Rich vs. Poor Health
The following timeline was created to help illustrate how potential and/or cumulative influence and/or events can impact [for good or for bad] upon individual human health. In some places, bold type highlights were added for quick summary review. [E.M.]
1945 - "Discontinuity in History" - "[....] Now look at 1945, and consider what happened in the space of a very short time, a veritable instant in history.Before 1945, all that human beings could do in the way of rapine and destruction could not seriously affect our planet. It recovered rapidly from even the most destructive of wars. Since 1945, however, we have accumulated nuclear weapons, which in the space of days (if used unsparingly) can destroy civilization and, perhaps, compromise the very habitability of the planet.
Before 1945, all the economic processes of humanity, from the use of fire to the use of radio, had not sufficed to endanger the environment seriously. Since 1945, however, the rapid advance of industrialization and the vast multiplication of the use of fossil fuels has resulted in the dangerous pollution of air, water, and soil, and the possible creation of a greenhouse effect - so that, again, the very habitability of the planet may be compromised. This includes the use of new artificial substances, such as chlorofluorocarbons and plastics, which resist breakdown by natural processes and which introduce new strains on the environment.
The human population of Earth has risen steadily since the days of the early hominids, but prior to 1945, it more or less matched the extension of the human range and took place slowly enough so that world society could adapt to it. Since 1945, the rate of population increase has itself increased and the world population has more than doubled, while the use of energy and of resources generally has increased far more rapidly still. The planet groans under the weight of humanity, the forests and the wilderness are disappearing, large numbers of living species are being driven to extinction, and the ecological balance of the earth is being compromised. Closer to us as individuals are the spectres of food shortage and famine that would unbearably aggravate the serious problems of disease, violence, drugs, and social alienation that already exist.
All through the history of civilization, until 1945, there has been a tendency for imperial growth, with larger political units being built up. Since 1945, in a very short period of time, all the overseas European empires broke up and "third world" nations have become independant by the dozens. (A generation afterward, the Soviet empire broke up as well.) In a way, this is a "freedom explosion" that might be welcomed, but the change has been so rapid that these new nations have developed neither the economic substructure nor the political maturity to run their societies properly.
Still, not everything points to disaster. All through the history of humanity, there has been a steady and accelerating advance in technology that has, by and large, made human life richer and more secure, and enabled humanity to handle its problems better. This has continued faster than ever, and such new postwar phenomena as computers, television, jet planes, space flight, and medical techniques offer hope. And yet, here too, there is difficulty. Prior to 1945, technological advances spread outward from the point of origin sufficiently slow so that the changes could be absorbed without undue difficulty. Since 1945, new advances spread over the world almost at once, producing changes that can only with difficulty be worked into our society.
If ever there was a discontinuity in history, then, it was in 1945, and it would be entirely too jarring to attempt to continue this present history past that fearful break.
What is needed is a completely different book, one with a short prolog describing the nature of pre-1945 human history, and then examining the effects of the discontinuity in detail. Post-1945 history may turn out to require a book nearly or quite as long as this book, devoted to pre-1945 history.
Naturally, I want to do this second book myself; however, after 52 years as a professional writer, and after the production of well over 465 published books, I seem to begin to recognize a limitation to my capacity for endless work. Well, we shall see ..." [Isaac Asimov, Asimov's Chronology of the World, Copyright 1991, pp. 648-649]*Trivia: "Estimated Number of Warheads as of 2004: Russia - 16,000; U.S.A - 10,350; China - 400; France - 350; United Kingdom - 200; Israel - 200; Pakistan - 24-48; India - 30-35; North Korea - 6-8? The last four countries on this list [Israel, Pakistan, India & North Korea] are not signatories to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty." [Based on: N.G.M., August 2005, pp. 104-105]
1945 - Beginning / Cold War - "Stalin's new military now occupied all of the Baltic States, Poland, East Germany [including the capital, Berlin], Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria. A post-war agreement with the US and Britain at Yalta guaranteed that the Soviets would withdraw from these countries when stable governments existed there. Stalin liked the sound of that and installed 'stable' governments in these countries that were Communist and answered to him. Also, Soviet troops never withdrew from these countries. The Iron Curtain and the Cold War were beginning in 1945. Stalin began to round up entire families. He would send some to exile in Siberia where they would work in coal and mineral mines, and would send others to industrial cities where they could work on his weapons programs. These people were told that if they ever wanted to see their families again they would do exactly what they were told. They did. People who were of little value to Stalin were systematically killed. It is estimated that 30 million people died on Stalin's orders between 1924-1953. Stalin spent the rest of his life in fear that old rivals were attempting to remove him from power. He continued his purges and killing right up to his death in 1953."
1945 - Status / English National Debt - "In 1815 it [the English national debt] was 885 million pounds and in 1945 it had grown to 22.5 billion pounds. By 1995 the national debt had risen to more than 300 billion pounds, equal to 45 percent of GNP." [Based on: article by Juri Lina, The Barnes Review, September/October 2004, p. 9]
1945 - Elected Communists? / U.S.A. - "As late as 1945 the Communist Party had two members on the New York City Council. Both were elected from Jewish areas of the city. Two Jews born in Russia were William Weinstone, (of the Communist Part USA Central Executive Committee) and Jay Lovestone, (editor of 'The Communist' magazine).
"Mike Gold was editor of 'New Masses.' Alexander Bittelman served on the Central Executive Committee of Communist Part USA and as editor of the Yiddish Communist Part USA daily newspaper, 'Freiheit'. Alexander Trachtenberg fought in the failed 1905 revolution against the Czar. He fled to the U.S. and headed the front group, 'Friends of the Russian Revolution'. Louis Fraina, a Jew born in Italy, was the chief organizer of the original U.S. Communist Party. He operated under the name Ralph Snyder." [Link: 1]1945 - U.S. President Harry S. Truman - April 12th, 1945: "The 33rd American President, Harry S. Truman [Democrat], begins his term."
*Trivia: "President Harry Truman proposes publicly financed national health insurance, but the American Medical Association, the insurance industry and businesses block it." [Source: Institute of Medicine, 10/04/04]
1945 - Surrender / Germany - May 7th, 1945: "Germany surrendered May 7." [Based on: The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 2005, p. 548]
1945 - 1st Atomic Bomb Detonation / New Mexico, U.S.A. - July 16th, 1945: "The first nuclear bomb was detonated [in a test code-named Trinity] on July 16, 1945, at Alamogordo, New Mexico. The second and third bombs fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan on August 6 and August 9, respectively. They were products of the 'Manhattan Project,' the $2 billion wartime effort by U.S. and British scientists and the U.S. Army to build a weapon that would 'end the war.' At its peak, about 160,000 people worked on the project in more than 25 sites across the United States. No one person can be completely credited with the invention of nuclear weapons." [Link: 1]
1945 - Atomic Bomb Detonation / Hiroshima, Japan - August 6th, 1945: "Making good on his threat to unleash 'a rain of ruin the like of which has never been seen on earth,' President Harry Truman [from Independence Missouri?] authorizes the dropping of two atomic bombs on Japan - one on Hiroshima on August 6, and a second on Nagasaki on August 9. The Japanese surrender within days."
*Trivia: "Bomb dropped on Hiroshima Aug. 6, with about 750,000 people killed." [Based on: The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 2005, p. 548]
*Trivia: "B-29 bomber Enola Gay drops a 15-kiloton uranium bomb, nicknamed Little Boy, on Hiroshima, Japan. Some 68,000 die immediately, followed by perhaps 70,000 more over the next few years." [Based on: N.G.M., August 2005, p. 103]
*Trivia: "[....] Including those initially listed as missing or who died later from a loosely defined set of bomb-related ailments, including cancers, Hiroshima officials now put the total number of the dead in this city alone at 237,062. This year [2005], 5,000 more names are to be added to the list. [....]" [Based on: A.P. article, S.L.P.D., p. A4, 08/05/05]
1945 - Atomic Bomb Detonation / Nagasaki, Japan - August 9th, 1945: "Making good on his threat to unleash 'a rain of ruin the like of which has never been seen on earth,' President Harry Truman authorizes the dropping of two atomic bombs on Japan - one on Hiroshima on August 6, and a second on Nagasaki on August 9. The Japanese surrender within days."
*Trivia: "Bomb dropped on Nagasaki Aug. 9, killing about 40,000." [Based on: The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 2005, p. 548]
*Trivia: "Fat Man, a 21-kiloton plutonium bomb, is dropped on Nagasaki. Japan, killing 38,000, with an estimated 35,000 additional fatalities. Japan surrenders days later." [Based on: N.G.M., August 2005, p. 103]
*Trivia: "[....] Three days later [08/09/1945], another plane, Bock's Car, bombed Nagasaki, on the souther Japan island of Kyushu, killing at least 80,000. On Aug. 15, 1945, Japan surrendered. [....]" [Based on: A.P. article, S.L.P.D., p. A4, 08/05/05]
1945 - Formal Surrender / Japan - September 2nd, 1945: "Japan agreed to surrender Aug. 14; formally surrendered Sept. 2." [Based on: The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 2005, p. 548]
1945 - Democratic Republic of Vietnam / Ho Chi Minh - September 2nd, 1945: "Ho Chi Minh proclaims the Democratic Republic of Vietnam." [Based on: S.L.P.D. p. A5, 04/25/05]
*Trivia: "Ho Chi Minh Creates Provisional Government Following the surrender of Japan to Allied forces, Ho Chi Minh and his People's Congress create the National Liberation Committee of Vietnam to form a provisional government. Japan transfers all power to Ho's Vietminh."
*Trivia: ""Ho Declares Independence of Vietnam. British Forces Land in Saigon and return Authority to the French."
1945 - OSS Abolished / U.S.A. - October 1st, 1945: "The OSS [Office of Strategic Services] was abolished and its functions transferred to the State and War Departments."
1945 - World Bank - "Since October 1929, the US dollar had been tied to gold at the rate of $35/oz., and the key decision of the conference was the Dollar Standard — the US$ was to be adopted as the medium for international trade and settlement whilst the US government would be able to print as many dollars as would be required to rebuild Europe and regenerate international trade once protective tariffs were lifted. The British pound [Sterling] was intended to play a mediating role in those regions already tied to Sterling.
"The Institutions which were planned at Bretton Woods to oversee this arrangement include the World Bank, launched late in 1945 and officially called the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development [IBRD], intended to provide long-term loans to states for reconstruction after the devastation of the War, the I.M.F. [International Monetary Fund] launched in 1946 and intended to finance short-term imbalances in international payments and help maintain fixed exchange rates, linking all currencies to gold via the Dollar Standard, and in October 1947 the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade [GATT] to oversee the dismantling of trade barriers." [Link 1]1946
1946 - Status / U.S. National Debt - "The U.S. national debt, which was only $16 billion in 1930, reaches a peak of $269 billion in 1946 but this borrowing is also made at very low interest rates. Whereas the economies of most European countries are devasted, the U.S. gross national product rises substantially." [Link: 1]
1946 - International Monetary Fund - "Since October 1929, the US dollar had been tied to gold at the rate of $35/oz., and the key decision of the conference was the Dollar Standard — the US$ was to be adopted as the medium for international trade and settlement whilst the US government would be able to print as many dollars as would be required to rebuild Europe and regenerate international trade once protective tariffs were lifted. The British pound [Sterling] was intended to play a mediating role in those regions already tied to Sterling.
"The Institutions which were planned at Bretton Woods to oversee this arrangement include the World Bank, launched late in 1945 and officially called the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development [IBRD], intended to provide long-term loans to states for reconstruction after the devastation of the War, the I.M.F. [International Monetary Fund] launched in 1946 and intended to finance short-term imbalances in international payments and help maintain fixed exchange rates, linking all currencies to gold via the Dollar Standard, and in October 1947 the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade [GATT] to oversee the dismantling of trade barriers." [Link 1]1946 - Indian Claims Commission Act - "There is some speculation that this act originated, in part, as a response to the role the United States played at the Nuremberg trials. The act was designed to provide legal recourse to those Native Americans who felt that their land was unjustly taken away from them. The act established a Claims Commission, which was responsible for hearing cases brought forward by Native Americns. The commission, however, was not empowered to return land to any Native American; rather, it was required to assign a monetary value to the land in question - 'at the time it was taken.' As a result, awards given out by the commission tended to be very small. In general, the act gave the United States the tool with which to legitimize its claim to Native American lands."
1946 - First Meeting / United Nations - January 10th, 1946: "First meeting of the United Nations."
1946 - Central Intelligence Group / U.S.A. - January 22nd, 1946: "After disbanding the OSS on 1 October 1945, President Truman established the Central Intelligence Group [CIG] on 22 January 1946. Although its budget and staff came from the several departments that maintained intelligence services, this new organization was headed by a Director of Central Intelligence [DCI], appointed by the President to serve under the supervision of a National Intelligence Authority made up of the Secretaries of State, War, and Navy and the President’s personal representative. Thus, there was a Director of Central Intelligence almost two years before there was a Central Intelligence Agency."
*Trivia: "The current [2004] questions about restructuring U.S. intelligence are similar to those raised more than a half-century ago when the national security system was set up, says former CIA director William H. Webster. [....] Christopher Briem, a researcher at the University of Pittsburgh's Center for Social and Urban Research, says Missourians 'were the key players in the creation in the CIA and setting up the intelligence structure that has lasted until now.' One was Rear Adm. Sidney Souers of St. Louis. Though operating largely in the background, he was an architect of the modern national security system, helping define the nature of the National Security Council and the CIA in the early days of the Cold War. [....] Souers served for five months before Truman named him the first executive secretary of the National Security Council. For the next seven years, Souers served as a trusted advisor to Truman on national security matters. The two men left Washington in early 1953 and returned to Missouri. Souers became head of General American Life Insurance Co. in St. Louis. When Truman had initially turned to Souers to help choose among competing ideas for a new intelligence structure, he asked the St. Louisan to work with Clark Clifford, another Missourian and a leading national security and political figure in Washington. The president signed the directive devised by Clifford and Souers on Jan. 22, 1946, Briem said. 'The trust that the president had in his fellow Missourians, Sidney Souers and Clark Clifford, facilitated President Truman's acceptance of a new intelligence organization.' Webster, a St. Louisan, says he and Clifford 'had conversations over the years' about the evolving national security apparatus. Webster has his own place in the history of U.S. intelligence as the only person to have led both the CIA and the FBI." [Based on article by Philip Dine, Post-Dispatch Washington Bureau, 08/24/04]
1946 - Beginning / First Indochina War - December 9th, 1946: "Vietmihn attack French forces in Tonkin, beginning the First Indochina War." [Based on: S.L.P.D. p. A5, 04/25/05]
1947
1947 - Beginning / Doomsday Clock? - "In 1947, the Doomsday Clock began to be published in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists - it was set at 7 minutes till midnight."
1947 - The Truman Doctrine - March 12th, 1947: "In a speech on 12 March 1947, U.S. President Truman formulated what was to be called 'The Truman Doctrine' in terms of the need to provide aid to the governments of Greece and Turkey, but the speech contained the clear implication that Truman was proposing a new global role for the United States." [Link: 1]
1947 - Marshall Plan - June 5th, 1947: "On June 5, 1947, US Secretary of State George Marshall announced the Marshall Plan — a huge loan program extended to all the European countries. At first it was intended that the Soviet Union and the Eastern European countries would benefit from the Marshall Plan, but at a Conference in Paris in July 1947, the war-devastated USSR was told they would get no aid and countries like Poland and Czechoslovakia were faced with the choice of lining up with the US to destroy the Soviet Union [whose Army still had a considerable presence on their own soil!] or be excluded from the Plan and from trade with those countries which were to benefit. This more or less marked the beginning of the Cold War [though the term had been coined by US Navy expert George Kennan in late 1946]. Marshall Aid was then used systematically to pressure governments and voters in countries like Britain, France and Italy into rejecting Communism in exchange for Aid, while Keynesian Economic policies were used to provide welfare and jobs for the workers." [Link 1]
1947 - Taft-Hartley Act - June 23rd, 1947: "On June 23, the Taft-Hartley Act, which banned closed union shops, created the National Labor Relations Board and gave the president the power to seek an 80-day injunction against any strike. The Act was passed over Truman's veto - who called it a 'slave-labor bill.' " [Link: 1]
1947 - U.S. Air Force - September 18th, 1947: "The U.S. Air Force becomes a separate branch of the military."
1947 - National Security Act - September 18th, 1947: "Under the provisions of the National Security Act of 1947 [which became effective on 18 September 1947] the National Security Council and the Central Intelligence Agency were established." [Link: 1]
1947 - Established / CIA, U.S.A. - September 18th, 1947: "The CIA was established by sections of the National Security Act that went into effect on 18 September 1947, a birthday the CIA shares with the US Air Force and the National Security Council, both also created by this Act. RAdm. Roscoe Hillenkoetter, whose tenure as third DCI spanned both CIG and CIA, was reappointed the new Act required." [Link: 1]
1947 - 'Majestic Twelve' - September 26, 1947: "Three days after the memo, on September 26th, 1947, General Twining gave his report on the Roswell crash and its implications for the United States to President Truman and a short list of officials he convened to begin the management of this top-secret combination of inquiry, police development, and 'ops.' This working group which included Adm. Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter, Dr Vannevar Bush, Secretary James Forrestal, Gen. Hoyt Vandenberg, Dr. Detlev Bronk, Dr. Jerome Hunsaker, Sidney W. Souers, Gordon Gray, Dr. Donald Menzel, Gen. Robert M. Montague, Dr. Lyoyd V. Berkner, and Gen. Nathan Twining himself, became the nucleous for an on-going 50-year operation that some people have called 'Majestic-12.' " [The Day After Roswell, Col. Philip J. Corso, with William J. Birnes]
1947 - GATT - "Since October 1929, the US dollar had been tied to gold at the rate of $35/oz., and the key decision of the conference was the Dollar Standard — the US$ was to be adopted as the medium for international trade and settlement whilst the US government would be able to print as many dollars as would be required to rebuild Europe and regenerate international trade once protective tariffs were lifted. The British pound [Sterling] was intended to play a mediating role in those regions already tied to Sterling.
"The Institutions which were planned at Bretton Woods to oversee this arrangement include the World Bank, launched late in 1945 and officially called the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development [IBRD], intended to provide long-term loans to states for reconstruction after the devastation of the War, the I.M.F. [International Monetary Fund] launched in 1946 and intended to finance short-term imbalances in international payments and help maintain fixed exchange rates, linking all currencies to gold via the Dollar Standard, and in October 1947 the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade [GATT] to oversee the dismantling of trade barriers." [Link 1]1947 - Palestine Partition - November 29th, 1947: "When Britain, in 1947, first declared it would withdraw from Palestine, the UN stepped in and adopted a plan calling for the partition of Palestine into two states - one Palestinian and one Jewish, with Jerusalem under UN control. Arabs throughout the Middle East rejected the plan, while Jews in Palestine rejoiced - and steeled themselves for war." [N.G.M./October/2002]
1947 - Project Sign - December 30th, 1947: "On December 30, 1947, Major General L. C. Craigie, Director of Research and Development, issued an order establishing Project Sign [aka Project Saucer]: ...to collect, collate, evaluate and distribute to interested government agencies and contractors all information concerning sightings and phenomena in the atmosphere which can be construed to be of concern to the national security.
"There is reliable testimony that in August, 1948, the Technical Intelligence Division at Wright-Patterson and Project Sign, decided to make a formal Estimate of the Situation. The Estimate was a top secret document that contained unexplained sightings by pilots, scientists, and other reliable witnesses. The report concluded that UFOs were of extraterrestrial origin.
"The Estimate of the Situation was promptly rejected by Air Force Chief of Staff General Hoyt S. Vandenburg. It is said that he deleted the strongest parts of the original report, sent it back, and then, when he received the revised report, he rejected it on the grounds that there was not enough evidence to support the conclusions. Then, after rejecting it, he ordered all copies destroyed. Those inside Project Sign said that their morale and enthusiasm for the project declined sharply after this. Project Sign would soon have its name fittingly changed to Project Grudge." [Link 1]1948
1948 - Independence / Israel - May 14th, 1948: "On May 14th, Israel declared independence, offering itself as a haven from anti-Semitism for the world's Jews. An ongoing war between Jews and Palestinians was thereupon joined by neighboring Arab states. When the war ended in January 1949, Israel controlled 78 percent of Palestine, and 750,000 Palestinians became refugees." [N.G.M. / October 2002]
1948 - Israeli Expansion / Beyond U.N.-Set Borders - "Following Arab attacks on Israel in May 1948, the Israelis pushed back the Arab armies and extended the area under Israeli control beyond the then U.N.-set borders for the Jewish state."
*Trivia: "[....] Any changes Israel made in expanding its boundaries since the end of the 1948 war for independence 'must be mutually agreed to,' Bush said. And he said Israel must remove illegal makeshift outposts from the West Bank and stop expanding Jewish settlements." [Based on: Washington Post article, p. A1 & A14, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 05/27/05]
1948 - Elements of "Foreign Technology" - December, 1948: "Just a little over a year after the initial group meetings at the White House, Air Force Intelligence, now that the Air Force had become a separate service, issued a December 1948 report - 100-203-79 - called 'Analysis of Flying Object Incidents in the U.S.' in which UFO'S are never referred to as extraterrestial objects but as elements of 'foreign technology,' which is actually the subject of the report. The report, inocuous to most people because it doesn't say that flying saucers are from outer space, is actually one of the first indications showing how the camouflage plan was supposed to work over the ensuing years." [The Day After Roswell, Col. Philip J. Corso, with William J. Birnes]
1948 - Apartheid / South Africa - "[....] Tha National Party, which came to power in 1948, presided over 48 years of systematic and often brutal oppression of the country's [South Africa's] black majority, who were denied the right to vote or mix with whites. [....]" [Based on: A.P., 04/10/05]
1948 - Voting Rights / Arizona Indians - "In 1948, Arizona state is forced by the courts to give Indians the right to vote as in other American states."
1949
1949 - Central Intelligence Agency Act - "In 1949, the Central Intelligence Agency Act was passed supplementing the 1947 Act by permitting the Agency to use confidential fiscal and administrative procedures and exempting the CIA from many of the usual limitations on the expenditure of federal funds." [Link: 1]
1949 - Project Grudge - February, 1949: "In February, 1949, Project Sign came to an end, and with it the Air Force's objective attitude toward UFOs. The final report of Project Sign was decidedly skeptical towards the extraterrestrial origin hypothesis for the origin of UFOs, reflecting a shift towards explaining all sightings as misidentifications of natural phenomena. Secretly, however, the Air Force had merely changed the name of the project to Project Grudge [1949-1952]."
1949 - Conception / NATO - April 4th, 1949: "With the memory of the Berlin Blockade and the Communist takeover in Czechoslovakia still fresh, 12 nations agree to form the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as a counter to Soviet expansionism. The 12 are the United States, Belgium, Britain, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Neatherlands, Norway, and Portugal." [Sources: NATO, The Associated Press, the World Book, the Encyclopedia Britannica]
*Trivia: "NATO established Aug. 24 by U.S., Canada, and 10 Western European nations, agreeing that an armed attack against one would be considered an attack against all." [Based on: The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 2005, p. 549]
1949 - Soviet Atomic Bomb Explosion / Kazakhstan - August 29th, 1949: "The Soviet Union becomes the world's second nuclear power when it explodes a copy of the Fat Man bomb in Kazakhstan. The bomb's design was stolen from the U.S. by German-born scientist Klaus Fuchs." [Based on: N.G.M., August 2005, p. 103]
1949 - Formally Established / People's Republic of China - "On October 1, 1949, the People's Republic of China was formally established, with its national capital at Beijing, with Chairman Mao Zedong. The people were defined as a coalition of four social classes: the workers, the peasants, the petite bourgeoisie, and the national-capitalists."
1950
1950 - 1st Credit Card - "The first credit card [Diners]."
1950 - Native American Relocation - "Dillon Myer, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, supported termination as well as relocation and urbanization program for reservation Indians, encouraging migration to cities and cultural assimilation."
1950 - Authorization / H-Bomb Production, U.S.A. - January 31st, 1950: "President Truman authorized production of the H-bomb Jan. 31." [Based on: The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 2005, p. 549]
1950 - Korean War - June 25th, 1950: "When Communist forces from North Korea invade the Republic of South Korea on June 25, President Truman appeals to the United Nations to take action. The UN quickly brands North Korea the aggessor, and Truman follows up by sending US air and naval support to Korea immediately thereafter."
1950 - U.S. Military Advisors / South Vietnam - "U.S. sent 35 military advisors to South Vietnam June 27, and agreed to aid anti-Communist government." [Based on: The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 2005, p. 549]
*Trivia: "In 1950, the United States sent $15 million dollars in military aid to the French for the war in Indochina. Included in the aid package was a military mission and military advisors."
*Trivia: "In 1950, the Chinese and Soviets offered weapons to the Vietminh."
1950 - Ground Troops & Air Strikes / North Korea - June 30th, 1950: "Truman approved ground forces, air strikes against North Korea June 30." [Based on: The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 2005, p. 549]
1950 - Railroad Seizure / U.S.A. - August 27th, 1950: "Army seized all railroads Aug. 27 on Truman's order to prevent a general strike; returned to owners in 1952." [Based on: The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 2005, p. 549]
1950 - Allied Command / Europe - December, 1950: "General Dwight Eisenhower becomes the first Supreme Allied Commander, Europe. The next year, the Allied Command Europe becomes operational." [Sources: NATO, The Associated Press, the World Book, the Encyclopedia Britannica]
1950 - U.S. Trade Ban / China - December 8th, 1950: "U.S. banned shipments Dec. 8 to Communist China and to Asiatic ports trading with it." [Based on: The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 2005, p. 549]
1951
1951 - Workers' Party / Vietnam - "In 1951, Ho Chi Minh Creates Workers' Party."
1951 - Mohammed Mossadegh / Iran - "The British occupied Iran after WW II to prevent Iran, more specifically Iranian oil, from falling into the hands of Nazi Germany and to protect an oil supply route to the Soviet Union, a British ally during the war. During the war, the U.S. and Britain felt that the Shah had become unmanageable and led another 'regime change' to replace him with his son, Muhammed Shah Pahlavi. Through their new proxy, Washington and London controlled Iran’s oil production. In 1951, the Iranian parliament voted to nationalize the Anglo-Iranian oil company and elected nationalist and pro-Soviet Mossadegh as Prime Minister who then deposed the Shah. London and Washington launched 'Operation Ajax', the code name for the 'regime change' effort that toppled Mossadeqh and 'restored' the Shah. Eisenhower labeled Mossadegh a 'communist' and justified the regime change as necessary to prevent Iran from falling into the Soviet camp." [Links 1]
1951 - Prescott Bush / Union Banking Co. - "Prescott Bush received $750,000 for his share of Union Banking Corporation, a princely sum in 1951, but nothing compared to the millions the Thyssen family got back. Prescott used some of this Nazi cash to bankroll his son George Herbert Walker Bush’s first business enterprise and to support his successful bid for Senate in 1952. The Thyssen’s rebuilt their empire, and today, the Thyssen Group [TBG] is the largest industrial conglomerate in Germany." [D. A. Friedrichs] [Link: 1]
1951 - Construction / U.S. Nuclear Submarine - July 1951: "In July 1951, Congress authorized construction of the world's first nuclear-powered submarine. Four years later, on the morning of July 17, 1955, the Nautilus's first commanding officer, Commander Eugene P. Wilkinson, ordered all lines cast off and signaled the memorable and historic message, 'Underway on nuclear power' - and the age of the nuclear Navy had begun." [Leo Laporte's 2005 Technology Almanac, p. 19]
1951 - Trivia / Sidney Gottlieb -
Sidney Gottlieb (August 3, 1918 – March 7, 1999) was an American chemist probably best-known for his involvement with the Central Intelligence Agency mind control program (MKULTRA).
Sidney was born in the Bronx under the name Joseph Schneider. He received a Ph.D. in chemistry from the California Institute of Technology. Despite the fact that he was a stutterer since childhood, Sidney got a master's degree in speech therapy. He also had a club foot, but this did not stop him from practicing folk dancing, a lifelong passion.
In 1951, Sidney Gottlieb joined the Central Intelligence Agency. As a poison expert, he headed the chemical division of the Technical Services Staff (TSS). Sidney became known as the "Black Sorcerer" and the "Dirty Trickster". He supervised preparations of lethal poisons and experiments in mind control.
[....]
In 1972 while still the head of the Technical Services Staff, shortly before retirement, Sidney Gottlieb allegedly destroyed most of the CIA files pertaining to him.
Sidney Gottlieb's passing on March 10, 1999 came at a convenient time for the CIA, as several new trials involving victims of its experiments were commencing.
[Based on: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidney_Gottlieb]
1951 - Project BLUEBIRD -
BLUEBIRD is the cryptonym for a CIA mind control program, lasting from 1951 to 1953. During this time the CIA authorized experiments to be conducted by licensed psychiatrists. The experiments had various purposes, including but not limited to: creating new identities, inducing amnesia, inserting hypnotic access codes in subjects' minds, creating multiple personalities, and creating false memories. The research also included placing brain electrodes in people and controlling their behavior from remote transmitters, administering daily dosages of LSD to children for extended periods of time, and using electroconvulsive therapy to erase memories.
[Based on: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_BLUEBIRD]
1951 - Project ARTICHOKE -
"Project ARTICHOKE was a CIA project that researched interrogation methods and arose from project BLUEBIRD in 1951 August 20. The project studied hypnosis, forced opiate addiction (and subsequent forced withdrawal), and the use of other chemicals, among other methods, to produce amnesia and other vulnerable states in subjects. Magician John Mullholland consulted for the project. A memorandum by Richard Helms to director Allen Welsh Dulles indicated it became project MKULTRA in 1953 April 20. It was an offensive programme of mind control that gathered together the intelligence divisions of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and FBI. In addition, the scope of the project was outlined in a memo dated January 1952 that stated, "Can we get control of an individual to the point where he will do our bidding against his will and even against fundamental laws of nature, such as self preservation?"
[Based on: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_ARTICHOKE]
1951 - Transcontinental TV - September 4th, 1951: "Transcontinental TV begun Sept. 4 with Pres. Truman's address at Japanese Peace Treaty Conference in San Francisco." [Based on: The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 2005, p. 549]
1951 - Operation Buster-Jangle / Nevada - November 1st, 1951: "Battlefield effects of blast and fallout are studied during Operation Buster-Jangle in Nevada, where soldiers are exposed to a 21-kiloton test six miles away." [Based on: N.G.M., August 2005, p. 103]
1950s - Nuclear Fallout / U.S.A. - "A panel of experts is recommending [April 2005] the government open the door to hearing cancer claims from people in all states who think they were affected by nuclear fallout from 1950s weapons tests in Nevada. [....] The data suggest people from as far away as the East Coast could have been exposed to radiation carried from the test sites by wind and weather patterns. Previuously, only people who worked with uranium and residents of certain countries in the region were eligible for the $50,000 to $100,000 lump-sum payments. Currently, anyone who has one of 19 kinds of cancer and who was a child in the 1950s living in one of the designated areas downwind of the Nevada test site is eligible for money. But if the program were expanded as the Board on Radiation Effects Research suggests, victims would have to prove to at least some degree their cancer was caused by radioactive fallout. [....]" [Based on: A.P. article, p. A3, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 04/29/05]
1950s - Trivia / Rioactive Waste, Columbia River, U.S.A. - "[....] According to the EPA (The New York Times, March 28, 1991), the engineers who built the nuclear weapons in the 1950's dumped over 127 million gallons of highly radioactive waste containing Iodine-129, into the ground just a few miles from the Columbia River, the 4th largest river system in the U.S., which flows into the Pacific Ocean. [....]"
