June 1960

[June 1], 1960 (Wednesday)

• The U.S. state of Texas began the "Little School" program, pioneered by Felix Tijerina, in 614 schools statewide. The program, designed to teach Spanish-speaking preschoolers 400 essential English words for a head start in the first grade, enrolled 15,805 children at its start.
• Television was introduced to New Zealand, as broadcasts started in Auckland on AKTV, Channel 2, at and continued until. The first program was an episode of The Adventures of Robin Hood.
• In Laredo, Texas, Charles Manson was arrested on charges of violating the Mann Act and his parole terms. He would remain in prison until 1967 and go on to infamy as leader of a cult of serial killers.
• In a record that still stands, a roosterfish was caught by fisherman Abe Sackheim at La Paz, Baja California Sur.
• Trans-Canada Air Lines began transatlantic jet service, with a Douglas DC-8 aircraft flying a route from Montreal to London.
• In St. Louis, Chuck Berry was acquitted by a jury of charges of violating the Mann Act.
• Died: Lester Patrick, 78, who, as first coach of the NHL's New York Rangers, popularized ice hockey in the United States.

  [June 2], 1960 (Thursday)

• For the first time since 1919, New York's 22 Broadway theaters were closed, and scheduled performances were cancelled. The "theater blackout" was occasioned by a dispute between the Actors Equity Association and the League of New York Theaters but was resolved after eleven days.
• At a concert at the civic hall in Neston, Cheshire, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Stu Sutcliffe and Tommy Moore performed for the first time under the name The Beatles.
• In considering possible meteoroid damage to the Mercury spacecraft in orbit, the Space Task Group concluded that damage likelihood was small even during periods of meteor showers. However, it was recommended that Mercury missions not be scheduled during forecasted shower periods.
• Born:
• *Tony Hadley, English singer ; in Islington, London
• *Kyle Petty, NASCAR driver; in Randleman, North Carolina

  [June 3], 1960 (Friday)

• The Japanese electronics company Sega was established as Nihon Goraku Bussan by American businessmen Martin Bromley and Richard Stewart. Originally a maker coin-operated machines, the company would become famous for releasing the first Sonic the Hedgehog game in 1991. Sonic would later become a multi-billion dollar franchise for the Sega company.
• Argentina demanded that Israel return Adolf Eichmann, and then asked for reparations for Eichmann's seizure by Mossad agents in Buenos Aires. On August 2, the dispute was resolved by Israel keeping Eichmann, but acknowledging that Argentina's fundamental rights had been infringed upon.
• Canadian Prime Minister John Diefenbaker arrived in Washington, D.C., for a state visit and private talks with U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
• The Aerospace Corporation, a non-profit company, was incorporated in California.
• Born: Don Brown, American novelist and attorney; in Plymouth, North Carolina
• Died: Ana Pauker, 67, former Romanian Minister of Foreign Affairs and the first woman to serve as a foreign minister of any nation

  [June 4], 1960 (Saturday)

• Articles 85 and 86 of the Constitution of France were amended to permit former territories to attain complete independence and to remain as members of the French Community. The decision did not save the Community, which had only six members—Gabon, Congo, Chad, the CAR, the Malagasy Republic and France—left by 1962.
• Born: Bradley Walsh, English comedian and actor; in Watford, Hertfordshire
• Died: Józef Haller, 87, Polish military leader

  [June 5], 1960 (Sunday)

• The infamous unsolved case of the Lake Bodom murders toke place at Bodom Lake in Espoo, Uusimaa, when Maila Björklund, Anja Mäki, and Seppo Boisman were stabbed to death while asleep inside their tent. Nils Gustafsson, the fourth member of the group, who had been seriously wounded, would be arrested nearly 44 years later, but would be acquitted.
• Dwight D. Eisenhower became the first incumbent President of the United States to deliver the commencement speech at the University of Notre Dame. Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush and Barack Obama would later speak at the Notre Dame commencement.
• Voters in a referendum in Cambodia approved making Prince Norodom Sihanouk as a non-royal Chief of State. The "official" result of the non-secret vote was 99.98% in favor of Sihanouk.
• Died: Rudell Stitch, 27, American professional welterweight boxer, drowned while trying to rescue a friend who had fallen overboard in the Ohio River. Stitch had planned to sign a contract the next day for a July 24 rematch against world welterweight champion Luis Manuel Rodriguez.

