| •1960 | Young Americans for Freedom founded |
| •1961 | Kennedy sends military advisers to South Vietnam |
| Bay of Pigs invasion |
| Freedom Rides |
| Soviets build Berlin Wall |
| •1962 | Port Huron Statement |
| Cuban missile crisis |
| •1963–1968 | U.S. troops in Vietnam rise from 16,000 to 536,000 |
| •1963 | Betty Friedan publishes The Feminine Mystique |
| Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty |
| March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom |
| John F. Kennedy assassinated; Lyndon B. Johnson becomes president |
| •1964–1966 | Great Society domestic programs enacted |
| •1964 | Civil Rights Act of 1964 |
| Freedom Summer |
| Gulf of Tonkin Resolution |
| •1965 | Operation Rolling Thunder begins |
| Voting Rights Act |
| •1966 | Black Panther Party formed |
| National Organization for Women (NOW) formed |
| •1968 | American Indian Movement (AIM) founded |
| Martin Luther King Jr. assassinated |
| Tet Offensive begins |
| •1969 | Stonewall Riots |
| •1973 | Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision |