Sunday, August 5, 1962: Nelson Mandela arrested

Anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela is arrested on charges of inciting a workers' strike and leaving South Africa illegally; he is confined, the beginning of imprisonment that would last until 1990. (He would be sentenced on November 7.) Photo from June 1962.
* Excerpts from trial: @

* "Fiftieth anniversary of Nelson Mandela's sentencing" (from www.nelsonmandelaorg): @
* "The Mystery of Mandela's Arrest" (Wall Street Journal, December 2012): @
* Nelson Mandela Museum: @

* Mandela entry on African National Congress site: @ 

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Sunday, August 5, 1962: Marilyn Monroe

From The Associated Press, August 6:

Blonde and beautiful Marilyn Monroe, a glamorous symbol of the gay, exciting life of Hollywood, died tragically Sunday.

Her body was found in bed, a probable suicide. She was 36.

The long-troubled star clutched a telephone in one hand. An empty bottle of sleeping pills was nearby.

From United Press International, August 6:

Marilyn Monroe was dead Monday at 36, victim of an overdose of drugs which ended a tempestuous, glamorous rocket ride to fame and personal tragedy.

The figure on which she rose to stardom was found stretched across the bed of her modest Brentwood home, her lifeless hand grasping a telephone.

* "Death of a Star" (newsreel): @

* Newsreel of funeral: @

* Newsreel archive footage (from British Pathe): @

* "The Last Days of Marilyn Monroe" (Donald H. Wolfe, 2012): @

* "Marilyn Monroe: The FBI Files" (2007): @

* "Marilyn lets her hair down about being famous" (Life magazine, August 3, 1962): @

* marilynmonroe.com: @

* Earlier post on "Happy birthday, Mr. President" (May 19, 1962): @

* Earlier post on "The Misfits" (February 1, 1961): @

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Saturday, August 4, 1962: Carolina Snowball

The rare albino dolphin is captured off the coast of South Carolina. She is transported to the Miami Seaquarium, where she is a star attraction until her death on May 4, 1965.

* Entry from moldville.com (includes account of capture from Captain William Gray): @

* "The Improbable Hunt for the White Porpoise" (Life magazine, September 21, 1962): @

* "Rare albino dolphin poses problems for Seaquarium" (Associated Press story, September 1962): @

* "Stuart man's replica of Carolina Snowball preserves rare albino dolphin's legacy" (from www.tcpalm.com, May 2012): @

* "Albino Dolphin in Northern Gulf of Mexico" (from NOAA Fisheries Service): @

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Friday, August 3, 1962: Elephant on LSD

In an effort to simulate the periodic aggressive behavior shown by male elephants, researchers inject LSD into Tusko, an elephant at the Lincoln Park Zoo in Oklahoma City. Five minutes after the injection, Tusko falls onto his side and goes into a seizure-like state. Despite (or possibly because of) subsequent injections of drugs to counteract the LSD reaction, Tusko dies, less than 2 hours after the initial dosage.

From an August 4 story by the Associated Press:

Medical research scientists gave Tusko, a 7,000-pound male elephant in the Oklahoma City zoo, an injection of an experimental drug used to induce temporary mental illness. Five minutes later, Tusko collapsed and died. Researchers were surprised, because the dosage given the 10-year-old animal Friday was less powerful than the contents of an aspirin tablet. Dr. L.J. West, professor of psychiatry at the University of Oklahoma, had taken a dose of the drug Thursday. West said in humans, the drug, lysergic acid diethylamide, produces an illness similar to schizophrenia. Psychiatrists seeking a cure for mental illness often take it for a self-study of the condition. West said the elephant's brain is similar to a human's but larger, making study easier. But West said Tusko's death may have been a valuable contribution to research. Because of his death, West said his department would send notices to research centers warning against giving overdoses to humans.

(Image from Medical Tribune weekly newspaper, September 3, 1962)

* "Lysergic acid diethylamide: Its effects on a male Asiatic elephant" (Science magazine, December 7, 1962): @

* Summary from www.erowid.org: @

* "A dose of madness" (Guardian newspaper, August 2002): @

* More about elephant musth: @ (www.theelephantcharter.info) and @ (www.upali.ch)

* Obituaries of Louis Jolyon West: @ (New York Times) and @ (Los Angeles Times)

* "To scale or not to scale: The principles of dose extrapolation" (British Journal of Pharmacology, 2009): @

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August 1962: Spider-Man

The character makes his first appearance as part of Marvel Comics' "Amazing Fantasy." The story tells how high school student Peter Parker acquired his superpowers. (A Spider-Man series would start in March 1963.)

