Sign my Guestbook View my Guestbook
FREE from MyComputer.com

 

[Partial Answer ][ Contact Made ][ Press Release ][ A Visit Back ][ Why we Were at Sea in 1963 ] [1958 ][ 1959 ]
[ 1960 ][ 1961 ][ 1962 ][ 1963 ][ Burning World ][ Start Page-XO'S Office ]

 

 

CHRONOLOGY FOR 1961

During the December 1961 through August 1962 period, the U.S. increased its military involvement in Vietnam. In December, for example, the first major U.S. Army contingent arrived. On 22 December, a newly formed USN anti-infiltration patrol began operations. These patrols terminated on 1 August 1962. Following the Pathet Lao capture of strategic positions on the central plain of Laos, Seventh Fleet forces(including tow CVA'S(Lexington and Coral Sea), one CVS(Bennington), and an amphibious force) were ordered to the South China Sea. After the situation in Laos stabilized, the units were directed to with draw on Jan. 6th. Because of the deteriorating position of government forces in Laos, again elements of the Seventh Fleet were ordered to the South China Sea. While on station, U.S. Navy aircraft conducted reconnaissance missions over Loas.

January

1st The new Soviet ruble, equal to ten old rubles, goes into circulation.

3rd The United States breaks diplomatic relations with the Castro government of Cuba.

4th The OAS council votes to impose an economic boycott on the Dominican Republic.

5th Nigeria breaks diplomatic relations with France after the third Sahara atomic test.

9th Referendum results indicate that Algeria and France endorse de Gaulle's Algerian policy.

17th A 60-year Columbia River development treaty is signed by the United States and Canada.

18th Patrice Lumumba and two companions are sent from Thysville to Jadotville, Katanga, after an unsuccessful escape the previous month.20th John F. Kennedy is inaugurated President of the United States in Washington, D. C.

21st Socialist unions end their month-old strike against Belgium's austerity plan.

24th British and U.S. planes and ships search for the Santa Maria, the vessel seized by Henrique Galvao and other Portuguese political exiles.

25th President Kennedy announces the release of two RB-47 fliers shot down and held for seven months by the Soviet Union.

31st Janio Quadros is inaugurated President of Brazil, with Joito Goulart as Vice President. David Ben Gurion resigns as Premier of Israel over the Lavon dispute.

February

1st Secretary General Hammarskjold asks the Security Council for powers to halt strife in the Congo.

3rd Henrique Galvao surrenders the Santa Maria to Brazil for return to Portugal.

4th The Portuguese government prematurely reports suppression of an Angola uprising.

9th President Kasavubu announces the end of military rule in the Congo, and names a provisional government with Joseph Ileo as premier.

13th Patrice Lumumba and two companions are reported murdered by villagers in Katanga.

14th The Soviet Union withdraws recognition of UN Secretary General Hammarskjold, ar demands that UN forces leave the Congo in 30 days.

20th King Baudoum of Belgium dissolves parliament and schedules new elections for March 26.

The United States asks Soviet cooperation with a commission for neutrality in Laos.

21st Liberia asks the UN Security Council for an investigation of the disorders in Angola.

26th Mohammed V of Morocco dies; Crown Prince Moulay Hassan succeeds him.

28th Tom Mboya's Kenya National Union Party wins 16 of 33 African seats in the Kenya

elections.

March

lst The United States Peace Corps is established by President Kennedy's executive order. 2nd The U.S. Roman Catholic heirarchy announces its opposition to anY Federal school aid that does not include parochial schools.

4th Congolese soldiers and Sudanese UN troops clash at Matadi. Two days later Sudan announces it will withdraw its UN contingent.

A thousand demonstrators parade against the U.S. Polaris submarine base at Holy Loch, Scotland.

10th Laotian leaders announce a policy of strict neutrality, and agree on a 14-nation parle to set terms for a final peace in Laos.

12th The Tanarive conference ends with agreement; the Congo will be a federation with Kasavubu as president and the capital at Leopoldville.

14th President Kennedy requests $500 million for the Alliance for Progress in Latin America. lath The Senate ratifies U.S. membership in OECD.

