George Marshall, US Secretary of State, announces a reconstruction programme for Europe on 5 June 1947. The Soviet Union refused to participate. The money was distributed by the OEEC, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which was later founded in 1960. From a Western perspective, a planned economy was being built behind the wall of Europe. Plans for European unification emerged. Robert Schuman suggested joint management of coal and steel production. The start of the Coal and Steel Community, later the European Community, began in 1965. De Gaulle and Adenauer signed a Franco-German treaty on mutual consultations on 22 January 1963 in order to better coordinate further political measures across countries. In 1961, the Wall is built, which the Ulbricht era in particular allegedly did not want. At least he still says that ‘nobody has the intention of building a wall’! All right, got it! So these are alternative facts? Later, this is called the ‘anti-fascist protective wall’. The ‘European Free Trade Association’ is founded in Stockholm in 1960. The aim is growth and prosperity in the western world. The founding states, with the exception of Switzerland, later form the EEC. Great Britain is no longer a great power, but over the decade there is economic prosperity. Ireland left the Commonwealth and entered into new alliances, such as the UN and EFTA.
Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘psychological thriller’ marked the beginning of a crime film era in cinemas. In 1958, German television succeeded in establishing a permanent crime series called Stahlnetz (Steel Network), which lasted until 1968. The series Dragnet from the USA also flew through the 1960s decade from its creation in 1952 until 2004. ‘Blaulicht’, or “Das Fernsehgericht”, was to become the first court programme on German TV. In ‘James Bond hunts Dr No’ from 1962, Ursula Andress appears in a beige bikini. From then on, both men and women also showed bare upper bodies. New fabrics made it possible to emphasise the body more. Crocheted swimwear then appeared towards the end of the 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s.
Clarence Birdseye realises that extreme cold can be used to keep food fresh and rich in vitamins. After hundreds of years of preserving food by drying, curing, smoking and preserving, the age of the freezer community was about to begin. The first model was to be launched as early as 1929. However, it was not until the 1950s that electronic freezers gradually came onto the market. However, as these were still unaffordable for the average consumer, residents of rural areas formed ‘freezer communities’ to practise stockpiling at harvest and slaughter times. The Raiffeisen co-operatives followed suit and offered community freezing facilities. In the 1960s, these were then installed in people’s houses and flats.
The Bealtes made their first appearance in Hamburg. While the global East increasingly isolated itself and had a wall built around its world, the West freed itself and brought practicable technologies into everyday life. With the support of electronic progress. The wall that was to separate East and West Germany had to be built quickly, whatever dangers the East seemed to perceive in the West. Berlin was now a divided city. Hamburg was hit by a storm surge of the century, during which the future German Chancellor Schmidt was able to make his mark and the horrors of the Cold War began. In 1962, John F. Kennedy celebrated his 45th birthday, while Marilyn Monroe serenaded him with a thoroughly erotic song that was to leave a certain lasting impression. She was said to be one of the favourite mistresses of the sex-obsessed head of the USA. The government tried to put a stop to rumours of the president’s possible cheating and destroyed all pictures and recordings that showed the two of them together. The Kennedys, especially his wife, dominated the marketing and the confidence-inspiring portrayal of an intact family with healthy and decent children, a house, a farm and a dog without questionable morals.
Personality development was a top priority in TV. The job of television announcer was a profession that required you to represent the broadcaster. The entire personality profile and behaviour in public had to be in line with the broadcaster’s expectations. Edelgard Stössel felt the effects of the morals in 1965 when she appeared in a magazine in a babydoll. ZDF goes crazy, the announcer in her underwear! Mrs Stössel has to leave and society shakes its head at so much prudery. After all, the babydoll was a carnival shot and the bikini is already on the market.
In the 1950s, the strategy was recognised that products could be problem solvers, which was to become clear in the 1960s. And so the women’s campaign began to make its way through advertising! The question was, how does a woman make a man happy? The man, on the other hand, asked himself whether he was up to date and could offer his wife the comfort she deserved. Then, in 1962, a magazine article lamented the increasing infidelity of women. The culprit was found in prosperity. The 1960s therefore appealed to consumers with bigger wallets. The ever-running Beetle sells well. The vehicle becomes more affordable or consumers earn more. Because if you want to have a family, you have to make something of yourself. People are still conservative, but magazines increasingly show a more open image of society.
