- go to the top
- About WN
- Contact
- Feedback
- Privacy Policy
- © 2012 World News Inc., all Rights Reserved
1961
Loading suggestions ...
-
Abdul Karim Kassem
http://wn.com/Abdul_Karim_Kassem -
Adnan Menderes
Adnan Menderes (ː 1899 – 17 September 1961) was the first democratically elected political leader in Turkish history. He served as prime minister between 1950–1960. He was one of the founders of the Democratic Party (DP) in 1946, the fourth legal opposition party of Turkey. He was hanged by the military junta after the 1960 coup d'état, along with two other cabinet members, Fatin Rüştü Zorlu and Hasan Polatkan. He was the last Turkish political leader to be executed after a military coup and is also one of the three political leaders of the Turkish Republic (along with Atatürk and Turgut Özal) to have a mausoleum built in his honour.
http://wn.com/Adnan_Menderes -
Adolf Eichmann
Otto Adolf Eichmann (March 19, 1906 – May 31, 1962), sometimes referred to as "the architect of the Holocaust", was a German Nazi and SS-Obersturmbannführer (equivalent to Lieutenant Colonel). Because of his organizational talents and ideological reliability, he was charged by Obergruppenführer (General) Reinhard Heydrich with the task of facilitating and managing the logistics of mass deportation of Jews to ghettos and extermination camps in German-occupied Eastern Europe.
http://wn.com/Adolf_Eichmann -
Akira Kuroiwa
Akira Kuroiwa (born September 6, 1961 in Tsumagoi, Gunma) is a former ice speed skater from Japan, who represented his native country at two consecutive Winter Olympics, starting in 1984 in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia. In 1988, he won the bronze medal in the men's 500 metres, after having captured two world titles at the Sprints Championships (1983 and 1987). At the 1984 Winter Olympics, Kuroiwa placed 10th in the men's 500 .
http://wn.com/Akira_Kuroiwa -
Akira Takasaki
is the lead guitarist and founding member of the Japanese heavy metal band, Loudness.
http://wn.com/Akira_Takasaki -
Akira Taue
(born May 8, 1961) is a Japanese professional wrestler, and the current President of Pro Wrestling Noah. He is also a former AJPW Triple Crown champion, a former GHC Heavyweight Champion and has had 14 5 Star Matches as awarded by the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
http://wn.com/Akira_Taue -
Al Jean
Al Jean (born January 9, 1961) is an award-winning American screenwriter and producer, best known for his work on The Simpsons. He was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan and graduated from Harvard University in 1981. Jean began his writing career in the 1980s with fellow Harvard alum Mike Reiss. Together, they worked as writers and producers on television shows such as The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, ALF, and ''It's Garry Shandling's Show''.
http://wn.com/Al_Jean -
Alan Shepard
Alan Bartlett Shepard, Jr. (November 18, 1923 – July 21, 1998) (Rear Admiral, United States Navy, Ret.) was an American naval aviator and astronaut who became the second person, and the first American, in space. Ten years later, he commanded the Apollo 14 mission, and was the fifth person to walk on the Moon.
http://wn.com/Alan_Shepard -
Albert Kalonji
Albert Kalonji (b. 1919 or 1929) is a Congolese best known for leading the secessionist state of South Kasai during the Congo Crisis. Kalonji, a Luba chief, was a leader (with Joseph Ileo) of a moderate faction of Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba's MNC.
http://wn.com/Albert_Kalonji -
Albert Sévigny
Albert Sévigny, PC (December 31, 1881 – May 14, 1961) was a Canadian politician.
http://wn.com/Albert_Sévigny -
Alfredo Fioravanti
Alfredo Fioravanti (1886 - 1963) was an Italian sculptor, who was part of the team that forged the Etruscan terracotta warriors in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
http://wn.com/Alfredo_Fioravanti -
Alonzo Babers
Alonzo C. Babers (born October 31, 1961) is a former American athlete, winner of two gold medals at the 1984 Summer Olympics, in the 400 m and the 4x400 m relay.
http://wn.com/Alonzo_Babers -
Amr Diab
Amr Abdel Basset Abdel Azeez Diab (; born October 11, 1961) is an Egyptian singer and composer of geel music; the contemporary face of Egyptian el-geel pop music, according to World Music. Diab is the best-selling Arab recording artist of all time, according to ''Let's Go Egypt''. He was awarded the World Music Award for Best Selling Middle Eastern Artist four times: 1998, 2002 , 2007 and 2009.He has also sold over 40 million albums worldwide.
http://wn.com/Amr_Diab -
Amy Sedaris
Amy Sedaris (born March 29, 1961) is an American actress, author and comedian. She is perhaps best known for playing the character Jerri Blank in the Comedy Central television series Strangers with Candy. Sedaris regularly collaborates with her older brother, humorist and author David Sedaris. She is recognized as a frequent guest on The Late Show with David Letterman.
http://wn.com/Amy_Sedaris -
Andres Calamaro
http://wn.com/Andres_Calamaro -
Andrey Korotayev
Andrey Korotayev (Андрей Витальевич Коротаев, born 1961) is an anthropologist, economic historian, and sociologist, with major contributions to world-systems theory, cross-cultural studies, Near Eastern history, and mathematical modeling of social and economic macrodynamics.
http://wn.com/Andrey_Korotayev -
Andrés Galarraga
Andrés José Padovani Galarraga (; born June 18, 1961 in Caracas, Venezuela) is a former Major League Baseball first baseman who played for the Montreal Expos (– and ), St. Louis Cardinals (), Colorado Rockies (–), Atlanta Braves (, ), Texas Rangers (), San Francisco Giants (2001 and ) and Anaheim Angels (). He batted and threw right-handed.
http://wn.com/Andrés_Galarraga -
Andy Lau
:Not to be confused with film director Andrew Lau.
http://wn.com/Andy_Lau -
Ann Coulter
Ann Hart Coulter (born December 8, 1961) is an American lawyer, conservative social and political commentator, author, and syndicated columnist. She frequently appears on television, radio, and as a speaker at public events and private events. Well-known for her right-wing political opinions and the controversial ways in which she defends them, Coulter has described herself as a polemicist who likes to "stir up the pot" and, unlike "broadcasters," does not "pretend to be impartial or balanced."
http://wn.com/Ann_Coulter -
Anna May Wong
Anna May Wong (January 3, 1905 – February 2, 1961) was an American actress, the first Chinese American movie star, and the first Asian American to become an international star. Her long and varied career spanned both silent and sound film, television, stage, and radio.
http://wn.com/Anna_May_Wong -
Anne Donovan
Anne Donovan (born November 1, 1961 in Ridgewood, New Jersey) is an American retired basketball player, the current interim head coach of the New York Liberty of the WNBA, and the designated head coach of the women's basketball team at Seton Hall University. She is the only person to have both played to a national women's college title and coached a team to a professional title. She is a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame.
http://wn.com/Anne_Donovan -
Anthony Burger
Anthony John Burger (June 5, 1961–February 22, 2006) was an American musician and singer, most closely associated with Southern Gospel music.
http://wn.com/Anthony_Burger -
Anthony Cumia
http://wn.com/Anthony_Cumia -
Anthony Warlow
Anthony Warlow (born 18 November 1961 in Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia) is an Australian opera and musical theatre performer, noted for his character acting and considerable vocal range (from tenor to baritone).
http://wn.com/Anthony_Warlow -
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II (; born August 4, 1961) is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned after his election to the presidency in November 2008.
http://wn.com/Barack_Obama -
Barry Fitzgerald
Barry Fitzgerald (10 March 1888 – 14 January 1961) was an Irish stage, film and television actor.
http://wn.com/Barry_Fitzgerald -
Belinda Lee
Belinda Lee (15 June 1935 – 12 March 1961) was an English actress.
http://wn.com/Belinda_Lee -
Benoît Mariage
Benoît Mariage (born 19 July 1961 in Virton, Belgium) is a Belgian film director.
http://wn.com/Benoît_Mariage -
Bill Hicks
William Melvin "Bill" Hicks (December 16, 1961 – February 26, 1994) was an American stand-up comedian, satirist and musician. His humor challenged mainstream beliefs, aiming to "enlighten people to think for themselves."
http://wn.com/Bill_Hicks -
Boy George
Boy George (born '''George Alan O'Dowd''' on 14 June 1961) is a British singer-songwriter who was part of the English New Romantic movement which emerged in the early 1980s. He helped give androgyny an international stage with the success of Culture Club during the 1980s. His music is often classified as blue-eyed soul, which is influenced by rhythm and blues and reggae. His 1990s and 2000s-era solo music has glam influences such as David Bowie and Iggy Pop. He also founded and was lead singer of Jesus Loves You during the period 1989–1992. Being involved in many activities (among them songwriting, DJing, writing books, designing clothes and photography), he has released fewer music recordings in the last decade.
http://wn.com/Boy_George -
Brett Kenny
Brett Kenny (born 16 March 1961 in Gerringong, New South Wales) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer of the 1980s and 90s. He was a five-eighth for the Australian national team, the New South Wales Blues representative side and the Parramatta Eels. He played in 17 Tests, made 17 State of Origin appearances and won 4 premierships with Parramatta. He is considered one of the nation's finest footballers of the 20th century.
http://wn.com/Brett_Kenny -
Brian Conley
Brian Conley (born 7 August 1961) is an English comedian, television presenter, singer and actor.
http://wn.com/Brian_Conley -
Calvin Smith
Calvin Smith (born January 8, 1961) is a former sprint track and field athlete from the United States. He is a former World Record holder in the 100 metre sprint, and was twice World Champion over 200 metres. He was born in Bolton, Mississippi.
http://wn.com/Calvin_Smith -
Carl Jung
Carl Gustav Jung (; 26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist, an influential thinker and the founder of analytical psychology. Jung is often considered the first modern psychologist to state that the human psyche is "by nature religious" and to explore it in depth. Though not the first to analyze dreams, he has become perhaps one of the most well known pioneers in the field of dream analysis. Although he was a theoretical psychologist and practicing clinician, much of his life's work was spent exploring other areas, including Eastern and Western philosophy, alchemy, astrology, sociology, as well as literature and the arts.
http://wn.com/Carl_Jung -
Carl Lewis
Frederick Carlton "Carl" Lewis (born July 1, 1961) is a former American track and field athlete who won 10 Olympic medals including 9 gold, and 10 World Championships medals, of which 8 were gold. His career spanned from 1979 when he first achieved a world ranking to 1996 when he last won an Olympic title and subsequently retired. Lewis is now an actor and has appeared in a number of films.
http://wn.com/Carl_Lewis -
Carlos Duarte Costa
| border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" align="right" width="300"
http://wn.com/Carlos_Duarte_Costa -
Caroline Flint
Caroline Louise Flint (born 20 September 1961) is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Don Valley since 1997. She previously served as the Minister of State for Housing and Planning in 2008, and later as the Minister of State for Europe until her resignation in 2009, citing the leadership of Gordon Brown as a reason. In October 2010, she was elected to the Shadow Cabinet, and Ed Miliband appointed her Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government.
http://wn.com/Caroline_Flint -
Carsten Fischer
Carsten ("Calle") Fischer (born August 29, 1961) is a former field hockey player from West Germany, who competed at four Summer Olympics for his native country. He won the golden medal with his team at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, after securing silver at the two previous Olympics in Los Angeles (1984) and Seoul (1988).
http://wn.com/Carsten_Fischer -
Catherine Oxenberg
Catherine Oxenberg (; born September 22, 1961, New York City) is an American actress known for her performance as Amanda Carrington on the 1980s American prime time soap opera Dynasty. The daughter of Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia, Oxenberg is a descendant of the House of Karađorđević. Catherine owns the Serbian passport
http://wn.com/Catherine_Oxenberg -
Cathy Cavadini
Catherine Janet "Cathy" Cavadini (born April 21, 1961 in New York City, New York) is an American voice actress and singer. Most famously, she voiced Blossom on Cartoon Network's animated television series The Powerpuff Girls. She also is the replacement voice for Casey Jr. in the Disney universe after Margret Wright passed away.
http://wn.com/Cathy_Cavadini -
Cemal Gürsel
Cemal Gürsel (; 13 October 1895— 14 September 1966), was a Turkish army officer, and the fourth President of Turkey.
http://wn.com/Cemal_Gürsel -
Charles Coburn
Charles Douville Coburn (June 19, 1877 – August 30, 1961) was an American film and theater actor.
http://wn.com/Charles_Coburn -
Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (, or ; 22 November 1890 – 9 November 1970) was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969.
http://wn.com/Charles_de_Gaulle -
China
China is seen variously as an ancient civilization extending over a large area in East Asia, a nation and/or a multinational entity.
http://wn.com/China -
Christopher Meloni
Christopher Peter Meloni (born April 2, 1961) is an American actor known for his roles as NYPD Detective Elliot Stabler on the NBC drama series , and as Chris Keller on the HBO drama series Oz.
http://wn.com/Christopher_Meloni -
Clayton Rohner
Clayton Rohner (born August 5, 1957) is an American actor. He is known for his role as Rick Morehouse in the 1985 comedy movie Just One of the Guys. He also starred in the 1986 film Modern Girls as Clifford and Bruno X. He is a main character in the 1994 film Caroline at Midnight. Other credits include the films ''April Fool's Day, Destroyer and The Relic. Clayton starred in the short-lived science fiction series E.A.R.T.H. Force and G vs E. He starred in the 2005 film role in Formosa''. Clayton's most recent film role is in the 2006 film Trespassers. His most recent TV role was Jared Pryor in the short-lived ABC midseason replacement Day Break.
http://wn.com/Clayton_Rohner -
Crystal Bernard
Crystal Lynn Bernard (born September 30, 1961) is an American actress and singer, most widely known for her seven-year-long role on the situation comedy Wings. While her main work has been on television, she has appeared in some films, and also attempted to pursue a music career as a songwriter/performer.
http://wn.com/Crystal_Bernard -
Cécilia Rhode
http://wn.com/Cécilia_Rhode -
D. B. Sweeney
Daniel Bernard "D. B." Sweeney (born November 14, 1961) is an American actor.
http://wn.com/D_B_Sweeney -
Dag Hammarskjöld
Dag Hjalmar Agne Carl Hammarskjöld () (29 July 1905 – 18 September 1961) was a Swedish diplomat, economist and author and was the second Secretary-General of the United Nations. He served from April 1953 until his death in a plane crash in September 1961. He is the only person to have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize posthumously. Hammarskjöld remains the only U.N. Secretary-General to die in office.
http://wn.com/Dag_Hammarskjöld -
Dan Marino
Daniel Constantine "Dan" Marino, Jr. (born September 15, 1961) is an American Hall of Fame former quarterback who played for the Miami Dolphins in the National Football League. The last quarterback of the Quarterback Class of 1983 to be taken in the first round, Marino became one of the most prolific quarterbacks in league history, holding or having held almost every major NFL passing record. Despite never being on a Super Bowl-winning team, he is recognized as one of the greatest quarterbacks in American football history. Remembered particularly for having a quick release and a powerful arm, Marino led the Dolphins into the playoffs ten times in his seventeen season career.
http://wn.com/Dan_Marino -
Daniel Johnston
Daniel Dale Johnston (born January 22, 1961) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and artist. Johnston was the subject of the 2006 documentary The Devil and Daniel Johnston. He currently lives in Waller, Texas.
http://wn.com/Daniel_Johnston -
Daniel Lévi
Daniel Lévi (born on August 26, 1961), is a French singer-songwriter, composer and pianist.
http://wn.com/Daniel_Lévi -
Daron Hagen
Daron Aric Hagen (, born November 4, 1961 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin), is an American composer, conductor, pianist, educator, librettist, and stage director of contemporary classical music and opera.
http://wn.com/Daron_Hagen -
Dashiell Hammett
Samuel Dashiell Hammett (; May 27, 1894 – January 10, 1961) was an American author of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories. Among the enduring characters he created are Sam Spade (The Maltese Falcon), Nick and Nora Charles (The Thin Man), and the Continental Op (Red Harvest and The Dain Curse).
http://wn.com/Dashiell_Hammett -
Dave McAuley
Dave McAuley, born 15 June 1961 in Larne, Northern Ireland is a former professional boxer. During his professional career he held the IBF world title in the Flyweight category. He was arguably the Irelands greatest ever Flyweight.
http://wn.com/Dave_McAuley -
Dave Mustaine
David Scott "Dave" Mustaine (born September 13, 1961 in La Mesa, California, USA) is the lead/rhythm guitarist, founder, main songwriter, and vocalist for the American heavy metal band Megadeth. He currently resides in San Diego, California. Mustaine was also the first lead guitarist and co-songwriter of Metallica until he was abruptly discharged from the band in 1983. In 2009 he was ranked No. 1 in Joel McIver's book The 100 Greatest Metal Guitarists. Mustaine was also ranked eighty-ninth by Hit Parader on their list of the 100 Greatest Metal Vocalists of All Time.
http://wn.com/Dave_Mustaine -
Dave Watson
David "Dave" Watson (born 20 November 1961 in Liverpool, Merseyside) is an English former professional footballer who made 12 appearances for the English national team. He is now the youth team coach at Wigan Athletic.
http://wn.com/Dave_Watson -
Davey Allison
David Carl "Davey" Allison (25 February 1961 – 13 July 1993) was a NASCAR race car driver, best known as the driver of the Robert Yates Racing #28 Texaco-Havoline Ford. Born in Hollywood, Florida, he was the eldest of four children born to NASCAR driver Bobby Allison and wife Judy. The family moved to Hueytown, Alabama and along with Bobby's brother Donnie Allison, family friend Red Farmer, and Neil Bonnett, became known in racing circles as the Alabama Gang.
http://wn.com/Davey_Allison -
David Leavitt
David Leavitt (born June 23, 1961) is an American novelist.
http://wn.com/David_Leavitt -
Dennis Rodman
Dennis Keith Rodman (born May 13, 1961) is a retired American professional basketball player of the National Basketball Association's (NBA) Detroit Pistons, San Antonio Spurs, Chicago Bulls, Los Angeles Lakers and Dallas Mavericks. Born in Trenton, New Jersey, he was nicknamed "Dennis the Menace" and "The Worm" and was known for his fierce defensive and rebounding abilities. Playing small forward in his early years before becoming a power forward, Rodman earned NBA All-Defensive First Team honors seven times and was voted NBA Defensive Player of the Year twice. He also led the NBA in rebounds per game for a record seven consecutive years and won five NBA championships (1989, 1990, 1996, 1997, 1998). His biography at NBA.com states that he is "arguably the best rebounding forward in NBA history".
http://wn.com/Dennis_Rodman -
Dez Cadena
Dez Paul Cadena (born June 2, 1961 in Newark, New Jersey) is an American punk rock singer and guitarist. He was the third vocalist and later rhythm guitarist for hardcore punk band Black Flag. Since 2001 Cadena has played guitar with the Misfits. He currently resides in The Ironbound section of Newark, New Jersey with his wife.
http://wn.com/Dez_Cadena -
Doc Rivers
MedalCountry|
http://wn.com/Doc_Rivers -
Don Mattingly
Donald Arthur Mattingly (nicknamed "Donnie Baseball" and "The Hit Man") (born April 20, 1961) is a former first baseman who played for the New York Yankees of the American League from 1982-1995. He is currently the Los Angeles Dodgers manager. He also served as a hitting coach for the Yankees and Dodgers prior to taking on his current position.
http://wn.com/Don_Mattingly -
Donald Cook (actor)
Donald Cook (September 26, 1901 – October 1, 1961) was an American stage and film actor.
http://wn.com/Donald_Cook_(actor) -
Dorothy Thompson
Dorothy Thompson (9 July 1893, Lancaster, New York – January 30, 1961, Portugal) was an American journalist and radio broadcaster, who was noted by Time magazine in 1939 as one of the two most influential women in America, the other being Eleanor Roosevelt.
http://wn.com/Dorothy_Thompson -
Douglas Coupland
Douglas Coupland (pronounced COPE-lund) (born December 30, 1961) is a Canadian novelist. His fiction is complemented by recognized works in design and visual art arising from his early formal training. His first novel, the 1991 international bestseller , popularized terms such as McJob and Generation X. He has published thirteen novels, a collection of short stories, seven non-fiction books, and a number of dramatic works and screenplays for film and television. Coupland has been described as "...possibly the most gifted exegete of North American mass culture writing today." and "one of the great satirists of consumerism". A specific feature of Coupland's novels is their synthesis of postmodern religion, Web 2.0 technology, human sexuality, and pop culture.
http://wn.com/Douglas_Coupland -
Dwayne McDuffie
Dwayne McDuffie is an American writer of comic books and television. His notable works include creating the animated series Static Shock, writing and producing the animated series Justice League Unlimited, and co-founding the comic book company Milestone Media.
http://wn.com/Dwayne_McDuffie -
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower ( ; October 14, 1890, in Denison, Texas – March 28, 1969), at Walter Reed Army Hospital, in Washington D. C. was a five-star general in the United States Army and the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961, and the last to be born in the 19th century. During World War II, he served as Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in Europe, with responsibility for planning and supervising the successful invasion of France and Germany in 1944–45, from the Western Front. In 1951, he became the first supreme commander of NATO.
http://wn.com/Dwight_D_Eisenhower -
Dwight Eisenhower
http://wn.com/Dwight_Eisenhower -
Earle Page
Sir Earle Christmas Grafton Page, GCMG, CH (8 August 188020 December 1961) was the 11th Prime Minister of Australia, and is to date the second-longest serving federal parliamentarian in Australian history, with 41 years, 361 days in Parliament.
http://wn.com/Earle_Page -
Ed Wynne (guitarist)
http://wn.com/Ed_Wynne_(guitarist) -
Eddie Murphy
Edward Regan "Eddie" Murphy (born April 3, 1961) is an American actor, voice actor, film director, producer, comedian and singer. The box office take from his films makes him the second highest grossing actor in the United States. He was a regular cast member on Saturday Night Live from 1980 to 1984, and has worked as a stand-up comedian. He was ranked #10 on Comedy Central's list of the 100 Greatest Stand-ups of All Time.
http://wn.com/Eddie_Murphy -
Eddie Polo
Eddie Polo (1 February 1875 – 14 June 1961) was an Austro-American actor of the silent era. He appeared in 77 films between 1913 and 1944. Born Edward W. Wyman in Vienna, Austria, Polo died in Hollywood, California from a heart attack.
http://wn.com/Eddie_Polo -
Edmond Yu
Edmond Wai-Hong Yu (October 2, 1961 - February 20, 1997) was a former medical student whose death at the hands of the Toronto Police Service sparked debates about the police's use of force, mental illness, and the treatment of those diagnosed with a mental illness.
http://wn.com/Edmond_Yu -
Edward Kennedy Jr
http://wn.com/Edward_Kennedy_Jr -
Eero Saarinen
Eero Saarinen () (August 20, 1910 – September 1, 1961) was a Finnish American architect and industrial designer of the 20th century famous for varying his style according to the demands of the project: simple, sweeping, arching structural curves or machine-like rationalism.
http://wn.com/Eero_Saarinen -
Elizabeth Daily
Elizabeth Ann Guttman (born September 11, 1961), better known by her stage names of Elizabeth Daily and E.G. Daily, is an American voice actress, actress, singer, songwriter, and musician. She voices Tommy Pickles in Rugrats and its spinoff All Grown Up!, Buttercup in The Powerpuff Girls and Steve from Curious George.
http://wn.com/Elizabeth_Daily -
Elsie Ferguson
Elsie Louise Ferguson (August 19, 1883 – November 15, 1961) was an American stage and film actress.
http://wn.com/Elsie_Ferguson -
Emily Greene Balch
Emily Greene Balch (January 8, 1867 – January 9, 1961) was an American academic, writer, and pacifist who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1946 (the prize that year was shared with John Mott), notably for her work with the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF).
http://wn.com/Emily_Greene_Balch -
Enya
Enya (born Eithne Patricia Ní Bhraonáin on 17 May 1961), is an Irish singer, instrumentalist and composer. The media sometimes refer to her by the Anglicized name, Enya Brennan; Enya is an approximate transliteration of how Eithne is pronounced in the Donegal dialect of the Irish language, her native tongue.
http://wn.com/Enya -
Eric Allin Cornell
Eric Allin Cornell (born December 19, 1961) is an American physicist who, along with Carl E. Wieman, was able to synthesize the first Bose-Einstein condensate in 1995. For their efforts, Cornell, Wieman, and Wolfgang Ketterle shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2001.
http://wn.com/Eric_Allin_Cornell -
Eric Jerome Dickey
Eric Jerome Dickey (born July 7, 1961) is a New York Times best-selling American author best known for his novels about contemporary African-American life. He is also known for writing several crime novels involving grifters, ex cons, and assassins, the latter novels having more diverse settings, moving from Los Angeles to the UK to the West Indies, each having an international cast of characters.
http://wn.com/Eric_Jerome_Dickey -
Eric Stoltz
Eric Hamilton Stoltz (born September 30, 1961) is an American actor. He is known for playing sensitive misfits (Mask, Kicking and Screaming, The Waterdance, Killing Zoe). He was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture for Mask. He currently stars in the science fiction television series Caprica.
http://wn.com/Eric_Stoltz -
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American author and journalist. His distinctive writing style, characterized by economy and understatement, influenced 20th-century fiction, as did his life of adventure and public image. He produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the mid-1950s. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954. Hemingway's fiction was successful because the characters he presented exhibited authenticity that resonated with his audience. Many of his works are classics of American literature. He published seven novels, six short story collections, and two non-fiction works during his lifetime; a further three novels, four collections of short stories, and three non-fiction works were published .
http://wn.com/Ernest_Hemingway -
Erwin Schrödinger
Erwin Rudolf Josef Alexander Schrödinger (; 12 August 1887, Erdberg – 4 January 1961, Vienna) was an Austrian theoretical physicist who was one of the fathers of quantum mechanics, and is famed for a number of important contributions to physics, especially the Schrödinger equation, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1933. In 1935, after extensive correspondence with personal friend Albert Einstein, he proposed the Schrödinger's cat thought experiment.
http://wn.com/Erwin_Schrödinger -
Ezzat el Kamhawi
Ezzat el Kamhawi is a novelist and a journalist. He is the Senior Editor of the most widely circulating Akhbar Al-Adab, a weekly journal dedicated to literature and cultural issues in the Arab World.
http://wn.com/Ezzat_el_Kamhawi -
Felix Wong
Felix Wong Yat-wah (born 4 September 1961) is a Hong Kong actor and singer. Wong is best known by audiences for his work on many Hong Kong TVB wuxia television dramas, most famously in the 1983 drama The Legend of the Condor Heroes, in which he starred as the story's hero and protagonist, Kwok Ching. He was considered to be one of the most popular teen idols of the 1980's.
http://wn.com/Felix_Wong -
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (born August 13, 1926) is a Cuban politician. One of the primary leaders of the Cuban Revolution, Castro served as the Prime Minister of Cuba from February 1959 to December 1976, and then as the President of the Council of State of Cuba and the President of Council of Ministers of Cuba until his resignation from the office in February 2008. He currently serves as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, a position he has held since 1965.
http://wn.com/Fidel_Castro -
Francis Ng
Francis Ng Chun-Yu () is a Hong Kong actor.
http://wn.com/Francis_Ng -
Frank Fay(U.S.-born)
http://wn.com/Frank_Fay(US-born) -
Frank J. Christensen
Frank J. Christensen (April 17, 1961) is an American labor leader. He is the long-serving Business Manager of Elevator Constructors Local 2, a Vice President of the International Union of Elevator Constructors, and Chairman of the Illinois Elevator Safety Board since 2003.
http://wn.com/Frank_J_Christensen -
Frank Reich
Frank Michael Reich (born December 4, 1961 in Freeport, New York) is a former American football quarterback in the NFL for the Buffalo Bills, Carolina Panthers, New York Jets, and the Detroit Lions. For a time, he had the distinction of having led his team to the biggest comeback victory ever in both the collegiate and professional ranks. Reich and starter Jim Kelly formed one of the longest-tenured backup-and-starter tandems, playing together for nine years (1986 - 1994). He is currently the quarterbacks coach for the Indianapolis Colts.
http://wn.com/Frank_Reich -
Franklyn Farnum
William Smith (June 5, 1878 - July 4, 1961), better known by his screen name, Franklyn Farnum, was an American character actor and Hollywood extra who appeared in 433 productions between the years 1916 and 1961.
http://wn.com/Franklyn_Farnum -
Frantz Fanon
Frantz Omar Fanon (July 20, 1925 – December 6, 1961) was a French psychiatrist, philosopher, revolutionary, and author, born in Martinique. His work remains influential in the fields of post-colonial studies and critical theory. Fanon is known as a Marxist thinker on the issue of decolonization and the psychopathology of colonization. His works have incited and inspired anti-colonial liberation movements for more than four decades.
http://wn.com/Frantz_Fanon -
Fumihiko Tachiki
is a male seiyū and narrator.
http://wn.com/Fumihiko_Tachiki -
Futoshi Matsunaga
is a Japanese serial killer who also defrauded and tortured his victims. He was convicted of six murders and one manslaughter, including two children, between 1996 and 1998. He murdered his victims with an accomplice, Junko Ogata.
http://wn.com/Futoshi_Matsunaga -
Gail Russell
Gail Russell (September 21, 1924 – August 26, 1961) was an American film and television actress.
http://wn.com/Gail_Russell -
Gala Galaction
Gala Galaction (IPA: /'ga.la ga.lak.'ti.on/; the pen name of Grigore or Grigorie Pişculescu; April 16, 1879—March 8, 1961) was a Romanian Orthodox clergyman and theologian, writer, journalist, left-wing activist, as well as a political figure of the People's Republic of Romania. Contrary to the spirit of the time, he was a promoter of tolerance towards the Jewish minority.
http://wn.com/Gala_Galaction -
Gary Ablett, Sr.
Gary Robert Ablett, senior (born 1 October 1961) is a retired professional Australian rules football player who played the majority of his career with the Geelong Football Club. Ablett was best known as a prolific goalkicker and spectacular marker of the ball, and his biography on the Australian Football League (AFL) website states, "He has left a legacy wherein Gary Ablett is one of the greatest players to have played the game".
http://wn.com/Gary_Ablett_Sr -
Gary Cooper
Frank James “Gary” Cooper (May 7, 1901 – May 13, 1961) was an American film actor. He was renowned for his quiet, understated acting style and his stoic, individualistic, emotionally restrained, but at times intense screen persona, which was particularly well suited to the many Westerns he made. His career spanned from 1925 until shortly before his death, and comprised more than one hundred films.
http://wn.com/Gary_Cooper -
Gene Deitch
Eugene Merril "Gene" Deitch (born August 8, 1924) is an American illustrator, animator and film director. He has been based in Prague, capital of Czechoslovakia and the present-day Czech Republic, since 1959. Since 1968, Deitch has been the leading animation director for the Connecticut organization Weston Woods/Scholastic, adapting children's picture books. His studio is located in Prague near the Barrandov studios where many major films were recorded. In 2003, he was awarded the "Annie" by ASIFA Hollywood for a lifetime contribution to the art of animation.
http://wn.com/Gene_Deitch -
Gene Eugene
Gene "Eugene" Andrusco (April 6, 1961–March 20, 2000) was a Canadian born actor, record producer, engineer, composer and musician. Andrusco was best known as the leader of the funk/rock band Adam Again, a member of The Swirling Eddies (credited as Prickly Disco) and as a founding member of the roots music supergroup Lost Dogs.
http://wn.com/Gene_Eugene -
Geoff Moore
Geoff Moore (born February 21, 1961 in Flint Michigan) is a Contemporary Christian music artist and songwriter. He started recording as a solo artist in 1984. In 1987, he formed Geoff Moore and the Distance. The contemporary gospel band released together 8 albums. The band broke up in 1998, with Geoff Moore continuing as a solo artist.
http://wn.com/Geoff_Moore -
George A. Malcolm
George A. Malcolm (November 5, 1881 — May 16, 1961) was an American lawyer who emerged as an influential figure in the development of the practice of law in the Philippines in the 20th century. At age 35, he was appointed Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines, where he would serve for 19 years. His most enduring legacy perhaps lies in his role in the establishment of the College of Law at the University of the Philippines.
http://wn.com/George_A_Malcolm -
George Blake
George Blake (born George Behar, 11 November 1922) is a former British spy known for having been a double agent in the service of the Soviet Union. Discovered in 1961 and sentenced to 42 years in prison, he escaped from Wormwood Scrubs prison in 1966 and fled to the USSR. He was not one of the Cambridge spies, although he is often grouped with them.
http://wn.com/George_Blake -
George Formby, Jr.
George Formby, Jr., OBE (26 May 1904 – 6 March 1961) was an English singer and comedian, remembered for playing the banjo ukulele or banjolele and as a singer of light, comical songs, who became a popular star of stage and screen.
http://wn.com/George_Formby_Jr -
George Melford
George H. Melford (February 19, 1877 – April 25, 1961) was an American stage and film actor, director, producer, and screenwriter.
http://wn.com/George_Melford -
George S. Kaufman
George Simon Kaufman (November 16, 1889 - June 2, 1961) was an American playwright, theatre director and producer, humorist, and drama critic.
http://wn.com/George_S_Kaufman -
Gerardo Teissonniere
Gerardo Teissonnière (born 1961) is a Puerto Rican pianist and teacher.
http://wn.com/Gerardo_Teissonniere -
Gherman Titov
Gherman Stepanovich Titov () (September 11, 1935 – September 20, 2000) was a Soviet cosmonaut and the second man to orbit the Earth, preceded by Yuri Gagarin.
http://wn.com/Gherman_Titov -
Gina Mastrogiacomo
Gina Mastrogiacomo (November 5, 1961 – May 2, 2001) was an Italian-American actress born in Great Neck, New York. She moved to New York City when she was 18 years old. She later became an actress, gaining fame for her role as Janice Rossi in Martin Scorsese's film Goodfellas.
http://wn.com/Gina_Mastrogiacomo -
Grandma Moses
Anna Mary Robertson Moses (September 7, 1860 – December 13, 1961), better known as "Grandma Moses", was a renowned American folk artist. She is most often cited as an example of an individual successfully beginning a career in the arts at an advanced age. Moses had ten children but five died at birth. Although her family and friends called her either "Mother Moses" or "Grandma Moses," she first exhibited as "Mrs. Moses," yet the press eagerly dubbed her "Grandma Moses," which stuck." LIFE magazine celebrated her 100th birthday by featuring her on its September 19, 1960 cover.
http://wn.com/Grandma_Moses -
Greg Hetson
Greg Hetson (born June 29, 1961) is an American guitarist. He was born in Brooklyn, New York and has lived in Los Angeles, California since he was 2 years old. Active since 1979, Hetson is best known as the guitarist for the influential hardcore punk bands Redd Kross, Circle Jerks and Bad Religion.
http://wn.com/Greg_Hetson -
Greg LeMond
Cyclist
http://wn.com/Greg_LeMond -
Guido Buchwald
Guido Ulrich Buchwald (born January 24, 1961) is a German former football defender and manager.
http://wn.com/Guido_Buchwald -
Gus Grissom
Virgil Ivan Grissom, widely noted as Gus Grissom (April 3, 1926 – January 27, 1967) was one of the original NASA Project Mercury astronauts and a United States Air Force pilot. He was the second American to fly in space and the first person to fly in space twice. Grissom was killed along with fellow astronauts Ed White and Roger Chaffee during a pre-launch test for the Apollo 1 mission at the Kennedy Space Center. He was a recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross and, posthumously, the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.
http://wn.com/Gus_Grissom -
Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884 – December 26, 1972) was the 33rd President of the United States (1945–1953). As President Franklin D. Roosevelt's third vice-president and the 34th Vice President of the United States, he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when President Roosevelt died less than three months after beginning his historic fourth term.
http://wn.com/Harry_S_Truman -
Hassan II of Morocco
King Hassan II (, class. pron. (a)l-ḥasan aṯ-ṯānī, dial. (Mar.) el-ḥasan ett(s)âni); July 9, 1929–July 23, 1999) was King of Morocco from 1961 until his death in 1999. He was the second eldest son of Mohammed V, Sultan, then King of Morocco (1909-1961) and his wife Lalla Abla bint Tahar (1889-1992).
http://wn.com/Hassan_II_of_Morocco -
Heinrich Matthaei
http://wn.com/Heinrich_Matthaei -
Helmi Johannes
Helmi Johannes (born March 23, 1961) is an Indonesian television newscaster and executive producer. Helmi Johannes now works for the Indonesian service of the Voice of America (VOA), based in Washington, DC. Helmi is responsible for the overall production, program development, talent and day-to-day operations of VOA Indonesian television programming.
http://wn.com/Helmi_Johannes -
Henry Rollins
Henry Rollins (born Henry Lawrence Garfield; February 13, 1961) is an American singer-songwriter, raconteur, stand-up comedian, spoken word artist, writer, publisher, actor, radio DJ, and activist.
http://wn.com/Henry_Rollins -
Herbert Pitman
Herbert John "Bert" Pitman MBE (20 November 1877-2 December 1961) was the Third Officer on board the . He was the only officer who was not a member of the Royal Navy Reserve.
http://wn.com/Herbert_Pitman -
Hiroshi Hase
is a retired Japanese professional wrestler who worked for New Japan Pro Wrestling and All Japan Pro Wrestling, prior to transitioning to a position in the Japanese parliament. He currently holds the position of chairman for the PWF, which is the governing body for all championships in All Japan Pro Wrestling. [http://www.ajpw.puroresufan.com/]
http://wn.com/Hiroshi_Hase -
Hugo Teufel III
Hugo Teufel III (born July 25, 1961 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and raised in Wichita, Kansas and Denver, Colorado) was appointed as Chief Privacy Officer for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security by Secretary Michael Chertoff on 21 July 2006, after a ten-month vacancy that was filled by acting Chief Privacy Officer, Maureen C. Cooney. Teufel is the second chief privacy officer for the DHS, after Nuala O'Connor Kelly, appointed by Secretary Tom Ridge. He left the Department on January 20, 2009, with the change of administrations. In April, 2009, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP announced that Teufel had joined the firm as a director in the firm's advisory practice.
http://wn.com/Hugo_Teufel_III -
Ilham Aliyev
Ilham Heydar oglu Aliyev (, born 24 December 1961) is the fourth and current President of Azerbaijan. He also functions as the Chairman of the New Azerbaijan Party.
http://wn.com/Ilham_Aliyev -
Ingrid Betancourt
http://wn.com/Ingrid_Betancourt -
Iris DeMent
Iris DeMent (born January 5, 1961) is an American singer and songwriter. DeMent's musical style encompasses the genres country and folk music.
http://wn.com/Iris_DeMent -
Isiah Thomas
:For people with the same or similar name, see Isiah Thomas (disambiguation)
http://wn.com/Isiah_Thomas -
İsmet İnönü
Mustafa İsmet İnönü (; 24 September 1884 – 25 December 1973) was a Turkish Army General, Prime Minister and the second President of Turkey. In 1938, Republican People's Party gave him the title of "Milli Şef" (National Chief).
http://wn.com/İsmet_İnönü -
Ivo Andrić
Ivo Andrić (Serbian Cyrillic: Иво Андрић) (October 9, 1892 – March 13, 1975) was a Yugoslav novelist, short story writer, and the 1961 winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. His writings dealt mainly with life in his native Bosnia under the Ottoman Empire. His native house in Travnik has been transformed into a Museum, and his Belgrade flat on Andrićev Venac host the Museum of Ivo Andrić, and Ivo Andrić Foundation.
http://wn.com/Ivo_Andrić -
Jackie Earle Haley
Jackie Earle Haley (born Jack E. Haley; July 14, 1961) is an American film actor. Establishing himself from child actor to adult Academy Award-nominee, he is perhaps best known for his roles as Moocher in Breaking Away, Kelly Leak in The Bad News Bears, pedophile Ronnie McGorvey in Little Children, the vigilante Rorschach in Watchmen, and most recently as horror icon Freddy Krueger in the remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street, released on April 30, 2010. He is currently appearing in Fox's drama Human Target.
http://wn.com/Jackie_Earle_Haley -
Jacky Cheung
Jacky Cheung Hok-yau (born 10 July 1961) is a Hong Kong singer, songwriter and actor.
http://wn.com/Jacky_Cheung -
James Gandolfini
James J. Gandolfini, Jr. (born September 18, 1961) is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Tony Soprano in the HBO TV series The Sopranos, about a troubled crime boss struggling to balance his family life and his career in the Mafia. Gandolfini's other roles include the woman-beating mob henchman Virgil in True Romance, enforcer/stuntman Bear in Get Shorty, Lt. General Miller in In the Loop, and the impulsive Wild Thing Carol in Where the Wild Things Are. In 2007, Gandolfini produced the HBO documentary "Alive Day Memories: Home from Iraq" in which he interviewed 10 injured veterans from the Iraq War.
http://wn.com/James_Gandolfini -
James Melton
James Melton (January 2, 1904 – April 21, 1961), was a popular singer in the 1920s and early 1930s who later began a career as an operatic singer when tenor voices went out of style in popular music around 1932-1935. His singing talent was similar to that of Richard Crooks, John Charles Thomas or Nelson Eddy.
http://wn.com/James_Melton -
James Naismith
James Naismith (November 6, 1861 – November 28, 1939) was a Canadian and naturalized American sports coach and innovator. Naismith invented the sport of basketball in 1891 and is often credited with introducing the first football helmet. Naismith wrote the original basketball rulebook, founded the University of Kansas basketball program, and lived to see basketball adopted as an Olympic demonstration sport in 1904 and as an official event at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin.
http://wn.com/James_Naismith -
James Thurber
James Grover Thurber (December 8, 1894 – November 2, 1961) was an American author, cartoonist and celebrated wit. Thurber was best known for his contributions (both cartoons and short stories) to The New Yorker magazine.
http://wn.com/James_Thurber -
James Worthy
James Ager Worthy (born February 27, 1961 in Gastonia, North Carolina), is a retired Hall of Fame American college and professional basketball player. Named as one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History, "Big Game James" was a seven time NBA All-Star and three time NBA champion. A standout for the North Carolina Tar Heels, the 6 ft 9 in (2.05 m) small forward was the MOP of the 1982 NCAA Tournament and #1 pick of the 1982 NBA Draft.
http://wn.com/James_Worthy -
Jan Kuehnemund
Jan Kuehnemund (born Janice Lynn Kuehnemund on November 11, 1961 in St. Paul, Minnesota) is an American hard rock guitarist best known for her work with Vixen. Originally from St. Paul, Minnesota, Jan is the original founding member of the band. Her trademark guitar playing can be heard on many of the Vixen songs. Jan is the only member of the famous lineup that still tours.
http://wn.com/Jan_Kuehnemund -
Janet G. Travell
Dr. Janet Graeme Travell, M.D. (December 17, 1901 — August 1, 1997) was an American physician and medical researcher. She was appointed the personal physician to President John F. Kennedy in 1961. Educated at Wellesley College and Cornell University Medical College, she was the first female doctor to be the personal physician to a sitting United States president.
http://wn.com/Janet_G_Travell -
Janet McTeer
Janet McTeer, OBE (born 8 May 1961) is a British actress.
http://wn.com/Janet_McTeer -
Jay Aston
Jay Aston (born 4 May 1961, Purley, London) is a singer, dancer, and occasional songwriter who was formerly with the British pop group, Bucks Fizz. She was the youngest member of the group's original line-up.
http://wn.com/Jay_Aston -
Jeff Malone
Jeffrey Nigel Malone (born June 28, 1961 in Mobile, Alabama) is a retired American professional basketball player. He played college basketball at Mississippi State University, and is mostly known for his time with the Washington Bullets (1983-90) of the NBA, where he was an NBA All-Star twice, playing the shooting guard position. He also played for the Utah Jazz, Philadelphia 76ers, and Miami Heat.
http://wn.com/Jeff_Malone -
Jesse Wallace
Jesse Rink Wallace (July 7, 1899 – January 29, 1961) was a United States Navy Captain and the 29th (27th unique) Governor of American Samoa. He served as Governor for a period of only ten days from July 30, 1940 to August 8, 1940. Wallace was born in Beardstown, Illinois on July 7, 1899. On June 20, 1918, Wallace was appointed to the United States Naval Academy from Illinois. After his brief time as Governor, Wallace became the chief of staff to the Commandant of the Ninth Naval district. Wallace retired in 1952 and died on January 29, 1961; he was buried at the United States Naval Academy Cemetery.
http://wn.com/Jesse_Wallace -
Jill Dando
Jill Wendy Dando (9 November 1961 – 26 April 1999) was an English journalist, television presenter and newsreader who worked for the BBC for 14 years. She was murdered by gunshot outside her home in Fulham, West London, and her killer has never been identified.
