July 1961: Renault 4L

The French automaker Renault introduces the Renault 4L. The front-wheel-drive hatchback became popular the world over, its versatility and relative spaciousness among the main selling points.

* Summary (from www.renault.com): @

* "A golden anniversary for one of the world's most popular cars" (from blog.hemmings.com): @

* "French put the small car's engine in front" (New Scientist, August 31): @

* Summary (translated from www.franceculture.com): @

* "History of 4L" (translated from French): @

* www.r4-4l.com (translated from French): @

* 4L International club (translated from French): @

* Commercials: @

* More footage: @ and @

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Tuesday, July 25, 1961: Report on the Berlin Crisis

President John F. Kennedy gives a nationwide speech in which he lays out the steps the United States will take in response to the escalating tensions between the U.S. and the Soviet Union over the fate of Berlin. Kennedy proposes an expansion in military preparedness -- boosting the number of the armed forces as well as increasing spending on both weaponry and civil defense. "So long as the Communists insist that they are preparing to end by themselves unilaterally our rights in West Berlin and our commitments to its people, we must be prepared to defend those rights and those commitments. We will at all times be ready to talk, if talk will help. But we must also be ready to resist with force, if force is used upon us. ... We seek peace, but we shall not surrender," Kennedy says, in a speech that sounds like it is preparing Americans for the possibility of war.

* Video (from jfklibrary.org): @

* Transcript (from American Presidency Project): @

* "A Kennedy speech that was weaker than it sounds" (excerpt from the book "Berlin 1961"): @

* Joint Chiefs of Staff memorandum to Defense Secretary Robert McNamara (July 18): @

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Wednesday, July 19, 1961: In-flight movies

Using a specially designed projector and screen, TWA is the first airline to show regular in-flight movies. On July 19, first-class passengers aboard a Boeing 707 jet flying from New York to Los Angeles watch "By Love Possessed," starring Lana Turner, Efrem Zembalist Jr., Jason Robards and Barbara Bel Geddes.

* "Strato-Cinema for Jet Passengers" (Science and Mechanics article, November 1961): @

* Newsreel on "Come September," another early selection for in-flight showings: @

* Newsreel on "Bachelor in Paradise," with star Bob Hope aboard flight: @

* Trailer for "By Love Possessed": @

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Monday, July 17, 1961: Easy Listening music

Billboard magazine begins ranking "Easy Listening" songs -- essentially, songs from the magazine's Top 100 without a real rock 'n' roll sound; Billboard would later describe them as "not too far out in either direction." (Up until then, such songs had been listed in an "Easy Listening" category under "Programming Guide.") The chart would undergo several name changes -- Middle-Road Singles, Pop-Standard Singles -- before being called Adult Contemporary in 1979.

* "The Top 100 Adult Contemporary Songs Ever" (from billboard.com): @

* "The Top 50 Adult Contemporary Artists Ever" (from billboard.com): @

* Listen to "The Boll Weevil Song" (by Brook Benton; the first song to be ranked #1): @

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Friday, July 14, 1961: 'Way Out'

The CBS television series "Way Out" is canceled after 14 episodes. Hosted by writer Roald Dahl, the episodes (a different one each week) usually featured elements of the bizarre and the macabre.

The photo at left, of actor Barry Morse, is from "Soft Focus," the July 7 episode. Here is an excerpt from Morse's autobiography: "The episode ... featured me as successful portrait photographer Peter Pell, who has discovered an extraordinary chemical. By retouching photos with this strange mixture, he is able to alter the pictures and change the actual faces of the living people. Long suspecting his young attractive wife, Louise (played by Joan Hotchkis), of committing adultery, he sets to work on her photo. Upon realizing that she has been rapidly aging, Louise surprises her husband, who has now been at work on his own photo. His new, youthful face reveals the truth to her. In a rage, she pours the fluid on his portrait -- a pool of it covering half the picture. Pell quickly tries to salvage the picture, but fails. When he looks up half his face has been erased! ... my make-up was accomplished by Dick Smith, who later became well known in the business for his work on 'Dark Shadows' and 'The Exorcist.' "

* Watch five episodes (unfortunately, "Soft Focus" is not among them): @

* Episode guide and synopses (from roalddahlfans.com): @

* More about the show (from roalddahlfans.com): @

* Roald Dahl official website: @

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Monday, July 10, 1961: 'Axis Sally'

After 12 years in prison, Mildred Gillars (aka "Axis Sally") is released from the women's reformatory in Alderson, West Virginia. During World War II, she was a radio announcer broadcasting propaganda from Berlin on behalf of Nazi Germany, "messages designed to heighten loneliness, fatigue and the futility of fighting Germany," in the words of her 1988 New York Times obituary. (Note: Rita Zucca, broadcasting from Rome, was also known as "Axis Sally.")

