THIS DAY IN HISTORY ― DECEMBER 31

December 31 is the 365th day of the year (366th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. This date is slightly more likely to fall on a Monday, Thursday or Saturday (58 in 400 years each) than on Tuesday or Wednesday (57), and slightly less likely to occur on a Friday or Sunday (56). It is widely known as New Year's Eve since the following day is New Year's Day. It is the last day of the year. The following day is January 1 of the following year.

NATIONAL CHAMPAGNE DAY   


406 – Vandals, Alans and Suebians cross the Rhine, beginning an invasion of Gaul. The Rhine-crossing transgressed one of the Late Roman Empire's most secure limites or boundaries, and so was a climactic moment in the decline of the Empire. It initiated a wave of destruction of Roman cities and the collapse of Roman civic order in northern Gaul. That, in turn, occasioned the rise of three usurpers in succession in the province of Britannia. Therefore, the crossing of the Rhine is a marker date in the Migration Period, during which various Germanic tribes moved westward and southward, out of southern Scandinavia and northern Germania.

1759 – Arthur Guinness signs a 9,000 year lease at £45 per annum and starts brewing Guinness. The Irish dry stout is one of the most successful beer brands worldwide. It is brewed in almost 50 countries and is available in over 120. Annual sales total 850 million litres (1.5 billion Imperial or 1.8 billion US pints). 

1775 – American Revolutionary War: The Battle of Quebec ― British forces repulse an attack by Continental Army General Richard Montgomery.

1862 – American Civil War: The Battle of Stones River begins near Murfreesboro, Tennessee. The battle was the culmination of the Stones River Campaign in the Western Theater of the American Civil War. Of the major battles of the Civil War, Stones River had the highest percentage of casualties on both sides. Although the battle itself was inconclusive, the Union Army's repulse of two Confederate attacks and the subsequent Confederate withdrawal were a much-needed boost to Union morale after the defeat at the Battle of Fredericksburg, and it dashed Confederate aspirations for control of Middle Tennessee.

1878 – Karl Benz, working in Mannheim, Germany, filed for a patent on his first reliable two-stroke gas engine, and he was granted the patent in 1879.

1879 – Thomas Edison demonstrates incandescent lighting to the public for the first time, in Menlo Park, New Jersey.

1907 – The first New Year's Eve celebration is held in Times Square (then known as Longacre Square) in Manhattan.

1944 – World War II: Operation Nordwind, the last major German offensive on the Western Front begins. 

The goal of the offensive was to break through the lines of the U.S. Seventh Army and French 1st Army in the Upper Vosges mountains and the Alsatian Plain, and destroy them. This would leave the way open for Operation Dentist (Unternehmen Zahnarzt), a planned major thrust into the rear of the U.S. Third Army which would lead to the destruction of that army.

The German offensive finally drew to a close on 25 January, after the US 222nd Infantry Regiment stopped their advance near Haguenau, and earning the Presidential Unit Citation in the process. This was the same day that the reinforcements began to arrive from the Ardennes. Strasbourg was saved but the Colmar Pocket was a danger which had to be eliminated.

1946 – President Harry S. Truman officially proclaims the end of hostilities in World War II.

1951 – The Marshall Plan expires after distributing more than US$13.3 billion ($174 billion in 2015 dollars) in foreign aid to rebuild Europe. [22.3% the amount of the $780 billion Obama threw away somewhere with his alledged "recovery".]

1955 – General Motors becomes the first U.S. corporation to make over US$1 billion in a year.

1991 – All official Soviet Union institutions have ceased operations by this date and the Soviet Union is officially dissolved.

1992 – Czechoslovakia is peacefully dissolved in what is dubbed by media as the Velvet Divorce, resulting in the creation of the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

1994 – This date is skipped altogether in Kiribati as the Phoenix Islands and Line Islands change time zones from UTC−11:00 to UTC+13:00 and UTC−10:00 to UTC+14:00, respectively.

1994 – The First Chechen War: Russian army began a New Year's storming of Grozny.

1999 – First President of Russia, Boris Yeltsin, resigns from office, leaving Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as the acting President and successor.