  [June 6], 1960 (Monday)

• The first fixed-rate heart pacemaker, with five year mercuric-oxide battery and designed by a team headed by William Chardack, was implanted in a patient.
• The American Heart Association announced a "statistical association" between heavy cigarette smoking and coronary heart disease, with heavy smokers having 50 to 150 percent greater death rate from heart disease than non-smokers.
• The 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons went into effect, protecting the rights of any "person who is not considered as a national by any State under the operation of its law".
• Lightweight boxer Tommy Pacheco was fatally injured in a bout with Benny Gordon at St. Nicholas Arena in New York. Pacheco died three days later from a cerebral hemorrhage.
• Barbra Streisand, an 18-year-old Brooklynite, began a professional singing career by winning $50 in a talent contest at "The Lion", a nightclub in Greenwich Village.
• At the Dutch Grand Prix in Zandvoort, won by Jack Brabham, a spectator was killed. Dan Gurney's car skidded off the track, fatally injuring 18-year old Piet Aalders of Haarlem.
• Born: Steve Vai, American guitarist; in Long Island, New York
• Died: Ernest L. Blumenschein, 86, American painter

  [June 7], 1960 (Tuesday)

• A BOMARC missile, and its nuclear warhead, caught fire at McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey. Although a liquid helium tank in the missile exploded, and the warhead was melted by the fire, there was no risk of a nuclear blast in the Philadelphia area. The accident did cause a spillage of plutonium, and the contaminated areas were subsequently encased under asphalt and concrete.
• Ronald Reagan resigned as President of the Screen Actors Guild.

  [June 8], 1960 (Wednesday)

• Dr. Agostinho Neto, leader of the MPLA in Portuguese West Africa, was arrested by colonial authorities at his clinic at Catete, and charged with subversion by colonial authorities. Dr. Neto would later be released, and, in 1975, would become the first President of Angola.
• In elections in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, Premier Tommy Douglas's Co-operative Commonwealth Federation won a fifth consecutive majority. The election was significant as the first in which the province's Indians had voted.
• Born: Mick Hucknall, English rock singer and songwriter ; in Denton

  [June 9], 1960 (Thursday)

• Typhoon Mary made landfall near Hong Kong and then moved across to the Fukien Province of China, killing more than 1,600 people.
• The new American Football League signed a five-year television contract with the ABC television network for.
• The United States Weather Bureau estimated that it would require $50,000 during fiscal year 1961 in support of Project Mercury. Bureau responsibilities included weather forecasting for Mercury launching and recovery activities, climatological studies along the area of the Mercury ground track, and environmental studies of specified areas.
• Died: Tsutomu Sato, pioneering Japanese ophthalmologist who developed refractive surgery for vision improvement

  [June 10], 1960 (Friday)

• All 31 people aboard Aeroflot Flight 207 were killed in the Soviet Union on an Ilyushin 14P that had departed Rostov in the Russian SFSR with four scheduled stops and a final destination of Tbilisi in the Georgian SSR, after takeoff from Sochi on a short flight to Kutaisi, and impacted at Mount Rech in the Caucasus Mountains.
• Later in the day, Trans Australia Airlines Flight 538 crashed into the ocean off of Mackay, Queensland, while making its approach from Brisbane, killing all 29 people. The crash of the Fokker F-27 remains the worst loss of life in a civilian air crash in Australia; a 1943 crash of a B-17 bomber killed 40 people.
• In Tokyo, U.S. President Eisenhower's Press Secretary, James C. Hagerty, appointments secretary Thomas E. Stephens, and U.S. Ambassador to Japan Douglas MacArthur II had their car surrounded by an angry mob, and were trapped inside for an hour and a half before a U.S. Marine helicopter rescued them. Eisenhower set off on his tour of the Far East the next day and refused to postpone his trip to Japan.
• June 10, 1960, had been the scheduled date for President Eisenhower to arrive in Moscow to begin a tour of the Soviet Union, but the plans were cancelled in May 1960 following the U-2 Incident.

  [June 11], 1960 (Saturday)

• An opera based on A Midsummer Night's Dream, created by Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears from the play by William Shakespeare, had its first performance.
• Thirty people at a wedding reception in Multan in Pakistan, were killed in the collapse of a roof.
• Born: Mehmet Oz, known professionally as Dr. Oz, American television presenter, physician, author, professor emeritus of cardiothoracic surgery at Columbia University, and former political candidate; in Cleveland, Ohio

  [June 12], 1960 (Sunday)

• Elections began in Lebanon, and for the first time, the secret ballot was made available to voters, a reform implemented after the 1957 elections were tainted with fraud. Voting for the 99 member parliament, which reserved 55 seats for Christians and 44 for Moslems, was conducted over four Sundays. Saeb Salam, leader of the Phalangists, became Prime Minister in August.