1960 - Dick Clark told a House of Representatives investigating committee looking into the payola scandal that he, the host of "American Bandstand", never took payola for records featured on his daily TV show. Clark would, however, relinquish rights to music publishing that he owned. The value of those rights, Clark indicated 30 years later, amounted to about $80 million.

1960 - Floyd Patterson took back the world heavyweight title by knocking out Ingemar Johansson of Sweden in round five of a title bout at the Polo Grounds in New York City. (Patterson was knocked out in one round by Sonny Liston in a title bout in Chicago, Sep 25, 1962.)

1960 - An American U-2 plane invaded Soviet airspace. The Soviets reacted by shooting down the plane piloted by the C.I.A.’s Francis Gary Powers. It took five days for the Soviets to announce the occurrance to the rest of the world. At first the U.S. referred to the U-2 as a weather reconnaissance plane, denying that Powers was a spy. Later, the U.S. State Department admitted that the mission was to photograph Soviet military installations, and that the mission was justified. Powers was tried as a spy by the Soviet Union. He was sentenced to solitary confinement for 10 years in "Matrosskaya Tishina". In 17 months, he was exchanged for Russian spy Rudolf Abel who had been exposed by the CIA.

1960 - The first Etch-A-Sketch went on sale. Over 50 million units were sold during the next 25 years. It was the favorite toy of many moms because it was self-contained and so-o-o quiet.

1960 - A world record for a successful free fall was set by Colonel Joseph W. Kittinger Jr. What Kittinger did was quite amazing. He dropped from an altitude of 102,800 feet, more than 19 miles, before opening his parachute -- at 17,500 feet -- over New Mexico.

1961 - “Spanning the globe ... to bring you the constant variety of sport, the constant variety of human competition, the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. This is ABC’s Wide World of Sports.” A Saturday afternoon sports program began its long run on ABC-TV. The show, featuring Jim McKay as host, along with Howard Cosell, Frank Gifford, Al Michaels, Jack Whitaker, Heywood Hale Brun and others, was not an immediate hit. Although Roone Arledge’s vision of a worldwide window on televised sports got off to a slow start, "ABC’s Wide World of Sports" became one of TV’s most popular and enduring programs.

1961 - Ricky Nelson reached the top spot on the "Billboard" singles chart with "Travelin’ Man". It was was Nelson’s second chart-topping hit. "Poor Little Fool" made it to the top in August of 1958.

1961 - Roy Orbison was wrapping up a week at number one on the "Billboard" record chart with "Running Scared", his first number one hit. Orbison recorded 23 hits for the pop charts, but only one other song made it to number one: "Oh Pretty Woman" in 1964. He came close with a number two effort, "Crying", number four with "Dream Baby" and number five with "Mean Woman Blues". Orbison was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987; but suffered a fatal heart attack just one year later.

1961 - Gary Player of South Africa became the first foreign golfer to win the Masters Golf Tournament in Augusta, Georgia. Player, age 25, won by just one stroke over both Charles Coe, an amateur, and defending champion Arnold Palmer. Coe shot a record 280, which was the lowest score turned in by an amateur at the Masters up to that time.

1961 - Carl Yastrzemski replaced Ted Williams in left field for the Boston Red Sox. The ‘Yaz’ was just 21 years old and had but two years experience in the minor leagues when he was called. In his first at-bat, he got a hit off Kansas City’s Ray Herbert. Yastrzemski retired in 1984, having played his entire major-league career in a Boston Red Sox uniform.

1961 - Sandy Koufax of the Los Angeles Dodgers struck out 18 batters in a game this day, becoming the first major-league pitcher to do so on two different occasions.

1961 - "Carnival" opened on Broadway at the Imperial Theatre in New York City. Anna Maria Alberghetti starred in the musical which ran for 719 performances.