Science fiction emerged worldwide in the 60s. The film ‘The White Mountains’ was made in 1967, as was ‘The City of Gold and Lead’ as science fiction. Other well-known cinema hits were ‘Psycho’ in the 1960s, ‘Two Glorious Scoundrels’ in 1966, ‘The Jungle Book’ in 1967, ‘Easy Rider’ in 1969 and ‘The Graduate’ in 1967 with Dustin Hoffmann. In the fight for a just cause, adventure, exoticism and the forces of nature, Indian films also became interesting for boys in the 1960s. The fact that the GDR of all places also produced such films remains questionable to this day, or that it supported the revolution of 1989 and freed the country from the Wall, which is what the hero would have been good for. In any case, ‘The Sons of the Great Bear’ was a 1966 production in the history of East German cinema. Otherwise, these kinds of heroes tended to come from the western hemisphere, naturally from the USA. ‘Flaming Star’ in 1960, “Geronimo” with Elvis Presley in 1962, “Cheyenne Autumn” in 1964 and, of course, the saga of Winnetou, which began with Karl May’s “Treasure of Silver Lake” in 1962.
Lichtburg Essen, Winnetou 2 Premiere
Russ Meyer also had an idiosyncratic status with his films and corresponding arguments. In the 60s, he brought the naked skin to the offence. He is considered the nude film pioneer of the 60s and 70s. His focus, strong women! He is regarded as
He is considered a source of inspiration for many later film and music productions. ‘Faster, Pussycat’ in 1965, “Flowers without Fragrance” and “The Satanic Women of Tittfield” are just some of the films he produced in the 60s.
Heintje – Ich Bau Dir Ein Schloss (Officiële video)
In 1968, Hendrik Nikolaas Theodor Simons, known as Heintje for short, made his breakthrough in the music business. With ‘Ich bau dir ein Schloß’ and ‘Mama’, he became the youngest superstar of his time. Mama also became a techno version on the occasion of his 40th anniversary and it is said that he has been back in business for a few years now. People always act as if a career has never really ended. But it is precisely the breaks that tell a story. After all, there was a completely different zeitgeist in between and Heintje was therefore no longer quite so popular, which shows that art simply depends on the zeitgeist. In 1967, Priscilla married her King of Rock ‘n’ Roll, Elvis Presley, in Las Vegas. Lisa Marie was born in 1968.
Elvis & Priscilla Presley’s Wedding Day in Las Vegas (1967) | British Pathé
The marriage ended in divorce in 1973. Two years after the wedding, ‘The Wonder of You’ was produced in 1969. In 1969, Les Humphries founded the band of the same name and went on to help shape the 70s. Bob Dyland, Joan Baez and Leonard Cohen are some of the best-known musical figures from the decade. Otis Redding, Marvin Gaye, Sam Cook, Johnny Cash, many of them not only developed pop culture, but also picked up on the zeitgeist and questioned issues.
Ray Charles, James Brown, who made his breakthrough in 1963 with ‘Live at the Apollo’, had a significant influence on the entire subsequent historical development of music. Steve Wonder, Jimi Hendrix and Roy Orbison, with their very own genre, were the defining spirits of this period.
In 1963, there was an assassination attempt on the incumbent US President John F. Kennedy. Racial segregation became a national issue in the USA. The Pope took centre stage with his speech to the UN and the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution began in China in 1966. With Benno Ohnsorg as a victim of the executive power of the state, the violent transition to the 1970s began in 1967.
https://youtu.be/OO_9TwmAul0?si=OCxnc0HLxdwNFMcf
Che Guevara also became a victim of the military until the 1968 movement finally heralded the overwhelming transition into a new decade. Finally, Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon in 1969 and with Woodstock, a world began to set itself free, possibly beginning its campaign of decolonisation since 1947. For it was in 1947 that the first nations began their independence. Decolonisation had begun in 1900 and peaked in the decades of 1950 and 1960, with the number of sovereign states rising to over 180 out of 196 worldwide by 1990.
The concert in Monterey in 1967 is or was just as much a product of chance as Woodstook in 1969, with the difference that Monterey was the trigger for Woodstock.
But the significance of these concerts is perhaps much greater. Concerts with extraordinary music, bands and singer-songwriters played themselves into a trance on the stages and drew the fans into a complete frenzy. A gigantic atmosphere of love, gentleness and positive thoughts must have characterised this time, which could not only have shaped the developments of the 1960s, but rather, it must have ended the post-war depression. And this did not just begin with the Second World War, but already with the First World War and thus shows an enormous period of time that must truly symbolise the birth of a new age.
