Culture
1960s Sugar Companies Paid Harvard Scientists To Make F...
September 19, 2019
A young woman in a bikini eats a Butterfingers brand candy bar as she sunbathes on a beach near Malibu, California, 1970. (Photo by Co Rentmeester/The LIFE Pict...
Chilling Photos From The Groovy Era
September 17, 2019
We can find a myriad of narratives historical photos, and not all of them are pleasant. They can show us slices of life that we’d rather not think about, and startling images that we c...
Heineken's WOBO Bottle, Designed For People To Build Ho...
September 17, 2019
For Alfred "Freddy" Heineken, building a house out of glass beer bottles was a solution to two problems -- and in 1960, it was a visionary attempt at recycli...
'Guess Who's Coming To Dinner' Was A Racial Reality Che...
September 14, 2019
In Guess Who's Coming To Dinner, Sidney Poitier plays John, a black man meeting his white fiancee's parents, who are played by Spencer Tracy and Katharine He...
Australia, 1960: Shocking Kidnapping-Murder Leads To La...
September 13, 2019
In 1960 Graeme Thorne, an eight-year-old Australian boy was abducted and murdered after his parents, Bazil and Freda Thorne, won the Sydney Opera House lotte...
1967: When Computer Science Was 'Women's Work' Because ...
September 12, 2019
A woman working on a Honeywell tape drive computer, circa 1969. (Photo by Underwood Archives/Getty Images) In the late 1960s, computers were hulking, unsexy m...
Disney Created Fake Companies To Buy Up Land In Florida
September 8, 2019
Left: Disney World's Magic Kingdo under construction prior to its 1971 opening. Right: A window on Main Street commemorates M.T. Lott Real Estate Investments. Sour...
Modulex: The Short-Lived 1963 LEGO for Architects
September 7, 2019
Shopping the Modulex way. Source: flickr.com/photos/minkowsky/ We've all seen impressive Lego models of buildings and cities, but there was once a name for Lego archit...
The CIA Would Use 'Love Dolls' As Decoys In The 1970s
September 6, 2019
In the thick of the Cold War, America's Central Intelligence Agency conscripted unfeeling, pneumatic specialists to foil the enemy: inflatable plastic or rubber l...
Gunter Schabowski: How One Man's Mistake Brought Down T...
September 4, 2019
Left: Gunter Schabowski at a press conference on November 9. 1989. Right: Citizens demolishing the Berli Wall. Sources: DPA/AFP/Getty Images; theimaginativecons...
How The 1960s Made Us Scared Of Quicksand
August 31, 2019
Why were we afraid of quicksand? On TV shows and in movies of the '60s and '70s, quicksand was a go-to plot twist that could be inserted virtually anywhere for a jolt of susp...
Why Were Blacklight Posters So Popular In The '70s?
August 28, 2019
Few wall adornments are so quintessentially '70s as the blacklight poster, depicting Marvel superheroes, noble warriors, R. Crumb cartoons or drug imagery. Througho...
1960: The First Woman To Win 3 Olympic Gold Medals Had ...
August 27, 2019
Medalists in the Ladies 200 meter final at the 1960 Rome Olympics. From left to right, Britain's Dorothy Hyman (bronze), the USA's Wilma Rudolph (gold) and Germ...
Disneyland Banned Men With Long Hair Until The Late 196...
August 25, 2019
A hippy at the Isle of Wight pop festival in 1970. (Photo by Evening Standard/Getty Images) When Disneyland opened in 1955, men with flowing locks of hair wer...
1960: Australian Pilot Stops Hijack By Punching Terrori...
August 24, 2019
Hijacking planes was a pretty new concept in 1960, but when a bomb-toting freak tried to pull something on a Trans Australian Airline flight, he got a knuckl...
This Is How Satanism Was Invented In The 1960s
August 21, 2019
Who founded the Satanic Church, and how old is Satanism? Well, Satan is an old idea -- an Old Testament villain -- but Satanism only goes back to 1966. That's when Anton...
