Marilyn Monroe died of a barbiturate overdose late in the evening of Saturday, August 4, 1962. Her body was discovered before dawn on Sunday, August 5. No evidence of foul play was found, and accidental overdose was ruled out due to the large amount of barbiturates she had ingested, but conspiracy theories abound, suggesting murder or foul play. Several such theories involve President John F. Kennedy and his brother, Robert, as well as union leader Jimmy Hoffa and mob boss Sam Giancana. Owing to the prevalence of these theories, the Los Angeles County District Attorney reviewed the case in 1982, but found no reason to dispute the findings of the original investigation.

In the 1964 U.S. presidential election, Republican Barry Goldwater campaigned on a right-wing message of cutting social programs and pursuing aggressive military action. Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson's campaign responded with an ad showing a little girl counting daisy petals in a meadow. After she reached "nine", she paused, as if trying to remember the next number, and a male voice was then heard saying "ten", followed by the bright flash and thunderous sound of a nuclear explosion. One of the most controversial political ads ever made, "Daisy Girl" was considered to be an important factor in Johnson's landslide victory.

Because of its high tensile strength-to-weight ratio, which makes it five times stronger than steel, Kevlar has many applications, ranging from bicycle tires and racing sails to bulletproof vests. It was originally developed at DuPont in 1965 and first commercially used as a replacement for steel in racing tires.

On April 17, 1961, about 1,500 CIA-backed Cuban exiles landed at Cuba's Bay of Pigs in hopes of triggering an uprising against Fidel Castro. The invading force was defeated within three days by the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces, and the incident widened the political gap between the U.S. and Cuba.

Walter Cronkite, who served as anchorman for the CBS Evening News from 1962 to 1981, was often cited as "the most trusted man in America" after being so named in an opinion poll.

Please Please Me, released on 22 March 1963, topped Record Retailer's LP chart for 30 weeks, an unprecedented achievement for a pop album at that time. Before deciding on the title of the album, producer George Martin considered calling it Off the Beatle Track, a title he would later use for his own orchestral album of Beatles songs.

In a vain attempt to halt the enrollment of black students Vivian Malone and James Hood, Governor Wallace personally stood in front of the entrance to Foster Auditorium at the University of Alabama on June 11, 1963. In response, President John F. Kennedy federalized the Alabama National Guard, who forced Wallace to step aside, allowing Malone and Hood to complete their registration. The incident became known as the "Stand in the Schoolhouse Door".

On June 13, 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson nominated Thurgood Marshall to the Supreme Court, saying that this was "the right thing to do, the right time to do it, the right man and the right place." Marshall served on the Court for the next 24 years, compiling a liberal record that included strong support for Constitutional protection of individual rights.

Launched by Mao Zedong, Chairman of the Communist Party of China, the stated goal of the revolution was to preserve Chinese communism by purging remnants of capitalist and traditional elements from Chinese society. In order to eliminate his rivals, Mao charged that bourgeois elements had infiltrated the government and encouraged China's youth to form Red Guards and "rebel groups" around the country. Beginning with the Red August of Beijing, massacres took place across mainland China, with an estimated death toll ranging from hundreds of thousands to 20 million.

On January 15, 1967, in the first-ever AFL-NFL World Championship, the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League defeated the American Football League's Kansas City Chiefs, 35-10. The game remains the only Super Bowl to have been simulcast in the United States by two networks--NBC (who had the rights to nationally televise AFL games) and CBS (who held the rights to broadcast NFL games).