February 1961

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February 1, 1961: U.S. launches first Minuteman ICBM
February 1, 1961: Touch-tone phone tested by Bell
February 14, 1961: New element created

The following events occurred in February 1961:

February 1, 1961 (Wednesday)

February 2, 1961 (Thursday)

February 3, 1961 (Friday)
  • Operation Looking Glass began, as the first of a series of Boeing EC-135 jets went into the air on orders of the Strategic Air Command. For more than 30 years, an EC-135 was always in the air, with the capability of taking direct control of the United States' bombers and missiles in the event of the destruction of the SAC's command post near Omaha. As one jet "Doomsday Plane" was preparing to land, another was already aloft. The program continued, with E4A jets later replacing the EC-135s, until the fall of the Soviet Union.[5]
  • French interior designer Stéphane Boudin made his first visit to the White House, to plan the refurnishing of the U.S. President's residence at the request of the new First Lady, Jacqueline Kennedy.[6]
  • Garuda Indonesian Airways Flight 542 and its 26 occupants disappeared while flying from Surabaya on the island of Java, to Balikpapan on the island of Borneo. The Douglas DC-3 plane plunged into the Java Sea after having last been seen over Madura Island.[7]
  • Died:

February 4, 1961 (Saturday)
  • The Portuguese Colonial War began in Angola with a co-ordinated attack by 180 MPLA guerillas in Luanda. In a morning raid, armed groups attacked the prison, the police barracks, a police patrol and the radio station. The attacks failed, and armed white Angolan residents exacted revenge on Luanda's black neighborhoods, but the battle inspired a 14-year-long campaign to liberate Portugal's colonies.[8]
  • Sputnik 7 was launched by the Soviet Union and placed into Earth orbit. Although reported as a success, in that it was the heaviest object (14,300 pounds) into orbit at that time, the Soviets did not mention that their intent had been to send the first Earth craft to the planet Venus, a detail revealed in 1962 by the American space agency, NASA.[9]
  • Died: Alphonse Picou, 82, American jazz clarinetist

February 5, 1961 (Sunday)
  • The Kachin Independence Organisation and its military wing, the Kachin Independence Army, were organized in the northernmost state of Burma, where the predominantly Christian Kachin people revolted against a proposal by Burmese Premier U Nu to make Buddhism the national religion. Led by the three Zau brothers (Zau Seng, Zau Tu and Zau Dan), the KIO and the KIA lead a rebellion that would last for 32 years, during which the Kachin state operated independently from the rest of Burma. [10] [11]
  • A plebiscite was held on the south Pacific islands of Saipan and Tinian on the issue of the future political status of the two southern Pacific lands, both of which were administered by the U.S. Navy. Most (1,642 voters) favored rejoining the U.S. territory of Guam, 875 wanted to be a territory within the Northern Marianas, 27 wanted to continue under Navy administration, and eight were invalid. [12]
  • Movie actress Marilyn Monroe voluntarily checked herself into the Cornell University Medical Center (under the pseudonym "Faye Miller") after being driven there by her psychiatrist, Dr. Marianne Kris. Admitted on the premise that she would be treated for exhaustion, Monroe was instead taken to the Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic and found "the worst fear of her life come true", being locked inside a padded cell. After three days, she was permitted to make a phone call and reached her ex-husband, baseball star Joe DiMaggio, who flew to New York City and effected her release. [13]

February 6, 1961 (Monday)
  • In what the Associated Press described as "a rarity in anti-trust cases", seven corporate executives were sent to jail in Philadelphia for bid rigging in attempting to obtain government contracts. The jail sentences were in addition to fines against 29 different electrical firms, and another 19 officials were given probation and suspended sentences. The men who drew 30-day jail sentences were a vice-president and two former division managers of General Electric Company; a vice-president and a sales manager of Westinghouse Electric Company; a V.P. of Cutler-Hammer, Inc. (later part of Eaton Corporation) and a V.P. of Clark Controller Company. U.S. District Judge J. Cullen Ganey said, "What really is at stake here is a vast section of our economic system that we are offering to uncommitted sections of the world as an alternative to planned economies." [14] [15]
  • General Ne Win of the Burmese Army purged his military command, announcing the forced resignations of Brigadier General (and future President) Maung Maung, his director of military training, and nine of his 18 field commanders. [16]
  • In the Congo, President Joseph Kasavubu named Joseph Ileo as the Prime Minister in an interim government. Ileo was unable to persuade major secessionist leaders to join his cabinet and would resign on August 1. [17]
  • KOPB-TV began operating in Portland, Oregon under the name KOAP.
  • Born: Yury Onufriyenko, Russian cosmonaut, in Ryasne, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union

