Thursday, February 3, 1966: Luna 9

A Soviet space station made history's first soft landing on the moon Thursday, Moscow announced. British scientists in England said the unmanned capsule, Luna 9, sent pictures back to earth from the moon's surface. A Tass announcement said the landing was made ... after the ship, launched Jan. 31, had hurtled through space for more than three days. The first American attempt at a soft landing, a key step in putting a man on the moon, is not expected before May. A soft landing means bringing an instrument package down on the surface slowly enough so that there is no crash and resultant destruction.

     -- Associated Press: @

     -- Image from Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, University of Manchester: @  (More from Jodrell Bank: @)

* "Soviets Soft Land on Moon" (St. Petersburg Times): @
* "Soviet's Luna 9 Lands on Moon, Photos Sent" (United Press International): @

* Summary from BBC: @

* Summary from NASA: @ and @
* Summary from Zarya: @

* "The Search for Luna 9" (Air & Space magazine, September 2015): @

* "The forgotten moon landing that paved the way for today's space adventures" (The Conversation, February 2016): @

* "How Russia Beat the U.S. to the Moon" (The Daily Beast, February 2016): @ 

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1965: Barbie Miss Astronaut

Two years after Valentina Tereshkova of the Soviet Union became the first woman in space, Mattel begins selling astronaut outfits for Barbie ("Miss Astronaut") and Ken ("Mr. Astronaut"). It would be another year before Hasbro introduced astronaut gear for GI Joe.

* Summaries from www.barbiecollector.com: @ (Barbie) and @ (Ken)
* Summary from Fashion Doll Guide: @

* "Mattel's Astronaut Barbie Becomes a Mars Explorer with NASA help" (space.com, 2013): @ 

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June 1965: Vacuum of space

Despite the fact that a considerable number of studies have been carried out on the effects of rapid decompression to high altitudes, there is still very little information and data concerning the actual effects of exposures to extremely low barometric pressures -- that is, to pressure environments approaching the near-vacuum of space. This information is becoming increasingly urgent in view of the current manned space flights, the programmed flights to the surface of the moon, and the need for man to function safely within a pressure suit in space. ... The critical situation confronting an aerospace crew should accidental loss of pressure be experienced dictated the use of physiologically normal animals so that the data collected would be as valid as possible to obtain. Normal, anesthetized dogs were therefore used; 126 animals were rapidly decompressed to absolute pressures of 1 to 2 mm. Hg.

     -- From "Experimental Animal Decompressions to a Near-Vacuum Environment" (Bancroft and Dunn, NASA Technical Report, published June 1965): @

* "Human Exposure to Vacuum" (www.geoffreylandis.com): @

* "What happens if you are exposed to the vacuum of space?" (Phil Plait, Discover magazine, 2012): @
* "Human Exposure to the Vacuum of Space" (www.aerospaceweb.org): @
* "The Body at Vacuum" (from "The Engines of Our Ingenuity," University of Houston): @
* "Survival in Space Unprotected is Possible -- Briefly" (Scientific American, 2008): @
* "The Crew That Never Came Home: The Misfortunes of Soyuz 11" (Space Safety magazine, 2013): @
* Summary of Soyuz 11 flight (Encyclopedia Asronautica): @
* "The Effect on the Chimpanzee of Rapid Decompression to a Near Vacuum" (NASA, 1965): @
* "Rapid (Explosive) Decompression Emergencies in Pressure-Suited Subjects (NASA, 1968): @

* "Bioastronautics Data Book" (NASA, 1974; see Chapter 1, "Barometic Pressure"): @ 

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Thursday, March 18, 1965: First spacewalk

A Soviet cosmonaut squeezed out of history's highest orbiting manned satellite today and took man's first slowly somersaulting, free-floating swim in outer space. Then he returned to the cabin of his two-man spacecraft, the Voskhod 2, as the Soviet Union took another giant stride in the race for the moon. ... It was the second Soviet team flight in one space capsule, following a three-man, 16-orbit trip last October. It came only five days before America's first planned attempt to orbit a spacecraft with more than one man aboard. ... Alexei Leonov, 30, a chunky lieutenant colonel and a gifted artist, became the first man in history to step into outer space. 

