Sunday, November 19, 1961: Michael Rockefeller

The youngest son of New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller disappears in New Guinea. He had been studying the Asmat tribe and collecting native art. Through the years various theories have been put forth as to his fate. He was declared legally dead in 1964.

* Short summary from outsideonline.com: @

* Long summary from trutv.com: @

* Newsreel (from britishpathe.com): @

* Newsreel (from criticalpast.com): @

* Life magazine article (December 1, 1961): @

* Website for the documentary "The Search for Michael Rockefeller": @

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Monday, November 13, 1961: Pablo Casals at the White House

Spanish cellist Pablo Casals' dramatic rendition of "Song of the Birds" closes an evening of classical music at the White House. The performances, considered a cultural high point in the Kennedy years, were recorded and released as the album "A Concert at the White House."

* NPR story (from 2011): @

* Kennedy's remarks: @

* Listen to "Song of the Birds": @

* More about "Song of the Birds" (from kennedy-center.org): @

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Saturday, November 11, 1961: Volgograd

From a Reuters story that appeared Nov. 11 in The New York Times:

The "Hero City" of Stalingrad has been renamed Volgograd, the Soviet Communist Party newspaper Pravda reported today.

The move was the third name change of a Soviet city named for Stalin since the sweeping "de-Stalinization" program of Premier Khrushchev was stepped up last month.

The huge steel city of Stalinsk in southern Siberia reverted today to its old name of Novokuznetsk and the Ukrainian mining city of Stalino was renamed Donetsk yesterday.

Last Wednesday the Mayor of Stalingrad, which earned the status of "Hero City" because of its defeat of Nazi Armies in World War II, said the proposals had been made to change the city's name.

Pravda reported the Stalingrad name change in a decree issued today by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet (Parliament) of the Russian Republic.

Cities in the Soviet Union still carrying the former Soviet leader's name include Stalinabad, capital of the Tadzhik Republic; Stalinogorsk, in central European Russia; and Staliniri, in the Georgian Republic.

The highest mountain in the Soviet Union, a 24,590-foot peak in the Pamirs, is also named for Stalin.

Note: The photo is of "The Motherland" statue commemorating World War II's Battle of Stalingrad. It was completed in 1967.

* Volgograd website: @

* "The High Cost of Forgetting Stalin" (Life magazine, November 17, 1961): @

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Thursday, November 9, 1961: Pro golf

From The New York Times:

Pro Golf Organization Ends Ban

Against Nonwhites as Members

The Professional Golfers Association eliminated the "Caucasian" clause from its constitution yesterday and thereby opened the way to membership for Negroes and Orientals. ...

Although the United States Golf Association has permitted nonwhites to compete in all its championships, including the Open, only a handful of Negro professionals are considered good enough to climb the ladder to P.G.A. Class A membership for players. ...

Members of the P.G.A. tournament bureau said yesterday that Charlie Sifford (shown at left) of Los Angeles was the leading Negro player on the tournament tour.

In 1957 Sifford won the Long Beach open, a 54-hold event. Last spring, after the Masters tourney at Augusta, Ga., an invitation event for which he was not eligible, he competed in the Greater Greensboro open in North Carolina.

That made him the first member of his race to play in a P.G.A. co-sponsored event in the South. He tied for fourth and earned $1,300, his top prize of the year.

* Sifford profile at World Golf Hall of Fame: @

* "Charlie Sifford broke barriers, but no one broke his spirit" (Los Angeles Times, 2011): @

* "African American Golfers During the Jim Crow Era" (book): @

* "A Course of Their Own: A History of African American Golfers" (book): @

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Author's note

Just now seeing that Time magazine has limited access to its archived stories to print subscribers only. Until and unless I get a subscription, you're likely to see very few mentions of Time coverage. Too bad. Great resource.

November 9, 1961: 'Flying bicycle'

What's believed to be the first flight of a human-powered aircraft capable of taking off under its own power takes place as Derek Piggott pedals a plane to a height of 5 feet and a distance of 50 yards. The SUMPAC (Southampton University Man Powered Aircraft) was designed and built by students at the British university.

