February 1960

[February 1], 1960 (Monday)

• In Greensboro, North Carolina, four black students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University began a sit-in at the Woolworth's department store, at a lunch counter that, like many in the South, would not serve African-American customers except for take-out orders. After their classes, the four young men entered Woolworth's, made some purchases, and at 4:30, took seats at the counter and politely placed orders for desserts and coffee. When the waitress told them they could not be served, they stayed until closing time. The next morning, at least 20 students came to Woolworth's and began taking up seats as they became available. By Wednesday, the sit-ins were national news, and the next week, spread to other cities. By summer, most chain stores ended their whites-only policy.
• Viscount Dunrossil became the 14th Governor-General of Australia, succeeding William Slim, 1st Viscount Slim, who had served two terms before retiring.
• A study was completed for Project Mercury on the "External and Internal Noise of Space Capsules." This study covered the acoustic environments of missile and space vehicles including noise generated by the rocket engines, air-boundary layers, and on-board equipment. NASA officials thought that the internal noise level was too high for pilot comfort. Space Task Group felt that data were needed on noise transmission through an actual production-model spacecraft structure.

  [February 2], 1960 (Tuesday)

• At an exhibition at the Logan Billiard Academy in Brooklyn, Mike Eufemia set a record that has remained for half a century, for the longest "run", sinking 625 consecutive billiard balls without a miss.
• Born:
• *Fred D'Aguiar, British-Guyanese author; in London
• *Jari Porttila, Finnish sports journalist; in Helsinki
• Died: Bharati Krishna Tirtha, 75, Hindu teacher

  [February 3], 1960 (Wednesday)

• Before a session of the Parliament of South Africa in Cape Town, Britain's Prime Minister Harold Macmillan made the "Wind of Change" speech, telling the all-white assembly that "The wind of change is blowing through this continent, and whether we like it or not, this growth of national consciousness is a political fact. We must all accept it as a fact, and our national policies must take account of it."
• The Senate of France voted 226–39 to allow President Charles De Gaulle to rule by decree in order to dismantle the power of French settlers in Algeria. The National Assembly had approved the measure the day before, 441–75. "We almost saw a collapse of the state last week", Prime Minister Michel Debre told the Senators, in urging passage of the measure.
• U.S. President Eisenhower announced at a news conference that the United States should be able to make nuclear weapons available to its allies. Eisenhower urged that the Atomic Energy Act be amended in order to permit the U.S. to transfer weapons to the arsenals of other nations.
• Born:
• *Joachim Löw, coach of Germany national team in soccer football; in Schönau im Schwarzwald
• *Kerry Von Erich, American professional wrestler; in Niagara Falls, New York
• Died: Fred Buscaglione, 38, Italian singer and actor, was killed in an auto accident.

  [February 4], 1960 (Thursday)

• After a brief interview, France's President De Gaulle fired Jacques Soustelle from the post of Deputy Prime Minister for Algeria. Soustelle, the highest ranking French government official in the overseas Department, was the first of the European Algerians to be dismissed as part of De Gaulle's rule by decree.
• Jordan offered citizenship to any Palestinian living abroad.
• The Soviet Union's support of Cuba as a Communist ally was forged as Soviet Deputy Premier Anastas Mikoyan was welcomed in Havana by Fidel Castro.

  [February 5], 1960 (Friday)

• Amon Ndoffou II, King of Sanwi, one of the leaders of the Anyi people of Côte d'Ivoire, declared an independent kingdom, six months before the colony was scheduled to become independent from France. Ivorian troops arrested the King and his Prime Minister, Ehoumou Bile, and ended the secession attempt without bloodshed.
• All 59 people on board a Lloyd Aéreo Boliviano DC-4 died when the plane crashed shortly after takeoff from Cochabamba, Bolivia.
• The CERN particle accelerator was inaugurated in Geneva, Switzerland.
• A meeting was held to relay the decision that beryllium shingles would be used as the best heat protection material on the cylindrical section of the Mercury spacecraft.

  [February 6], 1960 (Saturday)

• In the first elections in Burma since a 1958 military coup, former Prime Minister U Nu's party captured 150 of the 250 contested seats. He took office on April 4.
• Died: Jesse Belvin, 27, African-American singer-songwriter was killed in an auto accident, four hours after performing a concert with Sam Cooke and Jackie Wilson.

