December 1961

The following events occurred in December 1961:

December 1, 1961 (Friday)

*The Dutch colony of Netherlands New Guinea raised the new Morning Star flag next to the Dutch tri-color, and was made the autonomous territory of West Papua, with partial self-government as a UN Mandate. In 1963, however, the UN turned the mandate over to Indonesia, which annexed West Papua in 1969 after a sham plebiscite.
*The U.S. Department of Defense began the distribution of a unique black and yellow sign to mark each fallout shelter to be occupied in the event of a nuclear attack on the United States. According to a newspaper in Baltimore, Maryland that day, an elementary school serving the families of U.S. Army personnel at Fort Holabird "became the first building in the country to be marked with the new black and yellow 'fallout shelter' sign." The signs would be a common sight during the Cold War until the early 1990s.
* The first elections held in Syria since its separation from the United Arab Republic, brought the People's Party a plurality of the seats. The party's leaders, Nazim al-Kudsi and Maarouf al-Dawalibi, would respectively be named the President and Prime Minister by the new Parliament.
* Algeria's News Agency was founded.
*''RTÉ Guide'' began publication, under the title "RTV Guide".
*Britannia Airways was set up in the UK, under the name Euravia (London).
*Tallinn Botanic Garden was established in Tallinn, Estonia
*Arara, Paraíba, in north-eastern Brazil, became a municipality.
*Following the resignation of Tasmanian Liberal MHA for Bass, John Steer, to contest the Council seat of Cornwall, a recount resulted in the election of Liberal candidate Max Bushby.
*A coat of arms was officially granted to Hordaland.
*Israel announced plans to establish "the world's first chain of industrial co-operative towns" in the Negev Desert, starting with the community of Mitzpe Ramon.
*Born: Jeremy Northam, English actor, in Cambridge

December 2, 1961 (Saturday)

*In a speech that began at midnight, Cuban revolutionary prime minister Fidel Castro declared "soy marxista-leninista y seré marxista-leninista hasta el último día de mi vida" ("I am a Marxist-Leninist and I will be a Marxist-Leninist until the last day of my life"). Castro confirmed that he would guide Cuba to becoming a Socialist state, and, in the long run, a Communist state, but added, "I'm saying this for any anti-communists left out there. There won't be any Communism for at least thirty years". However, he made clear that there would be only one political party, "The United Party of Cuba's Socialist Revolution", adding that "There is only one revolutionary movement, not two or three or four revolutionary movements."
*Dean Smith began his career as the North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball head coach. He opened with an 80-46 victory over the visiting University of Virginia Cavaliers, the first of a record 879 wins as coach of one team. The record for most wins overall (903) was broken by Mike Krzyzewski on November 15, 2011, which included 83 wins as coach of Army before he became coach of Duke University.
*Actors Dinah Shore and George Montgomery announced that they would divorce after 18 years of marriage.
*Died: Laura Bullion, 85, American outlaw

December 3, 1961 (Sunday)

*Workers at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City discovered that there had been a mistake in the museum's exhibit of "The Last Works of Henri Matisse". For 47 days, beginning on October 18, '' Le Bateau'' had been on display, hanging upside-down, and 116,000 visitors had passed it before Mrs. Genevieve Habert, a stockbroker, noticed the mistake. She confirmed the problem by referring to a catalogue of Matisse's works, then talked to various MOMA employees before she was taken seriously. The Museum rehung the painting, right-side up, the next day.
* Discoverer 35 fell out of orbit about three weeks after its launch.
*Born:
**Marcelo Fromer, Brazilian guitarist, in São Paulo (d. 2001)
**Adal Ramones, Mexican TV presenter, in Monterrey

December 4, 1961 (Monday)

