chronology xiiiDate Historical Events Literary Events
1956 The Hungarian Revolution is crushed Allen Ginsberg, Howl and
by the Soviet Union after three weeks; Other Poems; Robert
Elvis Presley has his fi rst number one Conquest, New Lines
hit with Heartbreak Hotel.1957 The Treaty of Rome establishes the The Howl obscenity trial
European Economic Community. results in the acquittal of
publisher Lawrence
Ferlinghetti; Ted Hughes,
The Hawk in the Rain
1959 Fidel Castro assumes power in Cuba Robert Lowell, Life
after his guerrilla forces defeat the Studies; Frank O’Hara,
army of President Battista. ‘Personism’; Gary Snyder,
Riprap and Cold Mountain
Poems1960 Cuba aligns itself with the Soviet Donald Allen, The New
Union; Penguin Books is found not American Poetry; Sylvia
guilty in the Lady Chatterley’s Lover Plath, The Colossus
obscenity trial.
1961 John F. Kennedy becomes the Allen Ginsberg, ‘Prose
youngest and the fi rst Roman Contribution to Cuban
Catholic US President; the attempted Revolution’
CIA-led incursion into Cuba comes to
grief at the Bay of Pigs.1962 A Russian missile site is identifi ed in Al Alvarez, The New
Cuba by a US military overfl ight, Poetry
precipitating the Cuban Missile crisis;
The Beatles’ fi rst single Love Me
Do reaches no. 17 in the British
charts.
1963 President John F. Kennedy is Amiri Baraka, ‘Expressive
assassinated in Dallas, Texas; Vice Language’
President Lyndon Baines Johnson is
sworn in.WILLIAMS PRINT.indd xiiiWILLIAMS PRINT.indd xiii 08/02/2011 11:4008/02/2011 11: