A New Bestseller: Although Maddie never reads Betty Friedan’s groundbreaking book The Feminine Mystique published in 1963, the women’s movement it sparks forever impacts her life.

An Historic Speech: Twelve-year old Maddie is at summer camp when Martin Luther King, Jr. delivers his famous “I Have a Dream” speech to a crowd of 250,000 people at the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963.

A Nation in Mourning: On November 22, Maddie is home sick watching daytime T.V. (a rare event) when the broadcast is interrupted to announce the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas. She is back in school days later when his shooter, Lee Harvey Oswald, is killed by Jack Ruby on live TV.

Instant Smash: On February 9, the Beatles make their American debut on the Ed Sullivan Show to a crowd of screaming fans, thus beginning Beatlemania. Maddie doesn’t understand the fuss but thinks Paul McCartney is pretty cute.

A Legendary Love: Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton marry (for the first time) on March 15. Maddie thinks they are both ridiculous and both wear too much make-up.

A Massive Protest: A freshman at UC Berkeley, Brad attends the massive 36-hour teach-in there on May 21-22 along with thirty-thousand other people to protest the Vietnam War. Anders is also in California, supposedly attending Shasta Community College but, out of Alaska for the first time and in a place with roads, actually seeing how much beer he can drink and how fast he can drive his $500 used Chevy.

“Always faithful”: Flunking out of his sophomore year in college and in eminent danger of getting drafted, Anders opts to enlist in the Marines where his skill hunting deer since the age of twelve earns him a marksmanship badge. Before shipping out to Vietnam, Anders has a Semper Fi logo tattooed on his forearm.

A Trend With Legs: Miniskirts are all the rage but Maddie’s high school vice principal makes the girls kneel on the ground and, if their skirt measures more than two inches off the ground, they have to go home and change.

Top Model: With her leggy look and short crop haircut, Twiggy is named "The Face of '66." The boobs Maddie waited so long to develop are suddenly unfashionable—but not unpopular with the boys.

The Summer of Love: Approximately 100,000 young people sporting bell bottom jeans, tie-dyed shirts, and smoking dope converge in San Francisco’s Haight-Asbury neighborhood. Maddie holds her sweet sixteen party at the local country club while secretly longing to run away to San Francisco.

Football's Top Game Debuts: Maddie doesn’t care about football nor the fact that the first Superbowl game was played that year.

Another Icon Gone: On April 4, Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated while standing outside of his balcony in a Tennessee motel.

An Ivy Goes Coed: Yale admits 588 women to attend the formerly all-male university. Maddie is a high school senior. Brad is a university senior. Anders is a Marine in Vietnam.

A High School Diploma: Maddie does not recognize any of the other 989 seniors sweltering on the 84-degree football field at her graduation ceremony, elated to be done with high school, chaffing at the restrictions of living at home, and longing to fall in love.

Man on the Moon: "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind," Neil Armstrong proclaims as he takes the first step onto the moon on July 20. Maddie’s dad buys a new color television so the family can watch the event live, beamed back to earth in scratchy black and white.

A Legendary Line-Up: Woodstock Music Festival concludes on August 17. The iconic three-day festival of "peace, love and rock 'n' roll" includes Richie Havens, Joan Baez, The Who, Janis Joplin, Creedence Clearwater Revival and Jimi Hendrix. Maddie wishes she could go, until she hears about the mud, long lines, and lack of toilets.

A Shocking Day: On May 4, members of the Ohio National Guard open fire at Kent State University students who were protesting the Vietnam War. Four were fatally shot.

May: Brad finally notices his little sister’s friend Maddie. Kboom!

June: Approved for use in the U.S. less than a decade earlier, the Birth-Control Pill played a major role in the sexual liberation of women in the 1960s. Maddie starts the Pill when she is eighteen years old, elated she can enjoy sex without fear of pregnancy.

Gone Before Their Time: Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin die of overdoses. Maddie never touches tobacco or hard drugs, but marijuana is a different story.

Scandal!: On June 17, five White House operatives are arrested in conjunction with the break-in of the DNC's office at the Watergate. Brad becomes obsessed with the trial.

A Controversial Trip: In July, Jane Fonda tours Vietnam where she is photographed atop a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft vehicle. Brad thinks she is a hero. Anders thinks her a traitor.

The World Mourns: At the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, 11 Israeli athletes are captured and later die at the hands of the extremist Black September group. Eighty-thousand people attended the funeral ceremony at the Olympic Stadium.

Smash Hit:M*A*S*H premieres on September 17. Its final episode, in 1983, would have the largest audience in TV history.

June: Maddie leaves for Alaska.