Thursday, March 28, 1963: 'The Birds'

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, "The Birds" premieres in New York. From Bob Thomas of The Associated Press (full link below):

     "What's the matter with all the birds?" asks a character in Alfred Hitchcock's new film, "The Birds."

     What is the matter, indeed? Sea gulls peck at boaters at Bodega Bay, Calif. Others swoop down on a children's birthday perty. A flight of sparrows invade a house by the chimney. Whole henhouses refuse to eat.

     Something's got to give, and it's the humans. The birds come flying at them like a plague of oversized, carnivorous locusts. Anyone who has been swooped at by a nesting mockingbird know what terror that can hold.

* Movie trailer: @

* Script (from dailyscript.com): @

* Entry from Turner Classic Movies: @

* Entry from AMC's filmsite.org: @

* New York Times review: @    

* "Hitchcock Goes To The Birds" (Thomas): @

* "A Hitchcock Reader" (1986): @

* "The Day of the Claw: A Synoptic Account of Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds" (Ken Mogg, Senses of Cinema, 2009): @

* Earlier post on "Psycho" (June 1960): @ 

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Friday, March 22, 1963: 'Please Please Me'

The Beatles' first album is released in Britain, following the success of their singles "Love Me Do" and "Please Please Me" (which had reached No. 1 in Britain in late February-early March). Eight of the album's 14 songs were written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney.
* Listen to album (mono mix): @
* Entry from thebeatles.com: @

* Entry from beatlesbible.com: @
* Excerpt from "The Beatles Diary" (Barry Miles, 2001): @

* Liner notes, by Tony Barrow: @ (image) and @ (text) 

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Friday, March 22, 1963: 'Route 66'

     Glenn Corbett joins the cast of CBS's "Route 66" as Army veteran Lincoln Case (in the episode "Fifty Miles From Home"). It is the first U.S. television show to feature a regularly appearing character who saw combat in Vietnam.
     From newspaper TV listings: "A Ranger, who emerges from the fighting in South Vietnam as a hero, finds himself facing more serious personal challenges in civilian surroundings."
     From DVDtalk.com: "In his introductory episode ... we learn that Lincoln not only served a tour in Vietnam, but that he was held prisoner there and had escaped after killing many of his captors ... Later in the episode, he tells of a harrowing experience where he lost the woman he loved to the Viet Cong."

* "Route 66" entry from Museum of Broadcast Communications: @

* Series overview from TV critic Ed Bark: @
* Watch "Fifty Miles From Home" (from Hulu): @
* Vietnam-related episodes: @
* "Why the mostly forgotten 'Route 66' was one of TV's most ambitious shows" (from A.V. Club): @
* "Wanderlust and Wire Wheels: The existential search of 'Route 66' " (Mark Alvey, from "The Road Movie Book" (edited by Steven Cohan and Ina Rae Hark, 1997): @
* "The Road Story and the Rebel: Moving Through Film, Fiction and Television" (Katie Mills, 2006): @ 

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Thursday, March 21, 1963: Alcatraz closes

From United Press International:

     Only the ghosts of "Scarface Al" Capone, George "Machinegun" Kelly and others of America's most notorious gangsters inhabited the lofty cell blocks of Alcatraz Prison Friday.
     The last 27 of the island prison's 260-inmate population were removed Thursday and transferred to other institutions prepatory to closing down "The Rock" by June 30.
     Those 27 left the easy way -- by boat. During its 29 years as the home of the federal government's most hardened convicts, 7 inmates were shot and killed, 6 drowned or were believed to have drowned, and 26 were seized in 14 escape attempts.
     A blond, thin-faced gun smuggler from Anchorage, Alaska, named Frank C. Weatherman had the distinction of being the last inmate off Alcatraz. A newsman asked him how he felt about it.
     "Good. Good for me, good for everyone. Alcatraz never was no good," the 29-year-old convict replied.
     A few minutes after Weatherman and the others departed, guard Gordon Gronzo clumped down the steps of the 75-foot-high gun tower No. 1. He carried a rifle and wore another cartridge belt slung over his shoulder. No longer was there any need for him to watch for trouble on Alcatraz.
     Alcatraz was opened in 1934 to house incorrigibles during the wave of gangland violence that followed the end of Prohibition.
     The decision to abandon the 29-year-old prison in San Francisco Bay area was prompted by its deterioration from age and salt air. Federal officials said it would cost $5 million to renovate it.
     ... The 12-acre island will be turned over to the General Services Administration as surplus property June 30. California congressmen currently are sponsoring legislation to create a commission that would decide what to do with what has long been one of San Francisco's top tourist sights.
* " 'Rock' Closes" (newsreel, from criticalpast.com): @

