1960 Trivia, History and Fun Facts |
Quick Facts from 1960: |
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US GDP (1998 dollars): $526.6 billion Federal spending: $92.19 billion Federal debt $290.5 billion Unemployment: 5.5%
Gallon of Gas: 25 cents Cost of a first-class stamp: $0.04 |
Top Ten Baby Names of 1960: Mary, Susan, Linda, Karen, Donna, Lisa, Patricia, Debra, Cynthia, Deborah David, Michael, James, John, Robert, Mark, William, Richard, Thomas, Steven |
The Hotties and Fashion Icons: Carroll Baker, Brigitte Bardot, Claudia Cardinale, Doris Day, Angie Dickinson, Anita Ekberg, Annette Funicello, Audrey Hepburn, Gina Lollobrigida, Sophia Loren, Marilyn Monroe, Julie Newmar, Kim Novak, Leslie Parrish, Stella Stevens, Elizabeth Taylor, Tina Turner, Mamie Van Doren |
Sex Symbols and Hollywood Hunks: Paul Newman, Robert Goulet, Elvis Presley |
“The Quotes:” “A boy’s best friend is his mother” |
Time Magazine’s Men of the Year: United State’s Scientists, Represented by George Beadle, Charles Draper, John Enders, Donald A. Glaser, Joshua Lederberg, Willard Libby, Linus Pauling, Edward Purcell, Isidor Rabi, Emilio Segrè, William Shockley, Edward Teller, Charles Townes, James Van Allen, and Robert Woodward |
Miss America: Lynda Mead (Natchez, MS) |
Miss USA: Linda Bement (Utah) |
The Scandals: Comedic actress and producer Lucille Ball filed for divorce from husband Desi Arnaz, after 19 years of marriage. JFK was elected President of the United States reportedly with much help from the votes of dead Americans in Cook County, Illinois and in Texas. |
The Space Mystery: The mysterious BLACK KNIGHT Satellite was seen by both Russian and American Air Defense units. At 15 tons, was bigger than any country could have sent at that time. It ‘disappeared’ after about three weeks, but has been spottily reported for decades; it is possible that Nikola Tesla heard radio broadcasts from it as early as 1899. |
Some internet sources say it has been orbiting for around 13,000 years. NASA and other space agencies have been silent about the craft, although they do allow the occasional picture. |
Pop Culture Facts: USAF Captain Joseph Kittinger set three records on August 16th – highest parachute jump (102,800 feet), the longest parachute free-fall (4 minutes 36 seconds), and the first person to exceed the speed of sound without an aircraft or space vehicle (714 mph during free fall). Morely cigarettes are a fake brand of cigarettes used across mass media since April 5, 1961, first used on an episode of The Naked City. The largest polar bear on record reportedly weighed 2,209 pounds, was a male shot at Kotzebue Sound in northwestern Alaska in 1960. When mounted, he stood 11 feet, 1 inch tall on its hind legs. Motown, founded by Berry Gordy Jr., was incorporated as Motown Record Corporation. July 20, 1960, The world’s first-ever elected female head of government in the modern era was elected in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), Sirimavo Bandaranaike as Prime Minister. The first CERN particle accelerator becomes operational in Geneva, Switzerland. The PLATO computer system, introduced at the University of Illinois in 1960, invented forums, message boards, chat rooms, instant messaging, remote screen sharing, and multiplayer video games, years before there was an internet. Having standard showtimes for films was not common until 1960. Previously most films would just play on a loop, and people could enter at any time. Thriller Psycho was one of the first films set to viewing times. On September 30, 1960, The Flintstones premiered, at 8:30 PM, on ABC. Joanne Woodward received one of the first stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The AFL began placing players’ names on the back of their jerseys. Major League Baseball’s Chicago White Sox started the practice earlier that year. NOB – Names On Back. The New York Yankees have traditionally never worn the names. KISS is an acronym for “Keep it simple, stupid” as a design principle noted by the US Navy in 1960. When Eisenhower planned to visit Japan in 1960, the government called on Yakuza bosses to lend an army of their men as security guards. The visit was later canceled. Amos ‘n’ Andy, an American radio sitcom set in Harlem with black characters, ran from 1928 through 1960, was created, written, and voiced by two white actors. February and Late August through September, CBS broadcast the 1960 Winter Olympics and Summer Olympics, on an exclusive basis, for $60,000. The record for the fastest propeller passenger aircraft (541.45 MPH) was set on 24th March 1960, by Russian Tupolev Tu-114. The X-15 jet has held the record for the world’s fastest plane since 1960 (2,196 MPH), 1961 (4,093 MPH), 19612 (4,104 MPH), 1967 (4,534 MPH). Mariana Trench: Only three people ever went into The Mariana Trench. Don Walsh and Jacques Piccard, two scientists aboard the Trieste on January 4, 1960, and film director James Cameron in 2012. Started on February 24, the first submerged circumnavigation of Earth was completed by USS submarine Triton in on April 25th (Operation Sandblast, 60 days, 21 hours). December 31, 1960: The last day on which the farthing, a coin first minted in England in the 13th century, was legal tender in the United Kingdom. The value at that point was less than a penny. Paleoanthropologist Louis Leakey discovered 1.4 million-year-old Homo erectus (Olduvai Hominid 9) in Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. There are three dots on every Domino’s Pizza box because when founder Tom Monaghan started his chain, he planned on adding a dot with each new store. Looking back, 8,000+ stores later, it was a good idea to stop with the 3 dots, forming a simple domino. The term paparazzi originated with Italian director Federico Fellini’s La dolce vita. One of the minor characters in the film was a photographer named Paparazzo. Fellini took Paparazzo’s name from the Italian word for a noisy mosquito. |
