Monday, September 12, 1960: JFK on religion

In a speech to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association in Texas, Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kennedy addresses the issue of religion in the campaign -- specifically, his relationship with the Vatican and whether he as a Roman Catholic would respect the separation of church and state. (This is also known as the "I Believe in an America" speech.)

* Transcript, audio and partial footage (from American Rhetoric): @

* Complete footage, plus question and answer session (from C-SPAN): @

* Earlier JFK speech on "The Religious Issue in American Politics" (April 21, 1960; from National Archives): @

* "Background Memorandum Prepared by Democratic National Committee" (from The American Presidency Project): @
* "Competence, Catholicity and the Candidates" (chapter from "Packaging the Presidency: A History and Criticism of Presidential Campaign Advertising" (Kathleen Hall Jameson, 1984): @

* "The Religious Factor in the 1960 Presidential Election" (Albert J. Menendez, 2011): @
* "The Making of a Catholic President: Kennedy vs. Nixon 1960" (Shaun A. Casey, 2009): @
* Commentaries on speech (from thecatholicthing.org): @

* "Did JFK have a greater impact on religion than any other modern president?" (Dallas Morning News, 2013): @
* "Anti-Catholic Movement" (from "The Oxford Companion to United States History"): @

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Sunday, September 11, 1960: Young Americans for Freedom

The politically conservative group for young people is established during a weekend meeting at the home of William F. Buckley, Jr., then the editor of The National Review magazine. Its founding principles are known as The Sharon Statement (Sharon, Connecticut, being the home of Buckley). The photo at left is of Brian Whalen, a student at Loyola University in Chicago.

* Text of Sharon Statement: @

* YAF website (now called Young America's Foundation): @

* Works by Buckley (from Hillsdale College): @

* The Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal: @

* "Writings of Kirk and Buckley" (C-SPAN video, 2002): @

* "The Other Side of the Sixties: Young Americans for Freedom and the Rise of Conservative Politics" (1997 book by John A. Andrew): @

* "Who's Who in the Tumult of the Far Right" (Life magazine, February 9, 1962): @

* Video of 50th anniversary event: @

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Thursday, August 25 - Sunday, September 11, 1960: Summer Olympics

The Games of the XVII Olympiad take place in Rome, Italy. More than 5,000 athletes from 83 countries are competing in 150 events. The official emblem depicts a Roman she-wolf, nursing Romulus and Remus. (Legend has it that the twins founded the city of Rome.)

-- Emblem: @

* Sunday, September 11: Games conclude. The final medal count: Russia 103, United States 71, Germany 42.

-- Medals by country: @

* Saturday, September 10: Abebe Bikila of Ethiopia wins the marathon -- running barefoot. He is the first black African to win a gold medal.

-- Footage from Olympic.org: @

-- Footage in Italian (two parts): @ and

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* Wednesday, September 7: Don Bragg of the United States wins gold in the pole vault. His nickname is "Tarzan"; he lets loose with a Tarzan yell from the victory podium and hopes to play the jungle man in the movies (as Olympic swimmer Johnny Weissmuller had before him).

-- Life magazine photo spread: @

-- 2003 article: @

-- Excerpts from "A Chance to Dare: The Don Bragg Story" (book):

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* Tuesday, September 6: The battle for the decathlon gold -- between Rafer Johnson of the United States and C.K. Yang of Taiwan -- comes down to the 10th of 10 events, the 1,500-meter race. Johnson has the overall lead, though Yang has won 6 of the previous 9 events. To win the gold, Yang will have to defeat Johnson by more than 10 seconds. He doesn't, as Johnson stays close to Yang throughout the race. (A footnote: Johnson and Yang were close friends, having trained together as teammates at UCLA. The photo above was taken just after the 1,500 meters.)

-- Sports Illustrated story: @

-- Footage of decathlon: @

* Monday, September 5: Cassius Clay, an 18-year-old from Louisville, Kentucky, wins the gold medal in boxing (light heavyweight division). He turns professional after the Games and would have his first pro fight in October.