1963 „Barcarole in
der Nacht“ – Connie Francis
Komponiert von Werner Scharfenberger und aus der Feder von Kurt Feltz singt die bis heute berühmte US-amerikanerin Connie Francis die Trauer um die verflossene Liebe. 1962 (Discogs) erstmalig entstanden wurde der Song durch eine MGM Records-Produktion am 5. Februar 1963 zum Nr. 1 Hit. Die gebürtige Amerikanerin nahm einige deutschsprachige Songs auf, darunter „Die Liebe ist ein seltsames Spiel“, „Einmal komm ich wieder“ oder „Wenn du gehst“. Feltz’ Barcarole ist ein sehr tränenreiches Lied, in dem der verflossene Pierro beweint wird: „Er heißt Pierro, und es gibt eine and’re, die er liebt.“ Der für die B-Seite der Single vorgesehene Song Colombino war bereits am 13. April 1962 im Wiener Austrophon Studio produziert worden.
Die deutsche Musikzeitschrift Musikmarkt erwähnte Barcarole in der Nacht erstmals in ihrer Hit-Parade für Juni 1963 als bester Neueinsteiger auf Platz fünf. In der Juli-Hit-Parade lag der Titel auf dem ersten Platz, anschließend wurde er noch bis zum November 1963 notiert. Damit kam er auf eine Laufzeit von 24 Wochen. In der wöchentlichen Musicbox der Jugendzeitschrift Bravo hielt sich Barcarole in der Nacht 18 Wochen lang und belegte zweimal Platz eins. Das brachte dem Song Rang vier in der Jahres-Musicbox 1963 ein.
Connie Francis – Barcarole in der Nacht – 1963
1965 „The Sound of Silence“ – Simon & Garfunkel
The Sound of Silence – Simon & Garfunkel
People who are in the public eye have the job of carrying messages into the world. The more exclusive these messages are, the more intense their favour. And so Paul Simon, with his story, was also considered one of these storytellers.
The song was written against the backdrop of the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Paul Simon, then 21 years old and a recent college graduate, could not have been a better representative of the youth scene of the time, who were terrified of the future and felt marginalised by American society. A pattern that seems to repeat itself in every subsequent decade and the power of youth seems to be increasing to this day.
Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel were school friends, not exactly made for each other, but with enough harmony they were convincing enough to produce hits later on. However, their first album flopped and the pair split up again. Simon went to Europe and built up a career as a solo artist. Producer Tom Wilson re-recorded the song with additional instruments without being asked. The song became a hit in 1965 and Paul found out about it shortly before a performance in Denmark.
Paul Simon is that kind of person, a person who gives you the feeling that he withdraws when it gets too loud outside, in the crowd, to make art out of it. From such a character emerges a song like the one from which the pop duo Simon & Garfunkel are still based today.
But as it happens, often only the shell of meaning remains on a song for many years and the meaning of a song is lost. However, the melody and heaviness of the music maintain a certain character, in the case of ‘The Sound of Silence’, which ultimately leads to the meaning of the song being questioned anew at some point.
And so, in a recent interview with Ultimate Rock Magazine, Paul actually reports a certain profundity that is expressed through the song.
The first recorded version of the song, consisting only of the couple’s vocals and Simon’s acoustic guitar, was recorded on their debut album at 3am on a Wednesday morning in 1964.
‘The Sound of Silence’ is cult today. With its heaviness and melancholy as well as the urge to dramatise, as we are used to from Simon & Garfunkel today, the hit from the 1960s invites us to question the morality of the present, which obviously seemed to be Paul’s intention.
In the interview, Paul reflected on the circumstances of the time and how the song came about. He was 21 years old at the time, holed up in the bathroom, the light was off, he turned on the tap because the running water calmed him down. The tiles on the wall and floor echoed the sound of his guitar, creating an atmosphere that would reflect the essence of the song, he continues in the interview. ‘The main thing was that this atmosphere led me into dreaming and reflecting and I could be completely with myself. Realise deep in my thoughts what was going on inside me.’ So I started to play, ‘Hello darkness, my old friend, I’ve come to have a chat with you again, the future international number one hit starts.
