1963: Year in review

Top 10 stories of the year, from The Associated Press (link to story: @).

1. Assassination of President Kennedy.

2. Civil rights crisis shakes nation.

3. Profumo - Ward - Keeler - Ivanov scandal almost topples British government.

4. Coup, Diem's death, Buddhist suicides, Mme. Nhu's tour mark Vietnamese war.

5. Nuclear sub Thresher sinks with 129 men.

6. Pope Paul succeeds Pope John, reconvenes Vatican Council.

7. Test ban treaty signed.

8. Supreme Court outlaws school prayers.

9. Three men trapped in Pennsylvania mine 14 days, two rescued.

10. Russia and China near breaking point.

* United Press International's top 10 stories: @ (print) and @ (radio)

* NBC News Syndication service's top 10 stories: @

* Top stories from Hollywood: @

* Billboard Top 100 songs: @
* Pictures of the year from World Press Photo: @

* "50 Years Ago: The World in 1963" (The Atlantic): @

* "1963: The Year Everything Happened" (CBS): @

* "1963: A year's tumult echoes still" (Associated Press): @

* "50 Things That Turn 50 in 2013" (Mental Floss): @
* "Year in Review: 1963" (compilation of newsreels): @

* "Review of 1963" (newsreel, British Pathe): @
* The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. is named Time magazine's man of the year. Cover story (registration required): @ 

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Sunday, December 29, 1963: 'The Making of the President 1960'

The documentary airs on ABC-TV. From the television listings in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

This skillful documentary based on Theodore White's superlative book was completed BEFORE the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and that fact lends a special kind of heartbreak to this chronological report of how and why John F. Kennedy won the election, and then the hearts of his countrymen. Too brief, but nonetheless illuminating coverage of the West Virginia primary and the noteworthy scenes along the way, include Harry Truman's anti-Kennedy remarks, memories of the abortive Stevenson rally during the '60 convention including a reminder to vote-for-Adlai poster ("He's a lousy golfer") and on through the furtive Nixon-Rockefeller meeting to agree on the Republican platform policy. Also, some especially compelling glimpses of the TV debates, including choice "backstage" footage immediately before the first TV debate.

The soundtrack to the show was also released as a record album (pictured).

* Video: @

* Book site from HarperCollins Publishers: @ and @

* Summary from Portfolio (New York University): @

* "The Contours of a Campaign Immortalized" (David M. Shribman, The Wall Street Journal, 2012): @

* "How We Picked Our Presidents, 1960 Style" (Ginia Bellafante, The New York Times, 2011): @

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Friday, December 27, 1963: 'What Songs the Beatles Sang'

     The London newspaper The Times publishes a critical appraisal of The Beatles' music.

     From the book "Rock Criticism from the Beginning: Amusers, Bruisers and Cool-headed Cruisers" (Ulf Lindberg, 2005; link here: @).

The British daily press's coverage of the popular music scene was mainly limited to what might be termed, gossip, news or sensations. William Mann's pioneering 1963 review of the Beatles in the arts pages of The Times was definitely more an exception than a trendsetter. Invoking metaphors like "pandiatonic clusters" and "flat submediant key switches," the message of the article is that Lennon/McCartney in fact are innovative composers even thought "their noisy items are the ones that arouse teenagers' excitement." 
* Image of article: @

* Entry from The Beatles Bible: @

* "Found! The Beatles' elusive Aeolian cadence" (from aeoliancadence.co.uk): @ 
* "Aeolian Cadence" (from Aaron Krerowicz): @

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Tuesday, December 17, 1963: Clean Air Act

President Johnson today signed into law a "clean air" bill designed to channel $95 million in federal funds into a four-year program to fight air pollution.
     The legislation authorizes the Department of Health, Education and Welfare to conduct research into the problem of air pollution, which some experts say is becoming a national menace.
     It also would permit federal aid to states and communities which are fighting air pollution.
     In signing the measure, Johnson said it would combat a "serious and growing" hazard. He said an estimated 6,000 U.S. communities need the type of assistance provide by the bill.
     States will retain the primary responsibility for controlling and reducing pollution except in those cases where pollution from one source -- such as a concentration of factories -- affects more than one state.
     In such cases federal authorities may seek relief in court if a voluntary solution is unsuccessful.
     The federal aid program involves grants on a matching basis on a matching basis of one state dollar for every two federal dollars put up. Regional grants are based on matching of three-quarters federal, one-quarter state.
     The bill signed today is an authorization measure and sets the ceiling on how much money can be spent. Actual appropriations will come later.
     -- Story from United Press International.
     -- 1953 photo of New York from Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images. Original caption reads, "Several people standing on the top of a building looking down in to the downtown misty smog that is covering the Empire State and surrounding buildings."
* Text of original law (from www.wilderness.net): @
* President Johnson's remarks: @
* Text of amended law (from U.S. Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works): @
* "Clean Air Requirements and History" (from Environmental Protection Agency): @

* "Clean Air Act" (from The Encyclopedia of Earth): @

* "The History of Air Quality" (from Environmental Institute of Houston): @

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Thursday, December 12, 1963: Kenya

     NAIROBI, Kenya -- Nearly 100,000 Africans whistled, sang and cheered today as Kenya became Africa's 35th independent nation.