1999 – The United States Government hands control of the Panama Canal (as well all the adjacent land to the canal known as the Panama Canal Zone) to Panama. This act complied with the signing of the 1977 Torrijos–Carter Treaties.

2009 – Both a blue moon and a lunar eclipse occur.

2011 – NASA succeeds in putting the first of two Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory satellites in orbit around the Moon.


TODAY'S BIRTHS

1491 – Jacques Cartier, French navigator and explorer (d. 1557)

1738 – Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis, English general and politician, surrendered at Yorktown ending the American Revolution, 3rd Governor-General of India (d. 1805)

1869 – Henri Matisse, French painter and sculptor (d. 1954)

1880 – George Marshall, American general and politician, 50th United States Secretary of State, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1959)

From Wikipedia and Google, ex as noted.

TOP 100 SONGS OF THE BEATLES: 100

HELLO GOODBYE (McCartney, November 27, 1967)

Magical Mystery Tour – Side 2, Track 1 (3:24) 

Video (YouTube)

From Rolling Stone, Wikipedia, The Internet Beatles Album and About.com –

History –

Under the working title "Hello, Hello", the Beatles recorded the backing track on 2 October 1967, and added vocals and a guitar overdub on the 19th. After further overdubs of bass guitar and viola, recording was completed on the 2nd November, and mixing on the 6th. "Hello Goodbye" is in the key of C Major and in 4/4 time

The song features a coda which came spontaneously in the studio. Of this, McCartney said "I remember the end bit where there's the pause and it goes 'Heba, heba hello'. We had those words and we had this whole thing recorded but it didn't sound quite right, and I remember asking Geoff Emerick if we could really whack up the echo on the tom-toms. And we put this echo full up on the tom-toms and it just came alive."

"Hello, Goodbye" was released as a single on 24 November 1967. In the US, the song was also included on the Magical Mystery Tour album released three days later, but the song was not made available in the UK on an album (or in stereo) until the release of the 1973 compilation album 1967-1970.

The fake, dead-stop ending and sudden, surprising restart -- a first for a Beatles single -- was referred to by the band as the "Maori Finale," due to the tribal nature of the coda. In the promotional video, however, "Hawaiian" dancers (actually London girls in costume!) suggest a different island theme. John always claimed that this ending, made up in the studio on the spot, was the only part of the song he liked.

With the release of the song, McCartney gave an explanation of its meaning in an interview with Disc: "The answer to everything is simple. It's a song about everything and nothing. If you have black you have to have white. That's the amazing thing about life."

Three promotional films were made for the song; directed by McCartney, they were filmed on the 10th November at the Saville Theater in London. The films were not aired by the BBC due to the Musicians Union’s strict rules on miming; with no such restriction in the US, one of the films was screened on the Ed Sullivan Show on the 26th November.

In the US, Capitol Records omitted the comma in the song’s title in the packaging of the single (as did some of EMI’s partners in other countries), and also the Magical Mystery Tour LP (which was subsequently adopted for the CD release of this album).

"Hello Goodbye" was one of the Bealtes' 18 worst songs, according to John Lennon. "John was furious that this song was chosen to be an A-side over his more experimental “I Am the Walrus.” “It wasn’t a great piece,” he said of the McCartney tune. “The best bit was the end, which we all ad-libbed in the studio, where I played piano.” ―  From BuzzFeed.

From Rolling Stone –

McCartney never claimed that the irresistibly bounce "Hello, Goodbye" was his most profound songwriting moment. "It's just a song of duality, with me advocating the more positive," he said. Brian Epstein's assistant Alistair Taylor remembered McCartney getting the idea while demonstrating how to write a song: "He had a marvelous old hand-carved harmonium. [He told me to] hit any note on the keyboard . . . and I'll do the same. Whenever I shout out a word, you shout the opposite, and I'll make up a tune. 'Black,' he started. 'White,' I replied. 'Yes.' 'No.' 'Hello.' 'Goodbye.'" Although the song would be Number One for three weeks in the U.S. and for seven weeks in the U.K., Lennon was not impressed. "['I Am the Walrus'] was the B side to 'Hello, Goodbye,'" he said incredulously. "Can you believe it?"

