October 1961: 'Waterfall'

Dutch artist M.C. Escher completes the lithograph "Waterfall," which appears to depict the never-ending movement of water. The illusion makes use of the Penrose Triangle, a so-called "impossible object" that seems plausible when viewed 2-dimensionally but can't be replicated in 3 dimensions.

* Official Escher website: @

* "M.C. Escher's Legacy: A Centennial Celebration" (book): @

* Video of reconstructed "Waterfall": @

* "Escher for Real": @

* More about Penrose Triangle: @

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October 1961: Electronic calculators

Made by the Bell Punch Company and marketed through Sumlock Comptometer Ltd., the first electronic desktop calculators are introduced: the ANITA Mark VII (pictured) at the Hamburg Business Equipment Fair in Germany, and the ANITA Mark VIII at the Business Efficiency Exhibition in London.

* www.anita-calculators.info: @

* Entry from Vintage Calculator Web Museum: @

* Entry from oldcalculatormuseum.com: @

* Advertisement: @

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Thursday, October 5, 1961: 'Breakfast at Tiffany's'

Star and style came together as Audrey Hepburn played Holly Golightly in "Breakfast at Tiffany's," loosely based on the 1958 novel by Truman Capote. (The movie had its New York premiere on this date.) The black Givenchy dress that Hepburn wore became a star in its own right; it is typically considered one of cinema's most fashionable images. The film, nominated for 5 Academy Awards, won two, both for its music: Henry Mancini won for best score, while Mancini and Johnny Mercer won for the song "Moon River."

* Short summary: @

* Overview from www.tcm.com: @

* New York Times review: @

* Excerpt from "Breakfast at Tiffany's: The Official 50th Anniversary Companion" (book by Sarah Gristwood): @

* "Fifth Avenue, 5 a.m.: Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany's, and the Dawn of the Modern Woman" (book by Sam Wasson): @

* Watch trailer: @

* Watch opening sequence: @

* Truman Capote reads from novel: @

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Wednesday, October 4, 1961: McComb, Mississippi

From The Associated Press: "A civil rights demonstration on the City Hall steps resulted in the mass arrests of 144 Negro pupils and one white man. The group -- junior high and high school pupils -- was protesting the expulsion from school of four Negroes Wednesday arrested earlier in a chain store sit-in. Police said several white men punched the lone white demonstrator before police rescued him. He was jailed 'for his own protection,' police said. Demonstrators marched with signs through the streets of this southwest Mississippi town and made speeches outside the City Hall. Police say they booked all of them on breach of peace charges. The Congress of Racial Equality at Jackson identified the white man as Bob Zellener, 22, of Atlanta. CORE said he is a field worker for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Police Chief George Guy said Zellener's assailants left before deputies could arrest them."

For some weeks tensions had been increasing in and around McComb, particularly since September, when Herbert Lee, a black farmer working to register other blacks to vote, was shot and killed by E.H. Hurst, a white state legislator. Hurst claimed he acted in self-defense; a coroner's jury ruled that Lee's death was justifiable homicide.

* Summary of McComb voter registration efforts (from Civil Rights Movement Veterans website): @

* Interviews with key figures in McComb events: (joint project of McComb High School and The Urban School of San Francisco): @

* www.mccomblegacies.org: @

* Excerpt from "Local People: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi" (book by John Dittmer): @

* Excerpt from "I've Got the Light of Freedom: The Organizing Tradition and the Mississippi Freedom Struggle" (book by Charles M. Payne): @

* Excerpt from "Many Minds, One Heart: SNCC's Dream for a New America" (book by Wesley C. Hogan): @

* "A Circle of Trust: Remembering SNCC" (book by Cheryl Lynn Greenberg): @

* "Woke Up This Morning with My Mind Stayed on Freedom" (how events in McComb inspired this civil rights song; from the book "Sing for Freedom: The Story of the Civil Rights Movement Through Its Songs"): @

* Excerpt from "The Wrong Side of Murder Creek: A White Southerner in the Freedom Movement" (book by Bob Zellner and Constance Curry): @

* www.bobzellner.com: @

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Tuesday, October 3, 1961: 'The Dick Van Dyke Show'

The situation comedy premieres on CBS. The show features Van Dyke's work life as well as his home life: he plays a writer for a TV comedy show. The memorable opening of Van Dyke tripping over an ottoman as he arrives home did not appear until the show's second season.

* Overview (from Museum of Broadcast Communications): @

* Official website: @

* "The Official Dick Van Dyke Show Book" (book by Vince Waldron): @

* dick-van-dyke-show.blogspot.com: @

* Watch episodes (from www.hulu.com): @

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October 1961: Robert Johnson

Columbia Records releases the compilation album "Robert Johnson -- King of the Delta Blues Singers," generating a wider interest in and appreciation of the recordings of Johnson, who died in 1938.

