Saturday, November 6, 1965: 'Restoring the Quality of Our Environment'

Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring" brought public attention to the pesticide menace contaminating the environment, but this only dealt with one portion of the problems Americans started referring to as "pollution." Evidence of this growing national concern was the appointment of an Environmental Pollution Panel by the President's Science Advisory Committee. In 1965 the panel produced a report that chronicled the concerns that dominated environmental policy and legislation for the reminder of the 20th century. ... The panel explained that air, water and land pollution threatens the "health, longevity, livelihood, recreation, cleanliness and happiness of citizens" who cannot escape their influence. ... Consistent with Carson's explanation of the dangers of DDT, the panel made an ecological argument for the necessity of federal environmental management.

     -- "Social History of the United States" (2009): @

In a comprehensive report titled "Restoring the Quality of Our Environment," the PSAC Environmental Pollution Panel (President's Science Advisory Committee, 1965) considered pollution in its broadest contest and made more than a hundred specific recommendations. The philosophy of the panel was based on the assumption that pollution is a by-product of a technological society and that pollution problems will grow with increases in population and improved living standards unless drastic counter-measures to reduce it are taken. The panel offered some sweeping recommendations that placed problems of pollution in a new perspective.
     -- "Land Use and Wildlife Resources" (National Academy of Sciences, 1970): @

A tax on polluters was suggested today by a Presidential advisory group as one way to fight environmental pollution. Environment pollution is a new term that includes such matters as excessive noise and junkyards as well as dirty water and fouled air. The "polluters' tax" was one of more than 100 recommendations made by 14 physicians, scientists and engineers of the President's Science Advisory Committee. The panel advanced in its report a philosophy of "individual rights to quality of living." "There should be no right to pollute," it said. 

     -- New York Times: @

* Full text of report (Hathi Trust Digital Library): @

* President Johnson statement (American Presidency Project): @
* Climate Central: @

* "Top 5 Climate Change Websites" (Carbon Literacy Project): @
* "The Discovery of Global Warming" (American Institute of Physics): @

* "Advancing the Science of Climate Change" (National Research Council, 2010): @
* "The Oxford Handbook of Climate Change and Society" (2011): @

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Tuesday, November 2, 1965: Norman Morrison

     A pacifist sacrificed himself in flames in front of the Pentagon. His widow said he gave his life "protesting our government's deep military involvement" in Viet Nam.

     Norman R. Morrison, a Baltimore Quaker, clutched his year-old daughter Emily in one arm late Tuesday as he began to burn. Screams of "drop the baby" from onlookers may have saved her life, for she fell uninjured to the ground.

     Morrison, 31, drenched himself in kerosene and kindled himself as a human torch in full view of hundreds of Defense Department workers and military men.

     -- Story from Associated Press: @

     -- Photo from Associated Press. Original caption: Mrs. Anne Morrison carries her 18-month-old daughter, Emily, from Fort Myer, Va., U.S. Army Dispensary, November 2, 1965, returning to her home in Baltimore, Md. Earlier in the evening her husband, Norman Morrison, a Quaker, with the baby Emily in his arms doused his clothes with a flammable fluid and set himself afire outside the Pentagon. Morrison dropped the baby before he was engulfed and she was not injured, but Morrison was dead on arrival at the dispensary. Mrs. Morrison issued a statement that her husband was protesting U.S. military involvement in Vietnam.

* Summary from "Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War" (2011): @

* "The Fiery Pangs of Conscience" (Loudon Wainwright, Life magazine, November 12, 1965; page 34): @

* "The Sacrifice of Norman Morrison" (Alice Steinbach, Baltimore Sun, July 1995): @
* "In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam" (Robert S. McNamara, 1995): @

* "The Living and the Dead: Robert McNamara and Five Lives of a Lost War" (Paul Hendrickson, 1996): @
* Excerpt from "Patriots: The Vietnam War Remembered from All Sides" (Christian G. Appy, 2003): @ 
* "Held in the Light: Norman Morrison's Sacrifice for Peace and His Family's Journey of Healing" (Anne Morrison Welsh, 2008): @ 

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Thursday, October 28, 1965: Nostra Aetate

Pope Paul and the Vatican ecumenical council Thursday decreed massive changes for the entire structure of Roman Catholicism. They proclaimed a new and unbiased friendship for Jews and other non-Christians. ... The new decrees oblige Catholics to do unprejudiced thinking and dealing with Jews and others outside Christianity after 2,000 years of turbulent history. ... The documents: Insist that the entire Jewish people cannot be charged with Christ's Crucifixion or depicted as accursed by God; pay respect to Islam and other non-Christian religions and reject any kind of discrimination.

