File:1960s events montage.png|From left, clockwise: Adlai Stevenson II addresses the UN Security Council on location of Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis; a soldier lies on the ground during the Vietnam War; Martin Luther King Jr. makes his famous "I Have a Dream" speech to a crowd of over a million during the March on Washington in 1963; For the first time in history, a human being sets his foot on the Moon, in the Moon landing of July 1969; China's Mao Zedong executes the Great Leap Forward, a disastrous attempt to modernize the Chinese economy that ended in severe grain shortages and the deaths of tens of millions of people; An explosion erupts during a battle of the Six-Day War; a poster promoting decolonization of Africa; the birth control pill is introduced in the 1960s;|420px|thumb rect 1 1 236 167 Cuban Missile Crisis rect 241 1 497 166 Vietnam War rect 1 169 121 320 Six-Day War rect 196 169 318 297 Birth control pill rect 321 169 497 297 African-American Civil Rights Movement (1955–1968) rect 1 300 237 488 Great Leap Forward rect 240 300 497 488 Moon landing desc bottom-left

The 1960s was the decade that started on January 1, 1960, and ended on December 31, 1969. It was the seventh decade of the 20th century.

The 1960s term also refers to an era more often called The Sixties, denoting the complex of inter-related cultural and political trends across the globe. This "cultural decade" is more loosely defined than the actual decade, beginning around 1963 and ending around 1974.

In the United States, "the Sixties", as they are known in popular culture, is a term used by historians, journalists, and other objective academics; in some cases nostalgically to describe the counterculture and social revolution near the end of the decade; and pejoratively to describe the era as one of irresponsible excess and flamboyance. The decade was also labeled the Swinging Sixties because of the fall or relaxation of some social taboos especially relating to sexism and racism that occurred during this time.

The 1960s have become synonymous with the new, radical, and subversive events and trends of the period, which continued to develop in the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and beyond. In Africa the 1960s was a period of radical political change as 32 countries gained independence from their European colonial rulers.

Some commentators have seen in this era a classical Jungian nightmare cycle, where a rigid culture, unable to contain the demands for greater individual freedom, broke free of the social constraints of the previous age through extreme deviation from the norm. Christopher Booker charts the rise, success, fall/nightmare and explosion in the London scene of the 1960s. This does not alone however explain the mass nature of the phenomenon.

Several governments turned to the left in the early 1960s. In the United States, John F. Kennedy, a Keynesian and staunch anti-communist who pushed for centre-left social reforms such as civil rights for African Americans and healthcare for the elderly and the poor, was elected to the Presidency; he also pledged to land a man on the Moon by the end of the decade, a feat that was accomplished in 1969. Italy formed its first left-of-centre government in March 1962 with a coalition of Christian Democrats, Social Democrats, and moderate Republicans. Socialists joined the ruling block in December 1963. In Britain, the Labour Party gained power in 1964. In Brazil, João Goulart became president after Jânio Quadros resigned.

Politics and wars

Wars

The Cold War:

* The Vietnam War (1955–1975)

** 1961 – Substantial (approximately 700) American advisory forces first arrive in Vietnam in 1961.

** 1962 – By mid-1962, the number of U.S. military advisers in South Vietnam had risen from 700 to 12,000.

** 1963 – After the overthrow of the Diem Regime in early November 1963, Kennedy increased the number of U.S. military advisers from 800 to 16,300 to cope with rising guerrilla activity in Vietnam.

* 1964 – After the Gulf of Tonkin incident, on August 2, 1964, and the ''Gulf of Tonkin Resolution'' which was a joint resolution of the U.S. Congress passed on August 10, 1964, in direct response to a minor naval engagement known as the Gulf of Tonkin Incident. The resolution gave U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson authorization, without a formal declaration of war by Congress, for the use of military force in Southeast Asia. The Johnson administration subsequently cited the resolution as legal authority for its rapid escalation of U.S. military involvement in the Vietnam War.

** 1966 – After 1966 with the draft in place more than 500,000 troops are sent to Vietnam by the Johnson administration and college attendance soars.

* The Bay of Pigs Invasion (1961) – an unsuccessful attempt by a CIA-trained force of Cuban exiles to invade southern Cuba with support from US government armed forces, to overthrow the Cuban government of Fidel Castro.

* Portuguese Colonial War (1961–1974) – the war was fought between Portugal's military and the emerging nationalist movements in Portugal's African colonies. It was a decisive ideological struggle and armed conflict of the cold war in African (Portuguese Africa and surrounding nations) and European (mainland Portugal) scenarios. Unlike other European nations, the Portuguese regime did not leave its African colonies, or the overseas provinces, during the 1950s and 1960s. During the 1960s, various armed independence movements, most prominently led by communist-led parties who cooperated under the CONCP umbrella and pro US groups, became active in these areas, most notably in Angola, Mozambique, and Portuguese Guinea. During the war, several atrocities were committed by all forces involved in the conflict.

Arab–Israeli conflict (early 20th century-present)

Six Days War (June 1967) – a war between Israel and the neighboring states of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. The Arab states of Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria also contributed troops and arms. At the war's end, Israel had gained control of the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights. The results of the war affect the geopolitics of the region to this day.

The Algerian War came to a close in 1962.

The Nigeria Civil War begins in 1967.

Internal conflicts

Cultural Revolution in China (1966–1976) – a period of widespread social and political upheaval in the People’s Republic of China which was launched by Mao Zedong, the chairman of the Communist Party of China. Mao alleged that "liberal bourgeois" elements were permeating the party and society at large and that they wanted to restore capitalism. Mao insisted that these elements be removed through post-revolutionary class struggle by mobilizing the thoughts and actions of China's youth, who formed Red Guards groups around the country. The movement subsequently spread into the military, urban workers, and the party leadership itself. Although Mao himself officially declared the Cultural Revolution to have ended in 1969, the power struggles and political instability between 1969 and the arrest of the Gang of Four in 1976 are now also widely regarded as part of the Revolution.

The Troubles in Northern Ireland began with the rise of the Civil Rights movement in the mid 60s, the conflict continued into the later 90s.

The Compton's Cafeteria Riot occurred in August 1966 in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco. This incident was one of the first recorded transgender riots in United States history, preceding the more famous 1969 Stonewall Riots in New York City by three years.

The Stonewall riots occurred in June 1969 in the New York City. The Stonewall riots were a series of spontaneous, violent demonstrations against a police raid that took place in the Stonewall Inn, in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. They are frequently cited as the first instance in American history when people in the homosexual community fought back against a government-sponsored system that persecuted sexual minorities, and they have become the defining event that marked the start of the gay rights movement in the United States and around the world.

The May 1968 student and worker uprisings in France.

Mass socialist or Communist movement in most European countries (particularly France and Italy), with which the student-based new left was able to forge a connection. The most spectacular manifestation of this was the May student revolt of 1968 in Paris that linked up with a general strike of ten million workers called by the trade unions; and for a few days seemed capable of overthrowing the government of Charles de Gaulle. De Gaulle went off to visit French troops in Germany to check on their loyalty. Major concessions were won for trade union rights, higher minimum wages and better working conditions.

University students protested in their hundreds of thousands in London, Paris, Berlin and Rome with the huge crowds that protested against the Vietnam War.

In Eastern Europe students also drew inspiration from the protests in the West. In Poland and Yugoslavia they protested against restrictions on free speech by communist regimes.

The Tlatelolco massacre – was a government massacre of student and civilian protesters and bystanders that took place during the afternoon and night of October 2, 1968, in the Plaza de las Tres Culturas in the Tlatelolco section of Mexico City.

Coups

The most prominent coups d'état of the decade include:

In 1968 a coup in Iraq led to the overthrow of Abdul Rahman Arif by the Arab Socialist Baath Party.

On September 1, 1969, a small group of military officers led by the army officer Muammar al-Gaddafi overthrows monarchy in Libya.

Nuclear threats

The Cuban Missile Crisis (October 1962) – a near military confrontation between the U.S. and the Soviet Union about the presence of Soviet missiles in Cuba. After an American Naval (quarantine) blockade of Cuba the Soviet Union under the leadership of Nikita Khrushchev agreed to remove their missiles in exchange the US would remove its missiles from Turkey.

On October 16, 1964 China detonated its first atomic bomb. China possessed a hydrogen bomb by 1967. President Johnson secretly considered a preemptive strike on China's nuclear facilities, but then dismissed the idea as too risky.

Decolonization and independence

The transformation of Africa from colonialism to independence in what is known as the decolonisation of Africa dramatically accelerated during the decade, with 32 countries gaining independence between 1960 and 1968. Marking the end of the great European empires that once dominated the African continent, However The noble aspirations of these new nations quickly faded, and many states descended into anarchy, kleptocracy, dictatorships, and/or civil war. The road to prosperity has been difficult: , by many measures Africa continues to possess the poorest population in the world as well as the lowest life expectancy.

Prominent political events

United States

1960 – United States presidential election, 1960 – The key turning point of the campaign was the series of four Kennedy-Nixon debates; they were the first presidential debates held on television.

1961 – Newly elected President John F. Kennedy and Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson take office in 1961; Kennedy establishes the Peace Corps.

1963 – Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech in Washington, D.C. on August 28.

1963 – President Lyndon Johnson becomes president and presses for civil rights legislation.

1964 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson is elected in his own right, defeating United States Senator Barry Goldwater in November.

1964 – Civil Rights Act of 1964 signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson. This landmark piece of legislation in the United States outlawed racial segregation in schools, public places, and employment.

1964 – Wilderness Act signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on September 3.

1965 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson and Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey take office in January.

1965 – National Voting Rights Act of 1965 signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson. Outlawed discriminatory voting practices that had been responsible for the widespread disenfranchisement of African Americans in the United States.

1968 – U.S. President Richard M. Nixon is elected defeating Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey in November.

1969 – U.S. President Richard Nixon is inaugurated in January 1969; promises "peace with honor" to end the Vietnam War.

Canada

The Quiet Revolution in Quebec altered the province into a more secular society. The Jean Lesage Liberal government created a welfare state (''État-Providence'') and fomented the rise of active nationalism among Francophone Québécois.

On February 15, 1965, the new maple leaf flag was adopted in Canada, after much acrimonious debate known as the Great Flag Debate.

In 1960, the Canadian Bill of Rights becomes law, and Universal suffrage, the right for any Canadian citizen to vote, is finally adopted by John Diefenbaker's Progressive Conservative government. The new election act allows first nations people to vote for the first time.

Europe

Construction of the Berlin Wall started in 1961.

British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan delivers his Wind of Change speech in 1960.

Pope John XXIII calls the Second Vatican Council of the Catholic Church, continued by Pope Paul VI, which met from October 11, 1962, until December 8, 1965.

In October 1964, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev was expelled from office due to his increasingly erratic and authoritarian behavior. Leonid Brezhnev and Alexei Kosygin then became the new leaders of the Soviet Union.

In Czechoslovakia 1968 was the year of Alexander Dubček’s Prague Spring, a source of inspiration to many Western leftists who admired Dubček's "socialism with a human face". The Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in August ended these hopes and also fatally damaged the chances of the orthodox communist parties drawing many recruits from the student protest movement.

China

Relations with the United States remained hostile during the 1960s, although representatives from both countries held periodic meetings in Warsaw, Poland (since there was no US embassy in China). President Kennedy had plans to restore Sino-US relations, but his assassination, the war in Vietnam, and the Cultural Revolution put an end to that. Not until Richard Nixon took office in 1969 was there another opportunity.

Following Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev's expulsion in 1964, Sino-Soviet relations devolved into open hostility. The Chinese were deeply disturbed by the Soviet suppression of the Prague Spring in 1968, as the latter now claimed the right to intervene in any country it saw as deviating from the correct path of socialism. Finally, in March 1969, armed clashes took place along the Sino-Soviet border in Manchuria. This drove the Chinese to restore relations with the US, as Mao Zedong decided that the Soviet Union was a much greater threat.

Mexico

The peak of the student and New Left protests in 1968 coincided with political upheavals in a number of other countries. Although these events often sprung from completely different causes, they were influenced by reports and images of what was happening in the United States and France.

Middle East

On September 1, 1969, the Libyan monarchy was overthrown, and a radical, anti-Israel, anti-Western government headed by Col. Muammar al-Qadaffi took power.

South America

In 1964, a successful coup against the democratically elected government of Brazilian president João Goulart, initiates a military dictatorship of over 20 years of oppression.

The Argentine revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara travelled to Africa and then Bolivia in his campaigning to spread worldwide revolution. He was captured and executed in 1967 by the Bolivian army, and afterwards became an iconic figure for leftists around the world.

Juan Velasco Alvarado took power in Peru in 1968.

India

In India a literary and cultural movement started in Calcutta, Patna, and other cities by a group of writers and painters who called themselves "Hungryalists", or members of the Hungry generation. The band of writers wanted to change virtually everything and were arrested with several cases filed against them on various charges. They ultimately won these cases. This span of the movement was from 1961 to 1964.

