August 1960

<< August 1960 >>
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
01 02 03 04 05 06
07 08 09 10 11 12 13
14 15 16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27
28 29 30 31  
August 1: Dahomey (now Benin) independent
August 3: Niger independent
August 15: Former French Congo independent
August 5: Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso) independent
August 16: Cyprus independent from the UK
August 7: Ivory Coast (now Cote d'Ivoire) independent
August 17: Gabon independent
August 11: Chad independent
August 20: Senegal independent
August 13: Central African Republic independent
August 20: Mali independent

The following events occurred in August 1960:

August 1, 1960 (Monday)

August 2, 1960 (Tuesday)

  • The Continental League, proposed as a third major league for baseball, came to an end after CL President Branch Rickey and co-founder William Shea concluded a meeting in Chicago with representatives of the National League and American League. The NL and AL, each with eight teams, had been confronted with the proposed eight team CL. By agreement, each established league would place franchises in proposed CL cities.[5][6] For 1962, three Continental sites had franchises, with the National League adding the New York Mets and the Houston Colt .45s (later the Astros), while the American League allowed its Washington Senators to relocate to the Minneapolis-St. Paul area as the Minnesota Twins. In later years, teams would be placed in Atlanta (1966), Dallas (1972), Toronto (1976) and Denver (1993). Buffalo, New York, was the only Continental site that would still be without a major league team nearly 60 years later.

August 3, 1960 (Wednesday)

August 4, 1960 (Thursday)

August 5, 1960 (Friday)

August 6, 1960 (Saturday)

August 7, 1960 (Sunday)

August 8, 1960 (Monday)

South Kasai flag

August 9, 1960 (Tuesday)

  • The government of Laos was overthrown in a coup led by Captain Kong Le, and supported by rebellious units within the Laotian Army. Prime Minister Samsonith was in Luang Prabang, making preparations for the funeral of the late King of Laos, when the army units struck in Vientiane. Former Premier Souvanna Phouma formed a new cabinet on August 15, and civil war was averted after the new King asked, on August 29, that a new ministry be created, and to include members of the old regime. The legislature approved the new ministry on August 31.[1]
  • Voters in a referendum in Alaska elected (by a margin of about 19,000 to 17,000) against moving the state capital from Juneau to a new site to be constructed between the Cook Inlet and Fairbanks.[1]

August 10, 1960 (Wednesday)

August 11, 1960 (Thursday)

August 12, 1960 (Friday)

  • NASA successfully launched Echo 1, the first communications satellite. Weighing 137 pounds (62 kg), Echo was a 100-foot-diameter (30 m) Mylar balloon, inflated after it reached orbit when the Sun's heat converted powders inside the balloon into gas. A pre-recorded message from U.S. President Eisenhower was transmitted from Goldstone, California, bounced off of Echo, and received at a station in Holmdel, New Jersey. The largest satellite launched up to that time, Echo was big enough that it could be seen from the Earth as it orbited at an average altitude of 1,000 miles (1,600 km).[1]
  • USAF Major Robert M. White set a record by flying an X-15 rocket plane to an altitude of 136,500 feet (26.85 miles or 41.6 kilometers), besting the mark of 126,200 feet (38,500 m) set by Iven C. Kincheloe in an X-2 in 1956.[1]
  • Dr. Seuss published the popular children's book, Green Eggs and Ham, which has sold more than 8 million copies worldwide as of 2019.

August 13, 1960 (Saturday)

August 14, 1960 (Sunday)

August 15, 1960 (Monday)

August 16, 1960 (Tuesday)

August 16, 1960: Kittinger jumps
  • Joseph Kittinger parachuted from a balloon over New Mexico at 102,800 feet (31,333 m). He set records, which stood for 52 years, for highest altitude jump; longest free-fall by falling 16 miles (25.7 km) over a period of 4 minutes and 38 seconds before opening his parachute; and fastest speed by a human without motorized assistance (614 mph).[27] On October 14, 2012, Felix Baumgartner of Austria (using Kittinger as his adviser) would break all of Kittinger's records except for the longest duration for a free-fall, plunging 128,100 ft (39,045 m) in 4 minutes, 19 seconds.[28]
  • After 82 years as a British colony, the Mediterranean island of Cyprus was proclaimed independent by its last British Governor, Sir Hugh Foot. The new state, populated by Cypriots of Greek and Turkish descent, had Greek Cypriot Archbishop Makarios III as its president, and Turkish Cypriot Fazıl Küçük as its vice-president.[1] The Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia would remain as British Overseas Territories.
  • A three-day design engineering inspection of Mercury spacecraft No. 7 began, as the astronauts requesting changes in the control panel for easier pilot operation.[10]