* Spider-Man page from marvel.com: @

* Spider-Man page from comicbookdb.com: @

* More about first issue (from marvel.wikia.com): @

* www.spiderfan.org (fan site): @

* www.spider-man.info (fan site): @

* "Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America" (Bradford W. Wright, 2003): @

* "Webslinger: Unauthorized Essays on Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man" (2007): @

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Undated: Thalidomide in the U.S.

Public awareness about thalidomide increases dramatically, with news reports and congressional hearings about the drug's risks: that expectant mothers taking the sedative might give birth to deformed babies. (Thalidomide sales had already been halted throughout Europe.)

July 15: The Washington Post publishes a front-page story about thalidomide, largely about the efforts of Dr. Frances Oldham Kelsey of the Food and Drug Administration, who worked to prevent her agency from approving the drug for use in the United States. Other news outlets quickly follow up on Morton Mintz's reporting.

* Text of story: @

* "Morton Mintz on the collapse of Congressional oversight" (from www.neimanwatchdog.org): @

* 2012 interview with Mintz: @

July 30: The FDA provides details on thalidomide distribution. From The New York Times: "A total of 1,229 physicians in thirty-nine states and the District of Columbia and one in Canada received test samples of thalidomide, a drug blamed for thousands of birth defects in Europe. ... It has been estimated by Government officials that hundreds or perhaps thousands of Americans were given the drug on an experimental basis. ... A drug concern may make arrangements with doctors for the experimental use of a new drug without Federal approval. The law merely requires that the company keep a record of the shipments and that they be labeled 'caution, new drug limited by Federal law to investigate use.' This was the procedure used by the W.S. Merrell Company of Cincinnati, a reputable drug concern that held exclusive United States rights to distribute thalidomide. The company notified physicians last March to cease giving the drug."

Later estimates indicate that about 2.5 million samples were given out to some 20,000 patients.

August: Dr. Helen Taussig's "The Thalidomide Syndrome" is published in Scientific American. The report provides a history of the drug, discusses its effects on fetuses, and includes Taussig's observations in West Germany, where thalidomide (brand name Contergan) had been much more widely used. She writes: "The one-third who are so deformed that they die may be the luckier ones."

* Profile of Taussig (from National Library of Medicine): @

August 1: President Kennedy opens his press conference with a statement about thalidomide and pending drug legislation. In answer to a follow-up question, Kennedy says, "Every woman in this country, I think, must be aware that it is most important that they check their medicine cabinet, that they do not take this drug, that they turn it in."

* Text: @

* Audio: @

August 7: President Kennedy awards Dr. Kelsey the President's Award for Distinguished Federal Civilian Service.

* Kennedy's remarks (from www.jfklink.com): @

* 1957 executive order creating the award (from archives.gov): @

August 10: Life magazine's cover story carries this headline: "The Full Story of the Drug Thalidomide / The 5,000 Deformed Babies ... The Woman Who Saved Thousands ... The Moral Questions of Abortion and Euthenasia." The article includes the warning box at left and the story of an Arizona woman, Sherri Finkbine, who went to Sweden for an abortion rather than bear the child, which after the operation was found to be severely deformed. (Finkbine had the abortion on August 18).

* Text of Life magazine story: @

In October, Congress would pass, and Kennedy would sign, legislation that strengthened the rules for drug safety and required manufacturers to prove their drugs' effectiveness.

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* "Dark Remedy: The Impact of Thalidomide and Its Revival as a Vital Medicine" (Trent D. Stephens and Rock Brynner, 2001): @

* "Protecting America's Health: The FDA, Business, and One Hundred Years of Regulation" (Philip J. Hilts, 2004): @

* "Reputation and Power: Organizational Image and Pharmaceutical Regulation at the FDA" (Daniel P. Carpenter, 2010): @

* "Thalidomide Crisis & Drug Regulation" (exhibit at Emory Libraries, Atlanta, Georgia): @

* "Thalidomide and Political Engagement in the United States and West Germany" (from Social History of Medicine, 2002): @

* "Congressman's Report" (from Arizona Rep. Morris K. Udall, August 17, 1962): @

Previous posts about thalidomide:

* William S. Merrell Co. submits drug application (September 8, 1960): @

* Letter in The Lancet raises concerns (December 16, 1961): @

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Thursday-Friday, August 31-September 1, 1961: Soviet nuclear testing

* August 31: Citing the Berlin crisis and France's nuclear testing, the Soviet Union announces to the world that it is ending its three-year moratorium on testing and will detonate a nuclear weapon the next day. (Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev had informed the Soviet nuclear community on July 10 of his decision.)

