The turbulent 1960s, which opened with students reporting on their summertime Freedom Ride experiences throughout the American South and ended with the Vietnam War-related bombing of Sterling Hall in 1970, are a record of how an era of idealism gave way to one characterized by angry dissent and disorder, the rise of women's liberation, flower power, black power, and student power. The history concludes with the passage of legislation creating the University of Wisconsin System of campuses in 1971—an action that followed nearly three decades of experiments, compromises, and political struggles involving several governors.