-- Footage of finals (2 parts): @ and

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* Saturday, September 3: Klaus Zerta of Germany wins a gold medal in rowing (he is the coxswain in men's coxed pairs). Zerta is 13 years and 283 days old, making him the youngest male gold medalist ever.

* Friday, September 2: Wilma Rudolph wins the 100 meters, the first of her 3 gold medals (the others being in the 200 meters and the 4 x 100 relay). Born the 20th of 22 children in St. Bethlehem, Tennessee, she contracted polio as a child and wore a leg brace for several years. Her high school nickname was "Skeeter," but her dazzling Olympic performance would earn her the names "La Gazella Negra" ("The Black Gazelle") in Italy and "La Perle Noire" ("The Black Pearl") in France.

-- More about Rudolph: @ and @ (video) and @ (1994 obituary)

-- Photos and video from Olympic.org : @

-- "Wilma Rudolph and the TSU Tigerbelles": @

-- Time magazine article (September 19, 1960): @

-- Rudolph on "To Tell the Truth":

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* Thursday, September 1: U.S. swimmer Jeff Farrell wins two gold medals, in the 4 x 100 and 4 x 200 relays. His victories were especially noteworthy because he had competed in the U.S. trials in early August just six days after undergoing an emergency appendectomy.

-- More about Farrell: @

* August 30-31: On August 30, East Germany restricted travel between East and West Berlin. On August 31, South Africa lifted the state of emergency that had followed the Sharpesville massacre (see entries of March 21 and April 8-9). While the Games were relatively free of politics, several issues were simmering just below the surface:

-- The Berlin Wall was just a year away. Despite their political differences, the two Germanys competed as one team, under orders from the International Olympic Committee. (More about East Germany's August 30 action: @)

-- These Games would be the last in which South Africa would compete until 1992, because of the country's apartheid government.

-- As in 1956, mainland China did not compete, in protest of Taiwan being allowed to take part. In 1960, Taiwan wanted to be designated the Republic of China at the Games. When the IOC would not allow it, the Taiwanese delegation walked in the Parade of Nations behind a sign that read "Under Protest." (Taiwan timeline: @; photo of Taiwan delegation in 1956 Olympics: @)

* August 26: On a blisteringly hot day, during a time trial in the 100-kilometer team event, Danish cyclist Knud Enemark Jensen, 23, falls and fractures his skull. He dies the same day. It's later revealed that he had stimulants in his system. His death would lead the International Olympic Committee to ban performance-enhancing substances and institute drug testing for the 1968 Games.

-- Photos from race: @

-- "Doping in Elite Sport: The Politics of Drugs in the Olympic Movement" (book): @

-- "Dope: A History of Performance Enhancement in Sports from the Nineteenth Century to Today" (book): @

* August 26: CBS begins its television coverage. For viewers in the United States, the Games were tape-delayed -- literally. Footage of the events was flown daily from Rome to New York. The 5-hour difference between the cities meant the footage could arrive in time for Jim McKay (then working for CBS) to host same-day, late-night highlights from New York.

-- TV/radio listings for August 26 (Poughkeepsie Journal): @

* August 25: Opening ceremonies at Olympic Stadium. Rafer Johnson, who will compete in the decathlon, is the first African-American to carry the flag for the United States during the Parade of Nations.

-- Footage of opening ceremonies: @

-- Route of Olympic torch: @

* August 24: The day before the games begin, Pope XXIII blesses the assembled athletes in St. Peter's Square.

-- Text of "A Sound Mind in a Sound Body" (papal address, in Latin -- still trying to find an English-language version): @

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* Sports Illustrated preview: @

* "Rome 1960" (from Olympic.org): @

* Medalists: @

* Daily events (click on "choose the day"): @

* The Official Report of the Organizing Committee: @

* Olympic Games Museum: @

* "Rome 1960: The Olympics That Changed the World" (book): @

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Friday, September 9, 1960: American Football League

The AFL makes its regular-season debut as the Denver Broncos defeat the Boston Patriots, 13-10, before about 21,000 fans in Boston. The eight-team league marks the first serious challenge to the National Football League since the All-American Football Conference ended operations in 1949. (The NFL and the AFL would merge in 1966, with the first Super Bowl in January 1967.)