     -- Associated Press: @

* "Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions: Nostra Aetate" (Pope Paul VI,  1965): @
* Summary from Berkley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs: @
* "Nostra Aetate: What Is It?" (Anti-Defamation League): @
* "Guidelines and Suggestions for Implementing the Conciliar Declaration 'Nostra Aetate' " Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, 1974): @

* "Notes on the correct way to present the Jews and Judaism in preaching and catechesis in the Roman Catholic Church" (Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews): @

* " 'Nostra Aetate,' Forty Years After Vatican II; Present & Future Perspectives" (Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, 2005): @

* Related resources (Council of Centers on Jewish-Christian Relations): @

* Related resources (JesuitResource.org, Xavier University): @

* "No Religion Is An Island: The Nostra Aetate Dialogues" (1998): @

* "Nostra Aetate: Origins, Promulgation, Impact on Jewish-Catholic Relations" (2007): @ 
* "Stepping Stones to Other Religions: A Christian Theology of Inter-religious Dialogue" (Dermot A. Lane, 2011): @
* "Interreligious Friendship After Nostra Aetate" (2015): @

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Friday, October 15, 1965: David Miller burns his draft card

Tuesday, August 31

President Johnson signed into law Tuesday legislation to prohibit the destruction of draft cards. The measure is an outgrowth of student protests against U.S. policy in Viet Nam. The bill, introduced by Rep. L. Mendel Rivers, D-S.C., was rushed through Congress following reports persons had burned or ripped up their draft cards in protest against the Viet Nam War. The new law makes any person found guilty of destroying the wallet-size Selective Service cards subject to a $10,000 fine or a five-year prison term. Alteration and forgery of drafts cards already is a federal offense, punishable by fines of up to $10,000 and jail terms of up to five years.

     -- United Press International; full text of law (Government Printing Office): @

Friday, October 15

At an anti-war rally in New York, David Miller burns his draft card. Miller would be arrested three days later, becoming the first person charged under the new law. (After a lengthy court battle, he would serve 22 months in federal prison starting in June 1968.)

     -- Photo from Corbis Images

* "Memoirs of a Draft-Card Burner" (Miller, 2002): @

* "Draft Card Burner Arrested by F.B.I." (October 18, 1965): @

* "A Serious To-Do About a Silly Law" (Loudon Wainwright, Life magazine, March 4, 1966): @
* "Card Burner Raps Penalty" (Associated Press, March 15, 1966): @
* United States v. Miller (decided October 13, 1966; from Casetext): @
* "Appeal Rejected by High Court" (UPI, February 13, 1967): @
* "Draft Card Burner Nears 'High Noon' " (Washington Post, July 1967): @
* United States v. O'Brien (decided May 27, 1968; from FindLaw): @
* "Reflections of a Draft Card Burner" (Newspaper Enterprise Association, March 1972): @
* "Confronting the War Machine: Draft Resistance During the Vietnam War" (Michael S. Foley, 2003): @
* Entry from "Encyclopedia of American Civil Liberties" (2006): @

* "America's Army: Making the All-Volunteer Force" (Beth L. Bailey, 2009): @ 
* Entry from "Civil Disobedience: An Encyclopedic History of Dissidence in the United States" (2015): @

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Thursday, October 14, 1965: Programma 101

Desktop computer or programmable calculator? To this day it's a point of contention about Olivetti's Programma 101 (list price $3,200), introduced at the New York World's Fair. The New York Times split the difference in its reporting the next day: 

Two new entries have gone to the post in the race for the desk-calculator dollar. ... The new Olivetti machine, the Programma 101, is closer in nature to a computer than the new Victor device. Like a computer it can automatically run programs calling for a series of arithmetic operations. It can also store or remember these programs internally as well as externally, and through these programs can make simple logical decisions. ... The Olivetti device displays its calculations on a paper printout. Its numerous functions allow it to be used for both business and scientific purposes.