     -- Associated Press: @

     -- Photo from www.spacephys.ru

* "Learning to Spacewalk" (Leonov, for Air & Space magazine, January 2005): @
* " 'Our Walk in Space': The Russian Cosmonauts' Story of their bold first step" (Life magazine, May 14): @
* "Alexei Leonov: The artistic spaceman" (European Space Agency): @

* Short biography (International Space Hall of Fame): @
* Russian news report: @
* Black-and-white footage (French audio): @
* Black-and-white footage (no sound; from www.britishpathe.com): @
* Color footage: @

* Universal Newsreel (from www.criticalpast.com): @ 

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Thursday, October 15, 1964: Khrushchev ousted

The Nikita Khrushchev era, embracing ten years of cold war and coexistence, has ended with his retirement as premier and top man in the Soviet Communist Party "in view of his advanced age and deterioration of his health."

     His protege, Leonid Brezhnev, at 57 Khrushchev's junior by 13 years, has taken over the key party post. Alexei Kosygin, the man Khrushchev trusted to run the government during his frequent absences abroad, has become premier. Khrushchev's jobs are this divided, as they used to be.

   In the last two days Khrushchev has disappeared from public view. A picture of him mounted near the Kremlin was taken down last night. Three hours later, at midnight, came the official announcement of the charges ... Tass said the changes were decided upon Wednesday and Thursday.

     -- Associated Press (full story: @)

     -- 1963 photo of Khrushchev and Brezhnev from Corbis Images

* Miami News, October 15: @

* Miami News, October 16: @

* New York Times, October 16: @ 

* Life magazine, October 23 (coverage starts on page 30): @ 

* "Khrushchev Resigns" (newsreel; from Critical Past): @ 

* Summary from BBC: @ 

* Entry from "Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States" (M. Wesley Shoemaker, 2012): @ * "Khrushchev's Downfall and Its Consequences" (FRUS, 1964-1968, Volume XIV, Soviet Union): @ 

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Thursday, July 16, 1964: 'Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice'

Accepting the Republican nomination for president, Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater tells delegates at the GOP national convention in San Francisco:

I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.

The "extremism" issue had come largely from New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller, whose pursuit of the GOP nomination failed as his party embraced more conservative views. Rockefeller (and in turn, the Democrats) warned that the Goldwater forces were a threat to peace and progress.

Resources

* Video of speech (C-SPAN via NBC): @ and @

* Transcript of speech (Washington Post via Arizona Historical Foundation): @

* New York Times story, July 15: @

* Associated Press story, July 17 (note error in headline, which says "pursuit of happiness" instead of "pursuit of justice"): @

* United Press International story, July 17: @

* Life magazine, July 24: @

* "Goldwater Clarifies 'Extremism' " (Associated Press, August 10): @

* Party platform (American Presidency Project): @

* Video of first part of Rockefeller speech to the convention (C-SPAN): @

* Audio of entire speech (pastdaily.com): @
* "Remarks on extremism at the 1964 Republican National Convention" (July 14; Rockefeller Archive Center; note: prepared remarks differ from speech): @ and @

* "The 1964 Republican Campaign" ("The Rockefellers," PBS): @

* "Margaret Chase Smith for President" (Maine History Online): @

* "1964: The Conventions" (U.S. Information Agency): @

* "The Delegate" (documentary, National Educational Television): @

* 1964 campaign commercials (The Living Room Candidate, Museum of the Modern Image): @
* "Election of 1964" (from "Presidential Campaigns: Documents Decoded," Daniel M. Shea and Brian M. Harward, 2013): @

* "Overviews & Chronologies: 1964" (Presidential Campaigns & Elections Reference): @

* "LBJ Fights the White Backlash: The Racial Politics of the 1964 Presidential Campaign" (Jeremy D. Mayer, Prologue magazine, National Archives): @

* "1964 Republican Convention: Revolution From The Right" (Rick Perlstein, Smithsonian magazine, August 2008): @

* "Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus" (Perlstein, 2001): @

* "Turning Right in the Sixties: The Conservative Capture of the GOP" (Mary C. Brennan, 1995): @

* Review of "Turning Right" (Matthew Dallek, The Atlantic, 1995): @

* "The Rise of the Counter-Establishment: The Conservative Ascent to Political Power" (Sidney Blumenthal, 2008): @

* "Barry Goldwater and the Remaking of the American Political Landscape" (edited by Elizabeth Tandy Shermer, 2013): @ 

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Tuesday, May 19, 1964: U.S. Embassy microphones

More than 40 secret microphones were found in the U.S. Embassy in Moscow when U.S. security men tore into walls of the building in April. The State Department disclosed the find Tuesday, and said a strong protest was delivered in Moscow on Tuesday morning. Officials said the microphones were imbedded 8 to 10 inches deep in the walls of the 10-story building, and obviously had been installed before the Russians turned the building over for U.S. occupancy in 1952.