* alcatrazhistory.com: @
* Alcatraz Island entry from National Park Service: @
* Alcatraz entry from Federal Bureau of Prisons: @
* Earlier post on escape (June 1962): @ 

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Monday, March 18, 1963: Gideon v. Wainwright

From oyez.org (link below):

   In 1961, Clarence Earl Gideon was charged in a Florida state court with a felony for breaking and entering. He lacked funds and was unable to hire a lawyer to prepare his defense. When he requested the court to appoint an attorney for him, the court refused, stating that it was only obligated to appoint counsel to indigent defendants in capital cases. Gideon defended himself in that trial; he was was convicted by a jury and the court sentenced him to five years in a state prison.

   In a unanimous decision on March 18, 1963, the Supreme Court held that Gideon had a right to be represented by a court-appointed attorney ... The Court found that the Sixth Amendment's guarantee of counsel was a fundamental right, essential to a fair trail, which should be made applicable to the states through the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Florida State Prison photo from September 11, 1961; from Florida Department of Archives

* Transcript (from supreme.justia.com): @

* Audio of oral arugments (from oyez.org): @

* Gideon's Petition for a Writ of Certiorari (from National Archives, January 1962): @

* "Answer to respondent's response for Writ of Certiori" (April 1962): @ (images) and @ (text)
* Documents from Florida Supreme Court case files (from Florida Division of Library and Information Services): @

* Summary (from pbs.org): @

* Short podcast (from uscourts.gov): @

* "Gideon's Trumpet" (Anthony Lewis, 1964): @

* Gideonslegacy.org: @

* Video -- 50th anniversary program from American Bar Association Litigation (January 2013): @
* "Just an ordinary inmate" (St. Petersburg Times, March 20, 1963): @ 
* Constitutional amendments (from National Archives and Records Administration): @

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1963: Quasars

   Short for "quasi-stellar radio sources," quasars are defined as massive and extremely remote celestial objects, emitting exceptionally large amounts of energy, and typically having a starlike image in a telescope. It has been suggested that quasars contain massive black holes and may represent a stage in the evolution of some galaxies. (Oxford Dictionaries).
   Their existence was first reported in studies appearing in the March 16, 1963, edition of the journal Nature. The photo shows quasar 3c 273 at the center.
* "3c 273: A star-like object with large red-shift" (Maarten Schmidt, Nature, March 16, 1963): @

* Definition from "Firefly Astronomy Dictionary" (2003): @

* Entry from NASA's Chandra X-Ray Center: @

* Entry from britannica.com: @

* Frequently Asked Questions About Quasars (Department of Physics, Virginia Tech): @
* "The Great Quasar Odyssey" (New Scientist, November 1982): @ 

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Friday, March 15, 1963: Loyola vs. Mississippi State

The all-white Mississippi State University team plays Loyola University of Chicago (with four black starters) in the NCAA basketball tournament. Mississippi State's president and basketball coach had arranged for the team to secretly travel to East Lansing, Michigan, defying an unwritten rule about Mississippi teams playing against integrated teams and a court injunction barring the team from leaving the state. Loyola wins, 61-51, en route to the national championship.

From the March 25 edition of Sports Illustrated:

   Literally out of hiding to play Loyola the night before had come Mississippi State, the team that saddened the hearts of segregationists everywhere by agreeing -- eagerly -- to participate in a tournament open to Negroes. On the eve of his team's departure from Starkville, Coach Babe McCarthy got word that a sheriff was out with a court order that could keep the team in Mississippi. Like Little Eva skipping across the ice ahead of the bloodhounds, McCarthy skipped into Tennessee. University President Dr. D.W. Colvard vanished, too. Early Thursday morning an assistant coach verified that the coast was clear at the airport, hustled the team into a plane and away it flew on a modern underground railroad in reverse.

