November 1963: 'Where the Wild Things Are'

Maurice Sendak's picture book is published by Harper & Row. From the original book jacket: "Max, sent to his room for acting wildly, sails to the land where the wild things are. His adventures there, and the inevitable and satisfactory ending, form a unique and unforgettable experience. Every child will recognize Max's feelings and his fantasy. And they, as well as adults, will revel in the rich, glorious pictures painted as only Sendak could paint them."

* Advertisement in New York Times, December 1963: @

* Sendak biography and timeline (from Rosenbach Museum & Library, Philadelphia): @

* Bibliography (from University of California Berkeley Library): @

* Library of Congress Catalog Record: @

* Caldecott Medal home page: @

---

Wednesday, November 27, 1963: President Johnson's address to Congress

President Johnson asked a somber Congress Wednesday to honor John F. Kennedy's memory with swift action on the slain President's legislative program, topped by civil rights and tax deduction.
     Speaking for the first time as chief executive to a body in which he served for many years, the tall, solemn-faced President called too for "an end to the teaching and preaching of hate and evil and violence" in the land.
     -- from The Associated Press; full story: @
* Transcript (from American Rhetoric): @

* Video (includes telephone calls before and after speech; from C-SPAN): @
* Entry from Voices of Democracy project: @

* "Let Us Continue" (film by U.S. Information Agency; from Texas Archive of the Moving Image): @

* "The First 100 Days: Lyndon Johnson Fulfilled Kennedy's Legacy" (U.S. News & World Report, 2009): @ 

---

Tuesday, November 26, 1963: NSAM 273

The administration of new President Lyndon B. Johnson administration issues National Security Action Memorandum 273, which officially reaffirms the U.S. commitment to the Republic of Vietnam and pledges "to assist the people and Government of that country to win their contest against the externally directed and supported Communist conspiracy." Johnson also gave his personal sanction for a stepped-up program of "clandestine operations by the GVN (Government of Vietnam) against the North."
     -- From "Vietnam War Almanac" (James H. Wilbanks, 2009)

* Text of NSAM 273 (from "Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963," U.S. State Department): @

* Photocopy of NSAM 273 (from LBJ Library): @
* Post from October 5 (JFK approves withdrawal of 1,000 military advisers from Vietnam): @ 

---

Monday, November 25, 1963

An eternal flame at President John F. Kennedy's gravesite at Arlington National Cemetery was quickly constructed at the request of his widow. Command Sergeant Major Francis J. Ruddy of the U.S. Army Special Forces honored his fallen commander in chief by placing his Green Beret next to the flame.
     -- Photo from Corbis Images
* "Nov. 25, 1963: A president is buried" (Washington Post): @

* "JFK's Funeral: Photos from Arlington Cemetery" (LifeTime.com): @

* "The Funeral of John F. Kennedy": (photos, CBS Boston): @

* Funeral footage (from JFK Library): @
* Earlier post on Green Berets (September 25, 1961): @
* Ruddy's service record (from U.S. Army): @ 

---

Sunday, November 24, 1963

Photo by Bob Jackson, Dallas Times Herald. From the Times Herald's front page: "The historic photograph above was made by Bob Jackson, staff photographer of The Times Herald, from a few feet. It was caught at the precise moment the bullet from Jack Ruby's pistol entered the body of Lee Harvey Oswald, accused assassin of President Kennedy. Note outstretched arm at right attempted to thwart the killer. Photographer Jackson has recorded for history one of its most bizarre and dramatic moments."

Note: This is the uncropped version of the photo.
* Footage: @

* Front page, The Dallas Times Herald: @

* Front page, The Spokesman-Review (Spokane, Washington): @

* "Nov. 24, 1963: A president is mourned, an assassin is murdered" (Washington Post): @

* "A Photographer's Story" (from The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza): @
* "Six-Tenths of a Second, Two Lives Forever Changed" (links to Dallas Morning News article about photographers on the scene): @

* Side-by-side photos by Jack Beers of Dallas Morning News and Bob Jackson: @
* "The shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald -- Robert H. Jackson" (from Amateur Photographer magazine): @ 

---

Saturday, November 23, 1963: 'Doctor Who'

