At a dinner at the Swiss Embassy in Beijing, Communist Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai proposed negotiating a peace treaty with the United States, to create "a non-nuclear zone in Asia and the Western Pacific" region. A press officer for the U.S. State Department rejected the idea as "another meaningless propaganda gesture".[1]
Professor Griff (stage name for Richard Griffin), American rapper, spoken word artist, lecturer and former member of Public Enemy; in Roosevelt, Long Island[4]
The Continental League, proposed as a third major league for baseball, came to an end after CL President Branch Rickey and co-founder William Shea concluded a meeting in Chicago with representatives of the National League and American League. The NL and AL, each with eight teams, had been confronted with the proposed eight team CL. By agreement, each established league would place franchises in proposed CL cities.[5][6] For 1962, three Continental sites had franchises, with the National League adding the New York Mets and the Houston Colt .45s (later the Astros), while the American League allowed its Washington Senators to relocate to the Minneapolis-St. Paul area as the Minnesota Twins. In later years, teams would be placed in Atlanta (1966), Dallas (1972), Toronto (1976) and Denver (1993). Buffalo, New York, was the only Continental site that would still be without a major league team nearly 60 years later.
A fire at the Soviet research center at Mirny StationinAntarctica, fed by gale-force winds and hampered by a lack of equipment, killed eight meteorologists.[8]
The government of Laos was overthrown in a coup led by Captain Kong Le, and supported by rebellious units within the Laotian Army. Prime Minister Samsonith was in Luang Prabang, making preparations for the funeral of the late King of Laos, when the army units struck in Vientiane. Former Premier Souvanna Phouma formed a new cabinet on August 15, and civil war was averted after the new King asked, on August 29, that a new ministry be created, and to include members of the old regime. The legislature approved the new ministry on August 31.[1]
Voters in a referendum in Alaska elected (by a margin of about 19,000 to 17,000) against moving the state capital from Juneau to a new site to be constructed between the Cook Inlet and Fairbanks.[1]
U.S. Navy frogmen successfully recovered the satellite Discoverer 13, marking the first retrieval of a satellite after twelve previous attempts had failed. Although plans to make the first mid-air capture failed, the recovery opened the era of the spy satellite.[19]
NASA successfully launched Echo 1, the first communications satellite. Weighing 137 pounds (62 kg), Echo was a 100-foot-diameter (30 m) Mylar balloon, inflated after it reached orbit when the Sun's heat converted powders inside the balloon into gas. A pre-recorded message from U.S. President Eisenhower was transmitted from Goldstone, California, bounced off of Echo, and received at a station in Holmdel, New Jersey. The largest satellite launched up to that time, Echo was big enough that it could be seen from the Earth as it orbited at an average altitude of 1,000 miles (1,600 km).[1]
USAF Major Robert M. White set a record by flying an X-15 rocket plane to an altitude of 136,500 feet (26.85 miles or 41.6 kilometers), besting the mark of 126,200 feet (38,500 m) set by Iven C. Kincheloe in an X-2 in 1956.[1]
Dr. Seuss published the popular children's book, Green Eggs and Ham, which has sold more than 8 million copies worldwide as of 2019.
North Korea's chairmanKim Il Sung made his first proposal for the reunification of his nation and South Korea under a『North–South Confederation』or "Confederal Republic of Koryo". The plan, proposed again in 1971, 1980 and 1991, envisioned both nations initially keeping their political systems, with a "Supreme National Committee" to guide cultural and economic development.[25]
Joseph Kittinger parachuted from a balloon over New Mexico at 102,800 feet (31,333 m). He set records, which stood for 52 years, for highest altitude jump; longest free-fall by falling 16 miles (25.7 km) over a period of 4 minutes and 38 seconds before opening his parachute; and fastest speed by a human without motorized assistance (614 mph).[27] On October 14, 2012, Felix Baumgartner of Austria (using Kittinger as his adviser) would break all of Kittinger's records except for the longest duration for a free-fall, plunging 128,100 ft (39,045 m) in 4 minutes, 19 seconds.[28]
After 82 years as a British colony, the Mediterranean island of Cyprus was proclaimed independent by its last British Governor, Sir Hugh Foot. The new state, populated by Cypriots of Greek and Turkish descent, had Greek Cypriot Archbishop Makarios III as its president, and Turkish Cypriot Fazıl Küçük as its vice-president.[1] The Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia would remain as British Overseas Territories.
