July 1960

[July 1], 1960 (Friday)

• The Belgian Congo became independent with the name République du Congo, the same name that the former French Congo had assumed in 1958. To prevent confusion while acknowledging their independence, the two nations would be distinguished in the press by their national capitals, with the former Belgian colony being called "Congo-Leopoldville" and its neighbor "Congo-Brazzaville". In 1964, Congo-Leopoldville was officially given its current name, "République démocratique du Congo".
• Italian Somaliland gained its independence from Italy, five days after British Somaliland, and merged into the Somali Republic. Aden Abdullah Othman, leader of the Italian Somaliland legislature, was elected president, and Abdirashid Ali Shermake became prime minister.
• A Soviet MiG fighter north of Murmansk in the Barents Sea shot down a 6-man RB-47. Two United States Air Force officers, First Lts. John R. McKone and Freeman B. Olmstead, survived and were imprisoned in Moscow's Lubyanka prison. The pilot, Major Willard Palm, was killed and his body recovered. The Soviets announced the capture of the men ten days later. The men were finally released on January 25, 1961. The fate of the other three crewmen was not revealed by the Soviet Union.
• The Army Ballistic Missile Agency at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama, became the Marshall Space Flight Center, a field center of the civilian National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Wernher von Braun was the center's first director.
• In front of a crowd of more than 10,000 spectators, Captain Antony Easterbrook of the UK's Royal Marines fell to his death when a coupling link failed as he performed a "death slide" during a military tattoo at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
• Ghana became a republic, with Prime Minister Kwame Nkrumah as its first President. The Earl of Listowel had served on behalf of Queen Elizabeth II as Governor-General of Ghana.

  [July 2], 1960 (Saturday)

• Former U.S. President Harry S. Truman said at a news conference in Independence, Missouri, that Democratic Party frontrunner John F. Kennedy lacked the maturity to be president, and that Kennedy should decline the nomination. Kennedy responded two days later, saying "I have encountered and survived every kind of hazard and opposition, and I do not intend to withdraw my name now, on the eve of the convention."
• A riot broke out during the Newport Jazz Festival in Newport, Rhode Island, after a crowd of about 3,000 people, mostly white, were angry about a lack of seating for the concerts. Order was not restored until three companies of the state National Guard were sent in.
• Born: Joanna Helbin, Polish archer; in Prudnik

  [July 3], 1960 (Sunday)

• A bolt of lightning struck a group of religious pilgrims as they carried a statue of the Virgin Mary to the summit of Mount Bisalta, near Cuneo in Italy. Four were killed and 30 more injured.
• The French Grand Prix was held at Reims-Gueux and won by Jack Brabham.
• Born: Vince Clarke, English synth-pop musician and songwriter; in South Woodford, Essex

  [July 4], 1960 (Monday)

• For the first time, a 50-star flag of the United States was hoisted, raised at , at the Fort McHenry National Monument in Baltimore, and at the U.S. Capitol in Washington. At the time, there were only seven places in the United States where the national flag was permitted to be flown during hours of darkness.

  [July 5], 1960 (Tuesday)

• Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas, the U.S. Senate Majority Leader, announced that he would seek, and expected that he would receive, the presidential nomination at the upcoming Democratic National Convention. Johnson asserted that front-runner John F. Kennedy had less than 600 of the required 701 delegates needed for a nomination, and that Johnson had at least 500. The only other candidate for the nomination was Senator Stuart Symington.
• The "Congo Crisis" began as the army in the newly independent "Congo-Leopoldville", formerly Belgian Congo as Congolese soldiers mutinied after the Belgian commander, Lt. Gen. Émile Janssens, tried to enforce discipline. European civilians fled from Léopoldville as the soldiers began attacking Europeans at random.

  [July 6], 1960 (Wednesday)

• The United States cut its orders for sugar from Cuba by 95 percent, following a July 2 authorization by Congress giving President Eisenhower the power to decrease the quota of sugar purchases.
• Bhumibol Adulyadej, King of Thailand, became the first monarch in history to ride on the New York City Subway.
• The crash of a U.S. Navy blimp killed 18 men off of the coast of Barnegat Light, New Jersey.
• Died: Aneurin Bevan, 62, Welsh politician, British Minister of Health, and chief architect of the UK's National Health Service.

  [July 7], 1960 (Thursday)

• In one of the most shocking cases in the history of Australia, 8-year-old Graeme Thorne was kidnapped and murdered by Stephen Bradley. He demanded a ransom of £25,000 after his parents, Bazil and Freda, won in a lottery over a month prior. On August 16, nearly six weeks after the kidnapping, Sydney police would discover Thorne's body wrapped around a blue tartan picnic blanket and tied with string. On October 10, Bradley was captured by two Sydney policemen, Sergeants Brian Doyle and Jack Bateman, who were waiting for him on the SS Himalaya while it was docked at Colombo, Ceylon. He was extradited back to Australia where he was sentenced to penal servitude for life. Bradley would later die of a heart attack in 1968 in the Goulburn Correctional Centre while playing in a gaol tennis competition.
• The Antarctica Service Medal was established by the United States Congress under Public Law 600 of the 86th Congress.
• Police fired on a crowd of Italian demonstrators in Reggio Emilia, killing five people and injuring 30.

