1961

Today in History 08/13 (Berlin Wall)

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Two East German workers put pieces of broken glass on the top of the Berlin wall in August 1961 (© Kreusch/AP)(1961) East is sealed off from West in a divided capital
While the city sleeps, Soviet-backed East German soldiers begin erecting a barbed-wire barrier in Berlin, making solid what’s been for 15 years a geopolitical split within Germany’s capital. Transit between communist East Berlin and capitalist West Berlin is now strictly verboten.
The Berlin Wall was a guarded concrete barrier that physically and ideologically divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989. Constructed by the German Democratic Republic, starting on 13 August 1961, the Wall completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin until government officials opened it in November 1989. Its demolition officially began on 13 June 1990 and was completed in 1992. The barrier included guard towers placed along large concrete walls, which circumscribed a wide area that contained anti-vehicle trenches, “fakir beds” and other defenses. The Eastern Bloc claimed that the Wall was erected to protect its population from fascist elements conspiring to prevent the “will of the people” in building a socialist state in East Germany. In practice, the Wall served to prevent the massive emigration and defection that had marked East Germany and the communist Eastern Bloc during the post-World War II period.
Address: Zimmer Street 88 · 10117 Berlin
Phone: 030 3087770
Construction started: Aug 13, 1961
Destroyed: Nov 09, 1989
Berlin Wall Map
Map of the Berlin Wall, showing checkpoints.

wiki/Berlin_Wall
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(1961) East is sealed off from West in a divided capital.
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1521 | Conquistadors capture capital city of the Aztecs
Conquistador Hernán Cortés and his troops have laid siege to Tenochtitlan for more than two months and now the Aztec empire’s sprawling capital surrenders. European military might, combined with a smallpox epidemic brought by the invading Spaniards, dooms what will become Mexico City.
1624 | France’s ‘Red Eminence’ gets a prime royal appointment
French clergyman Armand Jean du Plessis rose through Church ranks with impressive speed, becoming Cardinal Richelieu two years ago, and he’s now appointed King Louis XIII’s chief minister. Richelieu will hold considerable power and dodge some very wily conspiracies launched against him.
1918 | US Marines enlist their first female recruit
Her country embroiled in World War I, 39-year-old Opha Johnson is first in line to enlist at the US Marine Corps Reserves, becoming the first female Marine in history. More than 300 other women will follow Johnson’s lead and serve as Marines during the war, paving the way for future women in the US military.

Today in History 08/13/17

Newly recruited Marine Opha Johnson at Marine Corps headquarters in Washington, DC (© Marine Corps Women's Marine Reserve/Marine Corps Archives & Special Collections)(1918) US Marines enlist their first female recruit
Her country embroiled in World War I, 39-year-old Opha Johnson is first in line to enlist at the US Marine Corps Reserves, becoming the first female Marine in history. More than 300 other women will follow Johnson's lead and serve as Marines during the war, paving the way for future women in the US military.
Opha May Johnson was the first woman to enlist in the United States Marine Corps. She joined the Marine Corps Reserve in 1918, officially becoming the first female Marine.
Born: 1879 · Indiana, Midwestern United States
Died: Aug 11, 1955 · Washington, D.C., United States
Buried: Rock Creek Cemetery
Highlights
  • 1898: Historical records identify she married Victor H. Johnson on 20 December 1898 at the Sixth Presbyterian Church in Washington, DC.

  • 1918: According to 1918 newspaper articles, as well as the published history of Women Marines in World War I, Johnson's first duties were as a clerk at Marine Corps headquarters, managing the records of other female reservists who joined after she did.

  • 1955: Opha May Johnson died on Thursday, 11 August 1955, at Mount Alto Veterans Hospital in Washington, D.C.

wiki/Opha_May_Johnson
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Today in History 06/23 (Antarctic Treaty)

Emperor penguin on Riiser-larsen Ice Shelf, Antarctica (© Wolfgang Kaehler/LightRocket via Getty Images))(1961) Antarctic arms control treaty avoids ‘Cold War’
Aimed at preserving a pristine part of the globe, the Antarctic Treaty System goes into effect, stipulating the continent can only be used for peaceful and scientific endeavors – military uses, such as weapons testing, are banned. With 12 signatories, it’s the first arms-control treaty of the Cold War.
The Antarctic Treaty and related agreements, collectively known as the Antarctic Treaty System, regulate international relations with respect to Antarctica, Earth’s only continent without a native human population. For the purposes of the treaty system, Antarctica is defined as all of the land and ice shelves south of 60°S latitude. The treaty entered into force in 1961 and currently has 53 parties. The treaty sets aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve, establishes freedom of scientific investigation and bans military activity on the continent. The treaty was the first arms control agreement established during the Cold War. Since September 2004, the Antarctic Treaty Secretariat headquarters has been located in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
CIA World Factbook Antarctic Region
Map of research stations and territorial claims in Antarctica (2002)
wiki/Antarctic_Treaty_System
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(1961) Antarctic arms control treaty avoids ‘Cold War’.
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1314 | Scotland fights England for independence at Bannockburn
Stirling Castle watches over the Highlands road, and Scots want it back from its English occupiers. The Scots lay siege, and when England’s King Edward II sends reinforcements they are shockingly defeated at the Battle of Bannockburn by a smaller Scottish force commanded by Robert the Bruce.
1868 | Christopher Sholes receives a patent for his ‘Type-Writer’
Resembling a small piano set inside a wooden cabinet, a new writing machine invented by Christopher Sholes and his associates receives a US patent. Refinements, including the QWERTY keyboard, will be added in years to come as the typewriter taps into a vast business-world need.
1931 | Aviator Wiley Post takes off to break world record
Once a flying circus performer, aviator Wiley Post has bigger plans as he and his navigator take off from New York in their single-engine plane hoping to beat a 21-day circumnavigation flight record. Post will break that record, and by a lot, when he flies around the world in just eight days.