*The Alabama Crimson Tide was voted #1 in the final AP and UPI polls, granting them recognition by the NCAA as the national college football champion. In the AP sportswriters poll, unbeaten (10-0-0) Alabama received 26 first place votes and 452 points overall. Ohio State (8-0-1) finished second with 20 first place votes and 436 points.
*In Toronto, Floyd Patterson defeated challenger Tom McNeeley with a fourth-round knockout to retain the world heavyweight boxing championship. Tom's son, Peter McNeeley, would become Mike Tyson's first opponent upon the latter's release from prison in 1995. On the same evening, Sonny Liston knocked out Albert Westphal in a Philadelphia bout. It was the last bout for both Patterson and Liston, until they faced each other in 1962 in Chicago, with Liston taking the title from Patterson.
*An agreement on maintaining the neutrality of Laos was reached at the 14-nation Laos Peace Conference being held in Geneva.
*President Kennedy authorized the U.S. Department of Defense to commence of Operation Ranch Hand, the defoliation of the jungles of South Vietnam. The first run was on January 12, 1962, and the last in February 1971.
*In elections in Trinidad and Tobago, the People's National Movement, led by Prime Minister Eric Williams, captured 20 of the 30 seats in the Parliament, while the Democratic Labour Party won the others. The voting was split along ethnic lines, with the vast majority of Afro-Creole residents voting for the PNM, and those of East Indian descent voting for the DLP.
*The Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal was established by Executive Order of the U.S. President, for service in specified military operations during designated times. Retroactive awards were made for service in the Quemoy and Matsu Islands (since 1956), Lebanon (in 1958), the Taiwan Straits (1958) and in West Berlin since August.
*The Hundred of Hoo Railway in Kent, UK, ended passenger services.

December 5, 1961 (Tuesday)

*The largest ever escape from East Berlin, to the West, was carried out by Harry Deterling, a 28-year-old train engineer, after he and co-worker Hartmut Lichy learned that there was still an open rail connection at Albrechtshof, one-quarter mile from the border, and that East German authorities were preparing to block it. Deterling's wife and four children, his mother, and 13 friends boarded at Oranienburg, and four others got on at Falkensee. Deterling and Lichy never stopped at the Albrechtshof station, and rushed the train past startled border guards. The train's conductor, and six passengers who hadn't been in on the plot, elected to return to East Germany. The government tore up the tracks the next day and put up barriers, and there were no further escapes by train.
*U.S. President John F. Kennedy authorized American financial support to the Volta Dam project in Ghana, in order to prevent the West African nation from coming under the influence of the Soviet Union.
*Natalie Wood imprint ceremony was held at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre.
*Died:
** Finn Kjelstrup, 77, Norwegian traitor
** Emil "Judge" Fuchs, 83, Jewish owner of the Boston Braves baseball team (1923–1935), and the team's owner/manager in the 1929 season

December 6, 1961 (Wednesday)

*NASA announced that the United States would not put an astronaut into orbit before the end of 1961, thus ending the possibility of matching the Soviets in the same calendar year. Lt. Col. John Glenn, the space agency said, would not be launched into space until at least January.
*The Order of Trujillo was awarded by the Dominican Republic for the last time.
*Born:
**Ally Fowler, Australian soap actress
** Jennifer San Marco, American spree killer (d. 2006)
*Died: Frantz Fanon, 36, Martiniquais psychiatrist and advocate of Algerian independence, of leukemia

December 7, 1961 (Thursday)

*The second phase of American human spaceflight, the Gemini program, was announced by NASA, with plans for a two-person version of the one-person Mercury capsule. Originally called ''Mercury Mark II'', the program was renamed ''Gemini'' on January 3, at the suggestion of Alex Nagy, after the constellation of the same name, associated with the "heavenly twins", Castor and Pollux.
*Hungarian conductor Ferenc Fricsay gave his last concert, with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, then retired at the age of 47 due to illness. He would die 14 months later, of cancer.

