The 1960s were a decade of revolutions, remarkable inventions, unforgettable pop culture moments, and headlines that often sounded stranger than fiction. These surprising facts revisit the people, events, and odd stories that made one of history’s most transformative decades so unforgettable.
Sanders Goes Unrecognized
1. In 1963, Colonel Sanders appeared on What’s My Line… but not as a celebrity guest. His company already had more than 900 locations around the world, yet the panelists did not recognize him or know what business he was in at all.
2. During the 1960s, the CIA backed a Harvard study in which an undergraduate was humiliated and exposed to “brutalizing psychological experiments”. The student who reacted most badly to the experiment was Ted Kaczynski, who later became the Unabomber.
3. In 1968, NBC ended its coverage of the AFL game between the Oakland Raiders and the New York Jets in the final minute to air the television film Heidi. During that minute, Oakland scored two touchdowns and won 43 to 32 in a famous comeback.
4. In 1961, a young girl named Michelle Rochon sent John F. Kennedy a letter asking whether Santa Claus was all right during the Soviet nuclear tests at the North Pole. Kennedy wrote back to say that he had spoken with Santa and that he was okay.
5. In 1968, an astronomy student, a dental student, and a bass player started a band named Smile. By 1970, Smile had faded away, and in 1971 they changed the band’s name to Queen.
6. During the 1960s, pirate radio ships in international waters aired pop and rock music to tens of millions of listeners in Britain. The BBC, which had mainly served classical preferences until then, had to reorganize and satisfy demand for those genres.
7. In 1963, an East German soldier called Wolfgang Engels stole a tank and drove it at full speed through the Berlin Wall in an attempt to get away.
8. In 1964, two students tried to abduct British Prime Minister Alec Douglas Home. The plan was stopped when he offered them beer. They took it and gave up on the plot. This security lapse was not disclosed until 2009.
9. In 1964, a group of college students used garden spades to dig beneath the Berlin Wall into East Berlin, helping 57 people flee to the West. The students shifted enough soil to fill four eighteen-wheeler big rigs, and one later became a professional tunnel designer.
10. In 1963, there was a Canadian band named “Four Niggers and a Chink”. They split up in 1969 and reunited in 1990. In 1990, they used the name “Bobby Taylor and the Vancouvers.”
Betty Saves Slinky
11. In 1960, Slinky inventor Richard James left his wife and their six children to join a cult in Bolivia. His wife, Betty, took control and completely turned around the struggling company. In 2001, Betty was inducted into the Toy Industry Hall of Fame.
12. In 1968, schoolteacher Jane Elliott split her class into groups by eye color to teach them about discrimination. The children quickly became discriminatory.
13. In 1966, French teen pop singer France Gall did not realize that her major hit song, which she thought was about a lollipop, had a risqué double meaning. When she found out, she hid for weeks.
14. In 1961, American journalist Dan Rather handled the first television broadcast of meteorological surveillance radar. It may have helped persuade an estimated 350,000 people to leave their homes ahead of Hurricane Carla.
15. In 1967, Van Morrison still needed to deliver 31 songs to his record company to complete his contract, so he rapidly wrote and recorded 31 nonsense songs with titles like “Ring Worm”, “You Say France And I Whistle”, “Blow In Your Nose” and “Want A Danish?”
16. In 1963, San Francisco Giants Manager Alvin Dark quipped, “they’ll put a man on the moon before [Giants pitcher] Gaylord Perry hits a home run.” On July 20, 1969, less than an hour after Neil Armstrong’s historic moonwalk, Perry hit the first home run of his career.
17. In 1962, an animal intruding over the fence at a Minnesota air base activated the “sabotage alarm” at every base in the area. At one base, because of incorrect wiring, the Klaxon sounded an order for nuclear-armed aircraft to depart, and the pilots thought World War 3 had begun. The original intruder was a bear.
18. In 1962, American journalist Mike Wallace’s oldest son Peter disappeared while exploring in Greece. Wallace went to Greece by himself, asked questions, followed his son’s last known route, and found his body at the base of a hill where he had fallen while hiking.
19. During the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact soldiers, town road signs were taken down or painted over to mislead invading troops, except for the ones showing the route to Moscow.
20. In the 1960s, American preacher Solomon Burke was once hired to perform at a KKK rally. Only when he arrived did the organizer realize that he was black.
Peak Named for Kennedy
21. In 1964, Canada named North America’s highest unclimbed mountain “Mt. Kennedy” in honor of John F. Kennedy. In 1965, Robert F. Kennedy took part in a National Geographic expedition and became the first person to reach its summit.
22. In the 1960 campaign, John F. Kennedy’s rivals said he had Addison’s disease. His physicians issued a carefully phrased statement saying that he did not have Addison’s disease caused by tuberculosis, and the issue was dropped. He had Addison’s disease caused by a rare autoimmune disease.
23. Throughout the 1960s, many Black civil rights demonstrators from Detroit were labeled as having schizophrenia because of their “hostile” and “aggressive” behavior and were kept in asylums. Some of them remained confined for more than 30 years and died while in custody.
24. In 1962, President Kennedy hosted 49 Nobel Laureates for dinner at the White House. Kennedy said, “I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.”
25. In 1966, French President Charles de Gaulle required that all American military personnel depart France. American President Lyndon Johnson wondered whether that directive also covered American soldiers buried in French cemeteries.
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