18th Portuguese troops are rushed to Angola, where tribal violence rises.

21st Geneva test ban talks resume and attain an immediate deadlock.

23rd The UN General Assembly votes 79-2 to put Angola on the agenda. Portugal walks out.

26th Over 1,000 African leaders meet in Natal to form an organization to replace the two political parties banned by South Africa.

27th Premier Gaston Eyskens of Belgium resigns; his Christian Social Party suffered severe losses in the March 26 election.

29th The 23rd amendment, giving the District of Columbia a vote in national elections, is fully ratified.

SEATO adopts a resolution for a Laotian cease-fire and recommends a settlement guaranteeing neutrality for Laos.

 

April

7th France begins full-scale police action against right-wing terrorists in Algeria.

10th The UN Special Political Committee asks for "separate and collective" action againstSouth Africa to end apartheid.

11th The trial of Adolf Eichmann, for crimes against the Jews, begins in Israel.

12th The Soviet Union orbits a five-ton satellite, Vostock I, carrying Maj. Yuri Gagarin in orbit around the earth in 108 minutes at over 17,000 mph.

13th The UN General Assembly, in a 95-1 vote, disapproves South African apartheid policies. The United Nations requires all Belgian mercenaries and administrators to leave the Congo.

15th Cuba tells the United Nations that an invasion is being prepared in the United States and in Latin American countries.

17th counter-revolutionary forces land in strength on Cuba's southern coast.

The U.S. Supreme Court rules that private restaurants on public land may not discriminate by race in offering service.

2Oth Turkey sentences Adnan Menderes to death for violating the constitution while in office.

Counter-revolutionaries abandon their beachhead at the Bay of Pigs, Las Villas, Cuba.

22nd French army elements in Algeria mutiny under Challe, Zeller, Jouhaud, and Salan.

23rd France declares a state of emergency. Premier Debre warns of a possible air attack.

26th The Royal Laotian government and the Pathet Lao forces agree to the cease-fire asked Great Britian and Russia.

Theo Lefevre of the Christian Social Party is sworn in as premier of Belgium. The French Army mutiny in Algeria is defeated, and the four generals disappear

.

27th Sierra Leone becomes independent and plans to apply for Commonwealth and UN membership.

29th Ghana, Guinea, and Mali sign a charter establishing a Union of Afrkan States.

May

1st Premier Fidel Castro announces that there will be no more elections in Cuba.

5th Commander Alan B. Shepard travels 115 mi. into space and 302 mi. down the Atlantic range in a Mercury capsule suborbital shot.

14th Two busloads of Negro and white freedom riders are attacked in Alabama.

16th The army seizes control of the South Korean government, installs a military junta under Gen. Chang do Young, and proclaims martial law.

The 14-nation meeting on Laos opens in Geneva. Thailand and South Vietnam are absent.

Finland ratifies three laws which provide for association with EFTA.

Charles Robberts Swart is elected president of the new Republic of South Africa.

The Common Market approves another 10 percent cut in internal tariff barriers.

29th Algerian peace talks open in Evianes-Bains, and France declares a unilateral cease-fire.

30th The Dominican dictator, Generalissimo Rafael Leonidas Trujillo, is assassinated.

31st The Union of South Africa becomes a republic and leaves the Commonwealth of Nations.

 

 

June

lst Lieut. Gen. Rafael Trujillo, Jr. is named leader of Dominican Republic armed forces. 2nd The treaty creating the Latin American Free Trade Association goes into effect.

4th Talks in Vienna between Premier Khrushchev and President Kennedy end with limited agreement on Laos, and sharp disagreement on Germany, Berlin, nuclear tests, and disarmament.

5th The Soviet memorandum of June 4, calling for a German peace treaty leaving Berlin a free city, is rejected by Secretary of State Rusk

6th South Korea's military junta decrees an absolute dictatorship.

13th The French break off the three-week-old talks on Algeria at Evianies-Bains.

Experts from the Tractors for Freedom Committee confer in Havana on the exchange of 500 tractors for Cuba's 1,214 prisoners.

19th Kuwait gains independence, ending British Protectorate, and signs a treaty of friendship with Great Britain.

