128 Fun Facts About The 1960s

To end the Cuban Missile Crisis, the US secretly agreed to remove its Jupiter missiles from which country?

Publicly, Washington only pledged not to invade Cuba; the Jupiter withdrawal from Turkey and Italy stayed secret for years.

Which agency enforces the job-discrimination rules of the 1964 Civil Rights Act?

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which opened its doors in July 1965, investigates job-discrimination charges and may sue on workers' behalf; charges must usually be filed within 180 days.

Which Black nationalist leader, a year after breaking with the Nation of Islam, was shot dead at Manhattan's Audubon Ballroom in 1965?

Malcolm X told an interviewer two days before his death that the Nation of Islam was trying to kill him; the ballroom now houses a memorial to him.

Who was the first woman in space, launching aboard Vostok 6 in 1963?

Valentina Tereshkova, a former textile worker and amateur parachutist, flew Vostok 6 on 16 June 1963, completing 48 orbits of Earth in just under three days.

The Watts riots in Los Angeles in August 1965 lasted six days and left how many people dead?

The Watts riots killed 34 people; there were also 1,032 injuries, 3,438 arrests, and more than $40 million in property damage across six days in August 1965.

The Equal Pay Act of 1963 was passed as an amendment to which earlier federal statute?

The Equal Pay Act of 1963 amended the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938; a 1973 public service announcement starring Yvonne Craig as Batgirl demanded equal pay with Robin.

Which author of The Feminine Mystique co-founded a major women's rights group in 1966?

Betty Friedan, author of The Feminine Mystique (1963), co-founded the National Organization for Women in 1966 and served as its first president.

The Stonewall Inn, where a June 1969 raid sparked riots, was in which Manhattan area?

The Stonewall Inn stands on Christopher Street in Greenwich Village; the Mafia-owned bar was raided early on 28 June 1969 without the usual tip-off to its owners.

In April 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was in Memphis supporting a strike by which city workers?

King was in Memphis backing striking sanitation crews, whose walkout began in February 1968; he was shot on the Lorraine Motel balcony on April 4, and James Earl Ray was arrested at Heathrow in June.

The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense was founded in October 1966 in Oakland by which two individuals?

Newton and Seale drew up a ten-point program and began armed patrols monitoring police in Oakland.

What kind of warship was the USS Maddox of the Gulf of Tonkin incident?

USS Maddox was an Allen M. Sumner-class destroyer; the task-group commander aboard soon cabled that the reported second 'attack' of 4 August 1964 likely came from freak weather effects on radar.

Which British music group made their famous debut on 'The Ed Sullivan Show' in February 1964?

The Beatles played three consecutive Sunday broadcasts that February, and some 73 million Americans watched the first on 9 February 1964, then a record for US television.

On whose dairy farm in Bethel, New York, was the Woodstock Music & Art Fair held in August 1969?

Max Yasgur leased his 600-acre dairy farm in Bethel to the organizers, who had told local officials to expect no more than 50,000 people; roughly 400,000 showed up.

Who founded Motown Records in Detroit, Michigan, in 1959?

Berry Gordy Jr. started the label with an $800 family loan in January 1959, first as Tamla Records; the Hitsville U.S.A. house on West Grand Boulevard became Motown's studio.

In what city was President John F. Kennedy assassinated in November 1963?

Dallas, Texas, was where the 35th president died on Friday, November 22, 1963; Lyndon Johnson was sworn in aboard Air Force One at Love Field before it left the city.

Which section of the 1964 Civil Rights Act bans employers discriminating by race, colour, religion, sex or origin?

Title VII covers employers with 15 or more employees; its ban on sex discrimination was added on the House floor by Virginia congressman Howard W. Smith in February 1964.

The Cuban Missile Crisis, the October 1962 standoff over nuclear missiles in Cuba, lasted how many days?

The crisis lasted 13 days, from 16 October, when Kennedy was shown U-2 photos of the missile sites, to 28 October, when Khrushchev announced their withdrawal.

What was Apollo 11's lunar module, which landed Armstrong and Aldrin in the Sea of Tranquility in July 1969, called?

'The Eagle has landed,' Armstrong radioed from the Sea of Tranquility on 20 July 1969; Michael Collins stayed in lunar orbit aboard the command module Columbia.