Recording –

Takes: 21

Personnel

John Lennon – Harmony vocals, rhythm guitar (1961 Sonic Blue Fender Stratocaster), organ (Hammond B-3)

Paul McCartney – Lead vocals, bass guitar (1964 Rickenbacker 4001S), piano (Alfred E. Knight), bongos, conga

George Harrison – Harmony vocals, lead guitar (1966 Epiphone E230TD(V) Casino), handclaps

Ringo Starr – Drums (Ludwig), maracas, tambourine

Kenneth Essex– Viola
Leo Birnbaum – Viola

Trivia –

The slightly nonsensical words sung at the end of the song are "Hey-la, hey, ha, hey-lo-ah." They have no real meaning.

The promotional video for this song was banned by the BBC, as the very obvious fake (i.e. lip-synched) performance violated the rules of the country's musicians union.

It has been suggested but never proven that the song's title was changed from "Hello Hello" in order to avoid confusion with the song of the same name by San Francisco band Sopwith Camel, which hit #28 on the US charts in January 1967.

This song was used in a 2007 Target commercial and also by ESPN to promote David Beckham's move to American soccer, both to the dismay of Beatles fans.

The Long Beach, CA pop-rock band Hellogoodbye is not named after this song, but rather a phrase used by the character Screech on the TV show Saved By The Bell.

Today in Beatles History (From The Beatles Internet Album) December 31–

1961 – The Beatles leave from Liverpool to London on Neil's car. Brian goes by train. 
They sleep at the Royal Hotel, Woburn Place, London.

1962 – Ted Kingsize Taylor ends recordings of groups at the Star Club, Hamburg.

1963 – "Beatles Christmas Show", at the Astoria Cinema, Finsbury Park, London.

1964 – "Another Beatles Christmas Show" at the Hammersmith Odeon, London (two performances). 
– Party at Norman Newell's house, 40 Montagu Mansions, Marylebone, London. The Beatles attend.

1965 – UK single release: "That's My Life (My Love And My Home)"/"The Next Time You Feel Important", for the Pye label, recorded by Alfred Lennon.
– US gold certification: Beatles '65.
– The Beatles appear on the front page of "Big", Italian magazine. Headline: "Beatles: Buon Natale da Londra" ("Beatles: Merry Christmas from London"). 

1966 – Yesterday... And Today, 28th week in the Top 200 (Billboard).
– Brian books Fats Domino for his 1st UK contract, at the Saville Theatre.
– George is refused admission into the night club Annabel's, because he is not wearing a tie. Later, he and friends, including Brian, see at the Lyons Corner House restaurant/cafe, Coventry Street, London.

1967 – New Year's party at Cilla Black's flat, 96 Portland Place, London. Following a Northern tradition, Ringo is sent out, left alone in the street.
– Brian's NEMS shares are transfered to Queenie.

1968 – Arts Laboratory, London. Party attended by John and Yoko.

1969 – BBC's TV program "The Man Of The Decade", dedicated to John, is broadcast. 
– "Rolling Stone" nominates John the Man Of The Year, 1969.
– Paul declares to New Musical Express he is considering leaving the group.

1970 – Paul begins High Court proceedings to end the Beatles partnership. Peter Brown renounces.
– John reveals that he took drugs since he was 17, and blames Paul for the dissolution of the Beatles since he wanted to dominate them all.

1974 – The Beatles' association is dissolved, with a document signed by each Beatle.

1988 – 14th and last episode of a BBC series, essentially based on "The Beatles At The Beeb" collection.

2002 – Sir Paul McCartney is presented with his coat of arms.

Photos from Google.

TODAY'S GIFS

From GIPHY

THIS DAY IN HISTORY ― DECEMBER 30

December 30 is the 364th day of the year (365th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There is one day remaining until the end of the year. This date is slightly more likely to fall on a Wednesday, Friday or Sunday (58 in 400 years each) than on Monday or Tuesday (57), and slightly less likely to occur on a Thursday or Saturday (56).

BACON DAY 

1066 – Granada massacre: A Muslim mob storms the royal palace in Granada, crucifies Jewish vizier Joseph ibn Naghrela and massacres most of the Jewish population of the city.