Snoopy’s Doghouse: |
Civil Rights: July 25, 1960 – The same Woolworth Company’s lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, served a meal to its first black customer. May 6 – United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Civil Rights Act of 1960 into law. In 1960, Republican Frank R. Beckwith was the first African American to run as a candidate for President of the United States in a major-party primary |
Cold War: May 1 – Several Soviet surface-to-air missiles shot down an American Lockheed U-2 spy plane. Its pilot, Francis Gary Powers of the Central Intelligence Agency, is captured. July 1 – A Soviet Air Force MiG-19 fighter plane flying north of Murmansk, Russia, over the Barents Sea, shot down a six-man RB-47 Stratojet reconnaissance plane of the US Air Force. Four of the Air Force officers were killed, and the two survivors were held prisoner in the Soviet Union. October 12 – Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev pounds his shoe on a table at a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, his way of protesting the discussion of the Soviet Union’s policies toward Eastern Europe. |
Doomsday Clock: 7 minutes to midnight, according to the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. 1960: “Political actions belie the tough talk of “massive retaliation.” For the first time, the United States and Soviet Union appear eager to avoid direct confrontation in regional conflicts such as the 1956 Egyptian-Israeli dispute. Joint projects that build trust and constructive dialogue between third parties also quell diplomatic hostilities. Scientists initiate many of these measures, helping establish the International Geophysical Year, a series of coordinated, worldwide scientific observations, and the Pugwash Conferences, which allow Soviet and American scientists to interact.” |
The Habit: Reading To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. OR watching Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho in theaters. |
1st appearances & 1960’s Most Popular Christmas gifts, toys and presents: Green Eggs and Ham, by Dr. Seuss, Game of Life*, Etch-A-Sketch, Barbie, Chatty Cathy, Mattel’s Lie Detector Game, Mr. Machine, Play-Doh Fun Factory |
Best Film Oscar Winner: Ben-Hur (presented in 1960) |
Popular and Notable Books From 1960: Dr. Seuss’s ABC by Dr. Seuss Advise and Consent by Allen Drury Are You My Mother? by P.D. Eastman The Chapman Report by Irving Wallace The Constant Image by Marcia Davenport For Your Eyes Only by Ian Fleming Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss Hawaii by James A. Michener To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa The Listener by Taylor Caldwell Love Is a Special Way of Feeling by Joan Walsh Anglund The Lovely Ambition by Mary Ellen Chase One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss Ourselves to Know by John O’Hara Put Me in the Zoo by Robert Lopshire Sermons and Soda-Water by John O’Hara The Sneetches and Other Stories by Dr. Seuss Trustee from the Toolroom by Nevil Shute |
1960 Most Popular TV shows: 1. Gunsmoke (CBS) 2. Wagon Train (NBC) 3. Have Gun Will Travel (CBS) 4. The Andy Griffith Show (CBS) 5. The Real McCoys (ABC) 6. Rawhide (CBS) 7. Candid Camera (CBS) 8. The Untouchables (ABC) 9. The Jack Benny Show (CBS) 10. Dennis The Menace (CBS) |
1960 Billboard Number One Songs: January 4, 1960 – January 17: January 18 – February 7: February 8 – February 21: February 22 – April 24: April 25 – May 22: May 23 – June 26: June 27 – June 10: July 11 – July 17: July 18 – August 7: August 8 – August 17: August 15 – September 18: September 19 – September 25: September 26 – October 9: October 10 – October 16: October 17 – October 23: October 24 – November 13: November 14 – November 20: November 21 – November 27: November 28, 1960 – January 8, 1961: |
1960 United States Census: Total US Population: 179,323,175 1. New York, New York – 7,781,984 2. Chicago, Illinois – 3,550,404 3. Los Angeles, California – 2,479,015 4. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – 2,002,512 5. Detroit, Michigan – 1,670,144 6. Baltimore, Maryland – 939,024 7. Houston, Texas – 938,219 8. Cleveland, Ohio – 876,050 9. Washington, District of Columbia – 783,956 10. St. Louis, Missouri – 750,026 |
Sports Highlights: In 1960, the National Basketball Association player Wilt Chamberlain got 55 rebounds in a game versus the Boston Celtics. Wilma Rudolph (June 23, 1940 – November 12, 1994) had polio as an infant and was unable to walk properly until she was 11. For several years, her family had to massage her legs four times a day, and she had to wear a metal brace. In 1960, she became the first American woman to win three gold medals in an Olympic event. October 29 – In Louisville, Kentucky, Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) won his first professional boxing match over Tunney Hunsaker. On September 9, 1960, The first regular-season game in the American Football League took place at Boston’s Nickerson Field. The Denver Broncos defeat the Boston Patriots, 13–10. On September 10, 1960, during the Summer Olympics in Rome, Ethiopian runner Abele Bikila became the first Sub-Saharan African to win a gold medal. He ran barefoot. |
Sports: World Series Champions: Pittsburgh Pirates NFL Champions: Philadelphia Eagles AFL Champions: Houston Oilers NBA Champions: Boston Celtics Stanley Cup Champs: Montreal Canadians U.S. Open Golf Arnold Palmer U.S. Tennis: (Men/Ladies) Neale Fraser/Darlene R. Hard Wimbledon (Men/Women): Neale Fraser/Maria Bueno NCAA Football Champions: Minnesota & Mississippi NCAA Basketball Champions: Ohio State Kentucky Derby: Venetian Way |