Assassinations

The 1960s were marked by several notable assassinations:

January 17, 1961 – Patrice Lumumba, the Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo. Assassinated by a Belgian and Congolese firing squad outside Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of the Congo.

June 12, 1963 – Medgar Evers, an NAACP field secretary. Assassinated by a member of the Ku Klux Klan in Jackson, Mississippi.

November 2, 1963 – Ngo Dinh Diem, President of Vietnam, along with his brother and chief political adviser, Ngo Dinh Nhu. Assassinated by Duong Hieu Nghia and Nguyen Van Nhung in the back of an armoured personnel carrier.

November 22, 1963 – John F. Kennedy, President of the United States. The accused was Lee Harvey Oswald, according to the 1964 report issued by the Warren Commission, in his car during a parade in Dallas, Texas from gunshot wound. See JFK assassination for more details.

February 21, 1965 – Malcolm X. Assassinated by members of the Nation of Islam in New York City. There is a dispute about which members killed Malcolm X.

September 6, 1966 – Hendrik Verwoerd, Prime Minister of South Africa and architect of apartheid was stabbed to death by Dimitri Tsafendas, a parliamentary messenger. He survived a previous attempt on his life in 1960.

August 25, 1967 – George Lincoln Rockwell, leader of the American Nazi Party. Assassinated by John Patler in Arlington, Virginia.

April 4, 1968 – Martin Luther King, Jr., civil rights leader. Assassinated by James Earl Ray in Memphis, Tennessee.

June 5, 1968 – Robert F. Kennedy, United States Senator. Assassinated by Sirhan Sirhan in Los Angeles, California, taking California in the presidential national primaries.

Disasters

1960 Valdivia earthquake or Great Chilean Earthquake is to date the most powerful earthquake ever recorded, rating 9.5 on the moment magnitude scale. It caused localized tsunamis that severely battered the Chilean coast, with waves up to 25 meters (82 ft). The main tsunami raced across the Pacific Ocean and devastated Hilo, Hawai'i.

1969 – Cuyahoga River catches fire in Ohio. Fires had erupted on the river many times, including June 22, 1969, when a river fire captured the attention of Time magazine, which described the Cuyahoga as the river that "oozes rather than flows" and in which a person "does not drown but decays." Helped spur legislative action on water pollution control resulting in the Clean Water Act, Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, and the creation of the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

1969 – Hurricane Camille hits the Gulf Coast at Category 5 Status on the night of August 17. To date it is the strongest hurricane ever recorded at landfall in means of sustained windspeed in the Atlantic Basin, reaching sustained winds of 190 mph and a low pressure of 905 mbs. It is one of only three hurricanes in the Atlantic to ever make landfall at Category 5 Status and one of only four hurricanes worldwide to reach a maximum sustained windspeed of 190 mph.

Science and technology

Science

Space exploration

The Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union would dominate the 1960s. The Soviets sent the first man, Yuri Gagarin, into outer space during the Vostok 1 mission on 12 April 1961 and scored a host of other successes, but by the middle of the decade the US was taking the lead. In May 1961, President Kennedy set for the United States the goal of a manned spacecraft landing on the Moon by the end of the decade.

In 1966 the Soviet Union launched Luna 10, which later becomes the first space probe to enter orbit around the Moon.

The tragic deaths of astronauts Gus Grissom, Edward Higgins White, and Roger B. Chaffee in the Apollo 1 fire on 27 January 1967 put a temporary hold on the US space program, but afterwards progress was steady, with the Apollo 8 crew (Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, William Anders) being the first manned mission to orbit another celestial body (the moon) during Christmas of 1968.

On July 20, 1969, Apollo 11, the first human spaceflight landed on the Moon. Launched on July 16, 1969, it carried Mission Commander Neil Armstrong, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins, and Lunar Module Pilot Buzz Aldrin. Apollo 11 fulfilled President John F. Kennedy's goal of reaching the moon by the end of the 1960s, which he had expressed during a speech given before a joint session of Congress on May 25, 1961: "I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth."

The Soviet program lost its sense of direction with the death of chief designer Sergey Korolyov in 1966. Political pressure, conflicts between different design bureaus, and engineering problems caused by an inadequate budget would doom the Soviet attempt to land men on the moon.

A succession of unmanned American and Soviet probes travelled to the Moon, Venus, and Mars during the 1960s, and commercial satellites also came into use.

Other scientific developments

1960 – The female birth control contraceptive, the pill, was released in the United States after Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval.

1967 – First heart transplantation operation by Professor Christiaan Barnard in South Africa.

Technology

Automobiles

As the 1960s began, American cars showed a rapid rejection of 1950s styling excess, and would remain relatively clean and boxy for the entire decade. The horsepower race reached its climax in the late 1960s, with muscle cars sold by most makes. The compact Ford Mustang, launched in 1964, was one of the decade's greatest successes. The "Big Three" American automakers enjoyed their highest ever sales and profitability in the 1960s, but the demise of Studebaker in 1966 left American Motors Corporation as the last significant independent. The decade would see the car market split into different size classes for the first time, and model lineups now included compact and mid-sized cars in addition to full-sized ones.

Electronics and communications

1960 – The first working laser was demonstrated in May by Theodore Maiman at Hughes Research Laboratories.

1962 – First trans-Atlantic satellite broadcast via the Telstar satellite.

1962 – The first computer video game, Spacewar!, is invented.

1963 – The first geosynchronous communications satellite, Syncom 2 is launched.

1963 – First trans-Pacific satellite broadcast via the Relay 1 satellite.

1963 – Touch-Tone telephones introduced.

1963 – Video recorder The Nottingham Electronic Valve company produces the first home video recorder called the "Telcan".

1964 – The first successful Minicomputer, Digital Equipment Corporation’s 12-bit PDP-8, is marketed.

1964 – The programming language BASIC was created.

1967 – PAL and SECAM broadcast color TV systems start publicly transmitting in Europe.

1967 – The first Automatic Teller Machine is opened in Barclays Bank, London.

1968 – The first public demonstration of the computer mouse, the paper paradigm Graphical user interface, video conferencing, teleconferencing, email, and hypertext.

1969 – Arpanet, the research-oriented prototype of the Internet, was introduced.

1969 – CCD invented at AT&T; Bell Labs, used as the electronic imager in still and video cameras.

Social and political movements

Counterculture/social revolution

In the second half of the decade, young people began to revolt against the conservative norms of the time, as well as remove themselves from mainstream liberalism, in particular the high level of materialism which was so common during the era. This created a "counterculture" that sparked a social revolution throughout much of the western world. It began in the United States as a reaction against the conservatism and social conformity of the 1950s, and the US government's extensive military intervention in Vietnam. The youth involved in the popular social aspects of the movement became known as hippies. These groups created a movement toward liberation in society, including the sexual revolution, questioning authority and government, and demanding more freedoms and rights for women and minorities. The Underground Press, a widespread, eclectic collection of newspapers served as a unifying medium for the counterculture. The movement was also marked by the first widespread, socially accepted drug use (including LSD and marijuana) and psychedelic music.

Anti-war movement

The war in Vietnam would eventually lead to a commitment of over half a million American troops, resulting in over 58,500 American deaths and producing a large-scale antiwar movement in the United States. As late as the end of 1965, few Americans protested the American involvement in Vietnam, but as the war dragged on and the body count continued to climb, civil unrest escalated. Students became a powerful and disruptive force and university campuses sparked a national debate over the war. As the movement's ideals spread beyond college campuses, doubts about the war also began to appear within the administration itself. A mass movement began rising in opposition to the Vietnam War, ending in the massive Moratorium protests in 1969, as well as the movement of resistance to conscription ("the Draft") for the war.

The antiwar movement was initially based on the older 1950s Peace movement, heavily influenced by the American Communist Party, but by the mid-1960s it outgrew this and became a broad-based mass movement centered in universities and churches: one kind of protest was called a "sit-in". Other terms heard in the United States included "the Draft", "draft dodger", "conscientious objector", and "Vietnam vet". Voter age-limits were challenged by the phrase: "If you're old enough to die for your country, you're old enough to vote." Many of the youth involved in the politics of the movements distanced themselves from the "hippies".

The rise of feminism

Feminism in the United States and around the world gained momentum in the early 1960s. At the time, a woman's place was generally seen as being in the home, and they were excluded from many jobs and professions. Commercials often portrayed a woman as being helpless if her car broke down. In the US, a Presidential Commission on the Status of Women found discrimination against women in the workplace and every other aspect of life, a revelation which launched two decades of prominent women-centered legal reforms (i.e. the Equal Pay Act of 1963, Title IX, etc.) which broke down the last remaining legal barriers to women's personal freedom and professional success. Feminists took to the streets, marching and protesting, writing books and debating to change social and political views that limited women. In 1963, with Betty Friedan's revolutionary book, ''The Feminine Mystique'', the role of women in society, and in public and private life was questioned. By 1966, the movement was beginning to grow in size and power as women's group spread across the country and Friedan, along with other feminists, founded the National Organization for Women. In 1968, "Women's Liberation" became a household term as, for the first time, the new women's movement eclipsed the black civil rights movement when New York Radical Women, led by Robin Morgan, protested the annual Miss America pageant in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The movement continued throughout the next decades.

Gay rights movement

The United States, in the middle of a social revolution, led the world in LGBT rights in the late 60s and early 70s. Inspired by the civil rights movement and the women's movement, early gay rights pioneers had begun, by the 1960s, to build a movement. These groups were rather conservative in their practices, emphasizing that gays were just like straights and deserved full equality. This philosophy would be dominant again after AIDS, but by the very end of the 1960s, the movement's goals would change and become more radical, demanding a right to be different, and encouraging gay pride.

The symbolic birth of the gay rights movement would not come until the decade had almost come to a close. Gays were not allowed by law to congregate together. Gay establishments such as the Stonewall Inn in New York City were routinely raided by the police to arrest gay people. On a night in late June 1969, LGBT people resisted, for the first time, a police raid, and rebelled openly in the streets. This uprising called the Stonewall Riots began a new period of the LGBT rights movement that in the next decade would cause dramatic change both inside the LGBT community and in the mainstream American culture.

Hispanic and Chicano Movement

Another large ethnic minority group, the Mexican-Americans, are among other Hispanics in the U.S. who fought to end racial discrimination and socioeconomic disparity. The largest Mexican-American populations was in the Southwestern United States, such as California with over 1 million ''Chicanos'' in Los Angeles alone, and Texas where Jim Crow laws included Mexican-Americans as "non-white" in some instances to be legally segregated.

Socially, the Chicano Movement addressed what it perceived to be negative ethnic stereotypes of Mexicans in mass media and the American consciousness. It did so through the creation of works of literary and visual art that validated Mexican-American ethnicity and culture. Chicanos fought to end social stigmas such as the usage of the Spanish language and advocated official bilingualism in federal and state governments.

The Chicano Movement also addressed discrimination in public and private institutions. Early in the twentieth century, Mexican Americans formed organizations to protect themselves from discrimination. One of those organizations, the League of United Latin American Citizens, was formed in 1929 and remains active today.

The movement gained momentum after World War II when groups such as the American G.I. Forum, which was formed by returning Mexican American veterans, joined in the efforts by other civil rights organizations.

Mexican-American civil rights activists achieved several major legal victories including the 1947 Mendez v. Westminster Supreme Court ruling which declared that segregating children of "Mexican and Latin descent" was unconstitutional and the 1954 Hernandez v. Texas ruling which declared that Mexican Americans and other racial groups in the United States were entitled to equal protection under the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

The most prominent civil rights organization in the Mexican-American community is the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), founded in 1968. Although modeled after the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, MALDEF has also taken on many of the functions of other organizations, including political advocacy and training of local leaders.

Meanwhile, Puerto Ricans in the U.S. mainland fought against racism, police brutality and socioeconomic problems affecting the three million Puerto Ricans residing in 50 states, the main concentration was in New York City. They formed political action groups, became further involved in city and national politics, and became proud of their heritage, in spite of stereotypes and being viewed as "foreign" despite Puerto Rico is US territory.

In the 1960s and the following 1970s, Hispanic-American culture was on the rebound like ethnic music, foods, culture and identity both became popular and assimilated into the American mainstream. Spanish-language television networks, radio stations and newspapers increased in presence across the country, especially in US-Mexican border towns and East Coast cities like New York City, and the growth of the Cuban American community in Miami, Florida.

The multitude of discrimination at this time represented an inhuman side to a society that in the 1960s was upheld as a world and industry leader. The issues of civil rights and warfare became major points of reflection of virtue and democracy, what once was viewed as traditional and inconsequential was now becoming the significance in the turning point of a culture. A document known as the Port Huron Statement exemplifies these two conditions perfectly in its first hand depiction, “while these and other problems either directly oppressed us or rankled our consciences and became our own subjective concerns, we began to see complicated and disturbing paradoxes in our surrounding America. The declaration "all men are created equal..." rang hollow before the facts of Negro life in the South and the big cities of the North. The proclaimed peaceful intentions of the United States contradicted its economic and military investments in the Cold War status quo.” These intolerable issues became too visible to ignore therefore its repercussions were feared greatly, the realization that we as individuals take the responsibility for encounter and resolution in our lives issues was an emerging idealism of the 1960s.