http://wn.com/Jill_Dando -
Jim Balsillie
James Laurence "Jim" Balsillie (born February 3, 1961) is a Canadian businessman and co-CEO of the Canadian company Research In Motion. He is a member of the Trilateral Commission.
http://wn.com/Jim_Balsillie -
Jim Bowden
:For the rugby league footballer of the 1950s for Great Britain, England, and Huddersfield, see James Bowden
http://wn.com/Jim_Bowden -
Joan Davis
Joan Davis (June 29, 1907 – May 22, 1961) was an American comedic actress whose career spanned vaudeville, film, radio and television. Remembered best for the 1952–55 television comedy, I Married Joan, Davis had a successful earlier career as a B-movie actress and a leading star of 1940s radio comedy.
http://wn.com/Joan_Davis -
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963.
http://wn.com/John_F_Kennedy -
John Key
John Phillip Key (born 9 August 1961) is the 38th and current Prime Minister of New Zealand and leader of the New Zealand National Party.
http://wn.com/John_Key -
John Lynch (actor)
John Lynch (born 26 December 1961) is an Irish actor from Northern Ireland.
http://wn.com/John_Lynch_(actor) -
John Matteson
John Matteson (born March 3, 1961, in San Mateo, California) is a full professor of English and legal writing at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. He won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Biography for his first book, ''Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father''.
http://wn.com/John_Matteson -
Joseph Kasavubu
http://wn.com/Joseph_Kasavubu -
Joseph Schenck
Joseph Michael Schenck (December 25, 1878 – October 22, 1961) was a pioneer executive who played a key role in the development of the United States film industry.
http://wn.com/Joseph_Schenck -
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (18 December 1878 – 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and head of state who served as the first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee from 1922 until his death in 1953. After the death of Vladimir Lenin in 1924, Stalin rose to become the leader of the Soviet Union, which he ruled as a dictator.
http://wn.com/Joseph_Stalin -
Juanita Hansen
Juanita C. Hansen (March 3, 1895 – September 26, 1961) was an American silent film actress. She was a Sennett Bathing Beauty and appeared in a variety of serials through the late 1910s. She was well known for her troubled personal life and struggle with addiction to cocaine and morphine. In 1934 she became clean and traveled lecturing on the evils of drugs. She wrote a book about addiction and started her own charity to help raise awareness about drug abuse.
http://wn.com/Juanita_Hansen -
Judy Garland
Judy Garland (June 10, 1922 – June 22, 1969) was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years, Garland attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage. Respected for her versatility, she received a Juvenile Academy Award, won a Golden Globe Award, received the Cecil B. DeMille Award for her work in films, as well as Grammy Awards and a Special Tony Award. After appearing in vaudeville with her sisters, Garland was signed to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as a teenager. There she made more than two dozen films, including nine with Mickey Rooney and the 1939 film with which she would be most identified, The Wizard of Oz. After 15 years, Garland was released from the studio but gained renewed success through record-breaking concert appearances, including a critically acclaimed Carnegie Hall concert, a well-regarded but short-lived television series and a return to acting beginning with a critically acclaimed performance in A Star Is Born (1954).
http://wn.com/Judy_Garland -
Julia Gillard
Julia Eileen Gillard (born 29 September 1961, ) is the 27th and current Prime Minister of Australia since June 2010.
http://wn.com/Julia_Gillard -
Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Scarlett Elizabeth Louis-Dreyfus (; born January 13, 1961) is an American actress and comedian, widely known for her sitcom roles in Seinfeld and The New Adventures of Old Christine.
http://wn.com/Julia_Louis-Dreyfus -
Julius Nyerere
Julius Kambarage Nyerere (13 April 1922 - 14 October 1999) was a Tanzanian politician who served as the first President of Tanzania and previously Tanganyika, from the country's founding in 1961 until his retirement in 1985.
http://wn.com/Julius_Nyerere -
Jussi Lampi
Jussi Lampi (born 9 February 1961 in Lappajärvi) is a Finnish musician and long-time actor. Lampi has appeared in many films and TV shows, including V2 - jäätynyt enkeli (2007), Matti (2006), Pelikaanimies (2004), Rölli ja metsänhenki (2001), Ansa ja Oiva and Ruusun aika. It is believed that Lampi started his recording career in the band Bodyguards. Lampi has played and is still playing in the band Pink Flamingos since 1993. The band has published one album, Pink Flamingos, through Strawberry Records. Currently Lampi plays the drums and is a background singer in Timo Rautiainen's band. Lampi is tall. Lampi has also worked as a voice actor in the Finnish dubs of Monsters Inc., The Wild, the first Pokémon film as Mewtwo, and Finding Nemo.
http://wn.com/Jussi_Lampi -
Justin Madden
Justin Mark "Harry" Madden (born 31 May 1961) is an Australian politician and former Australian rules footballer. He rose to prominence as a highly successful player with the Carlton Football Club, after an early stint with Essendon. He entered politics after retiring in 1997, and is the current Victorian Minister for Planning.
http://wn.com/Justin_Madden -
k.d. lang
http://wn.com/kd_lang -
Karen Duffy
Karen Duffy (born May 23, 1961) is an American model, television personality, and actress.
http://wn.com/Karen_Duffy -
Karin Enke
Karin Enke (born 20 June 1961 in Dresden, East Germany), also known as Karin Busch(-Enke), Karin Kania(-Enke), and Karin Enke-Richter, is a former speed skater, one of the most dominant ones of the 1980s.
http://wn.com/Karin_Enke -
Karin Resetarits
Karin Resetarits (born 15 December 1961) is an Austrian journalist and politician. She was a Member of the European Parliament from 2004 until 2009.
http://wn.com/Karin_Resetarits -
Keith Sweat
Keith Sweat, (born July 22, 1961) is an American R&B;/soul, singer-songwriter, record producer, radio personality and a major contributor to the New jack swing era.
http://wn.com/Keith_Sweat -
Kelley Deal
Kelley Deal (born June 10, 1961, in Dayton, Ohio, United States) is the lead guitarist of The Breeders and the identical twin sister of musician Kim Deal.
http://wn.com/Kelley_Deal -
Kevin McDonald
Kevin Hamilton McDonald (born May 16, 1961) is a Canadian comedian and actor, known as a member of the Canadian sketch comedy group Kids in the Hall.
http://wn.com/Kevin_McDonald -
Kim Deal
Kimberley Ann Deal (born June 10, 1961) is an American singer, songwriter and musician, best known as the lead vocalist and guitarist for The Breeders and bassist (and lead/backup vocalist) of the alternative rock band the Pixies. Deal first joined the Pixies in January 1986 as the band's bassist, adopting the stage name Mrs. John Murphy for the band's releases Come On Pilgrim and Surfer Rosa. Following Doolittle and the Pixies' resulting hiatus, she formed The Breeders with Tanya Donelly and Josephine Wiggs. After the Pixies reconvened in 1990, Deal felt increasingly sidelined by the band's frontman, Black Francis; this led to the Pixies' breakup in early 1993.
http://wn.com/Kim_Deal -
Lar Park Lincoln
Lar Park Lincoln (born May 12, 1961) is an American actress. She is perhaps best known for her roles in the 1987 film ' as Kate, and in the 1988 horror film ' as Tina Shepard.
http://wn.com/Lar_Park_Lincoln -
Larry Mullen, Jr.
Lawrence Joseph "Larry" Mullen, Jr. (born 31 October 1961) is the drummer for the rock band U2. He is the founder of U2, which he later described as "'The Larry Mullen Band' for about ten minutes, then Bono walked in and blew any chance I had of being in charge." He has worked on numerous side projects during his career, including a collaboration with Michael Stipe and Mike Mills of R.E.M. to form Automatic Baby in 1993 and working with bandmate Adam Clayton on the re-recording of the theme to , in 1996. He and U2 have won many awards, including 22 Grammy awards.
http://wn.com/Larry_Mullen_Jr -
Latifa
:
http://wn.com/Latifa -
Laurence Fishburne
Laurence John Fishburne III (born July 30, 1961) is an American actor of screen and stage, as well as a playwright, director, and producer. He is perhaps best known for his roles as Morpheus in the Matrix science fiction film trilogy, and as singer-musician Ike Turner in the Tina Turner biopic ''What's Love Got to Do With It''. He became the first African American to portray Othello in a motion picture by a major studio when he appeared in Oliver Parker's 1995 film adaption of the Shakespearean play. Currently, he stars as Dr. Raymond Langston on the CBS crime drama .
http://wn.com/Laurence_Fishburne -
Laurence Owen
Laurence Rochon "Laurie" Owen (May 9, 1944 – February 15, 1961) was an American figure skater. She was the 1961 U.S. National Champion and represented the United States at the 1960 Winter Olympics, where she placed 6th. She was the daughter of Maribel Vinson and Guy Owen and the sister of Maribel Owen. Laurence Owen died in a plane crash en route to the 1961 World Championships.
http://wn.com/Laurence_Owen -
Lawrence Lessig
Lawrence "Larry" Lessig (born June 3, 1961) is an American academic and political activist. He is best known as a proponent of reduced legal restrictions on copyright, trademark, and radio frequency spectrum, particularly in technology applications.
http://wn.com/Lawrence_Lessig -
Lea Thompson
Lea Katherine Thompson (born May 31, 1961) is an American actress and director. She is best known for her 1990s NBC situation comedy Caroline in the City and her portrayal of Lorraine Baines McFly, Marty McFly's mother, in the Back to the Future trilogy.
http://wn.com/Lea_Thompson -
Lee DeForest
http://wn.com/Lee_DeForest -
Lee Moran
Lee Moran (June 23, 1888 – April 24, 1961) was an American actor, director and writer. He transcended the silent era of motion pictures to the talkies. Moran appeared in 462 movies, directed 109 and wrote for 92 between 1912 and 1935.
http://wn.com/Lee_Moran -
Leo Carrillo
Leopoldo Antonio Carrillo (August 6, 1881 – September 10, 1961), was an American actor, vaudevillian, political cartoonist, and conservationist.
http://wn.com/Leo_Carrillo -
Lidia Yusupova
Lidia Muhtarovna Yusupova (Лидия Мухтаровна Юсупова) (born September 15, 1961 in Grozny, Chechnya) is the Coordinator of the law office of the Moscow-based human rights organization Memorial. Formerly, Yusupova was the director of the Grozny office of Memorial. Currently, Yusupova is completing a two year law fellowship in Moscow.
http://wn.com/Lidia_Yusupova -
Lisa Gerrard
Lisa Gerrard (born April 12, 1961) is an Australian musician, singer, and composer who rose to prominence as part of the music group Dead Can Dance with former music partner Brendan Perry.
http://wn.com/Lisa_Gerrard -
Lisa Zane
Elizabeth Frances "Lisa" Zane (born April 5, 1961) is an American actress who has starred on stage, in film and television.
http://wn.com/Lisa_Zane -
Lloyd Cole
Lloyd Cole (born 31 January 1961) is an English singer and songwriter, known for his role as lead singer of Lloyd Cole and the Commotions from 1984 to 1989, and for his subsequent solo work.
http://wn.com/Lloyd_Cole -
Lothar Matthäus
Lothar Herbert Matthäus , (born 21 March 1961 in Erlangen, West Germany) is a German former football player who is currently the head coach of the Bulgaria national football team.
http://wn.com/Lothar_Matthäus -
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson (August 27, 1908 – January 22, 1973), often referred to as LBJ, served as the 36th President of the United States from 1963 to 1969 after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States from 1961 to 1963. He is one of four Presidents who served in all four elected Federal offices of the United States: Representative, Senator, Vice President and President.
http://wn.com/Lyndon_B_Johnson -
Manu Chao
Manu Chao (born José-Manuel Thomas Arthur Chao on June 21, 1961), is a French singer of Spanish origin (Basque and Galician). He sings in French, Spanish, English, Galician, Arabic and Portuguese and occasionally in other languages. Chao began his musical career in Paris, busking and playing with groups such as Hot Pants and Los Carayos, which combined a variety of languages and musical styles. With friends and his brother Antoine Chao, he founded the band Mano Negra in 1987, achieving considerable success, particularly in Europe. He became a solo artist after its breakup in 1995, and since then tours regularly with his live band, Radio Bemba.
http://wn.com/Manu_Chao -
Marcel Junod
Marcel Junod (May 14, 1904 – June 16, 1961) was a Swiss doctor and one of the most accomplished field delegates in the history of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). After medical school and a short position as a surgeon in Mulhouse, France, he became an ICRC delegate and was deployed in Ethiopia during the Second Italo-Abyssinian War, in Spain during the Spanish Civil War, and in Europe as well as in Japan during World War II. In 1947, he wrote a book with the title Warrior without Weapons about his experiences. After the war, he worked for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) as chief representative in China, and settled back in Europe in 1950. He founded the anaesthesiology department of the Cantonal Hospital in Geneva and became the first professor in this discipline at the University of Geneva. In 1952, he was appointed a member of the ICRC and, after many more missions for this institution, was Vice-President from 1959 until his death in 1961.
http://wn.com/Marcel_Junod -
Maria Filatova
Maria Evgenievna Filatova () (born July 19, 1961, Leninsk-Kuznetsky, Siberia) is a retired Soviet gymnast who competed at the 1976 and 1980 Olympics.
http://wn.com/Maria_Filatova -
Mariel Hemingway
Mariel Hadley Hemingway (born November 22, 1961) is an American actress and writer.
http://wn.com/Mariel_Hemingway -
Marilyn Milian
Marilyn Milian, (born May 1, 1961 in Queens, New York), is a former Florida state circuit court judge and currently presides over the American television program ''The People's Court''. She is the first female judge to preside over the long-running show.
http://wn.com/Marilyn_Milian -
Marion Davies
Marion Davies (January 3, 1897 – September 22, 1961) was an American film actress. Davies is best remembered for her relationship with newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst, as her high-profile social life often obscured her professional career.
http://wn.com/Marion_Davies -
Mark Latham
Mark William Latham (born 28 February 1961), a former Australian politician, was leader of the Federal Parliamentary Australian Labor Party and Leader of the Opposition from December 2003 to January 2005.
http://wn.com/Mark_Latham -
Mark Messier
Mark Douglas Messier (; born January 18, 1961) is a former Canadian professional ice hockey centre of the National Hockey League and current special assistant to the president and general manager of the New York Rangers. He spent a quarter of a century in the NHL (1979–2004) with the Edmonton Oilers, New York Rangers, and Vancouver Canucks. He also played professionally with the World Hockey Association (WHA)'s Indianapolis Racers and Cincinnati Stingers. He was the last former WHA player to be active in professional hockey, and the last active player who had played in the NHL in the 1970s.
http://wn.com/Mark_Messier -
Mark Shasha
Mark Shasha (born 1961) is an American artist. He is also an author, illustrator and educator. His subjects are often familiar and are usually inspired by the textures and light found along the New England coast where he lives and works.
http://wn.com/Mark_Shasha -
Martina Gedeck
Martina Gedeck (born 14 September 1961) is a German actress. She came to international fame as the main character in the German films Mostly Martha and The Lives of Others. She has won numerous awards, including the Deutscher Filmpreis (German Film Award) in both 1997 and 2002.
http://wn.com/Martina_Gedeck -
Mary Docter
Mary Angela Docter (born February 11, 1961) is an American speed skater from Madison, Wisconsin. She competed in four Olympic Games (in 1980, 1984, 1988 and 1992), mainly in the 3,000 meter event. Her third-place finish in the all-around at the 1981 World Championship was the last medal won by the United States in that event as of 2003.[http://www.123exp-biographies.com/t/00034199142/]
http://wn.com/Mary_Docter -
Mary Page Keller
Mary Page Keller (born March 3, 1961) is an American actress known for roles on both daytime and primetime television.
http://wn.com/Mary_Page_Keller -
Matt Goldman
Matt Goldman (born December 30, 1969) is an American record producer, engineer, mixer and songwriter based in Atlanta, Georgia.
http://wn.com/Matt_Goldman -
Matthew Kauffman
Matthew Kauffman (b. October 5, 1961 in Princeton, New Jersey) is an American investigative journalist and Pulitzer Prize finalist.
http://wn.com/Matthew_Kauffman -
Maurice Tourneur
Maurice Tourneur (February 2, 1873/(some sources 1877) – August 4, 1961) was an important international film director and screenwriter.
http://wn.com/Maurice_Tourneur -
Max Conrad
http://wn.com/Max_Conrad -
Max Weber (artist)
Max Weber (April 18, 1881 - October 4, 1961) was a Russian-born Jewish-American painter who worked in the style of cubism before migrating to Jewish themes towards the end of his life.
http://wn.com/Max_Weber_(artist) -
Maxi Priest
Max Alfred "Maxi" Priest (born 10 June 1961) is a British reggae vocalist of Jamaican descent. He is best known for singing reggae music with a R&B; influence, otherwise known as reggae fusion, and became one of the first international successes who regularly dabbled in the genre as well as being one of the most successful reggae fusion acts of all-time.
http://wn.com/Maxi_Priest -
Meg Ryan
Margaret Mary Emily Anne Hyra (born November 19, 1961), professionally known as Meg Ryan, is an American actress and producer. Raised in Fairfield, Connecticut, Ryan began her acting career in 1981 in minor roles, before joining the cast of the CBS soap opera As the World Turns in 1982. Subsequently, she began to appear in supporting roles in big screen films during the mid-1980s, achieving recognition in several independent films such as Promised Land (1987), before her performance in the Rob Reiner-directed cult comedy When Harry Met Sally... (1989) brought her widespread attention and her first Golden Globe nomination.
http://wn.com/Meg_Ryan -
Melissa Etheridge
Melissa Lou Etheridge (born May 29, 1961) is an American rock singer-songwriter and musician. She has received fifteen Grammy Award nominations winning two , one Academy Award and has sold twenty-seven million albums worldwide and almost fourteen million in the United States alone.
http://wn.com/Melissa_Etheridge -
Melvin Calvin
Melvin Ellis Calvin (April 8, 1911 - January 8, 1997) was an American chemist most famed for discovering the Calvin cycle along with Andrew Benson and James Bassham, for which he was awarded the 1961 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He spent most of his five-decade career at the University of California, Berkeley.
http://wn.com/Melvin_Calvin -
Michael J. Fox
Michael Andrew Fox, OC (born June 9, 1961), known professionally as Michael J. Fox, is a Canadian–American actor, author, comedian, producer, activist and voice-over artist. With a film and television career spanning from the 1970s, Fox's roles have included Marty McFly from the Back to the Future trilogy (1985–1990); Alex P. Keaton from Family Ties for which he won three Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award; and Mike Flaherty from Spin City (1996-2000), for which he won an Emmy, three Golden Globes, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards.
http://wn.com/Michael_J_Fox -
Michael Rockefeller
Michael Clark Rockefeller (born 1938 - presumed dead November 17, 1961), was the youngest son of New York Governor (later Vice President) Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller and Mary Todhunter Rockefeller and a fourth generation member of the Rockefeller family. He disappeared during an expedition in the Asmat region of southwestern New Guinea.
http://wn.com/Michael_Rockefeller -
Mike Breen
Michael "Mike" Breen (born May 22, 1961) is a play-by-play commentator for the NBA on ABC and the lead commentator for New York Knicks games on the MSG network. He also works NBA games for ESPN, and was formerly a play-by-play announcer for New York Giants preseason games, as well as for regular season NFL games on both Fox and NBC.
http://wn.com/Mike_Breen -
Mike Leach (coach)
http://wn.com/Mike_Leach_(coach) -
Mike Tramp
Mike Tramp (Born Michael Trempenau January 14, 1961) is a Danish singer and songwriter who is best known for his work with the hard rock bands White Lion and Freak of Nature. He has released 14 albums, including six solo albums.
http://wn.com/Mike_Tramp -
Mitch Gaylord
Mitchell ("Mitch") Jay Gaylord (born March 10, 1961), is an American gymnast and Olympic gold medalist.
http://wn.com/Mitch_Gaylord -
Moana Pozzi
Moana Pozzi (27 April 1961 – 15 September 1994), often called simply Moana, was an Italian pornographic actress. She was sometimes credited in the early films as Linda Heveret.
http://wn.com/Moana_Pozzi -
Mohammad Fouad
Mohamed Fouad Abd El Hamid Hassan (Arabic: محمد فؤاد عبد الحميد حسن ; born December 20, 1961)
http://wn.com/Mohammad_Fouad -
Moise Tshombe
Moïse Kapenda Tshombe (November 10, 1919 – June 29, 1969) was a Congolese politician.
http://wn.com/Moise_Tshombe -
Mordecai Ham
Mordecai Fowler Ham, Jr. (April 2, 1877–November 1, 1961), was an American Independent Baptist evangelist and temperance movement leader. He entered the ministry in 1901 and in 1936 began a radio broadcast reaching into seven southern states. Early in his ministry, he was anchored as the pastor of Burton Memorial Baptist Church in Bowling Green, Kentucky.
http://wn.com/Mordecai_Ham -
Moss Hart
Moss Hart (October 24, 1904 – December 20, 1961) was an American playwright and theatre director, best known for his interpretations of musical theater on Broadway.
http://wn.com/Moss_Hart -
Mylene Farmer
http://wn.com/Mylene_Farmer -
Nadia Comăneci
Nadia Elena Comăneci (; born November 12, 1961) is a Romanian gymnast, winner of three Olympic gold medals at the 1976 Summer Olympics, and the first gymnast ever to be awarded a perfect score of 10 in an Olympic gymnastic event. She is also the winner of two gold medals at the 1980 Summer Olympics. She is one of the best-known gymnasts in the world and, along with Olga Korbut, is credited with popularizing the sport around the world. In 2000 Comăneci was named as one of the athletes of the century by the Laureus World Sports Academy.
http://wn.com/Nadia_Comăneci -
Nastassja Kinski
Nastassja Kinski (born January 24, 1960 or 1961) is a German-born American-based actress who has appeared in more than 60 films. Her starring roles include her Golden Globe Award-winning portrayal of the title character in Tess and her roles in two erotic films (Stay As You Are and Cat People), as well as parts in Wim Wenders' films The Wrong Move; Paris, Texas; and Faraway, So Close!. In the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, Kinski was widely regarded as an international sex symbol: Richard Avedon's photo of her, nude with a large python, was marketed as a poster.
http://wn.com/Nastassja_Kinski -
Neil Armstrong
Neil Alden Armstrong (born August 5, 1930) is an American aviator and a former astronaut, test pilot, aerospace engineer, university professor, and United States Naval Aviator. He was the first person to set foot on the Moon. His first spaceflight was aboard Gemini 8 in 1966, for which he was the command pilot, becoming one of the first U.S. civilians to fly in space (Joseph Albert Walker became the first US civilian in space aboard X-15 Flight 90 several years earlier). On this mission, he performed the first manned docking of two spacecraft together with pilot David Scott. Armstrong's second and last spaceflight was as mission commander of the Apollo 11 moon landing mission on July 20, 1969. On this mission, Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin descended to the lunar surface and spent 2½ hours exploring while Michael Collins remained in orbit in the Command Module. Armstrong is a recipient of the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.
http://wn.com/Neil_Armstrong -
Neil Dougherty
Cornelius Aaron "Neil" Dougherty (born April 14, 1961 in Leavenworth, Kansas) is an American basketball coach, who was most recently the Head coach at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas. Dougherty played basketball at West Point for two years under coach Mike Krzyzewski before transferring to Cameron University, where he played his final two years and earned his degree in 1984.
http://wn.com/Neil_Dougherty -
Nelson Rockefeller
Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller (July 8, 1908 January 26, 1979) was the 41st Vice President of the United States under Gerald Ford, and the 49th Governor of New York, as well as serving the Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower and Nixon administrations in a variety of positions. He was also a noted businessman, art collector, and philanthropist.
http://wn.com/Nelson_Rockefeller -
Nick Harvey
Nicholas Barton "Nick" Harvey (born 3 August 1961) is a British Liberal Democrat politician. He is the Member of Parliament (MP) for North Devon and the Minister of State for the Armed Forces.
http://wn.com/Nick_Harvey -
Nick LaRocca
Dominic James "Nick" La Rocca (April 11, 1889 – February 22, 1961), was an early jazz cornetist and trumpeter and the leader of the Original Dixieland Jass Band. According to La Rocca himself, he was "The Creator of Jazz", "The Christopher Columbus of Music", and "The most lied about person in history since Jesus Christ".
http://wn.com/Nick_LaRocca -
Nigel Worthington
Nigel Worthington (born 4 November 1961 in Ballymena, County Antrim) is a Northern Irish football manager and former player. He is currently manager of the Northern Ireland national team.
http://wn.com/Nigel_Worthington -
Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (April 15, 1894 – September 11, 1971) led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964. Khrushchev was responsible for the partial de-Stalinization of the Soviet Union, for backing the progress of the early Soviet space program, and for several relatively liberal reforms in areas of domestic policy. Khrushchev's party colleagues removed him from power in 1964, replacing him with Leonid Brezhnev as First Secretary and Alexei Kosygin as Premier.
http://wn.com/Nikita_Khrushchev -
Nita Naldi
Nita Naldi (March 1895 – February 17, 1961) was an American silent film actress. One of the most successful actresses in Hollywood during the "Roaring Twenties", she was often cast in the role of the "femme fatale"/"vamp", a persona first popularized by actress Theda Bara.
http://wn.com/Nita_Naldi -
Otto Loewi
Otto Loewi (June 3, 1873 – December 25, 1961) was a German pharmacologist whose discovery of acetylcholine helped enhance medical therapy. The discovery earned for him the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1936 which he shared with Sir Henry Dale. He has been referred to as the "Father of Neuroscience."
http://wn.com/Otto_Loewi -
Pat Sharp
Pat Sharp (born Patrick Sharpin, 25 October 1961 ) is a British radio and television presenter and disc jockey. In Britain he is known mainly for his work on the children's television programme Fun House, his mullet and his radio shows as well as his avid support of Arsenal F.C. In Europe he was known in the 1980's as one of the Sky Channel's VJs and for presenting Coca-Cola Eurochart Top 50 and Nescafe UK Top 50.
http://wn.com/Pat_Sharp -
Patrice Lumumba
Patrice Émery Lumumba (2 July 1925–17 January 1961) was a Congolese independence leader and the first legally elected Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo after he helped win its independence from Belgium in June 1960. Only ten weeks later, Lumumba's government was deposed in a coup during the Congo Crisis. He was subsequently imprisoned and murdered in circumstances suggesting the support and complicity of the governments of Belgium and the United States.
http://wn.com/Patrice_Lumumba -
Patrizia Scianca
Patrizia Scianca (July 5, 1961 - ) is an Italian voice actress from Turin who has dubbed over a number of notable roles in anime.
http://wn.com/Patrizia_Scianca -
Paul Begala
Paul Edward Begala (born May 12, 1961) is a Democratic political consultant, a political commentator, a former advisor to President Bill Clinton. He gained national prominence as half of the political consulting team Carville and Begala. Until June 2005, Begala was a co-host of CNN's political debate program, Crossfire. He is Research Professor of Public Policy at Georgetown University Public Policy Institute. Currently, he is teaching at the University of Georgia School of Law as a Sanders Political Leadership Scholar.
http://wn.com/Paul_Begala -
Paul Waaktaar-Savoy
Paul Waaktaar-Savoy (born Pål Waaktaar Gamst, 6 September 1961) is a Norwegian musician and songwriter. He is best known for his work as guitarist in the Norwegian pop band a-ha. He has written most of the band's biggest hits, including "The Sun Always Shines on T.V.", "Hunting High and Low", "Take on Me", the James Bond theme "The Living Daylights" and the ballad "Summer Moved On". In addition, Waaktaar-Savoy is also a painter.
http://wn.com/Paul_Waaktaar-Savoy -
Paul Wittgenstein
Paul Wittgenstein (November 5, 1887March 3, 1961) was an Austrian-born concert pianist, who became known for his ability to play with just his left hand, after he lost his right arm during the First World War. He devised novel techniques, including pedal and hand-movement combinations, that allowed him to play chords previously regarded as impossible for a five-fingered pianist. He commissioned several pieces for the left hand from prominent composers.
http://wn.com/Paul_Wittgenstein -
Percy Grainger
George Percy Grainger (8 July 188220 February 1961) was an Australian-born composer and pianist who worked under the stage name of Percy Aldridge Grainger.
http://wn.com/Percy_Grainger -
Peri Gilpin
Peri Gilpin (born Peri Kay Oldham; May 27, 1961) is an American actress known for her role as Roz Doyle on the U.S. television series Frasier from 1993 until 2004. Along with the principal cast, Gilpin won a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series in 2000.
http://wn.com/Peri_Gilpin -
Peter Beardsley
Peter Andrew Beardsley MBE (born 18 January 1961 in Newcastle upon Tyne) is an English former footballer of the 1980s and 1990s, who once set a record transfer fee in the game and represented his country 59 times between 1986 and 1996, once as captain.
http://wn.com/Peter_Beardsley -
Peter Jackson
Sir Peter Robert Jackson, KNZM (born 31 October 1961) is a New Zealand film director, producer, actor, and screenwriter, best known for his Lord of the Rings film trilogy, adapted from the novel by J. R. R. Tolkien. He is also known for his 2005 remake of King Kong and as the producer of District 9.
http://wn.com/Peter_Jackson -
Petra Thumer
http://wn.com/Petra_Thumer -
Philippe Russo
Philippe Russo is a French singer-songwriter (born on October 4, 1961, Paris). He had a hit in 1987 in France with his single "Magie noire", devoted to the discothèques, which peaked at #10 on the SNEP Singles Chart. Then he published several singles until 1991, but they were unsuccessful and failed to reach the chart. Therefore, Russo can be deemed as a one-hit wonder. He was the guitar of Marc Lavoine during this one's last concert tour.
http://wn.com/Philippe_Russo -
Pigmy Love Circus
Pigmy Love Circus is a Los Angeles rock band that has existed since the late 1980s era of the Hollywood underground rock scene.
http://wn.com/Pigmy_Love_Circus -
Ralph Carter
Ralph Carter (born May 30, 1961) is an American actor, and singer
http://wn.com/Ralph_Carter -
Randal L. Schwartz
Randal L. Schwartz (born November 22, 1961), also known as merlyn, is an American author, system administrator and programming consultant.
http://wn.com/Randal_L_Schwartz -
Randy Vasquez
Randy Vasquez (born October 16, 1961 in Escondido, California) is an American actor.
http://wn.com/Randy_Vasquez -
Ray Cote
Ray Cote (born May 31, 1961 in Pincher Creek, Alberta) is a former professional ice hockey forward. He spent his junior career with the Calgary Wranglers of the WHL, and signed a free agent contract with the Edmonton Oilers in 1981 after going undrafted. Cote spent the majority of his career in the minor leagues and European leagues, but saw three separate stints with the Oilers. His only career NHL points were recorded in the 1982–83 playoffs. He also played for the Canadian National Team on four separate occasions.
http://wn.com/Ray_Cote -
Ray Mancini
Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini (born Raymond Michael Mancino; March 4, 1961) is a retired Italian-American boxer. He held the World Boxing Association lightweight championship for two years in the 1980s. Mancini inherited his distinctive nickname from his father, veteran boxer Lenny "Boom Boom" Mancini, who laid the foundation for his son's career. The name, however, perfectly suited the younger Mancini's wild, "whirlwind" fighting style. Ray Mancini is also the nephew of award-winning composer Henry Mancini.
http://wn.com/Ray_Mancini -
Reggie White
Reginald Howard "Reggie" White, nicknamed "The Minister of Defense" (December 19, 1961 – December 26, 2004) was a professional American football player who played defensive end for 15 seasons in the National Football League for the Philadelphia Eagles, Green Bay Packers and Carolina Panthers becoming one of the most decorated players in NFL history. He also played for two seasons in the United States Football League for the Memphis Showboats. The 2-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year, 13-time Pro Bowl and 12-time All-Pro selection holds 2nd place all-time amongst career sack leaders with 198.5 (behind Bruce Smith's 200 career sacks) and was selected to the NFL 75th Anniversary All-Time Team, NFL 1990s All-Decade Team and the NFL 1980s All-Decade Team. During his professional career, he became famous not only for his outstanding play, but also for his Christian ministry as an ordained Evangelical minister. This led to his aforementioned nickname, "The Minister of Defense". White was enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2006, two years after his death.
http://wn.com/Reggie_White -
Rene Capo
Rene Capo (May 9, 1961 – July 6, 2009) was a judoka from the United States who competed in the 1988 Summer Olympics and the 1996 Summer Olympics. Capo immigrated to the United States from Cuba as a young boy. Though he won several judo championships in high school, Capo took a four year break from the sport to attend the University of Minnesota. After college, Capo went on to qualify for two United States Olympics teams, could not compete as an alternate in another due to a back injury, and narrowly missed making the 2008 team. In 2008, Capo was diagnosed with lung cancer, which caused his death the following year.
http://wn.com/Rene_Capo -
Rick Moody
Rick Moody (born Hiram Frederick Moody III, October 18, 1961) is an American novelist and short story writer best known for the 1994 novel The Ice Storm, a chronicle of the dissolution of two suburban Connecticut families over Thanksgiving weekend in 1973, which brought widespread acclaim, became a bestseller, and was made into a feature film of the same title.
http://wn.com/Rick_Moody -
Rico Constantino
Americo Sebastiano Costantino (born October 1, 1961) is an American retired professional wrestler and wrestling manager of Italian origin. He is best known by his ring names Rico Costantino and Rico in World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) from 2001 to 2004. He is currently an Airport Control Officer for the Nevada Taxi Cab Authority.
http://wn.com/Rico_Constantino -
Rikki Rockett
Richard Allan Ream (born August 8, 1961), better known by the stage name Rikki Rockett, is an American drummer best known for his work with the glam metal band, Poison.
http://wn.com/Rikki_Rockett -
Robert Hofstadter
Robert Hofstadter (February 5, 1915 – November 17, 1990) was a Jewish American physicist. He was the joint winner of the 1961 Nobel Prize in Physics (together with Rudolf Mössbauer) "for his pioneering studies of electron scattering in atomic nuclei and for his consequent discoveries concerning the structure of nucleons."
http://wn.com/Robert_Hofstadter -
Robert Menzies
Sir Robert Gordon Menzies, (20 December 1894 – 15 May 1978), Australian politician, was the 12th and longest-serving Prime Minister of Australia.
http://wn.com/Robert_Menzies -
Robert Rey
Roberto Miguel Rey Júnior (born October 1, 1961), best known as Robert Rey, is a Brazilian plastic surgeon featured on the E! reality series Dr. 90210.
http://wn.com/Robert_Rey -
Robert Spano
Robert Spano (born May 7, 1961, Conneaut, Ohio) is an American conductor and pianist. Since 2001 he has been Music Director of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (ASO), and he served as Music Director of the Brooklyn Philharmonic from 1996 to 2004.
http://wn.com/Robert_Spano -
Robin Carnahan
Robin Carnahan (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician, daughter of Missouri politicians Mel and Jean Carnahan and the current Missouri Secretary of State. She is a member of the Democratic Party and is the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate in 2010, to replace retiring Republican Sen. Kit Bond. She shares the birthday of August 4, 1961 with U.S. President Barack Obama.
http://wn.com/Robin_Carnahan -
Roger Maris
Roger Eugene Maris (September 10, 1934 – December 14, 1985) was an American right fielder in Major League Baseball who is primarily remembered for hitting 61 home runs for the New York Yankees during the 1961 season. This broke Babe Ruth's single-season record of 60 home runs (set in 1927) and set a record that would stand for 37 years.
http://wn.com/Roger_Maris -
Roger Wessels
Roger Mark Wessels (born 4 March 1961) is a South African professional golfer.
http://wn.com/Roger_Wessels -
Rosie Kane
Rosemary "Rosie" Kane (born on 5 June 1961 in Glasgow) is a Scottish Socialist Party politician, and former Member of the Scottish Parliament for the Glasgow Region.
http://wn.com/Rosie_Kane -
Roy Del Ruth
Roy Del Ruth (October 18, 1893 – April 27, 1961) was a Hollywood film director. Del Ruth, who started out as a screenwriter in 1915 writing gags for Mack Sennett, began directing feature films in the 1920s. He became known for directing urban and crime dramas including the 1931 version of The Maltese Falcon. He also directed the universally panned The Babe Ruth Story (1948) and the 20th Century Fox B-movie Alligator People (1959).
http://wn.com/Roy_Del_Ruth -
Roy Dennis
http://wn.com/Roy_Dennis -
Rudolf Mössbauer
Rudolf Ludwig Mössbauer (); born January 31, 1929) is a German physicist who studied gamma rays from nuclear transitions.
http://wn.com/Rudolf_Mössbauer -
Rudolf Nureyev
Rudolf Khametovich Nureyev (, ) (17 March 1938 – 6 January 1993) was a Russian Tatar dancer from the former Soviet Union, primarily known for his work in ballet. Nureyev's artistic skills explored expressive areas of the dance, providing a new role to the male ballet dancer who once served only as support to the women.
http://wn.com/Rudolf_Nureyev -
Sally Yeh
Sally Yeh (born September 30, 1961), sometimes written as Sally Yip or Yip Sin-Man, is a Cantopop singer in the Hong Kong music industry and an actress in the Hong Kong film industry.
http://wn.com/Sally_Yeh -
Sam Backo
Sam Backo (born 1 January 1961) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer of the 1980s who represented Queensland and Australia. In the New South Wales Rugby League premiership he played for the Canberra Raiders and Brisbane Broncos, primarily as a prop forward. Backo was the first Australian forward to score tries in all three Tests of an Ashes series and since his retirement was named in an Indigenous Australian team of the century.
http://wn.com/Sam_Backo -
Sam Rayburn
Samuel Taliaferro Rayburn (January 6, 1882 – November 16, 1961), often called "Mr. Sam," or "Mr. Democrat," was a Democratic lawmaker from Bonham, Texas, who served as the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives for seventeen years, the longest tenure in U.S. history.
http://wn.com/Sam_Rayburn -
Sean Hannity
Sean Hannity (born December 30, 1961) is an American radio and television host, author, and conservative political commentator. He is the host of The Sean Hannity Show, a nationally syndicated talk-radio show that airs throughout the United States on Premiere Radio Networks. Hannity also hosts a cable-news show, Hannity, on Fox News Channel. Hannity has also written three New York Times bestselling books: ', ', and .
http://wn.com/Sean_Hannity -
Sergei Babayan
Sergei Babayan (born in Guimri, Armenia) is an Armenian-American concert pianist.
http://wn.com/Sergei_Babayan -
Sibyl Morrison
Sibyl Enid Vera Munro Morrison (18 August 1895 – 29 December 1961) was the first female barrister in New South Wales, Australia. She graduated LL.B from the University of Sydney's law school in 1924.
http://wn.com/Sibyl_Morrison -
Stan Nichols
Stan Nichols (Morris Stanley Nichols and sometimes called since his death Morris Nichols) (born October 6, 1900, Stondon Massey, Essex, England – died 26 January 1961, Newark, Nottinghamshire, England) was the leading all-rounder in English cricket for much of the 1930s.
http://wn.com/Stan_Nichols -
Stephen Hillenburg
Stephen McDannell Hillenburg (born August 21, 1961) is an American animator, writer, producer, actor, voice actor, and director best known for creating the animated series SpongeBob SquarePants. He currently owns his own production company, United Plankton Pictures. He has also written for Mother Goose and Grimm and ''Rocko's Modern Life''.
http://wn.com/Stephen_Hillenburg -
Steven Weber (actor)
Steven Robert Weber (born March 4, 1961) is an American actor. He is best known for his role in the television show Wings which aired throughout the 1990s on NBC.
http://wn.com/Steven_Weber_(actor) -
Sukarno
Sukarno, born Kusno Sosrodihardjo (6 June 1901 – 21 June 1970) was the first President of Indonesia.
http://wn.com/Sukarno -
Sumner Welles
Benjamin Sumner Welles (October 14, 1892 – September 24, 1961) was an American government official and diplomat in the Foreign Service. He was a major foreign policy advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and served as Under Secretary of State (the second-ranking position) from 1937 to 1943, during FDR's administration. On the August 11, 1941, issue of Time, Welles was featured on the cover.
http://wn.com/Sumner_Welles -
Supriya Pathak
Supriya Pathak Kapur (born 7 January 1961) is an Indian actress hailing from a long line of performers. She is famous for her role in the Indian sitcoms Khichdi and Idhar Udhar.
http://wn.com/Supriya_Pathak -
Susan Boyle
Susan Magdalane Boyle (born 1 April 1961) is a Scottish singer who came to international public attention when she appeared as a contestant on reality TV programme ''Britain's Got Talent on 11 April 2009, singing "I Dreamed a Dream" from ''. Her first album was released in November 2009 and debuted as the number one best-selling CD on charts around the globe.
http://wn.com/Susan_Boyle -
Susan Olsen
Susan Marie Olsen (born August 14, 1961) is a former American child television actress and current animal welfare advocate. Olsen is best known for her role as Mike & Carol Brady's (played by Robert Reed and Florence Henderson) youngest daughter, Cindy Brady, on the 1970s television sitcom The Brady Bunch for the full run of the show, from 1969-1974.
http://wn.com/Susan_Olsen -
Susanna M. Salter
Susanna "Dora" Madora Salter (March 2, 1860 – March 17, 1961) was a U.S. politician and activist. She served as mayor of Argonia, Kansas, becoming the first woman elected as mayor and the first woman elected to any political office in the United States.
http://wn.com/Susanna_M_Salter -
Tak Matsumoto
is a Japanese guitarist, producer, arranger, composer and songwriter. In addition to guitarist and lead composer for the hard rock band B'z, he has also had a successful solo career.
http://wn.com/Tak_Matsumoto -
The Edge
David Howell Evans (born 8 August 1961 in Barking, Essex, England), more widely known by his stage name The Edge (or just Edge), is an Irish musician best known as the guitarist, keyboardist, and main backing vocalist of rock band U2. In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine named him at #24 on its list of "The 100 Best Guitarists of All Time".
http://wn.com/The_Edge -
Thomas Beecham
Sir Thomas Beecham, 2nd Baronet, CH (29 April 1879 – 8 March 1961) was an English conductor and impresario. From the early twentieth century until his death, Beecham was a major influence on the musical life of Britain and, according to Neville Cardus, was the first British conductor to have a regular international career.
http://wn.com/Thomas_Beecham -
Thurl Bailey
Thurl Lee Bailey (born April 7, 1961 in Washington, D.C.) is an American retired professional basketball player in the NBA whose career spanned from 1983 to 1999 with the Utah Jazz and the Minnesota Timberwolves.
http://wn.com/Thurl_Bailey -
Tim Roth
Tim Roth (born 14 May 1961) is an English film actor and director best known for his roles in the American films Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Four Rooms, Planet of the Apes, The Incredible Hulk and Rob Roy, for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He currently stars as Cal Lightman in the TV series Lie to Me.
http://wn.com/Tim_Roth -
Toby Keith
Toby Keith Covel (born July 8, 1961), best known as Toby Keith, is an American country music singer-songwriter, record producer and actor. Keith released his first four studio albums — 1993's Toby Keith, 1994's Boomtown, 1996's Blue Moon and 1997's Dream Walkin', plus a Greatest Hits package for various divisions of Mercury Records before exiting in 1998. These albums all earned gold or higher certification, and produced several chart singles, including his debut "Should've Been a Cowboy", which topped the country charts and was the most played country song of the 1990s. The song has received 3 million spins since then, according to Broadcast Music Incorporated.
http://wn.com/Toby_Keith -
Todd Haynes
Todd Haynes (born January 2, 1961) is an American independent film director. He is best known for his feature films , Poison, Safe, and the Academy Award-nominated Far from Heaven and ''I'm Not There''.
http://wn.com/Todd_Haynes -
Tom Araya
Tom Araya (born Tomás Enrique Araya June 6, 1961 in Viña del Mar, Chile) is a Chilean musician, best known as the bassist and vocalist of the American thrash metal band Slayer. Araya is ranked fifty-eighth by Hit Parader on their list of the 100 Greatest Metal Vocalists of All Time.
http://wn.com/Tom_Araya -
Tunku Abdul Rahman
Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj ibni Almarhum Sultan Abdul Hamid Halim Shah, AC, CH (February 8, 1903 – December 6, 1990) was known as "Tunku" (a princely title in Malaysia), (Jawi: تنكو عبد الرحمن ڤوترا الحج ابن المرحوم سلطان عبد الحميد حليم شاه) and also called Bapa Kemerdekaan (Father of Independence) or Bapa Malaysia (Father of Malaysia), was Chief Minister of the Federation of Malaya from 1955, and the country's first Prime Minister from independence in 1957. He remained as the Prime Minister after Sabah, Sarawak, and Singapore joined the federation in 1963 to form Malaysia.