* Excerpts from broadcasts: @

* Stories from Charleston, W.V., newspapers (July 10-11): @ and @

* Articles from www.historynet.com: @ and @

* "Axis Sally: The American Voice of Nazi Germany" (book by Richard Lucas): @

* Segments from "Talking History" radio program (scroll down to "World War II Radio Propaganda: Real and Imaginary"): @

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July 1961: 'The Challenge of Ideas'

Produced by the Defense Department's Army Pictorial Center for showing to the U.S. military, "The Challenge of Ideas" dramatizes the Communist threat to American ideals and global aims. Actors John Wayne and Helen Hayes are among those giving short testimonials; the film itself is introduced by Edward R. Murrow, the former CBS journalist who in January 1961 became head of the U.S. Information Agency. "The Challenge of Ideas" replaces two more controversial efforts at propaganda: "Operation Abolition" and "Communism on the Map," both of which were removed from the Pentagon's list of approved educational materials.

* Watch "The Challenge of Ideas": @

* Army Pictorial Center site: @

* Watch "Operation Abolition": @

* Time magazine article about "Operation Abolition" (March 1961): @

* More about San Francisco protests (blog post from May 1960 and subject of "Operation Abolition"): @

* Short biography of George Stuart Benson and his role in creating "Communism on the Map": @

* Life magazine article that mentions "Communism on the Map" (February 1962): @

* More about Murrow's "Harvest of Shame" (blog post from November 1960): @

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Tuesday, July 4, 1961: K-19 nuclear accident

A leak develops in the cooling system of the K-19, a Soviet nuclear submarine, while it was on exercises in the North Atlantic near southern Greenland. A meltdown is averted, but the eight crew members who carried out repairs all died within three weeks of radiation poisoning; the rest of the crew also received substantial doses of radiation.

* Summary from National Geographic: @

* Excerpt from "Rising Tide: The Untold Story of the Russian Submarines that Fought the Cold War" (book): @

* Pravda article: @

* "The Russian Northern Fleet: Nuclear submarine accidents": @

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Sunday, July 2, 1961: Ernest Hemingway dies

Author Ernest Hemingway, 61, kills himself with a shotgun blast to the head. His direct writing style, as well as his adventurous persona, made him one of the most famous authors of the 20th century.

* Short biography (from nobelprize.org): @

* The Hemingway Society: @

* The Ernest Hemingway Collection (at JFK presidential library): @

* timelesshemingway.com: @

* Ernest Hemingway Home & Museum (Key West, Fla): @

* Holdings at University of Delaware Library: @

* "Hemingway on War and Its Aftermath" (from the National Archives' Prologue magazine): @

* "The Old Man and the Sea" (September 1, 1952, Life magazine): @

* Selected audio: @

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Thursday-Friday, July 28-29, 1960: Project Apollo

In conjunction with the NASA-Industry Program Plans Conference in Washington, NASA announces Project Apollo, its goals for manned spaceflight. The new project, intended to build upon the ongoing Project Mercury, envisions putting men on the moon sometime after 1970 (click on chart to englarge). However, President Eisenhower is reluctant to sign off on the program, citing its multi-billion-dollar price tag.

* Chronology through July 1960: @

* The Project Apollo Archive: @

* Kennedy Space Center website: @

* Why the name Apollo was chosen: @

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Monday-Thursday, July 25-28, 1960: Republican National Convention

Vice President Richard Nixon is the all-but-certain nominee as the Republicans gather in Chicago, though Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater and (presumably) New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller remain in the running. Attention turns toward the platform, the direction of the party and a running mate. Meanwhile, the accomplishments and popularity of outgoing President Dwight D. Eisenhower are a running theme of the convention.

* Platform and direction of party: Largely the work of Rockefeller, the so-called "Compact of Fifth Avenue" was hammered out during a meeting between the Nixon and Rockefeller camps at the governor's Fifth Avenue apartment on July 22-23. Nixon signed off on the platform to ensure Rockefeller's support and to placate the more liberal factions of the party. His actions outraged the GOP's more conservative elements, particularly Goldwater, whose "Conscience of a Conservative" (published that March) had brought him to prominence, as it forcefully stated the direction in which he wanted to move the party. The Chicago Tribune thundered in an editorial, "Grant Surrenders to Lee."

-- Platform summary and significance: @ and @. Text: @

-- Text of "Conscience of a Conservative": @

* July 25: Convention gets under way at the International Amphitheatre. A civil rights rally, 5,000 strong and led in part by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., takes place outside the building. (As the Democrats had done two weeks prior, the GOP would address civil rights at length in its platform.)