* Anniversary story from The Guardian newspaper: @

* Video (from britishpathe.com): @

* Website for SUHPA (Southampton University Human Powered Aircraft): @

* "Gossamer Odyssey: The Triumph of Human-Powered Flight" (book by Morton Grosser): @

* "Man-Powered Flight" (Flying magazine, June 1963): @

* "Man-Powered Flight" (Popular Science magazine, January 1971): @

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Wednesday. November 8, 1961: Insider trading

From "The Iconic Insider Trading Cases," by Stephen M. Bainbridge, law professor, UCLA School of Law, Law & Economics Research Paper Series:

The modern federal insider trading prohibition fairly can be said to have begun with Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC or "Commission") enforcement action in Cady, Roberts & Co. Curtiss-Wright Corporation's board of directors decided to reduce the company's quarterly dividend. One of the directors, J. Cheever Cowdin, was also a partner of stock brokerage firm Cady, Roberts & Co. Before the news was announced, Cowdin informed one of his partners, Robert M. Gintel, of the impending dividend cut. Gintel then sold several thousand shares of Curtiss-Wright stock held in customer accounts over which he had discretionary trading authority. When the dividend cut was announced, Curtiss-Wright's stock price fell several dollars per share. Gintel's customers thus avoided substantial losses.

Cady, Roberts involved what is now known as tipping: an insider who knows confidential infromation does not himself trade, but rather informs -- tips -- someone else, who does trade. It also involved trading on an impersonal stock exchange, instead of a face-to-face transaction. As the SEC acknowledged, this made it "a case of first impression." Nonetheless, the SEC held that Gintel had violated Rule 10b-5.

* SEC ruling (in PDF form): @

* Summary of case and links (from sechistorical.org): @

* Insider trading timeline (from procon.org): @

* General information about insider trading (from upstartraising.com): @

* "From Horse Trading to Insider Trading: The Historical Antecedents of the Insider Trading Debate" (Paula J. Dalley, William and Mary Law Review, 1998): @

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November 1961: 'The Fantastic Four'

Mister Fantastic, the Human Torch, Invisible Girl and The Thing -- all given extraordinary powers after a spaceflight through cosmic radiation -- make their comic-book debut in Marvel's answer to DC's Justice League of America.

* Entry from marvel.com: @

* Series history from www.comics.org: @

* Series history from comicbookdb.com: @

* JC's Fantastic Four site: @

* "The Science of Superheroes" (book by Lois H. Gresh, Robert Weinberg): @

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November 1961: 'The Executive Coloring Book'

The tongue-in-cheek look at corporate life becomes a surprising best-seller. Wrote Time magazine, " 'The Executive Coloring Book' and a box of crayons will provide many a happy hour to growing vice presidents..." The book was written by Marcie Hans, Dennis Altman and Martin A. Cohen, who all worked in advertising in Chicago. Hans would go on to write "The Executive Cut-Out Book," while Altman and Cohen would team up on "The John Birch Coloring Book."

* Contents of "The Executive Coloring Book": @

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Wednesday, November 1, 1961: Women Strike for Peace

Thousands of women throughout the United States demonstrate in protest against nuclear weapons. The rallies were organized by Women Strike for Peace, founded by Bella Abzug and Dagmar Wilson. WSP's guiding statement, adopted in 1962:

"We are women of all races, creeds and political persuasions. We are dedicated to the purpose of complete and general disarmament. We demand that nuclear tests be banned forever, that the arms race end and the world abolish all weapons of destruction under United Nations safeguards. We cherish the right and accept the responsibility to act to influence the course of goverment for peace. ... We join with women throughout the world to challenge the right of any nation or group of nations to hold the power of life and death over the world."

