Jolene's Found Song.

9/11, Bin Laden, Enron Scandal, Simpson’s,
Oprah Winfrey, Britney Spears, Sorcerer’s Stone

iPod, Wikipedia, Iran in the Media,
Bush, Cheney, Will Smith, Apple makes a Phone.

We didn’t start the fire
It was always burning, since the world’s been turning.
We didn’t start the fire
No we didn’t light it
But we didn’t fight it.

Israel and Palestine, Terror on the Airline,
O. J. Simpson goes to Jail, Chris Brown gets out on Bail

Eminem, Tupac, Dora and her Backpack,
Georgia Conflict, Hollister, Coach, Saks, Darfur

Timberlake brings Sexyback, Hussein comes down in Iraq,
Jonas Brother Mania, AIDS pervades in Africa.

Swine Flu, Bird Flu, Brangelina’s Family Zoo,
Godless March on D. C., Homeland Security.

We didn’t start the fire
It was always burning, since the world’s been turning.
We didn’t start the fire
No we didn’t light it
But we didn’t fight it.

Muslim Sunnis, Shiites, Kurds, where’s Bin Laden, still no word
Dollar-Sinking vs. Yen, Phelps brings home the Gold Again.

Ugg Boots, MTV, bail outs, Maddoff, G.M.C.
Stem Cells, Jenna-6, Disney Channel, Safe Sex,

Higher Taxes, Free Tibet, Shootings at Virginia Tech,
Obama Wins, End this War, I CAN’T TAKE IT ANYMORE!

We didn’t start the fire
It was always burning, since the world’s been turning.
We didn’t start the fire
No we didn’t light it
But let’s try to fight it.

We didn’t start the fire
But when we are gone
It will still burn on, and on, and on, and on…

Civil Rights in 1957-1960

CORE (Congress of Racial Equality)

The Congress of Racial Equality, also known as CORE, is a U. S. civil rights organization that played a pivotal role in the Civil Rights Movement of the mid-20th century. The organization is described to be “open to anyone who believes that 'all people are created equal' and is willing to work towards the ultimate goal of true equality throughout the world.” CORE was founded in 1942 by James L. Farmer, Jr., George Houser and Bernice Fisher. The civil rights project sought to enforce pacifist principles as a tactic against segregation, as portrayed in the literary work that inspired the organization’s inception, War without Violence by Krishnalal Shridharani, which outlined Gandhi’s step-by-step instructions for organizing under a nonviolent campaign. At the time, Gandhi was still engaged in non-violent resistance against British imperialism in India. By 1961, CORE held 53 chapters across the United States, which were organized based on a model similar to that of a democratic trade union; monthly membership meetings, elected officers, and volunteer committees.

On April 10, 1947, CORE sent a group of eight white and eight black men on a two-week Journey of Reconciliation through southern states, including Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Kentucky, in an effort to end segregation in interstate travel. The members were incarcerated several times, however, the publicity associated with the journeys marked the beginning of a series of similar campaigns, which came to be known as “Freedom Rides.” In 1963, the CORE organization partook in the famous March on Washington, a political rally on in Washington D. C. most remembered for Dr. Martin Luther King’s historic recitation of his “I Have a Dream” speech. Advocating for racial integration and harmony under law, 250,000 citizens, both CORE members and other civil rights activists, marched to the Lincoln Memorial.

In the preceding year, CORE members and other civil rights campaigns launched their Freedom Summer project, the objective being to end the political disenfranchisement of African Americans in the Deep South. Volunteers from the organizations decided to concentrate its efforts on the state of Mississippi, where a mere 6.7% of blacks were registered to vote. While challenging the attendance of the all-white Mississippi representation, CORE volunteers also established 30 Freedom Schools across the state, which infused black history into the core curriculum. These Freedom Schools, while revolutionary in their staunch opposition to racial adversity, were commonly targeted by white mobs and racist police officers. In June of 1964, three leading CORE activists were brutally lynched at the hand of the Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi. It was not until 2005 that the case received a proper trial, which resulted in the conviction of Edgar Ray Killen on three counts of manslaughter.

SNCC (Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee)

The Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee was yet another principal civil rights organization founded during the 20th century movement. Consisting primarily of college-age activists, the SNCC evolved from numerous student meetings led by an Ella Baker at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina. Through the philosophy of nonviolent protest, the SNCC contributed most significantly to the enfranchisement of African Americans throughout the South, organizing voter registration drives in Georgia and, particularly, Mississippi. In its beginnings, SNCC members partook in small-scale protests, such as sit-ins at segregated public areas in order to discredit pervasive Jim Crowe and Racist ideology.

The campaign promoted many of the same civil rights projects as fellow organization, Congress of Racial Equality; Freedom Rides in the south to encourage safe integration of blacks and whites on interstate travel, Freedom Summers to promote the enfranchisement of blacks in the south, and the March on Washington to promote collective harmony amongst all races. After the Democratic convention of 1964, many within the organization grew skeptical about the tactics of nonviolence, and the group soon began to split into two factions – one favoring a continuation of nonviolent, integration-oriented existence within the political system, and the other moving towards Black Power and revolutionary ideologies. In 1966, Stokely Carmichael took over as chairman of the SNCC, and soon after advocated for Black Power and a departure from the mainstream Civil Rights Movement.

This secession from the liberality of the national movement proved to be harmful to the cohesiveness of the SNCC, and the organization largely disappeared in Southern and Northern communities in the 1970’s. In spite of this, the SNCC was still a crucial contributor to the Civil Rights Movement in the south, as the promotion of integration by the youth of America signified a revolutionary turning point for cultural and social mores in the United States.

Civil Right Issues in 1957:

McCarthyism

The McCarthy Era; also known as the Red Scare, was a period of time in the United States when fear of the communist was commonplace, and accusations were made as to the integrity of a person based on whether or not he was a "communist". Often, these accusations were wild and foundless, however, there were repercussions for all the accused.

John Henry Faulk was a talk show host who had participated in taking control of a union from officers working for AWARE, INC. AWARE was an organization that would examine individuals for "disloyalty", and certainly the removal of its officers from control over a union was enough to be labeled as disloyal.

After publicly declaring Faulk a communist, he was fired from his current job, and an offer from another station was retracted. Faulk sued AWARE in 1957, and eventually won the case in 1962. This case set the precedent that anyone who calls someone a "communist" is legally liable for an professional or fnancial damage caused to that person.

Court cases such as Yates V. US 1957, where the convictions of 14 'communists' were reversed, and Watkins V. US 1957, where the company HUAC was punished for punishing its "uncooperative" witnesses, mark the end of the McCarthy era; the rights of the people were no longer at jeopardy in the courts, and soon the Red scare faded away.

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

The success of the Montgomery Bus Boycott led to the formation of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in early January, 1957 in Atlanta, Georgia. Issuing a document, the group declared that civil rights are an essential part of democracy, segregation needs to end, andt all African Americans should reject segregation nonviolently. It was founded by Martin Luther King Jr., served as the fist president, Ralph Abernathy, who served as the treasurer, Fred Shuttlesworth, Bayard Rustin, and others. The two objectives of SCLC were to use only nonviolent protest methods and to appeal to the moral conscience of all Americans. Therefore, SCLC became the most significant organization in civil rights campaigning.