-- Transcript of NBC interview with King: @

* July 26: Eisenhower addresses the convention. Rockefeller officially withdraws his candidacy, releasing his pledged delegates and urging their support of Nixon.

-- Text of Eisenhower speech: @

* July 27: Party platform is approved. Nixon's and Goldwater's names are placed in nomination. Goldwater withdraws his candidacy, saying in his speech, "Let's grow up, conservatives ... let's -- if we want to take this party back and I think we can someday -- let's get to work." Nixon claims the nomination, with 1,321 delegates to 10 for Goldwater. (The photo above is Nixon's reaction to his first-ballot victory.)

* July 28: Nixon selects Henry Cabot Lodge, the United States' ambassador to the United Nations, for the vice presidential slot. (Rockefeller had turned down Nixon's offer.) Nixon addresses the convention.

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* Convention summary from Chicago Historical Society: @
* Videos of convention highlights: @ and @
* Videos of speeches (includes Goldwater, Lodge and former President Herbert Hoover): @ (Audio and text of Nixon's acceptance speech: @)
* Telegram from NBC to Nixon and Kennedy (and their replies) regarding prime-time debates: @

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Monday, July 25, 1960: Greensboro sit-in (update)

The lunch counter at the F.W. Woolworth in Greensboro, North Carolina, is integrated as four black Woolworth's employees sit down and eat. The store had been the launching pad for the sit-in movement that had spread throughout the South. (See February 1.) By the end of the summer, an estimated 70,000 people had taken part in sit-ins, with 3,000 arrests.

* More about Geneva Tisdale, one of the four Woolworth's employees: @ and @

* Civil Rights Greensboro website: @

* Instructions from Students Executive Committee for Justice on how to conduct protests: @ (scroll down to "Greensboro Four Letter")

* List of sit-in cities: @

* More about sit-ins in Nashville, Tennessee: @ and @ and @

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Thursday, July 21, 1960: First female prime minister

Sirimavo Ratwatte Dias Bandaranaike takes office as prime minister of Ceylon (present-day Sri Lanka), making her the world's first female head of government. She rose to power as the widow of prime minister Solomon West Ridgeway Dias Bandaranaike (assassinated the year before by a Buddhist monk), taking over the leadership of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party. "There will be need for a new word. Presumably, we shall have to call her a Stateswoman. This is the suffragette's dream come true," wrote London's Evening News.

* Obituary after her death in 2000: @

* More about Sri Lanka: @ and @ and @

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Wednesday, July 20, 1960: Underwater missile

Sitting about 30 miles off Cape Canaveral, Florida, the USS George Washington fires a Polaris A1 nuclear missile. It was the first successful launch of a ballistic missile by a submerged submarine. The launch was a key progression in the ongoing arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union. The Polaris' 1,200-mile range meant that the U.S. could strike nearly any land target from the safety of international waters.

* More about Polaris missile system: @ and @

* Polaris timeline: @

* More about USS George Washington: @ and @

* Newsreel: @

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Monday-Friday, July 11-15, 1960: Democratic National Convention

* July 5: Lyndon Baines Johnson, the Senate majority leader from Texas, announces he will seek the Democratic nomination for president. Johnson had not campaigned during the primaries; he had hoped to prevail at the convention as a compromise candidate. Also waiting in the wings are Sen. Stuart Symington of Missouri as well as Adlai Stevenson, the party's nominee in 1952 and 1956. The reason for all the maneuvering: While Sen. John F. Kennedy heads into the convention as the front-runner, he has just 600 of the 761 delegates needed to secure the nomination.

-- More about Johnson's candidacy: @

* July 10: To a mixture of cheers and boos, Kennedy speaks at an NAACP rally before the convention; also speaking is the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. The two men had met for the first time the month before, discussing civil rights, which would be a key element of the Democratic platform.

-- King's account of first meeting: @

* July 11: Convention opens at the Los Angeles Sports Arena.

-- Preview from NBC (July 9): @

* July 12: Party platform approved.

-- Significance and summary: @

-- Text: @

* July 13: Kennedy wins the nomination on the first ballot, collecting 806 delgates to Johnson's 409. Symington and Stevenson fall far short. The next day's Boston Globe would carry the headline "JACK, IN WALK".

-- Account from Time magazine on the jockeying for delegates: @

-- Account from Life magazine: @

-- Excerpt from book "The First Modern Campaign: Kennedy, Nixon, and the Election of 1960": @

-- New York Times story: @

-- Telegram from Harpo Marx congratulating Kennedy: @

(Thanks to Larry Harnisch of the Los Angeles Times for the front-page image. Click here for The Daily Mirror, the Times' blog on L.A. history.)

