Thursday, March 17, 1960: The queen of currency

Queen Elizabeth's image appears on a British banknote for the first time, a one-pound note issued by the Bank of England.

* Stories: @ and @

* Photo slideshow: @

* Short timeline of the Bank of England: @

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Thursday, March 17, 1960: U.S. vs. Castro

President Eisenhower authorizes the CIA to begin working with and training Cuban exiles as part of a covert effort to undermine and overthrow the government of Fidel Castro, whose guerrilla forces had seized power on New Year's Day, 1959. (The Soviet Union and Cuba had forged closer ties since Castro's takeover.) At left is Castro with Vice President Nixon during Castro's visit to Washington in April 1959.

* Text of "A Program of Covert Action Against the Castro Regime": @

* Map of the Cuban Revolution: @

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Tuesday, March 15, 1960: Kitt Peak

The national observatory -- an hour southwest of Tucson, Arizona -- is dedicated. The space race with the Soviets had propelled the search for a facility that would be available to the entire astronomy community.

* Kitt Peak website: @

* Virtual tour: @

* Descriptions of telescopes: @

* Night sky camera: @

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Tuesday, March 15, 1960: Nation's first underwater park

President Eisenhower establishes the Key Largo Coral Reef Preserve in the waters off Florida.

* Proclamation: @

* History of park: @

* History of "Christ of the Abyss" statue: @

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Saturday, March 12, 1960: 'Are Electric Cars Coming Back?'

That was the title of an article in The Saturday Evening Post about the possibilities -- and challenges -- of electric cars. "An electric is the ideal economical urban-suburban family second car for shopping, child-fetching, going to a nearby job," the article says.

* Full text of article: @

* Timeline: @

* Short history: @

* Electric Auto Association website: @

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Saturday, March 5, 1960: Guerrillero Heroico

One of the best-known images of its time, and even today -- a picture of Che Guevara, the minister of industry with the Cuban government -- was taken at a memorial service for people killed in a ship explosion.

* The photo before cropping: @

* From an exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London: @ and @

* Pictures from around the world: @

* Photos and graphics from the book "Che's Afterlife: The Legacy of an Image": @

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Saturday, March 5, 1960: Elvis out of the Army

Sergeant Elvis Presley is officially discharged from active duty after serving nearly two years in the U.S. Army. In a month's time he would record an album ("Elvis is Back") and a television special (as a special guest on "The Frank Sinatra Timex Show").

* Timeline: @

* How rock 'n' roll changed in his absence: @

* "Reconsider Baby" (from "Elvis is Back!", with Boots Randolph on sax):

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Monday, February 29, 1960: 'The Family Circus' debuts

The comic strip -- featuring four children, three parents, two parents and one grandparent -- is, 50 years later, the most widely syndicated cartoon panel in the world. The cartoon usually centers on family life; the one at left is more of its time. (Click on it for a larger view.)

* Official website: @

* More from King Features Syndicate: @

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Monday, February 29, 1960: Playboy Club

Hugh Hefner opens the first Playboy Club (with Bunnies) in Chicago. The model for the Bunny suit (thought to have the ideal Bunny shape) was Suzy Leigh, 5-foot-2 with measurements of 37-23-32.

* History of first club, from Chicago Bar Project: @

* Shel Silverstein's illustrated history of Playboy: @

* Website for former Bunnies and club workers: @

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Tuesday, February 23, 1960: Goodbye to Ebbets Field

Demolition of Ebbets Field begins. It had been the home of the Brooklyn Dodgers before the team moved to Los Angeles before the 1958 season. It was here in 1947 that Jackie Robinson made his debut as the first black major-leaguer.

* Website devoted to Ebbets Field: @

* Official Jackie Robinson website: @

* Video of demolition day: @

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Thursday, February 18 - Sunday, February 28, 1960: Winter Olympics

The Games open in tiny Squaw Valley, California, near Lake Tahoe. They are the first Winter Olympics to be televised in the United States, and would be the springboard for "instant replay," after judges ask CBS if they could review a videotape (they were checking to see whether a skier had missed a gate or not).

* Squaw Valley page on Olympic.org: @

* How Squaw Valley got the games: @

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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: @

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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: @

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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:

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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): @

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