February 1961

[February 1], 1961 (Wednesday)

• The United States launched its first test of the Minuteman I intercontinental ballistic missile. The rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral at 11:00 a.m. and traveled in less than 15 minutes to a target in the Atlantic Ocean.
• The push-button telephone was put into public service for the first time, as Bell Telephone test marketed its "Touch-Tone" service for its customers in the cities of Carnegie, Pennsylvania and Findlay, Ohio.
• The Misfits, directed by John Huston, was released to theaters in the United States. The film would end up being the last for its two leading stars, Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe.
• Moore Air Base became inactive, along with the 78th Fighter Group of the U.S. Air Force.
• Born: Carmen Colón, first victim of the Alphabet murders ; in Puerto Rico

  [February 2], 1961 (Thursday)

• At Wailuku, Hawaii, Stanley Ann Dunham, an 18-year-old student at the University of Hawaii, married Barack Obama, Sr., a 25-year-old graduate student from Kenya. Six months later, their son, Barack Obama, who would become the 44th President of the United States, was born in Honolulu.
• After ten days of being held captive on a hijacked ocean liner, the nearly 600 passengers from the cruise ship Santa Maria were freed, and were taken ashore by various boats to the Brazilian port of Recife.
• Betty Curtis won the Sanremo Music Festival with the song "Al di là".
• Born: Michael Kay, American sports broadcaster; in New York City
• Died: Victor Danielsen, 66, Faroese translator and missionary

  [February 3], 1961 (Friday)

• Operation Looking Glass began, as the first of a series of Boeing EC-135 jets went into the air on orders of the Strategic Air Command. For more than 30 years, an EC-135 was always in the air, with the capability of taking direct control of the United States' bombers and missiles in the event of the destruction of the SAC's command post near Omaha. As one jet "Doomsday Plane" was preparing to land, another was already aloft. The program continued, with E4A jets later replacing the EC-135s, until the fall of the Soviet Union.
• Garuda Indonesian Airways Flight 542 and its 26 occupants disappeared while flying from Surabaya on the island of Java, to Balikpapan on the island of Borneo. The Douglas DC-3 plane plunged into the Java Sea after having last been seen over Madura Island.
• French interior designer Stéphane Boudin made his first visit to the White House, to plan the refurnishing of the U.S. President's residence at the request of the new First Lady, Jacqueline Kennedy.
• Died:
• *William Morrison, 1st Viscount Dunrossil, 67, Governor-General of Australia since 1960, former Speaker of the House of Commons in the United Kingdom and former British governmental minister.
• *Anna May Wong, 56, Chinese-American movie star

  [February 4], 1961 (Saturday)

• The Portuguese Colonial War began in Angola with a co-ordinated attack by 180 MPLA guerillas in Luanda. In a morning raid, armed groups attacked the prison, the police barracks, a police patrol and the radio station. The attacks failed, and armed white Angolan residents exacted revenge on Luanda's black neighborhoods, but the battle inspired a 14-year-long campaign to liberate Portugal's colonies.
• Sputnik 7 was launched by the Soviet Union and placed into Earth orbit. Although reported as a success, in that it was the heaviest object into orbit at that time, the Soviets did not mention that their intent had been to send the first Earth craft to the planet Venus, a detail revealed in 1962 by the American space agency, NASA.
• Died: Alphonse Picou, 82, American jazz clarinetist

  [February 5], 1961 (Sunday)

• Movie actress Marilyn Monroe voluntarily checked herself into the Cornell University Medical Center after being driven there by her psychiatrist, Marianne Kris. Admitted on the premise that she would be treated for exhaustion, Monroe was instead taken to the Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic and found "the worst fear of her life come true", being locked inside a padded cell. After three days, she was permitted to make a phone call and reached her ex-husband, baseball star Joe DiMaggio, who flew to New York City and effected her release.
• The Kachin Independence Organisation and its military wing, the Kachin Independence Army, were organized in the northernmost state of Burma, where the predominantly Christian Kachin people revolted against a proposal by Burmese Premier U Nu to make Buddhism the national religion. Led by the three Zau brothers, the KIO and the KIA lead a rebellion that would last for 32 years, during which the Kachin state operated independently from the rest of Burma.
• A plebiscite was held on the south Pacific islands of Saipan and Tinian on the issue of the future political status of the two southern Pacific lands, both of which were administered by the U.S. Navy. Most favored rejoining the U.S. territory of Guam, 875 wanted to be a territory within the Northern Marianas, 27 wanted to continue under Navy administration, and eight were invalid.

