Woodstock: the iconic Sixties event

The Sixties in its most obvious sense refers to the decade between 1960 and 1969 (see: 1960s), but the expression has taken on a wider meaning over the past 20 years. It has come to refer to the complex of inter-related cultural and political events which occurred in approximately that period, mainly in the United States but also in other western countries, particularly France, West Germany and Britain. Social upheaval was not limited to just these nations, reaching large scale in nations such as Japan and Mexico as well. The term is used both nostalgically by those who participated in those events, and censoriously by those who regard them as a period whose harmful effect are still being felt today. Woodstock File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... 1960 was a leap year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1969 was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1969 calendar). ... Events and trends The 1960s was a turbulent decade of change around the world. ...

Popular memory has conflated into "the Sixties" some events which did not actually occur in that decade. The American Civil Rights Movement, for example, began in earnest during the 1950s, although some of its most dramatic events occurred in the early '60s. On the other hand, women's liberation and gay liberation began only in the very late '60s and reached their full flowering in the 1970s. But the term Sixties has become a convenient shorthand for all the new, exciting, radical, subversive and/or dangerous (according to one’s viewpoint) events and trends of the period. The civil rights movement in the United States has been a long, primarily nonviolent struggle to bring full civil rights and equality under the law to all Americans. ... Feminism is a body of social theory and political movement primarily based on and motivated by the experiences of women. ... The gay rights movement is a collection of loosely aligned civil rights groups, human rights groups, support groups and political activists seeking acceptance, tolerance and equality for non-heterosexual, (homosexual, bisexual), and transgender people - despite the fact that it is typically referred to as the gay rights movement, members also...

What happened in the Sixties?

Generally, the Sixties is taken to include the following events or trends.

In the United States

The movement for civil and political rights for African Americans (in the early '60s usually called Negroes and in the later '60s Blacks), initially a non-violent movement led by Martin Luther King, Jr. and other Gandhian figures but later producing radical offshoots such as the Black Power movement and competing with the Black Panther Party and the Black Muslims for primacy in the African-American community. African Americans, also known as Afro-Americans or black Americans, are an ethnic group in the United States of America whose ancestors, usually in predominant part, were indigenous to Sub-Saharan and West Africa. ... Martin Luther King Jr. ... Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (October 2, 1869 – January 30, 1948) (Devanagari: मोहनदास करमचन्द गांधी), called Mahatma Gandhi, was the charismatic leader who brought the cause of Indias independence from British colonial rule to world attention. ... Black Power is a slogan which describes the aspiration of many Africans (whether they be in Africa or abroad) to national self-determination. ... Logo of the Black Panther Party The Black Panther Party (originally called the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense) was a revolutionary Black nationalist organization in the United States that formed in the late 1960s and grew to national prominence before falling apart due to a combination of internal problems... The Nation of Islam (NOI), also known as the Black Muslim Movement (although the term is discouraged by the NOI), is a spiritual and political black separatist movement founded in America in 1930 by Wallace Fard Muhammad (1877- ?). The Nation of Islam has a somewhat tenuous connection to mainstream Islam...

The beginning of what was generally seen as a new political era with the election of President John F. Kennedy in 1960, and its ending in tragedy and disillusionment with Kennedy's assassination in 1963, the assassinations of King and Robert F. Kennedy in 1968, and the collapse of Lyndon Johnson's presidency. Order: 35th President Vice President: Lyndon B. Johnson Term of office: January 20, 1961 – November 22, 1963 Preceded by: Dwight D. Eisenhower Succeeded by: Lyndon B. Johnson Date of birth: May 29, 1917 Place of birth: Brookline, Massachusetts Date of death: November 22, 1963 Place of death: Dallas, Texas First... 1960 was a leap year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1963 was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Robert Kennedy . Robert Francis Bobby Kennedy, also called RFK (November 20, 1925 – June 6, 1968) was the younger brother of President John F. Kennedy, and was appointed by his brother as Attorney General for his administration. ... 1968 was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1968 calendar). ... Lyndon Baines Johnson (August 27, 1908–January 22, 1973), often referred to as LBJ, was an American politician. ...

