Timeline 1961
Return to home
1961 Jan 3,
The United States severed diplomatic relations with Cuba after Fidel
Castro announced he was a communist. The US Guantanamo Bay base
remained under US control.
(AP, 1/3/98)(HN, 1/3/99)(MC, 1/3/02)
1961 Jan 4, The Danish barbers'
assistants strike ended after 33 yrs. It was the longest strike on
record.
(MC, 1/4/02)
1961 Jan 10,
Dashiell Hammett (66), author, died in NYC from throat cancer.
In 1983 Diane Johnson authored his biography. His books included
“The Maltese Falcon” and “The Thin Man,” both of which were turned
into films. He wrote “The Maltese Falcon” while living in San
Francisco at 891 Post St., which was also given as the address of
detective Sam Spade.
(www.imdb.com/name/nm0358591/)(SFC, 6/7/04, p.C2)
1961 Jan 10, In San Francisco a
25-foot grey whale died after getting trapped under Pier 50C at
Mission Rock Terminal. Humane officers fired soft-nosed and armor
piercing bullets into its skull to try to put the animal out of its
misery.
(SSFC, 1/9/11, DB p.42)
1961 Jan 11, There was a race
riot at the University of Georgia.
(MC, 1/11/02)
1961 Jan 15, The Supremes
signed with Motown Records.
(MC, 1/15/02)
1961 Jan 15, The hurricane
weakened Texas Tower No. 4, a Cold War radar tower, collapsed in the
North Atlantic 85 miles southeast of NYC. In 2011 Pres. Obama wrote
letter honoring the 28 men killed in the collapse.
(www.radomes.org/museum/documents/TexasTower.html)(SFC, 2/10/11,
p.A4)
1961 Jan 17, In his farewell
address, President Eisenhower warned against the rise of "the
military-industrial complex."
(AP, 1/17/98)
1961 Jan 17, Patrice Lumumba
(34), the 1st premier Congo, was murdered after 67 days in office.
Pres. Eisenhower allegedly approved the assassination of Congo's
Patrice Lumumba. The US and Joseph Mobutu were implicated but no
conclusive proof has emerged. Sidney Gottlieb (d.1999 at 80), a CIA
deputy, carried a deadly bacteria to the Congo that was used to kill
Lamumba. In 2000 the Belgium Parliament opened an inquiry into
possible government involvement in the killing of Congo’s Premier
Patrice Lumumba. This followed allegations in the new book "The
Murder of Lumumba" by Ludo De Witte. In 2001 the inquiry found that
King Baudouin knew of the plot but did nothing to stop it. The
Katanga government did not announce the death until Feb 13. Moscow
charged that UN Sec. Gen. Dag Hammarskjold was involved.
(TMC, 1994, p.1961)(PCh, 1992, p.979)(SFC,
5/17/97, p.A14)(SFC, 5/3/00, p.A14)(WSJ, 11/9/01, p.A1)
1961 Jan 19, The 1st episode
for "Dick Van Dyke Show" was filmed.
(MC, 1/19/02)
1961 Jan 20, Francis Opulence's
"Gloria," premiered in Boston.
(MC, 1/20/02)
1961 Jan 20, Pres. Kennedy made
his inaugural address from the steps of the US Capital. In 2004
Thurston Clarke authored “Ask Not: The Inauguration of John F.
Kennedy and the Speech That Changed America.” In 2005 Richard J.
Tofel authored “Sounding the Trumpet: The Making of John F.
Kennedy’s Inaugural Address.”
(SSFC, 10/24/04, p.M2)(WSJ, 8/24/05, p.D10)
1961 Jan 20, Poet Robert Frost
recited his poem "The Gift Outright" [The Outright Gift] at the
inauguration of U.S. President John F. Kennedy. Frost, born in San
Francisco on March 26, 1874, was the first poet to participate in a
presidential inauguration. Awarded the Pulitzer Prize four times,
most of Frost's work drew on themes from rural New England life. He
died on January 29, 1963. Although 86-year-old Robert Frost had
composed a new poem, titled "Dedication," for the inauguration of
President John F. Kennedy, he was unable to recite it at the
ceremony because he could not read his own typewritten manuscript. A
dim typewriter ribbon conspired with Frost‘s failing eyesight and
bright glare on a sunny day with snow cover, making it impossible
for the poet to read the poem written especially for the occasion.
Instead Frost recited from memory his famous poem "The Gift
Outright."
(HNQ, 9/12/98)(HNQ, 1/21/00)
1961 Jan 22, A Portuguese ocean
liner, the "Santa Maria," was hijacked in the Caribbean with some
600 passengers aboard; the drama ended eleven days later when the
ship docked in Brazil.
(AP, 1/22/01)
1961 Jan 24, A B-52 carrying
two nuclear bombs near Goldsboro, North Carolina encountered a
violent gust. The giant plane rolled completely over, came upright,
and continued rolling inverted a second time before whipping into a
vicious flat spin and breaking up.
(www.willthomasonline.net/willthomasonline/Broken_Arrows.html)
1961 Jan 25, Walt Disney's "101
Dalmatians" was released.
(MC, 1/25/02)
1961 Jan 25, President Kennedy
held the first presidential news conference carried live on radio
and television.
(AP, 1/25/98)
1961 Jan 26, Wayne Gretzky, NHL
great scorer (Oiler, King, Rangers), was born in Brantford, Ont.
(MC, 1/26/02)
1961 Jan 26, "Are You Lonesome
Tonight?" by Elvis Presley peaked at #1.
(MC, 1/26/02)
1961 Jan 26, Janet G. Travell
became the 1st woman personal physician to the US President (JFK).
(MC, 1/26/02)
1961 Jan 27, Mitch Miller
(1911-2010) debuted his TV show, “Sing Along With Mitch.” It
continued to 1964.
(SFC, 8/3/10,
p.C3)(www.imdb.com/title/tt0054564/)
1961 Jan 31, Chimpanzee Ham
landed safely and became the 1st primate in space after a 16 minute
flight aboard a Mercury-Redstone 2 rocket.
(AH, 2/06, p.14)
1961 Jan, Janio Quadros took
the oath as president of Brazil.
(WSJ, 4/6/06, p.D8)
1961 Jan, Nepal’s King Mahendra
introduced the indigenous Panchayat System (village council). Early
in 1961 the king set up a committee of four officials from the
Central Secretariat to recommend changes in the constitution that
would abolish political parties and substitute a "National Guidance"
system based on local panchayat led directly by the king.
(http://countrystudies.us/nepal/19.htm)
1961 Feb 2, The hijackers of
the Portuguese ocean liner the Santa Maria allowed the passengers
and crew to disembark in Brazil, 11 days after seizing the ship.
(AP, 2/2/07)
1961 Feb 4, In the Portuguese
colony of Angola fighting erupted as 3 anti-colonial guerrilla
movements battled for independence. Rebels butchered Portuguese
settlers, including women and children, on remote Angolan
plantations. In revenge, Portuguese militias and troops carried out
a vicious campaign of repression, despite pressure from the US and
UN to pull out of Africa.
(SFC, 4/5/02, p.A11)(AP, 12/9/07)(Econ, 9/3/11,
p.46)
1961 Feb 5, The Soviets
launched Sputnik V, the heaviest satellite at 7.1 tons.
(HN, 2/5/99)
1961 Feb 5, Anthony G. de
Rothschild (73), British philanthropist, died.
(MC, 2/5/02)
1961 Feb 6, Sargent Shriver
adopted a document, “The Towering Task” by Warren Wiggins
(1923-2007), which helped shape the mission of the newly proposed
Peace Corps.
(SFC, 4/16/07, p.B8)
1961 Feb 7, Jane Fonda made her
acting debut in the NBC drama "A String of Beads."
(MC, 2/7/02)
1961 Feb 9, Grigory Levenfish
(70), Int’l. chess grandmaster from Russia, died.
(MC, 2/9/02)
1961 Feb 10, Niagara Falls
hydroelectric project began producing power.
(MC, 2/10/02)
1961 Feb 15, 73 people,
including 18 figure skaters from the United States, were killed in
the crash of a Boeing 707 in Belgium. The skaters were en route to a
world meet in Czechoslovakia.
(HN, 2/15/98)(AP, 2/15/98)
1961 Feb 16, The United States
launched the "Explorer Nine" satellite.
(AP, 2/16/01)
1961 Feb 16, Wilbert Ridieu
(19) robbed the Lake Charles, La., Gulf National Bank. He walked out
with $14,000 and 3 hostages, 2 of whom he shot and left for dead.
Rideau stabbed to death Julia Ferguson on a rural Louisiana road
following the bank robbery. He confessed and was sentenced to death
3 times. Rideau escaped death in the 1970s when the death penalty
was outlawed. In 2003 his case was still in court. While in prison
Rideau became a self-educated writer and elevated the prison
magazine, the Angolite, to national acclaim. In 2005 Rideau was set
free for time served after a racially mixed jury found him guilty of
manslaughter.
(NW, 1/13/03, p.52)(AP, 1/16/05)(SFC, 1/17/05,
p.A5)
1961 Feb 16, China used it's
1st nuclear reactor.
(MC, 2/16/02)
1961 Feb 20, Percy Aldridge
Grainger (78), Australian-US composer, pianist, died.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1961 Feb 22, The Broadway play
“Come Blow Your Horn” by Neil Simon opened at the Brooks Atkinson
Theater.
(SFC, 10/28/09,
p.D5)(www.ibdb.com/production.php?id=2294)
1961 Feb 22, British Foreign
Sec. Douglas-Home said in a "Top Secret" letter to Defense Minister
Harold Watkinson that, "It must be fully obvious to the Americans
that Hong Kong is indefensible by conventional means and that in the
event of a Chinese attack, nuclear strikes against China would be
the only alternative to complete abandonment of the colony." The
document was made public in 2006.
(AP, 6/30/06)
1961 Feb 25, Paul Bikel climbed
to record 14,100 meters (8.8 miles) in a glider.
(MC, 2/25/02)
1961 Feb 25, John F. Kennedy
named Henry Kissinger national security adviser. Years later,
Kissinger was President Nixon's envoy for secret negotiations with
North Vietnam. About this time Kennedy also named Adlai Stevenson as
ambassador to the UN.
(HN, 2/25/98)(SFEC, 6/6/99, p.A19)
1961 Feb 26, Mohammed V ibn
Yusuf (51), sultan, King of Morocco, died.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1961 Mar 1, Cellist Jacqueline
du Prés made her debut in Wigmore Hall.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1961 Mar 1, President Kennedy
established the Peace Corps. The first volunteers were sent to
Ghana.
(TMC, 1994, p.1961)(SFC, 8/7/96, p.A15)(AP,
3/1/98)(SFC, 3/21/98, p.A13)
1961 Mar 2, "13 Daughters"
opened at 54th St Theater NYC for 28 performances.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1961 Mar 3, King Hassan II, the
17th of the Alawite dynasty, ascended to throne of Morocco. He
succeeded his father Mohamed V.
(SFEC,11/16/97, p.A21)(SFC, 7/24/99, p.A9)(SC,
3/3/02)
1961 Mar 4, Paul-Henri Spaak
resigned as Secretary-General of NATO.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1961 Mar 6, 1st London minicabs
were introduced.
(MC, 3/6/02)
1961 Mar 7, Max Hymans (60), WW
II resistance fighter, head of Air France, died.
(MC, 3/7/02)
1961 Mar 8, Jean Kerr's "Mary,
Mary," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 3/8/02)
1961 Mar 8, US nuclear
submarine Patrick Henry arrived at Scottish naval base of Holy Loch
from SC in a record under seas journey of 66 days 22 hrs.
(MC, 3/8/02)
1961 Mar 8, Max Conrad circled
the globe in a record time of eight days, 18 hours and 49 minutes in
Piper Aztec.
(HN, 3/8/98)
1961 Mar 8, Thomas Beecham
(81), English conductor (Last Night of the Prom), died.
(MC, 3/8/02)
1961 Mar 9, Supremes released
"I Want A Guy" & "Never Again."
(MC, 3/9/02)
1961
Mar 9, Korabl-Sputnik-4, also known as Sputnik 9, was launched with
a dog named Chernushka (Blackie) on a one orbit mission. Also
onboard the spacecraft was a dummy cosmonaut, mice and a guinea pig.
(www.spacetoday.org/Astronauts/Animals/Dogs.html)
1961 Mar 9, A mine cave-in in
Japan killed 72.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1961 Mar 10, Olga Ivinskaya
(d.1995 at 83), the woman who was the model for Lara in Pasternak’s
"Dr. Zhivago" wrote a letter to authorities in her own defense while
a prisoner in a Soviet gulag. She was arrested for smuggling foreign
currency shortly after Pasternak’s death and served 4 years.
(SFC,11/27/97, p.B3)
1961 Mar 13, Pablo Picasso (79)
married his model Jacqueline Rocque (37).
(MC, 3/13/02)
1961 Mar 15, In San Francisco a
12-ton statue of St. Francis, created by Benny Bufano, was removed
from the front of St. Francis of Assisi Church at 610 Vallejo St.
and taken to Oakland.
(SSFC, 3/13/11, DB p.42)
1961 Mar 15, South Africa
withdrew from British Commonwealth.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1961 Mar 16, "The Agony and the
Ecstasy" was published by Irving Stone.
(HN, 3/16/98)
1961 Mar 17, The U.S. increased
military aid and technicians to Laos.
(HN, 3/17/98)
1961 Mar 18, The "Poppin'
Fresh" Pillsbury Dough Boy was introduced.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1961 Mar 25, "Gypsy" closed at
Broadway Theater in NYC after 702 performances.
(MC, 3/25/02)
1961 Mar 25, Elvis Presley (26)
performed live on the USS Arizona, a fund raiser for a memorial.