http://wn.com/Tunku_Abdul_Rahman -
Ty Cobb
Tyrus Raymond "Ty" Cobb (December 18, 1886 – July 17, 1961), nicknamed "The Georgia Peach," was an American outfielder in baseball born in Narrows, Georgia. Cobb spent 22 seasons with the Detroit Tigers, the last six as the team's player-manager, and finished his career with the Philadelphia Athletics.
http://wn.com/Ty_Cobb -
U Thant
U Thant (; ; ; January 22, 1909 – November 25, 1974) was a Burmese diplomat and the third Secretary-General of the United Nations, from 1961 to 1971. He was chosen for the post when his predecessor, Dag Hammarskjöld, died in September 1961.
http://wn.com/U_Thant -
Umayya Abu-Hanna
Umayya Abu-Hanna (born 17 March 1961 in Haifa, Israel) into a Palestinian family of Christian background, is a TV-journalist, columnist and writer who has been living in Finland since 1981. She is Head of the Department of Audiovisual Journalism at the Helsinki Polytechnic (but is on leave until July 2007) and is the Cultural Diversity Coordinator of the Finnish National Gallery's Research Department and member of the Arts Council of Finland.
http://wn.com/Umayya_Abu-Hanna -
Valentin Bondarenko
Valentin Vasiliyevich Bondarenko (, , 16 February 1937 - 23 March 1961) was a Soviet fighter pilot and cosmonaut with a Ukrainian background. He died during a training accident in Moscow, USSR, in 1961. A crater on the Moon's far side is named for him.
http://wn.com/Valentin_Bondarenko -
Valentine Davies
Valentine Davies (August 25, 1905 - July 23, 1961) was an American film and television writer, producer, and director. His credits included Miracle on 34th Street (1947), Chicken Every Sunday (1949), The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1954), and The Benny Goodman Story (1955). He was nominated for the 1954 Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for The Glenn Miller Story.
http://wn.com/Valentine_Davies -
Vanessa Bell
Vanessa Bell (née Stephen; 30 May 1879 – 7 April 1961) was an English painter and interior designer, a member of the Bloomsbury group, and the sister of Virginia Woolf.
http://wn.com/Vanessa_Bell -
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to 15 May 1975 when the Mayaguez Incident concluded and two weeks after the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. The 'Mayaguez incident' involving the Khmer Rouge government in Cambodia on 12–15 May 1975, marked the last official battle of the United States (U.S.) involvement in the Vietnam War. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of South Vietnam, supported by the United States and other anti-communist nations.
http://wn.com/Vietnam_War -
Vince Neil
Vincent Neil Wharton (born February 8, 1961) is an American vocalist and musician, best known for being the lead singer of heavy metal band Mötley Crüe.
http://wn.com/Vince_Neil -
Virginia Madsen
Virginia Madsen (born September 11, 1961) is an American actress and documentary film producer. She came to fame during the 1980s, having appeared in several films aimed at a teenage audience. Two decades later, she once again became known after an Academy Award and Golden Globe-nominated role in the 2004 film Sideways.
http://wn.com/Virginia_Madsen -
Volker Fried
Volker Fried (born February 1, 1961 in Osnabrück, Niedersachsen) is a former field hockey player from West Germany, who competed at four consecutive Summer Olympics for West and the reunified Germany. He won the gold medal with his team at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, after capturing silver at the two previous Olympics in Los Angeles (1984) and Seoul (1988).
http://wn.com/Volker_Fried -
Wayne Gretzky
Wayne Douglas Gretzky, CC LLD (hc) (; born January 26, 1961) is a former Canadian professional ice hockey player. Nicknamed "The Great One," Gretzky is generally regarded as the best player in the history of the NHL, and has been called "the greatest hockey player ever" by many sportswriters, players, and the NHL itself. Upon his retirement on April 18, 1999, he held forty regular-season records, fifteen playoff records, and six All-Star records. He is the only NHL player to total over 200 points in one season—a feat he accomplished four times. In addition, he tallied over 100 points in 15 WHA/NHL seasons, 14 of them consecutive. Gretzky's jersey number, 99, has been retired by all teams in the National Hockey League. He was voted one of six players to the International Ice Hockey Federation's (IIHF) Centennial All-Star Team in a poll conducted by a group of 56 experts from 16 countries.
http://wn.com/Wayne_Gretzky -
White Lion
:This article is about the band, for the big cats see White lion.
http://wn.com/White_Lion -
Wolfgang Von Trips
http://wn.com/Wolfgang_Von_Trips -
Woodall Rodgers
James Woodall Rodgers (May 11, 1890 in New Market, Alabama (USA) – July 6, 1961 in Dallas (USA), Texas) was an attorney, businessman and mayor of Dallas.
http://wn.com/Woodall_Rodgers -
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856 – February 3, 1924) was the 28th President of the United States. A leader of the Progressive Era, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913. With Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft dividing the Republican Party vote, Wilson was elected President as a Democrat in 1912.
http://wn.com/Woodrow_Wilson -
Wynton Marsalis
Wynton Learson Marsalis (born October 18, 1961) is an American jazz and Western classical virtuoso trumpeter and composer. He is Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. He has promoted the appreciation of Classical and Jazz music, often focusing on young audiences.
http://wn.com/Wynton_Marsalis -
Yelena Davydova
Yelena Victorovna Davydova (, born August 7, 1961 in Voronezh, 400 miles south of Moscow), is a Russian (formerly, Soviet) gymnast. She is the 1980 Olympic All-Around Champion.
http://wn.com/Yelena_Davydova -
Yordanka Donkova
Yordanka Donkova () (born 28 September 1961) is a former hurdling athlete notable for winning an Olympic gold medal and bronze medal as well as 9 medals at European indoor and outdoor championships. She still holds the CR (championship record) for the European Championships with 12.38 s. Donkova set four world records in 1986. Her fifth, a time of 12.21 set in 1988, is still the current world record.
http://wn.com/Yordanka_Donkova -
Yuri Gagarin
Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin (, ; 9 March 1934 – 27 March 1968), Hero of the Soviet Union, was a Soviet cosmonaut. On 12 April 1961, he became the first human in outer space and the first to orbit the Earth. He received medals from around the world for his pioneering tour in space.
http://wn.com/Yuri_Gagarin -
Zoltán Korda
http://wn.com/Zoltán_Korda -
Zoran Janjetov
__NOTOC__
http://wn.com/Zoran_Janjetov -
Şemsettin Günaltay
Mehmet Şemsettin Günaltay (; 1883 – 1961) was a Turkish historian, politician and prime minister of Turkey.
http://wn.com/Şemsettin_Günaltay
-
Alabama
Alabama () is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States of America. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland waterways. The state ranks 23rd in population with almost 4.6 million residents in 2006.
http://wn.com/Alabama -
Albania
Albania ( , , Gheg Albanian: Shqipnia/Shqypnia), officially known as the Republic of Albania (, pronounced ), is a country in South Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south and southeast. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the west, and on the Ionian Sea to the southwest. It is less than from Italy, across the Strait of Otranto which links the Adriatic Sea to the Ionian Sea.
http://wn.com/Albania -
Algeria
Algeria (Arabic: , al-Jazā’ir, Berber: Dzayer, French: Algérie), officially the '''People's Democratic Republic of Algeria (also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria'''), is a country in North Africa. In terms of land area, it is the largest country on the Mediterranean Sea, the second largest on the African continent after Sudan, and the eleventh-largest country in the world.
http://wn.com/Algeria -
Angola
Angola, officially the Republic of Angola (, ; ), is a country in south-central Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with Luanda as its capital city. The exclave province of Cabinda has a border with the Republic of the Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
http://wn.com/Angola -
Anniston, Alabama
Anniston is a city in Calhoun County in the state of Alabama, United States. As of the 2000 census, the population of the city is 24,276. According to the 2005 U.S. Census estimates, the city had a population of 23,741. The city is the county seat of Calhoun County and one of two urban centers/principal cities of and included in the Anniston-Oxford Metropolitan Statistical Area.
http://wn.com/Anniston_Alabama -
Arab League
{{Infobox Country
http://wn.com/Arab_League -
Australia
{{Infobox country
http://wn.com/Australia -
Barents Sea
Barents Sea (, ) is a part of the Arctic Ocean located north of Norway and Russia. Known in the Middle Ages as the Murman Sea, the sea takes its current name from the Dutch navigator Willem Barents. It is a rather deep shelf sea (average depth and maximum depth ), bordered by the shelf edge towards the Norwegian Sea in the west, the island of Svalbard (Norway) in the northwest, and the islands of Franz Josef Land and Novaya Zemlya (Arkhangelsk Oblast) in the northeast and east. Novaya Zemlya separates the Kara Sea from the Barents Sea. Significant fossil fuel energy resources exist in the Barents Sea region.
http://wn.com/Barents_Sea -
Belgium
Belgium (, ), officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, as well as those of several other major international organizations such as NATO. Belgium covers an area of , and it has a population of about 10.8 million people.
http://wn.com/Belgium -
Belize
Belize () (formerly British Honduras), is a democratic constitutional monarchy, and the northernmost Central American nation. Belize has a diverse society, comprising many cultures and languages. Although Kriol and Spanish are spoken among the population, Belize is the only country in Central America where English is the official language. Belize is bordered by Mexico to its north, by Guatemala to its south and west, and by the Caribbean Sea to the east.
http://wn.com/Belize -
Belmopan
Belmopan (), estimated population 20,000 is the capital of Belize.
http://wn.com/Belmopan -
Berkeley, California
Berkeley ( ) is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington. The eastern city limits coincide with the county line (bordering Contra Costa County), which generally follows the ridge line of the Berkeley Hills. Berkeley is located in northern Alameda County.
http://wn.com/Berkeley_California -
Berlin
Berlin (; ) is the capital city of Germany and one of sixteen states of Germany. With a population of 3.4 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the eighth most populous urban area in the European Union. Located in northeastern Germany, it is the center of the Berlin-Brandenburg Metropolitan Area, comprising 5 million people from over 190 nations. Geographically embedded in the European Plains, Berlin is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate. Around one third of the city's territory is composed of forests, parks, gardens, rivers and lakes.
http://wn.com/Berlin -
Berlin Wall
|-
http://wn.com/Berlin_Wall -
Boston
Boston (pronounced ) is the capital and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. Boston city proper had a 2009 estimated population of 645,169, making it the twentieth largest in the country. Boston is also the anchor of a substantially larger metropolitan area called Greater Boston, home to 4.5 million people and the tenth-largest metropolitan area in the country. Greater Boston as a commuting region includes six Massachusetts counties, Essex, Middlesex, Norfolk, Suffolk, Plymouth, and Worcester, all of Rhode Island and parts of New Hampshire; it is home to 7.5 million people, making it the fifth-largest Combined Statistical Area in the United States.
http://wn.com/Boston -
Brazil
Brazil (; , ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (, ), is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population. It is the only Portuguese-speaking country in the Americas and the largest lusophone country in the world.
http://wn.com/Brazil -
Brunei
Brunei ( in English), officially the State of Brunei Darussalam or the Nation of Brunei, the Abode of Peace (, Jawi: بروني دارالسلام), is a sovereign state located on the north coast of the island of Borneo, in Southeast Asia. Apart from its coastline with the South China Sea, it is completely surrounded by the state of Sarawak, Malaysia, and in fact it is separated into two parts by Limbang, which is part of Sarawak. It is the only sovereign state completely on the island of Borneo, with the remainder of the island belonging to Malaysia and Indonesia.
http://wn.com/Brunei -
Brussels
Brussels (, pronounced ; , pronounced ), officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region (, Dutch: ), is the de facto capital city of the European Union (EU) and the largest urban area in Belgium. It comprises 19 municipalities, including the City of Brussels proper, which is the constitutional capital of Belgium, the seat of the French Community of Belgium and of the Flemish Community.
http://wn.com/Brussels -
Canada
Canada () is a country in North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean. It is the world's second largest country by total area. Canada's common border with the United States to the south and northwest is the longest in the world.
http://wn.com/Canada -
Casablanca
Casablanca (Arabic: الدار البيضاء "ad-Dār al-Bayḍāʼ", original name in Amazigh: Anfa /) is a city in western Morocco, located on the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital of the Grand Casablanca region.
http://wn.com/Casablanca -
Casablanca, Morocco
http://wn.com/Casablanca_Morocco -
Cavern Club
http://wn.com/Cavern_Club -
Charlottenburg
Charlottenburg is a locality of Berlin within the borough of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, named after Queen consort Sophia Charlotte (1668-1705). It is best known for Charlottenburg Palace, the largest surviving royal palace in Berlin, and the adjacent museums.
http://wn.com/Charlottenburg -
China
China is seen variously as an ancient civilization extending over a large area in East Asia, a nation and/or a multinational entity.
http://wn.com/China -
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba (; , ) is an island country in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos.
http://wn.com/Cuba -
Cyprus
Cyprus (; , Kýpros, ; ), – officially the Republic of Cyprus (, Kypriakī́ Dīmokratía, ; ) – is a Eurasian island country in the Eastern Mediterranean, south of Turkey and west of Syria and Lebanon. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of its most popular tourist destinations. An advanced, high-income economy with a very high Human Development Index, the Republic of Cyprus was a founding member of the Non-Aligned Movement until it joined the European Union on 1 May 2004.
http://wn.com/Cyprus -
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia (Czech and Slovak: Československo, Česko-Slovensko) was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992. From 1939 to 1945 the state did not have de facto existence, due to its forced division and partial incorporation into Nazi Germany, but the Czechoslovak government-in-exile nevertheless continued to exist during this period. In 1945 the eastern part of Carpathian Ruthenia was taken over by the Soviet Union. On 1 January 1993, Czechoslovakia peacefully split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
http://wn.com/Czechoslovakia -
Damao
http://wn.com/Damao -
Damascus
Damascus ( , commonly known as الشام ash-Shām also known as the "City of Jasmin" ) is the capital of Syria as well as one of the country's 14 governorates. The Damascus Governorate is ruled by a governor appointed by the Minister of Interior. In addition to being widely known as the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world, Damascus is a major cultural and religious center of the Levant.
http://wn.com/Damascus -
Deutsche Oper Berlin
The Deutsche Oper Berlin is an opera company located in Berlin, Germany, in what was formerly West Berlin. The resident building, also called Deutsche Oper Berlin, also is home to the Staatsballett Berlin.
http://wn.com/Deutsche_Oper_Berlin -
Deutsche Opernhaus
http://wn.com/Deutsche_Opernhaus -
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic (; , ) is a nation on the island of Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries. Both by area and population, the Dominican Republic is the second largest Caribbean nation (after Cuba), with and an estimated 10 million people.
http://wn.com/Dominican_Republic -
East Berlin
East Berlin was the name given to the eastern part of Berlin between 1949 and 1990. It consisted of the Soviet sector of Berlin that was established in 1945. The American, British and French sectors became West Berlin, a part strongly associated with West Germany but a free city. Despite its status as part of an occupied city, East Berlin was claimed as the capital of East Germany, as the Soviets did not honor the distinction of a free city for their sector. From 13 August 1961 until 9 November 1989 East Berlin was separated from West Berlin by the Berlin Wall. The East German government referred to East Berlin simply as "Berlin" or often "Berlin, Hauptstadt der DDR" (Berlin, capital of the GDR). The term "Democratic Sector" was also used until the 1960s. (See also Naming conventions).
http://wn.com/East_Berlin -
East Germany
The German Democratic Republic (GDR; German: Deutsche Demokratische Republik or DDR), informally called East Germany by the West, was the socialist state established in 1949 in the Soviet zone of occupied Germany and in the East Berlin portion of the Allied-occupied capital city. The German Democratic Republic, which consisted geographically of northeast Germany rather than all of eastern Germany, had an area of 107,771 km2. (41,610 mi.2), bordering Czechoslovakia in the south, West Germany (officially: Federal Republic of Germany) in the south and west, the Baltic Sea to the north, and Poland in the east.
http://wn.com/East_Germany -
Egypt
Egypt (; , Miṣr, ; Egyptian Arabic: مصر, Maṣr, ; Coptic: , ; Greek: Αίγυπτος, Aiguptos; Egyptian:
http://wn.com/Egypt -
El Salvador
El Salvador (; , literally meaning "Republic of The Savior") is the smallest and also the most densely populated country in Central America. It borders the Pacific Ocean between Guatemala and Honduras. It lies on the Gulf of Fonseca, as do Honduras and Nicaragua further south.
http://wn.com/El_Salvador -
Ethiopia
{{Infobox country
http://wn.com/Ethiopia -
Federation of Malaya
The Federation of Malaya (), is the name given to a federation of 11 states that existed from 31 January 1948 until 16 September 1963. Comprising the nine Malay states and the British settlements of Penang and Malacca, it was eventually superseded by Malaysia.
http://wn.com/Federation_of_Malaya -
Ferrari
Ferrari S.p.A. is an Italian sports car manufacturer based in Maranello, Italy. Founded by Enzo Ferrari in 1929, as Scuderia Ferrari, the company sponsored drivers and manufactured race cars before moving into production of street-legal vehicles as Ferrari S.p.A. in 1947. Throughout its history, the company has been noted for its continued participation in racing, especially in Formula One, where it has had great success.
http://wn.com/Ferrari -
France
{{Infobox Country
http://wn.com/France -
Germany
Germany (), officially the Federal Republic of Germany (, ), is a country in Western Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands. The territory of Germany covers 357.021 km2 and is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate. With 81.8 million inhabitants, it is the most populous member state of the European Union, and home to the third-largest number of international migrants worldwide.
http://wn.com/Germany -
Ghana
The Republic of Ghana is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south. The word Ghana means "Warrior King" and is derived from the ancient
http://wn.com/Ghana -
Goa
Goa (; , , Sanskrit: गोमंतक) is India's smallest state by area and the fourth smallest by population. Located in South West India in the region known as the Konkan, it is bounded by the state of Maharashtra to the north, and by Karnataka to the east and south, while the Arabian Sea forms its western coast. Goa is India's richest state with a GDP per capita two and a half times that of the country as a whole. It was ranked the best placed state by the Eleventh Finance Commission for its infrastructure and ranked on top for the best quality of life in India by the National Commission on Population based on the 12 Indicators.
http://wn.com/Goa -
Guinea
Guinea (, officially the Republic of Guinea ), is a country in West Africa. Formerly known as French Guinea (Guinée française), it is today sometimes called Guinea-Conakry to distinguish it from its neighbor Guinea-Bissau. Conakry is the capital, the seat of the national government, and the largest city.
http://wn.com/Guinea -
Idaho Falls, Idaho
Idaho Falls is a city in and the county seat of Bonneville County, Idaho, United States, and the largest city in Eastern Idaho and the fifth-largest in the state. As of the 2000 census, the population of Idaho Falls was 50,730, with a 2008 metro population of 122,995.
http://wn.com/Idaho_Falls_Idaho -
India
India (), officially the Republic of India ( ; see also official names of India), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.18 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world. Mainland India is bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal on the east; and it is bordered by Pakistan to the west; Bhutan, the People's Republic of China and Nepal to the north; and Bangladesh and Burma to the east. In the Indian Ocean, mainland India and the Lakshadweep Islands are in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives, while India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands share maritime border with Thailand and the Indonesian island of Sumatra in the Andaman Sea. India has a coastline of .
http://wn.com/India -
Indonesia
Indonesia ( or ), officially the Republic of Indonesia (), is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia comprises 17,508 islands. With a population of around 238 million people, it is the world's fourth most populous country, and has the world's largest population of Muslims. Indonesia is a republic, with an elected legislature and president. The nation's capital city is Jakarta. The country shares land borders with Papua New Guinea, East Timor, and Malaysia. Other neighboring countries include Singapore, Philippines, Australia, and the Indian territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Indonesia is a founding member of ASEAN and a member of the G-20 major economies.
http://wn.com/Indonesia -
Iraq
Iraq ( or , Arabic: ), officially the Republic of Iraq (Arabic:
http://wn.com/Iraq -
Ireland
Ireland (,; , ; Ulster Scots: Airlann) is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the northwest of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islets. To the east of Ireland is Great Britain, separated from it by the Irish Sea. The island is divided between the Republic of Ireland, which covers just under five-sixths of the island, and Northern Ireland, a part of the United Kingdom, which covers the remainder and is located in the northeast of the island. The population of Ireland is approximately 6.2 million people. Just under 4.5 million live in the Republic of Ireland and just under 1.8 million live in Northern Ireland.
http://wn.com/Ireland -
Israel
Israel (, ''Yisrā'el; , Isrā'īl), officially the State of Israel (Hebrew: , Medīnat Yisrā'el; , Dawlat Isrā'īl''), is a parliamentary republic in the Middle East located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan and the West Bank in the east, Egypt and Gaza on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area. Israel is the world's only predominantly Jewish state, and is defined as A Jewish and Democratic State by the Israeli government.
http://wn.com/Israel -
Jackson, Mississippi
Jackson, or Jackson City, is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Mississippi. It is one of two county seats of Hinds County (the town of Raymond is the other), but the city also contains areas in Madison and Rankin counties. During the 90s Jackson saw a decline in population while its suburbs boomed. Sometimes the city is credited with going through the stages the city of Atlanta went through 70s-90s with its suburbs. Jackson including its surrounding suburbs boast a strong economy as well as population. The 2000 census recorded Jackson's population at 184,256, but according to July 1, 2008 estimates, the city's population was 173,861 and its five-county Jackson metropolitan area had a population of 628,817. The Jackson-Yazoo City combined statistical area, consisting of the Jackson metropolitan area and Yazoo City micropolitan area, has a population of over 600,000, making it the 88th-largest metropolitan area in the United States.
http://wn.com/Jackson_Mississippi -
Jerusalem
Jerusalem ( , ; Arabic: , al-Quds Sharif, "The Holy Sanctuary") is the capital of Israel, though not internationally recognized as such. If the area and population of East Jerusalem is included, it is Israel's largest city in both population and area, with a population of 763,800 residents over an area of . Located in the Judean Mountains, between the Mediterranean Sea and the northern edge of the Dead Sea, modern Jerusalem has grown far beyond the boundaries of the Old City.
http://wn.com/Jerusalem -
Karakore
Karakore (sometimes spelled as two words, Kara Kore) is a town in northeastern Ethiopia. Located in the Semien Shewa Zone of the Amhara Region, this town has a latitude and longitude of with an elevation of 1696 meters above sea level.
http://wn.com/Karakore -
Katanga Province
http://wn.com/Katanga_Province -
Kenya
The Republic of Kenya (pronounced ) is a country in East Africa. Lying along the Indian Ocean to its southeast and at the equator, Kenya is bordered by Somalia to the northeast, Ethiopia to the north, Sudan to the northwest, Uganda to the west and Tanzania to the south. Lake Victoria is to the southwest and is shared between Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. Kenya has numerous wildlife reserves, containing thousands of animal species. The capital city is Nairobi. Kenya's area is 580,000 km2 with a population of nearly 39 million which is diverse: more than 40 different ethnic groups are present. The country is named after Mount Kenya, a significant landmark and second among Africa's highest mountain peaks.
http://wn.com/Kenya -
Kuwait
The State of Kuwait (, Dawlat al-Kuwayt) is a sovereign Arab nation situated in the northeast of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the south, and Iraq to the north. It lies on the northwestern shore of the Persian Gulf. The name Kuwait is derived from the Arabic "akwat", the plural of "kout", meaning fortress built near water. The emirate covers an area of 17,820 square kilometres (6,880 sq mi) and has a population of about 2.7 million.
http://wn.com/Kuwait -
London
London () is the capital of England and the United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its founding by the Romans, who called it Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, largely retains its square-mile mediaeval boundaries. Since at least the 19th century, the name London has also referred to the metropolis developed around this core. The bulk of this conurbation forms the London region and the Greater London administrative area, governed by the elected Mayor of London and the London Assembly.
http://wn.com/London -
Luxembourg
Luxembourg ( ), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg (, , ), is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. Luxembourg has a population of over half a million people in an area of approximately 2,586 square kilometres (999 sq mi).
http://wn.com/Luxembourg -
Majete
Majete is a town in northeastern Ethiopia. Located in the Semien Shewa Zone of the Amhara Region, this town has a latitude and longitude of .
http://wn.com/Majete -
Malaysia
Malaysia (pronounced or ) is a federal constitutional monarchy in Southeast Asia. It consists of thirteen states and three federal territories and has a total landmass of . The country is separated by the South China Sea into two regions, Peninsular Malaysia and Malaysian Borneo (also known as West and East Malaysia respectively). Malaysia shares land borders with Thailand, Indonesia, and Brunei and has maritime boundaries with Singapore, Vietnam, and the Philippines. The capital city is Kuala Lumpur, while Putrajaya is the seat of the federal government. The population as of 2009 stood at over 28 million.
http://wn.com/Malaysia -
Mali
Mali, officially the Republic of Mali (), is a landlocked country in Western Africa. Mali borders Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west. Its size is just over 1,240,000 km² with a population more than 14 million. Its capital is Bamako.
http://wn.com/Mali -
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts () is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. Most of its population of 6.6 million lives in the Boston metropolitan area. The eastern half of the state consists of urban, suburban, and rural areas, while Western Massachusetts is mostly rural. Massachusetts is the most populous of the six New England states and ranks third among U.S. states in GDP per capita.
http://wn.com/Massachusetts -
Mauritania
Mauritania ( Mūrītāniyā; ; Soninke: Murutaane; Pulaar: Moritani; ), officially the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, is a country in North Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean in the west, by Western Sahara in the north, by Algeria in the northeast, by Mali in the east and southeast, and by Senegal in the southwest. It is named after the Roman province of Mauretania, even though the modern state covers a territory far to the southwest of the old province. The capital and largest city is Nouakchott, located on the Atlantic coast.
http://wn.com/Mauritania -
Mexico
Mexico, (pronounced ; ), officially known as the United Mexican States (), is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of Mexico. Covering almost 2 million square kilometres (over 760,000 sq mi), Mexico is the fifth-largest country in the Americas by total area and the 14th largest independent nation in the world. With an estimated population of 111 million, it is the 11th most populous country and the most populous Hispanophone country on Earth. Mexico is a federation comprising thirty-one states and a Federal District, the capital city.
http://wn.com/Mexico -
Mongolia
Mongolia (; ) is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It is bordered by Russia to the north and the People's Republic of China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulaanbaatar, the capital and largest city, is home to about 38% of the population. Mongolia's political system is a parliamentary republic.
http://wn.com/Mongolia -
Morocco
Morocco (, al-Maġrib; Berber: Amerruk / Murakuc; French: Maroc), officially the Kingdom of Morocco (المملكة المغربية, al-Mamlakah al-Maġribiyya), is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of nearly 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², including the disputed Western Sahara which is mainly under Moroccan administration. Morocco has a coast on the Atlantic Ocean that reaches past the Strait of Gibraltar into the Mediterranean Sea. It is bordered by Spain to the north (a water border through the Strait and land borders with three small Spanish-controlled exclaves, Ceuta, Melilla, and Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera), Algeria to the east, and Mauritania to the south.
http://wn.com/Morocco -
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization or NATO ( ; ), also called the "(North) Atlantic Alliance", is an intergovernmental military alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty which was signed on 4 April 1949. The NATO headquarters are in Brussels, Belgium, and the organization constitutes a system of collective defence whereby its member states agree to mutual defence in response to an attack by any external party.
http://wn.com/NATO -
New York
New York (; locally or ) is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east. The state has a maritime border with Rhode Island east of Long Island, as well as an international border with the Canadian provinces of Ontario to the north and west, and Quebec to the north. New York is often referred to as New York State to distinguish it from New York City.
http://wn.com/New_York -
New Zealand
{{Infobox Country
http://wn.com/New_Zealand -
Niterói
Niterói () is a municipality in the state of Rio de Janeiro, southeast region of Brazil. This city was founded on November 22, 1573 by the Tupi Amerindian chief Araribóia (who later was converted to Roman Catholicism and given the Christian name of Martim Afonso, after the Portuguese explorer Martim Afonso de Sousa). It makes Niteroi the only Brazilian city to have been founded by a non-Christian, non-assimilated Brazilian Amerindian.
http://wn.com/Niterói -
Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize (Swedish and Norwegian: Nobels fredspris) is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.
http://wn.com/Nobel_Peace_Prize -
Portugal
Portugal (, ), officially the Portuguese Republic (; ), is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east. The Atlantic archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira are also part of Portugal.
http://wn.com/Portugal -
Portuguese India
Portuguese India ( or Estado da Índia) was the aggregate of Portugal's colonial holdings in India.
http://wn.com/Portuguese_India -
Regalskeppet Vasa
http://wn.com/Regalskeppet_Vasa -
Republic of Congo
http://wn.com/Republic_of_Congo -
Richmond, Virginia
Richmond () is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. Like all Virginia municipalities incorporated as cities, it is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) and the Greater Richmond area. Surrounded by Henrico and Chesterfield counties, the city is located at the intersections of Interstate 95 and Interstate 64, and surrounded by Interstate 295 and Virginia State Route 288 in central Virginia. The population was 200,123 in 2007, with an estimated population of 1,212,977 for the Richmond Metropolitan Area — making it the third largest in Virginia.
http://wn.com/Richmond_Virginia -
Rome
Rome (; , ; ) is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . In 2006 the population of the metropolitan area was estimated by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development to have a population of 3.7 million.
http://wn.com/Rome -
RTÉ
http://wn.com/RTÉ -
Sabah
Sabah is one of 13 member states of Malaysia. It is located on the northern portion of the island of Borneo. It is the second largest state in the country after Sarawak, which it borders on its south-west. It also shares a border with the province of East Kalimantan of Indonesia in the south. In spite of its status as a Malaysian state, Sabah remains a disputed territory; the Philippines has a dormant claim over much of the eastern part of the territory. The capital of Sabah is Kota Kinabalu, formerly known as Jesselton. Sabah is known as "Sabah, negeri di bawah bayu", which means "Sabah, the land below the wind", because of its location just south of the typhoon-prone region around the Philippines.
http://wn.com/Sabah -
Sarawak
Sarawak () is one of two Malaysian states on the island of Borneo. Known as Bumi Kenyalang ("Land of the Hornbills"), it is situated on the north-west of the island. It is the largest state in Malaysia; the second largest, Sabah, lies to the northeast.
http://wn.com/Sarawak -
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone () (Krio: Sa Lone), officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Guinea to the north and east, Liberia to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west and southwest. Sierra Leone covers a total area of and has a population estimated at 6.5 million. It is a former British Colony and now a constitutional republic comprising three provinces and the Western Area; which are further divided into fourteen districts.
http://wn.com/Sierra_Leone -
Singapore
{{Infobox Country
http://wn.com/Singapore -
SL-1
The SL-1, or Stationary Low-Power Reactor Number One, was a United States Army experimental nuclear power reactor which underwent a steam explosion and meltdown on January 3, 1961, killing its three operators. The direct cause was the improper withdrawal of the main control rod, responsible for 80% of neutron moderation in the poorly-designed reactor core. The event is the only known fatal reactor accident in the United States.
http://wn.com/SL-1 -
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country located at the southern tip of Africa, with a coastline on the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. To the north lie Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe; to the east are Mozambique and Swaziland; while Lesotho is an independent country wholly surrounded by South African territory.
http://wn.com/South_Africa -
South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK, , ) and sometimes referred to simply as Korea, is a state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, and North Korea to the north. Its capital is Seoul. South Korea lies in a temperate climate region with a predominantly mountainous terrain. Its territory covers a total area of 99,392 square kilometers and has a population of .
http://wn.com/South_Korea -
Soviet
http://wn.com/Soviet -
Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR, , abbreviated СССР, SSSR), informally known as the Soviet Union () or Soviet Russia, was a constitutionally socialist state that existed on the territory of most of the former Russian Empire in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991.
http://wn.com/Soviet_Union -
Syria
Syria ( ; ' or '), officially the Syrian Arab Republic (), is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest.
http://wn.com/Syria -
Tristan da Cunha
Tristan da Cunha () is a remote volcanic group of islands in the south Atlantic Ocean, and also the name of the main island of that group. It is the most remote inhabited archipelago in the world, lying from the nearest land, South Africa, and from South America. It is part of the British overseas territory of which also includes Saint Helena to its north, and equatorial Ascension Island even farther removed, grouping the British South Atlantic islands into one far-flung centrally administered aggregate. Tristan da Cunha is said to be the "most remote inhabited location on Earth." It has a population of 275 (2009 figures).
http://wn.com/Tristan_da_Cunha -
Tsar Bomba
Tsar Bomba () is the nickname for the AN602 hydrogen bomb, the largest and most powerful nuclear weapon ever detonated.
http://wn.com/Tsar_Bomba -
Turkey
Turkey (), known officially as the Republic of Turkey (), is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in western Asia and Thrace in the Balkan region of southeastern Europe. Turkey is one of the six independent Turkic states. Turkey is bordered by eight countries: Bulgaria to the northwest; Greece to the west; Georgia to the northeast; Armenia, Azerbaijan (the exclave of Nakhchivan) and Iran to the east; and Iraq and Syria to the southeast. The Mediterranean Sea and Cyprus are to the south; the Aegean Sea to the west; and the Black Sea is to the north. The Sea of Marmara, the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles (which together form the Turkish Straits) demarcate the boundary between Eastern Thrace and Anatolia; they also separate Europe and Asia.
http://wn.com/Turkey -
U.S.
http://wn.com/US -
United Arab Republic
The United Arab Republic ( Arabic pronunciation Al-Jumhuriyah al-Arabiyah al-Muttahidah, international Arabic pronunciation Al-Jumhuriyah al-Arabiyah al-Muttahidah), often abbreviated as the U.A.R., was a union between Egypt and Syria. The union began in 1958 and existed until 1961 when Syria seceded from the union. Egypt continued to be known officially as the "United Arab Republic" until 1971. The President was Gamal Abdel Nasser. During most of its existence (1958-1961) it was a member of the United Arab States, a confederation with North Yemen.
http://wn.com/United_Arab_Republic -
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK, or Britain) is a country and sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island nation, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of the island of Ireland, and many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK with a land border with another sovereign state, sharing it with the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border, the UK is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel and the Irish Sea. Great Britain is linked to continental Europe by the Channel Tunnel.
http://wn.com/United_Kingdom -
United States
The United States of America (also referred to as the United States, the U.S., the USA, or America) is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its forty-eight contiguous states and Washington, D.C., the capital district, lie between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the south. The state of Alaska is in the northwest of the continent, with Canada to the east and Russia to the west across the Bering Strait. The state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific. The country also possesses several territories in the Caribbean and Pacific.
http://wn.com/United_States -
USA
http://wn.com/USA -
USSR
http://wn.com/USSR -
Vienna
Vienna (; ; ) is the capital of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.7 million (2.3 million within the metropolitan area, more than 25% of Austria's population), and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre. It is the 10th largest city by population in the European Union. Vienna is host to many major international organizations such as the United Nations and OPEC.
http://wn.com/Vienna -
Volgograd
Volgograd (; ), formerly called Tsaritsyn () (1589–1925) and Stalingrad () (1925–1961) is an important industrial city and the administrative center of Volgograd Oblast, Russia. It is long, north to south, situated on the western bank of the Volga River and has a population of 1.011 million people. The city was made famous for its resistance and extensive damage during the Battle of Stalingrad during World War II.
http://wn.com/Volgograd -
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C. (), formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States, founded on July 16, 1790. Article One of the United States Constitution provides for a federal district, distinct from the states, to serve as the permanent national capital. The City of Washington was originally a separate municipality within the federal territory until an act of Congress in 1871 established a single, unified municipal government for the whole District. It is for this reason that the city, while legally named the District of Columbia, is known as Washington, D.C. The city shares its name with the U.S. state of Washington, which is located on the country's Pacific coast.
http://wn.com/Washington_DC -
Washington, DC
http://wn.com/Washington_DC -
West Germany
West Germany () is the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG () in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990. This period, during which Germany and Berlin were divided, ended when communist East Germany was dissolved and its five states joined the eleven states of the Federal Republic of Germany. The enlarged Federal Republic of Germany with sixteen states (known simply as "Germany") is thus the continuation of the pre-1990 Federal Republic of Germany, and not its successor.
http://wn.com/West_Germany
- 1867
- 1870
- 1871
- 1873
- 1874
- 1875
- 1876
- 1877
- 1878
- 1879
- 1880
- 1881
- 1882
- 1883
- 1884
- 1885
- 1886
- 1887
- 1888
- 1889
- 1890
- 1891
- 1892
- 1893
- 1894
- 1895
- 1897
- 1899
- 1900
- 1901
- 1904
- 1905
- 1907
- 1908
- 1909
- 1910
- 1914
- 1915
- 1917
- 1918
- 1921
- 1924
- 1925
- 1927
- 1930
- 1935
- 1937
- 1944
- 1957
- 1960
- 1978
- 1993
- 1994
- 1997
- 1999
- 2001
- 2002
- 2003
- 2004
- 2006
- 2007
- 2009
- 2011
- 33rd Academy Awards
- Abdul Karim Kassem
- Adnan Menderes
- Adolf Eichmann
- Africa
- Akira Kuroiwa
- Akira Takasaki
- Akira Taue
- Akosombo Dam
- Al Jean
- Alabama
- Alan Shepard
- Albania
- Albert Kalonji
- Albert Sévigny
- Alfredo Fioravanti
- Algeria
- Algiers putsch
- All-Star Game
- Alonzo Babers
- American comic book
- Amr Diab
- Amy Sedaris
- Andres Calamaro
- Andrew Zimmern
- Andrey Korotayev
- Andrés Galarraga
- Andy Lau
- Angola
- angry mob
- Ann Coulter
- Anna May Wong
- Anne Donovan
- Anniston, Alabama
- Antarctic Treaty
- Anthony Burger
- Anthony Cumia
- Anthony Warlow
- Apollo program
- April 1
- April 11
- April 12
- April 13
- April 14
- April 17
- April 18
- April 19
- April 2
- April 20
- April 21
- April 22
- April 23
- April 24
- April 25
- April 26
- April 27
- April 28
- April 29
- April 3
- April 30
- April 5
- April 6
- April 7
- April 8
- April 9
- Arab League
- armistice
- Arnaldur Indridason
- Arundhati Roy
- astronaut
- Atlantic
- atomic reactor
- August 1
- August 10
- August 11
- August 13
- August 14
- August 18
- August 20
- August 21
- August 22
- August 25
- August 26
- August 29
- August 3
- August 30
- August 4
- August 5
- August 6
- August 7
- August 8
- August 9
- Australia
- B'z
- B-47
- B-52 Stratofortress
- Bad Religion
- BAFTA
- Barack Obama
- Barbie
- Barents Sea
- Barry Fitzgerald
- baseball
- Bay of Pigs Invasion
- Beatles
- Belgium
- Belinda Lee
- Belize
- Belize City
- Belmopan
- Benoît Mariage
- Berkeley, California
- Berlin
- Berlin Wall
- Bill Hicks
- Billy Duffy
- Billy Ray Cyrus
- birthdate
- Bizarre Foods
- Blaise Cendrars
- Bob Woodruff
- Boeing 707
- Bonnie Hunt
- Boston
- Boy George
- Boynton v. Virginia
- Brazil
- Brett Kenny
- Brian Conley
- Brunei
- Brussels
- Bucks Fizz
- Calvin Smith
- Canada
- Carl Jung
- Carl Lewis
- Carlos Duarte Costa
- Carnegie Hall
- Caroline Flint
- Carsten Fischer
- Casablanca
- Casablanca Group
- Casablanca, Morocco
- Catch-22
- Catherine Oxenberg
- Cathy Cavadini
- Cavern Club
- ceasefire
- Cemal Gürsel
- Charles Coburn
- Charles de Gaulle
- Charles Wright
- Charlottenburg
- Chico Marx
- China
- Christopher Meloni
- Circle Jerks
- circus
- civil rights
- Clayton Rohner
- Clive Allen
- Cold War
- cosmonaut
- coup
- Crystal Bernard
- Cuba
- Cyprus
- Czechoslovakia
- Cécilia Rhode
- D. B. Sweeney
- Dag Hammarskjöld
- Damao
- Damascus
- Dan Marino
- Daniel Johnston
- Daniel Lévi
- Danny Carey
- Daphna Kastner
- Daron Hagen
- Dashiell Hammett
- Dave McAuley
- Dave Meltzer
- Dave Mustaine
- Dave Watson
- Davey Allison
- David Leavitt
- death penalty
- December 1
- December 10
- December 11
- December 12
- December 13
- December 15
- December 16
- December 17
- December 18
- December 19
- December 2
- December 20
- December 21
- December 23
- December 24
- December 25
- December 26
- December 28
- December 29
- December 3
- December 30
- December 31
- December 4
- December 5
- December 6
- December 8
- December 9
- Dennis Rodman
- Deutsche Oper Berlin
- Deutsche Opernhaus
- Devrim
- Dexter Scott King
- Dez Cadena
- diplomatic relations
- disarmament
- Discrimination
- Diu, India
- Doc Rivers
- Dominican Republic
- Don Mattingly
- Donald Cook (actor)
- Dorothy Thompson
- Douglas Coupland
- Dun Karm Psaila
- Dwayne McDuffie
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
- Dwight Eisenhower
- Dylan McDermott
- Earle Page
- East Berlin
- East Germany
- Eastern Europe
- Ed Wynne (guitarist)
- Eddie Murphy
- Eddie Polo
- Edmond Yu
- Edward Kennedy Jr
- Eero Saarinen
- Egypt
- El Salvador
- Elizabeth Daily
- Elsa the Lioness
- Elsie Ferguson
- Emily Greene Balch
- emirate
- Enya
- Eric Allin Cornell
- Eric Jerome Dickey
- Eric Stoltz
- Ernest Hemingway
- Erwin Schrödinger
- Esther Dale
- Ethiopia
- Europe
- Exarch
- Ezzat el Kamhawi
- Fantastic Four
- February 1
- February 10
- February 11
- February 12
- February 13
- February 14
- February 15
- February 17
- February 2
- February 20
- February 21
- February 22
- February 25
- February 26
- February 27
- February 28
- February 3
- February 4
- February 5
- February 7
- February 8
- February 9
- Federation of Malaya
- Felix Wong
- Fenway Park
- Ferrari
- Fidel Castro
- figure skating
- Focolare Movement
- Football in England
- France
- Francis Ng
- Frank Fay(U.S.-born)
- Frank J. Christensen
- Frank Reich
- Franklyn Farnum
- Frantz Fanon
- Freedom Riders
- Fumihiko Tachiki
- Futoshi Matsunaga
- Gail Russell
- Gala Galaction
- Gary Ablett, Sr.
- Gary Cooper
- Gary Dell'Abate
- Gene Deitch
- Gene Eugene
- genetic code
- genetics
- Geoff Moore
- Georg von Békésy
- George A. Malcolm
- George Blake
- George Clooney
- George Formby, Jr.
- George Lopez
- George Melford
- George Polk Award
- George S. Kaufman
- Gerardo Teissonniere
- Germany
- Ghana
- Gherman Titov
- Gina Mastrogiacomo
- GMA Network
- Goa
- Govenor of New York
- Grandma Moses
- Greg Hetson
- Greg LeMond
- Gregorian calendar
- Guadalupe Island
- Guido Buchwald
- Guinea
- Gus Grissom
- Ham the Chimp
- Harriet Shaw Weaver
- Harry S. Truman
- Hassan II of Morocco
- Heather Locklear
- Heinrich Matthaei
- Helmi Johannes
- Henry Rollins
- Herbert Pitman
- Hiroshi Hase
- Holy Loch
- Hugo Teufel III
- human rights
- Hungry generation
- hurricane
- Hurricane Hattie
- hydrogen bomb
- Ian Reid (educator)
- Idaho Falls, Idaho
- Ilham Aliyev
- Ilyushin Il-18
- India
- Indonesia
- Ingrid Betancourt
- Iraq
- Ireland
- Iris DeMent
- Isiah Thomas
- İsmet İnönü
- Israel
- Ivo Andrić
- Jackie Earle Haley
- Jackson, Mississippi
- Jacky Cheung
- James Gandolfini
- James Melton
- James Naismith
- James Thurber
- James Worthy
- Jan Kuehnemund
- Jane Leeves
- Janet G. Travell
- Janet McTeer
- January 1
- January 10
- January 11
- January 13
- January 14
- January 17
- January 18
- January 2
- January 20
- January 21
- January 22
- January 24
- January 25
- January 26
- January 28
- January 29
- January 3
- January 30
- January 31
- January 4
- January 5
- January 7
- January 8
- January 9
- Jay Aston
- Jeff Malone
- Jerusalem
- Jesse Wallace
- Jill Dando
- Jim Balsillie
- Jim Bowden
- Jim Reid
- Joan Davis
- John F. Kennedy
- John Key
- John Kruk
- John Lynch (actor)
- John Matteson
- Jomo Kenyatta
- Jonathan Potts
- Joseph Kasavubu
- Joseph Schenck
- Joseph Stalin
- Juanita Hansen
- Judy Garland
- Jules Bordet
- Julia Gillard
- Julia Louis-Dreyfus
- Julius Nyerere
- July 1
- July 10
- July 12
- July 14
- July 17
- July 19
- July 2
- July 21
- July 22
- July 23
- July 25
- July 26
- July 30
- July 31
- July 4
- July 5
- July 6
- July 7
- July 8
- June 1
- June 10
- June 14
- June 15
- June 16
- June 17
- June 18
- June 19
- June 2
- June 20
- June 21
- June 22
- June 23
- June 24
- June 25
- June 26
- June 27
- June 28
- June 29
- June 3
- June 30
- June 4
- June 5
- June 6
- June 9
- Jurga Ivanauskaitė
- Jussi Lampi
- Justin Madden
- k.d. lang
- Kalpana Chawla
- Karakore
- Karen Duffy
- Karim Abdul Razak
- Karin Enke
- Karin Resetarits
- Katanga Province
- Keiko Matsui
- Keith Sweat
- Kelley Deal
- Ken (Barbie)
- Kenya
- Kevin McDonald
- Kiev
- Kim Deal
- King of Albania
- Kirov Ballet
- Kuwait
- Lar Park Lincoln
- Larry Mullen, Jr.