Today in History 05/28/18

Peter Benenson, British founder of Amnesty International (© PA Archive/Press Association Images)(1961) ‘The Forgotten Prisoners’ shines a light for human rights
English lawyer Peter Benenson’s article in The Observer uncovers human rights abuses that fly under the world’s radar, and whose victims are usually powerless individuals speaking out against tyranny. The article will inspire such a response that Benenson will create Amnesty International within weeks.
Peter Benenson was a British lawyer and the founder of human rights group Amnesty International. Benenson refused all honours but in his 80s, largely to please his family, he accepted the Pride of Britain Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2001.
Lived: Jul 31, 1921 – Feb 25, 2005 (age 83)
Nationality: British
Spouse: Susan Booth · Margaret Anderson
Founded: Amnesty International
Education: Eton College · University of Oxford · Balliol College
Parents: Flora Solomon (Mother)
Highlights
  • 1957: He was one of a group of British lawyers who founded JUSTICE in 1957, the UK-based human rights and law reform organisation.

  • 1958: In 1958, he fell ill and moved to Italy to convalesce.

  • 1961: To co-ordinate such letter-writing campaigns, Amnesty International was founded in London in July 1961 at a meeting of Benenson and six other men, who included a Conservative, a Liberal and a Labour MP.

  • 1964: Initially appointed general secretary of AI, Benenson stood down in 1964 owing to ill health.

  • 2001: Benenson refused all honours but in his 80s, largely to please his family, he accepted the Pride of Britain Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2001.

  • 2005: He died of pneumonia on 25 February 2005 at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, aged 83, having been a resident of the nearby village of Nuneham Courtenay.

Amnesty International Sections 2012
Amnesty International Sections, 2012
wiki/Peter_Benenson
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(1961) ‘The Forgotten Prisoners’ shines a light for human rights.
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Today in History 05/05/18

Astronaut Alan Shepard poses in the Mercury spacecraft in 1961 (© AP)(1961) Mercury program sends the first American into space
Naval officer, test pilot, and astronaut Alan Shepard pilots the Mercury-Redstone 3 mission as he takes a 15-minute suborbital flight to become the first American in outer space. A decade later he’ll venture somewhat farther and visit the moon.
Mercury-Redstone 3, or Freedom 7, was the first United States human spaceflight, on May 5, 1961, piloted by astronaut Alan Shepard. It was the first manned flight of Project Mercury, the objective of which was to put an astronaut into orbit around the Earth and return him safely. Shepard’s mission was a 15-minute suborbital flight with the primary objective of demonstrating his ability to withstand the high g-forces of launch and atmospheric re-entry.
Mission start: May 05, 1961
Mission end: May 05, 1961
Astronaut: Alan Shepard
Space program: Project Mercury

Alan Shepard during Mercury-Redstone 3
Still frame of Alan Shepard taken by a motion picture camera aboard Freedom 7
wiki/Mercury-Redstone_3
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(1961) Mercury program sends the first American into space.
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1260 | Khan rules Mongols
1921 | `A woman`s perfume`
1981 | Hunger striker dies

Today in History 04/27/18

Queen Elizabeth II and Prime Minister Sir Milton Margi in Freetown, Sierra Leone, in 1961 (© AP)(1961) Sierra Leone gains independence
A century and a half after Britain took Sierra Leone as its own, the West African nation becomes an independent country under Prime Minister Milton Margai. The transfer of power is peaceful, and the sun sets earlier on the once globe-spanning British Colonial Empire.
Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Guinea to the northeast, Liberia to the southeast and the Atlantic Ocean to the southwest. Sierra Leone has a tropical climate, with a diverse environment ranging from savanna to rainforests. The country has a total area of 71,740 km² and a population of 7,075,641. It is a constitutional republic with a directly elected president and a directly elected 132 members of a unicameral legislature known as Parliament.
Founded: Apr 27, 1961
Population: 7.40 million (2016)
GDP: $4.76 billion USD (2017)
Area: 27,699 sq miles (71,740 km²)
Calling code: 232
Capital: Freetown

Bai Bureh (1898)
“Bai Bureh, Chief of the Timini when a prisoner at Sierra Leone in 1898. An original photograph by Lieutenant Arthur Greer West India Regiment who died August 7, 1900, when storming a blockade after the relief of Kumassie.” Temne leader Bai Bureh seen here in 1898 after his surrender, sitting relaxed in his traditional dress with a handkerchief in his hands, while a Sierra Leonean Royal West African Frontier soldier stands guard next to him
wiki/Sierra_Leone
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(1961) Sierra Leone gains independence.
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