African-American Civil Rights Movement 1955-1968

see ''African-American Civil Rights Movement''

New Left

The rapid rise of a "New Left" applied the class perspective of Marxism to postwar America, but had little organizational connection with older Marxist organizations such as the Communist Party, and even went as far as to reject organized labor as the basis of a unified left-wing movement. The New Left differed from the traditional left in its resistance to dogma and its emphasis on personal as well as societal change. Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) became the organizational focus of the New Left and was the prime mover behind the opposition to the War in Vietnam. The 1960s left also consisted of ephemeral campus-based Trotskyist, Maoist and anarchist groups, some of which by the end of the 1960s had turned to militancy.

Crime

The 1960s has also been associated with a large increase in crime and urban unrest of all types. Between 1960 and 1969 reported incidences of violent crime per 100,000 people in the United States nearly doubled and have yet to return to the levels of the early 1960s. Large riots broke out in many cities, such as Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, New York City, Newark and Oakland. By the end of the decade, politicians such as Richard Nixon and George Wallace campaigned on restoring law and order to a nation troubled with the new unrest.

Additional notable world-wide events

Manson Murders – took place on August 8–10 1969 which was the death of Sharon Tate, Abigail Folger, along with several others in the Tate house. Killed on August 9, Rosemary LaBianca & Leno LaBianca.

Canada celebrated its 100th anniversary of Confederation in 1967 by hosting Expo 67, the World's Fair, in Montreal, Quebec. During the anniversary celebrations, French president Charles De Gaulle visited Canada, and caused a considerable uproar by declaring his support for Québécois independence.

Popular culture

The counterculture movement dominated the second half of the 1960s, its most famous moments being the Summer of Love in San Francisco in 1967, and the Woodstock Festival in upstate New York in 1969. Psychedelic drugs, especially LSD, were widely used medicinally, spiritually and recreationally throughout the late 1960s, and were popularized by Timothy Leary with his slogan "Turn on, tune in, drop out". Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters also played a part in the role of "turning heads on". Psychedelic influenced the music, artwork and films of the decade, and a number of prominent musicians died of drug overdoses (see 27 Club). There was a growing interest in Eastern religions and philosophy, and many attempts were made to found communes, which varied from supporting free love to religious puritanism.

Music

Popular music entered an era of "all hits", as numerous artists released recordings, beginning in the 1950s, as 45-rpm "singles" (with another on the flip side), and radio stations tended to play only the most popular of the wide variety of records being made. Also, bands tended to record only the best of their songs as a chance to become a hit record. The taste of the American listeners expanded from the folksinger, doo-wop and saxophone sounds of the 1950s to the Motown sound, folk rock and the British Invasion. The Los Angeles and San Francisco Sound began in this period with many popular bands coming out of LA and the Haight-Ashbury district, well-known for its hippie culture. The rise of the counterculture movement, particularly among the youth, created a market for rock, soul, pop, reggae and blues music produced by drug-culture.

Significant events in music in the 1960s: Elvis Presley returns to civilian life in the USA after two years away in the U.S. Army. He resumes his musical career by recording "It's Now or Never" and "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" in March 1960.

Motown Record Corporation founded in 1960. Its first Top Ten hit was "Shop Around" by the Miracles in 1960. "Shop Around" peaked at number-two on the Billboard Hot 100, and was Motown's first million-selling record.

Joan Baez headlines at the Newport Folk Festival, leading to a contract with Vanguard Records; her debut album would be released in December 1960,

The Marvelettes scored Motown Record Corporation's first US #1 pop hit, "Please Mr. Postman" in 1961. Motown would score 110 Billboard Top-Ten hits during its run.

The Four Seasons released three straight number one hits

In a widely anticipated and publicized event, The Beatles arrive in America in February 1964, spearheading the British Invasion.

The ''Mary Poppins'' Original Soundtrack tops record charts. Sherman Brothers receive Grammys and double Oscars.

Lesley Gore: At age 17 hits Number one on Billboard with "It's My Party" and '64 with Number 2 "You Don't Own Me" behind the Beatles "I Wanna Hold Your Hand."

The Supremes scored twelve number one hit singles between 1964 and 1969, beginning with "Where Did Our Love Go".

The Kinks release "You Really Got Me" in late 1964, which tops the British charts; it is regarded as the first hard rock hit and a blueprint for related genres, such as heavy metal.

John Coltrane releases ''A Love Supreme'' in late 1964, considered among the most acclaimed jazz albums of the era.

The Grateful Dead was formed in 1965 (originally The Warlocks) thus paving the way, giving birth to Acid rock.

Bob Dylan goes electric at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival.

Cilla Black's number one hit "Anyone who had a Heart" still remains the top selling single by a female artist in the UK from 1964.

The Rolling Stones have a huge #1 hit with their song "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" in the summer of 1965.

The Byrds release a cover of Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man", which reached #1 on the U.S. charts and repeated the feat in the U.K. shortly thereafter. The extremely influential track effectively creates the musical subgenre of folk rock.

Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone" is a top-five hit on both sides of the Atlantic during the summer of 1965.

Bob Dylan's 1965 albums Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited usher in album focused rock and the "folk rock" genre.

Simon and Garfunkel release The Sounds of Silence single in 1965.

The Beach Boys release ''Pet Sounds'' in 1966, which significantly influenced the Beatles Sgt. Pepper album a year later.

Bob Dylan is called "Judas" by an audience member during the legendary Manchester Free Trade Hall concert, the start of the Bootleg recording industry follows, with recordings of this concert circulating for 30 years – wrongly labeled as – ''The Royal Albert Hall Concert'' before a legitimate release in 1998 as ''The Bootleg Series Vol. 4: Bob Dylan Live 1966, The "Royal Albert Hall" Concert.''

In February 1966, Nancy Sinatra's song "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" became very popular.

In 1966, ''The Supremes A' Go-Go'' was the first album by a female group to reach the top position of the ''Billboard'' magazine pop albums chart in the United States.

The Seekers are the first Australian Group to have a number one with "Georgy Girl" in 1966.

Jefferson Airplane released the influential ''Surrealistic Pillow'' in 1967.

The Velvet Underground release their influential self-titled debut album ''The Velvet Underground & Nico'' in 1967.

The Doors release their self-titled debut album ''The Doors' in January 1967'.

Love release ''Forever Changes'' in 1967.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience release two successful albums during 1967 ''Are You Experienced'' and ''Axis: Bold as Love'' that innovate both guitar, trio and recording techniques.

The Beatles release the seminal concept album ''Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'' in June 1967.

The Moody Blues release the album ''Days of Future Passed'' in November 1967.

*R & B legend Otis Redding has his first No. 1 hit with the legendary Sitting on the Dock of the Bay. He also played at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 just before he died in a plane crash.

Pink Floyd releases their debut record ''The Piper at the Gates of Dawn''.

Bob Dylan releases the Country rock album ''John Wesley Harding'' in December 1967.

The Bee Gees release their international debut album ''Bee Gees 1st'' in July 1967 which contains the pop standard "To Love Somebody".

The Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 was the beginning of the so-called "Summer of Love".

Johnny Cash releases ''At Folsom Prison'' in 1968

1968: after The Yardbirds fold, Led Zeppelin is formed by Jimmy Page and manager Peter Grant, with Robert Plant, John Bonham and John Paul Jones; and, released their debut album ''Led Zeppelin''.

The Band releases the roots rock album ''Music from Big Pink'' in 1968.

Big Brother and the Holding Company, with Janis Joplin as lead singer, becomes an overnight sensation after their performance at Monterey Pop in 1967 and release their massively successful second album ''Cheap Thrills'' in 1968.

Gram Parsons with The Byrds releases the extremely influential LP ''Sweetheart of the Rodeo'' in late 1968, forming the basis for country rock.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience release the highly influential double LP ''Electric Ladyland'' in 1968 that furthered the guitar and studio innovations of his previous two albums.

Simon and Garfunkel release the single Mrs. Robinson in 1968 featured in the film The Graduate.

Sly & the Family Stone revolutionize black music with their massive 1968 hit single "Dance to the Music" and by 1969 became international sensations with the release of their hit record ''Stand!''. The band cemented their position as a vital counterculture band when they performed at the Woodstock Festival.

The Rolling Stones film the TV special ''The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus'' in December 1968 but the film is not released for transmission. Considered for decades as a fabled 'lost' performance until released in North America on Laserdisc and VHS in 1996. Features performances from The Who; The Dirty Mac featuring John Lennon, Eric Clapton and Mitch Mitchell; Jethro Tull and Taj Mahal.

The Woodstock Festival, and four months later, the Altamont Free Concert in 1969.

The Who release and tour the first rock opera ''Tommy'' in 1969.

Proto-punk band MC5 release the live album ''Kick Out The Jams'' in 1969.

Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band release the avant garde ''Trout Mask Replica'' in 1969.

The Stooges release their debut album in 1969.

The Flying Burrito Brothers released their influential debut ''The Gilded Palace of Sin'' in 1969.

King Crimson released their debut album In the Court of the Crimson King in 1969.

Film

The highest-grossing film of the decade was 20th Century Fox's The Sound of Music.

Some of Hollywood's most notable blockbuster films of the 1960s include: ''Psycho'', ''Breakfast at Tiffany's, Spartacus, Lawrence of Arabia, The Hustler, Carnival of Souls; The Birds, The Pink Panther, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb; Mary Poppins, The Sound of Music; Doctor Zhivago, The Jungle Book, The Dirty Dozen, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid; Bonnie and Clyde; Cool Hand Luke; The Graduate; Rosemary's Baby; Midnight Cowboy; Head; Medium Cool; 2001: A Space Odyssey; Faces; Night of the Living Dead; Easy Rider; Ice Station Zebra; Planet of the Apes; The Lion In Winter; The Wild Bunch''.

The counterculture movement had a significant effect on cinema. Movies began to break social taboos such as sex and violence causing both controversy and fascination. They turned increasingly dramatic, unbalanced, and hectic as the cultural revolution was starting. This was the beginning of the New Hollywood era that dominated the next decade in theatres and revolutionized the film industry. Films of this time also focused on the changes happening in the world. Dennis Hopper's ''Easy Rider'' (1969) focused on the drug culture of the time. Movies also became more sexually explicit, such as Roger Vadim's'' Barbarella'' (1968) as the counterculture progressed.

In Europe, Art Cinema gains wider distribution and sees movements like la Nouvelle Vague (The French New Wave) featuring French filmmakers such as Roger Vadim, François Truffaut, Alain Resnais, and Jean-Luc Godard; Cinéma Vérité documentary movement in Canada, France and the United States; Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman, Chilean filmmaker Alexandro Jodorowsky and Polish filmmakers Roman Polanski and Wojciech Jerzy Has produced original and offbeat masterpieces and the high-point of Italian filmmaking with Michelangelo Antonioni and Federico Fellini making some of their most known films during this period. Notable films from this period include: ''La Dolce Vita'', ''8½''; ''La Notte''; ''L'Eclisse'', ''The Red Desert''; ''Blowup''; ''Satyricon''; ''Accattone''; ''The Gospel According to St. Matthew''; ''Theorem''; ''Winter Light''; ''The Silence''; ''Persona''; ''Shame''; ''A Passion''; ''Au Hasard Balthazar''; ''Mouchette''; ''Last Year at Marienbad''; ''Chronique d'un été''; ''Titicut Follies''; ''High School''; ''Salesman''; ''La jetée''; ''Warrendale;'' ''Knife in the Water''; ''Repulsion''; ''The Saragossa Manuscript''; ''El Topo''; ''A Hard Day's Night''; and the cinema verite ''Dont Look Back''.

In Japan, a color version remake of director Kenji Mizoguchi's ''The 47 Ronin'', entitled ''Chushingura: Hana no Maki, Yuki no Maki'' directed by Hiroshi Inagaki was released in 1962, the legendary story was also remade as a television series in Japan. Academy Award winning Japanese director Akira Kurosawa produced ''Yojimbo'' (1961), and ''Sanjuro'' (1962), which both starred Toshirō Mifune as a mysterious Samurai swordsman for hire. Like his previous films both had a profound influence around the world. The ''Spaghetti Western'' genre was a direct outgrowth of the Kurosawa films. The influence of these films is most apparent in Sergio Leone's ''A Fistful of Dollars'' (1964) starring Clint Eastwood and Walter Hill's ''Last Man Standing'' (1996). ''Yojimbo'' was also the origin of the "Man with No Name" trend which included Sergio Leone's ''For a Few Dollars More,'' and ''The Good, The Bad and The Ugly'' both also starring Clint Eastwood, and arguably continued through his 1968 opus ''Once Upon a Time in the West'', starring Henry Fonda, Charles Bronson, Claudia Cardinale, and Jason Robards. ''The Magnificent Seven'' a 1960 American western film directed by John Sturges was a remake of Akira Kurosawa's 1954 film, ''Seven Samurai''.

