning disability" at a Chicago conference

• June 18: First woman and first civilian in space: Valentina Tereshkova (Soviet Union)

• August 28: Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom

  • NPS: March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom

  • NMAH: Changing America: The Emancipation Proclamation, 1863, and the March on Washington, 1963

  • "I Have a Dream," Address Delivered at the March on Washington

• November 22: John F. Kennedy assassination

• First bilingual and bicultural public school in the United States

• February 9: The Beatles perform on The Ed Sullivan Show

  • Smithsonian: The Beatles' First Appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show," 1964

  • National Portrait Gallery: Ed Sullivan and the Beatles

• May 20: Detection of the cosmic microwave background radiation: Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson

• May 27: Death of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of India

• July 2: Civil Rights Act signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson

  • NPS: Civil Rights Act of 1964

  • National Archives: The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

  • LOC: The Civil Rights Act of 1964: A Long Struggle for Freedom

• August 19: Launch of Syncom 3, the first geostationary satellite

• March 8: First American combat troops arrive in Danang, South Vietnam

• July 20: Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone" released

• November 8: The Higher Education Act is signed at Southwest Texas State College

• Project Head Start begins as an eight-week summer program

• Yves Saint Laurent's "Mondrian Dress" created

• Confirmation of continental drift and the theory of plate tectonics

• March 31: Launch of Luna 10, the first artificial Moon satellite, as part of the Soviet Luna program

• June 30: National Organization for Women (NOW) established

• September 8: Star Trek airs on NBC in the United States

• Cultural Revolution in China

• January 14: Human Be-In at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, California

• June 12: Loving v. Virginia Supreme Court case

• Summer of Love

• October 10: Outer Space Treaty is effective

• November 9: First issue of Rolling Stone Magazine

• December 3: First human heart transplant

• March 18: Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller's death

• April 3: 2001: A Space Odyssey released

• April 4: Martin Luther King Jr. assassination

• June 6: Robert F. Kennedy assassination

• August 24 - September 6: Liberation Theology: Medellin Conference

  • "Liberation Theology and the Gospel of Peace," Kevin F. Burke, S.J.

  • Fr. Gustavo Gutiérrez, O.P.

• August 28: Democratic National Convention protests in Chicago

• October 16: Summer Olympics in Mexico City: Tommie Smith and John Carlos

• December 24: The first image of Earth from space: Earthrise

  • Global Oneness Project: Earthrise

  • Video: An Evening with the Apollo 8 Astronauts

• May 4: "Control of Their Bodies" workshop at female liberation conference at Emmanuel College in Boston (Our Bodies, Ourselves published in 1971)

  • The Birth of Our Bodies, Ourselves

• June 28: Stonewall Riots in Greenwich Village

• July 20: First humans land on the Moon

• August 15-18: Woodstock Music & Art Fair

• April 22: First Earth Day celebrations

• May 4: Kent State shootings

  • Personal Remembrances of the Kent State Shootings, 43 Years Later

• December 2: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) established

• Jean Piaget's book, The Science of Education, is published

• Paulo Freire’s book, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, is published in English

• October 1: Opening of Walt Disney World

• October 11: John Lennon's "Imagine" released

• June 17: Watergate Scandal begins

  • The Washington Post: The Watergate Story

• June 23: Title IX of the 1972 Education Amendments becomes law

• December 7: Launch of Apollo 17, the last Apollo Mission