The 1963 March on Washington that ended with the "I Have a Dream" speech was formally a march for what?

Its full name was the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom; A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin were its chief organizers.

Which science-fiction series premiered on NBC in September 1966?

Star Trek, created by Gene Roddenberry, premiered on NBC on 8 September 1966 and ran only three seasons before syndication turned it into a phenomenon.

Which British designer is credited with the 1960s miniskirt?

Mary Quant sold the look from her King's Road boutique Bazaar and said she named the miniskirt after her favourite car, the Mini; André Courrèges also claimed credit for the style.

The term 'hippie' became widely used in the 1960s to describe members of which cultural movement?

The 'hippie' movement was a prominent aspect of the 1960s counterculture, characterized by a rejection of mainstream values, a focus on peace and love, and often associated with psychedelic music and experimental lifestyles.

Yoko Ono married which musician in Gibraltar in March 1969?

John Lennon and Ono held the bed-in at the Amsterdam Hilton, inviting the press into the bedroom each day to talk about peace.

The Mamas & the Papas were a popular folk rock group in the 1960s, known for which hit song?

'California Dreamin'' was released as a single in December 1965; its alto flute solo by jazz player Bud Shank was reportedly improvised in the studio.

Which U.S. President significantly escalated American involvement in the Vietnam War during the 1960s?

Under Lyndon B. Johnson, U.S. forces in Vietnam grew from about 16,000 advisers to more than 500,000 troops by 1968; he withdrew from the 1968 race that March.

The 1967 'Summer of Love' drew as many as 100,000 young people to one neighbourhood of which U.S. city?

San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district and Golden Gate Park were the magnet, and Scott McKenzie's hit told arrivals to wear flowers in their hair.

Which classic novel, dealing with racial injustice in the American South, was published in 1960?

Harper Lee's 'To Kill a Mockingbird' was published in 1960 and quickly became a literary classic, winning the Pulitzer Prize and deeply resonating with readers for its themes of prejudice and compassion.

Which Soviet cosmonaut became the first human in space in April 1961?

Yuri Gagarin never flew in space again; he later served as backup for the Soyuz 1 mission that killed his friend Vladimir Komarov, and died in a 1968 jet crash.

Which group, formed in April 1960 out of the lunch-counter protests, became the main channel of student activism?

The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) was founded at a Shaw University conference in Raleigh, North Carolina, in April 1960, with Ella Baker's encouragement; John Lewis chaired it from 1963 to 1966.

Which Alabama city was the starting point of the 1965 voting-rights marches to Montgomery?

The marches set out from Selma; state troopers beat marchers on its Edmund Pettus Bridge on 'Bloody Sunday', 7 March 1965, and the completed march reached Montgomery on 25 March.

Which astronaut became the first American to orbit the Earth, aboard Friendship 7 in February 1962?

John Glenn's flight lasted 4 hours 55 minutes, and he had the name Friendship 7 hand-painted on the capsule; he returned to space at 77 in 1998.

In the Six-Day War of June 1967, Israel captured the Golan Heights from which country?

Israel took the Golan Heights from Syria on 9-10 June 1967, the war's final days; it also took the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan and Sinai and Gaza from Egypt.

What number did Heller's war novel carry when its opening chapter ran in 1955, before Catch-22?

The 1955 excerpt in New World Writing was titled 'Catch-18'; the number was changed before the 1961 publication to avoid confusion with Leon Uris's new novel Mila 18.

At which June 1967 festival, a Woodstock precursor, did Jimi Hendrix set his guitar on fire?

At Monterey Pop on 18 June 1967, Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones introduced Hendrix, who ended 'Wild Thing' by dousing his Stratocaster in lighter fluid and setting it alight.

Which car debuted at the New York World's Fair in April 1964?

The Ford Mustang debuted at the New York World's Fair in April 1964, creating a sensation and launching the 'pony car' segment, becoming an instant classic.

Whose 1967 recording of "Respect", a rearranged cover of an Otis Redding song, became her signature hit?

Aretha Franklin cut the track on Valentine's Day 1967; her version added the spelled-out 'R-E-S-P-E-C-T' hook and became an anthem of the civil rights and feminist movements.

