Topics
Understanding our world and that of our enemies
TV Commercials 1960
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
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...
House Un-American Activities Committee Protest
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...
Adolf Eichmann Captured in Buenos Aires
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
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...
The Fantasticks
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
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,...
The Cranes Are Flying
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
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,...
First Kidney Dialysis Shunt
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...
Thanksgiving Day Parade 1960
https://youtu.be/_gjDT5GwQXQ
French Ship Explodes in Havana
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...
USA Olympic Hockey Team Defeats Soviets
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
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...
WW2 Vets 1960 Interviews
Route 66
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...
Greensboro Sit-ins
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
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...
Bathyscaphe Trieste Dives Into Mariana Trench
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
Bertrand Russell’s Message
Bertrand Arthur William Russell (1872 – 1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician, and public intellectual who had a considerable influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, linguistics, artificial intelligence, cognitive science, computer science and...
Eisenhower Visits India
https://youtu.be/vAcxBX225kw?t=6 In December 1959 President Dwight Eisenhower visited India and met with President Rajenda Prasad and Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. In an address to the Indian Parliament, Eisenhower said: “ We who are free, and who prize our...
Antarctic Treaty
In December 1959 representatives of 12 countries signed the Antarctic Treaty in Washington DC setting aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve, free from military activity.Source: Wikipedia
Chubby Checker-The Twist
In November 1959 Chubby Checker introduced "The Twist" on the Dick Clark Saturday Night Show. In 1961 he released Let's Twist Again https://youtu.be/KxQZQ86jJHg
Ben-Hur
Ben-Hur was a 1959 film directed by William Wyler, that starred Charlton Heston as the title character. The film was a remake of a 1925 silent film with a similar title adapted from Lew Wallace's 1880 novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the...
The Sound of Music
https://youtu.be/btrt9_e5F5w Based on the 1949 book The Story of the Trapp Family Singers written by Maria Augusta von Trapp, the Rodgers and Hammerstein Broadway musical The Sound of Music opened on Broadway in 1959. The...