Col. Parker, Presley's manager, came up with the brilliant idea to
have Elvis Presley give the benefit concert in the 4,000-seat Bloch
Arena next to the entrance to Pearl Harbor.
(Internet)(MC, 3/25/02)
1961 Mar 25, Sputnik 10 carried
a dog into Earth orbit; later recovered.
(MC, 3/25/02)
1961 Mar 26, John F. Kennedy
met with British Premier Macmillan, in Washington to discuss
increased Communist involvement in Laos.
(HN, 3/25/98)
1961 Mar 27, In San Francisco
the hiring of the city’s first Negro milk route driver precipitated
name calling an argument between Mayor George Christopher and Terry
Francois, head of the local NAACP. The mayor said Teamsters Local
226 would not let Negroes into the union. Christopher, owner of
Christopher Dairy Farms, had hired William Garrick (24) to run a
route in South San Francisco serving schools and restaurants.
(SSFC, 3/27/11, DB p.42)
1961 Mar 29, The 23rd
amendment, allowing residents of Washington, D.C. to vote for
president, was ratified.
(HN, 3/29/98)
1961 Mar 29, In South Africa
Nelson Mandela was acquitted on a treason charge after a 4 year
trial .
(MC, 3/29/02)
1961 Mar 30, The UN adopted its
Single Convention on Narcotics Drugs. It included language that
prohibited the chewing of coca leaves. It became effective on Dec
13, 1964.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_Convention_on_Narcotic_Drugs)(SFC,
1/19/11, p.A2)
1961 Mar 30, P.J. Melotte,
discovered Jupiter's 8th satellite, Pasiphae, died.
(MC, 3/30/02)
1961 Apr 1, Jim Bakker, TV
evangelist, married Tammy Faye.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1961 Apr 2, Wallingford Riegger
(75), US composer (Bacchangle), died.
(MC, 4/2/02)
1961 Apr 3, Eddie Murphy, actor
(SNL, 48 Hours, Beverly Hill Cop, Raw), was born in Brooklyn, NY.
(MC, 4/3/02)
1961 Apr 3, In San Francisco
thousands of people took part in the 39th Easter Sunrise Service on
Mount Davidson.
(SSFC, 4/3/11, DB p.46)
1961 Apr 7, Tad Szulc (d.2001)
wrote a front page NY times article on anti-Castro forces training
to fight at Florida bases and predicted a probable invasion on April
18. The invasion took place Apr 17.
(SFC, 5/24/01, p.C4)
1961 Apr 7, Marian Jordan (62),
radio comedienne (Fibber McGee and Molly), died.
(MC, 4/7/02)
1961 Apr 9, Zog I (65), [Ahmed
Zogu], King of Albania (1925-39), died in exile in France. His son,
Leka Zogu, was sworn in as king by the government in exile.
(SFC, 6/27/97, p.A16)(MC, 4/9/02)
1961 Apr 11, Folk singer Bob
Dylan performed in New York City for the first time, opening for
John Lee Hooker. [see Sep 26]
(HN, 4/11/01)
1961 Apr 11, Israel began the
trial of Adolf Eichman in Jerusalem. He was accused of World War II
war crimes.
(WSJ, 4/28/97, p.A17)(HN, 4/11/98)
1961 Apr 12, Douglas MacArthur
was offered baseball commissioner position but declined.
(HN, 4/12/98)
1961 Apr 12, Yuri Alexeyevich
Gagarin, Russian cosmonaut, experienced the weightlessness of space
for 108 minutes. He orbited the Earth once before making a safe
landing. The Russians rocketed Yuri Gagarin, the first man into
space. His ship, Vostok I, was guided entirely from the ground.
(SFEC, 2/16/97, Z1 p.6)(AP, 4/12/97)(HN,
4/12/98)(NPub, 2002, p.20)
1961 Apr 13, "Carnival!" opened
at Imperial Theater in NYC for 719 performances.
(MC, 4/13/02)
1961 Apr 13, US Army Private
John A. Bennett was hanged after being convicted of rape and
attempted murder of an Austrian girl (11) in 1955.
(SSFC, 7/9/06,
p.A5)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_A._Bennett)
1961 Apr 13, The U.N. General
Assembly condemned South Africa for apartheid.
(HN, 4/13/98)
1961 Apr 14, Cuban-American
invasion army departed Nicaragua.
(MC, 4/14/02)
1961 Apr 14, The Soviet Union
made its first live television broadcast.
(HN, 4/14/98)
1961 Apr 15, "Music Man" closed
at Majestic Theater in NYC after 1375 performances.
(MC, 4/15/02)
1961 Apr 15, Anti-Castro Cuban
pilots, under the hire of the US CIA, knocked out part of the Cuban
air force. 54 people were killed in the attacks on 3 military bases
including two airfields and the Antonio Maceo Airport. Two
“defecting” B-26 bombers flew to Miami.
(SFEC, 2/22/98, p.A19)(AH, 4/07, p.18)
1961 Apr 16, Selena, Latina
singer (Grammy-1994), was born in Texas.
(MC, 4/16/02)
1961 Apr 16, In the 15th Tony
Awards: Becket & Bye Bye Birdie won.
(MC, 4/16/02)
1961 Apr 16, Fidel Castro
declared that Cuba is now a socialist state. Pres. Kennedy called
off the CIA air strikes in Cuba. The message did not reach the 1,511
commandos headed for the Bay of Pigs.
(SFEC, 2/22/98, p.A19)(SFC, 2/202/08, p.A3)
1961 Apr 17, In the 33rd
Academy Awards "The Apartment" won as best picture. The best actor
award went to Burt Lancaster for his role in Elmer Gantry. Elizabeth
Taylor won for her role in Butterfield 8.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/33rd_Academy_Awards)
1961 Apr 17, About 1,500
CIA-trained Cuban exiles, Brigade 2506, launched the disastrous Bay
of Pigs invasion of Cuba in a failed attempt to overthrow the
government of Fidel Castro. The US clandestinely invaded Cuba in the
Bay of Pigs operation and the operation failed completely without
any of the promised air support from the United States. Cuban forces
killed 200 rebels and captured 1,197 in less than 72 hours. The
command vessel Marsopa and supply ship Houston were sunk and an
entire battalion was lost. 26 survivors were rescued after 3 days of
fighting. A single copy of a CIA report written by inspector general
Lyman Kirkpatrick was made public in 1998. The operation, which had
been devised during the Eisenhower Administration, was nonetheless
endorsed by the new president, John F. Kennedy. In 1979 Peter Wyden
wrote “Bay of Pigs: The Untold Story.” Portion of the 1961 Taylor
Report was made public in 1977 and 1986. Most of the report was made
public in 2000 and it showed that the CIA knew that the Soviets knew
the exact date of the attack. In 2009 Guadeloupe apologized to Cuba
for allowing the CIA to train Cuban exiles on its soil.
(AP, 4/17/97)(SFEC, 2/22/98, p.A19)(HNQ,
4/11/00)(SFC, 4/29/00, p.A7)(AP, 2/18/09)(AH, 4/07, p.18)(SFC,
4/14/11, p.A5)
1961 Apr 18, Pamella Bordes,
British parliament prostitute, was born in New Delhi, India.
(MC, 4/18/02)
1961 Apr 18, Soviet leader
Nikita Khrushchev sent a letter to Pres. Kennedy with an "urgent
call" to end "aggression" against Cuba.
(SFC, 3/23/01, p.D5)
1961 Apr 19, Cuba’s air force
by this time shot down 9 of the invader’s 16 aircraft and US
invaders, with ad death toll of 114, began to surrender.
Subsequently 36 died in Cuban prisons. Many survivors were released
between 1962 and 1965 after private donors paid $53 million in food
and medicine for Cuba.
(AH, 4/07, p.18)
1961 Apr 19, Howard Anderson
was executed in Cuba after being convicted of arms smuggling to
anti-Communist rebels.
(WSJ, 9/15/06,
p.A1)(www.cubanet.org/CNews/y02/jan02/09e5.htm)
1961 Apr 19, Cuban forces shot
down a B-26 bomber piloted by Captain Thomas Ray north of Larga
beach, an area they controlled. Ray was flying the bomber from
Nicaragua while on contract to the US CIA. In a 2004 trial in the
US, forensics on Ray’s body proved that the cause of his death was a
small bullet entry thru the head.
(WSJ, 9/15/06, p.A1)(http://tinyurl.com/kzeh2)
1961 Apr 20, American Harold
Graham made 1st rocket belt flight.
(MC, 4/20/02)
1961 Apr 21, The French army
revolted in Algeria.
(HN, 4/21/98)
1961 Apr 21, James Melton (57),
opera tenor died.
(MC, 4/21/02)
1961 Apr 22, An uprising of
French parachutists was led by Gen. Salan/Challe in Algeria.
(MC, 4/22/02)
1961 Apr 24, President Kennedy
accepted "sole responsibility" following Bay of Pigs invasion of
Cuba.
(HN, 4/24/98)
1961 Apr 25, SF Giants baseball
games began to appear on TV.
(SSFC, 4/24/11, DB p.46)
1961 Apr 25, Robert Noyce
patented the integrated circuit.
(SS, 4/25/02)
1961 Apr 25, Mercury-Atlas
rocket lifted off with an electronic mannequin. An unmanned Mercury
test exploded on launch pad.
(SS, 4/25/02)
1961 Apr 25, France exposed
soldiers to a nuclear test, code-named "Gerboise verte" or green
gerboa, in the Sahara Desert. In 2010 a French news report, citing a
classified defense document, said the exposure was intentional to
study how the atomic bomb would affect their bodies and minds. In
total, France conducted 210 nuclear tests, both in the atmosphere
and underground, in the Sahara Desert and the South Pacific from
1960-1996.
(AP, 2/17/10)
1961 Apr 26, French
paratroopers' revolt was suppressed in Algeria.
(MC, 4/26/02)
1961 Apr 27, United Kingdom
granted Sierra Leone independence.
(SFC, 7/1/97, p.A9)(SFC, 3/11/98, p.A10)(HN,
4/27/98)
1961 Apr 29, ABC's "Wide World
of Sports made its debut.
(SFEC, 5/24/98, DB p.38)(MC, 4/29/02)
1961 Apr 29, The diesel-powered
aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk was commissioned at the Philadelphia
Naval Shipyard. In 1976 the ship was drydocked in Bremerton, Wa.,
for a year-long overhaul.
(AP,
8/5/05)(www.kittyhawk.navy.mil/history/history.html)
1961 Apr 30, Willie Mays of the
SF Giants hit 4 home runs in a game with the Milwaukee Braves.
(SFC, 1/12/98, p.A18)
1961 Apr 30, Eastern Airlines
began the 1st shuttle flights began between Wash DC, Boston and NYC.
(MC, 4/30/02)
1961 Apr 30, Premier Fidel
Castro of Cuba received the Lenin Peace Prize.
(MC, 4/30/02)
1961 May 1, A Pulitzer prize
was awarded to Harper Lee, author of "To Kill a Mockingbird."
(MC, 5/1/02)
1961 May 1, Fidel Castro
announced that there would be no more elections in Cuba. Radio
Havana was founded.
(HN, 5/1/98)(WSJ, 6/18/02, p.D9)
1961 May 4, A
group of 13 CORE civil rights activists, dubbed "Freedom Riders"
left Washington, D.C., for New Orleans to challenge racial
segregation on buses and in bus terminals.
(AP, 5/4/97)(HN, 5/4/98)(MC, 5/4/02)
1961 May 5, Astronaut Alan
Bartlett Shepard Jr. (d.1998 at 74), a Navy commander, became the
first American in space as he made a 15-minute suborbital flight in
the Freedom 7 Project Mercury capsule launched from Cape Canaveral,
Fla. The spacecraft reached a maximum altitude of 116.5 miles.
(AP, 5/5/97)(HN, 5/5/98)(SFC, 7/23/98, p.A1)(HNQ,
7/11/99)
1961 May 6, George Clooney,
actor (Dr Douglas Ross-ER, Batman), was born in Lexington, KY.
(MC, 5/6/02)
1961 May 8, Carmel Snow
(b.1887), Irish-born fashion editor, died in New York. In 2005
Penelope Rowlands authored “A Dash of Daring,” a biography of Snow.
(SSFC, 11/27/05,
p.D1)(www.irishecho.com/newspaper/story.cfm?id=17435)
1961 May 9, In a speech to the
National Association of Broadcasters, Federal Communications
Commission chairman Newton N. Minow condemned television programming
as a "vast wasteland."
(AP, 5/9/97)
1961 May 10, "Beyond the
Fringe," premiered in London.
(MC, 5/10/02)
1961 May 11, Pres. Kennedy
authorized American advisors to aid South Vietnam against the forces
of North Vietnam.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F4)
1961 May 13, Dennis Rodman, NBA
forward (Chicago Bulls), was born.
(MC, 5/13/02)
1961 May 13, Gary Cooper (60),
2 time Academy award winning actor (High Noon), died.
(MC, 5/13/02)
1961 May 14, A bus carrying the
1st group of Freedom Riders was bombed and burned in Alabama.
(HN, 5/14/98)(MC, 5/14/02)
1961 May 15, 36 Unification
church couples were wed in Korea.
(MC, 5/15/02)
1961 May 17, Cuban leader Fidel
Castro offered to exchange prisoners captured in the abortive Bay of
Pigs invasion for 500 bulldozers.
(AP, 5/17/01)(MC, 5/17/02)
1961 May 18, "Donnybrook!"
opened at 46th St Theater in NYC for 68 performances.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1961 May 18, Henry O'Neill,
actor (Lady Killer, Nothing But Trouble), died.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1961 May 20, A white mob led by
Claude Henley attacked a busload of "Freedom Riders" in Montgomery,
Ala., prompting the federal government to send in U.S. marshals to
restore order.
(AP, 5/20/97)(HN, 5/20/98)(SFEC, 9/19/99, p.A3)
1961 May 21, Governor Patterson
declared martial law in Montgomery, Alabama.