[Based on: http://www.rense.com/general39/another.htm]
1952
1952 - Government Seizure / U.S. Steel Mills - April 8th, 1952: "Seizure of nation's steel mills was ordered by Pres. Truman Apr. 8 to avert a strike. Ruled illegal by Supreme Court June 2." [Based on: The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 2005, p. 549]
1952 - Project Blue Book - "From June 1947 through December 1969 the Air Force was primarily responsible for investigating unidentified flying object [UFO] phenomena. Investigations were conducted by the Air Technical Intelligence Center [ATIC] at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio until December 17, 1969. All records of these investigations [known as Project Sign, 1947-1949, Project Grudge, 1949-1952, and Project Blue Book, 1952-1969] were retired to the National Archives and Records Administration and are available to the public on archives microfilm publication T1206 [94 rolls of 35 mm film]." [Link: 1, 2]
1952 - Passed / U.S. Immigration & Naturalization Act - June 26th-27th, 1952: "The last racial and ethnic barriers to naturalization removed, June 26-27, with passage of Immigration & Naturalization Act of 1952."
1952 - UFOs Buzz Washington D.C. - July, 1952: "Flying saucers truly did buzz over Washington D.C., in 1952, and there are plenty of photographs and radar reports to substantiate it." [The Day After Roswell, Col. Philip J. Corso, with William J. Birnes]
1952 - British A-Bomb Test / Australia - October 3rd, 1952: "The United Kingdom tests an A-bomb in Australia." [Based on: N.G.M., August 2005, p. 103]
1952 - 1st Hydrogen Bomb Explosion / Pacific Ocean - November 1st, 1952: "The U.S. tests the world's first hydrogen bomb, code-named Mike, at Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands." [Based on: N.G.M., August 2005, p. 103]
*Trivia: "First hydrogen device explosion Nov. 1 in Pacific." [Based on: The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 2005, p. 549]
1953
1953 - Termination Resolution - "Congress passed the Termination Resolution that provided for the end of the special federal relationship with certain American Indian tribes."
1953 - MKULTRA - April 15th, 1953: "Headed by Dr. Sidney Gottlieb, MKULTRA was started on the order of CIA director Allen Dulles in April 13, 1953, largely in response to alleged Soviet, Chinese, and North Korean uses of mind-control techniques on U.S. prisoners of war in Korea. The CIA wanted to use similar methods on their own captives. The CIA was also interested in being able to manipulate foreign leaders with such techniques, and would later invent several schemes to drug Fidel Castro. In 1964, the project was renamed to MKSEARCH. The project attempted to produce a perfect truth drug for use in interrogating suspected Soviet spies during the Cold War, and generally to explore any other possibilities of mind control. Because most of the MKULTRA records were deliberately destroyed in 1972 by order of the Director at that time, Richard Helms, it is impossible to have a complete understanding of the more than 150 individually funded research projects sponsored by MKULTRA and the related CIA programs. [....] Experiments were often conducted without the subjects' knowledge or consent. [....] A secretive arrangement granted a percentage of the CIA budget. The MKULTRA director was granted 6% of the CIA operating budget in 1953, without oversight or accounting."
[Based on: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_MKULTRA#Origins]
1953 - MKDELTA -
MKDELTA, like its successor MKNAOMI, was a mind control operation run by the Central Intelligence Agency. It involved the use of biochemicals in clandestine operations.
According to the Church Committee report (Book I, Chapter XVII):
A special procedure, designated MKDELTA, was established to govern the use of MKULTRA materials abroad. Such materials were used on a number of occasions. Because MKULTRA records were destroyed, it is impossible to reconstruct the operational use of MKULTRA materials by the CIA overseas; it has been determined that the use of these materials abroad began in 1953, and possibly as early as 1950.
Drugs were used primarily as an aid to interrogations, but MKULTRA/MKDELTA materials were also used for harassment, discrediting, or disabling purposes
[Based on: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MKDELTA]
1950s - MKNAOMI -
MKNAOMI was the code name for a joint Department of Defense / CIA research program lasting from the 1950s through the 1970s. Unclassified information about the MKNAOMI program and the related Special Operations Division is scarce. It is generally reported to be a successor to the MKDELTA project and to have focused on biological projects including biological warfare agents - specifically, to store materials that could either incapacitate or kill a test subject and to develop devices for the diffusion of such materials. [....] In 1970, Project MKNAOMI was dissolved and on November 25, 1969, President Richard Nixon abolished any military practice involving biological weapons. On February 14, 1970, a presidential order was given to outlaw all stockpiles of bacteriological weapons and non-living toxins. [....]"
[Based on: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MKNAOMI]
1953 - U.S. Aid / Indochina War - May 8th, 1953: "Pres. Dwight D. Eisenhower announced May 8 that U.S. had given France $60 mil for Indochina War. More aid was announced in Sept." [Based on: The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 2005, p. 549]
1953 - Operation AJAX / Iran - June, 1953: "By the summer of 1953, the British and American governments initiated a joint Anglo-American plan for the covert overthrow of Dr. Mohammad Mossadegh, the Prime Minister of Iran. The plan called Operation AJAX with Kermit Roosevelt, the CIA Mideast Agent in charge [a grandson of Theodore Roosevelt and a distant cousin of Franklin Delano Roosevelt]. 'So this is how we will get rid of the madman Mossadeq in Iran' announced John Foster Dulles to a group of top Washington policy makers in June 1953. The U.S. Secretary of State held in his hand a plan of operation to overthrow the Prime Minister of Iran. There was scarcely any discussions amongst the high powered men in the room, no probing questions and no legal or ethical issues raised."
1953 - Underground Missile Launch / White Sands - June 5th, 1953: "A missile was fired from an underground launch facility in White Sands on June 5. The facility was constructed by the Army Corps of Engineers." [Link: 1]
1953 - Signed / Korean War Armistice - July 27th, 1953: "Korean War armistice signed July 27." [Based on: The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 2005, p. 549]
*Trivia: ""Korea cease-fire talks began in July [1951]; lasted 2 years. Fighting ended July 27, 1953." [Based on: The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 2005, p. 549]
1953 - Restored / Shah of Iran - August 19th, 1953: "On August 19th, 1953, the British Intelligence Service [MI6] and the United States Central Intelligence Agency [CIA], engineered to perform the next phase of their plan against the Iranian national government of Dr. Mossadegh. On that tragic day, a group of tanks led by General Fazlollah Zahedi moved through Tehran and surrounded Dr. Mossadegh's residence. The forces behind the coup d'état also managed to pull a large number of bribed hooligans into the streets to rally against Dr. Mossadegh. Finally the army and police forces let the mob reach the Prime Minister's residence and after hours of bombarding and fighting a bloody battle with the small group of Dr. Mossadegh's loyal guards, they entered the house and after plundering it, they burned it down. In a matter of hours Dr. Mossadegh and his top cabinet leaders surrendered themselves to the coup d'état Prime Minister, General Fazlollah Zahedi, and the Shah flew back to Iran, as a U.S. puppet.
"On August 19th, 1953 [28th day of Mordad 1332, Persian calendar]; the Shah's dictatorship restored. 'I owe my throne to the God, my people, my army and to you', the Shah reportedly told the CIA Mideast Agent, Kermit Roosevelt."
"Dr. Mossadegh remains a figure of tremendous stature in the history of modern Iran. As an individual he had a reputation for honesty, integrity, and sincerity. He strongly opposed British and, later, American influence in Iran. He was an eloquent, impassioned orator, and his speeches are still widely read in Iran.
"During Dr. Mossadegh's trial in the Shah's military court, he publicized the secrets of two military coup d'état attempts against his government. He was sentenced to three years imprisonment; thereafter he was transferred to his country house in Ahmad-Abad at the age of 74 and lived there under house arrest until his death. On March 4, 1967, Dr. Mossadegh died of cancer at the age of 84. His body was buried in one of the rooms of his residence. He was survived by 2 sons and 3 daughters.
"The Iranian people never forgave the Shah for the 1953 illegitimate and bloody coup d'état against the Iranian national hero, Dr. Mohammad Mossadegh and his nationalist cabinet. The Iranian people deeply suffered under the Shah's dictatorship, corruption, phony elections, heavy censorship on the public media, torture and execution of thousands of dissenters until the 1979 Revolution." [Links: 1]1953 - Russian Agriculture - "Despite the terrible blow to agriculture by Stalin's forced collectivisation in the early 1930s, from which agriculture never fully recovered, progress was made, allowing Russia to feed her population adequately. Such economic advance, in so short a time, has no parallel anywhere in the world. The amount of cultivated land was increased in just three years, between 1953 and 1956, by a staggering 35.9 million hectares, an area equivalent to the total cultivated land of Canada." [Link: 1]
1953 - Nikita Kruschev / USSR - "Stalin was so powerful in the USSR that no one would dare oppose him when he was alive. After his death [1953], though, many in the USSR talked of returning to Lenin's original ideals and introducing more freedom to the people of the country. A man who was very influential in the Politburo was able to take power after Stalin died. He promised reforms to the Communists, but quickly went back on these promises and began to create the most powerful military the world had ever known. His name was Nikita Kruschev."
1953 - Trivia / GULAG Population, USSR - "After Stalin died in 1953, the GULAG population was reduced significantly, and conditions for inmates somewhat improved. Forced labor camps continued to exist, although on a small scale, into the Gorbachev period, and the government even opened some camps to scrutiny by journalists and human rights activists. With the advance of democratization, political prisoners and prisoners of conscience all but disappeared from the camps. [NOTE: The communists had their concentration camps in service since 1919 all the way up to and including the Gorbachev period.]" [Link: 1]
1953 - DHEW - "The Federal Security Agency became the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare [DHEW]. The Factory Inspection Amendment clarified previous law and required the FDA to give manufacturers written reports on inspections and analyses of factory samples."
1954
1954 - Status / Native American Protection - "In 1954, Congress removed federal services and protection from sixty-one Native American Indian tribes, bands, and communities."
1954 - "Under God" Added / U.S. Pledge of Allegience - "A campaign by the Knights of Columbus, a Roman Catholic organization, and other religious leaders said the pledge of allegiance needed to be distinguished from similar orations that were used by 'godless communists.' The prospect of atomic war between world superpowers reportedly moved President Dwight Eisenhower [to direct congress] to add the words 'Under God' to the pledge in 1954. The original pledge of allegiance, minus the reference to God, was adopted in 1942. The phrase, 'Under God', would later [in October, 2003] come under Supreme Court review."