Three Laotian leaders, Prince Boun Oum, Prince Souvanna Phouma, and Prince Souphanouvong, begin negotiations in Zurich toward a coalition.

23rd The Tractors for Freedom Committee disbands when negotiations with Castro's Cuba fail.

25th Premier Kassem of Iraq claims Kuwait as integral part of Iraq and offers to make the ruling Sheik governor of Kuwait District.

27th President Nasser supports independence in Kuwait, which declares a state of emergency.

28th Moise Tshombe of Katanga reverses his decision to cooperate with the Congo government.

 

July

1st At Kuwait's request, British forces land to counter an Iraqi annexation threat.

3rd Chang do Young resigns as cabinet head and military junta chairman in South Korea.

5th West Germany agrees to join a 12-nation, $196 million program to construct launching rockets for satellites in Western Europe.

6th The Soviet Union discloses a reorganization of armed forces with emphasis on rocket weapons and small independent nuclear detachments.

9th Greece becomes an associate member of the European Economic Community.

18th After President Bourguiba's ultimatum demanding a promise to evacuate Bizerte and to consider Tunisia's Sahara claim, a French note warns that force will be met by force.

19th Tunisian civilians and troops surround the Bizerte naval base; the French garrison exchanges fire with the siege forces.

21st Following heavy casualties on both sides, French forces capture the city of Bizerte.

Astronaut Virgil Grissom makes the second U.S. suborbital flight at 118 mi. altitude, travelling 303 mi. in 16 mm.

24th A U.S. commercial plane with 38 on board is seized in flight over Florida by an armed passenger and forced to fly to Havana, Cuba.

25th Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay hold the first conference of the Latin American Free Trade Association in Montevideo.

President Kennedy asks for more money for defense and informs the nation that reserves and National Guard units must be called up.

28th Dag Hammarskjold reports that French troops in Bizerte violated Tunisian sovereignty and the UN cease-fire. France refuses to withdraw.

29th A UN investigating committee reports that Portugal refused it entry into Angola.

31st Britain announces it will seek membership in the Common Market. Denmark an Norway follow.

 

August

1st President Kasavubu appoints Cyrille Adoula Premier of the Congo Republic.

5th As the inter-American economic conference opens at Punta del Este in Uruguay, President Kennedy pledges over $1 billion for the first year of the Alliance for Progress program.

7th Maj. Gherman Titov, second Soviet Astronaut, completes 17 orbits around the earth in a 5-ton satellite. His flight lasted 25 hours.

9th After Khrushchev's speech demanding an East German peace treaty, 1,926 refugees reach West Berlin during 24 hours.

13th East Germany closes the border between East and West Berlin to East Germans.

17th The declaration of Punta del Este approving the 10-year Alliance for Progress program is signed by 20 nations, Cuba abstaining.

18th Antoine Gizenga accepts the post of first Vice Premier in Adoula's Congo goyernment.

24th Johannes Vorster, a former Nazi leader, is named Minister of Justice in South Africa.

25th President Janio Quadros of Brazil resigns after charges that his government has been courting the Soviet Union.

The UN General Assembly calls on France to negotiate withdrawal from the Bizerte naval base. France boycotts the session.

31st The Soviet Union announces that it will resume nuclear testing.

September

1st The Soviet Union releases an atomic atmosphere explosion over Central Asia.

The conference of non-aligned nations opens in Belgrade; U.A.R. President Nasser denounces the Soviet resumption of nuclear testing.

7th Joauo Goulart is sworn in as President of Brazil, nominates Tancredo Neves premier.

British philosopher Bertrand Russell is jailed for a week for refusing to abstain from a sitdown demonstration against nuclear arms.

15th The United States renews atomic testing with an underground explosion in Nevada.

17th Former president Menderes of Turkey is hanged for violating the constitution.

18th Dag Hammarskjold, Secretary General of the United Nations, is killed in a plane crash while on his way to peace talks with Moise Tsh-ombe.

Premier Adenauer's CDU loses its parliamentary majority in the West German elections in July.

19th A referendum results in Jamaica's withdrawal from the West Indies Federation.

