1960s Timeline

Oct. 16, 1961 - According to reports, a Viet Cong unit of battalion strength overwhelmed a South Vietnamese civil guard garrison last...

Oct. 15, 1961 - New York’s Empire State Federation of teachers today called nuclear-shelter drills in public schools “utter futility.”...

Oct. 15, 1961 - After years of delays and deficiencies in the program to equip Army troops with the new M-14 rifle, officials say that...

Oct. 15, 1961 - Gen. Maxwell D. Taylor (pictured) left for South Vietnam today and indicated that the U.S. would be reluctant to commit...

Oct. 14, 1961 - Richard M. Nixon said today that current polls show President Kennedy “riding high” politically. But he added that...

Oct. 14, 1961 - Pierre Salinger (pictured right), presss secretary, said today that the White House was paying for the series of...

Oct. 14, 1961 - President Kennedy has asked the mission to South Vietnam headed by Gen. Maxwell D. Taylor (left) to make a broad study of...

Oct. 14, 1961 - The largest air-defense maneuvers ever held in the Western world were concluded early today. For 12 hours, from 1 p.m....

Oct. 14, 1961 - Recent Soviet moves in the Berlin crisis have strengthened the conviction in Washington that Premier Khrushchev is less...

Oct. 13, 1961 - Richard M. Nixon has confirmed in conversations with friends that he doesn’t believe the Republican Presidential nominee,...

Oct. 13, 1961 - Mao Tse-tung (left), chief of the Chinese Communist party, and North Vietnamese President Ho Chi Minh (right) met last...

Oct. 12, 1961 - Here is video of President Kennedy’s remarks today to the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. He...

Oct. 12, 1961 - Here is video of President Kennedy’s address today at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill after receiving an...

Oct. 12, 1961 - President Kennedy said today it was a “dangerous illusion” to believe that “we shall soon meet total victory or total...

Oct. 12, 1961 - The Moscow radio asserted today that Washington had “openly aggressive” plans to send troops to South Vietnam. It...

Oct. 12, 1961 - Former President Eisenhower told a national television audience last night that, if he were in office, he would not...

Oct. 11, 1961 - Joseph Gallo (pictured), one of the 13 gangsters rounded up by Brooklyn detectives on Tuesday, denied today that the gang...

Oct. 11, 1961 - The Defense Department announced today further reinforcement of U.S. forces in Europe. Units going overseas include an...

Oct. 11, 1961 - General Maxwell D. Taylor (pictured left) will go to South Vietnam this week on President Kennedy’s behalf to study means...

Oct. 10, 1961 - The Brooklyn police rounded up 13 members of the Gallo gang today in an attempt to end the warfare between underworld...