The SCLC coordinated the civil rights activities of other local organizations and it was involved in several protest campaigns including the desegregation of downtown Birmingham, Alabama, the March for Jobs and Freedom on Washington, voting rights in Selma, Alabama, and also many sit-ins and voter registration drives. It also coordinated the activities of black churches. In late 1957, King started the "Crusade for Citizenship" through the SCLC. This program intended to help register two million black voters in time for the 1960 presidential election, but was unsuccessful.

The SCLC drastically helped the African American Civil Rights movement as soon as it was joined by local activist and poor black populations. It was significant to this time because it helped create more organization in the civil rights protests.

Civil Right Issues in 1960:

The Pill

In 1960 Margaret Sanger invented the most influencial drug to the women's civil rights movement. The classic, simplistic contraceptive, the birth control pill, redefined the societal role of women.The pill fashioned a new strength for women because it ignited a sexual revolution and redefined women’s roles. The primitive establishment of women in society was based off reproduction and because of the interference with that societal standing, women were given freedom from the male supremacy that still lingered even after they gained suffrage.

Women had the chance to take up professions because of their infertility and could live outside of their roles at the home. Sanger fought to change the rights of women to allow them to truly achieve equality. Women became lawyers because law firms no longer had to worry that the woman was going to get pregnant in the middle of a big case. Women became doctors because they could space their child so that they had time to do the internships and the residencies. Women went to work.

The Pill did more for the equality of women than any other single factor, certainly, in the twentieth century. Women began to see themselves for the first time in all of history as economically self-sustainable units.

Nashville, Tennessee

In 1960, Nashville became the foundation of a nonviolent campaign to end racial segregation and held leaders that would later play a critical role in the United States Civil Rights Movement. The Nashville sit-ins took place in Tennessee in February to May, but the training ground set for ending segregation across the country was only the beginning.

A group of college students and the rest of the Nashville community organized the sit-ins, city marches and a store boycott all with the intention of using nonviolent protestation methods. Preliminary investigations began in December of 1959 for the participants, as the groups purchased items at stores in downtown Nashville and ordered food from lunch counters. The reconnaissance was done with the intention of determining the degree of discrimination and segregation in each setting. When the sit-ins began, over 150 students were arrested as a result despite the continued nonviolent policies of the protestors.

Those that were arrested were represented by a team of 12 lawyers, and although they received overwhelming amounts of support from the African Americans of the city, they were charged with disorderly conduct.

Greensboro Sit-Ins

The African American Civil Rights Movement was strong during the 1950's and the 1960's. There was an increasing amount of protests and segregation in the South was becoming an issue across the country. Almost all public places in the South were segregated, including lunch counters, and a particular store known as Woolworth's in Greensboro, North Carolina.

On February 1, 1960, four African American students: Ezell A. Blair Jr., David Richmond, Joseph McNeil, and Franklin McCain, sat at the counter of Woolworth's store, knowing that it was segregated and that blacks had to stand to eat. They were all students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, a historically black college. The staff of the store refused to feed them, but they were allowed to remain at the counter. Soon after, a waitress notified the owner of the store, C.L. Harris, of the students, and he told her to leave them alone in the hopes that they would eventually leave. Harris soon became nervous that violence would arise, so he called the police, not to have them arrested, but to use them to make sure no violence would pursue.

The next morning, the same four students appeared at the store again, but this time they had twenty three other men and four women to protest as well. As the day continued, more and more students came to take part in the peaceful protest. Then by February 5th, three hundred students had stopped by Woolworth's to support the protest, so by February 6th, the white population became more violent towards the sit-in. Someone called the store threatening the use of a bomb, scaring the protesters out of Woolworths and forcing Harris to close his store for over two weeks. The phone call did occur, but many people believe that the anonymous caller was just using the threat of a bomb to halt the protest. Either way, the protest ended.

The Greensboro Sit-Ins sparked other sit-ins in other North Carolina towns, such as Winston-Salem, Durham, Raleigh, ad Charlotte. The majority of these sit-ins were peaceful and ended in positive results. The Greensboro Sit-In received significant media and government attention and was fully reported around the country, which helped other demonstrations spread throughout the Southern states. Dozens of lunch counters were closed and even President Eisenhower supported the students and expressed sympathy towards those fighting for civil rights.

In many towns, the sit-ins were successful in achieving desegregation of lunch counters and even in other public places. The Greensboro Sit-Ins themselves were successful because on July 26, 1960, Harris desegregated the lunch counter at Woolworth's store, making the four students heroes.

Atlanta University Protests

Demonstrations organized by Atlanta University students Lonnie King and Julian Bond began in March of 1960, as eighty students launched a series of simultaneous protests. Bond led a group of students to a sit-in at the City Hall cafeteria, where they hung a sign with the words “public is welcome”. Lonnie King led thirty-five more of the students to Rich’s Department Store, where they joined Martin Luther King Jr. in protest.

The protestors at Atlanta University later launched a campaign to offer African American adults buying power at the Department Store. They used publicity to put out messages such as “close out your charge account with segregation” and “open up your account with freedom”. The pressure invoked by the student protestors led to Rich’s Department Store acceptance of their terms.

The Year of 1957

Little Rock

Little Rock Nine, they're called; nine black children who were chosen to attend Central High in Little Rock Arkansas. Following the court case Brown V. Board of Education, the schools had to begin "integration": enrolling black students in white schools. Nine children were selected from Horace Mann High school, which was traditionally a school for black children, to attend Central High. The children were first scheduled to enter their first day of school on September 2, 1957. The governor of Little Rock, Faubus, requested that the National Guard come to the school to "ward off the white supremacists" who had gathered there to protest the integration.

The nine were instructed to assemble a few blocks away so they could walk in together, however one girl named Elizabeth Eckford did not get the message. She met with the mob at the school, and they harassed her while the National Guard watched. Had two whites not intervened, Eckford could have been subject to the mercy of the crowd. The story continues September 20th, when Judge Davies granted the NAACP an injunction, disallowing Faubus from using the National Guard any longer.

On September 23, the nine finally entered the school. They were subject to the hatred of the other students, and outside the school, mobs beat black reporters. At only 11:30, police stated that they could no longer contain the mob, and the children had to be escorted from the school through a back door. To enable the children to complete a full day at school, president Eisenhower sent the 101st Airborne Division to guard the children. They needed it, too; the other students threw dynamite and acid, as well as stabbing one girl named Melba Pattillo. The acid would have blinded Pattillo, had her guard not thrown water on her face immediately. Eventually, the year ended, and Ernest Green was the first black to graduate from Central High.

Faubus had no intention of letting the others graduate as well, so he asked for an injunction to delay integration (again). This was overturned by the Supreme Court in 1958. Faubus then signed a bill which gave him the power to close the schools. This, however, was found unconstitutional, and the schools soon reopened. This momentous occasion was a landmark event in American history; it marked the first huge step away from "separate, but equal". The black children, only 8 of whom graduated, proved to the world that they could succeed, and withstand such hatred all the while.

Pasternak

Boris Pasternak was a well known Russian author, born February 10th 1890. He lived to see the Bolshevik Revolution, and the birth of the Soviet Union. As an author, living under the Bolshevik regime was stifling; all works of art were scrutinized for any hint of political propoganda. If anyone so much as thought your work was propoganda against the Revolution, then the government could detain you for an unspecified amount of time, or worse: kill you.