At the design engineering inspection of Mercury spacecraft No. 7, which took place from August 16 to 18, the astronauts made a number of requests for changes in the control panel area to facilitate pilot operation.[10]
While campaigning for the presidency in Greensboro, North Carolina, Richard Nixon bumped his left knee on a car door. What seemed, at first, to be a minor injury, led to a painful infection and Nixon's hospitalization on August 29.[29] Nixon was kept at Walter Reed Hospital for 11 days, until asking to be discharged early on September 9 after a poll showed that John F. Kennedy had taken a lead over him in voter preferences.[30] His injury, his nearly two-week absence from the campaign trail, and his continued illness would be cited by historians as a factor in his defeat, from the loss of momentum after his nomination[31] to his poor appearance in the first televised presidential debate.[32]
The first successful running of a computer program written in COBOL was carried out on an RCA 501 computer.[33] COBOL, the "Common Business Oriented Language", was an improvement in the adaptation of the FLOW-MATIC computer language developed by Grace Hopper.
In Argentina, after Eichmann's capture, fascist Tacuara, a neo-Nazi group at the time, shot at their Jewish colleague students, injuring 15-year-old Edgardo Trilnik.[34]
The first photograph ever from a spy satellite was taken, after the launch of the American Discoverer 14at12:15 p.m. PDT, and showed a Soviet airfield at Mys Shmidta.[37] With 3,000 feet (910 m) of film, the satellite took more pictures than all 24 of the U-2 spy plane flights put together, and revealed the existence, not previously known to the U.S., of 64 airfields and 26 missile bases.[38]
At a meeting of the U.S. National Security Council, President Eisenhower told CIA DirectorAllen Dulles that Congolese Premier Patrice Lumumba needed to be "eliminated" in order to keep the Congo from becoming "another Cuba". Robert Johnson, who took notes of the meeting, revealed the information at a Senate hearing years later.[39]
A French Navy bomber exploded over Morocco, killing all 27 people on board.[1]
Died:
Clarence Hudson, 66, American department store janitor, was electrocuted by a homemade electric chair in his Wenatchee, Washington, apartment. Police estimated that 1,000 volts shot through Hudson's body, as well as several wet towels on his head and feet. Police also investigated a homemade transformer that was used to increase the voltage from a wall outlet which extended a wire from a 25-cent piece.[40]
Peter Poole, 28, English-born engineer, the first white man in Kenya to be hanged for the murder of a black house servant, Kamawe Musunge.[41]
The Soviet Union launched Sputnik 5 into orbit, with the dogs Belka and Strelka (Russian for "Squirrel" and "Little Arrow"), 40 mice, 2 rats and a variety of plants. Recovered the next day after 18 orbits, the menagerie became the first living animals to return safely to Earth after being placed into orbit.[1][43]
A capsule from the Discoverer 14 satellite became the first object to be recovered in mid-air while returning from space. A C-119 Flying Boxcar, one of ten in the recovery area, snagged the object with "trapeze-like hooks" at an altitude of 8,500 feet (2,600 m).[1][19]
In Moscow, downed American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers was convicted of espionage against the Soviet Union, and sentenced to ten years imprisonment.[44] Powers would be released two years later in exchange for the spy Rudolf Abel.
A French Navy bomber exploded over Morocco, killing all 27 people on board.[1]
Senegal seceded from the Mali Federation, following a dispute, between Defense Minister Mamadou Dia and Federation Premier Modibo Keita, over whether the Federation's first president would be a figurehead or a strongman. Keita fired Dia, and Dia had Keita arrested. Keita and non-Senegalese members of his cabinet were sent back to Mali the next day, and Dia became the first Prime Minister of Senegal. The Federation had been created by a union of the colonies of Senegal and the French Sudan prior to independence, and the former French Sudan retained the name Republic of Mali.[1]
Regular television broadcasting began in Norway as the NRK network (Norsk rikskringkasting AS, or Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation) launched what is now its channel NRK1.
Leaders of the Tunisian-based Algerian Provisional Government asked the United Nations to hold a referendum in French Algeria on the question of independence from France.[1][47]
Discussions in Geneva, between the United States, the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom on a nuclear test-ban treaty, were adjourned indefinitely.[1]
Died:Oscar Hammerstein II, 65, American lyricist who is best known for his collaborations with composer Richard Rodgers. A week later, the lights of Times Square[49] were turned off for one minute, and London's West End[50] lights were dimmed in recognition of his contribution to the musical.
