Friz Freleng draws the Pink Panther

The Enrico Fermi Provincial Technical Institute of Modena, initially located on Via Barozzi, is moving to its new location on Via Luosi.

Palmiro Togliatti dies. Born in Genoa in 1893 to a Piedmontese family, he was one of the founders of the Italian Communist Party, becoming its undisputed leader after Gramsci’s arrest. He served as secretary from August 8, 1945, until his death. Togliatti died of a cerebral hemorrhage while vacationing with his partner, Nilde Iotti, in Yalta, then in the Soviet Union. According to some of his associates, Togliatti was traveling to the Soviet Union to support the election of Leonid Brezhnev as Nikita Khrushchev’s successor as leader of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. His favorite student, Enrico Berlinguer, would later be elected, following Longo, as his successor as National Secretary of the PCI (Italian Communist Party), although Berlinguer’s tenure in office would see him reject some of Togliatti’s policies.

United States. The House of Representatives approves the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution by a vote of 414 to 0. The Senate approves the resolution by a vote of 88 to 2. This gives the president the green light to escalate the military situation in Vietnam. Although, as it turns out, the second attack on American ships may never have actually occurred.

Gulf of Tonkin, Indochina. A second attack on an American naval vessel by North Vietnam is reported to President Johnson. The first could have been a mistake, but two were not, so a military escalation is decided. It will be discovered later that the second attack may not have actually occurred, and that it was an overreaction by the American military to an unknown factor.

A North Vietnamese attack on a U.S. destroyer in international waters off Vietnam sparks an escalation in the war on the Indochina peninsula.

Gulf of Tonkin, Indochina. Captain George Morrison, commanding the aircraft carrier Bon Homme Richard, is informed that the destroyer Maddox has been attacked by North Vietnamese naval units. This incident, a few days later, will lead the United States to decide on military escalation in Vietnam. Captain George Morrison has a son named Jimmy, who is studying at the University of California. The following year, “Jim” Morrison informs his father that he is joining a rock band. His father responds that this is simply ridiculous, since he believes Jimmy can’t sing, and suggests that he get a real job.

A third Soviet R-7 rocket is launched in the RD-108 configuration (in place of the less powerful RD-109 engine). It carries into orbit a Vostok modified to be a military spy satellite called Zenit-4.

In the Kilby vs. Noyce case, which pitted Texas Instruments against Fairchild Semiconductors over the first patent on integrated circuits, begun in 1959, the patent was granted to Kilby and his priority was recognized. Then, in February 1967, the final verdict confirmed this position. Fairchild then appealed, and the court concluded in November 1969 that Noyce was in favor. Texas appealed to the Supreme Court, which declined to hear the case. Ultimately, however, the integrated circuit market was so vast and advanced compared to the original patent that the two companies agreed to grant each other cross-licenses.

The Enrico Fermi nuclear reactor at the Trino Vercellese power plant in Italy (the third) is turned on; Italy becomes the world’s third-largest nuclear power plant in terms of nuclear power generation (after the USA and the UK, and ahead of the Soviet Union and France).

Four separate Soviet attempts to launch Venera-Moniya missions fail at launch

First Gemini Missions (two men aboard)

Nikolaj Kardasev proposes to classify extraterrestrial civilizations based on their energy consumption: Type I, i.e. planetary (10^16W), Type II, i.e. stellar (10^26W), Type III, i.e. galactic (10^36W); we are Type 0.7; with the information in our possession in 2005 we believe that there are no Type 0.7 civilizations within 4000 light years, Type I within 40,000 light years (half a galaxy), Type II within 30 million light years (the entire Local Group and the hundreds of galaxies of the Virgo cluster) and that probably no Type III civilizations exist.

Philosopher Jean Paul Sartre refuses the Nobel Prize for Literature.

The first Local Area Network (LAN) is developed at Lawrence Livermore Labs.

IBM announces System 360

Japan surpasses the United States in the production of discrete transistors, while the United States leads the world in the production of complex chips.

First plasma display prototype completed in the United States

Louis Leakey coined the name Homo Abilis because it was the first hominid to use tools.

The “Fitch-Cronin Experiment”, involving reactions with K-mesons (strange and anti-down or down and anti-strange quarks), demonstrates that not even the CP (Charge-Parity) symmetry is conserved: we are moving towards the CPT (Charge-Parity-Time) transformation.

JP Gordon of AT&T Labs conjectures that qubits (properties of a quantum object) may have hidden information that can be manipulated but not read unless it is collapsed to 0 or 1.

Roger Penrose uses his own topological methods to prove the theory of black hole singularities.

