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Please select a historical
period:
25
years ago
/ 50 years ago / 80
years ago / 125 years ago
/ 150 years ago
250 years ago / 400
years ago / 700 years ago
/ 1,200 years ago
1,500 years ago / 2,000
years ago / 3,000 years ago
/ 4,000 years ago / 5,000 years ago / 10,000 years
ago
25
Years Ago in North America
If
the Russians began the space age with the Sputnik satellite,
the United States scores a major first with the first manned
moon landing in 1969 of the Apollo spacecraft. Neil Armstrong
and Edwin Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the moon.
US President John F. Kennedy is assassinated in 1963. He is
succeeded by Lyndon B. Johnson. Under Johnson's term, American
involvement in the Vietnam War grows. The Democrat Party looses
power in 1969 to the Republicans led by Richard Nixon. Nixon
is forced to resign in disgrace in 1973 as a result of the Watergate
Scandal.
Betty Friedan's book, The Feminine Mystique, published in 1963,
marks a major turning point in the struggle of women for equal
rights, what becomes commonly called "feminism".
The 1964 Civil Rights Bill was aimed to bring about equality
for African-Americans, but racial discrimination and intolerance
continued. Malcolm X, a former leader of the Nation of Islam,
a militant Islamic Black rights movement, renounces violence
and is assassinated by former supporters in February 1965. In
1965 and '66 racial unrest leads to huge riots in many American
cities. The worst are the Watts Riots in Los Angeles lasting
five days , August 15-20, 1965. Civil rights leader, Martin
Luther King, is assassinated in 1968. King advocated non-violent
action to end racial discrimination.
The Hippie movement is a loosely organized protest movement
of the children of the Baby Boom Generation against the values
of their parents. Hippies popularized long hair for men, advocated
free love, use of narcotics and communal living. This time period
also saw the rise of mass protests by young people against American
involvement in the Vietnam War, although most were not true
"hippies". Mass movements to save the environment
from industrial and chemical pollution also grew in importance.
It is said that in the 20th century, the world has not seen
as many animal and plant species go extinct since the end of
the dinosaur age.
Wounded Knee, South Dakota, in the Sioux Pine Ridge reservation,
site of a terrible massacre almost 100 years before, is the
scene of another conflict between the American government and
native peoples in 1975, putting the Indian rights movement into
focus. Complaints of police harassment by the Pine Ridge Sioux
are ignored and lead to a shoot out between less than 30 natives
(men, women and children) and more than 100 FBI, leading to
the death of one native and two FBI agents. Indian rights leader
Leonard Peltier is arrested in connection with the shooting,
but even after it is admitted that it is unknown who shot the
FBI agents, Peltier is still held in jail to this day.
The Russian Kasimir Malevich and the Dutchman Piet Mondrian
are among the most important pioneers in geometric abstract
art. Mondrian was among many artists who fled Europe to the
USA to escape the Nazi threat. These included fellow Dutchman
De Kooning and the German Max Ernst. With these influences,
American art saw the rise of what was called Abstract Expressionism.
It is impossible to estimate how much they affected American
art, but the fact remains that in the 1940s and '50s, for the
first time, American artists became internationally important
with their new vision. Jackson Pollock became one of the most
important American painters after 1940. A new generation of
artists in the 1960s, led by Andy Warhol, was called the Pop
Art movement.
25
Years Ago in Canada
In
1961, the CCF is officially renamed the New Democratic Party
or NDP.
In 1962, the Saskatchewan NDP government introduces the first
Canadian medicare plan. Also in that year, Canada becomes
the third nation in space with the launch of the Alouette
satellite.
In 1963, John Diefenbaker's Conservative government is defeated
by Lester B. Pearson and the Liberal Party. Under Pearson,
in 1965, the new Canadian Maple Leaf flag is introduced. Pierre
Trudeau takes over as Liberal Party leader in 1968 and wins
a majority government in the federal election that year. The
Liberals under Trudeau will remain in power until 1979.
Margaret Atwood, who becomes one of Canada's most noted authors
in the last half of the 20th century, publishes The Circle
Game in 1966. Quebec writer, Roch Carrier, publishes La Querre,
Yes Sir! in 1968.
The FLQ crisis of 1970 sees the kidnapping and murder of Pierre
Laporte, a cabinet minister in the Trudeau government, by
FLQ terrorists. Trudeau imposes the War Measures Act, which
effectively suspends most democratic rights in Canada for
the duration of the emergency.
In 1975, the world's tallest free standing structure, the
CN Tower, is completed in Toronto.
In 1976, Quebec elects its first separatist or independentiste
government, the Parti Quebecois under Rene
Levesque.
25
years ago
/ 50 years ago / 80
years ago / 125 years ago
/ 150 years ago
250 years ago / 400
years ago / 700 years ago
/ 1,200 years ago
1,500 years ago / 2,000
years ago / 3,000 years
ago / 4,000 years ago
/ 5,000 years ago / 10,000
years ago
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