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Nureyev Leaves Russian Ballet, Defects |
As Dwight D.
Eisenhower departed as president he warned the nation against the military
industrial complex. John F. Kennedy
was inaugurated. The Bay of Pigs, an
attempt to retake Cuba, failed. The
Berlin Wall was built. Kennedy advised Americans to build “fall out”
shelters. Rudolf Nureyev defected. Yuri
Gagarin was the first person to orbit earth. Two thousand U.S. “military advisors” were in
Vietnam. OPEC was formed. The Peace Corps was created. Adolf Eichmann went on trial as a war criminal. Fidel Castro cancelled all elections in
Cuba. Twenty-seven freedom riders were arrested in Mississippi. New York’s MOMA
displayed Henri Matisse’s “Le Bateau”
upside down. No one noticed for nearly
two months. Ernie Banks played 717
consecutive games. Roger Maris hit
61 home runs in one season. “The Dick Van Dyke Show” premiered on
TV. So did “Mr. Ed.” The Pulitzer Prize for Literature went to Harper Lee for To Kill A Mocking Bird. The
Mystery Writers of America gave its best mystery Edgar to Julian Symons for The
Progress of a Crime. We also read Catch-22 by Joseph Heller, Tropic of
Cancer by Henry Miller, Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger and The Agony
and the Ecstasy by Irving Stone.
Bye Bye Birdie won a Tony that year.
In the movie theaters, we watched Breakfast
at Tiffany’s, West Side Story, 101 Dalmatians, The Parent Trap, The
Innocents, The Last Time I Saw Archie,
Yojimbo, The Hustler, Judgment at
Nuremberg, and The Guns of Navarone.
That year Emmys went to Bob Newhart
for Button Down Mind and Theme From A Summer Place by Percy Faith. We also listened to “Tossin’ and Turnin’” by Bobby Lewis, “Michael” by The Highway men, “Crying” by Roy Orbison and “Runaway” by Del Shannon. We lost Ty Cobb, Carl Jung, Ernest Hemingway,
Dashiell Hammett, Gary Cooper, James Thurber, Anna May Wong,
Chico Marx, Jeff Chandler, Charles
Coburn, Marion Davies, and Barry Fitzgerald. Taking their first breaths
were Barack Obama, Eddie Murphy, George Clooney, Princess
Diana, Michael J. Fox, Billy Ray Cyrus, Wayne Gretsky, Woody
Harrelson, James Gandolfini, Boy
George, Steve Young, Tom Ford and Laurence Fishburne. If you
were around, what were you doing during this year of the metal ox?
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1961 Valiant |
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