December 1961

[December 1], 1961 (Friday)

• The U.S. Department of Defense began the distribution of a unique black and yellow sign to mark each fallout shelter to be occupied in the event of a nuclear attack on the United States. According to a newspaper in Baltimore, Maryland, that day, an elementary school serving the families of U.S. Army personnel at Fort Holabird "became the first building in the country to be marked with the new black and yellow 'fallout shelter' sign." The signs would be a common sight during the Cold War until the early 1990s.
• The Dutch colony of Netherlands New Guinea raised the new Morning Star flag next to the Dutch tri-color and was made the autonomous territory of West Papua, with partial self-government as a UN Mandate. In 1963, however, the UN turned the mandate over to Indonesia, which annexed West Papua in 1969 after a sham plebiscite.
• The first elections held in Syria since its separation from the United Arab Republic brought the People's Party a plurality of the seats. The party's leaders, Nazim al-Kudsi and Maarouf al-Dawalibi, would respectively be named the President and Prime Minister by the new Parliament.
• Following the resignation of Tasmanian Liberal MHA for Bass, John Steer, to contest the Council seat of Cornwall, a recount resulted in the election of Liberal candidate Max Bushby.
• Israel announced plans to establish "the world's first chain of industrial co-operative towns" in the Negev Desert, starting with the community of Mitzpe Ramon.
• A coat of arms was officially granted to Hordaland.
• Born: Jeremy Northam, English actor; in Cambridge

  [December 2], 1961 (Saturday)

• In a speech that began at midnight, Cuban revolutionary prime minister Fidel Castro declared "soy marxista-leninista y seré marxista-leninista hasta el último día de mi vida". Castro confirmed that he would guide Cuba to becoming a Socialist state, and, in the long run, a Communist state, but added, "I'm saying this for any anti-communists left out there. There won't be any Communism for at least thirty years". However, he made clear that there would be only one political party, "The United Party of Cuba's Socialist Revolution", adding that "There is only one revolutionary movement, not two or three or four revolutionary movements."
• Dean Smith began his career as the North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball head coach. He opened with an 80–46 victory over the visiting University of Virginia Cavaliers, the first of a record 879 wins as coach of one team. The record for most wins overall was broken by Mike Krzyzewski on November 15, 2011, which included 83 wins as coach of Army before he became coach of Duke University.
• Actors Dinah Shore and George Montgomery announced that they would divorce after 18 years of marriage.
• Died: Laura Bullion, 88, American outlaw

  [December 3], 1961 (Sunday)

• Workers at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City discovered that there had been a mistake in the museum's exhibit of "The Last Works of Henri Matisse". For 47 days, beginning on October 18, Le Bateau had been on display, hanging upside-down, and 116,000 visitors had passed it before Mrs. Genevieve Habert, a stockbroker, noticed the mistake. She confirmed the problem by referring to a catalogue of Matisse's works, then talked to various MOMA employees before she was taken seriously. The Museum rehung the painting, right-side up, the next day.
• Discoverer 35 fell out of orbit about three weeks after its launch.
• Born:
• *Marcelo Fromer, Brazilian guitarist; in São Paulo
• *Adal Ramones, Mexican TV presenter; in Monterrey

  [December 4], 1961 (Monday)

• In Toronto, Floyd Patterson defeated challenger Tom McNeeley with a fourth-round knockout to retain the world heavyweight boxing championship. Tom's son, Peter McNeeley, would become Mike Tyson's first opponent upon the latter's release from prison in 1995. On the same evening, Sonny Liston knocked out Albert Westphal in a Philadelphia bout. It was the last bout for both Patterson and Liston, until they faced each other in 1962 in Chicago, with Liston taking the title from Patterson.
• In elections in Trinidad and Tobago, the People's National Movement, led by Prime Minister Eric Williams, captured 20 of the 30 seats in the Parliament, while the Democratic Labour Party won the others. The voting was split along ethnic lines, with the vast majority of Afro-Creole residents voting for the PNM, and those of East Indian descent voting for the DLP.
• The Alabama Crimson Tide was voted No. 1 in the final AP and UPI polls, granting them recognition the national college football champion. In the AP sportswriters poll, unbeaten Alabama received 26 first place votes and 452 points overall. Ohio State finished second with 20 first place votes and 436 points.
• The Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal was established by Executive Order of the U.S. President, for service in specified military operations during designated times. Retroactive awards were made for service in the Quemoy and Matsu Islands, Lebanon, the Taiwan Straits and in West Berlin since August.
• President Kennedy authorized the U.S. Department of Defense to commence of Operation Ranch Hand, the defoliation of the jungles of South Vietnam. The first run was on January 12, 1962, and the last in February 1971.
• An agreement on maintaining the neutrality of Laos was reached at the 14-nation Laos Peace Conference being held in Geneva.
• The Hundred of Hoo Railway in Kent, UK, ended passenger services.
• Born: Roy L. "Rocky" Dennis, American teenager who had craniodiaphyseal dysplasia, an extremely rare sclerotic bone disorder; in Glendora, California