(HN, 5/21/98)
1961 May 22, The 1st revolving
restaurant, Top of The Needle in Seattle, opened.
(MC, 5/22/02)
1961 May 24, The 27 Freedom
Riders, civil rights activists, were arrested in Jackson,
Mississippi.
(HN, 5/24/98)(MC, 5/24/02)
1961 May 25, President Kennedy
summoned a joint session of Congress and asked the nation to work
toward putting a man on the moon by the end of the decade. In 2011
John Logsdon authored “John F. Kennedy and the Race to the Moon.”
(AP, 5/25/97)(Econ, 5/21/11, p.36)
1961 May 25, NASA civilian
pilot Joseph A. Walker took the X-15 to 32,770 meters.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1961 May 26, Civil rights
activist group Freedom Ride Coordinating Committee was established
in Atlanta.
(AP, 5/26/98)
1961 May 26, A USAF bomber flew
the Atlantic in a record of just over three hours.
(AP, 5/26/98)
1961 May 28, Amnesty
International, a human rights organization, was founded. It won a
Nobel Prize in 1977.
(HN, 5/28/98)(MC, 5/28/02)
1961 May 28, SF lawyer Willie
Brown (27) charged that he has been rebuffed by salesmen while
trying to look at a model home in the Forest Knolls tract of San
Francisco.
(SSFC, 5/29/11, DB p.46)
1961 May 29, Melissa Etheridge,
US singer, songwriter, guitarist (Never Enough), was born.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1961 May 29, David Palmer,
heavy metal drummer (ABC, AC/DC), was born.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1961 May 29, Uuno Kalervo Klami
(60), composer, died.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1961 May 30, Rafael Leonides
Trujillo Molina (69), Dominican Republic dictator (1930-61), was
murdered. In his final years he had installed Joaquin Balaguer as
vice president and then as president. Balaguer fled to exile in NYC
following the assassination.
(SFC, 5/17/96, p.A-14)(SFC, 7/15/02, p.B6)(MC,
5/30/02)
1961 May 31, South Africa
became an independent republic.
(AP, 5/31/97)
1961 Jun 1, R.C., "Surrender"
by Elvis Presley peaked at #1 on the U.K. pop singles chart.
(DTnet, 6/1/97)
1961 Jun 1, FM multiplex stereo
broadcasting was 1st heard. (MC, 6/1/02)
1961 Jun 2, George S. Kaufman
(72), playwright, director, Pulitzer prize winner, died.
(SC, 6/2/02)
1961 Jun 3, JFK and Khrushchev
met in Vienna.
(MC, 6/3/02)
1961 Jun 4, A Soviet K-19
nuclear submarine with 139 crew members experienced a nuclear
accident. 22 later died from radiation poisoning. In 2001 the US
film "K-19: The Widowmaker" loosely depicted the accident.
(SFC, 4/20/01, p.A14)(WSJ, 4/3/02, p.A20)
1961 Jun 6, Swiss psychiatrist
Carl Gustav Jung (b.1875), one of the founders of modern psychiatry,
died. In 1997 Richard Noll published "The Aryan Christ: The Secret
Life of Carl Jung." Frank McLynn published "Carl Gustav Jung, A
Biography." In 2003 Deirdre Bair authored "Jung: A Biography." In
2004 Sonu Shamdasani authored “Jung and the Making of Modern
Psychology.” In 2009 “The Red Book” was published. It was edited by
Sonu Shamdasani and duplicated Jung’s original manuscript, which he
worked on from 1914 to 1930.
(SFEC,10/19/97, BR p.3)(SSFC, 12/7/03,
p.M6)(Econ, 3/13/04, p.84)(Econ, 10/10/09, p.89)
1961 Jun 7, Robert Griffith,
producer of Pajama Game, died.
(SC, 6/7/02)
1961 Jun 11, Norm Cash became
the 1st Detroit Tiger to hit a ball out of Tiger Stadium.
(SC, 6/11/02)
1961 Jun 12, The US TV show “PM
East and PM West” began airing on the Westinghouse network.
(SFC, 6/5/11, DB p.42)
1961 Jun 16, Dave Garroway was
fired as Today Show host.
(MC, 6/16/02)
1961 Jun 17, Soviet ballet star
Rudolf Nureyev (d.1993) defected from the Soviet Union at the Paris
Le Bourget airport while traveling with the Leningrad Kirov Ballet.
In 1998 Diane Solway covered this event in her biography: "Nureyev."
(WSJ, 10/1/98, p.A20)(SFEC, 11/1/98, p.A17)(AP,
6/17/08)
1961 Jun 19, R.C., "Little
Egypt (Ying-Yang)" by The Coasters peaked at #23 on the pop singles
chart.
(DTnet, 6/19/97)
1961 Jun 19, R.C., "Peanut
Butter" by The Marathons (The Vibrations) peaked at #20 on the pop
singles chart.
(DTnet, 6/19/97)
1961 Jun 19, R.C., "Rama Lama
Ding Dong" by The Edsels peaked at #21 on the pop singles chart.
(DTnet, 6/19/97)
1961 Jun 19, The U.S. Supreme
Court struck down a provision in Maryland's constitution requiring
state officeholders to profess a belief in the existence of God.
(DTnet, 6/19/97)
1961 Jun 19, Kuwait regained
complete independence from Britain along with Qatar, Bahrain
(NG, 5/88, p.662)(DTnet, 6/19/97)(HN, 6/19/98)
1961 Jun 24, Iraq demanded
dominion over Kuwait.
(MC, 6/24/02)
1961 Jun 25, Jazz trio Paul
Motion, drums, Bill Evans, piano, and Scott LaFaro recorded a
performance at the Village Vanguard in NYC in which each man
functioned as an equal rather than as an accompaniment to the
leader. The recording changed the idea of the piano trio.
(WSJ, 1/24/06, p.D8)
1961 Jun 26, Greg LeMond, US
bicyclist (Tour de France winner-1986, 1989, 1990), was born.
(MC, 6/26/02)
1961 Jun 26, A Kuwaiti vote
opposed Iraq’s annexation plans.
(HN, 6/26/98)
1961 Jun 30, Lee de Forest
(87), inventor of the 3-element vacuum tube (1906), died.
(SSFC, 6/26/11, DB p.42)
1961 Jun, Producers Albert
Broccoli and Harry Saltzman purchased rights to adopt most of Ian
Fleming’s novels and short stories into films. In the 1970s Saltzman
sold his rights to MGM. Dr. No, their 1st Bond film, came out in
1962.
(WSJ, 11/18/06,
p.A1)(www.sylvanmason.com/thunderball/thunderball-years.htm)
1961 Jul 1, Carl Lewis (Olympic
Gold Medalist: 100 meter & 200 meter sprints, long jump &
4x100 meter relay [1984]; 100 meter in 9.93 seconds, a world record,
long jump, 4x100 meter relay [1988], long jump and 4x100 relay
[1992]; Olympic Hall of Famer; AP Male Athlete of the Year [1983,
1984]), was born.
(MC, 7/1/02)
1961 Jul 1, Diana Frances
Spencer, the princess of Wales, was born near Sandringham, England.
She died August, 1997, in a car crash in Paris at age 36.
(AP, 7/1/98)
1961 Jul 1, British troops
landed in Kuwait to aid against Iraqi threats.
(HN, 7/1/98)
1961 Jul 1, Louis-Ferdinand
Celine (b.1894), French physician, author, anti-Semite, died. His
books included “Journey to the End of Night” (1932).
(www.kirjasto.sci.fi/lfceline.htm)(WSJ, 9/23/06,
p.P8)
1961 Jul 2, Jimmy McNichol,
actor (Fitzpatricks, California Fever), was born in LA, Calif.
(SC, 7/2/02)
1961 Jul 2, Novelist E.
Hemingway shot himself in the head at his home in Ketchum, Idaho.
Boozing and physical trauma led to depression, electroshock therapy
and suicide. In 1964 his novel "A Moveable Feast was published. In
1974 Jose Luis Castillo-Puche published "Hemingway
in Spain." His novel "True at First Light" was based on his 1953
safari in Africa and was to be published Jul 21 1999, the centennial
of his birth. His book "The Garden of Eden" and "Islands in the
Stream" were also published after his death. His novel "Dangerous
Summer" was based on the rivalry between two matadors, Antonio
Ordonez (d.1998) and Luis Miguel Dominguin. In 1976 his son
Gregory (d.2001) authored "Papa: A Personal Memoir."
(SFC, 7/2/96, p.A11)(TMC, 1994, p.1961)(AP,
7/2/97)(SFC, 8/5/98, p.E3)(SFC, 8/25/98, p.A2)(SFC, 12/21/98,
p.B5)(WSJ, 6/18/99, p.W13)(SFC, 10/6/01, p.A18)
1961 Jul 7, James R. Hoffa was
elected president of Teamsters.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1961 Jul 11, China and North
Korea signed the Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual
Assistance.
(www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/wjb/zzjg/yzs/gjlb/2701/default.htm)
1961 Jul 14, Pope John XXIII
published his encyclical Mater et magistrate.
(MC, 7/14/02)
1961 Jul 15, Spain accepted
equal rights for men and women.
(MC, 7/15/02)
1961 Jul 17, Ty Cobb (74),
baseball great (Detroit Tigers), died of cancer in Atherton, Ca. He
was the first man elected into Baseball’s Hall of Fame.
(SSFC, 7/17/11, p.42)
1961 Jul 18, In Spain ETA’s
first violent action tried to derail a train carrying supporters of
dictator Gen. Francisco Franco.
(AP, 3/22/06)
1961 Jul 21, Capt. Virgil "Gus"
Grissom became the second American to rocket into a suborbital
pattern around the Earth, flying on the Mercury 4 Liberty Bell 7.
The Mercury capsule sank in the Atlantic, 302 miles from Cape
Canaveral and Grissom was rescued by helicopter. The space capsule
was recovered in 1999.
(AP, 7/21/97)(OGA, 11/24/98)(SFC, 4/17/99,
p.A6)(WSJ, 7/21/99, p.A1)
1961 Jul 23, Woody Harrelson,
actor (Woody Boyd-Cheers), was born in Midland, Tx.
(MC, 7/23/02)
1961 Jul 24, Roger Maris hit 4
home runs in a doubleheader.
(MC, 7/24/02)
1961 Jul 24, A US commercial
plane was hijacked to Cuba and began a trend.
(MC, 7/24/02)
1961 Jul 25, Katherine Kelly
Lang, actress (Brooke-Bold & Beautiful), was born in LA, Calif.
(SC, 7/25/02)
1961 Jul 28, Scott E.
Parazynski, MD, astronaut, was born in Little Rock, Ark.
(SC, 7/28/02)
1961 Jul 28, Mickey Cohen, Los
Angeles gangster, arrived at Alcatraz. Three weeks earlier he was
sentenced to 15 years in prison for income tax evasion.
(SSFC, 7/24/11, DB p.42)
1961 Jul 31, Ireland formally
applied for membership in the European Community.
(http://europa.eu.int/abc/history/1961/index_en.htm)
1961 Jul 31, Israel welcomed
its 1,000,000th immigrant.
(MC, 7/31/02)
1961 Jul, Len Kleinrock wrote a
paper on packet switching at MIT where he analyzed the so-called
store-and-forward systems.
(SFEC, 3/16/97, z1 p.3)
1961 Jul, A French law
guaranteed populations in France's overseas territories free
exercise of their religion and respect for their beliefs and customs
as long as they are not contrary to general principles of law.
(AP, 9/23/05)
1961 Aug 2, In San Francisco a
shooting at 924 Grant Ave. in Chinatown left George Kwan (56) dead
and Peter Kwan (52) wounded. They were both members of the Four
Families Association. Lew Fook You (55), also an association member,
was taken into custody.
(SSFC, 7/31/11, DB p.42)
1961 Aug 3, Britain’s
Parliament adopted the Suicide Act of 1961, which decriminalized
suicide in the UK, but made assisting one punishable by up to 14
years in jail.
(Econ, 6/6/09,
p.55)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_Act_1961)
1961 Aug 4, Barack Obama, later
US Senator from Illinois, was born in Honolulu to a black Kenyan
father and a white American mother. He lived most of his early life
in Hawaii. From ages six to ten, he lived in Jakarta, Indonesia with
his mother and Indonesian stepfather.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama)
1961 Aug 7, Soviet premier
Khrushchev predicted that the USSR economy would surpass that of the
US.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1961 Aug 9, The United Kingdom
applied for membership in the European Community.
(http://europa.eu.int/abc/history/1961/index_en.htm)
1961 Aug 10, Denmark formally
applied for membership in the European Community.
(http://europa.eu.int/abc/history/1961/index_en.htm)
1961 Aug 12, Pete De Freitas,
rocker (Echo and the Bunnymen-Heaven Up Here), was born.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1961 Aug 12, Roy Hay, guitarist
(Culture Club-Do You Really Want to Hurt Me), was born.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1961 Aug 12, East German troops
began stringing barbed wire around East Berlin. In 2004 William F.
Buckley authored "The Fall of the Berlin Wall." [see Aug 15]
(WSJ, 3/18/04, p.D10)
1961 Aug 13, East Germany
closed the Brandenberg Gate sealing off the border between the
city's eastern and western sectors in order to halt the flight of
refugees. Two days later, work began on the Berlin Wall.
(HFA, '96, p.36)(TMC, 1994, p.1961)(AP,
8/13/97)(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F4)
1961 Aug 14, SF vice squad
stage an early morning raid at a restaurant at Bush and Taylor and
jailed 103 people. All but 14 were men accused of dancing together
and kissing. Of 242 patrons 139 escaped.
(SSFC, 8/14/11, DB p.42)
1961 Aug 14, An East German
soldier, Hans Conrad Schuhmann (Schuman), jumped a 3-foot barbed
wire barrier to West Berlin to join his family. His photograph made
int’l. headlines. He committed suicide in 1998.
