The 1960s were a decade of revolution and change in politics, music and society around the world. It started in the United States and the United Kingdom, and spread to continental Europe and other parts of the globe.
The 1960s were an era of protest. In the civil rights movement blacks and whites protested against the unfair treatment of races. Towards the end of the decade more and more Americans protested against the war in Vietnam. Many people in the United States thought that Americans had no reason to fight in war that was so far away from home.
Female activists demanded more rights for women, whose role in society began to change. The birth control pill and other contraceptives were introduced, making it possible for women to plan their careers and have babies when they wanted them.
The 1960s shattered American politics with the assassination of famous leaders. John F. Kennedy, who became the first Catholic President in American history, was gunned down in Dallas in 1963. When his brother Robert ran for president in 1968 he too was killed by an assassin’s bullet in California. A few months earlier, civil rights leader Martin Luther King, who had done more for African Americans than any other person before him, was killed in Memphis, Tennessee.
After World War II people all over the world started working hard and respecting the values they were brought up with. Especially in Europe, it was an era of recovery and rebuilding. In the 1960s many young people started doubting such values. They protested against society and everything that was mainstream. They had hair long and wore unusual and strange clothes.