I hope the timeline will help you understand what was happening in the United States and in the world at that time. It certainly isn't all of what happened or even the most important things but it will give you a taste of what the world and the country was like.
1960 - 1965
John F. Kennedy was elected the first Roman Catholic President of the United States.
Russia was part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics - U.S.S.R.
Nikita Khruschev was the Premier of the USSR.
Sputnik, the first unmanned space capsule, was launched the year before by the USSR, signalling the beginning of the "space race".
The United States and the USSR were engaged in the "cold war".
Kennedy was killed in Dallas, Texas.
Lyndon Johnson took over the presidency when Kennedy was killed.
The civil rights movement had come into its own
Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into law in 1964.
1965-1972The Voting Rights Act was signed into law by Lyndon Johnson.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led the march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.
The war in Vietnam was in full swing, as were the anti-war protests.
For the first time, National Guard troops shot and killed white anti-war protesters on the campus of Kent State University in Ohio on May 4, 1970.