1960s Timeline

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Nov 29, 2021

President Kennedy Responds to Female Reporter on Discrimination Against Women

Nov. 29, 1961 - A woman reporter’s assault on male exclusiveness at the National Press Club won sympathy from President Kennedy today....

Nov 28, 2021

Sen. Thurmond Denounces Kennedy's Remarks on Extremists

Nov. 28, 1961 - Senator Strom Thurmond (pictured left in 1957), Democrat of South Carolina, denounced President Kennedy today for his...

Nov 28, 2021

President Kennedy Gives Dulles National Security Medal

Nov. 28, 1961 - President Kennedy made a surprise helicopter trip today to C.I.A. headquarters at Langley, Va., to present a National...

Nov 28, 2021

President Kennedy's Message to the Soviet People

Nov. 28, 1961 - President Kennedy told the Soviet people today that they could live in peace if their Government halted its efforts to...

Nov 22, 2021

Malcolm X to Speak at New York's City College

Nov. 22, 1961 - Dr. Harry N. Rivlin, acting president of City College, said today he would not object if the Eugene V. Debs Club, a...

Nov 19, 2021

John Birch Society Responds to Kennedy's Speech

Nov. 19, 1961 - President Kennedy’s comment on the “discordant voices of extremism” in his speech at the Hollywood Palladium last night...

Nov 19, 2021

"National Indignation Day" in Dallas

Nov. 19, 1961 - Ultraconservatives will hold a “National Indignation Convention” next Wednesday night in the Memorial Auditorium in...

Nov 19, 2021

President Kennedy Talks Extremism in Los Angeles

Nov. 19, 1961 - President Kennedy spoke out last night against the right-wing John Birch Society and the so-called Minutemen in a speech...

Nov 18, 2021

President Kennedy Honors Sen. Hayden in Arizona

Nov. 18, 1961 - President Kennedy declared last night that the nation should regard with pride the “heavy burden” of preserving freedom...

Nov 16, 2021

President Kennedy Honors Senator Magnuson

Nov. 16 - After his speech at the University of Washington, President Kennedy paid high tribute to Senator Warren G. Magnuson (left),...

Nov 16, 2021

Secretary Freeman Talks Agriculture's Value in Cold War

Nov. 16, 1961 - Secretary of Agriculture Orville L. Freeman (right) said today that agriculture was this country’s “strongest deterrent”...

Nov 16, 2021

President Speaks at University of Washington

Nov. 16 - President Kennedy declared today that it was “a test of our national maturity” to accept the prospect that negotiations on...

Nov 16, 2021

President Kennedy's Plan for Vietnam

Nov. 16, 1961 - President Kennedy has decided on the measures that the U.S. is prepared to take to strengthen South Vietnam against...

Nov 12, 2021

Air Force Flies Reconnaissance Missions over South Vietnam

Nov. 12, 1961 - Reliable informants said today that U.S. Air Force jets were flying reconnaissance missions over South Vietnam to...

Nov 11, 2021

Nixon Predicts No War with Soviets

Nov. 14, 1961 - Richard M. Nixon (pictured with Premier Nikita Khrushchev in 1959) predicted today that the Soviet people’s “obsession...

Nov 11, 2021

Viet Cong Have Bases in Cambodia

Nov. 11, 1961 - Military intelligence sources in South Vietnam estimate that 6,000 Communist troops occupy a number of bases in Cambodia....

Nov 10, 2021

Texas Congressman Says U.S. has up to 40,000 Nukes

Nov. 10, 1961 - The United States has 35,000 to 40,000 nuclear weapons in its stockpile, equivalent to 35 billion tons of TNT,...

Nov 9, 2021

Air Force Strengthens South Vietnam's Defenses against Reds

Nov. 9, 1961 - The U.S. Air Force has begun a huge supply and training program in Saigon to strengthen South Vietnam’s defenses against...

Nov 6, 2021

Viet Cong Terrorize Malaria-Control Teams

Nov. 6, 1961 - The Government’s malaria-control teams have taken heavy losses in South Vietnam’s protracted jungle war with Communist...

Nov 5, 2021

Nine Escape East Berlin, Family Left Behind

Nov. 5, 1961 - Thirty East Germans attempted to break through the barbed wire to reach West Berlin today. The fire of an East German...