August 17, 1960 (Wednesday)

  • While campaigning for the presidency in Greensboro, North Carolina, Richard Nixon bumped his left knee on a car door. What seemed, at first, to be a minor injury, led to a painful infection and Nixon's hospitalization on August 29.[29] Nixon was kept at Walter Reed Hospital for 11 days, until asking to be discharged early on September 9 after a poll showed that John F. Kennedy had taken a lead over him in voter preferences.[30] His injury, his nearly two-week absence from the campaign trail, and his continued illness would be cited by historians as a factor in his defeat, from the loss of momentum after his nomination[31] to his poor appearance in the first televised presidential debate.[32]
  • The first successful running of a computer program written in COBOL was carried out on an RCA 501 computer.[33] COBOL, the "Common Business Oriented Language", was an improvement in the adaptation of the FLOW-MATIC computer language developed by Grace Hopper.
  • All 27 people aboard Aeroflot Flight 36 were killed when the Il-18 airliner caught fire while approaching Moscow after departing Cairo. The airplane crashed near Kiev.[34]
  • Gabon, formerly part of French Equatorial Africa, was granted independence from France.
  • In Argentina, after the capture of Adolf Eichmann by Israel, members of the neo-Nazi Tacuara group shot at Jewish students, injuring 15-year-old Edgardo Trilnik.[35]
  • Born: Sean Penn, American actor, screenwriter, and politician; in Santa Monica, California[36]

August 18, 1960 (Thursday)

  • The first photograph ever from a spy satellite was taken, after the launch of the American Discoverer 14 at 12:15 p.m. PDT, and showed a Soviet airfield at Mys Shmidta.[37] With 3,000 feet (910 m) of film, the satellite took more pictures than all 24 of the U-2 spy plane flights put together, and revealed the existence, not previously known to the U.S., of 64 airfields and 26 missile bases.[38]
  • At a meeting of the U.S. National Security Council, President Eisenhower told CIA Director Allen Dulles that Congolese Premier Patrice Lumumba needed to be "eliminated" in order to keep the Congo from becoming "another Cuba". Robert Johnson, who took notes of the meeting, revealed the information at a Senate hearing years later.[39]
  • A French Navy bomber exploded over Morocco, killing all 27 people on board.[1]
  • Died:
    • Clarence Hudson, 66, American department store janitor, was electrocuted by a homemade electric chair in his Wenatchee, Washington, apartment. Police estimated that 1,000 volts shot through Hudson's body, as well as several wet towels on his head and feet. Police also investigated a homemade transformer that was used to increase the voltage from a wall outlet which extended a wire from a 25-cent piece.[40]
    • Peter Poole, 28, an English-born engineer, became the first white man to be hanged in Kenya. Poole had been convicted of the murder of a black house servant, Kamawe Musunge.[41]
    • Carlo Emilio Bonferroni, 68, Italian mathematician[42]

August 19, 1960 (Friday)

  • The Soviet Union launched Sputnik 5 into orbit, with the dogs Belka and Strelka (Russian for "Squirrel" and "Little Arrow"), 40 mice, 2 rats and a variety of plants. Recovered the next day after 18 orbits, the menagerie became the first living animals to return safely to Earth after being placed into orbit.[1][43]
  • A capsule from the Discoverer 14 satellite became the first object to be recovered in mid-air while returning from space. A C-119 Flying Boxcar, one of ten in the recovery area, snagged the object with "trapeze-like hooks" at an altitude of 8,500 feet (2,600 m).[1][19]
  • In Moscow, downed American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers was convicted of espionage against the Soviet Union, and sentenced to ten years imprisonment.[44] Powers would be released two years later in exchange for the spy Rudolf Abel.
  • A French Navy bomber exploded over Morocco, killing all 27 people on board.[1]

August 20, 1960 (Saturday)

  • Senegal seceded from the Mali Federation, following a dispute, between Defense Minister Mamadou Dia and Federation Premier Modibo Keita, over whether the Federation's first president would be a figurehead or a strongman. Keita fired Dia, and Dia had Keita arrested. Keita and non-Senegalese members of his cabinet were sent back to Mali the next day, and Dia became the first Prime Minister of Senegal. The Federation had been created by a union of the colonies of Senegal and the French Sudan prior to independence, and the former French Sudan retained the name Republic of Mali.[1]
  • Regular television broadcasting began in Norway as the NRK network (Norsk rikskringkasting AS, or Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation) launched what is now its channel NRK1.