(SFEC, 6/21/98, p.A25)(SFEC, 10/31/99, Z1 p.4)
1961 Aug 15, East German
workers began building the Berlin Wall. [see Aug 12]
(AP, 8/15/01)
1961 Aug 16, Martin Luther King
protested for black voting rights in Miami.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1961 Aug 16, Some 250,000 West
Berliners demonstrated against East Berlin.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1961 Aug 17, The Kennedy
administration established the Alliance for Progress.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1961 Aug 18, Learned Hand
(b.1872), Chief judge of US court of Appeals, died. Stanford Prof.
Gerald Gunther (d.2002) later authored the biography "Learned Hand,
the Man and the Judge."
(AP, 12/13/97)(SFC, 8/2/02, p.A27)(MC, 8/18/02)
1961 Aug 20, East Germany began
erecting a 5' high wall along the border with the west to replace
the barbed wire put up Aug 13.
(MC, 8/20/02)
1961 Aug 23, East Germany
imposed new curbs on travel between West and East Berlin.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1961 Aug 24, Johannes Vorster,
a former Nazi leader, became South Africa's minister of justice.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1961 Aug 25, Brazilian
president Janio Quadros resigned. He was replaced by vice-president
Joao Goulart.
(chblue.com, 8/25/01)(WSJ, 4/6/06, p.D8)
1961 Aug 26, The official
International Hockey Hall of Fame opened in Toronto.
(AP, 8/26/97)
1961 Aug 27, Francis the
Talking Mule was the mystery guest on "What's My Line."
(MC, 8/27/01)
1961 Aug 30, President John F.
Kennedy appointed General Lucius D. Clay as his personal
representative in Berlin.
(HN, 8/30/98)
1961 Aug 30, A UN Convention on
the Reduction of Statelessness opened for signatures. It entered
into force on Dec 13, 1975. By 2007 only 34 countries had signed it.
(http://tinyurl.com/2tdgb6)(Econ, 12/1/07, p.75)
1961 Aug 31, A concrete wall
replaced the barbed wire fence that separated East and West Germany,
it would be called the Berlin wall.
(HN, 8/31/98)
1961 Aug, The Soviets launched
Vostok-2 with cosmonaut Gherman Titov (d.2000 at 65). He circled the
planet 17 times in a 25-hour flight.
(SFC, 9/22/00, p.D7)
1961 Sep 1, TWA Flight 529, a
Lockheed Constellation L-049 propliner, crashed shortly after
takeoff from Midway Airport in Chicago, killing all 73 passengers
and 5 crew on board; it was at the time the deadliest single plane
disaster in US history.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TWA_Flight_529)
1961 Sep 1, The Soviet Union
ended a moratorium on atomic testing with an above-ground nuclear
explosion in central Asia.
(AP, 9/1/01)
1961 Sep 1, Eero Saarinen (51),
Finnish-US architect (Dulles Airport), died.
(MC, 9/1/02)
1961 Sep 2, Ramona Price (7) of
Santa Barbara, Ca., vanished as she walked to her new home. Police
later believed that she was likely a victim of notorious child
serial killer Mack Ray Edwards, who hanged himself on death row at
San Quentin in 1972. In 2011 Four teams of specially-trained sniffer
dogs identified what cops are calling an ‘area of interest’ near an
overpass at U.S. 101 in Goleta.
(SFC, 6/15/11, p.C5)(http://tinyurl.com/3ppmkvx)
1961 Sep 4, US Congress passed
the Foreign Assistance Act, which reorganized US foreign assistance
programs including separating military and non-military aid. The Act
mandated the creation of an agency to administer economic assistance
programs. On November 3, 1961, President John F. Kennedy established
the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
(www.usaid.gov/about_usaid/usaidhist.html)
1961 Sep 5, President Kennedy
signed a law against hijacking. It called for the death penalty for
convicted hijackers.
(MC, 9/5/01)
1961 Sep 8, Frank Rosenthal
(1929-2008), friend of Chicago mobsters, appeared before a Senate
hearing on gambling and organized crime. He invoked the Fifth
Amendment 38 times.
(SFC, 10/17/08, p.B8)
1961 Sep 10, Jomo Kenyatta
returned to Kenya from exile, during which he had been elected
president of the Kenya National African Union.
(HN, 9/10/98)
1961 Sep 13, An unmanned
Mercury capsule was orbited and recovered by NASA in a test for the
first manned flight.
(HN, 9/13/98)
1961 Sep 13, Battles took place
between UN and Katanga troops in Congo.
(MC, 9/13/01)
1961 Sep 15, The US resumed
underground nuclear testing. Operation Nougat began a series of 45
nuclear tests conducted (with one exception) at the Nevada Test
Site.
(SSFC, 6/9/02,
p.F4)(www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Operation_Nougat)
1961 Sep 17, The situation
comedy "Car 54, Where Are You?" premiered on NBC. Al Lewis (d.2006)
played Officer Schnauzer opposite Fred Gwynne’s Officer Francis
Muldoon. The series ran to 1963.
(AP, 9/17/01)(SSFC, 2/5/06, p.A2)
1961 Sep 17, In Turkey PM Adnan
Menderes (b.1899) was hanged following the 1960 military coup.
(Econ, 6/14/08,
p.65)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adnan_Menderes)
1961 Sep 18, Dag Hammarskjold,
Secretary-General of the UN, was killed in a plane crash in Northern
Rhodesia (now Zambia). He was flying to negotiate a cease-fire in
the Congo.
(TMC, 1994, p.1961)(WUD, 1994, p.1684)(AP,
9/18/97)
1961 Sep 19-20, Betty (d.2004)
and Bernard Hill returned home to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, from a
trip in Canada and seemed to have lost memory of 2 hours of the
drive. Under hypnosis 3 years later they recounted being kidnapped
and examined by aliens. Their story led to the 1966 book
“Interrupted Journey” by John G. Fuller.
(SFC, 10/19/04,
p.B6)(www.nicap.dabsol.co.uk/hill.htm)
1961 Sep 20, James Meredith was
refused access as a student in Mississippi. [see Sep 20 1962]
(MC, 9/20/01)
1961 Sep 22, President John
Kennedy signed a congressional act establishing the Peace Corps. The
government-funded volunteer organization was created to fight
hunger, disease, illiteracy, poverty, and lack of opportunity around
the world.
(HN, 9/22/98)(MC, 9/22/01)
1961 Sep 22, Marion Davies,
actress (Not So Dumb, 5 & 10), died of cancer at 64.
(MC, 9/22/01)
1961 Sep 26, Roger Maris hit HR
#60 off Jack Fisher, tying Babe Ruth's record.
(MC, 9/26/01)
1961 Sep 26, Nineteen-year-old
Bob Dylan made his New York singing debut at Gerde’s Folk City. [see
April 11]
(HN, 9/26/00)
1961 Sep 27, Hilda Doolittle
(b.1886), American poet, died in Zurich. In 1984 poet Barbara Guest
(d.2006) authored the biography “Herself Defined: The Poet H.D. and
Her World.”
(SFC, 2/20/06,
p.B3)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.D.)
1961 Sep 28, Richard Nixon
jumped into the race for governor of California and said he would
not run for president in 1964.
(SSFC, 9/25/11, DB p.42)
1961 Sep 28, "Dr. Kildare,"
starring Richard Chamberlain and Raymond Massey, and "Hazel,"
starring Shirley Booth, premiered on NBC TV.
(AP, 9/28/01)
1961 Sep 30, A bill for the
1773 Boston Tea Party was paid by Mayor Snyder of Oregon. He wrote a
check for $196, the total cost of all tea lost.
(MC, 9/30/01)
1961 Sep, The US Federal Hourly
Minimum Wage was set at $1.15 an hour.
(http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/blminwage.htm)
1961 Sep, Yevgeny Yevtushenko
(b.1933), Russian poet, published his poem “Babi Yar” at the height
of the Khrushchev thaw. It recalled the 1941 massacre of over 33,000
Jews at ravine in Kiev, Ukraine.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babi_Yar)
1961 Sep, The Organization for
Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), took over from the
Organization for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC). It consisted
of 20 European and North American countries. Its vocation was to
build strong economies in its member countries, improve efficiency,
hone market systems, expand free trade and contribute to development
in industrialized as well as developing countries. The forerunner of
the OECD was the Organization for European Economic Co-operation
(OEEC), which was formed to administer American and Canadian aid
under the Marshall Plan for reconstruction of Europe after World War
II.
(http://tinyurl.com/bo5c8)(Econ, 9/17/11, p.62)
1961 Oct 1, Pat Robertson’s
Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) first aired.
(AH, 4/07,
p.30)(www.cbn.com/700club/showinfo/staff/patrobertson.aspx)
1961 Oct. 1, Roger Maris of the
New York Yankees hit his 61st home run off of Tracy Stallard during
a 162-game season. It compared to Babe Ruth's 60 home runs during a
154-game season. The ball was caught by Sal Durante (19) who offered
it to Maris. Maris declined and Durante sold it for $5000 to a
restaurateur named Sam Gordon, who donated the ball to the Baseball
Hall of Fame.
(AP, 10/1/97)(WSJ, 9/4/98, p.B1)(MC, 10/1/01)
1961 Oct 1, A believed extinct
volcano erupted in Tristan da Cunha.
(MC, 10/1/01)
1961 Oct 2, The medical drama
``Ben Casey,'' starring Vince Edwards and Sam Jaffe, premiered on
ABC.
(AP, 10/2/01)
1961 Oct 3, "The Dick Van Dyke
Show," also starring Mary Tyler Moore, made its debut on CBS.
(AP, 10/3/01)
1961 Oct 4, In San Francisco
comedian Lenny Bruce was arrested on charges of using lewd and
obscene language following his first act at the Jazz Workshop in
North Beach. Police code No. 205 was cited. Bail was set at $367.50.
(SSFC, 10/2/11, DB p.42)
1961 Oct 6, JFK advised
Americans to build fallout shelters from atomic fallout in the event
of a nuclear exchange with the Soviet Union.
(MC, 10/6/01)
1961 Oct 7, "Bye Bye Birdie"
closed at Martin Beck Theater NYC after 607 performances.
(MC, 10/7/01)
1961 Oct 8, In San Francisco
Rev. Patrick Peyton, who traveled the world holding what he called
“Rosary Rallies,” led a rosary at the polo field of Golden Gate Park
and drew an estimated crowd of 500,000. In 2011 some 1,000 people
celebrated the rally’s 50th anniversary.
(SSFC, 10/16/11, p.C9)
1961 Oct 9, US members of
communist party were obliged to report themselves to Police.
(MC, 10/9/01)
1961 Oct 9, Volcano eruptions
continued on Tristan de Cunha in the South Atlantic. [see Oct 1]
(MC, 10/9/01)
1961 Oct 11, Leonard "Chico"
Marx, comedian (Marx Brothers), died at 74.
(MC, 10/11/01)
1961 Oct 14, "How to Succeed in
Business" opened at 46th St NYC for 1415 performances.
(MC, 10/14/01)
1961 Oct 15, Pres. Kennedy
called out military reserves in the wake of the Berlin crises.
Football star Jack Kemp was exempted due to a shoulder injury. He
went on to lead the San Diego Chargers to a division title passing
for 2,686 yards and 15 touchdowns.
(SFC, 8/18/96, p.A10)
1961 Oct 17, NY Museum of
Modern Art hung Henri Matisse's "Le Bateau" upside-down It wasn't
corrected until December 3rd.
(MC, 10/17/01)
1961 Oct 17, Paris police beat
and killed dozens of Algerian demonstrators and threw some bodies
into the Seine. The police were commanded by Maurice Papon. Papon
said some 30 bodies had been recovered from the Seine but that they
had been killed in fighting between rival Algerian nationalist
groups. In 1999 France agreed to open its archives on the issue.
Police killed 210 Algerians who were protesting against police
oppression and the curfew imposed against their community in Paris.
On Oct 17, 2011, Algeria's post office issued a new stamp to
commemorate the massacre.
(WSJ, 5/5/98, p.A1)(SFC, 5/6/99, p.A15)(Econ,
2/24/07, p.99)(AFP, 10/17/11)
1961 Oct 18, Wynton Marsalis,
jazz and classical trumpeter (Grammy 1983), was born in New Orleans,
La.
(MC, 10/18/01)
1961 Oct 18, Sigurd Varian
(1901-1961), co-inventor of the klystron tube with his brother,
Russel, died in a small plane crash in Mexico. Sigurd and Russel had
founded Varian Associates in 1948.
(www.geocities.com/neveyaakov/electro_science/varian_sigurd.html)
1961 Oct 18, An emergency
crisis was proclaimed in South Vietnam due to a communist attack.
(MC, 10/18/01)
1961 Oct 21, Bob Dylan recorded
his first album in a single day at a cost of $400.
(HN, 10/21/00)
1961 Oct 25, Peter Jensen (75),
co-inventor of the loud speaker, died.
(MC, 10/25/01)
1961 Oct 27, The USS
Constellation, a Kitty Hawk-class supercarrier, was commissioned
with Captain T. J. Walker in command.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Constellation_%28CV-64%29)
1961 Oct 27, The 1st Saturn
launch vehicle made an unmanned flight test.
(MC, 10/27/01)
1961 Oct 27, Outer Mongolia and
Mauritania become the 102nd and 103rd members of UN.
(MC, 10/27/01)
1961 Oct 28, Ground was broken
for Municipal (Shea) Stadium for NY Mets.
(MC, 10/28/01)
1961 Oct 30, The Soviet Union
tested a hydrogen bomb, the "Tsar Bomba," with a force estimated at
about 50 megatons. This was the largest explosion ever recorded and
broke a 3-year nuclear test moratorium.