* September 1: A 16-kiloton device is detonated at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in central Asia.

Time magazine cover from September 8.

* "Early record on text moratoriums" (from Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 1986): @

* Excerpt from "The Nuclear Express: A Political History of the Bomb and is Proliferation": @

* Excerpt from "President Kennedy: Profile of Power": @

* atomicarchive.com: @

* Semipalatinsk website: @

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Wednesday, August 30, 1961: Integration of Atlanta schools

Nine black students begin classes at four high schools (Grady, Murphy, Brown and Northside) scattered across Atlanta, Georgia. The transition is without incident, unlike integration in New Orleans (November 1960; go here for entry) or the University of Georgia (January 1961; go here). But in terms of sheer numbers, integration in Atlanta would progress very slowly for the next few years. As the 1961 school year began, other Southern cities were also experiencing trouble-free integration -- Dallas and Galveston, Texas; Fort Lauderdale, Florida; and Little Rock, Arkansas.

Note about the photo: Murphy High School has a Civil War marker outside the building's front entrance. It reads: AN UNEXPECTED CLASH / July 22, 1864. The attack by Walker's & Bate's divs. (Hardee's A.C.) [Confederate symbol] struck the two brigades, Mersy's & Rice's, of Sweeny's 16th A.C. div. [Union symbol] enroute to support the 17th in E. Atlanta. Walker's troops came up Sugar Cr. valley from the S.; Bate's from the high ground eastward. Sweeny's men hastily formed defensively -- Rice facing E., Mercy S., the apex of the lines atop the hill where Laird's 14th Ohio Battery was posted and where Murphy High School stands. Blodgett's Missouri Battery H was at Rice's center, facing E. Though greatly outnumbered, Sweeny managed to hold the position, thereby foiling Hardee's thrust at the Federal rear. (Photo from Atlanta History Center.)

* Short summary from Atlanta magazine: @

* "Atlanta Public Schools Desegregate" (segment from WABE-FM, Atlanta): @

* Audio of President Kennedy's August 30 press conference: @

* "Prepared for Peace" (Time magazine, August 25): @

* "Southern Milestones" (Time magazine, September 8): @

* "With the Police on an Integration Job" (Life magazine, September 15): @

* Atlanta Public Schools timeline (through 1999): @

* More about the Sibley Commission (from New Georgia Encyclopedia) : @

* "Atlanta in the Civil Rights Movement, 1960-65" (from Atlanta Regional Council for Higher Education): @

* Excerpt from "Courage to Dissent: Atlanta and the Long History of the Civil Rights Movement": @

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Monday-Wednesday, August 28-30, 1961: Peace Corps

Background: Earlier entries on the Peace Corps, from October 14, 1960 and March 1, 1961.

Monday, August 28: President Kennedy hosts ceremony for the first group of Peace Corps volunteers. (Audio: @; video: @)

Tuesday, August 29: The volunteers leave for the African nations of Ghana and Tanganyika. (Left, members of Ghana I, before leaving Washington.)

Wednesday, August 30: Volunteers arrive.

* Timeline (from www.peacecorps.gov): @

* Founding Documents of the Peace Corps" (from National Archives): @

* Peace Corps News (Vol. 1, No. 1, June 1961): @

* First-person account of leaving for Ghana: @

* Peace Corps Ghana: @

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August: LSD-sex study

"The Use of L.S.D. 25 (D-Lysergic Acid Diethylamide) in the Treatment of the Sexual Perversions" is published in the Canadian Psychiatric Association Journal.

Excerpts:

"A large room was provided, furnished with a comfortable couch, two arm-chairs, table and chair, radiogram -- with a selection of classical, light opera, musical comedy and dance music -- together with books of photographs such as 'The Family of Man.' "

"... it was felt desirable to ensure the efficacy of the drug by giving a large dose. Patients arrived at the department from the ward, having had a light breakfast at 8:00 a.m. and were immediately given 200 microgrammes of L.S.D. 25 in a glass of water."

