BOOMER QUIZ, HISTORICAL TIMELINE, ANSWERS

HISTORICAL TIMELINE, 1955-1975

Place these events in chronological order [for extra points, name the date and other questions in brackets]

1. The Woodstock Music and Art Festival is held, representing the culmination of the counterculture of the 1960s and the ultimate climax of the "hippie era". [How many people attended this rock festival?] [15-17 August 1969; 400,000]
2. The "I Have A Dream Speech" by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at the civil rights march in Washington, Dc [Which of these three people were present to hear this speech? Judy Garland, Marlon Brando, Bob Dylan] [28 August 1963; all of them were present]
3. Rosa Parks insists on sitting in the front of a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. [December 1955]
4. The Governor of Arkansas uses National Guardsmen to prevent nine black schoolchildren from entering a high school in Little Rock. [Which President sent more than 1000 federal troops to escort the children to the school?] [September 1957; Eisenhauer]
5. President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act, the most radical civil rights law in U.S. History. [Name two of the areas in which racial discrimination was prohibited by this Act.] [2 July 1964; employment, public facilities, places of public accommodation, union membership and Federal funded programs]
6. Malcolm X was shot dead at a rally for the OAAU (Organization of Afro-American Unity) in New York City. [21 February 1965]
7. The Black Panther Party for Self-Defence is organized in Oakland, California. [Who founded the Black Panthers?] [October 1966; Huey Newton and Bobby Seale]
8. American soldiers from Company C, First Battalion, 20th Infantry, and 11th Light Infantry Brigade, unde the command of Lieutenant William Calley, massacre the Vietnamese village of My Lai, killing elderly people, women, children and unarmed men. [16 March 1968]
9. The USDA suspends the use of DDT. [July 1969]
10. Physicist Werner Heisenberg explains his uncertainty principle. [1958]
11. The USS Pueblo, a secret spy ship with a crew of 83, is seized by North Korea in its waters. [3 January 1968]
12. Jimi Hendrix, age 27, dies in London after taking some sleeping pills prescribed for his girlfriend. He threw up from an apparent allergic reaction to the pills, passed out, inhaled his own vomit, and died. [Jimi Hendrix was married for several years to a very famous singer, but her daughter born during this time is not his child -- who is the singer?] [17 September 1970; Mama Cass Elliot]
13. Jim Morrison is found dead in his bathtub in Paris at age 27. Cause of death is the source of many theories and rumors -- his body was discovered by his girlfriend, who is the only person to see him dead aside from a physician who signed a death certificate and has never been located again. Presumed cause of death is likely drug-related. [3 July 1971]
14. Janis Joplin is found dead at age 27 in Hollywood's Landmark Motor Hotel from a heroin-alcohol overdose the previous day. [4 October 1970]
15. House Judiciary Committee passes the first of three articles of impeachment, charging obstruction of justice. [27 July 1974]
16. Richard Nixon becomes the first U.S. president to resign. Vice President Gerald R. Ford assumes the country's highest office. He will later pardon Nixon of all charges related to the Watergate case. [8 August 1974]
17. Barbie dolls hit the market. [1959]
18. Xerox manufactures a plain paper copier. [1959]
19. President Nixon declares, "I'm not a crook," maintaining his innocence in the Watergate case. [17 November 1973]
20. New York Times publishes "The Pentagon Papers", the Defense Department's secret history of the Vietnam War. [13 June 1971]
21. Ms. Magazine begins regular publication, reaching a circulation of 350,000 within a year. [1972]
22. Five men, one of whom says he used to work for the CIA, are arrested at 2:30 a.m. trying to bug the offices of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate hotel and office complex. Their actions will eventually be traced to the highest levels of the Republican administration and result in the resignation of President Richard Nixon, who authorized a multitude of illegal activity. [How many of the Watergate burglars can you name?] [17 June 1972; Edward Martin, alias James W. McCord, a GOP security aide / Frank Sturgis / Eugenio R. Martinez / Virgilio R. Gonzalez/ Bernard L. Barker]