Other artists later credited Paul with having the talent to express a complex thing through a simple song and thus reach the masses. He reached people who felt alienated and excluded from society, the youth in the USA at the time. But as we later learnt, this trend was worldwide. The masses, the adults in society, would not heed the call of the youth. They felt understood by Paul Simon’s song. The centrepiece, according to Paul Simon, is the collectively comprehensible feeling of existential poetry.
The content was not something I was supposed to experience on a deeper level of consciousness. It was a time of lingering adolescent angst that took place within me, but it had a truth to it and it moved millions of people. The narrator of this story has no one to talk to. Only the darkness seems to understand him. But it is not the perspective of a single person, a mass of people who sought refuge in their own silence.
The fear of the future, people say a lot and yet nothing, they hear a lot and yet do not understand. And there are few who are neither understood nor heard. They find themselves in a state of indifference. ‘Fools,’ I said, “you know, silence grows like a cancer, hear my words so I can teach you, take my arms so I can reach you…” the duo sings a wake-up call, seemingly in vain.
The song concludes with a warning of all-consuming consumption and many victims if society continues to cling so strongly to silence.
With, ‘And the people bowed down and prayed / To the neon god (idolatry) they had made / And the sign showed its warning / In the words it formed / And the sign said: “The words of the prophets / Are written on the walls of the underground / And on the tenements / And whispered in the sounds of silence,” the text describes that the messages are visible in the world, but people disregard them and do not seem to understand them. Nobody, it seems, lets themselves be warned.
The songwriter Paul’s expression of silence leads him to realise his own thoughts. He creates the right atmosphere for this in the bathroom, just as he feels.
‘In restless dreams I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestones
Under the glow of a street lamp…’ describes the feeling of being alone, in the midst of darkness only a small faint light of hope.
But in the light, he sees people who are silent, who do not share their voices, no one seems to be listening in the silence. Guilelessness and fear seem to go hand in hand.
‘Fools’ said ’(You)I, but I do not know
Silence grows like a cancer
Hear my words so that I can teach you
Take my arms so that I can reach you.
But my words fell like silent raindrops
And echoed in the wells of silence
Sanremo 2025 – Clara con Il Volo cantano „The Sound of Silence“
Quelle: Rai/Youtube
CLARA e IL VOLO – The sound of the silence | SANREMO 2025
Clara, IL VOLO, Sanremo 2025, The Sound of Silence, Italian music, live performance, Sanremo Festival, best performances, emotional music, classical crossover, opera pop, Italian singers
Sanremo, Clara and Il Volo sing The Sound of Silence. The story of one of the most iconic songs ever
The third evening of the Sanremo Festival 2025 recorded significant ratings. Here are the details and how they compare to past editions.
On the fourth evening of the Sanremo Festival 2025, dedicated to covers, Clara, flanked by the famous trio Il Volo, performed ‘The Sound of Silence’ by Simon & Garfunkel. The choice of this iconic song represented an ambitious challenge, but the interpretation lived up to expectations, offering a moment of intense emotion at the Ariston Theatre.
Clara, a young emerging artist, demonstrated surprising vocal maturity, managing to convey the depth and melancholy inherent in the song. Her voice intertwined harmoniously with the powerful and lyrical ones of Il Volo, composed of Piero Barone, Ignazio Boschetto and Gianluca Ginoble. The trio, known for their ability to fuse pop music with bel canto, added an operatic dimension to the performance, enriching the original arrangement with symphonic overtones.
Quelle: Engineer Channel/Rai/Youtube
1965 The Mamas & The Papas – California Dreamin
Sheltered and yet cosmopolitan
Still living in New York, the then still young and pretty blonde Michelle criticised the cold and wet weather and longed for her paradise in California. But her husband John was already writing the first lines of The Mamas & The Papas, centred around his wife.
Michelle grew up as a sheltered and carefree young woman, shuttling between Mexico, where her father worked at college, and California. Later she moved between New York and San Francisco. John Phillips, to whom she was later married, modelled his songwriting on his wife, as Michelle Phillips described in an interview.
The song reflects the different places Michelle has experienced since her childhood. Initially as a young girl between Mexico and California, later between New York and San Francisco. This is not surprising, because San Francisco is considered to be far more liberal than New York.
And so Michelle said in New York that she would miss the Californian flair, the warmth and security from there. And because circumstances are a major influence for artists, this experience became part of California Dreamin, the Californian dream.
