05 - Alan
Shepard becomes the first American in space, aboard Freedom 7
08 - In
Britain, George Blake receives record jail term for spying
14 - 'Freedom
riders' traveling to New Orleans to protest Southern racial
segregation are physically attacked by whites in the Alabama cities
of Anniston and Birmingham
22 - In
England, the Post Office install their new public telephones.
Instead of pushing buttons A or B, you now simply push your money
into the slot when the pips sound
26 - Amnesty
International, a campaigning organization on behalf of political
prisoners, is set up in London
28 - The
Orient Express train from Paris to Bucharest ceases after 78
years
31 - South
Africa becomes a republic and quits the British Commonwealth
04 - Sydney
(Australia) police discover the victim of a murderer dubbed 'The
Mutilator'
14 - Boy George
(George O'Dowd) of Culture Club fame, is born
16 - Soviet
ballet star Rudolph Nureyev makes a dramatic defection bid to the
West at Le Bourget airport in Paris
19 - Australian
ABC current affairs program Four Cornersfirst airs
22 - A courting
couple are abducted in Bedfordshire, England. The man is murdered on
the A6 and the woman raped and shot. The Morris Minor used in the
crime is discovered behind Redbridge tube station in London
05 - USA
announces resumption of nuclear tests
13 - UN forces
attempt to overthrow Moise Tshombe's secessionist regime in Katanga
17 -
Biggest-yet "Ban The Bomb" march in London ends in violent clashes
with police, leading to nearly 1,000 arrests
18 - UN
Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld dies in an air crash in Northern
Rhodesia while on his way to meet Moise Tshombe of Katanga
30 - 15 die as
a Viscount aircraft crashes on take-off at Sydney and ploughs into
Botany Bay
30 -
Frank Sinatra plays at Sydney Stadium in Australia
05 - Noting
that five out of every seven men drafted by the US Army are turned
down for reasons of physical inadequacy, President Kennedy calls for
Americans to get more physical exercise. The US, Kennedy says, is
becoming a nation of spectators rather than a nation of athletes
09 - USSR
breaks off diplomatic relations with Albania
11 - The first
two US military companies arrive in South Vietnam, in order to help
fend off the North Vietnamese Communist threat. The 4,000 men are
ordered to fire only if fired upon
15 - Robert
Menzies is returned as Australian Prime Minister with a majority of
one
15 - Former SS
Colonel Adolf Eichmann, in charge of transporting millions of Jews to
death camps during WWII, is sentenced to death by hanging in
Jerusalem
15 - The UN
General Assembly rejects a Soviet proposal to admit the People's
Republic of China
21 - Moise
Tshombe, leader of the Katanga rebels, surrenders marking the end of
troubles in the African Congo
27 - First
successful aircraft hijacking as a Cuban hijacker diverts plane to
Havana
Jan 20 - Kennedy sworn is as youngest US President
Apr 12 - Soviet Union puts first man in space
May 05 - Alan Shepard is first American in space
Aug 13 - East Germany closes border between east and west Berlin
Nov 01 - Nostalgia Central founder/ publisher, David Turner, is
born
IBM
introduces the "golf ball" typewriter
The invention of Letraset
makes headlines simple
The first
Weight Watchers group is founded by Jean Nidetch of the Queens district in New
York
Quote of the Year
"I want to manage those four boys. It wouldn't take me more than
two half-days a week" Brian Epstein, record shop owner, about a popular Liverpool pop group, The
Beatles.
IBM
introduces the "golf ball" typewriter