The 1960s were also about experimentation. With the explosion of light-weight and affordable cameras, the underground avant-garde film movement thrived. Canada's Michael Snow, Americans Kenneth Anger. Stan Brakhage, Andy Warhol, and Jack Smith. Notable films in this genre are: ''Dog Star Man''; ''Scorpio Rising''; ''Wavelength''; ''Chelsea Girls''; ''Blow Job''; ''Vinyl''; ''Flaming Creatures''.

Significant events in the film industry in the 1960s:

Removal of the Motion Picture Association of America's Production Code in 1967.

The decline and end of the Studio System.

The rise of 'art house' films and theaters.

The end of the classical hollywood cinema era.

The beginning of the New Hollywood Era due to the counterculture.

The rise of independent producers that worked outside of the Studio System.

Move to all-color production in Hollywood films.

The invention of the Nagra 1/4", sync-sound, portable open-reel tape deck.

Expo 67 where new film formats like Imax were invented and new ways of displaying film were tested.

Flat-bed film editing tables appear, like the Steenbeck, they eventually replace the Moviola editing platform.

The French New Wave.

Direct Cinema and Cinéma vérité documentaries.

The decline and end of The Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies .

Television

The most prominent American TV series of the 1960s include: The Ed Sullivan Show, Peyton Place, I Dream of Jeannie, The Twilight Zone, The Andy Williams Show, The Dean Martin Show, The Wonderful World of Disney, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Beverly Hillbillies, Bonanza, McHale's Navy, Laugh-In, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Fugitive, The Tonight Show, Gunsmoke, Mission: Impossible, The Flintstones, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, Lassie, The Danny Thomas Show, The Lucy Show, My Three Sons, The Red Skelton Show and Bewitched. The Flintstones was a favoured show, receiving 40 million views an episode with an average of 3 views a day.

In the UK, Doctor Who appeared on TV for the first time on 23 November 1963. The series has entered the Guinness book of world records as the longest-running television show to date.

Walt Disney, owner of Walt Disney Co. died on December 15, 1966 from a major tumor in his left lung.

Fashion

Significant fashion trends of the 1960s include:

The Beatles exerted an enormous influence on young men's fashions and hairstyles in the 1960s which included most notably the mop-top haircut, the Beatle boots and the Nehru jacket.

The hippie movement late in the decade also had a strong influence on clothing styles, including bell-bottom jeans, tie-dye and batik fabrics, as well as paisley prints.

The bikini finally came into fashion in 1963 after being featured in the film ''Beach Party''.

Mary Quant invented the mini-skirt which became the rage in the late 1960s.

Men's mainstream hairstyles ranged from the pompadour, the crew cut, the flattop hairstyle, the tapered hairstyle, and short, parted hair in the early part of the decade to longer parted hairstyles with sideburns towards the latter half of the decade.

Women's mainstream hairstyles ranged from beehive hairdos and the chignon hairstyle in the early part of the decade to very short styles popularized by Twiggy and Mia Farrow in Rosemary's Baby towards the latter half of the decade.

African-American hairstyles for men and women included the afro.

Sports

Olympics

There were six Olympic Games held during the decade. These were:

1960 XVII Summer Olympics—Rome, Italy

1960 VIII Winter Olympics—Squaw Valley Ski Resort, United States

1964 XVIII Summer Olympics—Tokyo, Japan

1964 IX Winter Olympics—Innsbruck, Austria

1968 XIX Summer Olympics—Mexico City, Mexico

1968 X Winter Olympics—Grenoble, France

Association football

There were two FIFA World Cups during the decade:

1962 FIFA World Cup — hosted in Chile, won by Brazil

1966 FIFA World Cup — hosted and won by England

Baseball

Major League Baseball expansion in 1961 included the formation of the Los Angeles Angels, the move to Minnesota to become the Minnesota Twins by the former Washington Senators and the formation of a new franchise called the Washington Senators. Major League Baseball sanctioned both the Houston Colt .45s and the New York Mets as new National League franchises in 1962.

In 1969, the American League expanded when the Kansas City Royals and Seattle Pilots, were admitted to the league prompting the expansion of the post-season for the first time since the creation of the World Series. The Pilots stayed just one season in Seattle before moving and becoming the Milwaukee Brewers in 1970. The National League also added two teams in 1969, the Montreal Expos and San Diego Padres. By 1969, at the end of the 1960s the New York Mets won the World Series in only the 8th year of the team's existence.

Racing

In motorsports, the Can Am and Trans-Am series were both established in 1966. The Ford GT40 won outright in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Graham Hill edged out Jackie Stewart and Denny Hulme for the World Championship in Formula One.

People

World leaders

Prime Minister Robert Menzies (Australia)

Prime Minister Harold Holt (Australia)

Prime Minister John McEwen (Australia)

Prime Minister John Gorton (Australia)

President João Goulart (Brazil)

President Humberto de Alencar Castelo Branco (Brazil)

President Alberto Lleras Camargo (Colombia)

President Guillermo León Valencia (Colombia)

President Carlos Lleras Restrepo (Colombia)

Prime Minister John Diefenbaker (Canada)

Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson (Canada)

Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau (Canada)

Chairman Mao Zedong (People's Republic of China)

President Chiang Kai-shek (Republic of China on Taiwan)

Prime Minister Viggo Kampmann (Denmark)

Prime Minister Jens Otto Krag (Denmark)

Prime Minister Hilmar Baunsgaard (Denmark)

President Gamal Abdel Nasser (Egypt)

Emperor Haile Selassie I (Ethiopia)

President Urho Kekkonen (Finland)

President Charles de Gaulle (France)

Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru (India)

Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri (India)

Prime Minister Indira Gandhi (India)

Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (Iran)

President Muhammad Najib ar-Ruba'i (Iraq)

President Abdul Salam Arif (Iraq)

President Abd ar-Rahman al-Bazzaz (Iraq) (acting)

President Abdul Rahman Arif (Iraq)

President Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr (Iraq)

Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion (Israel)

Prime Minister Levi Eshkol (Israel)

Emperor Hirohito (Japan)

Pope John XXIII

Pope Paul VI

King Idris of the Kingdom of Libya (Libya)

President Muammar Gaddafi of the Libyan Arab Republic (Libya) - from 1969

Prime Minister Walter Nash (New Zealand)

Prime Minister Keith Holyoake (New Zealand)

Prime Minister Basil Brooke (Northern Ireland)

Prime Minister Terence O'Neill (Northern Ireland)

Prime Minister James Chichester-Clark (Northern Ireland)

Governor Luis A. Ferré (Commonwealth of Puerto Rico)

President Fernando Belaunde Terry (Peru)

President Juan Velasco Alvarado (Peru)

Taoiseach Sean Lemass (Republic of Ireland)

Taoiseach Jack Lynch (Republic of Ireland)

Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev (Soviet Union)

Leonid Brezhnev (Soviet Union)

Prime Minister Suleyman Demirel (Turkey)

Elizabeth II (United Kingdom), (New Zealand), (Australia), (Canada).

Prime Minister Harold Macmillan (United Kingdom)

Prime Minister Harold Wilson (United Kingdom)

President Dwight D. Eisenhower (United States) - until 1961

President John F. Kennedy (United States)

President Lyndon Johnson (United States)

President Richard Nixon (United States)

Chancellor Konrad Adenauer (West Germany)

Chancellor Ludwig Erhard (West Germany)

Chancellor Kurt Georg Kiesinger (West Germany)

President for Life Josip Broz Tito (Yugoslavia)

Prime Minister Fidel Castro Ruz (Cuba)

President Fouad Chehab (Lebanon)

President Ayub Khan (Islamic Republic of Pakistan)

Political figures

Konrad Adenauer

Ella Baker

Leonid Brezhnev

Stokely Carmichael

Fidel Castro

César Chávez

Sir Winston Churchill

Park Chung-Hee

Ramsey Clark

Moshe Dayan

Abba Eban

Charles de Gaulle

Barry Goldwater

Andrei Gromyko

Che Guevara

Chiang Kai-shek

David Ben-Gurion

Averell Harriman

Tom Hayden

Abbie Hoffman

J. Edgar Hoover

Hubert Humphrey

Lyndon Baines Johnson

Edward M. Kennedy

John F. Kennedy

Robert F. Kennedy

Martin Luther King Jr.

