MUTE MONDAY - 1960: MY YEAR IN PICTURES

Thanks Troll - This was an excellent MM although I'm not very mute. I felt there were explanations needed and stories to be told. I had no idea all of this happened when I was born and it was a great history lesson.



January 23, 1960 – Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh descend into the Marianas Trench in the bathyscaphe Trieste, reaching the depth of 10,916 meters, a record depth at the time.


February 18, 1960 – The 1960 Winter Olympics open in Squaw Valley, California. The USA took 3rd place with 10 total metals behind Russia and Germany.
March 3, 1960 – Sargent Elvis Presley returns home from Germany, after being away on duty for 2 years.

April 4, 1960 – The 32nd Academy Awards ceremony is held, Ben Hur wins Best Picture and Charlton Heston wins Best Actor. My parents didn't see much of the awards because I was born the next day!

May 1, 1960 – A Soviet missile shoots down an American Lockheed U2 spy plane; the pilot Francis Gary Powers is captured.

June 7, 1960 – U.S. Senator John F. Kennedy wins the California Democratic primary. Seen here at a California rally and talking to the "Chairman of the Board". Maybe they were talking about the upcoming nuptials of Sammy Davis Jr. and May Britt. Rumor had it at the time that JFK wanted Frank to make them wait until after the election - interesting picture though.

July 4, 1960 – Following the admission of Hawaii as the 50th U.S. state the previous year, the 50-star flag of the United States debuts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It's weird to think that I was born under a 49-star flag.

August 25, 1960 – The USS Seadragon (SSN-584) surfaces at the North Pole, where the crew plays softball. She was the 1st submarine to ever do this.

September 5, 1960 – 1960 Summer Olympics: Cassius Clay wins the gold medal in boxing. I'm not a big Muhammad Ali fan (because of his draft dodging) but he did win the Gold Medal at Rome.

October 12, 1960 – Cold War: Nikita Khrushchev pounds his shoe on a table and yelling, "We shall bury you!" at a United Nations General Assembly meeting, to protest at the discussion of Soviet Union policy toward Eastern Europe.

November 13, 1960 – Sammy Davis, Jr. marries Swedish actress May Britt. A big deal back then for interracial couples to wed (she was a hottie).

December 13, 1960 – Navy Commander Leroy Heath (Pilot) and Lieutenant Larry Monroe (Bombardier/Navigator) establish a world altitude record of 91,450.8 feet (27,874.2 metres) in an A3J Vigilante carrying a 1,000 kilogram payload, besting the previous record by over 4 miles.

Famous Births:

February 14, 1960 – Jim Kelly, American football player

February 28, 1960 – Dorothy Stratten, Canadian model and actress (d. 1980)

May 10, 1960 – Bono, Irish rock singer (U2)

May 21, 1960 – Jeffrey Dahmer, American serial killer (d. 1994)

August 1, 1960 – Chuck D, American rapper, (Public Enemy)

August 24, 1960 – Cal Ripken, Jr., American baseball player

December 3, 1960 – Julianne Moore, American actress

Famous Deaths:

April 17, 1960 – Eddie Cochran, American rock singer (b. 1938)

November 16, 1960 – Clark Gable, American actor (b. 1901)


World Population: 3,021,475,000

Realization: Most of these pictures are in black and white - god I'm old.