February 7, 1961 (Tuesday)
  • Black political leaders, including Joshua Nkomo and Ndabaningi Sithole met with British colonial officials in Salisbury and signed their agreement to a referendum on a proposed constitution for independence for Southern Rhodesia, with a system providing for gradual rule by the black African majority. The document, which was to be submitted to black and white voters on July 26, had provisions for "a complicated, racially discriminatory voting system" [18] with an "A" roll for white African voters and candidates, and a "B" roll for black voters and candidates. "It is possible," an author would later write, "had Nkomo adhered to this commitment that he could have found himself in reasonable time the President of the independent state of Zimbabwe. If he had stood by his commitment, the armed struggle, to which he would commit himself shortly, and which would kill some 40,000 people in 1962-1980, would not have occurred. If he had stayed in the constitutional process and encouraged the Africans to qualify for the vote, they would have... by dint of their numbers, come to dominate in a lawful, peaceful manner." [19] Days after the initial agreement, Nkomo and Sithole withdrew their support and urged their supporters to boycott the referendum.
  • George Low, NASA's Chief of Manned Space Flight, and his task group submitted their report, A Plan for a Manned Lunar Landing for consideration by U.S. President John F. Kennedy. [20]
  • Harold Johnson defeated Jess Bowdry in a boxing bout to win recognition by the National Boxing Association as world light heavyweight champion. All other boxing board's continued to recognize Archie Moore (who had beaten Johnson in four previous encounters) as the world champion, but the N.B.A. had vacated Moore's title for inactivity. [21]
  • Born: Prince François, Count of Clermont, dauphin of the Orleanist claimant to the French throne

February 8, 1961 (Wednesday)
  • At a press conference to announce that Prime Minister John Diefenbaker of Canada would be coming to the United States on February 20, President Kennedy mispronounced the Canadian leader's name multiple times. Kennedy had asked Secretary of State Dean Rusk, who in turn had asked Assistant for European Affairs Foy D. Kohler, who suggested the German pronunciation "Dee-fen-bawk-er"; Diefenbaker's name was misspelled by various news sources as "Diffenbaker", "Diefenbacker", "Diefenbacon" and even (by UPI) "Fifenbaker".[22] Privately, the Prime Minister, whose name was pronounced "Dee-fen-bay-ker", was enraged at what he viewed as being mocked by the American president.[23]

February 9, 1961 (Thursday)

February 10, 1961 (Friday)

February 11, 1961 (Saturday)
  • Melbourne Cricket Ground had its largest ever crowd for a cricket match, 90,800 people, attending the test match between Australia and West Indies.
  • A plebiscite was conducted in the north and south parts of the British Cameroons over whether to join the Federation of Nigeria or the Republic of Cameroon that had recently become independent of France. Residents of the Southern Cameroons voted 233,571 to 97,741 in favor of union with Cameroon, while in the Northern Cameroons, the result was 146,296 to 97,659 in favor of integration with Nigeria.[28]
  • Robert C. Weaver became the first African-American to lead a major U.S. government agency, becoming Administrator of the Housing and Home Finance Agency on appointment by President Kennedy. When the HHFA was raised to cabinet-level status on January 18, 1966, Weaver became the first African-American cabinet member, under President Lyndon Johnson, as the first U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.[29]
  • Died: Kate Carew, 91, American caricaturist