     But even as the shouts of "Uhuru" -- freedom -- echoed through the streets of this formal British colonial capital, monumental problems confronted the new nations. It must conquer tribal warfare, tribal rivalries and economic difficulties.

     When the Union Jack was hauled down and Kenya's flag of black, red and green went up amid wild jubilation at Nairobi's Freedom Stadium, Britain relinquished its last colonial holding in East Africa.

     -- From Associated Press; full story: @

     -- Photo of Prime Minister Jomo Kenyatta from May 1963 (from Corbis Images)

* "A Free Kenya" (The Windsor Star, December 11): @

* "Kenya Gains Independence" (from New York Times Learning Network): @

* 1963 Kenya Constitution: @

* Kenya Independence Act (from legislation.gov.uk): @

* Kenya profile (from CIA): @

* Kenya timeline (from BBC): @ 

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1963: Videotape recorder

     Television has finally completed its invasion of the American home. It will now be possible to record the family's very own Golden Treasury of Dr. Kildare to keep forever. The Cinerama-Telcan does the trick. It is a videotape recorder no bigger than a bread box. Wired into a home TV set, it can record programs off the air as they are being watched. Then, with a flick of the switch, Telcan can play them back immediately or at any future time as desired. The machine can be halted during commercials, or they can be snipped out later. The neatest part of the trick is the price: under $300. The least expensive "home" TV recorder previously available is an Ampex portable unit that turns out tapes of broadcast quality but costs $11,900.

     Telcan has a number of other tricks up its transistorized sleeve. With the addition of a tiny TV camera (about $150), Telcan can turn the living room into a studio so that shots of Sister tap dancing in her new stretch pants, Uncle Al wearing the lamp shade at the party, or Dad doing his R.C.A.F. exercises can be immortalized on tape for instant see-back on the family TV set, like Polaroid movies.
     Telcan (the name alludes to canned TV) was developed by a pair of British inventors. It was demonstrated in London last summer. A television tape of its debut was run soon afterward on NBC's Today show, where it caught the eye of Cinerama Inc. President Nicolas Reisini. Reisini, a man of wide-screen vision, was looking around for a new product to highlight Cinerama's plans for diversification, and he hopped a plane for London that very day and started negotiations for world rights to Telcan.
     Telcan is as simple to operate as any other tape recorder, uses standard one fourth-inch triple-play recording tape on oversized reels. Although the tape speed is necessarily fast—120 in. per second as compared with 7½ IPS or audio recorders—Telcan records hall track so that 44 minutes of programming can be recorded on a single reel. By means of a timing device, Telcan can record television programs when nobody is home, making it possible for a viewer to run off a show exactly when he wants to see it. In fact, the day may come when plays, concerts or operas are video-taped by professional companies and sold to the home market the way phonograph records are.
     -- Time magazine, December 20, 1963
     -- Image from Terra Media (site linked below)
* Entry from BBC: @
* Entry from The Virtual Museum of Vintage VCRs: @
* "See Home Playback At Price Under $300" (Billboard magazine, December 28, 1963): @
* "Home TV Tape -- 1964 Big Item" (Billboard, January 11, 1964): @
* "Home Video Tape Being Tested" (Billboard, February 22, 1964): @
* "Watch Your Favorite TV Show ANY Time" (Popular Science, June 1964): @
* "The quest for home video" (from Terra Media): @ 

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Saturday, December 7, 1963: 'The Johnson Treatment'

President Lyndon Johnson presses his plans for the enactment of civil rights legislation during a White House meeting with Sen. Richard Russell of Georgia. 

     Accounts of exactly what was said at the meeting vary across biographies and histories. The following is from Jack Valenti, special assistant to President Johnson, who was present at the meeting. (From a 1997 speech and "Lend Me Your Ears: Great Speeches in History"; links: @ and @)

     The president ... said in a soft, even voice, "Dick, I love you, and I owe you. If it had not been for you, I would not have been leader, or vice president or now president. But I wanted to tell you face to face, Dick, please don't get in my way on this civil rights bill. It's been locked up in the Senate too long. I'm going to pass this bill, Dick. I will not cavil. I will not hesitate. And if you get in my way, I'll run you down."

