Year	What Was Happening ?
« 1957	At St John's	In & Around Stratford	In The Church	In The World
1958	Charles Fox becomes vicar of St John's		The offices of Suffragan Bishop of Barking and Archdeacon of West Ham are separated and John Elijah Elvin became the first 'separate' Archdeacon of West Ham.	The Hula Hoop invented Nikita Krushchev becomes the Soviet leader.
1959				Britain's first motorway - the M1 - opened Fidel Castro leads the Cuban Revolution, overthrowing the Batista regime. The Dalai Lama leaves Tibet ahead of the Chinese invasion and is offered sanctuary in India.
1960				John F. Kennedy is elected president of the United States. The Civil Rights Bill is passed by the U.S. Senate. Civil war breaks out in the Congo following the granting of independence from Belgium. Start of the Vietnam War
1961	Last services at Christchurch.	Population of West Ham 157,367	The Rev. L. J. Derritt, Vicar of East Ham - anticipating the changes in London government - suggests a new Diocese of Barking to cover the proposed five Outer London Boroughs in Essex. He receives considerable support but no official opinion was given until 1967.	The first edition of 'Private Eye', a satirical magazine appears. Adolf Eichmann goes on trial in Jerusalem for war crimes. US Invades Cuba (The Bay of Pigs)
1962				The structure of DNA is discovered.
1963	Colin Judd becomes curate at St Johns	Stratford Railway Works closed.		Alexander Frederick Douglas-Home becomes Prime Minister U. S. President John F. Kennedy is assassinated. Lyndon Johnson is sworn in as president. MP John Profumo resigns in a sex scandal.
1964		St James, Forest Gate, demolished West Ham wins FA Cup		Harold Wilson becomes Prime Minister Nelson Mandela is sentenced to life in prison giving rise to international protests. Britain's first pirate radio station, Radio Caroline, begins broadcasting from the Channel, outside British waters.
1965	Colin Judd leaves St Johns for Rotherham and later Bradford	West Ham joins with East Ham, North Woolwich and Little Ilford, plus a few other minor boundary changes, and becomes the London Borough of Newham.		The Greater London Council inaugurated.
1966	St James, Forest Gate, parish joined to St John's			First controlled moon landing made by Russian unmanned 'Luna IX' spacecraft. The Six-Day War, Israel
1967		Bow Bridge Flyover opened.	Archbishop Ramsey's Commission on diocesan organisation in London and the south-east recommends five dioceses for the metropolitan area - including a Diocese of Barking consisting of the five Outer London Boroughs in Essex together with Hackney and Tower Hamlets. No action follows. Church organisation made parallel with municipal, and deaneries conterminous with London Boroughs of Newham, Redbridge, etc. though not all boundaries were changed to match this, and they still remained in the diocese of Chelmsford.	Broadcast of first television programmes in colour
1968	New St James building opened on new site at northern end of St James Road.	3 people die in Ronan Point tower block explosion
1969				Apollo II lands a man on the moon. In France, Concorde 001 breaks the sound barrier during a test flight.
1970			The Bishop of Chelmsford designates the Suffragan See of Barking as a separate Episcopal Area - the Suffragan Bishop to have considerable autonomy. Suggestions that this Area might come within the London diocese or that the Newham Deanery might transfer within the Stepney Suffragan See meet with no enthusiasm at all.	Edward Heath becomes Prime Minister Jimi Hendrix, rock guitar hero, dies from a drug overdose in London. A state of emergency, the first in over 40 years, is called by Heath as dock workers go on strike.
1971				Introduction of decimal currency
1972				Richard Nixon is re-elected president of the United States. Britain establishes relations with East Germany.
1973				Greece becomes a republic.
1974		Stratford Centre Shopping Mall opened.		Harold Wilson becomes Prime Minister for a second time. Nixon resigns the office of the president of the United States, Gerald R. Ford assumes the presidency.
1975		Christchurch demolished. Land purchased for redevelopment by Newham Council but never used.	The Bishop of Chelmsford commences a five-year trial of a new system of Episcopal Areas under which all three Suffragans (instead of just Barking) has a measure of autonomy under his overall jurisdiction and also has the responsibility for special areas of work throughout the diocese.	Vietnam War finishes
1976				James Callaghan becomes Prime Minister Jimmy Carter is elected president of the United States. An Air France Airbus is hijacked by six Palestinian terrorists with 288 passengers aboard. They fly to Entebbe.
1977				Elvis Presley dies Queen Elizabeth marks her 25th year on the throne with a Jubilee Celebration.
1978
1979 »	David Driscoll becomes vicar of St John's