February 12, 1961 (Sunday)
  • Eight days after launching the seven ton Sputnik 5, the U.S.S.R. used the orbiting satellite as a launch platform from which to fire a rocket carrying the interplanetary space probe, Venera 1, towards the planet Venus. The U.S. had launched Pioneer V toward Venus in March to[30] Contact with the satellite was lost after it traveled 4,650,000 miles, but the probe came within 62,000 miles of the second planet, and is believed to still be in orbit around the Sun.[31]

February 13, 1961 (Monday)
  • At Elisabethville, The Congo, Katangan Interior Minister Godefroid Munongo informed reporters, "I have called you together to announce the death of Patrice Lumumba and his accomplices," then went on to say that the group had been massacred the day before "by the inhabitants of a little village" days after escaping from prison. As it turned out, Lumumba had been executed by a Katangan firing squad a month earlier, on January 17. The confirmation of Lumumba's death stirred rioting in the Congo and around the world.[32]
  • Hunting for geodes in the Coso Mountains near Olancha, California, rock collectors Wally Lane, Mike Mikesell and Virginia Maxey found a 500,000-year-old rock containing the "Coso artifact", a metal object that resembled, anachronistically, a spark plug. The rock and the ancient spark plug have not been seen since 1969.[33]

February 14, 1961 (Tuesday)
  • Element 103, Lawrencium, was first synthesized by a team of scientists at the University of California, Berkeley. Using the cyclotron at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory, scientists Albert Ghiorso, Torbjorn Sikkeland, Almon E. Larsh and Robert M. Latimer bombarded Californium with Boron-10 and Boron-11 nuclei, combining the protons of the 98th and 5th elements to create a new element with 103 protons. After spending two months confirming their finding, the team made their announcement on April 13.[34]
  • A day after the news of Patrice Lumumba's death, thousands of protesters attacked Belgium's embassies worldwide. The embassy in Moscow was attacked by a mob of thousands of Russian, Asian and African students, while the one in Belgrade was ransacked following a protest by 30,000 people. African students in New Delhi wrecked furniture at the embassy there. The next day, a group of 24 protesters fought with guards at the United Nations Security Council[35] One reporter felt that the Moscow riots, with marchers from that city's People's Friendship University, "showed signs of careful planning" and that it had been orchestrated by the Soviet government.[36]
  • The Zuid-Afrikaanse Rand (ZAR) became the official currency of South Africa, replacing the South African pound at a 2:1 ratio.[37]
  • James E. Webb took office as administrator of NASA, serving until 1968.[38]

February 15, 1961 (Wednesday)

February 16, 1961 (Thursday)

February 17, 1961 (Friday)

February 18, 1961 (Saturday)
  • The remains of the former USS South Dakota, a U.S. Navy armored cruiser during World War One and later renamed the USS Huron before being sold for scrap in 1930, sank off of the coast of the city of Powell River, British Columbia. A storm caused the stripped down ship to go down in 80 foot deep waters in the Salish Sea coastal waterway. [41]
  • Led by British author and activist Bertrand Russell, the Committee of 100 and a crowd of 5,000 people staged a sit-down protest at the Ministry of Defence in Whitehall, London, demanding that the U.K. call off its agreement to bring nuclear missiles to the British Isles. As one author notes, "Somewhat to the distress of Russell ... police took no action on this occasion." [42]
  • Kwame Nkrumah laid the foundation stone of the Kwame Nkrumah Ideological Institute in Winneba, Ghana.
  • After 22 years of publication, the British comic strip Radio Fun was merged into Buster.

February 19, 1961 (Sunday)
  • A seven-year-old boy in Arizona survived a 275-foot fall into an irrigation well, and was rescued after ranch employees tied together multiple ropes. Harry Stage had broken both legs and his pelvis after falling through the 16 inch pipe.[43]
  • Belgium's King Baudouin dissolved Parliament and ordered new elections to be conducted on March 26.[44]
  • Born: Justin Fashanu, English footballer, in Hackney, London (died 1998)

February 20, 1961 (Monday)

February 21, 1961 (Tuesday)

