Tuesday, September 24, 1963: U.S. Senate's first official portrait

     The Senate sat for its picture Tuesday and the 99 members present were as self-conscious as schoolboys in a class photograph.
     It was a historic first. Only once before has a picture of the Senate been published and it was taken unofficially through a side door.

     The advance notice of the picture taking brought senators out well in advance of the time for the vote on the test ban treaty. 

     -- The Washington Post

Note: The photograph was arranged as part of the National Geographic Society book "We, The People." Photo from "Traditions of the United States Senate" (Richard A. Baker, Senate historian, 1975-2009).

* Summary from www.senate.gov: @

* Summary from U.S. Capital Historical Society: @
* "Senate's first official photo" (from iconicphotos.wordpress.com): @ 

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Undated: Record players for cars

The quest continues for a skip-free record player for cars, though the feature had been offered (and then dropped) by Chrysler in the late '50s-early '60s. This is from the October 1963 issue of Popular Science magazine (complete issue: @).

* "Chrysler Corp. takes customers for a spin" (from www.uaw-chrysler.com): @

* "Hi Fi Record Players Now Made for Cars" (St. Petersburg Times, September 18, 1955): @

* "Highway Hi-Fi" (by Peter C. Goldmark, who developed the device; Audio magazine, December 1955): @
 * Highway Hi-Fi pages from ImperialClub.com: @ and @
* "Road Tunes: Weird Vintage 1950s In-Car Record Players" (from gajitz.com): @

* Entry from automotive oddity website (www.roadkillontheweb.com): @

* Video of player in 1960 Chrysler Imperial LeBaron: @
* "Rhythms for the Highway, Before the Age of the iPod" (New York Times, June 8, 2012): @

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Wednesday, September 18, 1963: Joyce Kilmer's 'Trees'

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. -- The famed Kilmer Oak, bare and rain-soaked under a steel gray sky, was gently cut down Wednesday amid praise of its inspirational qualities as a symbol of nature. Workmen sawed each twisted bough separately and lowered most to the ground with ropes. They paused for a half-hour ceremony eulogizing the old tree and the poet Joyce Kilmer, believed to have been inspired by it. The white oak died of old age. 

     -- The Associated Press (full story: @)

* "Trees" as it appeared in August 1913 edition of Poetry magazine: @

* "Trees and other poems" (1914, from Project Gutenberg): @

* Biography from poemhunter.com: @

* "Poet Joyce Kilmer: Rooted in Mahwah" (New Jersey Monthly, July 2013): @ 

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Tuesday, September 17, 1963: 'The Fugitive'

The ABC show premieres with David Janssen starring as Dr. Richard Kimble, wrongfully convicted for the murder of his wife. The series follows Kimble as he searches for the one-armed man who he believes killed his wife while at the same trying to stay one step ahead of police Lt. Philip Gerard (Barry Morse). The show would run through August 1967; at the time of its airing, the second episode in the two-part finale was the highest-rated show in the history of television.

* Video of first episode, "Fear in a Desert City": @ and @ and @

* Review of premiere (from United Press International): @

* Summary from Museum of Broadcast Communications: @

* Episode guide, from TV.com: @

* Producers Leonard Goldberg and Alan A. Armer talk about finale: @ and @

* " 'The Fugitive' broke new ground to become an unlikely hit" (from A.V. Club): @
* "The Fugitive Recaptured" (Ed Robertson, 1993): @
* "The Fugitive in Flight: Faith, Liberalism and Law in a Classic TV Show" (Stanley Fish, 2011): @

* The David Janssen Archive: @ 

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Monday, September 16, 1963: Prince Edward County schools

     
     FARMVILLE, Va. -- Negro children return to school in Prince Edward County today for the first time since public schools were closed four years to avoid desegregation.

     The children are attending free private schools set up only a month ago at the urging of President Kennedy.

     Trustees of the Prince Edward Free School Association expect between 1,200 and 1,600 Negro pupils to enroll.