1813 – War of 1812: British soldiers burn Buffalo, New York. The Battle of Buffalo (also known as the Battle of Black Rock) took place during the War of 1812 on December 30, 1813 in the State of New York, near the Niagara River. The British forces drove off the hastily organized defenders and engaged in considerable plundering and destruction. The operation was conceived as an act of retaliation for the burning by American troops of the Canadian village of Newark (present day Niagara-on-the-Lake).

1903 – A fire at the Iroquois Theater in Chicago, Illinois kills at least 605. Corpses were piled ten high around the doors and windows. Many patrons had clambered over piles of bodies only to succumb themselves to the flames, smoke, and gases. It is estimated that 575 people were killed on the day of the fire; at least 30 more died of injuries over the following weeks. Many of the Chicago victims were buried in Montrose, Forest Home, Calvary, Saint Boniface, Oak Woods, Rosehill and Graceland cemeteries. The exterior of the Iroquois was largely intact. The building later reopened as the Colonial Theater, which was demolished in 1926 to make way for the Oriental Theater.

1922 – The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is formed. A conference of plenipotentiary delegations from the Russian SFSR, the Transcaucasian SFSR, the Ukrainian SSR and the Byelorussian SSR approved the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR  and the Declaration of the Creation of the USSR, forming the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. These two documents were confirmed by the 1st Congress of Soviets of the USSR and signed by the heads of the delegations, Mikhail Kalinin, Mikhail Tskhakaya, Mikhail Frunze, Grigory Petrovsky, and Alexander Chervyakov, on 30 December 1922. The formal proclamation was made from the stage of the Bolshoi Theatre.

1947 – The Cold War: King Michael I of Romania is forced to abdicate by the Soviet Union-backed Communist government of Romania.

In 1944, Michael participated in a coup against the military dictator Ion Antonescu and subsequently declared an alliance with the Allies. He was forced to abdicate in 1947 by the government controlled by the Communist Party of Romania, forced into exile, and was stripped of his citizenship a year later.

He is the last surviving monarch or other head of state from the Interwar period. Although often called the last surviving head of state from World War II, this ignores the childhood reigns of King Simeon II of Bulgaria and the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet.

1972 – The Vietnam War: The United States halts heavy bombing of North Vietnam.

1977 – For the second time, serial killer Ted Bundy escapes from his cell in Glenwood Springs, Colorado.

Theodore Robert Bundy (born Theodore Robert Cowell) was an American serial killer, kidnapper, rapist, burglar, and necrophile who assaulted and murdered numerous young women and girls during the 1970s and possibly earlier. Shortly before his execution, after more than a decade of denials, he confessed to 30 homicides committed in seven states between 1974 and 1978. The true victim count remains unknown, and could be much higher.

Bundy died in the electric chair at Raiford Prison in Starke, Florida, on January 24, 1989. Biographer Ann Rule described him as "a sadistic sociopath who took pleasure from another human's pain and the control he had over his victims, to the point of death, and even after". He once called himself "the most cold-hearted son of a bitch you'll ever meet". Attorney Polly Nelson, a member of his last defense team, agreed. "Ted", she wrote, "was the very definition of heartless evil."

2000 – Rizal Day bombings: A series of bombs explode in various places in Metro Manila, Philippines within a period of a few hours, killing 22 and injuring about a hundred. The blasts occurred during a national holiday in the Philippines, where December 30 is known as Rizal Day, commemorating the martyrdom of the country's national hero, José Rizal.

2004 – A fire in the República Cromagnon nightclub in Buenos Aires, Argentina kills 194.

Following the disaster, an Argentine judge issued a national and international arrest order against Omar Chabán, local businessman and owner of República Cromañón and other nightclubs, including one called Cemento that had been closed by court orders many times before. Chabán was located at one of his houses in the neighbourhood of Montserrat and was arrested.

Police are still seeking those responsible for setting off the flare. If they are found (some reports say they have already been identified and that they are children), then they could face eight to twenty years in prison.