* July 14: Kennedy asks Johnson to join the ticket as the vice presidential nominee. Johnson accepts. The circumstances surrounding the somewhat surprising offer are debated to this day.

-- Short summary from PBS: @

-- Account from Kennedy aide Kenneth O'Donnell: @

-- Account from Philip Graham, confidant of both Kennedy and Johnson: @

-- New York Times story: @

* July 15: In front of 80,000 people at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Kennedy formally accepts the nomination (also known as the "New Frontier" speech).

-- Text, audio and video: @

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* Videos of convention highlights: @ and @

* Panoramic photo of scene inside convention hall: @

* The convention was the basis for Norman Mailer's "Superman Comes to the Supermarket," which would be published in the November issue of Esquire magazine: @

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Thursday, July 14, 1960: Jane Goodall

A novice researcher with no formal college training, Jane Goodall arrives by boat on the shores of Lake Tanganyika in modern-day Tanzania and begins her pioneering studies of chimpanzee behavior. The world would learn of her work three years later when "My Life Among Wild Chimpanzees" is published in National Geographic magazine.

* Timeline of Goodall's life: @

* Jane Goodall Institute website: @

* Interviews: @ and @ (video) and @ (audio)

* More about Gombe National Park: @

* National Geographic site: @

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Tuesday, July 12, 1960: Etch A Sketch

The Ohio Art Company's factory in Bryan, Ohio, begins producing the mechanical drawing toy, developed in the late '50s by French electrician André Cassagnes. (Arthur Grandjean is sometimes mistakenly cited as the inventor; click here for the full story; scroll down to "Real History verified by the Ohio Art Company.") Thanks to extensive advertising, the toy's popularity would soar as the holiday season nears; Ohio Art's factory works until noon on Christmas Eve.

* "Inside an Etch A Sketch" (from www.howstuffworks.com): @

* "How an Etch A Sketch works" (from www.todayifoundout.com): @

* Short history and timeline (from Toledo Blade newspaper): @ and @

* Patents: @ and @

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Monday, July 11, 1960: 'To Kill a Mockingbird'

"When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow."

So begins "To Kill a Mockingbird," a novel by Harper Lee published on this date by J.B. Lippincott Co. Simply put, one of the most admired works in all American literature. The story of race and justice in a small Southern town in 1936, its themes are so universal and its story and characters so accessible that it resonates with readers young and old. At the same time, it has been banned or challenged innumerable times by schools and libraries (for reasons ranging from racial slurs to profanity to references to rape). Unnerved by the enormous attention after the book's publication (along with its winning a Pulitzer Prize and adaptation into a celebrated movie), Lee turned toward a quiet, guarded life in her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama. To date it is the only book she has ever published.

* More about Harper Lee: @

* Original New York Times review: @

* Listen to actress Sissy Spacek reading the opening pages: @

* Book quiz: @

* Book covers through the years and from around the world: @

* Story of a Virginia county's banning of the book; click on letter to read Lee's response: @

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Saturday, July 9, 1960*: U-2 incident: Powers indicted

U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers, whose downing by the Soviet Union sparked a fresh round of tensions between the superpowers, is formally indicted for crimes against the state, specifically spying. (See entries of May 1, 5, 7, 11, 16 and 26.) The indictment recounts Powers' career, mission, capture and interrogation, and refers several times to American aggression. (Example: "Thus, the United States officially proclaimed in peace time a policy which can only be followed when countries are at war.") Powers' trial is scheduled for August 17.

Note: On July 1, a second incident had taken place when a U.S. reconnaissance flight with six men aboard was shot down over the Barents Sea. The two survivors were captured and imprisoned until their release in January 1961. More on that incident: @

* Most websites list the indictment date as July 8. The 9th is used here based on Powers' autobiography, "Operation Overflight: A Memoir of the U-2 Incident" as well as the CIA link below.

To see the full indictment, go to www.foia.cia.gov and then search for GARY POWERS TEXT ON INDICTMENT-SOVIET GOV'T ORDERED U-2 SHOT DOWN

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Saturday, July 9, 1960: CPR

While there is no date or moment that cardiopulmonary resuscitation was "invented," the awareness, application and study of the procedure increases with the publication of "Closed-Chest Cardiac Massage" in the July 9 edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association. The paper adds to the work previously done by others, including Dr. Peter Safar, known as "The Father of Modern Resuscitation."

* Text of "Closed-Chest Cardiac Massage": @

* Significance of "Closed-Chest Cardiac Massage": @ and @

* More about Dr. Safar: @ (biography) and @ (1958 JAMA paper)

* More about CPR: @ and @ (short history)

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