     At least two white children were to join the Negroes in the first classroom integration in Prince Edward. They are Richard D. Moss, son of Dr. C.G. Gordon Moss, dean of Longwood College and an outspoken critic of the school closing, and Letitia Tew, 7, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. W.W. Tew of Throck. Tew is a tobacco farmer.

     White children in Prince Edward have attended private segregated schools since 1959. They must pay tuition.

     The free schools were set up as a one-year emergency measure while the 11-year-old legal battle against segregated public schools is carried back to the U.S. Supreme Court.

     -- The Associated Press, September 16

    -- Photo from Corbis Images. Original caption reads: "School doors swung open 09/16 for children of Prince Edward County, where public schools had been padlocked since 1959 in advance of court-ordered integration. Neil Sullivan (L), director of schools, smiles as Alfred Brown hoists the American flag in front of the school building, and other students recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

Note: The county's public schools would reopen in September 1964. ("Prince Edward Schools Open After 5 Years": @)

* "Negroes Welcome New School" (Associated Press, September 17): @

* "The Lock Begins to Open" (Ebony magazine, November, Page 63): @

* "Prince Edwards' 'Massive Resistance' " (John Alfred Hamilton, Nieman Reports, 1962): @

* "Massive Resistance in a Small Town" (Humanities magazine, September/October 2013): @

* "Moton School Strike and Prince Edward County School Closings" (from Encyclopedia of Virginia): @

* "The Closing of Prince Edward County's Schools" (from Virginia Historical Society): @ 
* Edward H. Peeples Prince Edward County (Va.) Public Schools Collection (from VCU Libraries): @

* "The Tragedy of Public Schools: Prince Edward County, Virginia" ("A Report for the Virginia Advisory Committee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights," January 1964; from Peeples collection): @

* "A Study in Infamy: Prince Edward County, Virginia" (Picott and Peoples, Phi Delta Kappan, May 1964; from Peeples collection): @

* Robert Russa Moton Museum, Farmville, Virginia: @

* DOVE (Desegregation of Virginia Education project): @

* "The Educational Lockout of African Americans in Prince Edward County, Virginia, 1959-1964" (Terence Hicks and Abul Pitre, 2010): @ 

* "Southern Stalemate: Five Years Without Public Eduation in Prince Edward County, Virginia" (Christopher Bonastia, 2012): @

* TV footage (from Television News of the Civil Rights Era, 1950-1970, University of Virginia; scroll down to Prince Edward County clips): @

* "Locked Out: The Fall of Massive Resistance" (video; from Classroom Clips): @

* "The Legacy of Massive Resistance" (audio; from "With Good Reason" program, Virginia Foundation for the Humanities): @ 

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Sunday, September 15, 1963: 16th Street Baptist Church bombing

Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley

    

