Betty Friedan kicked off the modern movement for women's rights with her book The Feminine Mystique, which debunked the assumption that homemaking and childbearing were the sole means of fulfillment in a woman's life.
The Birmingham Movement. The battle to desegregate Birmingham, Ala., made headlines around the world. When civil rights leaders decided to use children in protest marches, the city's police force responded by using high-power fire hoses and police dogs to break up the marchers.
Pres. Kennedy delivered a speech at American University, emphasizing his desire to “make the world safe for diversity” and laying the groundwork for détente.
An agreement with the USSR was signed to set up an emergency communications link (“hot-line”) to reduce the risk of accidental war. The Soviet Union had accepted the proposal on April 5.
March on Washington for Freedom and Jobs. In the largest protest assembled up until that time, about 250,000 blacks and whites marched on Washington, D.C., in a peaceful demonstration in support of the civil rights bill requested by Pres. Kennedy (June 19).