Nikita S. Khrushchev

John Lindsay

Ferdinand Marcos

Harold Macmillan

Eugene McCarthy

Robert McNamara

Golda Meir

Robert Menzies

Ho Chi Minh

Robin Morgan

Gamal Abdel Nasser

Huey P. Newton

Richard M. Nixon

Lester B. Pearson

Ronald Reagan

Jackie Robinson

Nelson A. Rockefeller

George Romney

Eleanor Roosevelt

Dean Rusk

Eisaku Sato

Mario Savio

Bobby Seale

Margaret Chase Smith

Soong Ching-ling

Gloria Steinem

Adlai Stevenson II

Suharto

U Thant

Pierre Elliot Trudeau

George Wallace

Earl Warren

Harold Wilson

Malcolm X

Mao Zedong

Activists

Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Dick Gregory

Musicians

Paul Anka

Chuck Berry

Ray Manzarek

Freddie Mercury

Louis Armstrong

Joan Baez

Syd Barrett

Harry Belafonte

Johnny Cash

Mama Cass

Eric Clapton

Andy Williams

Leonard Cohen

Judy Collins

Sam Cooke

John Coltrane

David Crosby

Roger Daltrey

Bobby Darin

Miles Davis

Donovan

Judith Durham

Bob Dylan

John Entwistle

Ella Fitzgerald

John Fogerty

Jerry Garcia

Lesley Gore

George Harrison

Jimi Hendrix

Mick Jagger

Brian Jones

Janis Joplin

Freddie King

Kris Kristofferson

John Lennon

Phil Lesh

Bob Marley

Dean Martin

Paul McCartney

Joni Mitchell

Keith Moon

Jim Morrison

Van Morrison

Rick Nelson

Bob Neuwirth

Odetta

Jimmy Page

Robert Plant

Art Pepper

Elvis Presley

Lou Reed

Keith Richards

Diana Ross

Jimmie Rodgers

Pete Seeger

Paul Simon

Frank Sinatra

Grace Slick

Dusty Springfield

Ringo Starr

Steven Stills

Karlheinz Stockhausen

Sly Stone

Pete Townshend

Bob Weir

Brian Wilson

Neil Young

Frank Zappa

Entertainers

Woody Allen

Ed Ames

Julie Andrews

Jerry Mathers

jon Provost

Brigitte Bardot

Warren Beatty

Marlon Brando

Lenny Bruce

Yul Brynner

Richard Burton

Tony Curtis

Doris Day

Sandra Dee

Kirk Douglas

Clint Eastwood

Jane Fonda

Peter Fonda

Cary Grant

Audrey Hepburn

Katharine Hepburn

Charlton Heston

Dustin Hoffman

Dennis Hopper

Rock Hudson

Grace Kelly

Burt Lancaster

Janet Leigh

Jerry Lewis

Jack Lemmon

Sophia Loren

Marcello Mastroianni

Shirley McClaine

Robert Mitchum

Marilyn Monroe

Elizabeth Montgomery

Jeanne Moreau

Paul Newman

Kim Novak

Lawrence Olivier

Peter O'Toole

Al Pacino

Gregory Peck

Anthony Perkins

Anthony Quinn

Cesar Romero

Mort Sahl

Omar Sharif

Edie Sedgwick

Peter Sellers

Jean Shepherd

James Stewart

Barbra Streisand

Sharon Tate

Elizabeth Taylor

Dick Van Dyke

John Wayne

Adam West

Shelley Winters

Film makers

Stanley Kubrick

Alfred Hitchcock

Orson Welles

Roman Polanski

Federico Fellini

Jean-Luc Godard

Ingmar Bergman

Alain Resnais

Sergio Leone

Kenneth Anger

Michelangelo Antonioni

Stan Brakhage

Claude Chabrol

Montgomery Clift

Allan King

Richard Leacock

Louis Malle

Albert and David Maysles

D. A. Pennebaker

Pier Paolo Pasolini

Jacques Rivette

Éric Rohmer

George A. Romero

Jean Rouch

François Truffaut

Frederick Wiseman

Intellectuals

Richard Alpert aka Baba Ram Dass

Louis Althusser

Roland Barthes

Simone de Beauvoir

William F. Buckley

Truman Capote

Rachel Carson

Noam Chomsky

Jacques Derrida

Michel Foucault

Betty Friedan

Milton Friedman

Allen Ginsberg

Václav Havel

Jane Jacobs

Ken Kesey

Timothy Leary

Norman Mailer

Marshall McLuhan

Arthur Miller

Michael Novak

Bertrand Russell

Carl Sagan

Jean-Paul Sartre

Susan Sontag

Hunter S. Thompson

Alan Watts

Tom Wolfe

Samir Roychoudhury

Writers

Edward Abbey

Edward Albee

Isaac Asimov

Paul Avery

J. G. Ballard

Amiri Baraka

Gwendolyn Brooks

Anthony Burgessbla

Basil Bunting

William S. Burroughs

Arthur C. Clarke

Joseph Campbell

Truman Capote

Carlos Castaneda

Gregory Corso

Noël Coward

R. Crumb

Philip K. Dick

Jules Feiffer

Louise Fitzhugh

Paul Goodman

Seamus Heaney

Robert A. Heinlein

Joseph Heller

Frank Herbert

S.E. Hinton

Ken Kesey

John Knowles

Philip Larkin

Harper Lee

Gabriel García Márquez

Arthur Miller

Thomas Pynchon

Jean Rhys

J.D. Salinger

Charles Schulz

Dr. Seuss

Terry Southern

John Steinbeck

Tom Stoppard

Hunter S. Thompson

Gore Vidal

Kurt Vonnegut

Jack Kerouac

Malay Roy Choudhury

Visual artists, painters and sculptors

Francis Bacon

Jo Baer

Walter Darby Bannard

Artur Barrio

Peter Blake

Larry Bell

Lynda Benglis

Louise Bourgeois

Joan Brown

Sir Anthony Caro

John Chamberlain

Dan Christensen

Chryssa

Bruce Connor

Joseph Cornell

R. Crumb

Gene Davis

Ronald Davis

Jay DeFeo

Richard Diebenkorn

Marcel Duchamp

Marisol Escobar

Jules Feiffer

Dan Flavin

Sam Francis

Helen Frankenthaler

Red Grooms

Mimi Gross

Philip Guston

Grace Hartigan

Michael Heizer

Al Held

Eva Hesse

David Hockney

Hans Hofmann

Robert Indiana

Al Jaffee

Jaxon

Jasper Johns

Donald Judd

Allan Kaprow

Alex Katz

Jack Kirby

Ellsworth Kelly

Elaine de Kooning

Willem de Kooning

Lee Krasner

Ronnie Landfield

Stan Lee

Sol LeWitt

Roy Lichtenstein

Morris Louis

Robert Mangold

Brice Marden

Agnes Martin

Peter Max

Joan Mitchell

Robert Morris

Robert Motherwell

Bruce Nauman

Manuel Neri

Louise Nevelson

Barnett Newman

Kenneth Noland

Claes Oldenburg

Jules Olitski

Nam June Paik

Larry Poons

Robert Rauschenberg

Bridget Riley

Larry Rivers

James Rosenquist

Mark Rothko

Robert Ryman

Lucas Samaras

George Segal

Richard Serra

David Smith

Tony Smith

Robert Smithson

Frank Stella

Jim Steranko

Clyfford Still

Mark Di Suvero

Paul Thek

Ernest Trova

Richard Tuttle

Andy Warhol

John Wesley

Tom Wesselmann

Hannah Wilke

Peter Young

Larry Zox

Sports figures

Wilt Chamberlain

Joe Namath

Bobby Moore

Bobby Charlton

Buddy Rogers

Chuck Bednarik

Bill Russell

George Best

Denis Law

Alan Ball

Nobby Stiles

Pele

Jimmy Greaves

Geoff Hurst

Bill Shankly

Jimmy Johnstone

Gordon Banks

Eusebio

Jack Charlton

Matt Busby

Lev Yashin

Garrincha

Alfredo Di Stefano

Alf Ramsey

Martin Peters

Giacinto Facchetti

Boxing

Muhammad Ali

Cus D'Amato (trainer)

Angelo Dundee (trainer)

Duilio Loi

Antonio Roldán

Eddie Futch (trainer)

Fighting Harada

Laszlo Papp

Henry Cooper

See also

1960s in music

1960s in fashion

1960s in television

1960s in literature

''The Sixties Unplugged'' (book)

Timeline

The following articles contain brief timelines which list the most prominent events of the decade:

1960 • 1961 • 1962 • 1963 • 1964 • 1965 • 1966 • 1967 • 1968 • 1969

References

External links

The 1960s: A Bibliography

CBC Digital Archives — 1960s a GoGo

The Sixties Project

Heroes of the 1960s — slideshow by ''Life magazine''

The 60s: Literary Tradition and Social Change, exhibit at the University of Virginia, Library, Special Collections.

1960s protest movements in America

The 1960s in Europe (Online Teaching and Research Guide)

The 1960s — Articles, Video, Pictures, and Facts

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name	Carmen McRae
background	solo_singer
birth name	Carmen Mercedes McRae
alias	"The Singer's Singer"
birth date	April 08, 1920
died	November 10, 1994Beverly Hills, California, United States
origin	Harlem, New York City, New York, United States
instrument	Piano
genre	Vocal jazz, bebop, traditional pop
occupation	Singer, pianist
years active	1944s–1994
label	Decca, Verve, Atlantic, Novus, Columbia, Blue Note, Concord, Buddah
associated acts	Sammy Davis, Jr.Cal TjaderGeorge ShearingDave Brubeck}}

Carmen Mercedes McRae (April 8, 1920 – November 10, 1994) was an American jazz singer, composer, pianist, and actress. Considered one of the most influential jazz vocalists of the 20th century, it was her behind-the-beat phrasing and her ironic interpretations of song lyrics that made her memorable. McRae drew inspiration from Billie Holiday, but established her own distinctive voice. She went on to record over 60 albums, enjoying a rich musical career, performing and recording in the United States, Europe, and Japan.

Biography

McRae was born in Harlem to Jamaican immigrant parents, Osmond and Evadne McRae. She began studying piano when she was eight, and the music of jazz greats like Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington filled her home. She met singer Billie Holiday when she was just 17 years old. As a teenager McRae came to the attention of Teddy Wilson and his wife, the composer Irene Kitchings Wilson. One of McRae's early songs, "Dream of Life" through their influence, was recorded in 1939 by Wilson’s longtime collaborator Billie Holiday. McRae considered Holiday to be her primary influence.

In her late teens and early twenties, McRae played piano at a New York club called Minton's Playhouse, Harlem's most famous jazz club, sang as a chorus girl, and worked as a secretary. It was at Minton's where she met trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, bassist Oscar Pettiford, and drummer Kenny Clarke. Had her first important job as a pianist with the Benny Carter's big band (1944), worked with Count Basie (1944) and made first recording as pianist with Mercer Ellington Band (1946–1947). But it was while working in Brooklyn that she came to the attention of Decca’s Milt Gabler. Her five year association with Decca yielded 12 LPs.

In 1948 she moved to Chicago with comedian George Kirby. She played piano steadily for almost four years before returning to New York. Those years in Chicago, McRae told Jazz Forum, "gave me whatever it is that I have now. That's the most prominent schooling I ever had." Back in New York in the early 1950s, McRae got the record contract that launched her career. In 1954, she was voted best new female vocalist by Down Beat magazine. She married bassist Ike Isaacs in the late 1950s.

Among her most interesting recording projects were ''Mad About The Man'' (1957) with composer Noël Coward, ''Boy Meets Girl'' (1957) with Sammy Davis, Jr., participating in Dave Brubeck's ''The Real Ambassadors'' (1961) with Louis Armstrong, a tribute album ''You're Lookin' at Me (A Collection of Nat King Cole Songs)'' (1983), cutting an album of live duets with Betty Carter, ''The Carmen McRae-Betty Carter Duets'' (1987), being accompanied by Dave Brubeck and George Shearing, and closing her career with brilliant tributes to Thelonious Monk, ''Carmen Sings Monk'' (1990), and Sarah Vaughan, ''Sarah: Dedicated to You'' (1991).

As a result of her early friendship with Billie Holiday, she never performed without singing at least one song associated with "Lady Day", and recorded an album in 1983 in her honor entitled ''For Lady Day'', which was released in 1995. Some songs included are; "Good Morning Heartache", "Them There Eyes", "Lover Man", "God Bless the Child", "Don't Explain", just to name a few. McRae also recorded with the world best jazz musicians, ''Take Five Live'' (1961) with Dave Brubeck, ''Heat Wave'' (1982) with Cal Tjader, and ''Two for the Road'' (1989) with George Shearing.

Carmen McRae sang in jazz clubs throughout the United States—and across the world—for over fifty years. McRae was a popular performer at the legendary Monterey Jazz Festival (1961–1963, 1966, 1971, 1973, 1982). Performing with Duke Ellington's at the North Sea Jazz Festival in 1980, singing "Don't Get Around Much Any More", and at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1989.

Carmen McRae was forced to retire in 1991 due to emphysema. McRae died on November 10, 1994, in Beverly Hills, California from a stroke, following complications from respiratory illness.

Awards

{| class=wikitable |- | colspan=5 align=center | Carmen McRae Grammy Award Recognitions |- ! Year ! Category ! Title ! Label ! Result |- align=center | 1990 | Best Jazz Vocal Performance - Female | ''Carmen Sings Monk'' | Novus | Nominee |- align=center | 1988 | Best Jazz Vocal Performance - Female | ''Fine and Mellow'' | Concord Jazz | Nominee |- align=center | 1988 | Best Jazz Vocal Performance - Duo or Group | ''The Carmen McRae-Betty Carter Duets'' | Great American Music Hall | Nominee |- align=center | 1987 | Best Jazz Vocal Performance - Female | ''Any Old Time'' | Denon | Nominee |- align=center | 1984 | Best Jazz Vocal Performance | ''You're Lookin' at Me (A Collection of Nat King Cole Songs)'' | Concord Jazz | Nominee |- align=center | 1977 | Best Jazz Vocal Performance | ''Carmen McRae at the Great American Music Hall'' | Blue Note | Nominee |- align=center | 1971 | Best Jazz Performance - Soloist | ''Carmen McRae'' | Atlantic | Nominee |- align=center |}

{| class=wikitable |- | colspan=5 align=center | Carmen McRae Awards |- ! Year ! Organization ! Category ! Result |- align=center | 1994 | National Endowment for the Arts | NEA Jazz Masters | Winner |- align=center | 1993 | NAACP | NAACP Image Awards | Winner |- align=center |- align=center |}

Filmography

Movies

1986: "Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling", played the grandmother 1967: "Hotel", played Christine 1960: "The Subterraneans", played herself 1956: "The Square Jungle", herself

Television

1982: "L. A. Jazz"

1981: "Billie Holiday. A Tribute"

1981: "At the Palace"

1980: "From Jumpstreet"

1979: "Roots: The Next Generations", played Lila

1979: "Carmen McRae in Concert"

1976: "Sammy and Company"

1976: "Soul"

Discography

!Year	!Title	!Label
1990	''Sarah: Dedicated to You''	Novus
1988	''Carmen Sings Monk''	Novus
1988	''Fine and Mellow: Live at Birdland West'' (Live)	Concord
1987	''The Carmen McRae-Betty Carter Duets'' (Live, with Betty Carter)	Great American Music Hall
1987		Blue Music Group
1983	''You're Lookin' at Me (A Collection of Nat King Cole Songs)''	Concord Jazz
1982		Concord Jazz
1980		Concord Jazz
1975	''Live at Century Plaza''	Atlantic
1972	''The Great American Songbook''	Atlantic
1970	''Just a Little Lovin'''	Atlantic
1967	''Portrait of Carmen''	Atlantic
1967	''Sounds of Silence''	Atlantic
1967	''For Once in My Life''	Atlantic
1965	''Alive!''	Columbia
1962	''Something Wonderful''	Columbia
1962	''The Real Ambassadors''	Columbia
1961	''Carmen McRae Sings Lover Man and other Billie Holiday Classics''	Columbia
1961	''Take Five Live''	Columbia
1960	''Book of Ballads''	Kapp
1958		Decca
1958	''Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday at Newport'' (Released 2001)	Verve
1957	''After Glow''	Decca
1956	''Blue Moon''	Decca
1955	''Torchy''	Decca
1954	''Easy to Love''	Bethlehem
1954	''Carmen McRae''	Bethlehem

References

External links

Carmen McRae Full Discography

Carmen McRae Discography

Filmography

Carmen McRae's Artist Page

Category:Deaths from stroke Category:Deaths from emphysema Category:Vocal jazz musicians Category:Bebop singers Category:African American musicians Category:African American female singers Category:American jazz pianists Category:American jazz singers Category:American musicians of Jamaican descent Category:LGBT African Americans Category:People from Harlem Category:People from the Greater Los Angeles Area Category:Traditional pop music singers Category:Torch singers Category:Women in jazz Category:1920 births Category:1994 deaths

de:Carmen McRae es:Carmen McRae fr:Carmen McRae ko:카르맨 맥레이 it:Carmen McRae nl:Carmen McRae ja:カーメン・マクレエ pl:Carmen McRae fi:Carmen McRae sv:Carmen McRae

name	Bugs Bunny
first
latest	''The Looney Tunes Show'' (2011)
creator	}}

}}}} | nickname = Bugs | species = Rabbit or hare(see below) | gender = Male | significantother = Lola BunnyHoney Bunny (former) | voice = Mel Blanc, (1938–1989)Jeff Bergman (1990–1993; 2011–)(see below) }}

Bugs Bunny is a fictional animated character who starred in the ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies'' series of animated films produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions, which became Warner Bros. Cartoons in 1944. Bugs starred in 167 shorts during the Golden Age of American animation, and cameoed in many others, including few appearances in non-animated films. He is an anthropomorphic hare or rabbit.