December 8, 1961 (Friday)

*Brothers Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine, known as "The Pendletones", saw the release of their first recorded song, called "Surfin'" (with "Luau" on the "B"- side). For the single, record distributor Russ Regen renamed the group, The Beach Boys, and their first song peaked at #75 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart.
*Sixteen people were killed in a flash fire on the ninth floor of the Hartford Hospital in Hartford, Connecticut. The blaze started in a trash chute and swept across the ceiling tiles, killing 7 patients, 5 visitors, and 4 hospital employees, including a physician. Investigators eventually concluded that the fire had resulted from the discarding of x-ray film into the chute, and ignition from a cigarette.
*In a triple-overtime NBA game in Los Angeles, Wilt Chamberlain of the Philadelphia Warriors scored 78 points, breaking the record of 71 set by Elgin Baylor, as the two men faced each other. Baylor, playing for the Lakers, poured in 63 points. The two men had already combined for 100 points (53 for Chamberlain, 47 for Baylor) at the end of regulation with the score tied 109-109. Chamberlain's Warriors lost the contest, 151-147, and while his record carried with it an asterisk, he would score 100 points in a regular game on March 2.
*Portugal's ambassador to the United Nations appealed for help from the UN Security Council, reporting that 30,000 troops from India were massing along the border of the Portuguese colony at Goa, and that seven ships from the Indian Navy were approaching Goa's coast.
*Errol Barrow replaced Hugh Gordon Cummins as Premier of Barbados.
*Born: Ann Coulter, American conservative commentator, in New York City
*Died:
** Séumas Robinson, 71, Irish republican
**Francesco Severi, 82, Italian mathematician

December 9, 1961 (Saturday)

*At the National Stadium in Dar es Salaam, the former British colony of Tanganyika gained independence, with Julius Nyerere as its first Prime Minister. Sir Richard Turnbull, who had been the British governor, served as the first and last Governor-general of Tanganyika until the nation became a Republic on the next Uhuru Day, one year later, with Nyerere as President. Prince Philip, the husband of Queen Elizabeth II, appeared on behalf of the United Kingdom. At midnight, the British territorial flag was slowly lowered as a record played ''God Save the Queen''. The lights were then turned off, the new national anthem, ''Mungu Ibariki Tanganyika'' (God Bless Tanganyika) was played as the new flag was raised, and the lights were switched on again. In 1963, Tanganyika would merge with Zanzibar to become Tanzania.
*In the Australian national elections, the government of Robert Menzies was re-elected for the a sixth time. Although Menzies' Liberal Party eventually lost 15 seats and its coalition partner, the Country Party lost 2, the group was able to retain a razor thin majority of one, with 62 of the 122 seats in the Australian House of Representatives. The joint ticket won 30 of the 60 seats in the Senate of Australia. The Australian Labor Party (ALP), led by Arthur Calwell, gained 15 seats and had 60 of the 120 in the House.

December 10, 1961 (Sunday)

*Operation Plowshare, the American experiment in using atomic weapons for peaceful purposes, began with Project Gnome, the underground explosion of a 3 kiloton atomic bomb near Carlsbad, New Mexico. Although the test device was placed 1,200 feet below the surface in a cavern of rock salt, water within the salt was vaporized by the blast and sent a geyser of radioactive steam 300 above the surface.
*The Soviet–Albanian split was culminated when the Communist government of Albania confirmed that the Soviet Union had severed diplomatic relations on December 3, marking the first time that the U.S.S.R. had ever withdrawn its embassy from another Communist state. Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev had criticized Albanian leaders Enver Hoxha and Mehmet Shehu at the 22nd Soviet Communist Party Congress after the Albanians refused to repudiated Stalinism. The People's Republic of China then began a program of emergency aid to the Balkan nation.
*The Nobel Prizes were presented in Stockholm. Nobel laureates for 1961 were Melvin Calvin (chemistry), Georg von Békésy (medicine), Robert Hofstadter and Rudolf Mössbauer (physics), Ivo Andrić (literature) and the late Dag Hammarskjöld (peace).
*Born: Oded Schramm, Israeli mathematician, in Jerusalem (d. 2008)

December 11, 1961 (Monday)

*The Vietnam War officially began for the United States, as the USS ''Core'' arrived at Saigon Harbor. The ship brought in two helicopter units, the 8th Transportation Company from Fort Bragg and the 57th Transportation Company from Fort Lewis, with 33 H-21 Shawnee helicopters, and 400 U.S. Army personnel.
*After months of trial before a three judge panel in Israel, Adolf Eichmann