1960s Timeline

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Dec 13, 2022

Two Harvard Psychiatrists Say Charges Against LSD “Mind Drug” Are “Reckless and Inaccurate”

Dec. 13, 1962 - Two Harvard psychiatrists charged that statements made by Dean John Munro in an effort to stop the use of “mind drugs” among undergraduates were “reckless and inaccurate.” They added that action impeding experimentation at Harvard and other universities had led to a “scientific underground in the U.S.” to evade social pressures and legal barriers. Dr. Timothy F. Leary (pictured), lecturer on clinical psychology, and Dr. Richard Alpert, assistant professor of c

Dec 12, 2022

California Psychiatrists Issue Warning on LSD “Mind Drug”

Dec. 12, 1962 - Alarmed by the increasing use of a hallucinatory drug, LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide), by unqualified persons and at “parties” at which the drug is taken for “kicks,” the Southern California Psychiatric Society (SCPS) has called for its ban except under special circumstances. LSD has been used in psychiatric research on test subjects (pictured) to learn more about certain types of mental illness. It produces weird illusions and gives some persons a deep aest

Nov 29, 2022

Verdict Reached in California Peyote Trial

Nov. 29, 1962 - Indians cannot plead religious freedom as a ground for eating a vision-producing cactus plant banned by state law, the Superior Court in San Bernardino, Calif., ruled today. The invocation of religious freedom was likened by the court to the long-rejected argument that polygamy was justified as a religious tenet. The decision involved the peyote plant, which has sacramental status in the ritual of the Native American Church, a sect involving many thousands of

Nov 28, 2022

Harvard Issues Warning on “Mind-Distorting” Drugs

Nov. 28, 1962 - A formal warning about the dangers of “mind-distorting drugs” was issued to undergraduates of Harvard College today. Research on such drugs has been conducted by Dr. Timothy Leary (left) and Dr. Richard Alpert (right) at the college. The research has attracted so much attention that many who wanted to participate in the experiments had to be turned away. Today’s statement was issued by John U. Monro, dean of Harvard College, and Dr. Dana L. Farnsworth, directo

Nov 13, 2022

Peyote Trial Underway in California

Nov. 13, 1962 - An Indian’s right to eat vision-inducing cactus buds in half-Christian, half-pagan ceremonies was defended in California today by the American Civil Liberties Union as a matter of religious freedom. The issue came up in San Bernardino Superior Court in the latest round of decades of nationwide litigation about worship involving peyote. In its chemistry and effects, this stimulant resembles drugs employed in modern psychiatry. Three Navajos arrested in a peyote

Oct 10, 2022

President Kennedy Signs New Drug Bill

Oct. 10, 1962 - President Kennedy signed a new drug bill today that he said would help provide safe and more effective drugs to the American people. Standing by in his White House office were legislators who had helped to pass the bill. With them was Dr. Frances O. Kelsey (second from left), the FDA medical officer whose vigorous stand prevented the introduction of the sleep-inducing drug Thalidomide on the American market. These are the measure’s basic provisions. - The FDA

Oct 5, 2022

Lenny Bruce Arrest on Drug Charge

Oct. 5, 1962 - Comedian Lenny Bruce (pictured) and Robert Coogan, brother of former child star Jackie Coogan, were arrested in North Hollywood today on suspicion of possessing heroin. This was not the first drug arrest for Bruce, a native New Yorker but now a Hollywood resident. On September 29, 1961, he was arrested at the John Bertram Hotel in Philadelphia for possession of amphetamine. Those charges were later dropped. A week later, on October 4, the comedian was arrested

Sep 13, 2022

Illinois Doc Calls U.S. “Nation of Pill Swallowers”

Sept. 13, 1962 - A health commissioner said today that the United States was a “nation of pill swallowers,” that this was dangerous, and that it was the public’s own fault. “Americans are the most overmedicated people in the world,” Dr. Herbert Ratner, Commissioner of Health in Oak Park, Illinois, told the Loyola University women’s board. “Americans should learn from the recent thalidomide cases that all medication involves risks,” he said. “Therefore, the less medication nee

Aug 29, 2022

Thalidomide Caused 10,000 Birth Deformities in West Germany

Aug. 29, 1962 - The West German Federal Health Ministry announced today that the sleep-inducing drug Thalidomide had caused about 10,000 birth deformities in West Germany. The pill was put on the market in 1957 and sold without prescription. The pills were withdrawn from sale last November following reports that Thalidomide had caused birth deformities in many parts of the world. Dr. Siegfried Stralau, spokesman for the Health Ministry, said about 1,600 of the 5,000 crippled

Aug 16, 2022

French Film Star Bella Darvi Overdoses on Barbiturates in Monte Carlo

Aug. 16, 1962 - Bella Darvi (pictured), the French motion picture actress, was found unconscious before dawn today in her hotel room in Monte Carlo and rushed to a hospital in serious condition. The police said Miss Darvi had taken an overdose of barbiturates. A hospital spokesman said she regained consciousness four hours after being admitted. Friends said she had angrily walked out of a club just before midnight after quarreling with several other patrons. #classicmovies #1

