April 11, 1961 Major Yuri Gagarin of the Soviet Union become the first human in space & 1st to orbit the earth. The Morning of April 12th the NY Times page 1 looked like this.

4/8/1961 Publicity illustration showing the ADVANTAGES of the hi-speed "Levacar" that rides on air, propelled by a jet engine!

4/5/1961 New York Times listing of Barbra Streisand's national TV debut. Jack Paar (Tonight) Show. Orson Bean guest host. So it goes.

4/1/1961 This week is the New York International Automobile Show at the Coliseum. Here's your chance to see some of the exotic new 1961 foreign cars you may well have not seen taking a spin in your neighborhood.

3/30/1961 The Pentagon releases a list of domestic bases to be closed or shrunk.
Here is the complete list of effected installations.

Your 1961 Tony Award Nominations!

3/25/1961 The International Ladies Garment Workers Union leads the Memorial for the 50th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire at 1:30PM at Green Street & Washington Place in Manhattan, the site of the tragedy. Be there or be Square.

3/23/1961 JFK's news conference on Laos. He'll consult Laos & SEATO & other allies on any steps, won't be provoked, but "I know every American will want his country to honor its obligations"...to..."peace and security of the free world"

3/23/1961 The maps of Laos Pres. Kennedy used at his news conference alerting US citizens of the encroachment of Communist Pathet Lao forces into Laos. From a newspaper reproduction.

3/9/1961 JFK announces sweeping housing program proposals including a new Dept of Housing & Urban Affairs. A partial list.

2/14/1961 A "Unisphere" 120 feet in diamter'll be buit as the symbol of the 1964-65 New York World's Fair. A drawing's inspected by fair Pres Robert Moses (right) and Roger Blough, Pres of US Steel, which will built it.

2/11/1961 Everywhere you look these days, ads on TV & newspapers & magazines: "vaguely Marilyns" & now "vaguely Jackies"...

2/2/1961 Pres Kennedy sends Congress a comprehensive multi-fronted plan to aid the unemployed & promote growth (with budgetary offsets),

1/23/1961 "When you hear one, you hear the music the way the microphone did.." Do ads for audio devices ever change? Get a genuine Pontiac radio w/your 1961 Pontiac, OK?!!

1/11/1961 With a young, handsome, and famously hatless man about to ascend to the Presidency, the haberdashers become more and more nervous by the day. [Broadsheet newspaper ad much reduced so as to be viewable - the picture much more so than that copy]

Don't wait too long to get your tickets for January 27, 1961's spectacular tribute to the Rev Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. It's barely believable!

Field Guide to 1961 Cars: The '59(l)-'60(c)-'61(r) Cadillac's another favorite transition of mine. '59's fins are perhaps THE icon of '50's cars. But time to modernize. In '60 its the same car. The front end get's some minor squaring off. But the rear qtr & tail lights are ironed out. From a '50's X-15 to a '60's 707 engine perhaps. '61 is a new car. Lighter, trimmer. So this time the front re-done (although the texture of the grill is carried over). Caddy joins the modern world & drops the headlights to grill-level. In the rear the upper-fin comes back, & the two, grouped tail-lights-in-oval return for continuity, just turned on their side for a flatter look. Ta-da.

Winning design for FDR memorial.

12/28/1960 It's the 1960 NFL draft. They try their best to pick the keepers, but how are they to know??

1960 Pro Football (American) standings with 1 week to go for each league. The AFL finishing its 1st season. PLUS all game scores.