Which Soviet cosmonaut performed the first spacewalk, in March 1965, during the Voskhod 2 mission?

Alexei Leonov spent about 12 minutes outside Voskhod 2 on 18 March 1965; his suit ballooned in the vacuum and he had to bleed off air to squeeze back through the airlock.

Which protest tactic did four students begin at a Greensboro Woolworth's lunch counter in February 1960?

Sit-ins, like the one at the Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina in 1960, were a powerful tactic to challenge segregation and highlight racial injustice.

The Berlin Wall, begun in August 1961, encircled West Berlin until what year?

The Wall stood until 9 November 1989, when East Germany announced its citizens could cross freely; it had been built to stop East Germans fleeing to the West.

Which groundbreaking children's series of puppets and humans premiered in 1969?

Sesame Street debuted in November 1969, revolutionizing children's television with its educational approach and diverse, inclusive cast of characters.

Who directed the highly influential 1960 psychological horror film 'Psycho'?

Alfred Hitchcock's 'Psycho' shocked audiences in 1960 with its innovative storytelling, suspense, and iconic shower scene, becoming a landmark in horror cinema.

Which 1960 US satellite was a balloon that simply bounced radio signals back to Earth?

Echo 1 was a 30-metre aluminised Mylar balloon that inflated in orbit; on 12 August 1960 it relayed a recorded Eisenhower message from Goldstone, California, to Holmdel, New Jersey.

Kennedy's 1962 'We choose to go to the Moon' speech was delivered at which Houston school's stadium?

Kennedy spoke at Rice Stadium on 12 September 1962; the speech, largely drafted by Ted Sorensen, asked 'Why does Rice play Texas?' and drew a crowd of about 40,000 in the heat.

Which pair of pop artists designed the cardboard-celebrity crowd on the Sgt. Pepper's cover in 1967?

McCartney said he supplied the ink drawing the design was based on; a sheet of cardboard cut-outs came with the record.

What is the nickname for the generation born after World War II, who came of age in the 1960s?

Baby Boomers are the cohort born roughly 1946-1964; U.S. births jumped to 3.4 million in 1946 and passed four million a year from 1954, and the oldest boomers turned 18 in 1964.

In December 1962, Mariner 2 became the first spacecraft to report back from a flyby of which planet?

Mariner 2 flew past Venus on 14 December 1962 at about 35,000 kilometres, and its microwave radiometer showed a scorching surface beneath the clouds rather than a temperate one.

Who was the first African American Supreme Court Justice, appointed in 1967?

Thurgood Marshall, who as NAACP chief counsel had argued Brown v. Board of Education, joined the Court in October 1967 and served until 1991, when Clarence Thomas succeeded him.

Who wrote the acclaimed 1962 play 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'?

Edward Albee's intense and dramatic play 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?' premiered in 1962 and won the Tony Award for Best Play, becoming a classic of American theater.

Rachel Carson's 1962 book Silent Spring documented the environmental harm caused by which pesticide?

Silent Spring focused on DDT, documenting how the insecticide killed songbirds and accumulated up food chains; the EPA banned DDT's agricultural use in the United States in 1972.

Which art movement of bright colours and commercial imagery emerged in the 1950s and boomed in the 1960s?

Pop Art, with artists like Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, challenged traditional fine art by incorporating imagery from popular culture, advertising, and comic books, becoming a dominant force in the 1960s art scene.

Which team won the first AFL-NFL World Championship Game, later known as Super Bowl I, in January 1967?

Vince Lombardi's Packers won 35-10 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in a game that did not sell out.

Norman Mailer's Pulitzer-winning book about the 1967 March on the Pentagon is called what?

The Armies of the Night (1968) won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award; Mailer set out to get himself arrested at the Pentagon and spent a night in jail.

The most widely cited estimate of the crowd at the August 1963 March on Washington is how many people?

About 250,000 people attended on 28 August 1963, the figure most histories cite; the crowd filled the Mall from the Lincoln Memorial toward the Washington Monument.

Philharmonic Hall, the first building of which New York arts complex, opened in 1962?

Philharmonic Hall opened Lincoln Center on 23 September 1962 with Leonard Bernstein conducting; it was renamed Avery Fisher Hall in 1973 and David Geffen Hall in 2015, and the Met Opera House followed in 1966.