DR. WHO? That is just the point. Nobody knows precisely who he is, this mysterious exile from another world and a distant future whose adventures begin today. But this much is known: he has a ship in which he can travel through space and time -- although, owing to a defect in its instruments he can never be sure where and when his "landings" may take place. And he has a great-grandaughter Susan, a strange amalgam of teenage normality and uncanny intelligence.
     Playing the Doctor is the well-known film actor, William Harnell, who has not appeared before on BBC-TV.
     Each adventure in the series will cover several weekly episodes, and the first is by the Australian author Anthony Coburn. It begins by telling how the Doctor finds himself visiting the Britain of today: Susan (played by Carole Ann Ford) has become a pupil at an ordinary British school, where her incredible breadth of knowledge has whetted the curiosity of two of her teachers. These are the history teacher Barbara Wright (Jacqueline Hill), and the science master Ian Chesterton (William Russell), and their curiosity leads them to become inextricably involved in the Doctor's strange travels.
     Because of the imperfections in the ship's navigation aids, the four travellers are liable in subsequent stories to find themselves absolutely anywhere in time -- past, present or future. They may visit a distant galaxy where civilisation has been devastated by the blast of a neutron bomb or they may find themselves journeying to far Cathay in the caravan of Marco Polo. The whole cosmos in fact is their oyster.
     -- Radio Times, November 21
* BBC website: @

* BBC America website: @

* Watch episode 1, "An Unearthly Child": @

* "The Genesis of Doctor Who" (from BBC): @
* "The Changing Face of Doctor Who" (from BBC archives): @

* Entires from BBC episode guide: @ and @

* Doctor Who Online website: @

* Doctor Who Reference Guide: @

* "12 Must-Own Books" (from BBC America): @ 

---

Saturday, November 23, 1963

Photo by The Associated Press. Original caption: Personal belongings such as these two rocking chairs of the slain President John F. Kennedy are removed from the offices of the White House in Washington, D.C., Nov 23, 1963. 

* President Johnson's remarks to the Cabinet: @ (draft) and @ (final)
* "Nov. 23, 1963: The day after the assassination" (Washington Post): @ 

---

Friday, November 22, 1963

-- United Press International teletype (image from kennedy-photos.blogspot.com)
-- Explainer (from UPI history website): @

Video

* David Von Pein's JFK Channel (this has an extensive collection of footage, including the breaking news reports of the major broadcast networks): @

* "The JFK Assassination: As It Happened" (Von Pein website): @

* From ABC News: @
* JFK: 3 Shots That Changed America" (The History Channel, 2009): @ and @ 
* Speech in Fort Worth: @
* "President Assassinated" (newsreel): @

Audio
* Lyndon Johnson taking oath of office aboard Air Force One (from LBJ Library): @
* Air Force One recordings: @
* Radio coverage: @
* BBC programs: @

President Lyndon B. Johnson
* President's daily dairy (from LBJ Library): @ and @
* From LBJ Library: "November 22, 1963 and Beyond": @
* From LBJ Library: "Nov. 22, 1963: Tragedy and Transition": @
* Selections from Mrs. Johnson's diary: @ (text) and @ (audio)

Front pages

* Dallas Morning News: @

* Dallas Times Herald: @

* Fort Worth Star-Telegram: @ and @

* Boston Globe: @

* New York Times: @

* Washington Post: @
* Los Angeles Times: @
* The Guardian (UK) : @

* Daily Mirror (UK): @

* Daily Trojan (University of Southern California, November 26): @
* Other newspapers (from www.downhold.org): @

* Other newspapers (from rarenewspapers.com): @

Other resources

* Timeline (from Dallas Morning News): @
* "Remembering JFK" (Fort Worth Star-Telegram): @
* "The Death of a President" (The Associated Press): @
* The President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection (National Archives): @

* The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza: @

* JFK Tribute website (Fort Worth, Texas): @

* The JFK Assassination (Mary Ferrell Foundation): @

* The Harold Weisberg Archive: @

* The Kennedy Assassination (John McAdams): @

* "November 22, 1963: Death of the President" (from JFK Library): @ 

* "Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy" (Warren Commission report, from National Archives, 1964): @

* "Marking JFK anniversary, GPO releases digital Warren Commission report" (Washington Post): @
* "Report of the Select Committee on Assassinations, U.S. House of Representatives" (from National Archives, 1979): @

* UPI reporter Merriman Smith's account of the day (November 23; Smith was the first to report the shooting, as shown in teletype above): @
* "Total Domination" (American Journalism Review, 1998): @

* "The Flight From Dallas" (Esquire, 2013): @
* "The Hours Before Dallas: A Recollection by President Kennedy's Fort Worth Advance Man" (Jeb Byrne, 2000): @
* Life magazine, November 29: @

* Life magazine, December 6: @

* Life magazine, December 13: @ 

---

What didn't happen on November 22, 1963

President Kennedy

     * Speech at Dallas Trade Mart: @ (text) and @ (materials from JFK Library)

     * Speech in Austin: @ (text) and @ (materials from JFK Library)

     * President's schedule for the day: @

Music

     -- Symphony orchestras in Boston and Chicago, performing in the afternoon as the news of Kennedy's death spread, changed their programs and played the funeral march from Beethoven's Third Symphony.