MSG Isn't Bad For You: How A Groovy-Era Myth Started
August 20, 2019
Left: A window filled with roasted ducks at a restaurant in Chinatown, central London. Right: Food packaging bearing the 'No MSG' messge. Sources: David Cliff/SOPA Im...
Sgt. Pilcher: The Narc Who Arrested Mick Jagger, John L...
August 19, 2019
Beatle John Lennon and his Japanese girlfriend Yoko Ono leaving Marylebone Magistrates Court after they appeared to answer charges of drug possession and police...
Nudie Suits: Flashy Rodeo Fashion Of Rock And Country S...
August 15, 2019
Left: Country-rocker Gram Parsons in his famous custom Nudie Suit circa 1969. Right: Robert Redford in the Nudie suit he wore in 'The Electric Horseman,' (1979)...
More Than Andy Warhol: 10 Pop Artists Of The '60s
August 6, 2019
We've all seen Andy Warhol's Campbell's Soup Cans and Roy Lichtenstein's comic-book canvases -- the "Pop Art" movement that popped in the 1960s is practically defined...
There'll Never Be Another Woodstock: 50th Anniversary F...
August 2, 2019
Left: Poster art for the doomed Woodstock 50 festival. Right: John Fogerty performs on stage at the announcement of the Woodstock 50 Festival Line-Up on March 1...
That One Time Queen Met The Queen In 1974 (And Everyone...
July 30, 2019
British rock band Queen posing with a woman, September 1974. Photo by Michael Putland/Getty Images Queen, the group that would give us "Bohemian Rhapsody" and...
The Fisher Protocol: Nutty Plan To Hide Launch Codes In...
July 29, 2019
Left: All hell breaks loose when the computer in 'Wargames' figures out the nuclear launch code. Right: Is this a valid deterrent? Sources: YouTube; Lepro/Getty...
While He Created Dungeons & Dragons, Gary Gygax's Wife ...
July 28, 2019
In 1974, wizard Gary Gygax brought Dungeons & Dragons to the masses, and role-playing games have been a massive phenomenon in the decades since. Gygax (and h...
Who Killed Sharon Tate? How The Manson Murders Went Dow...
July 26, 2019
Left: Sharon Tate circa 1968. Right: Charles 'Tex' Watson, one of the Manson Family members involved in Tate's murder. Sources: Silver Screen Collection/Archive...
Deadheads Forever: How The Grateful Dead Live On
July 26, 2019
Left: Original lineup of The Grateful Dead featuring (l-r) Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh, Bob Weir, Bill Kreutzmann, and Ron 'Pigpen' McKernan. Right: A Deadhead holds a sign i...
How Volvo Inventor Nils Bohlin Made Cars Safer For Ever...
July 24, 2019
Safe, not sexy -- that's been the Volvo way. The Swedish car manufacturer can claim a life-saving invention in the three-point seat belt, developed by a Volv...
Rare Stories From Woodstock 1969: Some Do Remember It
July 22, 2019
A woman sits on the grass waiting for a bus to take her to the Woodstock Music and Arts Fair, New York, August 1969. The festival ran from August 15 to 18. (Photo by...
The True Story Of Sukeban: Violent Girl Gangs Of '70s J...
July 18, 2019
Violent schoolgirls on the loose, ruthless brawlers in cute outfits, teens with concealed razor blades -- the young female street-gangsters known as sukeban ...
How The Hells Angels Became America's Notorious Black S...
July 5, 2019
Members of the Hells Angels gang, acting as both security and hoodlums, jump the stage with Jorma Kaukonen of the Jefferson Airplane on December 6, 1969 at the ...
Service Before Stardom: Photos Of 28 Icons Who Served I...
July 4, 2019
Left: Willie Nelson playing a show in South Carolina in 1996. Right: Nelson during his time in the air force, circa 1950. Sources: (Paul Natkin/WireImage; Wikim...
Bobby Fischer, Cold War Chess Hero: His Rise And Eccent...
