1960
| 
| 
1 January 1960 Indonesia bans all resident aliens from living in certain cities and trading in rural areas. The decree is aimed at the Chinese minority in the country.
The Republic of Cameroon is declared independent of France under President Ahmadou Babatoura Ahidjo. Cameroon was a UN trusteeship territory.
The British Virgin Islands are separated from the Leeward Islands Colony and made a separate colony.
2 January 1960 Concertino for jazz quartet and orchestra by Gunther Schuller (34) is performed for the first time, in Baltimore.
Symphony no.4 by Roger Sessions (63), commissioned to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the State of Minnesota, is performed for the first time, in Minneapolis.
3 January 1960 The Moscow State Symphony becomes the first Soviet orchestra to perform in the United States, in Carnegie Hall, New York.
4 January 1960 After four days of meetings in New Delhi, India and Pakistan announce preliminary agreement of financial disputes arising from the partition of 1947.
Albert Camus is killed in an automobile accident in Villeblerin, France. He is 46 years old.
5 January 1960 Poems for Tables, Chairs, and Benches by Lamonte Young (24) is performed for the first time, at the University of California at Berkeley.
6 January 1960 A five year ban on political parties in Iraq is lifted.
A federal judge in Atlanta orders a restaurant at Atlanta International Airport to stop discriminating against blacks.
7 January 1960 Donald Walsh and Jacques Piccard aboard the bathyscaphe Trieste reach a new depth record of over 7,300 meters 100 km southeast of Guam.
Ned Rorem’s (36) Trio for flute, cello, and piano is performed for the first time, in Pittsburgh.
8 January 1960 10,000 youth members of the Christian Democratic and Social Democratic parties hold a rally in West Berlin to protest recent anti-Semitic vandalism.
9 January 1960 Northern Rhodesian leader Kenneth Kaunda is released from prison by the British.
10 January 1960 Damodaram Sanjivayya becomes chief minister of Andhra Pradesh. He is the first Untouchable to lead an Indian state.
Movements for piano and orchestra by Igor Stravinsky (77) is performed for the first time, at Town Hall, New York, under the baton of the composer. On the same program is the premiere of Stravinsky’s Tres sacrae cantiones, an arrangement for chorus of three sacred works by Carlo Gesualdo (†346).
11 January 1960 India and Pakistan announce agreement of disputes over their western border.
Governor S. Ernest Vandiver of Georgia announces that he will deny state funds to any school districts that desegregate.
The Supreme Court of Delaware rules that private restaurants are not required to serve blacks.
12 January 1960 The British governor of Kenya ends emergency powers instituted in 1952 in the face of the Mau Mau rebellion.
13 January 1960 President Sukarno of Indonesia decrees that he has the power to dissolve political parties.
14 January 1960 Incidental music to Newton’s theatre piece Cuthbert Bound by Lejaren Hiller (36) is performed for the first time, at the University of Illinois, Urbana.
15 January 1960 When a Woman Ascends the Stairs, a film with music by Toshiro Mayuzumi (30), is released in Japan.
The Supreme Soviet of the USSR approves a cut of 1,200,000 men in the country’s armed forces.
Spectra for orchestra by Gunther Schuller (34) is performed for the first time, in Carnegie Hall, New York. It was performed privately yesterday in Carnegie Hall.
18 January 1960 Great Britain decides to delay the proclamation of independence for Cyprus from 19 February to one month later. An impasse has developed over the size of British military bases on the island.
A constitutional conference for Kenya opens in London.
Suddeutsche Zeitung of Munich publishes an interview with Major General Jacques Massu, French civil and military administrator of the Algiers region. He is quoted as saying the French army no longer supports President de Gaulle and does not understand his Algeria policy.
Agreement between the USSR and the UAR on Soviet funding of the second stage of the Aswan High Dam is made public.
Variationen über ein karibisches Thema for orchestra by Werner Egk (58) is performed for the first time, in Freiburg, conducted by the composer.
19 January 1960 Major General Jacques Massu, French commander for the Algiers region, is summoned to Paris to explain the newspaper interview of yesterday.
20 January 1960 China completes ratification of a treaty with Indonesia requiring Chinese residents of Indonesia to choose citizenship in either country, but not both.
The Soviet Union begins a series of ICBM tests from its territory into the mid-Pacific Ocean.
Major General Jacques Massu publicly reaffirms his loyalty and confidence in President Charles de Gaulle and the French command in Algeria. Prime Minister Michel Debré announces that President de Gaulle’s policies in Algeria will continue as planned.
