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Understanding our world and that of our enemies

TV Commercials 1960

TV Commercials 1960

https://youtu.be/3kHPFjEcsFE https://youtu.be/jCKxWQCs3f0 https://youtu.be/PZFoJiqmW2s https://youtu.be/zWIykzZ8cMg https://youtu.be/1p9Yz5aJPpI

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FDA Approves First Oral Birth Control Pill

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...

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House Un-American Activities Committee Protest

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...

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Civil Rights Act of 1960

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...

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The Fantasticks

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.

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U2 Spy Plane Incident

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,...

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The Cranes Are Flying

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.

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Protests Force South Korean President to Resign

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,...

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First Kidney Dialysis Shunt

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...

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French Ship Explodes in Havana

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...

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USA Olympic Hockey Team Defeats Soviets

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.

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Gerboise Bleue – French Nuclear Test

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...

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Route 66

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...

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Greensboro Sit-ins

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

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Japan – USA Miltary Alliance

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...

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Bathyscaphe Trieste Dives Into Mariana Trench

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 

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Bertrand Russell’s Message

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...

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Eisenhower Visits India

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...

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Antarctic Treaty

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

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Chubby Checker-The Twist

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

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Ben-Hur 

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...

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The Sound of Music

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...

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