Top Qs
Timeline
Chat
Perspective

June 1961

Month of 1961 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

June 1961
Remove ads

The following events occurred in June 1961:

More information Su, Mo ...
Thumb
June 23, 1961: USAF Major Robert M. White becomes first pilot to fly a plane "a mile per second" (3,600 mph)
Thumb
June 3, 1961: Soviet Premier Khrushchev and U.S. President Kennedy meet in Vienna
Remove ads

June 1, 1961 (Thursday)

Remove ads

June 2, 1961 (Friday)

Remove ads

June 3, 1961 (Saturday)

  • The Vienna summit between U.S. President John F. Kennedy and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev began in the capital of Austria, a neutral site. The two world leaders opened discussions with a 75-minute meeting at the U.S. Embassy in Austria.[14] Although described in the press as "cordial",[15] the first meeting between the young American president and the old Soviet leader was hostile, and Kennedy later described it to New York Times reporter James Reston as "the worst thing in my life", as Khrushchev lectured him and demanded that Western troops leave Berlin.[16]
  • Clarence Earl Gideon, a 50-year-old drifter, was arrested in Panama City, Florida, after being accused of burglary of the Bay Harbor Poolroom. Unable to afford an attorney, convicted and sentenced to five years in prison, Gideon filed his own petition for review in the United States Supreme Court. The Court's ruling in the landmark case of Gideon v. Wainwright established that state courts would be required to provide counsel for any criminal defendant unable to afford an attorney.[17]
  • Stirling Moss won the 1961 Silver City Trophy at Brands Hatch.
  • Died: "G. I. Joe", 18, British war pigeon who was credited with saving the lives of 1,000 soldiers of the British 56th Infantry. On October 18, 1943, the division had taken control of the village of Calvi Vecchia in Italy, shortly before the RAF was preparing to make an air strike there. The pigeon flew 20 miles (32 km) to the airfield just as seven RAF bombers were preparing to depart, and the mission was aborted in time.[18]

June 4, 1961 (Sunday)

  • On the second day of the Vienna summit, Premier Khrushchev informed President Kennedy that the Soviet Union would, in December, sign a separate peace treaty with East Germany whereby "all commitments stemming from Germany's surrender will become invalid", including the stationing of occupation forces in the city, precipitating what would become known as the Berlin Crisis. In that Berlin was entirely within East Germany, all American, British and French access to the city, including the corridors across East Germany between West Germany and Berlin. Khrushchev added that "it is up to the U.S. to decide whether there will be war or peace", that the Soviet decision to sign the treaty was "firm and irrevocable", and that the treaty would be signed in December. As noted in the memorandum made at the time, and released in 1998, "The President concluded the conversation by observing that it would be a cold winter."[19]
  • Died: Former Dominican Army General Juan Tomas Diaz, 52, who masterminded the assassination of Dominican Republic dictator Rafael Trujillo five days earlier, was killed in a gunbattle with security agents.[20]
Remove ads

June 5, 1961 (Monday)

  • In separate 5–4 rulings, the United States Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the McCarran Act, requiring the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA) to register the names of all of its members with the U.S. Justice Department (Communist Party v. Subversive Activities Control Board), and the Smith Act, which made active Communist Party membership a federal crime "if the individual is aware of the party's subversive goals" (Scales v. United States).[21]
  • Tony Castellitto, seen as a rival to Anthony Provenzano's leadership of the Teamsters Union Local 560 that served New York City, vanished after getting into a car with Provenzano's aide, Salvatore "Sally Bugs" Briguglio. "Tony Pro" was the chief suspect after Teamsters' Boss Jimmy Hoffa disappeared under similar circumstances on July 30, 1975. Provenzano was convicted in 1978 for Castellitto's murder, though Hoffa's killers were never found.[22]
  • Muhammad Shamte Hamadi became Chief Minister of Zanzibar.
  • Born: Mary Kay Bergman, American voice actress and voice-over teacher; in Los Angeles (committed suicide, 1999)[23]
Remove ads

June 6, 1961 (Tuesday)

Remove ads

June 7, 1961 (Wednesday)

Thumb
Japanese beetle
  • California's war against the Japanese beetle (Popillia japonica) began with the discovery, by an entomologist, of one of the pests feeding on a flower on the grounds of the California State Capitol in Sacramento. It was soon discovered that an infestation was imminent. For the next four years, the state worked on preventing the beetles from becoming established, with the risk of hundreds of millions of dollars being lost if even 5% of California's fruit crops were destroyed. After four years, the beetle was declared eradicated.[30]
  • The Sony Corporation made its first public stock offering in the United States, with two million shares offered at $1.75 a share on Wall Street. Within two hours, all shares had been sold.[31]
  • The United States Navy ships USS Ulysses (ARB-9) and USS Diomedes (ARB-11) were transferred to West German ownership and renamed the Odin and the Wotan, respectively.[32]
Remove ads