- Latifa
- Latin America
- Laurel Clark
- Laurence Fishburne
- Laurence Owen
- Lawrence Lessig
- Lawrencium
- Lea Thompson
- Lee DeForest
- Lee Moran
- legal tender
- Leo Carrillo
- Liberty Bell 7
- Lidia Yusupova
- Lisa Bevill
- Lisa Gerrard
- Lisa Zane
- Liverpool F.C
- Lloyd Cole
- London
- Lothar Matthäus
- Lucian Blaga
- Luxembourg
- Lyndon B. Johnson
- MAD Magazine
- Maia Chiburdanidze
- Majete
- Malaysia
- Mali
- Manu Chao
- Marcel Junod
- Marcelo Fromer
- March 1
- March 10
- March 12
- March 13
- March 14
- March 15
- March 16
- March 17
- March 18
- March 21
- March 23
- March 26
- March 27
- March 28
- March 29
- March 3
- March 30
- March 4
- March 6
- March 8
- March 9
- Maria Filatova
- Mariel Hemingway
- Marilyn Milian
- Marion Davies
- Mark Latham
- Mark Messier
- Mark Shasha
- martial law
- Martina Gedeck
- Marvel Universe
- Marxist-Leninist
- Mary Docter
- Mary Page Keller
- Massachusetts
- Matt Goldman
- Matthew Kauffman
- Matthew Waterhouse
- Maurice Tourneur
- Mauritania
- Max Conrad
- Max Weber (artist)
- Maxi Priest
- May 1
- May 10
- May 11
- May 12
- May 13
- May 14
- May 15
- May 16
- May 17
- May 18
- May 19
- May 2
- May 20
- May 21
- May 22
- May 23
- May 24
- May 25
- May 27
- May 28
- May 29
- May 3
- May 30
- May 31
- May 4
- May 5
- May 6
- May 7
- May 8
- May 9
- Maya Deren
- Meera Syal
- Meg Ryan
- Megadeth
- Mei Lanfang
- Melissa Etheridge
- Melvin Calvin
- Mercury program
- Mercury-Redstone 2
- Mercury-Redstone 3
- Mercury-Redstone 4
- Mexico
- Michael J. Fox
- Michael Rockefeller
- Mike Breen
- Mike Leach (coach)
- Mike Tramp
- military coup
- Minuteman (missile)
- missionary
- Mitch Gaylord
- Moana Pozzi
- Mohammad Fouad
- Moise Tshombe
- Mongolia
- Moon
- Mordecai Ham
- Morocco
- Moss Hart
- MV Dara
- Mylene Farmer
- Nadia Comăneci
- Nastassja Kinski
- National Day
- NATO
- Nazi
- Neil Armstrong
- Neil Dougherty
- Nelson Rockefeller
- New Democratic Party
- New Guinea
- New Guinea Council
- New York
- New York City
- New Zealand
- Newcastle United
- news conference
- newspaper
- Nick Harvey
- Nick LaRocca
- Nigel Worthington
- Nikita Khrushchev
- Nita Naldi
- Niterói
- Nobel Peace Prize
- Nobel Prize
- Non-Aligned Movement
- Novaya Zemlya
- November 1
- November 10
- November 11
- November 12
- November 14
- November 15
- November 16
- November 17
- November 18
- November 19
- November 2
- November 20
- November 22
- November 24
- November 3
- November 30
- November 4
- November 5
- November 6
- November 8
- November 9
- nuclear bomb
- Nuclear testing
- October 1
- October 10
- October 11
- October 12
- October 13
- October 14
- October 16
- October 17
- October 18
- October 19
- October 2
- October 22
- October 24
- October 25
- October 26
- October 27
- October 29
- October 30
- October 31
- October 4
- October 5
- October 6
- Otto Loewi
- Ozric Tentacles
- Paris
- Park Chung Hee
- Pat Sharp
- Patrice Lumumba
- Patrizia Scianca
- Paul Begala
- Paul Coffey
- Paul Waaktaar-Savoy
- Paul Wittgenstein
- Peace Corps
- Percy Grainger
- Peri Gilpin
- Peter Beardsley
- Peter Benenson
- Peter Jackson
- Petra Thumer
- philanthropist
- Philippe Russo
- Pigmy Love Circus
- Poison (band)
- Portugal
- Portuguese India
- Pound sterling
- Private Eye
- Project Mercury
- Project Mohole
- protectorate
- race riot
- Ralph Carter
- Ralph Macchio
- Randal L. Schwartz
- Randy Vasquez
- Ray Cote
- Ray Mancini
- referendum
- Regalskeppet Vasa
- Reggie Fils-Aimé
- Reggie White
- Rene Capo
- Republic of Congo
- Richmond, Virginia
- Rick Moody
- Rick Steiner
- Ricky Gervais
- Rico Constantino
- Rikki Rockett
- RMS Titanic
- Robert Hofstadter
- Robert Menzies
- Robert Rey
- Robert Spano
- Robin Carnahan
- Roger Maris
- Roger Wessels
- Roman numerals
- Rome
- Rosie Kane
- Roy Del Ruth
- Roy Dennis
- RTÉ
- Rudolf Mössbauer
- Rudolf Nureyev
- Ruth Chatterton
- Sabah
- Sabena
- Sally Yeh
- Sam Backo
- Sam Rayburn
- Sarah Sutton
- Sarawak
- Sean Hannity
- September 1
- September 10
- September 11
- September 12
- September 13
- September 14
- September 15
- September 17
- September 18
- September 2
- September 20
- September 21
- September 22
- September 23
- September 24
- September 25
- September 26
- September 27
- September 28
- September 29
- September 30
- September 4
- September 5
- September 6
- September 7
- Sergei Babayan
- Shavit 2
- Sibyl Morrison
- Sierra Leone
- Singapore
- Six Flags over Texas
- SL-1
- Slayer
- socialism
- solar eclipse
- South Africa
- South Kasai
- South Korea
- Soviet
- Soviet Union
- spy
- Stan Nichols
- Stephen Hillenburg
- Steven Weber (actor)
- Strasbourg
- submarine
- Suggs (singer)
- Sukarno
- Sumner Welles
- Sunil Shetty
- Supriya Pathak
- Susan Boyle
- Susan Olsen
- Susanna M. Salter
- Switchin' Kitten
- Syria
- Tak Matsumoto
- Tanganyika
- Ted Kennedy
- The Cult
- The Edge
- The Holocaust
- Thomas Beecham
- Thomas Darden
- Thurl Bailey
- Tim Roth
- Toby Keith
- Todd Haynes
- Tom and Jerry
- Tom Araya
- Tool (band)
- trams in Sydney
- Tristan da Cunha
- Tsar Bomba
- Tunku Abdul Rahman
- Turkey
- Ty Cobb
- U Thant
- U.S.
- U.S. Senator
- U.S. Supreme Court
- U.S.S.R
- U2
- UGM-27 Polaris
- Umayya Abu-Hanna
- UN
- UN General Assembly
- UN Secretary-General
- United Arab Republic
- United Kingdom
- United Nations
- United States
- UNSC
- USA
- USAF
- USSR
- Valentin Bondarenko
- Valentine Davies
- Vanessa Bell
- Venera 1
- Venus
- Vienna
- Vienna summit
- Vietnam War
- Vince Neil
- Virginia Madsen
- Vitry-le-François
- Vixen (band)
- Volgograd
- Volker Fried
- Vostok 1
- Vostok 2
- Washington, D.C.
- Washington, DC
- Wayne Gretzky
- West Berlin
- West Germany
- West Irian
- Western Europe
- Western Papua
- White Lion
- William C. McCool
- Wolfgang Von Trips
- Woodall Rodgers
- Woodrow Wilson
- Woody Harrelson
- World Food Program
- Wynton Marsalis
- X-15
- Yelena Davydova
- Yordanka Donkova
- Yuri Gagarin
- Zog of Albania
- Zoltán Korda
- Zoran Janjetov
- Şemsettin Günaltay
Send this Playlist by SMS
Email this Page
Ricky Nelson - Travelin' Man 1961
Ricky Nelson - Travelin' Man 1961 Lyrics: I'm a travelin' man and I've made a lotta stops all over the world And in every port I own the heart of at least one lovely girl I've a pretty senorita waitin' for me down in old Mexico And if you're ever in Alaska stop and see my cute little Eskimo Oh my sweet fräulien down in Berlin town makes my heart start to yearn And my China doll down in old Hong Kong waits for my return Pretty Polynesian baby over the sea I remember the night When we walked in the sands of Waikiki and I held you oh so tight Oh, I'm a travelin' man Yes, I'm a travelin' man Yes, I'm a travelin' man Woe, I'm a travelin' man
http://wn.com/Ricky_Nelson__Travelin'_Man_1961
John Whitney "Catalog" 1961
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 7:22
- Published: 05 Aug 2007
- Uploaded: 24 Jan 2012
- Author: crystalsculpture2
John Whitney's demo reel of work created with his analog computer/film camera magic machine he built from a WWII anti-aircraft gun sight. Also Whitney and the techniques he developed with this machine were what inspired Douglas Trumbull (special fx wizard) to use the slit scan technique on 2001: A Space Odyssey
http://wn.com/John_Whitney_Catalog_1961
Banned Commercial 1961 Flintstones Winston Cigarettes
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:20
- Published: 03 Jul 2006
- Uploaded: 24 Jan 2012
- Author: 4737carlin
Banned Commercial - 1961 Flintstones Cartoon - Winston Cigarettes
http://wn.com/Banned_Commercial_1961_Flintstones_Winston_Cigarettes
The Dave Brubeck Quartet - Take Five (1961)
The Dave Brubeck Quartet - Take Five (1961)
http://wn.com/The_Dave_Brubeck_Quartet__Take_Five_1961
President Kennedy 1961 Inaugural Address
www.c-spanarchives.org President Kennedy delivered his inaugural address on January 20, 1961.
http://wn.com/President_Kennedy_1961_Inaugural_Address
The First Television Remote Control! (1961)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:47
- Published: 20 Apr 2011
- Uploaded: 13 Jan 2012
- Author: shaggylocks
The Remote Control used to be more complicated than setting the clock on your microwave. It's no wonder that the word "couch potato" is a recent term and not an old adage. People before the 1950s actually watched TV without a remote, as I'm sure all of your elders have told you about already. That means no channel surfing, no immobility for hours, no perfect modern-day relaxation/fattening and, most importantly, no DVRs. Instead, they had to sit up close to the TV to manually push buttons to change the channels or lower the volume. That, or walk back and forth from their seat. It's a real toss up on which one's worse. So, you can imagine the great fanfare that came with the invention of the remote control. In all its black and white glory, the video on the right exhibits the grandeur of the 500 pound-looking remote control meant to make life so much easier. See the brick for yourself at 0:49, complete with awesome narration. The amount of programming and complication that went with these early TVs is amazing. It's great when technology actually scales back and makes things simpler to move forward. When I get home, I'm going to hug my remote. Producer: Handy (Jam) Organization Sponsor: RCA Victor
http://wn.com/The_First_Television_Remote_Control!_1961
The Shadows - The Savage (1961)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:31
- Published: 02 Jan 2007
- Uploaded: 23 Jan 2012
- Author: Tranquility12
.
http://wn.com/The_Shadows__The_Savage_1961
Ronald Reagan Speaks Out Against Socialized Medicine
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 10:07
- Published: 01 Aug 2007
- Uploaded: 24 Jan 2012
- Author: wyattmcintyre
From the 1961 Operation Coffee Cup Campaign against Socialized Medicine as proposed by the Democrats, then a private citizen Ronald Reagan Speaks out against socialized medicine. There is no video because this was an LP sent out by the American Medical Association
http://wn.com/Ronald_Reagan_Speaks_Out_Against_Socialized_Medicine
Chart Sweep -- Billboard Hot 100, 1961
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:10
- Published: 04 Jun 2007
- Uploaded: 23 Jan 2012
- Author: MGoddard84
Every record to reach #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart during 1961.
http://wn.com/Chart_Sweep_-_Billboard_Hot_100,_1961
1961 speech Eisenhower Warns us of New World Order
Version 2 Rare video 1961 speech President & WWII General Dwight D Eisenhower warns us of the New World Order aka Military Industrial Complex.
http://wn.com/1961_speech_Eisenhower_Warns_us_of_New_World_Order
1961 TV Show Intros Part 1 of 2
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 6:09
- Published: 09 Jun 2009
- Uploaded: 23 Jan 2012
- Author: alleycat62021
(1)Ben Casey (2)The Defenders (3)87th Precinct (4)The Dick Van Dyke Show (5)Walt Disneys Wonderful World Of Color (6)The New Breed (7)Mr. Ed (8)Hazel
http://wn.com/1961_TV_Show_Intros_Part_1_of_2
The Innocents (1961)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:27
- Published: 04 May 2007
- Uploaded: 24 Jan 2012
- Author: mapofthepiano
Based upon the novel "The Turn Of The Screw" by Henry James.
http://wn.com/The_Innocents_1961
Jerry Lewis - The Errand Boy (1961) Pantomime
This is a fun scene of one great movie on Jerry Lewis.
http://wn.com/Jerry_Lewis__The_Errand_Boy_1961_Pantomime
Edith Piaf - Non, je ne regrette rien (1961)
Edith Piaf - Non, je ne regrette rien with Charles Dumont. "Non, je ne regrette rien" ("No, I regret nothing") is a French song written in 1956 which is best known through the recording made by French singer, Édith Piaf, on 10 November 1960. It was composed by Charles Dumont and its lyrics, describing the singer's defiant attitude toward the past, were written by Michel Vaucaire.
http://wn.com/Edith_Piaf__Non,_je_ne_regrette_rien_1961
Blue Moon-The Marcels-1961
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:22
- Published: 17 Feb 2008
- Uploaded: 24 Jan 2012
- Author: AK47bandit
Original song, oldie.
http://wn.com/Blue_Moon-The_Marcels-1961
Italian Grand Prix 1961
Ricardo Rodriguez's first Formula 1 race. The 1961 Italian Grand Prix.
http://wn.com/Italian_Grand_Prix_1961
![West Side Story - Trailer [1961] [34th Oscar Best Picture]](http://web.archive.org./web/20120219065436im_/http://i.ytimg.com/vi/yA_aFprGzyc/0.jpg "West Side Story - Trailer [1961] [34th Oscar Best Picture]")
West Side Story - Trailer [1961] [34th Oscar Best Picture]
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:56
- Published: 04 May 2009
- Uploaded: 24 Jan 2012
- Author: MoviesHistory
Westside story is the award winning adaptation of the classic romantic tragedy, Romeo and Juliette. The feuding families become two warring New York City gangs- the white Jets led by Riff and the Puerto Rican Sharks, led by Bernardo. Their hatred escalates to a point where neither can coexist with any form of understanding. But when Riff's best friend (and former Jet) Tony and Bernardo's younger sister Maria meet at a dance, no one can do anything to stop their love. Maria and Tony begin meeting in secret, planning to run away. Then the Skarks and Jets plan a rumble under the highway - whoever wins gains control of the streets. Maria sends Tony to stop it, hoping it can end the violence. It goes terribly wrong, and before the lovers know what's happened, tragedy strikes and doesn't stop until the climatic and heartbreaking ending. [IMDB.COM] Release: 18 October 1961 (New York City, New York) (premiere) Awards: Won 10 Oscars. Another 15 wins & 6 nominations Producer: Saul Chaplin, Robert Wise Executive Producer: Walter Mirisch Director: Jerome Robbins, Robert Wise Writer: Jerome Robbins, Arthur Laurents (conception and play), Ernest Lehman (screenplay), William Shakespeare (play "Romeo and Juliet") Cast: John Astin, Richard Beymer, William Bramley, George Chakiris, Ned Glass, Suzie Kaye, Bert Michaels, Rita Moreno, Simon Oakland, Penny Santon, Tucker Smith, Russ Tamblyn, Robert Thompson, Gus Trikonis, Natalie Wood Genre: Musical | Romance | Drama [IMDB.COM]
http://wn.com/West_Side_Story__Trailer_ 1961 _ 34th_Oscar_Best_Picture
The Beatles: "Cry For A Shadow" (1961)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:24
- Published: 19 Oct 2008
- Uploaded: 24 Jan 2012
- Author: misterfabdu93
This is the first composition of the Beatles who is on the album and the only written by George Harrison and John Lennon.
http://wn.com/The_Beatles_Cry_For_A_Shadow_1961
The Parent Trap (1961) together - Hayley Mills
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:48
- Published: 01 Dec 2007
- Uploaded: 22 Jan 2012
- Author: raeven0501
Clip from the movie, where Susan and Sharon [both played by Hayley Mills] sings.. lets get together, in this unforgettable scene..
http://wn.com/The_Parent_Trap_1961_together__Hayley_Mills
Jimmy Dean - Big Bad John (1961)
Big Bad John - Jimmy Dean
http://wn.com/Jimmy_Dean__Big_Bad_John_1961
Joe Morello - 1961 Drum Solo
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:21
- Published: 16 Apr 2006
- Uploaded: 24 Jan 2012
- Author: jazzdrummerben
Joe Morello - 1961 Drum Solo
http://wn.com/Joe_Morello__1961_Drum_Solo
1961 Barbie Dolls Boyfriend First EVER Ken Commercial
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:00
- Published: 01 Jun 2007
- Uploaded: 22 Jan 2012
- Author: BarbieCollectors
"Barbie Loves Ken" - A Petition For Barbie To Get Back With Ken bit.ly PLEASE SIGN This is a commercial from when Ken Doll first came out.
http://wn.com/1961_Barbie_Dolls_Boyfriend_First_EVER_Ken_Commercial
Creative Commons / Jonathanawhite
Creative Commons / Akutyambuksi
Creative Commons / Gnesener1900
Creative Commons
Creative Commons / NASA
Creative Commons
Creative Commons
Creative Commons
Creative Commons
Creative Commons / ChiemseeMan
Creative Commons / Gudrun Meyer
Creative Commons / Davepape Bot
Creative Commons / Sv1xv
Creative Commons / Wehwalt
Creative Commons / Stephen Foskett
Creative Commons / Ryanandlenny
Creative Commons / Umtymp5200
Creative Commons / Christopher Ziemnowicz
Creative Commons / Thomas doerfer
Creative Commons / GTD Aquitaine
Creative Commons
Creative Commons / Redvers
Creative Commons / Oxyman
Creative Commons / Wipsenade
AP / Brennan Linsley
WN / Yeshe Choesang
Creative Commons / Wtshymanski
Creative Commons / Joebengo
NASA / Campani
Creative Commons / ArX
photo: WN / Marzena
15 Feb 2012
Scientist, inventor, and educator George Washington Carver and his work has probably been overlooked more than any other figure in American history. The alternative foods and other products that he...
photo: Creative Commons / Metroskop / Benjamin Holler
11 Feb 2012
WASHINGTON - Carl Hartman had big ideas before he joined The Associated Press in 1944 and became a foreign correspondent. "I realized pretty early that I was not going to write the Great American...
photo: AP / Lefteris Pitarakis
10 Feb 2012
13:45, Feb 10 2012 Harry Redknapp admits he would consider taking the England manager's job but insists he will not be able to combine the role with his current position as Tottenham boss. The...
Most Popular
RELATED LINKS
Ports 1961--inspired by glassblowing
16 Feb 2012
Newsday
Fiona Cibani’s collection for Ports 1961 sprang from a fascination with the Old World art of glassblowing. That artisanal tradition started in Northerm Italy but it doesn’t mean Cibani’s churning out striped Gondoliers’ tees. She just uses it as a jumping off point. Like blown glass, the pieces in...(size: 10.6Kb)
The Grio
Getty Images On May 11, 1961 Malcolm X gave a speech at Brown University to nearly 800 people--most of them white -- calling on blacks to forge their own culture and identity outside of white America. The speech had actually been recorded, but...(size: 1.6Kb)
New York Daily News
PROVIDENCE, R.I.— The recording was forgotten, and so, too, was the odd twist of history that brought together Malcolm X and a bespectacled Ivy Leaguer fated to become one of America’s top diplomats. The audiotape of Malcolm X’s 1961 address in Providence might never have surfaced at all if...(size: 2.6Kb)
'Slavery has made the black people a dead people': Forgotten audiotape of 1961 Malcolm X ...
06 Feb 2012
The Daily Mail
Lost speech: An address given by black rights' campaigner Malcolm X at Brown University, Rhode Island, in 1961 has been discovered in its archives A forgotten speech made by black rights champion Malcolm X has been discovered more than 50 years after it was recorded. The audiotape of Malcolm X's...(size: 9.2Kb)
The Washington Post
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The recording was forgotten, and so, too, was the odd twist of history that brought together Malcolm X and a bespectacled Ivy Leaguer fated to become one of America’s top diplomats. The audiotape of Malcolm X’s 1961 address in Providence might never have surfaced...(size: 6.0Kb)
Brown University student uncovers forgotten 1961 Malcolm X speech urging black separatism
05 Feb 2012
Star Tribune
PROVIDENCE, R.I. - The recording was forgotten, and so, too, was the odd twist of history that brought together Malcolm X and a bespectacled Ivy Leaguer fated to become one of America's top diplomats. The audiotape of Malcolm X's 1961 address in Providence might never have surfaced at all if...(size: 5.1Kb)
San Francisco Chronicle
This 1960s urban renewal project embodies everything misguided in the planning of that era, treating the existing city as a thing to be razed or ignored....(size: 1.0Kb)
>Jan. 31, 1961: A Chimp Named Ham Spaces Out
31 Jan 2012
Wired News
1961: A little fellow named (for Holloman Aerospace Medical Center, his place of training) hitches a ride on the Mercury-Redstone 2 rocket to become the first chimp in outer space. Cosmonaut , the first human to follow Ham’s lead, did so just two and a half months later. But this was no...(size: 6.3Kb)
The Examiner
Wardrobe Coordinator: We’ve got a movie that takes place in the mountains somewhere. What do people in the mountains wear? You know, hunters and tourists and people that live there… Assistant: I dunno…plaid, I guess. Wardrobe...(size: 8.7Kb)
__NOTOC__
Year 1961 (MCMLXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. As ''MAD Magazine'' pointed out on its cover for the March 1961 issue, this was the first "upside-up" year—i.e., one in which the numerals that form the year look the same as when the numerals are rotated upside down—since 1881, and the last until 6009.
January 3
* President Dwight Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and consular relations with Cuba.
* At the National Reactor Testing Station near Idaho Falls, Idaho, atomic reactor SL-1 explodes, killing 3 military technicians.
January 5
* Italian sculptor Alfredo Fioravanti marches into the U.S. Consulate in Rome, and confesses that he was part of the team that forged the Etruscan terracotta warriors in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
* Cemal Gürsel forms the new government of Turkey (25th government)
January 7 – Following a 4-day conference in Casablanca, 5 African chiefs of state announce plans for a NATO-type African organization to ensure common defense. The Charter of Casablanca involves the Casablanca Group: Morocco, the United Arab Republic, Ghana, Guinea, and Mali.
January 8 – In France, a referendum supports Charles de Gaulle's policies on independence for Algeria.
January 9 – British authorities announce that they have discovered a large Soviet spy ring in London.
January 17
* President Dwight Eisenhower gives his final State of the Union Address to Congress. In a Farewell Address the same day, he warns of the increasing power of a "military-industrial complex."
* Patrice Lumumba of Republic of Congo is assassinated.
January 20 – John F. Kennedy succeeds Dwight Eisenhower as the 35th President of the United States of America.
January 24 – B-52 Stratofortress, with two nuclear bombs, crashes near Goldsboro, North Carolina.
January 25
* In Washington, DC John F. Kennedy delivers the first live presidential news conference. In it, he announces that the Soviet Union has freed the 2 surviving crewmen of a USAF RB-47 reconnaissance plane shot down by Soviet flyers over the Barents Sea July 1, 1960 (see RB-47H shot down).
* Acting to halt 'leftist excesses,' a junta composed of 2 army officers and 4 civilians takes over El Salvador, ousting another junta that had ruled for 3 months.
January 26 – John F. Kennedy appoints Janet G. Travell to be his physician, the first woman to hold this appointment.
January 30 – President John F. Kennedy delivers his first State of the Union Address.
January 31 – Ham the Chimp, a 37-pound (17-kg) male, is rocketed into space aboard Mercury-Redstone 2, in a test of the Project Mercury capsule, designed to carry United States astronauts into space.
February 3 – China buys grain from Canada for $60 million.
February 4 – The Portuguese Colonial War begins in Angola.
February 5 – February 9 – In Congo, President Joseph Kasavubu names Joseph Ileo as the new Prime Minister.
February 9 – The Beatles perform for the first time at the Cavern Club.
February 12 – The U.S.S.R. launches ''Venera 1'' towards Venus.
February 13 – The Congo government announces that villagers have killed Patrice Lumumba.
February 14 – Discovery of the chemical elements: Element 103, Lawrencium, is first synthesized in Berkeley, California.
February 15
* President Kennedy warns the Soviet Union to avoid interfering with the United Nations pacification of the Congo.
* A Sabena Boeing 707 crashes near Brussels, Belgium, killing 73, including the entire United States figure skating team and several coaches.
* A total solar eclipse occurs in southern part of Europe
February 25 – The last public trams in Sydney, Australia, cease operation, bringing to an end the Southern Hemisphere's largest tramway network.
February 26 – Hassan II is pronounced King of Morocco.
March–April – Drilling for Project Mohole is undertaken off the coast of Guadalupe Island, Mexico.
March 1 – President of the United States John F. Kennedy establishes the Peace Corps.
March 3 – Hassan II is crowned King of Morocco.
March 8
* Max Conrad circumnavigates the earth in 8 days, 18 hours and 49 minutes, setting a new world record.
* The first U.S. Polaris submarines arrive at Holy Loch.
March 13
* Black and white £5 notes cease to be legal tender in the UK.
* A dam burst in Kiev, USSR, killing 145.
* United States delegate to the UNSC Adlai Stevenson votes against Portuguese policies in Africa.
President of the United States John F. Kennedy proposes a long-term "Alliance for Progress" between the United States and Latin America.
Cyprus joins the Commonwealth of Nations, becoming the first small country in the Commonwealth.
March 15
* South Africa withdraws from the Commonwealth of Nations.
* The Union of Peoples of Angola, led by Holden Roberto, attacks strategic locations in the north of Angola. These events result in the beginning of the colonial war with Portugal.
March 18
* A ceasefire takes effect in the Algerian War of Independence.
* ''Nous les amoureux'' by Jean-Claude Pascal (music by Jacques Datin, text by Maurice Vidalin) wins the Eurovision Song Contest 1961 for Luxembourg.
March 29 – The Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, allowing residents of Washington, D.C. to vote in presidential elections.
March 30 – The Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs is signed at New York.
April 5 – The New Guinea Council of Western Papua is installed.
April 8 – The British passenger ship ''Dara'' blows up and sinks off Dubai. 238 passengers and crew are killed.
April 11 – The trial of Nazi Adolf Eichmann begins in Jerusalem.
April 12
* ''Vostok 1'': Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human in space.
* Albert Kalonji takes the title ''Emperor Albert I Kalonji'' of South Kasai.
April 13 – In Portugal, a coup attempt against António de Oliveira Salazar fails.
April 17
* The Bay of Pigs Invasion of Cuba begins; it fails by April 19.
* The 33rd Academy Awards ceremony is held.
April 18 – Portugal sends to Angola its first military reinforcement.
April 20 – Fidel Castro announces that the Bay of Pigs invasion has been defeated.
April 22 – Algiers putsch: Four French generals who oppose de Gaulle's policies in Algeria fail in a coup attempt.
April 23 – Judy Garland performs in a legendary comeback concert at Carnegie Hall in New York City.
April 24 – The Swedish ship ''Regalskeppet Vasa'' is removed from the water after being sunk 333 years earlier.
April 27
President Kennedy delivers a revealing speech: ''The President and the Press: Address before the American Newspaper Publishers Association''
* Sierra Leone becomes independent from the United Kingdom.
May 4 – U.S. Freedom Riders begin interstate bus rides to test the new U.S. Supreme Court integration decision.
May 5 – Mercury program: Alan Shepard becomes the first American in space aboard Mercury-Redstone 3.
May 6 – Tottenham Hotspur F.C. becomes the first team in the 20th century to win the English league and cup double. This being the last time Tottenham won the English League.
May 8 – Briton George Blake is sentenced to 42 years imprisonment for spying.
May 14 – American civil rights movement: A Freedom Riders bus is fire-bombed near Anniston, Alabama and the civil rights protestors are beaten by an angry mob.
May 15 – Heinrich Matthaei alone performs the Poly-U-Experiment and is the first human to recognize and understand the genetic code. This is the birthdate of modern genetics.
May 16 – Park Chung Hee takes over in a military coup in South Korea.
May 19 – ''Venera 1'' becomes the first man-made object to fly-by another planet by passing Venus (however, the probe had lost contact with Earth a month earlier and does not send back any data).
May 21 – American civil rights movement: Alabama Governor John Patterson declares martial law in an attempt to restore order after race riots break out.
May 24 – American civil rights movement: Freedom Riders are arrested in Jackson, Mississippi for "disturbing the peace" after disembarking from their bus.
May 25 – Apollo program: President Kennedy announces before a special joint session of Congress his goal to put a man on the Moon before the end of the decade.
May 27 – Tunku Abdul Rahman, Prime Minister of Malaya, holds a press conference in Singapore, announcing his idea to form the Federation of Malaysia, comprising Malaya, Singapore, Sarawak, Brunei and North Borneo (Sabah).
May 28 – Peter Benenson's article "The Forgotten Prisoners" is published in several internationally read newspapers. This is later considered the founding of the human rights organization Amnesty International.
May 30 – Rafael Leónidas Trujillo, totalitarian despot of the Dominican Republic since 1930, is killed in an ambush, putting an end to the second longest-running dictatorship in Latin American history.
May 31
* In France, rebel generals Maurice Challe and Andre Zelelr are sentenced to 15 years in prison.
* South Africa officially leaves the Commonwealth of Nations.
* President John F. Kennedy and Charles De Gaulle meet in Paris.
June 1 – Ethiopia experiences her most devastating earthquake of the 20th century, with a magnitude of 6.7. The town of Majete is destroyed, 45% of the houses in Karakore collapse, 17 kilometers (11 miles) of the main road north of Karakore are damaged by landslides and fissures, and 5,000 inhabitants in the area are left homeless.
June 4 – Vienna summit: John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev meet during 2 days in Vienna. They discuss nuclear tests, disarmament and Germany.
June 16 – Russian ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev requests asylum in France while in Paris with the Kirov Ballet.
June 17
* A Paris-to-Strasbourg train derails near Vitry-le-François; 24 are killed, 109 injured.
* The New Democratic Party of Canada is founded with the merger of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) and the Canadian Labour Congress.
June 19 – The British protectorate ends in Kuwait and it becomes an emirate.
June 22 – Moise Tshombe is released for lack of evidence of connection to the murder of Patrice Lumumba.
June 23 – Antarctic Treaty comes into effect.
June 25 – Iraqi president Abdul Karim Kassem announces he is going to annex Kuwait.
June 27 – Kuwait requests British help; the United Kingdom sends in troops.
July 1 – Diana, Princess of Wales is born in Sandringham, Norfolk, England, to her parents: Frances Spencer, Viscountess Althorp and John Spencer, Viscount Althorp (later the 8th Earl Spencer).
July 4 – The Soviet submarine ''K-19'' reactor leak occurs in the North Atlantic.
July 5 – The first Israeli rocket, ''Shavit 2'', is launched.
July 8 – A mine explosion in Czechoslovakia leaves 108 dead.
July 12 – A Czechoslovakian Ilyushin Il-18 crashes while attempting to land at Casablanca, Morocco, killing all 72 persons on board.
July 21 – Mercury program: Gus Grissom, piloting the Mercury-Redstone 4 capsule ''Liberty Bell 7'', becomes the second American to go into space (sub-orbital). Upon splashdown, the hatch prematurely opens, and the capsule sinks (it is recovered in 1999).
July 25 – U.S. President John F. Kennedy gives a widely watched TV speech on the Berlin crisis, warning "we will not be driven out of Berlin." Kennedy urges Americans to build fallout shelters, setting off a four-month debate on civil defense.
July 31
* At Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts, the first All-Star Game tie in major league baseball history occurs, when the game is stopped in the 9th inning due to rain (the only tie until 2002 in MLB All-Star Game history).
* Ireland submits the first ever application to join the then European Economic Community.
August – USA founds Alliance for Progress.
August 1 – The Six Flags over Texas theme park officially opens to the public.
August 6 – Vostok 2: Soviet cosmonaut Gherman Titov becomes the second human to orbit the Earth, and the first to be in outer space for more than one day.
August 7 – Vostok 2 with Titov onboard lands in Soviet Union.
August 10 – Britain applies for membership in the European Economic Community.
August 13 – Construction of the Berlin Wall begins, restricting movement between East Berlin and West Berlin and forming a clear boundary between West Germany and East Germany, Western Europe and Eastern Europe.
August 21 – Jomo Kenyatta is released from prison in Kenya.
September 1 – First meeting held of the Non-Aligned Movement. The Soviet Union resumes nuclear testing, escalating fears over the ongoing Berlin crisis.
September 7 – Tom and Jerry make a return with their first episode since 1957, Switchin' Kitten. The new creator, Gene Deitch makes 12 more Tom and Jerry episodes until 1962.
September 10 – During the F1 Italian Grand Prix on the circuit of Monza, German Wolfgang Von Trips, driving a Ferrari, crashes into a stand, killing 14 spectators and himself.
September 14 – The new military government of Turkey sentences 15 members of the previous government to death.
September 14 – The Focolare Movement opens its first North American center in New York.
September 17 – Military rulers in Turkey hang former prime minister Adnan Menderes.
September 18 – UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld dies in an air crash en route to Katanga, Congo.
September 21 – In France, the OAS slips an anti-de Gaulle message into TV programming.
September 24
* The old Deutsche Opernhaus in the Berlin neighborhood of Charlottenburg is returned to its newly rebuilt house as the Deutsche Oper Berlin.
* In the U.S., the Walt Disney anthology television series, renamed ''Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color'', moves from ABC to NBC after seven years on the air, and begins telecasting its programs in color for the first time. Years later, after Disney's death, the still-on-the-air program will be renamed ''The Wonderful World of Disney''.
September 28 – A military coup in Damascus, Syria effectively ends the United Arab Republic, the union between Egypt and Syria.
September 30 – Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) formed to replace the Organization for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC).
October 1—Baseball player Roger Maris of the New York Yankees hits his 61st home run in the last game of the season, against the Boston Red Sox, beating the 34-year-old record held by Babe Ruth.
October 10—A volcanic eruption on Tristan da Cunha causes the whole population to be evacuated.
October 12—The death penalty is abolished in New Zealand.
October 17—Paris massacre of 1961: French police in Paris attack about 30,000 protesting a curfew applied solely to Algerians. The official death toll is 3, but human rights groups claim 240 dead.
October 18—West Side Story is released as a film.
October 19—The Arab League takes over protecting Kuwait; the last British troops leave.
October 25—The first edition of ''Private Eye'', the British satirical magazine, is published.
October 26—Cemal Gürsel becomes the fourth president of Turkey. (His former title was head of state and government. By constitutional referendum, he is elected as president).
October 27
* An armistice begins in Katanga, Congo.
* Mongolia and Mauritania join the United Nations.
* A standoff between Soviet and American tanks in Berlin, Germany heightens Cold War tensions.
* Fahri Özdiilek becomes the acting prime minister of Turkey.
October 29
* DZBB-TV Channel 7, the Philippines' third TV station, is launched.
* Devrim has been released. Project completed only in 130 days almost from scratch and this period includes decision of the project, research, design, development and production of four cars.
October 30—Nuclear testing: The Soviet Union detonates a 58-megaton yield hydrogen bomb known as Tsar Bomba over Novaya Zemlya. It remains the largest ever man-made explosion.
October 31
* Hurricane Hattie devastates Belize City, Belize killing over 270. After the hurricane, the capital moves to the inland city of Belmopan.
* Joseph Stalin's body is removed from the Lenin Mausoleum.
November – The Fantastic Four #1 comic debuts, launching the Marvel Universe and revolutionizing the American comic book industry.
November 1
* The Hungry generation Movement is launched in Calcutta, India.
* The Interstate Commerce Commission's federal order banning segregation at all interstate public facilities officially comes into effect.
* The Madame Alexander Doll Club is founded by Margaret Doris Winson of Sweet Springs MO.
November 2 – ''Kean'' opens at Broadway Theater in New York City for 92 performances.
November 3 – The UN General Assembly unanimously elects U Thant acting Secretary General.
November 6 – The U.S. government issues a stamp honoring the 100th birthday of James Naismith.
November 8 – Imperial Airlines Flight 201/8 crashes while attempting to land at Richmond, Virginia, killing 77 persons on board.
November 9 – Neil Armstrong records a world record speed in a rocket plane of 6,587 km/h flying a X-15.
November 10 – ''Catch-22'' is first published by Joseph Heller.
November 11
* Congolese soldiers murder 13 Italian United Nations pilots.
* Stalingrad is renamed Volgograd.
November 17 – Michael Rockefeller, son of New York Governor, and later Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, disappears in the jungles of New Guinea.
November 18 – U.S. President John F. Kennedy sends 18,000 military advisors to South Vietnam.
November 20
* The funeral of longtime House Speaker Sam Rayburn is held in Washington, DC. Two former Presidents (Truman, Eisenhower) and one future one (Lyndon B. Johnson) join President Kennedy in paying their respects.
* İsmet İnönü of CHP forms the new government of Turkey (26th government, first coalition in Turkey , partner AP)
November 24 – World Food Program (WFP) formed as a temporary UN program.
November 30 – The Soviet Union vetoes Kuwait's application for United Nations membership.
December 1 – Netherlands New Guinea raises the new Morning Star flag and changes its name to West Papua.
December 2 – Cold War: In a nationally broadcast speech, Cuban leader Fidel Castro announces he is a Marxist-Leninist, and that Cuba will adopt socialism.
December 5 – U.S. President John F. Kennedy gives support to the Volta Dam project in Ghana.
December 9
* Tanganyika gains independence and declares itself a republic, with Julius Nyerere as its first President.
* The Australian government of Robert Menzies is re-elected for a sixth term.
December 10 – The Soviet Union severs diplomatic relations with Albania.
December 11
* The Vietnam War officially begins, as the first American helicopters arrive in Saigon along with 400 U.S. personnel.
* Adolf Eichmann is pronounced guilty of crimes against humanity by a panel of 3 Israeli judges.
December 15 – An Israeli war crimes tribunal sentences Adolf Eichmann to die for his part in The Holocaust.
December 17 – A circus tent fire in Niterói, Brazil kills 323.
December 18 – India opens hostilities in its annexation of Portuguese India, the colonies of Goa, Damao and Diu.
December 19
* Portuguese surrender Goa to India after 400 years of Portuguese rule.
* Indonesian president Sukarno announces that he will take West Irian by force if necessary.
December 21 – In Congo, Katangan prime minister Moise Tshombe recognizes the Congolese constitution.
December 23 – Luxembourg's national holiday, the Grand Duke's Official Birthday, is set on June 23 by Grand Ducal decree.
December 30 – Congolese troops capture Albert Kalonji of South Kasai (who soon escapes).
December 31 – Ireland's first national television station, ''Telefís Éireann'' (later RTÉ), begins broadcasting.
"Barbie" gets a boyfriend when the "Ken" doll is introduced.
''The Incredible Journey'' is published.
January 1
* Sergei Babayan, American classical pianist
* Sam Backo, Australian rugby league footballer
January 2 – Todd Haynes, American film director
January 5 – Iris DeMent, American singer-songwriter
January 7 – Supriya Pathak,Indian actress
January 8 – Calvin Smith, American athlete
January 9 – Al Jean, American writer for "The Simpsons"
January 11 – Karl von Habsburg-Lothringen (Károly), Archduke, Prince Imperial of Austria, Prince Royal of Hungary
January 13
* Julia Louis-Dreyfus, American actress
* Suggs, British singer and TV presenter
January 14 – Mike Tramp, Danish rock singer (White Lion)
January 17 – Maia Chiburdanidze, Georgian chess player
January 18
* Mark Messier, Canadian hockey player
* Peter Beardsley, English footballer (''Newcastle United'', ''England'' & ''Liverpool'')
January 22–Daniel Johnston, American outsider musician
January 24
* Guido Buchwald, German football player
* Nastassja Kinski, German-born actress
January 26 – Wayne Gretzky, Canadian hockey player
January 28 – Arnaldur Indridason, Icelandic writer
January 29 – Petra Thumer, German swimmer
January 30 – Dexter Scott King, son of Martin Luther King, Jr.