1961 - The 33rd Annual Academy Awards ceremony, hosted by Bob Hope, ended the ten year drought during which producer, writer, director Billy Wilder could not capture the elusive Oscar. Wilder was no stranger to Oscar, though. He had three of the golden statuettes sitting on his mantle (or wherever the Wilders keep their awards) from previous years. But this year, the winnings were much sweeter. Not only did Mr. Wilder receive the Oscar for Best Writing/Story and Screenplay/Written Directly for the Screen (shared with I.A.L. Diamond) and the Best Director Oscar (both for "The Apartment"), he and "The Apartment" also received the top award, Best Picture. There were other happy Oscar recipients this night at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, as well. Burt Lancaster took the Best Actor honors and Shirley Jones, the Best Supporting Actress, for their performances in "Elmer Gantry". Elizabeth Taylor was voted Best Actress for her role in "Butterfield 8". "Spartacus", nominated in six categories, won four Oscars, including one for Peter Ustinov as Best Actor in a Supporting Role. The Best Music/Song was awarded to "Never on Sunday" and Manos Hadjidakis from the foreign flick: "Pote tin Kyriaki". Yes, we know ... it’s all Greek to you. Some one-Oscar wonder films from 1960: "Sons and Lovers", "The Alamo", "The Time Machine", "Exodus". Some multi-nominations but no wins from that year include: "Inherit the Wind", "The Sundowners", "Cimarron", "Sunrise at Campobello", "Psycho", "Bells are Ringing", "The Magnificent Seven", "Can-Can".

1961 - John Chancellor became the on-air host of the "Today" show on NBC-TV. Chancellor replaced Dave Garroway, who had resigned after 10 years of early morning duty on the popular program.

1961 - Ty Cobb died of cancer at age 74. Cobb was considered by many to be the greatest baseball player of all time.

1961 - Rocker Bobby Lewis was starting week #2 of a seven-week stay at number one (one, one, one) on the pop-music charts with his smash, "Tossin’ and Turnin’". Lewis, who grew up in an orphanage, learned to play the piano at age 5. He became popular in the Detroit, MI area before moving on to fame and fortune with Beltone Records.

1961 - Green Bay Packers’ running back/kicker Paul Hornung set a Packer records for points scored in a game: 33. Hornung scored 33 points: four touchdowns, six extra points and one field goal. (The Packers beat the Baltimore Coltsto, 45-7.)

1961 - The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) gave approval for FM stereo broadcasting. It would be another five or six years before FM stations went ‘underground’ or ‘progressive’ to attract listeners who were tired of the lack of audio quality on AM stations. FM stations to that time had broadcast in glorious monaural sound.

1961 - Warren Spahn pitched his second no-hit game for the Milwaukee Braves. He beat the San Francisco Giants 1-0. Not bad for a guy who was 41 years old at the time.

1961 - "Shore Patrol Revisited" became one of the most memorable episodes of the CBS-TV series, "Hennessey". The program marked the first time that Jackie Cooper and Mickey Rooney appeared together professionally since they had been teenagers -- some 25 years earlier.

1961 - The New York Metropolitan Baseball Club Inc. selected the "Mets" as the name for their National League baseball franchise that would begin play at the Polo Grounds in 1962.

1961 - Pat Boone spent this day at number one for one last time with "Moody River". Boone, a teen heart-throb in the 1950s, had previously walked his way up the music charts, wearing white buck shoes, of course, with these other hits: "Ain’t That a Shame", "I Almost Lost My Mind", "Don’t Forbid Me", "Love Letters in the Sand" and "April Love".

1961 - Bob Dylan made his professional singing debut in Greenwich Village. He sang "Blowin’ in the Wind".

1961 - A year after Chubby Checker reached the #1 spot with "The Twist", the singer appeared on "The Ed Sullivan Show" to sing the song again. "The Twist" became the first record to reach #1 a second time around -- on January 13, 1962.

1962 - Race jockey Eddie Arcaro retired with a career record of 15,327 victories for total winnings of $12,265,455. Arcaro was the first jockey to win 3,000 races and the first to ride five Kentucky Derby winners. In the Derby, Arcaro rode these mounts to the Winner’s Circle: Lawrin, Whirl-a-Way, Hoop Jr., Citation and Hill Gail.

1962 - A world indoor pole-vault record was set by Don Meyers in Chicago, IL as he cleared 16 feet, 1-1/4 inches.