23. For the first time, cigarette packages are required to carry a label stating "Smoking can be hazardous to your health". [1964]
24. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King is assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. [In how many American cities did riots break out in grief in rage after Dr. King's murder? Round off to the nearest ten.] [4 April 1968; 167 cities]
25. Black American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos who win medals for the 200 meter sprint at the 1868 Olympic Games in Mexico City raised their black-gloved clenched fists high above their heads to salute Black Power. Both medals are stripped from the men and they are banished from the Olympics. [Which medals did they win?] [Summer 1968; gold and bronze]
26. President Lyndon B. Johnson orders the first American Marines into South Vietnam, officially beginning the Vietnam War. [March 1965]
27. The Tet Offensive is launched by North Vietnam onto South Vietnam. [What is Tet?] [January 1968; the Vietnamese New Year, a time when no major military actions were anticipated]
28. Jane Fonda visits Hanoi in protest of the Vietnam War. [1972]
29. Saigon falls to Communist rule when North Vietnam invades the South. [April 1975]
30. Neil Armstrong becomes the first human being to walk on the Moon. [Who was the second human to walk on the moon?] [20 July 1969]
31. Quarters stop being made of 90% silver, instead now being made of a clad or "sandwich metal" of 75% copper and 25% nickel, bonded to a pure copper core. [1965]
32. The White House "plumbers" unit - named for their orders to plug leaks in the administration - burglarizes a psychiatrist's office to find files on Daniel Ellsberg, the former defense analyst who leaked the Pentagon Papers. [3 September 1971]
33. Tiny Tim (with ukelele in hand) married Miss Vicky live on the Johnny Carson Show. [17 Dec 1969]
34. The Child Nutrition Act extends and expands the National School Lunch Program to being providing subsidized lunches for poor children in schools across America, dramatically reducing childhood malnutrition and classroom behavioral problems related to hunger. [1962]
35. The Senate Watergate Committee begins its nationally televised hearings. [18 May 1973]
36. The Watts Riots begin in Los Angeles after an act of police harassment of a black man, lasting six days, in which 34 people were officially reported killed, 1,100 people were injured, 4,000 people were arrested, 600 buildings were damaged or destroyed, and an estimated $200 million in damage was caused. [Name other race riots of the 1960s.] [11 August 1965; New York in 1964 and 1968, Detroit and Newark in 1967, San Francisco in 1966, Washington, DC in 1968, Baltimore in 1967 and 1968, and Chicago and Cleveland both in 1968]
37. The Kent State shootings, also known the Kent State massacre, occur at Kent State University in Ohio, involving the shooting of students in an anti-war protest by the Ohio National Guard. [4 May 1970]
38. Anti-war protestors at the Democratic Convention in Chicago are so abused and oppressed by Mayor Richard J. Daley and the Chicago police that The Walker Report to the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence pinned the blame for the violence in the streets on the police, calling it a "police riot." [26 to 29 August 1968]
39. The ARPAnet, precursor of the Internet, is founded as a United States Department of Defense project. [1969]
40. The Berlin Wall is built. [August 1961]
41. Washington Post begins Watergate reporting that will bring down the President. [1972]
42. Pierre Cardin designs the "Beatles suit" which becomes popular for men, with a single-breasted collarless jacket and slim pants. [1963]
43. Patricia Heart (heiress to the Hearts newspaper fortune) is captured by the Symbionese Liberation Army, who are able to brainwash her to such extent that she carried a machine gun and participates in a Hibernia Bank robbery. [What name did she adopt as a member of the SLA?] [4 February 1974; Tania]
44. Punk rock music emerges in Britain, with themes of nihilism, anarchy. [1974]
45. Frances Lappé's Diet for a Small Planet opposes meat, sells 1.5 million copies. [1975]
46. The Beatles perform for the first time on American television, on the Ed Sullivan Show, launching Beatlemania in America. [9 February 1964]