January 31 – Lloyd Cole, British singer and songwriter
February 1 – Volker Fried, German field hockey player
February 3 – Jim Balsillie, Canadian CEO and philanthropist
February 8 – Vince Neil, American singer
February 9
* John Kruk, American baseball player and commentator
* Jussi Lampi, Finnish musician and actor
February 10 – George Stephanopoulos, American political consultant and commentator
February 11 – Mary Docter, American speed skater
February 13 – Henry Rollins, American musician and political activist
February 14 – Latifa, Tunisian singer
February 17 – Andrey Korotayev, Russian anthropologist, economic historian, and sociologist
February 21
* Geoff Moore, American Christian musician
* Dwayne McDuffie, African-American writer of comics and television (d. 2011)
February 22 – Akira Takasaki, Japanese guitarist
February 25 – Davey Allison, American race car driver (d. 1993)
February 27 – James Worthy, American basketball player and analyst
February 28 – Mark Latham, Australian politician
March – Reggie Fils-Aimé, American businessperson
March 3
* John Matteson, Pulitzer Prize-winning American biographer
* Mary Page Keller, American actress
March 4
* Ray Mancini, American boxer
* Steven Weber, American actor
* Roger Wessels, South African golfer
March 9
* Mike Leach, American college football coach
* Rick Steiner, American professional wrestler
March 10
* Mike Bullard, American hockey player
* Laurel Clark, American astronaut (d. 2003)
* Mitch Gaylord, American gymnast
March 14 – Gary Dell'Abate, American radio producer
March 16 – Brett Kenny, Australian rugby league player
March 17 – Umayya Abu-Hanna, Palestine-born Finnish writer and politician
March 21 – Lothar Matthäus, German footballer
March 23 – Helmi Johannes, Indonesian television newscaster
March 27 – Tak Matsumoto, Japanese guitarist (B'z)
March 28 – Byron Scott, American basketball player and coach
March 29
* Amy Sedaris, American actress, comedian and writer
* Gerardo Teissonniere, Puerto Rican pianist
April 1 – Susan Boyle, Scottish singer
April 2 – Christopher Meloni, American actor
April 3 – Eddie Murphy, American actor and comedian
April 5 – Lisa Zane, American actress
April 6 – Gene Eugene, Canadian actor and singer
April 7 – Thurl Bailey, American basketball player
April 12 – Lisa Gerrard, Australian musician
April 14 – Neil Dougherty, American basketball coach
April 17
* Frank J. Christensen, American labor leader
* Daphna Kastner, Canadian actress
April 18 – Jane Leeves, English actress
April 20 – Don Mattingly, American baseball player
April 20 – Konstantin Lavronenko, Russian actor
April 21 – Cathy Cavadini, American voice actress
April 23
* Þröstur Leó Gunnarsson, Icelandic actor
* George Lopez, American actor and comedian
April 26 – Anthony Cumia, American radio personality
April 27 – Moana Pozzi, Italian porn actress (d. 1994)
April 28 – Futoshi Matsunaga, Japanese serial killer
April 29 – Fumihiko Tachiki, Japanese voice actor
April 30 – Isiah Thomas, American basketball player, coach, and team owner
May 1 – Marilyn Milian, American judge
May 2 – Steve James, English snooker player
May 3 – Joe Murray, American animator
May 4
* Mary Elizabeth McDonough, American actress, producer, director and author
* Jay Aston, British singer (Bucks Fizz)
May 5 – Hiroshi Hase, Japanese professional wrestler
May 6 – George Clooney, American actor
May 7 – Robert Spano, American conductor and pianist
May 8
* Janet McTeer, British actress
* Akira Taue, Japanese professional wrestler
May 9 – Rene Capo, American judoka (d. 2009)
May 10 – Danny Carey, American drummer (Tool, Pigmy Love Circus)
May 11
* Paul Begala, American political commentator
* Lar Park Lincoln, American actress
May 12 – Billy Duffy, British guitarist (The Cult)
May 13 – Dennis Rodman, American basketball player and actor
May 14 – Tim Roth, English actor
May 16
* Charles Wright, American professional wrestler
* Kevin McDonald, Canadian comedian and actor
May 17 – Enya (Eithne Patricia Ní Bhraonáin), Irish musician
May 18 – Jim Bowden, American baseball executive
May 20 – Clive Allen, British footballer
May 22 – Mike Breen, American sports announcer
May 23 – Karen Duffy, American actress
May 27 – Peri Gilpin, American actress
May 29 – Melissa Etheridge, American musician
May 30 – Ralph Carter, American actor
May 31
* Ray Cote, Canadian ice hockey player
* Justin Madden, Australian footballer and politician
* Lea Thompson, American actress
June 1 – Paul Coffey, Canadian hockey player
June 2 – Dez Cadena, American musician
June 3
* Lawrence Lessig, American academic and political activist
* Ed Wynne, English musician (Ozric Tentacles)
June 5
* Anthony Burger, American musician and singer (d. 2006)
* Rosie Kane, Member of Scottish Parliament
June 6 – Tom Araya, Chilean-born rock musician (Slayer)
June 9 – Michael J. Fox, Canadian actor
June 10
* Maxi Priest, British reggae singer
* Kim and Kelley Deal, American musicians
June 14 – "Boy George", British musician and producer
June 15 – Dave McAuley, Northern Irish boxer
June 18 – Andrés Galarraga, Venezuelan baseball player
June 20 – Karin Kania, German speed skater
June 21 – Manu Chao, French singer
June 23
* Zoran Janjetov, Serbian comic artist
* David Leavitt, American novelist
June 24 – Lisa Bevill, American Christian musician
June 25
* Ricky Gervais, English comedian, actor, writer
* Mike Breen, American broadcaster
June 26 – Greg LeMond, American cyclist
June 27 – Meera Syal, British-Indian comedienne and actress
June 28 – Jeff Malone, American basketball player
June 29 – Greg Hetson, American rock guitarist (Bad Religion, Circle Jerks)
July 1
* Kalpana Chawla, Indian-American astronaut (d. 2003)
* Diana, Princess of Wales (d. 1997)
* Carl Lewis, American athlete
July 4 – Andrew Zimmern, American television personality (Bizarre Foods)
July 5 – Patrizia Scianca, Italian voice actress
July 7 – Eric Jerome Dickey, American writer
July 8 – Toby Keith, American country music singer
July 10 – Jacky Cheung, Hong Kong singer and actor
July 14 – Jackie Earle Haley, American actor
July 17 – Jonathan Potts, Canadian actor
July 19
* Maria Filatova, Soviet gymnast
* Benoît Mariage, Belgian film director
July 22 – Keith Sweat, American singer
July 23 – Woody Harrelson, American actor and comedian
July 25 – Hugo Teufel III, 2nd Chief Privacy Officer, Department of Homeland Security
July 26 – Keiko Matsui, Japanese pianist and composer
July 30 – Laurence Fishburne, American actor
August 3 – Nick Harvey, English politician
August 4
* Robin Carnahan, Secretary of State of Missouri
* Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States
August 5 – Clayton Rohner, American actor
August 7
* Brian Conley, English TV presenter, comedian, singer & actor
* Yelena Davydova, Soviet gymnast
August 8
* Bruce Matthews, American football player
* The Edge (David Howell Evans), Irish rock guitarist (U2)
* Rikki Rockett, American rock drummer (Poison)
August 9 – John Key, Prime Minister of New Zealand
August 11 – Sunil Shetty, Indian Bollywood film actor
August 14 – Susan Olsen, American actress and animal welfare advocate
August 18
*Huw Edwards, BAFTA award-winning Welsh journalist and presenter
*Bob Woodruff, American television journalist
August 21 – Stephen Hillenburg, American animation writer and artist
August 22 – Andres Calamaro, Argentine musician
August 25 – Billy Ray Cyrus, American singer and actor
August 26 – Daniel Lévi, French singer-songwriter, composer and pianist
August 29 – Carsten Fischer, German field hockey player
September 1 – Cécilia Rhode, Miss Sweden
September 2
* Anthony Wong Chau Sang, Hong Kong actor
* Carlos Valderrama, Colombian footballer
September 4 – Felix Wong, Hong Kong Actor
September 5 – Karim Abdul Razak, Ghanaian footballer
September 6
* Paul Waaktaar-Savoy, Norwegian rock musician and songwriter
* Akira Kuroiwa, Japanese speed skater
September 7 – Kevin Kennedy, British actor
September 11
* Elizabeth Daily, American actress
* Virginia Madsen, American actress
September 12 – Mylene Farmer, Canadian singer and songwriter
September 13 – Dave Mustaine, American metal singer, guitarist (Megadeth)
September 14 – Martina Gedeck, German actress
September 15
* Dan Marino, American football player
* Lidia Yusupova, Chechen human-rights lawyer
September 18 – James Gandolfini, American actor
September 20 – Caroline Flint, British Politician and Labour MP for Don Valley
September 22
* Bonnie Hunt, American actress, comedian, writer, director and television producer
* Catherine Oxenberg, British actress
September 23 – William C. McCool, U.S. Army Commander and astronaut (d. 2003)
September 25 – Heather Locklear, American actress
September 26 – Edward Kennedy Jr, son of U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy
September 27 – Andy Lau, Hong Kong actor and singer
September 28 – Yordanka Donkova, Bulgarian athlete
September 29 – Julia Gillard, Australian politician
September 30
* Sally Yeh, Hong Kong singer and actress
* Eric Stoltz, American actor and director
* Crystal Bernard, American actress and singer
October 1
* Gary Ablett, Australian rules footballer
* Robert Rey, Brazilian-American plastic surgeon and television personality
* Rico Constantino, American professional wrestler
October 2 – Edmond Yu, Chinese student (d. 1997)
October 4 – Philippe Russo, French singer
October 5 – Matthew Kauffman, American journalist and George Polk Award winner
October 6 – Mark Shasha, American artist, author, illustrator
October 11
* Steve Young, American football player
* Amr Diab, Egyptian singer
October 13 – Doc Rivers, American basketball player and coach
October 16 – Randy Vasquez, American actor
October 18
* Wynton Marsalis, American trumpeter and composer
* Rick Moody, American writer
October 24 – Dave Meltzer, American wrestling journalist
October 25 – Pat Sharp, British radio DJ and host
October 26 – Dylan McDermott, American actor
October 29 – Randy Jackson, American musician
October 31
* Alonzo Babers, American runner
* Peter Jackson, New Zealand film director
* Larry Mullen, Jr., Irish rock drummer (U2)
November 1 – Anne Donovan, American basketball player
November 2 – k.d. lang, Canadian singer and songwriter
November 4
* Daron Hagen, American composer
* Ralph Macchio, American actor
* Nigel Worthington, Northern Irish footballer and football manager
November 5 – Gina Mastrogiacomo, American actress (d. 2001)
November 9 – Jill Dando, British journalist and television presenter (d. 1999)
November 11 – Jan Kuehnemund, American guitarist (Vixen)
November 12 – Nadia Comăneci, Romanian gymnast
November 14
* Jurga Ivanauskaitė, Lithuanian writer (d. 2007)
* D. B. Sweeney, American actor
November 15 – Ian Reid, Australian educator
November 18 – Anthony Warlow, Australian singer
November 19 – Meg Ryan, American actress
November 20 – Dave Watson, English footballer
November 22
* Mariel Hemingway, American actress
* Randal L. Schwartz, American computer programmer
November 24 – Arundhati Roy, Indian writer and activist
December 3 – Marcelo Fromer, Brazilian guitarist
December 4
* Frank Reich, American football player
* Roy Dennis, disabled American boy (d. 1978)
December 8 – Ann Coulter, American author, conservative commentator and attorney
December 12
* Sarah Sutton, British actress
* Daniel O'Donnell, Irish singer
December 15 – Karin Resetarits, Austrian journalist and politician
December 16 – Bill Hicks, American comedian (d. 1994)
December 19
* Matthew Waterhouse, British actor
* Eric Allin Cornell, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
* Reggie White, American football player (d. 2004)
December 20 – Mohammad Fouad, Arab singer and actor
December 21 – Francis Ng, Hong Kong actor
December 23 – Ezzat el Kamhawi, Egyptian novelist.
December 24 – Ilham Aliyev, President of Azerbaijan
December 25 – Ingrid Betancourt, Colombian senator
December 26 – John Lynch, Northern Irish actor
December 29 – Jim Reid, Scottish musician
December 30
* Douglas Coupland, Canadian author
* Sean Hannity, American radio/television host and conservative commentator
* Ben Johnson, Canadian athlete
* Matt Goldman, Blue Man Group founder
January 4 – Erwin Schrödinger, Austrian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1887)
January 9 – Emily Greene Balch, American writer and pacifist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1867)
January 10 – Dashiell Hammett, American writer (b. 1894)
January 14 – Barry Fitzgerald, American actor (b. 1888)
January 17 – Patrice Lumumba, Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo (b. 1925)
January 18 – Thomas Anthony Dooley III, physician (b. 1927)
January 21 – Blaise Cendrars, Swiss writer (b. 1887)
January 24
* Alfred Carlton Gilbert, American swimmer and inventor (b. 1884)
* Elsa, Kenyan lioness (b. c.1956)
January 26 – Stan Nichols, English cricketer (b. 1900)
January 29 – Jesse Wallace, American naval officer, 29th Governor of American Samoa (b. 1899)
January 30 – Dorothy Thompson, American journalist (b. 1893)
February 2 – Anna May Wong, Chinese-American actress (b. 1907)
February 3 – Viscount Dunrossil, Australian governor-general (b. 1893)
February 7 – William Duncan, American actor (b. 1879)
February 15 – Laurence Owen, American Figure Skater (b. 1944)
February 17 – Nita Naldi, American actress (b. 1897)
February 20 – Percy Grainger, Australian composer (b. 1882)
February 22 – Nick LaRocca, American jazz musician (b. 1889)
February 26 – King Mohammed V of Morocco (b. 1909)
March 3 – Paul Wittgenstein, Austrian-born pianist (b. 1887)
March 6 – George Formby, British singer, comedian & actor (b. 1904)
March 8
* Sir Thomas Beecham, English conductor (b. 1879)
* Gala Galaction, Romanian writer (b. 1879)
March 12 – Belinda Lee, English actress (b. 1935)
March 17 – Susanna M. Salter, first woman mayor in the United States (b. 1860)
March 23 – Valentin Bondarenko, Russian cosmonaut (b. 1937)
March 26 – Carlos Duarte Costa, founder of the Brazilian Catholic Apostolic Church (b. 1888)
April 6 – Jules Bordet, Belgian immunologist and microbiologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1870)
April 7 – Vanessa Bell, English artist and interior designer (b. 1879)
April 9 – Ahmet Zog, King of Albania (b. 1895)
April 21 – James Melton, American tenor (b. 1904)
April 24 – Lee Moran, American actor (b. 1888)
April 25 – George Melford, American actor (b. 1877)
April 27 – Roy Del Ruth, American film director (b. 1893)
May 3 – Maurice Merleau-Ponty, French phenomenological philosopher (b. 1908)
May 6 – Lucian Blaga, Romanian poet and philosopher (b. 1895)
May 13 – Gary Cooper, American actor (''High Noon'') (b. 1901)
May 14 – Albert Sévigny, Canadian politician (b. 1881)
May 16 – George A. Malcolm, American jurist & educator (b. 1881)
May 22 – Joan Davis, American actress (b. 1907)
May 30 – Rafael Leónidas Trujillo, dictator of the Dominican Republic (b. 1891)
May 31 – Walter Little, Canadian politician (b. 1877)
June 2 – George S. Kaufman, American playwright (b. 1889)
June 6 – Carl Jung, Swiss psychiatrist (b. 1875)
June 14 – Eddie Polo, Austro-American dramatist (b. 1875)
June 16 – Marcel Junod, Swiss physician (b. 1904)
June 17
* Jeff Chandler, American actor (b. 1918)
* Thomas Darden, American Rear admiral, 37th Governor of American Samoa (b. 1900)
June 24 – George Washington Vanderbilt III, American philanthropist (b. 1914)
June 25 – John A D McCurdy, Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia & pilot (b. 1886)
June 30 – Lee DeForest, American inventor (b. 1873)
July 1 – Louis-Ferdinand Céline, French writer (b. 1894)
July 2 – Ernest Hemingway, American writer, Nobel Prize laureate (suicide) (b. 1899)
July 4 – Franklyn Farnum, American actor (b. 1878)
July 6 – Woodall Rodgers, Mayor of Dallas, Texas (b. 1890)
July 17 – Ty Cobb, American baseball player (b. 1886)
July 23
* Esther Dale, American actress (b. 1885)
* Valentine Davies, American screenwriter (b. 1905)
August 4 – Maurice Tourneur, French film director (b. 1873)
August 8 – Mei Lanfang, Beijing opera star (b. 1894)
August 20 – Percy Williams Bridgman, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1882)
August 26 – Gail Russell, American actress (b. 1924)
August 30 – Charles Coburn, American actor (b. 1877)
September 1 – Eero Saarinen, Finnish architect (b. 1910)
September 10 – Leo Carrillo, American actor (b. 1880)
September 11 – George Irving, American actor (b. 1874)
September 17 – Adnan Menderes, Turkish prime minister (executed) (b. 1899)
September 18 – Dag Hammarskjöld, Swedish Secretary General of the United Nations, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1905)
September 22 – Marion Davies, American actress (b. 1897)
September 24 – Sumner Welles, American diplomat (b. 1892)
September 25 – Frank Fay, American actor (b. 1897)
September 26 – Juanita Hansen, American actress (b. 1895)
October 1 – Donald Cook, American actor (b. 1901)
October 4
* Metropolitan Benjamin (Fedchenkov), Orthodox missionary and writer, Exarch of Russian Church in North America (b. 1880)
* Max Weber, Polish-American artist (b. 1881)
October 11 – Chico Marx, American comedian (b. 1887)
October 13
* Dun Karm Psaila, Maltese writer (b. 1871)
* Maya Deren, Russian-born filmmaker (b. 1917)
* Zoltán Korda, Hungarian screenwriter and director (b. 1895)
October 14 – Harriet Shaw Weaver, English political activist (b. 1876)
October 19 – Şemsettin Günaltay, ex prime minister of Turkey (b. 1883)
October 22 – Joseph Schenck, Russian-born film studio executive (b. 1878)
November 1 – Mordecai Ham, American evangelist (b. 1877)
November 2 – James Thurber, American humorist (b. 1894)
November 15 – Elsie Ferguson, American actress (b. 1883)
November 16 – Sam Rayburn, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (b. 1882)
November 24 – Ruth Chatterton, American actress (b. 1893)
December 2 – Herbert Pitman, British sailor, third officer of the RMS Titanic (b. 1877)
December 6 – Frantz Fanon, philosopher (b. 1925)
December 13 – Anna Mary Robertson Moses aka Grandma Moses, painter (b. 1860)
December 20
* Moss Hart, American dramatist (b. 1904)
* Earle Page, 11th Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1880)
December 23 – Kurt Meyer, German Waffen-SS officer (b. 1910)
December 25 – Otto Loewi, German-born pharmacologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1873)
December 28 – Edith Bolling Galt Wilson, second wife of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, was First Lady of the United States from 1915 to 1921.
December 29 – Sibyl Morrison, first female barrister in New South Wales, Australia (b. 1895)
Physics – Robert Hofstadter, Rudolf Mössbauer
Chemistry – Melvin Calvin
Physiology or Medicine – Georg von Békésy
Literature – Ivo Andrić
Peace – Dag Hammarskjöld (posthumously)
Events
January
February
February 1 – The United States launches its first test of the Minuteman I intercontinental ballistic missile.
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
Date unknown
Births
January–February
March–April
May–June
July–August
September–October
November–December
Deaths
January–June
July–December
Nobel Prizes
References
af:1961 am:1961 እ.ኤ.አ. ar:ملحق:1961 an:1961 frp:1961 ast:1961 gn:1961 av:1961 ay:1961 az:1961 bn:১৯৬১ zh-min-nan:1961 nî map-bms:1961 be:1961 be-x-old:1961 bh:१९६१ bcl:1961 bs:1961 br:1961 bg:1961 ca:1961 cv:1961 cs:1961 cbk-zam:1961 co:1961 cy:1961 da:1961 pdc:1961 de:1961 et:1961 el:1961 myv:1961 ие es:1961 eo:1961 eu:1961 fa:۱۹۶۱ (میلادی) hif:1961 fo:1961 fr:1961 fy:1961 fur:1961 ga:1961 gv:1961 gd:1961 gl:1961 gan:1961年 xal:1961 җил ko:1961년 hy:1961 hi:१९६१ hr:1961. io:1961 ilo:1961 bpy:মারি ১৯৬১ id:1961 ia:1961 ie:1961 os:1961-æм аз is:1961 it:1961 he:1961 jv:1961 kn:೧೯೬೧ pam:1961 ka:1961 csb:1961 kk:1961 kw:1961 sw:1961 kv:1961 во ht:1961 (almanak gregoryen) ku:1961 krc:1961 джыл la:1961 lv:1961. gads lb:1961 lt:1961 m. lij:1961 li:1961 ln:1961 jbo:1961moi lmo:1961 hu:1961 mk:1961 ml:1961 mi:1961 mr:इ.स. १९६१ arz:1961 ms:1961 nah:1961 nl:1961 nds-nl:1961 ne:१९६१ new:ई सं १९६१ ja:1961年 nap:1961 no:1961 nn:1961 nrm:1961 nov:1961 oc:1961 mhr:1961 uz:1961 pa:੧੯੬੧ pi:१९६१ pnb:1961 pap:1961 tpi:1961 nds:1961 pl:1961 pt:1961 ty:1961 ksh:Joohr 1961 ro:1961 qu:1961 rue:1961 ru:1961 год sah:1961 se:1961 sq:1961 scn:1961 simple:1961 sk:1961 sl:1961 so:1961 ckb:١٩٦١ sr:1961 sh:1961 su:1961 fi:1961 sv:1961 tl:1961 ta:1961 tt:1961 ел te:1961 tet:1961 th:พ.ศ. 2504 tg:1961 tr:1961 tk:1961 udm:1961 ар uk:1961 ur:1961ء vec:1961 vi:1961 vo:1961 fiu-vro:1961 wa:1961 vls:1961 war:1961 yi:1961 yo:1961 zh-yue:1961年 diq:1961 bat-smg:1961 zh:1961年This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
| Coordinates | 23°31′58″N46°47′58″N |
|---|---|
| name | The Dave Brubeck Quartet |
| background | group_or_band |
| origin | San Francisco, California, United States |
| genre | Jazz |
| years active | 1951–present |
| website | davebrubeck.com |
| current members | Dave BrubeckBobby MilitelloMichael MooreRandy Jones |
| past members | Paul DesmondBob BatesJoe DodgeRon CrottyLloyd DavisJoe MorelloNorman BatesEugene WrightGerry MulliganJack SixAlan DawsonDarius BrubeckChris BrubeckDan Brubeck |
| notable instruments | }} |
The Dave Brubeck Quartet is an American jazz quartet, founded in 1951 by Dave Brubeck and originally featuring Paul Desmond on saxophone and Brubeck on piano. They took up a long residency at San Francisco's Blackhawk nightclub and gained great popularity touring college campuses, releasing a series of albums with such titles as ''Jazz at Oberlin'', ''Jazz Goes to College'', and ''Jazz Goes to Junior College''.
By 1958, after a handful of different drummers and bassists, the "Classic Quartet" — so-called because it remained as such virtually consistently until the group dissolved — had been assembled, consisting of Brubeck, Desmond, Joe Morello on drums, and Eugene Wright on bass. In 1959, the Dave Brubeck Quartet released ''Time Out'', an album their label was enthusiastic about but nonetheless hesitant to release. The album contained all original compositions, almost none of which were in common time. Nonetheless, on the strength of these unusual time signatures (the album included "Take Five", "Blue Rondo à la Turk", and "Pick Up Sticks"), it quickly went platinum. The quartet followed up its success with several more albums in the same vein, including ''Time Further Out'' (1961), ''Countdown: Time in Outer Space'', ''Time Changes'', and ''Time In''. These albums were also known for using contemporary paintings as cover art, featuring the work of S. Neil Fujita on ''Time Out'', Joan Miró on ''Time Further Out'', Franz Kline on ''Time in Outer Space'', and Sam Francis on ''Time Changes'' (no artist's work, however, was featured on the cover of ''Time In''). A high point for the group was their classic 1963 live album ''At Carnegie Hall'', described by critic Richard Palmer as "arguably Dave Brubeck's greatest concert".
The "classic" Dave Brubeck Quartet broke up in 1967, except for a 25th anniversary reunion in 1976. Brubeck formed a new quartet in 1968. Today, the Dave Brubeck Quartet continues to tour the world, performing hits from the classic Quartet era as well as new material.
Members
Main lineups: ; (1951–1956); (on ''Jazz at Oberlin'', 1953)
; (1956–1958) Transitional quartet – enter Joe Morello
; (1958–1967) Classic quartet – enter Eugene Wright
And after the breakup:
; (1968–1972) Quartet as "The Dave Brubeck Trio & Gerry Mulligan"
; (1972–1976) As "The Darius Brubeck Ensemble" – with three of his sons and one guest; also performed as "Two Generations of Brubeck"
; (1976) Classic quartet reunion – 25th anniversary
; (1977–1990s) As "The New Brubeck Quartet" – with three of his sons and varying guests
; (Early 2000s–present) The Dave Brubeck Quartet
(Not every temporary lineup is listed.)
Discography
References
Category:Musical groups established in 1951 Category:Cool jazz ensembles Category:Columbia Records artists Category:Fantasy Records artists Category:American jazz ensembles Category:Musical groups from California Category:Musical quartets
de:Dave Brubeck Quartet es:The Dave Brubeck Quartet fr:The Dave Brubeck Quartet it:The Dave Brubeck Quartet pl:The Dave Brubeck Quartet pt:The Dave Brubeck Quartet sv:The Dave Brubeck QuartetThis text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
| Coordinates | 23°31′58″N46°47′58″N |
|---|---|
| Name | Dave Brubeck |
| Background | non_vocal_instrumentalist |
| Birth name | David Warren Brubeck |
| Born | December 06, 1920Concord, California |
| Instrument | Piano |
| Genre | JazzCool jazzWest Coast jazzThird stream |
| Occupation | PianistComposerBandleader |
| Years active | 1940s–present |
| associated acts | Dave Brubeck Quartet |
| Associated artists | Paul DesmondGerry MulliganJoe MorelloEugene Wright |
| Religion | Catholicism }} |
His long-time musical partner, alto saxophonist Paul Desmond, wrote the Dave Brubeck Quartet's best remembered piece, "Take Five", which is in 5/4 time and has endured as a jazz classic on the top-selling jazz album, ''Time Out''. Brubeck experimented with time signatures throughout his career, recording "Pick Up Sticks" in 6/4, "Unsquare Dance" in 7/4, and "Blue Rondo à la Turk" in 9/8. He is also a respected composer of orchestral and sacred music, and wrote soundtracks for television such as ''Mr. Broadway'' and the animated mini-series ''This Is America, Charlie Brown''.
Early life and career
Brubeck was born in Concord, California and grew up in Ione. He is of English (maternal) and Swiss (paternal) ancestry His father, Howard "Pete" Brubeck, was a cattle rancher, and his mother, Elizabeth (née Ivey), who had studied piano in England under Myra Hess and intended to become a concert pianist, taught piano for extra money. Brubeck originally did not intend to become a musician (his two older brothers, Henry and Howard, were already on that track), but took lessons from his mother. He could not read sheet music during these early lessons, attributing this difficulty to poor eyesight, but "faked" his way through, well enough that this deficiency went mostly unnoticed.Intending to work with his father on their ranch, Brubeck entered the College of the Pacific (now the University of the Pacific) studying veterinary science, but transferred on the urging of the head of zoology, Dr Arnold, who told him "Brubeck, your mind's not here. It's across the lawn in the conservatory. Please go there. Stop wasting my time and yours." Later, Brubeck was nearly expelled when one of his professors discovered that he could not read music. Several of his professors came forward, arguing that his ability with counterpoint and harmony more than compensated. The college was still afraid that it would cause a scandal, and agreed to let Brubeck graduate only after he promised never to teach piano.
After graduating in 1942, Brubeck was drafted into the army and served overseas in George Patton's Third Army. He was spared from service in the Battle of the Bulge when he volunteered to play piano at a Red Cross show; he was such a hit he was ordered to form a band. Thus he created one of the U.S. armed forces' first racially integrated bands, "The Wolfpack". While serving, Brubeck met Paul Desmond in early 1944. He returned to college after serving nearly four years in the army, this time attending Mills College and studying under Darius Milhaud, who encouraged him to study fugue and orchestration, but not classical piano. While on active duty, he received two lessons from Arnold Schoenberg at UCLA in an attempt to connect with High Modernism theory and practice. However, the encounter did not end on good terms since Schoenberg believed that every note should be accounted for, an approach which Brubeck could not accept.
After completing his studies under Milhaud, Brubeck helped to establish Berkeley, California's Fantasy Records. He worked with an octet (the recording bears his name only because Brubeck was the best-known member at the time), and a trio including Cal Tjader and Ron Crotty. Highly experimental, the group made few recordings and got even fewer paying jobs. The trio was often joined by Paul Desmond on the bandstand, at Desmond's prodding.
Quartet era
Following a near-fatal swimming accident which incapacitated him for several months, Brubeck organized The Dave Brubeck Quartet in 1951, with Desmond on saxophone. They took up a long residency at San Francisco's Black Hawk nightclub and gained great popularity touring college campuses, recording a series of albums with such titles as ''Jazz at Oberlin'' (1953), ''Jazz at College of the Pacific'' (1953), and Brubeck's debut on Columbia Records, ''Jazz Goes to College'' (1954). In that same year, he was featured on the cover of ''Time'' magazine, the second jazz musician to be so honored (the first was Louis Armstrong on February 21, 1949).Early bassists for the group included Ron Crotty, Bob Bates, and Bob's brother Norman Bates; Lloyd Davis and Joe Dodge held the drum chair. In 1956, Brubeck hired Joe Morello, who had been working with Marian McPartland; Morello's presence made possible the rhythmic experiments that were to come. In 1958 Eugene Wright joined for the group's U.S. State Department tour of Europe and Asia; Wright would become a permanent member in 1959, making the "classic" Quartet's personnel complete.
Wright is African-American; in the late 1950s and early 1960s Brubeck canceled several concerts because the club owners or hall managers resisted the idea of an integrated band on their stages. He also canceled a television appearance when he found out that the producers intended to keep Wright off-camera.
In 1959, the Dave Brubeck Quartet recorded ''Time Out'', an album their label was enthusiastic about but nonetheless hesitant to release. Featuring the album art of S. Neil Fujita, the album contained all original compositions, almost none of which were in common time: 9/8, 5/4, 3/4, and 6/4 were used. Nonetheless, on the strength of these unusual time signatures (the album included "Take Five", "Blue Rondo à la Turk", and "Three To Get Ready"), it quickly went platinum.
''Time Out'' was followed by several albums with a similar approach, including ''Time Further Out: Miro Reflections'' (1961), using more 5/4, 6/4, and 9/8, plus the first attempt at 7/4; ''Countdown: Time in Outer Space'' (dedicated to John Glenn) (1962), featuring 11/4 and more 7/4; and ''Time Changes'' (1963), with much 3/4, 10/4 (which was really 5+5), and 13/4. These albums were also known for using contemporary paintings as cover art, featuring the work of Joan Miró on ''Time Further Out'', Franz Kline on ''Time in Outer Space'', and Sam Francis on ''Time Changes''.
A high point for the group was their 1963 live album ''At Carnegie Hall'', described by critic Richard Palmer as "arguably Dave Brubeck's greatest concert".
In the early '60s, Brubeck and his wife Iola developed a jazz musical, ''The Real Ambassadors'', based in part on experiences they and their colleagues had during foreign tours on behalf of the U.S. State Department. The soundtrack album, which featured Louis Armstrong, Lambert, Hendricks & Ross, and Carmen McRae was recorded in 1961; the musical itself was performed at the 1962 Monterey Jazz Festival.
At their peak in the early '60s, the Brubeck Quartet was releasing as many as four albums a year. Apart from the 'College' and the 'Time' series, Brubeck recorded four LPs featuring his compositions based on the group's travels, and the local music they encountered. ''Jazz Impressions of the USA'' (1956, Morello's debut with the group), ''Jazz Impressions of Eurasia'' (1958), ''Jazz Impressions of Japan'' (1964), and ''Jazz Impressions of New York'' (1964) are less well-known albums, but all are brilliant examples of the quartet's studio work, and they produced Brubeck standards such as "Summer Song," "Brandenburg Gate," "Koto Song," and "Theme From ''Mr. Broadway''." (Brubeck wrote, and the Quartet performed, the theme song for the Craig Stevens CBS drama series; the music from the series became material for the "New York" album.)
In 1961 Dave Brubeck appeared in a few scenes of the British Jazz/Beat film ''All Night Long'', which starred Patrick McGoohan and Richard Attenborough. Brubeck merely plays himself, and his piano playing includes closeups of his fingerings. Brubeck performs "It's a Raggy Waltz" from the ''Time Further Out'' album and duets briefly with bassist Charles Mingus in "Non-Sectarian Blues".
In the early 1960s Dave Brubeck was the program director of WJZZ-FM radio (now WEZN). He achieved his vision of an all jazz format radio station along with his friend and neighbor John E. Metts, one of the first African Americans in senior radio management.
The final studio album for Columbia by the Desmond/Wright/Morello quartet was ''Anything Goes'' (1966) featuring Cole Porter songs. A few concert recordings followed, and ''The Last Time We Saw Paris'' (1967) was the "Classic" Quartet's swansong.
Later career
Brubeck's disbanding of the Quartet at the end of 1967 allowed him more time to compose the longer, extended orchestral and choral works that were occupying his attention (to say nothing of Brubeck's desire to spend more time with his family). February 1968 saw the premiere of ''The Light in the Wilderness'' for baritone solo, choir, organ, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra conducted by Erich Kunzel, and Brubeck improvising on certain themes within. The piece is an oratorio on Jesus's teachings. The next year, Brubeck produced ''The Gates of Justice'', a cantata mixing Biblical scripture with the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.Further works followed, including the 1971 cantata ''Truth Is Fallen'' (now re-issued on CD by Collectables Records ), written in protest of the Vietnam War, and also dedicated to the memory of the Kent State shootings and Jackson State killings of May 1970. The work was premiered in Midland, Michigan on May 1, 1971 and released on LP in 1972.
Brubeck's jazz playing did not cease. He was quickly prevailed upon by Newport Jazz Festival producer George Wein to tour with Gerry Mulligan. A Brubeck "Trio" was soon formed: Jack Six on bass, and Alan Dawson on drums. From 1968 until 1973, The Dave Brubeck Trio featuring Gerry Mulligan performed extensively, releasing several concert albums (including one with guest Desmond) and one studio album.
In 1973 Brubeck formed another group with three of his sons, Darius on keyboards, Dan on drums, and Chris on electric bass or bass trombone. This group often included Perry Robinson, clarinet, and Jerry Bergonzi, saxophone. Brubeck would record and tour with this "Two Generations of Brubeck" group until 1978.
Brubeck and Desmond recorded an album of duets in 1975, then the Classic Quartet reassembled for a 25th anniversary reunion in 1976. Desmond died in 1977.
thumb|Dave Brubeck at Blue Note Jazz Club in 2011Brubeck's Quartet has remained vital, a primary creative outlet for the pianist. Bergonzi became a member and remained with the band until 1982. This version featured Chris Brubeck, and Randy Jones on drums. Jones joined in 1979 and is still with the band after over 30 years. Replacing Bergonzi was Brubeck's old friend Bill Smith, who knew Brubeck at Mills College and was a member of Brubeck's Octet in the late 1940s; he remained in the group through the '80s and recorded with it off and on until 1995. The best recording of this Smith/Brubeck/Jones Quartet is probably their remarkable ''Moscow Night'' concert of 1987, released on Concord Records.
The Quartet currently includes alto saxophonist and flautist Bobby Militello, bassist Michael Moore (who replaced Alec Dankworth), and Randy Jones.
In 1994, Brubeck was inducted into the ''Down Beat'' Jazz Hall of Fame.
Brubeck continues to write new works, including orchestral and ballet scores. He has worked extensively with the London Symphony Orchestra and tours about 80 cities each year.
At the 49th Monterey Jazz Festival in September 2006, Brubeck debuted his commissioned work, ''Cannery Row Suite'', a jazz opera drawn from the characters in John Steinbeck's American classic writing about Monterey's roots as a sardine fishing and packing town. Iola (''née'' Whitlock), Brubeck's wife since 1942, is his personal secretary, manager and lyricist, and co-authored the Cannery Row Suite with Dave. His performance of this as well as a number of jazz standards with his current quartet was the buzz of the Festival (an event Brubeck helped launch in 1958).
Because of his advancing years, Brubeck's touring has naturally decreased in activity. He announced at the end of 2008 that he would no longer tour internationally. On April 3, 2009, Brubeck was scheduled to play the album ''Time Out'' in its entirety to commemorate its 50th anniversary at the annual Brubeck Festival, but was not able to because of being in hospital with a viral infection. His son Darius filled in on piano with the rest of his quartet. A scheduled October, 2010 concert in St. Louis, MO was canceled after Brubeck's doctors advised against traveling and performing. He had a heart problem and was experiencing fatigue and dizziness. His doctors installed a pacemaker in his heart. His surgery was doing so well that his doctors said that he could resume his concert touring in November. He performed sold out shows at the Blue Note in New York City on Thanksgiving weekend, 2010, celebrating his 90th birthday.
Personal life
Four of Brubeck's six children are professional musicians. Darius, the eldest, is an accomplished pianist, producer, educator and performer. (He was named after Dave Brubeck's mentor Darius Milhaud.) Dan is a renowned percussionist, Chris is a multi-instrumentalist and composer. Matthew, the youngest, is a versatile cellist with an impressive list of composing and performance credits. Brubeck's children often join with him in concerts and in the recording studio.Brubeck believed what he saw during World War II contradicted the Ten Commandments, and the war evoked a spiritual awakening. He became a Catholic in 1980, shortly after completing the Mass ''To Hope'' which had been commissioned by Ed Murray, editor of the national Catholic weekly ''Our Sunday Visitor''. Although he had spiritual interests before that time, he said, "I didn't convert to Catholicism, because I wasn't anything to convert from. I just joined the Catholic Church." In 1996, he received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2006, Brubeck was awarded the University of Notre Dame's Laetare Medal, the oldest and most prestigious honor given to American Catholics, during the University's commencement. He performed "Travellin' Blues" for the graduating class of 2006.
Brubeck founded the Brubeck Institute with his wife Iola at their alma mater, the University of the Pacific in 2000. What began as a special archive, consisting of the personal document collection of the Brubecks has since expanded to provide fellowships and educational opportunities in jazz for students, also leading to having one of the main streets the school resides on named in his honor, Dave Brubeck Way.
On April 8, 2008, United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice presented Brubeck with a "Benjamin Franklin Award for Public Diplomacy" for offering an American "vision of hope, opportunity and freedom" through his music. "As a little girl I grew up on the sounds of Dave Brubeck because my dad was your biggest fan," said Rice. The State Department said in a statement that "as a pianist, composer, cultural emissary and educator, Dave Brubeck's life's work exemplifies the best of America's cultural diplomacy." At the ceremony Brubeck played a brief recital for the audience at the State Department. "I want to thank all of you because this honor is something that I never expected. Now I am going to play a cold piano with cold hands," Brubeck stated.
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver announced on May 28, 2008 that Brubeck would be inducted into the California Hall of Fame, located at The California Museum for History, Women and the Arts. The induction ceremony occurred December 10, and he was inducted alongside eleven other legendary Californians.
In September 2009, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts announced Brubeck as a Kennedy Center Honoree for exhibiting excellence in performance arts. The Kennedy Center Honors Gala took place on Sunday, December 6 (Brubeck's 89th birthday) and was broadcast nationwide on CBS on December 29 at 9:00 pm EST.
On September 20, 2009, at Monterey Jazz Festival, Brubeck was awarded an honorary Doctor of Music degree (D.Mus. ''honoris causa'') from Berklee College of Music.
On May 16, 2010, Brubeck was awarded an honorary Doctor of Music degree (honoris causa) from The George Washington University in Washington, DC. The ceremony took place on the National Mall.
On July 5, 2010, Brubeck was awarded the Miles-Davis Award at the Montreal International Jazz Festival.In 2010, Bruce Ricker and Clint Eastwood produced a documentary ''Dave Brubeck: In His Own Sweet Way'' about Brubeck for Turner Classic Movies (TCM) to commemorate his 90th birthday in December 2010.
Brubeck has become a supporter of the Jazz Foundation of America in their mission to save the homes and the lives of elderly jazz and blues musicians, including musicians that survived Hurricane Katrina. Brubeck supported the Jazz Foundation by performing in their annual benefit concert "A Great Night in Harlem" in 2006.
Discography
Awards
References
Bibliography
External links
Category:American jazz composers Category:American jazz pianists Category:American jazz songwriters Category:American military personnel of World War II Category:American Roman Catholics Category:Concord Records artists Category:Converts to Roman Catholicism Category:Cool jazz pianists Category:Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners Category:Kennedy Center honorees Category:Musicians from California Category:Musicians from the San Francisco Bay Area Category:People from Concord, California Category:United States Army soldiers Category:United States National Medal of Arts recipients Category:University of the Pacific (United States) alumni Category:West Coast jazz pianists Category:1920 births Category:Living people
be:Дэйв Брубек ca:Dave Brubeck cs:Dave Brubeck da:Dave Brubeck de:Dave Brubeck es:Dave Brubeck eo:Dave Brubeck fa:دیو بروبک fr:Dave Brubeck it:Dave Brubeck he:דייב ברובק sw:Dave Brubeck lb:Dave Brubeck hu:Dave Brubeck nl:Dave Brubeck ja:デイヴ・ブルーベック no:Dave Brubeck nn:Dave Brubeck nds:Dave Brubeck pl:Dave Brubeck pt:Dave Brubeck ru:Брубек, Дейв sk:Dave Brubeck sr:Дејв Брубек fi:Dave Brubeck sv:Dave Brubeck tr:Dave Brubeck uk:Дейв БрубекThis text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
| Coordinates | 23°31′58″N46°47′58″N |
|---|---|
| Office | 35th President of the United States |
| Vicepresident | Lyndon Johnson |
| Term start | January 20, 1961 |
| Term end | November 22, 1963 |
| Predecessor | Dwight Eisenhower |
| Successor | Lyndon Johnson |
| Jr/sr2 | United States Senator |
| State2 | Massachusetts |
| Term start2 | January 3, 1953 |
| Term end2 | December 22, 1960 |
| Predecessor2 | Henry Lodge |
| Successor2 | Benjamin Smith |
| State3 | Massachusetts |
| District3 | 11th |
| Term start3 | January 3, 1947 |
| Term end3 | January 3, 1953 |
| Predecessor3 | James Curler |
| Successor3 | Tip O'Neill |
| Birth date | May 29, 1917 |
| Birth place | Brookline, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Death date | November 22, 1963 |
| Death place | Dallas, Texas, U.S. |
| Party | Democratic Party |
| Spouse | Jacqueline Bouvier |
| Children | ArabellaCarolineJohnPatrick |
| Alma mater | Harvard College |
| Profession | Author |
| Religion | Roman Catholicism |
| Signature | John F Kennedy Signature 2.svg |
| Signature alt | Cursive signature in ink |
| Allegiance | United States |
| Branch | United States Navy |
| Serviceyears | 1941–1945 |
| Rank | |
| Unit | Motor Torpedo Boat PT-109 |
| Battles | World War IISolomon Islands campaign |
| Awards | 30px Navy and Marine Corps Medal30px Purple Heart30px American Defense Service Medal30px American Campaign Medal 30px Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal (3 bronze stars)30px World War II Victory Medal }} |
After military service as commander of the Motor Torpedo Boat ''PT-109'' and Motor Torpedo Boat ''PT-59'' during World War II in the South Pacific, Kennedy represented Massachusetts's 11th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1947 to 1953 as a Democrat. Thereafter, he served in the U.S. Senate from 1953 until 1960. Kennedy defeated then Vice President and Republican candidate Richard Nixon in the 1960 U.S. presidential election. He was the youngest elected to the office, at the age of 43, the second-youngest President (after Theodore Roosevelt), and the first president to have been born in the 20th century. Kennedy is the only Catholic president, and is the only president to have won a Pulitzer Prize. Events during his presidency included the Bay of Pigs Invasion, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the building of the Berlin Wall, the Space Race, the African American Civil Rights Movement and early stages of the Vietnam War.
Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas. Lee Harvey Oswald was charged with the crime but was shot and killed two days later by Jack Ruby before any trial. The FBI, the Warren Commission, and the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) concluded that Oswald was the assassin, with the HSCA allowing for the probability of conspiracy based on disputed acoustic evidence. Today, Kennedy continues to rank highly in public opinion ratings of former U.S. presidents.
Early life and education
John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born at 83 Beals Street in Brookline, Massachusetts on Tuesday, May 29, 1917, at 3:00 pm, the second son of Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., and Rose Fitzgerald; Rose, in turn, was the eldest child of John "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald, a prominent Boston political figure who was the city's mayor and a three-term member of Congress. Kennedy lived in Brookline for ten years and attended Edward Devotion School, Noble and Greenough Lower School, and the Dexter School, through 4th grade. In 1927, the family moved to 5040 Independence Avenue in Riverdale, Bronx, New York City; two years later, they moved to 294 Pondfield Road in Bronxville, New York, where Kennedy was a member of Scout Troop 2 (and was the first Boy Scout to become President). Kennedy spent summers with his family at their home in Hyannisport, Massachusetts, and Christmas and Easter holidays with his family at their winter home in Palm Beach, Florida. For the 5th through 7th grade, Kennedy attended Riverdale Country School, a private school for boys. For 8th grade in September 1930, the 13-year old Kennedy attended Canterbury School in New Milford, Connecticut. In late April 1931, he had appendicitis requiring an appendectomy, after which he withdrew from Canterbury and recuperated at home.In September 1931, Kennedy was sent to The Choate School in Wallingford, Connecticut, for his 9th through 12th grade years. His older brother Joe Jr., was already at Choate, two years ahead of him, a football star and leading student in the school. Jack spent his first years at Choate in his brother's shadow, and compensated for this with rebellious behavior that attracted a coterie. Their most notorious stunt was to explode a toilet seat with a powerful firecracker. In the ensuing chapel assembly, the strict headmaster, George St. John, brandished the toilet seat and spoke of certain "muckers" who would "spit in our sea". The defiant Jack Kennedy took the cue and named his group "The Muckers Club", which included roommate and friend Kirk LeMoyne "Lem" Billings. While at Choate, Kennedy was beset by health problems, culminating in 1934 with his emergency hospitalization at Yale - New Haven Hospital. In June 1934, he was admitted to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota and diagnosed with colitis. Kennedy graduated from Choate in June 1935. For the school yearbook, of which he had been business manager, Kennedy was voted the "Most likely to Succeed".
In September 1935, he made his first trip abroad, with his parents and sister Kathleen, to London, with the intent of studying at the London School of Economics (LSE) as his older brother Joe had done. There is uncertainty about what he did at LSE before returning to America in October 1935, when he enrolled late and spent six weeks at Princeton University. He was then hospitalized for two months of observation for possible leukemia at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston. He convalesced further at the Kennedy winter home in Palm Beach, then spent the spring of 1936 working as a ranch hand on a 40,000-acre (160 km2) cattle ranch outside Benson, Arizona. That summer he raced sailboats at the Kennedy home in Hyannisport.