     * Account from Boston (from time.com): @

     * Original introduction from Boston (from WGBH): @

     * Boston Symphony Orchestra program for 1963-64 season (revised program for November 22 is on Page 9): @

     * Account from Chicago (from orchestra archives): @

     -- On the same day that the album "With the Beatles" was released in the United Kingdom, the band was featured on "The CBS Morning News." The segment was to have been shown on "The CBS Evening News" that night. It eventually aired on December 10.

     * Watch the segment: @

     * "How Walter Cronkite jump-started Beatlemania in America" (from BeatlesNews.com): @

     * "Hello Goodbye: Why the Great Mike Wallace Instantly Forgot His Beatles TV Exclusive" (from The Huffington Post): @

     -- "The Dick Clark Caravan of Stars" was to have performed in Dallas on November 22. The show was canceled.

     * "Dick Clark on the Day America Lost JFK" (John Burke Jovich): @

     * Lineup (from A Rock n' Roll Historian blog): @

     * "Clark Show Off to Big Openers" (Billboard magazine, November 23): @

Television

     From the New York Times, November 23:

     TOKYO -- The first live American television transmission across the Pacific by means of the communication satellite relay was received clearly here today. Pictures transmitted by the Mohave ground station in California and received at the new Space Communications Laboratory in Ibaraki Prefecture, north of Tokyo, were clean and distinct. The sound transmission was excellent. The transmission was received live from 5:16 a.m. to 5:46 a.m. Viewers here saw and heard taped messages from Ryuji Takeuchi, Japanese Ambassador to Washington, and James E. Webb, director of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. A message of greeting from President Kennedy to the Japanese people, which was to have been the highlight of the program, was deleted when news of the President's death was received shortly before the transmission. In place of the taped two-and-a-half-minute appearance of the President, viewers saw brief panoramic views of the Mohave transmitting station and the surrounding desert area. The American Broadcasting Company and the National Broadcasting Company shared in producing the program.'

     From The Associated Press, November 22:
     The nation's three major television and radio networks scrapped all commercials and entertainment programs out of respect for the death today of President Kennedy. The National Broadcasting Co., American Broadcasting Co., and Columbia Broadcasting system all said they would devote their entire radio and television programs to news of the assassination and all allied incidents. The Mutual Broadcasting System said it would ban commercials and entertainment features on its radio network until after the President's funeral. ABC said its commercial and entertainment ban would remain in effect indefinitely. NBC said it would observe the commercial and entertainment blackout until "sometime tomorrow night." CBS said it would not return commercials or entertainment programs to its network until after the President's burial. All networks said they would continue broadcasts on radio and TV through the night.
* TV listings for November 22 (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; go to Page 19): @

"Dr. Strangelove"

     A New York screening for critics was canceled, and changes to Stanley Kubrick's new movie were made in light of Kennedy's death (detailed below). The film's premiere was delayed; the movie did not open until January 1964.

     * From "Stanley Kubrick: A Biography" (Vincent LoBrutto, 1999): @

     * From Time.com: @

     * From Los Angeles Times: @

Frank Sinatra Jr. kidnapping

    Three men who were planning to kidnap the entertainer intended to do so on November 22 in Los Angeles, but it was delayed until December 8 in Lake Tahoe, Nevada.

     * From MentalFloss.com: @

     * From TruTV.com: @

     * From Jan & Dean website (The band's Dean Torrence had loaned money to one of the kidnappers, a friend of his): @

     * Newsreel: @

Other

     * "The most famous magazine cover that never was" *(Washington Post): @

     * Kiplinger Washington Letter planned for November 23: @ and @

     * Where We Were" (People magazine, November 1988): @ 

---

Monday, November 18, 1963: Push-button telephones

The American Telephone and Telegraph Co. began offering push button telephones to customers today as a regular service.
     Only residents of Carnegie and Greensburg in western Pennsylvania will be offered the service at first. They will be an extra charge of $5 for installation of the new telephone and $1.50 a month for each line into the house.
     Push button telephoning, officially known as touch tone dialing, has been called the biggest change in telephones since the 1920s, when conversion to the customary dial began. AT&T said that the new service is expected to be generally available throughout the Bell System in 10 years or so.
     The main advantage of the new system is speed, ease and convenience of operations. The company estimates that a seven-digit number takes an average of 10 seconds to dial. The same number can be tapped out on buttons in 2 to 5 seconds.
     -- Associated Press, November 18 (Link to story: @)

     -- Note: The * and # buttons were introduced in 1968.