According to ''Bugs Bunny: 50 Years and Only One Grey Hare'', he was born on July 27, 1940 in Brooklyn, New York in a warren under Ebbets Field, home of the Brooklyn Dodgers. In reality, he was created by many animators and staff, including Tex Avery, who directed ''A Wild Hare'', Bugs' debut role, and Robert McKimson, who created the definitive "Bugs Bunny" character design. According to Mel Blanc, the character's original voice actor, Bugs has a Flatbush accent. Bugs has had numerous catchphrases, the most prominent being a casual "Eh... What's up, doc?", usually said while chewing a carrot.

He is the most prominent of the Looney Tunes characters as his calm, flippant insouciance endeared him to American audiences during and after World War II. He is also a mascot of the Looney Tunes, as well as Warner Bros. in general.

History

Happy Rabbit

thumb|left|550px|A depiction of Bugs Bunny's evolution through the years.A rabbit (named as "Happy Rabbit") with some of the personality of Bugs, though looking very different, first appears in the cartoon short ''Porky's Hare Hunt'', released on April 30, 1938. Co-directed by Ben "Bugs" Hardaway and an uncredited Cal Dalton (who was responsible for the initial design of Happy), this short has an almost identical plot to Tex Avery's 1937 cartoon ''Porky's Duck Hunt'', which had introduced Daffy Duck. Porky Pig is again cast as a hunter tracking a silly prey less interested in escape than in driving his pursuer insane. The latter short replaces the little black duck with a small white rabbit. Happy introduces himself with the odd expression "Jiggers, fellers", and Mel Blanc gave Happy a voice and laugh almost like that he would later use for Woody Woodpecker. This cartoon also first uses the famous Groucho Marx line, "Of course you realize, this means war!" This rabbit was so popular with its audience that the Schlesinger staff decided to use it again.

Happy appears again in 1939's ''Prest-O Change-O'', directed by Chuck Jones, where he is the pet rabbit of unseen character Sham-Fu the Magician. Two dogs, fleeing the local dogcatcher, enter his absent master's house. Happy harasses them, but is ultimately bested by the bigger of the two dogs.

His third appearance is in another 1939 cartoon, ''Hare-um Scare-um'', directed by Dalton and Hardaway. This short, the first where he is depicted as a gray bunny instead of a white one, is also notable for Happy's first singing role. Charlie Thorson, lead animator on the short, gave the character a name. He had written "Bugs' Bunny" on the model sheet that he drew for Hardaway, implying that he considered the rabbit model sheet to be Hardaway's property. In promotional material for the short, including a surviving 1939 presskit, the name on the model sheet was altered to become the rabbit's own name: "Bugs" Bunny (quotation marks only used at the very beginning). In his later years, Mel Blanc stated that a proposed name was "Happy Rabbit". Oddly, "Happy" was only used in reference to Bugs Hardaway. In the cartoon ''Hare-um Scare-um'', a newspaper headline reads, "Happy Hardaway".

In Chuck Jones' ''Elmer's Candid Camera'' Happy first meets Elmer Fudd. This rabbit looks more like the present-day Bugs, taller and with a similar face. This rabbit, however, speaks with a rural drawl. The early version of Elmer is also different from the present-day one, much fatter and taller, although Arthur Q. Bryan's voice is the same as it would be later. In Robert Clampett's 1940 ''Patient Porky'', a similar rabbit appears to trick the audience into thinking that 750 rabbits have been born.

Bugs Bunny emerges

''A Wild Hare'', directed by Tex Avery and released on July 27, 1940, is the first cartoon where both Elmer Fudd and Bugs are shown in their fully developed forms as hunter and tormentor. In this cartoon Mel Blanc first uses what would become Bugs' standard voice; this cartoon also marks the first time that Bugs uses his catchphrase, "What's up, Doc?" Animation historian Joe Adamson counts ''A Wild Hare'' as the first "official" Bugs Bunny short.

Bugs's second appearance, in Jones' ''Elmer's Pet Rabbit'', introduces the audience to the name Bugs Bunny, which until then had only been used among the Termite Terrace employees. It was also the first short where he received billing under his now-famous name, but the card, "featuring Bugs Bunny", was just slapped on the end of the completed short's opening titles when ''A Wild Hare'' proved an unexpected success. The rabbit here is in look and voice identical to the one in Jones' earlier ''Elmer's Candid Camera''.

Bugs in his ''Wild Hare'' likeness appeared in five more shorts during 1941. ''Tortoise Beats Hare'', directed by Tex Avery, features the first appearance of Cecil Turtle; ''Hiawatha's Rabbit Hunt'', is the first Bugs Bunny short directed by Friz Freleng; ''All This and Rabbit Stew'', directed by Avery, has Bugs tracked by a little African-American hunter (based heavily on racial stereotypes); ''The Heckling Hare'' was the final Bugs short Avery worked on before being fired (Avery and producer Schlesinger vehemently disagreed over the ending gag of The Heckling Hare, and Avery refused to compromise his creative principles) and leaving for MGM; and ''Wabbit Twouble'', the first Bugs short directed by Robert Clampett. ''Wabbit Twouble'' was also the first of five Bugs shorts to feature a chubbier remodel of Elmer Fudd, a short-lived attempt to have Fudd more closely resemble his voice actor, comedian Arthur Q. Bryan.

World War II

By 1942, Bugs had become the number one star of ''Merrie Melodies''. The series had originally been intended only for one-shot characters in shorts after several early attempts to introduce characters (Foxy, Goopy Geer and Piggy) failed under Harman–Ising. (In 1937, under Schlesinger, it had started introducing newer characters.) Bugs' 1942 shorts included Friz Freleng's ''The Wabbit Who Came to Supper'', and the Robert Clampett shorts ''The Wacky Wabbit'' and ''Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid'' (which introduced Beaky Buzzard). ''Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid'' shows a slight redesign of Bugs, with less-prominent front teeth and a rounder head. The character was reworked by Robert McKimson, then an animator in Robert Clampett's unit. The redesign at first was only used in the shorts created by Clampett's unit, but in time it would be taken up by the other directors, with Freleng and Frank Tashlin the first. When McKimson was himself promoted to director, he created yet another version, with more slanted eyes, longer teeth and a much larger mouth. He used this version until 1949 (as did Art Davis for the one Bugs Bunny cartoon he directed) when he started using the version he had designed for Clampett. Jones would come up with his own slight modification, and the voice had slight variations between the units.

Other 1942 Bugs shorts included Chuck Jones' ''Hold the Lion, Please'', Freleng's ''Fresh Hare'' and ''The Hare-Brained Hypnotist'' (which restores Elmer Fudd to his previous size), and Jones' ''Case of the Missing Hare''. Bugs also made cameos in Tex Avery's final Warner Bros. short, ''Crazy Cruise'', and stars in the two-minute United States war bonds commercial film ''Any Bonds Today''.

Bugs became more popular during World War II because of his free and easy attitude, and began receiving special star billing in his cartoons by 1943. By that time Warner Bros. had become the most profitable cartoon studio in the United States. In company with cartoon studios such as Disney and Famous Studios, Warners put its characters against Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, and the Japanese. The 1944 short ''Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips'' features Bugs at odds with a group of Japanese soldiers. This cartoon has since been pulled from distribution due to its racial stereotypes of Japanese people. He also faces off against Herman Goering and Hitler in ''Herr Meets Hare'', which introduced his well-known reference to Albuquerque as he mistakenly winds up in the Black Forest of 'Joimany' instead of Las Vegas, Nevada.

Since Bugs' debut in ''A Wild Hare'', he had appeared only in color ''Merrie Melodie'' cartoons (making him one of the few recurring characters created for that series in the Leon Schlesinger era prior to the full conversion to color), alongside Elmer's prototype Egghead, Inki, Sniffles, and Elmer himself—who was heard but not seen in the 1942 ''Looney Tunes'' cartoon ''Nutty News'', and made his first formal appearance in that series in 1943's ''To Duck or Not to Duck''. While he made a cameo appearance in the 1943 Porky and Daffy cartoon ''Porky Pig's Feat'' this was his only appearance in a black-and-white ''Looney Tune'' cartoon. He did not star in a cartoon in the ''Looney Tunes'' series until that series made its complete conversion to only color cartoons beginning with 1944 releases. ''Buckaroo Bugs'' was Bugs' first cartoon in the ''Looney Tunes'' series, and was also the last Warner Bros. cartoon to credit Leon Schlesinger.

Among his most notable civilian shorts during this period are Bob Clampett's ''Tortoise Wins by a Hare'' (a sequel to 1941's ''Tortoise Beats Hare''); ''A Corny Concerto'' (a spoof of Disney's ''Fantasia''); ''Falling Hare''; ''What's Cookin' Doc?''; Chuck Jones' ''Superman'' parody ''Super-Rabbit''; and Freleng's ''Little Red Riding Rabbit''. The 1944 short ''Bugs Bunny and the Three Bears'' introduces Jones' The Three Bears characters.

At the end of the cartoon ''Super-Rabbit'', Bugs appears wearing a United States Marine Corps dress blue uniform. As a result, the Marine Corps made Bugs an honorary Marine Master Sergeant. From 1943 to 1946, Bugs was the official mascot of Kingman Army Airfield, Kingman, Arizona, where thousands of aerial gunners were trained during World War II. Some notable trainees included Clark Gable and Charles Bronson. Bugs also served as the mascot for 530 Squadron of the 380th Bombardment Group, 5th Air Force, U.S. Air Force, which was attached to the Royal Australian Air Force and operated out of Australia's Northern Territory from 1943 to 1945, flying B-24 Liberator bombers. Bugs riding an air delivered torpedo served as the squadron logo for Marine Torpedo/Bomber Squadron 242 in the Second World War.

In 1944, Bugs Bunny made a cameo appearance in ''Jasper Goes Hunting'', a short produced by rival studio Paramount Pictures. In this cameo (animated by Robert McKimson, with Mel Blanc providing the voice), Bugs pops out of a rabbit hole, saying his usual catchphrase; Bugs then says, "I must be in the wrong picture" and then goes back in the hole. He also appears in the 1947 Arthur Davis cartoon ''The Goofy Gophers''

The post-war era

After World War II Bugs appeared in numerous cartoon shorts in the ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies'' series, making his last appearance in the theatrical cartoons in 1964 with ''False Hare''. He was directed by Friz Freleng, Robert McKimson, Arthur Davis and Chuck Jones and appeared in feature films, including ''Who Framed Roger Rabbit'' (which features the first-ever meeting between Bugs and his box-office rival Mickey Mouse), ''Space Jam'', and the 2003 movie ''Looney Tunes: Back in Action.''

The Bugs Bunny short ''Knighty Knight Bugs'' (1958), in which a medieval Bugs Bunny trades blows with Yosemite Sam and his fire-breathing dragon (which has a cold), won the Academy Award for Best Short Subject (Cartoons) of 1958. Three of Chuck Jones' Bugs Bunny shorts — ''Rabbit Fire'', ''Rabbit Seasoning'', and ''Duck! Rabbit, Duck!'' — comprise what is often referred to as the "Duck Season/Rabbit Season" trilogy. Jones' 1957 classic, ''What's Opera, Doc?'', cast Bugs and Elmer in a parody of Richard Wagner's ''Der Ring des Nibelungen''. It has been deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry, the first cartoon short to receive this honor.

In the fall of 1960, ABC debuted the prime-time television program ''The Bugs Bunny Show''. This show packaged many of the post-1948 Warners shorts with newly animated wraparounds. After two seasons, it was moved from its evening slot to reruns on Saturday mornings. ''The Bugs Bunny Show'' changed format and exact title frequently, but remained on network television for 40 years. The packaging was later completely different, with each short simply presented on its own, title and all, though some clips from the new bridging material were sometimes used as filler.

After the classic cartoon era

After Mel Blanc died in 1989, Jeff Bergman, Greg Burson, Billy West, and Joe Alaskey became the new voices of Bugs Bunny and many of the other Looney Tunes, each taking turns doing Bugs' voice for various projects over the years.