A round-table conference on the future of the Belgian Congo opens in Brussels, chaired by Prime Minister Gaston Eyskens.
Entité for tape by Pierre Henry (32) is performed for the first time, at the Galerie internationale d’art contemporain in Paris.
21 January 1960 Former Prime Minister of France Georges Bidault is forbidden from flying from to Algeria to make a series of speeches against President de Gaulle’s Algeria policies. He is leader of the Rally for a French Algeria.
A coal mine near Sasolburg, Orange Free State, South Africa collapses, killing 435 people.
La Bocca della Veritá for oboe and piano by George Rochberg (41) is performed for the first time, in Philadelphia.
22 January 1960 Major General Jacques Massu is replaced as commander of the Algiers region by Lt. General Jean Crepin.
23 January 1960 13:06 Jacques Picard and Donald Walsh reach the ocean floor at a depth of 10.9 km aboard the bathyscaphe Trieste 400 km southwest of Guam. They find abundant life at that depth. (It is a depth record which still stands.)
24 January 1960 About 2,500 European extremists fire on security forces trying to remove them after an anti-de Gaulle rally in the Algiers Forum. Barricades go up, beginning a week of rioting in Algiers against President De Gaulle’s policy of self-determination for Algeria and his removal of General Massu. 24 people are killed, dozens injured. A state of siege is declared in Algiers by French commander General Maurice Challe.
25 January 1960 French troops seal off Algiers and surround the barricaded insurgents.
Joseph Kasavubu walks out of the round-table conference in Brussels on the future of the Congo. He demands that the conference become a constitutional convention. Minister for the Congo Auguste de Schryver announces that Patrice Lumumba will be freed from jail to take part in the conference.
26 January 1960 15 members of the French National Assembly representing Algiers fly to Paris in support of the rebellion. Prime Minister Michel Debré broadcasts an appeal to Algeria for the rebels to lay down their arms. He pledges that Algeria will remain French soil.
A week of border skirmishes and dogfights begin between Israeli and UAR forces on the Syrian front. Some soldiers, probably less than ten, are killed.
27 January 1960 A broad spectrum of political groups in the French National Assembly express their support for the Algeria policies of President de Gaulle.
Delegates to the round-table conference in Brussels accept a date of no later than 30 June for the independence of the Belgian Congo.
Two Books of Study for Pianists by Cornelius Cardew (23) are performed for the first time, at Conway Hall in London.
28 January 1960 China and Burma sign a treaty of friendship and non-aggression which resolves border questions between the two countries.
In the face of continued rebel resistance and unsure about the loyalty of their troops, French commanders Paul Delouvrier and Maurice Challe move their headquarters from Algiers to Reghaia, a former US Air Force base. Delegate General Delouvrier broadcasts an appeal to all citizens in Algeria to support President de Gaulle. French police begin raids on conservative and fascist groups within France.
Negotiations in London for the independence of Cyprus collapse over the size of British bases on the island.
Elliott Carter (51) writes to the State Department, declining an invitation to travel to the USSR with Aaron Copland (59), and Norman Dello Joio (47).
29 January 1960 Charles de Gaulle addresses his countrymen on television and radio. He makes no concessions to the extremists in Algeria. The speech moves wavering army officers to the government’s side. French positions around the rebel perimeter in Algiers are reinforced.
30 January 1960 Rebels in Algiers reject the surrender demands of the French government.
31 January 1960 Yakuza no uta, a film with music by Toshiro Mayuzumi (30), is released in Japan.
Fresh troops, whose loyalty is unquestioned, enter Algiers and take up positions against the rebels.
Lullaby for solo voices and chorus by Michael Tippett (55) to words of Yeats is performed for the first time, in Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
Three works by Silvestre Revueltas (†19) are performed for the first time, in Guadalajara: La noche de los Mayas for orchestra, Hora de junio for reciter and small orchestra to words of Pellicer, and Itinerarios for orchestra.
1 February 1960 The revolt by Europeans in Algiers collapses as the rebels surrender. Rebel leader Pierre Lagaillarde is arrested and flown to Paris where he is held for trial. Fascist leader Joseph Ortiz escapes. Rebel barricades are torn down. The military and civil authority returns to Algiers. The French cabinet votes to ask the National Assembly for decree powers for one year.
Four black college students stage a sit-in at segregated lunch counters in Greensboro, NC. The movement will spread throughout the south.