August 21, 1960 (Sunday)

August 22, 1960 (Monday)

  • Leaders of the Tunisian-based Algerian Provisional Government asked the United Nations to hold a referendum in French Algeria on the question of independence from France.[1][47]
  • Discussions in Geneva, between the United States, the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom on a nuclear test-ban treaty, were adjourned indefinitely.[1]

August 23, 1960 (Tuesday)

August 24, 1960 (Wednesday)

August 25, 1960 (Thursday)

August 25, 1960: Peris lights the Olympic cauldron
  • The 1960 Summer Olympics opened in Rome, with a record 5,348 athletes from 83 nations competing. Cross-country champion Giancarlo Peris lit the Olympic flame after Italy's President Giovanni Gronchi declared the Games of the 17th Olympiad open. Competition would continue until September 11.[58]
  • The submarine USS Seadragon surfaced at the North Pole, where the crew played softball in the northernmost athletic competition ever staged.[59][failed verification]

August 26, 1960 (Friday)

August 27, 1960 (Saturday)

  • The weekly syndicated country music radio series Louisiana Hayride, which had been broadcast from the Memorial Auditorium in Shreveport, Louisiana since 1948, was retired. Featured on the final broadcast on flagship station KWKH were Grandpa Jones and African-American singer Johnny Mathis.[62]
  • In what became known in the press as "Ax Handle Saturday", racial tensions came to a head in Jacksonville, Florida, as 200 white men armed with baseball bats and axe handles attacked protesters conducting sit-ins at Hemming Plaza.[63]
  • In the final of the Women's 200 metre breaststroke at the Olympics, British swimmer Anita Lonsbrough broke the world record with a time of 2:49.5, a 12 second ahead of West Germany's Wiltrud Urselmann.[60]

August 28, 1960 (Sunday)

  • The Declaration of San José, resulting from a meeting of Ministers of Foreign Affairs at San José, Costa Rica,[64] condemned any interference by extra-continental powers in the affairs of the American republics. The declaration was approved unanimously (19–0).
  • The United Nations announced that it had sufficient peacekeeping troops in the Congo to preserve order, and demanded that the last of Belgium's forces there be withdrawn.[1]

August 29, 1960 (Monday)

  • Hazza Majali, the Prime Minister of Jordan, was assassinated in the explosion of a time bomb that had been placed in one of the drawers of his desk, at his office in Amman. Eleven other people were killed as well, and 65 were injured.[65]
  • A 300 ft (91 m) diameter weather balloon, described by the U.S. Air Force as "the largest ever launched", crashed into a home in Stockton, California, an hour after being sent up from Vernalis Air Force Base. Mrs. Ben Petero evacuated her six children from the frame house after realizing that the balloon was descending on the family home.[66]
  • Australian swimmer Dawn Fraser won the Women's 100 metres freestyle for the second time. The next day, Fraser clashed with her teammates, who shunned her for the remainder of the Games in the tradition of "sending one to Coventry".[60]
  • Air France Flight 343, a Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation airliner on a flight from Paris, crashed into the Atlantic Ocean while attempting to land during a torrential rain at Dakar in Senegal, killing all 63 people on board.[67][68]

August 30, 1960 (Tuesday)

August 31, 1960 (Wednesday)