     -- Associated Press (full article: @)

     -- Photo from Associated Press; original caption: "A State Department security person holds one of the more than 40 microphones found in the American Embassy in Moscow when walls of the building were torn down in April 1964. On display May 19, 1964 at the State Department in Washington are other listening devices uncovered in other American embassies behind the "Iron Curtain."

* "The Walls Have Ears" (Newsweek, June 1): @

* "Estimate of Damage to U.S. Foreign Policy Interests (From Net of Listening Devices in U.S. Embassy Moscow" (U.S. State Department, October 2, 1964): @

* "Spies, Leaks, Bugs, and Diplomats (Diplomatic Security in the 1960s" (State Department): @

* Earlier post on "The Great Seal Bug" (May 26, 1960): @ 

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Thursday, October 10, 1963: FBI surveillance of Martin Luther King

With the FBI increasingly concerned about possible Communist involvement in the civil rights movement, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy authorizes the bureau to wiretap the Atlanta home of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., as well as the New York offices of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (of which King was president). The FBI's investigation into King's life, activities and associates began in 1955 and lasted until his death in 1968.

Photo from June 22, 1963, following a meeting at the White House between civil rights leaders and administration officials to discuss pending legislation and the planned March on Washington. From left are King, Kennedy, the NAACP's Roy Wilkins and Vice President Johnson.

* JPEG of request and authorization (Kennedy's signature is in lower left-hand corner): @ 
* Text of FBI memo, October 10 (from "From the Secret Files of J. Edgar Hoover," 1991): @ 
* PDF of August 30 FBI memo calling King "the most dangerous Negro of the future in this nation": @ 
* FBI files on "Surreptitious Entries (Black Bag Jobs)": @  
* "Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Case Study" (from "Supplementary Detailed Staff Reports on  Intelligence Activities and the Rights of Americans," 1976, United States Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations of with Respect to Intelligence Activities -- aka the Church Committee): @

* Department of Justice review of FBI's activities (1977; go to Part 2 of 2, page 113, "FBI Surveillance and Harassment of Dr. King"): @

* "The National Security Agency versus Martin Luther King, Muhammad Ali, Art Buchwald,  Frank Church, et al." (National Security Archive, 2013): @

* FBI entry from MLK Research and Education Institute: @

* "The FBI's War on King" (American RadioWorks): @ 

* "King Address That Stirred World Led to FBI Surveillance" (Bloomberg BusinessWeek, August 2013): @ 

* "The FBI and Martin Luther King" (David J. Garrow, The Atlantic magazine, July 2002): @ 

* "The FBI and Martin Luther King, Jr.: From 'Solo' to Memphis" (Garrow, 2001): @ Author's website: @

* "The Pursuit of Justice: Martin Luther King" (chapter from "Robert Kennedy and His Times," Arthur M. Schlesinger, 1978): @ 

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Thursday, October 10, 1963: Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty

WASHINGTON -- The nuclear test ban treaty banning all but underground explosions formally went into effect today with ratification ceremonies in Washington, London and Moscow.
     Secretary of State Dean Rusk, Soviet Ambassador Anatoly F. Dobrynin and British Ambassador Sir David Ormsby Gore exchanged ratification documents and expressed hope for further measures to ease the cold war.
     Similar ceremonies took place in Moscow and London.
-- United Press International

Photo from August 5 signing in Moscow. Original caption: "Seated to sign three-nation nuclear test ban in the Kremlin's St. Catherine's Hall on August 5th are (left to right): US Secretary of State Dean Rusk; Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko; and British Foreign Secretary Lord Home. To right behind Gromyko is Soviet Premier Nikita Khruschev; then (right to left) United Nations Secretary General U Thant; Adlai Stevenson, US ambassador to the UN; Senator Hubert Humphrey (D-Minn.); unidentified man with glasses; Senator William Fulbright (D-Ark.); and Senator George Aiken (R-Vt.)." Photo from Corbis Images.