President Néstor Kirchner decreed three days of national mourning, and city authorities forbade concerts and closed all nightclubs in Buenos Aires during the mourning period, only to open again, one by one, after they had been checked and approved by the fire department.

2006 – Former President of Iraq Saddam Hussein is executed. Saddam was sentenced to death by hanging, after being convicted of crimes against humanity by the Iraqi Special Tribunal for the murder of 148 Iraqi Shi'ites in the town of Dujail in 1982, in retaliation for an assassination attempt against him.

The Iraqi government released an official videotape of his execution, showing him being led to the gallows, and ending after his head was in the hangman's noose. International public controversy arose when an "unauthorized" mobile phone recording of the hanging showed him surrounded by a contingent of his countrymen who jeered him in Arabic and praised the Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, and his subsequent fall through the trap door of the gallows. The atmosphere of the execution drew criticism around the world from nations that oppose as well as support capital punishment. On Sunday 31 December 2006, Saddam Hussein's body was returned to his birthplace of Al-Awja, near Tikrit, and was buried near the graves of other family members.

2009 – A segment of the Lanzhou–Zhengzhou–Changsha pipeline ruptures in Shaanxi, China, and approximately 150,000 l (40,000 US gal) of diesel oil flows down the Wei River before finally reaching the Yellow River.

2009 – A suicide bomber kills nine people at Forward Operating Base Chapman Forward Operating Base Chapman, a key facility of the Central Intelligence Agency in Afghanistan. The even was depicted in the film ZERO DARK THIRTY.

2013 – More than 100 people are killed when anti-government forces attack key buildings in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo.


TODAY'S BIRTHS

1865 – Rudyard Kipling, Indian-English author and poet, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1936)

1928 – Bo Diddley, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2008)

From Wikipedia and Google, ex as noted.

THE YEAR 1960

Cost of Living

Yearly Inflation Rate ― 1.46%
Average Cost of new house ― $12,700
Average Monthly Rent ― $98.00
Cost of a gallon of Gas ― 25 cents
23 inch Television ― $219.95
Average Cost of a new car ― $2,600
Piaggio / Vespa Scooter ― $319.95
Can of Beef Ravioli ― 30 cents
Loaf of Bread ― 20 cents
Mens Electric Shaver ― $20.30
Polaroid Land Camera ― $93.45



The cold war continued to become colder ― John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson won the Presidency with one of the smallest margins in history ( 113,000 votes ) out of 68.3 million. The sexual revolution of the 60's had begun with the use of birth control pills and Hugh Hefner opening the first of his Playboy clubs in Chicago. The "Flintstones" is shown on television for the first time and movies this year include "The Magnificent Seven" and "Psycho" . Notable technical achievements include the invention of the Laser and a Heart Pacemaker. France tests its first atomic bomb and joins those countries with nuclear bomb technology. Notable names that appear in the limelight that year include "Cassius Clay" and "Sir Francis Chichester" . The US sends the first troops to Vietnam following the French withdrawal in 1954 in the fight against communist North Vietnam. 


OPEC ( Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries ) is formed

1. 1949 Venezuela and Iran approach Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia in 1949 with the idea of forming an organization
2. September 10th OPEC is formed in Baghdad, Iraq Original OPEC members include Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela.
3. September 10th to September 14th Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela meet in Baghdad to discuss ways to increase the price of the crude oil
4. Over the next 30 years OPEC used it's oil production as a political tool including during the 1973 Arab - Israeli War / Yom Kippur War when OPEC placed an Oil Embargo on countries who were supporting Israel during the war, this caused major problems with both the supply chain causing gas rationing and quadrupling the price from $3.00 a barrel to $12.00 a barrel. 

OPEC has twelve member countries: six members in the Middle East( Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates ), four members in Africa ( Algeria, Angola, Libya and Nigeria ), and two in South America ( Ecuador and Venezuela ), as of 2010 -- OPEC members collectively hold 79% of world crude oil reserves and 44% of the world's crude oil production, as the changes happen in Oil production shift to alternative production technology including the Athabasca oil sands in Canada which are now the third largest oil reserves in the world behind Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.


