Here's a brief snapshot of US history between 1962-1974, when my parents were school age.

• Soviet submarine B-59 comes terrifyingly close to starting a nuclear war with the United States (1962). This event was unknown at the time but the threat of nuclear war was very real.
• The Vietnam War begins (1962).
• President John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Texas(1963).
• Alabama governor George Wallace makes the now famous declaration in his innaugeral address, "...segregation now, segregation tomorrow, and segregation forever." (1963).
• The Harlem [race] riot marks the first of numerous violent race riots across the country (1964).
• Malcolm X is assassinated in New York City (1965).
• Martin Luther King is assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee (1968).
• Bobby Kennedy is assassinated in Los Angeles, California after winning the California democratic presidential primary (1968).
• 4 College students are killed and 9 more wounded after being fired upon by the Ohio National Guard at Kent State University.
• Richard Nixon becomes the first and only US President to resign after the Watergate scandal (1974).

And those are just some of the major highlights. Things have been plenty shitty in the past.