  [February 6], 1961 (Monday)

• In what the Associated Press described as "a rarity in anti-trust cases", seven corporate executives were sent to jail in Philadelphia for bid rigging in attempting to obtain government contracts. The jail sentences were in addition to fines against 29 different electrical firms, and another 19 officials were given probation and suspended sentences. The men who drew 30-day jail sentences were a vice-president and two former division managers of General Electric Company; a vice-president and a sales manager of Westinghouse Electric Company; a V.P. of Cutler-Hammer, Inc. and a V.P. of Clark Controller Company. U.S. District Judge J. Cullen Ganey said, "What really is at stake here is a vast section of our economic system that we are offering to uncommitted sections of the world as an alternative to planned economies."
• General Ne Win of the Burmese Army purged his military command, announcing the forced resignations of Brigadier General Maung Maung, his director of military training, and nine of his 18 field commanders.
• In the Congo, President Joseph Kasavubu named Joseph Ileo as the Prime Minister in an interim government. Ileo was unable to persuade major secessionist leaders to join his cabinet and would resign on August 1.
• KOPB-TV began operating in Portland, Oregon, under the name KOAP.
• Born: Yury Onufriyenko, Russian cosmonaut; in Ryasne, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union

  [February 7], 1961 (Tuesday)

• Black political leaders, including Joshua Nkomo and Ndabaningi Sithole, met with British colonial officials in Salisbury and signed their agreement to a referendum on a proposed constitution for independence for Southern Rhodesia, with a system providing for gradual rule by the black African majority. The document, which was to be submitted to black and white voters on July 26, had provisions for "a complicated, racially discriminatory voting system" with an "A" roll for white African voters and candidates, and a "B" roll for black voters and candidates. "It is possible," an author would later write, "had Nkomo adhered to this commitment that he could have found himself in reasonable time the President of the independent state of Zimbabwe. If he had stood by his commitment, the armed struggle, to which he would commit himself shortly, and which would kill some 40,000 people in 1962 to 1980, would not have occurred. If he had stayed in the constitutional process and encouraged the Africans to qualify for the vote, they would have... by dint of their numbers, come to dominate in a lawful, peaceful manner." Days after the initial agreement, Nkomo and Sithole withdrew their support and urged their supporters to boycott the referendum.
• Harold Johnson defeated Jess Bowdry in a boxing bout to win recognition by the National Boxing Association as world light heavyweight champion. All other boxing boards continued to recognize Archie Moore as the world champion, but the N.B.A. had vacated Moore's title for inactivity.
• George Low, NASA's Chief of Manned Space Flight, and his task group submitted their report, A Plan for a Manned Lunar Landing, for consideration by U.S. president John F. Kennedy.
• Born: Prince François, Count of Clermont, dauphin of the Orleanist claimant to the French throne ; in Boulogne-Billancourt

  [February 8], 1961 (Wednesday)

• At a press conference to announce that Prime Minister John Diefenbaker of Canada would be coming to the United States on February 20, President Kennedy mispronounced the Canadian leader's name multiple times. Kennedy had asked Secretary of State Dean Rusk, who in turn had asked Assistant for European Affairs Foy D. Kohler, who suggested the German pronunciation "Dee-fen-bawk-er"; Diefenbaker's name was misspelled by various news sources as "Diffenbaker", "Diefenbacker", "Diefenbacon" and even "Fifenbaker". Privately, the Prime Minister, whose name was pronounced "Dee-fen-bay-ker", was enraged at what he viewed as being mocked by the American president.
• Born: Vince Neil, American musician and lead vocalist of heavy metal band Mötley Crüe; in Los Angeles

  [February 9], 1961 (Thursday)

• Three Vautour fighter jets of the French Air Force attacked an Il-18 plane that was carrying Leonid Brezhnev, who at the time was the ceremonial head of state of the Soviet Union and was on his way to the Republic of Guinea for a state visit. When Brezhnev's plane strayed into the airspace of French Algeria, it was intercepted by the three fighters, one of which fired bursts of tracer bullets and forced Brezhnev's plane to make an emergency landing in Morocco. The French Foreign Ministry apologized the next day.
• The Beatles, consisting at the time of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Pete Best, returned to The Cavern Club in Liverpool for the first time since they had adopted their new name and since adding George Harrison. The band, which had been performing at The Cavern Club since 1957 as "The Quarrymen", had changed to "The Beatles" in 1960 while in Hamburg, George Harrison's first appearance at the venue.
• Born: John Kruk, American baseball player; in Charleston, West Virginia
• Died: Millard Tydings, 70, U.S. Senator for Maryland from 1927 to 1951