Submitted by Brian Roulston

1960– Barton Township annexed by the City of Hamilton and the township ceased to exist.
1960– CHCH Television Tower is a 357.5 metre-high guyed TV mast in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada which is the primary transmitter for television station CHCH-TV. When it was built in 1960, the CHCH Television Tower became the tallest structure in Canada.
1960– The Farmers’ Market moved under cover on the ground floor of the Eaton’s parking garage built on the market grounds.
1960– New City Hall opened on Main Street West.
1960– Police dogs used for the first time in Hamilton.
1961– Old city hall, with its 38-metre clock tower, demolished to allow expansion of Eaton’s department store. The clock and bell went into the tower of the 1990 Eaton Centre.
1961– CHCH disaffiliated from the CBC and becomes an independent TV station.
1962– John Munro was elected to the Canadian House of Commons in the 1962 election, and served continuously as a Member of Parliament (MP) for Hamilton, Ontario. Munro was appointed to Cabinet by Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, and served variously as Minister of Amateur Sport, Minister of Health and Welfare and Minister of Labour from 1968 to 1978 when he was forced to resign from over the “Skyshops (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Gigu%C3%A8re)” scandal.
1962– The Hamilton Red Wings in 1962 capture the Memorial Cup which featured 1972 Summit Series hero Paul Henderson. Hamilton defeated the Edmonton Oil Kings.
1963– Department of National Defence no longer needs the Hamilton airport. Department of Transportation assumes ownership and operation. The airport was originally built in 1940 as the Mount Hope Airport, a Royal Canadian Air Force base. After the war, the airport gradually shifted towards civil use, The military ceased using it as a base in 1964.
1964– Imperial Tobacco Company’s Hamilton operations are moved to Guelph, Ontario.
1964– Hamilton is the birthplace of the Tim Hortons chain (1964). The original store (“Store #1”) still operates on Ottawa Street.
1966– Terminal Towers including a new eight-storey Holiday Inn opened on the site of the old transit terminal between King and Main at Catharine Street. It is now called Effort Square and the hotel is a Hamilton Plaza Hotel.
1966– Mohawk College starts granting diplomas in 1966, and has since grown into one of the largest provincially funded colleges in the province of Ontario.
1966– Studebaker Hamilton shuts down as its last car factory. (March 5)
1967– Hamiltonian Paul Szep, becomes the editorial cartoonist for The Boston Globe in 1967. (1967–2001).
1968– Lincoln Alexander, became Canada’s first black Member of Parliament when he was elected to the Canadian House of Commons in 1968 as a member of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada.
1968– Thomas McQuesten, his historic downtown family home was willed to the City of Hamilton after the death of the last of his five unmarried siblings in 1968. After its restoration was complete in 1971, Whitehern has been open as a civic museum and has occasionally served as a period film location.

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1970s- Notable actors from Hamilton are Second City Television alumni Eugene Levy, Martin Short and Dave Thomas. All three Hamltonians attended McMaster University along with John Candy in the 1970s.
1971– The Capitol Theatre on King East closed.
1971– IBM Building office tower opened on Main West by the old library. Today (2007) known as the BDC Building.
1971– The Hilarious House of Frightenstein was a Canadian children’s television series which was also produced by CHCH in 1971. It was syndicated to television stations across Canada and the United States, and occasionally still appears today in some TV markets. A quirky sketch comedy series, the show’s cast included Billy Van, Fishka Rais, Guy Big, Mitch Markowitz, Vincent Price and Julius Sumner Miller. Van, in fact, played the vast majority of the characters. 130 episodes of the series were made, in one single nine-month span of time starting in 1971.
1972– Hamilton’s largest theatre, the Palace, was demolished.
1972– Hamilton Hurricanes Football Club wins the Canadian Junior Football League (CJFL) National Championship: The Canadian Bowl.
1972– The Canadian Football Hall of Fame officially opened as a museum to dedicate football in Canada, (November 28, 1972) in Hamilton.
1972– Phase 1 of Jackson Square completed, including Stelco Tower and Bank of Montreal Pavilion. The old Bank of Montreal building at Main and James was used as the city reference library until 1980 and had been vacant or a nightclub site on and off for many years.
1973– The Birks Building at King and James, demolished to make room for a modernist law office, was once described by Oscar Wilde as “the most beautiful building in all of North America.” [84]
1973– Stelco Tower is built in downtown Hamilton, 25-floors/ 103-metres. At the time of completion was the tallest building in Hamilton but that title only lasted for a year until Landmark Place (Century 21 building) was complete in 1974.
1973– The last day Tolls were charged on the Burlington Bay James N. Allan Skyway Bridge. (December 28)
1973– Hamilton Place auditorium opened.
1973– Wentworth County changes into the Regional Municipality of Hamilton-Wentworth. (Bill 155)
1974– Hamilton’s tallest building; Landmark Place, (formerly known as the Century 21 building) is completed. 43 stories/ 127.0 metres in height. Also the tallest residential building in Canada outside of Toronto as of January 10, 2007.
1974– (January 1), The Regional Municipality of Hamilton-Wentworth came into being.
1974– CHCH TV 11 was first in the world with the television premiere of The Godfather.
1976– the Hamilton Fincups captured the Memorial Cup trophy. The Hamilton team featured future NHL stars Willie Huber, Al Jensen, Dale McCourt, Al Secord and Ric Seiling. Hamilton defeated the New Westminster Bruins in the Finals.
1976– Hamilton’s Mayor; Victor Kennedy Copps suffers a severe heart attack during the Around the Bay Road Race and leaves public office.
1976– First Place seniors high rise at King and Wellington opened on the site of First United Church, which burned in 1969.
1976– Widening of York Boulevard, which involved expropriating hundreds of homes and businesses, was completed.
1976– The Spectator, which had been downtown since its founding in 1846, moved out of its King East building to 44 Frid St.
1977– Second phase of Jackson Square completed with a six-storey office tower, but not the department store intended to be its major attraction.
1977– The Art Gallery of Hamilton opened beside the board of education.
1977– New police headquarters opened down the street from the old one on King William at Mary.
1978– Harold Ballard buys the Hamilton Tiger-Cats from Michael DeGroote for $1.2 million in January 1978.
1978– Teenage Head, on May 1978, they released their first single “Picture My Face” on Epic Records, and quickly became part of the scene exploding in Toronto.
1978– August 7: Hamilton held a round of the Formula Atlantic Championship. The insurance company demanded that the metal containers that formed part of the portable barrier system be filled with sand. In the haste to get this done in time, sand was dumped all over the road. The resulting delay led to the whole event being run in just half a day. Following 30 minutes of practice, a shortened qualifying session was held for 48 minutes, although there was basically only one line because the sand still lying on the circuit. The race was finally started at 8pm. The race was originally scheduled for 70 laps. There was a safety car period after an early three-car incident. The race was eventually red flagged after 39 laps due to darkness. Keke Rosberg (1982’s Formula One World Champion) won the race.