(AP, 10/30/06)(SFC, 2/24/98, p.A22)
1961 Oct 30, The Soviet Party
Congress unanimously approved a resolution ordering the removal of
Josef Stalin's body from Lenin's tomb.
(AP, 10/30/97)
1961 Oct 30, UN unanimously
elected U Thant acting UN Secretary General.
(MC, 10/30/01)
1961 Oct 31, A US Federal judge
ruled that Birmingham, Alabama, laws against integrated playing
fields were illegal.
(MC, 10/31/01)
1961 Oct 31, Augustus Edwin
John (b.1878), Welsh painter, draughtsman, and etcher, died. For a
short time around 1910, he was an important exponent of
Post-Impressionism in England. In 1974 Michael Holroyd authored the
biography: “Augustus John.”
(WSJ, 1/21/07, p.P9)
1961 Nov 1, Pres. J.F. Kennedy
signed executive order 10971 creating a board of three members to
investigate a dispute between TWA and certain of its employees.
(www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/jfkeo/eo/10971.htm)
1961 Nov 1, A prohibition on
tattooing went into effect in NYC because of its role in the spread
of hepatitis.
(SSFC, 10/9/11, DB p.42)
1961 Nov 2, James Thurber
(b.1894), humorist (The Male Animal), died at age 66. In 1975 Burton
Bernstein authored "Thurber: A Biography." In 2003 Harrison Kinney
and Rosemary A. Thurber edited "The Thurber Letters."
(MC, 11/2/01)(WSJ, 8/1/03, p.W10)
1961 Nov 3, President John F.
Kennedy established the US Agency for International Development
(USAID). [see Sep 4]
(www.usaid.gov/about_usaid/usaidhist.html)
1961 Nov 3, New Braunfels,
Texas, began hosting its Wurstfest, an annual sausage festival, to
drum up business for local merchants. The festival was set to always
begin on the Friday before the first Monday in November. By 2007 the
1 day festival had expanded to 10 days with well over 100,000
visitors.
(SSFC, 10/7/07, p.D8)
1961 Nov 5, India's premier
Nehru arrived in NY.
(MC, 11/5/01)
1961 Nov 8, Pres. Kennedy
concluded talks with India’s PM Nehru.
(www.historycentral.com/Documents/sixties/118.html)
1961 Nov 8, Imperial Airlines
Flight 201/8, a Lockheed Constellation L-049 four-engine propliner,
aircraft crashed as it attempted to land at Byrd Field, near
Richmond, Va. It was chartered by the US Army to transport new
recruits to Columbia, South Carolina, for training.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_Airlines_Flight_201/8)
1961 Nov 9, Paddy Chayefsky's
"Gideon," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 11/9/01)
1961 Nov 10, Andrew Hatcher was
named associate press secretary to President John F. Kennedy.
(HN, 11/10/98)
1961 Nov 11, Congolese soldiers
murdered 13 Italian UN pilots.
(MC, 11/11/01)
1961 Nov 11, Molotov, Malenkov
& Kaganovich were kicked out of Russia's communist party.
(MC, 11/11/01)
1961 Nov 11, Stalingrad was
renamed Volgograd.
(MC, 11/11/01)
1961 Nov 12, Nadia Comaneci,
[Gheorghe], Romanian gymnast (1st 10/Olymp-gold-1976), was born.
(MC, 11/12/01)
1961 Nov 14, President Kennedy
increased the number of American advisors in Vietnam from 1,000 to
16,000.
(HN, 11/14/00)
1961 Nov 16, US House Speaker
Samuel T. Rayburn died in Bonham, Texas, having served as speaker
since 1940 except for two terms.
(AP, 11/1697)
1961 Nov 16, Great Britain
limited immigration from Commonwealth countries.
(MC, 11/16/01)
1961 Nov 18, JFK sent 18,000
military "advisors" to South Vietnam.
(MC, 11/18/01)
1961 Nov 24, The UN adopted
bans on nuclear arms over American protest.
(HN, 11/24/98)
1961 Nov 26, Pro Baseball Rules
Committee voted 8-1 against legalizing the spitball.
(MC, 11/26/01)
1961 Nov 28, Ernie Davis became
the first African American to win the Heisman Trophy.
(HN, 11/28/98)
1961 Nov 29, Freedom Riders
were attacked by white mob at bus station in Miss.
(MC, 11/29/01)
1961 Nov 29, Enos the chimp was
launched from Cape Canaveral aboard the Mercury-Atlas 5 spacecraft,
which orbited earth twice before returning.
(AP, 11/29/97)
1961 Nov 30, Soviets vetoed a
UN seat for Kuwait, pleasing Iraq.
(HN, 11/30/98)
1961 Nov, The US stock market
began a 7 month decline of 25%.
(SFC,10/17/97, p.B2)
1961 Nov, In Germany Heinz
Felfe (b.1918), the head of counter-intelligence at the
Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) and a veteran of the Nazi special
forces, was arrested as an agent of the KGB.
(Econ, 9/2/06, p.50)(http://tinyurl.com/jmnpe)
1961 Nov, India’s PM Jawaharlal
Nehru visited with Walt Disney in Disneyland.
(SSFC, 5/1/05, p.F3)
1961 Dec 1, The Territory of
New Guinea (Papua) declared independence from the Netherlands.
(WUD, 1994, p.962)(SFC, 6/5/00, p.A8)
1961 Dec 2, Cuban leader Fidel
Castro declared himself a Marxist-Leninist who would lead Cuba to
Communism.
(AP, 12/2/97)
1961 Dec 9, SS Col. Adolf
Eichmann was found guilty of war crimes in Israel.
(MC, 12/9/01)
1961 Dec 11, "Please, Mr.
Postman" by Marvelettes was released.
(MC, 12/11/01)
1961 Dec 11, A U.S. aircraft
carrier carrying Army helicopters arrived in Saigon. This was the
first direct American military support for South Vietnam's battle
against Communist guerrillas. JFK provided 425 US military
helicopter crewmen to South Vietnam to provide training and support
for South Vietnamese forces.
(AP, 12/11/97)(MC, 12/11/01)
1961 Dec 11, Adolf Eichmann was
found guilty of war crimes in Israel.
(MC, 12/11/01)
1961 Dec 12, Martin Luther King
Jr & 700 demonstrators were arrested in Albany, Ga.
(MC, 12/12/01)
1961 Dec 12, Frantz Fanon
(b.1925), Martinique-born writer, psychiatrist, and revolutionary
died in Washington, DC. His work foretold of Third World liberation
struggles. His book “Wretched of the Earth” (1961) celebrated
anti-colonial revolutionaries. In 2008 John Edgar Wideman authored
his novel “Fanon” based on Fanon’s life.
(SSFC, 10/5/03, p.M2)(WSJ, 2/15/08,
p.W2)(www.kirjasto.sci.fi/fanon.htm)(Econ, 4/17/10, SR p.16)
1961 Dec 13, Beatles signed a
formal agreement to be managed by Brian Epstein.
(MC, 12/13/01)
1961 Dec 13, Grandma [Anna M]
Moses (101), US painter, folk artist, died.
(SFC, 3/26/97, z1 p.7)(MC, 12/13/01)
1961 Dec 15, Adolf Eichmann,
the former German Gestapo official accused of a major role in the
Nazi murder of 6 million Jews, was sentenced by a Jerusalem court to
be hanged. Adolf Eichmann was the administrator of the so-called
Final Solution and supervised the transportation of prisoners to
concentration camps.
(AP, 12/15/97)(HN, 12/15/98)
1961 Dec 18, Britain's EMI
Records originally rejected the Beatles.
(MC, 12/18/01)
1961 Dec 19, The UN General
Assembly adopted Resolutions 1714 (XVI) for the formation of its
World Food Program (WFP).
(www.fao.org/docrep/46140E/46140e06.htm)
1961 Dec 20, Moss Hart
(b.1904), US dramatist (You can't take it with you), died. His 1959
autobiography was titled “Act One.”
(www.ibdb.com/person.asp?ID=6153)(WSJ, 1/7/07,
p.P8)
1961 Dec 21, JFK & British
PM MacMillan met in Bermuda.
(MC, 12/21/01)
1961 Dec 23, Fidel Castro
announced Cuba he would release 1,113 prisoners from failed 1961 Bay
of Pigs Invasion in exchange for $62M worth of food and medical
supplies.
(MC, 12/23/01)
1961 Dec 25, Rheinhold
Ruedenberg (b.1883), MIT electrical engineer, died. He patented the
principle of electron-microscope imaging in 1931 for Siemens and
Halske.
(www.msu.edu/~daggy/cop/bkofdead/obits-ru.htm)(www.timelinescience.org/years/1950.htm)
1961 Dec 26, Nepal’s King
Mahendra appointed a council of five ministers to help run the
administration. Several weeks later, political parties were declared
illegal.
(http://countrystudies.us/nepal/19.htm)
1961 Dec 27, Styne-Comden-Green
musical "Subways are for Sleeping," premiered.
(MC, 12/27/01)
1961 Dec 28, Tennessee
Williams' "Night of the Iguana," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 12/28/01)
1961 Dec 31, "lrma La Douce"
closed at the Plymouth Theater in NYC after 527 performances.
(MC, 12/31/01)
1961 Dec 31, Beach Boys played
their debut gig under that name. The Beach Boys band was formed with
brothers Brian, Carl and Dennis Wilson, cousin Mike Love and friend
Al Jardine. Their hit "Surfin" came out the same year.
(SFC, 7/14/96, DB p.50)(MC, 12/31/01)
1961 Dec 31, The Marshall Plan
expired after distributing more than $12 billion in foreign aid.
(AP, 12/31/97)
1961 Dec, The Mike Douglas Show
began in Cleveland, Ohio. The TV show ended in 1982. In 1999 he
authored the memoir “”I’ll be Right Back: Memories of TV’s Greatest
Talk Show.” Mike Douglas (born in 1925 as Michael Delaney Dowd Jr.)
died in 2006.
(SFC, 8/12/06, p.B6)
1961 Dec, The Woodrow Wilson
Bridge opened on I-95 over the Potomac River between Maryland and
Virginia. The 6-lane bridge was demolished in 2006 following the
completion of one of 2 new 6-lane drawbridges.
(SFC, 8/30/06, p.A2)
1961 David Berg (d.2002 began
his "The Lighter Side of" comic strips for Mad Magazine and
continued for 365 subsequent issues.
(SFC, 5/25/02, p.A27)
1961 Richard Diebenkorn painted
his "Yellow Porch."
(SFC, 10/9/97, p.E1)
1961 Roy Lichtenstein
(1923-1997), American pop artist, painted "Look Mickey," his first
picture to employ a comic strip as subject matter. Hi also did
"Popeye."
(SFC, 9/30/97, p.A7)(SFC, 1/16/99, p.E8)
1961 Piero Manzoni signed his
sealed tins of "Merda d’Artista."
(SFC, 2/10/98, p.E4)
1961 Nell Sinton (b.1910)
painted the abstract oil "Greenhouse."
(SFC, 6/27/97, p.C3)
1961 Maurice Albertson, Pauline
Birky and Andrew Rice authored “New Frontiers for American Youth:
Perspective on the Peace Corps.” Their work laid the groundwork for
the basic design of the Peace Corps.
(SFC, 6/12/10, p.D8)
1961 "Academic Women" by Prof.
Jessie Bernard (1903-1996) was published. She soon retired but
continued writing. Her works included "The Sex Game," "The Female
World," "The Future of Marriage," and "The Future of Motherhood."
(SFC, 10/12/96, p.A21)
1961 Julia Child, Simone Beck
and Louisette Bertholle published the first volume of: "Mastering
the Art of French Cooking."
(SFEM, 8/10/97, p.23)
1961 "The Soft Machine" by
William Burroughs was published.
(SFEC, 8/3/97, p.B6)
1961 Craig Claiborne (d.2000 at
79), food journalist for the New York Times, authored "The New York
Times Cookbook."
(SFC, 1/24/00, p.A15)
1961 The children’s classic
"James and the Giant Peach" by Roald Dahl was published.
(SFEC, 8/25/96, Par p.9)
1961 Robert Donovan (d.2003 at
90), newspaperman, authored "PT-109: John F. Kennedy in World War
II."
(SFC, 8/9/03, p.A15)
1961 Stanford Prof. Martin
Esslin (d.2002 at 83) authored "The Theatre of the Absurd."
(SFC, 2/28/02, p.A20)
1961 Jay Wright Forrester
(b.1918), MIT computer engineering pioneer, authored Industrial
Dynamics. In the book he described the bullwhip effect, whereby
changes downstream in an economic chain are multiplied upstream.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Forrester)
1961 Erving Goffman wrote
"Asylums," which asserted that the abnormal behavior of psychiatric
patients was mostly a consequence of hospitalization.
(WSJ, 7/18/97, p.A14)
1961 Robert A. Heinlein
(1906-1988) authored his sci-fi masterpiece “Stranger in a Strange
Land.” It was about a human child raised on Mars by Martians and
brought to Earth.
(WSJ, 1/26/07, p.D7)
1961 Joseph Heller published
"Catch-22."
(SFC, 4/28/98, p.A2)
1961 Richard Hughes authored
his historical novel "The Fox in the Attic," based on Hitler’s
failed 1923 putsch.
(NW, 8/20/01, p.56)
1961 Jane Jacobs authored "The
Death and Life of Great American Cities." It was based on her
experiences in Greenwich Village.
(SFEC, 6/25/00, BR p.4)(WSJ, 10/11/00, p.24)
1961 "The Phantom Tollbooth" by
Norton Juster was published. It was illustrated by Jules Feiffer.
(SFEC, 2/27/00, BR p.12)
1961 Irene Kampen (d.1998 at
75) wrote her first of ten books on her life following a divorce:
"Life Without George." The books became the basis for the TV sitcom:
"The Lucy Show" (1962-1974), which followed Lucille Ball’s divorce
with Desi Arnaz.
