#25. The Beatles
Still one of the most famous bands in the world, The Beatles arose in 1960. These four boys from Liverpool, England, made girls and boys from different parts of the world twist and shout. The Fab Four’s greatest hits include Yesterday, Here Comes The Sun, Let it Be, With A Little Help From My Friends, Hey Jude and Come Together.
This photograph was taken in May 1967, right after the group finished their innovative album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. But The Beatles not only contributed to music. They were so creative that their influence extended to other fields, such as literature, art, and fashion. If you haven’t listened to a Beatles song yet, what are you waiting for?
#24. Beehive Haircuts
In 1960 Margaret Vinci Heldt, a Chicago-based celebrity and award-winning hairstylist from Illinois, created the beehive. Audrey Hepburn, Brigitte Bardot, Aretha Franklin, Dusty Springfield, and Barbra Streisand were some of the famous women who posed for photographs showing this iconic hairstyle. In fact, if you think about it, even Marge Simpson’s hair is arranged according to the Beehive style!
This hairstyle, which has wowed audiences for years, doesn’t have one only version. In fact, nowadays, there are more modern versions of the beehive. So if you have an important event coming up, then this might be the perfect style for you. Messy or polished but always stylish and sophisticated, this hairstyle will make you look amazing wherever you go. So, next time you go to the hairdresser’s, you know what to ask for!
#23. The Twist
The Twist, a movement that was criticized by conservatives at the time, became a worldwide dance craze in the early 1960s. It became extremely popular after the Philadelphia singer Ernest Evans, aka Chubby Checker, danced it on the famous television show American Band Stand. The Twist is still danced at proms, weddings, birthday parties, and engagements, among other occasions.
This dance style involves simple movements of rotating hips and arms, which means that practically anyone can dance it. But what exactly do you have to do to be a twist dancer? Shift your weight from your right leg to your left, hold your arms away from the body, sway your hands and then twist your waist, hips, and legs from left to right, all at the same time! What’s more, once you get it right, you can create and add your own dance steps to the twist!
#22. Hippies
With their heart in Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco, hippies believed they had to make love, not war. This alternative form of activism arose in the 1960s, a time when a large number of Americans began opposing to United States’ involvement in the Vietnam War. In other words, hippies were antiwar and promoted peace and love. The members of this movement used to dress in floral trousers, carry peace signs and wear long hair.
The hippies shown in the photo above were photographed in London in 1967. As you can see, although the movement originated on college campuses in the United States, it spread to other countries such as Canada and Great Britain. Hippies promoted nonviolence, openness and tolerance. Nowadays, not many hippies are spotted but there are still some who continue fighting peacefully for different causes, such as environmental issues.
#21.The Rolling Stones
More than 50 years after their formation, the Rolling Stones keep on touring the world with their rock and roll songs! This British band gave its first performance at the Marquee Club in London on July 12, 1962. With around 200 million album sales, this band never stops. The Rolling Stones’ greatest hits include (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction, Paint It Black, 19th Nervous Breakdown, Get off My Cloud, Wild Horses, Lady Jane, and Ruby Tuesday.
Mick Jagger, guitarists Keith Richards and Ron Wood and drummer Charlie Watts sure know how to make you shake your hips. Their unique performances have all the rock ‘n roll that people need to hear. What’s more, Mick Jagger’s iconic dance moves have inspired thousands of people around the world to learn how to dance rock and roll. So even though a long time has passed since the 1960s, the Rolling Stones are as popular as ever, so young kids, here’s a suggestion: start watching their videos on Youtube and learn to move like Jagger!
#20.Clint Eastwood
The acclaimed actor and Academy Award Winner Clint Eastwood was born in San Francisco, California, and even though he is now known as a director, in the ’60s he was famous for his numerous roles in Spaghetti Westerns. Here are some statistics that you should know about his life: Eastwood has appeared in more than 40 motion pictures and directed 19 of them himself. On top of this, he has been awarded the Golden Globe Award in 2005 for Best Director and in 2007 for Best Motion Picture.
Eastwood’s big break came with 1966 classic The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Not only did the film make him popular all over the world, but it also made him earn quite a bit of money, having received a $250,000 salary. And here’s another fun fact: during the film, Eastwood’s “Man With No Name” character is easily identified by the cigarettes that he’s constantly smoking. But it turns out that Eastwood hated to smoke, and in many of the scenes he ended up feeling quite bad.
