When did the sixties take place?

[Screaming Lord Byron]

I'm looking at it from three different perspectives, American, British, Canadian.
I'd say in the UK, the sixties started with the 'yeah yeah yeah's' of She Loves You (23rd Aug 1963 - my dad's 15th birthday), or more poetically "Between the end of the Chatterley ban / And the Beatles' first LP. . . ." (Philip Larkin), as to where they ended, who knows? When the Beatles split up, perhaps?

As for the US, I think the sixties ended with George McGovern's loss in 1972. But where did they begin? The Beatles on Ed Sullivan? The introduction of the pill?

For Canada, when did they begin? Expo '67? Trudeaumania '68? The Beatles again? and where did they end? did they?

I guess, what I am asking is, when do decades begin and end? Are they chronological or cultural? What decade are we in now?

[Sir_Shrek]

1. The sixties began...

At 12:00 AM, January 1st, 1960.

Ending thus at 12:00 AM January 1st, 1970.

As you can tell, I adhere to the chronological model.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

2. Wouldn't the chronological model start on Jan 1st 1961? n/t

[SheilaT]

3. The era we call the Sixties

with the Beatles' appearance on Ed Sullivan in early 1964. The fifties (as a mindset and era) ended with the assassination of JFK.

I'd actually put the end of the Sixties (again, as an era and mindset) with the resignation of Nixon on August 9, 1974. Or maybe with the fall of Saigon in 1975.

Your own personal take on the beginnings and endings of these eras will depend a lot on how hold you were at the time and what you were doing. I was in high school and then of college age during most of the Sixties, but was in the work force and never participated in anti-war demonstrations. I was rather politically unaware and uninvolved. For a member of the SDS the impression would be very different.

[joeybee12]

4. I've always heard that the 60's began in 67/68--as we think of the anti-wa

movement gaining steam, etc.

Prior to that, the chronological 60's were all about Frankie and Annette!

[deutsey]

5. I like what Utah Philips said about "decade packages"

That's what I do, I collect stories, that's what I do I collect stories and songs and poems.

I seek out the elders and collect stories, stories and songs and poems.

Characterized critically as 'ohh that's that 60's stuff.'

If I suddenly do old rock and roll I'll be doing that 50's stuff, well or, this is the nineties you know.

I have a good friend in the east, a good singer, and a good folk singer, a good song collector.

He comes and listens to my shows and he says "you sing a lot about the past, you always sing about the past - you can't live in the past, you know."

I say to him I can go outside and pick up a rock that is older than the oldest song you know and come in here and drop it on your foot.

Now the past didn't go anywhere, did it.

It is right here, right now.

No, it's not that 50's, 60's, 70's, 90's that whole idea of Decade Packages, things don't happen that way. The Vietnam War heated up in 1965 and finished in 1975, well, what does that got to do with decades?

That packaging of time is a journalist convenience that they use to trivialize and to dismiss important events and important ideas.

[Loonman]

6. When these appeared

[HereSince1628]

16. What pantyhose?

My daughter freaked when she learned her mom wore a lace miniskirt to her wedding. Oh, children, you have no idea the places and things your parents explored in the '60s

[papau]

7. SDS had its first meeting in Boston in 62 - so 62-63 is my guess

61 felt like Ike in the beginning! - Except JFK was moving the country!

Civil rights and the 16000 troops that JFK added to the 2000 Ike had put into VietNam were the activists begining of the "60's"

[gator_in_Ontario]

8. Absolutely

9 am, Saturday November 5...1962. No doubt.

[papau]

11. You were late - it was spring 62! :-)

These young leftest newbies are so cute!

:-)

I grant you the left has been around a long, long time - but the student movement that made such noise I do believe began with civil rights activity - and anti the 16000 increase activity - in 62

:-)

peace

:toast:

[KensPen]

9. We need to get over the sixties.....

hides.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

13. Did someone say something?

;-)

[kskiska]

10. The first half of the 60s were more an extension of the 50s

I guess what we think of as the 60s began just prior to the Beatles, and ended with the Manson Murders of ’69. It was a shorter time span than it seems.

[papau]

12. I agree - 60, 61, and most of 62 was "Ike" like! :-)

:-)

[HereSince1628]

14. This thread is forgetting the role of Sputnik

The Beetles are kind of sort of way signs, yes the 60's passed those points but what events gave momentum to the 60's?

Cold war, environmental concerns and civil rights were all spring boards into the 60's.

Contemporaneously, the 50's closed with the Russians orbiting the first satellite. That event had a HUGE impact on the US.

It fed a fear that led not only to basement bomb shelters but prepped the nation for accepting of intervention in Vietnam.

Afraid the Russian's might gain a scientific and military edge, the US shifted into high gear

Math and science curricula were rethought for grades 1-12
the space program raced into orbit (literally), in part for PR but also to underwrite development of strategic technology.

Universities expanded enormously, justified in part by the forseeable demographic bubble (baby boom), but much of the added programming was in technology and engineering.

I think Sputnik shouldn't be overlooked, but neither should the coming of the environmental movement, or the swelling of the civil rights movement.

In the closing of the 1950's the problem of pesticide poisoning was becoming apparent and it led to perhaps the most important book of 60's (maybe the century) by female naturalist/biologist, Racheal Carson. That work launched the movement that led to Earth Day and the writing of the NEPA and the creation of the EPA

The civil rights movement was up and fighting by the late 50's and it again had HUGE impacts on the 60's.

Anyway, I have nothing particular against Britons, other than royalty and peerage. The Beetles were fun, they impacted pop culture, and their investments led to important technology developments in the '70s.

[papau]

18. The National Defense Education Act of 58 - Thank God for Sputnik!

My first source of non-personal, non-family money!

[private_ryan]

15. in the 80's

n/t

[Dems Will Win]

17. As George Carlin said

If you can remember the Sixties...

...you weren't really there!