John and Michelle had been together from an early age, and the upheavals meant that they tried to form a new band, also with a view to earning a lot of money. But it was John who had to persuade Michelle. She was a sought-after model for teen magazines and was about to sign a contract with a major lingerie company. She would be earning a lot more money now. But John saw her as a good singer and thought that with a trio as a band, as he was planning, they could make a lot of money with two incomes as a couple. But Michelle didn’t see herself as a singer, but John seemed to know better.
With Danny Dothery, they had now found the tenor by chance and thus the third band member. Everyone worked non-stop on their careers.
Until Cassy came into the picture. She and Michelle were best friends immediately and from then on. When the first lines were written, it was 1963 and John and Michelle were in New York. John, whose song ideas were largely orientated towards his wife, came up with the first verse for a new song on a walk. In it, he described his wife’s homesickness for California. The next verse came to mind during a visit to St Patrick’s Church in New York.
But the song disappeared into a drawer, as Michelle describes. It wasn’t until years later, when they were short of money and the band was about to be formed, that The Tambourine Man by the Byrds became a huge success. The story of the band was known to the four of them. And Denny said to John, ‘…that’s how you have to write the songs’. Michelle and John pulled California Dreamin out of the drawer again. Barry McGuire, a friend, then put them in touch with Lou Adler from Dunhill Records in 1965. A first recording was made. Lou Adler was convinced and offered a contract. Cassy, who had been holding out for a long time, also saw the opportunity for herself and when she finally agreed to go down the road with the band, everyone signed the contract. The first big hit for The Mamas & The Papas was born. After some initial hesitation and much doubt on the part of the group, the hit went through the roof. A short time later, the single ‘Monday Monday’ was released, which was later included on the album and shot to number one in the USA.
It was John Phillips who would shortly afterwards write the anthem for Woodstock together with Scott McKenzie San Francisco. John had the ability to arrange the voices he received for The Mamas & The Papas in such a way that the art of a cappella could emerge. A Cappella, an art of singing, mostly without instruments, bringing together harmonious sounds and special sound colours of the artists. Just as Abba spoke of the magic of the second voices in later years, the speciality of Mamas & Papas also lay in the composition of the special voices, which is particularly noticeable when you look at the later cover songs. This is how the name The Mamas & The Papas came about with California Dreamin‘. A short time later, the number one hit in the USA ‘Monday, Monday’. The group had numerous hits until 1968, when they disbanded. The attempt to re-form the group failed in 1974 with the death of Mama Cass Elliot.
Translated with DeepL_com
Sources and further information
California Dreamin`
(https://archive.org/details/THE_MAMAS_THE_PAPAS_California_Dreamin_1966)
Cass Elliot
(https://www.biography.com/musicians/mama-cass)
December 11, 1966, Ed Sullivan Show, The Mamas & The Papas, California Dreamin`
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGoq_rVMucQ&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fthestrangebrew.co.uk%2F)
(https://thestrangebrew.co.uk/interviews/michelle-phillips-mamas-papas
(https://www.biography.com/musicians/michelle-phillips
(https://pophistorydig.com/topics/the-mamas-and-the-papas-1960s/)
(https://www.songfacts.com/facts/the-mamas-the-papas/california-dreamin
1001 Songs, You must hear before you die, S. 154
1967 San Francisco – Scott McKenzie
Hymn to the hippie movement
The Monterey Pop Festival, which was originally developed by Phillips, Scott McKenzie’s friend and frontman of The Mamas and the Papas, the music producer Lou and Scott himself, is considered to be the better remembered Woodstock.
Some reported trance-like states, as often experienced during ritualisation processions. This is also how the images of Jimi Hendricks, who played himself into a trance and ultimately poured petrol over his guitar on stage and burnt it. It is said to have been like an offering. A sacrifice from which new life was to emerge and which two years later led to Woodstock, which was to reach an audience of around 400,000.
Monterey may have been small in comparison, but it is considered to be the birth of a new era for music.
The inspiration for the song comes from the analogy with Olympia. Phillips saw in his mind’s eye the coronation with the wreaths they wore. The image of the hippie movement with wreaths of flowers on their heads, boho dresses and people lying in each other’s arms, half or completely naked, is the real realisation of this vision.
From the interview with Phillips: ‘Actually, I was thinking of the Olympics and the wreaths that the people wore.
It was Phillips‘ wish to create a song that would be a kind of anthem for this festival. In fact, he succeeded, as you can see from the lyrics. But the festival was bigger than anything imaginable and went down in the immortality of history, a historical caesura.