* PDF of treaty (from National Archives): @ 
* Summary and text (from U.S. Department of State): @ 
* President Kennedy's address to nation (July 26): @ 
* Summary from JFK Library: @ 
* Summary from Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State: @ 
* Summary from atomicarchive.com: @ 
* Summary from history.com: @ 
* "The Limited Test Ban Treaty -- 50 years Later" (from National Security Archive): @ 
* "Ending Nuclear Testing" (from United Nations): @ 
* "Test Ban Treaty Signed in Moscow; Leaders Rejoice" (New York Times, August 6, 1963): @ 
* Newsreel (Moscow signing): @ 
* Newsreel (Kennedy signing): @  

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Friday, August 30, 1963: U.S.-Soviet hotline

    The historic "hot line" between Washington and Moscow is open for business -- business that officials hope will never come.
     Now a tinkle of a bell in the White House or Kremlin -- at either end of the emergency communications system -- may signal the next world crisis.
     But it may also keep nervous fingers from pressing the buttons that would launch nuclear war.
     Completion of the circuits, made possible by a U.S. Soviet agreement to create machinery for forestalling war, was announced laconically Friday night by the Pentagon.
     "The direct communications link between Washington and Moscow is now operational," said a one-sentence announcement.
     The land-line and radio system is, under the terms of the agreement signed in Geneva last June 20, "for use in time of emergency."
     It would be used when the two chiefs of state needed to confer directly and quickly because of an incident, accidental or authorized, which otherwise would bring on nuclear war.
     In urging adoption of the system, President Kennedy cited dangerous delays in communications between Russia and the United States during the anxious days of the Cuban crisis.
     Administration officials said the line will not be used for ordinary communications between Kennedy and Premier Khrushchev or between the foreign offices of the two nations. Those communications will continue to use normal embassy channels.

     The ringing of the bell, part of an elaborate system of sounding and receiving Teletype machines, is the alert that a message is coming.

     The telegraphic tickers will stand ready from now on, day and night.

     Attendants, all carefully selected and screened for security, watch and listen. At least one of the attendants on duty at any time will be bilingual, able to read and wrote both Russian and English.

     -- The Associated Press

The photo is from the National Cryptologic Museum (links: @ and @). The caption reads in part: "The original Washington-to-Moscow Hotline was a one-time tape/teletype system for which the Soviets and Americans exchanged compatible equipment. This East German teletypewriter, made by Gerdlewerk, Karl-Marx-Stadt, was donated to the MCM by a former U.S. Army officer who had been in charge of the Pentagon end of the link."

* "Memorandum of Understanding Between The United States of America and The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics Regarding the Establishment of a Direct Communications Link" (from U.S. Department of State): @

* " 'Hot Line' Opened by U.S. and Soviet to Cut Attack Risk" (New York Times, August 31, 1963): @ 
* "There Never Was Such a Thing as a Red Phone in the White House" (Smithsonian magazine, June 2013): @

* Entry from Top Level Telecommunications blog: @

* Entry from www.cryptomuseum.com: @

* "The Washington-Moscow Hotline: A Compilation of Extracts" (website by Jerry Proc): @ 

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Monday, July 1, 1963: Kim Philby

     Former Foreign Office official Harold Philby has admitted he was the "third man" in the case of British diplomats Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean.
     Security services are now aware that using information he gained while working for the MI6 in Washington, Mr. Philby warned the pair that intelligence services were on their trail. This information enabled them to escape to the Soviet Union.
     It is now apparent Mr. Philby was a double agent working for the Soviet authorities during his time with the foreign office.
     The news was announced in the House of Commons by the Lord Privy Seal Edward Heath.
     -- From BBC. Full story: @. 1968 photo of Philby in Moscow from Russia Beyond the Headlines (website: @)
* Heath's statement: @
* Entry from spymuseum.com: @

* Earlier post on Philby (January 1963): @ 

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Wednesday, June 26, 1963: JFK in West Berlin

     

     Police lines buckled, ecstatic women swooned and the old streets shook to endless chants of "KEN-NAH-DEE." Storming into West Germany last week to begin a tour that would take him to Ireland to visit Irish kin, and then to England and Italy, the President looked like a campaigner -- and it was on purpose.
     With the racial crisis bloodily evident on its front pages, the press of America had advised him to stay at home. But he went -- to speak out against the damage inflicted on the Atlantic alliance by France's disruptive President Charles de Gaulle, and to assure Europe of America's steadfastness as an ally in peace or war.
     From the start there was no doubt about how the German people felt. Millions jammed the streets to wave American flags at his motorcade and cheer his speeches. In Berlin he even attracted a pathetic group of handkerchief-waving East Berliners. The measure of the success of the visit lay in Kennedy's quick and warm accord with the hard-bitten old German chancellor, Konrad Adenauer.
     In a forceful statement of principles, the President hammered on the need for constant transatlantic partnership and trust between the United States and a "fully cohesive Europe." He pledged to lay American cities on the line in defense of those in Europe, and the roar of approval in Germany was matched only by the silence from France.
    -- Life magazine, July 5, 1963. Complete magazine: @