* "The incredible story of the first PC, from 1965" (www.pingdom.com): @

* Entry from www.curtamania.com: @

* Entry from www.silab.it: @
* Entry from The Old Calculator Web Museum: @

* "The invention of the personal computer: a fascinating story ever told" (website of Pier Giorgio Perotto, Olivetti engineer and architect of the Programma 101; use Google translate): @ 
* Operating manual (ClassicCmp): @
* Advertisement (video from Archivio Nazionale del Cinema d'Impresa): @
* 101 Project: @

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Monday, October 11, 1965: Vinland Map

Yale University scholars sliced the frosting off Christopher Columbus' birthday cake Sunday. They've found an ancient map which they say proves that Leif Ericson and other Vikings had explored North America long before Columbus set sail. The map was drawn about 1440 A.D., half a century before Columbus' voyage -- probably by a monk in Basel, Switzerland, using source materials dating back at least to the 13th century, the Yale University Library announced. Greenland is drawn very accurately on the parchment map, and to the west is "Vinland." ... A handwritten notation reads "Discovered by Bjarni and Leif." 

     The map, measuring 11 by 16 inches, will go on display at the Yale library on Tuesday, Columbus Day. Today (October 11) Yale University Press is publishing a book, "The Vinland Map and the Tartar Relation," including reproductions of the map and a manuscript with which it was found.

     -- Associated Press, October 11: @

* "When America Was Called Vinlandia" (Life magazine, October 22, 1965): @

* "Vinland Re-Read" (Paul Saenger, Newberry Library, 1998): @
* "Map Linked to Vikings a Fake, Study Says" (New York Times, February 28, 2000): @

* "Scientists Determine Age of New World Map" (Brookhaven National Laboratory, 2002): @
* "Determination of the Radiocarbon Age of Parchment of the Vinland Map" (Donahue, Olin and Harbottle, Radiocarbon, 2002): @
* "Maps, Myths, and Men: The Story of the Vinland Map" (Kirsten A. Seaver, 2004): @

* "The Viking Deception" ("Nova," PBS, 2005): @ 
* "The Vinland Map -- Some 'Finer Points' of the Debate" (J. Huston McCulloch, Ohio State University, 2005): @
* "Secrets: A Viking Map?" (Smithsonian Channel, 2013): @
* "The Vinland Map" (McCrone Research Institute): @
* "Medieval or Modern?" (Institute for Dynamic Educational Advancement): @ 

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Friday, October 8, 1965: LBJ surgery

President Johnson underwent 2 hours 15 minutes of major surgery Friday for removal of his gall bladder and a kidney stone. Three hours later he was reported "doing well."

     -- Associated Press: @ 

Johnson returned to the White House on October 21. The day before, at Bethesda Naval Hospital, he showed the press his surgical scar. The image would be the basis of a famous cartoon by David Levine, with the scar in the shape of Vietnam (The New York Review of Books, May 12, 1966). Mad magazine would take a similar approach in its January 1968 issue: @

* "Statement by the President That He Would Undergo Surgery" (October 5; American Presidency Project): @ 

* October 8 entry from LBJ Presidential Library: @

* " 'Two Operations for the Price of One' " (Life magazine, October 29): @ 
* David Levine's illustrations for The New York Review of Books: @
* www.davidlevineart.com: @

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1965: Pillsbury Doughboy

Leo Burnett creative director Rudy Perz was sitting at his kitchen table in the mid-1960s when he dreamed up the idea of a plump, dough figure that would pop out of a tube of refrigerated rolls. Since then, Pillsbury has used Poppin' Fresh in more than 600 commercials for more than 50 of its products.

     -- Summary from Advertising Age: @

     -- Image from Life magazine ad, June 10, 1966

Note: The exact date of when the first ad ran (print or TV) is unclear. In an email, Leo Burnett Worldwide says the agency won the company's refrigerated dough account in March 1965, with the idea for the Doughboy conceived in the fall of 1965, making it more likely that the character did not appear until 1966.

* "The creation of Poppin' Fresh" (General Mills): @

* Entry from "Food and Drink in American History: A 'Full Course' Encyclopedia" (edited by Andrew F. Smith, 2013): @

* Pillsbury Doughboy Collectibles: @

* Early TV ad: @

* Obituaries for Rudolph Perz, who died in 2015: @ (Advertising Age) @ (New York Times) and @ (Washington Post) 
* Top 10 icons of 20th century (Advertising Age): @
* "Memorable advertising icons" (CBS News): @

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October 1965: 'Midlife crisis'

The term is coined by psychologist and social analyst Elliot Jaques in his paper "Death and the Mid-Life Crisis," published in the International Journal of Psychoanalysis.

