The space programme had a huge impact on communications. But, in the early 1960's, communications were very poor by our standards today.
Communications were transformed by satellites. One called Telstar, put into orbit in 1962 allowed the first live TV broadcasts across the Atlantic, but Telstar could only transmit images for a few minutes at a time.
The real turning point was the launch of the Early Bird satellite (shown right) in 1965, which could be used for communications 24 hours a day. Once a series of similar satellites were in orbit at different locations, instant global communications became a reality.
Computers were another area that made enormous progress through the space programme, since they were needed to control space vehicles. Computers, however, were still large and expensive machines, only for use by governments and business corporations. Personal computers and computer games did not begin to arrive until the 1970's. On the left, is a picture showing a woman loading tapes into the first computer, for storing information. This computer is called a one-tonne computer.
Technology at home was limited. Television had started up slowly after the war. In the 1960's, watching television was by far the most popular leisure activity. It was still a relatively novel experience, as television broadcasting had not really got going until the 1950's. There were fewer TV channels than there are today, and most people had only small black & white TV sets. In Britain only the new minority channel, BBC2, broadcast in colour. Television broadcasting in colour began in 1967. However, By the end of the sixties, more than 9 out of 10 households had a television. By the mid-sixties there were several programmes available for children. In the 60's, all programmes finished at 11.00pm. Now television can be watched 24 hours a day. A favourite children's programme of the time was Blue Peter (pictured right in 1968). Other favourite children's programmes included the 'Woodentops', 'Bill and Ben' and the cartoons 'Yogi Bear' and 'Huckleberry Hound'. In 1963, 'Doctor Who' was broadcast for the first time, along with 'Thunderbirds'.
Families gathered around their TV's to watch Westerns such as 'Rawhide' and 'Bonanza', thriller series such as 'The Man from UNCLE', 'The Avengers', and 'The Fugitive', and the science fiction series 'Star Trek'. Classic comedies included 'The Addams Family', 'The Munsters', 'The Beverly Hillbillies', and 'Bewitched'. British TV hits ranged from the start of 'Coronation Street', to nostalgia series such as 'The Forsyte Saga'.
Television also brought events of the day into people's homes with a new vividness.
At the start of the 1960's, the cinema was in crisis through losing customers to television. The movie companies tried to attract people away from their TV sets by presenting a lavish visual spectacle, making wide-screen epics such as 'Cleopatra', 'Lawrence of Arabia' and 'Dr Zhivago'. Later in the decade, Hollywood began to lure audiences with movies that had a degree of explicit sex and violence in them, that was beyond anything allowed on televison.
Western's were big in the 1960's, from 'The Magnificent Seven' in 1960 to the violent Italian-made 'spaghetti Westerns' such as 'A Fistful of Dollars', starring Clint Eastwood, and the comedy Western 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid' in 1969.
British films and stars were in vogue. James Bond movies, starring Sean Connery, were immensely successful. The first was 'Dr No' in 1962. Julie Andrews was a hit in the musicals 'The Sound of Music' and 'Mary Poppins'. Comedian Peter Sellars starred in 'Dr Strangelove' and the Pink Pather movies. The Beatles made their own cartoon feature film 'Yellow Submarine', as well as starring in 'A Hard Day's Night' and 'Help!'.
Throughout the sixties, censorship became steadily less heavy-handed. Yet even by the end of the decade, there was nothing like as much nudity or obscenity allowed on screens as we are used to today.
Jet air travel, begun in the 1950's, was developing rapidly. In tune with the space age, Britain and France cooperated to build a supersonic airliner, Concorde. The fastest passenger aircraft ever, it made it's first flight in 1969. But in the same year the US Boeing corporation introduced the 'Jumbo Jet', the Boeing 747. By carrying more passengers in a single aircraft, the jumbo jet helped to make air travel affordable. This turned out to be more important than travelling faster.
The sixties saw two major changes in how people got around: they used the railways less, and the roadways more. In 1963, a government enquiry into British Railways led to the closing of about 5,000 miles (8,000 km) of railway lines and 3,000 stations. This closure was organised by Dr Beeching and known as the 'Beeching Axe'. Nearly all small villages and many larger towns lost their railway station. British Railways changed it's name to British Rail, and introduced new carriages without separate compartments. Steam trains soon became a thing of the past.
Many families bought their first car in the 60's. The number of cars increased sharply and many new roads were built. By the end of the decade, there were nearly 15,000,000 cars in Britain. Almost half of all families had a car, and some had two.
The increase in car driving caused many problems in towns. Parking became difficult and town councils built the first multi-storey car parks to provide enough space. Yellow lines and parking meters became a familiar sight in the streets. Cities were transformed by networks of urban motorways and flyovers. In the mid-sixties there were 8,000 deaths a year on the road. This figure now is only 3,500. This has been due to speed limits, introduced in 1965 and the compulsory wearing of seat belts, which became law in 1983, although they had been invented in the 1960's, but not widely used.
Smaller cars became more fashionable. The first mini was produced in 1959 and over the next 6 years, one million cars were made.
A revolution in the study of life and the body was beginning with a new understanding o genetics. In 1962, US scientist James Watson and Britsih scientist Francis Crick were awarded the Nobel Prize for their work on DNA, unravelling the genetic code that carries the information to build new organisms, including human beings.
It was a time of major medical progress. In particular, there were advances in dealing with heart disease. Surgeons carried out the heart bypass operations and inserted the first electronic pacemakers. In 1967, a South African surgeon, Christiaan Barnard, was responsible the first successful heart transplant operation.
There was also progress in the prevention of disease. Campaigns against cigarette smoking got under way, after scientists officially confirmed that there was a link between smoking and cancer.
In many parts of the developing world, vaccination campaigns began to eradicate killer diseases such as smallpox.
One result of medical progress was population growth. The steepest rise in world population in human history was taking place, mostly concentrated in the developing countries. Much effort was devoted to ideas for limiting population growth. This was the background to the birth-control pill, developed by American Gregory Pincus in the 1950's and authorised for general use during the 1960's.
Populaton growth was one factor behind mounting concern about the human impact on the environment. People became aware of the deadly affect of chemicals such as DDT, sprayed on crops and entering the food chain. The theory of the Greenhous effect, saying that pollution was causing global warming, was first proposed in the 1960's.
There was growing concern about the using up of fossil fuels such as coal and oil. But the 1960's was still a time of technological optimism, when most people believed that science would find a ready answer to such problems. Most advanced countries had large programmes for building nuclear power stations. It was argued that nuclear power would provide a clean, inexhaustable source of energy to replace fossil fuels. This was to prove one of the most over-optimistic of all the 1960's attitudes.
Growing up in the 60's - main page