Bugs has made appearances in animated specials for network television, mostly composed of classic cartoons with bridging material added, including ''How Bugs Bunny Won the West'', and ''The Bugs Bunny Mystery Special''. ''Bugs Bunny's Busting Out All Over'' (1980) contained no vintage clips and featured the first new Bugs Bunny cartoons in 16 years. It opened with "Portrait Of The Artist As a Young Bunny", which features a flashback of Bugs as a child thwarting a young Elmer Fudd, while its third and closing short was "Spaced Out Bunny", with Bugs being kidnapped by Marvin the Martian to be a playmate for Hugo, an Abominable Snowman-like character. (A new Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner short filled out the half hour.) Compilation films included the independently produced ''Bugs Bunny: Superstar'', using the vintage shorts then owned by United Artists; as well as Warner Bros. efforts ''The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie'', ''The Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie'', ''Daffy Duck's Fantastic Island'', ''Bugs Bunny's 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales'' and ''Daffy Duck's Quackbusters''. He also made guest appearances in episodes of the 1990s television program ''Tiny Toon Adventures'' as the principal of Acme Looniversity and the mentor of Babs and Buster Bunny, and would later make occasional guest cameos on spinoffs ''Taz-Mania'' and ''Animaniacs''. He appears in the beginning of ''Gremlins 2: The New Batch'', where he tries to ride the opening Warner Bros logo, but is interrupted by Daffy Duck.

Bugs has had several comic book series over the years. Western Publishing had the license for all the Warner Brothers cartoons, and produced Bugs Bunny comics first for Dell Comics, then later for their own Gold Key Comics. Dell published 58 issues and several specials from 1952 to 1962. Gold Key continued for another 133 issues. DC Comics, the sister/subsidiary company of Warner Bros., has published several comics titles since 1994 that Bugs has appeared in. Notable among these was the 2000 four-issue miniseries ''Superman & Bugs Bunny'', written by Mark Evanier and drawn by Joe Staton. This depicted a crossover between DC's superheroes and the Warner cartoon characters.

Like SpongeBob for Nickelodeon and Mickey Mouse (a Disney character), Bugs has served as the mascot for Warner Bros. Entertainment and its various divisions. He and Mickey are the first cartoon characters to have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

In the 1988 animated/live action movie ''Who Framed Roger Rabbit'', Bugs was shown as one of the inhabitants of Toontown. However, since the film was being produced by Disney, Warner Bros. would only allow the use of their biggest star if he got an equal amount of screen time as Disney's biggest star, Mickey Mouse. Because of this, both characters are always together in frame when onscreen. For the same reasons, Bugs never calls Mickey by his name, only referring to him as "Doc," while Mickey calls him "Bugs."

Bugs Bunny was featured in ''The Earth Day Special'' showing his displeasure on how man started mistreating the environment. He was voiced by Jeff Bergman who also voiced Porky Pig and Tweety.

Bugs Bunny came back to the silver screen in ''Box Office Bunny'' in 1990. This was the first Bugs Bunny cartoon short since 1964 to be released to theaters, and it was created for the Bugs Bunny 50th anniversary celebration. It was followed in 1991 by ''(Blooper) Bunny,'' a short that has gained a cult following among some animation fans for its edgy humor.

Bugs made an appearance in the 1990 drug prevention video ''Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue.'' This special is notable for being the first time that somebody other than Mel Blanc voiced Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. (In this video, both characters were voiced by Jeff Bergman.)

In 1997, Bugs appeared on a U.S. postage stamp, the first cartoon to be so honored, beating the iconic Mickey Mouse. The stamp is number seven on the list of the ten most popular U.S. stamps, as calculated by the number of stamps purchased but not used. The introduction of Bugs onto a stamp was controversial at the time, as it was seen as a step toward the 'commercialization' of stamp art. The postal service rejected many designs, and went with a postal-themed drawing. Avery Dennison printed the Bugs Bunny stamp sheet, which featured "a special ten-stamp design and was the first self-adhesive souvenir sheet issued by the U.S. Postal Service."

A younger version of Bugs is the main character of ''Baby Looney Tunes,'' which debuted on Cartoon Network in 2002. In the action comedy ''Loonatics Unleashed'', his definite descendant Ace Bunny is the leader of the Loonatics team and seems to have inherited his ancestor's Brooklyn accent and comic wit. Strangely, Bugs was one of the few Looney Tunes characters who never appeared in the 2003 Duck Dodgers series.

Bugs has appeared in numerous video games, including the ''Bugs Bunny's Crazy Castle'' series, ''Bugs Bunny Birthday Blowout'', ''Bugs Bunny: Rabbit Rampage'' and the similar ''Bugs Bunny in Double Trouble'', ''Looney Tunes B-Ball'', ''Space Jam'', ''Looney Tunes Racing'', ''Looney Tunes: Space Race'', ''Bugs Bunny Lost in Time'', and its sequel, ''Bugs Bunny and Taz Time Busters'', and ''Looney Tunes: Back in Action'' and the new video game ''Looney Tunes: Acme Arsenal''.

On August 13, 2010, Warner Bros. Pictures announced that they are planning a live-action/CG-animated combo feature film based on the Looney Tunes character.

Return to television

Bugs Bunny and the rest of the ''Looney Tunes'' gang returned to Cartoon Network in 2011 in a brand new show called ''The Looney Tunes Show'', with Jeff Bergman returning to voice both Bugs and Daffy Duck. This series will also feature the characters singing original songs as well. The show debuted on May 3, 2011. A large difference between Bugs and Daffy's friendship in the show is that, whereas Bugs would hardly mind Daffy's flaws in the original cartoons, in the show Bugs is often and openly annoyed at Daffy's antics, sometimes to the point of aggression when Daffy becomes too obnoxious. He also dated Lola Bunny once, but found her to be "crazy" and a bit too talkative. Unlike the original cartoons, Bugs lives in a regular home, which he shares with Daffy. To earn income, Bugs earns money for having invented the Carrot Peeler.

Bugs also appeared in the ''MAD'' episode "Hops", where he appeared at the party.

Personality and catchphrases

– it's actually a big put-on. Let's face it Doc. I've read the script and I al­ready know how it turns out. |Bob Clampett on Bugs Bunny, written in first person.}} Bugs has feuded with Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam, Willoughby the Dog, Marvin the Martian, Beaky Buzzard, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Tasmanian Devil, Cecil Turtle, Charlie Dog, Witch Hazel, Rocky and Mugsy, Wile E. Coyote, the Crusher, Gremlin, Big Bad Wolf, Count Blood Count and a host of others. Bugs almost always wins these conflicts, a plot pattern which recurs in ''Looney Tunes'' films directed by Chuck Jones. Concerned that viewers would lose sympathy for an aggressive protagonist who always won, Jones arranged for Bugs to be bullied, cheated, or threatened by the antagonists while minding his own business, justifying his subsequent antics as retaliation or self-defense. He's also been known to break the fourth wall by "communicating" with the audience, either by explaining the situation (e.g. "Be with you in a minute, folks!"), describing someone to the audience (e.g. "Feisty, ain't they?"), clueing in on the story (e.g. "That happens to him all during the picture, folks."), explaining that one of his antagonists' actions have pushed him to the breaking point ("Of course you know, this means war."), etc.

Bugs will usually try to placate the antagonist and avoid conflict, but when an antagonist pushes him too far, Bugs may address the audience and invoke his catchphrase "Of course you realize this means ''war!''" before he retaliates, and the retaliation will be devastating. This line was taken from Groucho Marx and others in the 1933 film ''Duck Soup'' and was also used in the 1935 Marx film ''A Night at the Opera''. Bugs would pay homage to Groucho in other ways, such as occasionally adopting his stooped walk or leering eyebrow-raising (in ''Hair-Raising Hare'', for example) or sometimes with a direct impersonation (as in ''Slick Hare'').

Other directors, such as Friz Freleng, characterized Bugs as altruistic. When Bugs meets other successful characters (such as Cecil Turtle in ''Tortoise Beats Hare'', or, in World War II, the Gremlin of ''Falling Hare''), his overconfidence becomes a disadvantage. Most of Bugs' antagonists are extremely dim-witted, and Bugs is easily able to outwit and torment them, though on occasion they will manage to get the best of Bugs. Daffy Duck, who is considerably more intelligent, is unaffected by Bugs' usual schemes, and the two usually end up fighting a battle of wits, though Bugs is still the superior.

During the 1940s, Bugs was immature and wild, but starting in the 1950s his personality matured and his attitude was less frenetic. Though often shown as highly mischievous and violent, Bugs is never actually malicious, and only acts as such in self-defense against his aggressors; the only two cartoons where Bugs ever served as an antagonist were Buckaroo Bugs and Duck Amuck; the latter cartoon depicts him as far more sadistic than usual, as he becomes the cartoonist and abuses his newfound divine powers to torture Daffy.

Bugs Bunny's nonchalant carrot-chewing standing position, as explained by Chuck Jones, Friz Freleng, and Bob Clampett, originated in a scene in the film ''It Happened One Night'', in which Clark Gable's character leans against a fence, eating carrots rapidly and talking with his mouth full to Claudette Colbert's character. This scene was well known while the film was popular, and viewers at the time likely recognized Bugs Bunny's behavior as satire.

The carrot-chewing scenes are generally followed by Bugs Bunny's most well-known catchphrase, "What's up, Doc?", which was written by director Tex Avery for his first Bugs Bunny short, 1940s ''A Wild Hare''. Avery explained later that it was a common expression in his native Texas and that he did not think much of the phrase. When the short was first screened in theaters, the "What's up, Doc?" scene generated a tremendously positive audience reaction. As a result, the scene became a recurring element in subsequent films and cartoons. The phrase was sometimes modified for a situation. For example, Bugs says "What's up, dogs?" to the antagonists in ''A Hare Grows in Manhattan'', "What's up, Duke?" to the knight in ''Knight-mare Hare'' and "What's up, prune-face?" to the aged Elmer in ''The Old Grey Hare''. He might also greet Daffy with "What's up, Duck?" He used one variation, "What's all the hub-bub, bub?" only once, in ''Falling Hare.'' Another variation is used in ''Looney Tunes: Back In Action'' when he greets a lightsaber-wielding Marvin the Martian saying "What's up, Darth?"

Several Chuck Jones shorts in the late 1940s and 1950s depict Bugs travelling via cross-country (and, in some cases, intercontinental) tunnel-digging, ending up in places as varied as Mexico (''Bully for Bugs'', 1953), the Himalayas (''The Abominable Snow Rabbit'', 1960) and Antarctica (''Frigid Hare'', 1949) all because he "shoulda taken that left toin at Albukoikee." He first utters that phrase in ''Herr Meets Hare'' (1945), when he emerges in the Black Forest, a cartoon seldom seen today due to its blatantly topical subject matter. When Hermann Göring says to Bugs, "There is no Las Vegas in 'Chermany'" and takes a potshot at Bugs, Bugs dives into his hole and says, "Joimany! Yipe!", as Bugs realizes he's behind enemy lines. The confused response to his "left toin" comment also followed a pattern. For example, when he tunnels into Scotland in 1948's ''My Bunny Lies over the Sea'', while thinking he's heading for the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles, California, it provides another chance for an ethnic stereotype: "Therrre's no La Brrrea Tarrr Pits in Scotland!" (to which Bugs responds, "Uh...what's up, Mac-doc?"). A couple of late-1950s shorts of this ilk also featured Daffy Duck travelling with Bugs ("Since when is Pismo Beach inside a cave?!").

Bugs Bunny has some similarities to figures from mythology and folklore, such as Br'er Rabbit, Nanabozho, or Anansi, and might be seen as a modern trickster (for example, he repeatedly uses cross-dressing mischievously). Unlike most cartoon characters, however, Bugs Bunny is rarely defeated in his own games of trickery. One exception to this is the short ''Hare Brush'', in which Elmer Fudd ultimately carries the day at the end; however, critics note that in this short, Elmer and Bugs assume each other's personalities—through mental illness and hypnosis, respectively—and it is only by becoming Bugs that Elmer can win. However, Bugs was beaten at his own game. In the short ''Duck Amuck'' he torments Daffy Duck as the unseen animator, ending with his line, "Ain't I a stinker?" Bugs feels the same wrath of an unseen animator in the short ''Rabbit Rampage'' where he is in turn tormented by Elmer Fudd. At the end of the clip Elmer gleefully exclaims, 'Well, I finally got even with that scwewy wabbit!"

Although it was usually Porky Pig who brought the WB cartoons to a close with his stuttering, "That's all, folks!", Bugs would occasionally appear, bursting through a drum just as Porky did, but munching a carrot and saying in his Bronx-Brooklyn accent, "And dat's de end!"

The name "Bugs" or "Bugsy" as an old-fashioned nickname means "crazy" (or "loopy"). Several famous people from the first half of the twentieth century had that nickname. It is now out of fashion as a nickname, but survives in 1950s–1960s expressions like "you're bugging me", as in "you're driving me crazy".