*Trivia: "The director of religious outreach for the Democratic Party [Rev. Brenda Bartella Peterson] says she resigned this week [August 2004] because of criticism over her support for removing the words 'under God' from the Pledge of Allegiance. [....] The Catholic League, a conservative anti-defamation group based in New York, critisized the political views of Peterson, an ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), in three statements issued over the first three days of the week. On Wednesday [08/04/04], Peterson resigned and cited 'recent negative publicity' from the amicus brief in the pledge case that she and 31 other clergy members signed. [....] The 350,000-member Catholic League called Peterson a 'left-wing activist.' It also critisized her for her role in the Clergy Leadership Network, a coalition of anti-Bush religious liberals for which she served as executive director." [Based on: A.P., 08/07/04]
1954 - Launched / Nautilus - January 21st, 1954: "Nautilus first atomic-powered submarine, was launched at Groton, CT, Jan. 21." [Based on: The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 2005, p. 549]
1954 - Color Television - March 25th, 1954: "Radio Corporation of America began manufacturing color television sets at its Bloomington, Ind. plant. It built 5000 sets with 12-inch screens, known as the model CT-100 color receiver. They sold for $1,000 each." [A.P., March, 2004]
1954 - Geneva Conference - May 8th, 1954: "Geneva Conference opens. Two months later, French sign cease-fire." [Based on: S.L.P.D., p. A5, o4/25/05]
*Trivia: "Delegates from nine nations convene in Geneva to start negotiations that will lead to the end of hostilities in Indochina. The idea of partitioning Vietnam is first explored at this forum. Vietminh General Ta Quang Buu and French General Henri Delteil sign the Agreement on the Cessation of Hostilities in Vietnam. As part of the agreement, a provisional demarcation line is drawn at the 17th parallel which will divide Vietnam until nationwide elections are held in 1956. The United States does not accept the agreement, neither does the government of Bao Dai."
1954 - Unconstitutional / U.S. Segregated Education - May 17th, 1954: "The U.S. Supreme Court rules [Brown vs. Board of Education] that segregated education is unconstitutional."
1955
1955 - U.S. Oil Monopoly - "By 1955, through proxy American regimes in Iran and Iraq, American corporations ended up controlling over 50 percent of Middle East oil reserves, and provided Europe with over 90 percent of its oil imports." [Links 1]
1955 - Investigation Trivia / The Philadelphia Experiment - Carlos Miguel Allende, claimed in the 1950s to have been a witness to a test at sea of a ship being made optically invisible using strong electromagnetic force fields when he was a sailor onboard the merchant marine vessel SS Furuseth in 1943. He also claimed that during another test that went wrong, some of the men caught fire, went mad, and - the most bizarre of all, some were embedded halfway into the deck of the ship. Others phased in and out of this reality, only kept here by the laying on of hands. Allende wrote a series of strange letters in 1955 to Morris K. Jessup, a researcher who had written the book 'The Case For The UFO.' It was Allende's fear that the same technology that was responsible for the disasters of the Philadelphia Experiment was the secret behind the propulsion method used successfully by UFOs. Jessup had called for research into such force fields of UFOs without having any knowledge of the navy experiment, and this alarmed Allende." [Link: 1]
1955 - U.S. Training / South Vietnamese Army - February 12th, 1955: "U.S. agreed Feb. 12 to help train South Vietnamese army." [Based on: The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 2005, p. 550]
1955 - Warsaw Pact - May 14th, 1955: "In response to West Germany's NATO membership [May 5th, 1955], the Soviet Union forms the eight-nation Warsaw Pact as an Eastern European counterweight." [Sources: NATO, The Associated Press, the World Book, the Encyclopedia Britannica]
1955 - Disputes / Geneva Agreements, Vietnam - July 6th, 1955: Ngo Dinh Diem disputes Geneva Agreements, refuses to plan open elections in Vietnam." [Based on: S.L.P.D., p. A5, 04/25/05]
*Trivia: "Diem Rejects Conditions of Geneva Accords, Refuses to Participate in Nationwide Elections. China and Soviet Union Pledge Additional Financial Support to Hanoi. Britain, France, and United States covertly urge Diem to respect Geneva accords and conduct discussions with the North. Diem defeats Bao Dai in rigged election and proclaims himself President [10/26/1955] of Republic of Vietnam."
1955 - "Underway" / Nuclear Navy, U.S.A. - July 15th, 1955: "In July 1951, Congress authorized construction of the world's first nuclear-powered submarine. Four years later, on the morning of July 17, 1955, the Nautilus's first commanding officer, Commander Eugene P. Wilkinson, ordered all lines cast off and signaled the memorable and historic message, 'Underway on nuclear power' - and the age of the nuclear Navy had begun." [Leo Laporte's 2005 Technology Almanac, p. 19]
1955 - Plans for Unmanned Satellites - "The White House announced, on July 29th, that President Eisenhower approved plans to launch unmanned satellites to circle the earth, as participation in the International Geophysical Year. The Russians soon made similar announcements." [Link: 1]
1955 - President Ngo Dinh Diem / Republic of South Vietnam - October 26th, 1955: "Diem proclaims South Vietnam as Republic of Vietnam and himself as president." [Based on: S.L.P.D., p. A5, 04/25/05]
1955 - Commissioned / U.S. Guided-Missle Cruiser - "On November 1st, the first guided-missile-equipped cruiser was placed in commission at the Philadelphia Naval Yard." [Link: 1]
1955 - U.S. IRBM Programs - "On November 8th, the Secretary of Defense approved the Jupiter and Thor Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM) programs." [Link: 1]
1955 - Soviet Hydrogen Bomb Detonation / Kazakhstan - November 22nd, 1955: "The Soviet Union successfully tests a hydrogen bomb, detonating a 1.6-megaton device in Kazakhstan." [Based on: N.G.M., August 2005, p. 103]
1955 - U.S. ICBM & IRBM Missles - December 1st, 1955: "President Eisenhower placed highest priority on Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) and the Thor and Jupiter IRBM programs on December 1st." [Link: 1]
1955 - Trivia / Rosa Parks, U.S.A. - December 1st, 1955: "Rosa Parks refused Dec. 1 to give her seat to a white man on a bus in Montgomery, AL. Bus segregation ordinance declared unconstitutional by a federal court following boycott organized by Rev. Martin Luther King Jr." [Based on: The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 2005, p. 550]
1955 - AFL-CIO / U.S.A. - December 5th, 1955: "America's second largest labor organizations merged Dec. 5, creating the AFL-CIO." [Based on: The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 2005, p. 550]
1956
1956 - Relocation Act - "The Relocation Act creates job training centers in urban areas for Native Americans. The purpose of the act was to force Native Americans off the reservation by offering job training opportunities only in urban areas. Native Americans participating in the job training programs were required to sign formal agreements that they would not return to their reservations."
1956 - Founded? / "Priori of Zion" - May 1956: "Letter dated 8 June 1956 by the Mayor of Annemasse to the Sub Prefect of St Julien-en-Genevois disclosed information that Pierre Plantard had broken sections of the French Penal Code relating to crimes and offences against property and was sentenced to six months imprisonment by the Tribunal of St Julien-en-Genevois in December 1953. The Priory of Sion had been formed in May 1956 and was originally dedicated to the defence of Low-Cost Housing, also backing the opposition Candidate at the local Annemasse Council elections – the Priory of Sion also attacked the Annemasse property developers in the pages of its journal, Circuit. The letter dated 8 June 1956 by the Mayor of Annemasse was part of an investigation into the Priory of Sion headed by the local Annemasse Council and the Sub Prefecture of St Julien-en-Genevois into Pierre Plantard and the first three issues of Circuit following the formation of the Priory of Sion in May 1956. Three recent letters dated 22 March 2004, 20 April 2004 and 10 May 2004 from Monsieur Serge Champanhet, the Secretary General of the Sub-Prefecture of St Julien-en-Genevois (4 Avenue de Geneve, 74164 Saint Julien-en-Genevois, Haute-Savoie), have both confirmed the existence of the 1956 letter and Plantard’s conviction."
[Based on: http://priory-of-sion.com/psp/convchron.html - See: June 1956]
1956 - Interstate Highway System / U.S.A. - June 29th, 1956: "Federal-Aid Highway Act signed June 29, inaugurating interstate highway system." [Based on: The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 2005, p. 550]
1956 - Activation / 1st Transatlantic Telephone Cable - September 25th, 1956: "First transatlantic telephone cable activated Sept. 25." [Based on: The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 2005, p. 550]
1957
1957 - Established / Fatah - "Fatah, also known as Al-Fatah, is an acronym for Palestine National Liberation Movement; the word itself means 'conquest'. Founded in the 1950s by, among others, Yasser Arafat, its goal is the creation of a Palestinian state."
1957 - Approved / U.S. Civil Rights Bill - April 29th, 1957: "Congress approved first civil rights bill for blacks since Reconstruction, Apr. 29, to protect voting rights." [Based on: The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 2005, p. 550]
1957 - Surgeon General Report / Cigarette Smoking - July 12th, 1957: "The U.S. surgeon general July 12 said studies showed a 'direct link' between cigarette smoking and lung cancer." [Based on: The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 2005, p. 550]
1957 - ICBM Test / Soviet Union - August 1957: "Soviets successfully test an intercontinental ballistic missle (ICBM)." [Based on: N.G.M., August 2005, p. 106]
1957 - U.S. Underground Nuclear Test / Nevada Desert - September 19th, 1957: "U.S. conducts its first underground nuclear test in the Nevada desert." [Based on: N.G.M., August 2005, p. 106]
1957 - 1st Earth Satellite / Sputnik I - October 4th, 1957: "First Earth orbiter, Soviet Sputnik 1, 370 mile high orbit, 184-lb. - October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union stunned the world by placing the first satellite, Sputnik, into space. The Russian spacecraft orbited around the earth in great, amorphous loops. Americans reacted to the Russian Sputnik with amazement and awe. Many doubted that it was really in space, some top minds reported it as unimportant and useless. Some saw it as an object to blown out of the sky, in truth it was nothing more than a dummy space ship." [Link: 1]
1957 - Radioactive Material / England - October 7th, 1957: "A fire in the Windscale plutonium production reactor N of Liverpool, England, released radioactive material; later blamed for 39 cancer deaths." [Based on: The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 2005, p. 210]
1957 - Sputnik 2 - November 3rd, 1957: "Sputnik 2 was launched on November 3 with the dog, Laika, the first animal in space - Unsuccessful Vanguard firing in the USA." [Link 1]
1957 - United Kingdom Hydrogen Bomb Test / Line Islands, Pacific - November 8th, 1957: "The United Kingdom successfully tests a hydrogen bomb in the Line Islands of the Pacific." [Based on: N.G.M., August 2005, p. 106]
1957 - Radioactive Contamination / Rocky Flats, Colo. - "Demolition began Thursday [07/15/04] on what has been called 'the most dangerous building in America,' where workers at the Rocky Flats nuclear plant once handled highly radioactive plutonium used in triggers for nuclear weapons. Leaks, spills and a 1957 fire plagued the building, and part of it was closed 30 years ago because radiation levels were off the charts. The building was called the workhorse of the weapons factory, 16 miles northwest of Denver. The Department of Energy called the building its 'greatest vulnerability' in 1994 because of the buildup of contamination over five decades." [News Services, 07/16/04]
1957 - Radioactive & Chemical Waste / Weldon Spring, MO - In the 1940s Weldon Spring was the world's largest munitions plant, producing TNT and other explosives. From 1957 to 1966, pure uranium was manufactured on the site for nuclear weapons and as fuel for nuclear power plants. The cleanup that was largely completed at Weldon Spring cost $900 million over 17 years and included burial of 1.5 million cubic yards of radioactive materials and chemicals in a seven-story hill." [Post-Dispatch Washington Bureau, 11/16/03]
1958
1958 - Economic Superpower Status / Japan - "1958-1970 Japan achieves economic superpower status. Restrictions on foreign travel are removed and huge numbers of Japanese begin to travel abroad."