#19.Bob Dylan
In 1962, Bob Dylan, whose original name is Robert Allen Zimmerman, released his first album. After that, nothing has ever stopped him from reaching worldwide fame. He has sold tens of millions of albums and written more than 500 songs. He has also performed his songs literally all over the world. What’s more, Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 2016!
Did you know that in April 1963 Dylan played his first major New York City concert at Town Hall? Bob Dylan’s greatest hits include Every Grain of Sand, Visions of Johanna, Tangled Up in Blue, Blowin’ In the Wind and ‘Like a Rolling Stone. But here’s a fact that will probably surprise you: did you know that in 1978 he co-wrote and directed the nearly four-hour movie Renaldo and Clara?
#18. James Brown And Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali was a boxer and social activist who became an Olympic gold medalist in 1960 and the world heavyweight boxing champion in 1964. James Brown, in turn, was a singer, songwriter, and bandleader who was known as Soul Brother Number One during the 1960s. This photograph shows both James and Muhammad, two icons of the African-American culture, in a street parade in Chicago, Illinois.
Muhammad Ali fought for black people’s civil rights and was against the war. What’s more, Ali used his boxing talent to encourage black pride. But this was also the case for James Brown, whose song Say It Loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud also became a symbol of black pride.
#17. Brigitte Bardot
Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot was born in 1934 in Paris and worked as an actress, model, and singer. Being one of the most gorgeous women of her time, she became a beauty icon during the 1960s. During the 1970s she retired from her modeling career and became an animal rights activist. In 1987, this beautiful woman established an animal welfare organization, the Foundation Brigitte Bardot.
In 1956, she starred in And God Created Woman. Other important films in which she appeared include A Very Private Affair(1962), in Godard’s Le Mepris(1963), La Vérité (1960) and Viva Maria! (1965). Brigitte got married in 1992 to Bernard d’Ormale, and they live together in St. Tropez with their nearly 50 pets. Are you already feeling nostalgic enough? Don’t miss the rest of our list!
#16. Floral Trouser Suits & Hair Salons
During the 1960s the pantsuit became a fashion item for women. Some believed they were an insult to femininity while others considered them as a way of female empowerment. However, many women didn’t seem to care and ran to the stores to buy them. According to specialists, this item of clothing marked the birth of the modern age in the fashion world.
In the 1960s hair salons usually became hangouts where women could change their styles, and many opted for the bouffant and the high-towering beehive. But towards the end of the decade, these fashion trends began to fade away as hairdos became simpler. It’s lucky that women decided to keep it simple: think how difficult those hairstyles must be to maintain!
#15.Beatlemania
And we’re back to The Beatles! “Beatlemania” is a phenomenon that began in 1963 and continued even after the band’s breakup in 1970. This term describes the intense fan frenzy that people displayed toward the British band, The Beatles. In other words, from 1960 onwards, the Beatles found themselves surrounded by screaming fans whenever and wherever they performed.
Where was the term Beatlemania first seen? Many people believe that the term first appeared in an article in the Daily Mirror. This term described a phenomenon which was unprecedented at the time: each time the band played, groups of teenage girls (and sometimes boys) always gathered on the streets and shouted at their music fans. Even though this sounds like a common behavior nowadays, this wasn’t something that happened before the 60s. Since then, we’ve seen similar headlines such as Bieber Mania or One Direction mania, but let’s not forget that The Beatles were the one who started it.
#14.Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix was born in Seattle, Washington, and was a famous guitarist, singer, and composer. He is considered one of the greatest instrumentalists in the history of rock music. Jimi Hendrix’s music included different styles such as blues, rock, soul, and jazz. This photo showing Jimi performing with his guitar was quite famous at the time.
His playing skills and experimental sound made him be regarded as one of the best musicians of the 20th century as well as the best guitar player in the world. One of his most memorable performances was at Woodstock in 1969. His greatest hits include Hey Joe, Purple Haze, The Wind Cries Mary, Freedom, andStone Free. You might have listened to most of them while having a drink at a bar!
