Dick Van Dyke Show

Dick Van Dyke Show

In October 1961 "The Dick Van Dyke Show," also starring Mary Tyler Moore, made its debut on CBS. The show continued to 1966. https://youtu.be/f43vTGOSE6o https://youtu.be/71muiGjdd7c

read more
US Military Advisors in Vietnam War 

US Military Advisors in Vietnam War 

In 1955 President Eisenhower sent economic aid and ~700 military personnel to the government of South Vietnam. This effort was foundering in 1960 when John F. Kennedy was elected president. In May 1961 Kennedy authorized sending an additional 500 Special Forces troops...

read more
First American in Space

First American in Space

In May 1961 US Navy aviator Alan B. Shepard, one of the original NASA Mercury Seven astronauts, made the first crewed Project Mercury flight in a spacecraft named Freedom 7. The Freedom 7 craft entered space, but was not capable of achieving orbit. Source:...

read more
Freedom Riders

Freedom Riders

Freedom Riders were civil rights activists who rode interstate buses into the segregated Southern United States in 1961 and subsequent years to challenge the non-enforcement of US Supreme court rulings that segregated public buses were unconstitutional. Source:...

read more
Bay of Pigs Invasion of Cuba

Bay of Pigs Invasion of Cuba

https://youtu.be/T-jZ4ZUR6Qw In April 1961 ~1500 CIA-trained Cuban exiles launched the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba (Invasión de Playa Girón) in an attempt to overthrow the government of Fidel Castro. Without any of the promised air support from the United States, the...

read more
Civil War in Laos

Civil War in Laos

In association with civil wars in Cambodia and  Vietnam, the Laotian Civil War was waged between the Communist Pathet Lao and the Royal Lao Government from May 1959 to December 1975. Both sides received heavy support in a proxy war...

read more
JFK Announces Peace Corps Formation 

JFK Announces Peace Corps Formation 

President Kennedy proposed the Peace Corps as a means to improve America's global image and leadership in the Cold War. Established within three months of Kennedy's 1960 election, the Peace Corps garnered both bipartisan and popular support, particularly...

read more
HAM – The first Chimp In Space

HAM – The first Chimp In Space

In January 1961, the chimpanzee HAM (AKA Holloman Aerospace Medical Center) made history as the first primate to travel in space aboard a Mercury Redstone rocket on a sub-orbital flight for NASA. Ham’s flight lasted ~16 ½ minutes at a speed of ~5800 mph to a height of...

read more
Goldsboro Nuclear Near Disaster 

Goldsboro Nuclear Near Disaster 

  In January 1961 a Boeing B-52 Stratofortress carrying two 3–4-megaton nuclear bombs broke up in mid-air near Goldsboro, North Carolina dropping its nuclear payload in the process. Ejecting at 9,000 ft, five crewmen landed safely....

read more
Ask not what your country can do for you … JFK

Ask not what your country can do for you … JFK

In January 1961 John F. Kennedy made a stirring inaugural address from the steps of the US Capital. "... In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this...

read more
Mister Ed The Talking Horse

Mister Ed The Talking Horse

Mister Ed was an American television sitcom that aired from 1961 to 1966.  The show's title character, a talking horse originated in short stories by Walter R. Brooks.

read more
Eisenhower’s “Military-Industrial Complex” Speech 

Eisenhower’s “Military-Industrial Complex” Speech 

As President of the United States for two terms, Eisenhower had slowed the push for increased defense spending despite pressure to build more military equipment during the Cold War arms race. Nonetheless, the American military services and the defense industry had...

read more
US Severs Diplomatic Relations with Cuba

US Severs Diplomatic Relations with Cuba

The United States severed diplomatic relations with Cuba on January 3, 1961, citing unwarranted action by the Government of Cuba that placed crippling limitations on the ability of the United States Mission to carry on its normal diplomatic and consular functions....

read more
Airliners Collide Midair Over New York

Airliners Collide Midair Over New York

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...

read more
JFK Elected President

JFK Elected President

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...

read more

Comments, contributions, corrections, and suggestions are always welcome:

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *