December 1960

December 7, 1960: A new weapon in war, the remote-controlled flying drone, passes its first test.

December 15, 1960: Belgium's King Baudouin marries Doña Fabiola.

December 19, 1960: Fire on the USS Constellation kills 50 U.S. Navy men.

December 20, 1960: Viet Cong established by South Vietnamese Communists

The following events occurred in December 1960:

December 1, 1960 (Thursday)

• Patrice Lumumba, deposed premier of the Congo, was arrested by the Congolese Army while on his way to Stanleyville to meet his supporters.^[1] Lumumba would be moved around the country and then shot to death on January 17, 1961.^[2]
• Sputnik 6, a 5-ton Soviet satellite, was launched into orbit with two dogs, Pchelka ("Little Bee") and Mushka ("Little Fly"), plus mice, insects and plants. The next day, the capsule was reported to have burned up on re-entry into the atmosphere at too steep an angle.^[3] According to later reports, a self-destruct system had been built to destroy the satellite if it did not re-enter at the correct time, in order to prevent it from landing outside of the Soviet Union.^[4]

December 2, 1960 (Friday)

• The Most Rev. Geoffrey Francis Fisher, Archbishop of Canterbury and leader of the Anglican Church, talked with Pope John XXIII for about an hour at the Vatican, marking the first time since 1397 that England's highest ranking religious leader had visited the Pope.^[5]
• U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower authorized the use of $1M for the relief and resettlement of Cuban refugees, who had been arriving in Florida at the rate of 1,000 a week.

December 3, 1960 (Saturday)

• Camelot, the most expensive theatrical production to that time, made its Broadway debut, at the Majestic Theatre, with Richard Burton as King Arthur and Julie Andrews as Lady Guinevere.^[6]
• Born:
  • Daryl Hannah, American film actress, in Chicago
  • Igor Larionov, Russian ice hockey player who, in 1989, became the first Soviet player to join the NHL; in Voskresensk
  • Julianne Moore, American actress, in Fort Bragg, North Carolina

December 4, 1960 (Sunday)

• The Islamic Republic of Mauritania had applied to be the 100th member of the United Nations, but the request was vetoed in the Security Council by the Soviet Union, on grounds that Mongolia had been denied admission.^[7] In 1961, Sierra Leone would become the 100th member, followed by Mongolia and Mauritania.^[8]
• Born: Glynis Nunn, Australian heptathlete, and 1984 Olympic gold medalist; in Toowoomba, Queensland

December 5, 1960 (Monday)

• In the case of Boynton v. Virginia, the U.S. Supreme Court declared, by a 7 to 2 vote, that a law requiring permitting bus stations to exclude, patrons on the basis of race, was unconstitutional under the Equal Protection Clause. The case had arisen when a law student at Howard University, Bruce Boynton, was fined for refusing to leave a "whites only" restaurant at the Trailways bus terminal in Richmond, Virginia.^[9][10]
• Born: Sarika, Indian film actress (as Sarika Thakur), in New Delhi

December 6, 1960 (Tuesday)

• U.S. Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton issued Public Land Order 2214, reserving 9,500,000 acres (38,000 km²) of land as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.^[11]
• Public Land Order 2216 established the 498,000-acre (2,020 km²) Izembek National Wildlife Range, which included Izembek Lagoon and its entire watershed near the tip of the Alaska Peninsula as "a refuge, breeding ground, and management area for all forms of wildlife."http://izembek.fws.gov/establishment.htm

December 7, 1960 (Wednesday)

• The United Nations Security Council was called into session by the Soviet Union, to consider Soviet demands that the U.N. seek the immediate release of former Congolese Premier Patrice Lumumba.^[12]
• The QH-50 DASH (Drone Anti-Submarine Helicopter), a drone that could be guided by remote control, made its first successful unmanned landing, descending upon the USS Hazelwood.^[13]
• At the request of the government of Dade County, Florida, the U.S. government opened the first federal Cuban Refugee Center, located in Miami, with a staff of 14. By the end of 1961, the center had 300 employees.^[14]
• Died: Clara Haskil, 65, Romanian classical pianist

December 8, 1960 (Thursday)

• Hayato Ikeda began his second term as Prime Minister of Japan.
• The North Dakota Agricultural College was officially renamed North Dakota State University^[15]

December 9, 1960 (Friday)

• The first episode of the long-running ITV drama Coronation Street aired. It was originally planned to be a 16-part drama but became such a success that it is still running five times or more per week.^[16]
• Entrepreneur Tom Monaghan and his brother James took over the operation of "DomiNick's Pizza" store at 301 West Cross Street in Ypsilanti, Michigan. In 1965, after the original owner declined to allow the use of his name for other locations, Tom Monaghan renamed his restaurant Domino's Pizza.^[17]
• French President Charles de Gaulle's visit to French Algeria was marked by bloody European and Muslim mob riots by in Algeria's largest cities, resulting in 127 deaths.^[18]

Hyperion (1930-1960)

• Died: Hyperion, 30, British thoroughbred racehorse who won the British Triple Crown (2,000 Guineas Stakes, Epsom Derby and St Leger Stakes) in 1943 and was later a champion sire

December 10, 1960 (Saturday)

• The first underwater park within the United States, the John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park, was formally dedicated. The park covers 178 square miles (460 km²) and protects coral reefs, seagrass, and mangroves inside its boundaries.^[19]
• Born: Kenneth Branagh, Northern Irish actor and film director, in Belfast

December 11, 1960 (Sunday)

• Richard Paul Pavlick, a 73-year-old postal clerk from New Hampshire, loaded his car with dynamite and then parked outside the Kennedy family estate in Palm Beach, Florida, and prepared to kill President-elect John F. Kennedy, waiting for Kennedy to depart for Sunday mass. Pavlick changed his mind after seeing that Kennedy was accompanied by his wife and two small children.^[20] Pavlick was arrested four days later by Palm Beach city police.^[21]

December 12, 1960 (Monday)

• The most commonly used Spanish-language version of the Holy Bible, the 1960 revision of the Reina-Valera, was released. The original version had been published in 1569. A more recent, but not as popular, revision was released in 1995.^[22]

December 13, 1960 (Tuesday)

• In the U.S. presidential election, the Texas board of canvassers awarded all 24 of that state's disputed electoral votes to Democratic Party candidate John F. Kennedy, bringing his total from 249 to 273, three more than the 270 required to win. The decision came two hours after federal judge Ben C. Connally rejected a Republican lawsuit seeking a recount.^[23]
• While Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia was visiting Brazil, his Imperial Bodyguard staged a coup d'etat, taking many of the Imperial staff hostage, including Crown Prince Asfa Wossen, who was proclaimed as King (rather than Emperor). The coup failed within a few days, and Haile Selassie reigned as emperor until another coup in 1975.^[24]
• Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Honduras founded Sistema de la Integración Centroamericana (SICA), the Central American Integration System, often called the Central American Common Market.^[25]
• Commander Leroy A. Heath and his navigator, Lt. Henry L. Monroe (Bombardier/Navigator), established a new world record for highest altitude attained in an airplane, reaching 91,450.8 feet (27,874.2 m) in an A3J Vigilante, besting the previous record.^[26]
• Died:
  • Isaac Foot, 80, British lawyer and politician
  • John Charles Thomas, 69, American operatic baritone

December 14, 1960 (Wednesday)

• The first "Tied Test" in the history of Test cricket took place at the end of the match in Brisbane between the West Indies and Australia. At the end of the First Innings on December 10, Australia had a 505-453 lead. In the Second Innings, however, the West Indies had outscored Australia 284 to 232. When Australia's last batter, Lindsay Kline, came up for the 7th and final ball, the score had closed to 737 to 737. Kline hit the ball bowled by Wes Hall, and Ian Meckiff dashed toward the wicket for what would have been the winning run, but Joe Solomon fielded the ball and hit the stumps for the last out. "Until today," Percy Beames wrote in Melbourne's newspaper The Age, "there had not been a tie in Test cricket."^[27]
• The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) was created by the signing of an international convention by 18 European nations and the United States and Canada.^[28]
• By a vote of 89–0, the UN General Assembly Resolution 1514, the "Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples" was adopted by the U.N. member nations. The United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, France, and five other nations abstained.^[29]
• In Stanleyville, Congo, Antoine Gizenga proclaimed himself to be the successor to Patrice Lumumba. For four months, Gizenga's forces controlled the Orientale and Kivu provinces, but on April 17, he surrendered in return for a post as a vice premier in the central government.^[30]
• United States presidential election, 1960: The five member electoral board of Illinois, with a majority of Republican members, unanimously certified the results of the November 6 popular balloting, and awarded Democrat John F. Kennedy the state's 27 electoral votes. The board had considered Republican charges of voter fraud in Cook County and denied a request for a further election recount. Before the award of the Illinois block, Kennedy had 273, three more than the necessary 270 needed to win.^[31]

December 15, 1960 (Thursday)

• After a 19-month experiment in democracy, King Mahendra of Nepal deposed the elected government and restored the absolute monarchy.^[32]
• In a royal wedding at the St. Michael and St. Gudula Cathedral in Brussels, King Baudouin of Belgium married Doña Fabiola de Mora y Aragon. Earlier in the day, the two had married in a private civil ceremony at the royal palace, followed by the church wedding.^[33]
• Died: Seyum Mangasha, Ethiopian prince and military commander, was killed by rebels during an attempted military coup against the Emperor's government

December 16, 1960 (Friday)

• In the collision of two airliners over New York City, 136 people were killed, including eight persons on the ground who were struck by falling debris. United Airlines Flight 826 from Chicago, with 77 passengers and seven crew, was outside its designated holding pattern for circling New York's Idlewild Airport, and collided with TWA Flight 266 5,200 feet (1,600 m) over Staten Island at 10:37am.^[34] The United DC-8 jet crashed in Brooklyn at the intersection of 7th Avenue and Sterling Place. Stephen Baltz, 11, was pulled conscious from the wreckage, but died the next day. The TWA plane, a Lockheed Super-Constellation with 39 passengers and five crew, had been on its way from Columbus, Ohio, to New York's La Guardia airport, and crashed on a vacant area at the Miller Field U.S. Army base on Staten Island. In addition to the 128 passengers and crew on both planes, eight more people on the streets of Brooklyn were killed by the falling debris.^[35][36]

December 17, 1960 (Saturday)

• At 2:10 in the afternoon, a U.S. Air Force plane crashed into a crowded street in Munich, West Germany, killing 32 persons on the ground, and all 20 persons on board the airplane. The plane, whose 13 passengers were American college students returning home, lost power after takeoff and clipped the steeple at the St. Paul's Church, then fell onto a streetcar on Martin Greif Straße, near the intersection with Bayerstraße.^[37]
• Died: Abebe Aregai, 57, Prime Minister of Ethiopia, killed by machine-gun fire as the army storm the Genetta Leul palace where he was being held hostage by rebels.

December 18, 1960 (Sunday)

• The National Museum of India was opened in New Delhi^[38]
• Born: Léhady Soglo, Beninese politician, in Paris

December 19, 1960 (Monday)

• Fire swept through the USS Constellation, the largest U.S. aircraft carrier, while it is under construction at a Brooklyn Navy Yard pier, killing 50 and injuring 150.^[39]
• John F. Kennedy was elected as the 35th President of the United States, as the 534 persons who had been selected (on November 8) to serve in the Electoral College, met in their respective states' capitals. Democrat canddiate Kennedy received 300 votes, 31 more than the 269 needed to win, and Republican challenger Richard M. Nixon had 219. U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd received 15 votes, from all 8 of Mississippi's slate of unpledged electors (a ticket which finished ahead of Kennedy and Nixon), six from Alabama pledged to Kennedy, and one from Oklahoma pledged to Nixon.^[40] Hawaii's 3 electors had not been certified, pending a recount of the popular vote, but were awarded to Kennedy prior to the January 6, 1961, tabulation.
• Representatives of twelve African nations, that had formerly been colonies of France, met in Brazzaville in the Republic of Congo and agreed to form an international organization. The African and Malagasy Union, consisting of Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Republic of the Congo ("Congo-Brazzaville"), Côte d'Ivoire, Dahomey (now Benin), Gabon, Madagascar, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal and Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso) came into existence on September 12, 1961.^[41]

December 20, 1960 (Tuesday)

• The National Liberation Front (NLF) was created as a Communist political organization in South Vietnam, to oppose the government of President Ngo Dinh Diem, who gave the group the nickname "Viet Cong". As the NLF gained adherents, it began carrying out military attacks against the South Vietnamese Army, and against U.S. forces during the Vietnam War.^[42]
• Born: Pedro Abrunhosa, Portuguese singer-songwriter, in Oporto

December 21, 1960 (Wednesday)

• Eileen Derbyshire, 30, first played the role of Emily Bishop on the British soap opera Coronation Street. She has portrayed the character for more than fifty years.
• Major Richard Baer, commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp, was arrested after 15 years on the run. Baer had been posing as "Karl Neuman", a gardener on the estate of Otto Von Bismarck, since 1945.^[43]

December 22, 1960 (Thursday)

• The Vostok-K rocket made its maiden flight, carrying a satellite with two dogs, Kometa and Shutka. An attempt to put the payload into orbit failed when the third stage failed seven minutes into launch, but the dogs survived the landing.^[44]
• John F. Kennedy resigned from his position as the junior United States Senator for Massachusetts, in preparation of his January 20 inauguration as President of the United States.^[45]
• Born:
  • Tyrell Biggs, American heavyweight boxer, in Philadelphia
  • Luther Campbell, American rapper (2 Live Crew), in Miami
• Died: Sir Ninian Comper, 96, Scottish architect

December 23, 1960 (Friday)

• After the news came out that Israel was building a nuclear reactor (with assistance from France), Egypt's President Gamal Abdel Nasser warned in a nationwide speech that the United Arab Republic would go to war "if we become sure that Israel is building an atom bomb". Nasser added "We shall take every step in order to preserve our country and to destroy our enemy."^[46] Nasser later pledged to send Egypts army to destroy the Dimona Nuclear Centre.^[47]
• Born: Miyuki Miyabe, Japanese author, in Tokyo

December 24, 1960 (Saturday)

• The Boston Celtics set an NBA record for most rebounds by a team, in a 150–106 win over the visiting Detroit Pistons. Only 2,046 people turned out to Boston Garden to watch the Christmas Eve game.^[48]
• Born: Carol Vorderman, English television presenter, in Bedford

December 25, 1960 (Sunday)

• An earthquake occurred at Cape Otway,Victoria, Australia, magnitude 5.3, waking residents on Christmas morning at 2:42 am. Earthquakes of this size are fairly common in Victoria.

December 26, 1960 (Monday)

• The Philadelphia Eagles defeated the Green Bay Packers, 17–13, to win the 1960 NFL championship.^[49] The AFL title game, between the Houston Oilers and the Los Angeles Chargers, would not take place until New Year's Day 1961.
• Born: Andrew Graham-Dixon, English art historian, in London
• Died: Tetsuro Watsuji, 71, Japanese philosopher

December 27, 1960 (Tuesday)

• After being forced to leave West Germany, The Beatles made a triumphant return to Liverpool, playing at the ballroom at the Litherland town hall. Author Hunter Davies, who wrote the authorized biography of the band, commented that "If it is possible to say that any date was the watershed, this was it. All their development, all their new sounds and new songs, suddenly hit Liverpool that evening. From then on, as far as a devoted fanatical following was concerned, they never looked back."^[50]

December 28, 1960 (Wednesday)

• Rebels in the Congo attacked a train that was transporting 300 passengers from Elisabethville to their homes in Katanga Province, many of them schoolchildren and their mothers. Although the train was guarded by UN soldiers from Sweden, it was besieged by hundreds of Baluba tribesmen at Luena, then again at Bukima. At least 20 passengers were killed, and others raped and kidnapped.^[51]
• Yakov Zarobyan became first secretary of the Communist Party of Armenia.
• Born: Dev Benegal, Indian film director, in New Delhi.

December 29, 1960 (Thursday)

• A former U.S. Defense Department employee was arrested by the FBI after taking almost 200 classified documents from the Weapons Systems Evaluation Group division at the Pentagon.^[52] Arthur Rogers Roddey, a mathematician who had top secret clearance, was sentenced to eight years in prison on March 22, 1961.^[53]
• Born:
  • David Boon, Australian cricketer, in Launceston, Tasmania
  • Dave Pelzer, American author, in Daly City, California

December 30, 1960 (Friday)

• The Third Test match of the series between India and Pakistan began at Eden Gardens, Calcutta.^[54]
• Born: Katoucha Niane, Guinean-born French model, in Conakry (drowned 2008)
• Died: Angelo Donati, 75, Italian banker, philanthropist and diplomat known for saving thousands of French Jews from extermination during World War II

December 31, 1960 (Saturday)

• After 12 years, compulsory national service came to an end in the United Kingdom.^[55] After the National Service Act 1948 took effect, men aged 17 to 21 could be drafted into the armed forces for an 18-month tour, followed by four years reserved duty.
• In the tiny principality of Andorra, Francesc Cairat (Francisco Cayrat) retired after five terms and 15 years as the First Syndic, the chief executive officer as selected by the General Council for a term of three years. He was succeeded by Julià Reig Ribó, who would serve two terms, ending in 1966. The nominal co-princes of Andorra at the time were Ramon Iglesias i Navarri (Spain's Bishop of Urgel) and Charles de Gaulle (President of France).^[56]
• Born: John Allen Muhammad, American spree killer who killed 10 people in the Beltway sniper attacks in 2002; in Baton Rouge, Louisiana (executed 2009)

References