In September 1936, Kennedy enrolled at Harvard College, where he produced that year's annual "Freshman Smoker", called by a reviewer "an elaborate entertainment, which included in its cast outstanding personalities of the radio, screen and sports world". He tried out for the football, golf, and swim teams and earned a spot on the varsity swim team. In July 1937, Kennedy sailed to France, with his convertible on board, and spent ten weeks driving through Europe with Billings. In June 1938, Kennedy sailed overseas with his father and brother Joe to work with his father, Roosevelt's U.S. Ambassador to the Court of St. James's, at the American embassy in London. In August the family went to a villa near Cannes. In 1939, Kennedy toured Europe, the Soviet Union, the Balkans, and the Middle East in preparation for his Harvard senior honors thesis. He then went to Czechoslovakia and Germany before returning to London on September 1, 1939, the day Germany invaded Poland. On September 3, 1939, the family was in the House of Commons for speeches endorsing the United Kingdom's declaration of war on Germany. Kennedy was sent as his father's representative to help with arrangements for American survivors of the SS ''Athenia'', before flying back to the U.S. from Foynes, Ireland to Port Washington, New York on his first transatlantic flight.
As an upperclassman at Harvard, Kennedy became a more serious student and developed an interest in political philosophy. In his junior year he made the Dean’s List. In 1940, Kennedy completed his thesis, "Appeasement in Munich", about British participation in the Munich Agreement. He initially intended his thesis to be private, but his father encouraged him to publish it. He graduated from Harvard College with a S.B. ''cum laude'' in international affairs in 1940. His thesis, published that year as a book entitled ''Why England Slept'', became a bestseller. Kennedy enrolled and audited classes at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. In early 1941, he helped his father complete the writing of a memoir of his three years as an American ambassador and then traveled throughout South America.
Military service
In September 1941, after medical disqualification by the Army for his chronic lower back problems, Kennedy joined the U.S. Navy, with the influence of the director of the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI), former naval attaché to Joseph Kennedy. Kennedy was an ensign serving in the office of the Secretary of the Navy when the attack on Pearl Harbor occurred. He then attended the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps and Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron Training Center, was assigned duty in Panama and later in the Pacific theater where he earned the rank of lieutenant, commanding a patrol torpedo (PT) boat.On August 2, 1943, Kennedy's boat, ''PT-109'', along with ''PT-162'' and ''PT-169'', were ordered to continue nighttime patrol near New Georgia in the Solomon Islands, when it was rammed by the Japanese destroyer ''Amagiri''. Kennedy gathered his surviving crew members together in the water around the wreckage, to vote on whether to "fight or surrender". Kennedy stated, "There's nothing in the book about a situation like this. A lot of you men have families and some of you have children. What do you want to do? I have nothing to lose." Shunning surrender, the men swam towards a small island. Kennedy, despite re-injury to his back in the collision, towed a badly burned crewman through the water with a life jacket strap clenched between his teeth. He towed the wounded man to the island and later to a second island from where his crew was subsequently rescued. For these actions, Kennedy received the Navy and Marine Corps Medal with the following citation:
'' For extremely heroic conduct as Commanding Officer of Motor Torpedo Boat 109 following the collision and sinking of that vessel in the Pacific War Theater on August 1–2, 1943. Unmindful of personal danger, Lieutenant (then Lieutenant, Junior Grade) Kennedy unhesitatingly braved the difficulties and hazards of darkness to direct rescue operations, swimming many hours to secure aid and food after he had succeeded in getting his crew ashore. His outstanding courage, endurance and leadership contributed to the saving of several lives and were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.''
In October 1943, Kennedy took command of a PT boat converted into a gun boat, ''PT-59'', which in November took part in a Marine rescue on Choiseul Island. Kennedy was honorably discharged in early 1945, just prior to Japan's surrender. Kennedy's other decorations in World War II included the Purple Heart, American Defense Service Medal, American Campaign Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with three bronze service stars, and the World War II Victory Medal. When later asked by a reporter how he became a war hero, Kennedy joked: "It was involuntary. They sank my boat."
Congressional career
House of Representatives
While Kennedy was still serving, his older brother Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. was killed in action on August 12, 1944 while part of Operation Aphrodite. Since Joe Jr. had been the family's political standard-bearer, the task now fell on John.In 1946, U.S. Representative James Michael Curley vacated his seat in the strong Democratic 10th Congressional district in Massachusetts to become mayor of Boston. Kennedy ran for the seat, beating his Republican opponent by a large margin; this, despite not having previously included politics in his career planning. He was a congressman for six years but had a mixed voting record, often diverging from President Harry S. Truman and the rest of the Democratic Party.
Senate
In 1952, he defeated incumbent Republican Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. for the U.S. Senate. The following year he was married to wife Jacqueline.Kennedy underwent several spinal operations over the following two years, was at times critically ill and received Catholic last rites, and was often absent from the Senate. During his convalescence in 1956, he published ''Profiles in Courage'', a book about U.S. Senators who risked their careers for their personal beliefs, and which received the Pulitzer Prize for Biography in 1957. Rumors that this work was co-authored by his close adviser and speechwriter, Ted Sorensen, were confirmed in Sorensen's 2008 autobiography.
At the 1956 Democratic National Convention, Kennedy was nominated for Vice President, for the presidential nominee Adlai Stevenson, but finished second in that balloting to Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee. Kennedy received national exposure from that episode; his father thought it just as well that his son lost, due to the political debility of his Catholicism, and the strength of the Eisenhower ticket.
One of the matters demanding Kennedy's attention in the Senate was President Eisenhower's bill for the Civil Rights Act of 1957 Kennedy cast a procedural vote on this which was considered by some as an appeasement of Southern Democratic opponents of the bill. Kennedy also voted for Title IV, termed the "Jury Trial Amendment". Many civil rights advocates at the time criticized that vote as one which would weaken the act. A final compromise bill, which Kennedy supported, was passed in September 1957. In 1958, Kennedy was re-elected to a second term in the Senate, defeating his Republican opponent, Boston lawyer Vincent J. Celeste, by a wide margin.
Senator Joseph McCarthy was a friend of the Kennedy family; Joseph Kennedy, Sr. was a leading McCarthy supporter, Robert F. Kennedy worked for McCarthy's subcommittee, and McCarthy dated Patricia Kennedy. In 1954, when the Senate voted to censure McCarthy, Kennedy had drafted, but not delivered, a speech supporting the censure, but was in the hospital. Though absent, he could have participated procedurally by "pairing" his vote against that of another senator, but did not do so. He never indicated how he would have voted, but the episode damaged Kennedy's support in the liberal community, including Eleanor Roosevelt, in the 1956 and 1960 elections.
1960 presidential election
On January 2, 1960, Kennedy initiated his campaign for President in the Democratic primary election, where he faced challenges from Senator Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota and Senator Wayne Morse of Oregon. Kennedy defeated Humphrey in Wisconsin and West Virginia, Morse in Maryland and Oregon, as well as token opposition (often write-in candidates) in New Hampshire, Indiana, and Nebraska. Kennedy made a point of visiting a coal mine in West Virginia; most miners and others in that predominantly conservative, Protestant state were quite wary of Kennedy's Roman Catholicism. His victory in West Virginia confirmed his broad popular appeal. At the Democratic Convention, he gave his well-known "New Frontier" speech, saying: "For the problems are not all solved and the battles are not all won—and we stand today on the edge of a New Frontier ... But the New Frontier of which I speak is not a set of promises—it is a set of challenges. It sums up not what I intend to offer the American people, but what I intend to ask of them."With Humphrey and Morse eliminated, Kennedy's main opponent at the Los Angeles convention was Senator Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas. Kennedy overcame this formal challenge as well as informal ones from Adlai Stevenson, the Democratic nominee in 1952 and 1956, Stuart Symington, as well as several favorite sons, and on July 13 the Democratic convention nominated Kennedy as its candidate. Kennedy asked Johnson to be his Vice Presidential candidate, despite opposition from many liberal delegates and Kennedy's own staff, including brother Robert. He needed Johnson's strength in the South to win what was considered likely to be the closest election since 1916. Major issues included how to get the economy moving again, Kennedy's Roman Catholicism, Cuba, and whether the Soviet space and missile programs had surpassed those of the U.S. To address fears that his being Catholic would impact his decision-making, he famously told the Greater Houston Ministerial Association on September 12, 1960, "I am not the Catholic candidate for President. I am the Democratic Party candidate for President who also happens to be a Catholic. I do not speak for my Church on public matters – and the Church does not speak for me." Kennedy questioned rhetorically whether one-quarter of Americans were relegated to second-class citizenship just because they were Catholic, and once stated that, "No one asked me my religion [serving the Navy] in the South Pacific."
In September and October, Kennedy appeared with Republican candidate Richard Nixon, then Vice President, in the first televised U.S. presidential debates in U.S. history. During these programs, Nixon, with a sore injured leg and his "five o'clock shadow", looked tense, uncomfortable, and perspiring, while Kennedy, choosing to avail himself of makeup services, appeared relaxed, leading the huge television audience to favor Kennedy as the winner. Radio listeners either thought Nixon had won or that the debates were a draw. The debates are now considered a milestone in American political history—the point at which the medium of television began to play a dominant role in politics. After the first debate Kennedy's campaign gained momentum and he pulled slightly ahead of Nixon in most polls. On Tuesday, November 8, Kennedy defeated Nixon in one of the closest presidential elections of the twentieth century. In the national popular vote Kennedy led Nixon by just two-tenths of one percent (49.7% to 49.5%), while in the Electoral College he won 303 votes to Nixon's 219 (269 were needed to win). Another 14 electors from Mississippi and Alabama refused to support Kennedy because of his support for the civil rights movement; they voted for Senator Harry F. Byrd of Virginia. He was the youngest man elected president, succeeding Eisenhower who was then the oldest (Ronald Reagan surpassed Eisenhower as the oldest president in 1981).
Presidency
John F. Kennedy was sworn in as the 35th President at noon on January 20, 1961. In his inaugural address he spoke of the need for all Americans to be active citizens, famously saying, "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country." He also asked the nations of the world to join together to fight what he called the "common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself." He added: "All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days. Nor will it be finished in the first one thousand days, nor in the life of this Administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin." In closing, he expanded on his desire for greater internationalism: "Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world, ask of us here the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you."
In its scope, the address also reflected Kennedy’s confidence that his administration would chart a historically significant course in both domestic policy and foreign affairs. The contrast between this optimistic vision and the pressures of managing daily political realities at home and abroad would be one of the main tensions running through the early years of his administration.
Kennedy brought to the White House a stark contrast in organization compared to the decision making structure of the former general, Eisenhower; and he wasted no time in dismantling it. Kennedy preferred the organizational structure of a wheel, with all the spokes leading to the president. He was ready and willing to make the increased number of quick decisions required in such an environment, and did a monumental job of selecting his cabinet and other appointments, some experienced and some not. In those cases of inexperience, he stated, "we can learn our jobs together". There were a couple instances where the president got ahead of himself, as when he announced in a cabinet meeting, without prior notice, that Edward Lansdale would be Ambassador to South Vietnam, a decision which Secretary of State Rusk later had Kennedy alter. There was also the rapid appointment of Harris Wofford who was summoned and arrived at the White House for swearing in, without knowing the position he was to assume.
Kennedy further demonstrated his decision making agility with Congress and his staff. Much to the chagrin of his economic advisors who wanted him to reduce taxes, he quickly agreed to a balanced budget pledge when this was needed in exchange for votes to expand the membership of the House Rules Committee in order to give the Democrats a majority in setting the legislative agenda. The president insisted on a focus upon immediate and specific issues facing the administration, and quickly voiced his impatience with ponderings of deeper meanings. Deputy national security advisor, Walt Whitman Rostow, once began a diatribe about the growth of communism and Kennedy abruptly cut him off, asking, "What do you want me to do about that today?"
Foreign policy
President Kennedy's foreign policy was dominated by American-Soviet confrontations, manifested by proxy contests in the early stage of the Cold War. In 1961 Kennedy anxiously anticipated a summit with Nikita Khrushchev. Unfortunately, he [Kennedy] started off on the wrong foot by reacting aggressively to a routine Khrushchev speech on Cold War confrontation in early 1961. The speech was intended for domestic audiences in the Soviet Union, but Kennedy interpreted it as a personal challenge. His mistake helped raise tensions going into the Vienna Summit. On the way to the summit was a stop in Paris in June to meet Charles de Gaulle, whose advice to Kennedy was to expect and ignore the abrasive style of Khrushchev. The French president was nationalistic, and disdainful of the United States' presumed influence in Europe, in his talks with Kennedy. Nevertheless de Gaulle was quite impressed with the young president and family. Kennedy picked up on this in his speech in Paris, saying he would be remembered as "the man who accompanied Jackie Kennedy to Paris."
On June 4, 1961 the president met with Khrushchev in Vienna and left the meetings angry and disappointed that he had allowed the Premier to bully him, despite warnings received. Khrushchev for his part was impressed with the president's intelligence but thought him weak. Kennedy did succeed in conveying the bottom line to Khrushchev on the most sensitive issue before them, a proposed treaty between Moscow and East Berlin. He made it clear that any such treaty which interfered with U.S access rights in West Berlin would be regarded as an act of war. Shortly after the president returned home, the U.S.S.R. announced an intent to treat with East Berlin, regardless of any third party occupation rights in either sector of the city. A depressed and angry president then assumed his obligation was to prepare the country for nuclear war as the only option, and which he then personally thought had a one in five chance of occurring.
In the weeks immediately after the Vienna summit, more than 20 thousand people fled from East Berlin to the western sector in reaction to statements from the U.S.S.R. Kennedy began intensive meetings on the Berlin issue, where Dean Acheson took the lead in recommending a military buildup with NATO allies as the appropriate response. In a July 1961 speech, Kennedy announced his decision to add $3.25 billion to the defense budget, along with over 200 thousand additional troops for the military, saying an attack on West Berlin would be taken as an attack on the U.S. The speech received an 85% approval rating. The following month, the U.S.S.R. and East Berlin officials began blocking any further passage of East Berliners into West Berlin, erecting barbed wire fences across the city, which were quickly upgraded to the Berlin Wall. Kennedy's initial reaction was to ignore this, as long as free access from West to East Berlin continued. This course was altered when it was learned that the West Berliners had lost confidence in the defense of their position by the United States. Kennedy sent V.P. Johnson, along with a host of other military personnel, in convoy through West Germany, including Soviet armed checkpoints, to demonstrate the continued commitment of the U.S. to West Berlin.
John F. Kennedy gave a speech at Saint Anselm College on May 5, 1960, regarding America's conduct in the emerging Cold War. Kennedy's speech detailed how American foreign policy should be conducted towards African nations, noting a hint of support for modern African nationalism by saying that "For we, too, founded a new nation on revolt from colonial rule".
Cuba and the Bay of Pigs Invasion
Prior to Kennedy's election to the presidency, the Eisenhower Administration created a plan to overthrow the Fidel Castro regime in Cuba. Central to the plan, led by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) with help from the US Military, but with no covert help from the United States, was the arming of a counter-revolutionary insurgency composed of anti-Castro Cuban exiles U.S.-trained Cuban insurgents, led by CIA paramilitary officers were to invade Cuba and instigate an uprising among the Cuban people in hopes of removing Castro from power. On April 17, 1961, Kennedy ordered the previously planned invasion of Cuba to proceed. In what is known as the "Bay of Pigs Invasion", 1,500 U.S.-trained Cubans, called "Brigade 2506," returned to the island in the hope of deposing Castro. In keeping with prior plans, no U.S. air support was provided. As CIA director Allen Dulles latter stated, they thought that once the troops were on the ground any action required for success would be authorized by the president to prevent failure. By April 19, 1961, the Cuban government had captured or killed the invading exiles, and Kennedy was forced to negotiate for the release of the 1,189 survivors. After twenty months, Cuba released the captured exiles in exchange for $53 million worth of food and medicine. Furthermore, the incident made Castro wary of the U.S. and led him to believe that another invasion would occur. According to biographer Richard Reeves, Kennedy primarily focused on the political repercussions of the plan rather than the military considerations; when it failed, he was convinced the plan was a set up to make him look bad. Nevertheless, in the end, Kennedy took the blame himself. Afterwards, he opined, "...We got a big kick in the leg and we deserved it. But maybe we'll learn something from it."
Late in 1961 the White House formed the "Special Group (Augmented)", headed by Robert Kennedy and including Edward Lansdale, Sec. McNamara and others. The group's objective, to overthrow Castro via espionage, sabotage and other covert tactics, was never pursued.
Cuban Missile Crisis
On October 14, 1962, CIA U-2 spy planes took photographs in Cuba of intermediate-range ballistic missile sites under construction by the Soviets in previous months. The deployment of these missiles had come to the attention of the intelligence community when Soviet shipments to Cuba began and a debate had ensued in the National Security Council (NSC) as to whether the intended use of the weapons was offensive or defensive. The photos were shown to Kennedy on October 16, 1962, and a consensus was reached that the missiles were offensive in nature and thus posed an immediate nuclear threat. Kennedy faced a dilemma: if the U.S. attacked the sites, it might lead to nuclear war with the U.S.S.R., but if the U.S. did nothing, it would be faced with the increased threat from close range nuclear weapons. The U.S. would as well appear to the world as less committed to the defense of the hemisphere. On a personal level, Kennedy needed to show resolve in reaction to Khrushchev, especially after the Vienna summit.
More than a third of the members of the NSC favored an unannounced air assault on the missile sites, but for some of them this conjured up an image of "Pearl Harbor in reverse". There was as well some reaction from the international community (asked in confidence) that the assault plan was an overreaction in light of U.S. missiles placed in Turkey by Eisenhower. There also could be no assurance from the Council that the assault would be 100% effective. In concurrence with a majority vote of the NSC, Kennedy decided on a naval quarantine, and on October 22 dispatched a message of this to Khrushchev and announced the decision on TV.
The U.S. Navy would stop and inspect all Soviet ships arriving off Cuba, beginning October 24. The Organization of American States surprisingly gave unanimous support to the removal of the missiles. The president exchanged two sets of letters with Khrushchev to no avail. UN Secretary General U Thant requested both parties reverse their decisions and allow a cooling off period. Khrushchev said yes but Kennedy replied no. After one Soviet-flagged ship was stopped and boarded, on October 28 Khrushchev agreed to dismantle the missile sites subject to UN inspections. The U.S. publicly promised never to invade Cuba and privately agreed to remove its Jupiter missiles in Turkey, which were at that time obsolete and had been supplanted by missile-equipped US Navy Polaris subs. This crisis had brought the world closer to nuclear war than at any point known before or since. In the end, "the humanity" of the two men prevailed. The crisis improved the image of American willpower and the president's credibility. His approval rating increased from 66% to 77% immediately thereafter.
Latin America and communism
Arguing that "those who make peaceful revolution impossible, will make violent revolution inevitable," Kennedy sought to contain communism in Latin America by establishing the Alliance for Progress, which sent aid to troubled countries and sought greater human rights standards in the region. He worked closely with Governor of Puerto Rico Luis Muñoz Marín for the development of the Alliance of Progress, as well as developments in the autonomy of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
When the president took office the Eisenhower administration, through the CIA, has begun putting into place assassination plots in Cuba against Castro and in the Dominican Republic against Rafael Trujillo. Kennedy instructed the CIA privately that any such planning must include plausible deniability by the U.S. His public position was in opposition. In June 1961 the Dominican Republic's leader was assassinated; in the days following the event, Undersecretary of State Chester Bowles led a cautious reaction by the nation, and Robert Kennedy, substituting for his brother who was in France, and who saw an opportunity for the U.S., called him "a gutless bastard" to his face.
Peace Corps
As one of his first presidential acts, Kennedy asked Congress to create the Peace Corps. His brother-in-law, Sargent Shriver was the first director. Through this program, Americans volunteer to help underdeveloped nations in areas such as education, farming, health care, and construction. The authorization grew to 5,000 members by March 1963 and 10,000 the following year. Since 1961, over 200,000 Americans have joined the Peace Corps, serving in 139 countries.
Southeast Asia
When briefing Kennedy, Eisenhower emphasized the communist threat in Southeast Asia as requiring priority; Eisenhower considered Laos to be "the cork in the bottle" in regards to the regional threat. In March 1961, Kennedy voiced a change in policy from supporting a "free" Laos to a "neutral" Laos, indicating privately that Vietnam, and not Laos, should be deemed America's tripwire for communism's spread in the area. In May 1961, he dispatched Lyndon Johnson to meet with South Vietnam's President Ngo Dinh Diem. Johnson assured Diem of more aid in molding a fighting force that could resist the Communists. Kennedy announced a change of policy from support to partnership with Diem in defeat of communism in South Vietnam.
Kennedy initially followed Eisenhower's lead, by using limited military action to fight the Communist forces led by Ho Chi Minh. Kennedy continued policies providing political, economic, and military support for the South Vietnamese government. Late in 1961, the Viet Cong began assuming a predominant presence, initially seizing the provincial capital of Phuoc Vinh. Kennedy increased the number of helicopters, military advisors and undeclared U.S. Special Forces in the area, but he was still reluctant to order a full scale deployment of troops. Kennedy formally authorized escalated involvement when he signed the "National Security Action Memorandum – Subversive Insurgency (War of Liberation)" in early 1962. Secretary of State, Dean Rusk voiced strong support for U.S. involvement, as illustrated in his emphatic statement in fall 1962 that, "...neutralism [in South Vietnam] is not neutralism at all; it's tantamount to surrender". "Operation Ranch Hand", a broad scale aerial defoliation effort began on the roadsides in South Vietnam.
In April 1963, Kennedy expressed his assessment of the situation in Vietnam: "We don't have a prayer of staying in Vietnam. Those people hate us. They are going to throw our asses out of there at any point. But I can't give up that territory to the Communists and get the American people to re-elect me". By July 1963, Kennedy faced a crisis in Vietnam; despite increased U.S. support, the South Vietnamese military was only marginally effective against pro-Communist Viet Cong forces.
On August 21, just as the new U.S. Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge arrived, Ngo Dinh Diem, and his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu ordered South Vietnam forces, funded and trained by the CIA, to quell Buddhist demonstrations. The crackdowns heightened expectations of a coup d'état to remove Diem with (or perhaps by) his brother, Nhu. Lodge was instructed to try to get Diem and Nhu to step down and leave the country. Diem would not listen to Lodge. Cable 243 (DEPTEL 243), dated August 24, followed, declaring Washington would no longer tolerate Nhu's actions, and Lodge was ordered to pressure Diem to remove his brother, Nhu. If Diem refused, the Americans would explore alternative leadership. Lodge replied, stating the only workable option was to get the South Vietnamese generals to overthrow Diem and Nhu, as originally planned. At week's end, Kennedy learned from Lodge that the Diem government might, due to France's assistance to Nhu, be dealing secretly with the Communists – and might ask the Americans to leave; orders were sent to Saigon and throughout Washington to "destroy all coup cables". At the same time, the first formal anti-Vietnam war sentiment was expressed by U.S. clergy from the Ministers' Vietnam Committee.
A White House meeting in September was indicative of the very different ongoing appraisals; the President was given updated assessments after personal inspections on the ground by the Department of Defense (Gen. Victor Krulak) and the State Department (Joseph Mendenhall). Krulak said the military fight against the communists was progressing and being won, while Mendenhall stated that the country was civilly being lost to any U.S. influence. Kennedy reacted, saying, "Did you two gentlemen visit the same country?" The president was unaware the two men were at such odds they did not speak on the return flight.
In October 1963, the president appointed Defense Secretary McNamara and Gen. Maxwell D. Taylor to a Vietnam mission in another effort to synchronize the information and formulation of policy. The objective of the McNamara Taylor mission "emphasized the importance of getting to the bottom of the differences in reporting from U.S. representatives in Vietnam". In meetings with McNamara, Taylor and Lodge, Diem again refused to agree to governing measures insisted upon by the U.S., helping to dispel McNamara's previous optimism about Diem. Taylor and McNamara were also enlightened by Vietnam's Vice President, Nguyen Ngoc Tho (choice of many to succeed Diem should a coup occur), who in detailed terms obliterated Taylor's information that the military was succeeding in the countryside. The mission report, after it had been through the NSC, nevertheless retained, at Kennedy's insistence, a recommended schedule for troop withdrawals: 1000 by year's end and complete withdrawal in 1965, something the NSC considered strategic fantasy. The final report also portrayed military progress, an increasingly unpopular Diem-led government, not vulnerable to a coup, albeit possible internal assassination.
In late October, intelligence wires again reported a coup of the Diem government was afoot. The source, Duong Van Minh a/k/a "Big Minh" wanted to know the U.S. position. Kennedy's instructions to Lodge were to offer covert assistance to the coup, excluding assassination, but to ensure deniability by the U.S. Later that month, as the coup became imminent, Kennedy ordered all cables routed through him, and a policy of "control and cut out" was initiated – to insure presidential control of U.S. responses, while cutting him out of the paper trail. On November 1, 1963, South Vietnamese generals, led by "Big Minh", overthrew the Diem government, arresting and then killing Diem and his brother Nhu. Kennedy was shocked by the deaths and by finding out afterwards that Minh had asked the CIA field office to secure safe passage out of the country for Diem and Nhu, but was told 24 hours was needed to get a plane. Minh responded that he could not hold them that long and thus handed them a death sentence. Initially after news of the coup, there was renewed confidence in America and South Vietnam, that now the war might be won. McGeorge Bundy drafted a National Security Action Memo to present to Kennedy upon his return from Dallas. It reiterated U.S. resolve to fight communism in Vietnam, with both military and economic aid at a higher level, including operations in Laos and Cambodia. Before leaving for Dallas, Kennedy told Mike Forrestal that "after the first of the year ... [he wanted] an in depth study of every possible option, including how to get out of there ... to review this whole thing from the bottom to the top". When asked what he thought the president meant, Forrestal said, "it was devil's advocate stuff."
Historians disagree on whether Vietnam would have escalated to the point it did, had Kennedy survived and been re-elected in 1964. Fueling the debate are statements made by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara in the film, "The Fog of War", that Kennedy was strongly considering pulling out of Vietnam after the 1964 election. The film also contains a tape recording of Lyndon Johnson stating that Kennedy was planning to withdraw, a position Johnson states he strongly disapproved. Further, Kennedy had signed National Security Action Memorandum (NSAM) 263, dated October 11, 1963, which ordered the withdrawal of 1,000 military personnel by the end of 1963. Nevertheless, given the reasons stated for the overthrow of the Diem government, such action would have been a policy reversal, but Kennedy was moving in a less hawkish direction since his acclaimed speech about World Peace at American University on June 10, 1963. According to historian Lawrence Freedman, Kennedy's statements about withdrawing from Vietnam, were "less of a definite decision than a working assumption, based on a hope for stability rather than an expectation of chaos". Some of the details of Kennedy's involvement in Vietnam were classified until the release of the ''Pentagon Papers'' in 1971.
U.S. involvement in the region escalated until Lyndon Johnson, his successor, directly deployed regular U.S. military forces for fighting the Vietnam War. After Kennedy's assassination, the new President Lyndon B. Johnson immediately reversed his predecessor's order to withdraw 1,000 military personnel by the end of 1963 with his own NSAM 273 on November 26, 1963.
American University speech
On June 10, 1963, Kennedy delivered the commencement address at American University in Washington, D.C., "to discuss a topic on which too often ignorance abounds and the truth is too rarely perceived - yet it is the most important topic on earth: world peace...I speak of peace because of the new face of war...in an age when a singular nuclear weapon contains ten times the explosive force delivered by all the allied forces in the Second World War...an age when the deadly poisons produced by a nuclear exchange would be carried by wind and air and soil and seed to the far corners of the globe and to generations yet unborn...I speak of peace, therefore, as the necessary rational end of rational men...world peace, like community peace, does not require that each man love his neighbor - it requires only that they live together in mutual tolerance...our problems are man-made - therefore they can be solved by man. And man can be as big as he wants." The president also made two announcements - that the Soviets had expressed a desire to negotiate a nuclear test ban treaty and that the U.S had postponed planned atmospheric tests.
West Berlin speech
upright|thumb|left|Kennedy meeting with West Berlin governing mayor Willy Brandt, March 1961
In 1963, Germany was enduring a time of particular vulnerability, due to Soviet aggression to the east, de Gaulle's French nationalism to the west, and the impending retirement of German Chancellor Adenauer. On June 26, 1963, Kennedy visited West Berlin and gave a public speech reiterating American commitment to Germany and criticizing communism; he was met with an ecstatic response from a massive audience. Kennedy used the construction of the Berlin Wall as an example of the failures of communism: "Freedom has many difficulties and democracy is not perfect, but we have never had to put a wall up to keep our people in." The speech is known for its famous phrase ''"Ich bin ein Berliner"'' ("I am a citizen of Berlin"). Nearly five-sixths of the population was on the street for the speech. He remarked to Ted Sorensen afterwards: "We'll never have another day like this one, as long as we live."
Israel
Kennedy encountered problems with the Israeli government regarding the production of nuclear weapons in Dimona. After the existence of a nuclear plant was initially denied by the Israeli government, David Ben-Gurion, in a speech to the Israeli Knesset on December 21, 1960, stated that the purpose of the nuclear plant at Beersheba was for "research in problems of arid zones and desert flora and fauna". When Ben-Gurion met with Kennedy in New York, he claimed that Dimona was being developed to provide nuclear power for desalinization and "for the time being the only purposes [of the nuclear plant] are for peace". The State Department argued that if Israel wanted arms, it should in return accept international supervision of its nuclear program. Dimona was never placed under IAEA safeguards. On May 1, 1968, Undersecretary of State Katzenbach told President Johnson that Dimona was producing enough plutonium to produce two bombs a year. Attempts to write Israeli adherence to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) into contracts for the supply of U.S. weapons continued throughout 1968.
Iraq
In 1963, the Kennedy administration backed a coup against the government of Iraq headed by General Abdel Karim Kassem, who five years earlier had deposed the Western-allied Iraqi monarchy. The CIA helped the new Ba'ath Party government led by Abdul Salam Arif in ridding the country of suspected leftists and Communists. In a Ba'athist coup, the government used lists of suspected Communists and other leftists provided by the CIA, to systematically murder untold numbers of Iraq's educated elite—killings in which Saddam Hussein himself is said to have participated. The victims included hundreds of doctors, teachers, technicians, lawyers, other professionals, military and political figures. According to an op-ed in ''The New York Times'', the U.S. sent arms to the new regime, weapons later used against the same Kurdish insurgents the U.S. supported against Kassem and then abandoned him. American and UK oil and other interests, including Mobil, Bechtel, and British Petroleum, were conducting business in Iraq.
Ireland
On the occasion of his visit to the Republic of Ireland in 1963, President Kennedy joined with Irish President Éamon de Valera to form The American Irish Foundation. The mission of this organization was to foster connections between Americans of Irish descent and the country of their ancestry. Kennedy furthered these connections of cultural solidarity by accepting a grant of armorial bearings from the Chief Herald of Ireland. Kennedy had near-legendary status in Ireland, due to his ancestral ties to the country. Irish citizens who were alive in 1963 often have very strong memories of Kennedy's momentous visit. He also visited the original cottage at Dunganstown, near New Ross, where previous Kennedys had lived before emigrating to America, and said: "This is where it all began ..." On December 22, 2006, the Irish Department of Justice released declassified police documents that indicated that Kennedy was the subject of three death threats during this visit. Though these threats were determined to be hoaxes, security was heightened.
Nuclear Test Ban Treaty
Troubled by the long-term dangers of radioactive contamination and nuclear weapons proliferation, Kennedy and Khrushchev agreed on the desirability of negotiating a nuclear test ban treaty, originally conceived in Adlai Stevenson's 1956 presidential campaign. In their Vienna summit meeting in June 1961, Khrushchev and Kennedy reached an informal understanding against nuclear testing, but Khrushchev began testing nuclear weapons that September and Kennedy responded by conducting tests 5 days later. Shortly thereafter, new U.S satellites began delivering images which made it clear that the Soviets were substantially behind the U.S. in the "missile gap". Nevertheless, the greater nuclear strength of the U.S. was of little value as long as the U.S.S.R. perceived themselves to be at parity.In July 1963 the stage was set for negotiations, and Kennedy sent Averell Harriman to Moscow to negotiate a treaty with the Soviets. The introductory sessions began with Khrushchev, who then delegated Soviet representation to Andrei Gromyko. It quickly became clear that the stated objective of a comprehensive test ban would not reach fruition, due largely to the reluctance of the Soviets for inspections to verify compliance. Ultimately, the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union were the initial signatories to a limited treaty, which prohibited atomic testing on the ground, in the atmosphere, or underwater, but not underground; the U.S. Senate ratified this and Kennedy signed it into law in October 1963. France was quick to declare that it was free to further develop and test its nuclear defenses.
Domestic policy
Kennedy called his domestic program the "New Frontier". It ambitiously promised federal funding for education, medical care for the elderly, economic aid to rural regions, and government intervention to halt the recession. Kennedy also promised an end to racial discrimination. In his 1963 State of the Union, he proposed substantial tax reform and reduction, in income tax rates, from the current range of 20-90% to a range of 14-65%; he proposed a reduction in the corporate tax rates from 52 to 47%. Congress did not act until 1964, after his death. To the Economics Club of N.Y., he spoke in 1963 of "...the paradoxical truth that tax rates are too high and revenues too low; and the soundest way to raise revenue in the long term is to lower rates now." Few of Kennedy's major programs passed Congress during his lifetime, although, under his successor Johnson, Congress did vote them through in 1964–65.
Economy
Kennedy ended a period of tight fiscal policies, loosening monetary policy to keep interest rates down and encourage growth of the economy. Kennedy presided over the first government budget to top the $100 billion mark, in 1962, and his first budget in 1961 led to the country's first non-war, non-recession deficit. The economy, which had been through two recessions in three years and was in one when Kennedy took office, accelerated notably during his brief presidency. Despite low inflation and interest rates, GDP had grown by an average of only 2.2% during the Eisenhower presidency (scarcely more than population growth at the time), and had declined by 1% during Eisenhower's last twelve months in office. Stagnation had taken a toll on the nation's labor market, as well: unemployment had risen steadily from under 3% in 1953 to 7%, by early 1961.The economy turned around and prospered during the Kennedy administration. GDP expanded by an average of 5.5% from early 1961 to late 1963, while inflation remained steady at around 1% and unemployment eased; industrial production rose by 15% and motor vehicle sales leapt by 40%. This rate of growth in GDP and industry continued until around 1966, and has yet to be repeated for such a sustained period of time. There were nevertheless some painful moments, as in the stock market, which had steadily declined since Kennedy's election, and which dropped a full 10% shortly after the administration's action on the steel industry in 1962.
The major steel companies announced in April 1962 a 3.5% price increase (the first in 3 years) within a day of each other. This came just days after the companies had reached a settlement with the steelworkers' union, providing in chief a wage increase of 2.5%. The administration was furious, with Kennedy saying, "Why did they do this? Do they think they can get away with this? God, I hate the bastards." The president took personal charge of a campaign against the industry, assigning to each cabinet member a statement regarding the effects of the price increase on their area. Robert Kennedy, echoing his brother's own sentiments, "We're going for broke...their expense accounts, where they've been and what they've been doing...the FBI is to interview them all...we can't lose this." Robert took the position that the steel executives had illegally colluded in doing this. There was genuine concern about the inflationary effects of the price increase. The administration's actions influenced US Steel not to institute the price increase. ''The Wall Street Journal'' wrote that the administration had acted "by naked power, by threats, by agents of the state security police." Yale law professor Charles Reich wrote in ''The New Republic'' his opinion that the administration had violated civil liberties by calling a grand jury to indict US Steel for collusion so quickly. Nevertheless, the administration's Bureau of Budget reported the price increase would have resulted in a net gain for GDP as well as a net budget surplus.
Kennedy had little knowledge of the agricultural sector of the economy, and farmers were definitely not on his list of priorities, at least in his 1960 campaign. After giving a speech to a farming community, he rhetorically asked an aide, "Did you understand any of what I just said in there? I sure didn't."
Federal and military death penalty
As President, Kennedy oversaw the last pre-''Furman'' federal execution, and, as of 2008, the last military execution. Governor of Iowa Harold Hughes, a death penalty opponent, personally contacted Kennedy to request clemency for Victor Feguer, who was sentenced to death by a federal court in Iowa, but Kennedy turned down the request and Feguer was executed on March 15, 1963. Kennedy commuted a death sentence imposed by military court on seaman Jimmie Henderson on February 12, 1962, changing the penalty to life in prison.On March 22, 1962, Kennedy signed into law HR5143 (PL87-423), abolishing the mandatory death penalty for first degree murder in the District of Columbia, the only remaining jurisdiction in the United States with a mandatory death sentence for first degree murder, replacing it with life imprisonment with parole if the jury could not decide between life imprisonment and the death penalty, or if the jury chose life imprisonment by a unanimous vote. The death penalty in the District of Columbia has not been applied since 1957, and has now been abolished.
Civil rights
The turbulent end of state-sanctioned racial discrimination was one of the most pressing domestic issues of the 1960s. The Supreme Court of the United States had ruled in 1954 in ''Brown v. Board of Education'' that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. Many schools, especially in southern states, did not obey the Supreme Court's decision. Segregation had also been prohibited by the Court at other public facilities (e.g. buses, restaurants, theaters, courtrooms, bathrooms, and beaches) but continued nonetheless. Kennedy verbally supported racial integration and civil rights; during the 1960 campaign he telephoned Coretta Scott King, wife of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., who had been jailed while demonstrating for equal access of African Americans; Kennedy secured the early release of King, which drew additional black support to his candidacy.Nevertheless President Kennedy believed the grass roots movement for civil rights would anger many Southern whites and make it more difficult to pass civil rights laws in Congress, which was dominated by conservative Southern Democrats, and he distanced himself from it. He also was more concerned with other issues early in his presidency, e.g. the "Bay of Pigs" fiasco and Southeast Asia. As articulated by brother Robert, the administration's early priority was to "keep the president out of this civil rights mess". As a result, many civil rights leaders viewed Kennedy as lukewarm, especially concerning the Freedom Riders who organized an integrated public transportation effort in the south, and who were repeatedly met with violence by whites, including law enforcement both federal and state. Kennedy assigned federal marshals to protect the Freedom Riders as an alternative to using federal troops or uncooperative FBI agents. Robert Kennedy, speaking for the president, urged the Freedom Riders to "get off the buses and leave the matter to peaceful settlement in the courts."
In September 1962, James Meredith enrolled at the University of Mississippi, but was prevented from entering. Attorney General Robert Kennedy responded by sending some 400 U.S. Marshals, while President Kennedy reluctantly federalized and sent 3,000 troops after the situation on campus turned violent. Campus Riots left two dead and dozens injured, but Meredith did finally enroll in his first class. On November 20, 1962, Kennedy signed Executive Order 11063, prohibiting racial discrimination in federally supported housing or "related facilities".
In early 1963, Kennedy related to Martin Luther King, Jr., about the prospects for civil rights legislation: "If we get into a long fight over this in Congress, it will bottleneck everything else, and we will still get no bill." However, civil rights clashes were very much on the rise that year. Brother Robert and Ted Sorenson pressed Kennedy to take more initiative on the legislative front. On June 11, 1963, President Kennedy intervened when Alabama Governor George Wallace blocked the doorway to the University of Alabama to stop two African American students, Vivian Malone and James Hood, from attending. Wallace moved aside only after being confronted by Deputy Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach and the Alabama National Guard, which had just been federalized by order of the President, and which had hours earlier been under Wallace's command. That evening Kennedy gave his famous civil rights address on national television and radio, launching his initiative for civil rights legislation - to provide equal access to public schools and other facilities, and greater protection of voting rights. His proposals became part of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The day ended with the murder of a N.A.A.C.P. leader, Medgar Evers, at his home in Mississippi. As the president had predicted, the day after his TV speech, and in reaction to it, House Majority leader Carl Albert called to advise him that his two year signature effort in Congress to combat poverty in Appalachia (Area Redevelopment Administration) had been defeated, primarily by the votes of Southern Democrats and Republicans.
Kennedy signed the executive order creating the Presidential Commission on the Status of Women on December 14, 1961. Former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt led the commission. The Commission statistics revealed that women were also experiencing discrimination; their final report documenting legal and cultural barriers was issued in October 1963. Earlier, on June 10, 1963, Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act of 1963, a federal law amending the Fair Labor Standards Act, aimed at abolishing wage disparity based on sex.
Over a hundred thousand, predominantly African Americans, gathered in Washington for the civil rights March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963. Kennedy feared the March would have a negative effect on the prospects for the civil rights bills in Congress, and declined an invitation to speak. He turned over some of the details of the government's involvement to the Dept. of Justice, which channelled hundreds of thousands of dollars to the six sponsors of the March, including the N.A.A.C.P. and Martin Luther King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). To ensure a peaceful demonstration, the organizers and the president personally edited speeches which were inflammatory and agreed the March would be held on a Wednesday and would be over at 4:00 pm Thousands of troops were placed on standby. Kennedy watched King's speech on TV and was very impressed. The March was considered a "triumph of managed protest", and not one arrest relating to the demonstration occurred. Afterwards, the March leaders accepted an invitation to the White House to meet with Kennedy and photos were taken. Kennedy felt the March was a victory for him as well and bolstered the chances for his civil rights bill.
Nevertheless, the struggle was far from over. Three weeks later, a bomb exploded on a Sunday at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham; at the end of the day six children had died in the explosion and aftermath. As a result of this resurgent violence, the civil rights legislation underwent some drastic amendments that critically endangered any prospects for passage of the bill, to the outrage of the president. Kennedy called the congressional leaders to the White House and by the following day the original bill, without the additions, had enough votes to get it out of the House committee.
Civil liberties
In 1963, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, who hated civil-rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. and viewed him as an upstart troublemaker, presented the Kennedy Administration with allegations that some of King's close confidants and advisers were communists. Concerned that the allegations, if made public, would derail the Administration's civil rights initiatives, Robert Kennedy and the president both warned King to discontinue the suspect associations. After the associations continued, Robert Kennedy felt compelled to issue a written directive authorizing the FBI to wiretap King and other leaders of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, King's civil rights organization. Although Kennedy only gave written approval for limited wiretapping of King's phones "on a trial basis, for a month or so", Hoover extended the clearance so his men were "unshackled" to look for evidence in any areas of King's life they deemed worthy. The wire tapping continued through June 1966 and was revealed in 1968.
Immigration
John F. Kennedy initially proposed an overhaul of American immigration policy that later was to become the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, sponsored by Kennedy's brother Senator Edward Kennedy. It dramatically shifted the source of immigration from Northern and Western European countries towards immigration from Latin America and Asia and shifted the emphasis of selection of immigrants towards facilitating family reunification. Kennedy wanted to dismantle the selection of immigrants based on country of origin and saw this as an extension of his civil rights policies.
Space program
As a senator, Kennedy had been opposed to the manned space program. The Apollo program was conceived early in 1960, during the Eisenhower administration, as a follow-up to America's Mercury program. While NASA went ahead with planning for Apollo, funding for the program was far from certain given Eisenhower's ambivalent attitude to manned spaceflight. Early in his presidency, Kennedy was considering plans to dismantle the Apollo program due to its cost, but postponed any decision out of deference to his vice president whom he had appointed chairman of the U.S. Space Council and who strongly supported NASA due to its new Manned Spacecraft Center in Texas. In his January 1961 State of the Union address, Kennedy had suggested international cooperation in space. Sergei Khrushchev said Kennedy approached his father, Nikita, twice about a "joint venture" in space exploration—in June 1961 and autumn 1963. On the first occasion, the Soviet Union was ahead of America in many aspects of space technology.
On April 12, 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person to fly in space, reinforcing American fears about being left behind in a technological competition with the Soviet Union. Kennedy was eager for the U.S. to take the lead in the Space Race for strategic reasons. Kennedy first announced the goal for landing a man on the Moon in the speech to a Joint Session of Congress on May 25, 1961, stating:
"First, I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish."Kennedy later made a speech at Rice University on September 12, 1962, in which he said:
"No nation which expects to be the leader of other nations can expect to stay behind in this race for space."and
"We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard."On November 21, 1962, in a Cabinet Room meeting with NASA Administrator James E. Webb and other officials, Kennedy said:
"This is important for political reasons, international political reasons... Because otherwise we shouldn't be spending this kind of money, because I'm not that interested in space. I think it's good, I think we ought to know about it, we're ready to spend reasonable amounts of money. But...we’ve spent fantastic expenditures, we’ve wrecked our budget on all these other domestic programs, and the only justification for it, in my opinion, to do it in the pell-mell fashion is because we hope to beat them [the Soviets] and demonstrate that starting behind, as we did by a couple of years, by God, we passed them. I think it would be a helluva thing for us."On the second approach to Khrushchev, the Ukrainian was persuaded that cost-sharing was beneficial and that American space technology was forging ahead. The U.S. had launched a geosynchronous satellite in July 1962 and Kennedy had asked Congress to approve more than $25 billion for the Apollo program.