     Russell sat mutely for a moment, impassive, his face a mask. Then he spoke, in the rolling accents of his Georgia countryside. "Well, Mr. President, you may just do that. But I pledge you that if you do, it will not only cost you the election, it will cost you the South forever." ...

     (Johnson) spoke softly, almost tenderly: "Dick, my old friend, if that's the price I have to pay, then I will gladly pay it."

     -- Photo by Yoichi Okamoto, official presidential photographer, from LBJ Library

* Account from "Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years 1963-65" (Taylor Branch, 1999): @

* Account from "Lyndon B. Johnson: Portrait of a President" (Robert Dallek, 2004): @

* Account from "Civil Rights Act Leaves Mark on the American Political Landscape" (Michael Oreskes, New York Times, 1989): @ 

* Johnson-Russell telephone converations, December 7 (from Miller Center): @

* Johnson news conference, December 7 (from The American Presidency Project): @

* "How Will Civil Rights Bill Do Under New President?" (United Press International, December 10): @

* "LBJ Champions the Civil Rights Act" (Prologue magazine, National Archives, 2004): @

More about "The Johnson Treatment"
* Description (from Marshall Frady, New York Review of Books, 2002): @
* Summary (from National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution): @
* "Remembering the Johnson Treatment" (Tom Wicker, New York Times, 2002): @

* With Sen. Theodore Green of Rhode Island, 1957 (photos, New York Times): @

* With President Kennedy and Sen. Henry Jackson of Washington, early 1960s (photo, University of Washington Libraries): @

* With Rep. Albert Thomas of Texas, 1963 (audio, Miller Center): @

* With Supreme Court nominee Abe Fortas, 1965 (photo, LBJ Library): @

* With Louis Martin, Democratic National Committee, 1966 (photo, LBJ Library): @
* With Whitney Young, National Urban League, 1966 (photo, LBJ Library): @ 

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Saturday, December 7, 1963: Instant replay

     It was early in the fourth quarter of the 64th Army-Navy football game. Army quarterback Rollie Stichweh broke a tackle from 1 yard out and ran in for a touchdown. A few seconds later, television viewers watched it again -- the first instant replay.
     "This is not live!" CBS announcer Lindsey Nelson said. "Ladies and gentleman, Army did not score again!"
     -- From The Associated Press, 1999; full story: @
     -- Image of Stichweh's touchdown from video, linked below

* "Instant Replay: The Day that Changed Sports Forever" (Tony Verna, 2008): @ (book) and @ (website)
* "Army-Navy, instant replay, Tony Verna, 45 years later" (The Associated Press, 2008): @
* "The Instant Replay: Time and Time Again" (Christopher Hanson, Spectator journal, University of Southern California, 2008): @

* "A look at TV's instant replay through the years" (Patrick Saunders, Denver Post, 2013): @
* "Sports on Television: The How and Why Behind What You See" (Dennis Deninger, 2012): @
* "The President's Team: The 1963 Army-Navy Game and the Assassination of JFK" (Michael Connelly, 2010): @

* 1963 Navy highlights (video): @

* Highlights of an iconic show: A short history of 'Hockey Night in Canada' " (Tara Deschamps, The Globe and Mail, 2013): @

* "Something You Might Not Know About Canada: Instant Replay" (video, CBC, 2012): @ 

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1963-1964: Computer mouse

     Late 1963: Douglas Engelbart, founder and director of the Augmented Human Intellect Research Center at Stanford Research Institute, conceives of a device to more easily move a cursor around a computer screen. (Source: "Bootstrapping: Douglas Engelbart, Coevolution, and the Origins of Personal Computing," Thierry Bardini, 2000; link: @)

     1964: Bill English, a computer engineer working with Engelbart, builds a "mouse" prototype.

     1965: The term "mouse" would first be used in "Computer-Aided Display Control," a paper by Engelbart, English and Bonnie Huddart.

     December 9, 1968: The mouse is demonstrated publicly for the first time.