     New push-button telephones, first installed in 1963, will eventually be able to connect households with receivers and computers in banks, retail stores, and other businesses. By 1970, individuals using the push-button telephone may be able to order merchandise, pay bills, make inquiries, and handle other business transactions by communicating directly with computers or related business machines. Order takers, salespeople, and other clerical workers in retail trade and service industries may be affected.
     -- "Technological Trends in Major American Industries" (U.S. Department of Labor, February 1966)
* Summary (from doyouremember.com): @

* Press release from Bell Telephone Laboratories (from rotarydial.org): @

* "Western Electric 1500-Series Telephone Types": @

* "Look What's Happening to the Telephone" (Changing Times magazine, May 1964): @
* "The Telephone Story" (AT&T poster, 1969): @
* "Why do phones have the * and # buttons?" (from Solid Signal Blog): @
* "Century 21 Calling" (Bell System video from 1962 World's Fair; push-button exhibit begins at 6:35): @ 

---

Friday, November 15, 1963: Valium

Valium (diazepam), a tranquilizer made by the Swiss company Hoffman-La Roche, is approved for sale in the United States by the Food and Drug Administration. The name "valium" was derived from valeo, the Latin word for healthy.

     From a 1970 ad in the journal Hospital & Community Psychiatry: 
     35, single and psychoneurotic
     The purser on her cruise ship took the last snapshot of Jan. You probably see many such Jans in your practice. The unmarried with low self-esteem. Jan never found a man to measure up to her father. Now she realizes in a losing pattern -- and that she may never marry. Valium (diazepam) can be a useful adjunct in the therapy of the tense, over anxious patient who has a neurotic sense of failure, guilt or loss. Over the years, Valium has proven its value in the relief of psychoneurotic states -- anxiety, apprehension, agitation, alone or with depressive symptoms. (Link to this and similar ads: @ and @ and @)
     
-- Photo from The Science Museum, London

* Entries from U.S. National Library of Medicine: @ and @

* Drug approvals and database, FDA: @

* Prescription information (as of October 2013): @
* "Librium and Valium -- anxious times" (Royal Society of Chemistry, 2008): @
* "Protecting mental health in the Age of Anxiety: The context of Valium's development, synthesis and discovery in the United States, to 1963" (Catherine Guise-Richardson, 2009): @
* "Addiction to Diazepam" (Maletzy and Klotter, The International Journal of the Addictions, 1976): @

* Does It Cure or Increase Anxiety? A Question for Valium Users" (Gilbert Cant, 1976): @
* "Tranquilizer Use and Well-Being: A Longitudinal Study of Social and Psychological Effects" (Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, 1984): @
* "Happy Pills in America: From Miltown to Prozac" (David Herzberg, 2009): @
* "The Age of Anxiety: A History of America's Turbulent Affair with Tranquilizers" (Andrea Tone, 2008): @

* "Before Prozac: The Troubled History of Mood Disorders in Psychiatry" (Edward Shorter, 2008): @

* "Prozac on the Couch: Prescribing Gender in the Era of Wonder Drugs" (Jonathan Metzl, 2003): @

* "Inventor of Valium, Once the Most Prescribed Drug, Dies" (Washington Post, 2005): @

---

Sunday, November 10, 1963: 'Message to the Grass Roots'

Considered to be one of the top hundred American speeches of the 20th century, Malcolm X's address unified many of the strands of black nationalism, Pan-Africanism and third-world revolutionary thought that had been emerging in his ideas for years. ... He claimed that a revolution centered on nonviolent activism was not revolutionary at all: "Revolution is bloody, revolution is hostile, revolution knows no compromise." ... Ultimately, giving such a speech in Detroit, the center of labor activity and black working-class radicalism in the 1960s, opened Malcolm X to an entirely new audience from that of the Nation of Islam.

     --- From "The Portable Malcolm X Reader" (Manning Marable and Garrett Felber, 2013): @

     -- June 1963 photo from Corbis Images

* Transcript (from TeachingAmericanHistory.org): @

* Audio (from thespeechsite.com): @

* "Malcolm X Speaks: Selected Speeches and Statements" (1965): @

* "Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention" (Manning Marable, 2011): @ and @

* "The Cambridge Companion to Malcolm X" (Robert Terrill, 2010): @

* MalcolmX.com: @
* The Malcolm X Project at Columbia University: @
* "African American Political Thought: Confrontation vs. Compromise, from 1945 to the Present" (2003): @

* "Say It Loud! Great Speeches on Civil Rights and African American Identity" (2010): @

* "Faith in the City: Preaching Radical Social Change in Detroit" (Angela D. Dillard, 2007): @

* "Dancing in the Street: Motown and the Cultural Politics of Detroit" (Suzanne E. Smith, 2001): @ 

---