June 1961

[June 1], 1961 (Thursday)

• WGFM of Schenectady, New York, became the first radio station to broadcast FM stereo, on 99.5 MHz. The station is now WRVE.
• Capital Airlines, at the time the fifth largest carrier in the U.S., was acquired by United Airlines, making United the world's largest commercial airline.
• The northern part of the British Cameroons Trust Territory was incorporated into the Federation of Nigeria in accordance with a plebiscite.
• The birth control pill was introduced in West Germany, as Anovlar, developed by the Berlin pharmaceutical company Schering AG, became available for prescription.
• The Golden Knights was designated as the official demonstration and competition parachute team of the United States Army.
• LAFTA, the Latin American Free Trade Association came into existence under the terms of the 1960 Treaty of Montevideo, and consisted of all South American and Central American nations except for Panama.
• Born: Pattie Maes, Belgian-American computer scientist and pioneer in software agent technology; in Brussels
• The Canadian Bank of Commerce and Imperial Bank of Canada merge to form the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, the largest bank merger in Canadian history.

  [June 2], 1961 (Friday)

• SS Canberra, with room for 2,198 passengers and, at 45,270 gross tons, the largest British ocean liner to be built after World War II, departed Southampton on its maiden voyage, bound for Australia.
• J. Millard Tawes, Governor of Maryland, dedicated a granite and bronze monument in the grounds of the State House at Annapolis to the memory of the USS Maryland, nicknamed the "Fighting Mary", and her crew.
• Born: Liam Cunningham, Irish actor, in Dublin
• Died:
• *George S. Kaufman, 71, American playwright
• *Mikhail Khrunichev, 60, Soviet space program director

  [June 3], 1961 (Saturday)

• Vienna summit: U.S. President John F. Kennedy and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev began a two-day summit at Vienna, considered a neutral site. The two world leaders opened discussions with a 75-minute meeting at the U.S. Embassy in Austria. Although described in the press as a "cordial", the first meeting between the young American president and the old Soviet leader was hostile, and Kennedy later described it to New York Times reporter James Reston as "the worst thing in my life", as Khrushchev lectured him and demanded that Western troops leave Berlin.
• Clarence Earl Gideon, a 50-year-old drifter, was arrested in Panama City, Florida after being accused of burglary of the Bay Harbor Poolroom. Unable to afford an attorney, convicted and sentenced to five years in prison, Gideon filed his own petition for review in the United States Supreme Court. The Court's ruling in the landmark case of Gideon v. Wainwright established that state courts would be required to provide counsel for any criminal defendant unable to afford an attorney.
• Stirling Moss won the 1961 Silver City Trophy at Brands Hatch.
• Died: "G. I. Joe", 18, British war pigeon who was credited with saving the lives of 1,000 soldiers of the British 56th Infantry. On October 18, 1943, the division had taken control of the village of Calvi Vecchia in Italy, shortly before the RAF was preparing to make an air strike there. The pigeon flew 20 miles to the airfield just as seven RAF bombers were preparing to depart, and the mission was aborted in time.

  [June 4], 1961 (Sunday)

• Berlin Crisis of 1961: On the second day of the Vienna summit, Premier Khrushchev informed President Kennedy that the Soviet Union would, in December, sign a separate peace treaty with East Germany whereby "all commitments stemming from Germany's surrender will become invalid", including the stationing of occupation forces in the city. In that Berlin was entirely within East Germany, all American, British and French access to the city, including the corridors across East Germany between West Germany and Berlin. Khrushchev added that "it is up to the U.S. to decide whether there will be war or peace", that the Soviet decision to sign the treaty was "firm and irrevocable", and that the treaty would be signed in December. As noted in the memorandum made at the time, and released in 1998, "The President concluded the conversation by observing that it would be a cold winter."
• Died: Former Dominican Army General Juan Tomas Diaz, 52, who masterminded the assassination of Dominican Republic dictator Rafael Trujillo five days earlier, died in a gunbattle with security agents.