February 22, 1961 (Wednesday)
  • Come Blow Your Horn, the first play written by Neil Simon, made its debut at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre on Broadway. Running for 677 performances, the play was the first in a string of hits for Simon.[48]
  • Fans of the television soap opera The Edge of Night were horrified when Sara Lane Karr, the show's leading female character, died of injuries sustained on the Monday episode. After CBS received multiple calls from distressed viewers, the actress who played the role, Teal Ames, appeared as herself the next day to explain that she was alive, and that her character had been written out of the series at her own request.[49]
  • Born:
  • Died: Nick LaRocca, 71, jazz cornettist

February 23, 1961 (Thursday)
  • Duncan Carse was dropped off alone at the British Antarctic island of South Georgia, for an eighteen-month attempt to become a latter-day Robinson Crusoe. HMS Owen brought him to the uninhabited south side of the island with 12 tons of supplies and a prefabricated hut, at Ducloz Head. The hut and much of the supplies would be swept away by a wave on May 20, forcing Carse to survive on what he had been able to save. He would finally be able to signal a ship, the Petrel, on September 13.[50]
  • Geoffrey Charles Lawrence became acting Chief Minister of Zanzibar, which was still under British administration.
  • Born: Trent Lehman, American child actor known for Nanny and the Professor, and whose death was an impetus for the founding of the child actor support group A Minor Consideration; in Los Angeles (committed suicide, 1982) [51]

February 24, 1961 (Friday)
  • The bodies of former Hungarian Prime Minister Imre Nagy, Colonel Pál Maléter and journalist Miklós Gimes - all of whom had been executed for treason on June 16, 1958, after the failure of the 1956 Hungarian revolution - were exhumed from the courtyard of the prison where they had been hanged, taken from their coffins, rolled up in tar paper, and buried in an unmarked grave in Budapest. Even their names were altered in cemetery records, with Nagy identified as a woman named Piroska Borbiro.[52] After the downfall of Communism in Hungary in 1989, the three bodies were exhumed, and buried with full honors on June 16, 1989, thirty-one years after their executions.[53]
  • Iranian Airways and Pars Airways merged to form a single national airline for the nation, Iran Air.[54]

February 25, 1961 (Saturday)

February 26, 1961 (Sunday)
  • Tyazhely Sputnik (literally "heavy satellite"), at seven tons the largest object to be launched into outer space when it went up on February 4, reentered the atmosphere over Siberia.[61] The failure of the mission was disguised as a test by the Soviet Union authorities.[62]
  • Died: King Mohammed V of Morocco, 51, suffered a fatal heart attack after undergoing a minor operation at the clinic in his palace at Rabat. His son, Hassan II was proclaimed his successor.[63]

February 27, 1961 (Monday)

February 28, 1961 (Tuesday)
  • Under United States law, 38 U.S.C. §101 (29)(A), the Vietnam Era refers to "The period beginning on February 28, 1961, and ending on May 7, 1975, in the case of a veteran who served in the Republic of Vietnam during that period." [65]
  • East Germany abruptly ended its program of researching, designing and building aircraft, with the passage of a resolution by the Central Committee of the ruling SED Party. "Huge resources were wasted as a result of this about-face," noted one commentator.[66]
  • The Saarlouis electric tramway closed after nearly 48 years in operation.
  • Born: Mark Ferguson, New Zealand actor and TV presenter, in Sydney, Australia

