May 1961

[May 1], 1961 (Monday)

• A wave of hijackings of U.S. airline flights to Cuba began as Miami electrician Antuilio Ortiz, who had purchased a ticket listing himself on the manifest as "Cofresi Elpirata", entered the cockpit of National Airlines Flight 337 shortly after it took off from Marathon, Florida to Key West, then forced the pilot to fly to Havana. Cuba's leader Fidel Castro allowed the plane, its crew, and all but one of its passengers to return to the U.S. the next day. Ortiz stayed behind and would live comfortably in Cuba for two years before becoming homesick for the U.S. After being incarcerated several times in Cuban prisons, Ortiz would finally be allowed to leave in 1975, and would spend four years in an American prison for the 1961 crime. In the next 12 years after Ortiz hijacked the flight, there would be 185 successful skyjackings until massive security measures were enacted by the U.S. at the end of 1972; only two of 42 attempts were successful for the rest of the 1970s.
• Betting shops became legal in the United Kingdom, permitting UK residents to place bets, through a bookie, on horse races without going to the track.
• Anticipating expansion of human spaceflight programs, Space Task Group proposed a crewed spacecraft development center. The nucleus for a center existed in STG, which was handling the Mercury program, and noted that a larger program would require more staff and facilities, stricter management controls.
• Born: Clint Malarchuk, Canadian ice hockey player; in Grande Prairie, Alberta

  [May 2], 1961 (Tuesday)

• In Iran, a teachers' strike began as more than 50,000 educators walked off the job and began protesting working conditions and wages. Believing that the strike had been instigated by the American CIA, Iran's monarch Mohammad Reza Pahlavi attempted to have the unrest suppressed by the Iranian Army, but would be forced to meet the teachers' demands three days later after learning that the military would not authorize troops to fire on demonstrators. Pahlavi then fired his prime minister, Jafar Sharif-Emami, and replaced him with Ali Amini.
• The training vessel Albatross was hit by a white squall about west of the Dry Tortugas. The schooner sank almost instantly, taking with it six people - Alice Sheldon, ship's cook George Ptacnik, and students Chris Coristine, John Goodlett, Rick Marsellus, and Robin Wetherill. Thirteen other people on the student ship survived. The tragedy would later form the basis for the 1996 film White Squall.
• Led by Manuel Artime, a group of 22 members of Brigade 2506, in hiding since the failure of the April 17 Bay of Pigs Invasion of Cuba, were captured alive in Matanzas Province near a sugar mill at Covadonga.
• Light from a supernova within the galaxy NGC 4564, located 57.2 megalight-years from Earth, more than 57,200,000 after a star within that system had exploded.

  [May 3], 1961 (Wednesday)

• Former British diplomat George Blake was sentenced to 42 years imprisonment for spying, one year for the life of each of the 42 British agents who died after Blake had betrayed them. Blake had been the UK's vice-consul in South Korea before being captured during the Korean War and spending three years in an internment camp, and was later caught passing secrets of the British Navy to the Soviet Union. He escaped London's Wormwood Scrubs Prison on October 22, 1965, and eventually settled in Moscow.
• A group of prominent civil rights activists, including John Lewis, Stokely Carmichael, Diane Nash and James Lawson, held the "Last Supper" in Washington, D.C., so-called because the Freedom Riders at the dinner believed they would be killed in the South when they began the Freedom Ride the next day.
• The U.S. federal minimum wage was raised to $1.25 per hour by a 230–196 vote in the House of Representatives. Earlier, the U.S. Senate had approved the measure, advocated by President Kennedy, by a 64–28 vote.
• The 1961 Cannes Film Festival opened.
• Born:
• *Joe Murray, American animator, and cartoonist known for creating Rocko's Modern Life and Camp Lazlo; in San Jose, California
• *Leyla Zana, Kurdish rights activist and Turkish member of the Grand National Assembly Kurdish politician; in Silvan

  [May 4], 1961 (Thursday)