  [June 5], 1961 (Monday)

• In separate 5-4 rulings, the United States Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the McCarran Act, requiring the Communist Party of the United States of America to register the names of all of its members with the U.S. Justice Department, and the Smith Act, which made active Communist Party membership a federal crime "if the individual is aware of the party's subversive goals"
• Tony Castellitto, seen as a rival to Anthony Provenzano's leadership of the Teamsters Union Local 560 that served New York City, vanished after getting into a car with Provenzano's aide, Salvatore "Sally Bugs" Briguglio. "Tony Pro" was the chief suspect after Teamsters' Boss Jimmy Hoffa disappeared under similar circumstances on July 30, 1975. Provenzano was convicted in 1978 for Castellitto's murder, though Hoffa's killers were never found.
• Muhammad Shamte Hamadi became Chief Minister of Zanzibar.
• Born: Mary Kay Bergman, American voice actress, in Los Angeles

  [June 6], 1961 (Tuesday)

• The decennial census was taken in West Germany, and the final tally was that 56,174,826 persons lived there.
• South Korea's military leaders enacted the "Law Concerning Extraordinary Measures for National Reconstruction", replacing the legislative and executive branch with the "Supreme Council of National Reconstruction", consisting of 32 officers and chaired by Major General Park Chung Hee.
• Air Congo was formed.
• CUSO was founded.
• In the United Kingdom, the commercial television franchise for north and west Wales was awarded to Teledu Cymru, the Wales Television Association, and would go on the air on September 14, 1962. It failed in less than three years.
• Born: Carole Baskin, American animal rights activist profiled in the documentary series Tiger King; as Carole Stairs Jones in San Antonio, Texas at Lackland Air Force Base
• Died: Carl Jung, 85, Swiss psychiatrist, died ten days after completing his work on the book Man and His Symbols.

  [June 7], 1961 (Wednesday)

• The Sony Corporation made its first public stock offering in the United States, with two million shares offered at $1.75 a share on Wall Street. Within two hours, all shares had been sold.
• California's war against the Japanese beetle began with the discovery, by and entomologist, of one of the pests feeding on a flower on the grounds of the California State Capitol in Sacramento. It was soon discovered that an infestation was imminent. For the next four years, the state worked on preventing the beetles from becoming established, with the risk of hundreds of millions of dollars being lost if even 5% of California's fruit crops were destroyed. After four years, the beetle was declared eradicated.
• United States Navy ships USS Ulysses and USS Diomedes were transferred to West German ownership were renamed the Odin and the Wotan, respectively.

  [June 8], 1961 (Thursday)

• The results of the 1961 population census of Great Britain were delivered to Parliament, and showed the total population of the island to be 51,294,604 based on 43,430,972 in England, 5,223,000 in Scotland, and 2,640,632 in Wales.
• The Milwaukee Braves became the first team in Major League Baseball history to hit four consecutive home runs in one inning, as Eddie Mathews, Hank Aaron, Joe Adcock and Frank Thomas scored four roundtrippers in four at bats in the 7th against pitcher Jim Maloney of the Cincinnati Reds. The Reds won anyway, 10-8. The feat was duplicated twice in the next three years, on July 31, 1963 and May 2, 1964 ; then not again for 40 years until September 18, 2006 and, most recently, on April 22, 2007.
• The first public demonstration of a jet pack was made by Bell Laboratories test pilot Harold Graham, who flew the Bell Rocket Belt at Fort Eustis, Virginia before a crowd of several hundred military officers and their guests.
• Ramón Mercader, who had served a 20-year prison sentence in Mexico for the August 20, 1940, assassination of Leon Trotsky, was awarded the honors of Hero of the Soviet Union and the Order of Lenin. The ceremony took place at the Kremlin in Moscow, and the medals were bestowed by Leonid Brezhnev.
• Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, the uncle of Queen Elizabeth II, married Katharine Worsley at York Minster. On the same day in London, Prince Vsevolod Ivanovich of Russia married Valli Knust, niece of German silent film star Valli Valli.
• A mob of 4,000 farmers seized control of the French town of Morlaix at dawn, blocking the roads in and around the 13,000 population town with tractors and trucks, occupying the city hall, and defying the town's 100 member police force. The Breton farmers were angry at the limits on the revenue they could receive from their products. The French Interior Ministry sent 130 riot police to disperse the group.
• Plans for the establishment of Bangladesh Agricultural University were finalized.
• Died: Olav Bjaaland, 88, Norwegian ski champion and Antarctic explorer