  [February 7], 1960 (Sunday)

• Laurence Slattery and Lesley Wasley, both volunteers, permitted a team of Australian doctors at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney to administer curare to stop their breathing, in order to demonstrate the effectiveness of various forms of artificial respiration. Among the findings were that a drowning victim's head should be placed upright, rather than to the side, to aid breathing.
• Frank Sinatra introduced Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kennedy to Judith Campbell Exner. JFK and Exner would have their first sexual encounter on March 7 at Room 1651 of the Plaza Hotel in New York.
• Twenty-five people were killed and 50 more injured in a railroad derailment near Sewell, Chile. The train was transporting employees of the Braden Copper Mining Company, and their families, on a Sunday outing.
• Born: James Spader, American TV actor; in Boston
• Died:
• *Gilbert Vernam, 69, American cryptographer
• *Igor Kurchatov, 57, Soviet nuclear physicist

  [February 8], 1960 (Monday)

• The Hollywood Walk of Fame was dedicated, starting with 1,558 names placed on terrazzo stars along Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California, as an urban renewal program.
• Queen Elizabeth II announced that her future descendants would bear her husband's name as well as her own, creating the surname Mountbatten-Windsor.
• Tests were started by the Army Ballistic Missile Agency for the mission abort sensing program to be integrated in the Mercury-Redstone phase of Project Mercury.
• Born: Benigno Aquino III, 15th President of the Philippines from 2010 to 2016; in Sampaloc, Manila
• Died: Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, 79, British architect

  [February 9], 1960 (Tuesday)

• Adolph Coors III, chairman of the Coors Brewing Company, disappeared shortly after leaving his house near Morrison, Colorado, for a meeting with brewery executives at Golden. His truck was found later that morning, and his glasses were nearby. A demand for $500,000 was found the next day, but the kidnapper did not follow up. Coors's body was found on September 12. Joseph Corbett, Jr. was later convicted of the kidnapping and murder. Corbett would be paroled in 1978 and live until 2009.
• Died:
• *Jaroslav Joseph Polivka, 73, Czech structural engineer
• *Ernő Dohnányi, 82, Hungarian conductor

  [February 10], 1960 (Wednesday)

• Soviet leader Nikita S. Khrushchev began a 24-day tour of South Asia, traveling to India, Burma, Indonesia, and Afghanistan. While Khrushchev was abroad, U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower set off on February 22 for a 14-day tour of Latin America, going to Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Uruguay. Both men returned to their home nations in March.
• At Johor Baru, in Malaya, the new Sultan of Johor was crowned.
• Died: Alojzije Stepinac, 61, Archbishop of Zagreb, Roman Catholic Cardinal, and political prisoner who was detained in Yugoslavia for his opposition to the communist government.

  [February 11], 1960 (Thursday)

• Lt. Gen. Arthur G. Trudeau, chief of research for the United States Army, inadvertently revealed classified information during a press conference, when he disclosed that an atomic explosion could neutralize a hydrogen bomb through the principle of neutron flux. General Trudeau said that it would be better to have "a small explosion a hundred miles over Hartford, Connecticut, than a large explosion in New York City."
• Exploration worker James Backhaus located the bodies of five crewmembers of the B-24 Liberator Lady Be Good in the Libyan desert, 16 years after the airplane had vanished on April 4, 1943, during the Second World War. The men had walked in hopes of finding help before running out of water.
• Jack Paar quit his job as host of The Tonight Show on NBC, a day after the network had censored a joke in his monologue. Paar later returned, but in 1962, the show was turned over to Johnny Carson.

  [February 12], 1960 (Friday)

• Eleven days after the first "sit-in" took place in Greensboro, North Carolina, the Congress of Racial Equality implemented a plan for its members to participate in sit-ins across the South.
• Laurens Hammond, who had created the first electronic organ and a synchronous motor for the first accurate electric clock, retired from inventing.
• With Project Mercury about to enter a heavy operational phase, an operations coordination group was established at the Atlantic Missile Range. Christopher C. Kraft, Jr. was appointed to head this group.

  [February 13], 1960 (Saturday)

• Deputy Premier Anastas Mikoyan of the Soviet Union and Cuba's Premier Fidel Castro signed an agreement that guaranteed the Castro government a $100,000,000 line of credit until 1972, and provided that the Soviets would buy one million tons of Cuban sugar per year for five years.
• At 0604 GMT, France became the world's fourth nuclear power, when it successfully exploded an atomic bomb near Reggane, at Algeria in the Sahara Desert. The test was codenamed Gerboise Bleue.
• Born:
• *Pierluigi Collina, Italian FIFA referee; in Bologna
• *Gary Patterson, American college football coach; in Larned, Kansas