* Official website: @

* "Women Strike for Peace: Traditional Motherhood and Radical Politics in the 1960s" (book by Amy Swerdlow): @

* "Peace as a Women's Issue: A History of the U.S. Movement for World Peace and Women's Rights" (book by Harriet Hyman Alonso): @

* Video footage: @

* "U.S. Women Parade in Bid to End Arms Race" (The Age newspaper, Melbourne, Australia, November 3, 1961): @

* "Jackie and Nina Plead for Peace" (responses from Jacqueline Kennedy and Nina Khrushchev; Miami News, November 15, 1961): @

* Slideshow of 1962 protest at Nevada Test Site: @

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October 30, 1961: Tsar Bomba

From Cornell University Library: Tsar Bomba ("King Bomb" in Russian) is the nickname for the AN602 hydrogen bomb, the most powerful nuclear weapon ever detected. Developed by the Soviet Union, the bomb was originally designed to have a yield of about 100 megatons of TNT. However, the bomb yield was reduced to 50 megatons to reduce nuclear fallout. The attempt was successful, as it was one of the cleanest nuclear bombs ever detonated. Only one bomb of this type was ever built and it was tested on October 30, 1961, in the Novaya Zemlya archipeloago. Weighing 27 tons, the bomb was so large (26 ft long and 6.6 ft in diameter) that the bomber that carried it had to have its bomb bay doors and fuselage fuel tanks removed. The bomb was attached to a 1,760-lb. fall-retardation parachute, which gave the release and observer planes time to fly about 28 miles from ground zero. The fireball, about 5 miles in diameter, was prevented from touching the ground by the shockwave, but nearly reached the 6.5 mile altitude of the deploying bomber.

* Summary (from wired.com): @

* Summary and videos (from nuclearweaponarchive.org): @

* "Moscow's Biggest Bomb" (from Cold War International History Project, page 3): @

* Map of blast site (from Corbis Images): @

* Newspaper front pages: @ and @

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Monday-Tuesday, October 30-October 31, 1961: Stalin's body

The New York Times, October 30:

Stalin's Body to Be Moved

From Tomb in Red Square

Party Votes Unanimously to Transfer

Downgraded Dictator From Side of

Lenin in Communism's Shrine

MOSCOW, Oct. 30 -- The Soviet Union took the dramatic step of shattering the image of Stalin today by ordering his body removed from its place beside the sarcophagus of Lenin in the great mausoleum in Red Square.

The transfer of the body of Stalin, preserved by a secret chemical formula since his death in March, 1953, was approved unanimously by the twenty-second congress of the Soviet Communist party.

For Premier Khrushchev, the congress resolution symbolized the defeat of elements in the Soviet Union that have opposed his post-Stalin reforms. It capped the campaign of de-Stalinization begun by Mr. Khrushchev at the twentieth party congress in 1956.

Stalin had been denounced by Mr. Khrushchev for opposing the Leninist thesis of "peaceful coexistence" and for his internal regime of terror.

From a 2009 story in Pravda: "(In 1953) Stalin's body was embalmed and placed for public viewing in Lenin's Mausoleum, which was then called 'The Mausoleum of V.I. Lenin and I.V. Stalin.' On October 30, 1961, the 22nd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union ruled that Stalin's gross desecration of Lenin's legacy made it impossible to keep the casket with his body in the Mausoleum. Stalin's body was removed from the Mausoleum on the night of October 31, 1961, and buried in the grave underneath the Kremlin wall."

The official statement from the 22nd Congress (translations vary; this is from the Times article): "The further presence in the mausoleum of the sarcophagus with the coffin of J.V. Stalin shall be regarded as inexpedient because the serious violations by Stalin of the Leninist behests, the abuses of power, the mass reprisals against honest Soviet people and other actions during the period of the personality cult make it impossible to leave the coffin with his body in the V.I. Lenin Mausoleum."

Stalin's name was also removed from the outside of the mausoleum.

* Excerpt from "Digging up the Dead: A History of Notable American Reburials" (book by Michael G. Kammen): @

* "The speech Russia wants to forget" (about Khrushchev's 1956 speech; from BBC): @

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Friday-Saturday, October 27-28, 1961: Standoff in Berlin

For 16 tense hours, tanks from the United States and the Soviet Union face off on either side of the Berlin Wall, at the Friedrichstrasse crossing point (also known as Checkpoint Charlie). Tensions had escalated over the past several days over the issue of Allied access to the Soviet sector. In the end, neither side was willing to take the next military step, though all the tanks were fully armed. After back-channel negotiations, Soviet tanks pulled back first, followed by the Americans.

