| 1960 | |
 Dwight D. Eisenhower
was President of the United States when we started FHS in February 1960.May 1, 1960 A U-2 reconnaissance plane piloted by Francis Gary Powers is shot down over the U.S.S.R. May 16, 1960 The Paris Summit meeting collapses when Khrushchev demands an apology from President Eisenhower for the U-2 flights. 1960 The Congo (Zaire) becomes independent from Belgium on June 30, 1960 and widespread violence leads to intervention by U.N. troops. January 17, 1961 President Eisenhower delivers Farewell Address warning the nation of the "Military- Industrial Complex." (Picture and text from the Dwight D. Eisenhower web site.) |
Kennedy and Nixon campaign for president, fall 1960. (Pictures from the Schenectady Library web site) . |
 John F.
Kennedy defeated Richard M. Nixon for President on November 8, 1960. |
Car ad (from Saturday Evening Post, March 10, 1960) |
| 1961 | |
 JFK is
inaugurated in January 1961 as the 35th President of the United States. |
 Fidel
Castro observes the ill-fated Bay of Pigs invasion in April 1961. |
 Yuri
Gagarin becomes first man in space. |
 Alan
Shepard does it later in 1961 and is congratulated by JFK.. |
 The
Berlin Wall is built separating East and West Berlin. |
 1961
Saturday Evening Post article explains the future of global
telephone communication using satellites like the "Echo" in the picture
(January 14, 1961). |
| 1962 | |
 On
February 20, 1962, John Glenn piloted the Mercury-Atlas 6 "Friendship 7"
spacecraft on the first manned orbital mission of the United States.
Launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, he completed a successful
three-orbit mission around the earth, reaching a maximum altitude (apogee)
of approximately 162 statute miles and an orbital velocity of
approximately 17,500 miles per hour.
(Picture and text from the John Glenn web site.) |
|
| 1963 | |
 Martin
Luther King, Jr. delivers one of the great speeches of the 20th century in
the summer of 1963. |
Facts about our high school years: 1. JFK was president for most it and was alive and (relatively) well when we graduated. 2. We never heard of the Beatles. 3. Few (if any) of us had color TV at home. 4. Few of us knew where Vietnam was (although there were a few "advisors" there). 5. There were no PCs, VCRs, DVDs, CDs, cell phones, or digital cameras. 6. Some of us had polio as children, knew others who once had TB. Abortion wasn't a legal option and there was no AIDS. 7. Racial discrimination was not illegal, there was no right to an attorney, Blacks couldn't vote in some places in the U.S. 8. Only musicians or really bad people did drugs, no one got shot at school, there was a school dress code.
|
The
"Cuban Missile Crisis" of October 1962 (our Senior-A semester) had us all
a little nervous.