     Sunday morning, Sept. 15, was cool and overcast in Birmingham. Sunday school classes were just ending in the basement of the yellow brick 16th Street Baptist Church, the city's largest Negro church and the scene of several recent civil rights rallies. The morning's lesson was "The Love That Forgives," from the fifth chapter of Matthew.* Four girls -- Carole Robertson, 14, Cynthia Wesley, 14, Addie Mae Collins, 14, and Denise McNair, 11 -- left the classroom to go to the bathroom.
     At 10:22 the bomb exploded, with the force of ten to 15 sticks of dynamite. It had been planted under the steps behind the 50-year-old building.
     Great chunks of stone shot like artillery shells through parked cars. The blast shattered the windshield of a passing car, knocking the driver unconscious. A metal railing, torn from its concrete bed, lanced across the street into the window of the Social Dry Cleaning store. Next door, customers at the Silver Springs Restaurant were knocked to the floor. In nearby Kelly Ingram Park, pieces of brick nipped the leaves off trees 200 ft. from the blast.
     Beneath the Robe. Inside the church, a teacher screamed, "Lie on the floor! Lie on the floor!" Rafters collapsed, a skylight fell on the pulpit. Part of a stained glass window shattered, obliterating the face of Christ. A man cried: "Everybody out! Everybody out!" A stream of sobbing Negroes stumbled through the litter -- past twisted metal folding chairs, past splintered wooden benches, past shredded songbooks and Bibles. A Negro woman staggered out of the Social Dry Cleaning store shrieking "Let me at 'em! I'll kill 'em!" and fainted. White plaster dust fell gently for a block around.
     Police cars poured in the block -- and even as the cops plunged into the church, some enraged Negroes began throwing rocks at them. Rescue workers found a seven-foot pyramid of bricks where once the girls' bathroom stood. On top was a child's white lace choir robe. A civil defense captain lifted the hem of the robe. "Oh, my God," he cried. "Don't look!" Beneath lay the mangled body of a Negro girl.
     Bare-handed, the workers dug deeper into the rubble -- until four bodies had been uncovered. The head and shoulder of one child had been completely blown off. The remains were covered with shrouds and carried out to waiting ambulances. A youth rushed forward, lifted a sheet and wailed: "This is my sister! My God -- she's dead!"
     The church's pastor, the Rev. John Cross, hurried up and down the sidewalk, urging the milling crowd to go home. "Please go home!" he said. "The Lord is our shepherd and we shall not want." Another Negro minister added his pleas. "Go home and pray for the men who did this evil deed," he said. "We must have love in our hearts for these men." But a Negro boy screamed, "We give love -- and we get this!" And another youth yelled: "Love 'em? Love 'em? We hate 'em!" A man wept: "My grandbaby was one of those killed! Eleven years old! I helped pull the rocks off here! You know how I feel? I fell like blowing the whole town up!"
     The Birmingham police department's six-wheeled riot tank thumped onto the scene and cops began firing shotguns over the heads of the crowd while Negroes pelted them with rocks. Later, Negro youths began stoning passing white cars. The police ordered them to stop. One boy, Johnny Robinson, 16, ran, and a cop killed him with a blast of buckshot. That made five dead and 17 injured in the bomb blast.
     "I Can't." Several miles away, on the worn-out coal-field fringe of Birmingham, two young Negro brothers, James and Virgil Ware, were riding a bicycle. Virgil, 13, was sitting on the handle bars. A motor scooter with two 16-year-old white boys aboard approached from the opposite direction. James Ware, 16, told what happened then. "This boy on the front of the bike turns and says something to the boy behind him, and the other reaches in his pocket and he says Pow! Pow! with a gun twice. Virgil fell and I said, get up Virgil, and he said, I can't, I'm shot."
     And so six died on a Sunday in Birmingham.

* Verses 43-44: "Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them with despitefully use you, and persecute you.

-- "The Sunday School Bombing," Time magazine, September 27
-- Photos of bomb damage and stained-glass window by Tom Self, Birmingham News

Note
     The bombers were identified as Robert Chambliss, Thomas Blanton, Bobby Frank Cherry and Herman Cash. Chambliss was convicted in 1977; Blanton in 2001; and Cherry in 2002. Cash died in 1994 without being charged.

Resources
* Summary from Encyclopedia of Alabama: @

* Summary from Alabama Department of Archives and History: @
* "About the 1963 Birmingham Bombing" (from Modern American Poetry): @
* New York Times front page and story (September 16): @
* Washington Post story (from UPI): @
* Miami News front page: @
* Milwaukee Sentinel front page: @
* "A Flower for the Graves" (Eugene Patterson, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, September 16): @
* "Birmingham: An Alabaman's Great Speech Lays the Blame" (portion of speech by Charles Morgan Jr., Life magazine, September 27, Page 44B): @
* Full text of Morgan's speech (from "American Heritage Book of Great American Speeches for Young People" (2001): @ 

* Reading of Morgan's speech (from Teaching Tolerance): @
* Birmingham Civil Rights Institute: @
* Birmingham History Center: @

* "16th Street Bombing Trial" (Birmingham News, 2002): @
* "Unseen. Unforgotten." (civil rights photos from Birmingham News): @
* "While the World Watched: A Birmingham Bombing Survivor Comes of Age During the Civil Rights Movement" (Carolyn Maull McKinstry, 2011): @
* Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama: The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Movement" (Dianne McWhorter, 2001): @

