On May 9, 1960, fifty years ago today, the Food and Drug Administration announced that it would be granting approval to the birth control pill. As the sixties progressed, sex and gender relations in the United States were irrevocably transformed.

It would be an exaggeration to suggest that the Pill created that transformation on its own. As historian Elaine Tyler May notes, it was women’s activism that unlocked “the revolutionary potential of the Pill” — feminism and women’s new ability to control their fertility went hand in hand. But May 9, 1960 was nonetheless a milestone moment in women’s liberation.