* Box score: @

* Footage from Patriots practices: @ and @

* History of AFL (from Pro Football Hall of Fame): @

* RememberTheAFL.com (fan website): @

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Thursday, September 8, 1960: Thalidomide

The William S. Merrell Co. (Cincinnati, Ohio) submits a new drug application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for Kevadon, the brand name of a sedative -- thalidomide -- that had been marketed around the world since 1957. Citing safety concerns, the FDA refuses to approve the application and Kevadon would not be available for sale in the United States; however, thousands of patients in the U.S. still received Kevadon, as the company had sent samples to doctors for investigational use. The drug, which was also promoted as easing nausea during pregnancy, was later found to cause severe birth defects, affecting thousands of newborns worldwide (but far fewer in the United States). It would be pulled off the market in 1961 and 1962. (The ads shown here are for Distaval and Valgraine, which were among the brand names in England; click on image to see a larger version. More ads can be seen here.)

Note: Some resources put the application date as September 12; I used September 8, based on a statement given by Merrill's director of medical research to Congress in 1962.

* More about Francis Oldham Kelsey of the FDA, who refused to allow approval of the drug: @ and @ and @

* 2010 articles on Kelsey (New York Times, Washington Post): @ and @

* Thalidomide Victims Association of Canada: @

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Thursday, September 1, 1960: Bill Mauldin

Working for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Bill Mauldin publishes this editorial cartoon about the slow pace of school integration in the United States. (Click here for a larger image.) It was one of several cartoons about race relations drawn by Mauldin, who created the World War II characters "Willie and Joe."

The cartoon appeared six years after Brown v. Board of Education, in which the Supreme Court ruled that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. And it came two months after the National Education Association continued with its cautious approach to the matter, adopting the following statement at its annual meeting (italics are mine): "The National Education Association believes that integration of all groups in our public schools is an evolving process which concerns every state and territory in our nation. The Association urges that citizens approach the matter of desegregation in the public schools with the spirit of fairness, good will and respect for law which has always been an outstanding characteristic of the American people. It is the conviction of the Association that all problems of desegregation in our schools are capable of solution at the state and local levels by citizens of intelligence, saneness and reasonableness working together in the interests of national unity for the common good of all."

* Bill Mauldin website: @

* "Beyond Willie and Joe" (Library of Congress): @

* More about Brown v. Board of Education: @ and @ and @ (National Historic Site)

* Full text of ruling: @

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Undated: The Mercury 13

Under the privately funded Woman in Space program, 19 women are subjected to the same battery of tests as the Mercury 7 astronauts to see if they are fit for spaceflight. Over the course of the program (1960-61), 13 of the women -- the so-called Mercury 13 -- pass the first series of tests; Jerrie Cobb of Oklahoma (left), the first to be tested, is the only one to pass all three phases. (The program would be shelved, however, for a variety of reasons, for reasons ranging from qualifications to politics. The first woman in space would be the Soviet Union's Valentina Tereshkova in June 1963; it would be June 1983 before a American woman -- Sally Ride -- would go into space.)