47. John Glenn becomes the first American astronaut to orbit the earth. [20 February 1962]
48. The U.S.S.R. sends the first woman astronaut into space. [What was her name?][16 June 1963 Valentina Tereshkova.]
49. Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King wins the Nobel Peace Prize. [1965]
50. The Communist Leader of China, Mao Zedong, launches the Cultural Revolution. [April 1966]
51. Space age clothing starts to become popular, using materials such as discs of metal or plastic linked together with wire; leather; and metallic or neon colors. [1964]
52. The U.S. Supreme Court hands down the Miranda Decision. [June 1966]
53. Thurgood Marshall becomes the first African-American Supreme Court Justice. [August 1967]
54. Andy Warhol exhibits his paintings of Campbell's soup cans, bringing pop art to national media attention. [1962]
55. Muhammad Ali (then known as Cassius Clay) wins the World Heavyweight Champion title in boxing. [1964]
56. The first march from Selma to Montgomery was held, walking with Martin Luther King Jr. and SCLC (The Southern Christian Leadership Conference) leaders. The plan for the march was developed by SNCC (The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee). [Began March 7, 1965]
57. Wilma Rudolph, a black American woman, receives three gold medals in fast running at the Olympics in Rome. [1960]
58. The bodies of three civil rights workers were found. Michael Schwerner, James Chaney, and Andrew Goodman had been in Sandtown, Mississippi, volunteering to register African-Americans to vote and inquiring into the burning of a local church. [6 August 1964]
59. Lasers are invented. [1960]
60. Bay of Pigs Invasion fails, wherein the United States sponsors an attempt to overthrow Cuba's socialist government and Fidel Castro. [15-19 April 1961]
61. Plate tectonics and the understanding of continental drift comes about most notably because of a paper published by American geologist Harry Hess. [1962]
62. The Six-Day War fought between Israel and its Arab neighbors Egypt, Jordan, and Syria results in Israel controlling the Gaza Strip, the Sinai Peninsula, the West Bank, and the Golan Heights. [5-10 June 1967]
63. The Cuban Missile Crisis, a very tense confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United States over the Soviet deployment of nuclear missiles in Cuba, is regarded as the moment when the Cold War was closest to turning into a nuclear war. [16-18 October 1962]
64. The Stonewall Riots, a series of violent conflicts between homosexuals resisting arrest and harassment by police officers at the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York City, is generally considered a turning point for the modern gay rights movement worldwide, as it is one of the first times in history a significant body of homosexual people resisted arrest. [27 June 1969]
65. New York Radical Women protest the Miss America Pageant in Atlantic City, New Jersey by throwing high heels and other feminine accoutrements into a freedom garbage bin. The media distort this into "bra burning", which actually did not occur. [1968]
66. Robert F. Kennedy is assassinated shortly after delivering a speech celebrating his victory in the 1968 presidential primary of California at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California. [6 June 1968]
67. President John Fitzgerald Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Texas. [22 November 1963]
68. The Pill is approved by the FDA for clinical use. [9 May 1960]
69. The Free Speech Movement begins at the University of Berkeley, California. In protests unprecedented at the time, students demanded that the university administration lift a ban on on-campus political activities and recognize the students' right to free speech and academic freedom. Among the participants are Vivian Rothstein and Jo Freeman who later become organizers in the women's liberation movement. [1964]
70. The Summer of Love occurs in San Francisco, when the so-called "hippie movement" came to full fruition. [Who wrote the song "San Francisco" whose lyrics include "If you're going to San Francisco / Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair / If you come to San Francisco / Summertime will be a love-in there"?] [1967; John Phillips of The Mamas and The Papas]
71. Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin is a Soviet cosmonaut who becomes the first human to travel into space. [12 April 1961]
