1960s Timeline

Nov. 10, 1961 - The United States has 35,000 to 40,000 nuclear weapons in its stockpile, equivalent to 35 billion tons of TNT, Representative Bruce Alger (pictured right last year), Republican of Texas, said today. He told the Petroleum Engineers Club in Dallas that he could disclose the facts without jeopardizing security. The equivalent of 16 billion tons of TNT in this stockpile is available for immediate retaliation, he declared. To transport these, the U.S. has 6,000 mis

Oct. 31, 1961 - If exploded in the air over downtown Manhattan, a 50-megaton bomb would destroy homes as far away as Passaic, N.J. and ignite fires as far away as West Point, N.Y. Beneath its massive fireball, the bomb, with its hurricane-like blast wave and intense burst of radiation, would cause total destruction to buildings and life within about a five-mile circle encompassing lower Manhattan, Brooklyn, Hoboken, and Jersey City. The intense heat of the explosion would cau

Sept. 16, 1961 - The United States and the Soviet Union detonated nuclear devices today. Both were announced in Washington by the Atomic Energy Commission. The U.S. test, the second in two days, was again fired underground in Nevada. It was described as being of "low yield." The Soviet test was fired in the atmosphere at Novaya Zemlya, a Siberian test center, and was the 11th since Moscow broke the 3-year-old unofficial moratorium on nuclear tests. Like the others, it was fir

Sept. 15, 1961 - On tonight's Season Three premiere of "The Twilight Zone," two survivors of an apocalyptic battle, a man (Charles Bronson) and a woman (Elizabeth Montgomery) from opposing sides, approach each other suspiciously. 10 p.m. on #CBS. #tv #classictv #classictelevision #scifi #sciencefiction #fantasy #war #nuclearwar

Sept. 15, 1961 - The United States resumed atomic testing today by setting off a small underground explosion in Nevada. It was the first atomic weapons test by the U.S. since Oct. 30, 1958, when testing was voluntarily suspended in a futile attempt to reach a test-ban agreement with the Soviet Union. In announcing the explosion, President Kennedy (pictured at the Vienna Summit with Premier Khrushchev in June) said the U.S. had been "forced reluctantly" to renew testing becaus

Sept. 15, 1961 - President Kennedy is spurring Americans to build home fallout shelters to cut the nation's losses in case of nuclear war. But of 14 high officials who sit with Mr. Kennedy on the National Security Council or in his Cabinet, none has built a shelter. The White House has an elaborate bomb shelter, built during the Truman Administration. Mr. Kennedy has several secret shelters available within a 2-hour drive or a 20-minute helicopter trip from Washington. Vice P

Sept. 12, 1961 - The Soviet Union conducted the seventh atomic test in its current series by detonating a multi-megaton device in the atmosphere early today at its Arctic proving ground. The Atomic Energy Commission said the detonation, presumably of a hydrogen bomb, took place in the vicinity of the island of Novaya Zemlya (pictured). The island, which lies between the Barents and Kara Seas, has been used by the Soviets in recent years to test large thermonuclear weapons. On

Sept. 10, 1961 - Pope John XXIII called on the leaders of the East and West today to negotiate their differences and remove the threat of war that hangs over the world. The Pope urged the leaders to "face squarely the tremendous responsibilities they bear before the tribunal of history and, what is more, before the judgment of God." Pope John ended his appeal by asking all believers to pray for peace, saying, "Let us pray with one another and for one another and for all the s

Sept. 9, 1961 - Premier Khrushchev declared today that nuclear testing could be ended only by Western acceptance of Soviet proposals for a German peace treaty and complete disarmament. The Soviet rejected President Kennedy's proposal for outlawing nuclear testing in the atmosphere. Premier Khrushchev insisted that the Soviet Union had resumed nuclear testing only because the Western powers were threatening war in response to the Soviet proposal for a German peace treaty. "Wei

Sept. 7, 1961 - Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru of India talked for two hours today with Premier Khrushchev at the Kremlin and came out gloomy. "Once again the foul winds of war are blowing," Mr. Nehru said. "There are atomic tests and the world grows fearful. Once the door of war is opened, life on earth will be completely extinguished. It is strange that when man has the power to improve the lot of humanity and to open the doors of progress, the ghost of war should fall on