• Commander Malcolm Ross and Lieutenant Commander Victor A. Prather set a new record for the highest balloon flight while testing full pressure flight suits. The two U.S. Navy officers ascended to over the Gulf of Mexico before landing successfully. Commander Ross was safely transported to by helicopter. Lieutenant Commander Prather subsequently slipped from the sling and drowned after his suit flooded.
• U.S. Representative Overton Brooks, chairman of the House Committee on Science and Astronautics, wrote a detailed memo to U.S. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, chairman of the National Aeronautics and Space Council, advocating the appropriation of additional federal funds to the U.S. space program in order "to gain unequivocal leadership in Space Exploration".
• During the tornado outbreak, near Geary, Oklahoma, the new practice of storm chasing yielded the first motion and still pictures taken of a tornado simultaneous with film of its progress on radar, as part of the National Severe Storms Project.
• Anthony Neil Wedgwood Benn, 2nd Viscount Stansgate, won the 1961 Bristol South East by-election for the House of Commons constituency of Bristol South East. An Election Court would later award the seat to Benn's opponent, Malcolm St Clair.
• In the U.S., 13 members of the "Freedom Riders" began a bus trip to test the limits on segregation on interstate bus rides, following the new U.S. Supreme Court integration ruling in Boynton v. Virginia.
• In the U.S., the Federal Aviation Administration initiated the creation of a comprehensive flight information service.
• Queen Elizabeth II appointed Sir Ashley Clarke a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order.
• Born:
• *Paul Steven Miller, American law professor and Commissioner of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, 1994 to 2004; in Flushing, Queens
• *Richard Hill, English rugby union scrum-half with 29 appearances for the England national team between 1984 and 1991; in Birmingham
• *Donald Lawrence, American gospel music songwriter and Grammy Award winner; in Charlotte, North Carolina
• *Mary Elizabeth McDonough, American actress best known as "Erin" on The Waltons; in Los Angeles, California
• *General Peter Bartram, Chief of Defence for Denmark from 2012 to 2016; in Aarhus
• *Anne Murray, cricketer for the Irish national women's team; in Dublin
• *Luis Herrera, Colombian road racing cyclist; in Fusagasugá
• Died: Anita Stewart, 66, American silent film actress and producer, died of a heart attack

  [May 5], 1961 (Friday)

• At 9:34 a.m., Alan Shepard became the first American in space as Mercury 3 lifted off from Cape Canaveral. Shepard's spacecraft Freedom 7, first of the Mercury program, reached an altitude of without achieving orbit, and was recovered 19 minutes later by the aircraft carrier. The mission featured the first manual piloting of the spacecraft and also the landing with pilot still within it.
• A NASA working group led by Bernard Maggin delivered its proposals for an integrated research, development, and applied orbital operations program, at a cost of one billion dollars, to guide the program through 1970. The group identified three categories of orbital operations: inspection, ferry, and orbital launch. Maggin argued that future U.S. space programs would require capability for such orbital operations and recommended an integrated program, coordinated with the U.S. Department of Defense, but independent of other space programs and with a separate project office.
• NASA proposed using Scout rockets to launch small satellites that would evaluate the Mercury Tracking Network in preparation for crewed orbital missions. NASA Headquarters tentatively approved the plan on May 24.

  [May 6], 1961 (Saturday)

• Carry Back, ridden by Johnny Sellers, won the Kentucky Derby. The racehorse, bred from a mare who had cost only $300, would earn more than a million dollars for his owners. Carry Back won the Preakness Stakes, but failed to win the third part of U.S. horse racing's Triple Crown, finishing 7th in the Belmont Stakes.
• Tottenham Hotspur F.C. defeated Leicester City 2–0 in the 1961 FA Cup Final before a crowd of 100,000 at Wembley, becoming the first team in the 20th century to win the English league and cup double. Aston Villa had won the double back in 1897.
• Born:
• *George Clooney, American actor, director, screenwriter, producer, and activist; in Lexington, Kentucky
• *Patty Ryan, German pop music singer; in Wuppertal, West Germany
• *Wally Wingert, American voice actor and former DJ; in Des Moines
• Died: Lucian Blaga, 65, Romanian poet, dramatist and philosopher

  [May 7], 1961 (Sunday)

• China's Prime Minister Zhou Enlai called for the elimination of the government's "collective dining hall" program, telephoning Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong, who had instituted the reform during the "Great Leap Forward" campaign of 1958. Premier Zhou made the call after touring rural villages in Handan County of Hebei Province, and seeing proof of malnutrition and famine. Beginning in June, people would be allowed to produce their own food rather than having all resources limited to the village "mess halls".
• The Soviet Union restored capital punishment for embezzlement of public property. Legal execution had been abolished for all purposes on May 26, 1947, but was gradually introduced for various crimes starting in 1950. Females were exempt from the death penalty under any circumstances, as were men who had reached the age of 60 by the time of their sentencing.
• UA Sedan-Torcy defeated Nîmes Olympique 3–1 in the Coupe de France Final before 45,000 at Colombes, France.
• Died: Mukerjee, Burmese Communist leader; in a police raid