June 28, 2019
Left: Bobby Fischer in an undated photo. Right: Fischer poses for a portrait in the photographer's home in 1971 in New York City, New York. Credits: IMDB; David...
'Roots:' The Show About Race That United American Viewe...
June 27, 2019
Left: LeVar Burton as Kunta Kinte in 'Roots.' Right: Lloyd Bridges (as Evan Brent) and Georg Stanford Brown (as Tom Harvey). Source: IMDB; Walt Disney Televisio...
7 Failed Presidential Assassination Attempts Of The '60...
June 23, 2019
Left: Chaotic scene of the assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan by John Hinckley, Jr. Press Secretary James Brady (in blue suit with two men over him) was cri...
Fire On The Cuyahoga River: 1969's Environmental Wake-U...
June 21, 2019
Left: Firemen spray water on a fire in the Cuyahoga River in 1952, in a photograph that was wrongly associated with the 1969 fire. Right: Fire. Sources: Getty /...
Becoming Charles Manson: His Life Before The Tate-LaBia...
June 14, 2019
Left: Charles Manson in 1970. Right: Manson at Federal Correctional Institute (FCI) Terminal Island, California on May 2, 1956. Sources: Bettmann/Contributor/Ge...
I'm With The Band: GTOs And Groupies According To Pamel...
June 12, 2019
Left: Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page accompanied by his girlfriend Miss Pamela (Pamela Des Barres) on June 3, 1973 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Rich...
'Ballad Of The Green Berets' Singer Barry Sadler's Rise...
June 3, 2019
Left: Staff Sergeant Barry Sadler in 1966. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images). Right: Sadler's mug shot from 1979. Courtesy Nashville Metropolitan Po...
We Got Pele: NY Cosmos And American Soccer Mania In The...
June 2, 2019
For a moment in the 1970s, Pelé and the New York Cosmos seemed capable of doing the impossible: turning America into a soccer-loving nation. Soccer isn't Ame...
1966: Buffalo Springfield Warns Us To 'Stop, Children.....
May 31, 2019
"There's something happening here / What it is ain't exactly clear..."The ominous words and high, lonely guitar notes of Buffalo Springfield's "For What It's...
'Keep On Truckin,'' The Hippie Slogan R. Crumb Regrets ...
May 30, 2019
Left: A 'Keep On Truckin' print currently available from crumbproducts.com. Right: Blind Boy Fuller. Sources: crumbproducts.com; public domain/Wikimedia Commons...
NASCAR In The '60s & '70s: Fighters, Cheaters And Richa...
May 26, 2019
NASCAR drivers in the '60s and '70s were some of the most colorful pro athletes in sports. Racers like Richard Petty, Wendell Scott, David “Silver Fox” Pears...
What Was Swinging London? Mods, Miniskirts & Music In '...
May 22, 2019
Left: Michael Caine during the filming of 'Alfie,' a promotional image from the 2017 documentary 'My Generation.' Right: Pete Townshend of The Who sporting a Un...
Rise Of The 'Moonies:' Is The Unification Church A Cult...
May 8, 2019
Right: Unification Church leader Sun Myung Moon presiding over mass wedding ceremony in the early '80s. Left: Moon with President Nixon in 1974. Sources: Allan ...
The Sexy Stewardess Stories of 'Coffee, Tea Or Me?' Wou...
May 4, 2019
A book like Coffee, Tea or Me? could only happen in 1967. We've lost something in the evolution of the flight attendant, from the servile stewardess: sex app...
Vargas Girls: From WWII Cheesecake To The Cars' 'Candy-...
May 1, 2019
Early in the 20th century, an American visual style was invented by the Peruvian-born artist Alberto Vargas. The "Vargas Girls" he painted, as they were late...
Philippe Petit: High-Wire Walking Notre Dame And The Wo...
April 26, 2019
You've heard of the daredevil who walked a wire between the towers of New York's World Trade Center: Philippe Petit. But Notre Dame de Paris, the cathedral t...