* Short biography (from allmusic.com): @

* Robert Johnson Blues Foundation: @

* "The Robert Johnson Notebooks": @

* Website for film "Can't You Hear the Wind Howl: The Life & Music of Robert Johnson": @

* "Searching for Robert Johnson" (Vanity Fair, November 2008): @

* "Robert Johnson: Lost and Found" (book by Barry Lee Pearson, Bill McCullough): @

* "Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues" (book by Elijah Wald): @; Wald's website: @

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Sunday, October 1, 1961: Roger Maris

The New York Yankees outfielder hits his 61st home run, breaking Babe Ruth's single-season record of 60 from 1927. But because major league baseball teams played 162 games instead of the 154 in Ruth's day -- and because Maris wasn't nearly as popular as teammate Mickey Mantle -- Maris' accomplishment wasn't fully appreciated in its day.

* Footage of home run No. 61: @

* Home run list (from www.baseball-almanac.com): @

* "Pursuit of No. 60: The Ordeal of Roger Maris" (Sports Illusrated, October 2, 1960): @

* Roger Maris Museum (Fargo, North Dakota): @

* Anniversary website: @

* "Maris Anniversary: The Catch of a Lifetime": @

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Thursday, September 28, 1961: Webster's Third

"Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged" or just "Webster's Third," is published by the G. & C. Merriam Company. The edition receives considerable publicity, not all of it positive:

-- The word "ain't" is included (see picture). "A dictionary's embrace of the word 'ain't' will comfort the ignorant, confer approval upon the mediocre, and subtly imply that proper English is the tool only of the snob; but it will not assist men to speak true to other men. It may, however, prepare us for that future which it could help to hasten. In the caves, no doubt, a grunt will do." (Toronto Globe and Mail)

-- "The label 'colloquial,' formerly applied to any word usage outside strict academic usage, has been dropped." (Associated Press)

-- "The new volume also clears up another tricky grammatical problem by asserting that there are some prepositions you can end a sentence with." (United Press International)

-- "The most startling innovation is the sprightly use of quotations from famous people to illustrate shades of meaning. To show how the word 'drain' can mean 'exhaust,' the dictionary borrows Ethel Merman's dictum: 'Two shows a day drain a girl.' 'Puff' in the sense of 'overrate' is defined by Willie Mays: 'Hit too many homers and people start puffing you up.' (Life magazine, September 15)

-- "Its rule of thumb seems to be: anything people say goes into the book. Thus, that most monstrous of all non-words -- irregardless -- is included." (Life magazine, October 27)

-- "We suggest to the Webster's editors that they not throw out the printing plates of the Second Edition. There is likely to be a continuing demand for it ... " (New York Times, October 12)

* Preface of dictionary: @

* Entry from "Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage": @

* "Ain't That the Truth / Webster's Third: The Most Controversial Dictionary in the English Language" (Humanities magazine, 2009): @

* "The Story of Webster's Third: Philip Gove's Controversial Dictionary and Its Critics" (book by Herbert C. Morton): @

* Excerpt from "Dictionaries and the Authoritarian Tradition" (book by Walter de Gruyter): @

* Excerpt from "The Lexicographer's Dilemma: The Evolution of 'Proper' English, from Shakespeare to 'South Park' " (book by Jack W. Lynch and John T. Lynch): @

* "Merriam-Webster and Webster's Third": @

* "A Non-Word Deluge" (Life magazine, October 1961): @

* "Logomarchy-Debased Verbal Currency" (editorial in American Bar Association Journal, January 1962): @

* "When a Dictionary Could Outrage" (New York Times, 2011): @

* Dictionary Society of North America: @

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Tuesday, September 26, 1961: Bob Dylan

Appearing on the bill with the Greenbriar Boys, Bob Dylan begins a two-week run at Gerde's Folk City in New York. Robert Shelton of The New York Times catches the show, and on Friday, September 29, his influential review appears in the Times.

Headlined "Bob Dylan: A Distinctive Folk-Song Stylist," Shelton describes Dylan as "resembling a cross between a choir boy and a beatnik" and "both comedian and tragedian." He concludes: "But if not for every taste, his music-making has the mark of originality and inspiration, all the more noteworthy for his youth. Mr. Dylan is vague about his antecedents and birthplace, but it matters less where he has been than where he is going, and that would seem to be straight up."

Within a month Dylan would sign a contract with Columbia Records; within two months, he would be recording his first album.

