Mark Scott Smith's Blog: Enemy in the Mirror, page 26

Face-off at Checkpoint Charlie

In October 1961 a Russian-speaking liaison officer on the staff of the Provost Marshal, moved through Checkpoint Charlie in a blue Taunus, escorted by three Jeeps filled with troops wearing bulletproof vests, while tanks idled their engines at the white line that marked the border. After a five-minute trip, the officer returned, flashed his headlights in a signal, and was again escorted by Jeeps to West Berlin.

Source: Wikipedia

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Hurricane Carla

In September 1961 Hurricane Carla was the most intense tropical cyclone landfall in Texas in the 20th century. Carla spawned 21 tornadoes, the largest hurricane-related tornado outbreak on record at the time, causing 43 fatalities and about $325.74 million in damage.

Source: Wikipedia

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JFK Increases US Advisors to Vietnam

In November 1961 President Kennedy increased the number of US military advisors to South Vietnam from 1000 to 16,000.

Source: JFK Library

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Dick Van Dyke Show

In October 1961 “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” also starring Mary Tyler Moore, made its debut on CBS. The show continued to 1966.

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Russia Resumes Nuclear Weapons Testing

In 1955, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, and the Soviet Union began negotiations on ending nuclear weapons testing. As negotiators struggled over differences regarding inspections, the Soviet Union and the United States suspended nuclear tests.

The moratorium lasted funtil September 1961.

In August 1961, the Soviet Union announced its intention to resume atmospheric testing, and over the next three months it conducted 31 nuclear tests, It exploding the largest nuclear bomb in history—4,000 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

American testing resumed in April 1962.

Source: JFK Library

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Bob Dylan Debuts at NYC Coffeehouse

In January 1961 a 19-year-old folk singer named Robert Zimmerman took the stage name Bob Dylan for his public debut at the New York City coffeehouse Cafe Wha?

Source: Wikipedia

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Dag Hammarskjold Dies in Air Crash

In September 1961 Secretary-General of the UN Dag Hammarskjold, was killed in a plane crash in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia). Hammarskjold was flying to negotiate a cease-fire in the Congo where a rebellion was openly being backed by Belgium and secretly by Britain and France.

The circumstances of the crash are still unclear. A 1962 Rhodesian inquiry concluded that pilot error was to blame, while a later UN investigation could not determine the cause of the crash. Some evidence suggested the plane was shot down. A US  Central Intelligence Agency report claimed the Soviet KGB was responsible.

Source: Wikipedia

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Berlin Wall Erected

The Berlin Wall encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and the German Democratic Republic. The wall included guard towers placed along large concrete walls and a wide area that contained anti-vehicle trenches and other defenses. The primary intention for the Wall’s construction was to prevent East German citizens from flleing west.

Source: Wikipedia

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Ernest Hemingway Commits Suicide

As an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist, Ernest Miller Hemingway’s understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his adventurous lifestyle brought him admiration from later generations.

Hemingway published seven novels, six short-story collections, and two nonfiction works. Many of his works are considered classics of American literature.

Hemingway was awarded the 1954 Nobel Prize in Literature for his novel The Old Man and the Sea.

In July 1961 Hemingway shot himself in the head at his home in Ketchum, Idaho.

Source: Wikipedia

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USSR Nuclear Submarine Disaster

Hastily built by the USSR in response to United States’ developments in nuclear submarines as part of the arms race, the Soviet K-19 submarine developed a complete loss of coolant to one of its two reactors on its first voyage in June 1961. To avoid a disaster, the engineering crew sacrificed their own lives to devise a secondary coolant system and keep the reactor from a nuclear meltdown.

Over the next two years, the K-19 experienced several other accidents (including two fires and a collision) that killed twenty-two crew members. The series of accidents inspired crew members to nickname the submarine “Hiroshima.”

Source: Wikipedia

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