Pasternak was reluctant to publish his poems and works, and thus made a living translating famous works into Russian, such as Shakespeare, Goethe, and other poets. Pasternak moved to another town called Peredelkino, and with his wife was very happy there. There he wrote his renouned novel, Doctor Zhivago, and tried to publish it. The Soviet authorities refused to allow Pasternak to publish, however he was able to smuggle his book out of the country. It became an instant success in Italy, and was soon translated into other languages and spread to other countries.

The success of the book was so great that it had won a Nobel Prize in 1958, although that may have been partly because the CIA wanted to embarass the Soviets. Pasternak could not accept the Prize, unfortunately, due to the threats of the Soviet government. Pasternak lived in fear for quite a while, although in the end the government decided not to deal with Pasternak at all. Pasternak's life was taken by lung cancer on May 30th, 1960. Pasternak was an example to the world that, no matter how oppressive your government is, the voice of the people lives the longest.

Mickey Mantle

Mickey Mantle was one of the greatest baseball players in United States history. Born in Spavinaw, Oklahoma October 20th, 1931. During his professional career in 1951-1968, he played for the New York Yankees, and made several world records. Mantle still holds today the record for most world series home runs: a total of 18, and 536 in all.

Mantle played a large role in American society; he distracted people from their daily lives: life was very morose in the late 1950s, and the people idolized people like Mantle to draw their attention away from their life at work, or home.

Kerouac

Jack Kerouac was an American writer in the 1950s, born March 12th 1922. In the 1950s, he began writing "On the Road"; a collection of writings. He tried to write his experiences in "On the Road" as they were occurring, and thus the style of the writing was very different from other authors of his time. He attempted to publish his works, however no publisher would accept his works until in 1957, when Viking Press purchased "On the Road", albeit with some major revisions. The book soon became a great success, and he was portrayed as the icon of the "beatnik" generation.

The Beatniks were people who tried to live an ascetic life style; in otherwords, they lived an anti materialistic life. With his newfound fame, he tried to live up to his crazy image he portrayed in "On the Road" and developed a bad drinking habbit. On the surface, to the media, he appeared like the crazy counter-culture author who wrote "On the Road", but in reality, he was worse off than the average american man of that time; in reality, he was a miserable, unstable, alcoholic. His health gravely detrimented, he died in 1969 at 40 years old.

Sputnik

The first ever artificial space satellite, dubbed sputnik, was launched by the Soviet Union on October 4th, 1957. This was a momentous occaision for the world; never before had man launched something of their own creation into Earth's orbit; so why was America uneasy?

At the time, the Cold War was still a very real event to both America and the Soviet Union. When the Soviets could launch an artificial satellite in space, America feared that the soviets could use this new technology to begin nuclear war. Thus, the "Space Race" began. Not to be outdone by the U.S.S.R., the American government created such divisions as NASA in 1958, and soon America launched their own satellite into space; the Explorer.

Chou En-Lai

Chou En-Lai, also known as Zhou Enlai, was the successor to Mao Zedong, the revolutionist that formed the Chinese Communist government, as the second chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) as well as the first Premier and Foreign Minister of the People's Republic of China.

Chou En-Lai started his political involvement at a young age. While attending Nankai University, he worked to bridge together the all male Tianjin Student Union and the female Women's Patriotic Association. He founded the awareness society and worked diligently as the editor-in-chief of the student paper, The Tianjin Student. After many years of continued work, he was caught sight of by the Communist Party. He was selected to go to France to "study." After Chou's studies, he worked for the rising Communist Party, which he put his full effort into.

A skilled and able diplomat, Zhou served as the Chinese foreign minister from 1949 to 1958. Advocating peaceful coexistence with the West, he participated in the 1954 Geneva Conference and helped orchestrate Richard Nixon's 1972 visit to China. Due to his expertise, Zhou was largely able to survive the purges of high-level Chinese Communist Party officials during the Cultural Revolution. His attempts at mitigating the Red Guard's damage and his efforts to protect others from their wrath made him immensely popular in the Revolution's later stages. Zhou was a moderate force and a new influential voice for non-aligned states in the Cold War; his diplomacy strengthened regional ties with India, Burma, and many southeast Asian countries, as well as African states. Zhou was largely responsible for the re-establishment of contacts with the West in the early 1970s. He welcomed US President Richard Nixon to China in February 1972, and signed the Shanghai Communiqué.

Zhou's position, granted to him by Mao Zedong, was part of the chinese socialism movement while Mao enacted his "great leap forward" plan for the chinese society.

"Bridge on the River Kwai"

"Bridge on the River Kwai" was a British film in 1957 that depicted the life for British and American soldiers in a Japanese prisoner of war (PoW) camp. The film was a huge success and won 7 Oscar awards as well as another 25 award wins and 5 nominations in various movie award shows around the world.

According to the plot summary from IMBD.com, the film deals with the situation of British prisoners of war during World War II who are ordered to build a bridge to accommodate the Burma-Siam railway. Their instinct is to sabotage the bridge but, under the leadership of Colonel Nicholson, they are persuaded that the bridge should be constructed as a symbol of British morale, spirit and dignity in adverse circumstances. At first, the prisoners admire Nicholson when he bravely endures torture rather than compromise his principles for the benefit of the Japanese commandant Saito. He is an honorable but arrogant man, who is slowly revealed to be a deluded obsessive. He convinces himself that the bridge is a monument to British character, but actually is a monument to himself, and his insistence on its construction becomes a subtle form of collaboration with the enemy. Unknown to him, the Allies have sent a mission into the jungle, led by Warden and an American, Shears, to blow up the bridge.

This movie provided a distraction from the reality and situation of the current cold war. It displayed the brutality of a PoW camp, and the hardships of war, in general, in a pleasant, romanticized, Hollywood perspective that was inviting and entertaining for all citizens. It gave people a false ease that war was not as terrible as it was portrayed.

This movie had a brilliant cast and told its story with accuracy. The movie is generally associated with the tune "Colonial Bogey March" and often referred in pop culture.

The Year of 1958

Lebanon

Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt was working toward unity for the Islamic peoples of North Africa and the Middle East and was supporting the revolt by Algerians against French rule. In Iraq, a coup in July, led by pro-Nasser army officers, left Iraqi royalty dead and brought an end to a pro-Western regime there. Iraq had been a member of the Baghdad Pact, detested by Nasser, who considered it imperialistic. The Eisenhower administration considered intervention, but with the royal family dead and no one in Iraq to collaborate with, no grounds for intervention could be found.

Iraq pulled out of the Baghdad Pact, and ended its treaty with Jordan, where trouble was also brewing. The CIA warned the British, who had an interest there, and the British sent a paratrooper brigade to protect Jordan's King Hussein.

Syria had joined with Egypt in what was called the United Arab Republic, and when Nasser visited Syria, hundreds of thousands of Lebanese journeyed there to see him. Nasser was a hero to Lebanon's Muslims, and Lebanon was in a civil war. Lebanon was divided between Muslims and Christians, and the president, Camille Chamoun, was a Christian who was holding on to power as a result of a rigged election. The U.S. Information Agency library was burned and an oil pipeline was cut, and Chamoun appealed to the United States for help.