* "A Game That Should Not Be Forgotten" (ESPN.com, 2012): @

* "Game of Change" (Loyola video): @

* "One Night in March" (documentary): @ (website) and @ (video)

* "Maroons Make Getaway, Meet Loyola in NCAA" (Associated Press, March 15): @
* "Ramblers: Loyola Chicago 1963 -- The Team That Changed the Color of College Basketball" (Michael Lenehan, 2013): @

* "Champions for Change: How the Mississippi State Bulldogs and Their Coach Defied Segregation" (Kyle Veazey, 2012): @

* "Benching Jim Crow: The Rise and Fall of the Color Line in Southern College Sports, 1890-1980" (Charles H. Martin, 2010): @ 

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Thursday, March 14, 1963: Pop art at the Guggenheim

Pop art comes to the Guggenheim Museum in New York with the opening of the show "Six Painters and the Object," featuring the works of Jim Dine, Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg, James Rosenquist and Andy Warhol. (Included in the show was Johns' 1958 work "Three Flags," pictured.) The Los Angeles County Museum of Art would have a companion show in July-August, "Six More," featuring West Coast artists.

* Catalog: @

* Review by Barbara Rose for Art International (May 1963): @

* "Six More" catalog: @

* Earlier post on Andy Warhol's soup cans (July 1962): @

* Earlier post on "Pop Goes the Easel" (March 1962): @

* Earlier post on Roy Lichtenstein (1961): @ 

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Thursday, March 14, 1963: Frank Zappa

Frank Zappa appears on "The Steve Allen Show," using bicycles as musical instruments. (The syndicated show would air on March 27.)
* Footage: @
* Transcript: @ 
* zappa.com: @ 
* steveallen.com: @

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Wednesday, March 13, 1963: Ernesto Miranda arrested

   Ernesto Miranda of Phoenix, Arizona, is questioned about a March 3 kidnapping and rape, then charged with the crimes when he signs a confession after two hours of police interrogation. From Tarlton Law Library, University of Texas Law School: He was not advised that he did not have to speak with the police and that anything he said could be used against him at trial. After conviction, he took his appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, which in June 1966 ruled in favor of Miranda and outlined specific rules governing questions of suspects. 
   Miranda is at far left in this police lineup photo.
* Entry from streetlaw.org: @

* Entry from uscourts.gov: @
* Recordings of oral arguments before Supreme Court (from www.oyez.org): @
* Transcript of Supreme Court ruling (from supreme.justia.com): @
* "You Have The Right To Remain Silent" (from American Heritage, 2006): @
* "Miranda: The Story of America's Right to Remain Silent" (Gary L. Stuart, 2004): @
* "Miranda v. Arizona: The Rights of the Accused" (Liz Sonneborn, 2004): @

* "Miranda v. Arizona" (Michael Burgan, 2007): @ 

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Tuesday, March 12, 1963: Lee Harvey Oswald buys rifle

Using the name "A. Hidell," Lee Harvey Oswald (living in Dallas) orders a rifle by mail from Klein's Sporting Goods of Chicago. The rifle would arrive March 20. The Warren Commission would later determine that the rifle was the one used to assassinate President Kennedy.

* From Warren Commission report: @

* Photo of envelope and order form: @

* Photo of Klein's advertisement: @

* More about Oswald photograph:

-- From House Select Committee on Assassinations (1979): @

-- From iconicphotos.wordpress.com: @ 

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March 1963: Mouse Trap

Ideal Toy Company introduces the board game at the American Toy Fair in New York (March 11-16). The object: put together a Rube Goldberg-like apparatus to move balls through various mechanisms and cause a basket to drop over a mouse.
* From "Timeless Toys" (Tim Walsh, 2005): @

* From "Warman's 101 Greatest Baby Boomer Toys" (Marc Rich, 2005): @ 
* Entry from BoardGameGeek: @ 

* Early TV commercial: @ 
* rubegoldberg.com: @ 

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March 1963: Kodak Instamatic cameras

The Eastman Kodak Co. introduces its Instamatic line of cameras. From "National Geographic Ultimate Field Guide to Photography" (2009): In 1963 Kodak simplified photography for the amateur even more by creating cartridge film. The consumer could simply drop the cartridge into the back of the new Instamatic 126 camera, close the back, and the camera wound the film itself. The film was really 35mm film in a cartridge with its own built-in spools for the safe advancing of the film, frame by frame. It was a simple point-and-shoot camera that even had a built-in flash point where you could install a small disposable flashbulb. Kodak sold 50 million cameras, which meant almost one out of four people in American owned one.