References
  1. "Touch-Tone Telephone Tested In Greensburg", Associated Press report in Warren (PA) Times Mirror, February 2, 1961, p10
  2. "The MINUTEMAN Ballistic Missile Test Program", Federation of American Scientists; "US Minuteman Missile Lands on Ocean Target", Milwaukee Journal, February 1, 1961, p1
  3. Neil A. Hamilton and Ian C. Friedman, Presidents: A Biographical Dictionary (Infobase Publishing, 2009) p406
  4. "Santa Maria Passengers Go Ashore", Milwaukee Journal, February 2, 1961, p1
  5. "America's Top Secret Doomsday Plane", by Kenneth J. Stein, Popular Mechanics (May 1994) pp 38-41
  6. James A. Abbott, Elaine M. Rice, Designing Camelot: The Kennedy White House Restoration (John Wiley and Sons, 1997) p68
  7. Aviation Safety Network
  8. "Angola: Revolts, 1961", in Encyclopedia of African History, Volume 1 (Kevin Shillington, ed.) (CRC Press, 2005) p143; "Angola Crushes Armed Uprising", New York Times, February 5, 1961, p1
  9. "U.S. Reports Five Russian Space Failures", St. Petersburg (FL) Times, September 6, 1962, p1
  10. Bertil Lintner, Great Game East: India, China, and the Struggle for Asia's Most Volatile Frontier (Yale University Press, 2015) p260
  11. Thant Myint-U, The River of Lost Footsteps: Histories of Burma (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007) p288
  12. Arnold H. Leibowitz, Defining Status: A Comprehensive Analysis of United States Territorial Relations (Martinus Nijhoff, 1989) p527
  13. Richard Ben Cramer, Joe DiMaggio: The Hero's Life (Simon and Schuster, 2001) pp390-391
  14. "Jail for 7 in Anti-Trust Suit", Chicago Daily Tribune, February 7, 1961, p1
  15. "The Heavy Electrical Equipment Antitrust Cases of 1961", by Gilbert Geis, in White-Collar Criminal: The Offender in Business And the Professions (Transaction Publishers, 1968) p103
  16. Mary P. Callahan, Making Enemies: War and State Building in Burma (Cornell University Press, 2003) pp198-200
  17. "Ileo, Joseph", in Historical Dictionary of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, by Emizet Francois Kisangani and Scott F. Bobb (Scarecrow Press, 2009) p228
  18. Morgan Tsvangirai: At the Deep End, by Morgan Tsvangirai, with T. William Bango (Eye Books, 2011)
  19. J.R.T. Wood, So Far and No Further!: Rhodesia's Bid for Independence During the Retreat from Empire 1959-1965 (Trafford Publishing, 2012) pp74-75
  20. Richard W. Orloff and David M. Harland, Apollo: The Definitive Sourcebook (Springer, 2006) p10
  21. Nat Fleischer and Sam Andre, An Illustrated History of Boxing (Citadel Press, 2001) p205
  22. Sean M. Maloney, Learning to Love the Bomb: Canada's Nuclear Weapons During the Cold War (Potomac Books, 2007) p232
  23. Arthur Slade, John Diefenbaker (Dundurn Press, 2001) p103
  24. R.A. Medvedev, Personality and Epoch: Political Portrait of L.I. Brezhnev (1991); "Plane Attack Shocks Moscow", Miami News, February 10, 1961, p1
  25. "Red Chief's Plane Fired On — French Jets 'Attack' off Africa Coast", Chicago Daily Tribune, February 10, 1961, p1
  26. "French Try To Soothe Red Anger", Miami News, February 11, 1961, p1
  27. Daniel M. Dumych, Images of America, Volume 2: Niagara Falls, Volume 2 (Arcadia Publishing, 1998) p128
  28. Rose Ngomba-Roth, The Challenges of Conflict Resolution in Africa: The Case of Cameroon-Nigerian Border Conflict (LIT Verlag Münster, 2008) p86
  29. "Black Firsts: Politics, Entertainment, Sports and Other Fields", by Lerone Bennett Jr., Ebony Magazine (March 1982) p128
  30. Robert Silverberg, First American Into Space (Monarch Books, 1961) pp36-37; "7-Ton Sputnik Is Fired", Miami News, February 4, 1961, p1; "RUSS FIRE VENUS SHOT-- Piggyback Space Station Rides Sputnik", Milwaukee Sentinel, February 13, 1961, p1
  31. R. K. Renfield and Richard K. Stinson, Venus (Rosen Publishing Group, 2004 ) pp 14-15