The journal Chemical Abstract publishes an article on tobacco mosaic virus. It is probably the molecule with the longest name ever pronounced (and some even say it’s the longest word): a whopping 1,185 letters. It is C785H1220N212O248S2, better known as: “glutaminylphenylalanylvalylphenylalanylleucylserylseryl valyltryptophylalanylaspartylprolylisoleucylglutamylleucylleucylasparaginylvalylcysteinylthreonylserylseryl leucylglycylasparaginylglutaminylphenylalanylglutaminylthreonylglutaminylglutaminylalanylarginylthreo nylthreonylglutaminylvalylglutaminylglutaminylphenylalanylserylglutaminylvalyltryptophyllysylprolylphenyla lanylprolylglutaminylserylthreonylvalylarginylphenylalanylprolylglycylaspartylvalyltyrosyllysylvalyltyrosylargin yltyrosylasparaginylalanylvalylleucylaspartylprolylleucylisoleucylthreonylalanylleucylleucylglycylthreonylphenyla lanylaspartylthreonylarginylasparaginylarginylisoleucylisoleucylglutamylvalylglutamylasparaginylglutaminylglu taminylserylprolylthreonylthreonylalanylglutamylthreonylleucylaspartylalanylthreonylarginylarginylvalylaspar tylaspartylalanylthreonylvalylalanylisoleucylarginylserylalanylasparaginylisoleucylasparaginylleucylvalylasparagi nylglutamylleucylvalylarginylglycylthreonylglycylleucyltyrosylasparaginylglutaminylasparaginylthreonylphenyla lanylglutamylserylmethionylserylglycylleucylvalyltryptophylthreonylserylalanylprolylalanylserine”.

United States. During the presidential campaign, President Lyndon Johnson aired the famous Daisy Advertisement, in which a little girl plucks the petals of a daisy and counts them to 10. Then, a metallic, adult male voice begins counting down, and at zero, the frightening flash of a nuclear explosion fills the screen. Johnson’s voice says: “This is what’s at stake. Create a world where all God’s children can live, or darkness. We must love one another or die.”

The United States has 30,751 nuclear weapons (the most ever); the USSR has 5,221.

Chile. The general election yielded a large majority for centrist candidate Eduardo Frei. Fear of Marxist movements led many right-wingers to support Frei. Frei quickly moved to buy 51% of the US copper mines in Chile. In the medium to long term, Frei proved too radical for the right, and too little radical for the Chilean left.

Farnborough, England. Carbon fiber is invented.

Arnol’d (Kolmogorov’s student) proves that the approximate series that solves the 3-body problem converges or not depending on the initial conditions.

Moro, Leone, Rumor, Colombo, and Andreotti governments (DC-PRI-PSI-PSDI-PLI)

Chuck Yeager makes an excursion to the edge of space aboard his modified F-104A (the episode is mentioned in the film “The Right Stuff”). But the first to make excursions to the edge of space are other F-104 pilots, such as Thompson (April 13, 1959), and X-15 pilots: such as White, Walker, Rushworth. Among the X-15 pilots is also Neil Armstrong, who however does not reach the Karman limit (100 km).

A Soviet R-7 rocket is launched in the RD-108 configuration (instead of the less powerful RD-109 engine). It carries into orbit a Vostok modified to be a military spy satellite called Zenit-4.

McNamara implements the MAD (Mutual Assured Destruction) strategy: in the event of a sudden Soviet attack, the United States must be able to destroy at least 30% of the Soviet population, 50% of its industrial capacity, and 150 of its cities. No military investments are made to protect American cities, which, combined with the certainty of American retaliation, should reduce the likelihood of a Soviet first preemptive strike.

United States. First version of the Clean Air Act.

President Lyndon Johnson presents the Fermi Award to Robert Oppenheimer and a $50,000 prize. Nine years after the verdict suspending access to classified material, this marks a public reconciliation between the government and the scientist. Robert delivers a speech in which he says: “…we are engaged in this great enterprise of our time, testing whether men can both preserve and enlarge life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and live without war as the great arbiter of history.” Edward Teller, Oppenheimer’s former colleague, is present at the ceremony and shakes the scientist’s hand. Kitty, Robert’s wife, has not forgiven Teller for his testimony against her husband at the Security Hearing nine years earlier.

Sunday. Dallas, Texas. 11:21 a.m. Sunday morning, the decision is made to transfer Lee Oswald to the county jail, sending him through the basement to avoid the crowds of onlookers. Despite this, there are at least 30 journalists in the basement. Jack Ruby approaches him and shoots him in the stomach, uttering these words: “You killed my president, you sewer rat!” The whole thing is also caught on live television. Lee Harvey Oswald will die shortly thereafter, in the same hospital where President Kennedy had been taken two days earlier. Ruby, born Jacob Rubenstein, the owner of a nightclub in Dallas, a show-off, a stickler who tried everything he could to gain attention and become someone. His nightclub was also regularly frequented by police officers and mobsters. In some ways, he was similar to Oswald, another born loser looking for his twenty minutes of fame. Jack Ruby will die of cancer in prison in 1967.