Arjuna, a symphonic poem by Alan Hovhaness (48), is performed for the first time, in Madras.
3 February 1960 The French National Assembly votes to grant decree power to President de Gaulle and his cabinet for one year for the maintenance of security in Algeria.
The Soviet Union begins issuing passes for East Berlin stamped with the “German Democratic Republic”, rather than the “Soviet Zone of Germany.” It is intended to force recognition of East Germany by the West.
Five Canons for school orchestra by Peter Maxwell Davies (25) is performed for the first time, in the Cirencester Grammar School Library, conducted by the composer.
4 February 1960 The Prime Ministers and Communist Party leaders of the eight Warsaw Pact states, meeting in Moscow, issue a joint declaration demanding that the west accept their solution to the Berlin situation and that NATO match their reduction of troops. If not, they will sign a peace treaty with East Germany.
5 February 1960 Minister-Delegate Jacques Soustelle is dismissed from the French cabinet for his support of the recent Algerian insurrection. Also dropped is Post and Telegraph Minister Bernard Cornut-Gentille. Others in the cabinet are reshuffled to reward those who distinguished themselves during the uprising.
Federico Fellini’s film La dolce vita is released in Italy.
6 February 1960 Three French cabinet ministers arrive in Algiers to carry out an intensive investigation of the armed forces there amidst charges of collusion in the recent insurrection. The 20,000 member home guard is relieved of all military duties for supporting the insurrection.
Atlantis for 17 players by Morton Feldman (34) is performed for the first time, at the 92nd Street Y, New York.
8 February 1960 Paul Hindemith (64) and his wife arrive in New York aboard the SS United States for more concertizing and a visit to Yale.
9 February 1960 Major Victor Sapin-Lignière, commander of the home guard for Algiers, is arrested for supporting the insurrection.
A bomb goes off at the home of Carlotta Walls, one of the five black students enrolled at Little Rock Central High School. It causes great damage, but no one is injured.
10 February 1960 French President Charles de Gaulle dissolves the Algerian home guard, mostly veterans who sided with the insurrection, sacks three military commanders in Algeria, reorganizes the police and judiciary in Algeria and orders new local elections.
12 February 1960 Five Songs for voice and 30 solo instruments by Witold Lutoslawski (47) to words of Illakowicz are performed for the first time, in Katowice. See 25 November 1959.
13 February 1960 07:00 France explodes its first nuclear device, south of Reggane in the Sahara.
In an agreement signed in Havana, the USSR will buy 1,000,000 tons of sugar from Cuba over the next five years. This will create credit for Cuba to buy goods from the Soviet Union.
14 February 1960 Samuel Adler (31) marries Carol Ellen Stalker of Rochester, New York, a poet, at Temple B’rith Kodesh in Rochester.
16 February 1960 By today, lunch counter sit-ins have spread to 15 cities in the southern United States.
Danza “Variationen über ein karibisches Thema”, a ballet by Werner Egk (58), is performed for the first time, in the Prinzregententheater, Munich, conducted by the composer.
17 February 1960 A new cabinet is named in the Congo Republic, for the first time without whites. About 300 blacks and 200 whites battle during a sit-in demonstration in Portsmouth, Virginia. About 40 people are arrested.
US Secretary of Defense Thomas Gates apologizes to James Wine, associate general secretary of the National Council of Churches of Christ, after it is revealed that an Air Force training manual states that the National Council is infiltrated with communists.
Divertimento for brass ensemble and percussion by Karel Husa (38) is performed for the first time, in Ithaca, New York.
18 February 1960 Quiet Design, musique concréte by Toru Takemitsu (29) is performed for the first time, as part of a multimedia exhibition in Sogetsu Hall, Tokyo.
The Eighth Winter Olympic Games open in Squaw Valley, California, United States.
19 February 1960 Danish Prime Minister Hans Christian Hansen dies in Copenhagen after a long illness.
The US responds to new Soviet travel passes issued 3 February by banning all travel between Berlin and Potsdam. Great Britain and France do the same, but allow travel for administrative purposes.
String Quintet by George Perle (44) is performed for the first time, in San Francisco.
20 February 1960 The round table conference on the future of the Belgian Congo concludes in Brussels with agreement on a 16-point plan for independence by 30 June.
21 February 1960 After a month of deliberation, the Kenya Constitutional Conference adjourns in London.
Viggo Kampmann replaces Hans Christian Hansen as Prime Minister of Denmark.