The index card at top shows the phonetic pronunciations Kennedy wrote down for three of the phrases in his June 26 speech: "Ich bin ein Berliner" (I am a Berliner), "civis Romanus sum" (I am a Roman citizen) and "Lass' sic nach Berlin kommen" (Let them come to Berlin). Photo from Corbis Images.

* Summary (from www.findingdulcinea.com): @
* Transcript and video (from Miller Center, University of Virginia): @

* Links to more footage (from www.criticalpast.com): @
* Audio (from JFK Library): @
* "Remarks at Free University of West Berlin" (materials from JFK Library): @
* "One Day in Berlin" (video from JFK Library): @
* "The Cold War in Berlin" (summary from JFK Library): @
* New York Times story: @ 
* "Kennedy in Berlin" (Andreas W. Daum, 2007): @

* "Kennedy and the Berlin Wall" (W.R. Smyser, 2009): @ 

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Sunday, June 16, 1963: First woman in space

From June 16 to 19, Valentina Vladimiorvna Tereshkova became the first woman to fly in space. Tereshkova was born on March 6, 1937, in the Soviet village of Masslenikovo. Her parents worked on a collective farm, but her father was killed during World War II. While working at a textile mill at the age of 18, she took correspondence courses from an industrial school and joined a club for parachutists, making over 150 jumps. Shortly after the flight of cosmonaut Gherman Titov in September 1961 she wrote a letter to the space center volunteering for the cosmonaut team. Unknown to her, Soviet space officials were considering the selection of a group of women parachutists. In December 1961 Tereshkova was invited to Moscow for an interview and medical examination. The following March she reported with three other women to the Soviet Space Center at Star City. In May 1963, Tereshkova and Tatyana Torchillova were chosen to train for the Vostok 6 flight. On June 16, 1963, Tereshkova was launched into orbit and made 48 revolutions around the earth in a 70-hour 50-minute spaceflight. Tereshkova parachuted from the Vostok 6 after re-entering the Earth's atmosphere and landed about 612 km (380 miles) northeast of Karaganda, Kazakhstan, in central Asia.
-- Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum

* Entry from history.com: @

* Biography from Russiapedia (from RT.com): @

* Timeline (from RT.com): @
* Infographic (from space.com): @
* "Valentina Tereshkova: The Greta Garbo of space" (from BBC, June 2013): @

* "On the Edge: The Legacy of Valentina Tereshkova" (from americaspace.com): @
* "The Girl From Space" (newsreel): @

* Other footage: @

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Monday, June 10, 1963: JFK's 'Peace' speech

"President Kennedy announced Monday that the United States, the Soviet Union and Britain have agreed to send high-level negotiators to Moscow next month in a fresh start at hammering out a nuclear test-ban treaty. In the meantime, the President announced, the United States will not conduct any nuclear tests in the atmosphere -- so long as the Soviet Union and other nations hold back on their tests, too. ... The President chose an unusual setting for his announcements, and he embellished them with an eloquent plea for world peace. Standing under the broiling sun in an outdoor amphitheater, Kennedy put the significant announcements into a commencement address to American University's graduating class."
* From The Associated Press. Full story: @

"The United States will seek to increase communications with Russia, to avoid unnecessary irritants, to search for areas of agreement and to avoid pushing to Kremlin into a choice between 'humiliating retreat or a nuclear war.' This fundamental philosophy of how to deal with Russians in a nuclear age, stated Monday by President Kennedy in a major speech, is expected by diplomats to be more prominently recorded in history than his announcements on nuclear testing."
* From United Press International. Full story: @
* Transcript and video (from JFK Library): @

* "JFK at AU: Building Peace For All Time" (American University website): @

* "John F. Kennedy Speaks of Peace" (from Nuclear Age Peace Foundation): @

* "To Move the World: JFK's Quest for Peace" (Jeffrey D. Sachs, 2013): @ 

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