* "Last Chance for Justice: How Relentless Investigators Uncovered New Evidence Convicting the Birmingham Church Bombers" (T.K. Thorne, 2013): @
* Resources from Birmingham Public Library Digital Collections (photographs, newspapers, documents): @

* Resources from Civil Rights Digital Library: @
* 16th Street Baptist Church website: @

* FBI files: @

* Earlier post on Birmingham (May 1963): @

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Sunday, September 15, 1963: The Great Pop Prom

The Beatles headline the show at London's Royal Albert Hall. Also performing are The Rolling Stones; it is the only time the two bands played on the same bill. Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richard would later write: "We opened this afternoon performance and were followed by a bunch of typical British pop acts including Shane Fenton and the Fentones. We got an amazing reception. The Beatles closed the show but we couldn't hang around because we had to head back down the A3 to Richmond to play the Crawdaddy Club that night." (From "The Rolling Stones 50", 2012)
* "The Beatles at the Hall" (from Royal Albert Hall website): @

* Entry from The Beatles Bible website: @

* "The Beatles vs. The Rolling Stones: Sound Opinions on the Great Rock 'n' Roll Rivalry" (Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot, 2010): @ 

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Saturday, September 14, 1963: Tokyo Convention

This Convention, adopted at Tokyo on 14 Sepember 1963 (Tokyo Convention), was the first multilateral legal instrument to deal with the growing problem of hijacking. Its main objective is to establish primary jurisdiction of the State of registration over offences committed on board civil aircraft in flight or on the surface of the high seas or of any other area outside the territory of any State (articles 1 and 3). Although the Convention does not define nor list any particular offences or acts which must be suppressed, its article 11 deals with one specific form of terrorism, namely, aerial hijacking.
     -- From "International Law: Theory and Practice" (1998)

* "Convention on offences and certain other acts committed on board aircraft" (text): @

* "United Nations Treaties Against International Terrorism" (from www.un.org): @

* "Notes on the Tokyo Convention, 1963" (from www.airspacelaw.org): @

* "Jurisdiction Over Crimes On Board Aircraft" (Sami Shubber, 1973): @

* Aerial Piracy and International Terrorism: The Illegal Diversion of Aircraft and International Law" (Edward McWhinney, 1987): @ 
* Earlier post on Cuba hijacking (May 1, 1961): @

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Friday, September 13, 1963: Mary Kay

Mary Kay and her second husband, George Hallenbeck, took their life savings of $5,000 and poured it into helping Mary Kay achieve her dream business, based on the principle of giving women an equal chance to succeed in the workforce. On Friday, September 13, 1963, Beauty by Mary Kay was formally launched from a 500-square-foot retail space in Dallas, Texas, a month after the death of her first husband. With the help of her 20-year-old son, Richard, Mary Kay bought a cosmetic formula, began packaging her first product line and engaged a sales team nine people strong.
     -- From "Vault Guide to the Top Consumer Products Employers" (2006 edition)

* Mary Kay website: @

* Milestones (from Mary Kay Museum): @

* Entry from Texas Women's Hall of Fame: @

* "The Mary Kay Way: Timeless Principles from America's Greatest Woman Entrepreneur" (2008): @

* "The Benefits of Think Pink: A History of the Mary Kay Cosmetics Company in Domestic and Global Contexts" (Elizabeth Ahern, 2011): @
* "Mary Kay Cosmetics Inc.: Corporate Planning In An Era of Uncertainty" (James W. Camerius, 1989): @
* "Heart & Soul: Five American Companies That Are Making the World A Better Place" (Robert L. Shook, 2010): @

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September 1963: Porsche 911

The German automaker Porsche debuts the 911 (originally named the 901) at the Frankfurt Motor Show (Internationale Automobil-Ausstellung), which ran from September 12 to September 22. The car would go into production in 1964. Pictured is the car and its principal designer, F.A. Porsche.
* Model history (from stuttcars.com): @
* Entry from www.porsche.com: @
* Porsche Museum: @
* 901 brochure, 1963 (from cooches.com): @

* 911 brochure, 1964-5 (from cooches.com): @
* "Porsche 911: The Definitive History, 1963 to 1971" (Brian Long, 2003): @ 
* "Collector's Originality Guide: Porsche 911" (Peter Morgan, 2009): @ 
* F.A. Porsche obituary (New York Times, 2012): @ 

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1963: Endangered species

The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources begins compiling the first of what would come to be called the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, a summary of plant and animal species at varying risks of extinction. The first list was published in 1966.

