• LSD first produced synthetically in Sandoz Pharmaceutical Laboratories in Basel (based on research into lysergic acid by Dr Albert Hofmann).

• Hofmann takes first deliberate dose of LSD at Sandoz (19 April). Followed by a series of self-experiments by Hofmann and colleagues. First writes about these experiments on 22 April.

• British psychiatrists increasingly experiment on patients with mescaline and LSD.

• CIA discovers LSD through a paper given by psychiatrist Dr Werner Stoll, on his self-experimentation with the drug.

• Psychiatrist Dr Humphrey Osmond introduces writer Aldous Huxley to mescaline.

• Aldous Huxley, The Doors of Perception.

• A BBC film crew record Christopher Mayhew (MP and friend of Humphrey Osmond) taking mescaline. The footage is deemed unsuitable for broadcast. Mayhew wrote of his experience in The Observer.

• The term 'psychedelic' is first proposed by Humphrey Osmond in a letter to Aldous Huxley.

• R.H. Ward, A Drug-Taker's Notes (an account of psychiatric experiments with LSD).

• William Burroughs, Naked Lunch.

• R.D. Laing, The Divided Self.
• Timothy Leary takes magic mushrooms for the first time.
• R.D. Laing takes LSD for the first time.
• Timothy Leary moves from California to Cambridge, Massachusetts, to take up position at Harvard University. With Dr Richard Alpert and Aldous Huxley, takes part in a series of experiments with mind-altering drugs.
• The contraceptive pill is introduced in the USA. Available in Britain the following year.

• William Burroughs, The Soft Machine.
• Timothy Leary takes his first LSD trip, supplied by Michael Hollingshead.
• Richard Alpert takes 10 milligrams of hallucinogen psilocybin at Timothy Leary's house.
• Poet and counterculture figure Allen Ginsberg travels to India.
• Leary and Alpert give psilocybin to twelve Harvard students.
• Allen Ginsberg introduces R.D. Laing to Timothy Leary.

• Robert Fraser Gallery opens.
• At the Edinburgh Festival artists Mark Boyle and Joan Hills produce Big Ed, their first theatrical event - provoking outrage.
• Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh opens, run by Jim Haynes - a leading figure of the counterculture movement.
• The Misfits, Gallery One, London (Fluxus artists).
• First English happening - 'mixed media event' - staged by Adrian Henri at the Merseyside Arts Festival, Liverpool.
• The Gamblers, 'LSD-25' (the first known song about LSD).

• Alphonse Mucha Exhibition, Victoria & Albert Museum, London.
• Mark Boyle, Caroll Baker and Joan Hills perform In Memory of Big Ed at the Edinburgh Festival.
• Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert are dismissed from Harvard University for their student experiments.
• First issue of underground magazine Oz published, in Australia.
• Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert found the International Federation for Internal Freedom to promote use of psychedelic drugs.
• Publication of Psychedelic Review.
• Assassination of US President John F. Kennedy (22 November).

• Dennison Hall Happenings in London. Performance and events by Jean-Jacques Lebel, Mark Boyle and Joan Hills.
• Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media.
• Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man.
• Dangerous Drugs Act in Britain introduces new offences in respect of cannabis. Drugs (Prevention of Misuse) Act increases control of amphetamines (cocaine and heroin use increase tenfold in the first half of the decade).
• Biba boutique opens in Kensington, London.
• Ossie Clark and Alice Pollock open the Quorum boutique in Chelsea, London.
• In the US the Free Speech Movement in Berkeley, California marks the start of a period of campus protest.
• Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters' bus tour across the US.