(SFC, 2/10/98, p.A22)
1961 Stanislaw Lem wrote
"Memoirs Found in a Bathtub." He pondered the growing vulnerability
of civilization to a disruption of its information flow.
(WSJ, 5/6/97, p.A23)
1961 Oscar Lewis, American
anthropologist, authored "The Children of Sanchez." He had
interviewed a poor, problem-plagued Mexican family for the book,
which became a social science landmark, defining what came to be
known as "the anthropology of poverty."
(AP, 1/26/04)
1961 A.J. Liebling (1904-1963),
America’s pre-eminent press critic, authored “The Press.”
(WSJ, 4/5/08, p.W8)
1961 Nicole Hughes Maxwell
(d.1998 at 92) wrote "Witch Doctor’s Apprentice: Hunting for
Medicinal Plants in the Amazon," an account of her experiences in
the upper Amazon with native Indians and their medicines.
(SFEC, 5/24/98, p.B6)
1961 James Michener (d.1997 at
90) wrote "Report of the County Chairman."
(SFC,10/17/97, p.A17)
1961 Walker Percy authored his
novel "The Moviegoer."
(SSFC, 4/20/03, p.M3)
1961 Benjamin Quarles
(1904-1996), historian, published "The Negro in the American
Revolution."
(SFC, 11/19/96, p.B2)
1961 "Where the Red Fern Grows"
by Wilson Rawls was published.
(SFEC, 2/27/00, BR p.12)
1961 Rosser Reeves (1910-1984)
authored “Reality in Advertising.” He originated the marketing
concept called “the unique selling proposition.”
(WSJ, 3/3/07, p.P8)(http://tinyurl.com/378ozc)
1961 Harold Robbins (d.1997)
wrote his novel "Carpetbaggers," based on the life of Howard Hughes.
(SFC,10/15/97, p.C4)
1961 J.D. Salinger published
"Franny and Zooey."
(SFC, 11/23/98, p.E2)
1961 William Saroyan published
his autobiography: "Here Comes There Goes You Know Who."
(SFEM, 4/27/97, p.11)
1961 Norbert A. Schlei
(1929-2003), later legal counsel to presidents Kennedy and Johnson,
authored "Studies in World Public Order."
(SFC, 4/21/03, p.B4)
1961 D.W. Sciama published his
book "The Unity of the Universe."
(TNG, Klein, p.154)
1961 Muriel Spark published her
novel "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie."
(WSJ, 4/11/97, p.A12)
1961 John Updike wrote "Rabbit
Run."
(SFEC, 9/28/97, BR p.3)
1961 Kurt Vonnegut wrote his
novel "Mother Night."
(SFC, 11/15/96, p.C3)
1961 Joseph Weber, prof. of
physics at Univ. of Maryland, published his "Gravitational
Relativity and Gravitational Waves."
(TNG, Klein, p.130)
1961 Gerald J. Whitrow (d.2000
at 87), mathematician and philosopher, published "The Nature of
Time."
(SFC, 6/27/00, p.A23)
1961 John Wilson (d.1999 at 80)
published "Ghana's Handicapped Citizens." Wilson, himself blind, and
his wife Jean lived in Ghana in 1950 and began treating people who
were blinded from an infection, ocular onchocerciasis, caused by a
buffalo gnat.
(SFC, 12/7/99, p.B4)
1961 Loretta Young, film and TV
actress, authored "The Things I Had to Learn."
(SFEC, 8/13/00, p.B10)
1961 Anneli Cahn Lax (d.1999 at
77) began editing the New Mathematical Library Series for the
Mathematical Association of America. 36 volumes were published by
1995.
(SFC, 10/1/99, p.D6)
1961 Harold Pinter wrote his
play "The Collection."
(SFC, 6/16/98, p.D1)
1961 Tennessee Williams wrote
his play "The Night of the Iguana" based on his experiences in
Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. It was produced on Broadway by Charles
Bowden and starred Bette Davis and Margaret Leighton.
(WSJ, 3/22/96, p.A-10)(AAM, 3/96, p.84)(SFC,
12/25/96, p.A22)
1961 Ossie Davis wrote and
starred in his play "Purlie Victorious."
(SFEC, 10/20/96, Par, p.24)
1961 The Third Edition of
Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary crystallized contemporary ideas
about language and usage.
(SSFC, 3/18/01, DB p.49)
1961 The Bob Merrill musical
"Carnival" with Anna Maria Alberghetti won this year’s Best Musical
Award from the New York Drama Critics Circle. It was initially an
MGM property called "Lilli."
(SFC, 2/19/98, p.A22)
1961 Frank Loesser and Abe
Burrows produced the Broadway hit "How to Succeed in Business
Without Really Trying." The play lampooned life at the fictional
Worldwide Widget Co.
(SFEC, 8/25/96, DB p.40)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R25)
1961 Ray Charles made a hit
with "Unchain My Heart," written by Bobby Sharp and "Hit the Road
Jack."
(SSFC, 7/28/02, Par p.20)(SFC, 4/19/04, p.E1)
1961 Ernie K-Doe (d.2001 at 65,
born as Ernest Kador in New Orleans), rhythm-and-blues singer, made
a hit with the song "Mother-in-Law."
(SFC, 7/10/01, p.A15)
1961 The Frank Loesser song "I
Believe in You" was a hit song from a Broadway musical.
(WSJ, 5/18/99, p.A24)
1961 The Marvelettes sang
"Please Mr. Postman."
(SFC, 11/12/02, p.D1)
1961 The musical "Kean" was
written by George Forrest and Robert Wright.
(SFC, 10/13/99, p.C2)
1961 The show "Milk and Honey"
was produced.
(WSJ, 8/12/98, p.A13)
1961 The Broadway play "They
Might Be Giants" was written by James Goldman.
(SFC, 10/30/98, p.D4)
1961 Frederick Knott (d.2002 at
86), playwright, wrote "Write Me a Murder." It ran for 25 weeks on
Broadway.
(SFC, 12/24/02, p.A16)
1961 Stan Freberg recorded his
musical comedy "The United States of America (1789-1918)." It was a
history lesson with a comic touch and beloved by high school
teachers history teachers. Vol. 2 came out in 1996.
(SFEC, 8/18/96, DB p.42)(WSJ, 8/20/96, p.A8)
1961 Anthony Newley (d.1999),
co-wrote with Leslie Bricusse the London musical "Stop the World - I
Want to Get Off," which included the hit songs "What Kind of Fool Am
I" and "Gonna Build a Mountain."
(SFC, 4/15/99, p.C4)
1961 A "Bozo the Clown" show
began on Chicago’s WGN-TV. The last show was taped in 2001.
(SFC, 6/13/01, p.E3)
1961 The Joey Bishop Show began
on NBC. It was cancelled in 1964. CBS took it over and cancelled it
in 1965. The late night real life Joey Bishop Show ran from
1967-1969.
(SFC, 10/19/07, p.A11)
1961 Joan Baez released her 2nd
album "Joan Baez Vol. 2." She later published her autobiography:
"And a Voice to Sing With."
(SFEM, 11/1/98, p.12)(SFEM, 11/1/98, p.12)
1961 Leslie Bricusse wrote the
hit song "What Kind of Fool Am I."
(WSJ, 2/2/00, p.W8)
1961 Dave Brubeck recorded
"Take Five."
(SFC, 2/12/99, p.C14)
1961 Eddie Harris (1934-1996),
tenor saxophonist, recorded the theme music for the film Exodus. He
later invented the "saxobone," a saxophone with a trombone
mouthpiece and the electric sax. He later wrote much of the music on
"The Bill Cosby Show."
(SFC, 11/8/96, p.A25)
1961 Patsy Cline (d.1963)
recorded the Willie Nelson (b.1933) song "Crazy." Willie then wrote
"Funny How Time Slips Away."
(SFEC, 10/6/96, DB p.67)
1961 Curtis Mayfield and the
Impressions had a hit with the doo-wop song "Gypsy Woman."
(SFC, 12/28/99, p.C1)
1961 Faron Young sang "Hello
Walls," a tune written by Willie Nelson.
(SFC, 12/12/96, p.C8)
1961 The Tokens recorded their
hit "The Lion Sleeps Tonight." It was based on a South African song,
"Mbube," recorded in 1939.
(NH, 6/97, p.66)
1961 Columbia Records issued
the first Robert Johnson (d.1938) LP titled "King of the Delta Blues
Singers." His music is on "The Complete Plantation Recordings"
(Chess/MCA).
(NH, 9/96, p.54)(HT, 5/97, p.41)
1961 Diana Ross, vocalist,
signed with Motown Records. Since that time she has released 58
albums.
(SFC, 7/7/96, DB p.49)
1961 Jimmy Rogers was the first
inductee into the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, Tenn.
(WSJ, 9/26/97, p.A20)
1961 The new LAX Airport was
dedicated by Pres. Lyndon Johnson. The facility included a modern
central structure called the "Theme Building" with an elevated
circular restaurant.
(CG, #206, 1991)
1961 In SF the two curved,
17-story Fontana Towers were built over Aquatic Park by Robert D.
Fraser (d.2000 at 80). The construction blocked view from Russian
Hill. City officials slapped a 40-foot height limit along the
waterfront.
(SFC, 10/22/04, p.A20)(SSFC, 4/27/08, p.B3)
1961 The Rebel Railroad opened
in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. It changed hands a number of times and
grew to become Dollywood in 1986, a theme park partly owned by
singer Dolly Parton.
(DFP, 7/28/96, p.J3)
1961 SunBurst Resort was built
on the periphery of Scottsdale, Arizona.
(AAM, 3/96, p.42)
1961 The Unitarian Universalist
Association (UUA) was formed consolidating the American Unitarian
Association and the Universalist Church.
(WSJ, 5/11/01, p.W17)
1961 W.E.B. Du Bois, Black
American writer and reformer, renounced his American citizenship and
spent his last remaining years in the West African country of Ghana.
Born in Massachusetts on February 23, 1868, Du Bois earned three
degrees at Harvard, including a Ph.D., and taught history at Atlanta
University from 1896-1910. He took a militant position on race
relations, founded the Niagara Movement, edited the Crises magazine,
was a longtime official in the NAACP and author of numerous
important works. Du Bois died in Accra, Ghana, August 27, 1963.
(HNQ, 5/11/99)
1961 Robert R. Gros (d.1997 at
82), a PG&E executive and government advisor, gave his "The
Winds of Freedom Speech" for which he won the Freedom Foundations
award for memorable speeches. He won the award five times. His 1963
winning speech was "Freedom’s Friends and Foes."
(SFC, 4/24/97, p.A26)
1961 In boxing American Floyd
Patterson defeated Sweden’s Ingemar Johansson in their 3rd meeting.
(SFC, 6/28/97, p.B1)
1961 California surfers started
skateboarding.
(SFE Zone 3, 2/12/95, p. 8)
1961 A baseball team record for
home runs was set by the New York Yankees with 240 (Mantle, Maris,
Berra, et. al.).
(SFEM, 9/22/96, p.6)
1961 The Argentine writer Jorge
Luis Borges, a blind librarian, shared the Prix Formentor with
Samuel Beckett. English translations of Borges’ work appeared in
1962.
(SFEC, 12/13/98, BR p.1)
1961 Melvin Calvin (b.1911), US
chemist, won the Nobel Prize for his work on photosynthesis.
(MC, 4/8/02)
1961 Robert Hofstadter of
Stanford won the Nobel Prize in Physics.
(SFC, 10/10/96, p.A1)
1961 Ivo Andric of Yugoslavia
won the Nobel Prize in Literature.
(AP, 10/8/09)
1961 An International Agreement
was signed called the Antarctic Treaty. The treaty did not settle
claim disputes on the land, but shelved the issue to the future with
a 50 year moratorium on mineral and oil exploration.
(Hem. 1/95, p. 28)
1961 The Organization of
Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) was started.
(WSJ, 12/27/95, p. A-10)
1961 The government Food Stamp
program began as a pilot project.
(SFEC, 1/5/97, zone 1 p.5)
1961 The administration of
Pres. Kennedy had IRS commissioner Mortimer Caplin organize the
"Ideological Organizations Audit Project." Its purpose was to
examine the finances of radical left and radical right groups. The
results of the audits were used to then accept or deny tax free
status to various groups.
(WSJ, 1/28/97, p.A18)
1961 Pres. John F. Kennedy
designated the military testing grounds at Cape Canaveral, Florida,
as a permanent launch site of the new US space program. About 6,000
Dusky Seaside Sparrows inhabited the local marshes. The last one,
named Orange Band, died at Discovery Island, the zoo at Walt Disney
World in June of 1987.
(NOHY, 3/90, p.189)
1961 Pres. Kennedy named Eugene
M. Zuckert (d.2000 at 88) Secretary of the Air Force.
(SFC, 6/8/00, p.C7)
1961 Pres. Kennedy named John
McCone head of the CIA.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F5)
1961 Congress voted a
minimum-wage increase from $1.00 to $1.25 an hour over a two-year
period.
(HNQ, 11/5/99)
1961 Project Stormfury, a US
government hurricane modification program, conducted initial tests
on Hurricane Esther with a Navy plane releasing silver iodide
crystals. Some reports indicate winds were reduced by 10 percent to
30 percent. Project Stormfury was abandoned in the 1980s after
spending hundreds of millions of dollars.
(AP, 9/23/05)
1961 Arizona state congressman
Stuart Udall was tapped to serve as the interior secretary for Pres.
Kennedy. His brother, Mo Udall, won the seat in a close special
election.
(SFC, 12/14/98, p.A5)
1961 The White House denied
reports that "The Twist" was being danced at a White House party.
Chubby Checker had made the dance a major hit.
(SFEC, 8/3/97, DB p.65)
1961 Connecticut Governor
Abraham Ribicoff resigned to serve as a member of Pres. Kennedy’s
Cabinet. He served as HEW secretary for one year.