The rise of a mass movement in opposition to the Vietnam War, culminating in the massive Moratorium protests in 1969, and also the movement of resistance to conscription (“the Draft”) for the war. The antiwar movement was initially based on the older 1950s "Peace movement" controlled by the Communist Party USA, but by the mid '60s it outgrew this and became a broad-based mass movement centred on the universities and churches. The Vietnam War was a war fought roughly from 1957 to 1975 after the North Vietnamese government secretly agreed to begin involvement in South Vietnam. ... In law, a moratorium (from Latin morari, to delay) is a legal authorization postponing for a specified time the payment of debts or obligations. ... 1969 was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1969 calendar). ... The global peace movement refers to a sense of common purpose among organizations that seek to end wars and minimize inter-human violence, usually through pacifism, non-violent resistance, diplomacy, boycott, moral purchasing and demonstrating. ... The Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA) is one of several Marxist-Leninist groups in the United States. ...

Stimulated by this movement, but growing beyond it, the radicalization of large numbers of student-age youth, beginning with the Free Speech Movement at the University of California, Berkeley in 1964, peaking in the riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago and reaching a tragic climax with the shootings at Kent State University in 1970. The Free Speech Movement was a student protest which began on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley in 1964 under the informal leadership of student Mario Savio and others. ... University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (also known as Cal, UC Berkeley, UCB, or simply Berkeley) is a public coeducational university situated in the foothills of Berkeley, California, USA to the east of San Francisco Bay, overlooking the Golden Gate. ... 1964 was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Police and protesters at the Convention The 1968 Democratic National Convention was held in Chicago by the United States Democratic Party, for the purposes of choosing the Democratic nominee for the 1968 U.S. Presidential Election. ... Chicago (officially named the City of Chicago) is the third largest city in the United States (after New York City and Los Angeles), with an official population of 2,896,016, as of the 2000 census. ... Mary Ann Vecchio kneels over the body of Jeffrey Miller The Kent State shootings occurred at Kent State University in the city of Kent, Ohio, and involved the shooting of students by the National Guard on May 4, 1970. ... Kent State University (KSU) is an institution of higher learning located in Kent, Ohio, which is one hour south-east from Cleveland. ... 1970 was a common year starting on Thursday. ...

The rapid rise of a "New Left," employing the rhetoric of Marxism but having little organizational connection with older Marxist organizations such the Communist Party, and even less connection with the supposed focus of Marxist politics, the organized labor movement, and consisting of ephemeral campus-based Trotskyist, Maoist and anarchist groups, some of which by the end of the 1960s had turned to terrorism. Marxism is the political practice and social theory based on the works of Karl Marx, a 19th century German philosopher, economist, journalist, and revolutionary, along with Friedrich Engels. ... The Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA) is one of several Marxist-Leninist groups in the United States. ... Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. ... Maoism or Mao Tse-tung Thought (Chinese: 毛泽东思想, pinyin: Máo Zédōng Sīxiǎng), is a variant of Marxism-Leninism derived from the teachings of Mao Zedong (1893–1976). ... This article describes a political philosophy that opposes the state, capitalism, and all forms of social hierarchy. ... Terrorism is a controversial term with multiple definitions. ...

Rioting at the Democratic Convention in Chicago, 1968

The overlapping, but somewhat different, movement of youth cultural radicalism manifested by the hippies and the counter-culture, whose emblematic moments were the Summer of Love in San Francisco in 1967 and the Woodstock Festival in 1969. Chicago This work is copyrighted. ... Hippies (singular hippie or sometimes hippy) were members of the 1960s counterculture movement who adopted a communal or nomadic lifestyle, renounced corporate nationalism and the Vietnam War, embraced aspects of Buddhism, Hinduism, and/or Native American religious culture, and were otherwise at odds with traditional middle class Western values. ... During the 1960s the term underground acquired a new meaning in that it referred to members of the so-called counterculture, i. ... The Summer of Love was a phrase given to the summer of 1967 to try to describe (personify) the feeling of being in San Francisco that summer, when the hippie movement came to full fruition. ... This article is about the city in California. ... 1967 was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Woodstock Music and Art Festival was the most famous rock festival of its era. ... 1969 was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1969 calendar). ...