  [December 5], 1961 (Tuesday)

• The largest-ever escape from East Berlin to the West was carried out by Harry Deterling, a 28-year-old train engineer, after he and co-worker Hartmut Lichy learned that there was still an open rail connection at Albrechtshof, from the border, and that East German authorities were preparing to block it. Deterling's wife and four children, his mother, and 13 friends boarded at Oranienburg, and four others got on at Falkensee. Deterling and Lichy never stopped at the Albrechtshof station, and rushed the train past startled border guards. The train's conductor, and six passengers who had not been in on the plot, elected to return to East Germany. The government tore up the tracks the next day and put up barriers, and there were no further escapes by train.
• The Titan II GLV rocket, a modified Titan II missile, was recommended by deputies at NASA and by the U.S. Department of Defense for use in the Mercury Mark II rendezvous program. Robert C. Seamans Jr. of NASA and John H. Rubel of the DoD had the choice of the Titan II, Titan II-1/2, or Titan III systems.
• U.S. President John F. Kennedy authorized American financial support to the Volta Dam project in Ghana, in order to prevent the West African nation from coming under the influence of the Soviet Union.
• Natalie Wood's imprint ceremony was held at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre.
• Died:
• *Emil "Judge" Fuchs, 83, owner of the Boston Braves baseball team, and the team's manager in the 1929 season
• *Finn Kjelstrup, 77, Norwegian traitor

  [December 6], 1961 (Wednesday)

• NASA announced that the U.S. would not put an astronaut into orbit before the end of 1961, thus ending the possibility of matching the Soviets in the same calendar year. The Soviet Union had launched Yuri Gagarin into orbit eight months earlier, on April 12. While Alan Shepard of the U.S. was launched into space on May 5, followed by Gus Grissom on July 21, both were on suborbital missions. NASA noted that Lieutenant Colonel John Glenn, would not be launched into space until at least January 1962. Glenn would be sent into orbit on February 20.
• U.S. astronauts Alan Shepard and Virgil Grissom were awarded the first Astronaut Wings by their respective services.
• The Dominican Republic awarded the Order of Trujillo for the last time.
• Born:
• *Jennifer San Marco, American spree killer; in Brooklyn
• *Ally Fowler, Australian soap actress; in Adelaide, South Australia
• Died: Frantz Fanon, 36, Martiniquais psychiatrist and advocate of Algerian independence, died of leukemia.

  [December 7], 1961 (Thursday)

• Robert R. Gilruth, Director of the Manned Spacecraft Center, announced the Mercury Mark II Project, the second phase of U.S. human spaceflight after the Mercury program. The Gemini missions would use two astronauts, in a modified version of the one-person Mercury capsule to be built by McDonnell Aircraft Corporation. Gilruth's procurement plan for $75,800,000 was approved for the initial phase of the program, with flights without a crew in 1963 and flights with two astronauts starting in 1965. The total cost for the equipment for the uncrewed and crewed missions — 12 capsules plus boosters and other equipment — was estimated at $500,000,000. On January 3, 1962, the Mercury Mark II program would be renamed to Project Gemini at the suggestion of Alex Nagy, after the constellation of the same name, associated with the "heavenly twins", Castor and Pollux. Gemini 1 would be launched on April 8, 1964, and Gemini 2 on January 19, 1965. The first Gemini astronauts, Gus Grissom and John Young, would be launched on Gemini 3 on March 23, 1965.
• NASA and the U.S. Department of Defense offered their joint recommendations to U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara on the division of effort between NASA and DOD in the Mercury Mark II program, with the U.S. Air Force's Space Systems Division to become NASA's contractor for developing, procuring, and launching the Titan II and Atlas-Agena rockets.
• Hungarian conductor Ferenc Fricsay gave his last concert, with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, then retired at the age of 47 due to illness. He would die of cancer 14 months later.