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Vatican II: 40
years later
The Second Vatican Council: A Timeline
1959
Council events
Jan. 25: Pope John XXIII announces his intention of calling an
ecumenical council
World events
- Fidel Castro becomes premier of Cuba
- Hawaii becomes the 50th state
- Karl Barth publishes Dogmatics in Outline
- Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, publishes The Phenomena of
Man
- Joan Miró does the murals for the UNESCO Building in
Paris
- Films include “Ben Hur” and “La Dolce Vita”
- Died: Frank Lloyd Wright
1960
Council
June 5: Preparatory commissions and secretariats for the council
set up by motu proprio, meaning under the pope’s personal
authority
World
- U.S. U-2 spy plane shot down over Russia
- Belgian Congo granted full independence
- John F. Kennedy elected president of the United States
- Brasilia replaces Rio de Janeiro as capital of Brazil
- Robert Bolt writes “A Man for All Seasons”
- Three women admitted to the ministry of the Swedish Lutheran
church
- Picasso exhibition at the Tate Gallery, London
- Films include “Psycho” and “The Apartment”
- U.S. scientists develop laser device
- U.S. submarine completes first underwater circumnavigation of
the globe
- American Heart Association issues a report attributing higher
death rates among middle-aged men to heavy smoking of cigarettes
- First weather satellite launched
- Died: Albert Camus, Clark Gable, Emily Post
1961
Council
Dec. 25: The council is formally summoned by the apostolic
constitution Humanae Salutis
World
- President John F. Kennedy inaugurates the Peace Corps
- U.N. General Assembly condemns apartheid
- Unsuccessful invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs
- Berlin Wall constructed
- Dag Hammarskjöld killed in air crash
- Adolf Eichmann found guilty
- Graham Greene publishes A Burnt-out Case
- Irving Stone publishes The Agony and the Ecstasy
- Joseph Heller publishes Catch-22
- Michael Ramsey appointed archbishop of Canterbury
- Meeting of the World Council of Churches in Delhi
- Films include “Jules et Jim” and “West Side
Story”
- Yuri Gagarin (U.S.S.R.) orbits the earth
- Alan Shepard makes the first U.S. space flight
- Freedom Riders are attacked and beaten in Anniston and
Birmingham, Ala.
- Died: Ernest Hemingway, Carl Jung
1962
Council
Sept. 5: Norms and procedures of the council settled by the
apostolic constitution Appropinquante Concilio
Oct. 11-Dec. 8: First session of the council
meets
World
- Cuban missile crisis
- Uganda and Tanganyika become independent
- John Steinbeck publishes Travels with Charley and wins
Nobel Prize for Literature
- Alexander Solzhenitsyn publishes A Day in the Life of Ivan
Denisovich
- James Baldwin publishes Another Country
- Films include “Lawrence of Arabia” and
“Cleopatra”
- Drs. F.H.C. Crick, M.H.F. Wilkins and J.D. Watson win Nobel
Prize for Medicine and Physiology for determining the molecular structure of
DNA
- Died: Marilyn Monroe
1963
Council
June 3: Pope John XXIII dies
June 21: Pope Paul VI elected; announces to continue the
council
Sept. 29-Dec. 4: Second session of the council meets
Issued on Dec. 4: Sacrosanctum concilium,
“Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy”; Inter Mirifica,
“Decree On the Means of Social Communication”
World
- Civil rights demonstrations in Birmingham, Ala., culminate in
the arrest of Martin Luther King Jr. and the calling out of 3,000 troops by
President Kennedy
- 200,000 Freedom Marchers descend on Washington to protest
discrimination
- Nuclear test ban treaty signed by the United States, Soviet
Union and Great Britain
- Nov. 22: President John F. Kennedy assassinated by Lee Harvey
Oswald in Dallas
- Lyndon B. Johnson sworn in as president
- Kenya becomes independent republic
- Morris L. West publishes The Shoes of the Fisherman;
Hannah Arendt publishes Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of
Evil
- Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” exhibited in New
York and Washington D.C.