The Aswan High Dam ― Construction on the Aswan High Dam in Egypt began during January. The 364 feet tall by 12,562 feet long dam was built across the Nile river and it was completed in 1970 at a cost of about $1 billion. The dam created the reservoir of Lake Nasser, which has a 5.97 trillion cubic feet capacity. The dam had a positive impact on the economy of Egypt as it produces large amounts of hydroelectric power and allows for better control of flooding and drought conditions. On the negative side, construction of the dam displaced thousands of people and has impacted agriculture, causing problems with the natural fertilization of the surrounding soil.


Pioneer 5 Spacecraft ― NASA launches the Pioneer 5 space probe on March 11th. The purpose of its mission was to travel between the orbits of Earth and Venus in order to gather information about deep space between the two planets. The space craft measured the interplanetary magnetic field and gathered information about ionization and solar flare particles. It successfully completed its mission and stopped transmitting data back to Earth by April of that year. In June, Pioneer 5 was able to establish communications with Earth at a then record 22.5 million miles away, but contact with the craft was lost after that point.


Brasilia, Brazil ― The new capital city of Brazil Brasilia is officially inaugurated.
1. 1956 The President of Brazil Juscelino Kubitschek ordered the construction of Brasilia to change the capital city of Brazil from Rio De Janeiro which was not ideal as it was not in a central location, fulfilling the promise of the Constitution and his own political campaign promise. Brasilia was planned and developed by Lucio Costa and Oscar Niemeyer in order to move the capital from Rio De Janeiro to a more central location
2. Brasilia was built in 41 months, from 1956 to April 21, 1960, when it was officially inaugurated.
3. The centers of all three branches of the federal government of Brazil are in Brasilia, including the Congress, President, and Supreme Court. Plus over 124 foreign embassies
4. Brasilia now has an estimated population of about 2 1/2 million


CND / Ban The Bomb ― 100,000 Join "Ban The Bomb" Rally on April 18th in LondonMore Information and Timeline For Creation of CND / Ban The Bomb 
1. 1957 CND formed to promote an end to British nuclear weapons and global abolition of nuclear weapons
2. 1958 CND holds first public meeting at Central Hall, Westminster, London attracts 5,000 people.
3. 1958 Gerald Holtom designs the CND symbol which over the years has become best known as a Peace Symbol
4. 1959 Organizes the first Aldermaston March, which is held over the Easter weekend ( Aldermaston is the home to the UK Atomic Weapons Establishment )
5. 1960 attracts 100,000 at the "Ban The Bomb" Rally on April 18th in London
CND is still an outspoken organization against nuclear, chemical or biological weapons but following the end of the cold war and agreements by the super powers to limit nuclear arms proliferation public support is not as strong as it was.


The Rome Summer Olympics
1. The Summer Olympics begin in August , with Rome as the host city.
2. These were the first games to be fully covered on television.
3. A total of 83 countries sent over 5,000 athletes to participate in the 150 sporting events.
4. The Soviet Union, United States, and Italy won the most medals.
5. These games were also notable because the city of Rome decided to restore and use some of their ancient sites to host certain events, providing a more interesting backdrop for these particular games.



JFK Wins the Presidential Election ― Democratic nominee John F. Kennedy wins the United States Presidential election on Tuesday, November 8th after defeating current Vice President, Richard Nixon, at the polls. Kennedy was the first Catholic and the youngest person to be elected at 43 years old. He was a Harvard educated, World War II veteran who came from one of the country's wealthiest families. He previously held office as a U.S. Senator for the state of Massachusetts. Kennedy became a wildly popular leader, despite his narrow win against Nixon, as he faced tense situations and private and public drama during the early years of the cold war. He was assassinated, tragically, in November of 1963 .


