- The United States and the Soviet Union sign the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, banning all nuclear weapons tests except underground explosions.
- France grants independence to its former African colonies.
- John F. Kennedy is elected president of the United States.
1961
- Alan Shepard becomes the first American to travel into space.
- The Berlin Wall is built by East Germany to prevent East Germans from fleeing to the West.
- The Soviet Union sends Yuri Gagarin into space, making him the first human to orbit the Earth.
1962
- The Cuban Missile Crisis brings the United States and the Soviet Union to the brink of nuclear war.
- Rachel Carson publishes her book Silent Spring, which documents the negative effects of pesticides on the environment.
- Pope John XXIII convenes the Second Vatican Council, which begins a series of reforms in the Catholic Church.
1963
- John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Texas.
- Lyndon B. Johnson becomes president of the United States.
- Martin Luther King Jr. gives his "I Have a Dream" speech during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
- The Equal Pay Act is passed by the United States Congress, prohibiting discrimination on the basis of gender in the payment of wages.
1964
- The Civil Rights Act is passed by the United States Congress, outlawing discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.
- The United States sends troops to Vietnam to fight in the Vietnam War.
- The Summer Olympics are held in Tokyo, Japan.
1965
- The Voting Rights Act is passed by the United States Congress, guaranteeing voting rights to all citizens regardless of race or color.
- The Dominican Civil War breaks out, and the United States intervenes militarily.
- Project Gemini, a series of space missions leading up to the Apollo moon landings, begins.
1966
- China's Cultural Revolution begins, a period of political upheaval and social unrest in the People's Republic of China.
- NASA launches the Surveyor 1 spacecraft, which successfully lands on the Moon and transmits back images of the lunar surface.
1967
- The Six-Day War between Israel and its Arab neighbors results in an Israeli victory and the capture of the Sinai Peninsula and the West Bank.
- Muhammad Ali refuses to be inducted into the United States Army, citing his religious beliefs, and is stripped of his boxing titles.
1968
- Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy are assassinated.
- The Soviet Union invades Czechoslovakia to crush the Prague Spring, a movement for greater democracy and freedom.
- The Summer Olympics are held in Mexico City, Mexico.
- Apollo 8 becomes the first crewed spacecraft to orbit the Moon.
1969
- Apollo 11 lands on the Moon and Neil Armstrong becomes the first human to set foot on the lunar surface.
- The United States, the Soviet Union, and other nations sign the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, limiting the spread of nuclear weapons.
- The Woodstock Music Festival takes place in Bethel, New York, and becomes a symbol of the counterculture of the 1960s.