20th Mongi Slim of Tunisia is elected president of the UN General Assembly.

27th Sierra Leone is admitted as the 100th member of the United Nations.

28th Army units under Syrian leaders take control of key points in Damascus. Syria's independence of the U.A.R. is declared the following day.

29th France and Tunisia sign an agreement for evacuation of French troops from Bizerte.

 

October

3rd Thirteen Americans are among the 31 peace marchers arriving in Moscow; the walk for disarmament left San Francisco in December 1960.

5th Nepal and China resolve their boundary dispute after long negotiations.

6th President Kennedy confers with Foreign Minister Gromyko on Berlin.

 

15th Elections for the new Turkish parliament are held, and parliament elects Cemal Gursel as its president ten days later.

16th The 22nd Soviet party congress opens with Premier Khrushchev's attack on Stalinist Albanian leaders strongly allied with Communist China.

18th King Savang Vathana asks neutralist Souvannna Phouma to form a new Laotian coalition government.

26th Over 30 Soviet tanks take up positions near the center of East Berlin.

27th The UN General Assembly admits Outer Mongolia and Mauritania as 102nd and 103rd members.

The UN General Assembly urges the Soviets to cancel plans to test a 50-megaton bomb.

30th The Soviet Union detonates a nuclear explosion of over 50 megatons.

The Soviet party congress approves the removal of Stalin's body from Lenin's tomb.

31st At the final meeting of the 22nd party congress, Premier Khrushchev is reelected party chief and Frol R. Kozlov remains second in command.

November

1st Mohammed Ben Bella and Algerian prisoners in France start a hunger strike.

3rd U Thant of Burma is unanimously elected Acting Secretary General of the United Nations.

16th The UN General Assembly asks atomic powers not to test bombs. The United States, the Soviet Union, and Britain say they will ignore the resolution.

l9th U.S. naval maneuvers prevent Generalissimo Trujillo's sons from renewing the Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republic.

The hunger strike by 4,000 Algerian rebels in French prisons ends after 19 days. Rebel leaders end their strike next day.

21st The Soviet Union agrees to reconvene the Geneva test ban treaty conference after a U.S.-British invitation on November 13.

23rd Brazil and the Soviet Union resume diplomatic ties broken off in 1947.

24th The UN Security Council authorizes U Thant to move against mercenaries and other foreigners in Katanga, using force if necessary.

27th Geneva test ban treaty talks are again convened and again reach an immediate deadlock.

28th Izvestia reprints the complete text of the interview given by President Kennedy to its editor, Aleksei Adzhubei.

A general strike against President Balaguer cripples the Dominican Republic.

3Oth The Soviet Union vetoes Kuwait's application for United Nations membership.

December

4th Tanganyika becomes the 104th member of the United Nations.

5th Fighting breaks out again in Elizabethville as UN troops renew action against Katanga.

11th Adolf Eichmann is convicted by an Israeli court.

16th On a two-day visit to inaugurate the Alliance for Progress program, President Kennedy is warmly welcomed in Venezuela and Colombia.

l7th The Indian army seizes Goa and two other Portuguese enclaves on the coast of India.

19th President Sukarno of Indonesia orders a mobilization for a possible invasion of Netherlands New Guinea.

21st Congolese Premier Adoula and Katangan President Tshombe conclude an agreement; Tshombe makes major concessions to the central government.

22nd In Bermuda, President Kennedy and Prime Minister Macmillan confer on Berlin negotiations and on resuming nuclear atmosphere tests.

27th Britain again dispatches troops to the Persian Gulf after Premier Kassem of Iraq hints at a new campaign to annex Kuwait.

29th President de Gaulle says he will evacuate most French troops in Algeria during 1962. Riots immediately break out in Oran and Algiers.

30th Indonesia reports that talks on the Netherlands New Guinea controversy are taking place with the United States acting as intermediary.

[Partial Answer ][ Contact Made ][ Press Release ][ A Visit Back ][ Why we Were at Sea in 1963 ] [1958 ][ 1959 ]
[ 1960 ][ 1961 ][ 1962 ][ 1963 ][ Burning World ][ Start Page-XO'S Office ]