Cantata for City, Nation, World for chorus by Leslie Bassett (37) to various texts is performed for the first time, in Buffalo.
22 February 1960 Duke Ellington (60) enters the Blue Jay Restaurant in Baltimore and is refused service because he is black.
Marginal Sounds for violin, piano, celesta, vibraphone, xylophone, and percussion by Ernst Krenek (59) is performed for the first time, in Caspary Auditorium of the Manhattan School of Music, New York. See 17 April 1962.
23 February 1960 Angry whites attack blacks attempting to sit-in at a department store in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Twelve people are arrested.
24 February 1960 The Soviet mission in Baden-Baden, West Germany is restricted to its headquarters in retaliation for the restriction of western missions in Berlin.
An episode of the network game show I’ve Got a Secret is taped today, featuring a performance by John Cage (47).
25 February 1960 In testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee, US Secretary of the Air Force Dudley Sharp states his belief that communists have infiltrated the nation’s clergy.
Music for Amplified Toy Pianos by John Cage (47) is performed for the first time, at Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut.
Incidental music to Hellman’s play Toys in the Attic by Marc Blitzstein (54) is performed for the first time, in the Hudson Theatre, New York.
26 February 1960 Various media outlets report that Marc Blitzstein (54) has received a commission from the Metropolitan Opera, New York, to compose an opera on the subject of Sacco and Vanzetti.
27 February 1960 When blacks try to sit-in at lunch counters in two Nashville stores to protest segregated service, they are attacked by whites. Fistfights ensue and 100 people are arrested.
28 February 1960 After a rally in Trafalgar Square, London called to support a boycott of South Africa, neo-fascists attack and a riot ensues. Nine people are arrested.
The Eighth Winter Olympic Games close in Squaw Valley, California, United States. In eleven days of competition, 665 athletes from 27 countries took part.
Voters in the canton of Geneva agree to grant suffrage to women.
29 February 1960 Irkanda II (String Quartet no.5) by Peter Sculthorpe (30), is performed for the first time, at Lincoln College, Oxford. It is the winner of the £100 Royal Concert Fund Prize.
An earthquake centered near Agadir, Morocco, and the ensuing fire and tsunami cause 12,000 deaths an an equal number of injuries.
The first Playboy Club opens in Chicago.
In the face of demonstrations and sit-ins in his state, Governor John Patterson of Alabama says that there are not enough police in the country to protect everyone if blacks “continue to provoke whites.”
3 March 1960 A nationally syndicated column by George Sokolsky condemns the opera currently being composed on the Sacco-Vanzetti case by Marc Blitzstein (55) and its sponsors, the Metropolitan Opera and the Ford Foundation. The piece includes excerpts from Blitzstein’s secret testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee supplied to Sokolsky by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover.
4 March 1960 The US turns over the Ben Slimane air force base to Morocco.
The French freighter La Coubre, carrying Belgian arms to Cuba, is destroyed by a series of explosions in the port of Havana. Somewhere between 75 and 100 people are killed, 200 injured. Fidel Castro will blame the United States.
Tempi concertati for flute, violin, two pianos, and chamber ensemble by Luciano Berio (34) is performed for the first time, in Hamburg.
5 March 1960 Indonesian President Sukarno dissolves the National Assembly because of its opposition to his “guided democracy.”
The US Senate sets a record for continuous session at 82 hours, three minutes during a filibuster by southern senators against a civil rights bill.
6 March 1960 500 police prevent a march by 800 blacks to a protest meeting at the Alabama State Capitol in Montgomery.
Piano Sonata “Christopher Columbus Crosses to the New World in the Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria Using Only Dead Reckoning and a Crude Astrolabe” by Robert Ashley (29) is performed for the first time, in Angell Hall of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, by the composer.
7 March 1960 After a three-day inspection of French troops in Algeria, President de Gaulle announces that he favors an “Algerian Algeria”, which would unite the Moslem and European citizens in close connection with France.
Theatre Piece for 1-8 performers by John Cage (47) is performed for the first time, in the Circle in the Square Theatre, New York.
10 March 1960 Sonata for solo violin op.115 by Sergey Prokofiev (†7) is performed for the first time, in Moscow.
12 March 1960 Three days of fighting begins between rival political factions in Elisabethville, Belgian Congo. 13 people are killed, over 100 injured and 500 arrested.
Paul Hindemith (64) and his wife depart New York for Le Havre aboard the SS United States.