* Summary from U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center: @

* Summary from Frederick Kempe, author of "Berlin 1961": @

* Summary from The Atlantic Times (monthly newspaper in Germany): @

* Summary and CNN video (from www.liveleak.com): @

* Footage from www.britishpathe.com: @

* "Berlin crisis: The standoff at Checkpoint Charlie" (from The Guardian newspaper; click on photo with story for explanation): @

* Checkpoint Charlie (from berlin.de): @

* "Kennedy and the Berlin Wall" (book by W.R. Smyser): @

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October 1961: 'The Death and Life of Great American Cities'

The influential book by urban activist Jane Jacobs is published. In it, the New York resident takes direct aim at urban planning policies. From a 2011 article in The Guardian newspaper: "Jacobs, a housewife, mother and part-time architectural journalist, had been drawn into the campaign to prevent New York's dictatorial planning boss Robert Moses -- who had already ripped up swaths of the city -- from driving a highway through her native Greenwich Village. ... But her book did not just dwell, negatively, on the harm New York's car-obsessed, modern-minded planners were doing. Building on close observeration of her own and other neighborhoods, she mounted a thorough and original defense of traditional city forms against both the garden city movement and modernist city planning. She argued that dense, mixed-income mixed-use neighborhoods, designed around short city blocks with busy amenity-lined streets and small parks, had a huge range of benefits unappreciated by modern urban planners, who mistakenly associated the old city with all the evils of the 19th-century slum."

The photo shows Jacobs at a December 1961 news conference of the Committee to Save the West Village. (From the New York World-Telegram & Sun Newspaper Collection, Library of Congress)

* Short biography (from Project for Public Spaces): @

* New York Times review (November 5, 1961): @

* "Cobblestone Conservative: How Jane Jacobs saved New York City's Soul" (The American Conservative, October 2011): @

* Symposium on book and its impact (From The American Conservative): @

* "Genius of Common Sense: Jane Jacobs and the story of 'The Death and Life of Great American Cities' " (book by Glenna Lang and Marjory Wunsch): @

* "Wrestling with Moses: How Jane Jacobs Took On New York's Master Builder and Transformed the American City" (book by Anthony Flint): @

* "Downtown is for People" (1958 article by Jacobs in Fortune magazine): @

* New York Times obituary (2006): @

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Tuesday, October 24, 1961: Prime minister's questions

After a trial run in July, Prime Minister's Question Time is made a part of England's parliamentary proceedings. The format allows members of Parliament to ask questions directly to the prime minister in the House of Commons. An information sheet prepared for Parliament says the questions are meant "to seek information, to press for action and to hold the Government to account." The sessions take place twice a week, for 15 minutes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. (In 1997, Prime Minister Tony Blair would change it to a single 30-minute session weekly.)

Harold Macmillan, prime minister in 1961, described it this way:

"You have to know who is your questioner ... like a prep school, there are boys who are popular, whom you must never slap down, even if they are asking a silly question. then there are the unpopular, the tiresome, and the House rather enjoys their being slapped down ... You must remember that, like a school, on the whole it dislikes the front bench (the masters) ... often you can turn an enemy into a friend, by some slight recognition. Always keep your temper ... and always have a good control of questions and supplementaries ... in many ways it is the most anxious work; I would never have lunched out on question day."

The photo is from 2007; Prime Minister Tony Blair is at center left.

* History and procedure (from www.parliament.uk): @

* Explainer (from BBC): @

* Explainer (from www.number10.gov.uk): @

* Explainer (from www.parliament.uk): @

* "50 Years of PMQs" (from The Independent newspaper): @

* "Prime Minister's Question Time celebrates 50 years" (from The Telegraph newspaper): @

* "What's the art of answering a tricky question?" (from the BBC): @

* Videos of questions from 2008 to present day: (from www.parliament.uk): @

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