  [June 9], 1961 (Friday)

• Bohuslav Martinů's opera The Greek Passion was performed for the first time, in Zurich. Nils Holger Petersen, et al.,
• Jessie James Ferguson was executed in the electric chair in Louisiana and on the same day, Nathaniel Lipscomb was put to death in the gas chamber in Maryland. These were the last executions in either state for more than 20 years until the reinstatement of capital punishment in both. Robert Wayne Williams was executed in Louisiana on December 14, 1983 and John Frederick Thanos on May 17, 1994.
• United Nations Security Council Resolution 163 was adopted, calling on Portugal to act in accordance with the terms of General Assembly Resolution 1603 which declared Angola a Non-Self-Governing Territory.
• Born:
• *Michael J. Fox, Canadian film and television actor, in Edmonton
• *Amy Denio, American jazz composer and musician, in Seattle
• Died:
• *Ernest Beaux, 79, French parfumier
• *Jeannie Gunn, 91, Australian novelist

  [June 10], 1961 (Saturday)

• The Korean Central Intelligence Agency, South Korea's secret police force, was created under the leadership of Colonel Kim Jong Pil, "explicitly designed to spy on its own citizens". Within three years, it had gone from having 3,000 employees on its payroll to 370,000 officials, agents and informers throughout the nation and abroad.
• George York and James Latham, two U.S. Army privates who had gone AWOL from Fort Hood, Texas, were arrested in a roadblock west of Salt Lake City, bringing to an end a two-week killing spree. They had strangled two women in Florida, shot an elderly man in Tennessee, beat two men to death the next day in Illinois, and shot a man in Kansas and a woman in Colorado before being caught. The two men were hanged on June 22, 1965, in Kansas.
• The Soviet news agency TASS and the East German press service ADN released copies of two memoranda given by Soviet Premier Khrushchev to U.S. President Kennedy earlier in the week, confirming that the Soviets wanted all but "symbolic" troops to be withdrawn from West Berlin.
• Born:
• *Floris Nicolas Ali, Baron von Pallandt, first child of singing stars, Nina and Frederik
• *Maxi Priest, Jamaican reggae singer, in Lewisham, London

  [June 11], 1961 (Sunday)

• The 1961 24 Hours of Le Mans was won by Olivier Gendebien of Belgium and Phil Hill of the United States, who set a new event record, going almost 50 miles further in the allotted time than any previous team. Together, they drove 2,782.19 miles at an average of 115.92 miles per hour.
• The amusement park Ghost Town in the Sky was established on top of a 4,600 foot high mountain at Maggie Valley, North Carolina.
• Norm Cash of the Detroit Tigers hit a home run out of the three tier high Tiger Stadium. He duplicated the feat three more times over the next two seasons, and, after retiring from baseball, admitted that he had cheated by "corking" his bat.
• The 1961 Giro d'Italia cycle race was won by Arnaldo Pambianco.