72. Nikita Khrushchev, leader of the Soviet Union, disrupts a meeting at the United Nations when asked how he could protest Western capitalist imperialism while the Soviet Union was at the same time rapidly assimilating Eastern Europe by becoming enraged, shouting, and removing one of his shoes to pound it on the table. He did NOT, as is widely believed, on this occasion shout "We will bury you!", but the believe that he did becomes a major anti-Communist legend in the U.S. [11 October 1960]
73. The first geosynchronous satellite is launched, which will revolutionize global communications. [26 July 1963]
74. The compact audio cassette medium for audio storage was introduced by Philips under the trademark Compact Cassette. [1963]
75. Time Magazine publishes an issues whose cover asks "Is God Dead?" [8 April 1966]
76. President Lyndon Johnson summarizes his goals for the Great Society, a set of domestic programs whose main focus main focus was an "end to poverty and racial injustice". The time when Lyndon Johnson took office until 1970 as the impact of his Great Society programs were felt, the portion of Americans living below the poverty line dropped from 22.2 percent to 12.6 percent, the most dramatic decline over such a brief period in this century. The Great Society was later calculatedly overturned by President Ronald Reagan's first budget. [1964]
77. Charles Manson gives up his ambitions of becoming a popular song writer to become a cult leader and mass murderer, culminating in the murder of Sharon Tate and four others. [9 August 1969]
78. Dr. No is released as the first official James Bond film, starring Sean Connery. [How many of the actors who have played James Bond can you name?] [1962; Sean Connery (1962–1967 and 1971) / George Lazenby (1969) / Roger Moore (1973–1985) / Timothy Dalton (1987–1989) / Pierce Brosnan (1995–2002) / Daniel Craig (2006–present)]
79. The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan is published. [1963]
80. The Daughters of Bilitis, the first lesbian organization, is founded. [1955]
81. Congress passes the Equal Pay for Equal Work Act. [1963]
82. A paper titled "Women's Liberation - a Step Beyond Rights" is laughed off the floor at a Students for a Democratic Society meeting. [1965]
83. The National Organization for Women is founded. [1966]
84. The Boston Women Health Book Collective publishes "Our Bodies, Our Selves: A Book by and for Women". [1968]
85. New York Radical Women begins a process of sharing stories that became known as "consciousness-raising." Groups immediately take root coast-to-coast. [1968]
86. Shirley Chisholm (D-N.Y.) is elected the first African-American woman to the House of Representatives. [1968]
87. The first "lesbian purge" of national NOW occurs. [1970]
88. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs Executive Order 11375, which extends affirmative action to women. [1967]
89. The National Abortion Rights Action League is formed. [1968]
90. The first national women's liberation conference held in Chicago. [1968]
91. The Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution is reintroduced into Congress. [1970]
92. The United Nations designates the 1970s as the "Women's Decade." [1970]
93. Nelson Mandela is sentenced to life in prison in South Africa. [1964]
94. New York City suffers a massive electrical blackout. [1965]
95. Mary Quant starts her own label, which will become responsible for designing mini skirts, colored tights, and wet-look vinyl fashions. [1963]
96. Che Guevara is killed. [1967]
97. Disneyland opens. [1955]
98. Dr. Seuss publishes "The Cat in the Hat". [1957]
99. Psychedelic clothing using acid colors becomes very popular. [1966]
100. The Beatles break up. [1970]
101. Terrorists attack Israeli athletes at the Winter Olympic Games in Munich, killing 11. [1972]
102. Mark Spitz wins seven gold medals in swimming at the Summer Olympic Games. [1972]
103. Mattel's Chatty Cathy doll is marketed; she speaks 11 phrases in random order. [1960]
104. For the first time, U.S. Presidential debates are televised and Kennedy scores an unexpected victory over Nixon. [1960]
105. The ATM is invented by Luther Simjian. [1960]
106. Robert Heinlein's publishes his science fiction novel, "Stranger in a Strange Land". [1961]
107. FCC Chairman Newton Minow calls television a "vast wasteland." [1961]
108. Harper Lee wins Pulitzer Prize for "To Kill a Mockingbird". [1961]
109. Maurice Sendak's publishes his prize-winning children's book, "Where the Wild Things Are". [1963]
110. ZIP codes are introduced by the U.S. Post Office. [1963]
111. Instamatic cameras with drop-in cartridges are introduced. [1963]
112. The first Super Bowl is played with the Green Bay Packers and the Kansas City Chiefs; the Packers won. [1967]
113. Julia Child begins airing "The French Chef" on public television. [1963]
