Benchmark 10E
Historical Perspectives: Moving the Continents
Grades 9-12, page 248

The theory of plate tectonics was finally accepted by the scientific community in the 1960s, when further evidence had accumulated in support of it. The theory was seen to provide an explanation for a diverse array of seemingly unrelated phenomena, and there was a scientifically sound physical explanation of how such movement could occur.
 

See Content Standard G History and Nature of Science (grades 9-12): Historical Perspectives.