2023
Timeline of Life in America – 1960
January 26, 2023
Airliners Collide Midair Over New York
January 23, 2023
In December 1960 a United Airlines Douglas DC-8 bound for Idlewild Airport (now JFK) in New York City collided in midair with a TWA Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation descending toward LaGuardia Airport. 128 aboard the two aircraft and six people on the ground were killed. Source: Wikipedia
JFK Elected President
January 19, 2023
Sen. John F. Kennedy defeated Richard Nixon in the US presidential elections as the first Roman Catholic to win the office. The Democratic ticket of Kennedy and Johnson received 49.72% of the popular vote to 49.55% given to Republicans Richard Nixon and Henry Lodge—the deciding electoral college vote was 56.4% to 40.8% in favor of the Democrat. Source:
Castro Nationalizes American Companies
January 16, 2023
https://youtu.be/fXF8fegxjWc?t=13 In 1960, Fidel Castro nationalized all U.S.-owned businesses, including oil refineries, factories and casinos. This prompted the United States to end diplomatic relations and impose a trade embargo. Source: Counterpunch
Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho
January 12, 2023
In 1960 Alfred Hicthcock's psychological horror thriller PSYCHO prompted me to keep my dog in the bathroom while showering.
US Reveals USSR Had Bugged American Embassy
January 9, 2023
A covert listening device (bug) was concealed inside a wooden gift of America's Great Seal given by Russia to the United States Ambassador to the Soviet Union, on August 4, 1945. Although not reported then, the device was extensively investigated and imitated by US spies. In May 1960, the listening device was mentioned during a meeting of the United Nations Security Council that had been convened by the Soviet Union after a U.S. U2 spy plane had entered their territory and been shot down. The U.S. ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. showed off the bugging device in the Great Seal to illustrate that spying incidents between the two nations were mutual and to allege that Nikita Khrushchev had magnified this particular incident as a pretext to abort the 1960 Paris Summit that was intended to discuss the crisis situation in Berlin. Source: Wikipedia
Save The Last Dance For Me 
January 5, 2023
https://youtu.be/vYgxbYlhUnw Throughout the 50-60s The Drifters had six number-one R&B hits: Money Honey (1953) Honey Love (1954) Adorable (1955) There Goes My Baby (1959) Save The Last Dance For Me (1960) Under The Boardwalk (1964).
Earthquake in Chile
January 2, 2023
In May 1960 Chile experienced the largest earthquake recorded in the 20th century with a magnitude of 9.5 on the Richter scale. Originating off the southern coast of Chile, the earthquake left two million people homeless, injured at least 3,000, and killed approximately 1,655.  Tsunamis generated by the earthquake also damaged property and killed people in distant Pacific coastal areas. Source: Britannica
2022
TV Commercials 1960
December 29, 2022
https://youtu.be/3kHPFjEcsFE https://youtu.be/jCKxWQCs3f0 https://youtu.be/PZFoJiqmW2s https://youtu.be/zWIykzZ8cMg https://youtu.be/1p9Yz5aJPpI
FDA Approves First Oral Birth Control Pill
December 26, 2022
https://youtu.be/jChyGqk0BO8 In May 1960, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) cleared Enovid, an oral contraceptive developed by G.D. Searle and Company, for commercial use. By June 23, “the Pill” — as the oral contraceptive was commonly known — was on the market. Source: Time
House Un-American Activities Committee Protest
December 22, 2022
In May 1960 protesters decried the presence of the House Un-American Activities Committee in the San Francisco City Hall. After protesters were denied entrance, the police attacked and swept them out of City Hall's rotunda with fire hoses. 64 people were arrested, and 12 people hospitalized. Charges were dropped against all but one demonstrator who subsequently acquitted in a jury trial.  Source: San Francisco Found
Adolf Eichmann Captured in Buenos Aires
December 19, 2022
In May 1960 Israeli soldiers captured Adolf Eichmann in Buenos Aires. Eichmann was taken to Israel where he was tried, found guilty and hung in 1962. Source: Wikipedia
Civil Rights Act of 1960
December 15, 2022
https://youtu.be/9ppTiyxFSs0 The Civil Rights Act of 1960 was a United States federal law establishing federal inspection of local voter registration polls. The act introduced penalties for anyone who obstructed someone's attempt to register to vote. This law was designed to effectively enforce the Civil Rights Act of 1957 by eliminating certain loopholes within it, and establishing additional provisions. Source: Wikipedia
The Fantasticks
December 12, 2022
https://youtu.be/H3iEoZdImpY In May 1960 the musical "The Fantasticks" opened at the Sullivan Street Playhouse in Greenwich Village. Its feature song "Try to Remember" became very popular.