(SFC, 2/23/98, p.A5)
1961 A covert operation was
launched by the CIA to infiltrate North Vietnam. The Saigon station
led by William Colby began recruiting Vietnamese commandos who could
speak the local dialects. The operation was taken over by the Joint
Chiefs of Staff in 1964 and run by colonels of the military’s
Special Operations Group. In Dec 1965 the colonels began crossing
off the names of some 200 missing commandos and listed them as dead.
In 1996 the financial records of the operation, known as OPLAN 34-A,
were declassified at the request of John Mattes, a lawyer
representing 300 living commandos.
(SFC, 6/9/96, p.A-14)
1961 The US Omnibus Housing Act
established the Dept. of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Jack
Conway (d.1998 at 80), labor leader and social activist, helped
draft the act. It enabled the FHA to insure mortgages on
condominiums.
(SFEC, 1/18/98, p.D8)(WSJ, 8/18/05, p.A1)
1961 The US FCC approved FM
stereo for radio.
(SFC, 12/30/99, p.E3)
1961 The US Federal Wire Act
prohibited interstate wagering via phone or telegraph wires. It was
later applied to wagers via the Internet.
(SFC, 7/20/00, p.A12)(Econ, 7/22/06, p.61)
1961 The US passed
anti-racketeering laws. US Code defined racketeer influenced and
corrupt organizations.
(http://tinyurl.com/ggeab)(Econ, 10/7/06, p.78)
1961 Hawaii created America’s
first state-wide system for regulating land use.
(Econ, 9/22/07, p.46)
1961 A&P grocery heirs
Charles and Marie Robertson gave Princeton Univ. $35 million to
educated graduate students for careers in government. In 2008, as
the fund reached $600 million, a suit was settled by the descendants
of the donors, who alleged that the school had strayed from the
original intent of the gift. Legal fees were put at $40 million.
(SFC, 12/11/08, p.A16)
1961 Industry experts in 1996
picked the 1961 Dodge Dart as the number 7 worst American-made car.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1961 Black & Decker,
founded in 1910, introduced the 1st cordless, battery-powered drill
for home use. Alonzo Decker Jr. (d.2002) served as CEO from
1964-1975.
(SFC, 3/20/02, p.A25)
1961 Coca-Cola introduced
Sprite to the US market. It had originated in Germany as Fanta Klare
Zitrone and was intended to compete with 7-Up.
(Econ, 3/3/07,
p.68)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprite_(soft_drink))
1961 Engineer Harry Ferguson’s
all-wheel-drive racer appeared in Formula One competition.
(WSJ, 9/16/05, p.W12)
1961 Mattel toys introduced the
Ken doll, and marketed it as Barbie’s boyfriend.
(SFC, 1/14/98, Z1 p.2)
1961 Mercury Records was bought
by Philips Classics.
(WSJ, 2/3/97, p.A12)
1961 Merrill Lynch Securities
under Michael McCarthy (d.1998 at 94) was the first American firm to
establish a securities office in Tokyo.
(SFC, 4/4/98, p.A24)
1961 Pampers, the 1st
mass-market disposable diaper, was introduced.
(WSJ, 12/27/01, p.A1)
1961 The 1st Six Flags park
opened in Texas. By 2004 there were 31 in the US and Europe with
39,500 seasonal employees.
(WSJ, 8/31/04, p.B1)
1961 Raymond Loewy, industrial
designer for Studebaker Corp., assembled a 4-man team in Palm
Springs to design a new sports coupe called the Avanti. Thomas
Kellogg (d.2003 at 71) was a member of the team. The Avanti was
introduced in April 1962 to compete with GM’s Corvette. It was
cancelled after two years with sales under 6000 units. In 1991
Studebaker produced 6 Avanti convertibles during an attempt at
reorganization.
(SFC, 8/19/03, p.A19)(SSFC, 9/25/11, p.K1)
1961 Robert Rempel (1925-2005)
co-founded Spectra-Physics, which became the 1st company to make
lasers.
(SFC, 6/6/05, p.B3)
1961 United Airlines merged
with Capital Airlines and became the world’s largest commercial
airline.
(WSJ, 12/6/02, p.A1)
1961 The Washington Post bought
Newsweek Magazine for $15 mil.
(WSJ, 8/23/96, p.A1)
1961 Lorry Lokey founded
Business Wire as a way for companies to disseminate their news
releases. In 2006 Warren Buffett agreed to buy the company.
(SFC, 1/17/06, p.C1)
1961 For the past 33 years,
scientists have been seeking signs of intelligent elsewhere in the
universe. SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) began. It
was later expanded under the new name HRMS (High Resolution
Microwave Survey).
(NG, Jan. 94, p.40)
1961 Becton Dickinson
introduced its first plastic disposable syringe called the
Plastipak.
(SFC, 10/27/98, p.A4)
1961 The birth control pill
developed by Dr. Djerassi in 1951 was approved in the US by the FDA
to be sold as a birth control device. He later wrote a sci-fi
tetrology.
(SJSVB, 4/8/96, p.8)(SFEC, 10/25/98, BR p.3)
1961 Johnson & Johnson
introduced Tylenol for adults.
(SFC, 11/1/05, p.D7)
1961 Strains of Staphylococcus
aureus resistant to Methicillin (MRSA) were first reported.
The antibiotic methicillin had only become available in 1960.
(Econ, 11/5/05,
p.87)(www.wellcome.ac.uk/doc_WTX026108.html)
1961 An oral vaccine against
polio invented by Dr. Albert Sabin began to be administered to
school children. The oral vaccine contained a live but weakened
version of the polio virus to induce immunization. It was later
found to cause polio in a handful of individuals every year.
(SFC, 6/21/96, p.A10)
1961 Roche's researchers in New
Jersey published a report stating that Valium (Daizepam) had only
mild side-effects, including fatigue, dizziness and rash, but these
were results based on only seven patients. Diazepam (Valium) was
approved for use in 1963. In the late 1950s chemist Leo Sternbach
(1908-2005) made the discovery that led to Valium while working for
Hoffmann-La Roche.
(http://anxiety-panic.com/history/h-1960.htm)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diazepam#Inventor)
1961 Otto Wichterle, Czech
chemist, introduced the world’s 1st soft plastic contact lenses.
(Econ, 3/12/05, TQ p.12)
1961 Murray Gell-Mann proposed
the "eightfold way," a scheme to relate particles by mathematical
symmetries.
(NG, May 1985, p. 650)
1961 Guy Mountfort (d.2003) and
3 other Britons: zoologist Sir Julian Huxley, broadcaster Peter
Scott and wildlife advocate Max Nicholson, founded the Swiss-based
World Wildlife Fund.
(AP, 5/1/03)
1961 In California a Kansas
City company opened a manufacturing plant in Merced to fabricate
cooling towers for industrial use. In 1969 the plant began treating
the wood it used with chromium 6, arsenic and copper to combat
insects and bacteria. In 1975 Baltimore Aircoil Co., a subsidiary of
Merck & Co., bought the plant. In 1985 Merck sold its subsidiary
and the plant to Amsted Industries. In 1986 a consultant found
evidence of chromium and arsenic contamination at the site. In 1989
state regulators noted high levels of chromium 6 and arsenic in the
water of a drainage pond and reported that storm water flowed from
the pond into a canal running by homes in the Beachwood area of
Merced. Chromium use continued until May 1991. In February 2007 the
regional water board mailed notices to residents saying the plant
had caused significant chromium and arsenic pollution. As of 2008
some 20 people were dead or dying of cancer in the Beachwood area. A
$38 million cleanup effort was in progress. Merck and Amsted faced a
lawsuit.
(SSFC, 12/14/08, p.A14)
1961 Sylvia McLaughlin, Kay
Kerr (d.2010 at 99) and Esther Gulick (d.1995) founded the Save the
Bay Association in an effort to stop plans by the city of Berkeley
to create 2,000 new acres by filling in shallow bay waters. Their
efforts led to the 1965 McAteer-Petris Act, which placed a
moratorium on filling the San Francisco Bay.
(SFCM, 10/5/03, p.13)(SFC, 5/10/04, p.B5)(SFC,
1/3/11, p.C4)
1961 The US Bureau of
Reclamation completed Trinity Dam creating Trinity Lake in northern
California. The lake flooded the towns of Trinity Center, Stringtown
and Minersville.
(SFC, 9/12/11,
p.A5)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity_Lake)
1961 46,650 acres of second
growth forest were added to the 13,200 acres of virgin forest in the
Mississippi delta and the Delta National Forest was officially
established. The forest service then proceeded to contract with
lumber companies to cut down the trees. Only a 160 acres of virgin
timber on three parcels now remain under special management as
Research Natural Areas.
(Nat. Hist., 4/96, p.63)
1961 The American crocodile
became protected in Florida.
(PacDisc. Spring/’96, p.37)
1961 A Homo neanderthalensis
skull was found at the Amud cave in Israel in 1961 that dated to
40-50,000 years of age.
(NH, 4/97, p.22)
1961 A B-52 crashed near
Eureka, N.C. and part of a an "unarmed" nuclear bomb was lost and
left buried there. In 1998 Stephen I. Schwartz published "Atomic
Audit," which included an account of 11 missing nuclear bombs.
(SFEC, 11/22/98, Par p.22)
1961 Gary Cooper, film actor,
died.
(SFC, 3/8/00, p.C8)
1961 John Graham (b.1881),
artist, died.
(SFC, 6/28/02, p.D1)
1961 Dashiell Hammett (b.1894),
American author, died. His work include "The Maltese Falcon," "The
Glass Key," "The Thin Man," "The Continental Op," and "The Dain
Curse." In 1981 Richard Layman authored a Hammett biography. In 1996
Joan Mellen published the dual biography "Hellman and Hammett." In
2001 the "Selected Letters of Dashiell Hammett 1921-1960" was
published.
(WUD, 1994, p.641)(SFC, 6/28/97, p.A15)(WSJ,
8/18/99, p.A17)(SFCM, 4/15/01, p.4)
1961 Moss Hart (b.1904),
American playwright, director and librettist, died. He and George S.
Kaufman, wrote plays such as "You Can't Take it with You" and "The
Man who came to Dinner." His autobiography was titled "Enter
Laughing." "The self-hatred that destroys is the waste of
unfulfilled promise." A 1959 autobiography was titled "Act One." In
2001 Steven Bach authored the Hart biography "Dazzler: The Life and
Times of Moss Hart."
(WUD, 1994, p.648)(SFEC, 7/13/97, DB p.11)(AP,
8/18/98)(HN, 10/24/00)(WSJ, 4/24/01, p.A22)(SSFC, 4/29/01, DB p.80)
1961 Sam Rayburn (b.1882), U.S.
Democrat congressman from Texas and the Speaker of the House of
Representatives (1940-46, 1949-53), died. Rayburn served as Speaker
of the House for 17 years over three terms. He was elected to his
House seat first in 1912 and was reelected 24 times, serving a total
of 48 years and 8 months." When you get too big a majority, you’re
immediately in trouble."
(HN, 1/6/99)(HNQ, 4/7/00)(AP, 2/10/97)
1961 Eero Saarinen, architect,
died. Many of Saarinen's unfinished projects--including the Dulles
International Airport terminal building near Washington, D.C. and
the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial (Gateway Arch) in St.
Louis--were completed by John Dinkeloo and Irish-born Kevin Roche.
Roche studied architecture in Dublin, graduating in 1945. He pursued
postgraduate work at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago
after briefly working for firms in Dublin and London. In 1950, he
joined Eero Saarinen and Associates, becoming the firm's principal
associate from 1954 until Saarinen's death in 1961. Roche and
Dinkeloo worked on Saarinen's projects throughout the early 60s, but
started their own firm, Kevin Roche, John Dinkeloo and Associates,
in 1966, where they designed headquarters buildings for Ford and
General Foods as well as other corporate structures.
(HNQ, 1/28/01)
1961 Anna May Wong (b.1905),
film actress, died. In 2004 Graham Russell Gao Hodges authored "Anna
May Wong: From Laundryman's Daughter to Hollywood Legend."
(SSFC, 2/1/04, p.M6)
1961 Marius de Zaya (b.1880),
caricature artist, died.
(WSJ, 8/21/01, p.A17)
1961 Albanian leader Enver
Hoxha broke with Nikita Khrushchev over Khrushchev’s repudiation of
Stalin’s legacy. Diplomatic relations were severed and Soviet aid to
Albania was ended. For a time Albania found an ally in China.
(www, Albania, 1998)
1961 King Zog of Albania died
in exile in France. His son, Leka Zogu, was sworn in as king by the
government in exile.
(SFC, 6/27/97, p.A16)
1961 The Antarctic Treaty
entered into force. It was adopted to put on hold the issue of
ownership in the pursuit of peace and science.
(WSJ, 3/30/05,
p.D12)(www.aad.gov.au/default.asp?casid=1187)
1961 In Australia the Packer
family bought The Bulletin magazine (1880-2008), scrapped its racist
masthead ("Australia for the White Man"), and entered a period of
strong growth, high circulation and influence.
(AP, 1/24/08)
1961 A Vienna Convention barred
the taxing of foreign diplomatic staff.
(AP, 9/15/02)
1961 The Arab states of Qatar,
Bahrain, and Kuwait became independent.
(NG, 5/88, p.662)
1961 In Belarus the Gomel
Jewish cemetery was destroyed when a sports stadium was built. The
remains lay largely undisturbed until the spring of 2008 when
reconstruction began and a bulldozer turned up the first bones.
Workers said they had no choice but to consign the bones to city
dumps.
(AP, 4/12/08)
1961 Hurricane Hattie destroyed
much of Belize City. The capital was moved inland to Belmopan in
response.
(SFC, 10/8/01, p.B2)
1961 James Blades (1901-1999),
English percussionist, authored "Orchestral Percussion Technique."
