JFK elected in tight race with Nixon 

• JFK campaigns in Bridgeport, CT. 
• Democrat John Sullivan becomes the first Catholic elected to lead Fairfield.

Lunch Counter Sit-Ins 

Held by college students in Greensboro, N.C. begin a movement that spreads through the South.

Fairfield University students picket in front of Woolworth's and other national chains with practices of racial discrimination in southern states. 

"The Pill"

"The Pill" becomes available, however, birth control is still illegal in Connecticut.

Bob Dylan's first public performace

First Orbital Mercury Flight

These pages are from a binder used in training the original group of astronauts, known as the Mercury 7. First announced by NASA in 1958, the seven men – Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Guss Griscom, Wally Schirra, Alan Shepard, and Deke Slayton – quickly became national heroes. They piloted the manned spaceflights of the Mercury program from May 1961 to May 1963.

Civil rights protests in Birmingham are followed by a church bombing that kills four teenage girls. During Freedom Summer, northern college students come to Mississippi to educate and register voters, and the March on Washington draws thousands of supporters. 

Jack Bloom, rabbi of Fairfield's Congregation Beth El, participates in a rabbinic delegation to Birmingham, organized by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to support civil rights protests there. 

President Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas 

Fairfielders gather in churches and elsewhere to mourn the president's death.  

Beatles appear on Ed Sullivan Show and launch national tour.

Fairfield University students “liberate” 100 books (on Catholic Index of Forbidden Books) from a padlocked area of the library, declaring, “We demand that the ‘cage’ doors remain open.”

Civil Rights Act

A large crowd gathers at Klein Auditorium to hear Martin Luther King call for passage of the Civil Rights Act.

Gulf of Tonkin resolution gives LBJ authority to wage war in Vietnam without formal declaration by Congress.

Lyndon B Johnson is reelected

Fairfield University students welcome the reforms of Vatican II.

Malcolm X is assassinated

In Griswold v. Connecticut, the Supreme Court strikes down a Connecticut law prohibiting the use of birth control, finding it a violation of a couple's right to privacy.

National Organization for Women (NOW) founded

Members of local band "The Remains" open for the Beatles on their 1966 tour.

Black Panther Party founded in Oakland

Major riots in Detroit, Newark, and other cities

Female students at Sacred Heart University protest the dress code by wearing pants to class instead of the required skirt and blouse. 

April: MLK assassinated

Fairfielders gather at First Church to mourn the death of Martin Luther King; three weeks later, a campaign office supporting segregationist candidate for president George Wallace opens in Fairfield.

Richard Nixon elected

Nixon campaigns in Bridgeport

Police raid on Stonewall Inn in NYC sparks rioting that represents the beginning of the gay rights movement.

Campus Sit-Ins

Police raid on Stonewall Inn in NYC sparks rioting that represents the beginning of the gay rights movement.

Fairfield University students protest as part of antiwar Moratorium Day.

Moon Landing

Students at Fairfield University take over Xavier Hall, demanding more representation of African-Americans at the university.