Sept. 6, 1961 - The Atomic Energy Commission announced today that the Soviet Union had detonated a fourth nuclear device in the atmosphere. A brief announcement said the explosion took place this morning east of Stalingrad. Stalingrad, in southeast European Russia, is an industrial and agricultural area, but several hundred miles to the east there are areas of sparsely populated desert. Traces of radioactive fallout from the earlier Asian blasts have been detected in Alaska,

Sept. 5, 1961 - President Kennedy ordered today the resumption of nuclear weapons tests by the United States. He specified that the tests should take place "in the laboratory and underground, with no fallout." The decision was taken after the Atomic Energy Commission announced that the Soviet Union had exploded a third nuclear device in five days. The President said in a statement that the U.S. had "no other choice." The President's statement signaled the end of a voluntary u

Sept. 4, 1961 - From New York to Los Angeles, civil defense authorities report a rise in the American citizen's fear of nuclear war. Thousands of persons within bomb-blast distance of potential nuclear targets are seeking guidance on ways to survive an attack. Spurred by President Kennedy's words and Soviet achievements, they have sought advice from the Government and commercial builders of bomb shelters. Examples of apathy and fatalism were found everywhere. One resident of

Sept. 4, 1961 - A new Soviet nuclear test took place early today over Central Asia, the Atomic Energy Commission announced. It was the second Soviet nuclear explosion in three days. It appears that the device today was considerably smaller than the one detonated Friday. The estimate of Friday's detonation placed that device in the power range of between 100 and 500 kilotons. Although Premier Khrushchev has said the Soviet Union can develop a bomb in the 100 megaton range - eq

Sept. 2, 1961 - If the respondents to a New York Times survey are typical, Americans feel that protection against a Russian super-bomb at this time is virtually hopeless. Some of those interviewed felt that instant death was preferable to survival in a world of horror. Leo Bienvenu, an engineer in Westport, Conn., said: "I think building a bomb shelter is useless. I'd rather see my wife and two children killed outright than starve to death because every living thing would be

Aug. 31, 1961 - Communist China issued a statement today expressing support for the Soviet Union's decision to resume nuclear tests. The statement said that Communist China regarded the Soviet decision as a "cooling dose for hot-headed war plotters but a powerful inspiration to all peoples striving for world peace." The statement, broadcast by Beijing radio, charged that the Western powers, "especially U.S. imperialism and West German militarism," were "fanning up war hysteri

Aug. 9, 1961 - Premier Khrushchev warned today that the Soviet Union was capable of constructing a rocket with an explosive warhead equivalent to 100 million tons of TNT. He asserted that the Soviet Union wanted peace and disarmament and preferred to sink all weapons into the sea. But, he added, if war breaks out, the Soviet Union will utilize all armaments at its disposal. U.S. officials said that the warhead Mr. Khrushchev described was indeed possible and that it would be

Aug. 6, 1961 - Just before dawn today, the priests and the people of Hiroshima (pictured in August, 1945) gathered to pray before the green mound where the unknown victims of the first atomic bomb are buried. This is the 16th time that this city has observed the memory that never really leaves its consciousness - the memory of 8:15 a.m. on Aug. 6, 1945, when the "light of a thousand suns" flashed over the city and reduced it to poisonous ash. Hiroshima has been rebuilt almost

Aug. 1, 1961 - Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara said today that 50 million usable shelter spaces could provide a "Spartan" minimum existence for one-fourth of the U.S. population. This does not mean that 50 million lives would be saved in the event of a nuclear attack, he stressed, since millions in shelters would die from blast, heat and immediate radiation effects. But he said such shelters could save as many as 15 million lives. Local officials, Mr. McNamara said, "sho

July 20, 1961 - President Kennedy today put the Pentagon in charge of a greatly increased program to protect American civilians against the effects of nuclear attack. By executive order, Mr. Kennedy shifted operating responsibility for "a greatly accelerated civil defense effort, including a nationwide fall-out shelter program," from the Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization to the Department of Defense. The President is expected to urge public support for civil defense in