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The 1960s Portal
The 1960s became synonymous with the new, radical, and subversive events and trends of the period. In Africa the 1960s was a period of radical political change as 32 countriesgained independence from their European colonial rulers. Some commentators have seen in this era a classicalJungian nightmare cycle, where a rigid culture, unable to contain the demands for greaterindividual freedom, broke free of the social constraints of the previous age through extreme deviation from the norm.Christopher Booker charts the rise, success, fall/nightmare and explosion in the London scene of the 1960s. However, this alone does not explain the mass nature of the phenomenon. Several nations such as the U.S., France, Germany and Britain turned to theleft in the early and mid 1960s. In the United States,John F. Kennedy, aKeynesian and staunchanti-communist, pushed for social reforms. His assassination in 1963 was a stunning shock. Liberal reforms were finally passed underLyndon B. Johnson including civil rights forAfrican Americans and healthcare forthe elderly andthe poor. Despite his large-scaleGreat Society programs, Johnson was increasingly reviled by theNew Left at home and abroad. The heavy-handed American role in theVietnam War outraged student protestors across the globe, as they found peasant rebellion typified byHo Chi Minh andChe Guevara more appealing. Italy formed its first left-of-center government in March 1962 with a coalition ofChristian Democrats,Social Democrats, and moderateRepublicans.Socialists joined the ruling block in December 1963. In Britain, theLabour Party gained power in 1964. In Brazil,João Goulart became president afterJânio Quadros resigned.
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Peter Sellers (bornRichard Henry Sellers; 8 September 1925 – 24 July 1980) was an English actor and comedian. He first came to prominence with his performances on theBBC Radio comedy seriesThe Goon Show. Sellers was featured on a number of hit comic songs and became internationally acclaimed for his film roles, most notably asChief Inspector Clouseau inThe Pink Panther series.
Sellers made his stage debut at theKings Theatre, Southsea, as an infant, and began accompanying his parents in a touringvariety act. He worked as a drummer and toured around England as a member of theEntertainments National Service Association (ENSA). He developed his mimicry andimprovisational skills during a spell inRalph Reader's wartimeGang Show entertainment troupe. After the war, Sellers made his radio debut inShowTime, and eventually became a regular performer on various BBC Radio shows. During the early 1950s, Sellers, along withSpike Milligan,Harry Secombe, andMichael Bentine, took part in the successful radio seriesThe Goon Show, which ended in 1960. (Full article...)
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Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban politician and revolutionary who was the leader ofCuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as theprime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 andpresident from 1976 to 2008. Ideologically aMarxist–Leninist and Cubannationalist, he also served as thefirst secretary of theCommunist Party of Cuba from 1965 until 2011. Under his administration, Cuba became aone-partycommunist state; industry and business werenationalized, andsocialist reforms were implemented throughout society.
Born inBirán, the son of a wealthy Spanish farmer, Castro adoptedleftist andanti-imperialist ideas while studying law at theUniversity of Havana. After participating in rebellions against right-wing governments in theDominican Republic andColombia, he planned the overthrow of Cuban presidentFulgencio Batista, launching a failedattack on the Moncada Barracks in 1953. After a year's imprisonment, Castro travelled to Mexico where he formed a revolutionary group, the26th of July Movement, with his brother,Raúl Castro, andErnesto "Che" Guevara. Returning to Cuba, Castro took a key role in theCuban Revolution by leading the Movement in aguerrilla war against Batista's forces from theSierra Maestra. After Batista's overthrow in 1959, Castro assumed military and political power as Cuba's prime minister. The United States came to oppose Castro's government and unsuccessfully attempted toremove him by assassination,economic embargo, and counter-revolution, including theBay of Pigs Invasion of 1961. Countering these threats, Castro aligned with theSoviet Union and allowed the Soviets to place nuclear weapons in Cuba, resulting in theCuban Missile Crisis—a defining incident of theCold War—in 1962. (Full article...)
TheSpace Race (Russian:космическая гонка,romanized: kosmicheskaya gonka,IPA:[kɐsˈmʲitɕɪskəjəˈɡonkə]) was a 20th-century competition between theCold War rivals, theUnited States and theSoviet Union, to achieve superiorspaceflight capability. It had its origins in theballistic missile-basednuclear arms race between the two nations followingWorld War II and the onset of the Cold War. The technological advantage demonstrated by spaceflight achievement was seen as necessary for national security, particularly in regard tointercontinental ballistic missile andsatellite reconnaissance capability, but also became part of the cultural symbolism and ideology of the time. The Space Race brought pioneering launches ofartificial satellites, robotic landers to theMoon,Venus, andMars, andhuman spaceflight inlow Earth orbit and ultimately to the Moon.
Public interest in space travel originated in the 1951 publication of a Soviet youth magazine and was promptly picked up by US magazines. The competition began on July 29, 1955, when the United States announced its intent to launch artificialsatellites for theInternational Geophysical Year. Five days later, the Soviet Union responded by declaring they would also launch a satellite "in the near future". The launching of satellites was enabled by developments in ballistic missile capabilities since the end of World War II. The competition gained Western public attention with the "Sputnik crisis", when the USSR achieved the first successful satellite launch,Sputnik 1, on October 4, 1957. It gained momentum when the USSR sent the first human,Yuri Gagarin, into space with the orbital flight ofVostok 1 on April 12, 1961. These were followed by a string of other firsts achieved by the Soviets over the next few years. (Full article...)
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