June 8, 1961 (Thursday)

  • A mob of 4,000 farmers seized control of the French town of Morlaix at dawn, blocking the roads in and around the 13,000-population town with tractors and trucks, occupying the city hall, and defying the town's 100-member police force. The Breton farmers were angry at the limits on the revenue they could receive from their products. The French Interior Ministry sent 130 riot police to disperse the group.[33]
Thumb
A "rocket belt" demonstration
Remove ads

June 9, 1961 (Friday)

June 10, 1961 (Saturday)

  • George York and James Latham, two U.S. Army privates who had gone AWOL from Fort Hood, Texas, were arrested in a roadblock west of Salt Lake City, bringing to an end a two-week killing spree that left seven random victims dead. They had strangled two women in Florida, shot an elderly man in Tennessee, beat two men to death the next day in Illinois, and shot a man in Kansas and a woman in Colorado before being caught.[50] The two men were hanged on June 22, 1965, in Kansas.[51]
  • The Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA), South Korea's secret police force, was created under the leadership of Colonel Kim Jong Pil, "explicitly designed to spy on its own citizens". Within three years, it had gone from having 3,000 employees on its payroll to 370,000 officials, agents and informers throughout the nation and abroad.[52]
  • The Soviet news agency TASS and the East German press service ADN released copies of two memoranda given by Soviet Premier Khrushchev to U.S. President Kennedy earlier in the week, confirming that the Soviets wanted all but "symbolic" troops to be withdrawn from West Berlin.[53]
  • Born: Maxi Priest (stage name for Max Elliott), Jamaican reggae singer; in Lewisham, London[54]
Remove ads

June 11, 1961 (Sunday)

Remove ads

June 12, 1961 (Monday)

  • The "Night of Fire" took place in the Italian province of South Tyrol, inhabited by a substantial German-language speaking population. 37 electricity pylons were blown up by political protesters seeking autonomy for the region. Autonomy would be recognized in 1972 and expanded in 2001.[60][61]
  • Redstone launch vehicle No. 8 was delivered to Cape Canaveral for the suborbital Mercury 4 test flight that would make Gus Grissom the second American to travel into space on July 21.[25]
  • Born: Julius Kariuki, Kenyan Olympic gold medalist in 1988 in the 3000 metre steeplechase; in Nyahururu[62]

June 13, 1961 (Tuesday)

June 14, 1961 (Wednesday)

Thumb
The President's convertible
  • A custom-built 1961 Lincoln Continental convertible was delivered to the White House for use of President Kennedy.[64] Kennedy would be assassinated in the car on November 22, 1963.
  • American singer Patsy Cline and her brother, Sam, were involved in a head-on car collision on Old Hickory Boulevard in Nashville. The impact threw Cline into the windshield, nearly killing her.[65]
  • The British government unveiled new "panda" crossings with push button controls for pedestrians. The new crossings were set to appear on British roads the following year.[66]
  • Born: Boy George (stage name for George O'Dowd), British new wave singer for Culture Club; in Bexley, Kent[67]

June 15, 1961 (Thursday)

Thumb
June 15, 1961: Ulbricht (photographed in 1970) says no wall will be built in Berlin
  • At 11:00 a.m., Walter Ulbricht, State Council Chairman of East Germany, opened a rare press conference in East Berlin for Western journalists, restating the Communist demand that Berlin should be a "Free City". Reporter Annamarie Doherr of the Frankfurter Rundschau asked Ulbricht whether a boundary would be erected at the Brandenburg Gate. Ulbricht responded with the first reference to "die Mauer" (The Wall), "I understand by your question that there are men in West Germany who wish that we would mobilize the construction workers of the GDR in order to build a wall," and added, "No one has the intention of erecting a wall! ("Niemand hat die Absicht, eine Mauer zu errichten!"). Construction of the Berlin Wall would begin on August 13.[68]
  • Forty-five American civil rights activists, Freedom Riders who had been arrested on June 2 in Jackson, Mississippi, for protesting against segregation, were transferred from the crowded local jail to the Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman. Later that morning, two of the men, Felix Singer and Terry Sullivan, both white men from Chicago, were tortured with an electric cattle prod, in one of the first publicized uses of an electrified non-lethal weapon as a law enforcement device to control human beings. The 10,000-volt devices continued to be used throughout the 1960s.[69][70] The story of the brutality at Parchman was reported worldwide after another of the protestors was released two weeks later.[71][72]
  • At the Jodrell Bank radio telescope, the search ceased for a Soviet Venus probe "lost" since February 1961, as visiting Soviet space scientists prepared to leave. The probe was last commanded on February 12.[73]
  • The Canadian Mathematical Bulletin received Joachim Lambek's paper "How to Program an Infinite Abacus", representing an important development in theoretical computer science.
  • In Ethiopia, Emperor Haile Selassie inaugurated a new 226-metre (741 ft) long highway bridge over the river Abay near Bahir Dar.[74]
  • Born: Miguel "Angá" Díaz, Cuban percussionist; in San Juan y Martínez, Pinar del Río (d.2006)

