| 1963 | Betty Friedan publishes The Feminine Mystique |
| 1966 | Willy Brandt becomes West German foreign minister and develops Ostpolitik |
| 1967 | First successful human heart transplant |
| 1968 | Revolution in Czechoslovakia; student uprisings throughout Europe and the United States |
| 1969 | U.S. astronauts walk on the moon's surface |
| 1972 | SALT I between the United States and Soviet Union |
| 1973 | End of Vietnam War; OPEC raises price of oil and imposes oil embargo on the West |
| 1973–1976 | Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn publishes The Gulag Archipelago |
| 1978 | The first test-tube baby is born in England |
| 1978–1979 | Islamic revolution in Iran; hostages are taken at U.S. embassy in Teheran |
| 1980 | Solidarity organizes resistance to Polish communism; British prime minister Margaret Thatcher begins dismantling the welfare state |
| 1981 | Ronald Reagan becomes U.S. president |
| 1985 | Mikhail Gorbachev becomes Soviet premier |
| 1986 | Explosion at Chernobyl nuclear plant; Spain joins the Common Market |
| 1989 | Chinese students revolt in Tiananmen Square; Communist governments are ousted in eastern Europe; Berlin Wall is demolished |