1960s Timeline

Nov. 16, 1961 - Thirteen captured Italian airmen attached to the U.N. force have been murdered by Congolese soldiers. The Italians had flown into Kindu, Kivu Province, with two transport planes carrying scout cars for a Malayan contingent of the U.N. force. They were seized and beaten there by drunken Congolese soldiers Saturday before being shot to death. Their bodies were dismembered with machetes by a crowd of onlookers and thrown into the Lualaba River. The Italians were

Sept. 25, 1961 - Former President Eisenhower commended President Kennedy's U.N. speech today. He said he believed "it summed up, eloquently, the peaceful aims of the American people." The general's remarks were given from the front steps of the red-brick house on the campus of Gettysburg College which he uses as an office. The former President said that it was apparent President Kennedy was standing on the same ground in foreign policy which he - General Eisenhower - had occu

Sept. 25, 1961 - President Kennedy said today that the Western powers would stand firm on West Berlin, but he emphasized that they wished to negotiate and were not committed to a "rigid formula." In a 38-minute address before the U.N. General Assembly, the President warned of the danger of a nuclear war if the Soviet Union should attempt to override Western interests and commitments without engaging in negotiations "rooted in mutual respect and concern for the rights of other

Sept. 24, 1961 - President Kennedy arrived in New York today to deliver a major speech tomorrow to the U.N. The President was greeted at La Guardia Airport's Marine Terminal by Secretary of State Dean Rusk and NYC Mayor Robert Wagner. Surrounded by 40 motorcycle policemen, the President's car sped into Manhattan at the head of a long motorcade. More than 1,000 policemen and an undisclosed number of detectives and Federal security agents guarded bridges, intersections, and roo

Sept. 23, 1961 - President Kennedy will arrive in New York at 6:30 p.m. tomorrow and spend the evening putting the finishing touches on his address to the U.N. General Assembly. The President will make a strong plea for strengthening the U.N. and will appeal, in particular, to the small and newly formed nations to support the organization. He will also discuss disarmament and Berlin. More than 1,000 uniformed policemen and an undisclosed number of city detectives have been as

Sept. 18, 1961 - President Kennedy decided today to intervene personally in the constitutional crisis created at the United Nations by the death of Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold (right). The White House announced that the President would address the General Assembly. His purpose in doing so is to reassure the delegates and Secretariat that the U.S. supports the U.N. and is determined to do everything possible to maintain the executive authority of the office of the Secre

Sept. 18, 1961 - U.N. Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold was killed today with 12 other persons in the crash of a plane carrying him to a meeting with President Tshombe of Katanga Province in the Congo. The bodies of the Secretary General and his staff were found four miles from the Ndola airport in Northern Rhodesia. The Secretary General's plane apparently crashed after it had circled the Ndola airport twice and had been waved in. No one on the scene could offer any explana