June 16, 1961 (Friday)

Thumb
Nureyev
  • The dance troupe of Russia's Kirov Ballet was at Le Bourget Airport and waiting to board a flight to London, when the star, dancer Rudolf Nureyev, was pulled aside by KGB agents and told that he was to take a 12:25 p.m. flight back to Moscow. Sensing that he would never be allowed to leave the Soviet Union again, Nureyev broke away from the escorts and ran over to two French airport policemen (who had been alerted by Nureyev's friend Clara Bichkova), shouting in English, "Protect me!" France granted the defecting Nureyev asylum.[75][76]
  • English motorcycle racer Ralph Rensen, 28, became the third rider in less than a week to be killed while competing in the Isle of Man TT series of races. The previous Saturday, Michael Brookes was fatally injured during practice, and on Monday, Marie Lambert was killed while riding in a sidecar during a race.[77]
  • An Ad Hoc Task Group reported to NASA the results of its studies to determine the main problems, the pacing items, and the major decisions required to accomplish the crewed lunar landing mission. The direct ascent method was studied intensively with much less attention given to the rendezvous method.[25]
  • Died: Marcel Junod, 57, Swiss physician and humanitarian[78]

June 17, 1961 (Saturday)

  • The first President's Daily Brief, a top secret intelligence bulletin intended only for the view of the President of the United States, was published and delivered to John F. Kennedy under the title President's Intelligence Checklist. After the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion, Kennedy had discarded the Central Intelligence Bulletin, which was limited to CIA findings. The daily briefing, compiled by a panel of representatives from all American government intelligence agencies, was renamed the National Intelligence Daily, then the Senior Executive Intelligence Brief, before becoming the "PDB".[79]
  • The first jet airplane manufactured in India, the HF-24 Marut, was flown for the first time, by Captain Suranjan Das.[80]
Thumb
Chandler
  • Died: Jeff Chandler, 42, American film star, died of complications from back surgery. Chandler had injured his back on April 15 while filming Merrill's Marauders and underwent surgery on May 13. Arterial damage caused by the operation led to a massive hemorrhage, requiring additional surgery on May 18. Chandler died from blood poisoning 30 days later.[81] His physicians were sued for malpractice, a lawsuit settled months later for $233,358.[82]

June 18, 1961 (Sunday)

Thumb
The "Hammer and Sickle medal" for Soviet Heroes of Socialist Labor"

June 19, 1961 (Monday)

  • By a 5–4 margin, the United States Supreme Court rendered the landmark decision of Mapp v. Ohio, holding that the admission, in a state criminal trial, of evidence obtained in an illegal search was a violation of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Dollree Mapp had been arrested at her home in Shaker Heights, Ohio, on May 23, 1957, based on materials found without a warrant or probable cause. The decision resulted in the prospective exclusion of improperly obtained evidence from trials in the United States thereafter.[87]
  • With the exchange of diplomatic notes between Sir William Luce, the British Political Resident in the Persian Gulf, and Sheikh Abdullah III Al-Salim Al-Sabah, the Anglo-Kuwaiti Treaty of January 23, 1899, was terminated, the British protectorate over Kuwait (which provided for control of Kuwait's foreign affairs) came to an end, and Kuwait became an independent nation. Less than a week later, the existence of the State of Kuwait would be threatened by Iraq.[88]

June 20, 1961 (Tuesday)

  • Hungary began the assimilation of its Romani minority (colloquially referred to as "gypsies") with the adoption of a resolution by the Politburo of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party, the East European nation's ruling Communist party. The Romani people were only 2% of Hungary's population but were increasing in number. The program was aimed at discouraging a separate Romani culture while improving public housing and education for the impoverished Romani, would continue until the downfall of Communism in 1989.[89]
  • Ten weeks into his war crimes trial in Israel, the prosecution having rested, accused German war criminal Adolf Eichmann took the witness stand in his own defense.[90]

June 21, 1961 (Wednesday)

June 22, 1961 (Thursday)

Thumb
Queen Maria of Yugoslavia

June 23, 1961 (Friday)

June 24, 1961 (Saturday)