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t "Chronology August 1960". The World Almanac and book of facts, 1961. New York World-Telegram. 1960. pp. 178–182.
  2. ^ "New African Nation Born". Arizona Republic. Phoenix, Arizona. August 1, 1960. p. 4.
  3. ^ D, Chuck; Jah, Yusuf (2007). Chuck D: Lyrics of a Rap Revolutionary. Gardena, Calif.: Offda. ISBN 978-0-9749484-1-6.
  4. ^ Santoro, Gene (1995). Dancing in Your Head: Jazz, Blues, Rock, and Beyond. Oxford University Press. p. 119. ISBN 9780195101232.
  5. ^ "Continental League Baseball Bid Is Dead", The Post-Standard (Syracuse, New York), August 3, 1960, p1
  6. ^ "3d League Paves Way for Major Expansion", Chicago Tribune, August 3, 1960, p4-1
  7. ^ "Dominican Strongman's Brother Quits". Oakland Tribune. August 3, 1960. p. 1.
  8. ^ Griffiths, Tom (2007). Slicing the Silence: Voyaging to Antarctica. Harvard University Press. p. 149.
  9. ^ "Niger Independent". The Post-Standard. Syracuse, New York. August 3, 1960. p. 1.
  10. ^ a b c d e Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain. Grimwood, James M. "PART II (B) Research and Development Phase of Project Mercury January 1960 through May 5, 1961". Project Mercury - A Chronology. NASA Special Publication-4001. NASA. Retrieved 7 February 2023.
  11. ^ "X15 Sets 2,150-mph Speed Mark". Oakland Tribune. August 4, 1960. p. 1.
  12. ^ Magone, José M. (27 October 2008). Contemporary Spanish Politics. Routledge. p. 440. ISBN 978-1-134-10196-2 – via Google Books.
  13. ^ "Third West Africa Nation Of Week Gets Independence", Oakland Tribune, August 5, 1960, p6
  14. ^ Barbara Martindale (15 July 1995). Caledonia: Along the Grand River. Dundurn. p. 53. ISBN 978-1-4597-1369-7.
  15. ^ "Castro Regime Grabs Rest of U.S. Property", Oakland Tribune, August 7, 1960, p1
  16. ^ "Ivory Coast Hails Independence", The Independent (Long Beach, California), August 8, 1960, p4
  17. ^ Cole, T. C. (1970). Bluebell Railway – Steaming On!. Sheffield Park: Bluebell Railway.
  18. ^ Paul T. Hellmann (14 February 2006). Historical Gazetteer of the United States. Routledge. p. 781. ISBN 1-135-94859-3.
  19. ^ a b Richelson, Jeffrey (2002). The Wizards of Langley: Inside the CIA's Directorate of Science and Technology. Westview Press. pp. 25–26.
  20. ^ "This week in Quartermaster History". Archived from the original on 18 May 2011. Retrieved 18 November 2009.
  21. ^ Bushnell, Ian (1997). The Federal Court of Canada: A History, 1875–1992. University of Toronto Press. p. 145.
  22. ^ Chase's calendar of events 2009. McGraw Hill Professional. 2009. p. 401. ISBN 978-0-07-159956-6 – via Google Books.
  23. ^ Lea, David; Rowe, Annamarie (2001). A Political Chronology of Africa. Taylor & Francis. p. 80. ISBN 978-1-85743-116-2 – via Google Books.
  24. ^ Pierre Kalck; National Archives UK Staff (2005). Historical Dictionary of the Central African Republic. Scarecrow Press. p. 199. ISBN 978-0-8108-4913-6.
  25. ^ In-gwan Hwang, The Neutralized Unification of Korea in Perspective (Schenkman, 1980), p88
  26. ^ Harris M. Lentz (4 February 2014). Heads of States and Governments Since 1945. Routledge. p. 191. ISBN 978-1-134-26490-2.
  27. ^ "U.S. Chutist Sets Height, Fall Records". Oakland Tribune. August 16, 1960. p. 1.
  28. ^ "Skydiver breaks sound barrier, record". San Francisco Chronicle. October 14, 2012.
  29. ^ "Nixon Works On Speeches; 'Feels Fine'". Oakland Tribune. August 30, 1960. p. 1.
  30. ^ Pietrusza, David (2008). 1960: LBJ Vs. JFK Vs. Nixon : the Epic Campaign that Forged Three Presidencies. Sterling Publishing. p. 317.
  31. ^ Aitken, Jonathan (2015). Nixon: A Life. Regnery Publishing. p. 234.
  32. ^ Gomery, Douglas (1998). Media in America: The Wilson Quarterly Reader. Woodrow Wilson Center Press. p. 105.
  33. ^ Beyer, Kurt W. (2009). Grace Hopper and the Invention of the Information Age. MIT Press.
  34. ^ Aviation Safety Network
  35. ^ Kiernan, S. (May 15, 2005). "Tacuara salió a la calle" [Tacuara went out to the street]. Página/12 (in Spanish).