(SFC, 5/25/99,
p.B2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Blades)
1961 Ludovic Kennedy
(1919-2009), Scotland-born writer, authored “10 Rillington Place,”
the story of Timothy Evans, who was hanged on 1950 for a murder he
did not commit. The book was later said to have played a role in
ending capital punishment in Britain.
(www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/SPYkennedyL.htm)(Econ, 10/24/09,
p.99)
1961 The Beatles recorded their
1st commercial record, "My Bonnie." Brian Epstein, a Liverpool
record store manager, became the Beatles’ manager.
(SFC, 12/1/01, p.D1)
1961 The British television
show “The Avengers” began and continued to 1969. The theme music was
composed by British jazz artist John Dankworth.
(SFC, 2/8/10,
p.C3)(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060708/)
1961 In London the Post Office
Tower was completed. It was designed by Eric Bedford (d.2001) and
was later renamed the British Telecom Tower.
(SFC, 8/17/01, p.D5)
1961 Britain’s Shrewsbury
School mates Christopher Booker, Richard Ingrams and Willie Rushton
founded “Private Eye” magazine. Paul Foot (1938-2004) joined the
trio in 1967.
(Econ, 7/31/04, p.74)
1961 In Britain a group of
spies were arrested and microfilm was found of documents from the
Admiralty.
(SFC, 12/6/96, p.B8)
1961 The Archigram group,
formed by 6 friends in London, was named after their architectural
broadsheet telegrams. The group included Ron Herron, Peter Cook,
David Greene, Dennis Crompton, Michael Webb and Warren Chalk. Their
work was delivered in a comic book style and based on the message
that architecture was not eternal, but temporary and disposable.
(WSJ, 4/23/98, p.A16)
1961 In British Guyana the
People’s Progressive Party again won elections and Dr. Jagan was
sworn in as prime minister. He vowed to achieve independence and
install a socialist regime. The US CIA undertook a destabilization
campaign with organized labor unrest, sabotage and disinformation
that led to race riots between East Indians and blacks that left
nearly 100 dead.
(SFC, 3/7/96, p.A24)(SFC, 5/29/97, p.A4)
1961 In Canada the New
Democratic party (NDP) was formed as an uneasy alliance of prairie
populists and urban trade unionists.
(Econ, 8/27/11, p.31)
1961 Isadore Sharp opened the
1st Four Seasons Hotel in Toronto, Canada. In 2006 he joined with
partners in a $3.7 billion buyout offer to take the company private.
In 2007 Sharp unloaded all but a 5% stake when the company went
private. By 2009 the chain had 83 hotels in 35 countries. In 2009 he
and Alan Philips authored “Four Seasons: The Story of a Business
Philosophy.”
(SFC, 11/7/06, p.C3)(WSJ, 4/28/09, p.A11)
1961 In Chile Paul Schaefer,
former WW II German corporal, founded the "Colonia Dignidad" -the
Dignity Colony, a reclusive German-speaking colony on a 34,000 acre
site in the Andean foothills. He had fled Germany while under
investigation for allegations of sexually molesting children. In
2005 Schaefer was arrested in Argentina and extradited to Chile.
(SFC, 6/27/97, p.A14)(AP, 3/13/05)
1961 Carlos Julio Arosemena
(d.2004) rose to the presidency of Ecuador following the ouster of
President Velasco Ibarra in a military coup.
(AP, 3/5/04)
1961 In France Andre Malreaux,
minister of cultural affairs under Pres. de Gaulle, initiated the
clean-up of Paris.
(SFC, 6/16/96, T-5)
1961 Gerhard Richter (b.1932),
German artist, defected to the West. By 2011 he was considered the
world’s foremost living painter.
(Econ, 10/8/11, p.104)
1961 A civil war began in
Guatemala.
(WSJ, 3/22/96, p.A-1)
1961 India wrested Goa and Diu
from Portugal.
(SSFC, 3/19/06, p.F6)
1961 India outlawed the dowry
as an institutionalized marital custom to help reduce gender-driven
abortions.
(SFC, 12/6/02, p.J1)
1961 India stopped public
funding for Anglo schools.
(Econ, 10/23/10, p.51)
1961 Bharat Forge incorporated
in India. By 2006 it was the world’s second biggest maker of
forgings for car engine and chassis components.
(Econ, 6/3/06, Survey
p.8)(www.bharatforge.com/insidepages/company/history.asp)
1961 M.S. Swaminathan, adviser
to India’s minister of agriculture, invited Norman Borlaug, a plant
geneticist who had improved the yield on Mexican wheat, to visit
India.
(Econ, 12/24/05, p.29)
1961 Ireland’s PM Sean Lemass
made his son-in-law, Charles J. Haughey, a Cabinet minister.
(AP, 6/13/06)
1961 Israel’s secret service,
Mossad, sent a parcel bomb to Alois Brunner (b.1912), a fugitive
Nazi. It cost him an eye. Another parcel bomb in July, 1980, took
four fingers. He was last seen alive by reliable witnesses in 1992,
and by journalists in 1996.
(Econ, 11/6/10,
p.74)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alois_Brunner)
1961 Calisto Tanzi dropped out
of university to concentrate on the a family delicatessen business
near the Parma railway station: Calisto Tanzi & Sons - Salamis
and Preserves. In 1966 Calisto Tanzi adopted the new ultra-high
temperature (UHT) Swedish pasteurizing technique to produce
long-life milk. In 2003 the company filed for bankruptcy.
(WSJ, 12/22/03, p.A6)(WPR, 3/04, p.18)
1961 Leonardo Del Vecchio
founded Luxottica, a maker of eye shades and prescription glasses,
in Belluno, Italy. In 1990 the company was listed on the New York
Stock Exchange.
(Econ, 10/8/05, p.73)
1961 Japan established a
universal health care system called kaihoken.
(Econ, 9/10/11, p.47)
1961 In Laos the US CIA began
enlisting mountain tribes as guerrillas during the Vietnam War.
(SFC,12/27/97, p.A15)
1961 The Non-Aligned Movement
(NAM) was founded in Belgrade by Third World leaders such as India's
Jawaharlal Nehru, Egypt's Gamal Abdul Nasser and Indonesia's Achmad
Sukarno, under the aegis of Yugoslavia's Josip Broz Tito, to try to
avoid alignment with either the United States or the Soviet Union.
(Reuters, 9/10/06)
1961 In Russia Svyatoslav
Richter, concert pianist, was named a People’s Artist of the USSR,
the highest Soviet honor for a performing artist.
(SFC, 8/2/97, p.A21)
1961 Somalia adopted its first
constitution. A new one was adopted in 1979.
(www.pogar.org/countries/country.asp?cid=17)
1961 In South Korea Pres. Park
Chung Hee (1917-1979) led a military coup that overthrew Premier
John M. Chang. The military seized power and investigations into
wartime summary executions ceased. This began a 26-year
dictatorship. The junta marched many racketeers through Seoul
wearing dunce caps with slogans such as “I am a corrupt swine.”
(SFC,12/15/97, p.B2)(SFC, 4/21/00,
p.A19)(www.encarta.msn.com)(Econ, 9/27/08, SR p.13)
1961 In South Korea Prof. Koh
Young Bok was recruited as a spy for North Korea. He was arrested in
1997.
(SFC,11/21/97, p.D2)
1961 Westerlund 1, one of the
biggest cluster of superstars in the Milky Way, was discovered by a
Swedish astronomer and became a favored observation site in stellar
physics. It is located 16,000 light years away in the constellation
of Ara, the Altar. It contained a neutron star with a mighty
magnetic field. The stars were all born from a single event just
three and a half to five million years ago.
(AFP, 8/18/10)
1961 Syria withdrew from the
UAR (Egypt) following a coup.
(WUD, 1994, p.1555)(HNQ, 6/5/98)
1961 Syria revoked the
citizenship of its native Kurds.
(Econ, 4/23/05, p.46)(http://tinyurl.com/7zamn)
1961 The British Trust
Territory of Tanganyika became independent. It became the mainland
part of Tanzania. The first president was socialist Julius Nyerere.
He resigned in 1985.
(WUD, 1994, p.1452)(SFC, 8/8/98, p.A12)(SFC,
10/15/99, p.D7)
1961 In Vietnam government
decree 216 formulated a family planning program that got sidetracked
due to the war.
(SFEC, 4/12/98, p.A19)
1961 Zimbabwe enacted a
Minerals Act. In 2005 it planned to re-write mine ownership laws to
“promote” indigenous ownership.
(WSJ, 2/10/05, p.A10)
1961-1962 Wagon Train was the top ranking network
show on television with a ranking of 32.1%.
(WSJ, 4/24/95, p.R-5)
1961-1963 John F. Kennedy served as the 35th
President of the US. He was assassinated in 1963 by Lee Harvey
Oswald and succeeded by Vice-President Lyndon Johnson. Jackie
Onassis as first lady was involved with Roswell Gilpatric, No. 2 man
at the Defense Department. So it says in the 1996 book "Jack and
Jackie" by Christopher Anderson. Also discussed was the Kennedy’s
New York physician, Max Jacobson, aka Dr. Feelgood, who shot the
president full of amphetamines to increase his stamina and elevate
his moods. Jackie also received shots from Dr. Max. A 1997 ABC News
Special with Peter Jennings showed former Secret Service agents
telling the truth about John Kennedy’s sexual exploits.
(A&IP, ESM, p.96b, photo)(USAT, 6/19/96,
p.2D)(SFC, 7/5/96, p.B2)(WSJ, 12/22/97, p.A16)
1961-1963 During the Kennedy administration
economist Arthur Okun (1928-1980), an economic adviser to both the
Kennedy and Johnson administrations, concocted the discomfort
index, later referred to as the "misery index." It was simply the
jobless rate added to the inflation rate. Okun's Law describes a
linear relation between percentage changes in unemployment and
percent changes in gross national product: for every 1% increase in
unemployment, the country suffers a 3% loss of yearly GNP.
(http://cowles.econ.yale.edu/books/tobin/jt_events.htm)
1961-1965 The TV courtroom drama show "The
Defenders" starred E.G. Marshall.
(SFC, 8/26/98, p.A17)
1961-1965 The TV show "Mr. Ed," featured a talking
horse. Alan Young played Wilbur Post and Bamboo Harvester
(1946-1979) played Mr. Ed.
(SFC, 1/24/97, p.D8)
1961-1965 C. Douglas Dillon (d.2003 at 93) served
as Treasury Secretary. He advocated the tax cut program passed by
Congress under Pres. Johnson in 1964.
(SFC, 1/13/03, p.B5)
1961-1965 John McCone succeeded Allen Dulles as
head of the US CIA.
(SFC, 5/29/97, p.A4)
1961-1965 Terry Sanford (d.1998 at 80) served as
the governor of North Carolina.
(SFEC, 4/19/98, p.C6)
1961-1966 McGeorge Bundy (1919-1996) was the
security advisor to John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. In 1988
he wrote "Danger and Survival: Choices About the Bomb in the First
50 Years."
(SFC, 9/17/96, p.A22)
1961-1966 On TV "The Dick Van Dyke Show" was
directed by Sheldon Leonard (1907-1997).
(SFC, 10/29/96, p.B2)(SFEC, 1/12/97, p.C10)
1961-1966 Durward Kirby (d.2000 at 88) worked as
the co-host of Candid Camera during these years. Kirby started in
radio and worked on "The Gary Moore Show." He later authored 3 books
that included: "My Life, Those wonderful Years."
(SFC, 3/17/00, p.)
1961-1967 Frank Morrison (d.2004) served as the
Democratic governor of Nebraska. He opposed the war in Vietnam and
capital punishment.
(SFC, 4/20/04, p.B7)
1961-1968 Octavio Paz, poet and Nobel laureate,
served as the Mexican ambassador to India. In 1997 he published "In
Light of India."
(SFEC, 8/31/97, BR p.9)
1961-1969 Every American agent sent into North
Vietnam was captured and most became double agents serving Ho Chi
Minh. In 2000 Kenneth Conboy and Dale Andrade authored "Spies and
Commandos," Richard H. Shultz Jr. authored "The Secret War Against
Hanoi."
(WSJ, 7/17/00, p.A32)
1962-1971 US military tanker planes and
helicopters sprayed 20 million gallons of Agent Orange and other
defoliants in Operation Ranch Hand to deny cover to communist forces
in Vietnam. The defoliants were contaminated with TCDD, the most
dangerous form of dioxin. In 2004 Philip Jones Griffith,
photojournalist, authored "Agent Orange: Collateral Damage in
Vietnam."
(SFC, 5/17/01, p.A12)(Econ, 1/31/04, p.82)
1961-1971 U Thant of Burma served as the
Secretary-General of the UN.
(SFC, 12/14/96, p.A1)
1961-1971 UAR was the official name of Egypt over
this period.
(WUD, 1994, p.1555)
1961-1971 Scotsman John Cowperthwaite, who arrived
in Hong Kong in 1945, served as Financial Secretary of the British
colony. Cowperthwaite died in 2006 at age 90.
(http://garysweeten.blogspot.com/2006_01_01_archive.html)(Econ,
11/25/06, p.80)
1961-1973 Samuel W. Yorty (1909-1998) served three
terms as mayor of Los Angeles.
(SFC, 6/6/98, p.A5)
1961-1973 The CIA backed a secret army in Laos to
help fight the communist Pathet Lao and North Vietnamese. An
estimated 50,000 Hmong civilians died over this period. CIA director
William Colby acknowledged the US and Hmong alliance in 1994.
(SFC, 6/14/04, p.A1)
1961-1985 Pres. Julius Nyerere bankrupted Tanzania
by forcing peasants into collectives. During his rule he declared
water to be free, which led to it being squandered.
(Econ, 4/16/05, p.40)(Econ, 11/11/06, p.67)
Go to 1962