The rapid spread, associated with this movement, of the recreational use of cannabis and other drugs, particularly new synthetic psychedelic drugs such as LSD. Cannabis is a plant also known as Cannabis sativa, hemp, or marijuana. ... This entry pertains to the word psychedelic, its origin and uses. ... LSD blotter paper D-Lysergic Acid Diethylamide, commonly called acid, LSD, or LSD-25, is a powerful semisynthetic hallucinogen and psychedelic entheogen. ...

The breakdown among young people of conventional sexual morality and the flourishing of the sexual revolution. Initially geared mostly to heterosexual male gratification, it soon gave rise to contrary trends, Women's Liberation and Gay Liberation. The sexual revolution was a substantial change in sexual morality and sexual behaviour throughout the West in the late 1960s and early 1970s. ...

The rise of an alternative culture among affluent youth, creating a huge market for rock and blues music produced by drug-culture influenced bands such as The Beatles, Jefferson Airplane and The Doors, and also for radical music in the folk tradition pioneered by Bob Dylan. Rock and roll (also spelled Rock n Roll, especially in its first decade), also called rock, is a form of popular music, usually featuring vocals (often with vocal harmony), electric guitars and a strong back beat; other instruments, such as the saxophone, are common in some styles. ... Blues is a vocal and instrumental musical form which evolved from African American spirituals, shouts, work songs and chants and has its earliest stylistic roots in West Africa. ... The Beatles (L-R, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, John Lennon), in 1964, performing on The Ed Sullivan Show during their first United States tour, promoting their first U.S. hit song, I Want To Hold Your Hand. ... Jefferson Airplane was an American rock band from San Francisco, a pioneer of the LSD-influenced psychedelic rock movement. ... The Doors self-titled debut, released in 1967 The Doors were a musical band of the 1960s and early 1970s, consisting of Jim Morrison (lead vocals), Ray Manzarek (organ, keyboard), Robby Krieger (guitar), and John Densmore (drums). ... Folk music, in the original sense of the term, is music by and of the people. ... Portrait photograph of Bob Dylan taken by Daniel Kramer Bob Dylan (born Robert Allen Zimmerman May 24, 1941) is widely regarded as one of Americas greatest popular songwriters. ...

In other Western countries

Paris 1968: almost a revolution?

The peak of the student and New Left protests in 1968 coincided with political upheavals in a number of other countries. Although these events often sprang from completely different causes, they were influenced by reports and images of what was happening in the United States and France. Students in Mexico City, for example, protested against the corrupt regime of Gustavo Díaz Ordaz: in the resulting Tlatelolco massacre hundreds were killed. Paris 1968 File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... 1968 was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1968 calendar). ... Mexico City (Spanish: Ciudad de México) is the federal capital of, and largest city in, Mexico. ... Term of Office: 1 December 1964 – 1 December 1970 Preceded by: Adolfo López Mateos Succeeded by: Luis Echeverría Álvarez Date of birth: 12 March 1911 Place of birth: Cd. ... The Tlatelolco massacre took place on the night of October 2, 1968, in the Plaza de las Tres Culturas in Tlatelolco, Mexico City. ...