  [June 12], 1961 (Monday)

• "Night of Fire": In the Italian province of South Tyrol, inhabited by a substantial German language speaking population, 37 electricity pylons were blown up by political protesters seeking autonomy for the region. Autonomy would be recognized in 1972 and expanded in 2001.
• Born:
• *Jagadish, Indian film actor, in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala State
• *Julius Kariuki, Kenyan Olympic gold medalist in 1988 in the 3000 meter steeplechase

  [June 13], 1961 (Tuesday)

• The cornerstone of the Tsiolkovsky State Museum of the History of Cosmonautics was laid by Yuri Gagarin. The museum, located in Kaluga, opened in 1967.

  [June 14], 1961 (Wednesday)

• American singer Patsy Cline and her brother, Sam, were involved in a head-on car collision on Old Hickory Boulevard in Nashville. The impact threw Cline into the windshield, nearly killing her.
• A custom-built 1961 Lincoln Continental convertible was delivered to the White House for use of President Kennedy. Kennedy would be assassinated in the car on November 22, 1963.
• The British government unveiled new "panda" crossings with push button controls for pedestrians. The new crossings were set to appear on British roads the following year.
• Born: Boy George, British singer, as George O'Dowd in Bexley
• Died: Eddie Polo, 86, Austrian-American dramatist

  [June 15], 1961 (Thursday)

• At 11:00 am, Walter Ulbricht, State Council Chairman of East Germany, opened a rare press conference in East Berlin for Western journalists, restating the Communist demand that Berlin should be a "Free City". Reporter Annamarie Doherr of the Frankfurter Rundschau asked Ulbricht whether a boundary would be erected at the Brandenburg Gate. Ulbricht responded with the first reference to "die Mauer", "I understand by your question that there are men in West Germany who wish that we would mobilize the construction workers of the GDR in order to build a wall," and added, "No one has the intention of erecting a wall!. Construction of the Berlin Wall would begin on August 13.
• Forty-five men, Freedom Riders who had been arrested on June 2 in Jackson, Mississippi, for protesting segregation, were transferred from the crowded local jail to the Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman. Later that morning, two of the men, Felix Singer and Terry Sullivan, both white men from Chicago, were tortured with an electric cattle prod, in one of the first publicized uses of an electrified non-lethal weapon as a law enforcement device to control human beings. The 10,000 volt devices continued to be used throughout the 1960s. The story of the brutality at Parchman was reported worldwide after another of the protestors was released two weeks later.
• Taunggyi University at the city of Taunggyi in Burma, as Taunggyi College.
• In Ethiopia, Emperor Haile Selassie inaugurated a new 226 meter-long highway bridge over the river Abay near Bahir Dar.
• The Canadian Mathematical Bulletin received Joachim Lambek's paper "How to Program an Infinite Abacus", representing an important development in theoretical computer science.
• Born: Anga Díaz, Cuban percussionist, in Pinar del Río Province

  [June 16], 1961 (Friday)

• The dance troupe of Russia's Kirov Ballet was at Le Bourget Airport and waiting to board a flight to London, when the star, dancer Rudolf Nureyev, was pulled aside by KGB agents and told that he was to take a 12:25 pm flight back to Moscow. Sensing that he would never be allowed to leave the Soviet Union again, Nureyev broke away from the escorts and ran over to two French airport policemen, shouting in English, "Protect me!" France granted the defecting Nureyev asylum.
• English motorcycle racer Ralph Rensen, 28, became the third rider in less than a week to be killed while competing in the Isle of Man TT series of races during the month. The previous Saturday, Michael Brookes was fatally injured during practice, and on Monday, Marie Lambert was killed while riding in a sidecar during a race.
• Died: Marcel Junod, 57, Swiss physician and humanitarian

  [June 17], 1961 (Saturday)

• The first President's Daily Brief, a top secret intelligence bulletin intended only for the view of the President of the United States, was published and delivered to John F. Kennedy under the title President's Intelligence Checklist. After the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion, Kennedy had discarded the Central Intelligence Bulletin, which was limited to CIA findings. The daily briefing, compiled by a panel of representatives from all American government intelligence agencies, was renamed the National Intelligence Daily, then the Senior Executive Intelligence Brief, before being becoming the "PDB".
• The first jet airplane manufactured in India, the HF-24 Marut, was flown for the first time, by Captain Suranjan Das.
• Died: Jeff Chandler, 42, American film star, succumbed to complications from orthopaedic surgery. Chandler had injured his back on April 15 while filming Merrill's Marauders and was operated on on May 13. Arterial damage caused by the operation led to a massive hemorrhage, requiring additional surgery on May 18. Chandler died from blood poisoning 30 days later. His physicians were sued for malpractice, a lawsuit settled months later for $233,358.