  [July 8], 1960 (Friday)

• The Havana Sugar Kings minor league baseball team, part of the AAA International League, was ordered moved to Jersey City, New Jersey, by IL Commissioner Frank Shaughnessy.
• Born:
• *Mal Meninga, Australian Rugby League player; in Bundaberg, Queensland
• *Yann LeCun, French computer scientist; in Soisy-sous-Montmorency
• Died: Werner Meyer-Eppler, 47, German physicist and pioneer in electronic speech synthesis

  [July 9], 1960 (Saturday)

• Rodger Woodward, a seven-year-old boy, became the first person known to survive an accidental plunge over Niagara Falls. Roger had been a passenger in a boat on the Niagara River when the outboard motor failed. He fell over the Falls, but sustained only minor bruises and a cut, and was released from a hospital two days later.
• The nuclear submarine was launched. It would be lost in 1963.
• Major General Leighton I. Davis was appointed Department of Defense representative for Project Mercury support, replacing Major General Donald N. Yates.
• As the Congo Crisis continued, the Belgian national airline Sabena began airlifting Belgian citizens out of the Congo. Over the next three weeks, 25,711 flew home.

  [July 10], 1960 (Sunday)

• The Eritrean Liberation Front was founded, with the goal of liberating Eritrea from the rule of Ethiopia.
• In Paris, the Soviet Union beat Yugoslavia in extra time on Viktor Ponedelnik's goal, to win the first UEFA European Football Championship, 2–1.
• The Havana Sugar Kings played their last game under that name, winning in Richmond and defeating the Virginians, 7–1. The next day, they played in Miami as the "Jersey City Jerseys", though still wearing their Sugar Kings uniforms.
• Born:
• *Ariel Castro, Puerto Rican-American kidnapper, musician and former bus driver ; in Duey, Yauco, Puerto Rico
• *Lean Alejandro, Filipino nationalist leader ; in Navotas, Rizal

  [July 11], 1960 (Monday)

• Moise Tshombe declared the Congolese province of Katanga independent, and, taking advantage of the Congo Crisis and the dismissal of Belgian officers from the Congolese Army, asked for military aid from Belgium. The Congo's Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba asked the United Nations to intervene in the crisis.
• Uttar Pradesh Agricultural University, located at Pantnagar in the Uttar Pradesh state in India, conducted its first classes. It was renamed Govind Ballabh Pant University in 1972.
• A U.S. Navy C-47 cargo transport plane crashed into the side of a mountain near Quito, Ecuador, killing all 18 people on board.
• Harper Lee's classic novel To Kill a Mockingbird was first published.
• Born: Jafar Panahi, Iranian filmmaker; in Mianeh
• Died: Sir George Hodges Knox, 74, Australian politician, orchardist and military officer

  [July 12], 1960 (Tuesday)

• The Etch A Sketch was first manufactured. Licensed to Ohio Art Company by French inventor André Cassagnes, it quickly became one of the most popular toys of all time.
• Mercury astronauts began five and one-half days of "desert survival" training at the Air Training Command Survival School at Stead Air Force Base in Nevada, preparing them for the remote possibility of an arid-area landing.
• Louis Robichaud replaced Hugh John Flemming as premier of the Canadian province of New Brunswick. Robichaud would oversee dramatic reforms in the province's hospitals and schools.
• The Color Additives Amendments to the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act went into effect, regulating artificial coloring of consumer goods sold in the United States.
• Orlyonok, the main Young Pioneer camp of the Russian SFSR, was founded.
• Born: Corynne Charby, French model, actress and singer; in Paris

  [July 13], 1960 (Wednesday)

• Khieu Samphan, editor of the Phnom Penh newspaper L'Observatueur, was arrested and beaten by ten members of Cambodia's security police. As one author would note later, "There is no telling how many people later paid with their lives for this insult." Samphan would later help found the Communist Khmer Rouge and, 15 years later as the leader of the revolutionary government, would oversee a program of genocide in Cambodia.
• U.S. Senator John F. Kennedy won his party's nomination for president on the first ballot at the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles, but not until Wyoming's 15 delegates gave him the majority. With 761 votes needed, Kennedy got 806, while Lyndon Johnson received 409.
• The Pilkington Committee on Broadcasting was set up in the UK to review the state of broadcasting. After two years, the Pilkington Committee concluded that the British public did not want commercial broadcasting.
• Nobusuke Kishi, the Prime Minister of Japan, was stabbed six times in his left leg at his home, but the wounds were not life-threatening.
• Born: Ian Hislop, British journalist and broadcaster; in Mumbles, Swansea, Wales
• Died: Joy Davidman, 45, American poet and writer