As summarized in The Psychoanalytic Quarterly (1967):

At age thirty-five the individual has reached the summit of life and sees a declining path before him with death at its end. This results in a crisis, stronger in some than others, connected with having to accept the reality of one's death. It is a period of anguish and depression at the anticipated loss of one's life and revives the infantile experience of loss of the good object (mother). Working through the infantile experience again increases one's confidence in being able to love and mourn what has been lost and increases the possibility of enjoying full maturity and old age. If creativity is present, it may take on new depths and shades of feeling. Dante's descent through Purgatory is essentially an expression of the mid-life crisis and its resolution.

* Complete text as reprinted in "Is It Too Late? Key Papers on Psychoanalysis and Ageing" (2006): @

* Entry from Encyclopedia.com (includes links to various summations): @

* Entry from Psychology Today: @

* "Middle Age Couples Are In Comfortable Rut" (Alison Goddard, Women's Medical News Service, 1970): @
* "Passages: Predictable Crises of Adult Life" (Gail Sheehy, 1976): @; author's website: @
* "Men in Midlife Crisis" (Jim Conway, 1997): @
* "The Existential Necessity of Midlife Change" (Carlo Strenger and Arie Ruttenberg, Harvard Business Review, 2008): @

* "Midlife Crisis: A Myth or a Reality in Search of a New Name?" (Vivian Diller, Psychology Today, 2011): @
* "The Myth of the Midlife Crisis" (Anne Tergeson, Wall Street Journal, 2014): @
* "The Intellectual Odyssey of Elliot Jaques: From Alchemy To Science" (Douglas Kirsner, www.psychoanalysis-and-therapy-com): @

* Obituaries for Jaques, who died in 2003: @ (The New York Times) and @ (The Guardian)
* Midlife Club: @
* The World of Dante (University of Virginia): @
* Danteworlds (University of Texas at Austin): @

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October 1965: Gatorade

    Gatorade was the result of an offhand question posed in 1965 by assistant football coach Dewayne Douglas to Dr. J. Robert Cade, a professor renal medicine: "Why don't football players ever urinate during a game?" Cade and his team of researchers -- Drs. Alejando de Quesada, Jim Free and Dana Shires -- began investigating dehydration on the sports field -- a topic on which no reliable data existed.

     They soon designed and tested a drink that replaced the electrolytes lost through sweat during intense exercise. With the permission of the coaches, Cade's team was allowed to test the drink on the freshman football team, which unexpectedly beat the upperclassmen in a practice session (Friday, October 1). Ray Graves, Florida's head coach, immediately ordered up a large batch for his varsity squad, and on Saturday, October 2, the Gators upset the fifth-ranked LSU Tigers, 14-7.

     -- Summary from Cade Museum for Creativity + Invention, Gainesville, Florida

     -- Photo of Florida offensive coordinator Ed Kensler and quarterback Steve Spurrier, September 1966; in the early days players drank the mixture from milk cartons provided by the university's Department of Dairy Science. Image from University of Florida.

* "Gators Do It Again, 14-7" (Ocala Star-Banner, October 3, 1965): @

* "The Taste That's Gatorade" (Newspaper Enterprise Association, April 18, 1967): @
* "Gatorade Gives the Gators Their GO!" (All Florida magazine, April 23, 1967): @
* "Guzzling Gatorade" (Red Smith, September 7, 1967): @
* "The Bottle and the Babe" (Sports Illustrated, July 1, 1968): @
* Interview with Robert Cade (1996; University of Florida Digital Collections): @
* "Gatorade: The Idea That Launched an Industry" (Office of Research, University of Florida, 2003): @ 
* "First in Thirst: How Gatorade Turned the Science of Sweat Into a Cultural Phenomenon" (Darren Rovell, 2006): @
* University of Florida historical marker (dedicated 2007): @

* "Raise a Glass to the Father of Energy Drinks" (New York Times, 2007): @
* A Little Glucose, A Little Sodium, One Giant Legend" (The Post, Health Science Center, University of Florida, December 2007-January 2008, page 4): @
* "Dr. Cade Wins the Orange Bowl" (chapter from "It Happened in Florida: Remarkable Events That Shaped Florida History," 2009): @ 
* "Waterlogged: The Serious Problem of Overhydration in Endurance Sports" (Tim Noakes, 2012): @
* "Gator Go: The Story of a Failed Sports Drink" (Home: Living in the Heart of Florida magazine, October 2014): @ 
* "Lightning in a Bottle" (SportsBusiness Daily, 2015): @
* "Innovation Turns 50" (Office of Research, University of Florida): @
* "The Sweat Solution" (ESPN Films, 2015): @

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Wednesday, September 29, 1965: National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities

President Johnson signs P.L. 89-209, the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act. This piece of legislation established the National Endowment on the Arts and the Humanities Foundation as an umbrella for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), and their respective councils. The NEA begins its first fiscal year with a budget $2.5 million dollars, and fewer than a dozen employees. Six programs are started in that first year, Music, Dance, Literature, Visual Arts, Theater, and Education -- while some 22 institutions and 135 individual artists are funded by the agency.