The Pentagon urged the sending of a UN force rather than a U.S. force, but this was overruled by Dulles, who believed that Moscow was fomenting the trouble in Lebanon. The Eisenhower administration sent its Sixth Fleet to Lebanon. On July 15, Marines were landed, and Lebanon's airport was secured. No ground fighting involving Americans broke out. A couple of Marines made a wrong turn and drove into Muslim territory. They were disarmed and asked why they were in Lebanon, and the Marines said they did not know. The Marines were given a lecture on imperialism and then allowed to return from whence they had come.

On July 31, Lebanon's parliament elected General Faud Shehab as president to succeed Chamoun, and Shehab selected a Muslim, Rashid Karami, as his prime minister. Karami's cabinet had an equal number of Christians and Muslims. Karami pursued rebuilding and pacification, and, in October, U.S. forces withdrew.

Charles de Gaulle

Charles de Gaulle was the dominant political leader and grand figurehead of France during and after World War II. De Gaulle was a career soldier in the French Army who had been wounded and held prisoner during World War I. He rose to the rank of general and was serving as France's minister for National Defense and War in June, 1940, when France capitulated to Germany early in World War II. DeGaulle escaped to Britain, where he made a famous broadcast calling on the French people to resist (earning him the nickname of the "Man of June 18, 1940"). DeGaulle formed the Free French forces and led the provisional government that ruled France after it was retaken from Germany. After the war he was elected head of the French government, but left the post in 1946 and formed a new political party, the Rassemblement du Peuple Francais (Rally of the People of France, or RPF). DeGaulle was in and out of politics until 1958, when he was called to form a government amid political chaos in France. He oversaw the constitutional reforms that led to the Fifth Republic of France, and became the first president of the new Republic in 1959. Proud, stubborn, and charismatic, he insisted on France's right to pursue an independent path from both Europe and the United States. He also settled France's difficult relations with its Algerian territory by granting self-determination to Algeria. He served as president for just over a decade until stepping down in April of 1969.

In May 1958 France was confronted with a threat of civil war over the question of independence for Algeria. De Gaulle was recalled to serve as premier. The National Assembly granted him power to rule by decree for six months and to supervise the drafting of a new constitution. The new charter, conferring vastly increased powers on the executive branch, was overwhelmingly approved by the French voters. The following December de Gaulle was elected president of the newly created Fifth Republic. He took office on January 8, 1959.

During his first term de Gaulle instituted economic, industrial, and governmental reforms, negotiated Algerian independence, and led France into the European Economic Community. He also championed a unilateral nuclear-weapons program for France, which exploded an atomic weapon in 1960. He strengthened ties with the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and with Communist China and attempted to extend French influence in Asia and Latin America, while displaying resentment against the United States. However, he continued to support the United States in the fundamentals of its Cold War rivalry with the USSR.

California Baseball

Real estate businessman Walter O'Malley had acquired majority ownership of the Dodgers in 1950, when he bought the shares of his co-owners, the estate of Branch Rickey and the late John L. Smith. Before long he was working to buy new land in Brooklyn to build a more accessible and better arrayed ballpark than Ebbets Field. Beloved as it was, Ebbets Field had grown old and was not well served by infrastructure, to the point where the Dodgers could not sell the park out even in the heat of a pennant race (despite largely dominating the league from 1946 to 1957).

New York City Construction Coordinator Robert Moses, however, sought to force O'Malley into using a site in Flushing Meadows, Queens – the site for what eventually became Shea Stadium. Moses' vision involved a city-built, city-owned park, which was greatly at odds with O'Malley's real-estate savvy. When it became clear to O'Malley that he was not going to be allowed to buy any suitable land in Brooklyn, he began thinking elsewhere.

Meanwhile, non-stop transcontinental air travel had become routine during the years since the Second World War, and teams were no longer bound by much slower railroad timetables. Because of these transportation advances, it became possible to locate teams further apart – as far west as California – while maintaining the same game schedules.

When Los Angeles officials attended the 1956 World Series looking to entice a team to move to the City of Angels, they were not even thinking of the Dodgers. Their original target had been the Washington Senators (the Minnesota Twins in 1961). At the same time, O'Malley was looking for a contingency in case Moses and other New York politicians refused to let him build the Brooklyn stadium he wanted, and sent word to the Los Angeles officials that he was interested in talking. Los Angeles offered him what New York would not: a chance to buy land suitable for building a ballpark, and own that ballpark, giving him complete control over all its revenue streams.

The Brooklyn Dodgers played their final game at Ebbets Field on September 24, 1957, which the Dodgers won 2-0 over the Pittsburgh Pirates.

On April 18, 1958, the Los Angeles Dodgers played their first game in LA, defeating their long time rivals, former New York and now new San Francisco Giants, 6-5, before 78,672 fans at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

Starkweather Homicide

On June 25th, 1959, a twenty year old man was sentenced to death on the counts of first degree murder and murder while committing a robbery. His name was Charles Starkweather and he was born into poverty in Lincoln, Nebraska. Starkweather was teased as a child for a speech impediment and his bowed legs. He was seen as intellectually inferior, and as time progressed he began to fight with other boys on a regular basis. Admiring James Dean, he and his friend Bob Von Busch began to imitate Dean's style.

In 1956, Charlie meant his future girlfriend Caril Fugate thorough Bob. Caril became Charlie's everything and he tried to give her everything he wanted although he was poor. Neither families approved of their relationships which infuriated both Charlie and Caril. At the age of sixteen Charlie dropped out of school and started working for Western Newspaper Union Warehouse. Shortly after, Charlie was told by his father to find another place to live because of a physical argument over Caril. He then quit his job at the paper company and became a garbage man, where he made even less money. This brought a realization to Charlie that he was going to be stuck in poverty and that he was going to be look down upon all his life, and he believed the only way to get out of this was to lead a life of crime.

In December 1957, Charlie wanted to buy Caril a stuffed toy dog at a gas station and was humiliated when the gas station would not give him credit to afford it. Around three a.m. he returned to the gas station with a 12-gage shotgun. He bought a pack of Camels, then drove off, then he bought a pack of gum and drove off again. The third time he entered the gas station in a disguise and with his gun. He shoved the gun into Robert Colvert's back and made him drive. In an attempt to struggle for the gun, Colvert was shot and Charlie then shot him in the head. Charlie was not accused of the murder and he felt as if he was on top of the world.

Then on January 21, 1958, Starkweather committed another murder, but the exact details cannot be known, because Charlie and Caril both told the police different stories and Charlie usually claimed that every murder was for self defense. On this particular day, Charlie arrived at Caril's house in hopes to go hunting with her stepfather, Marion, and to bring carpet samples to her mother Velda, to repair their relationship. Supposedly, Velda told Charlie that she did not want him to see Caril anymore, which led to an argument, causing Velda to hit Charlie a couple of times, and Charlie to leave the house forgetting the gun he brought for hunting. He came back to the house to retrieve the gun and Marion made him leave again. Once Caril returned home, Starkweather told her what happened, causing an argument between Caril and Velda. Becoming angered with Charlie, Velda started hitting him and Charlie pulled out his gun. At the same time, Marion walked into the room with a claw hammer so Starkweather shot him in the head. Velda came at Charlie with a knife, so he shot her in the face then hit her in the head with the butt of the rifle. He then hit their two year old child with the rifle butt, but because she continued to cry, he stabbed her in the throat. Marion was still moving around so Starkweather stabbed him in the throat. Velda's body was shoved in the toilet opening of the outhouse, the baby sister was put in a box that was used for garbage and then also put in the outhouse, and Marion was put on the floor of the chicken coop. For days, Caril and Charlie remained in the house, eating all the food, and turning away any visitors saying that everyone was sick with the flu. The police came, but found nothing suspicious in the house. Finally, Caril's sister's husband and his brother searched the house and property and found the dead bodies.