#13.Sophia Loren
Sophia Loren is an Academy Award-winning Italian actress. Loren won the Best Actress Academy Award for her role in Two Women in 1961. During the 1960s she acted alongside Marlon Brando, Gregory Peck, Charlton Heston, and Paul Newman, among others. She was the first actress to ever win the award for a non-English-language film. Look at her on this beautiful photo!
Her best performances of the 1960s were achieved in the films Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow (1963), Marriage, Italian Style (1964), and A Countess from Hong Kong (1967). But her career didn’t stop then: in fact, she has even made several appearances during the 21st century, including her role in the TV movie La mia casa è piena di specchi. This woman has also become an animal rights activist during the last years.
#12.Janis Joplin
Janis Joplin was an American singer and songwriter from Port Arthur, Texas. She was known and recognized for her powerful vocals. Her career took off in the late 1960s, heading the band Big Brother and the Holding Company. Their 1968 album, Cheap Thrills, was a huge hit. However, despite their success, Joplin decided to leave the band and become a solo artist, playing for Big Brother for the last time in December 1968.
Janis Joplin’s greatest hits include Summer Time and Piece of My Heart. Her singing style made her be considered as the “First Lady of Rock n Roll.” Sadly, Janis only released three albums before her early death in 1970. After her death, she was inducted in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, a museum located in Cleveland, Ohio, which recognizes and archives the history of the most influential artists of the world.
#11. The French Chef
Julia Child is a writer and TV celebrity chef, famous for having popularized French cuisine in the United States. Her first cooking program aired on public television in 1963 and since then, she has inspired millions of amateur cooks and many professional chefs. She was the hostess of many shows such as Cooking With Master Chefs, Baking with Julia and In Julia’s Kitchen with Master Chefs.
It was said that Child carried a large black “sacred bag” which contained the cooking utensils she couldn’t live without, like her pastry-cutting wheel, her favorite flour scoop, and her knives, among others. This woman was a pioneer in her field. In fact, she became the first woman inducted into the Culinary Institute of America’s Hall of Fame in 1993. This woman made the French cuisine approachable by demonstrating simple culinary techniques and encouraging people to practice cooking as a form of art.
#10. Family Dinner & Flamboyant Desserts
Ask any American who lived during the 60s who the best cook he or she knows is, and they will probably reply “My mom”. The thing is, in the past, the average family rarely ever ate out. Family dinners were an opportunity for relatives to get together and share their days.
Desserts of the 1960s included very strange creations such as this cake, which was prepared with jelly. In the 1960s jiggling towers and flaming platters were popular. The Tunnel of Fudge Cake, Whip’N Chill and Baked Alaska, which was made of ice cream, were famous flamboyant desserts of the 1960s. Keep on reading our list, because you can’t miss #3!
#9. Twiggy
Twiggy was a British top model who rose to fame during the late 1960s. Her first nickname ever was “Sticks” because of her reed-thin figure, but she then switched it to “Twigs”, and finally “Twiggy.” As proof of her influence, the toy company Mattel issued a “Twiggy Barbie” in 1967, and Milton Bradley created a board game based on her.
This 1967 photograph shows Twiggy in a suit from one of her fashion collections. Since 2005 Twiggy has been part of the Marks & Spencer advertising campaign. However, she has also worked as a designer and runs her own clothing line. In fact, she has even launched a bed line! This woman never stops!
What picture comes next? Let’s continue traveling through time!
#8. Jackie O
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, one of the most influential style and fashion icons of the 1960s, was the wife of President John F. Kennedy and the U.S. First Lady from January 1961 to November 1963. This woman soon became known for her style and elegance, and after JFK’s death, she married the wealthy shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, who died in 1975.
She was also quite multifaceted: she worked as a book editor for Doubleday, spoke many languages, restored the White House, and was awarded an Emmy. She died on May 19, 1994, at the age of 64, and was buried beside President John F. Kennedy’s gravesite at the Arlington National Cemetery.
#7. The Beach Boys
The group originally consisted of brothers Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson, as well as Mike Love and Al Jardine. This American rock band formed in Hawthorne, a southern suburb of Los Angeles situated close to the Pacific Coast, in 1961. With more than 70 million albums sales, the Beach Boys are one of the most successful and influential rock groups of all time.