The Vietnam War
1. 1946 France reoccupies French Indochina following the end of World War II
2. 1946 The Viet Minh launched a rebellion against the French authority governing the colonies of French Indochina
3. 1949 France officially recognized the "independence" of the State of Vietnam as an associated state within the French Union
4. 1949 The Vietnamese Communists obtain outside support from Chairman Mao Zedong of China just across the border
5. 1950 The United States began to give military aid to France in the form of weaponry and military observers
6. 1950 North Vietnam Gains Military Aid including Arms and Troops From China and The Soviet Union
7. 1950 to 1954 North Vietnamese Soldiers under the leadership of Vo Nguyen Giap gain Military Supremacy over South Vietnam and French Troops
8. 1954 The Geneva Conference creates territorial integrity and sovereignty of Indochina and separated Vietnam into two zones, a northern zone to be governed by the Viet Minh, and a southern zone to be governed by the State of Vietnam
9. 1954 France pulls out of Vietnam following it's losses at The Battle of Dien Bien Phu and The Geneva Conference
10. 1954 Vietnam was temporarily partitioned at the 17th parallel creating a North and South Vietnam.
11. 1958 to 1960 North Vietnamese guerilla incidents against South Vietnam increased gradually,
12. 1959 North Vietnamese buildup military personal prior to a full scale military conquest of South Vietnam
13. 1960 North Vietnam escalates military operations against South Vietnam
13. 1960 The United States announces that 3,500 American soldiers are going to be sent to Vietnam
The Vietnam conflict had it's history in the original French Control of the region which changed to U.S.A. support following French withdrawal, Together with distrust by both sides during the cold war and successive US Presidents starting with Dwight D. Eisenhower believing in the Domino Theory / Effect that if one country fell to communism each country with borders would be more likely to fall, combined with the financial / Military backing of the Soviet Union and China of North Vietnam. Over the next few years the war escalated on both sides eventually ending in 1973 when the US pulled out of Vietnam following a North Vietnam Victory


Psycho Film Premieres ― The classic suspenseful horror film “Psycho” premiered on June 16th in New York City. The film was produced and directed by legendary film maker Alfred Hitchcock and it was considered the mother of modern slasher films. It starred Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles, and Martin Balsam. It was nominated for four Academy Awards including Best Director and Best Supporting Actress for Janet Leigh. The plot revolved around a psychologically disturbed motel owner and his Mother and the mystery surrounding the murder of a motel guest. It was based on the 1959 book with the same title by Robert Bloch.


To Kill a Mockingbird Published ― The classic American novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee was published on July 11th. It was Lee’s first novel and was an immediate success, earning her critical acclaim and a Pulitzer Prize the following year. The themes of the novel revolved around morality, racial injustice, courage, and the loss of innocence. The plot focused on the trial of a falsely accused black man and the characters were loosely based Lee’s own small town growing up in the segregated South during the Great Depression. In 1962, it was turned into a successful Academy Award-winning film starring Gregory Peck.


The First TV Presidential Debate ― U.S. Presidential candidates John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon take part in the first ever televised presidential debate during September . The debate was held in Chicago and the two discussed domestic issues. In this historic debate, Kennedy seemed to have an advantage over his opponent as he appeared more collected in contrast to Nixon's visible nerves. Three more debates were held where Nixon was able to recover his composure. Kennedy would go on to win the election in November and Nixon would eventually win the presidential election in 1968.


U2 Spy Plane Shot Down

1. The Lockheed U-2 is a single-engine, very high-altitude ( 70,000 feet over 13 miles ) reconnaissance aircraft operated by the United States Air Force (USAF) Introduced in 1957
2. 1958 Base for set up for U-2 spy plane to fly from Pakistan over Soviet Union
3. 1960 May 1st Lockheed U-2 with Pilot Francis Gary Powers shot down by SA-2 Guideline surface-to-air missiles over Soviet Airspace while photographing ICBM sites in and around Sverdlovsk and Plesetsk
4. US denies Aircraft is a covert surveillance aircraft but Soviet Union produced its intact remains and surviving pilot, Francis Gary Powers plus photos of military bases in Russia taken by pilot
5. August 19th US Pilot Francis Gary Powers sentenced to 3 years imprisonment and 7 years of hard labor for espionage in the Soviet Union
6. 1962 February 10th Francis Gary Powers and American student Frederic Pryor exchanged for Soviet KGB Colonel Vilyam Fisher
The U2 incident and subsequent bad publicity for the United States helped accelerate the use of spy satellites for reconnaissance by the United States and the Soviet Union during the 60's and the cold war.


