Freedom Riders

Freedom Riders

Freedom Riders were civil rights activists who rode interstate buses into the segregated Southern United States in 1961 and subsequent years to challenge the non-enforcement of US Supreme court rulings that segregated public buses were unconstitutional. Source:...

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To Kill a Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird

https://youtu.be/WSRD1irS_ZY In May 1961 a Pulitzer prize was awarded to Harper Lee, author of "To Kill a Mockingbird." https://youtu.be/KR7loA_oziY In 1962 the motion picture To Kill a Mockingbird directed by Robert Mulligan starred Gregory...

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UN Condemns South African Apartheid

UN Condemns South African Apartheid

https://youtu.be/odXAghDLWKM In April 1961 the UN General Assembly condemned South Africa's apartheid policy. Leading the resistance to South Africa’s policy of apartheid in the 20th century, Nelson Mandela was incarcerated by the South African government...

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JFK Announces Peace Corps Formation 

JFK Announces Peace Corps Formation 

President Kennedy proposed the Peace Corps as a means to improve America's global image and leadership in the Cold War. Established within three months of Kennedy's 1960 election, the Peace Corps garnered both bipartisan and popular support, particularly...

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Save The Last Dance For Me 

Save The Last Dance For Me 

https://youtu.be/vYgxbYlhUnw Throughout the 50-60s The Drifters had six number-one R&B hits: Money Honey (1953) Honey Love (1954) Adorable (1955) There Goes My Baby (1959) Save The Last Dance For Me (1960) Under The Boardwalk (1964).

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Civil Rights Act of 1960

Civil Rights Act of 1960

https://youtu.be/9ppTiyxFSs0 The Civil Rights Act of 1960 was a United States federal law establishing federal inspection of local voter registration polls. The act introduced penalties for anyone who obstructed someone's attempt to register...

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The Fantasticks

The Fantasticks

https://youtu.be/H3iEoZdImpY In May 1960 the musical "The Fantasticks" opened at the Sullivan Street Playhouse in Greenwich Village. Its feature song "Try to Remember" became very popular.

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The Cranes Are Flying

The Cranes Are Flying

Source: The Cranes are flying trailer - Google Search https://youtu.be/IkINuHcP6us TheSoviet film The Cranes Are Flying won the Palme d'Or at the 1958 Cannes Film Festival.

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USA Olympic Hockey Team Defeats Soviets

USA Olympic Hockey Team Defeats Soviets

https://youtu.be/jdUsoyZy2aA In February 1960 the U.S. Olympic hockey team defeated the Soviets, 3-2, at the Winter Games in Squaw Valley, Calif. The U.S. team went on to win the gold medal.

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Greensboro Sit-ins

Greensboro Sit-ins

https://youtu.be/tjeVqNcN5yI In February 1960 four black North Carolina A&T students staged the first of the historic 1960s sit-ins at a dime store lunch counter where they had been refused service. Source: History.com

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Bertrand Russell’s Message

Bertrand Russell’s Message

Bertrand Arthur William Russell (1872 – 1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician, and public intellectual who had a considerable influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, linguistics, artificial intelligence, cognitive science, computer science and...

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Chubby Checker-The Twist

Chubby Checker-The Twist

In November 1959 Chubby Checker introduced "The Twist" on the Dick Clark Saturday Night Show. In 1961 he released Let's Twist Again https://youtu.be/KxQZQ86jJHg

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Ben-Hur 

Ben-Hur 

Ben-Hur was a 1959 film directed by William Wyler, that starred Charlton Heston as the title character. The film was a remake of a 1925 silent film with a similar title adapted from Lew Wallace's 1880 novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the...

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The Sound of Music

The Sound of Music

https://youtu.be/btrt9_e5F5w Based on the 1949 book The Story of the Trapp Family Singers written by Maria Augusta von Trapp, the Rodgers and Hammerstein Broadway musical The Sound of Music opened on Broadway in 1959. The...

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Charles Van Doren Quiz Show Scandal

Charles Van Doren Quiz Show Scandal

https://youtu.be/WW_wRS9_7rQ In November 1959 Charles Lincoln Van Doren, an American writer and editor, testified before the U.S. Congress that he had been given the correct answers by the producers of the NBC quiz show Twenty-One.

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First Grammy Awards

First Grammy Awards

https://youtu.be/t4IjJav7xbg I think that dream like that Will never return I painted my hands And face blue Then all of sudden I was Abducted by the wind And I started to fly In the infinite sky .... first verse (https://lyricstranslate.com) The First Grammy...

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Uprising in Tibet

Uprising in Tibet

https://youtu.be/cxSDhng2PQg Encyclopedia Britannica In March 1959 a revolt erupted in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, which had been under the effective control of the People's Republic of China since 1951. The uprising occurred amid general Tibetan...

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Barbie Doll Released

Barbie Doll Released

https://youtu.be/9hhjjhYGQtY In March 1959 the Barbie doll was unveiled by the American Toy Fair in New York City. Doll No. 1 was sold by Mattel Toy Company for $3.  Source: History.com

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The Day the Music Died

The Day the Music Died

On a February 3, 1959 tour of the Midwest, rock and roll musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and "The Big Bopper" J. P. Richardson were killed in a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa, together with pilot Roger Peterson. https://youtu.be/9mDGcxbAusg...

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Pope John XXIII Crowned

Pope John XXIII Crowned

Pope John XXIII  was head of the Catholic Church from October 1958 until his death in 1963. Born in 1881 as  Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, he was one of thirteen children in a family of sharecroppers who lived in a village...

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Kingston Trio – Tom Dooley 

Kingston Trio – Tom Dooley 

The Kingston Trio, an American folk and pop group from San Fancisco helped launch the folk music revival of the late 1950s. The original lineup of Dave Guard, Bob Shane, and Nick Reynolds rose to international popularity fueled by an...

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