They have recorded 36 Top 40 hits (including four US #1 singles). In 1988 they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In December 2011, the group’s five remaining members – Brian, Mike, Al, Bruce, and David – announced a new album and a 50-date international tour for the following year. The tour took the band across the United States, then to Europe, and included stops at well-known festivals. Needless to say that it was a major success.
#6. John and Yoko
John Lennon met Yoko Ono at an art exhibition at the Indica Gallery in London, and ever since then, his life changed. John married Yoko in March of 1969 in Gibraltar after divorcing Cynthia Powell the year before. In 1971 the couple moved to New York. Even though they were separated for nearly a year, they reconciled in early 1975 and Yoko soon became pregnant.
John Lennon wrote the song The Ballad Of John And Yoko during the days immediately following Lennon and Ono’s wedding. The song is about their marriage and their questioning towards different international authorities. Put your headphones on and start playing this song, because it was one of the most influential ones of the time!
#5. Diana Ross And The Supremes
The greatest girl group ever had its origins in the late 1950s in Detroit’s Brewster Projects. In the beginning, the girls formed a quartet but they ended up being a trio from 1960 onwards. The trio was formed by Diana Ross, Mary Wilson, and Cindy Birdsong and at that time they were called The Supremes. By the end of 1967, the group continued recording for two more years as Diana Ross and the Supremes.
The Supremes made great hits such as Come See About Me and You Can’t Hurry Love. Their last appearance together was in January of 1970, and ever since then, Ross started her solo career, reaching No. 1 with hits like Ain’t No Mountain High Enough and Love Hangover. In 2000, a reunion tour with the Supremes was canceled after only a few shows.
#4. 1964 Ford Mustang
The 1964 Ford Mustang came to be known as the pony car. This stylish vehicle was officially launched by Henry Ford II at the World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows, New York. On the same day of its release, the new car was presented in Ford showrooms all across America. Ever since then, Mustangs were immediately bought and started to be imitated by competitors.
The car continued to be produced until 1973 and each version brought new improvements such as larger spaces and more powerful engines. In 1974, though, the Mustang was replaced by the Mustang II. The Mustang’s name comes from a World War II fighter plane. This car gave manufacturers quite happy news: Ford sold more than 400,000 Mustangs within its first year of production, far exceeding sales expectations.
#3. Chevrolet Corvette
This 1962 promotional image presents the first-generation Chevrolet Corvettes – also known as the “solid-axle” generation. This first generation remained a common sight on American streets for the rest of the decade. But who was the inventor of this famous car? The Corvette was invented in 1951 by GM designer Harley Earl. Would you like to have a ride on it? What do you say?
In 1953 only 300 Corvettes were made. Each of these was painted red in the interior, and they were rolled out of the Chevrolet factory located in Flint, Michigan. Nowadays, things have changed quite a bit. The most recent Corvette has been built in the Corvette manufacturing facility in Bowling Green, Kentucky. In between those two generations of cars, about 1.5 million Corvettes have been made in America and sold around the world.
#2.Elizabeth Taylor And Richard Burton
This photo was taken in 1964 in Montreal, Canada, at the first wedding of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. The ceremony actually took place just a couple of days after Taylor had divorced from her previous spouse. Who were these two good-looking people? Richard Burton was a highly regarded Welsh actor who was awarded seven Oscar nominations. Elizabeth, in turn, was a beautiful English actress, who won two Academy Awards during the 60s, for her roles in BUtterfield 8 (1961) and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1967). Burton and Taylor were married twice.
In the early 1960s, Burton met Elizabeth Taylor on the set of Cleopatra (1963), for which he was hired to replace actor Stephen Boyd. The couple’s romantic lifestyle was covered in the newspapers throughout the following years. They worked together in 11 films which catapulted them to fame. They look posh and cute in that picture, don’t they?
#1.Julie Andrews And Audrey Hepburn
The two actresses met at the 1964 Academy Awards when Andrews won Best Actress for Mary Poppins. Later Julie met and married the director of Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Blake Edwards, and became close friends with Audrey. In this photo, the star is posing with her award alongside Audrey Hepburn at the ceremony in Los Angeles.
That same year Andrews starred as Maria Von Trapp in The Sound of Music, another classic of the 60s’ cinema. In fact, this second film was so successful that it surpassed Gone With The Wind as the number one box office to date and won a total of five Oscars! So, how many of these images have you recognized? I bet you feel quite nostalgic now!