1960s Timeline

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Dec 21, 2023

McNamara Returns from Vietnam, Reports to President Johnson

Dec. 21, 1963 - Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara returned from South Vietnam today and gave President Johnson a sober report about...

Dec 20, 2023

Attorney General Gives Christmas Party at Justice Department

Dec. 20, 1963 - Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy gave a Christmas party today, a party that was planned long before an assassin’s...

Dec 20, 2023

McNamara “Optimistic Over Progress To Be Made” in Vietnam

Dec. 20, 1963 - Revamped battle plans led Defense Secretary Robert McNamara to express hope today for tough campaigning by South...

Dec 20, 2023

Brisk Sales of John F. Kennedy Memorial Record Albums

Dec. 20, 1963 - Less than a month after his assassination, seven John F. Kennedy memorial record albums have sold a combined total of at...

Dec 19, 2023

Defense Secretary McNamara Arrives in Saigon

Dec. 19, 1963 - Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara arrived in Saigon today and plunged immediately into an analysis of the state of...

Dec 18, 2023

Highlights from President Johnson’s News Conference

Dec. 18, 1963 - Here are some highlights from President Johnson’s news conference today: Summit Meeting with Khrushchev — “I am ready and...

Dec 18, 2023

President To Spend Holidays at LBJ Ranch

Dec. 18, 1963 - President Johnson and his family will spend Christmas at their LBJ Ranch near Austin, Texas, “to relax a little” and...

Dec 18, 2023

Senate Authorizes Kennedy Half-Dollar

Dec. 18, 1963 - The Senate completed Congressional authorization today for the use of a likeness of President Kennedy on half-dollars...

Dec 17, 2023

President Johnson Likely to Withdraw Military Aid from South Vietnam in 1965

Dec. 17, 1963 - President Johnson probably will hold to the 1965 withdrawal of military aid to South Vietnam announced by the late...

Dec 16, 2023

Col. Yeager Suffers Burns after Climbing to Near-Record Altitude

Dec. 16, 1963 - Colonel Charles Yeager of the U.S. Air Force, who rode a spinning Lockheed NF-104A space training plane from 90,000 to...

Dec 16, 2023

Warren: “No Useful Purpose” to Make FBI Findings on Assassination Public

Dec. 16, 1963 - Chief Justice Earl Warren said today it “would serve no useful purpose at this time” to make public the findings of an...

Dec 15, 2023

LBJ Unlikely To Debate Next Year

Dec. 15, 1963 - There is growing doubt in Washington that President Johnson will take part in televised debates with his Republican...

Dec 14, 2023

November Was Disastrous Month for South Vietnamese Government Forces

Dec. 14, 1963 - A high-level U.S. military officer said today that the month immediately following the Nov. 1 coup d’état that toppled...

Dec 12, 2023

Mrs. Kennedy To Observe One-Year Mourning Period

Dec. 12, 1963 - Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy (pictured Nov. 25) plans to observe a one-year period of mourning and will have no public...

Dec 11, 2023

LBJ: Eliminate Communist Subversion from South Vietnam and Caribbean

Dec. 11, 1963 - President Johnson told the nation’s top defense strategists today that America’s most urgent task is elimination of...

Dec 10, 2023

President Johnson Asks Congress for 50-Cent Piece with JFK’s Likeness

Dec. 10, 1963 - President Johnson asked Congress today to authorize a 50-cent coin bearing the likeness of John Fitzgerald Kennedy. The...

Dec 9, 2023

TV: “The Making of the President 1960”

Dec. 9, 1963 - “The Making of the President 1960,” a filmed report of events covered in Theodore White’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book,...

Dec 9, 2023

Hoffa Denies Kennedy Quote

Dec. 9, 1963 - James R. Hoffa (pictured right in 1958) said today the press had taken out of context a statement he issued after...

Dec 9, 2023

One Air Officer Dead, Three Missing in Vietnam

Dec. 9, 1963 - The U.S. Air Force listed one officer as dead and two officers and an airman as missing in the crash of a reconnaissance...

Dec 9, 2023

FBI: Oswald Killed JFK, Acted Alone

Dec. 9, 1963 - An FBI report went to a special Presidential commission today and named Lee Harvey Oswald as the assassin of President...