What We Loved About Record Stores Back In The Day
April 24, 2019
Left: Shop founder Geoff Travis in the Rough Trade Shop, London, circa 1977. Source: (Photo by Estate Of Keith Morris/Redferns/Getty Images) Right: browsing in a record ...
How MAD Magazine Covered The '60s: What, Me Hippie?
April 23, 2019
In the ‘60s, MAD magazine covers grappled with issues of the day as much as any newspaper's editorial page. The images frequently played to both sides of an issue, ...
My Lai And The Trial Of Lt. Calley: Vietnam's Darkest H...
April 22, 2019
American 'Huey' helicopters in flight during the My Lai massacre on March 16, 1968 in My Lai, South Vietnam; the controversial cover of Esquire, November 1970, ...
Vaughn Meader's 'First Family:' The JFK Comedy Album Th...
April 21, 2019
In 1962, comedian Vaughn Meader satirized John F. Kennedy on The First Family, a live comedy album that both lampooned and celebrated the Kennedy family. At ...
Celebrity Kidnappings: Patty Hearst, Frank Sinatra Jr, ...
April 20, 2019
Patty Hearst with a machine gun in 1979, and a newspaper clipping from 1963 about the kidnapping of Frank Sinatra Jr. Source: Bettmann/Contributor/Getty; rarene...
Why Do So Many People Think The Moon Landing Was Fake?
April 19, 2019
On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed the Apollo 11 Lunar Module on the surface of the Moon -- right? Well, that depends on whom you ask. Maybe...
Helen Gurley Brown And The Single Girl: A Modern Love M...
April 15, 2019
Author Helen Gurley Brown relaxing and working in her Park Avenue Apartment in 1965; an edition of her landmark book featuring Natalie Wood and Tony Curtis on t...
Kent State Shootings, 1970: Four Dead In Ohio
April 13, 2019
National Guard Opening Fire on Kent State University Demonstrators, Ohio, USA, 1970. Source: (Photo by: Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images) Occurring on May 4,...
The Attempted Assassination Of Pope John Paul II: What ...
April 9, 2019
Bodyguards hold Pope John Paul II (C) after he was shot May 13th 1981 on Saint Peter's square. Source: (AFP/Getty Images) On May 13, 1981, people all over the...
How Black Roller Skaters Helped Make The Rink A Place F...
April 8, 2019
Black roller skaters of the '60s and '70s developed skating as an activity for adults, and helped turn the roller rink from a kids' space into a place where ...
Your Dad Loved This Beer: Defunct And Zombie Brews Of T...
April 5, 2019
It is a sad lesson: the things we love will come and go, even beer. Defunct beer brands are plentiful, thanks to quirks of distribution systems and mergers. ...
Why Do People Hate Jane Fonda? Her 'Hanoi Jane' Episode...
April 3, 2019
In 1972, actress Jane Fonda traveled to North Vietnam on an anti-war mission. Due to actions and images some people consider unpatriotic or treasonous, she e...
1966: Masters And Johnson Ask, 'Are You Doing It Wrong?...
April 1, 2019
Dr. William H. Masters (right) and Mrs. Virginia E. Johnson, co-authors of 'Human Sexual Response,' in their office, circa 1970. Source: Getty Images / Bettmann...
The Story Of Rodney Alcala, The Charming 'Dating Game K...
March 30, 2019
Rodney Alcala, the "Dating Game killer," is known to many as the killer who appeared on The Dating Game. Unfortunately, there's much more to the story -- Alc...
Ken Kesey, Merry Pranksters, And Acid Tests: How The '6...
March 28, 2019
Cover of the first edition of Tom Wolfe's 'Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test;' Wolfe speaking with Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead in the Haight-Ashbury district of...
The 1979 Three Mile Island Meltdown Made 'China Syndrom...
March 23, 2019
L: A sign announces the closing of the observation center for the Three Mile Island nuclear plant, following an accident on March 28, 1979. R: Michael Douglas a...
The Very First Sit-In At A Greensboro Woolworth's, 1960...
