what went on in the 1960s
1960s in a nut shell
The 1960s was the decade of political and social upheaval in Australia. Youth challenged the customary values of their parent's generation. Actively opposed the decisions of the government. Women demanded equal rights, call for racial equality and new considerations for the environment. Protests against Vietnam War and the start up of the nuclear industry. There has been significant advances in communications technology meaning communication around the world was much faster and easier.
Women's rights in the 1960s
In the late 1960s, lots Australian women began questioning the restrictive roles that society gave to them. Women felt that there was life other than caring children and taking cleaning the home. Others were unsatisfied with the traditionally 'female' roles such as teaching, administration and secretarial work.
The contraceptive pill was brought into Australia in the 1960s. It had a major impact on society, letting women have more sexual freedom and allowing them to control when they had children.
Indigenous rights during 1960s
In a 1967 a referendum was held to vote on if the Indigenous Australians where allowed to become citizens and be counted in the senses. This resulted in a long campaign by both Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. which demanded better rights for Indigenous people and highlighted the terrible conditions where the Aboriginals lived.
Vietnam War
There was a war between communist North Vietnam and democratic South Vietnam in 1959. America and it allies, including Australia, sent thousands of troops to Vietnam with the intention to stop the spread of Communism. Fifty thousand troops where sent to Vietnam, Eight thousand Australians who served in the conflict between 1965 and 1972.
Australians became divided over the issue of conscription and Australia's part in the war. At the end of the decade, thousands of people demonstrated against the government.
Politics
Robert Menzies served as Australia's Prime Minister through the 1960s until he retired in January 1966. Harold Holt was Prime Minister who confronted the challenge of defending Australia's part in the Vietnam War.
Harold Holt went for a swim in Cheviot beach in Victoria and was never seen again. A couple of days late he was presumed dead his body was never found.
After Holt vanished, John Gorton was elected as the new Prime Minister of Australia. In 1968, John Gorton announced that he would not be sending anymore troops to Vietnam.
1960s Timeline
1960
•Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho Released
•First Televised Presidential Debates
•Lasers Invented
•Most Powerful Earthquake Ever Recorded Hits Chile
•The Birth Control Pill Is Approved by the FDA
1961
•Adolf Eichmann on Trial for Role in Holocaust
•Bay of Pigs Invasion
•Berlin Wall Built
•JFK Gives "Man on the Moon" Speech
•Soviets Launch First Man in Space
•The Antarctic Treaty Goes Into Force
•Tsar Bomba, the Largest Nuclear Weapon to Ever Be Exploded
1962
•Cuban Missile Crisis
•Famous Escape From Alcatraz
•First James Bond Movie
•First Person Killed Trying to Cross the Berlin Wall
•Marilyn Monroe Found Dead
1963
•16th Street Baptist Church Bombing
•Betty Friedan Publishes The Feminine Mystique
•First Dr. Who Episode Airs
•First Woman in Space
•Great Train Robbery in England.
•JFK Assassinated
•March on Washington
•Martin Luther King Jr. Makes His "I Have a Dream" Speech
•Medgar Evers Is Murdered
1964
•Beatles Become Popular in U.S.
•Civil Rights Act Passes in U.S.
•Italy Asks for Help to Stabilize the Leaning Tower of Pisa
•Japan's First Bullet Train Line Opens
•Nelson Mandela Sentenced to Life in Prison
•Warren Report on JFK's Assassination Issued
1965
•British Sea Gem Oil Rig Collapse
•Malcolm X Assassinated
•New York City Great Blackout
•The Rolling Stones’ Mega Hit Song, “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”
•U.S. Sends Troops to Vietnam
1966
•Mao Zedong Launches the Cultural Revolution
•Mass Draft Protests in U.S.
•National Organization for Women (NOW) Founded
•Two Multi-Ton Chunks of the Mundrabilla Meteorite Found
1967
•Australian Prime Minister Disappears- Harlod Holt
•Che Guevara Killed
•First Heart Transplant
•Six-Day War in the Middle East
•Three U.S. Astronauts Killed During Simulated Launch
•Thurgood Marshall Becomes the First African-American U.S. Supreme Court Justice
1968
•Martin Luther King Jr. Assassinated
•Nerve Gas Leak in Utah Kills 6,000 Sheep
•Robert F. Kennedy Assassinated
•Spy Ship USS Pueblo Captured
1969
•ARPANET, the Precursor of the Internet, Created
•Manson Family Murders
•Neil Armstrong Becomes the First Man on the Moon
•Rock-and-Roll Concert at Woodstock
•Senator Edward Kennedy Leaves the Scene of an Accident
•Yasser Arafat Becomes Leader of the PLO