     -- From NEA website: @

* Text of act (Government Printing Office): @

* Johnson's remarks (American Presidency Project): @

* "How NEH Got Its Start" (NEH website): @

* "National Endowment for the Arts: A History, 1965-2008" (NEA, 2009): @
* "First NEA Grant Awarded to The American Ballet Theatre" (December 20, 1965; NEA website): @

* "Federalizing the Muse: United States Arts Policy and the National Endowment for the Arts, 1965-1980" (Donna M. Binkiewicz, 2004): @
* "Culture Wars: An Encyclopedia of Issues, Viewpoints, and Voices" (edited by Roger Chapman and James Ciment, 2014): @
* "Arts, Humanities, and Politics" (from "American Political Culture: An Encyclopedia," 2015): @

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Saturday, September 25, 1965: 'In Cold Blood'

The first installment of Truman Capote's four-part series is published in The New Yorker magazine. It would be published in book form in January 1966.

* First installment (www.newyorker.com): @

* Second through fourth installments (www.newyorker.com; subscription required): @

* Book: @
* "Horror Spawns A Masterpiece" (Life magazine, January 7, 1966): @
* "The Story Behind a Nonfiction Novel" (George Plimpton, The New York Times, January 16, 1966): @
* Review by Stanley Kauffmann, The New Republic (January 22, 1966): @

* "Truman Capote and the Legacy of 'In Cold Blood' " (Ralph F. Voss, 2011): @ 

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Saturday, September 25, 1965: Republicans' '11th Commandment'

The phrase "Thou shalt not speak ill of any Republican" was first put forth by Gaylord Parkinson, chairman of the California GOP, in an effort to ensure party unity and focus Republican efforts on unseating Democratic Gov. Pat Brown. It was precipitated by public accusations that Ronald Reagan -- who had yet to declare his candidacy -- had once belonged to Communist-front organizations. (Parkinson was also hoping to counter the public perception of Republicans after Barry Goldwater had been labeled an "extremist" during his 1964 bid for the presidency.)

Top image from Fresno Bee (linked below)

Bottom image: Reagan paraphrased the commandment when he announced his candidacy for governor in January 1966.

* "GOP Chief Warns Party Candidates" (The Fresno Bee, September 26; from newspapers.com, subscription only): @

* "Christopher's War on Reagan Test GOP's Gag Rule" (Capitol News Service, October 18): @
* "Hearings Regarding the Communist Infiltration of the Motion Picture Industry" (House Committee on Un-American Activities, 1947; Reagan's testimony begins on page 213): @
* Excerpt from "Triumph of the Right: The Rise of the California Conservative Movement, 1945-1966 (Kurt Schuparra, 1988): @

* Excerpt from "Reagan: The Life" (H.W. Brands, 2015): @ 

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September 1965: Television debuts

All summaries taken from listings in various newspapers. 

'Run For Your Life'

Debut: Monday, September 13, NBC

Summary: At the outset of this drama series, hero Ben Gazzara is given two years or so to live, which prompts the rather slight premise of cramming a lifetime of incidents into his remaining days and nights.

'My Mother the Car'

Debut: Tuesday, September 14, NBC

Summary: The radio on a used car bought by a young man carries the voice of his departed mother, who says she is going to look after him.

'F Troop'

Debut: Tuesday, September 14, ABC

Summary: The place is Fort Courage, manned by devout cowards in the postbellum west. There's really no reason for Fort Courage, because the Indians are in cahoots with the cavalrymen, but occasionally, just to make things look good for the war department, the soldiers and the Indians stage a little mock war.

'Green Acres'

Debut: Wednesday, September 15, CBS

Summary: Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor playing city husband and wife who set up housekeeping in the country.

'Lost in Space'

Debut: Wednesday, September 15, CBS

Summary: Don't let anyone tell you otherwise, this is a space opera for the kids and they should love it. And if you're older and inclined toward science fiction, the production is first-rate and should hold you, too. The action takes place in 1997 and it's about a space expedition that's thrown off course by the presence of an enemy spy.

