News Events From 1967

   1967 was the year that Dr. Christiaan Barnard performed the first successful heart transplant. The recipient survived 18 days before succumbing to pneumonia.

    Three astronauts were killed in a flash fire that engulfed their Apollo I spacecraft.

    A six-day blood bath occurred in the Middle East, in which Israel scored a decisive victory and Moshe Dayan was proclaimed a hero.

    More American troops were sent to Vietnam in 1967, and as a result, more and more anti-war demonstrations were taking place.

   Novelist Norman Mailer and 250 other protesters were arrested while storming the Pentagon in Washington D.C., and Joan Baez was arrested in California for trying to block the doors of an army induction center.

   On the home front, the first microwave oven hit the consumer market, making "fast food" a staple in American kitchens.

   In the Heat of the Night walked away with best picture in 1967.

    Other box office draws were The Graduate, Bonnie and Clyde, Doctor Doolittle, and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. On television, it was The Flying Nun, Ironside, and The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. And the first issue of Rolling Stone Magazine hit the stands, with John Lennon featured on the cover.

    In 1967, Scott McKenzie invited people to San Francisco and told them to wear some flowers in their hair. By June, the Haight-Ashbury section of the city was awash with "flower power," as young people from all over the country gathered by the Golden Gate Bridge to turn on, tune in and drop out. They became known as hippies; youth who were discouraged by adult society and fed up with the war. They spawned anti-war demonstrations, love-ins, and questioned societal morals with a new awareness fired by the so-called expansion of the mind with hallucinogens. Psychedelic music mirrored it all, and FM underground radio was born on WMPX in San Francisco.

   1967 saw the first major rock festival, Monterey Pop, which was held in California. Although the concept of the rock festival wasn't new, Monterey became the first "legendary" event. Its purpose was to spread the gospel of peace, love, and music, and featured an array of talent from all over the world. The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Country Joe & the Fish, the Mamas and the Papas (who helped organize the event) were from San Francisco's psychedelic scene. Also on the bill were blues bands like Canned Heat, the Electric Flag, and Paul Butterfield's Blues Band, LA's the Byrds and Buffalo Springfield, and Memphis soul from Booker T & the MGs. Other performers at the festival were the Who, Simon and Garfunkel, Eric Burdon, Johnny Rivers, Lou Rawls, the Association and Ravi Shankar. Monterey was also the springboard that launched the careers of Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix.