1960s Timeline

Apr. 21, 1962 - Raoul Salan (pictured in 1958), captured in Algiers as the head of the Secret Army Organization (OAS), was indicted by civilian authorities in Paris today for crimes against the security of the state. The former general, once top commander of French forces in Indochina and later in Algeria, was reported to be a resigned figure in an isolated cell of the Santé Prison on the Left Bank. Detectives who interrogated Salan in his cell described him to their superior

Apr. 20, 1962 - Former General Raoul Salan (pictured), his wife and daughter, and an aide were arrested in Algiers today. Salan was flown to imprisonment in Paris for trial and a probable death sentence. Salan, the commander of the Secret Army Organization (OAS), which is seeking to block Algerian independence by force, was surprised by plainclothes men in a three-room apartment in the center of the city. Salan’s arrest is the biggest psychological blow suffered by the Europe

Apr. 13, 1962 - Edmond Jouhaud, second in command of the terrorist Secret Army Organization (OAS) in Algeria, was condemned to death today by a high military tribunal in Paris. The verdict against the former air force general was handed down by five civilian jurists, three lieutenant generals, and a vice admiral. There is no appeal from the tribunal’s sentence. Only President de Gaulle can commute it, and Jouhaud’s attorneys said today that the former general’s “honor” would

Apr. 8, 1962 - The French people approved the peace settlement with the Algerian nationalist rebels by a heavy majority today. More than 90% of those casting valid ballots voted “yes” in a popular referendum designed to give President de Gaulle the means to carry through the accords reached with the rebels’ Provisional Government March 18. In ratifying the President’s efforts to end France’s last colonial war, the nation showed massive disapproval of attempts by Right-Wing el

Feb. 21, 1962 - The French Government approved today the accords for Algerian peace that were reached with Algerian rebel representatives last Sunday. The official French approval came 24 hours after that of the Algerian Provisional Government in Tunis. There remains ratification by the rebel National Council of the Algerian Revolution, a kind of assembly, which will begin its discussions in Tripoli, Libya, tomorrow. A cease-fire accord and accompanying statements setting out

Feb. 19, 1962 - Representatives of France and of the Algerian Moslem rebels have agreed on terms for ending the war in Algeria. The decisive step to halt the bitter conflict that has continued since Nov. 1, 1954, was reported to have been reached last night at a location in France close to the Swiss border. Nothing has been signed, however. Agreements on a cease-fire, on the period between the end of hostilities and a self-determination referendum, and on relations between Fr

Feb. 8, 1962 - Eight persons were killed and hundreds injured tonight when thousands of Leftists battled security forces in Paris. Surging columns of Leftists, demonstrating against the Right-Wing terrorist Secret Army Organization (OAS), fought the police for three hours in a working-class district before order was finally restored. The rioting covered a wide area around the Place de la Bastille. Estimates of the size of the crowd ranged into the tens of thousands. Several t

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. 29, 1961 - The last of Havana's gambling casinos closed quietly today, minutes after Premier Fidel Castro had announced that his government was cleaning up the city. In the days of Fulgencio Batista's dictatorship, Havana had about 25 gambling casinos. In other news, Castro's firing squads executed two more men today for their participation in the unsuccessful April invasion at the Bay of Pigs. Forty-six others were sentenced to long prison terms by a revolutionary trib

Sept. 26, 1961 - General Robert L. Eichelberger (pictured in New Guinea during World War II), retired American commander of the Eighth Army in the Pacific during World War II, died in Asheville, N.C. today. He was 75 years old. American troops under Eichelberger inflicted on the Japanese their first land defeat of the war at Buna, New Guinea. The general's stamina and perseverance against the Japanese in the sweltering, slime-coated jungles of New Guinea became legend. Few fi

\Sept. 23, 1961 - Five months have passed since Premier Fidel Castro described triumphantly on television the defeat of the anti-Castro invaders at the Bay of Pigs. However, while the control of his Government has remained strong since then, the popularity of his regime may have slipped. A peasant in Las Villas Province says, "I am going to get out. They give you no freedom. They tell you what to plant, when to kill your pigs, how much to sell for." An agricultural engineer s

Sept. 22, 1961 - For the second time this week, the Communist guerrillas known as Viet Cong launched a devastating attack in South Vietnam. An outpost in Daclac Province, guarded by a company of South Vietnam's Civil Guard, was besieged Wednesday night. The guardsmen were annihilated. Another company rushed to its aid. Since radio contact has been lost with the second company, it is believe that it, too, was annihilated. The province has been infiltrated by at least two batta

Sept. 18, 1961 - More than 1,000 Communist rebels in South Vietnam attacked and burned the capital of Phuoc Vinh Province, 60 miles north of Saigon, early today. It was the largest rebel assault so far in South Vietnam's civil war. The province chief, an army major, and a large number of Government civil guardsmen were killed. About 50 wounded were rushed to Saigon hospitals after the rebels withdrew under attack. The Viet Cong held the area for several hours in pre-dawn dark

Sept. 16, 1961 - A large-scale round-up of Roman Catholic priests has taken place in Havana in the last two days. There are no precise figures, but roughly 100 priests have been arrested. The Government will deport some, if not all, of these. In another development, the execution of six persons in various parts of Cuba for participation in armed seditious activity was announced. Ninety-one received prison terms ranging from one to thirty years. The new executions bring to 16

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 Cuban Government launched a fresh attack against the Roman Catholic Church today. It accused priests and nuns of plotting to overthrow the regime of Fidel Castro and charged that the clergy was acting as an agent for U.S. intelligence. The attack was made in a communiqué by the Interior Ministry. The move was foreshadowed by denunciations of the clergy by newspapers, radio stations, and groups of Castro supporters in the wake of Sunday's anti-Communist de

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