1958 - 1st American Satellite / Explorer I - January 31st, 1958: "Explorer 1 became America's first satellite on January 31, 1958. Following the Soviet success with Sputnik and the embarrassing failure in December 1957 of the first American attempt to launch a satellite, the U.S. Army launched a scientific satellite using a rocket that had been developed to test guided missile components. Explorer 1 carried an instrument package developed by a team at the State University of Iowa under the direction of Professor James A. Van Allen. Data returned by Explorer 1 and Explorer 3 [launched in March 1958] provided evidence that the Earth is surrounded by intense bands of radiation, now called the Van Allen radiation belts. This was the first major scientific discovery of the space age."
1958 - Russia Declares Halt / Atomic Tests - March 31st, 1958: "Moscow declared a halt on all atomic tests and asked other nations to follow."
1958 - Established / NORAD - May 19th, 1958: "The United States and Canada formally established the North American Air Defense Command [NORAD]."
1958 - "Regime Change" / Iraq - July 14th, 1958: "The army of Iraq overthrew the monarchy. The Hashemite King Faisal was assassinated."
1958 - U.S. Involvement / Lebanon - "July 15, President Eisenhower ordered 5,000 U.S. Marines to Lebanon, at the request of that country's president, Camille Chamoun, in the face of a perceived threat by Muslim rebels; to help end a short-lived civil war."
*Trivia: "Six-month civil war between Muslims and leftists loyal to Egyptian President Gamal Nasser." [A.P., 02/15/05]
1958 - Created / NASA - July 29th, 1958: "President Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act, which created NASA."
1958 - U.S. Leaves Lebanon - October 25th, 1958: "The last U.S. troops left Beirut."
1958 - Airline Passenger Service / U.S.A. - December 10th, 1958: "First domestic jet airline passenger service in U.S. opened by National Airlines Dec. 10 between New York and Miami." [Based on: The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 2005, p. 550]
1958 - Stray Hydrogen Bomb / Georgia Coast? - September 30th, 2004: "SAVANNAH, Ga. - The U.S. government is sending a team of 20 scientists [September 2004] to check out a report of unusual radiation readings that could be coming from a hydrogen bomb that was lost off the Georgia coast in 1958. [....] The bomb, believed buried in 10 to 15 feet of mud at the bottom of the sea, became one of 11 'Broken Arrows' - nuclear bombs lost during air or sea accidents, according to U.S. military records. The Air Force has long insisted that there is no risk of a nuclear blast from the bomb off Georgia because the plutonium capsule needed to trigger an explosion was removed before the ill-fated flight. Duke [Derek Duke] who lives in Statesboro, Ga., has disputed that point over the years. He sites a Pentagon memo from 1996 that referred to the bomb as a 'complete weapon.' The Air Force has said that memo was wrong. Duke approached Air Force officials more than three years ago [2000?], but they decided at the time not to renew the search for the bomb. The Air Force argued that it was better left undisturbed, because it contains uranium and 400 pounds of conventional explosives." [Russ Bynum, A.P., 09/30/04]
1958 - Invented / Laser - "AT&T Bell Labs scientists invented the laser. In 1981, Arthur Schawlow [d.1999 at 77] of Stanford won the Nobel Prize in Physics. He with his brother-in-law and Charles Townes of UC Berkeley shared credit for inventing the laser. They developed the laser in the 1950s and made a working model in 1960 whiled working for Bell Laboratories."
1958 - Invented / Integrated Circuit - "In 1958, Mr Kilby [Jack Kilby, d. 06/20/05] built the first integrated circuit, in which all the components were fabricated in semiconductor material half the size of a paper clip. He also co-invented the hand-held calculator. Mr. Kilby's invention, a forerunner of the microchip used in today's computers [2005], replaced the bulky and unreliable switches and tubes that had been used in the first computing devices. Later, Robert Noyce of Fairchild Semiconductor received a patent for a similar but more complex circuit made of silicon." [Based on: A.P. article, S.L.P.D., p. A7, 06/22/05]
1958 - The Nuclear Double Standard - 1958: "The controlled press ignores the fact that the three European nations seeking [2005] to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear state have all assisted in the creation of the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal - Israel's. [....] On the one hand, Iran is abiding by its legal obligations under the treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). Iran, like every other nation in the Middle East with the exception of Israel, has ratified the NPT and forsworn the pursuit of nuclear weapons. [....] The BBC recently reported that in 1958 Britain had secretly sold Israel 20 tons of 'heavy water,' a key ingredient for its nuclear program. The shipment of deuterium oxide was reported as being 'vital to plutonium production' at Israel's top-secret Dimona nuclear reactor in the Negev Desert. Construction of the Dimona facility began in the late 1950s as the result of a secret agreement with France, which provided assistance with reactor design and construction. While the story of Britain's shipment of heavy water to Israel was reported by the BBC and elsewhere, The New York Times, whose motto is 'All the news that's fit to print,' did not even mention it. A call to the Times asking about the omission was not returned. Senior ministers in then Prime Minister Harold Macmillan's government were reported to have been unaware of the deal, which was supposedly conducted by lower-level civil servants. The shipment was also kept secret from the Americans. [....] Robert McNamara, U.S. secretary of defense from 1961-68, told the BBC he was 'astonished' by the coverup. 'It is very surprising to me we were not told because we shared information about the nuclear bomb very closely with the British,' he said. The heavy water had been bought by Britain from Norway and has been presented in the past as a deal between Israel and Norway. [....] More recently, Germany provided Israel with submarines that had their forward compartments modified, at Israel's request, for the launch of long-range cruise missles. The subs were free. Providing Israel with submarines equipped with the means to deliver nuclear-tipped cruise missles is a clear violation of the NPT by the German government." [Based on: American Free Press (Volume V, # 35, 08/29/05) article by Christopher Bollyn, p. 5] - [Paragraph indents removed to save space - E.M.]
1958 - Vancomycin - "The vancomycin antibiotic was developed. It became the best weapon against bacteria that were no longer vulnerable to other drugs. In 1988 bacteria resistant to vancomycin began to be detected."
1959
1959 - U.S. Recognition / Cuban Government - January 7th, 1959: "The United States recognized Fidel Castro's new government in Cuba."
1959 - Test-Fired / U.S. Titan ICBM - February 6, 1959: "The United States successfully test-fired for the first time a Titan intercontinental ballistic missile from Cape Canaveral."
1959 - Chinese Tibet - March 17, 1959: "Tibet rebelled against Chinese control. China reacted harshly, arrested tens of thousands and held strict control until the late 1970s. The Chinese forced the Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, and many of his followers to flee [March 17th] to India. The Communists destroyed 6,500 monasteries. About 250 monks of the Drepung Loseling Monastery escaped to India and established a replica of their ancient institution."
1959 - Group 559 / Vietnam - May 19th, 1959: "The formation of the Peoples' Army of Vietnam's Military Transportation Group 559 on May 19, 1959, the 69th birthday of Vietnamese revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh, ultimately resulted in the creation of the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The trail was intended to facilitate the infiltrating of troops and transporting supplies from North Vietnam to support the revolution in South Vietnam."
1959 - Launched / 1st U.S. ICBM Submarine - 1959 June 9th, 1959: "The first ballistic missile carrying submarine, the USS George Washington, was launched. "
1959 - Kitchen Debate - July 25th, 1959: "Vice President Richard Nixon squared off against Soviet Premier Nikita Khruschev during the so-called Kitchen debate in Moscow."
1959 - Trivia / SETI - September 19th, 1959: "Nature ran a paper by Giuseppe Cocconi and Philip Morrison that said terrestrial radiotelescopes were sensitive enough to detect radio signals from other stars. This was later seen as the beginning of SETI, the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence."
1959 - Operation Lorraine / Vietnam - October 29th, 1959: "French forces launched Operation Lorraine against Viet Minh supply bases in Indochina."
1959 - Food Stamps / U.S.A. - September 11th, 1959: "US Congress passed a bill authorising food stamps for low-income Americans." [Link: 1]
1950s- Minamata Disease / Japan - "Japan's top court ordered the government Friday [10/15/04] to pay $703,000 in damages to victims of the Minamata Bay mercury poisining. The ruling came 22 years after the case was filed [1982?] over an industrial pollution disaster that killed more than 1,700 people and caused mothers to give birth to deformed babies.
"The Minamata poisoning incident was Japan's worst case of industrial pollution. Since the 1950's, hundreds of people have contracted Minamata disease - a neurological disorder caused by mercury poisoning - from eating tainted fish. The disease was first discovered in the 1950s and named for Minamata Bay in southern Japan, where a company dumped tons of mercury compounds.
"The court said the government and Kumamoto prefecture (state) failed to stop chemical manufacturer Chisso Corp. from dumping tons of mercury compounds into Minamata Bay beginning in the 1930s." [News Services, 10/16/04]1960
1960 - Astronomic Configuration - January 1st, 1960: "Sun [9 Capricorn], Moon [10 Aquarius], Mercury [24-25 Sagittarius], Venus [28 Scorpio], Mars [20 Sagittarius], Jupiter [18 Sagittarius.], Saturn [9 Capricorn], Uranus [20 Leo R], Neptune [8 Scorpio], Pluto [6 Virgo R]."
1960 - Military Status / USSR - "Kruschev's military became so powerful that by 1960, the USSR had more tanks, planes, nuclear weapons, submarines, and aircraft carriers than the United States. He then invaded Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, and began to place nuclear weapons in these countries. Fearing a Soviet takeover, the people of East Germany began to leave their country for freedom in the West. In one week over 100,000 people fled. Krushchev ordered the border sealed, and began to construct a wall that would become the symbol of oppression to the world."
1960 - U.S.-Soviet Buffer State / Afghanistan - "Afghanistan is a rich tapestry of many different peoples living relatively isolated, deep in the highlands of Central Asia. In the 1960s, the U.S. power structure considered Afghanistan as a 'buffer state' between the Soviet Union to the north and the strategically important U.S.-backed states of Iran and Pakistan to the south. The overwhelming majority of the population of 18 million lived as impoverished farmers in the extremely backward countryside - dominated by large landowners and the heads of feudal clans. But then, at the end of the 1970s, the intensifying global rivalry between the U.S. and USSR brought bitter warfare to Afghanistan." [Link: 1]
1960 - "Nuclear Power" / France - February 19th, 1960: "France becomes the fourth nuclear power."
