1960 Trivia, History and Fun Facts

Quick Facts from 1960:

• World Changing Event: The Birth Control Pill was approved on May 9, 1960.
• The Top Song was The Theme From “A Summer Place” by Percy Faith
• The Movies to Watch included: Spartacus, Oceans’ Eleven, Please Don’t Eat The Daisies, Psycho, Exodus and Swiss Family Robinson
• The Most Famous Person in America was probably Doris Day
• Notable books include: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and Are You My Mother? by P.D. Eastman
• Price of a loaf of bread in 1960: 21 cents
  8 oz Kraft Cheez Whiz: 35 cents
• US Life Expectancy: Males: 66.6 years, Females: 73.1 years
• The Funny Duo were: Mike Nichols and Elaine May
• The Funny Guys were Bob Newhart and Jonathan Winters
• The Bossa Nova was the ‘new’ dance for the early 1960s.
• The Conversation: Who won the Kennedy/Nixon Debates?
  Radio listeners said Nixon did… TV viewers gave the win to Kennedy.

“The Quotes:”
“Smile! You’re on Candid Camera!”
– Candid Camera

“A boy’s best friend is his mother”
– Anthony Perkins, as Norman Bates, in Psycho

The Scandals:
Chuck Berry (age 34) got in some legal trouble when he took a 14-year-old girl from Arizona to Missouri to work at his Bandstand club.

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.

Pop Culture Facts:
August 1, 1960 – The Twist by Chubby Checker was released. On August 6 Chubby Checker (Ernest Evans) performed his version of The Twist, written by Hank Ballard, on The Dick Clark Show. It reached number one on The Billboard chart for the first time on September 19, 1960.

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:
Snoopy’s doghouse is always shown from the side so as to never reveal the interior, leaving what’s inside to the reader’s imagination. On May 8, 1960, the inside of the doghouse can be seen, but it seems empty.  It is apparently not empty.

Civil Rights:
February 1, 1960 – In Greensboro, North Carolina, four black students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University began a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth’s lunch counter. Although they were refused service, they are allowed to stay at the counter.

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:
In 1960, the President of France told the President of the United States John F. Kennedy “I do not know what Khrushchev is going to do, nor what is going to happen, but whatever he does… I want you to know that I am with you to the end.”

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.

1960 Billboard Number One Songs:
December 28, 1959 – January 3, 1960:
Why – Frankie Avalon

January 4, 1960 – January 17:
El Paso – Marty Robbins

January 18 – February 7:
Running Bear – Johnny Preston

February 8 – February 21:
Teen Angel – Mark Dinning

February 22 – April 24:
The Theme From A Summer Place – Percy Faith & his Orchestra

April 25 – May 22:
Stuck On You – Elvis Presley

May 23 – June 26:
Cathy’s Clown – The Everly Brothers

June 27 – June 10:
Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool – Connie Francis

July 11 – July 17:
Alley-Oop – Hollywood Argyles

July 18 – August 7:
I’m Sorry – Brenda Lee

August 8 – August 17:
Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini – Brian Hyland

August 15 – September 18:
It’s Now Or Never – Elvis Presley

September 19 – September 25:
The Twist – Chubby Checker

September 26 – October 9:
My Heart Has A Mind Of Its Own – Connie Francis

October 10 – October 16:
Mr. Custer – Larry Verne

October 17 – October 23:
Save The Last Dance For Me – The Drifters

October 24 – November 13:
I Want To Be Wanted – Brenda Lee

November 14 – November 20:
Georgia On My Mind – Ray Charles

November 21 – November 27:
Stay – Maurice Williams & The Zodiacs

November 28, 1960 – January 8, 1961:
Are You Lonesome Tonight? – Elvis Presley

Sports Highlights:
Wilt Chamberlain scored 58 points, the most ever by an NBA rookie, as Philadelphia Warriors beat Detroit Pistons, 127-117 in Bethlehem, PA.

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.