Wednesday, April 13, 1960: 'We real cool'

"The Bean Eaters," a book of poems by Gwendolyn Brooks, is published. (Ten years earlier, Brooks had been the first black author to win a Pulitzer Prize, for her book "Annie Allen.") One of the poems, "We Real Cool," would become a staple of literature textbooks.

We Real Cool

The pool players.

Seven at the Golden Shovel.

We real cool. We

Left school. We

Lurk late. We

Strike straight. We

Sing sin. We

Thin gin. We

Jazz June. We

Die soon.

* Brooks talks about and reads poem: @

* Short analyses: @

* "The Bean Eaters" (from same book): @

* "The Lovers of the Poor" (from same book): @

* More poems and short biography: @

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Friday-Saturday, April 8-9, 1960: Unrest in South Africa

April 8: The political groups PAC (Pan Africanist Congress) and the ANC (African National Congress) are banned by the apartheid government under the Unlawful Organisations Act. The order follows the Sharpeville massacre (see March 21) and the state of emergency imposed on March 30. Members of the groups flee the country or go into hiding for fear of arrest; the ban would lead to the rise of armed resistance the next year under the banner of Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation), or MK.

* Timeline (from South African History Online): @

* History of the ANC (from ANC website): @

* More about ANC (from South African History Online): @

* PAC website: @

* The Road to Democracy Project: @

April 9: Prime minister Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd is shot twice in the face by a white farmer who called Verwoerd "the epitome of apartheid." Verwoerd survives.

* More about the assassination attempt: @

* Newsreel: @

* Brief biography: @

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Friday, April 8, 1960: The search for alien life

From a mountaintop in Green Bank, West Virgina, radio astronomer Frank Drake aims a radio telescope toward the "nearby" (11 light years away) stars Epsilon Eridani and Tau Ceti and begins listening. It's part of "Project Ozma," the first systematic attempt to detect extraterrestrial intelligence (by searching for artificial radio signals). The project would last through July; no alien transmissions or messages were received.

* More about Project Ozma: @

* Recollections from Frank Drake: @

* More on Epsilon Eridani and Tau Ceti: @ and @

* National Radio Astronomy Observatory site: @

* SETI Institute website: @

* How to set up your computer to monitor radio telescope data: @

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Tuesday, April 5, 1960: Kennedy wins Wisconsin

In the Democratic race for the presidential nomination, Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kennedy (476,024, 56.5%) defeats Minnesota Sen. Hubert H. Humphrey (366,753, 43.5%). Religion -- specifically, Kennedy's -- becomes a campaign issue, centering on this question: Is America ready to elect a Catholic as president? (Walter Cronkite, at left with Kennedy, asked him about the impact of Roman Catholic voters; the question incensed the Kennedy camp.)

* Summary of Kennedy-Humphrey debate: @

* About the documentary "Primary": @ and @

* Photo of Kennedy and Humprey, who sometimes traveled together while campaigning: @

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Monday, April 4, 1960: 'Ben-Hur' wins a record 11 Oscars

The awards for the wide-screen epic included best picture, actor (Charlton Heston) and director (William Wyler). Other notable movies from 1959 included "Some Like It Hot," "North by Northwest," "Anatomy of a Murder" and "Plan 9 From Outer Space."

* Detailed summary of the movie: @

* Oscar database (search for "1959"): @

* Database of "sword and sandal" movies (in German; use Google translate): @

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Friday, April 1, 1960: First weather satellite

TIROS-1 (Television InfraRed Observation Satellite) is launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla. It was only operational for about two and a half months, but the thousands of images it sent back proved that satellites could monitor global weather conditions from space.

* More about the satellite: @ and @

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