Which spy-film series began in 1962 with Dr. No?

James Bond's run began with Dr. No in October 1962; the rival spy hits Mission: Impossible and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. were 1960s TV series before they were films.

Who was the poetic, wild lead singer of The Doors?

Jim Morrison fronted The Doors from 1965 until his death in Paris in July 1971, aged 27; 'Light My Fire' topped the U.S. chart in 1967.

Slaughterhouse-Five draws on Vonnegut surviving the firebombing of which German city?

Vonnegut survived the February 1945 bombing of Dresden as a prisoner of war sheltering in an underground meat locker at Schlachthof Fünf, the slaughterhouse of the book's title; the novel appeared in 1969.

Who performed the world's first human heart transplant in December 1967?

Christiaan Barnard performed the operation at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town on 3 December 1967; the patient, Louis Washkansky, lived 18 days before dying of pneumonia.

Which English model was dubbed 'The Face of '66' by the Daily Express?

Twiggy, born Lesley Hornby, got her famous crop from Leonard of Mayfair at 16, and in February 1966 the Daily Express declared her 'The Face of '66'.

Which groundbreaking science fiction film, directed by Stanley Kubrick, was released in 1968?

Stanley Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey' (1968), co-written with Arthur C. Clarke, won Kubrick his only Oscar, for visual effects; Planet of the Apes opened the same year.

The 1968 Democratic National Convention, marked by police clashes with protesters, was held in which city?

Chicago's Mayor Richard J. Daley sent police against demonstrators in Grant Park and outside the International Amphitheatre while Hubert Humphrey was nominated inside, 26-29 August 1968.

Which city hosted the 1960 Summer Olympics?

Rome hosted the Games from 25 August to 11 September 1960; the first Paralympic Games followed there, and the Soviet Union topped the medal table with 43 golds.

Which Ethiopian runner won the 1960 Olympic marathon barefoot?

Abebe Bikila ran barefoot through Rome in 2:15:16, a world best, becoming the first black African Olympic champion; he won again in Tokyo in 1964, this time in shoes.

The 1964 Tokyo Games were the first Olympics held on which continent?

Tokyo 1964 was the first Olympics in Asia; Tokyo had been awarded the 1940 Games but forfeited them in 1938 during its war with China, and those Games were never held.

Which two US sprinters raised black-gloved fists on the podium in Mexico City in 1968?

Tommie Smith (gold) and John Carlos (bronze) raised their fists after the 200 m on 16 October 1968; Australian silver medallist Peter Norman wore an Olympic Project for Human Rights badge in solidarity.

Bob Beamon's 1968 Olympic long jump of 8.90 m stood as the world record until which year?

Mike Powell jumped 8.95 m at the 1991 Tokyo World Championships to break it; Beamon's 8.90 m had beaten the previous world record by 55 cm.

Which high jumper won 1968 Olympic gold with a back-first technique that now bears his name?

Dick Fosbury cleared 2.24 m in Mexico City, an Olympic record, going over head-first and backwards; by 1980 most Olympic high-jump finalists used the Fosbury flop.

Who scored a hat-trick for England in the 1966 World Cup final against West Germany?

Geoff Hurst scored three as England won 4-2 after extra time at Wembley on 30 July 1966; Martin Peters got the other, and Eusébio was the tournament's top scorer with nine.

The failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba took place in which month and year?

The CIA-backed exile brigade landed at Playa Girón on 17 April 1961 and was defeated within three days; Eisenhower had approved the plan in 1960 before Kennedy took office.

Which CIA pilot was captured when his U-2 was shot down over the USSR in May 1960?

Francis Gary Powers was shot down near Sverdlovsk on 1 May 1960; Washington first called the U-2 a NASA weather plane until Khrushchev produced the captured pilot, and Powers was swapped for Rudolf Abel in 1962.

The March 1960 Sharpeville massacre in South Africa began as a protest against what?

About 5,000 people had gathered outside the police station at the call of the Pan-Africanist Congress.

The 1963–64 trial that jailed Nelson Mandela for life is named after a suburb of which city?

It was named after the Johannesburg suburb where activists were arrested at Liliesleaf Farm.