     -- Image from MouseSite (linked below)

* "Augmenting Human Intellect: A Conceptual Framework" (Engelbart, 1962): @

* "Computer-Aided Display Control": @

* "Father of the mouse" (from Doug Engelbart Institute): @

* "History in pictures" (from Doug Engelbart Institute): @

* "1963: Douglas Engelbart Invents the Mouse" (from University of California Berkeley College of Engineering): @

* MouseSite (from Stanford University): @

* Mouse patent (application 1967, approval 1970): @

* "Computer Mouse and Interactive Computing" (from SRI International, formerly Stanford Research Institute): @

* Engelbart entry from Computer History Museum: @

* Mouse entry from Computer History Museum: @

* Video of 1968 demonstration: @

* Engelbart obituary (New York Times, 2013): @ 

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December 1963: Smiley face

In 1963, State Mutual Life Assurance Company in Worcester, Mass., faced a problem. The firm had purchased Guarantee Mutual Company of Ohio the previous year to work with Worcester Mutual Fire Insurance Company, a State Mutual subsidiary. Low employee morale in the merged companies prompted State Mutual Vice President John Adam Jr. to suggest a "friendship campaign." He asked Joy Young, Assistant Director of Sales and Marketing, to develop something. Young turned to Worcester freelance artist Harvey Ball, requesting he create a little smile to be used on buttons, desk cards and posters. Ball drew a smile but, not satisfied with the result, added two eyes, making a smiley face. The whole drawing, he recalled later, took ten minutes.
     -- From Harvey Ball World Smile Foundation; link: @

     -- photo from Smithsonian.com
* Summary from Worcester Historical Museum: @
* Summary from Toonopedia: @
* "Who invented the smiley face?" (from The Straight Dope): @
* "Who Really Invented the Smiley Face?" (from Smithsonian.com): @
* English-language website from Japan: @
* Harvey Ball obituary (2001): @ 

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December 1963: Sonny Liston

The heavyweight boxing champion appears on the cover of Esquire magazine in a Santa hat. Cover design by George Lois; photo by Carl Fischer.

Esquire editor Harold Hayes would write in 1981: "Sonny Liston was a bad black who beat up good blacks, like Floyd Patterson; there was no telling what he might do to a white man. In 1963, when this was the sort of possibility that preyed on white men's minds everywhere, George Lois's Christmasy cover was something more than an inducement for readers to buy Dad extra shaving soap. Lois's angry icon insisted on several things: the split in our culture was showing; the notion of racial equality was a bad joke; the felicitations of this season -- goodwill to all men, etc. -- carried irony more than sentiment."
* Comments from George Lois: @

* "The King of Visceral Design" (New York Times, April 2008): @
* Carl Fischer Photography: @

* Short Liston biography (from American National Biography Online): @

* "O Unlucky Man: Fortune never smiled on Sonny Liston, even when he was champ" (William Nack, Sports Illustrated, 1991): @
* "Esquire covers honor boxing's prime" (Todd Boyd, ESPN, 2008): @
* Esquire covers through the years: @
* "The Esquire decade" (Vanity Fair, 2007): @
* "It Wasn't Pretty, Folks, but Didn't We Have Fun? Surviving the '60s with Esquire's Harold Hayes" (Carol Polsgrove, 1995): @ 

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December 1963: 'Uncertainty and the welfare economics of medical care'

The paper by Kenneth J. Arrow, professor of economics at Stanford University, appears in The American Economic Review.

"Arrow's paper, which endorses the view that 'the laissez-faire solution for medicine is intolerable,' is widely considered to have founded the field of health care economics ... Arrow's paper argues that the delivery of health care deviates in fundamental ways from a normal free market, and, therefore, that government intervention is necessary to correct for these deviations."
     -- Summary from the National Review; link to story: @
* PDF of study: @

* Interview with Arrow (The Atlantic, 2009): @

* "Liberals Are Wrong: Free Market Health Care is Possible" (Avik S.A. Roy, The Atlantic, March 2012): @

* "Why markets can't cure healthcare" (Paul Krugman, New York Times, July 2009): @

* "Is Health Care Special?" (Uwe E. Reinhardt, New York Times, 2010): @
* "Health Care, Uncertainty and Morality" (Reinhardt, 2010): @
* "Kenneth Arrow and the birth of health economics" (World Health Organization, 2004): @
* "Uncertain Times: Kenneth Arrow and the Changing Economics of Health Care" (edited by Peter J. Hammer et al., 2003): @

* "The Social Transformation of American Medicine" (Paul Starr, 1982): @

* Entry from Nobelprize.org (Arrow won the Nobel in economics in 1972): @
* Entry from the Library of Economics and Liberty: @
* "Collected Papers of Kenneth J. Arrow: Applied Economics, Volume 6" (Harvard University Press, 1985): @ 
* Council on Health Care Economics and Policy (Brandeis University): @

* Earlier post on Operation Coffeecup (1961): @ 

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