More News and Key Events From 1960

• Food shortages in East Germany ― Following major food shortages in East Germany 160,000 refugees cross to West Germany, Nikita Khrushchev orders the construction of the Berlin Wall
• IRA ― The Irish Republican Army ( IRA ) starts it's fight against the British
• Sharpeville, South Africa ― Afrikaner police open fire with sub machine guns on demonstratorsMarch 21st in the black township of Sharpeville, South African
• Chile ― Chile subduction fault ruptures from Talcahuano to Peninsula de Taitao, loosing a tsunami and one of the greatest earthquakes on record
• Gypsy Moth 11― Sir Francis Chichester arrives in New York aboard Gypsy Moth 11 - he has made a record solo Atlantic crossing in 40 days
• Hurricane Donna ― Hurricane Donna forms on August 31st and batters the Caribbean and Eastern United States until mid-September.
• American Heart Association ― The American Heart Association links smoking to heart disease and death in middle-aged men.
• Princess Margaret (UK) ― Princess Margaret marries Antony Armstrong Jones
• Cuba ― Fidel Castro nationalizes American Oil, sugar and other US interests in Cuba.
• Female Prime Minister ― The Worlds First Female Prime Minister Is Elected Mrs Sirimavo Bandaranaike Ceylon/Sri Lanka
• Cassius Clay ― In Louisville, Kentucky, Cassius Clay (who later took the name Muhammad Ali) wins his first professional fight after having won the Gold Medal in Rome in the Olympic games
• The USS Enterprise ― The United States launches the world's first nuclear powered Aircraft Carrier the USS Enterprise.
• Olympics ― The Summer Olympics are held in Rome, Italy
• Winter Olympic Games ― The Winter Olympic Games are held in Squaw Valley, California, United States
• Morocco ― Tidal Wave at Agadir in Morocco kills 12,000
• South Africa ― Fifteen African countries gain independence and South Africa leaves the commonwealth

Sports

NFL

Philadelphia Eagles

AFL
Houston Oilers

MLB

Pittsburgh Pirates*

NBA

Boston Celtincs

NHL

Detroit Red Wings

NCAA Football

Oklahoma

NCAA Basketball

University of San Francisco

NCAA Hockey

University of Denver


Olympics
Hockey USA (Gold)

U.S. Open Champ

Arnold Palmer

British Open Champ

Kel Nagle

Women's U.S. Open

Betsy Rawls

Popular Culture 1960

• Lady Chatterley's Lover goes on sale in England 32 years after it was banned
• Coronation Street Soap premieres on ITV in the UK,
• The Flintstones premiers
• Rawhide
• Chubby Chequer and The twist start a new dance craze
• The Etch A Sketch is introduced for $2.99 manufactured by Ohio Art CompanyCheck Out Our History of Toys Section 

Popular Films

• Ben-Hur
• Can Can
• Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho
• Operation Petticoat
• Only The Lonely by Roy Orbison

Born This Year

• Diego Maradona October 30th
• Antonio Banderas August 10th
• Hugh Grant September 9th
• Bono May 10th

Technology

• Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh in the bathyscaph USS Trieste break a depth record when they descend to the bottom of Challenger Deep 35,820 feet (10,750 meters) below sea level in the Pacific Ocean
• France tests its first atomic bomb in Sahara and joins US, UK and USSR as Nuclear Power
• Over one hundred million television sets in use worldwide.
• Aluminum Cans used for the first time
• The MOT Test is introduced in Britain
• US Experimental rocket powered airplane travels at 2,200 MPH
• Xerox introduces the first Commercial Document reproduction Machine
• The United States launches the first weather satellite, TIROS-1.
• Dr. Kazuo Hashimoto Invents the Ansafone sold in the USA as an automatic telephone answering machine

Inventions

• Laser USA by Theodore Maiman 
• Heart Pacemaker USA by Wilson Greatbatch 
• Weather Satellite USA Tiros I 
• Vertical Take off Jet UK 

* The series was won with a Game 7 9th-inning walk-off HR by the Pirates Bill Mazeroski. It is still the only such HR hit in World Series history.

From ThePeopleHistory