1960 - Sharpeville Massacre / South Africa - March 21st, 1960: "In South Africa, police fired into a packed demonstration of blacks against the hated Pass Laws. Seventy people died in the massacre at Sharpeville, and the world began slowly to wake to the brutal reality of apartheid. Soon after the shootings, Nelson Mandela was detained."
1960 - U.S. U2 Spy Plane / USSR - May 1, 1960: "On the eve of a US-Soviet summit, U2 pilot Frances Gary Powers is shot down while flying a spy mission over the Soviet Union. Powers is taken prisoner, the Eisenhower administration is forced to own up to the mission, and Khrushchev cancels the summit."
1960 - Signed / U.S. Civil Rights Act - May 6th, 1960: "Civil Rights Act of 1960 signed by Eisenhower."
1960 - U.S. Infrared Spy Satelite - May 22nd, 1960: "The U.S. launches Midas 2, the first infrared spy satellite."
1960 - U.S. Photo Spy Satellite - August 18th, 1960: "The U.S. launches the CORONA, the first photo spy satellite."
1960 - U.S. Weather Satellite - "First television weather satellite Tiros 1." [Link: 1]
1960 - U.S. Communication Satellte - "First communications satellite 124-lb. Echo 1." [Link: 1]
1960 - Launched / USS Enterprise - September 24th, 1960: "The USS Enterprise, the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier is launched." [Link: 1]
1960 - U.S. Warning / "Military Industrial Complex" - November 1960: "Eisenhower warns the nation about the 'Military-Industrial Complex' and its power."
1960 - U.S. Nuclear Ballistic Missles / U.S.S. George Washington - November 15th, 1960: "The U.S.S. George Washington becomes the first submarine to carry nuclear ballistic missles." [Based on: N.G.M., August 2005, p. 107]
1960 - Birth Control Pills / U.S.A. - December 1960: "Birth Control Pills go on sale in the U.S.A."
1960 - Status / Union Membership, U.S.A. - "As recently as the 1960s, union membership stood at just over 30 percent of all workers, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research [September 2003]." [St. Louis Post-Dispatch]
1960 - Color Additive Amendments - "In 1960, color additive amendments were enacted to allow the FDA to establish, by regulations, the conditions of safe use for all color additives in foods, drugs, cosmetics, and some devices, and to require manufacturers to perform the necessary scientific investigations to establish safety for their intended uses."
1960 - Advanced Technology? / National Security Agency - Early 1960s: "[....] As of the early 1960's the most advanced computers in the world were at the NSA, Ft. Meade. Research breakthroughs with these computers were kept for the NSA. At the present time [+2000] the NSA has advanced technology computers that are 15 years ahead of present computer technology. [....] NSA Signals Intelligence uses EMF Brain Stimulation for Remote Neural Monitoring (RNM) and Electronic Brain Link (EBL). EMB Brain Stimulation has been in development since the MK Ultra program of the early 1950's which included neurological research into 'radiation (non-ionizing EMF) and bioelectric research and development. The resulting secret technology is categorized at the National Security Archives as 'Radiation intelligence' defined as 'information from unintentionally emanated electromagnetic waves in environment, not including radioactivity or nuclear detonation.' Signals Intelligence implemented and kept this technology secret in the same manner as other electronic warfare programs of the U.S. government. The NSA monitors available information about this technology and withholds scientific research from the public. There are also international intelligence agreements to keep this technology secret. [....]"
[Based on: http://www.cyberspaceorbit.com/SigintInfo.htm]
1961
1961 - Foreign Relations / U.S.A. & Cuba - January 3rd, 1961: "U.S. severed diplomatic and consular relations with Cuba Jan. 3, after disputes over nationalization of U.S. firms, U.S. military presence at Guantanamo base." [Based on: The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 2005, p. 550]
1961 - Reactor Accident / Idaho Falls, Idaho - January 3rd, 1961: "A reactor at a federal installation near Idaho Falls, ID, killed three workers. Radiation contained." [Based on: The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 2005, p. 210]
1961 - Increasing Power / "Military Industrial Complex" - January 17th, 1961: "Eisenhower warns of increasing power of 'military-industrial complex.' "
1961 - U.S. President John F. Kennedy - January 20th, 1961: "The 35th American President, John F. Kennedy [Democrat], begins his term. Kennedy was the 4th American President [the 1st Democrat] assassinated."
1961 - Approved / U.S. Counter-Insurgency Plan, Vietnam - January 28th, 1961: "President John Kennedy approves counter-insurgency plan for Vietnam." [Based on: S.L.P.D., p. A5, 04/25/05]
1961 - Established / U.S. Peace Corps - March 1st, 1961: "The Peace Corps is established."
*Trivia: "John Kennedy initiates 17 billion dollar nuclear missile program, increases military aid to Indochina & announces creation of the Peace Corps."
1961 - 1st Man in Space / Vostok 1 - April 12th, 1961: "Having launched the first earth satellite in 1957, the Soviet Union again stole the thunder of the U.S. space programme in April 1961, by sending Yuri Gagarin into orbit [in Vostok 1] as the first man in space. He circled the earth three times. The best the Americans could do a month later was to blast Alan Shepard briefly into space and bring him straight down again."
1961 - Bay of Pigs Invasion / Cuba - April 17th, 1961: "A plot to invade Cuba and overthrow Fidel Castro goes miserably wrong when air support at the Bay of Pigs fails to materialize. Kennedy's leadership skills are called into question, and Kennedy himself develops doubts about heeding the advice of the military."
1961 - The Brookings Report - April 18th, 1963: "According to The Brookings Report: 'Discovery of life on other worlds could cause the earth's civilization to collapse.' " [Link: 1]
1961 - Alliance for Progress / Latin America - May 27th, 1961: "Pres. Kennedy ... signed bill creating Alliance for Progress, for Latin America." [Based on: The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 2005, p. 550]
1961 - Worldwide Demonstrations / "Ban The Bomb" - July 1961: "Ban The Bomb Demonstrations start worldwide."
1961 - Satellite Live TV Transmission - July 19th, 1961: "First Telstar Satellite Live TV Transmission across the Atlantic."
1961 - Man in Space / Vostok 2 - August 6th, 1961: "Gherman Titov spends more than a day in space [25 hours] in the second Vostok manned flight in August." [Link: 1]
1961 - Beginning / Berlin Wall - August 13th, 1961: "The GDR blocks off East from West Berlin and begins constructing the Berlin wall after the U.S. rejects proposals by Khrushchev to make Berlin a 'free city' with access controlled by East Germany."
1961 - U.S. Military Advisors / Vietnam - In 1961, U.S. President Kennedy sent the first 100 military advisors along with 400 soldiers to Vietnam."
1961 - Americans Urged to Build Fallout Shelters - September 1961: "President John F. Kennedy urges Americans to build fallout shelters." [Based on: N.G.M., August 2005, p. 107]
1961 - Underground Nuclear Testing / U.S.A. - September 15th, 1961: "U.S. starts underground nuclear testing."
*Trivia: "U.S. conducts its first underground nuclear test [09/19/1957] in the Nevada desert." [Based on: N.G.M., August 2005, p. 106]
1961 - Fallout Shelters Advised? / U.S.A.- October 16th, 1961: "President Kennedy advises Americans to build fallout shelters."
1961 - World's Largest Nuclear Bomb Explosion - October 30th, 1961: "The U.S.S.R. explodes the world's largest nuclear bomb, with a yield of roughly 50 megatons." [Based on: N.G.M., August 2005, p. 107]
1961 - U.S. Sub-Orbital Space Flight - First manned American space-flight by astronaut Shepard, sub-orbital." [Link: 1]
1961 - Commissioned / USS Enterprise - November 25, 1961: "The first nuclear powered aircraft carrier, the USS Enterprise, was commissioned."
1961 - Time Experiments? / USSR - "In 1952, head of the Soviet secret police organization Lavrenty Beria initiated a case against researchers participating in the experiments, as a result of which 18 professors were executed by shooting and 59 candidates and doctors of physical sciences were sent to camps. The Institute recommenced its activity under Khruschev. But an experimental stand with eight leading researchers disappeared in 1961, and buildings close to the one where experiments were conducted were ruined. After that, the Communist Party political bureau and the Council of Ministers decided to suspend researchers of the Institute for an uncertain period. [Olga Zharina, 03/01/2004, Pravada]
1962
1962 - Status / Berlin Wall, Berlin - "By 1962, the Berlin Wall completely encircled the city of Berlin. President Kennedy started what became known as the Berlin airlift to ensure that the Soviets could not take over the rest of the city. At the same time Krushchev secretly began to put nuclear missiles in the country of Cuba. Cuba is located 90 miles from the United States. If Krushchev could get these missile sites operational, he could launch an attack against the United States with no warning what-so-ever. Krushchev did not know however, that the United States knew of his plans in Cuba after a 'U-2' spy plane took overhead pictures of the missile sites. President Kennedy then called for the massing of over one million troops in Europe to prepare for war with the USSR. Kennedy moved aircraft carriers, tanks, and destroyers close to Soviet territory. Kennedy then stunned the world by announcing all this on national public television and told Krushchev in private that he had 24 hours to remove the missiles from Cuba or the United States might launch a full scale nuclear strike against the USSR. No one had ever made this threat before and Krushchev made the public statement, '...we will crush you.' Kennedy did not back down however, and refused to extend the deadline he gave Krushchev. Faced with nuclear oblivion, Krushchev removed the missiles from Cuba with only hours to spare. Krushchev was publicly humiliated, and many in the Politburo now called for him to resign his office. He refused and was forcibly removed from power and committed to what became known as 'internal exile.' "
1962 - Foreign Relations / U.S.A. & Vietnam - February 14th, 1962: "Pres. John F. Kennedy said ... that U.S. military advisors in Vietnam would fire if fired upon." [Based on: The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 2005, p. 550]
1962 - Anti-Nuclear March / Washington D.C. - February 16th, 1962: "Boston SANE & fledgling SDS hold first anti-nuclear march on Washington with 4000-8000 protesters."
1962 - Trivia / John Glen - "February 20th, 1962: John Glenn became the first US astronaut to orbit the earth [in the Mercury 6 capsule: Friendship 7."
1962 - Atmospheric Nuclear Testing / U.S.A. - April 25th, 1962: "U.S. resumes atmospheric nuclear testing after 3 year moratorium."
1962 - 1st U.S. Communications Satellite - July 10th, 1962: "Bell Labs' Telstar I, the world's first commercial communication satellite is launched from Cape Canaveral on July 10; the next day the first transatlantic broadcast of a TV signal occurs between earth stations in Andover, Maine, Goonhilly in Cornwall, and Pleumeur-Boudou in France; the U.K. transmits the first color TV pictures via satellite."
1962 - Fatality / Marilyn Monroe - August 5th, 1962: "Marilyn Monroe, 36 years old and a burned-out superstar, was found dead in her bed, of an overdose."