  32. "Lumumba Dead; Reported Massacred By Villagers", Toledo Blade, February 13, 1961, p1; Robert Hopkins Miller, Vietnam and Beyond: A Diplomat's Cold War Education (Texas Tech University Press, 2002) p43
  33. Greg Bishop, et al., Weird California (Sterling Publishing Company, Inc., 2006) p32
  34. "Isotope Found Of 'Dead' Element-- 4 Nuclear Scientists Make 'Lawrencium'", Toledo Blade, April 13, 1961, p2
  35. "Students Riot in Moscow", Pittsburgh Press, February 14, 1961, p1; "Mob Battles Guards Over Congo Debate", February 15, 1961, p1
  36. "Rigged Riots Blast West In Moscow", Milwaukee Sentinel, February 15, 1961, p1
  37. John Allen, Apartheid South Africa: An Insider's Overview of the Origin and Effects of Separate Development (iUniverse, 2005) p350
  38. Craig Nelson, Rocket Men: The Epic Story of the First Men on the Moon (Penguin, 2010)
  39. "U.S. ICE TEAM KILLED IN CRASH", Pittsburgh Press, February 15, 1961, p1
  40. http://www.jfklibrary.org/Historical+Resources/Archives/Reference+Desk/Selected+Milestones+in+the+Presidency+of+John+F.+Kennedy.htm
  41. USS South Dakota/USS Huron
  42. Lawrence S. Wittner, Resisting the Bomb: A History of the World Nuclear Disarmament Movement, 1954-1970 (Stanford University Press, 1997) p188
  43. "Injured Boy In Well Minds Dad And Lives", Miami News, February 20, 1961, p1
  44. "Parliament Dissolved By Belgian King", Toledo Blade, February 20, 1961, p2
  45. Blair Jackson, Garcia: An American Life (Penguin, 2000) p32
  46. Jane Boulden, Peace Enforcement: The United Nations Experience in Congo, Somalia, and Bosnia (Greenwood Publishing Group, 2001) p29
  47. Biteghe 1990, p. 59
  48. James Fisher, Historical Dictionary of Contemporary American Theater, 1930-2010 (Scarecrow Press, 2011) p170
  49. "Actress Wants To Leave So TV Show Arranges "Death", Ocala (FL) Star-Banner, February 28, 1961, p6; Hal Erickson, Encyclopedia of Television Law Shows: Factual and Fictional Series About Judges, Lawyers and the Courtroom, 1948-2008 (McFarland, 2009) p95
  50. Robert K. Headland, The Island of South Georgia (Cambridge University Press Archive, 1992) p103
  51. [http://www.nannyandtheprofessor.com/obit.html [https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/9269/trent-lehman "Trent Lehman", FindAGrave.com
  52. Paul Lendvai, One Day That Shook the Communist World: The 1956 Hungarian Uprising and Its Legacy (Princeton University Press, 2008) p224
  53. "Hungarian Who Led '56 Revolt Is Buried as a Hero", New York Times, June 17, 1989
  54. ""About IranAir"". Archived from the original on 2012-04-07. Retrieved 2012-04-07.
  55. "Attempt on Gliding Altitude Record", Flying Magazine (October 1983); Al Blackburn, Aces Wild: The Race for Mach 1 (Rowman & Littlefield, 1999) p201
  56. Aéronautique Internationale verified records (accessed April 6, 2012)
  57. "Davey and Pal Make TV Bow", Hartford Courant, February 18, 1961, p11
  58. "The News of Television- Saturday Morning", Philadelphia Daily News, February 24, 1961, p32
  59. Peter Spearritt, Sydney's Century: A History (UNSW Press, 1999) p141
  60. Meera Srivastava, Constitutional Crisis in the States in India (Concept Publishing Company, 1980) p50
  61. "Sputnik 7". NSSDC (NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center). Retrieved 28 July 2010.
  62. Wesley T. Huntress, Jr. and Mikhail Ya. Marov, Soviet Robots in the Solar System: Mission Technologies and Discoveries (Springer, 2011) p98
  63. "Morocco's King Dies; Led Freedom Fight; Country in Mourning", Schenectady (N.Y.) Gazette, February 27, 1961, p1
  64. "Harvard Prof. Kissinger New Kennedy Consultant", Boston Globe, February 28, 1961, p8; "'Limited War' Expert Named Kennedy Aide", Oxnard (CA) Press-Courier, February 28, 1961, p2
  65. Cornell University Law School
  66. Dolores L. Augustine, Red Prometheus: Engineering and Dictatorship in East Germany, 1945-1990 (MIT Press, 2007) p119
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