By the late 1980s, the roots of Woodstock had also brought a laissez-faire mentality to the business world, creating a new era of leadership there as well
1969 Suspicious Minds – Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley – Suspicious Minds (Official Music Video)
Following a lengthy slide toward commercial oblivion, Elvis Presley reclaimed the title of the King of Rock `n`Roll during the television show now known as the `68 Comeback Special. He would cement his return with a prolific session at Memphis´s American Sound Studio, during which he recorded 1969´S From Elvis in Memphis and the singles „In the Ghetto,“ „Kentucky Rain,“ and !Suspicious Minds.“ The Latter would become the singer´s eighteenth U.S. No. 1. It was also his last.
In retrospect however, it is hard to imagine a more fitting final chart-topper for the king.
Everything about „Suspicious Minds“ worked in unison , from Presley´s high strung vocals to the edgy arrangement and the claustrophobic lyrics detailling a couple „caught in a trap“ of jealously and distrust. Although the lyrics were penned by Memphis tunesmith Mark James, Presley tool vocal command of the song in a way that made it feel like an original composition. Indeed not only did it sound as though he had written the words, he gave the district impressions that he had lived them. Another telling detail, which caught many a DJ off-guard, was the fake fade-out and suprise fade-in at the end. The result was unlike anything else in the Elvis songbook.
„Suspicious Minds“ would be covered by a sizeable number of artists in the year to come and in a surprising number of ways. Most notably, the fine Young Cannibals gave it a modernrock twist in 1985 and Dwight Yoakam took it countryward in 1992, but it has also been handled by jam-rockers Phish, indie stars The Flaming Lips, and American idol´s Clay Aliken. Some of those covers are good in their way, but none compares favorably to the King´s royal original.
Chronological number line of the 1960s
the last of the 50s
1957, 25 March, Six states sign the EEC Treaty. The European Economic Community
1958, 24 March, Elvis Presley becomes a soldier.
1958, 28 June, Pelè becomes football world champion at the age of 17 at the World Cup in Sweden
1959, 15 October, Germany has three million television viewers
1959, 22 October, The film Die Brücke is broadcast. Director Bernhardt Wicki shows how the naivety of young people is exploited in the final days of the Second World War.
1960
Olympic Games start in Rome
9 November, John F. Kennedy becomes President of the USA
TV sets are launched in Europe, with 10 million households in England, four million in Germany and two million in France.
The Japanese technology group Sony develops the first transistorised TV set.
Ken Olsen from DEC develops a PDP-1 minicomputer with the APL programming language. John G. Kemey and Thomas E Kurtz develop the BASIC programming language in the USA.
1961
1 February, The 40-hour week is introduced in Germany.
IBM develops magnetic memory for computers.
23 May, Race riots in the USA
6 June 1961 The psychoanalyst Carl Gustav Jung dies
Construction of the Berlin Wall
The first stereo radio programme is broadcast in the USA
1962
17 February, Hamburg flood disaster claims more than 300 lives
14 March, disarmament conference in Geneva
29 May, Adolf Eichmann, who is charged with the final solution to the Jewish question during the Second World War, is hanged.
On the same day, John F. Kennedy celebrates his 45th birthday, while Marilyn Monroe serenades him with a thoroughly erotic song that leaves a lasting impression. She was said to be a favourite of the sex-obsessed head of the USA.
17 June, Brazil becomes world champions at the World Cup in Chile
9 August, Hermann Hesse, born in Calw, dies in Ticino.
11 August, the Soviet Union launches the space flights Vostok III and Vostock IV, thus entering into direct competition with the USA.
22 October, the Cuban Missile Crisis reaches its climax, arms shipments from the Soviet Union do not leave, whereupon John F. Kennedy imposes a blockade, a trade embargo on Cuba.
The first integrated circuits come onto the market. The US company Signetics develops diode transistor logic.
1963
The US company Sylvania develops high level logic, later known as transistor-transistor logic, TTL. From now on, more and more electronic technologies are developed.
3 June, Pope John XXIII dies at the age of 81. After 43 hours, Pope Paul VI is elected on 21 June 1963.
26 June, John F. Kennedy visits Berlin and declares his belief in the reunification of divided Germany in front of Schöneberg City Hall in the presence of 1.5 million people with the slogan ‘I am a Bearleener’.