The influence of American culture and politics in Western Europe, Japan and Australia was already so great by the early 1960s that most of the trends described above soon spawned counterparts in most Western countries. University students rioted in London, Paris, Berlin and Rome, huge crowds protested against the Vietnam War in Australia and New Zealand (both of which had committed troops to the war), and politicians such as Harold Wilson and Pierre Trudeau modelled themselves on John F. Kennedy. London is the capital city of the United Kingdom and of England. ... The Eiffel Tower has become a symbol of Paris throughout the world. ... Berlin (pronounced: , German ) is the capital of Germany and its largest city, with 3,426,000 inhabitants (as of January 2005); down from 4. ... Location within Italy The Roman Colosseum Rome (Italian and Latin: Roma) is the capital city of Italy and of its Latium region. ... James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, KG, OBE, PC (March 11, 1916 – May 24, 1995) was one of the more successful Labour Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom and a 1960s icon. ... Number 15th First term April 20, 1968– June 4, 1979 Second term March 3, 1980– June 30, 1984 Predecessor Lester Bowles Pearson 1st Successor Joe Clark 2nd Successor John Napier Turner Date of birth October 18, 1919 Place of birth Montreal, Quebec Date of death September 28, 2000 Spouse Margaret...

An important difference between the United States and Western Europe, however, was the existence of a mass socialist and/or Communist movement in most European countries (particularly France and Italy), with which the student-based new left was able to forge a connection. The most spectacular manifestation of this was the May 1968 student revolt in Paris, which linked up with a general strike called by the Communist-controlled trade unions and for a few days seemed capable of overthrowing the government of Charles de Gaulle. May 1968 poster: Be young and shut up In May 1968 a general insurrection broke out across France. ... 1968 was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1968 calendar). ... Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (November 22, 1890 – November 9, 1970), in France commonly referred to as général de Gaulle, was a French military leader and statesman. ...

In non-Western countries

In Eastern Europe, students also drew inspiration from the protests in the west. In Poland and Yugoslavia they protested against restrictions on free speech by Communist regimes. In Czechoslovakia, 1968 was the year of Alexander Dubček’s Prague Spring, a source of inspiration to many Western leftists who admired Dubček's "socialism with a human face." The Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in August ended these hopes, and also fatally damaged the chances of the orthodox Communist Parties drawing many recruits from the student protest movement. The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was a Balkan state that existed from 1945 to 1992. ... 1968 was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1968 calendar). ... . Alexander Dubček Alexander Dubček (November 27, 1921 – November 7, 1992) was a Slovak politician and briefly leader of Czechoslovakia (1968-1969). ... This article refers to a period of history of Czechoslovakia in 1968. ... Map of Warsaw Pact member countries. ...

In the People's Republic of China the mid 1960s were also a time of massive upheaval, and the Red Guard rampages of Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution had some superficial resemblances to the student protests in the West. The Maoist groups that briefly flourished in the West in this period saw in Chinese Communism a more revolutionary, less bureaucratic model of socialism. Most of them were rapidly disillusioned when Mao welcomed Richard Nixon to China in 1972. The Cuban revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara also became an iconic figure for the student left, although he was in fact an orthodox Communist. The term Red Guards may refer to one of the following. ... Mao Zedong (December 26, 1893 – September 9, 1976) was the chairman of the Politburo of the Communist Party of China from 1943 and the chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China from 1945 until his death. ... A poster during the Cultural Revolution The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (Simplified Chinese: 无产阶级文化大革命; Traditional Chinese: 無產階級文化大革命; pinyin: ; literally Proletarian Cultural Great Revolution; often abbreviated to 文化大革命 wén huà dà gé mìng, literally Great Cultural Revolution, or simply 文革 wén gé, literally Cultural Revolution) in the Peoples Republic of... Order: 37th President Vice President: Spiro Agnew (1969–1973), Gerald R. Ford (1973–1974) Term of office: January 20, 1969 – August 9, 1974 Preceded by: Lyndon B. Johnson Succeeded by: Gerald R. Ford Date of birth: January 9, 1913 Place of birth: Yorba Linda, California Date of death: April 22... 1972 was a leap year that started on a Saturday. ... Che Guevara Dr. Ernesto Rafael Guevara de la Serna (June 14, 1928¹ – October 9, 1967), commonly known as Che Guevara, was an Argentine-born Marxist revolutionary and Cuban guerrilla leader. ...

Further Viewing

To see examples of the idealism of the Sixties, view the Woodstock Movie.