Caril and Charlie left town and sought refuge with Charlie's family friend, seventy-two--year-old August Meyer. While driving on the dirt track that led to Meyer's farm, the car got stuck in the mud, and what happened after that is not exactly known, but August was shot in the head. Charlie claimed that Meyer tried to shoot him and the gun jammed, so out of self defense, Charlie shot him and then wounded his dog. August was placed into an outbuilding and hid with a blanket. Caril and Charlie went back into his home and stole his money and guns, ate his food, then went to sleep. The next day, a neighbor helped them out of the mud, but the couple drove back up the road to see the body and got stuck in the mud again.

After the third murder, the pair hitched a ride from Robert Jensen and his girlfriend Carol King. Charlie pressed the shotgun against the seventeen year old boys neck and demanded money. After forcing Jensen to drive back towards August's farm, Charlie shot him in the head six times. Carol was shot in the head once but her body was found with her jeans and panties around her ankles. She had been stabbed multiple times in her abdomen and pubic region, but no sperm was found on her. After these murders, Charlie and Caril took Jensen's car and drove back to Lincoln.

Charlie drove to a more wealthy part of town and arrived at C. Lauer Ward's house. Promising his wife Clara Ward he would not harm her, Charlie forced her to wait on him. Charlie considered this an accomplishment because a former garbage man was being waited on by one of the wealthiest residents of Lincoln. When she went to change her shoes, Starkweather stabbed her in the back, neck, and chest. He broke one of her dogs' necks as well. Charlie and Caril then ransacked the house. When C. Lauer Ward returned home Starkweather shot him, and the maid Lillian Fencl was tied to a bed and stabbed to death.

Caril and Starkweather returned back to Caril's parents house and then finally headed west. Desperate for a car to steal, they approached a parked car on the highway. Merle Collison was sleeping in it and when he refused to give the car up, Charlie shot him in the head, neck, arm, and leg. Charlie blamed the murder on Caril. Collison's body was left in the front seat. When he tried to drive away, Charlie could not figure out how to turn off the emergency break. Confusing this for car problems, a young man approached the car and was threatened with Starkweather's gun. A sheriff then approached the car and Caril ran to him screaming that Charlie has killed a man. By that time, Charlie had left for the Packard and was driving . A chase pursued and was only ended when Charlie believed he had been shot, but he was actually bleeding from car glass.

Charlie chose to have his trial in Nebraska instead of Wyoming, where he probably would not have been sentenced to death. Both Caril and Charlie were charged with first degree murder and murder while committing a robbery. Caril claimed to be a hostage, and Charlie claimed to be sane while his lawyers tried to prove that he was not. Starkweather was the first American teenage spree killer caught on camera. He scared the entire country that was already going through unsettling cultural changes. America connected Starkweather to James Dean and believed that "the violence and the alienation of Starkweather [was] just the beginning of some uncontrollable trend that would destroy the fabric of society." (Charles Starkweather and Charlie Fugate)

Children of Thalidomide

Finally, in 1957, a drug was produced for pregnant women to stop the symptoms associated with morning sickness. On October 1st, 1957, West Germany introduced the drug Thalidomide on to the market and it was prescribed to women during the first trimester. It was prescribed in forty six different countries, including Canada, Ireland, and Japan, and it was under different brand names. Thalidomide was initially called the wonder drug and it was said to provide a safe and sound sleep, but then the babies were born, horrifying many countries. Between ten to twenty thousand babies were born disabled because of the drug and had disabilities such as deafness, blindness, disfigurement, cleft palate, and phocomelia, a disorder in which the babies limbs were extremely short. The doctors did not realize that the Thalidomide molecules were crossing the placental wall and affecting any part of the fetus that was developing at the time of ingestion. The drug also killed thousands of babies. Fortunately, in the United States only seventeen Thalidomide babies were born.

Even though the babies were being born with severe deformities or even killed, the drug did not leave the market until 1961. Some countries such as Canada did not offer any finical aid to families with Thalidomide babies. It is horrible to think that doctors were prescribing this drug, it was killing babies worldwide, and that it took years to take it off the market. Thalidomide was a huge worldwide mistake that still affects people living today.

The Year of 1959

Buddy Holly

In a popular song by Don McLean called "American Pie," a specific day is highlighted, "The Day the Music Died." This lyric is not random or in the song because it fit nicely, it is there to signify February 3, 1959, the day Buddy Holly's plane crashed.

Buddy Holly was a famous rock and roll artist who experienced fame for only two short years. Between August of 1957 and August of 1958, Holly and his band the Crickets charted seven Top Forty singles. He is known to have pioneered and popularized the now-standard rock-band lineup which consists of two guitars, bass and drums.

During his Winter Dance Party tour, the band covered twenty four Midwestern cities in only three weeks. This major amount of travelling created a problem that was worsened by the tour bus's heating system breaking down shortly after the tour began. Holly became frustrated with the tour bus situation and made flight arrangements with Roger Peterson, a twenty one year old local pilot. J.P. Richardson, known as "The Big Bopper," took Waylon Jennings seat on the plane because he had developed the flu. When Holly heard that Jennings was going to be taking the bus and not the plane he said, "Well, I hope your ol' bus freezes up," to which Jennings replied "Well, I hope your ol' plane crashes." These words haunted Jennings for the rest of his life.

The plane contained Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, J.P. Richardson, and the pilot Roger Peterson. Around 1:05 am the plane started to descend from the sky and eventually crash into the Iowa countryside, killing all four passengers. It appeared that the death came upon impact. The cause of the crash was due to worsening weather conditions, and Peterson's decision to fly using only his instruments with no visual confirmation of the horizon. This probably caused Peterson to believe that he was ascending when in reality he was descending. Also, Peterson had not been given accurate flash warnings about the weather conditions of the route.

Buddy Holly's funeral was held at the Tabernacle Baptist Church in Lubbock Texas and it attracted over a thousand mourners, not including his wife. Even after his death, on March 9, 1959 the song "It Doesn't Matter Anymore," which was recorded by Holly, became a posthumous hit.

The death of Buddy Holly and his other band members hit hard at the hearts of many Americans, and it was enough to inspire other singers to write songs about the tragic night. His death occurred during the Cold War, a hard time in the lives of many Americans, but it still made headline news.

"Ben-Hur"

The Cold War was continuously looming over the heads of American citizens creating fear across the country. Because of this fear, many people found security in religion. Church membership increased and religion was seen on television. Religion was also revived in movies to create security and ease the minds of citizens, such as in the 1959 epic film Ben-Hur. Ben-Hur is a movie based off the 1880 novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ.

It was directed by William Wyler and it was produced by MGM i hopes that the $15 million production would save it from bankruptcy. The gamble was successful because the movie earned a total of $75 million, and it won Best Motion Picture, Best Director, Best Leading Actor, Best Supporting Actor, and many others. There have been claims that there is homosexual subtext in the movie between Judah and Messala, but the Hollywood production code would not permit it to appear on screen explicitly, so it is possible that the actors implied homosexual relations.

Ben-Hur is a story about a rich Jewish prince and merchant in Jerusalem named Judah Ben-Hur, played by Charlton Heston. Judah’s old friend Messala, played by Stephen Boyd, arrives to Jerusalem as a commanding officer of the Roman Legions. Messala had been named to command the Roman garrison of Jerusalem, and Judah was thrilled for his old friend. During the welcome parade, a brick falls from Judah’s house near Messala’s horse, throwing Messala off the horse and nearly kills him. Although Messala knows it was an accident, his arrogance as a conqueror cause him to send Judah to the galleys and put Judah's mother and sister into prison. Later on, Judah refuses to give Messala the names of the Jews who oppose Roman role, so Messala decides to send Judah off as a galley slave. As he goes to the galleys, he marches through the desert and a town called Nazareth where a young, caring man gives him water. Judah is able to survive the galleys and return to Jerusalem to try to find his mother and sister and also to seek revenge against Messala. Judah then tries to take revenge against Messala by beating him in a chariot race, and when Messala tries to hit another carriage he is thrown off and stampeded by his horses. Talking to Messala before he dies, Judah is informed that his mother and sister are still alive but, they are dying of Lepers. Determined to find them, Judah seeks them in the valley.

After he finds them, he returns to the city to find everyone gone and attending the trial of Jesus. Judah recognizes Jesus as the man who gave him water in the desert, and as Jesus falls, Judah runs to him and gives him water. The look in Christ’s eye touches Judah and he weeps at the cruelty shown towards Christ. Suddenly, the sky starts to darken, and Judah’s mother and sister run into a cave for shelter. A lightning bolt strikes and cures their leprosy. When Judah returns home, he finds that his family has been healed and he thanks God for it. The sacrifice of Christ has taken the hatred out of his heart and has saved his soul.

Ben-Hur was able to restore American citizens' faith in Christ and ease their tensions and worries about the Cold War. It helped distract them from worldwide issues and war, and create a security blanket.

Space Monkey

Sending monkeys into space seemed like a ridiculous idea until 1959 when Ham, the space monkey, was sent into space in an American space satellite. Ham was actually not a monkey, but a chimpanzee that was known for biting the workers when they tried to put him into the space capsule. Ham was sent into space in the Mercury-Redstone 2. The purpose of his mission was to test the capabilities of the Mercury capsule's systems in outer space. This was to prelude the May 5th, 1961 mission of astronaut Alan B. Shepard. Ham safely survived the mission, making Shepard's flight possible and giving Americans hope about the future of space travel.

Ham was not the only monkey sent into space. Able, a rhesus monkey, and Baker, a squirrel monkey were also sent into space in 1959. They were sent into space in the nose-cone of a Jupiter missile AM-18 from Cape Canaveral, Florida to test its capabilities in space. The flight lasted for only fifteen minutes and reached speeds up to 10,000 miles per hour. The monkeys were found in the South Atlantic near Puerto Rico, which was 1,500 miles away from their initial take-off location. Both Able and Baker had been monitored throughout the entire flight for changes in heart beats, muscular reaction, pulse velocity, body temperature, and rate of breathing. As stated by a spokesman from the Medical Research and Development Command of the US Army, both monkeys returned in "perfect condition." Even with the success of the mission, it was criticized by animal welfare groups as a "scientific devilry rather than scientific research." (1959: Monkeys survive space mission)

The goal of both missions was to pave the way for future space missions and research. These monkeys were the first living beings to successfully return to Earth from space. They also put America ahead in the space race against the Soviet Union. The space race was a significant problem during the Cold War that created tension between The United States and the Soviet Union, which made these 1959 missions even more significant to America.

Mafia

The Mafia is a criminal society which is believed to have originated in 19th century Sicily, although the specific details of the organization are not entirely known. The society is a collection of criminal groups, each of which have their own territory and which are united by a feudal-like organizational structure as well as codes of conduct.

The Sicilian Mafia was exported to the United States in the 20th century as Italian immigrants filtered into the nation, and a new outlook on the organization was established. During the 1950s, the United States began to imprison many Mafiosi in the country as they cracked down on drug trafficking and other illegal activities.

The arrests resulted in an American mafia boss named Joseph Bonanno returning to Italy in the year of 1957 with the intention of furthering his heroin operation and creating a Sicilian Mafia Commission for disputes within the organization. Other American mafia members rushed to secure their profits and close their casinos and in 1961 a friend of Chicago mobsters, Frank Rosenthal, appeared in a Senate hearing on gambling and organized crime. Rosenthal used the Fifth Amendment a total of 38 times during the hearing, proving the secrecy and determination of the Mafia organization to stay behind closed doors.

The determination of the United States to reduce Mafia activity throughout the nation ultimately resulted in the creation of "The Mafia Monograph" by the FBI in 1958, which became a guide for the campaign against organized crime. Eventually, the organization was driven underground as a result of the collaborative efforts of United States law enforcement, but the Mafia continues to be glamorized in television shows and movies today.

Hula Hoops

Invention of the hula hoop not only initiated an incredibly popular fad of the late 1950’s, but also sparked competition and profit within the toy industry within the United States and internationally. Richard Knerr and Arthur Melin founded the toy upon hearing about bamboo hoops being used in Australian gym classes, and they quickly realized that it would be the perfect addition to their Wham-O Manufacturing Company in San Gabriel, CA.

The hula hoop was discovered to have a long play value amongst children and therefore became popular very quickly, with international business picking up before the founders were able to patent the toy. Other versions of the hula hoop were developed across the world, fueling international competition over sales and impressive earnings for manufacturers of over 45 million dollars.

Although the fad of the hula hoop died out around November of 1957 as reported by the Wall Street Journal, its success aroused the desire in toy manufacturers to continue discovering fads that would enthrall consumers whom were searching for entertainment during the period.

Castro

Fidel Castro was born on August 13th, 1926 to wealthy family amongst the overwhelming poverty plaguing his native country of Cuba. Castro attended law school in 1945 at the University of Hawaii and quickly submerged himself in ideas of social justice, nationalism, anti-imperialism and socialism within his native country. The early political career of Castro was largely unsuccessful until he and approximately 150 supporters of his Ortodoxo party attacked military barracks of Moncada with the intention of overthrowing the current dictator of Cuba, Fulgencio Batista.

The party members failed in their attempt, however, and instead Castro found himself captured and sentenced to 15 years in prison. He was released in 1955 as a result of a reprieve by the Batista government, but the incident had already captured the attention of Cuba and fostered both support for Castro and stronger opposition towards the regime.

Following his release from prison, Castro went to Mexico and devised a plan of guerrilla warfare to overthrow the Batista regime. The initial attempt failed with Batista’s forces killing or capturing the majority of the attackers, but in 1958 Castro and his followers successfully launched military campaigns to capture significant portions of the country until Batista fled to the Dominican Republic in January, 1959.

Fidel Castro established a new government in Cuba with great support of the Cuban people, and he immediately implemented reforms on factories and plantations in the hopes of minimizing United States economic superiority on the island. Despite Castro’s consistent denial that he was a communist, many Americans felt that Castro was instating communist policies similar to that of the Soviet Union, and this belief was further when his revolutionary government purged military leaders and suppressed critical media outlets throughout Cuba during 1959.