Jul 31, 2022

Arizona Television Host Who Took Thalidomide Seeks Abortion

July 31, 1962 - Mrs. Sherri Finkbine (pictured), host of the Arizona edition of the nationally syndicated television show “Romper Room,” is planning to leave Arizona for an abortion, but when and where she will go for the operation are being kept secret. Her husband, a teacher, said today, “We have decided to seek help in a more favorable legal climate.” The 30-year-old Mrs. Finkbine, the star of a children’s television program in Arizona called “Romper Room,” fears the birth

Jul 30, 2022

Senate Hearing on Thalidomide Called by Sen. Humphrey

July 30, 1962 - A total of 1,229 physicians in 39 states and the District of Columbia and 1 in Canada received test samples of thalidomide, a drug blamed for thousands of birth defects in Europe. This was announced today by the FDA. Meanwhile, a Senate hearing into thalidomide has been called for Wednesday by Senator Hubert H. Humphrey, Democrat of Minnesota. Senator Humphrey said today that the case was an “international tragedy.” Sale of the drug in the U.S., he asserted, w

Jul 27, 2022

Dr. Kelsey Says Several Hundred Americans Took Thalidomide

July 27, 1962 - The Government doctor who prevented the drug Thalidomide from being sold commercially in the U.S. said today that several hundred Americans had taken the pills on an experimental basis. However, according to Dr. Frances Kelsey (pictured) of the FDA, it is not known how many pregnant women were involved. This is an important point because Thalidomide has caused babies to be born deformed when it was taken by expectant mothers. The William S. Merrell company, ma

Jul 24, 2022

Thalidomide Controversy in Phoenix

July 24, 1962 - Controversy raged in Phoenix today over a proposed abortion for Sherri Finkbine (pictured), a young Phoenix mother and host of the Arizona edition of the syndicated television program “Romper Room,” who fears her baby may be deformed because she has taken the European-made tranquilizer Thalidomide. Mrs. Finkbine, three months pregnant, says she wants the operation and plans to enter a hospital tomorrow. “My husband and I both want the operation performed,” sh

Jul 15, 2022

Female Doctor Prevented Sale of Thalidomide in U.S.

July 15, 1962 - A woman doctor was reported today to have prevented the birth of perhaps thousands of deformed babies in this country. She is Dr. Frances Oldham Kelsey (pictured), a 47-year-old specialist and reviewer with the Food and Drug Administration. The case involves a drug called thalidomide and a rare birth defect known as phocomelia, in which limbs are missing. Thalidomide was developed in West Germany in the 1950s and found to be an effective sleep-inducer. In 1960

Jun 13, 2022

Debate over Treatment of Narcotics Addicts

June 13, 1962 - A narcotics expert suggested today that all “hard-core” heroin users be confined to prisons or work camps because no effective control had been found for such an addiction. Dr. Lewis Thomas, chairman of the department of medicine at the NYU Medical School, told the annual meeting of the Health Research Council that temporary hospitalization had proved an “absolute, utter failure.” Suggesting that all heroin users “could be confined to work camps or other place

Jun 7, 2022

Eugene O'Neill's Son Arrested on Narcotics Charge

June 7, 1962 - Shane R. O’Neill (pictured in 1959), the 43-year-old son of the late playwright Eugene O’Neill, was arrested early today in Greenwich Village on a charge of possessing narcotics. Mr. O’Neill and a companion, Victor Ortiz, 36, were stopped by Patrolman James Cavanagh, who was on burglary duty at 3:45 a.m. in front of a loft building at 127 Greene Street. When searched, according to the police, Mr. Ortiz had a hypodermic needle and syringe, and Mr. O’Neill had so

Apr 11, 2022

Thalidomide Causing Birth Defects in Europe

Apr. 11, 1962 - The birth of thousands of deformed babies in Europe has led an American physician to appeal for stricter Federal regulations on the introduction of new drugs in this country. The appeal was made to the American College of Physicians in Philadelphia. It is based on a new study of several thousand deformed babies born to European mothers who took Thalidomide, a common prescription sleeping pill that had been considered harmless. The babies are born with useless

Apr 4, 2022

French TV Star Charged in Massive Brooklyn Heroin Bust

Apr. 4, 1962 - A prominent French television figure, a Parisian nightclub owner, and a Brooklyn father and son pleaded not guilty in Kings County Court today to charges of conspiring to possess $3.5 million worth of heroin. The defendants are Jacques L. Angelvin (pictured center with Detective Edward Egan), 34, a television performer; Francois Paul Scaglia, 34, a nightclub owner; Joseph Fuca, 60, and his 30-year-old son, Pasquale, both of Brooklyn. The four were described as

Feb 25, 2022

Massive Heroin Bust in the Bronx

Feb. 25, 1962 - New York City detectives and Federal narcotics agents seized pure heroin worth $20 million last night after subduing a longshoreman in a Bronx tenement. Edward F. Carey, deputy chief inspector of the New York Narcotics Bureau, called the seizure “the second largest ever made by law-enforcement agencies in this country.” The heroin, weighing 88 pounds, was in 66 plastic packets in three plaid airline canvas bags. The suspect was identified as Anthony Fuca (pict