* Excerpt from "No Direction Home: The Life and Music of Bob Dylan" (book by Shelton): @

* "Bob Dylan's Big Break" (Entertainment Weekly, 1997): @

* Description of handbill (video by Pete Howard, www.postercentral.com): @

* www.bobdylan.com: @

* Earlier blog post about Dylan: @

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Monday, September 25, 1961: Green Berets

From www.military.com: During World War II, U.S. Army Special Forces personnel wore a variety of headgear during their operations as members of special operations units. Those who served with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in Europe often adopted whatever headgear their French or Belgian Resistance compatriots wore. This was often a beret, since many of the OSS teams served in France. The beret, worn in a variety of styles and colors, even showed up on OSS personnel in the Far East. Many of the first members of the U.S. Army 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne), formed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, in June 1952, were veterans of the OSS. Berets of various types and colors began being worn unofficially as early as 1954 on the unit's field exercises in Germany and at Fort Bragg and Camp Mackall, North Carolina. The color green was favored because it was reminiscent of the World War II British Commando-type beret that had been adopted by the Commandos on 24 October 1942. After testing in 1955, the 77th Special Forces Group (Airborne) at Fort Bragg specified, still unofficially that its soldiers wear a beret of Canadian Army design in rifle green. Special Forces personnel in Europe in the 10th Special Forces Group (A) simultaneously adopted a green beret, even wearing it publicly with the Army Class A uniform, despite the lack of official approval. Special Forces troopers first wore the green beret publicly at Fort Bragg during a retirement parade in 1955. In 1957, however, the Fort Bragg post commander banned the wearing of the beret. This ban was reversed on 25 September 1961 by DA (Department of the Army) Message 578636, which authorized the green beret as the official Army headgear to be worn by Special Forces. The first official wearing of the newly authorized green beret was at a Special Forces demonstration staged for President John F. Kennedy at Fort Bragg on 12 October 1961.

From www.specialoperations.com: (Kennedy) sent word to the Special Warfare Center commander, Brigadier General William P. Yarborough, for all Special Forces soldiers to wear their berets for the event. President Kennedy felt that since they had a special mission, Special Forces should have something to set them apart from the rest. Even before the presidential request, hoever, the Department of the Army had acquiesced and teletyped a message to the Center authorizing the beret as a part of the Special Forces uniform. ... Gen. Yarborough wore his green beret to greet the commander-in-chief. The president remarked, "Those are nice. How do you like the green beret?" General Yarborough replied: "They're fine, sir. We've wanted them a long time."

A message from President Kennedy to General Yarborough later that day stated: "My congratulations to you personally for your part in the presentation today ... The challenge of this old but new form of operations is a real one and I know that you and the members of your command will carry on for us and the free world in a manner which is both worthy and inspiring. I am sure that the green beret will be a mark of distinction in the trying times ahead."

In an April 11, 1962, White House memorandum for the United States Army, President Kennedy showed his continued support for the Special Forces, calling the green beret "a symbol of excellence, a badge of courage, a mark of distinction in the fight for freedom."

* "A Short History of the Use of Berets in the U.S. Army" (from www.army.mil): @

* "Distinctive Beret Uniform History of U.S. Armed Services" (by retired Air Force Master Sergeant John Cassidy): @

* Special Operations Forces history (from www.soc.mil): @

* "Wear and Appearance of Army Uniforms and Insignia" (Department of the Army): @

* "Special Forces Qualification Course" (from www.baseops.net): @

* Airborne & Special Operations Museum (Fayetteville, North Carolina): @

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Sunday, September 24, 1961: 'Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color'

The weekly series gets a new name (from "Walt Disney Presents"), a new network (from ABC to NBC) and a "new" technology (color television, which was only in about 1% of American households at the time). The first episode introduces a new character as well: Professor Ludwig von Drake, who explains light and color (and sings "The Spectrum Song").

* Entry from "Brought to You in Living Color: 75 Years of Great Moments in Television" (book by Marc Robinson: @

* TV Guide stories about Disney (from 1961): @

* Episode list (from 1954 to 1996): @

* Watch show's opening: @

* Watch Ludwig von Drake on first episode: @

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Friday, September 22, 1961: Freedom Rides (update)

The Interstate Commerce Commission Friday barred racial discrimination on interstate buses or in their terminal facilities. (The Associated Press)

Acting on a petition by Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, the Interstate Commerce Commission issues an order titled "Discrimination in Operations of Interstate Motor Carriers of Passengers," to go into effect November 1. It reads, in part:

180a (1) Discrimination prohibited. No motor common carrier of passengers subject to section 216 of the Interstate Commerce Act shall operate a motor vehicle in interstate or foreign commerce on which the seating of passengers is based upon race, color, creed, or national origin.