24 June, the German Football League is founded.
11 October, Edith Piaf dies
15 October, Konrad Adenauer resigns
24 October, 29 miners are killed in a mining accident in Lengede, Lower Saxony.
22 November, John F. Kennedy is shot dead in Dallas.
7 November, the Lengende mining accident becomes the Lengende Miracle. After 7 days, a further 11 people are rescued.
1964
4 January, Pope Paul VI visits all the holy memorials in Jerusalem, where there is a historic meeting with the Patriarch of Constantinople Athenagoras on the Mount of Olives.
29 January, the future actor and professional sportsman Hans-Jürgen Bäumler wins the silver medal on the Innsbruck Berg-Isel-Schanze at the IX Winter Olympics.
9 February The USA steps up its deployment in Vietnam.
4 April Boxer Bubi Scholz becomes European light heavyweight champion in Dortmund’s Westfalenhalle.
23 June, Pope Paul VI speaks out against the contraceptive pill in front of 26 channels.
18 June, popular actor Hans Moser dies.
2 July, President Lyndon B. Johnson is unable to prevent racial unrest in the USA despite signing the Civil Rights Act, which proclaims racial equality and prohibits discrimination.
2 June, the miniskirt catches on
3 November, overwhelming victory for US President Johnson in his second term of office.
1965
Early Bird, the first news satellite with a geostationary orbit Intelsat I is installed in space.
24 January, Sir Winston Churchill dies.
7 February, hostilities in Vietnam escalate.
18 March Russia, then the USA on 23 March, once again went head-to-head in the space mission.
7 March, Germany seeks contacts with Israel
14 April, napalm oil bombs Vietnam.
7 April, a significant moment in TV history. Colour television is made possible.
19 August, the mass murder trial against 22 accused members of the SS guard team at the Ausschwitz concentration camp comes to an end in Frankfurt am Main.
19 December, De Gaulle becomes President of France once again.
1966
3 April, the first artificial heart is tested in the USA. A patient is connected to a heart machine for the first time.
2 June, the USA lands on the moon for the first time with the unmanned lunar probe Surveyor 1.
30 July, England become world football champions in England
1 September, A solution to the South Tyrol problem is in sight. President Aldo Moro issues a government declaration for South Tyrol.
1 October, the two war criminals Albert Speer and Baldur von Schirach, who were sentenced to 20 years in prison at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trial in 1946, leave Spandau War Crimes Prison.
1967
18 February, Oppenheimer, inventor of the first atomic bomb, dies at the age of 62 in New Jersey.
19 April, Konrad Adenauer dies.
5 June, The third war in the Israeli-Arab conflict begins since the founding of the State of Israel.
5 June, the Suez Canal is closed and made impassable by the sinking of ships. Egypt declares that the canal will only be opened if Israel clears the area east of Suez.
31 July, the last sole owner Alfred Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach dies in Essen.
25 August, colour television is now regularly seen in Germany.
9 October, Che Guevara, revolutionary and former Cuban minister, is shot dead in the Bolivian jungle.
IBM develops the flexible magnetic disc, the floppy disc, the first floppy disc is launched on the market.
1968
27 March, Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, dies.
4 April, Martin Luther King is killed on the balcony of a hotel in Memphis (Tennessee) by shots fired by an assassin.
11 April, Rudi Dutschke, leader of the German Socialist Student Union (SDS) is shot and seriously injured by a 23-year-old assassin in Berlin.
3 May, student unrest in France.
11 May, student unrest in Germany. They protest against the constitution’s emergency laws.
27 May, Thalidomide trial. Executives of the Grünenthal chemical company are put on trial for the pharmaceutical scandal affecting the entire Western world. The sleeping pill thalidomide is said to have caused thousands of deformities in children.
6 June, Robert Kennedy, brother of the assassinated US President John F. Kennedy, is murdered in an assassination attempt in Los Angeles.
5 November, Richard Nixon becomes US President.
June, Summer Olympics in Mexico
21 December, Apollo flight around the moon.
1969
16 July, the first man sets foot on the moon.
The event is broadcast on TV.
23 October, the USA withdraws from Vietnam
23 November, the South Tyrol package is approved with commitments. This includes an operational calendar with the implementation of measures by the Italian government. It contains promises of autonomy in economic and cultural terms, retention of the German language, and an Italian commission is to deal with South Tyrolean policy on a permanent basis within the Italian government.
The Swiss Niklas Wirth develops the computer programming language PASCAL. Marcian Edward Hoff of Intel Corp launches the first microprocessor in the USA. For the first time, 664 transistors are combined on one chip.