1960s Timeline

May 16, 1963 - Major Gordon Cooper landed safely in the Pacific today after a magnificently executed 22-orbit flight. The closing phase...

May 16, 1963 - Major Gordon Cooper was speeding around the earth today on the longest spaceflight ever made by an American. At 3 a.m....

May 15, 1963 - Major Gordon Cooper, assigned to spend more time in space than any other American to date, christened his space vehicle...

May 15, 1963 - A capacity crowd of 8,000 jammed into the main concourse of New York’s Grand Central Terminal today to watch the televised...

May 15, 1963 - President Kennedy expressed happiness at the success of Major Gordon Cooper’s launching into space this morning at 9:04...

May 15, 1963 - Astronaut Gordon Cooper thundered into orbit this morning at 9:04 a.m. in a flawless launch from Cape Canaveral, Fla. The...

May 14, 1963 - After a 24-hour postponement, it’s “go” again for astronaut Gordon Cooper’s 22-orbit rocket ride tomorrow morning. Project...

Apr. 1, 1963 - On his forthcoming 22-orbit flight, Major Gordon Cooper (pictured), the Mercury astronaut, will send back a television...

Mar. 30, 1963 - The first Negro candidate for future U.S. manned space programs was among 15 test pilot trainees whose names were...

Feb. 20, 1963 - The first anniversary of John Glenn’s flight into space is being celebrated by Warner Brothers with the release of a...

Feb. 20, 1963 - Lieut. Col. John H. Glenn Jr. presented the space capsule Friendship VII to the Smithsonian Institution today. Along with...

Feb. 20, 1963 - Temperatures on the surface of Venus were found by the Mariner space probe to be about 800 degrees Fahrenheit, it was...

Dec. 28, 1962 - The main difference between astronauts and most of the rest of us is they know how to control their anxieties — in fact,...

Nov. 21, 1962 - The fact that Major Virgil I. Grissom (right) has been in outer space does not excuse him from paying a traffic fine for...

Nov. 13, 1962 - Maj. Gordon Cooper, the only eligible Mercury astronaut who has not yet been rocketed into space, has been named for the...

Nov. 5, 1962 - Enos, the first chimpanzee to orbit the earth in a U.S. space capsule, died of dysentery yesterday, the Air Force said...

Oct. 7, 1962 - A NASA official said today that the astronaut for the 18-orbit, one-day Mercury flight in early 1963 could be either...

Oct. 3, 1962 - Commander Walter M. Schirra Jr. flew six orbits around the earth today, twice as far as the two Americans who had orbited...

Sept. 20, 1962 - A resolution endorsing the use of force, if necessary, to prevent the spread of Cuban Marxism in the Western Hemisphere...

Sept. 19, 1962 - The Senate passed the Administration’s foreign trade bill today and thus capped for President Kennedy his biggest...