January 4 – The Doors' self-titled debut album is released.

January 14 - The Human Be-In takes place in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco; the event sets the stage for the Summer of Love.

January 15 – Super Bowl I: The Green Bay Packers defeat the Kansas City Chiefs 35–10 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

January 27 – Apollo 1: U.S. astronauts Gus Grissom, Edward Higgins White, and Roger Chaffee are killed when fire breaks out in their Apollo spacecraft during a launch pad test.

February 2 – The American Basketball Association is formed.

February 10 – The Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution (presidential succession and disability) is ratified.

February 18 – New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison claims he will solve the John F. Kennedy assassination, and that a conspiracy was planned in New Orleans.

March 7 – Jimmy Hoffa begins his 8-year sentence for attempting to bribe a jury.

March 14 – The body of U.S. President John F. Kennedy is moved to a permanent burial place at Arlington National Cemetery.

April 1 – The Department of Transportation begins operation.

April 14 – In San Francisco, 10,000 march against the Vietnam War.

April 27 - In Houston, boxer Muhammad Ali refuses military service

May 1 – Elvis Presley and Priscilla Beaulieu are married in Las Vegas..

May 18 - NASA announces the crew for the Apollo 7 space mission (first manned Apollo flight): Walter M. Schirra, Jr., Donn F. Eisele, and R. Walter Cunningham.

June 5 – Murderer Richard Speck is sentenced to death in the electric chair for killing eight student nurses in Chicago.

June 12 – Loving v. Virginia: The United States Supreme Court declares all U.S. state laws prohibiting interracial marriage to be unconstitutional.

June 16 – The Monterey Pop Festival begins and is held for 3 days

June 29 – Blonde Bombshell Jayne Mansfield, and two others die in an automobile crash near Slidell, Louisiana. Mansfield's daughter, Mariska Hargitay, is asleep in the back seat at the time of the crash

July 23 – 12th Street Riot: In Detroit, one of the worst riots in United States history begins on 12th Street in the predominantly African American inner city: 43 are killed, 342 injured and 1,400 buildings burned

August 9 – Vietnam War – Operation Cochise: United States Marines begin a new operation in the Que Son Valley.

August 23 – Jimi Hendrix's debut album Are You Experienced is released in the United States

August 30 – Thurgood Marshall is confirmed as the first African American Justice of the United States Supreme Court.

September 4 – Vietnam War – Operation Swift: The United States Marines launch a search and destroy mission in Quảng Nam and Quảng Tín provinces. The ensuing 4-day battle in Que Son Valley kills 114 Americans and 376 North Vietnamese.

September 9 – Fashion Island, one of California's first outdoor shopping malls, opens in Newport Beach.

September 17 – Jim Morrison and The Doors defy CBS censors on The Ed Sullivan Show, when Morrison sings the word "higher" from their #1 hit "Light My Fire", despite having been asked not to.

September 11 - The Carol Burnett Show CBS Premiere ( After 11 Season Until March,1978)

October 12 – Vietnam War: U.S. Secretary of State Dean Rusk states during a news conference that proposals by the U.S. Congress for peace initiatives are futile, because of North Vietnam's opposition.

October 16 – Thirty-nine people, including singer-activist Joan Baez, are arrested in Oakland, California, for blocking the entrance of that city's military induction center.

October 18 – Walt Disney's 19th full-length animated feature The Jungle Book, the last animated film personally supervised by Disney, is released and becomes an enormous box-office and critical success

October 21 – Tens of thousands of Vietnam War protesters march in Washington, D.C. Allen Ginsberg symbolically chants to 'levitate' The Pentagon.

October 26 – U.S. Navy pilot John McCain is shot down over North Vietnam and made a POW.

November 2 – Vietnam War: U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson holds a secret meeting with a group of the nation's most prestigious leaders ("the Wise Men") and asks them to suggest ways to unite the American people behind the war effort. They conclude that the American people should be given more optimistic reports on the progress of the war.

November 3 – Vietnam War – Battle of Dak To: Around Đắk Tô (located about 280 miles north of Saigon near the Cambodian border), heavy casualties are suffered on both sides.

November 9 - First issue of the magazine Rolling Stone is published in San Francisco.

November 21 – Vietnam War: United States General William Westmoreland tells news reporters: "I am absolutely certain that whereas in 1965 the enemy was winning, today he is certainly losing."

November 29 – Vietnam War: U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara announces his resignation to become president of the World Bank. This action is due to U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson's outright rejection of McNamara's early November recommendations to freeze troop levels, stop bombing North Vietnam and hand over ground fighting to South Vietnam.

December 4 – Vietnam War: U.S. and South Vietnamese forces engage Viet Cong troops in the Mekong Delta (235 of the 300-strong Viet Cong battalion are killed).

December 8 – Magical Mystery Tour is released by The Beatles as an eleven-song album in the U.S. The songs added to the original six songs on the double EP include "All You Need Is Love", "Penny Lane", "Strawberry Fields Forever", "Baby, You're a Rich Man" and "Hello, Goodbye".

December 10 – Soul singer Otis Redding, 26, is killed when the airplane he was on crashes into Lake Monona

Undated

The Summer of Love is held in San Francisco.

Ongoing

• Cold War (1945–1991)

• Space Race (1957–1975)

• Vietnam War, U.S. involvement (1962–1973)

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