The influence of the Soviet Union over Castro’s policies became even more difficult to ignore when his regime began establishing diplomatic relations with the power and received defense organization with the assistance of USSR advisors. In the years following 1959, Fidel Castro continued to lead the island with communist policies while intensifying relations with the Soviet Union by accepting their aid.

Edsel

On September 4th, 1957, Ford Motor Company introduced an entirely new division of cars known as Edsel, which were intended to fill the hole in their market of medium-sized cars. The models produced included the large Mercury-based Corsair and Citation, as well as the smaller Ford-based Ranger and Pacer. With the new Edsel division and the new cars came an entirely unique, distinguishable design.

The company launched an immense promotional campaign of magazine advertisements, commercials and a television special called “The Edsel Show” in order to build up public expectations of the car. However, despite an estimated 2.5 million Americans going to the dealerships on “E-Day”, the cars were a disappointment and very few were sold.

Ford Motor Company announced the end of Edsel development on November 19th, 1959 after selling only 68,045 cars when 200,000 sales had been predicted. The spectacular failure of the Edsel cars is due to a combination of factors, none of which can be pinpointed with sole responsibility. Edsel models were uniquely designed in a way that did not appeal to the tastes of all Americans, and the assemblers failed to produce parts that always fit together efficiently. Not only was the car introduced at a time when car sales across the nation were in a recession, but the desire of the public was for small, fuel-efficient cars which would cost less money. Many experts fault Ford for not understanding the American consumers and the market at the time when Edsel was developed.

The division of Ford can be viewed as having a death spiral, which eventually ended in Edsel becoming synonymous for the American public as “failure”. As cars failed to sell, dealers disregarded the Edsel franchise until the American public became even more afraid than ever to buy the cars.

The Year of 1960

U2

On May 1st, 1960, United States pilot Francis Gary Powers was shot down in an Air Force Lockheed U2 airplane about 1,200 miles inside the airspace of Soviet Russia. Although many the specific details about the occurrence remain unknown, the incident fueled a verbal conflict between the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics which was made with the intention of easing hostilities, suspicions and surprise attacks by world powers.

The Cold War was a power struggle that had been initiated following the Second World War, and in 1955 President Eisenhower made an offer that would allow mutual territorial surveillance to Nitkita Khrushchev, the current Russian Premier, which was refused. As a result, the United States developed the U2 program in 1956 which would be controlled by the CIA. Francis Gary Powers’ mission was the 28th by the program.

Powers set out on his mission to photograph two Soviet Union missile test sites at Sverdlosk and Plesetsk. The U2 became the target for SA-2 missiles at a height of about 12.5 miles, and although the missiles could not reach the altitude at which Powers was flying, the aircraft was still broken by the resulting shock waves. The pilot was able to parachute to the ground only to be arrested immediately by Soviet forces.

Francis Gary Powers was convicted of espionage and held prisoner for 21 months by the USSR Military Division of the Supreme Court. An exchange arranged between the two powers for the Soviet spy Colonel Rudolph Ivanocvich Abel allowed for Powers' release despite his sentencing of 10 years in confinement.

Syngman Rhee

On April 26th, 1875, future president of South Korea, Syngman Rhee, was born in the city of Kaesong. Following an imprisonment by the Yi Dynasty for protesting the monarchy in 1897, Rhee received a PhD in International Law from Princeton University and took it with him to become the main right-wing politician of his native country.

In 1948, Rhee was elected president by the National Assembly with a vast majority of votes in his favor. The initial support for his regime did not last long, but the President quickly responded to resistance with belligerence and corruption to ensure his control. When a motion was introduced for a parliamentary government in August of 1952, Rhee declared martial law and rounded up the assembly members in order to coerce them into reelecting him. At the end of his second term, the President directed a deceitful amendment to the constitution which allowed him more than two terms.

As citizens became more politically conscious and informed by the press of the ineptitude of the current regime during the course of the Korean War and the years that followed, opposition grew until Rhee ultimately lost the election of 1958. However, the Liberal Party managed to regain Syngman Rhee’s presidency during the election in 1960 when the greatest opponent to his regime passed away right before. South Korean citizens were outraged by the fraudulent election of both Rhee and his vice president Yi Ki-bung, and civil protests erupted across the country.

On April 19th of 1960, about 142 people were killed in a Student Revolution by police forces, and the effects of the protests were too palpable to ignore. Seven days later President Syngman Rhee resigned from office and ended the reign of corrupt leadership and escaped to Hawaii for the remainder of his life. Despite the crooked behavior of the government during this time, Rhee left the South Korea with a plethora of urbanization, social changes and educational opportunities.

Payola

A term used to describe the illegal practice of paying a DJ or radio station to play a specific song, Payola gained its notoriety after the indictment of “the father of Rock n’ Roll”, DJ Alan Freed, in 1959. The term Payola is a portmanteau of the two words “pay” and “Victrola”, meaning to bribe to play on the radio. Known for pioneering racial integration amongst the youth of America through his broadcasting of African-American blues on national airwaves, Alan Freed became a leading icon in the phenomena of rock and roll music during the time of the Cold War. On May 9th, 1960, he was formally indicted for accepting $2,500 from an independent recording company, which he claimed was merely a token of gratitude that did not affect airplay.

Freed’s participation in the scandal significantly impeded the progression of his career, which ultimately provoked his untimely demise at the hand of alcohol abuse in 1965. Ironically, before the infamous scandal, payola was not illegal; commercial bribery, however, was. After the Supreme Court trial, the anti-payola statute was passed under which payola became a misdemeanor—the penalty being up to $10,000 in fines and one year in prison.

Kennedy

As the 35th president of the United States, John F. Kennedy served in office from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. A firm advocate for the policy of containment, Kennedy believed the U. S. needed to develop a very diverse military capability, everything from “The Flyswatter” to “The Sledge Hammer,” so that we Americans could successfully combat the threat of Communism--whether it be in the form of a low intensity conflict, or a nuclear war. Furthermore, Kennedy believed that the U. S. should be supportive of countries fighting Communist insurrection or aggression; for example, in the Vietnam War, Kennedy advocated that we should provide assistance to the Vietnamese; however, fighting the war was ultimately left to the Vietnamese people.

At the time of his assassination, Kennedy had already issued an executive order calling for the first withdrawals of American advisors from Vietnam. Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev believed the young president Kennedy lacked the will to resolutely resist Communist expansion supported by the Soviet Union. This underestimation by Khrushchev ultimately led to the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962. Khrushchev felt Kennedy would be unwilling to risk war with the Soviet Union over the placement of ballistic missiles in the Soviet client state of Cuba. Kennedy, however, made it known that the United States would not tolerate the presence of nuclear missiles so dangerously close to the American mainland. Kennedy directed the United States Navy to stop and search all Soviet vessels bound for Cuba on the high seas, and demanded that Khrushchev remove all missiles from the island.