- Films include “The Cardinal,” “The Birds”
and “Dr. Strangelove”
- Russian Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first female astronaut
- A hurricane and resulting tsunamis leave about 22,000 dead in
East Pakistan
- T.A. Mathews and A.R. Sandage discover quasars
- Dr. Michael De Bakey first uses an artificial heart to take
over the circulation of a patient’s heart during surgery
- Died: Robert Frost
1964
Council
Jan. 4-6: Pope Paul VI meets Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras in
the Holy Land
May 17: Secretariat for Non-Christian Religions established
Sept. 14-Nov. 21: Third session of the council meets
Issued on Nov. 21: Lumen Gentium, “Dogmatic
Constitution On the Church”; Orientalium Ecclesiarum, “Decree
On the Catholic Churches of the Eastern Rite”; Unitatis
Redintegratio, “Decree on Ecumenism”
World
- 24th amendment to the Constitution ratified abolishing poll tax
- Lyndon B. Johnson elected president of the United States
- U.S. destroyer attacked off coast of North Vietnam; U.S.
aircraft attack North Vietnam bases
- Race riots break out in cities across the United States as
reaction against enforcement of civil rights laws
- U.N. Peace Force takes over in Cyprus
- Martin Luther King Jr. wins the Nobel Peace Prize
- Yasser Arafat takes over leadership of Al-Fatah movement
- Martin Luther King Jr. publishes Why We Can’t Wait
- Films include “Lord of the Flies,” “A Hard
Day’s Night,” “Zorba the Greek” and “My Fair
Lady”
- “Fiddler on the Roof” plays in New York
- James Hoffa, president of the Teamsters’ Union, found
guilty of jury tampering, fraud and conspiracy
- Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, the longest suspension bridge, opens
in New York
- Died: Cole Porter
1965
Council
Sept. 14- Dec. 8: Fourth session of the council meets
Sept. 15: Pope Paul VI issues an apostolic constitution,
Apostolica Sollicitudo, which formulates norms for a new episcopal synod
established to assist the pope in governing the church
Issued Oct. 28: Christus Dominus, “Decree Concerning
the Pastoral Office of Bishops in the Church”; Perfectae Caritatis,
“Decree On Renewal of Religious Life”; Optatam Totius,
“Decree On Priestly Training”; Gravissimum Educationis,
“Declaration On Christian Education”; Nostra Aetate,
“Declaration On the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian
Religions”
Issued Nov. 18: Dei Verbum, “Dogmatic Constitution
On Divine Revelation”; Apostolicam Actuositatem, “Decree On
the Apostolate of the Laity”
Dec. 4: Prayer Service for Promoting Christian Unity held at St.
Paul Outside the Walls
Dec. 7: Dignitatis Humanae, “Declaration On
Religious Freedom”; Ad Gentes, “Decree on the Mission Activity
of the Church”; Presbyterorum Ordinis, “Decree on the Ministry
and Life of Priests”; Gaudium et Spes, “Pastoral Constitution
on the Church In the Modern World”
Dec. 8: The Second Vatican Council is solemnly ended;
extraordinary Jubilee Year proclaimed to familiarize the faithful with the
teachings of the council
World
- Pope Paul VI addresses U.N. assembly in New York
- Malcolm X shot in New York
- Outbreaks of racial violence in Selma, Ala.; Martin Luther King
Jr. leads march of 4,000 people from Selma to Montgomery
- Race riots in Watts district of Los Angeles, 35 dead, 4,000
arrests
- Students demonstrate in Washington against U.S. bombing of
North Vietnam
- Medicare Bill becomes law
- New U.S. immigration law classifies applicants by family
condition, refugee status and skills, replacing 1921 law based on nationality
- Ralph Nader publishes Unsafe at Any Speed
- Herbet Marcuse publishes Culture and Society
- Films include “Help,” “Dr. Zhivago” and
“The Sound of Music”
- Cyclones ravage East Pakistan, 12,00-20,000 die
- Power blackout in eastern United States and parts of Canada
- Died: Winston Churchill, T.S. Eliot, Albert Schweitzer, Martin
Buber, Paul Tillich
Timeline compiled by Gary Macy, theology
professor at the University of San Diego.
National Catholic Reporter, October 4,
2002
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