The Beatles make their American debut on The Ed Sullivan Show on February 9, 1964, before a television audience of 73 million — heralding Beatlemania, the British invasion, the youth movement, and a revolution in pop music. Although CBS's Studio 50 holds only 703, the shrieks of teenage girls virtually drown out the group's five songs, starting with "All My Loving" and ending with "I Want to Hold Your Hand" (already the No. 1 hit in the country, having displaced Bobby Vinton's "There! I've Said It Again"). The Beatles perform three nights later at Carnegie Hall (tickets are $3 and $5.50) and the following two Sundays on Ed Sullivan and are greeted by mobs, shrieks, and hysteria wherever they go. By April, they hold the top five places on Billboard's pop singles chart.

"I Have a Dream"

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. leads the March on Washington on August 28, 1963, calling for comprehensive civil rights legislation, jobs programs, and fair-employment practices. More than 300,000 people gather before the Lincoln Memorial for the march's climax — a speech in which Rev. King reminds the world that 100 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, "we must face the fact that the Negro is still not free." A few weeks later, President Kennedy announces that federal troops will enforce a court order to admit two black students to the University of Alabama, despite the defiant protests of Gov. George Wallace.

 

The Cosmo Girl

Giant Leap

At 10:56 p.m. EDT on July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong steps out of the Eagle landing craft and onto the surface of the moon and declares, "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." The surface, he says, is "like powdered charcoal."

 

Shining Moment

The youngest elected president of the United States, John F. Kennedy, 43, and his wife, Jacqueline, bring youth and glamour to the White House during a reign that Mrs. Kennedy would later describe as "Camelot." Her husband's favorite lines from the musical: "Don't let it be forgot, that once there was a spot, for one brief shining moment, that was known as Camelot." Theodore White, writing in Life after Kennedy's assassination, calls the era "a magic moment in American history, when gallant great deeds were done, and when the White House became the center of the universe."

 

Bon Appétit!

A nation of cooks more accustomed to Jell-O and casseroles than haute cuisine is introduced to French cooking by Julia Child, whose television program The French Chef debuts in 1963. The statuesque Californian, co-author of the best-selling book Mastering the Art of French Cooking, brings a breezy, unstuffy approach — and a fondness for wine — that resonates with novices and experts alike. The show is taped live, so mistakes become "teaching moments." After errantly flipping a potato pancake, she ad-libs, "You can always pick it up. You're alone in the kitchen; who is going to see?" Each show ends with the benediction "Bon appétit!"

 

Back to the Garden

Zoning snafus force the Woodstock Aquarian Music and Art Fair to relocate to Max Yasgur's 600-acre dairy farm outside Bethel, N.Y., but nearly 400,000 young celebrators find their way to the ultimate happening from August 15-18, 1969. Attendees endure a downpour that turns the farm into a swamp. Food, water, and sanitary facilities are in short supply. But peace, love, nudity, and marijuana are plentiful. Swami Satchidananda teaches the masses to chant "Om." Jimi Hendrix mesmerizes with an instrumental guitar version of "The Star-Spangled Banner." The Who, Jefferson Airplane, Carlos Santana, Joan Baez, Janis Joplin, Joe Cocker, and Arlo Guthrie all perform for those close enough to the stage to hear them.

Other Memorable Moments

1960 William Greatbatch introduces the first implantable heart pacemaker.

1961 A 15-minute flight in Freedom 7 makes Alan B. Shepard the first American in space.

1961 IBM introduces the Selectric typewriter, which replaces type bars and movable carriages with a central typing element.

1964 Students protest the University of California, Berkeley's refusal to allow advocacy for off-campus causes, and the Free Speech Movement is born.

1964 The Supreme Court rules that Henry Miller's novel Tropic of Cancer is not obscene.

1967 Texas Instruments invents the first handheld calculator. It performs the four basic arithmetic functions and weighs three pounds.