March 19, 2019
On February 1, 1960, the first "sit-in" took place in Greensboro, North Carolina, and this demonstration by four courageous young African-American men proved...
The Beatles And The Maharishi: Failed Spiritual Quest '...
March 14, 2019
The Beatles and their wives at the Rishikesh in India with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, March 1968. Seated in front of the Maharishi are Jane Asher, Paul McCartne...
The True Stories Of Nazis Who Escaped To South America
March 13, 2019
ISRAEL - CIRCA 1961: Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann smoking in his cell at Djalameh Jail; Haifa. Source: (Photo by Gjon Mili/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Ima...
How Two Fighting Dinosaurs Sparked A 'Renaissance' In 1...
March 6, 2019
Dinosaurs do battle in a scene from the scientifically-inaccurate film 'One Million Years B.C.', 1966. (Photo by 20th Century-Fox/Getty Images) Humans' unders...
How The Death Of James Dean Put Seat Belts In Our Cars
March 2, 2019
James Dean gives a thumbs-up sign from his Porsche 550 Spyder, the Little Bastard. Dean owned the car only nine days when he lost his life in a fatal highway accide...
Countries That Don't Exist Anymore (But Did In The '60s...
February 23, 2019
Soviet gymnasts in 1975, from left: Lyudmila Tourischeva, the 23-year old world gymnast champion, Olga Koval, 13, and Elvira Saadi, 23. Source: (Hulton-Deutsch ...
Bubbling Up In The Hot '70s: Jacuzzis, The Untold Story
February 16, 2019
Turn the lights down low and fire up the jets -- it's Jacuzzi time in the '70s. Jacuzzis and hot tubs proliferated in the decade of disco, with these relaxing a...
7 Things That Didn't Fly In The 1960s But Seem Tame Now
February 12, 2019
Family Riding In Convertible, 1960s. A man, woman and three children smile from a convertible while driving on a family trip, 1960s. Source: (Lambert/Getty Images)...
The 1964 Good Friday Earthquake: Alaska's Armageddon
February 11, 2019
Those Alaskans who lived through it will never forget the calamity of March 27, 1964: the Good Friday Earthquake. Alaska is prone to earthquakes, moreso than Calif...
LEGOs Came To The US In The '70s And Still Rule Our Liv...
February 8, 2019
The LEGO System -- or as most call them, LEGOs -- came to America in the 1970s but has been around in one form or another for over 60 years. And with the rel...
How Charles Manson Ruined Dennis Wilson's Life
February 3, 2019
In the late 1960s, it was probably not a good idea to hang around with Charles Manson. Dennis Wilson didn't know that -- but nobody did, at least, not the way we know...
What Caused The Great Inflation Of The 1970s?
January 31, 2019
October 9, 1974: Close-up of President Gerald Ford during a press conference in the White House Rose Garden. He is wearing a WIN ("Whip Inflation Now") button-a symbol of th...
How Ted Bundy Invented Reality TV In The 1970s
January 28, 2019
Ted Bundy's image on a television screen on the lawn of the Florida State Prison. | Location: Starke, Florida, USA. Source: Getty/Bettmann In 1979 and 1980, a nation sat ...
The Era Of Segregation: Historical Photos Of Inequality
January 26, 2019
The United States has come a long way since institutionalized segregation. Historical photos, though, are a powerful reminder of the injustice of the "separate ...
Where Did The Peace Symbol Come From?
January 23, 2019
A group of active duty American soldiers out of uniform from the group 'GIs for Peace' carry a large banner and march amid others during a protest against the war in Vietnam, Washin...
The 'Manson Girls:' Who Were They, And Where Are They N...
January 22, 2019
The young women known as the "Manson Girls" had been normal, pretty, bright teenagers, but they're remembered for the brutal murder of seven people. Susan At...
Violence At Altamont: The 'Hells Angels Stabbing' And T...
January 16, 2019
David Crosby and Graham Nash perform with Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young at the Altamont Speedway Free Festival, California, United States, 6th December 1969. S...