Which reformist leader's election in January 1968 began the Prague Spring?

Alexander Dubček became First Secretary of the Czechoslovak Communist Party on 5 January 1968 and promised 'socialism with a human face'; Warsaw Pact forces invaded in August to crush the reforms.

Che Guevara, the Argentine revolutionary of the Cuban Revolution, was killed in which year?

Guevara was captured by Bolivian troops and executed at La Higuera on 9 October 1967; he had trained as a doctor before meeting the Castro brothers in Mexico City in 1955.

Robert F. Kennedy was shot in June 1968 at which Los Angeles hotel?

Kennedy was shot by Sirhan Sirhan in the Ambassador Hotel's kitchen pantry just after midnight on 5 June 1968, minutes after claiming victory in the California primary; he died the next day.

The Tet Offensive of January 1968 was named after what?

Tet is the Vietnamese Lunar New Year; the communists attacked on 30-31 January 1968 during a holiday truce, when many South Vietnamese troops were on leave.

Which December 1968 mission was the first crewed spaceflight to reach and orbit the Moon?

Apollo 8 launched on 21 December 1968; Borman, Lovell and Anders circled the Moon ten times on Christmas Eve, read from Genesis on live TV, and photographed the first Earthrise.

A January 1967 launch-pad fire killed Grissom, White and Chaffee while rehearsing which mission?

The Apollo 1 crew, Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee, died on 27 January 1967 when fire swept their pure-oxygen cabin during a plugs-out test at Launch Complex 34.

Which satellite, launched in July 1962, relayed the first live transatlantic television feed?

Telstar 1, built by Bell Labs for AT&T, carried the first public live transatlantic broadcast on 23 July 1962; radiation from high-altitude nuclear tests knocked it out by February 1963, though it remained in orbit.

Which company introduced the Compact Cassette at the 1963 Berlin Radio Show?

Lou Ottens led the team; Philips freely licensed the format to other manufacturers from 1966.

ARPANET, the forerunner of the Internet, was set up by an agency of which US body?

ARPA, the Defense Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency, funded the network; Bob Taylor launched the project in 1966 and the first link, UCLA to Stanford Research Institute, went live in October 1969.

Which airline's demand for a jet 2.5 times the size of the 707 led to the Boeing 747?

Pan Am ordered 25 in 1966; the 747 first flew on February 9, 1969.

Which actor was the first to play the Doctor when Doctor Who began on the BBC in 1963?

William Hartnell played the First Doctor from the debut on 23 November 1963 until 1966, when Patrick Troughton took over; Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson created the series.

The Sound of Music (1965) is set in which Austrian city?

Filming took place in Los Angeles and Salzburg from March to September 1964.

Who played T. E. Lawrence in David Lean's 1962 epic Lawrence of Arabia?

Peter O'Toole, then little known, won the role after Albert Finney turned it down; Alec Guinness played Prince Faisal and Robert Bolt co-wrote the screenplay with Michael Wilson.

Which duo recorded the soundtrack to The Graduate (1967), including 'Mrs. Robinson'?

Simon & Garfunkel's songs, including 'The Sound of Silence' and 'Mrs. Robinson', scored the film, which was 1967's top North American grosser at $104.9 million.

Who starred as the outlaw couple in the 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde?

Warren Beatty, who also produced the film, and Faye Dunaway played the outlaws; Estelle Parsons won the Supporting Actress Oscar, and Beatty got a Best Picture nomination as producer.

Who directed the 1969 counterculture road film Easy Rider?

Hopper and Fonda starred as two bikers; the film helped spark the New Hollywood era.

How many Academy Awards did the 1961 film West Side Story win?

West Side Story took 10 of its 11 nominations, including Best Picture and both supporting acting awards, plus an honorary award for choreographer-director Jerome Robbins; it lost only Adapted Screenplay.

Mary Poppins (1964) marked the feature film debut of which actress?

Julie Andrews, passed over for the film of My Fair Lady, made her screen debut as Poppins and won the Best Actress Oscar; the Sherman Brothers wrote the songs and the film was shot entirely in Burbank.

Which 1969 album was the last the Beatles recorded, though Let It Be was released later?

Abbey Road, recorded mainly in July-August 1969 and released that September, was the last album the Beatles made; its double A-side 'Something'/'Come Together' topped the US chart.