"We feel that success is possible when (a) the patient is of above average intelligence, and (b) the patient genuinely wishes to be rid of the perversion."

* Complete text: @

* The Albert Hofmann Collection: LSD & Psilocybin References: @

* "Psycholytic and Psychedelic Therapy Research: A Complete International Biography": @

* More about LSD from U.S. National Library of Medicine: @

* Erowid LSD (Acid) Vault: @

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Wednesday, August 23, 1961: Gravity assist

Michael Minovitch, a graduate student at UCLA working at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory for the summer, presents a technical paper titled "A Method for Determining Interplanetary Free-Fall Reconnaissance Trajectories." In it he describes how a planet's gravity can be used to propel or "slingshot" a spacecraft past other planets and into deeper space. (The first spacecraft to employ the maneuver was Mariner 10 in 1973. The more famous Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 were launched in 1977; at left are their paths.)

* More about Minovitch: @

* Minovitch's website: @

* "A Method for Determining Interplanetary Free-Fall Reconnaissance Trajectories" (PDF): @

* "A Gravity Assist Primer" (from Jet Propulsion Laboratory): @

* "The Voyage of Mariner 10" (from NASA): @

* "Mariner 10 to Venus and Mercury" (from JPL): @

* "Voyager -- The Interstellar Mission": (from JPL): @

* Excerpt from "Voyager: Seeking Newer Worlds in the Third Great Age of Discovery": @

* Excerpt from "Ambassadors from Earth: Pioneering Explorations with Unmanned Spacecraft": @

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Friday, August 18, 1961: Timothy Leary on 'How To Change Behavior'

Harvard psychology professor Timothy Leary delivers a lecture at the International Congress of Applied Psychology in Copenhagen, Denmark. The lecture, "How To Change Behavior," talks about changing behavior through changing (expanding) consciousness and the role of psilocybin in achieving such a state.

* Text of lecture: @

* Blog post from August 9, 1960 (when Leary first ingested psilocybin mushrooms): @

* The Psychedelic Library: @

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August 1961: Berlin Wall (a photo timeline)

* Saturday, August 12, 1961: East German leader Walter Ulbricht signs the order authorizing the closing of the border with West Germany. On that day, a wife passes her son to her husband, who is standing in West Berlin. (Original caption and photo sequence: @)

* August 13: At 2 a.m. local time, the wall begins as a barbed-wire fence. (BBC story: @; account in The Guardian newspaper: @)

* August 14: Brandenburg Gate is closed. In this photo from late August, West Berlin police look across the East-West border. (Short history of Brandenburg Gate: @)

* August 15: East German soldier Conrad Schumann defects to the West by hopping over the barbed wire (More on Schumann: @ ; footage of defection: @)

* August 17: The United States, Britain and France issue their first formal protest to the Soviet Union. At left, the front page of the Bild Zeitung newspaper from August 16. The headline reads, "The West does NOTHING!" (August 17 protest by U.S. and Soviet reply the following day: @)

* August 18: The barbed-wire barrier is augmented by concrete blocks. (Facts and figures, including layout of fortications: @)

* August 20: From Stars and Stripes: "West Berliners cheer as a 1,500-man U.S. Army convoy from the 1st Battle Group rolls past the ruins of the Kaiser Wilhelm Church. The troops were sent to join the 11,000-man garrison already in the beleaguered city by President John F. Kennedy in a show of solidarity." (The convoy went 110 miles through East German territory, starting near Mannheim and traveling along the autobahn.)

* August 22: The first death, as Ida Seikmann dies from injuries suffered when she jumped from her third-floor apartment window. The photo is of a monument put up in her honor. (More on Seikmann: @ and @)

* August 24: Günter Liftin is shot dead while trying to escape East Berlin by swimming across the Spree Canal. (More on Liftin: @)

* August 26: All crossing points closed for West Berlin citizens. From The New York Times: "The East Germans began issuing permits for West Berliners to visit East Berlin at two West Berlin stations of the Communist-operated elevated railway. The permits were handed out at the ticket offices until West Berlin police told the Communists to close them. ... The Allied commandants supported the action of the West Berlin city authorities. It was understood that the action would create hardships for some West Berliners, but the authorities decided to accept this rather than permit the East Germans to get in a thin wedge of sovereignty on West Berlin territory."