'Gidget'

Debut: Wednesday, September 15, ABC

Summary: Here's a series that's strictly for the teen crowd that loves the beach party type film. Adults will find some solace in the fine performance of Don Porter as the intelligent father coping with the problems of his irrepressible 15-year-old daughter while trying to fend off the well-meaning interference of her sister and her buttinsky husband. Sally Field mugs and grimaces her way through the Gidget role.

'The Big Valley'

Debut: Wednesday, September 15, ABC

Summary: Give this series a chance. Tonight's introduction spends too much time setting the scene and introducing the various characters and their potential personal conflicts. The people seem interesting enough and the series comes close enough to "Bonanza" to warrant as much success as that series. The actual story is a simple one about the mean railroad against the decent settlers.

'I Spy'

Debut: Wednesday, September 15, NBC

Summary: One of the more promising of the new series, this one co-stars actor Robert Culp and comedian Bill Cosby (who reveals himself to be a surprisingly good actor) as secret agents who don't mind romping all over the globe in order to fulfill their missions.

'Hogan's Heroes'

Debut: Friday, September 17, CBS

Summary: If you're willing to accept the fact that life in a German prisoner of war camp was a ball, this series brings you vivid slapstick substantiation. The camp is really run by Col.  Hogan (Bob Crane) of the air corps, under the noses of his captors. His men forge passport, smuggle spies, print counterfeit money, have a barbershop and engage in all the little niceties they wouldn't have if they were back with their own forces.

'The Wild Wild West'

Debut: Friday, September 17, CBS

Summary: The perils of an "undercover agent" in this one-hour action series are given added piquancy by the unique character of the time and setting -- the American frontier at its most turbulent.

'Honey West'

Debut: Friday, September 17, ABC

Summary: Anne Francis stars as a private eye who's quite an eyeful. Her partner tries to keep her out of trouble, but this honey attracts it.

'Get Smart'

Debut: Saturday, September 18, NBC

Summary: Starring Don Adams in a new half-hour comedy-adventure color series spoofing the current rage and cloak-and-dagger heroics. Adams portrays Maxwell Smart, Secret Agent 86, who has been carefully trained by a top-secret government organization known as CONTROL. Smart speaks several languages, has a working familiarity with every deadly weapon, is adept and karate and judo, and combines this knowledge with a zealous inefficiency and a remarkable lack of insight. But Smart means business in CONTROL's ceaseless conflict with the nefarious agents of KAOS. Despite Smart's incredible ineptness, he will manage each week to befuddle the enemy, with the aid of Secret Agent 99 (Barbara Feldon.)

'I Dream of Jeannie'

Debut: Saturday, September 18, NBC

Summary: A young astronaut is stranded on a mission and opens a bottle from which pops a beautiful genie who proceeds to complicated his life. 

'The FBI'

Debut: Sunday, September 19, ABC

Summary: Spellbinding stories based on cases in the files of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, linked with the personal drama of its agents. 

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Thursday, September 9, 1965: Hurricane Betsy

Hurricane Betsy, its awesome winds swelling to a top 150 miles per hour, slapped the southern tip of Louisiana on Thursday night and pushed on towards sprawling New Orleans and the plush Mississippi resort coast. The leading edge of the 500-mile-wide storm struck the Mississippi River Delta -- which juts south into the churning Gulf of Mexico -- just after dark. Grand Isle, 55 miles south of New Orleans, was struck by 75 mile an hour hurricane winds, as was Burrwood -- southernmost point in Louisiana.

     -- Associated Press, September 10: @

The tropical storm season, notable for billion dollar Hurricane Betsy, ended yesterday. There were four hurricanes and two tropical storms during the season that began June 1, but Betsy was the only hurricane to strike the United States. She took a heavier toll in damage than the San Francisco fire and the Alaska earthquake combined. Betsy's damages totaled $1,419,830, 429.
     -- United Press International, December 1: @

-- Tracking map from U.S. Weather Bureau preliminary report (September 15, 1965): @

* Summary (www.hurricanescience.org, University of Rhode Island): @

* Summary ("Encyclopedia of Hurricanes, Typhoons and Cyclones" (David Longshore, 2008): @

* "The thirty costliest mainland United States tropical cyclones, 1900-2013" (Hurricane Research Division, National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration; dollars not adjusted for inflation): @
* "A Hurricane Called Betsy" (film from Office of Civil Defense, Department of Defense, 1966): @

* "The Hurricane Season of 1965" (U.S. Weather Bureau, March 1966): @

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