June 25, 1961 (Sunday)

  • Iraqi prime minister Abdul Karim Kassem announced at a press conference his nation's intention to annex the tiny, but oil rich, kingdom of Kuwait, which had become an independent nation the previous week. Kassem told reporters that the takeover would be peaceful and that the Emir of Kuwait would be permitted to become the administrator of Iraq's new province. The basis of Iraq's claim was that both Iraq and Kuwait had both been part of the Ottoman Empire province of Basra, which had been partitioned in 1918.[107] British troops moved into the area to defend against the chance of an Iraqi invasion, and Kassem rescinded his position on July 8.[108]
  • White supremacist George Lincoln Rockwell, accompanied by 20 of his followers in the American Nazi Party, appeared for "the first and last event to which [he] was invited as a speaker".[109] Rockwell had been invited as a guest of black supremacist Elijah Muhammad to address a Chicago rally of the Nation of Islam, more commonly known as the Black Muslims. Malcolm X appeared as a speaker later in the program. The common link for both groups was a belief in separation of races.
  • The Bill Evans Trio completed a two-week booking at The Village Vanguard in New York, with a live performance that was recorded for later release. This was the last time the trio would play together, as virtuoso bassist Scott LaFaro was killed in an auto accident 10 days later.[110]
  • Born: Ricky Gervais, English comedian, actor, writer, and producer; in Reading, Berkshire[111]
  • Died:
    • Miriam 'Ma' Ferguson, 86, American politician who was Governor of Texas from 1925 to 1927 and again from 1933 to 1935. Ferguson was only the second woman in history to be inaugurated as Governor of an American state.
    • Douglas McCurdy, 74, Canadian aviator and former Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia

June 26, 1961 (Monday)

  • Nelson Mandela, an African National Congress leader who had gone into hiding in South Africa to avoid arrest, issued the manifesto "The Struggle Is My Life", signaling that the ANC leaders had not fled the country, and changing tactics from passive resistance to armed struggle.[112] A militant wing of the ANC, Umkhonto we Sizwe ("Spear of the Nation"), was founded as part of the new direction.[113]
  • Ernest Hemingway was released from hospitalization for the last time, after spending two months at the psychiatric hospital at the Mayo Clinic for suicidal behavior. The renowned author would shoot himself six days later.[114]
  • Died: Hélène Dutrieu, 83, Belgian aviator who set several records in the early days of airplane flying

June 27, 1961 (Tuesday)

June 28, 1961 (Wednesday)

  • President Kennedy issued National Security Action Memorandum (NSAM) 55, entitled "Relations of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to the President in Cold War Operations". NSAM-55, along with memoranda #56 and #57, transferred responsibility for planning of U.S. paramilitary operations in peacetime from the CIA to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The directives, proposed by General Maxwell D. Taylor following the failure of the Bay of Pigs Invasion, were so secret that copies were not released to either the CIA or to the U.S. Department of State.[116]
  • Using Mercury spacecraft No. 5, a spacecraft seaworthiness test was conducted 65 miles (105 km) east of Wallops Island. Sea conditions varied with 2-foot (0.61 m) to 4-foot (1.2 m) ground swells and wave heights of from 1 foot (0.30 m) to 2 feet (0.61 m), and spacecraft flotation resulte were found to be satisfactory.[25]
  • Born:
  • Died: Huw Menai, 74, Welsh poet[118]

June 29, 1961 (Thursday)

  • The "first in-orbit break-up event in space history"[119] took place at 06:08:10 UTC, when the upper stage of an American Thor-Able rocket exploded into 298 fragments at an orbital altitude of roughly 600 miles (970 km). The launch marked the first three-satellite payload[120] lifted into space: the Transit 4A navigational satellite, which was the first nuclear-powered device in orbit, with energy supplied by the Systems for Nuclear Auxiliary Power (SNAP) system, powered by the isotope plutonium-238;[121] the Injun I, "the first university-built satellite", designed to gather information on the Earth's radiation belts;[122] and the second Galactic Radiation and Background satellite (GRAB 2), which measured stellar radiation, but also served as a spy satellite.[123]
  • You Bet Your Life, a thirty-minute game show hosted by comedian Groucho Marx, was broadcast for the last time on television, at 10:00 p.m. After starting on CBS Radio in 1947, it had an eleven-season run on NBC from 1950 onward.[124]
  • A two-day inspection of Atlas launch vehicle 88-D, designated for Gus Grissom's upcoming Mercury 4 mission, began at the Convair factory following completion of the rocket. By then, the number of Space Task Group personnel was only six short of reaching 800.[25]

June 30, 1961 (Friday)

References

Loading related searches...

Wikiwand - on

Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.

Remove ads
Remove ads