  36. ^ Editors of Chase's (30 September 2018). Chase's Calendar of Events 2019: The Ultimate Go-to Guide for Special Days, Weeks and Months. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 417. ISBN 978-1-64143-264-1 – via Google Books.
  37. ^ Johnson, Loch K. (1996). Secret Agencies: U.S. Intelligence in a Hostile World. Yale University Press. p. 16.
  38. ^ Chun, Clayton K.S. (2002). Aerospace Power in the Twenty-first Century: A Basic Primer. Air University Press. p. 208.
  39. ^ a b Weiner, Tim (2008). Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA. Anchor Books. p. 188.
  40. ^ "Department store janitor executed in a homemade electric chair". Fort Lauderdale News. 19 August 1960. p. 2 – via Newspapers.com.
  41. ^ Nicholls, Christine Stephanie (2005). Red Strangers: The White Tribe of Kenya. Timewell Press. p. 270. ISBN 978-1-85725-206-4 – via Google Books.
  42. ^ Mikulski, Piotr W. (2012-09-12), "Bonferroni, Carlo Emilio", in Johnson, Norman L.; Kotz, Samuel (eds.), Leading Personalities in Statistical Sciences, Wiley Series in Probability and Statistics, Hoboken, NJ, USA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., pp. 225–227, doi:10.1002/9781118150719.ch68, ISBN 978-1-118-15071-9, retrieved 2022-10-25
  43. ^ "Space Dogs Back Safe". Oakland Tribune. August 21, 1960. p. 1.
  44. ^ "Powers Given 10-Year Term By Russian Military Court". Oakland Tribune. August 19, 1960. p. 1.
  45. ^ NavSource Online
  46. ^ Emily J. McMurray; Jane Kelly Kosek; Roger M. Valade (1995). Notable Twentieth-century Scientists: S-Z. Gale Research. p. 1915. ISBN 978-0-8103-9185-7.
  47. ^ "Algerian Rebels Seek Referendum", Oakland Tribune, August 22, 1960, p1
  48. ^ United States Patent Office[dead link]
  49. ^ "Blackout on Broadway to Honor Hammerstein". The New York Times. September 1, 1960. p. 52.
  50. ^ "London Honors Hammerstein". The New York Times. August 26, 1960. p. 14.
  51. ^ "Decisions? ' I Make'em ', Ike Affirms". Salt Lake Tribune. August 25, 1960. p. 1.
  52. ^ Ambrose, Stephen E. (1991). Eisenhower: Soldier and President. Simon & Schuster. p. 525.
  53. ^ "Use of 'Polio Pills' Approved by U.S.". Oakland Tribune. August 24, 1960. p. 1.
  54. ^ Official Year Book of the Commonwealth of Australia, 1967. Australian Bureau of Statistics. 1967. p. 36.
  55. ^ Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain. Grimwood, James M.; Hacker, Barton C.; Vorzimmer, Peter J. "PART I (A) Concept and Design April 1959 through December 1961". Project Gemini Technology and Operations - A Chronology. NASA Special Publication-4002. NASA. Retrieved 17 February 2023.
  56. ^ Ellis, Lee (2004). Who's who of NASA Astronauts. Americana Group Publishing. pp. 111–. ISBN 978-0-9667961-4-8 – via Google Books.
  57. ^ Mes, Tom (2006). Agitator: The Cinema of Takashi Miike. FAB Press. p. 15. ISBN 978-1-903254-41-7 – via Google Books.
  58. ^ Maraniss, David (2008). Rome 1960: The Olympics That Changed the World. Simon & Schuster.
  59. ^ "0858412.jpg (800x668)". navsource.org. Retrieved April 8, 2022.
  60. ^ a b c d Wallechinsky, David (1984). The Complete Book of the Olympics. Penguin Books.
  61. ^ "First Games' Fatality". Oakland Tribune. August 26, 1960. p. 1.
  62. ^ "Louisiana Hayride KWKH", Hillbilly-Music.com
  63. ^ "50 Injured In Florida Race Clash", Oakland Tribune, August 28, 1960, p1
  64. ^ Avalon Project
  65. ^ "Assassins' Time Bomb Kills Premier of Jordan, 10 Others". Oakland Tribune. August 29, 1960. p. 1.
  66. ^ "Home Swallowed By Big Balloon". Oakland Tribune. August 29, 1960. p. 1.
  67. ^ "63 Die as French Airliner Misses Field, Crashes in Sea". Oakland Tribune. August 29, 1960. p. 1.
  68. ^ Aviation Safety Network
  69. ^ This Day in the 1960s
  70. ^ "Sing Now, Die Later". LA Weekly. 1998-07-29. Retrieved 2021-05-26.
  71. ^ James Zug, in South Africa's Resistance Press: Alternative Voices in the Last Generation Under Apartheid(Ohio University Center for International Studies, 2000), p138
  72. ^ Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. (1 January 2010). Encyclopaedia Britannica Almanac 2010. Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. p. 61. ISBN 978-1-61535-329-3.