* Entry from Kodak Classics website: @ 

* Entry from George Eastman House blog: @ 

* 1960-1979 timeline (from kodak.com): @ 

* Entry from Industrial Designers Society of America: @ 

* Advertisement from Life magazine (May 10, 1963): @ 

* Excerpt from "Discovering Cameras, 1945-65" (Robert White, 2001): @ 

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Tuesday, March 5, 1963: Patsy Cline's death

The country music star is killed in a plane crash near Camden, Tennessee. Also killed are  singers Cowboy Copas and Hawkshaw Hawkins and pilot Randy Hughes (Cline's manager). They were returning to Nashville after a benefit concert in Kansas City, Kansas.
* patsycline.com: @ 

* Celebrating Patsy Cline (nonprofit organization): @ 

* A Tribute to Patsy Cline: @ 

* Entry from Country Music Hall of Fame: @ 

* "Patsy: The Life and Times of Patsy Cline" (Margaret Jones, 1994): @ 

* Moment of silence during Grand Ole Opry's first performance after the deaths (from opry.com; Saturday, March 9): @ 

* Cowboy Copas biography (from "The Encyclopedia of Country Music," 2012): @

* Hawkshaw Hawkins biography (from hillbilly-music.com): @

Note: Two days later, on Thursday, March 7, Grand Ole Opry member Jack Anglin (of the duo Johnnie and Jack; Anglin is at right in photo) was killed in a single-car crash. It is believed he was en route to a memorial service for Cline.

* "Opry Singer Jack Anglin Wreck Victim" (Associated Press): @

* More about Johnnie and Jack (from cmt.com): @ 

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Undated: 'Hypertext'

The term is coined by Ted Nelson as part of his work in computers and information management/access.

The term as defined by PCMag.com:  "A linkage between related information. Hypertext is the foundation of the World Wide Web, enabling users to click on a link to obtain more information on a subsequent page on the same site or from a Web site anywhere in the world. Hypertext is the umbrella term for all links, whether appearing as text (word, phrase or sentence) or as an icon or other graphical element, the latter technically called a 'hypergraphic.' The terms 'hypertext,' 'hyperlink' and 'link' are also used synonymously."

Nelson would further define the term and explain the concept in his 1965 paper "Complex information processing: A file structure for the complex, the changing and the indeterminate." He wrote: "Let me introduce the word 'hypertext' to mean a body of written or pictorial material interconnected in such a complex way that it could not be conveniently be presented or represented on paper. It may contain summaries, or maps of its contents and their interrelations; it may contain annotations, additions and footnotes from scholars who have examined it. Let me suggest that such an object and system, properly designed and administered, could have great potential for education, increasing the student's range of choices, his sense of freedom, his motivation, and his intellectual grasp."

Illustration by Nelson for his 1974 book "Computer Lib / Dream Machines."

* Nelson's website: @ (Project Xanadu: @)
* Nelson entry from "The Internet: A Historical Encyclopedia" (2005): @
* Text of Nelson's 1965 paper: @
* "Did Ted Nelson first use the word 'hypertext' at Vassar College?" (Vassar site): @
* Entry from "History of the Web" (Bob Hopgood, Oxford Brookes University, 2001): @
* "Hypertext: Towards a Definition" (from Media-Studies.ca): @
* Vision and Reality of Hypertext and Graphical User Interfaces: @
* "The New Media Reader" (2003): @
* NetLingo (Internet dictionary): @ 

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Saturday, March 2, 1963: 'Learn from Comrade Lei Feng'

The slogan appears in the China Youth Daily newspaper as Communist Party chairman Mao Tse-Tung calls on his country to follow Lei Feng's example of selfless service to China -- and especially the Party. This would be the start of a major propaganda campaign holding up Lei Feng as a role model.

* Earlier post on the death of Lei Feng (August 15, 1962): @

* "Lei Feng Day -- Learn from Lei Feng" (from Show China): @

* "Lei Feng: Changing Role Models in China" (from China Daily): @

* Entry from "Modern China: An Encyclopedia of History, Culture and Nationalism" (Wang-Ke wen, 1998): @

* Excerpt from "The Origins of the Cultural Revolution" (Roderick MacFarquhar, 1997): @ 

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