  [June 18], 1961 (Sunday)

• Thirty-two passengers were killed and 153 injured when a bomb exploded on the Paris-to-Strasbourg express train as it approached Vitry-le-François. Ten coaches veered off the track, with several falling down a 45-foot embankment into an adjoining ravine.
• The Garabandal apparitions were first reported by four young girls in the Spanish village of San Sebastian de Garabandal, who said that the Archangel Michael had told them that the Blessed Virgin Mary would soon appear before them. Reports of sightings continued until 1965.
• The last episode of the radio version of Gunsmoke was broadcast. The show, which starred William Conrad as Marshal Matt Dillon and Georgia Ellis as Miss Kitty, ran on the CBS Radio Network on Sunday evenings at 6:30 and had debuted on April 26, 1952. The television show, which began three years later, continued on the CBS TV network until 1974.
• The Belgian Grand Prix was won by Phil Hill, who finished 0.7 seconds ahead of Wolfgang von Trips. First, second and third place were taken by Ferraris.
• Born:
• *Alison Moyet, English singer, in Billericay
• *Andrés Galarraga, Venezuelan-born Major League Baseball star, in Caracas
• Died: Eddie Gaedel, 36, the shortest player in Major League Baseball history, after being mugged. On August 19, 1951, the 3'7", Gaedel had appeared for the St. Louis Browns in a game against the Detroit Tigers, as a stunt for Browns' owner Bill Veeck.

  [June 19], 1961 (Monday)

• With the exchange of diplomatic notes between Sir William Luce, the British Political Resident in the Persian Gulf, and Sheikh Abdullah III Al-Salim Al-Sabah, the Anglo-Kuwaiti Treaty of January 23, 1899, was terminated, the British protectorate over Kuwait came to an end, and Kuwait became an independent nation. Less than a week later, the existence of the State of Kuwait would be threatened by Iraq.
• By a 5-4 margin, the United States Supreme Court rendered the landmark decision of Mapp v. Ohio, holding that the admission, in a state criminal trial, of evidence obtained in an illegal search was a violation of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Dollree Mapp had been arrested at her home in Shaker Heights, Ohio, on May 23, 1957, based on materials found without a warrant or probable cause. The decision resulted in the prospective exclusion of improperly obtained evidence from trials in the United States thereafter.

  [June 20], 1961 (Tuesday)

• The Political Committee of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party, lone party in the Communist Hungary, adopted a resolution that put into effect a government policy for the assimilation of the nation's growing Gypsy minority.

  [June 21], 1961 (Wednesday)

• The first seawater desalinization plant in the United States, located near Freeport, Texas, was opened. At the White House, President Kennedy pushed a button to set in motion the process to convert salt water from the Gulf of Mexico into fresh water.
• The ATL-98 Carvair, created by Aviation Traders, made its first flight. Each of the 21 Carvairs, converted from a DC-4 airplane, were designed to carry up to five cars and 20 passengers by air.
• Syiah Kuala University was founded in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, by decree of the Indonesian Ministry of Education.
• Born: Manu Chao, French folk singer, in Paris

  [June 22], 1961 (Thursday)