Brian Wilson produced and largely composed which landmark 1966 Beach Boys album?

Pet Sounds, released in May 1966, was Wilson's answer to Rubber Soul, built on Phil Spector's Wall of Sound with the Wrecking Crew session players; 'God Only Knows' is among its tracks.

Which motorcycle club provided security at the violent Altamont Free Concert in December 1969?

The Hells Angels, reportedly paid in beer, worked the stage front at Altamont Speedway on 6 December 1969; concertgoer Meredith Hunter was stabbed by an Angel during the Rolling Stones' set.

Whose cover of 'The Twist' turned the dance into a worldwide craze in the early 1960s?

Hank Ballard wrote the song after seeing Tampa teenagers doing the dance; Dick Clark pushed Checker's version.

The development of which 1960s Hasbro toy led to the coining of the term 'action figure'?

Hasbro coined 'action figure' for G.I. Joe in 1964 so that boys would not think they were buying a doll; the first 12-inch line represented the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines.

Spider-Man first appeared in August 1962 in which comic book?

Spider-Man debuted in Amazing Fantasy #15 (August 1962), the anthology's final issue, created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko; Tales of Suspense #39 introduced Iron Man the following March.

Who played Batman in the camp ABC television series that ran from 1966 to 1968?

Adam West's Batman aired twice weekly in its first two seasons, with Burt Ward as Robin and Cesar Romero refusing to shave his moustache under the Joker's white makeup.

Cassius Clay won the world heavyweight title in February 1964 by upsetting which champion?

Clay, 22, beat Sonny Liston in Miami Beach on 25 February 1964 when Liston failed to answer the bell for the seventh round; Clay had won Olympic light-heavyweight gold in Rome in 1960.

Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points in a single NBA game in 1962 in which Pennsylvania town?

Chamberlain's 100 came at the Hershey Sports Arena on 2 March 1962, where the Philadelphia Warriors played some home games; they beat the New York Knicks 169-147 before 4,124 fans.

Roger Maris set a new MLB single-season record in 1961 with how many home runs?

Maris hit his 61st on 1 October 1961, the season's final day, passing Babe Ruth's 60 from 1927; he was AL MVP with the Yankees in both 1960 and 1961.

The 1963 Great Train Robbery hit a Royal Mail train running between which two cities?

A gang of 15 led by Bruce Reynolds stole £2.61 million at Bridego Bridge in Buckinghamshire.

John Profumo, at the centre of the 1963 British scandal, held which government post?

As Secretary of State for War, Profumo lied to the Commons in March 1963 about his affair with Christine Keeler, then resigned in June; the scandal badly damaged Macmillan's government.

The 1966 Aberfan disaster, which killed 116 children, was caused by the collapse of what?

Rain-saturated colliery spoil tip No. 7 slid down the mountainside above Aberfan on 21 October 1966, burying Pantglas Junior School; 116 children and 28 adults died.

Who was Richard Nixon's running mate in the 1960 presidential election?

Nixon chose Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., then UN ambassador, as running mate; Kennedy beat them by about 112,000 popular votes in the first election with all 50 states taking part.

Loving v. Virginia (1967) struck down state laws banning what?

Richard and Mildred Loving had been convicted under Virginia's Racial Integrity Act of 1924.

In the US postal ZIP Code, introduced in 1963, what does ZIP stand for?

ZIP stands for Zone Improvement Plan; the five-digit codes began on 1 July 1963 with cartoon mascot Mr. ZIP promoting them, and ZIP+4 followed in 1983.

Sam Walton and his brother Bud founded Walmart in 1962 in which state?

The first Walmart opened in Rogers, Arkansas, on 2 July 1962; Sam Walton had run a Ben Franklin variety store in nearby Bentonville, which became the company's headquarters.

The Gateway Arch in St. Louis, completed in 1965, was designed by which architect?

Eero Saarinen won the 1947-48 design competition with the 630-foot stainless-steel catenary arch; he died in 1961, four years before it was completed, and construction cost about $13 million.

The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, opened in the 1960s, connects Brooklyn with which borough?

The bridge links Brooklyn to Staten Island across the Narrows; it opened on 21 November 1964 and was named for Giovanni da Verrazzano, who sailed into New York Harbor in 1524.

