STV's 100th Anniversary: 1960-1970

Historical Context in the 1960s
- February 1, 1960 - Four black college students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College in Greensboro, North Carolina stage a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth lunch counter, protesting their denial of service. This action caused a national campaign, waged by seventy-thousand students, both white and black, over the next eight months, in sit-ins across the nation for Civil Rights.
- July 1, 1960 - The fifty star flag of the United States is debuted in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, reflecting the admission of Hawaii into the union in 1959.
- November 8, 1960 - The presidential race to succeed two term president Dwight D. Eisenhower is won by Senator John F. Kennedy, the Democratic candidate from Massachusetts, over incumbent Vice President Richard M. Nixon.
- April 17, 1961 - The "Bay of Pigs" invasion of Cuba is repulsed by Cuban forces in an attempt by Cuban exiles under the direction of the United States government to overthrow the regime of Fidel Castro.
- May 5, 1961 - The first U.S. manned sub-orbital space flight is completed with Commander Alan B. Shepard Jr. inside a Mercury capsule launched 116.5 miles above the earth from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Twenty days later, President Kennedy announces his intention to place a man on the moon by the end of the decade.
- August 13, 1961 - The construction of the Berlin Wall begins by the Soviet bloc, segregating the German city, previously held in four sectors by Allied forces, including the United States. The wall would last for twenty-eight years.
- February 20, 1962 - Lt. Colonel John Glenn becomes the first U.S. astronaut in orbit in the Friendship 7 Mercury capsule. He would circle the earth three times before returning to earth, remaining aloft for four hours and fifty-five minutes. This flight equalized the space race with the Soviet Union, whose Vostok I flight on April 12, 1961 with Yuri Gagarin had become the first manned spaceflight into orbit one year earlier.
- October 1, 1962 - Three thousand troops quell riots, allowing James Meredith to enter the University of Mississippi as the first black student under guard by Federal marshals.
- October 14, 1962 - The Cuban Missile Crises begins. In response to the Soviet Union building offensive missiles in Cuba, President John F. Kennedy orders a naval and air blockade of military equipment to the island. An agreement is eventually reached with Soviet Premier Khrushchev on the removal of the missiles, ending the potential conflict after thirty-eight days, in what many think was the closest the Cold War came to breaking into armed conflict.
- August 28, 1963 - The Civil Rights march on Washington, D.C. for Jobs and Freedom culminates with Dr. Martin Luther King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Over 200,000 people participated in the march for equal rights. A monument is now planned on the National Mall to commemorate Dr. King, the speech, and his impact on Civil Rights.
- November 22, 1963 - In Dallas, Texas, during a motorcade through downtown, President John F. Kennedy is mortally wounded by assassin Lee Harvey Oswald. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson is sworn into office later that day. Two days later, Oswald was himself killed on live national television by Jack Ruby while being transported in police custody.
- January 13, 1964 - Beatlemania hits the shores of the United States with the release of "I Want to Hold Your Hand," which becomes the Liverpool group's first North American hit. One week later, their first U.S. album, "Meet the Beatles" is released.
- February 25, 1964 - 1960 Olympic champion Cassius Clay (Muhammed Ali) wins the World Heavyweight Championship in Boxing from current champ Sonny Liston.
- April 22, 1964 - The New York World's Fair opens in Queens, New York on the site of the 1939 event. This world's fair would last for two seasons, and included exhibits from eighty nations. Over 50 million visitors would attend.
- June 29, 1964 - An omnibus legislation in the U.S. Congress on Civil Rights is passed. It banned discrimination in jobs, voting and accommodations.
- November 3, 1964 - President Lyndon B. Johnson wins his first presidential election with a victory over Barry M. Goldwater from Arizona.
- February 7, 1965 - President Lyndon B. Johnson orders the continuous bombing of North Vietnam below the 20th parallel.
- March 25, 1965 - Martin Luther King speaks at a civil rights rally on the courthouse steps of the Alabama State Capitol, ending the Selma to Montgomery, Alabama march for voting rights.
- August 11, 1965 - The Watts race riots in Los Angeles begin a five day siege, culminating in the death of thirty-four people and property destruction in excess of $200 million.
- Kevlar is developed by Dupont scientist Stephanie Louise Kwolek. She would patent the compound, used extensively in bullet proof vests, in 1966.
- June 29, 1966 - United States warplanes begin their bombing raids of Hanoi and Haiphong, North Vietnam. By December of this year, the United States had 385,300 troops stationed in South Vietnam with sixty thousand additional troops offshore and thirty-three thousand in Thailand.
- July 1, 1966 - Medicare, the government medical program for citizens over the age of 65, begins.
- November 8, 1966 - The first black United States Senator in eighty-five years, Edward Brooke, is elected to Congress. Brooke was the Republican candidate from Massachusetts and former Attorney General of that state.
- October 2, 1967 - Thurgood Marshall is sworn into office as the first black Supreme Court Justice.
- April 24, 1968 - Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King is assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee while standing on a motel balcony by James Earl Ray.
- June 5, 1968 - Presidential candidate, the Democratic Senator from New York, Robert F. Kennedy, is shot at a campaign victory celebration in Los Angeles by Sirhan Sirhan, a Jordanian, after primary victories, and dies one day later.
- November 5, 1968 - Richard M. Nixon recaptures the White House from the Democratic party with his victory of Hubert H. Humphrey, Democratic, and 3rd Party candidate George Wallace.
- July 20, 1969 - Neil Armstrong, United States astronaut, becomes the first man to set foot on the moon four days after launch from Cape Canaveral. His Apollo 11 colleague, Edwin E. Aldrin Jr. accompanies him.
- July 25, 1969 - President Richard M. Nixon announces his new Vietnam policy, declaring the Nixon Doctrine that expected Asian allies to care for their own military defense. This policy, and all Vietnam war policies, would be heavily protested throughout the remainder of the year. On November 15, 1969, more than two hundred and fifty thousand anti-Vietnam war demonstrators marched on Washington, D.C. to peacefully protest the war.
- November 21, 1969 - The Internet, called Arpanet during its initial development, is invented by the Advanced Research Projects Agency at the U.S. Department of Defense. The first operational packet switching network in the world was deployed connecting the IMP at UCLA and the Stanford Research Institute. By December 5, it included the entire four node system, with the UCSB and the University of Utah.

Celebrating 100 Years of STV