Bugs wears white gloves, which he is rarely seen without, although he may remove one and use it for slapping an opponent to predicate a duel. Another glove-less example is the episode ''Long-Haired Hare'', where Bugs pretends to be the famed conductor Leopold Stokowski and instructs opera star "Giovanni Jones" to sing and to hold a high note. As Giovanni Jones is turning red with the strain, Bugs slips his left hand out of its glove, leaving the glove hovering in the air in order to command Jones to continue to hold the high note. Bugs then nips down to the mail drop to order, and then to receive, a pair of ear defenders. Bugs puts on the ear defenders and then zips back into the amphitheater and reinserts his hand into his glove as singer Jones is writhing on the stage, still holding that same high note.

Bugs Bunny is also a master of disguise: he can wear any disguise that he wants to confuse his enemies: in ''Bowery Bugs'' he uses diverse disguises: fakir, gentleman, woman, baker and finally policeman. This ability of disguise makes Bugs famous because we can recognize him while at the same time realizing that his enemies are stumped. Bugs has a certain preference for the female disguise: Taz, Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam were fooled by this sexy bunny (woman) and in ''Hare Trimmed'', Sam discovers the real face of "Granny" (Bugs's disguise) in the church where they attempt to get married. For all the gullible victims of all these disguises, however, for some reason, Daffy Duck and Cecil Turtle are among those who are never fooled.

Bugs Bunny may also have some mystical potential. In ''Knight-mare Hare'' he was able to return to his bunny form (after being transformed into a donkey) by removing his donkey form as if it were a suit. Merlin of Monroe (the wizard) was unable to do the same thing. Later Bugs Bunny defeated the Count Blood Count in a magical spell duel. However, the story was a dream and Bugs Bunny's victory over Count Blood Count was a result of his intellect, not innate magical power.

Rabbit or hare?

The animators throughout Bugs' history have treated the terms rabbit and hare as synonymous. Taxonomically, they are not synonymous, being somewhat similar but observably different types of lagomorphs. Hares have much longer ears than rabbits, so Bugs might seem to be of the hare family, yet rabbits live in burrows, as Bugs is seen to do. Many more of the cartoon titles include the word "hare" rather than "rabbit," as "hare" lends itself easily to puns ("hair," "air," etc.) although Elmer Fudd has always referred to Bugs as a "wabbit".

Within the cartoons, although the term "hare" comes up sometimes, again typically as a pun—for example, Bugs drinking "hare tonic" to "stop falling hare" or being doused with "hare restorer" to bring him back from invisibility—Bugs as well as his antagonists most often refer to the character as a "rabbit." The word "bunny" is of no help in answering this question, as it is a synonym for both young hares and young rabbits.

In Nike commercials with Michael Jordan, Bugs had been referred to as "''Hare'' Jordan."

The opening and closing

In the opening of many of the Bugs Bunny cartoons, the ''Merrie Melodies'' and ''Looney Tunes'' irises contain Bugs Bunny's head after the Warner Bros. shield (generally from 1944 and 1949 onward). Others have Bugs Bunny relaxing on top of the Warner Bros. shield: He chews on his carrot, looks angrily at the camera and pulls down the next logo (''Merrie Melodies'' or ''Looney Tunes'') like a window shade (generally on cartoons between 1945 until early 1949). Then he lifts it back up, to now be seen lying on his own name, which then fades into the title of the specific short. In some other cases, the title card sometimes fades to him, already on his name and chewing his carrot then fade to the name of the short. At the finish of ''Hare Tonic'' and ''Baseball Bugs'', Bugs breaks out of a drum (like ''Porky Pig'') and says, "And that's the end". Also, at the end of ''Box Office Bunny'', right after Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd run out through the Looney Tunes "That's All Folks!" sequence, Bugs later comes in through the rings and says, "And that's all, folks!". He did the ending for the last time at the end of ''Space Jam'' but this time saying "Well, that's all, folks!".

Voice actors

The following are the many voice actors who have voiced the character Bugs Bunny over the last seventy-one years:

;Mel Blanc :Mel Blanc voiced the character for 49 years, from Bugs' debut in ''A Wild Hare'' (1940) until Blanc's death in 1989. Blanc described the voice as a combination of Bronx and Brooklyn accents; however, Tex Avery claimed that he asked Blanc to give the character not a New York accent ''per se'', but a voice like that of actor Frank McHugh, who frequently appeared in supporting roles in the 1930s and whose voice might be described as New York Irish. In Bugs' second cartoon ''Elmer's Pet Rabbit'', Blanc created a completely new voice for Bugs, which sounded like a Jimmy Stewart impression, but the directors decided the previous voice was better. Though his best-known character was the carrot-chomping rabbit, munching on the carrots interrupted the dialogue. Various substitutes, such as celery, were tried, but none of them ''sounded'' like a carrot. So for the sake of expedience, he would munch and then spit the carrot bits into a spittoon rather than swallowing them, and continue with the dialogue. One often-repeated story, possibly originating from ''Bugs Bunny: Superstar'', is that Blanc was allergic to carrots and ''had'' to spit them out to minimize any allergic reaction — but his autobiography makes no such claim. In fact, in a 1984 interview with Tim Lawson, co-author of ''The Magic Behind The Voices: A Who's Who of Cartoon Voice Actors'' (University Press of Mississippi, 2004), Blanc emphatically denied being allergic to carrots.

;Jeff Bergman :Jeff Bergman was the first to voice Bugs Bunny (and several other Looney Tunes characters) after Blanc died in 1989. He got the job by impressing Warner Bros. higher-ups with a tape of himself re-creating the voices of several of Blanc's characters, including Bugs. He had rigged the tape player so that he could use a switch to instantly toggle back and forth between the original recording of Blanc and Bergman's recording of the same lines. Upon doing this, it was almost impossible for the producers to tell which voice was Blanc's and which voice was Bergman; thus his vocal ability was established and his career launched.

:Bergman first voiced Bugs during the 1990 Academy Awards and then in ''Box Office Bunny'', a 4-minute ''Looney Tunes'' short released in 1990 to commemorate Bugs' fiftieth anniversary. Bergman would next voice Bugs in the 1991 short ''(Blooper) Bunny'', a Greg Ford-directed cartoon produced to coincide with Bugs' 51st and a half anniversary. However, the short never received its intended theatrical release and was shelved for years, until Cartoon Network rediscovered it and broadcast it on their channel several years later. ''(Blooper) Bunny'' has since garnered a cult following among animation fans for its use of edgy humor. Other works for which Bergman provided Bugs' voice include ''Invasion of the Bunny Snatchers'' (an obvious parody of the 1950s sci-fi classic ''Invasion of the Body Snatchers''), ''Tiny Toon Adventures'' (a popular television program of the early nineties that featured the classic ''Looney Tunes'' characters as mentors to their younger counterparts) in the first season, and ''Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue'' (a television special exposing children to dangers of illegal drugs). Bergman would continue to do the voice of Bugs Bunny until 1993, apparently due to him having difficulty moving to Los Angeles at the time. In 2011, Bergman has returned to voice Bugs for Cartoon Network's new series, ''The Looney Tunes Show''.

;Greg Burson :Greg Burson first voiced Bugs Bunny in later episodes of ''Tiny Toon Adventures''. He was then given the responsibility of voicing Bugs in 1995's ''Carrotblanca'', a well-received 8-minute ''Looney Tunes'' cartoon originally shown in cinemas alongside ''The Amazing Panda Adventure'' (US) and ''The Pebble and the Penguin'' (non-US); it has since been released on video packaged with older ''Looney Tunes'' cartoons and was even included in the special edition DVD release of ''Casablanca'', of which it is both a parody and an homage. Burson next voiced Bugs in the 1996 short ''From Hare to Eternity''; the film is notable for being dedicated to the memory of the then-just deceased Friz Freleng, and for being the final ''Looney Tunes'' cartoon that Chuck Jones directed. Burson also provided Bugs' voice in ''The Bugs and Daffy Show'', which ran on Cartoon Network from 1996 to 2003. He died in 2008.

;Billy West :Billy West has been in television since the late 1980s. His first role was for the 1988 revived version of Bob Clampett's ''Beany and Cecil''. West's breakthrough role then came almost immediately, as the voice of Stimpy and later Ren in John Kricfalusi's ''Ren & Stimpy''. West has since been the voice talent for close to 120 different characters, including some of the most iconic animated figures in television history. Perhaps West's most notable film work came in the 1996 film ''Space Jam''. Starring alongside Michael Jordan, West provided the voice of both Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd. West would go on to reprise the roles of Bugs in subsequent ''Looney Tunes'' productions, including his cameos on ''Histeria!'', also he made a cameo appearance on ''Kid vs. Kat'' in "Class Act", the Kids' WB! promotional spots, and the 2006 Christmas-themed special ''Bah, Humduck! A Looney Tunes Christmas'' and the DVD compilations "Reality Check" and "Stranger Than Fiction", along with several ''Looney Tunes''-centric CDs, cartoons, and video games.

;Joe Alaskey :Joe Alaskey, like Jeff Bergman, is well-known for his ability to successfully impersonate many ''Looney Tunes'' characters. In fact, Alaskey voiced Yosemite Sam in ''Who Framed Roger Rabbit'', as original voice actor Mel Blanc had found it too hard on his vocal cords (which makes Sam one of the few voices created by Blanc to be voiced by someone else during his lifetime). Alaskey's first performance as Bugs Bunny came in the 2003 feature film ''Looney Tunes: Back in Action'', although he had tested performing the role in a few earlier projects, such as ''Tweety's High-Flying Adventure''. While still best known for providing the voice of Daffy Duck, Alaskey has also gone on to do Bugs' voice in several subsequent productions, including ''Daffy Duck for President'' (which was released on ''The Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 2'' and dedicated to then-just deceased Chuck Jones) and several recent video games and Looney Tunes cartoons, including ''Hare and Loathing in Las Vegas''.

;Samuel Vincent :Samuel Vincent served as the voice of Bugs in the Cartoon Network TV series ''Baby Looney Tunes''.

;Noel Blanc :Noel Blanc, Mel Blanc's son, voiced Bugs for the ''Tiny Toons'' special ''It's a Wonderful Tiny Toon Christmas Special''. The elder Blanc claimed in his later years that Noel substituted for Mel in various cartoon studios, including doing Bugs at Warner Bros., while he was recovering from a near-fatal car wreck. Noel can also be seen doing Bugs' voice with his father in the documentary on the making of the film ''Who Framed Roger Rabbit''.

Cameos

Bugs Bunny has had cameo appearances in ten cartoons, including two ''Private SNAFU'' shorts.

''Daffy Doodles'' (1946)

''Patient Porky'' (1940)

''Crazy Cruise'' (1942)

''Porky Pig's Feat'' (1943, Bugs's only appearance in a black-and-white Looney Tunes short)

''Jasper Goes Hunting'' (1944, for Paramount)

''Odor-able Kitty'' (1945)

''The Goofy Gophers'' (1947, with a sped-up voice)

''The Lion's Busy'' (1950)

''Duck Amuck'' (1953)

''Justice League: The New Frontier'' (2008, voiced by Joe Alaskey, as one of the forms of The Martian Manhunter)

Current popularity

In 2002, ''TV Guide'' compiled a list of the 50 greatest cartoon characters of all time as part of the magazine's 50th anniversary. Bugs Bunny was given the honor of number 1. In a CNN broadcast on July 31, 2002, a ''TV Guide'' editor talked about the group that created the list. The editor also explained why Bugs pulled top billing: "His stock...has never gone down...Bugs is the best example...of the smart-aleck American comic. He not only is a great cartoon character, he's a great comedian. He was written well. He was drawn beautifully. He has thrilled and made many generations laugh. He is tops." Additionally, in ''Animal Planet'''s ''50 Greatest Movie Animals'' (2004), Bugs was named #3, behind Mickey Mouse and Toto. In 2005 Bugs Bunny was voted the 10th greatest cartoon in Channel 4's 100 Greatest Cartoons behind ''The Simpsons'', ''Tom and Jerry'', ''South Park'', ''Toy Story'', ''Family Guy'', ''Shrek'', ''The Lion King'', ''Spirited Away'' and ''The Incredibles''.

Bugs has also had an effect on "live" movie acting. During an interview for ''Inside the Actors Studio'', comedian Dave Chappelle cited him as one of his earliest influences, praising voice actor Mel Blanc.

According to Time Warner, Bugs Bunny became the current official mascot for Six Flags theme parks beginning with their 45th anniversary.

Awards

Academy Awards

''Knighty Knight Bugs'' (1958)

Academy Award nominations

''A Wild Hare'' (1940)

''Hiawatha's Rabbit Hunt'' (1941)

See also

''Looney Tunes''

''Merrie Melodies''

''List of Bugs Bunny cartoons''

''List of Looney Tunes feature-length films''

''The Golden Age of American animation''

References

Bibliography

External links

Warner Bros. Studios

Category:Corporate mascots Category:DC Comics titles Category:Dell Comics titles Category:Fictional anthropomorphic characters Category:Fictional characters from New York City Category:Fictional hares and rabbits Category:Gold Key Comics titles Category:Honorary United States Marines Category:Looney Tunes characters Category:Fictional characters introduced in 1940

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