• The Responsive Eye exhibition, Museum of Modern Art, New York.
• Michael Kirby, Happenings: An Illustrated Anthology.
• Michael Fallon, a writer on the San Francisco Examiner, uses term 'hippies' for Haight-Ashbury residents.
• Start of Vietnam War.
• Start of anti-war campus protests in the United States.
• The Psychedelic Shop - the first of its kind - opens in San Francisco.
• The Matrix, a music club in San Francisco Marina district, opens for business. Jefferson Airplane are the house band.
• With 5000 doses of LSD and instructions from Timothy Leary to promote 'spiritual and emotional development', Michael Hollingshead opens the World Psychedelic Centre, London.
• The first of Ken Kesey's Acid Tests is held in Santa Cruz, California. The second Acid Test is held in December following a Rolling Stones concert. Hand-lettered invitations reading 'Can you pass the Acid Test?' are handed out and 400 people turn up The Grateful Dead perform. LSD is supplied by Augustus Owsley (who between 1965 and 1967 supplied acid to those on the San Francisco scene).
• Allen Ginsberg asks peace marchers to use 'masses of flowers' as protest - leads to the term 'flower power'.
• The Psychedelic Reader - selections from Psychedelic Review - edited by Timothy Leary.
• First psychedelic evening, Nitetripper - later UFO - at the Blarney Club, London.
• Free University of New York founded by Allen Krebs.
• International Festival of Poetry, Royal Albert Hall, London. Organised by John Esam and Daniel and Jill Richter, with Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Gregory Corso, Paolo Leonni, Harry Fainlight, Pete Brown, Anselm Hollo, Michael Horovitz, Spike Hawkins, Tom McGrath, Christopher Logue, George Macbeth, Adrian Mitchell; Ernst Jandl; Alexander Trocchi, compere.
• The sTigma exhibition at Better Books shop, Charing Cross Road, London.
• Coda Gallery, New York - the first psychedelic gallery - founded by Isaac Abrams.
• Granny Takes a Trip boutique opens, London.

• Aubrey Beardsley exhibition, Victoria & Albert Museum, London (influences the resurgence of Art Nouveau in graphic art).
• Indica, a bookshop, art gallery and gathering place, opens for business. It is a joint venture of book dealer Barry Miles, pop star Peter Asher and art dealer John Dunbar.
• Mark Boyle and Joan Hills, first performance of Son et Lumière for Earth, Fire and Water for opening of Destruction in Art Symposium (DIAS) at Jeanetta Cochrane Theatre, London. Other participants include Hermann Nitsch and Yoko Ono.
• Sensual Laboratory (also known as Sense Lab) formed, which included Mark Boyle, Joan Hills, Cameron Hills, Des Bonner, John Claxton, and others.
• Ravi Shankar invites George Harrison to India for sitar lessons and tutoring on Eastern music and culture.
• The Thirteenth Floor Elevators, The Psychedelic Sound of...
• The Byrds, Fifth Dimension.
• Donovan, Sunshine Superman.
• Frank Zappa, Freak Out.
• The Beach Boys, Pet Sounds.
• The largest 'Acid Test' yet draws 2400 people to San Francisco's Fillmore West Auditorium. The Grateful Dead play while banks of audio-visual equipment create a chaotic backdrop of light and sound (January).
• Huge anti-Vietnam War protests, parades and rallies are held in American cities (March).
• Time magazine's 'London: The Swinging City' issue coins the term 'Swinging London' (15 April).
• Sandoz Pharmaceuticals withdraws LSD after widespread 'misuse' (April).
• First appearance of Andy Warhol's Exploding Plastic Inevitable - the Velvet Underground band and mixed media show, New York (April).
• The terms 'groovy' and 'hippie' become more widely used.
• Leary, founder of the 'League of Spiritual Discovery', proclaims acid to be the sacrament for his new religion (September).
• The first issue of the San Francisco Oracle published (September).
• LSD, mescaline and psilocybin made illegal in US (October).
• The multimedia 'Trips Festival' is held at Longshoremen's Hall in San Francisco. A psychedelic poster handbill promises slides, movies, soundtracks, flowers and food. The Grateful Dead and Big Brother and the Holding Company perform, and a batch of acid is circulated.
• The first of several Spontaneous Underground events is held at London's Marquee Club. Pot and acid are plentiful.
• World Psychedelic Centre in London closes as Michael Hollingshead is convicted of drug offences.
• Publication of first issue of British underground paper IT (International Times). Launched with an 'all-night rave' at London's Roundhouse. Featured performers include Pink Floyd and Soft Machine.
• John 'Hoppy' Hopkins establishes UFO on Friday nights at the Blarney Club, Tottenham Court Road, London. Arthur Brown, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd and the Soft Machine are all regular performers (until September 1967, when an newspaper exposé forces a move to the Roundhouse).
• John Peel begins broadcasting psychedelic music on his 'Perfumed Garden' show on Radio London.
• R.D. Laing gives paper at the ICA, London on 'The Experience of LSD'.
• Life magazine publishes illustrated article on 'LSD Art' (3 October).
• Festival of the New Moon, Royal Albert Hall, London (organised by Michael Horovitz and with Robert Graves, Stevie Smith, Liverpool poets, Spike Milligan).

• Adrian Henri, Roger McGough, Brian Patten, The Mersey Sound.
• R.D. Laing, The Politics of Experience and the Bird of Paradise.

