Joan Baez

1960—folk singer Joan Baez releases her first album.

1960—Harper Lee writes the Pulitzer-prize winning To Kill a Mockingbird.

1960—the first BIRTH CONTROL PILL gets U.S. approval for sale.

1961—Eunice Kennedy Shriver helps establish a presidential committee on mental retardation. She later founds the Special Olympics.

1962—Ship of Fools by novelist/short-story writer Katherine-Anne Porter gets published.

Rita Moreno in West Side Story

1962—Rita Moreno wins an Academy Award for her role as Anita in West Side Story.
She is one of few people to win an Oscar, Tony, Grammy, Emmy and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

1962—First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy redecorates the White House with period furniture, wallpaper, art and china. She initiates a congressional bill to ensure that White House furnishings become the Smithsonian Institution’s property.

1963—feminist writer Betty Friedan writes The Feminine Mystique.

1963—The French Chef with Julia Child first airs on public television. The next year, Mastering the Art of French Cooking is published.

1963—President Kennedy signs the Equal Pay Act of 1963 [women earned 59 cents to every dollar men earned, today women earn ONLY 77 cents to every dollar men earn].

1964—more than forty neighbors witness the murder of Kitty Genovese in Queens and everyone ignores her cries for help.

1965—choreographer Twyla Tharp begins her career at Hunter College.

1966—television show That Girl premieres starring actress/feminist Marlo Thomas.

men try to take away Katherine Switzer's number during 1967 Boston Marathon

1967—Katherine Switzer secretly enters and successfully completes the Boston Marathon. She entered with the initial “K” to get in.

1968—Slouching Toward Bethelem, a collection of essays by Joan Didion, is published.