Born in the 1960s
People born in the 1960s are 56 to 66 years old in 2026 and belong to Baby Boomers and Generation X. The world population went from about 3.02 billion in 1960 to 3.62 billion in 1969, and the U.S. population from 180.3 million to 205.3 million.
| Born | Age in 2026 | President | Top song | Top movie | Best Picture | Top names (boy / girl) | Min. wage | Gas | Median new home |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1969 | 56 or 57 | Johnson / Nixon | Sugar, Sugar | – | Midnight Cowboy | Michael / Lisa | $1.60 | – | $25,600 |
| 1968 | 57 or 58 | Johnson | Hey Jude | – | Oliver! | Michael / Lisa | $1.60 | – | $24,800 |
| 1967 | 58 or 59 | Johnson | To Sir With Love | The Graduate | In the Heat of the Night | Michael / Lisa | $1.40 | – | $22,750 |
| 1966 | 59 or 60 | Johnson | California Dreamin' | – | A Man for All Seasons | Michael / Lisa | $1.25 | – | $21,500 |
| 1965 | 60 or 61 | Johnson | Wooly Bully | – | The Sound of Music | Michael / Lisa | $1.25 | – | $20,125 |
| 1964 | 61 or 62 | Johnson | I Want to Hold Your Hand | – | My Fair Lady | Michael / Lisa | $1.25 | – | $18,925 |
| 1963 | 62 or 63 | Kennedy / Johnson | Surfin' U.S.A. | – | Tom Jones | Michael / Lisa | $1.25 | – | $18,050 |
| 1962 | 63 or 64 | Kennedy | Stranger on the Shore | – | Lawrence of Arabia | Michael / Lisa | $1.15 | – | – |
| 1961 | 64 or 65 | Eisenhower / Kennedy | Tossin' and Turnin' | – | West Side Story | Michael / Mary | $1.15 | – | – |
| 1960 | 65 or 66 | Eisenhower | Theme from A Summer Place | – | The Apartment | David / Mary | $1.00 | – | – |
Most popular names of the 1960s
Combined counts of Social Security card applicants born 1960 to 1969.
| Rank | Boys | Girls |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michael (833,070) | Lisa (496,983) |
| 2 | David (733,939) | Mary (355,238) |
| 3 | John (713,374) | Susan (287,661) |
| 4 | James (684,721) | Karen (286,054) |
| 5 | Robert (650,769) | Kimberly (259,072) |
| 6 | Mark (441,381) | Patricia (231,169) |
| 7 | William (421,411) | Linda (225,445) |
| 8 | Richard (373,894) | Donna (213,467) |
Events that defined the 1960s
- January 26, 1962. Ranger 3 is launched to study the Moon. The space probe later misses the Moon by 22,000 miles (35,400 km).
- February 20, 1962. Mercury program: While aboard Friendship 7, John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit the Earth, making three orbits in four hours, 55 minutes.
- April 26, 1962. NASA's Ranger 4 spacecraft crashes into the Moon.
- June 17, 1963. The United States Supreme Court rules 8–1 in Abington School District v. Schempp against requiring the reciting of Bible verses and the Lord's Prayer in public schools.
- July 31, 1964. Ranger program: Ranger 7 sends back the first close-up photographs of the moon, with images 1,000 times clearer than anything ever seen from earth-bound telescopes.
- May 12, 1965. The Soviet spacecraft Luna 5 crashes on the Moon.
- August 29, 1965. The Gemini V spacecraft returns to Earth, landing in the Atlantic Ocean.
- June 2, 1966. Surveyor program: Surveyor 1 lands in Oceanus Procellarum on the Moon, becoming the first U.S. spacecraft to soft-land on another world.
- August 23, 1966. Lunar Orbiter 1 takes the first photograph of Earth from orbit around the Moon.
- January 27, 1967. Cold War: The Soviet Union, the United States, and the United Kingdom sign the Outer Space Treaty in Washington, D.C., banning deployment of nuclear weapons in space, and limiting the usage of the Moon and other celestial bodies…
- December 25, 1968. Apollo program: Apollo 8 performs the first successful Trans-Earth injection (TEI) maneuver, sending the crew and spacecraft on a trajectory back to Earth from Lunar orbit.
- March 13, 1969. Apollo 9 returns safely to Earth after testing the Lunar Module.
Famous people born in the 1960s
- Diego Maradona, Argentinian footballer, coach, and manager (died 2020) (1960)
- Barack Obama, American lawyer and politician, 44th President of the United States, Nobel Prize laureate (1961)
- Diana, Princess of Wales (died 1997) (1961)
- Rafael Correa, Ecuadorian economist and politician, 54th President of Ecuador (1963)
- Kamala Harris, American politician and lawyer, 49th Vice President of the United States (1964)
- Boris Johnson, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and former Mayor of London (1964)
- J. K. Rowling, English author and film producer (1965)
- Bashar al-Assad, Syrian politician, 21st President of Syria (1965)
- Jimmy Wales, American-British entrepreneur, co-founder of Wikipedia (1966)
- David Cameron, English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1966)
- Sung Jae-gi, South Korean activist, founded Man of Korea (died 2013) (1967)
- Celine Dion, Canadian singer-songwriter (1968)
- Michael Schumacher, German racing driver (1969)
- Linus Torvalds, Finnish-American computer programmer, developed Linux kernel (1969)