January 1967

• 'Giant Freakout' in London and San Francisco.
• First issue of San Francisco-based magazine Rolling Stone published in US.
• Mark Boyle and Joan Hills première their performance Son et Lumière for Bodily Fluids and Functions at the Bluecoat Arts Society in Liverpool (11 January).
• 'Gathering of the Tribes for a Human Be-in' at the Golden Gate Park in Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco. Performers include the Grateful Dead and Big Brother and the Holding Company. Also present are Allen Ginsberg and Timothy Leary (14 January).
• San Francisco police chief coins the term 'the Love Generation' to describe the residents of Haight-Ashbury.
• The Doors (named after Aldous Huxley's The Doors of Perception) release their eponymous debut album in the US.

• The first British issue of Oz magazine published.
• Light-show by Mark Boyle and Joan Hills with Soft Machine at the Love Festival, London.
• The Beatles, Strawberry Fields Forever/Penny Lane EP released in UK.

• 30,000 people attend a 'be-in' at Central Park in New York.
• Police raid International Times with a warrant issued under the Obscene Publications Act.
• Velvet Underground, The Velvet Underground and Nico.
• Jefferson Airplane, Surrealistic Pillow released in the US (features tracks 'White Rabbit' and 'Somebody to Love').

• The Gray Line Bus Company offers a 'San Francisco Haight-Ashbury Hippie Hop Tour'.
• 400,000 demonstrate against the Vietnam War at the UN in New York.
• Pink Floyd's first single 'Arnold Layne' enters the UK chart.
• 'The 14-Hour Technicolour Dream' concert and fundraiser for International Times is held at Alexandra Palace, London (29 April).
• Detroit 'love-in' ends in a riot (30 April).
• The Grateful Dead's eponymous first album released.

• Peace rally against Vietnam War in Trafalgar Square, London.
• Jim Hendrix, 'Purple Haze' hits no. 3 in the UK singles chart.
• The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Are you Experienced? reaches no. 2 in the UK album chart.
• The BBC bans the Beatles' 'A Day in the Life' because of its 'drug references'.
• Pink Floyd's multimedia concert 'Games for May' at Queen Elizabeth Hall, London.
• John Lennon's Rolls Royce painted with psychedelic designs.

• The Beatles' Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album released. Artwork for the cover is by Peter Blake, Jann Haworth and Michael Cooper.
• English counterculture leader John 'Hoppy' Hopkins is jailed for 9 months on drug charges.
• Monterey Pop Festival, Monterey, California, includes performances by the Who, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, the Animals, Otis Redding and Jefferson Airplane (16-18 June).
• Foundation of Release - an organisation to provide legal aid to those charged with drugs offences.
• Scott McKenzie's 'San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)' reaches no. 6 in US singles chart.
• Mick Jagger and Keith Richards convicted of drug offences.
• Paul McCartney publicly admits taking LSD.
• Procul Harum, 'A Whiter Shade of Pale' reaches no. 1 in UK singles chart.

• 5,000 attend the 'Legalise Pot 1967' rally, Hyde Park, London, with speech by Allen Ginsberg (16 July).
• A 'love-in' is held at Griffith Park, Los Angeles (23 July).
• 'Legalise Pot' full-page advertisement in The Times, London, signed by the four Beatles, Tariq Ali, David Bailey, Graham Greene, Richard Hamilton, R.D. Laing, George Melly, John Piper and others.
• 'Festival of the Flower Children', Woburn Abbey, UK (31 July).
• The Beatles' All You Need is Love global TV broadcast.
• Pink Floyd take part in all-night 'International Love-In' at Alexandra Palace, London.
• Dialectics of Liberation Congress, Roundhouse, London, with R.D. Laing, Herbert Marcuse, Allen Ginsberg, Stokely Carmichael and others.
• 'Who Breaks a Butterfly on a Wheel' - The Times' editorial protest against the jailing of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.
• Arts Lab - arts venue with gallery, theatre and cinema - founded by Jim Haynes in Drury Lane, Covent Garden, London (closed autumn 1969).
• Time magazine cover story: 'The Hippies: Philosophy of a Sub-Culture'.

• The Beatles join Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in Bangor, Wales.
• Pink Floyd's debut album The Piper at the Gates of Dawn reaches no. 6 in UK chart.

• BBC Radios 1, 2, 3 and 4 begin broadcasting.

