1960s Timeline

Jan. 5, 1962 - President Kennedy plans to deliver his annual State of the Union Message next Thursday before a joint session of Congress....

Jan. 5, 1962 - President Kennedy’s 13-month-old son, John Jr., took his first steps in public today. He was seen walking at Palm Beach,...

Jan. 4, 1962 - General David M. Shoup, the U.S. Marine Corps commandant, said that today’s Marines need to toughen up. He said the corps...

Jan. 3, 1962 - The West was said today to be hoping for a live-and-let-live arrangement with the Soviet Union on Berlin and Germany. It...

Jan. 3, 1962 - President Kennedy took Vice President Johnson and top Defense aides on a luncheon cruise today, and Mrs. Kennedy gave them...

Jan. 3, 1962 - The United States has told the Inter-American Peace Committee that Cuba “represents a bridgehead of Sino-Soviet...

Jan. 2, 1962 - One-year-old John F. Kennedy Jr. went to see his ailing grandfather in the hospital today for the first time. Mrs. Kennedy...

Jan. 1, 1962 - Joseph P. Kennedy, the President’s father, is beginning to spend part of each day out of bed. He sat in a wheelchair for...

Dec. 31, 1961 - President Kennedy and Premier Khrushchev, in an exchange of New Year’s greetings made public today, assured each other of...

Dec. 29, 1961 - Mrs. Edith Wilson (pictured in 1915), the former First Lady, died last night at the stately Washington townhouse that...

Dec. 27, 1961 - The end of a long-standing legislative impasse between New York and New Jersey appeared imminent today. Governor-elect...

Dec. 27, 1961 - President Kennedy passed his physical examination today with high marks, but did not quite make straight A’s. The...

Dec. 26, 1961 - General Dwight D. Eisenhower and his family visited Disneyland today, and the former President seemed almost as delighted...

Dec. 25, 1961 - Communist border guards arrested three East Berliners today who waved at relatives in the West across the wall dividing...

Dec. 25, 1961 - President Kennedy and his family observed the customs of Christmas today, but misfortune dimmed the merriment. Joseph P....

Dec. 25, 1961 - President Kennedy told West Berliners in a Christmas message today that the beacon of freedom in Berlin “will continue to...

Dec. 24, 1961 - Joseph P. Kennedy (pictured last Christmas Eve with his wife Rose), partly paralyzed by a stroke, has been stricken with...

Dec. 24, 1961 - Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy played Santa Claus today for children in the Negro ward at St. Mary’s Hospital, where...

Dec. 23, 1961 - Joseph P. Kennedy, President Kennedy’s 73-year-old father, improved “considerably” in the last 24 hours, it was announced...

Dec. 22, 1961 - President Kennedy and Prime Minister Macmillan agreed today to seek renewed diplomatic contacts with the Soviet Union on...