Overland Park is celebrating 63 years as a first-class city in 2023. The City was officially incorporated on May 20, 1960 with a population of 28,085.
Today, Overland Park spans 75.6 square miles of Johnson County, and is home to more than 200,000 residents, making it the second most populous city in Kansas and metropolitan Kansas City.
Take a trip back to 1960 with these facts and historic moments from the year Overland Park was incorporated:
Daily Life
- Median home value in the United States reached $11,900.
- Postage stamps cost four cents.
- A gallon of gas cost an average of 31 cents.
In the News
- The first televised debate between two United States presidential candidates aired on Sept. 26, 1960. John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon completed a series of four debates, broadcasted in black in white. Kennedy went on to win the election in November.
- NASA launched the nation’s first weather satellite from Cape Canaveral in April 1960.
Pop Culture Moments
- The series “Gunsmoke” was the top-rated television show in the country. Based in Dodge City, Kansas, the series became the longest running, prime time television western in history.
- Alfred Hitchcock’s thriller “Psycho” premiered on June 16 in New York City.
- The classic American novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee was published on July 11.
- Cassius Clay, better known as Muhammad Ali, won his first professional boxing match after winning a gold medal at the Summer Olympics in Rome.
- English rock band The Beatles officially formed in Liverpool.