A look at some of the events that shaped the world during the decade.

Sit-ins against segregation began when black college students demonstrated at the Woolworth lunch counter in Greensboro

Tensions between the U.S. and Soviet Union grew following the shooting down of an American U-2 spy plane

Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kennedy defeated Vice President Richard Nixon in a squeaker to become President

An invasion of Cuba by anti-Castro forces ends in disaster at the Bay of Pigs

Peace Corps formed

Commander Alan B. Shepherd Jr. rode the first U.S. suborbital spacecraft

Lt. Col. John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth

Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring" marked the start of the worldwide environmental movement

Tthe U.S. and Soviet Union stood on the brink of nuclear war after a missile buildup in Cuba

Gov. George Wallace was forced to step aside and the University of Alabama was integrated

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 8-1 that laws requiring recitation of the Lord's Prayer or Bible verses in public schools were unconstitutional

The U.S., Britain and Soviet Union signed a limited nuclear test-ban treaty

200,000 people marched on Washington to demand civil rights for all, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous "I Have A Dream" speech

Betty Friedan's book "Feminine Mystique" marks the start of the women's movement

President Kennedy assassinated in Dallas, Tex.

Lyndon Johnson becomes President

Alleged Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald killed by Jack Ruby.

A Southern filibuster broken, a landmark Civil Rights Bill passed Congress

President Johnson began the War On Poverty

Congress passed the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, authorizing presidential action in Vietnam

Medicare program approved

President Johnson crushes Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater in the November election

President Johnson orders continuous bombing of North Vietnam

Black leader Malcolm X murdered

Long Hot Summers begin with rioting in Watts area of Los Angeles

Major blackout strikes northeast, with increase in birth rate noted nine months later

U.S. forces in Vietnam reach 184,300 at the end of the year

Vatican II, which brought liberalization to Roman Catholic Church, concluded

Vietnam War extended into Cambodia

Over 385,000 U.S. military personnel in Vietnam, and full-scale bombing of Hanoi underway

President Johnson and Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin hold groundbreaking talks in Glassboro, N.J.

66 people die in race riots in Newark, N.J., and Detroit, Michigan

Thurgood Marshall becomes first black justice of the U.S. Supreme Court

Israel defeats combined forces of Egypt, Jordan and Syria in Six Day War

Tet Offensive by Communists stuns American forces in Vietnam

Peace talks begin on Vietnam War open in Paris

Civil Rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. assassinated in Memphis

Presidential candidate Sen. Robert F. Kennedy assassinated in Los Angeles\

Riots erupt at Democratic national convention

Former Vice President Richard Nixon defeats Vice President Hubert Humphrey and Alabama Gov. George Wallace in Presidential election

In spite of peace talks, U.S. forces in Vietnam peaked at 543,400 in April

Withdrawal from Vietnam began in July

U.S. astronaut Neil Armstrong becomes the first human to walk on the moon

First Woodstock Festival draws 500,000-plus people to small New York town

Anti-war demonstrations sweep nation, centered on college campuses

250,000 march on Washington to protest the Vietnam conflict

Stonewall Riot in New York City marks start of gay rights movement