Which Australian prime minister disappeared while swimming in December 1967?

Holt had succeeded Robert Menzies as Liberal leader in 1966.

Expo 67, the world's fair marking Canada's centennial, was held in which city?

Expo 67 ran on Île Sainte-Hélène and the man-made Île Notre-Dame in Montreal's St. Lawrence River; it set a single-day world's fair attendance record of 569,500 on its third day.

Mao Zedong launched the Cultural Revolution in China in which year?

Mao launched the Cultural Revolution in May 1966 and that August wrote the poster 'Bombard the Headquarters'; the upheaval formally ended only with his death in 1976.

The May 1968 unrest in France began with demonstrations by which group?

It escalated into a general strike involving millions of workers.

Which British entrepreneur invented the lava lamp in 1963?

Edward Craven Walker launched the Astro lamp through his company Crestworth in Poole, Dorset, in 1963; the firm was later renamed Mathmos, and the lamps became icons of psychedelia.

Who built the first working laser in 1960 at Hughes Research Laboratories?

Theodore Maiman fired the first laser, a flash-lamp-pumped synthetic ruby rod, on 16 May 1960; Townes and Schawlow had published the theory in 1958, and Gould later won patents after a long fight.

Which 1960 Hanna-Barbera show was the first animated series in a prime-time TV slot?

The Flintstones premiered on ABC on 30 September 1960 and ran until 1966; modelled on The Honeymooners, it was the first animated sitcom in prime time.

Which actress played the witch Samantha Stephens in Bewitched, which began in 1964?

Elizabeth Montgomery played Samantha for all eight seasons, 1964-72, opposite Dick York and later Dick Sargent as Darrin; the show was America's second-highest-rated in its debut season.

Which pop group was assembled in 1965 by TV producers, through auditions, for an NBC sitcom of the same name?

The Monkees were Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork, cast by producers Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider, and became one of the late 1960s' best-selling bands.

Which Beatles single was number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on 22 February 1964?

'I Want to Hold Your Hand' held the top spot for seven weeks from 1 February 1964, the Beatles' first US number one; 'She Loves You' succeeded it at number one in March.

Whom did the 'Miracle Mets' beat to win the 1969 World Series?

The Mets beat the heavily favoured Baltimore Orioles four games to one in October 1969; managed by Gil Hodges, they had never had a winning season before that year.

Capote's 1966 non-fiction novel In Cold Blood concerns a family murdered in which state?

The Clutter family was murdered at their farm outside Holcomb, Kansas, in November 1959; Harper Lee accompanied Capote there to help with the research.

Which British wartime prime minister died in January 1965?

Winston Churchill sat as an MP for some 62 years between 1900 and 1964, and was 90 when he died.

Who became Israel's first female prime minister in 1969?

Golda Meir, born in Kiev and raised in Milwaukee, emigrated to Palestine in 1921 and became prime minister in March 1969 after Levi Eshkol's death, serving until 1974.

Who became India's first female prime minister in 1966?

Indira Gandhi served from 1966 to 1977 and again from 1980 until her assassination in 1984, and was no relation to Mahatma Gandhi; the surname came from her husband Feroze.

Which country was hit by the 20th century's strongest earthquake on 22 May 1960?

The Valdivia earthquake in southern Chile is put at magnitude 9.4 to 9.6; shaking lasted about ten minutes and its tsunami reached Hawaii and Japan.

Sirimavo Bandaranaike became the world's first elected female prime minister in 1960 in which country?

Bandaranaike took office in Ceylon, renamed Sri Lanka in 1972, in July 1960 after her husband's assassination; she served three separate terms, the last ending in 2000, the year she died.

From which French city did the supersonic Concorde make its first flight on 2 March 1969?

Prototype 001 took off from Toulouse-Blagnac on 2 March 1969 with André Turcat at the controls; the British-built 002 followed from Filton on 9 April.

The Tokaido Shinkansen, the first railway built for 200 km/h running, opened on October 1 of which year?

The line opened on 1 October 1964, nine days before the Tokyo Olympics began; Hikari trains first covered Tokyo to Shin-Osaka in four hours, cut to 3 hours 10 minutes in 1965.