Friday. Dealey Plaza, approximately 1:00 PM, Dallas, Texas. Doctors at Parkland Memorial Hospital have no choice but to pronounce President Kennedy dead. Meanwhile, a sketch of the attacker has been distributed to all patrol cars: they’re looking for a black-haired man, approximately five feet tall. Officer Tippit notices a man matching the description in Oak Cliff, around 1:15 AM, and approaches him in his car. He exchanges a few words with him, then decides to get out of the patrol car, but before he’s reached the other side, where Lee Oswald was standing, Oswald pulls out a pistol and kills him with three or four shots. Lee flees, while witnesses alert the police over the dead officer’s radio. The fugitive discards his jacket, then passes a shoe store, where he briefly hides from the police cars speeding down the street. The owner notices the suspicious man leaving the store and then entering a movie theater a short distance away. Oswald enters without paying for his ticket, so the cashier and the shoe store owner, who had followed him to the movies, decide to call the police. The officers arrive and take Lee Harvey Oswald away after he attempts a last-ditch effort by firing his gun at the officers, which fails. However, the officers don’t immediately realize that the man they’ve just arrested is President Kennedy’s assassin; they were looking for the suspect who shot their colleague, Tippit. Only at the station do they discover the identity of the man they’ve arrested, since Oswald was carrying an ID with a false name: Alex Hidell. Oswald is thus identified as the perpetrator of both the murders of Officer Tippit and Kennedy. Although he is subjected to numerous interrogations between Friday and Sunday morning, nothing is recorded; apparently, that was the standard practice in Texas at the time. A paraffin test also shows that he did indeed shoot. Jack Ruby was also present at the scene among the reporters.

Friday. Dealey Plaza, 12:29 p.m., Dallas, Texas. President Kennedy orders the top off the Lincoln. (So not even Oswald knew exactly what he was facing.) The presidential car has just turned and is heading down the railroad overpass. Suddenly, a shot is heard—a firecracker, or the exhaust of a car, many think—but immediately afterward, a second shot is heard, and President Kennedy appears to clutch his throat and lean back and sideways. Senator Connally, sitting in front of the president, is also hit in the shoulder almost simultaneously. Then a third shot, and JFK finally collapses to the side, while the first lady reaches for the back of the car as if trying to retrieve something. A security guard following the Lincoln orders the first lady to return to her seat, while the driver, finally realizing what has happened, accelerates and drives the car away from Dealy Plaza toward Parkland Memorial Hospital. (It would later be discovered that the president’s wife, in shock, was trying to recover part of her husband’s brain, which had been blown to that point.) These were moments of confusion and panic. Motorcycle officer Marrion L. Baker, two of Oswald’s colleagues, and others clearly heard that the three shots came from the last window on the right of the sixth floor of the building. Oswald was stopped but quickly released, left, and boarded a bus home. He lives alone after his Russian wife left him.

Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas: he is succeeded by his vice president: Lyndon Johnson

John Kennedy is visiting Cape Canaveral. Rocco Petrone explains to him the potential of the Saturn V, which will be launched from the launch pad under construction. Kennedy emphasizes that he must inform the press, adding the names of the most skeptical journalists he needs to convince. The first unmanned Apollo launch is scheduled for the following January. “I’ll be back for that launch,” Kennedy promises. He won’t be back. He will be killed just six days later in Dallas. But Rocco Petrone would never forget that smile. Meticulous and never afraid of the task, Rocco Petrone will focus on the construction of the Moonport: it will take five years to complete Complex 39. Only the VAB (Vehicle Assembly Building) will be as large as the Pentagon and slightly taller than the Washington Monument. Pads 39A and 39B, identical, will each occupy 64 hectares, spaced 2 kilometers apart, so that even in the event of a serious accident to one, the other would emerge unscathed. Twelve Saturn Vs and 82 Space Shuttles will be launched from Pad 39A, while 39B will launch one Saturn V, four Saturn IBs, and 53 Space Shuttles. Even the choice of transport for the Saturn V to the launch pad was far from trivial. Initially, Rocco favored a waterway with a gigantic barge, which, however, would have had to be a monster never seen before to support the weight of the Saturn V. Then rail transport was considered, and finally, someone suggested to Rocco a gigantic crawler vehicle of the type used for massive earthworks for agricultural work on the great American prairies. The contract was awarded to Marion Power Shovel Company (with some components built by Rockwell Int’l), which would build the Crawler-Transporter, which would remain active until 2011, carrying all the Saturns and Space Shuttles. The crawler would weigh 2,721 tons and have two 2,750-hp diesel engines for propulsion and two 1,065-hp engines for auxiliary functions. Rocco Petrone would then become responsible for Control and Launches from Cape Canaveral. The Countdown Demonstration, for example, lasted a full 93 hours, with the rocket on the pad loaded with propellant and the lunar module ready. The entire sequence had to be performed exactly as in the real launch until 14 seconds before launch. Both the sequence and the task of stopping it in time to avoid an accidental launch brought extreme tension to the room.