1962 - An earthquake struck northwestern Iran near Ghazvin. The magnitude 7.3 quake killed some 12,000 people.

1962 - Brian Epstein, manager of The Beatles, handed drummer Pete Best his walking papers. Best had been with the group for 2-1/2 years. Ringo Starr (Richard Starkey) was picked to take his place. One month later, the group recorded, "Love Me Do".

1962 - For the first time, a jazz concert was presented at the White House. Jazz had previously been served as background music only.

1962 - Actress Marilyn Monroe died from a drug overdose in Los Angeles, in a case that is still unsolved and involves a lot of speculation. She was 36 years old.

1962 - “Come and listen to the story ’bout a man named Jed...” "The Beverly Hillbillies" aired on CBS-TV. U.S. audiences were enchanted with Jed, Ellie Mae, Granny, Jethro, Miss Jane and that banker feller. Enchanted, as in a trance, in fact, for 216 shows. Bluegrass stars Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs had the honor of composing and recording the theme song and hit record, "The Ballad of Jed Clampett".

1962 - The 4 Seasons, with Frankie Valli as lead singer, began a five-week run at the top of the tunedex with "Big Girls Don’t Cry".

1962 - U.S. President John F. Kennedy informed the world that the Soviet Union was building secret missile bases in Cuba and that he had ordered a naval quarantine (blockade) of Cuba. He also demanded that Russian Premier Nikita S. Khrushchev remove all the missiles and their bases.

1962 - Robert Goulet stepped out of the role of Sir Lancelot after singing/acting the part since 1960. The fabulously successful Broadway musical, "Camelot", also starred Richard Burton as King Arthur and Julie Andrews as Queen Guenevere.

1962 - “From New York ... heeeeeeeeeere’s Johnny!” Ed McMahon introduced the new host of NBC’s "Tonight Show" for the first time. Johnny Carson entertained late-night America for nearly three decades, give or take 20 years for vacations...

1962 - "My Fair Lady" closed after a run of 6½ years on Broadway. At the time, it held the record for the longest-running musical of all time on Broadway. 3,750,000 people watched the show and heard tunes like "Wouldn’t it Be Loverly", "Show Me", "Get Me to the Church on Time", "I’m an Ordinary Man", "I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face" and the Vic Damone/Robert Goulet standard, "On the Street Where You Live".

1962 - Detroit secretary Martha Reeves cut a side with a group called The Vandellas and the result was "I’ll Have to Let Him Go". Soon thereafter, the hits of Martha and The Vandellas just kept on comin’.

1962 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled (5 to 4) that prayers in public schools violated the First Amendment to the Constitution regarding the separation of church and state.

1962 - Two albums of melancholy music by Jackie Gleason received gold record honors. "Music, Martinis and Memories" and "Music for Lovers Only" got the gold. Both were issued by Capitol Records in Hollywood.

1962 - Bobby Vinton’s "Roses are Red" became the top song in the U.S. The song stayed at the top for four weeks and was the first of four #1 hits for Vinton. The others were: "Blue Velvet", "There! I’ve Said It Again" and "Mr. Lonely". "Roses are Red" was also Vinton’s first million-seller. He had two others: "I Love How You Love Me" (which made it to #9 in 1968) and "My Melody of Love" (which hit #3 in 1974.)

1962 - The "Telstar" communications satellite was successfully launched from Cape Canaveral, FL. "Telstar" would usher in a new age of communication via telephone and TV, with voice and picture transmission from Europe to America and back. Signals were picked up by a 38-ton antenna in Andover, Maine. To commemorate the event, an instrumental hit by the Tornadoes, an English surf-rock group, made it to number one for three weeks in November, 1962. It was titled, "Telstar", of course.

1962 - Los Angeles Dodger’s star Sandy Koufax pitched his first no-hitter in a game with the New York Mets. Koufax would toss three more no-hit games before retiring in 1966.

1962 - Zero Mostel starred in one of his most famous roles, in the Broadway production of "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum". The comedy opened at the Alvin Theatre in New York City. Audiences laughed through the entertaining show for a total of 964 performances.