In Washington, reporters asked President Eisenhower about vice-president (and Republican presidential candidate) Richard Nixon's experience. Charles Mohr of Time magazine asked Ike "if you could give us an example of a major idea of his that you had adopted..." and the President replied "If you give me a week, I might think of one."[51][52]
McDonnell Aircraft Corporation proposed a one-man space station comprising a Mercury capsule plus a cylindrical space laboratory capable of supporting one astronaut in a shirtsleeve environment for 14 days in orbit.[54]
editAugust 25, 1960: Peris lights the Olympic cauldron
The 1960 Summer Olympics opened in Rome, with a record 5,348 athletes from 83 nations competing. Cross-country champion Giancarlo Peris lit the Olympic flame after Italy's President Giovanni Gronchi declared the Games of the 17th Olympiad open. Competition would continue until September 11.[58]
CIA Director Allen Dulles cabled instructions to station chief Larry Devlin, authorizing wider authority for the "removal" of Congolese Premier Patrice Lumumba, including assassination.[39]
Died:Knud Enemark Jensen, 23, Danish cyclist, in a hospital in Rome after fracturing his skull in a fall during his Olympic cycling event.[61] A post-mortem examination revealed that he was under the influence of performance-enhancing drugs.[60]
The weekly syndicated country music radio series Louisiana Hayride, which had been broadcast from the Memorial Auditorium in Shreveport, Louisiana since 1948, was retired. Featured on the final broadcast on flagship station KWKH were Grandpa Jones and African-American singer Johnny Mathis.[62]
In what became known in the press as "Ax Handle Saturday", racial tensions came to a head in Jacksonville, Florida, as 200 white men armed with baseball bats and axe handles attacked protesters conducting sit-ins at Hemming Plaza.[63]
In the final of the Women's 200 metre breaststroke at the Olympics, British swimmer Anita Lonsbrough broke the world record with a time of 2:49.5, a 1⁄2 second ahead of West Germany's Wiltrud Urselmann.[60]
The Declaration of San José, resulting from a meeting of Ministers of Foreign Affairs at San José, Costa Rica,[64] condemned any interference by extra-continental powers in the affairs of the American republics. The declaration was approved unanimously (19–0).
The United Nations announced that it had sufficient peacekeeping troops in the Congo to preserve order, and demanded that the last of Belgium's forces there be withdrawn.[1]
A 300 ft (91 m) diameter weather balloon, described by the U.S. Air Force as "the largest ever launched", crashed into a home in Stockton, California, an hour after being sent up from Vernalis Air Force Base. Mrs. Ben Petero evacuated her six children from the frame house after realizing that the balloon was descending on the family home.[65]
Hazza Majali, the Prime Minister of Jordan, was assassinated in the explosion of a time bomb that had been placed in one of the drawers of his desk, at his office in Amman. Eleven other people were killed as well, and 65 were injured.[66]
Australian swimmer Dawn Fraser won the Women's 100 metres freestyle for the second time. The next day, Fraser clashed with her teammates, who shunned her for the remainder of the Games in the tradition of "sending one to Coventry".[60]
Air France Flight 343, a Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation airliner on a flight from Paris, crashed into the Atlantic Ocean while attempting to land during a torrential rain at DakarinSenegal, killing all 63 people on board.[67][68]
^Mikulski, Piotr W. (2012-09-12), "Bonferroni, Carlo Emilio", in Johnson, Norman L.; Kotz, Samuel (eds.), Leading Personalities in Statistical Sciences, Wiley Series in Probability and Statistics, Hoboken, NJ, USA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., pp. 225–227, doi:10.1002/9781118150719.ch68, ISBN978-1-118-15071-9, retrieved 2022-10-25
^"Space Dogs Back Safe". Oakland Tribune. August 21, 1960. p. 1.
^"Powers Given 10-Year Term By Russian Military Court". Oakland Tribune. August 19, 1960. p. 1.
^"Use of 'Polio Pills' Approved by U.S.". Oakland Tribune. August 24, 1960. p. 1.
^ This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain. Grimwood, James M.; Hacker, Barton C.; Vorzimmer, Peter J. "PART I (A) Concept and Design April 1959 through December 1961". Project Gemini Technology and Operations - A Chronology. NASA Special Publication-4002. NASA. Retrieved 17 February 2023.
^James Zug, in South Africa's Resistance Press: Alternative Voices in the Last Generation Under Apartheid(Ohio University Center for International Studies, 2000), p138
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain. Grimwood, James M. "PART II (B) Research and Development Phase of Project Mercury January 1960 through May 5, 1961". Project Mercury - A Chronology. NASA Special Publication-4001. NASA. Retrieved 7 February 2023.