• Meeting together in Switzerland, the three rival princes of Laos reached an agreement to avoid further civil war and to create a representative government "of national union". Prime Minister Boun Oum, former premier Souvanna Phouma, and Pathet Lao leader Prince Souphanouvong agreed in Zurich to ask King Savang Vatthana to select a new government.
• Egypt's Al-Azhar University, a religious institution in operation since 970 AD, was nationalized by the terms of Law 103, approved by the National Assembly at the request of President Gamal Abdel Nasser.
• Former Katangan leader Moise Tshombe was released for lack of evidence of connection to the January murder of Congolese Premier Patrice Lumumba.
• Born: Stephen Batchelor, British field hockey player and 1988 Olympic gold medalist; in Beare Green, Surrey, England
• Died: Cheikh Raymond, 48, Jewish-Algerian singer, after being shot by assassins

  [June 23], 1961 (Friday)

• USAF Major Robert M. White became the first person to fly an airplane faster than one mile per second and the first to pass Mach 5. White was piloting an X-15 over California after taking off from Edwards Air Force Base, and attained a maximum speed of 3,690 mph. White, who on March 7 had been first to reach Mach 4 first person to travel faster than Mach 4, would become the first to reach Mach 6, on November 9.
• The Antarctic Treaty came into effect, after being ratified simultaneously by Australia, Argentina and Chile. Those nations and nine others had signed the treaty on December 1, 1959.
• Born: Ian Duncan, Kenyan rally driver, in Limuru

  [June 24], 1961 (Saturday)

• Twenty-seven years after it had first been introduced, in Europe, the Henry Miller novel Tropic of Cancer was released in the United States for the first time, and distributed through Grove Press. Although the U.S. Justice Department and the U.S. Post Office had cleared the book for sale, booksellers across the United States were threatened with prosecution for violating anti-obscenity laws. The U.S. Supreme Court would settle the issue in the 1964 case of Grove Press v. Gerstein.
• Born:
• *Frédéric Bamvuginyumvira, first Vice-President of Burundi
• *Konstantine Gamsakhurdia, Georgian politician, in Tbilisi
• *Iain Glen, Scottish actor in Edinburgh
• *Ralph E. Reed, Jr., American Christian political activist, in Portsmouth, Virginia.
• Died: George Washington Vanderbilt III, 47, American philanthropist and heir to a $40,000,000 fortune, jumped to his death from the 10th floor of the Mark Hopkins Hotel in San Francisco.

  [June 25], 1961 (Sunday)

• Iraqi president Abdul Karim Kassem announced at a press conference his nation's intention to annex the tiny, but oil rich, kingdom of Kuwait, which had become an independent nation the previous week. Kassem told reporters that the takeover would be peaceful and that the Emir of Kuwait would be permitted to become the administrator of Iraq's new province. The basis of Iraq's claim was that both Iraq and Kuwait had both been part of the Ottoman Empire province of Basra, which had been partitioned in 1918. British troops moved into the area to defend against the chance of an Iraqi invasion, and Kassem rescinded his position on July 8.
• The Bill Evans Trio completed a two-week booking at The Village Vanguard in New York, with a live performance that was recorded for later release. This was the last time the trio would play together, as virtuoso bassist Scott LaFaro was killed in an auto accident 10 days later.
• White supremacist George Lincoln Rockwell, accompanied by 20 of his followers in the American Nazi Party, appeared for "the first and last event to which was invited as a speaker". Rockwell had been invited as a guest of black supremacist Elijah Muhammad to address a Chicago rally of the Nation of Islam, more commonly known as the Black Muslims. Malcolm X appeared as a speaker later in the program. The common link for both groups was a belief in separation of races.
• Died:
• *Miriam 'Ma' Ferguson, 86, American politician who was Governor of Texas from 1925 to 1927 and again from 1933 to 1935. Ferguson was only the second woman in history to be inaugurated as Governor of an American state
• *Douglas McCurdy, 74, Canadian aviator and Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia

  [June 26], 1961 (Monday)

• After having gone into hiding in South Africa to avoid arrest, African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela issued the manifesto "The Struggle Is My Life", signaling that the ANC leaders had not fled the country, and changing tactics from passive resistance to armed struggle. A militant wing of the ANC, Umkhonto we Sizwe was founded as part of the new direction.
• Ernest Hemingway was released from hospitalization for the last time, after spending two months at the psychiatric hospital at the Mayo Clinic for suicidal behavior. The renowned author would shoot himself six days later.
• Died: Hélène Dutrieu, 83, Belgian aviator who set several records in the early days of airplane flying.