Vietnam. The authoritarian South Vietnamese president Ngo Dinh Diem and his powerful brother are assassinated in a coup approved by US President John Kennedy. Johnson considers it a mistake, knowing Diem personally and appreciating his political skills. In Johnson’s opinion, he should have been given more time to reform the country. Johnson would later lament that during his years as Kennedy’s deputy, Johnson was not a co-pilot of anything, being almost always left on the sidelines by those he called “the Catholics”—namely, in addition to President John Kennedy, his brother Bob, John Cormack, and Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield.

Deke Slayton calls Mike Collins. He’ll be part of the third group of astronauts, The Fourteen (Apollo – and Gemini…). The others are The Seven (Mercury) and The Nine (Gemini).

Konrad Adenauer (5 January 1876 – 19 April 1967) resigns as Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany after 14 years in office. Adenauer’s Germany (in office from 1949 to 1963) chose to anchor its internal democracy in its Catholic regions and in ecumenical Christian values, and its international role in a federation with the West and in particular, for security reasons, with the United States. This was a drastic change from the typically Prussian tendency to maintain good relations with Russia. Prussia, the main source of German militarism, was abolished as a German province by the Allies in 1947.

ATOLL (Acceptance Test or Launch Language) was invented as the standard language to be used in software programming for the Apollo test and launch missions for the Saturn V.

At the United Nations, President Kennedy proposed to the Soviets joint action in space exploration, including lunar exploration. The proposal was dropped by Khrushchev and rejected by the U.S. Congress. Khrushchev’s son declared in 1997 that his father had seriously considered it and that if Kennedy had lived and his father remained in power, the world would be different now.

Washington, DC. March for Jobs and Freedom. Brings 300,000 people to the capital, including Bob Dylan and Joan Baez. And 34-year-old Martin Luther King. When he takes the stage, he walks calmly through his prepared notes, then from behind Mahalia Jackson shouts, “Tell him about the dream, Martin!” There was an America before his speech, and there is another America after his speech.

USA, USSR, UK sign treaty banning nuclear tests in the atmosphere, oceans and space

West Berlin. John Kennedy delivers his famous speech: “Ich bin ein Berliner!”

Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova completed 48 orbits aboard Vostok 6; the flight was actually a disaster: Valentina was very ill, and the mission leader prevented her from touching the controls. Valentina was personally chosen by Khrushchev as a symbol of the communist ideal of womanhood. Her marriage to Andrian Nikolayev, another astronaut, was also arranged by Khrushchev.

The nuclear reactor at the Italian Garigliano power plant (the second) is switched on

Leroy Gordo Cooper is the last Mercury pilot: he completes 22 orbits and even manages to fall asleep for several hours. Gordon Cooper (in my opinion the most likeable of the Mercury Seven) thus successfully concludes the Mercury Program, paving the way for the Gemini and Apollo programs.

The USS Thresher submarine split in two during a deep-sea maneuver on its maiden mission; the investigation will last 10 years and include locating the wreck at a depth of 2,500 meters off Boston; significant investments in submarine safety will be decided.

A Soviet Moon mission crashes into the Pacific Ocean.

Russia, 37 km northeast of Moscow. Zelenograd (Russian: Зеленоград) receives city status and its name. Orders had been given in 1958 to establish the secret, nameless, and planned (i.e., non-spontaneous) city, which would later become Zelenograd on January 15, 1963. Its purpose was to become a center of technological development. It would become the electronics capital of the Soviet Union, but in accordance with Minister Shokin’s strategy: “Copy it.” The goal of Directorate T (T for Teknologia) was to acquire Western technology and equipment and improve the Soviet Union’s ability to produce integrated circuits. The “Copy it” strategy would effectively condemn the Soviet Union to always be at least five years behind the United States in the rapidly developing integrated circuit sector.

A Soviet Moon mission gets stuck in Earth orbit by mistake.