In September 1963, during a speech before the United Nations, Kennedy again proposed a joint lunar program to the Soviet Union. The proposal was not enthusiastically received by Khrushchev. Kennedy's death only a little more than a month later essentially made the proposal irrelevant. On July 20, 1969, almost six years after his death, Apollo's goal was realized when Americans landed on the Moon.
Native American relations
Construction of the Kinzua Dam flooded of Seneca nation land that they occupied under the Treaty of 1794, and forced approximately 600 Seneca to relocate to the northern shores upstream of the dam at Salamanca, New York. Kennedy was asked by the American Civil Liberties Union to intervene and halt the project but he declined citing a critical need for flood control. He did express concern for the plight of the Seneca, and directed government agencies to assist in obtaining more land, damages, and assistance to help mitigate their displacement.
Assassination
President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, at 12:30 pm Central Standard Time on November 22, 1963, while on a political trip to Texas to smooth over frictions in the Democratic Party between liberals Ralph Yarborough and Don Yarborough (no relation) and conservative John Connally. He was shot once in the upper back and was killed with a final shot to the head. He was pronounced dead at 1:00 pm. Only 46, President Kennedy died younger than any U.S. president to date. Lee Harvey Oswald, an employee of the Texas School Book Depository from which the shots were suspected to have been fired, was arrested on charges for the murder of a local police officer and was subsequently charged with the assassination of Kennedy. He denied shooting anyone, claiming he was a patsy, but was killed by Jack Ruby on November 24, before he could be indicted or tried. Ruby was then arrested and convicted for the murder of Oswald. Ruby successfully appealed his conviction and death sentence but became ill and died of cancer on January 3, 1967, while the date for his new trial was being set.President Johnson created the Warren Commission—chaired by Chief Justice Earl Warren—to investigate the assassination, which concluded that Oswald was the lone assassin. The results of this investigation are disputed by many. The assassination proved to be an important moment in U.S. history because of its impact on the nation and the ensuing political repercussions.
Funeral
A Requiem Mass was held for Kennedy at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle on November 25, 1963. Afterwards, John F. Kennedy's body was buried in a small plot, (20 by 30 ft.), in Arlington National Cemetery. Over a period of 3 years, (1964–1966), an estimated 16 million people had visited his grave. On March 14, 1967, Kennedy's body was moved to a permanent burial plot and memorial at the Cemetery. The funeral was officiated by Father John J. Cavanaugh. It was from this memorial that the graves of both Robert and Ted were modeled.The honor guard at JFK's graveside was the 37th Cadet Class of the Irish Army. JFK was greatly impressed by the Irish Cadets on his last official visit to the Republic of Ireland, so much so that Jackie Kennedy requested the Irish Army to be the honor guard at the funeral.
Kennedy's wife, Jacqueline and their two deceased minor children were buried with him later. His brother, Senator Robert Kennedy, was buried nearby in June 1968. In August 2009, his brother, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, was also buried near his two brothers. JFK's grave is lit with an "Eternal Flame." Kennedy and William Howard Taft are the only two U.S. Presidents buried at Arlington.
Administration, Cabinet and judicial appointments 1961–1963
{| cellpadding="1" cellspacing="4" style="margin:1px; border:1px solid Black; float:left" |- ! style="background:#dcdcdc;" colspan="3"|The Kennedy Cabinet |- |align="left"|OFFICE||align="left"|NAME||align="left"|TERM |- ! style="background:black;" colspan="3"| |- |align="left"|President||align="left"|John F. Kennedy||align="left"|1961–1963 |- |align="left"|Vice President||align="left"|Lyndon B. Johnson||align="left"|1961–1963 |- ! style="background:black;" colspan="3"| |- |align="left"|State||align="left"|Dean Rusk||align="left"|1961–1963 |- |align="left"|Treasury||align="left"|C. Douglas Dillon||align="left"|1961–1963 |- |align="left"|Defense||align="left"|Robert McNamara||align="left"|1961–1963 |- |align="left"|Justice||align="left"|Robert F. Kennedy||align="left"|1961–1963 |- |align="left"|Postmaster General||align="left"|J. Edward Day||align="left"|1961–1963 |- |align="left"| ||align="left"|John A. Gronouski||align="left"|1963 |- |align="left"|Interior||align="left"|Stewart Udall||align="left"|1961–1963 |- |align="left"|Agriculture||align="left"|Orville Freeman||align="left"|1961–1963 |- |align="left"|Commerce||align="left"|Luther H. Hodges||align="left"|1961–1963 |- |align="left"|Labor||align="left"|Arthur Goldberg||align="left"|1961–1962 |- |align="left"| ||align="left"|W. Willard Wirtz||align="left"|1962–1963 |- |align="left"|HEW||align="left"|Abraham A. Ribicoff||align="left"|1961–1962 |- |align="left"| ||align="left"|Anthony J. Celebrezze||align="left"|1962–1963 |}
Judicial appointments
Supreme Court
Kennedy appointed the following Justices to the Supreme Court of the United States: Byron White 1962 Arthur Goldberg 1962
Other courts
In addition to his two Supreme Court appointments, Kennedy appointed 21 judges to the United States Courts of Appeals, and 102 judges to the United States district courts.
Image, social life and family
John Kennedy met his future wife, Jacqueline Bouvier, when he was a congressman. Charles L. Bartlett, a journalist, introduced the pair at a dinner party. They were married a year after he was elected senator, on September 12, 1953. Kennedy and his wife were younger in comparison to the presidents and first ladies that preceded them, and both were popular in ways more common to pop singers and movie stars than politicians, influencing fashion trends and becoming the subjects of numerous photo spreads in popular magazines. Although Eisenhower had allowed presidential press conferences to be filmed for television, Kennedy was the first president to ask for them to be broadcast live and made good use of the medium. Jacqueline brought new art and furniture to the White House, and directed its restoration. They invited a range of artists, writers and intellectuals to rounds of White House dinners, raising the profile of the arts in America. The Kennedy family is one of the most established political families in the United States, having produced a President, three senators, and multiple other Representatives, both on the federal and state level. John Kennedy's father, Joseph P. Kennedy, was a prominent American businessman and political figure, serving in multiple roles, including Ambassador to the United Kingdom, from 1938 to 1940.Outside on the White House lawn, the Kennedys established a swimming pool and tree house, while Caroline attended a preschool along with 10 other children inside the home.
The president was closely tied to popular culture, emphasized by songs such as "Twisting at the White House." Vaughn Meader's ''First Family'' comedy album—an album parodying the President, First Lady, their family and administration—sold about four million copies. On May 19, 1962, Marilyn Monroe sang "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" at a large party in Madison Square Garden, celebrating Kennedy's upcoming forty-fifth birthday. The charisma of Kennedy and his family led to the figurative designation of "Camelot" for his administration, credited by his wife to his affection for the then contemporary Broadway musical of the same name.
Behind the glamorous facade, the Kennedys also experienced many personal tragedies. Jacqueline had a miscarriage in 1955 and a stillbirth in 1956. Their newborn son, Patrick Bouvier Kennedy, died in August 1963. Kennedy had two children who survived infancy. One of the fundamental aspects of the Kennedy family is a tragic strain which has run through the family, as a result of the violent and untimely deaths of many of its members. John's eldest brother, Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., died in World War II, at the age of 29. It was Joe Jr. who was originally to carry the family's hopes for the Presidency. Then both John himself, and his brother Robert died as a result of assassinations. Edward had brushes with death, the first in a plane crash and the second as a result of a car accident, known as the Chappaquiddick incident. Edward died at age 77, on August 25, 2009, from the effects of a malignant brain tumor.
Years after Kennedy's death, it was revealed that in September 1947, at age 30, and while in his first term in Congress, he was diagnosed by Sir Daniel Davis at The London Clinic with Addison's disease, a rare endocrine disorder. In 1966, his White House doctor, Janet Travell, revealed that Kennedy also had hypothyroidism. The presence of two endocrine diseases raises the possibility that Kennedy had autoimmune polyendocrine syndrome type 2 (APS 2). He also suffered from chronic and severe back pain, for which he had surgery and was written up in the AMA's ''Archives of Surgery''. Kennedy’s condition may even have had diplomatic repercussions, as he appears to have been taking a combination of drugs to treat severe pain during the 1961 Vienna Summit with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev. The combination included hormones, animal organ cells, steroids, vitamins, enzymes, and amphetamines, and potential side effects included hyperactivity, hypertension, impaired judgment, nervousness, and significant mood swings. Kennedy at one time was regularly seen by no less than three doctors, one of whom, Max Jacobson was unknown to the other two, as his mode of treatment was controversial and used for the most severe bouts of pain. There was often disagreement among his doctors, as in late 1961, over the proper balance of medication and exercise, with the president preferring the former as he was short on time and desired immediate relief.
Caroline Bouvier Kennedy was born in 1957 and is the only surviving member of JFK's immediate family. John F. Kennedy, Jr. was born in 1960, just a few weeks after his father was elected. John died in 1999, when the small plane he was piloting crashed en route to Martha's Vineyard, killing him, his wife, Carolyn Bessette, and his sister-in-law.
In October 1951, during his third term as Massachusetts's 11th district congressman, the then 34-year-old Kennedy embarked on a seven-week Asian trip to India, Japan, Vietnam, and Israel with his then 25-year-old brother Robert (who had just graduated from law school four months earlier) and his then 27-year-old sister Patricia. Because of their eight-year separation in age, the two brothers had previously seen little of each other. This trip was the first extended time they had spent together and resulted in their becoming best friends, in addition to being brothers. Robert was campaign manager for Kennedy's successful 1952 Senate campaign and later, his successful 1960 presidential campaign. The two brothers worked closely together from 1957 to 1959 on the Senate Select Committee on Improper Activities in the Labor and Management Field, when Robert was its chief counsel. During Kennedy's presidency, Robert served in his cabinet as Attorney General and was his closest advisor.
Some corroborated reports allege, but others deny, that Kennedy had affairs with a number of women, including: Marilyn Monroe, Gunilla von Post, Judith Campbell, Mary Pinchot Meyer and Mimi Beardsley Alford. There was some medical opinion that the drugs the president required for Addison's had the side effect of increasing virility. Kennedy inspired affection and loyalty from the members of his team and his supporters. According to author Reeves, this included "the logistics of Kennedy's liaisons...[which] required secrecy and devotion rare in the annals of the energetic service demanded by successful politicians."
Kennedy was a Life Member of the National Rifle Association. Kennedy came in third (behind Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mother Teresa) in Gallup's List of Widely Admired People of the twentieth century.
Ancestors
The Kennedy family originally came from Dunganstown, County Wexford. In 1848, Patrick Kennedy left his farm and boarded a ship in New Ross bound for Liverpool on his way to Boston. It was here he met the woman he was to marry, Bridget Murphy. Patrick Kennedy came to Boston, took a job as a migrant worker, and died within eight or nine years, of cholera. He left behind a widow and children to carry on.
Legacy
Television became the primary source by which people were kept informed of events surrounding John F. Kennedy's assassination. Newspapers were kept as souvenirs rather than sources of updated information. In this sense it was the first major "TV news event" of its kind, the TV coverage uniting the nation, interpreting what went on and creating memories of this space in time. All three major U.S. television networks suspended their regular schedules and switched to all-news coverage from November 22 through November 25, 1963, being on the air for 70 hours, making it the longest uninterrupted news event on American TV until 9/11. Kennedy's state funeral procession and the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald were all broadcast live in America and in other places around the world. The state funeral was the first of three in a span of 12 months. The other two were for General Douglas MacArthur and Herbert Hoover. All three have two things in common: the commanding general of the Military District of Washington during those funerals was Army Major General Philip C. Wehle and the riderless horse was Black Jack, who also served in that role during Lyndon B. Johnson's funeral.The assassination had an effect on many people, not only in the U.S. but around the world. Many vividly remember where they were when first learning of the news that Kennedy was assassinated, as with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 before it and the September 11 attacks after it. UN Ambassador Adlai Stevenson said of the assassination: "all of us... will bear the grief of his death until the day of ours." Many people have also spoken of the shocking news, compounded by the pall of uncertainty about the identity of the assassin(s), the possible instigators and the causes of the killing as an end to innocence, and in retrospect it has been coalesced with other changes of the tumultuous decade of the 1960s, especially the Vietnam War.
Special Forces have a special bond with Kennedy. "It was President Kennedy who was responsible for the rebuilding of the Special Forces and giving us back our Green Beret," said Forrest Lindley, a writer for the newspaper ''Stars and Stripes'' who served with Special Forces in Vietnam. This bond was shown at JFK's funeral. At the commemoration of the 25th anniversary of JFK's death, Gen. Michael D. Healy, the last commander of Special Forces in Vietnam, spoke at Arlington Cemetery. Later, a wreath in the form of the Green Beret would be placed on the grave, continuing a tradition that began the day of his funeral when a sergeant in charge of a detail of Special Forces men guarding the grave placed his beret on the coffin.
Kennedy was the first of six Presidents to have served in the U.S. Navy, and one of the enduring legacies of his administration was the creation in 1961 of another special forces command, the Navy SEALs, which Kennedy enthusiastically supported.
Ultimately, the death of President Kennedy and the ensuing confusion surrounding the facts of his assassination are of political and historical importance insofar as they marked a turning point and decline in the faith of the American people in the political establishment—a point made by commentators from Gore Vidal to Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. and implied by Oliver Stone in several of his films, such as his landmark 1991 ''JFK''.
Kennedy's continuation of Presidents Harry S. Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower's policies of giving economic and military aid to the Vietnam War preceded President Johnson's escalation of the conflict. This contributed to a decade of national difficulties and disappointment on the political landscape.
Many of Kennedy's speeches (especially his inaugural address) are considered iconic; and despite his relatively short term in office and lack of major legislative changes coming to fruition during his term, Americans regularly vote him as one of the best presidents, in the same league as Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Some excerpts of Kennedy's inaugural address are engraved on a plaque at his grave at Arlington.
He was posthumously awarded the Pacem in Terris Award. It was named after a 1963 encyclical letter by Pope John XXIII that calls upon all people of goodwill to secure peace among all nations. Pacem in Terris is Latin for 'Peace on Earth.'
President Kennedy is the only president to have predeceased both his mother and father. He is also the only president to have predeceased a grandparent. His grandmother, Mary Josephine Hannon Fitzgerald, died in 1964, just over eight months after his assassination.
Throughout the English-speaking world, the given name ''Kennedy'' has sometimes been used in honour of President Kennedy, as well his brother Robert.
Eponyms
Memorials
Coat of arms
In 1961, Kennedy was presented with a grant of arms for all the descendants of Patrick Kennedy from the Chief Herald of Ireland. The design of the arms strongly alludes to symbols in the coats of arms of the O'Kennedys of Ormonde and the Fitzgeralds of Desmond, from whom the family is believed to be descended. The crest is an armored hand holding four arrows between two olive branches, elements taken from the coat of arms of the United States of America and also symbolic of Kennedy and his brothers.Kennedy received a signet ring engraved with his arms for his 44th birthday as a gift from his wife, and the arms were incorporated into the seal of the USS ''John F. Kennedy''. Following his assassination, Kennedy was honored by the Canadian government by having a mountain, Mount Kennedy, named for him, which his brother, Robert Kennedy, climbed in 1965 to plant a banner of the arms at the summit.
Media
In other media and popular culture
Kennedy's assassination was the subject of the Oliver Stone film ''JFK'', and footage of him appears in the Robert Zemeckis film ''Forrest Gump''.He features in the video games ''JFK: Reloaded'' and ''Call of Duty: Black Ops''.
During his lifetime Kennedy was the focal point of a Superman comicbook, ''Superman's Mission for President Kennedy''.
Kennedy appears in the 2011 superhero film, ''X-Men: First Class'' in archive footage of his address to the nation regarding the 1962 Cuban missile crisis.
See also
Footnotes
References
External links
Category:1917 births Category:1963 deaths Category:Alumni of the London School of Economics Category:American people of Irish descent Category:American military personnel of World War II Category:American people of Irish descent Category:American people of the Vietnam War Category:American Roman Catholics Category:American socialites Category:American writers of Irish descent Category:Articles containing video clips Category:Assassinated United States Presidents Category:Barnstable, Massachusetts Category:Bouvier family Category:Burials at Arlington National Cemetery Category:Choate Rosemary Hall alumni Category:Cold War leaders Category:Deaths by firearm in Texas Category:Democratic Party Presidents of the United States Category:Democratic Party United States Senators Category:Harvard University alumni John F. Kennedy Category:Kennedy family Category:Massachusetts Democrats Category:Members of the United States House of Representatives from Massachusetts Category:National Rifle Association members Category:People associated with the Boy Scouts of America Category:People from Boston, Massachusetts Category:People from Brookline, Massachusetts Category:People murdered in Texas Category:Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients Category:Presidents of the United States Category:Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography winners Category:Recipients of the Navy and Marine Corps Medal Category:Recipients of the Purple Heart medal Category:Space advocates Category:United States Navy officers Category:United States presidential candidates, 1960 Category:United States Senators from Massachusetts Category:United States vice-presidential candidates, 1956 Category:Writers from Massachusetts
af:John F. Kennedy als:John F. Kennedy am:ጆን ኤፍ ኬኔዲ ang:John F. Kennedy ar:جون كينيدي an:John Fitzgerald Kennedy frp:John Fitzgerald Kennedy ay:John F. Kennedy az:Con Kennedi bn:জন এফ. কেনেডি zh-min-nan:John F. Kennedy be:Джон Фіцджэральд Кенэдзі be-x-old:Джон Фіцджэралд Кенэдзі bcl:John F. Kennedy bs:John Fitzgerald Kennedy br:John F. Kennedy bg:Джон Кенеди ca:John Fitzgerald Kennedy cv:Кеннеди Джон Фицджеральд ceb:John F. Kennedy cs:John Fitzgerald Kennedy co:John F. Kennedy cy:John F. Kennedy da:John F. Kennedy de:John F. Kennedy dv:ޖޯން ފިޓްޒެގެރަލްޑް ކެނެޑީ et:John Kennedy el:Τζον Φιτζέραλντ Κένεντι es:John F. Kennedy eo:John F. Kennedy eu:John Fitzgerald Kennedy fa:جان اف. کندی fo:John F. Kennedy fr:John Fitzgerald Kennedy fy:John F. Kennedy ga:John F. Kennedy gv:John F. Kennedy gd:John F. Kennedy gl:John F. Kennedy ko:존 F. 케네디 hy:Ջոն Ֆիցջերալդ Քենեդի hi:जाह्न केनेडी hr:John F. Kennedy io:John Fitzgerald Kennedy id:John F. Kennedy ia:John F. Kennedy is:John F. Kennedy it:John Fitzgerald Kennedy he:ג'ון פיצג'רלד קנדי jv:John F. Kennedy kn:ಜಾನ್ ಎಫ್.ಕೆನೆಡಿ pam:John F. Kennedy ka:ჯონ ფიცჯერალდ კენედი rw:John F. Kennedy sw:John F. Kennedy ht:John Fitzgerald Kennedy ku:John F. Kennedy la:Ioannes F. Kennedy lv:Džons Kenedijs lb:John F. Kennedy lt:John F. Kennedy ln:John F. Kennedy hu:John Fitzgerald Kennedy mk:Џон Ф. Кенеди ml:ജോൺ എഫ്. കെന്നഡി mr:जॉन एफ. केनेडी arz:جون كينيدى ms:John F. Kennedy mn:Жон Фицжеральд Кеннеди my:ဂျွန် ဖဇ်ဂရက်ဒ်ကနေဒီ nl:John F. Kennedy ja:ジョン・F・ケネディ no:John F. Kennedy nn:John F. Kennedy oc:John Fitzgerald Kennedy pnb:جان ایف کینیڈی nds:John Fitzgerald Kennedy pl:John Fitzgerald Kennedy pt:John F. Kennedy ksh:John F. Kennedy ro:John Fitzgerald Kennedy rm:John Fitzgerald Kennedy qu:John Kennedy ru:Кеннеди, Джон Фицджеральд sq:John F. Kennedy scn:John Fitzgerald Kennedy si:ජෝන් එෆ්. කෙනඩි simple:John F. Kennedy sk:John Fitzgerald Kennedy sl:John F. Kennedy sr:Џон Кенеди sh:John F. Kennedy fi:John F. Kennedy sv:John F. Kennedy tl:John F. Kennedy ta:ஜான் எஃப். கென்னடி tt:Джон Кеннеди th:จอห์น เอฟ. เคนเนดี tr:John F. Kennedy uk:Джон Фітцджеральд Кеннеді ur:جان ایف کینیڈی ug:كېننېدى vi:John F. Kennedy war:John F. Kennedy yi:זשאן עף. קענעדי yo:John Fitzgerald Kennedy zh-yue:約翰甘迺迪 zh:约翰·肯尼迪
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
| Coordinates | 23°31′58″N46°47′58″N |
|---|---|
| Name | Ronald Reagan |
| Office | 40th President of the United States |
| Vicepresident | George H. W. Bush |
| Term start | January 20, 1981 |
| Term end | January 20, 1989 |
| Predecessor | Jimmy Carter |
| Successor | George H. W. Bush |
| Order2 | 33rd Governor of California |
| Lieutenant2 | Robert FinchEdwin ReineckeJohn Harmer |
| Term start2 | January 2, 1967 |
| Term end2 | January 6, 1975 |
| Predecessor2 | Pat Brown |
| Successor2 | Jerry Brown |
| Birth date | February 06, 1911 |
| Birth place | Tampico, Illinois, U.S. |
| Death date | June 05, 2004 |
| Death place | Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Party | Republican Party (1962–2004) |
| Otherparty | Democratic Party (Before 1962) |
| Spouse | Jane Mayfield Wyman (1940-48)Nancy Davis (1952–2004) |
| Children | MaureenChristineMichaelPattiRon |
| Alma mater | Eureka College |
| Profession | Actor |
| Religion | Presbyterianism Disciples of Christ (Formerly) |
| Signature | Ronald Reagan Signature2.svg |
| Signature alt | Cursive signature in ink |
| Branch | United States ArmyUnited States Army Air Forces |
| Rank | Captain |
| Serviceyears | 1937–45 }} |
Ronald Wilson Reagan (; February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was the 40th President of the United States (1981–1989), the 33rd Governor of California (1967–1975) and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor.
Reagan was born in Tampico in Whiteside County, Illinois, reared in Dixon in Lee County, Illinois, and educated at Eureka College in Eureka, Illinois, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics and sociology. Upon his graduation, Reagan first moved to Iowa to work as a radio broadcaster and then in 1937 to Los Angeles, California. He began a career as an actor, first in films and later television, appearing in over 50 movie productions and earning enough success to become a famous, publicly recognized figure. Some of his most notable roles are in ''Knute Rockne, All American'' and ''Kings Row''. Reagan served as president of the Screen Actors Guild, and later spokesman for General Electric; his start in politics occurred during his work for GE. Originally a member of the Democratic Party, he began to support Republican Party candidates in the early 1950s and eventually switched to the Republican Party in 1962. After delivering a rousing speech in support of Barry Goldwater's presidential candidacy in 1964, he was persuaded to seek the California governorship, winning two years later and again in 1970. He was defeated in his run for the Republican presidential nomination in 1968 as well as 1976, but won both the nomination and election, defeating incumbent Jimmy Carter, in 1980.
As president, Reagan implemented sweeping new political and economic initiatives. His supply-side economic policies, dubbed "Reaganomics", advocated reducing tax rates to spur economic growth, controlling the money supply to reduce inflation, deregulation of the economy, and reducing government spending. In his first term he survived an assassination attempt, took a hard line against labor unions, and ordered an invasion of Grenada. He was reelected in a landslide in 1984, proclaiming that it was "Morning in America". His second term was primarily marked by foreign matters, such as the ending of the Cold War, the 1986 bombing of Libya, and the revelation of the Iran-Contra affair. Publicly describing the Soviet Union as an "evil empire", he supported anti-communist movements worldwide and spent his first term forgoing the strategy of détente by ordering a massive military buildup in an arms race with the USSR. Reagan negotiated with General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev, culminating in the INF Treaty and the decrease of both countries' nuclear arsenals.
Reagan left office in 1989. In 1994, the former president disclosed that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease earlier in the year; he died ten years later at the age of 93. He ranks highly in public opinion polls of U.S. Presidents. He is also credited for generating an ideological renaissance on the American political right.
Early life
Ronald Wilson Reagan was born in an apartment on the second floor of a commercial building in Tampico, Illinois on February 6, 1911, to Jack Reagan and Nelle Wilson Reagan. Reagan's father was a salesman and a storyteller, the descendant of Irish Catholic immigrants from County Tipperary while his mother had Scots-English ancestors. Reagan had one older brother, Neil "Moon" Reagan (1908–1996), who became an advertising executive. As a boy, Reagan's father nicknamed his son "Dutch," due to his "fat little Dutchman"-like appearance, and his "Dutchboy" haircut; the nickname stuck with him throughout his youth. Reagan's family briefly lived in several towns and cities in Illinois, including Monmouth, Galesburg and Chicago, until 1919, when they returned to Tampico and lived above the H.C. Pitney Variety Store. After his election as president, residing in the upstairs White House private quarters, Reagan would quip that he was "living above the store again".According to Paul Kengor, author of ''God and Ronald Reagan'', Reagan had a particularly strong faith in the goodness of people, which stemmed from the optimistic faith of his mother, Nelle, and the Disciples of Christ faith, which he was baptized into in 1922. For the time, Reagan was unusual in his opposition to racial discrimination, and recalled a time in Dixon when the local inn would not allow black people to stay there. Reagan brought them back to his house, where his mother invited them to stay the night and have breakfast the next morning.
Following the closure of the Pitney Store in late 1920, the Reagans moved to Dixon; the midwestern "small universe" had a lasting impression on Reagan. He attended Dixon High School, where he developed interests in acting, sports, and storytelling. His first job was as a lifeguard at the Rock River in Lowell Park, near Dixon, in 1927. Reagan performed 77 rescues as a lifeguard, noting that he notched a mark on a wooden log for every life he saved. Reagan attended Eureka College, where he became a member of the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity, and majored in economics and sociology. He developed a reputation as a jack of all trades, excelling in campus politics, sports and theater. He was a member of the football team, captain of the swim team and was elected student body president. As student president, Reagan notably led a student revolt against the college president after he tried to cut back the faculty.
Military service
After completing fourteen home-study Army Extension Courses, Reagan enlisted in the Army Enlisted Reserve on April 29, 1937, as a private assigned to Troop B, 322nd Cavalry at Des Moines, Iowa. He was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the Officers Reserve Corps of the Cavalry on May 25, 1937.Reagan was ordered to active duty for the first time on April 18, 1942. Due to his nearsightedness, he was classified for limited service only, which excluded him from serving overseas. His first assignment was at the San Francisco Port of Embarkation at Fort Mason, California, as a liaison officer of the Port and Transportation Office. Upon the approval of the Army Air Force (AAF), he applied for a transfer from the Cavalry to the AAF on May 15, 1942, and was assigned to AAF Public Relations and subsequently to the First Motion Picture Unit (officially, the "18th AAF Base Unit") in Culver City, California. On January 14, 1943 he was promoted to First Lieutenant and was sent to the Provisional Task Force Show Unit of ''This Is The Army'' at Burbank, California. He returned to the First Motion Picture Unit after completing this duty and was promoted to Captain on July 22, 1943.
In January 1944, Captain Reagan was ordered to temporary duty in New York City to participate in the opening of the sixth War Loan Drive. He was re-assigned to the First Motion Picture Unit on November 14, 1944, where he remained until the end of World War II. He was recommended for promotion to Major on February 2, 1945, but this recommendation was disapproved on July 17 of that year. He returned to Fort MacArthur, California, where he was separated from active duty on December 9, 1945. By the end of the war, his units had produced some 400 training films for the AAF.
Entertainment career
Radio and film
After graduating from Eureka in 1932, Reagan drove himself to Iowa, where he auditioned for a job at many small-town radio stations. The University of Iowa hired him to broadcast home football games for the Hawkeyes. He was paid $10 per game. Soon after, a staff announcer's job opened at radio station WOC in Davenport, and Reagan was hired, now earning $100 per month. Aided by his persuasive voice, he moved to WHO radio in Des Moines as an announcer for Chicago Cubs baseball games. His specialty was creating play-by-play accounts of games that the station received by wire.While traveling with the Cubs in California, Reagan took a screen test in 1937 that led to a seven-year contract with Warner Brothers studios. He spent the first few years of his Hollywood career in the "B film" unit, where, Reagan joked, the producers "didn't want them good, they wanted them Thursday". While sometimes overshadowed by other actors, Reagan's screen performances did receive many good reviews.
His first screen credit was the starring role in the 1937 movie ''Love Is on the Air'', and by the end of 1939 he had already appeared in 19 films, including ''Dark Victory''. Before the film ''Santa Fe Trail'' in 1940, he played the role of George "The Gipper" Gipp in the film ''Knute Rockne, All American''; from it, he acquired the lifelong nickname "the Gipper". Reagan's favorite acting role was as a double amputee in 1942's ''Kings Row'', in which he recites the line, "Where's the rest of me?", later used as the title of his 1965 autobiography. Many film critics considered ''Kings Row'' to be his best movie, though the film was condemned by ''New York Times'' critic Bosley Crowther.
Reagan called ''Kings Row'' the film that "made me a star". However, he was unable to capitalize on his success because he was ordered to active duty with the U.S. Army at San Francisco two months after its release, and never regained "star" status in motion pictures.
Fan mail
While he worked at Warner Bros., Reagan enlisted his mother Nelle Wilson Reagan to answer his fan mail. She would handwrite letters and sign his name as if he had written the letters himself. Mrs. Reagan would sign her actor-son's name on photographs and even on membership cards in the Ronald Reagan Fan Club. The article "Devoted Mother, Devoted Son" in the January/February 1985 issue of The Pen & Quill, journal of the Universal Autograph Collectors Club, compares the handwriting of mother and son, pointing out the differences, and also reveals that Reagan was paying his mother $75.00 a week.
SAG president and television
Reagan was first elected to the Board of Directors of the Screen Actors Guild in 1941, serving as an alternate. Following World War II, he resumed service and became 3rd vice-president in 1946. The adoption of conflict-of-interest bylaws in 1947 led the SAG president and six board members to resign; Reagan was nominated in a special election for the position of president and subsequently elected. He would subsequently be chosen by the membership to seven additional one-year terms, from 1947 to 1952 and in 1959. Reagan led SAG through eventful years that were marked by labor-management disputes, the Taft-Hartley Act, House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) hearings and the Hollywood blacklist era.Amid the Red Scare in the late 1940s, Reagan provided the FBI with names of actors whom he believed to be communist sympathizers within the motion picture industry. Reagan testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee on the subject as well. A fervent anti-communist, he reaffirmed his commitment to democratic principles, stating, "I never as a citizen want to see our country become urged, by either fear or resentment of this group, that we ever compromise with any of our democratic principles through that fear or resentment."
Though an early critic of television, Reagan landed fewer film roles in the late 1950s and decided to join the medium. He was hired as the host of ''General Electric Theater'', a series of weekly dramas that became very popular. His contract required him to tour GE plants sixteen weeks out of the year, often demanding of him fourteen speeches per day. He earned approximately $125,000 per year (about $1.07 million in 2010 dollars) in this role. His final work as a professional actor was as host and performer from 1964 to 1965 on the television series ''Death Valley Days''. Reagan and Nancy Davis appeared together several times, including an episode of GE Theater in 1958 called ''A Turkey for the President''.
Marriages and children
In 1938, Reagan co-starred in the film ''Brother Rat'' with actress Jane Wyman (1917–2007). They were engaged at the Chicago Theatre, and married on January 26, 1940, at the Wee Kirk o' the Heather church in Glendale, California. Together they had two children, Maureen (1941–2001) and Christine (June 26, 1947 – June 27, 1947), and adopted a third, Michael (born 1945). Following arguments about Reagan's political ambitions, Wyman filed for divorce in 1948, citing a distraction due to her husband's Screen Actors Guild union duties; the divorce was finalized in 1949. He is the only US president to have been divorced.Reagan met actress Nancy Davis (born 1921) in 1949 after she contacted him in his capacity as president of the Screen Actors Guild to help her with issues regarding her name appearing on a communist blacklist in Hollywood (she had been mistaken for another Nancy Davis). She described their meeting by saying, "I don't know if it was exactly love at first sight, but it was pretty close." They were engaged at Chasen's restaurant in Los Angeles and were married on March 4, 1952, at the Little Brown Church in the San Fernando Valley. Actor William Holden served as best man at the ceremony. They had two children: Patti (born October 21, 1952) and Ron (born May 20, 1958).
Observers described the Reagans' relationship as close, real, and intimate. During his presidency they were reported as frequently displaying their affection for one another; one press secretary said, "They never took each other for granted. They never stopped courting." He often called her "Mommy;" she called him "Ronnie". He once wrote to her, "whatever I treasure and enjoy ... all would be without meaning if I didn’t have you." When he was in the hospital in 1981, she slept with one of his shirts to be comforted by his scent. In a letter to U.S. citizens written in 1994, Reagan wrote "I have recently been told that I am one of the millions of Americans who will be afflicted with Alzheimer's disease.... I only wish there was some way I could spare Nancy from this painful experience," and in 1998, while Reagan was stricken by Alzheimer's, Nancy told ''Vanity Fair'', "Our relationship is very special. We were very much in love and still are. When I say my life began with Ronnie, well, it's true. It did. I can't imagine life without him."
Early political career
Reagan began his political career as a liberal Democrat, admirer of Franklin D. Roosevelt, and an active supporter of New Deal policies. In the early 1950s, as his relationship with Republican actress Nancy Davis grew, he shifted to the right and, while remaining a Democrat, endorsed the presidential candidacies of Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952 and 1956 as well as Richard Nixon in 1960. The last time Reagan actively supported a Democratic candidate was in 1950 when he helped Helen Gahagan Douglas in her unsuccessful Senate campaign against Richard Nixon. After being hired in 1954 to host the General Electric Theater, a TV drama series, Reagan soon began to embrace the conservative views of the sponsoring company's officials. His many GE speeches—which he wrote himself—were non-partisan but carried a conservative, pro-business message; he was influenced by Lemuel Boulware, a senior GE executive. Boulware, known for his tough stance against unions and his innovative strategies to win over workers, championed the core tenets of modern American conservatism: free markets, anticommunism, lower taxes, and limited government. Eventually, the ratings for Reagan's show fell off and GE dropped Reagan in 1962. In August of that year Reagan formally switched to the Republican Party, stating, "I didn't leave the Democratic Party. The party left me."Reagan opposed certain civil rights legislation, saying "If an individual wants to discriminate against Negroes or others in selling or renting his house, it is his right to do so". He later reversed his opposition to voting rights and fair housing laws. He strongly denied having racist motives. When legislation that would become Medicare was introduced in 1961, Reagan created a recording for the American Medical Association warning that such legislation would mean the end of freedom in America. Reagan said that if his listeners did not write letters to prevent it, "we will awake to find that we have socialism. And if you don't do this, and if I don't do it, one of these days, you and I are going to spend our sunset years telling our children, and our children's children, what it once was like in America when men were free."
Reagan endorsed the campaign of conservative presidential contender Barry Goldwater in 1964. Speaking for Goldwater, Reagan stressed his belief in the importance of smaller government. He revealed his ideological motivation in a famed speech delivered on October 27, 1964: "The Founding Fathers knew a government can't control the economy without controlling people. And they knew when a government sets out to do that, it must use force and coercion to achieve its purpose. So we have come to a time for choosing." This "Time for Choosing" speech raised $1 million for Goldwater's campaign and is considered the event that launched Reagan's political career.
Reagan was a Life Member of the National Rifle Association.
Governor of California, 1967–1975
California Republicans were impressed with Reagan's political views and charisma after his "Time for Choosing" speech, and nominated him for Governor of California in 1966. In Reagan's campaign, he emphasized two main themes: "to send the welfare bums back to work," and in reference to burgeoning anti-war and anti-establishment student protests at the University of California at Berkeley, "to clean up the mess at Berkeley." He was elected, defeating two-term governor Edmund G. "Pat" Brown, and was sworn in on January 2, 1967. In his first term, he froze government hiring and approved tax hikes to balance the budget.Shortly after the beginning of his term, Reagan tested the presidential waters in 1968 as part of a "Stop Nixon" movement, hoping to cut into Nixon's Southern support and be a compromise candidate if neither Nixon nor second-place Nelson Rockefeller received enough delegates to win on the first ballot at the Republican convention. However, by the time of the convention Nixon had 692 delegate votes, 25 more than he needed to secure the nomination, followed by Rockefeller with Reagan in third place.
Reagan was involved in high-profile conflicts with the protest movements of the era. On May 15, 1969, during the People's Park protests at UC Berkeley, Reagan sent the California Highway Patrol and other officers to quell the protests, in an incident that became known as "Bloody Thursday." Reagan then called out 2,200 state National Guard troops to occupy the city of Berkeley for two weeks in order to crack down on the protesters. When the Symbionese Liberation Army kidnapped Patty Hearst in Berkeley and demanded the distribution of food to the poor, Reagan joked, "It's just too bad we can't have an epidemic of botulism."
Early in 1967, the national debate on abortion was beginning. Democratic California state senator Anthony Beilenson introduced the "Therapeutic Abortion Act," in an effort to reduce the number of "back-room abortions" performed in California. The State Legislature sent the bill to Reagan's desk where, after many days of indecision, he signed it. About two million abortions would be performed as a result, most because of a provision in the bill allowing abortions for the well-being of the mother. Reagan had been in office for only four months when he signed the bill, and stated that had he been more experienced as governor, it would not have been signed. After he recognized what he called the "consequences" of the bill, he announced that he was pro-life. He maintained that position later in his political career, writing extensively about abortion.
Despite an unsuccessful attempt to recall him in 1968, Reagan was re-elected in 1970, defeating "Big Daddy" Jesse Unruh. He chose not to seek a third term in the following election cycle. One of Reagan's greatest frustrations in office concerned capital punishment, which he strongly supported. His efforts to enforce the state's laws in this area were thwarted when the Supreme Court of California issued its ''People v. Anderson'' decision, which invalidated all death sentences issued in California prior to 1972, though the decision was later overturned by a constitutional amendment. The only execution during Reagan's governorship was on April 12, 1967, when Aaron Mitchell's sentence was carried out by the state in San Quentin's gas chamber.
In 1969, Reagan, as Governor, signed the ''Family Law Act'' which was the first no fault divorce legislation in the United States.
Reagan's terms as governor helped to shape the policies he would pursue in his later political career as president. By campaigning on a platform of sending "the welfare bums back to work," he spoke out against the idea of the welfare state. He also strongly advocated the Republican ideal of less government regulation of the economy, including that of undue federal taxation.
Reagan did not seek re-election to a third term as governor in 1974 and was succeeded by Democratic California Secretary of State Jerry Brown on January 6, 1975.
1976 presidential campaign
In 1976, Reagan challenged incumbent President Gerald Ford in a bid to become the Republican Party's candidate for president. Reagan soon established himself as the conservative candidate with the support of like-minded organizations such as the American Conservative Union which became key components of his political base, while President Ford was considered a more moderate Republican.
Reagan's campaign relied on a strategy crafted by campaign manager John Sears of winning a few primaries early to damage the inevitability of Ford's likely nomination. Reagan won North Carolina, Texas, and California, but the strategy failed, as he ended up losing New Hampshire, Florida, and his native Illinois. The Texas campaign lent renewed hope to Reagan, when he swept all ninety-six delegates chosen in the May 1 primary, with four more awaiting at the state convention. Much of the credit for that victory came from the work of three co-chairmen, including Ernest Angelo, the mayor of Midland, and Ray Barnhart of Houston, whom President Reagan tapped in 1981 as director of the Federal Highway Administration.
However, as the GOP convention neared, Ford appeared close to victory. Acknowledging his party's moderate wing, Reagan chose moderate Senator Richard Schweiker of Pennsylvania as his running mate if nominated. Nonetheless, Ford prevailed with 1,187 delegates to Reagan's 1,070. Ford would go on to lose the 1976 Presidential election to the Democrat Jimmy Carter.
Reagan's concession speech emphasized the dangers of nuclear war and the threat posed by the Soviet Union. Though he lost the nomination, he received 307 write-in votes in New Hampshire, 388 votes as an Independent on Wyoming's ballot, and a single electoral vote from a faithless elector in the November election from the state of Washington, which Ford had won over Democratic challenger Jimmy Carter.
1980 presidential campaign
The 1980 presidential campaign between Reagan and incumbent President Jimmy Carter was conducted during domestic concerns and the ongoing Iran hostage crisis. His campaign stressed some of his fundamental principles: lower taxes to stimulate the economy, less government interference in people's lives, states' rights, and a strong national defense.
Reagan launched his campaign by declaring "I believe in states' rights," in Philadelphia, Mississippi, known at the time for the murder of three civil rights workers who had been trying to register African-Americans to vote during the civil rights movement. After receiving the Republican nomination, Reagan selected one of his primary opponents, George H.W. Bush, to be his running mate. His showing in the October televised debate boosted his campaign. Reagan won the election, carrying 44 states with 489 electoral votes to 49 electoral votes for Carter (representing six states and Washington, D.C.). Reagan received 50.7% of the popular vote while Carter took 41%, and Independent John B. Anderson (a liberal Republican) received 6.7%. Republicans captured the Senate for the first time since 1952, and gained 34 House seats, but the Democrats retained a majority.
During the presidential campaign, questions were raised by reporters on Reagan's stance on the Briggs Initiative, also known as Proposition 6, a ballot initiative in Reagan's home state of California where he was governor, which would have banned gays, lesbians, and supporters of LGBT rights from working in public schools in California. His opposition to the initiative was instrumental in its landslide defeat by Californian voters. Reagan published an editorial in which he stated "homosexuality is not a contagious disease like the measles..." and that prevailing scientific opinion was that a child's sexual orientation cannot be influenced by someone else.
Presidency, 1981–1989
During his Presidency, Reagan pursued policies that reflected his personal belief in individual freedom, brought changes domestically, both to the U.S. economy and expanded military, and contributed to the end of the Cold War. Termed the Reagan Revolution, his presidency would reinvigorate American morale and reduce the people's reliance upon government. As president, Reagan kept a series of diaries in which he commented on daily occurrences of his presidency and his views on the issues of the day. The diaries were published in May 2007 in the bestselling book, ''The Reagan Diaries''.
First term, 1981–1985
To date, Reagan is the oldest man elected to the office of the presidency (at 69). In his first inaugural address on January 20, 1981, which Reagan himself wrote, he addressed the country's economic malaise arguing: "In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problems; government is the problem."The Reagan Presidency began in a dramatic manner; as Reagan was giving his inaugural address, 52 U.S. hostages, held by Iran for 444 days were set free.
Assassination attempt
On March 30, 1981, only 69 days into the new administration, Reagan, his press secretary James Brady, Washington police officer Thomas Delahanty, and Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy were struck by gunfire from would-be assassin John Hinckley, Jr. outside the Washington Hilton Hotel. Although "close to death" during surgery, Reagan recovered and was released from the hospital on April 11, becoming the first serving U.S. President to survive being shot in an assassination attempt. The attempt had great influence on Reagan's popularity; polls indicated his approval rating to be around 73%. Reagan believed that God had spared his life so that he might go on to fulfill a greater purpose.
Establishing full U.S. diplomatic relations with the Vatican
Within months of President Reagan’s inaugural in 1981, one of the first steps taken by Reagan was to obtain the repeal of the 1868 federal law which prohibited the expenditure of funds for an U.S. Embassy to the Vatican. Reagan was successful in obtaining the repeal with out real opposition.President Reagan announced on January 10, 1984 that full diplomatic relations between the United States and the Vatican had been established. The President did this over the opposition of the office of the Secretary of State.
Air traffic controllers' strike
In summer 1981 PATCO, the union of federal air traffic controllers went on strike, violating a federal law prohibiting government unions from striking. Declaring the situation an emergency as described in the 1947 Taft Hartley Act, Reagan stated that if the air traffic controllers "do not report for work within 48 hours, they have forfeited their jobs and will be terminated." They did not return and on August 5, Reagan fired 11,345 striking air traffic controllers who had ignored his order, and used supervisors and military controllers to handle the nation's commercial air traffic until new controllers could be hired and trained. As a leading reference work on public administration concluded, "The firing of PATCO employees not only demonstrated a clear resolve by the president to take control of the bureaucracy, but it also sent a clear message to the private sector that unions no longer needed to be feared."