  [June 27], 1961 (Tuesday)

• The Reverend Arthur Michael Ramsey was enthroned as the 100th Archbishop of Canterbury and Primate of All England, the highest ranking prelate in the Church of England. After taking the oath of office at the Cathedral in Canterbury, Ramsey took his seat in the Ancient Throne of St. Augustine, a marble chair constructed in the year 1205, and named for St. Augustine of Canterbury, who is considered to have been the first Archbishop, serving from 598 to 601.
• Born: Meera Syal, British-Indian actress and comedian, in Wolverhampton
• Died: Mukhtar Auezov, 63, Kazakh dramatist

  [June 28], 1961 (Wednesday)

• President Kennedy issued National Security Action Memorandum 55, entitled "Relations of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to the President in Cold War Operations". NSAM-55, along with memoranda #56 and #57, transferred responsibility for planning of U.S. paramilitary operations in peacetime from the CIA to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The directives, proposed by General Maxwell D. Taylor following the failure of the Bay of Pigs Invasion, were so secret that copies were not released to either the CIA or to the U.S. Department of State.
• In the Bulgarian Cup final, CSKA Sofia defeated Spartak Varna 3–0.
• Born:
• *Kurt Eichenwald, American investigative reporter, in New York City
• *Mark Goodier, BBC Radio DJ, in Salisbury, Rhodesia (now Harare, Zimbabwe
• Died: Huw Menai, 74, Welsh poet

  [June 29], 1961 (Thursday)

• The "first in-orbit break-up event in space history" took place at 06:08:10 UTC, when the upper stage of an American Thor-Able rocket exploded into 298 fragments at an orbital altitude of roughly 600 miles.The launch marked the first three-satellite payload lifted into space: the Transit 4A navigational satellite, which was the first nuclear-powered device in orbit, with energy supplied by the Systems for Nuclear Auxiliary Power system, powered by the isotope plutonium-238; the Injun I "the first university-built satellite", designed to gather information on the Earths' radiation belts; and the second Galactic Radiation and Background satellite, which measured stellar radiation, but also served as a spy satellite.
• You Bet Your Life, a thirty-minute game show hosted by comedian Groucho Marx, was broadcast for the last time on television, at 10:00 pm. After starting on CBS Radio in 1947, it had an eleven-season run on NBC from 1950 onward.

  [June 30], 1961 (Friday)

• In a pivotal event in the history of professional wrestling, a record crowd of 38,622 fans turned out to Chicago's Comiskey Park. Buddy Rogers defeated reigning National Wrestling Alliance champion Pat O'Connor for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship.
• The 1961 Australian Census was taken. The final results showed a population that day of 5,333,179.
• The Value Line Composite Index, a weighted measure of the value of individual stocks traded on the various exchanges in the United States, was inaugurated.
• Kuwait requested the assistance of British forces to protect it from possible invasion by Iraq. The next day, an initial contingent of 600 soldiers was dispatched. Kuwait applied for United Nations membership on the same day.
• Ernest Hemingway returned to his home in Ketchum, Idaho, after treatment at the Mayo Clinic; two days later, he committed suicide.
• Born: Ralph Carter, American stage and television actor; in New York City
• Died: Lee DeForest, 87, American inventor whose creation of the Audion vacuum tube in 1908 revolutionized electronics and radio broadcasting. Despite patenting over 300 inventions, DeForest did not attempt to recover royalties, and left an estate of only $1,250.