Saturday, February 13, 1960: France joins the nuclear club

France becomes the world's fourth nuclear power -- along with the United States, the Soviet Union and Great Britain -- when it explodes a atomic bomb in the skies above the Sahara Desert in Algeria (even as the Algerian war for independence was going on). The test was code-named "Gerboise Bleue," or "blue jerboa," a jerboa being a type of desert rat. France's president, Charles de Gaulle, said afterward, "Hurrah for France! Since this morning, she is stronger and prouder."

* Drawing of test site: @

* Short clip of the explosion: @

* Newspaper front page: @

---

Monday, February 8, 1960: Sidewalk of the stars

Construction begins on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. It honors achievements in five categories: movies, TV, music, radio and theater.

* Hollywood Star project of Los Angeles Times: @

* Website of Hollywood Chamber of Commerce / Walk of Fame: @

---

Wednesday, February 3, 1960: 'Wind of change' coming to Africa

Speaking to South Africa's parliament in Cape Town, British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan announces his country's intention to grant independence to British colonies in Africa. He also explicitly criticizes South Africa's apartheid system, marking a change in British policy.

* Short analysis of speech: @

* Audio of entire speech: @

* Key passage here:

---

Monday, February 1, 1960: Greensboro sit-in

Four black students from North Carolina A&T University sit down at a Woolworth's lunch counter -- a whites-only lunch counter. They are refused service but are allowed to stay at the counter. The manager closes the store early. This photo is from the next day's attempts at integration at the Greensboro Woolworth's, as a larger group gathered but were also refused service. Sit-ins quickly spread across the South.

* International Civil Rights Center & Museum, Greensboro: @

* Greensboro News & Record website: @

* Exhibit at National Museum of American History: @

* Veterans of the civil rights movement website: @

* Front page of Greensboro Record (February 2): @

* "Negro Sitdowns Stir Fear of Wider Unrest in South" (New York Times, February 15): @

* "February One: The story of the Greensboro Four" (PBS documentary): @

---

Undated: Ford's 1960 line

Not included in this ad: the Comet, Fairlane, Ranchero and the Country Squire station wagon, among others.

---

Thursday, January 28, 1960: Sinatra for Kennedy

Frank Sinatra records a version of "High Hopes," his hit from a year earlier, rewritten to support the presidential candidacy of John F. Kennedy.

* Lyrics: @

* Listen: @

---

Thursday, January 28, 1960: Cowboys, Vikings join the NFL

The National Football League awards franchises to Dallas (starting in 1960) and Minnesota (starting in 1961), bringing the league to 14 teams. At left is Dallas' first team logo, Cowboy Joe.

* How Dallas got a team: @

---

Monday, January 25, 1960: Soviets officially end gulag era

The network of prison labor camps (nearly 500) dated back to just after World War I. It's estimated that up to 18 million people -- mostly non-Communists, criminals and "enemies of the state" -- were sent to the gulag, with perhaps up to 3 million dying. Millions more were deported or exiled within Russia, or sent to labor colonies.

* More from Open Society Archives: @

* Project from George Mason University: @

* German site (use Google translate for English): @

* Reviews of "Gulag: A History": @

* White Sea Canal: @

---

Saturday, January 23, 1960: To the bottom of the Pacific

With two men aboard, the deep-diving submersible vehicle Trieste -- a bathyscaphe -- submerges to the deepest known part of any ocean on Earth, descending some 36,000 feet, or nearly seven miles, in the Challenger Deep area of the Mariana Trench, near Guam. The trip down takes nearly 5 hours, the trip back up 3 hours 15 minutes.

* Trieste website: @

* PBS animation: @

* Map of Mariana Trench: @

---

Tuesday, January 12, 1960: Smell-O-Vision

The movie "Scent of Mystery" premieres, employing a gimmick called Smell-O-Vision, where certain smells were released during corresponding onscreen moments (via tubes under each seat). The setup was expensive, the film was a flop, and no other movies were made using Smell-O-Vision. Said comedian Henny Youngman: "I didn't understand the picture. I had a cold." At left is "Scent" producer Mike Todd Jr. with Hans Laube, who developed the technique.

Movie ad: @

---

Saturday, January 9, 1960: Richard Nixon begins bid for White House

With Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower leaving office, the two-term vice president officially becomes a candidate. It's Nixon's 47th birthday and concludes a week in which he was grand marshal of the Tournament of Roses parade, helped negotiate an end to the U.S. steel strike and flew aboard a plane that set a record for fastest commercial coast-to-coast flight (3 hours and 39 minutes).

* Front page of January 4 Los Angeles Times: @

* More on the steel strike of 1959: @

---

Saturday, January 2, 1960: John F. Kennedy begins bid for White House

"I am announcing today my candidacy for the presidency of the United States."

With those words, the Massachusetts Democrat officially enters the race, making the announcement in the Senate Caucus Room in Washington.
* Transcript: @
* Audio: @

Time magazine says: "His shockheaded youthfulness, his wealth and his Roman Catholic faith are mixed political blessings in a race where the Democratic bosses yearn for a candidate with no handicaps."
* More from Time: @ and @

---

Friday, January 1, 1960: Sun City opens in Arizona

The retirement community northwest of Phoenix was different in that it was built for active seniors. It was an immediate success and, as NPR put it, "helped change the country's attitude toward aging."

NPR report: @

BBC report: @

---

Friday, January 1, 1960: The No. 1 song on this date

"Why" by Frankie Avalon, his second (and last) No. 1 hit, "Venus" being the first.

---