"Reaganomics" and the economy
During Jimmy Carter's last year in office (1980), inflation averaged 12.5%, compared to 4.4% during Reagan's last year in office (1988). Over those eight years, the unemployment rate declined from 7.1% to 5.5%, hitting annual rate highs of 9.7% (1982) and 9.6% (1983) and averaging 7.5% during Reagan's administration.
Reagan implemented policies based on supply-side economics and advocated a classical liberal and ''laissez-faire'' philosophy, seeking to stimulate the economy with large, across-the-board tax cuts. Citing the economic theories of Arthur Laffer, Reagan promoted the proposed tax cuts as potentially stimulating the economy enough to expand the tax base, offsetting the revenue loss due to reduced rates of taxation, a theory that entered political discussion as the Laffer curve. Reaganomics was the subject of debate with supporters pointing to improvements in certain key economic indicators as evidence of success, and critics pointing to large increases in federal budget deficits and the national debt. His policy of "peace through strength" (also described as "firm but fair") resulted in a record peacetime defense buildup including a 40% real increase in defense spending between 1981 and 1985.
During Reagan's presidency, federal income tax rates were lowered significantly with the signing of the bipartisan Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 which lowered the top marginal tax bracket from 70% to 50% and the lowest bracket from 14% to 11%, however other tax increases signed by Reagan ensured that tax revenues over his two terms were 18.2% of GDP as compared to 18.1% over the past 40 years. Then, in 1982 the Job Training Partnership Act of 1982 was signed into law, initiating one of the nation's first public/private partnerships and a major part of the president's job creation program. Reagan's Assistant Secretary of Labor and Chief of Staff, Al Angrisani, was a primary architect of the bill. The Tax Reform Act of 1986, another bipartisan effort championed by Reagan, reduced the top rate further to 28% while raising the bottom bracket from 11% to 15% and reducing the quantity of brackets to 4. Conversely, Congress passed and Reagan signed into law tax increases of some nature in every year from 1981 to 1987 to continue funding such government programs as TEFRA, Social Security, and the Deficit Reduction Act of 1984. Despite the fact that TEFRA was the "largest peacetime tax increase in American history," Reagan is better known for his tax cuts and lower-taxes philosophy. Real gross domestic product (GDP) growth recovered strongly after the early 1980s recession ended in 1982, and grew during his eight years in office at an annual rate of 3.85% per year. Unemployment peaked at 10.8% monthly rate in December 1982—higher than any time since the Great Depression—then dropped during the rest of Reagan's presidency. Sixteen million new jobs were created, while inflation significantly decreased. The net effect of all Reagan-era tax bills was a 1% decrease in government revenues when compared to Treasury Department revenue estimates from the Administration's first post-enactment January budgets. However, federal Income Tax receipts increased from 1980 to 1989, rising from $308.7Bn to $549.0Bn.
During the Reagan Administration, federal receipts grew at an average rate of 8.2% (2.5% attributed to higher Social Security receipts), and federal outlays grew at an annual rate of 7.1%. Reagan also revised the tax code with the bipartisan Tax Reform Act of 1986.
Reagan's policies proposed that economic growth would occur when marginal tax rates were low enough to spur investment, which would then lead to increased economic growth, higher employment and wages. Critics labeled this "trickle-down economics"—the belief that tax policies that benefit the wealthy will create a "trickle-down" effect to the poor. Questions arose whether Reagan's policies benefited the wealthy more than those living in poverty, and many poor and minority citizens viewed Reagan as indifferent to their struggles. These views were exacerbated by the fact that Reagan's economic regimen included freezing the minimum wage at $3.35 an hour, slashing federal assistance to local governments by 60 percent, cutting the budget for public housing and Section 8 rent subsidies in half, and eliminating the antipoverty Community Development Block Grant program.
Further following his less-government intervention views, Reagan cut the budgets of non-military programs including Medicaid, food stamps, federal education programs and the EPA. While he protected entitlement programs, such as Social Security and Medicare, his administration attempted to purge many people with disabilities from the Social Security disability rolls.
The administration's stance toward the Savings and Loan industry contributed to the Savings and loan crisis. It is also suggested, by a minority of Reaganomics critics, that the policies partially influenced the stock market crash of 1987, but there is no consensus regarding a single source for the crash. In order to cover newly spawned federal budget deficits, the United States borrowed heavily both domestically and abroad, raising the national debt from $997 billion to $2.85 trillion. Reagan described the new debt as the "greatest disappointment" of his presidency.
He reappointed Paul Volcker as Chairman of the Federal Reserve, and in 1987 he appointed monetarist Alan Greenspan to succeed him. Reagan ended the price controls on domestic oil which had contributed to energy crises in the early 1970s. The price of oil subsequently dropped, and the 1980s did not see the fuel shortages that the 1970s had. Reagan also fulfilled a 1980 campaign promise to repeal the Windfall profit tax in 1988, which had previously increased dependence on foreign oil. Some economists, such as Nobel Prize winners Milton Friedman and Robert A. Mundell, argue that Reagan's tax policies invigorated America's economy and contributed to the economic boom of the 1990s.
During Reagan's presidency a program was initiated within the US intelligence community to ensure America's economic strength. The program, Project Socrates, developed and demonstrated the means required for the US to generate and lead the next evolutionary leap in technology acquisition and utilization for a competitive advantage—automated innovation. To ensure that the US acquired the maximum benefit from automated innovation, President Reagan during his second term had an executive order drafted creating a new Federal agency to implement the Project Socrates results on a nation-wide basis. President Reagan's term came to end before the executive order could be coordinated and signed. President Bush terminated Project Socrates due to pressure from US allies.
Lebanon and Operation Urgent Fury (Grenada), 1983
American peacekeeping forces in Beirut, a part of a multinational force during the Lebanese Civil War who had been earlier deployed by Reagan, were attacked on October 23, 1983. The Beirut barracks bombing resulted in the deaths of 241 American servicemen and the wounding of more than 60 others by a suicide truck bomber. Reagan sent a White House team to the site four days later, led by his Vice President, George H.W. Bush. Reagan called the attack "despicable," pledged to keep a military force in Lebanon, and planned to target the Sheik Abdullah barracks in Baalbek, Lebanon, training ground for Hezbollah fighters, but the mission was later aborted. On February 7, 1984, President Reagan ordered the Marines to begin withdrawal from Lebanon. In April 1984, as his keynote address to the 20,000 attendees of the Rev. Jerry Falwell's "Baptist Fundamentalism '84" convention in Washington, D.C., he read a first hand account of the bombing, written by Navy Chaplain (Rabbi) Arnold Resnicoff, who had been asked to write the report by Bush and his team. Osama bin Laden would later cite Reagan's withdrawal of forces as a sign of American weakness.On October 25, 1983, only two days later, Reagan ordered U.S. forces to invade Grenada, code named Operation Urgent Fury, where a 1979 ''coup d'état'' had established an independent non-aligned Marxist-Leninist government. A formal appeal from the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) led to the intervention of U.S. forces; President Reagan also cited an allegedly regional threat posed by a Soviet-Cuban military build-up in the Caribbean and concern for the safety of several hundred American medical students at St. George's University as adequate reasons to invade. ''Operation Urgent Fury'' was the first major military operation conducted by U.S. forces since the Vietnam War, several days of fighting commenced, resulting in a U.S. victory, with 19 American fatalities and 116 wounded American soldiers. In mid-December, after a new government was appointed by the Governor-General, U.S. forces withdrew.
Escalation of the Cold War
Reagan escalated the Cold War, accelerating a reversal from the policy of détente which began in 1979 following the Soviet war in Afghanistan. Reagan ordered a massive buildup of the United States Armed Forces and implemented new policies towards the Soviet Union: reviving the B-1 Lancer program that had been canceled by the Carter administration, and producing the MX missile. In response to Soviet deployment of the SS-20, Reagan oversaw NATO's deployment of the Pershing missile in West Germany.
Together with the United Kingdom's prime minister Margaret Thatcher, Reagan denounced the Soviet Union in ideological terms. In a famous address on June 8, 1982 to the British Parliament in the Royal Gallery of the Palace of Westminster, Reagan said, "the forward march of freedom and democracy will leave Marxism-Leninism on the ash-heap of history." On March 3, 1983, he predicted that communism would collapse, stating, "Communism is another sad, bizarre chapter in human history whose last pages even now are being written." In a speech to the National Association of Evangelicals on March 8, 1983, Reagan called the Soviet Union "an evil empire".
After Soviet fighters downed Korean Air Lines Flight 007 near Moneron Island on September 1, 1983, carrying 269 people, including Georgia congressman Larry McDonald, Reagan labeled the act a "massacre" and declared that the Soviets had turned "against the world and the moral precepts which guide human relations among people everywhere". The Reagan administration responded to the incident by suspending all Soviet passenger air service to the United States, and dropped several agreements being negotiated with the Soviets, wounding them financially. As result of the shootdown, and the cause of KAL 007's going astray thought to be inadequacies related to its navigational system, Reagan announced on September 16, 1983 that the Global Positioning System would be made available for civilian use, free of charge, once completed in order to avert similar navigational errors in future.
Under a policy that came to be known as the Reagan Doctrine, Reagan and his administration also provided overt and covert aid to anti-communist resistance movements in an effort to "rollback" Soviet-backed communist governments in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Reagan deployed the CIA's Special Activities Division to Afghanistan and Pakistan. They were instrumental in training, equipping and leading Mujaheddin forces against the Soviet Army. President Reagan's Covert Action program has been given credit for assisting in ending the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, though the US funded armaments introduced then would later pose a threat to US troops in the 2000s war in Afghanistan. However, in a break from the Carter policy of arming Taiwan under the Taiwan Relations Act. Reagan also agreed with the communist government in China to reduce the sale of arms to Taiwan.
In March 1983, Reagan introduced the Strategic Defense Initiative, a defense project Reagan believed that this defense shield could make nuclear war impossible, but disbelief that the technology could ever work led opponents to dub SDI "Star Wars" and argue that the technological objective was unattainable. For those reasons, David Gergen, former aide to President Reagan, believes that in retrospect, SDI hastened the end of the Cold War.
Critics labeled Reagan's foreign policies as aggressive, imperialistic, and chided them as "warmongering," though they were supported by leading American conservatives who argued that they were necessary to protect U.S. security interests. A reformer, Mikhail Gorbachev, would later rise to power in the Soviet Union in 1985, implementing new policies for openness and reform that were called ''glasnost'' and ''perestroika''.
1984 presidential campaign
Reagan accepted the Republican nomination in Dallas, Texas, on a wave of positive feeling. He proclaimed that it was "morning again in America," regarding the recovering economy and the dominating performance by the U.S. athletes at the 1984 Summer Olympics, among other things. He became the first American president to open an Olympic Games held in the United States.
Reagan's opponent in the 1984 presidential election was former Vice President Walter Mondale. With questions about Reagan's age, and a weak performance in the first presidential debate, his ability to perform the duties of president for another term was questioned. His apparent confused and forgetful behavior was evident to his supporters; they had previously known him clever and witty. Rumors began to circulate that he had Alzheimer's disease. Reagan rebounded in the second debate, and confronted questions about his age, quipping, "I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and inexperience," which generated applause and laughter, even from Mondale himself.
That November, Reagan was re-elected, winning 49 of 50 states. The president's overwhelming victory saw Mondale carry only his home state of Minnesota (by 3800 votes) and the District of Columbia. Reagan won a record 525 electoral votes, the most of any candidate in United States history, and received 58.8% of the popular vote to Mondale's 40.6%.
Second term, 1985–1989
Reagan was sworn in as president for the second time on January 20, 1985, in a private ceremony at the White House. Because January 20 fell on a Sunday, a public celebration was not held but took place in the Capitol Rotunda the following day. January 21 was one of the coldest days on record in Washington, D.C.; due to poor weather, inaugural celebrations were held inside the Capitol.
In the summer of 1982, several conservative activists, including Howard Phillips of The Conservative Caucus and Clymer Wright of Houston, Texas, had urged Reagan to remove his White House chief of staff James Baker, also of Houston, on grounds that Baker, a political intimate of George H. W. Bush, was undercutting conservative initiatives in the administration. Not only did Reagan reject the Wright-Phillips request, but in 1985, after his reelection, he named Baker as United States Secretary of the Treasury, at Baker's request in a job-swap with then Secretary Donald T. Regan, a former Merrill Lynch officer who became chief of staff. Reagan also rebuked Wright and Phillips for having waged a "campaign of sabotage" against Baker.
In 1985, Reagan visited a German military cemetery in Bitburg to lay a wreath with West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl. It was determined that the cemetery held the graves of forty-nine members of the Waffen-SS. Reagan issued a statement that called the Nazi soldiers buried in that cemetery as themselves "victims," a designation which ignited a stir over whether Reagan had equated the SS men to victims of the Holocaust; Patrick J. Buchanan, Reagan's Director of Communications, argued that the president did not equate the SS members with the actual Holocaust. Now strongly urged to cancel the visit, the president responded that it would be wrong to back down on a promise he had made to Chancellor Kohl. He ultimately attended the ceremony where two military generals laid a wreath.
The disintegration of the Space Shuttle Challenger on January 28, 1986 proved a pivotal moment in Reagan's presidency. All seven astronauts aboard were killed. On the night of the disaster, Reagan delivered a speech written by Peggy Noonan in which he said (quoting the first and last lines of John Gillespie Magee's 1941 poem ''High Flight''):
}}
War on Drugs
Midway into his second term, Reagan declared more militant policies in the War on Drugs. He said that "drugs were menacing our society" and promised to fight for drug-free schools and workplaces, expanded drug treatment, stronger law enforcement and drug interdiction efforts, and greater public awareness.In 1986, Reagan signed a drug enforcement bill that budgeted $1.7 billion to fund the War on Drugs and specified a mandatory minimum penalty for drug offenses. The bill was criticized for promoting significant racial disparities in the prison population and critics also charged that the policies did little to reduce the availability of drugs on the street, while resulting in a great financial burden for America. Defenders of the effort point to success in reducing rates of adolescent drug use. First Lady Nancy Reagan made the War on Drugs her main priority by founding the "Just Say No" drug awareness campaign, which aimed to discourage children and teenagers from engaging in recreational drug use by offering various ways of saying "no". Mrs. Reagan traveled to 65 cities in 33 states, raising awareness about the dangers of drugs including alcohol.
Libya bombing
Relations between Libya and the U.S. under President Reagan were continually contentious, beginning with the Gulf of Sidra incident in 1981; by 1982, Gaddafi was considered by the CIA to be, along with USSR leader Leonid Brezhnev and Cuban leader Fidel Castro, and was also labeled as "our international public enemy number one" by a CIA official as well. Reagan authorized the use of force against the country. In the late evening of April 15, 1986, the U.S. launched a series of air strikes on ground targets in Libya. The UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher allowed the US air force to use Britain's air bases to launch the attack, on the justification that the UK was supporting America's right to self-defence under Article 51 of the United Nations Charter. The attack was designed to halt Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's ability to export terrorism, offering him "incentives and reasons to alter his criminal behavior". The president addressed the nation from the Oval Office after the attacks had commenced, stating, "When our citizens are attacked or abused anywhere in the world on the direct orders of hostile regimes, we will respond so long as I'm in this office." As early as 1981, Reagan had referred to Gaddafi as "the mad dog of the Middle East" and considered him to be public enemy number one.
Immigration
Reagan signed the Immigration Reform and Control Act in 1986. The act made it illegal to knowingly hire or recruit illegal immigrants, required employers to attest to their employees' immigration status, and granted amnesty to approximately 3 million illegal immigrants who entered the United States prior to January 1, 1982, and had lived in the country continuously. Critics argue that the employer sanctions were without teeth and failed to stem illegal immigration. Upon signing the act at a ceremony held beside the newly refurbished Statue of Liberty, Reagan said, "The legalization provisions in this act will go far to improve the lives of a class of individuals who now must hide in the shadows, without access to many of the benefits of a free and open society. Very soon many of these men and women will be able to step into the sunlight and, ultimately, if they choose, they may become Americans."
Iran-Contra affair
In 1986, a scandal shook the administration stemming from the use of proceeds from covert arms sales to Iran to fund the Contras in Nicaragua, which had been specifically outlawed by an act of Congress. The Iran-Contra affair became the largest political scandal in the United States during the 1980s. The International Court of Justice, whose jurisdiction to decide the case was disputed, ruled that the U.S. had violated international law in Nicaragua due to its obligations not to intervene in the affairs of other states.President Reagan professed ignorance of the plot's existence. He appointed two Republicans and one Democrat (John Tower, Brent Scowcroft and Edmund Muskie, known as the "Tower Commission") to investigate the scandal. The commission could not find direct evidence that Reagan had prior knowledge of the program, but criticized him heavily for his disengagement from managing his staff, making the diversion of funds possible. A separate report by Congress concluded that "If the president did not know what his national security advisers were doing, he should have." Reagan's popularity declined from 67 percent to 46 percent in less than a week, the greatest and quickest decline ever for a president. The scandal resulted in fourteen indictments within Reagan's staff, and eleven convictions.
Many Central Americans criticize Reagan for his support of the Contras, calling him an anti-communist zealot, blinded to human rights abuses, while others say he "saved Central America". Daniel Ortega, Sandinistan and current president of Nicaragua, said that he hoped God would forgive Reagan for his "dirty war against Nicaragua". In 1986 the USA was found guilty by the International Court of Justice (World Court) of war crimes against Nicaragua.
End of the Cold War
By the early 1980s, the USSR had built up a military arsenal and army surpassing that of the United States. Previously, the U.S. had relied on the qualitative superiority of its weapons to essentially frighten the Soviets, but the gap had been narrowed. After President Reagan's military buildup, the Soviet Union did not further dramatically build up its military; the enormous military expenses, in combination with collectivized agriculture and inefficient planned manufacturing, were a heavy burden for the Soviet economy. At the same time, the Reagan Administration persuaded Saudi Arabia to increase oil production, which resulted in a drop of oil prices in 1985 to one-third of the previous level; oil was the main source of Soviet export revenues. These factors gradually brought the Soviet economy to a stagnant state during Gorbachev's tenure.Reagan recognized the change in the direction of the Soviet leadership with Mikhail Gorbachev, and shifted to diplomacy, with a view to encourage the Soviet leader to pursue substantial arms agreements. Reagan's personal mission was to achieve "a world free of nuclear weapons," which he regarded as "totally irrational, totally inhumane, good for nothing but killing, possibly destructive of life on earth and civilization." He was able to start discussions on nuclear disarmament with General Secretary Gorbachev. Gorbachev and Reagan held four summit conferences between 1985 and 1988: the first in Geneva, Switzerland, the second in Reykjavík, Iceland, the third in Washington, D.C., and the fourth in Moscow. Reagan believed that if he could persuade the Soviets to allow for more democracy and free speech, this would lead to reform and the end of Communism.
Speaking at the Berlin Wall on June 12, 1987, Reagan challenged Gorbachev to go further, saying:
Prior to Gorbachev visiting Washington, D.C., for the third summit in 1987, the Soviet leader announced his intention to pursue significant arms agreements. The timing of the announcement led Western diplomats to contend that Gorbachev was offering major concessions to the U.S. on the levels of conventional forces, nuclear weapons, and policy in Eastern Europe. He and Reagan signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty at the White House, which eliminated an entire class of nuclear weapons. The two leaders laid the framework for the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or START I; Reagan insisted that the name of the treaty be changed from Strategic Arms Limitation Talks to Strategic Arms Reduction Talks.
When Reagan visited Moscow for the fourth summit in 1988, he was viewed as a celebrity by the Soviets. A journalist asked the president if he still considered the Soviet Union the evil empire. "No," he replied, "I was talking about another time, another era." At Gorbachev's request, Reagan gave a speech on free markets at the Moscow State University. In his autobiography, ''An American Life'', Reagan expressed his optimism about the new direction that they charted and his warm feelings for Gorbachev. In November 1989, the Berlin Wall was torn down, the Cold War was officially declared over at a Malta Summit on December 3, 1989 and two years later, the Soviet Union collapsed.
Health
Early in his presidency, Reagan started wearing a custom, technologically advanced hearing aid, first in his right ear and later in his left as well. His decision to go public in 1983 regarding his wearing the small, audio-amplifying device boosted their sales.On July 13, 1985, Reagan underwent surgery at Bethesda Naval Hospital to remove cancerous polyps from his colon. He relinquished presidential power to the Vice President for eight hours in a similar procedure as outlined in the 25th Amendment, which he specifically avoided invoking. The surgery lasted just under three hours and was successful. Reagan resumed the powers of the presidency later that day. In August of that year, he underwent an operation to remove skin cancer cells from his nose. In October, additional skin cancer cells were detected on his nose and removed.
In January 1987, Reagan underwent surgery for an enlarged prostate which caused further worries about his health. No cancerous growths were found, however, and he was not sedated during the operation. In July of that year, aged 76, he underwent a third skin cancer operation on his nose.
Judiciary
During his 1980 campaign, Reagan pledged that, if given the opportunity, he would appoint the first female Supreme Court Justice. That opportunity came in his first year in office when he nominated Sandra Day O'Connor to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Justice Potter Stewart. In his second term, Reagan elevated William Rehnquist to succeed Warren Burger as Chief Justice, and named Antonin Scalia to fill the vacant seat. Reagan nominated conservative jurist Robert Bork to the high court in 1987. Senator Ted Kennedy, a Democrat of Massachusetts, strongly condemned Bork, and great controversy ensued. Bork's nomination was rejected 58–42. Reagan then nominated Douglas Ginsburg, but Ginsburg withdrew his name from consideration after coming under fire for his cannabis use. Anthony Kennedy was eventually confirmed in his place. Along with his three Supreme Court appointments, Reagan appointed 83 judges to the United States Courts of Appeals, and 290 judges to the United States district courts. His total of 376 appointments is the most by any president.Reagan also nominated Vaughn R. Walker, who would later be revealed to be the earliest known gay federal judge, to the United States District Court for the Central District of California. However, the nomination stalled in the Senate, and Walker was not confirmed until he was renominated by Reagan's successor, George H. W. Bush.
Post-presidential years, 1989–2004
After leaving office in 1989, the Reagans purchased a home in Bel Air, Los Angeles in addition to the Reagan Ranch in Santa Barbara. They regularly attended Bel Air Presbyterian Church and occasionally made appearances on behalf of the Republican Party; Reagan delivered a well-received speech at the 1992 Republican National Convention. Previously on November 4, 1991, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library was dedicated and opened to the public. At the dedication ceremonies, five presidents were in attendance, as well as six first ladies, marking the first time five presidents were gathered in the same location. Reagan continued publicly to speak in favor of a line-item veto; the Brady Bill; a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget; and the repeal of the 22nd Amendment, which prohibits anyone from serving more than two terms as president. In 1992 Reagan established the Ronald Reagan Freedom Award with the newly formed Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation. His final public speech was on February 3, 1994 during a tribute to him in Washington, D.C., and his last major public appearance was at the funeral of Richard Nixon on April 27, 1994.
Alzheimer's disease
Announcement and reaction
In August 1994, at the age of 83, Reagan was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, writing in part: }}After his diagnosis, letters of support from well-wishers poured into his California home, but there was also speculation over how long Reagan had demonstrated symptoms of mental degeneration. In her memoirs, former CBS White House correspondent Lesley Stahl recounts her final meeting with the president, in 1986: "Reagan didn't seem to know who I was. ... Oh, my, he's gonzo, I thought. I have to go out on the lawn tonight and tell my countrymen that the president of the United States is a doddering space cadet." But then, at the end, he regained his alertness. As she described it, "I had come ''that'' close to reporting that Reagan was senile." However, Dr. Lawrence K. Altman, a physician employed as a reporter for the ''New York Times'', noted that "the line between mere forgetfulness and the beginning of Alzheimer's can be fuzzy" and all four of Reagan's White House doctors said that they saw no evidence of Alzheimer's while he was president. Dr. John E. Hutton, Reagan's primary physician from 1984 to 1989, said the president "absolutely" did not "show any signs of dementia or Alzheimer's". Reagan did experience occasional memory lapses, though, especially with names. Once, while meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, he repeatedly referred to Vice President Bush as "Prime Minister Bush". Reagan's doctors, however, note that he only began exhibiting overt symptoms of the illness in late 1992 or 1993, several years after he had left office. His former Chief of Staff James Baker considered "ludicrous" the idea of Reagan sleeping during cabinet meetings. Other staff members, former aides, and friends said they saw no indication of Alzheimer's while he was President. In contrast, Reagan's son, Ron Reagan, wrote in his 2011 memoir that he had noticed evidence of dementia as early as Reagan's first Presidential term, and that by 1986 Reagan was unable to recall the names of previously familiar landmarks near Los Angeles.
Complicating the picture, Reagan suffered an episode of head trauma in July 1989, five years prior to his diagnosis. After being thrown from a horse in Mexico, a subdural hematoma was found and surgically treated later in the year. Nancy Reagan asserts that her husband's 1989 fall hastened the onset of Alzheimer's disease, citing what doctors told her, although acute brain injury has not been conclusively proven to accelerate Alzheimer's or dementia. Reagan's one-time physician Dr. Daniel Ruge has said it is possible, but not certain, that the horse accident affected the course of Reagan's memory.
Progression
As the years went on, the disease slowly destroyed Reagan's mental capacity. He was only able to recognize a few people, including his wife, Nancy. He remained active, however; he took walks through parks near his home and on beaches, played golf regularly, and until 1999 he often went to his office in nearby Century City.Reagan suffered a fall at his Bel Air home on January 13, 2001, resulting in a broken hip. The fracture was repaired the following day and the 89 year old Reagan returned home later that week, although he faced difficult physical therapy at home. On February 6, 2001, Reagan reached the age of 90, becoming the third former president to do so (the other two being John Adams and Herbert Hoover, with Gerald Ford later reaching 90). Reagan's public appearances became much less frequent with the progression of the disease, and as a result, his family decided that he would live in quiet isolation. Nancy Reagan told CNN's Larry King in 2001 that very few visitors were allowed to see her husband because she felt that "Ronnie would want people to remember him as he was." Since her husband's diagnosis and death, Mrs. Reagan has become a stem-cell research advocate, urging Congress and President George W. Bush to support federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research, something President Bush opposed. Mrs. Reagan has said that she believes that it could lead to a cure for Alzheimer's.
Death
Reagan died of pneumonia at his home in Bel Air, California on the afternoon of June 5, 2004. A short time after his death, Nancy Reagan released a statement saying: "My family and I would like the world to know that President Ronald Reagan has died after 10 years of Alzheimer's Disease at 93 years of age. We appreciate everyone's prayers." President George W. Bush declared June 11 a National Day of Mourning, and international tributes came in from around the world. Reagan's body was taken to the Kingsley and Gates Funeral Home in Santa Monica, California later in the day, where well-wishers paid tribute by laying flowers and American flags in the grass. On June 7, his body was removed and taken to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, where a brief family funeral was held conducted by Pastor Michael Wenning. His body lay in repose in the Library lobby until June 9; over 100,000 people viewed the coffin.On June 9, Reagan's body was flown to Washington, D.C. where he became the tenth United States president to lie in state; in thirty-four hours, 104,684 people filed past the coffin.
On June 11, a state funeral was conducted in the Washington National Cathedral, and presided over by President George W. Bush. Eulogies were given by former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, and both Presidents Bush. Also in attendance were Mikhail Gorbachev, and many world leaders, including British Prime Minister Tony Blair, German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, and interim presidents Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, and Ghazi al-Yawer of Iraq.
After the funeral, the Reagan entourage was flown back to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California, where another service was held, and President Reagan was interred. At the time of his death, Reagan was the longest-lived president in U.S. history, having lived 93 years and 120 days (2 years, 8 months, and 23 days longer than John Adams, whose record he surpassed). He is now the second longest-lived president, just 45 days fewer than Gerald Ford. He was the first United States president to die in the 21st century, and his was the first state funeral in the United States since that of President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1973.
His burial site is inscribed with the words he delivered at the opening of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library: "I know in my heart that man is good, that what is right will always eventually triumph and that there is purpose and worth to each and every life."
Legacy
The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library was dedicated on November 4, 1991. Supporters have pointed to a more efficient and prosperous economy and a peaceful end to the Cold War. Critics argue that his economic policies caused huge budget deficits, quadrupling the United States national debt, and that the Iran-Contra affair lowered American credibility. As time has passed, he has generally come to be viewed in a more positive light, and ranks highly among presidents in many public opinion polls. In presidential surveys he has consistently been ranked in the first and second quartiles, with more recent surveys generally ranking Reagan in the first quartile of U.S. presidents.Edwin Feulner, President of The Heritage Foundation, said that Reagan "helped create a safer, freer world" and said of his economic policies: "He took an America suffering from 'malaise'... and made its citizens believe again in their destiny." However, Mark Weisbrot, co-Director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, said that Reagan's "economic policies were mostly a failure"; with Reagan's detractors accusing him of creating a range of fiscal calamities such as widening the wealth inequality to the point where the richest 1% of Americans held 39% of the nation's wealth, a rise in the poverty population from 26.1 million in 1979 to 32.7 million in 1988, and an increase in homelessness to 600,000 Americans on any given night.
Despite the continuing debate surrounding his legacy, many conservative and liberal scholars agree that Reagan has been the most influential president since Franklin D. Roosevelt, leaving his imprint on American politics, diplomacy, culture, and economics. Since he left office, historians have reached a consensus, as summarized by British historian M. J. Heale, who finds that scholars now concur that Reagan rehabilitated conservatism, turned the nation to the right, practiced a pragmatic conservatism that balanced ideology and the constraints of politics, revived faith in the presidency and in American self respect, and contributed to victory in the Cold War. In response, Howard Kurtz of ''The Washington Post'' has opined that Reagan was "a far more controversial figure in his time than the largely gushing obits on television would suggest."
Cold War
The Cold War was a major political and economic endeavor for over four decades, but the confrontation between the two superpowers had decreased dramatically by the end of Reagan's presidency. The significance of Reagan's role in ending the Cold War has spurred contentious and opinionated debate. That Reagan had some role in contributing to the downfall of the Soviet Union is collectively agreed, but the extent of this role is continuously debated, with many believing that Reagan's defense policies, hard line rhetoric against the Soviet Union and Communism, as well as summits with General Secretary Gorbachev played a significant part in ending the War.He was notable amongst post–World War II presidents as being convinced that the Soviet Union could be defeated rather than simply negotiated with, a conviction that was vindicated by Gennadi Gerasimov, the Foreign Ministry spokesman under Gorbachev, who said that Star Wars was "very successful blackmail. ... The Soviet economy couldn't endure such competition." Reagan's strong rhetoric toward the nation had mixed effects; Jeffery W. Knopf, PhD observes that being labeled "evil" probably made no difference to the Soviets but gave encouragement to the East-European citizens opposed to communism. That Reagan had little or no effect in ending the Cold War is argued with equal weight; that Communism's internal weakness had become apparent, and the Soviet Union would have collapsed in the end regardless of who was in power. President Harry Truman's policy of containment is also regarded as a force behind the fall of the U.S.S.R., and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan undermined the Soviet system itself. and deemed him "a great President." Gorbachev does not acknowledge a win or loss in the war, but rather a peaceful end; he said he was not intimidated by Reagan's harsh rhetoric. Margaret Thatcher, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, said of Reagan, "he warned that the Soviet Union had an insatiable drive for military power... but he also sensed it was being eaten away by systemic failures impossible to reform." She later said, "Ronald Reagan had a higher claim than any other leader to have won the Cold War for liberty and he did it without a shot being fired." Said Brian Mulroney, former Prime Minister of Canada: "He enters history as a strong and dramatic player [in the Cold War]." Former President Lech Wałęsa of Poland acknowledged, "Reagan was one of the world leaders who made a major contribution to communism's collapse."
Domestic and political legacy
Ronald Reagan reshaped the Republican party, led the modern conservative movement, and altered the political dynamic of the United States. More men voted Republican under Reagan, and Reagan tapped into religious voters. The so-called "Reagan Democrats" were a result of his presidency.Since leaving office, Reagan has become an iconic influence within the Republican party. His policies and beliefs have been frequently invoked by Republican presidential candidates since 1989. The 2008 Republican presidential candidates were no exception, for they aimed to liken themselves to him during the primary debates, even imitating his campaign strategies. Republican nominee John McCain frequently stated that he came to office as "a foot soldier in the Reagan Revolution". Lastly, Reagan's most famous statement that "Government is not a solution to our problem, government is the problem", has become the unofficial slogan for the rise of conservative commentators like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh; as well as the emergence of the Tea Party Movement.
Cultural and political image
According to columnist Chuck Raasch, "Reagan transformed the American presidency in ways that only a few have been able to." He redefined the political agenda of the times, advocating lower taxes, a conservative economic philosophy, and a stronger military. His role in the Cold War further enhanced his image as a different kind of leader. Reagan's "avuncular style, optimism, and plain-folks demeanor" also helped him turn "government-bashing into an art form."
| + Ronald Reagan's approval ratings | !Date | !Event | !Approval (%) | !Disapproval (%) |
| March 30, 1981 | Shot by Hinckley | 73 | 19 | |
| January 22, 1983 | High unemployment | 42 | 54 | |
| April 26, 1986 | Libya bombing | 70 | 26 | |
| February 26, 1987 | Iran-Contra affair | 44 | 51 | |
| January 20, 1989 | End of presidency | 64 | ||
| ! n/a | ! Career Average | ! 57 | ! 39 | |
| July 30, 2001 | (Retrospective) | 64 | 27 |
As a sitting president, Reagan did not have the highest approval ratings, but his popularity has increased since 1989. Gallup polls in 2001 and 2007 ranked him number one or number two when correspondents were asked for the greatest president in history, and third of post–World War II presidents in a 2007 Rasmussen Reports poll, fifth in an ABC 2000 poll, ninth in another 2007 Rasmussen poll, and eighth in a late 2008 poll by United Kingdom newspaper ''The Times''. In a Siena College survey of over 200 historians, however, Reagan ranked sixteenth out of 42. While the debate about Reagan's legacy is ongoing, the 2009 Annual ''C-SPAN Survey of Presidential Leaders'' ranked Reagan the 10th greatest president. The survey of leading historians rated Reagan number 11 in 2000.
In 2011, the Institute for the Study of the Americas released the first ever U.K. academic survey to rate U.S. presidents. This poll of U.K. specialists in U.S. history and politics placed Reagan as the 8th greatest U.S. president.
Reagan's ability to connect with the American people earned him the laudatory moniker "The Great Communicator". Of it, Reagan said, "I won the nickname the great communicator. But I never thought it was my style that made a difference—it was the content. I wasn't a great communicator, but I communicated great things." His age and soft-spoken speech gave him a warm grandfatherly image.
Reagan also earned the nickname "the Teflon President," in that public perceptions of him were not tarnished by the controversies that arose during his administration. According to Congresswoman Patricia Schroeder, who coined the phrase, and reporter Howard Kurtz, the epithet referred to Reagan's ability to "do almost anything wrong and not get blamed for it."
Public reaction to Reagan was always mixed; the oldest president was supported by young voters, and began an alliance that shifted many of them to the Republican party. Reagan did not fare well with minority groups, especially African-Americans. This was largely due to his opposition to affirmative action policies. However, his support of Israel throughout his presidency earned him support from many Jews. He emphasized family values in his campaigns and during his presidency, although he was the first president to have been divorced. The combination of Reagan's speaking style, unabashed patriotism, negotiation skills, as well as his savvy use of the media, played an important role in defining the 1980s and his future legacy.
Reagan was known to gibe frequently during his lifetime, displayed humor throughout his presidency, and was famous for his storytelling. His numerous jokes and one-liners have been labeled "classic quips" and "legendary". Among the most notable of his jokes was one regarding the Cold War. As a sound check prior to his weekly radio address in August 1984, Reagan made the following joke as a way to test the microphone: "My fellow Americans, I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes." Former aide David Gergen commented, "It was that humor... that I think endeared people to Reagan."
Honors
Reagan received a number of awards in his pre- and post-presidential years. Following his election as president, Reagan received a lifetime gold membership in the Screen Actors Guild, as well as the United States Military Academy's Sylvanus Thayer Award.In 1989, Reagan was made an Honorary Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath, one of the highest British orders (this entitled him to the use of the post-nominal letters "GCB" but, by not being the citizen of a Commonwealth realm, not to be known as "Sir Ronald Reagan"); only two American presidents have received this honor, Reagan and George H.W. Bush. Reagan was also named an honorary Fellow of Keble College, Oxford. Japan awarded him the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Chrysanthemum in 1989; he was the second American president to receive the order and the first to have it given to him for personal reasons (Dwight D. Eisenhower received it as a commemoration of U.S.-Japanese relations).
On January 18, 1993, Reagan's former Vice-President and sitting President George H. W. Bush awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor that the United States can bestow. Reagan was also awarded the Republican Senatorial Medal of Freedom, the highest honor bestowed by Republican members of the Senate.
On Reagan's 87th birthday, in 1998, Washington National Airport was renamed Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport by a bill signed into law by President Clinton. That year, the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center was dedicated in Washington, D.C. He was among 18 included in Gallup's List of Widely Admired People of the 20th Century, from a poll conducted of the American people in 1999; two years later, USS ''Ronald Reagan'' was christened by Nancy Reagan and the United States Navy. It is one of few Navy ships christened in honor of a living person and the first aircraft carrier to be named in honor of a living former president.
Congress authorized the creation of the Ronald Reagan Boyhood Home National Historic Site in Dixon, Illinois in 2002, pending federal purchase of the property. On May 16 of that year, Nancy Reagan accepted the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian honor bestowed by Congress, on behalf of the president and herself.
Following Reagan's death, the United States Postal Service issued a President Ronald Reagan commemorative postage stamp in 2005. Later in the year, CNN, along with the editors of ''TIME'' magazine, named him the "most fascinating person" of the network's first 25 years; ''Time'' listed Reagan one of the 100 Most Important People of the 20th century as well. The Discovery Channel asked its viewers to vote for The Greatest American in an unscientific poll on June 26, 2005; Reagan received the honorary title.
In 2006, Reagan was inducted into the California Hall of Fame, located at The California Museum for History, Women, and the Arts. Every year since 2002, California Governors Gray Davis and Arnold Schwarzenegger have proclaimed February 6 "Ronald Reagan Day" in the state of California in honor of their most famous predecessor. In 2010, Schwarzenegger signed Senate Bill 944, authored by Senator George Runner, to make every February 6 Ronald Reagan Day in California.
In 2007, Polish President Lech Kaczyński posthumously conferred on Reagan the highest Polish distinction, the Order of the White Eagle, saying that Reagan had inspired the Polish people to work for change and helped to unseat the repressive communist regime; Kaczyński said it "would not have been possible if it was not for the tough-mindedness, determination, and feeling of mission of President Ronald Reagan". Reagan backed the nation of Poland throughout his presidency, supporting the anti-communist Solidarity movement, along with Pope John Paul II.
On June 3, 2009, Nancy Reagan unveiled a statue of her late husband in the United States Capitol rotunda. The statue represents the state of California in the National Statuary Hall Collection. Following Reagan's death, both major American political parties agreed to erect a statue of Reagan in the place of that of Thomas Starr King. The day before, President Obama signed the Ronald Reagan Centennial Commission Act into law, establishing a commission to plan activities to mark the upcoming centenary of Reagan's birth.
Independence Day 2011 saw the unveiling of another statue to Reagan this time in the British capital of London, outside the American Embassy, Grosvenor Square. The unveiling was supposed to be attended by Reagan's wife Nancy, but she did not attend; former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice took her place and read a statement on her behalf; further to the former First Lady's absence President Reagan's friend and the British Prime Minister during Reagan's presidency Baroness Thatcher was also unable to attend due to frail health.
See also
Citations
References
Further reading
External links
Official sites
Media
News coverage
Essays and historiographies
Site directories
Category:1911 births Category:2004 deaths Category:20th-century actors Category:Actors awarded British knighthoods Category:Actors from California Category:Actors from Illinois Category:American actor-politicians Category:American anti-communists Category:American Disciples of Christ Category:American film actors Category:American labor leaders Category:American people of Irish descent Category:American people of English descent Category:American Presbyterians Category:American radio personalities Category:American shooting survivors Category:American television personalities Category:California Republicans Category:Illinois Republicans Category:Chicago Cubs broadcasters Category:Cold War leaders Category:College football announcers Category:Colorectal cancer survivors Category:Congressional Gold Medal recipients Category:Deaths from Alzheimer's disease Category:Deaths from pneumonia Category:Eureka College alumni Category:First Motion Picture Unit personnel Category:Governors of California Category:History of the United States (1980–1991) Category:Honorary Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath Category:Infectious disease deaths in California Category:Iran–Contra affair Category:Major League Baseball announcers Category:New Right (United States) Category:People from Lee County, Illinois Category:People from Whiteside County, Illinois Category:People from the Greater Los Angeles Area Category:People of the Soviet war in Afghanistan Category:Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients Category:Presidents of the Screen Actors Guild Category:Presidents of the United States Category:Reagan family Category:Recipients of the Order of the White Eagle (Poland) Category:Republican Party (United States) presidential nominees Category:Republican Party Presidents of the United States Category:Republican Party state governors of the United States Ronald Reagan Category:Skin cancer survivors Category:United States Army Air Forces officers Category:United States Army officers Category:United States presidential candidates, 1968 Category:United States presidential candidates, 1976 Category:United States presidential candidates, 1980 Category:United States presidential candidates, 1984 Category:U.S. Presidents surviving assassination attempts Category:Writers from California Category:Writers from Illinois
af:Ronald Reagan am:ሮናልድ ሬገን ar:رونالد ريغان an:Ronald Reagan frp:Ronald Reagan az:Ronald Reyqan bn:রনাল্ড রেগান zh-min-nan:Ronald Reagan be:Рональд Уілсан Рэйган be-x-old:Роналд Рэйган bcl:Ronald Reagan bs:Ronald Reagan bg:Роналд Рейгън ca:Ronald Reagan ceb:Ronald Reagan cs:Ronald Reagan co:Ronald Reagan cy:Ronald Reagan da:Ronald Reagan de:Ronald Reagan nv:Hastiin alą́ąjįʼ dahsidáhígíí Ronald Reagan et:Ronald Reagan el:Ρόναλντ Ρήγκαν es:Ronald Reagan eo:Ronald Reagan eu:Ronald Reagan fa:رونالد ریگان fo:Ronald Reagan fr:Ronald Reagan fy:Ronald Reagan ga:Ronald W. Reagan gv:Ronald Reagan gd:Ronald Reagan gl:Ronald Reagan ko:로널드 레이건 hy:Ռոնալդ Ռեյգան hi:रोनाल्ड रीगन hr:Ronald Reagan io:Ronald Reagan id:Ronald Reagan is:Ronald Reagan it:Ronald Reagan he:רונלד רייגן jv:Ronald Reagan pam:Ronald Reagan ka:რონალდ რეიგანი kw:Ronald Reagan rw:Ronald Reagan sw:Ronald Reagan la:Ronaldus Reagan lv:Ronalds Reigans lt:Ronald Reagan hu:Ronald Reagan mr:रोनाल्ड रेगन arz:رونالد ريجان ms:Ronald Reagan my:ရော်နယ် ရေဂင် nah:Ronald Reagan nl:Ronald Reagan nds-nl:Ronald Reagan ja:ロナルド・レーガン no:Ronald Reagan nn:Ronald Reagan oc:Ronald Reagan uz:Ronald Reagan pnb:رونالڈ ریگن tpi:Ronald Reagan pl:Ronald Reagan pt:Ronald Reagan ksh:Ronald W. Reagan ro:Ronald Reagan rm:Ronald Reagan ru:Рейган, Рональд sq:Ronald Reagan scn:Ronald Reagan si:රොනල්ඩ් රේගන් simple:Ronald Reagan sk:Ronald Reagan sl:Ronald Reagan sr:Роналд Реган sh:Ronald Reagan fi:Ronald Reagan sv:Ronald Reagan tl:Ronald Reagan ta:ரானல்ட் ரேகன் tt:Рональд Рейган th:โรนัลด์ เรแกน tr:Ronald Reagan uk:Рональд Рейган ur:رونالڈ ریگن ug:رېگان vi:Ronald Reagan war:Ronald Reagan yi:ראנאלד רייגען yo:Ronald Reagan zh-yue:列根 bat-smg:Ronald Reagan zh:罗纳德·里根
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
3:56
West Side Story - Trailer [1961] [34th Oscar Best Picture]
MoviesHistory
West Side Story - Trailer [1961] [34th Oscar Best Picture]
Westside story is the award winning adaptation of the classic romantic tragedy, Romeo and Juliette. The feuding families become two warring New York City gangs- the white Jets led by Riff and the Puerto Rican Sharks, led by Bernardo. Their ...
show more
Video Suggestions