1962 - "Love me do" / The Beatles - September 11th, 1962: "Love me do and P.S. I love you were recorded at the Abbey Road studios by The Beatles." [Link: 1]
1962 - 1st Black Student / University of Mississippi - October 1st, 1962: "James Meredith beame first black student at University of Mississippi ... after 3,000 troops put down riots." [Based on: The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 2005, p. 550]
1962 - Missles in Cuba - October 22nd, 1962: "A Soviet offensive missle buildup in Cuba was revealed Oct. 22 by Pres. Kennedy, who ordered a naval and air quarantine on shipment of offensive military equipment to the island. He and Soviet Prem. Krushchev agreed Oct. 28 on formula to end the crisis. Kennedy announced Nov. 2 that Soviet missle bases in Cuba were being dismantled." [Based on: The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 2005, p. 550]
1962 - Cuban Missle Crisis - October 27th, 1962: "If the Cuban Missile Crisis was the most dangerous passage of the Cold War, the most dangerous moment of the Cuban Missile Crisis was the evening of Saturday, 27 October 1962, when the resolution of the crisis—war or peace— appeared to hang in the balance."
1962 - Project 112 - "On October 31st, [2002?] the Department of Defense released five more detailed fact sheets on Cold War-era chemical and biological warfare tests identified as Desert Test Center Project 112. Project 112 was a comprehensive program initiated in 1962 out of concern for our nation's ability to protect and defend against these potential threats. These fact sheets are in addition to the 40 fact sheets previously released since September 2001." [Links: 1, 2]
1962 - Project Shad - "Project SHAD, an acronym for Shipboard Hazard and Defense, was part of a larger effort called Project 112, which was conducted during the 1960s. Project SHAD encompassed tests designed to identify US warships' vulnerabilities to attacks with chemical or biological warfare agents and to develop procedures to respond to such attacks while maintaining a war-fighting capability." [Link: 1]
1962 - Work Hours Act / United States - "The Work Hours Act provides time-and-a-half pay for work past an eight hour day or 40-hour week."
1962 - Trivia / U.S. Presence, Vietnam - "In 1962, the U.S. presence in Vietnam was increased to 11,000 soldiers."
1962 - Kefauver-Harris Drug Amendments - "News reports on the role of Dr. Frances O. Kelsey, an FDA medical officer, in keeping thlidomide off the American market aroused public interest in drug regulation. The drug had been associated with the birth of thousands of malformed babies in Western Europe. The Kefauver-Harris Drug Amendments were passed to assure a greater degree of safety and to strengthen new drug clearance procedures. For the first time, drug manufacturers were required to prove the effectiveness of their products to the FDA before marketing them. In addition, the amendments: 1) Transferred jurisdiction over medical advertising of prescription products from the Federal Trade Commission [FTC] to the FDA. 2) Extended the FDA's inspection authority over establishments in which prescription drugs are manufactured, processed, packed, or held to include records, files, papers, controls, and facilities. 3) Required that facilities, methods, and control procedures used by manufacturers conform to 'current good manufacturing practices'. 4) Established 'full disclosure', under which the most vital, up-to-date, and reliable information about a prescription drug was required in its labeling, in the form of a package insert."
1962 - Trivia / Agent Orange, Vietnam - "U.S. Air Force begins using Agent Orange - a defoliant that came in metal orange containers - to expose roads and trails used by Vietcong forces. Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield reports back to JFK from Saigon his opinion that Diem had wasted the two billion dollars America had spent there."
*Trivia: "A federal judge on Thursday [03/10/05] dismissed a lawsuit alleging that U.S. chemical companies, including Monsanto Co. of Creve Coeur, Mo., committed war crimes against 4 million Vietnamese citizens by making Agent Orange, the defoliant that allegedly caused birth defects, miscarriages and cancer. 'There is no basis for any of the claims of plantiffs under the domestic law of any nation or state or under any form of international law,' U.S. District Judge Jack B. Weinstein wrote in a 233-page ruling. 'The case is dismissed.' Lawyers who filed the suit on behalf of the Vietnamese citizens said an appeal was planned. They had argued that Agent Orange, which is laden with the toxic chemical dioxin, was a poison barred by international rules of war. Lawyers for Monsanto, Dow Chemical Co. and more than a dozen other companies said they should not be punished for following what they believed to be the legal orders of the nation's commander in chief. [....] A lawyer for the Vietnamese plantiffs called the decision that Agent Orange was not a poison 'a clear error.' U.S. aircraft sprayed more than 21 million gallons of the chemical between 1962 to 1971 in attempts to destroy crops and remove foliage used as cover by communist forces. Some 10,000 U.S. war veterans receive medical-disability benefits related to Agent Orange." [Based on A.P. article, S.L.P.D., p. C2, 03/11/05]
1962 - LED's - "In 1962, Light-emitting diodes [LEDs] are developed by General Electric."
1963
1963 - U.K. Tour / The Beatles - February 2nd, 1963: "A young rock band, then called a group, had learned its craft in the cramped and sweaty Cavern Club in Liverpool. Turned down by Decca at the start of 1962, the Beatles went on towards the end of that year to make a modest impression with their first single, Love Me Do. In 1963, they took over the world. The Beatles had started their first U.K. tour on February 2nd, 1963." [Link: 1]
1963 - Civil Rights March / Alabama - May 2nd, 1963: "March for civil rights begun ... in Birmingham, AL, led to desegragation accord, which in turn sparked rioting and violence." [Based on: The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 2005, p. 550]
1963 - Monterey Folk Festival - May 17th, 1963: "Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, and Peter Paul and Mary performed at the first Monterey Folk Festival, a three day event, on the weekend of 17 May 1963, along with many other folk artists." [Link: 1]
1963 - Proposed / U.S. Civil Rights Bill - June 11th, 1963: "JFK Proposes the Civil Rights Bill."
1963 - Desegration / University of Alabama - June 11th, 1963: "University of Alabama desegrated after Gov. George Wallace stepped aside when confronted by federally deployed National Guard troops June 11." [Based on: The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 2005, p. 550]
1963 - Assassinated / Medgar Evers - June 12th, 1963: "Mississippi NAACP leader Medgar Evers [b. 1925] is murdered by KKK member Byron de la Beckwith."
*Trivia: "Byron De La Beckwith convicted Feb. 5 [1994] of the 1963 murder of civil rights leader Medgar Evers." [Based on: The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 2005, p. 555]
1963 - 1st Maneuverable Satellite - "First maneuverable satellite [Polyot 1, USSR]." [Link: 1]
1963 - U.S. Communications Satellite / Syncom II - "NASA 80 - lb. Syncom II, geosynchronous communications satellite." [Link: 1]
1963 - 1st Woman in Space - June 16th. 1963: "Soviet cosmonaut Lt. Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first woman in space [in Vostok 6]." [Link: 1]
1963 - "ECKANKAR" - July 9th, 1963: "This chapter [Chap. 3, Dialogue in the Age of Criticism, by Doug Marman, Copyright 2000] covers the few short years just before Paul [Paul Twitchell] officially introduced ECKANKAR as a spiritual teaching. David [David Lane] begins by referring to an interview by Jack Jarvis, on July 9, 1963, called 'Paul Twitchell, Man of Parts,' which appears to be the first time that Paul mentions the name ECKANKAR. Shortly after, Paul wrote a response to Jarvis' article, called, 'The Square Peg,' which I quoted from earlier in Chapter One.
"These days, then, were Paul's Cliff-Hanger days, when he also began introducing the name and concept of ECKANKAR." [Based on: Doug Marman, Dialogue in the Age of Criticism, Chap. 3]1963 - Newport Folk Festival - July 26-28, 1963: "Newport Folk Festival July 26-28, includes Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Phil Ochs and Pete Seeger."
1963 - Signed / 1st Nuclear Test Ban Treaty - August 5th, 1963: "First Nuclear Test Ban Treaty signed."
1963 - "I Have A Dream" / Martin Luther King Jr. - August 28th, 1963: "Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his 'I Have a Dream' speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on August 28th to 200,000 people." [Link: 1]
1963 - Ratified / 1st Nuclear Test Ban Treaty - September 24th, 1963: "Nuclear Test Ban Treaty ratified by Senate."
1963 - Signed / Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty - October 7th, 1961: "President Kennedy signs the Limited Test Ban Treaty ... prohibiting nuclear testing in the atmosphere, underwater, and in outer space." [Based on: N.G.M., August 2005, p. 107]
1963 - In Effect / Nuclear Test Ban Treaty - October 10th, 1963: "Nuclear Test Ban Treaty takes effect."
1963 - "Beatlemania" - October 13th, 1963: "British newspapers first use the term 'Beatlemania' in headlines."
*Trivia: "Beatles on TV at London Palladium [10/13/63]. 15 million get to see them perform 'She Loves You' and 'Twist and Shout'."
1963 - U.S.-Approved Assassination / South Vietnam - November 1st, 1963: "U.S. President John F. Kennedy approves the assassination of the the president of South Vietnam." [Based on TV program: "The Presidents" - The History Channel, 01/21/05]
1963 - Assassination / Ngo Dinh Diem, South Vietnam - November 2nd, 1963: "President Ngo Dinh Diem of South Vietnam and his brother are killed in a coup." [Link: 1]
1963 - Assassination / John F. Kennedy, U.S.A. - November 22nd, 1963: "In Dallas, Texas, U.S. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated."
1963 - U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson - November 22nd, 1963: "The 36th American President, Lyndon B. Johnson [Democrat], begins his term."
1963 - Escalation / Vietnam War - November 24th, 1963: "LBJ escalates the Vietnam War."
1963 - "I Want to Hold Your Hand" / The Beatles - November 29th, 1963: "Beatles "I Want to Hold Your Hand" Released."
1963 - Revelation / Nuclear Weapons Stockpile, Israel - "Israel’s possession of nuclear weapons had actually been revealed ... by the late George Ball, who was under secretary of state under presidents John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson. Ball, in a Washington Post commentary, said the United States had been aware of Israel’s nuclear stockpile since 1963." [based on: James P. Tucker Jr., A.F.P., March 2004]
1963 - Ba'ath Party / Iraq - "In 1963, the CIA architected a bloody military coup to overthrow Kassem and brought the joint socialist-nationalist Ba'athist party - headed by Col. Salem Aref, to power. The CIA then supported the Baathists' bloody pogrom against the leftists, consolidating Saddam's power." [Links 1]
1963 - Trivia / Light Research - [....] Until Glauber published his theories in 1963, scientists dismissed the idea that quantum theory, which was developed to describe the behavior of particles, had any application to light. But Glauber showed that certain types of light - including lasers - could only be understood using quantum methods, which treat light as individual packets of energy rather than continuous waves. [....] [Baseed on: A.P. article, p. A11, S.L.P.D., 10/05/05]
1964
1964 - U.S. Surgeon General Warning - January 11th, 1964: "U.S. Surgeon General declares cigarettes cause lung disease."