1962 - The King of Swing, Benny Goodman, turned 53 and celebrated by touring the Soviet Union. Goodman and his band played six concerts in the U.S.S.R.

1962 - The Beatles inked their first recording contract. George Martin was hired to be the group’s producer and the band would record for EMI Parlophone.

1962 - The Beatles auditioned for producer George Martin of EMI Records. After listening to a playback of the audition tapes, Martin said, “They’re pretty awful.” He changed his mind after meeting the group, however. The rest, of course, is rock-music history.

1962 - A decade after making his first hit song, "Because of You", singer Tony Bennett debuted in concert at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

1962 - The fourth American runner to break the four-minute mile was Jim Grelle. He broke the mark at 3 minutes, 59.9 seconds in Walnut Creek, CA. Talk about cutting it close...

1962 - The New York Mets played their first regular season game. The team, managed by Casey Stengel, lost its first ten games. The St. Louis Cardinals won by a score of 11-4 -- prompting Stengel to say, before a group of reporters and players, “Can anyone here play this game?”

1962 - The Toronto Maple Leafs won back the Stanley Cup after 11 years. The National Hockey League champions kept Lord Stanley’s cup locked up in Toronto for the next three seasons.
1962 - Frank Sinatra recorded his final session for Capitol Records in Hollywood. Sinatra had been recording for his own record label, Reprise, for two years. His final side on Capitol was "I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues", with Skip Martin’s orchestra.

1962 - Singer Chubby Checker set a record, literally, with the hit, "The Twist". The song reached the #1 position for an unprecedented second time -- in two years. "The Twist" was also number one on September 26, 1960. The Philadelphia boy made good twice!

1962 - Patrick Cassidy (actor: How the West was Fun, Longtime Companion, Love at Stake, Dress Gray, Fever Pitch, Just the Way You Are, Off the Wall, Something in Common, The Bay City Blues, Dirty Dancing)

1962 - Joe Kleine (basketball: Univ. of Arkansas, LA Lakers, New Jersey Nets, Chicago Bulls)

1962 - Suzy Amis (actress: The Usual Suspects, Nadja, Blown Away)

1962 - Danny (Lynn) Jackson (baseball: pitcher: KC Royals [World Series: 1985], Cincinnati Reds [all-star: 1988/World Series: 1990], Chicago Cubs, Pittsburgh Pirates, Philadelphia Phillies [World Series: 1993/all-star:1994], SL Cardinals)

1962 - Jeff (Jeffrey Thomas) Montgomery (baseball: pitcher: Cincinnati Reds, KC Royals [all-star: 1992, 1993, 1996])

1962 - Cleveland Indians pitcher Bob Feller was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY.

1962 - John Uelses became the first pole-vaulter to jump 16 feet indoors. Only one problem, though. The ceiling was only 15’6", so, John went through it to set the mark. (We’re still trying to verify that!)

1962 - CBS-TV bought the exclusive rights to college football games from the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for an all-time high dollar figure of $10,200,000.

1962 - The Beach Boys started making waves with their first Southern California hit, "Surfin’". Their new musical style swept the U.S. like a tidal wave when they hit nationally with "Surfin’ Safari" in August of this same year.

1962 - Gene Chandler hit #1 with "Duke of Earl" on this day. The song stayed at the tippy-top for three weeks. It hit #1 on the rhythm & blues charts, as well. "Duke of Earl" was Chandler’s biggest hit out of a half-dozen he recorded. His only other million seller came with "Groovy Situation" in 1970. Curtis Mayfield wrote several hits for Chandler, including "Just Be True", "What Now" and "Nothing Can Stop Me". Chandler’s real name is Eugene Dixon. He owned his own record label, Mr. Chand, from 1969 to 1973, though "Groovy Situation" was recorded in 1970 for Mercury.

1962 - America’s first space hero, John Glenn, made space history. Glenn orbited the world three times in 4 hours, 55 minutes. “Godspeed, John Glenn. You’re cleared for orbit.”

1962 - The Best Play award winner of 1962, "Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama’s Hung You in the Closet and I’m Feeling So Sad", opened in New York City on this night (and for 454 performances). Not the longest run on the Great White Way, certainly, but one of the longest titles of a show. Imagine standing at the ticket booth and asking for tickets to "ODPDMHYITCAIFSS".

