In March of 1966,John Lennon proclaimed that The Beatles were"More popular than Jesus Christ." About a month later,Time Magazine asked rhetorically on it's cover"Is God Dead?" Mississippi became the last American state to repeal prohibition,and American Catholics were no longer required to abstain from eating meat on Friday.
Chevrolet introduced the Camaro,Milton Bradley introduced Twister,and Quaker Oats first marketed instant oatmeal.An average new car cost about twenty six hundred dollars,a gallon of gas thirty two cents and a new dishwasher about one hundred and twenty dollars.
In September,Star Trek debuted,and in December,The Grinch stole Christmas for the very first time.The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation became the first Canadian network to broadcast in color.
When the year turned from 1965 to 1966,much remained unchanged in the world.There was still a preoccupation with the military.Russia and America were still staring each other down,still testing nuclear weaponry,still trying to outdo one another in space.France and China were also getting involved in testing atomic weapons.On December 8,1966,The United States and Russia signed a treaty agreeing to prohibit weapons in outer space. The war in Vietnam was still in full swing,with the American president saying that troops should remain there until the defeat of Communist forces was complete.
Race riots continued as well,in Atlanta,Omaha,Lansing and Watts,among other places.Martin Luther King marched in Chicago,and was struck by a thrown rock.
Lyndon Johnson was President Of The United States,Lester Pearson The Prime Minister of Canada and Harold Wilson Prime Minister Of Britain.Indira Gandhi became leader of India.And,in America,Edward W. Brooks was elected the first African American senator.Ronald Reagan was elected Governor of California.Huey P.Newton and Bobby Seale formed The Black Panther Party in October.
In June The United States Supreme Court rendered the Miranda decision,which required that suspects be informed of their rights upon arrest.In Texas,sniper Charles Whitman killed fourteen people at the University Of Texas in Austin,and,in Chicago,Richard Speck murdered eight nurses.
Actress Cindy Crawford was born in 1966,as were Kiefer Sutherland,Halle Berry,and Adam Sandler.Singers Janet Jackson and Sinead O'Connor were also born in 1966,as were boxer Mike Tyson,golfer John Daley and future British Prime Minister David Cameron. Meanwhile,Walt Disney,Admiral Chester Nimitz,comedian Lenny Bruce and feminist and birth control advocate Margaret Sanger left this world.
In Canada,Toronto Transit Commission opened the Bloor Danforth Subway Line,while Montreal introduced it's Metro System.The Centennial flame was first lit on Parliament Hill,ironically a full year before our centennial.Both The Canada and The Quebec Pension Plans began operation.
The Oxford English Dictionary had three hundred and eighty two new words in 1966.They included AWACS,a military acronym for Airborne Warning And Control System,a concept that was in it's developmental and planning stage at the time. Multi-tasking was used for the first time,as were Kung Fu and autowind,which referred to a camera feature.Jacuzzi was first used as a generic term for whirlpool bath,and Mastercard became a proper noun referring to a credit card of that name.The Vietnam war produced the term medevac,referring to medical evacuation,and the word bot was first used in reference to various forms of robots.
There were a wide variety of slang terms in use in the mid 1960s as well.They came,in some cases from the Hippy and drug culture,from the war in South East Asia,as well as from many other sources.The expression"Hell no we won't go." was the most commonly expressed anti war slogan.A "hit" was a drag from a marijuana cigarette."Heavy" meant serious or profound,and "pig out" meant to eat too much."Pig" was often used to refer to police officers,as was "narc",which could also identify a drug informant.A police helicopter was sometimes called a "pork chop".The term "square"refered to an uncool person,and "sick puppy' to deranged,crazy or perverted person.Some peoples jobs were described using slang terms:"Roadie"-a laborer who travels with a rock band."Talking Head"-a news anchor."Rent-A-Cop"-a security guard. A "Mean Machine" referred to a fast,cool car,and a man who was thought to care too much about his appearance might be called a "Ken Doll".
In truth,I have no idea how popular The Beatles really were.They may well have been just as John Lennon said,as I expect Jesus Christ was relatively less popular in the mid sixties than He had been in the past,given all the worldly attacks against Him.I expect Lennon's statement was not nearly that popular in our home,especially with our mother. Moncton was still a very church shadowed place,and you would have been much more likely to encounter Bible Stories For Children in it's bedrooms or office waiting rooms than you would Time Magazine.