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Berlin Wall resources

-- Websites

* Berlin Wall Memorial: @

* www.berlin.de: @

* www.chronik-der-mauer.de: @

* www.berlin-life.com: @

* www.dailysoft.com: @

* German Historical Museum, Berlin: @

* Cold War International History Project: @

* "A Concrete Curtain: The Life and Death of the Berlin Wall": @

* "Berlin Wall: Past & Present": @

* NATO: @

* Britain's National Archives: @

* Cold War Museum timeline: @

-- Books

* "The Berlin Wall: A World Divided, 1961-1989": @

* "Kennedy and the Berlin Wall": @

* "Berlin 1961": @ (author's website)

-- Life magazine

* August 25: @

* September 1: @

* September 8: @

-- Photos

* Before and after, from Spiegel Online: @

* From The Guardian newspaper: @

* From The Independent newspaper: @

* From boston.com: @

* From pmgtg.com: @

-- Videos

From archive.org:

* August 31 newsreel: @

* Comparison of life newsreel: @

* 1962 film from U.S. Information Agency: @

* U.S. Army footage, September (silent): @

* U.S. Air Force footage, August and December (silent): @

From Critical Past:

* Events after World War II: @

* Background: @

* "Berlin 1961": @

* "Halt Refugees: Reds Tighten Border Control": @

* "Border Crisis: Allies Protest Pact Violation": @

* "Berlin Drama: East Germans Jump to Freedom": @

From British Pathe:

* "Berlin Crisis": @

* "Berlin Tension": @

* "Berlin Wall of Shame": @

* "Ever Ready in Berlin": @

* "Berlin Wall": @

From The Guardian:

* First of five short films, with links to others: @

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Monday, August 7, 1961: Milgram experiment

Stanley Milgram, an assistant professor of psychology at Yale University, begins his now-famous experiment to explore the question: How much pain would you inflict on another person if you were ordered to do so?

Milgram pursued the research in light of the trial of Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi Germany official who had said he was only following orders when he helped orchestrate the Holocaust. (Search site for "Eichmann" for posts on his abduction, trial, verdict and hanging.)

"Stark authority was pitted against the subjects' strongest moral imperatives against hurting others, and, with the subjects' ears ringing with the screams of the victims, authority won more often that not," Milgram wrote later.

Summary from The Guardian newspaper, 2004 (@):

A subject, greeted by a scientist in a white lab coat, was given the role of "teacher." Introduced to a "learner," the teacher watched the learner strapped into a chair with an electrode attached to his or her wrist. Seated behind a screen in front of a large electroshock machine, the teacher read out a list of words and the learner replied with pre-learned corresponding words.

If the learner's response was wrong, the teacher was to apply an electric shock to the learner by pressing one of 30 switches, labeled from "slight shock" through to "danger: severe shock." For each incorrect response the teacher was told to increase the voltage, resulting in grunts, screams and then silence from the learner.

In fact, the learner was an actor; the teacher was the real subject of this experiment. When the learner's screams and pleadings reached a certain intensity, the teacher often asked whether he or she should continue, or might refuse to carry one. This was the crucial moment: the scientists now insisted that the session should continue.

Before the experiment began, psychologists predicted that only one in a thousand would administer the strongest shocks. In fact, during the first round of experiments, using Yale undergraduates, 60% were fully obedient and took the sessions to their conclusion. Subsequent experiments achieved similar results, with no significant differences between males and females.

(Note: I used August 7 as the starting point, as referenced in "The Man Who Shocked The World," linked below.)

* Study as published in Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology (October, 1963): @ 
* Milgram's "Obedience" documentary (video, 1965): @

* Summary (from www.holah.co.uk): @

* Summary (from www.explorable.com): @
* Summary (from www.simplypsychology.org): @

* Summary (www.paulgraham.com): @

* "The Making of an (in)famous experiment" (British Psychological Society): @

* "Obedience to Authority" (Milgram, 1974): @

* "Obedience to Authority: Current Perspectives on the Milgram Paradigm" (edited by Thomas Blass, 1999): @
* "The Man Who Shocked The World: The Life and Legacy of Stanley Milgram" (Blass, 2004): @
* www.stanleymilgram.com (Blass' site): @

* "Decades Later, Still Asking: Would I Pull That Switch?" (New York Times, 2008): @ 

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