Khrushchev, finally realizing that he had underestimated Kennedy’s resolve, ordered a convoy of Soviet ships bound for Cuba to retreat to Soviet ports rather than encounter the American Naval blockade, and agreed to remove all missiles from Cuba in exchange for the removal of some obsolete American nuclear missiles in Turkey. Domestically, Kennedy was a champion of Civil Rights. He supported desegregation of public schools in the south, and through his brother Robert F. Kennedy, the U. S. Attorney General, used the F. B. I. to rigorously enforce the Civil Rights of blacks and prosecute the unlawful activities of discriminatory groups such as the Ku Klux Klan. The Kennedy Administration conceived the War on Poverty and pushed legislation creating entitlement programs designed to eradicate extreme poverty—particularly in urban America. Finally, the Kennedy Administration launched an aggressive campaign against organized crime in America, which had infiltrated organizations such as the Teamsters’ Union, truck drivers who were responsible for moving most of the commodities in the American Marketplace to retail outlets.

Both President Kennedy and his brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, feared the Teamsters’ Union under the influence of suspected criminal elements would someday call for a nationwide trucking strike, which would essentially hold the nation hostage to the demands of the Teamsters. Unfortunately, President Kennedy did not live to see the fulfillment of much of his domestic agenda. It was left to Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson to push much of Kennedy’s domestic legislative agenda through Congress. President Kennedy was perhaps the most charismatic president in the history of the United States. His wife, Jacqueline Kennedy, was also very charming. The Kennedy White House came to be referred to as “Camelot” owing to the widespread national optimism and idyllic happiness that was manifested during the 35th President’s time in office.

Chubby Checker

An American singer-songwriter of the mid-20th century, Chubby Checker is best known for popularizing “The Twist” with his 1960 hit cover of Hank Ballard’s R&B hit of the same name. As a dance movement, “The Twist” revolutionized popular culture by giving couples the freedom to break apart on the dance floor. An appearance on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand launched Checker’s rendition of “The Twist” to the No. 1 spot on the Billboard charts in August of 1961, where it remained for an impressive 18 straight weeks.

In November of the same year, the phenomena reentered the charts again for a record-breaking 21 weeks. With this formidable achievement, “The Twist” became the first and only single to ever appear in the No. 1 spot in two separate years. Despite other No. 1 hits, such as “Pony Time” in 1961, Checker is labeled today as a “one hit wonder,” as the song and dance movement have come to overshadow the man behind it. However, the symbolism of Checker as a leading icon of music during the time serves as a suitable embodiment of the distraction popular culture played from the Cold War. The upbeat nature of music such as “The Twist” is a successful deception of reality, which constituted a collective fear of by the public of a resolve to nuclear war with the Soviet Union.

"Psycho"

Based on the novel counterpart by Robert Bloch, Psycho was a 1960 thriller directed by the famed Alfred Hitchcock that revolutionized the face of American horror films. Inspired by the crimes of Wisconsin serial killer Ed Gein, who also served as a mold for Hollywood’s infamous cannibal, Hannibal Lector, the film indisputably exceeded traditional cinematic precedents. The film portrays a young and desirable woman, Marion Crane (played by Janet Leigh), as she embezzles $40,000 across state borders to California in order to pay for her and her boyfriend’s wedding. After driving through the night, Crane decides to put up in the Bates Motel—an eerie setting that contributed significantly to the collective fear Hitchcock intended to construct. There, Crane and the audience are introduced to the Motel’s caretaker, Norman Bates (played by Anthony Perkins), and his overly controlling mother.

As time progresses, Mother Bates grows fearful that Crane poses a threat to her psychological influence over her son, and ultimately resolves to brutally stab her in cold blood in the pivotal “shower scene.” Myriad cinematic techniques contributed to this climactic scene, ranging from the intricacies of contrast between shadow and light, to numerous camera angles and superb dramatic performance, to the haunting violin score. However, perhaps the most crucial aspect of the shower scene was the irony of it; the movie is often cited as the first slasher movie in American horror films because of the scene, and yet not once does the audience ever see the knife actually pierce Crane’s skin. This suggestion of brutality left viewers far more petrified than any blunt portrayal of a disgusting act.

Psycho is considered a prime example of the type of film that appeared in the 1960s after the erosion of the Production Code. It was unprecedented in its depiction of sexuality and violence, as from the opening scene Marion and her fiancé are shown as lovers sharing the same bed. The Production Code standards outlined that unmarried couples depicted in the same bed would be taboo. Consequently, the faltering of strict censorship in the film set an example during the time, as the film’s box office success helped propel Hollywood toward more graphic displays of previously-censored themes.

Belgians in the Congo

The Congo, formally known as the Belgian Congo, was a third world battleground between Capitalism and Communism. The territory was a colony of Belgium until 1960, when Belgium formally declared it’s withdrawal in five months time, despite the fact that the country was ill-equipped for independence in such a short period. Preceding the country’s liberation on June 30th of 1960, the Congolese army mutinied against the remaining white officers, which immediately revoked any semblance of authority regained by Congolese leaders. In response to the uproar, the Belgian government sent paratroopers to protect and aid the 100,000 Belgian civilians still living within Congolese borders —an act that proved to be detrimental to the crisis, as illegal Belgian presence in an independent state only further progressed increasing tensions between nations. Such chaos was only further promoted with the secession of the mineral-enriched region of Katanga in southern Congo, as the loss of such a profitable territory meant a significant harm to economics of the unstable country.

Desperate for aid, Prime Minister Lumumba appealed to the United Nations for an army to restore and maintain law and order, prevent the involvement of other nations in the crisis, assist in rebuilding the country’s economy, and restore political stability. Soon after the United Nations intervened in the crisis, further controversy emerged, as Lumumba requested that the army remove Tshombe, the leader of the Katanga secession. Such a request was not permitted in the UN army’s jurisdiction; however, Prime Minister Lumumba interpreted the refusal as a bias on the UN’s behalf towards the well-being of a profitable Congolese territory. Lumumba’s anger at the United Nations’ failure to act against Katanga lead to his decision to seek aid from the USSR.

The Russians provided Lumumba’s government with military equipment that gave him the opportunity to launch an attack on Katanga. This attack, however, failed and President Kasavubu dismissed Lumumba and appointed the chief of the Congo’s army – Colonel Mobutu – as the new Prime Minister. In response to his usurpation, Lumumba set up a rival government in Stanleyville, an eastern region of the country. However, his murder by mercenaries removed him from the problem; whilst the United nations could do nothing but watch, as their agreement to remain neutral and to refrain from combat with the exception of self-defense prevented their intervening. Eventually, three of the four opposing regions of the Congo banded together in Leopoldville to reunite under a cohesive regime lead by Cyrille Adoula. The only region not to participate was Katanga, still under the control of Tshombe. In August 1961, 5,000 United Nations troops launched an attack on Katanga in response to request by Adoula to remove Tshombe from his authoritative position.

Although the UN captured key points in the province, the troops did not seize Tshombe, as he had fled to Rhodesia. Katanga, at last, was reunited with the Congo. There is some speculation as to how successful the United Nations was in fulfilling its four objectives for the Congo; the country escaped the throws of civil war; Russia had been kept out of a sensitive area of the vulnerable, unstable nation; the Congo was maintained under a single cohesive government by the end of 1963, and political stability was ultimately achieved. Furthermore, the United Nations installed a humanitarian program crucial to impoverished Congolese civilians, who avoided famine and epidemic with the provision of nourishment and medical supplies. However, not every nation was pleased with the United Nations work in the Congo. Russia, France and Belgium refused to pay their part of the $400 million that was needed to compensate the cost of the operation, which consequently nearly pushed the United Nations to bankruptcy.