Chevrolet introduced the Camaro,Milton Bradley introduced Twister,and Quaker Oats first marketed instant oatmeal.An average new car cost about twenty six hundred dollars,a gallon of gas thirty two cents and a new dishwasher about one hundred and twenty dollars.
In September,Star Trek debuted,and in December,The Grinch stole Christmas for the very first time.The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation became the first Canadian network to broadcast in color.
When the year turned from 1965 to 1966,much remained unchanged in the world.There was still a preoccupation with the military.Russia and America were still staring each other down,still testing nuclear weaponry,still trying to outdo one another in space.France and China were also getting involved in testing atomic weapons.On December 8,1966,The United States and Russia signed a treaty agreeing to prohibit weapons in outer space. The war in Vietnam was still in full swing,with the American president saying that troops should remain there until the defeat of Communist forces was complete.
Race riots continued as well,in Atlanta,Omaha,Lansing and Watts,among other places.Martin Luther King marched in Chicago,and was struck by a thrown rock.
Lyndon Johnson was President Of The United States,Lester Pearson The Prime Minister of Canada and Harold Wilson Prime Minister Of Britain.Indira Gandhi became leader of India.And,in America,Edward W. Brooks was elected the first African American senator.Ronald Reagan was elected Governor of California.Huey P.Newton and Bobby Seale formed The Black Panther Party in October.
In June The United States Supreme Court rendered the Miranda decision,which required that suspects be informed of their rights upon arrest.In Texas,sniper Charles Whitman killed fourteen people at the University Of Texas in Austin,and,in Chicago,Richard Speck murdered eight nurses.
Actress Cindy Crawford was born in 1966,as were Kiefer Sutherland,Halle Berry,and Adam Sandler.Singers Janet Jackson and Sinead O'Connor were also born in 1966,as were boxer Mike Tyson,golfer John Daley and future British Prime Minister David Cameron. Meanwhile,Walt Disney,Admiral Chester Nimitz,comedian Lenny Bruce and feminist and birth control advocate Margaret Sanger left this world.
In Canada,Toronto Transit Commission opened the Bloor Danforth Subway Line,while Montreal introduced it's Metro System.The Centennial flame was first lit on Parliament Hill,ironically a full year before our centennial.Both The Canada and The Quebec Pension Plans began operation.
The Oxford English Dictionary had three hundred and eighty two new words in 1966.They included AWACS,a military acronym for Airborne Warning And Control System,a concept that was in it's developmental and planning stage at the time. Multi-tasking was used for the first time,as were Kung Fu and autowind,which referred to a camera feature.Jacuzzi was first used as a generic term for whirlpool bath,and Mastercard became a proper noun referring to a credit card of that name.The Vietnam war produced the term medevac,referring to medical evacuation,and the word bot was first used in reference to various forms of robots.
There were a wide variety of slang terms in use in the mid 1960s as well.They came,in some cases from the Hippy and drug culture,from the war in South East Asia,as well as from many other sources.The expression"Hell no we won't go." was the most commonly expressed anti war slogan.A "hit" was a drag from a marijuana cigarette."Heavy" meant serious or profound,and "pig out" meant to eat too much."Pig" was often used to refer to police officers,as was "narc",which could also identify a drug informant.A police helicopter was sometimes called a "pork chop".The term "square"refered to an uncool person,and "sick puppy' to deranged,crazy or perverted person.Some peoples jobs were described using slang terms:"Roadie"-a laborer who travels with a rock band."Talking Head"-a news anchor."Rent-A-Cop"-a security guard. A "Mean Machine" referred to a fast,cool car,and a man who was thought to care too much about his appearance might be called a "Ken Doll".
In truth,I have no idea how popular The Beatles really were.They may well have been just as John Lennon said,as I expect Jesus Christ was relatively less popular in the mid sixties than He had been in the past,given all the worldly attacks against Him.I expect Lennon's statement was not nearly that popular in our home,especially with our mother. Moncton was still a very church shadowed place,and you would have been much more likely to encounter Bible Stories For Children in it's bedrooms or office waiting rooms than you would Time Magazine.
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