U2 Spy Plane Incident
December 8, 2022
https://youtu.be/4dFx7hSGyHI In May 1960 a Soviet missile shot down an American U-2 spy plane piloted by Francis Gary Powers while conducting photographic aerial reconnaissance deep inside Soviet territory near Sverdlovsk. In February 1962, Powers was exchanged, along with a U.S. student for Soviet KGB Colonel William Fisher. Sverdlosk Source: Wikipedia
The Cranes Are Flying
December 5, 2022
Source: The Cranes are flying trailer - Google Search https://youtu.be/IkINuHcP6us TheSoviet film The Cranes Are Flying won the Palme d'Or at the 1958 Cannes Film Festival.
Protests Force South Korean President to Resign
December 1, 2022
Syngman Rhee, hardline anti-communist and pro-American, was president of South Korea from 1948 to 1960.  Rhee's government was characterised by authoritarianism, limited economic development, and growing public opposition. After his opponent died, and Rhee won an uncontested election in March 1960, the opposition rejected the result. Protests escalated into the student-led April Revolution when police shot demonstrators, forcing Rhee to resign. After Rhee's resignation authoritarianism continued in South Korea until 1988. Source: Wikipedia
First Kidney Dialysis Shunt
November 28, 2022
https://youtu.be/xG82t_a3-i0 In March 1960 the first kidney dialysis shunt, developed by Dr. Belding H. Scribner, was planted in a kidney patient in Seattle Washington. The process, enabling ambulatory dialysis, first developed in the 1940s by Dr. Willem J. Kolff, had prevously been restricted to operating rooms.
Thanksgiving Day Parade 1960
November 24, 2022
https://youtu.be/_gjDT5GwQXQ
French Ship Explodes in Havana
November 21, 2022
In March 1960 the French cargo ship “La Coubre" exploded in Havana Harbor while a cargo of Belgian grenades and munitions was being unloaded. 136 people were killed, and many were injured. Fidel Castro alleged the explosion was an act of sabotage by the United States, which denied any involvement. Source: Wikipedia
USA Olympic Hockey Team Defeats Soviets
November 17, 2022
https://youtu.be/jdUsoyZy2aA In February 1960 the U.S. Olympic hockey team defeated the Soviets, 3-2, at the Winter Games in Squaw Valley, Calif. The U.S. team went on to win the gold medal.
Gerboise Bleue – French Nuclear Test
November 14, 2022
https://youtu.be/V_vt3c34z3U?t=4 In February 1960, during the Algerian War (1954-62) France detonated an atomic bomb in the middle of the Algerian Sahara desert. Gerboise is the French word for  a desert rodent found in the Sahara. The color Bleue came from the first color of the French Flag. This and 16 subsequent explosions of nuclear weapons in Algeria were seen as a display of French strength and development. Pinterest Source: Wikipedia
Route 66
November 10, 2022
https://youtu.be/0K3FqWShn28?t=62 Route 66 premiered on CBS in October 1960 and ran until March 1964, for a total of 116 episodes.  The show followed two young men traversing the United States in a Chevrolet Corvette convertible and the events surrounding their journeys.  Route 66 spans over 2,400 miles and crosses 8 states, starting in Chicago, Illinois and terminating at the Pacific Coast in Santa Monica, California. In the Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck referred to Route 66 as “the mother road, the road of flight” for those trying to escape the Dust Bowl and ravages of the Great Depression in the 1930’s. Later with countless vacationing families using the route to visit attractions such as the Grand Canyon or Disneyland, a roadside culture developed with motels, diners, gas stations and tourist attractions. Source: Wikipedia
Greensboro Sit-ins
November 7, 2022
https://youtu.be/tjeVqNcN5yI In February 1960 four black North Carolina A&T students staged the first of the historic 1960s sit-ins at a dime store lunch counter where they had been refused service. Source: History.com
Japan – USA Miltary Alliance
November 3, 2022
https://youtu.be/WTy5MOPY_tM?t=8 In January 1960 the US and Japan signed a treaty of mutual cooperation and security that formalized a US-Japanese military alliance. Left-wing protests roiled the government of Nobosuke Kishi as he pushed through the revised security treaty with America. The treaty permitted the presence of U.S. military bases on Japanese soil, and committed the two nations to defend each other if one or the other were attacked in the territories under the administration of Japan. Source: Wikipedia
Bathyscaphe Trieste Dives Into Mariana Trench
October 31, 2022
https://youtu.be/VDdrBfF-fp8   In January 1960, the Bathyscaphe "Trieste," piloted by Jacques Piccard and USN Lt. Don Walsh, reached the bottom of the Mariana Trench (east of the Philipines) at 37,000 feet below sea level. Source: Wikipedia