180a (4) Discrimination in terminal facilities. No motor common carrier of passengers subject to section 216 of the Interstate Commerce Act shall in the operations of vehicles in interstate or foreign commerce provide, maintain arrangements for, utilize, make available, adhere to any understanding for the availability of, or follow any practice which includes the availability of, any terminal facilities which are so operated, arranged or maintained as to involve any separation of any portion thereof, or in the use thereof on the basis of race, color, creed, or national origin.

Ray Arsenault, author of "Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice," would describe the order this way: "This was the first unambiguous victory in the long road of the civil rights movement. It finally said that 'you know, we can do this,' and it raised expectations across the board for greater victories in the future."

Buses were also required to post signs stating: "Seating aboard this vehicle is without regard to race, color, creed, or national origin, by order of the Interstate Commerce Commission." The sign at left was removed from a Greyhound bus at the terminal in Jackson, Mississippi; the "out" in "without" had been cut away. (Photo from http://hist.us/.)

* "Discrimination in Interstate Bus Transportation" (The Crisis magazine, November 1961; includes entire text of ICC order): @

* "Waiting for the ICC" (from Federal Highway Administration): @

* "The ICC Ruling" (also from Federal Highway Administration): @

* Earlier blog post about Freedom Rides: @

* Freedom Rides resources: @

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Tuesday-Wednesday, September 19-20, 1961: Betty and Barney Hill

While driving home to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, after a vacation in Canada, Betty and Barney Hill claim they were taken aboard an alien spacecraft. Their account was not made public until the 1966 book "The Interrupted Journey: Two Lost Hours Aboard a Flying Saucer" by John G. Fuller; excerpts appeared in Look magazine.

* Overview (from www.ufocasebook.com): @

* Website of Kathleen Marden, the Hills' niece: @

* "Captured! The True Story of the World's First Documented Alien Abduction" (book by Stanton T. Friedman and Kathleen Marden): @

* "Talks With Betty Hill: 1 - Aftermath of Encounter" (article by Berthold Eric Schwartz; consultant, Brain Wave Laboratory, Essex County Hospital Center, Cedar Grove, N.J.): @

* The Betty and Barney Hill collection (items at the University of New Hampshire Library): @

* "New Hampshire commemorates Betty and Barney Hill UFO Experience" (from www.openminds.tv): @

* "The White Mountain Abduction" (documentary): @ and @

* "They Know Us Better Than We Know Ourselves: The History and Politics of Alien Abduction" (book by Bridget Brown): @

*"Alien Agenda: Investigating the Extraterrestrial Presence Among Us" (book by Jim Marrs): @

Betty and Barney underwent hypnosis in 1964 in an effort to re-create their experience. During the sessions, Betty drew a "star map" that she said the aliens had shown her. The map is similar to a star system 39 light years from Earth.

* "The Zeta Reticuli Incident," article in Astronomy magazine, December 1974 (from National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena website): @

* Article positing that the map is actually of our own solar system: @

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Monday, September 18, 1961: Dag Hammarskjöld dies

A plane crash in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) kills the secretary-general of the United Nations. He was on a mission to work out a cease-fire between U.N. forces and insurgents in the Katanga region of what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Speculation quickly surfaces that his death was no accident.

* Short biography (from United Nations website): @

* Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation: @

* Website about Hammarskjöld: @

* President Kennedy's speech to General Assembly (September 25, text and audio): @

* Newsreel of Kennedy's speech: @

* Newsreel of Hammarskjöld's death: @

* Newsreel of funeral: @

* United Nations report on plane crash (April 24 1962; click on "English"): @
* "Evidence suggests UN chief's plane was shot down" (The Guardian, August 17, 2011): @
* More about the Democratic Republic of the Congo, including history (from Library of Congress): @

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Monday, September 18, 1961: Pork belly futures

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange begins trading pork belly futures.

From a 1991 article by The Associated Press: "A pork belly futures contract is an obligation to deliver or take delivery of 40,000 pounds of frozen bellies on a future date at a specified price."

From a 2010 article in The Wall Street Journal: "The pork belly, a slab of frozen meat from which bacon is cut ... earned the exchange the nickname 'The House That Bellies Built.' ... The contract started ... as a way for meat packers and food companies to manage their price risk of bacon. Pork bellies were frozen and stored away in winter, and then thawed out in the summer to accommodate the annual summer increase in demand for bacon as the nation munched through millions of bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches. The seasonal pattern gave rise to the need for producers to hedge against price fluctuations."

Photo from Chicago Tribune, 1967.

* "History of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange" (from 1970): @

* Timeline: @

* "The Ode: Pork Belly Futures (1961-2011)" (from canadianbusiness.com): @

* Trade in Pork Bellies Comes to an End, but the Lore Lives" (New York Times, July 2011): @

* "End of an Era: R.I.P. Pork Belly Futures" (July 2011): @

* CNBC video (2010): @

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