* NASA summary: @

* Listen to NPR segment: @

* Watch History Channel documentary (5 parts): @

* Time magazine article on Cobb (August 29, 1960): @

* Life magazine article on Cobb (August 29, 1960): @

* "The 'Astronautrix' and the 'Magnificent Male' " (from the book "Impossible to Hold: Women and Culture in the 1960s"): @

* "The Mercury 13: The True Story of Thirteen Women and the Dream of Space Flight" (book): @

* "Right Stuff, Wrong Sex: America's First Women in Space Program" (book): @

* "Promised the Moon: The Untold Story of the First Women in the Space Race" (book): @

* "A Forgotten Moment in Physiology" (scientific paper): @

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Saturday, August 27, 1960: 'Ax Handle Saturday'

A sit-in demonstration turns violent in Jacksonville, Florida, when black protesters are attacked by whites as the protesters leave Woolworth and W.T. Grant stores. Dozens of people -- protesters and bystanders alike -- are injured, and the event gains national attention. (Click on "civil rights" tag for earlier related posts.)

* Anniversary coverage from Florida Times-Union: @

* "It Was Never About a Hot Dog and a Coke" (book: @ and video: @)

* Life magazine coverage (September 12 issue): @

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Saturday, August 27, 1960: The last 'Lousiana Hayride'

The country music radio show began in 1948, broadcasting every Saturday on radio station KWKH from the Municipal Auditorium in Shreveport, Louisiana. The show was carried around the country, as well as overseas on Armed Forces Radio. Through the years performers such as Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Kitty Wells, Jimmie Davis (the two-term "Singing Governor" of Louisiana who wrote "You Are My Sunshine") and Elvis Presley played the so-called "Cradle of the Stars."

* Listen to "The Louisiana Hayride Medley": @

* "Louisiana Hayride: Radio and Roots Music Along the Red River" (book): @

* "Country Chameleons: Cajuns on the Louisiana Hayride": @

* Photos from Elvis' last "Hayride" performance, Dec. 15, 1956. (It was the first time the phrase "Elvis has left the building" was used; you can hear it through a link on this site): @

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Thursday, August 25, 1960: Nixon and Jack Paar

Republican presidential nominee Richard M. Nixon appears on "The Jack Paar Tonight Show." (Democrat John F. Kennedy had appeared earlier; see entry of June 16.) Nixon's wife, Pat, joins him on stage later in the show. Paar's first question -- about Nixon's performance as vice president -- refers to a statement made the previous day by President Eisenhower at a news conference. Eisenhower was asked if he could provide an example of any "major idea" by Nixon that had been adopted by the administration. Eisenhower's memorable reply: "If you give me a week, I might think of one. I don't remember." (The remark would resurface as part of a Kennedy campaign ad, and also during the first Kennedy-Nixon debate on September 26.)

* Transcript of "Jack Paar Show": @

* Kennedy campaign ad: @

* Transcript of Eisenhower news conference: @

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Wednesday, August 24, 1960: Polio vaccine (update)

The surgeon general of the United States approves the use of the oral vaccine developed by Dr. Albert Sabin, shown at left. (See entry of April 24.)

* Surgeon general's statement: @

* Footage of oral vaccine trials earlier in the year in Florida: @

* Excerpt from "Sentinel for Health: A History of the Centers for Disease Control": @

* "Sabin versus Salk" -- excerpt from "Great Feuds in Medicine: Ten of the Liveliest Disputes Ever": @

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Undated: Little Richard goes gospel

The rock 'n' roll whirlwind -- whose '50s hits included "Tutti-Frutti," "Good Golly, Miss Molly" and "Lucille" -- releases two gospel albums after saying he is giving up popular music for the ministry. The albums are called "Pray Along with Little Richard, Vol. 1: A Closer Walk With Thee" and "Pray Along with Little Richard, Vol. 2: I'm Quitting Show Business."

* Listen to "Just A Closer Walk with Thee": @

* Biographies: @ and @

* Discography: @

* Fan site: @

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Undated: Origin of the word 'paparazzi'

The word -- usually meaning aggressive, intrusive celebrity photographers -- enters the language after the movie "La Dolce Vita" is released. (At left is a scene from the movie; it premiered in Italy in February 1960, but would not be shown in the United States until April 1961.) Among the movie's characters is a photographer named Paparazzo.

* Movie summary: @

* Reappraisal of movie by Roger Ebert: @

* NPR segment on paparazzi: @

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