How Much Do You Know About the 1960s?

The 23rd through 25th amendments were ratified during the 1960s. The 23rd gave residents of the District of Columbia the right to vote in presidential elections; the 24th centered around the abolition of poll taxes; and the 25th established an official presidential line of succession in the event of disability or inability.

In 1964, Sidney Poitier became the first Black actor to win the Academy Award for Best Actor, an honor he earned for his role in 1963’s “Lilies of the Field.” Before Poitier, Hattie McDaniel was the first Black person of any gender to win an Oscar, taking home the Best Supporting Actress award for 1939’s “Gone With the Wind.”

The 1960s television version of Batman — played by comedic actor Adam West — is a far cry from the dark, brooding figure we see on movie screens today. West’s goofy, over-the-top portrayal remains one of the most beloved versions of the caped crusader. Episodes featured exaggerated fight sequences, dance routines, and other zany antics that defied realism in favor of fun.

One of the first advertisements in Super Bowl history was for the drink mix Tang. In the 1967 commercial, the word “TANG” flashed on the screen and alternated with images of someone stirring a drink containing the product. The commercial advertised its vitamin content and its ability to provide lasting energy, and ended with a few people playing baseball.

The Stonewall rebellion began in the early morning of June 28, 1969, when police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay club in New York City. Six days of protests and clashes between bar patrons and law enforcement ensued, helping gain awareness and momentum for the LGBTQ+ rights movement in the United States and around the world.

Not many TV shows have their own theme park, but "Bonanza," which aired on NBC from 1959 to 1973, was unusual in a few respects. Not only was it one of the first shows filmed in color, but it was also the second-longest-running Western series in TV history (right behind "Gunsmoke"). The "Bonanza" theme park opened in 1967 in Nevada, on the shores of Lake Tahoe. It was named Ponderosa Ranch, after the ranch belonging to the show's fictional Cartwright family.

In the mid-1960s, Archie and his pals briefly became superheroes, possibly to compete with the success of Marvel and DC Comics. Archie donned an orange (or sometimes red) bodysuit and a blue cape, and was known as Pureheart the Powerful (later renamed Captain Pureheart). His powers? A pure heart, of course — as well as super-strength and flight (with the help of some jet boosters).

Barbie debuted in 1959, the product of inventor Ruth Handler's desire for a dynamic and successful role model for her daughter. In the early 1960s, Barbie defied gender norms by owning her own "Dreamhouse" and becoming an astronaut. Then, in 1967, Mattel introduced its first doll based on a real human — the supermodel Twiggy. Twiggy (aka Lesley Hornby) was a 16-year-old superstar at the time, and her cropped platinum pixie hair and charcoal-lined eyes had come to define the fashion and celebrity world of that era.

Historians point to the publication of Betty Friedan’s 1963 book “The Feminine Mystique” as a pivotal moment that ignited the second wave of feminism in the 1960s and '70s. In the groundbreaking book, Friedan dispelled the notion that women should feel fulfilled by their roles as homemakers and mothers. On the contrary, Friedan noted that many housewives felt unsatisfied by these restrictive societal norms, and she advocated for careers, college education, and workplace equality for women.

In 1959, the Soviet Union's Luna 2 became the first human-made object to touch the lunar surface, sparking a fierce rivalry between the U.S. and Soviet Union to land an object on the moon. Multiple attempts, both manned and unmanned, were made through the '60s. NASA’s first attempt was the Ranger 3 mission in 1962. The goal was to take detailed photos of the surface, but due to a series of technical glitches, the spacecraft was unable to enter lunar orbit.

Nike is a relatively young company, founded in 1964 as Blue Ribbon Sports. Originally a distributor for the Japanese company Onitsuka Tiger (now called Asics), the company eventually decided to try manufacturing and selling its own brand of sportswear. The founders bounced around a few different animal names, following Puma's lead, but nothing stuck. Instead, the now-iconic athletics giant took its inspiration from the Greek goddess of victory.

An array of new products have made their debut at the World's Fair over the years. At the 1964 fair in New York, automaker Ford gave the public the first glimpse of its newest car: the Mustang. The vehicle went on to set an industry record for sales during its first year. Ford expected to sell about 150,000, and instead sold a whopping 418,000 units. Since then, the Ford Mustang has become an American automotive icon.

Long before Apple Inc. was in the music business or even existed as a computer company, the Beatles were releasing music under the label Apple Records. The London-based studio was formed in the wake of the death of the band's legendary manager, Brian Epstein, and was intended to be an artist-centric alternative to traditional record labels.

On Christmas Eve of 1968, the Apollo 8 astronauts famously read passages of the Bible from space, which was beamed to rapt audiences on Earth. The powerful moment prompted Juan Trippe, head of Pan American World Airways, to phone ABC-TV with some groundbreaking news of his own: His airline had been compiling a list of people interested in moon travel. By the time of the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969, there were 25,000 names on the Pan Am list, and other airlines and holiday magazines seriously began considering lunar travel.

Over its long history, General Mills has tried producing many different kinds of cereal. Its research department invented both an inexpensive way of producing vitamin D and a proprietary “puffing gun,” which resulted in two of its early successful cereals, Kix and Cheerios. Today, the company produces such classics as Lucky Charms and Wheaties — but not every cereal has stood the test of time. In the 1960s, General Mills tried to turn its salty Bugles snack into a cereal called Cornados. It wasn’t a hit with consumers, and today, most General Mills cereals are sweet, not salty.