114. The first cash dispensing machine is installed by First Philadelphia Bank. [1968]
115. Senator Ted Kennedy, drunk driver, leaves the scene of an accident at Chappaquiddick in which a young woman with whom he was having an affair, Mary Jo Kopechne, is killed. This eliminates his future prospects as President. [1969]
116. Congress passes Title IX of the 1972 Educational Amendments to the Civil Rights Act to enforce sex equity in education. [1972]
117. The first hand-held calculator is invented by Texas Instruments, at a cost of $2,500 apiece. [1967]
118. Yasser Arafat becomes leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization. [1969]
119. The Equal Rights Amendment passes both houses of Congress. (Ratification by three-fourths of the states is required within seven years.) [1972]
120. New York Radical Feminists holds a series of speakouts and a conference on rape and women's treatment by the criminal justice system. Susan Brownmiller's book, Against Our Will, is one result. Another: the establishment of rape crisis centers across the country. [1971]
121. The National Black Feminist Organization is established. [1972]
122. The Supreme Court decides Roe v. Wade, establishing a woman's right to abortion. [1972]
123. "Sesame Street" goes on the air. [1969]
124. Barbara Jordan (D-TX) becomes first Black woman elected to Congress from a Southern state. [1972]
125. IBM produces the floppy disk. [1967]
126. Ford offers 8-track tape players on next year's model cars. [1965]
127. Adult and underground comics arrive with R. Crumb's Zap Comix. [1967]
128. Hollywood adopts an age-based rating system: G, PG, R, X. [1966]
129. The paper dress is introduced. [1967]
130. Go-go boots are introduced. [1965]
131. U.S. mandates Daylight Savings Time. [1967]
132. Stereo LP records go on sale. {1958]
133. Bob Dylan, noted as a composer and writer of poetic folk songs and songs of social protest, appears at the Newport Folk Festival playing electric guitar and backed by an electrified rock band. [1965]
134. Tribal rock musical "Hair" opens on Broadway. [1968]
135. The miniskirt is introduced. [1966]
136. Sputnik launches, setting off alarm about U.S. math and science education. [1957]
137. The Beatles again make history with their album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, which, in addition to including drug-oriented songs, presents a body of interrelated pieces that constituted an organic whole. This is considered the first “concept album.” [1967]
138. "The Godfather" is published by Mario Puzo. [1969]
139. "The Lord of the Rings" is published. [1955]
140. The Paris collections introduce the trouser suit for women to the world, which became an instant universal hit. [1964]
141. Billie Jean King scores an enormous victory for female athletes when she beats Bobby Riggs in "The Battle of the Sexes," a televised tennis tournament watched by nearly 48,000,000 people. [1973]
142. The U.S. military is integrated when the women-only branches are eliminated. [1973]
143. Rachel Carson publishes "Silent Spring", which exposes the dangers of pesticide use and helps launch the modern environmental movement. She is subjected to sexist attacks for her work. [1962]
144. Terrorist bomb planted by segregationists kills four girls attending Sunday school in Birmingham, Alabama. [1963]
145. The North American Indian Women's Association is founded. [1970]
146. First national anti-war protest held in Washington D.C. [1965]
147. National Organization for Women (NOW) is organized. [1966]
148. Redstockings, a radical feminist group organizes. and introduces such terms as "Sisterhood is Powerful" and "The Personal is Political". [1969]
149. Lesbian-Feminist Separatist collective The Furies is founded primarily as a reaction to anti-gay attitudes in the feminist movement and anti-woman attitudes in the gay liberation movement and male-dominanted left. Crucial essays by the Furies released in women's periodicals will foster the popularity of separatism, class-consciousness and collectivism in the lesbian movement. Members of this collective will go on to found Olivia Records, among other endeavors. [1971]
150. President Richard M. Nixon vetoes the Comprehensive Child Development Act, which would have established federally funded childcare centers. [1970]
151. Maggie Kuhn begins the Gray Panthers, dedicated to championing causes of the elderly. [1970]
152. Homosexuality removed from list of mental disorders by American Psychiatric Association. [1974]
153. Alan Shepard becomes the first American launched into space from Cape Canaveral, Florida. [5 May 1961]