• Death of Che Guevara.
• The UFO closes - the Melody Maker headline asks 'Who killed Flower Power?'
• Demonstrations against the Vietnam War at the Pentagon, Washington DC.
• Demonstrations in New York as part of 'Stop the Draft Week' (16-20).
• Hair: The American Tribal Love Rock Musical opens in New York.
• Mock funeral of 'Hippie, devoted son of Mass Media' held in San Francisco.
• Traffic's 'Hole in My Shoe' reaches no. 2 in UK singles chart.

• Anti-draft demonstrations in New York.

December 1967

• The Rolling Stones, Their Satanic Majesties Request.
• Opening of the Apple Boutique in Baker Street, London.
• The Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour EP released. The accompanying hour-long psychedelic travelogue is aired on British television (26 December).

• Beatles retreat to India to study transcendental meditation with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (February).
• Fillmore East opens in New York (March).
• Artforum publishes a 'Summer of Love' issue (August).
• Robert E.L. Masters and Jean Houston, Psychedelic Art.
• Tom Wolfe, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test chronicles the exploits of Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters.
• Stanley Kubrick, 2001: A Space Odyssey.
• Yellow Submarine animated film released (soundtrack released 1969).
• The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, 'Fire'.
• Love, Forever Changes.
• Cheap Thrills by Big Brother and the Holding Company tops the US album chart. It features the work of Robert Crumb on the album cover.
• First issue of Robert Crumb's Zap comic, catalyst for underground 'comix'. Zap goes on to feature the work of Gilbert Shelton and S. Clay Wilson, as well as poster artists Victor Moscoso and Rick Griffin.
• The Grateful Dead, Anthem of the Sun.
• The Fugs, It Crawled into my Hand...Honest.
• Steppenwolf, 'Born to be Wild'.
• The Incredible String Band, The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter.
• Donovan, Hurdy Gurdy Man.
• Student riots in Warsaw, Poland.
• Columbia University, New York: student unrest, with week-long occupation of university buildings cleared by police.
• Martin Luther King assassinated (4 April).
• Thousands riot after student leader Rudi Dutschke is shot and wounded in Munich, Germany.
• Student uprising sees 30,000 students clash with police in Paris, France. Workers in France join student protests with a general strike (May).
• Robert Kennedy dies after being shot in Los Angeles (6 June).
• Climax of violent clashes of demonstrators with police at the Democratic convention in Chicago, captured and transmitted nationwide by television (28 August).
• Timothy Leary's autobiography High Priest.
• Cerebrum entertainment club opens in New York (November).

• Art Workers' Coalition founded in New York.
• Theodore Roszak, The Making of a Counterculture.
• Dennis Hopper, Easy Rider.
• John Schlesinger, Midnight Cowboy.
• Captain Beefheart, Trout Mask Replica.
• John Lennon and Yoko Ono honeymoon at the Amsterdam Hilton with a 'Bed-In for Peace' (March).

• Battle of People's Park, at University of California, Berkeley (May).
• The Rolling Stones perform a free concert in Hyde Park in London as a tribute to Brian Jones, who died two days earlier (July).
• The Who, Tommy.
• The Woodstock Music and Art Fair attracts 450,000 people to Bethel, New York (15-17 August).
• The Isle of Wight Festival of Music sees the last performance of Jimi Hendrix (August).
• The Rolling Stones stage a free concert at Altamont Speedway outside San Francisco. A concertgoer is stabbed to death by Hell's Angels during the Stones' performance (December).
• Riots follow a police raid at the Stonewall tavern in New York, leading to 'gay rights' movement.

• The Beatles split.
• First Earth Day (22 April).
• Jimi Hendrix dies of a drugs overdose (18 August).
• Janis Joplin dies of a drugs overdose (4 October).
• US National Guardsmen shoot dead four anti-war demonstrators at Kent State University, Ohio.
• Walt Disney's Fantasia (1940) re-released.

1971

• The closing week's concerts at the Fillmore West include performances by the Grateful Dead, Santana and Creedence Clearwater Revival.
• First Glastonbury festival, Somerset.
• Greenpeace founded.
• 200,000 demonstrate in Washington DC against Vietnam War.
• Oz (No. 28, 'Schoolkids Issue') obscenity trial at the Old Bailey, London.

• Vietnam Peace Treaty signed in Paris, signalling the end of the Vietnam War (January).
• US legalises abortion in all states.
• Oz magazine ceases publication.
• Michael Hollingshead publishes autobiography The Man Who Turned On the World.