Paul Newman and Robert Redford joined forces in 1969 for the now-classic film “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.” One thing that made this particular Western stand out was the soundtrack. Burt Bacharach, the film’s composer, infused a distinct '60s pop sound into the movie, moving away from the standard score of most Westerns. It struck a chord with audiences. A prime example is the defining track, “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head,” which won the Academy Award for Best Original Song.

The “Miracle Mets” defeated the heavily favored Baltimore Orioles in Major League Baseball's 1969 World Series. Boasting a roster that included future Hall of Famers Tom Seaver and Nolan Ryan, the Mets came back from being down 9.5 games in their division in mid-August to ultimately reign as champs.

Arrested for using “over 100 obsene” words while on stage at Greenwich Village, the Trial of Lenny Bruce lasted over six months, inadvertently making him a poster child for free speech. After his conviction, he decided to represent himself on appeal. A better comedian than lawyer, Bruce flouted all rules of the courtroom and lost again... but he did get the last laugh. In 2003, New York Governor George Pataki posthumously pardoned the comedy trailblazer.

Volkswagen's 1960 "Lemon" ad is often cited among the greatest marketing campaigns of all time. Created by the famed ad agency Doyle Dane Bernbach, the ad featured a photo of a VW Beetle with the word "Lemon" in bold text beneath it. Additional copy explained, "This Volkswagen missed the boat. The chrome strip on the glove compartment is blemished and must be replaced. Chances are you wouldn't have noticed it; inspector Kurt Kroner did." The message was that Volkswagen's standards for excellence were beyond what they needed to be, and nothing less than perfection would do.

Harper Lee’s novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” is a seminal work of American fiction, covering issues of racial justice from the point of view of a child in the Depression-era South. It was published in 1960 and earned a Pulitzer Prize the following year. Lee had written an unpublished novel prior to “Mockingbird” titled “Go Set a Watchman.” The book was believed to be lost before it was discovered in a safe deposit box and published in 2015.

A clinical psychiatrist drummed out of Harvard for his radical drug experimentations, Timothy Leary became a high priest of psychedelic culture, even starting a church called the League of Spiritual Discovery (LSD, get it?) with the primary sermon advocating followers to “turn on, tune in, and drop out.” Leary’s influence was so massive, President Nixon once called him “the most dangerous man in America.”

Although it’s the sixth novel in Ian Fleming’s "James Bond" book series, movie producers Harry Saltzman and Albert "Cubby" Broccoli decided to film “Dr. No” first, partially because it was cheap to make. In an almost Bond-ian bout of good timing, the 1962 movie, whose plot centers around sabotaging American rockets in the Caribbean, hit the cinemas just before the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Approved by the FDA originally as a way to regulate menstruation, Enovid came with a “warning” about its “contraceptive activity” that many women took advantage of. In 1960, the FDA allowed Enovid to be sold as a birth control pill. By 1967, 13 million women had used the pill, reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies during the decade’s sexual revolution.

The predecessor to the modern Frisbee was called the "Pluto Platter," to cash in on the flying saucer craze of the 1950s. Eventually, Wham-O developer Ed Headrick redesigned the projectile, making its flight more stable, and its popularity soon took off. Renamed after the Frisbie pie company's famously tossable pie tins, the Frisbee became the counterculture sport of the 1960s.

Although the crowd at Woodstock numbered half a million at its peak, fewer than 200,000 stuck around ‘til Monday morning to experience Jimi Hendrix’s history-making performance. Festival organizer Michael Lang had originally wanted the decidedly unhip Roy Rogers to close the event with “Happy Trails,” but the singing cowboy declined.

Though President Dwight D. Eisenhower began his term back in 1953, he didn’t leave office until January 20, 1961. John F. Kennedy then took over as commander in chief, and LBJ stepped in after Kennedy’s assassination in 1963. Nixon closed out the decade as President, assuming the role on January 20, 1969. Gerald Ford succeeded him in 1974.

Said to resemble the nose of the large B-52 bomber, the beehive was inspired by a fez owned by creator Margaret Vinci Heldt. The tall hair style could fit under the hat without taking any damage. Heldt suggested the correct ratio was two-thirds face to one-third ‘hive.

Originally scheduled for a three-hour tour, the escapades of the crew and passengers of the doomed S.S. Minnow provided laughs for three seasons throughout the ‘60s (and several decades later in syndication). Producer Sherwood Schwartz named the ill-fated vessel as a swipe at then-FCC chairman Newton Minow, who declared TV “a vast wasteland.”

Starting with an $800 loan from his family, visionary Berry Gordy eventually built a music empire from humble beginnings in his garage. He named Motown Records after his hometown of Detroit, often called the “Motor City.” The Motown Sound provided many songs to the soundtrack of the ‘60s, delivering 110 Top Ten hits from 1961 to 1971.

On September 26, 1960, two presidential hopefuls debated each other live on television for the first time ever. Democratic candidate John F. Kennedy squared off against Vice President Richard Nixon in black and white. Kennedy’s youthful charm and charisma stole the show, making it no surprise when he won the election months later.