* Overview (from IUCNredlist.org): @

* Overview (from IUCN.org): @

* "Conservation planning and the IUCN Red List" (Hoffman et. al., Endangered Species Research, 2008): @

* "The dilemma of accuracy in IUCN Red List categories, as exemplified by hawksbill turtles Eretmochelys imbricata" (Webb, Endangered Species Research, 2008): @

* Endangered Species Research: @

* Extinction Countdown (Scientific American blog): @

* "The Road to Extinction: Problems of Categorizing the Taxa Threatened with Extinction" (1984): @
* "The Anthropology of Extinction: Essays on Culture and Species Death" (2012): @

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September 1963: Lava lamp

Created by Edward Craven Walker, the Astro Lamp was first sold in England in 1963, marketed through his Crestworth Ltd. (incorporated on September 3). It arrived in America in 1965, under the name Lava Lite. (In 1992, Crestworth was renamed Mathmos, after the lake of bubbling goo in the 1968 film "Barbarella.")

"It's like the cycle of life," Walker said in 1997. "It grows, breaks up, falls down and then starts all over again. And besides, the shapes are sexy.''

Brochure image from www.flowoflava.com, a comprehensive website about the lava lamp, including its history and the various models through the years.

* Entry from "Inventing the 20th Century: 100 Inventions That Shaped the World, From the Airplane to the Zipper" (Stephen Van Dulken, 2002): @

* "The History of the Lava Lamp" (Smithsonian magazine, March 2013): @

* "The Mystique of the Lava Lamp" (h2g2.com): @
* "Happy Birthday to the Lava Lamp" (Forces of Geek, July 2013): @
* "Vintage Lava Lamps" (from Collectors Weekly): @
* "How Liquid Motion Lamps Work" (from HowStuffWorks): @
* "How It Works: Secrets of the Lava Lite" (Popular Science, September 1997): @
* Mathmos website: @

* Lava Lite website: @
* www.keepbubbling.com: @

* www.hippielight.com: @ 

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Tuesday, September 3, 1963: U.S. minimum wage

     Several million workers are getting pay increases. This could mean pressure for higher prices. It could mean faster economic growth through more spending money circulating quickly. It could mean greater cost-trimming efforts such as turning to machines to replace man or woman labor.

     But whatever the future may bring, one thing's for sure. Today is a happy one for a lot of workers.

     Some 2.6 million low-paid workers are due for a wage boost today because the legal minimum wage goes up to $1.25 an hour from $1.15. Even more persons perhaps expect to benefit indirectly because their differential tends to rise as the lowest paid job does.

     -- Associated Press, September 3 (full story here: @)

Note: $1.25 is about $9.50 in 2013 dollars; the current U.S. minimum wage is $7.25. 

* "History of Federal Minimum Wage Rates Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, 1938-2009" (U.S. Department of Labor): @

* Inflation calculator (Bureau of Labor Statistics): @

* "Economic Forces in the United States" (Bureau of Labor Statistics, September 1963): @

* "Income of Families and Persons in the United States: 1963" (Census Bureau): @

* "The Quest for a Living Wage: The History of the Federal Minimum Wage Program" (Willis J. Nordlund, 1997): @ 

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Monday, September 2, 1963: 'CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite'

CBS becomes the first U.S. network with a half-hour nightly news show, as its broadcast with Walter Cronkite expands from 15 minutes. (NBC would follow suit a week later.) The first show includes segments from Cronkite's interview with President Kennedy that day.

Photo of Cronkite and Kennedy in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, from JFK Library.
* Portions of telecast: @

* JFK interview (includes outtakes): @

* Transcript of televised portion of interview (from JFK Library): @
* Earlier post on Cronkite (April 16, 1962): @ 

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