1962 - Wilt ‘The Stilt’ Chamberlain scored 100 points and broke an NBA record as the Philadelphia Warriors beat the New York Knicks 169-147. Chamberlain broke NBA marks for the most field goal attempts (63), most field goals made (36), most free throws made (28), most points in a half (59), most field goal attempts in a half (37), most field goals made in a half (22), and most field goal attempts in one quarter (21). The 316 total points scored tied an NBA record. What’s not known is if Chamberlain set the record for most gallons of sweat pouring off a man’s body during a game.

1962 - The Beatles performed for the first time on the BBC in Great Britain. John, Paul, George and ... Pete Best. He played the drums as Ringo hadn’t joined up yet. Paul McCartney sang "Dream Baby" on the show, "Teenager’s Turn" on ‘Auntie Beeb’ (as the BBC was known).

1962 - The musical, "No Strings", opened on Broadway at the 54th Street Theatre. Richard Kiley and Diahann Carroll starred in the show. Also featured was the show’s composer in an acting role, singing his own lyrics. The composer was Richard Rodgers.

1962 - The play, "I Can Get It For You Wholesale", opened on Broadway. It featured a 19-year-old named Barbra Streisand. She stopped the show at the famed Shubert Theatre in New York City. Streisand starred as Miss Marmelstein. Audiences kept coming back for more of Barbra for 300 performances.

1962 - Jack Paar left his highly successful late night TV talk show after five years. He left behind a salary of $250,000 and an estimated audience of eight-million people. Fill-in hosts were used, including one who would ultimately win the coveted position of host of "The Tonight Show". He was Johnny Carson.

1962 - President John F. Kennedy opened the Washington Senators’ baseball season by throwing out the first ball at the new D.C. Stadium (later to be known as Robert F. Kennedy Stadium [RFK]). The original Senators had left Washington for Minnesota in 1961. As part of the agreement to allow the Senators to move, an expansion team had to be granted to DC. The expansion Washington Senators moved to Texas and became the Rangers. The owner who moved the expansion team to Texas was Bob Short, a businessman from Minnesota. Short once ran for the Senate in Minnesota. Wouldn’t that have been interesting - the man who moved the Senators from DC might have moved into DC as a Senator!

1962 - Musicals and comedies led the list of award-winners and nominees at the 34th Annual Academy Awards held at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in Los Angeles and hosted by comedian Bob Hope. The Broadway musical in the guise of a Hollywood film, "West Side Story", was awarded the Oscar for Best Picture (Robert Wise, producer); Best Director (Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins); Best Supporting Actor and Actress (George Chakiris, Rita Moreno); Best Cinematography/Color (Daniel L. Fapp); Best Art Direction/Set Decoration/Color (Boris Leven, Victor A. Gangelin); Best Costume Design/Color (Irene Sharaff); Best Sound (Fred Hynes-Todd-AO SSD & Gordon Sawyer-Samuel Goldwyn SSD); Best Film Editing (Thomas Stanford); Best Music/Scoring of a Musical Picture (Saul Chaplin, Johnny Green, Sid Ramin, Irwin Kostal). Were their any golden statuettes left for any other flick? A few ... the Best Actor award went to Maximilian Schell for his role in "Judgment at Nuremberg" , and for the first time in Oscar history, the Best Actress award went to an actress in a foreign film, Sophia Loren for the lead in "La Ciociara" (or "Two Women"). "The Hustler", "Splendor in the Grass" and "The Guns of Navarone" won a total of four Oscars. Now, back to musicals -- the Best Music/Song was "Moon River" (Henry Mancini-music, Johnny Mercer-lyrics) from "Breakfast at Tiffany’s". The list of comedic and musical movies from 1961 that were nominated but didn’t win is equally impressive: "The Absent-Minded Professor", "The Parent Trap", "The Children’s Hour", "Babes in Toyland", "Pocketful of Miracles", "Flower Drum Song", "Fanny" ... let’s all sing along with Barbra, now