The NBC news program World Wide 60 with music by Ulysses Kay (43) is shown for the first time, over the airwaves of the NBC television network.
13 March 1960 Sonata no.1 for solo violin by George Perle (44) is performed for the first time, in Davis, California.
14 March 1960 Soviet authorities in East Berlin rescind the new passes first issued on 3 February.
15 March 1960 A conference on disarmament, attended by five NATO and five Warsaw Pact nations, opens in Geneva. It is the first important disarmament conference in over two years.
Aaron Copland (59) and Lukas Foss (37) arrive in Moscow, representing the United States as part of a cultural exchange program.
A protest by about 1,000 blacks against lunch counter segregation in Orangeburg, South Carolina is dispersed by police using tear gas and fire hoses. 350 people are arrested.
In Atlanta, 200 blacks sit-in at ten lunch counters in the city. At least 76 are arrested.
16 March 1960 Blacks and whites eat peacefully side by side at a lunch counter in San Antonio, Texas. This is the first such incident in a large city in the southern United States.
18 March 1960 A Shanghai court sentences American Roman Catholic Bishop James Edward Walsh to 20 years in prison for encouraging Chinese priests to spy for the United States.
Aaron Copland (59) and Lukas Foss (37) depart Moscow and fly to Tbilisi.
Concertino for cello and orchestra op.132 by Sergey Prokofiev (†7), completed by Mstislav Rostropovich and Dmitri Kabalevsky, is performed for the first time, in Moscow. See 29 December 1956.
Paper Doll, a song by Henryk Górecki (26), is performed for the first time, in a production of Miller’s play A View from the Bridge, in Katowice.
19 March 1960 The USSR accepts President Eisenhower’s suggestion that all nuclear testing be banned except small underground tests which can not be verified. They attach a condition that all parties immediately cease all testing while verification procedures can be worked out.
20 March 1960 Aaron Copland (59) and Lukas Foss (37) fly back to Moscow from Tbilisi.
21 March 1960 Dudley Senanayake replaces Wijayananda Dahanayake as Prime Minister of Ceylon.
In Sharpeville, near Johannesburg, South Africa, police fire into a crowd of 20,000 people protesting the pass laws. 69 people are killed, hundreds injured. Later, six people are killed, 30 injured, in a similar incident in Langa, near Capetown.
The Cranes are Flying, a Soviet film by Mikhail Kalatzov, is released in New York.
22 March 1960 France announces that it will not join in any nuclear test ban now under discussion by the USSR, UK, and US.
Aaron Copland (59) and Lukas Foss (37) meet with six young composers at the Composers’ Union, Moscow. Among them is Arvo Pärt (24). Copland tells his journal, “…shows considerable natural gift in his Partita for piano, tho’ the piece doesn’t quite add up.” (Bartig, 583)
The first patent for a LASER (light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation) is awarded to Arthur L. Schawlow of Madison, NJ and Charles Hard Townes of New York City. Both work for Bell Laboratories.
23 March 1960 General Secretary Nikita Khrushchev lands in Paris for an eleven-day state visit.
25 March 1960 Fernando Tambroni replaces Antonio Segni as Prime Minister of Italy.
The first rehearsal of the Soviet tour of Aaron Copland (59) and Lukas Foss (37) takes place in Bolshoy Hall of Moscow Conservatory. The program is the Symphony no.3 of Aaron Copland, Piano Concerto no.2 of Lukas Foss, the composer as soloist, and Symphony no.9 of Dmitri Shostakovich (53). At the conclusion, Copland presents Shostakovich with honorary membership in the National Institute of Arts and Letters.
A Federal Appeals Court in New York rules that Lady Chatterley’s Lover by DH Lawrence is not obscene and may be sent through the US Post Office.
Sextet for (A) clarinet, horn, and string quartet by John Ireland (80) is performed for the first time, in St. James’ Square, London, 62 years after it was composed.
String Quartet no.2 by Elliott Carter (51) is performed for the first time, in Juilliard Concert Hall, New York. See 2 May 1960.
Four Declamations with Return for violin and piano by Henry Cowell (63) is performed publicly for the first time, at the New School, New York. Also premiered is Durations 2 for cello and piano by Morton Feldman (34).
26 March 1960 An agreement is signed in Paris providing for the independence of the Malagasy Republic.
Aaron Copland (59) and Lukas Foss (37) again meet with young Soviet composers and hear their music, including the oratorio Nagasaki by Alfred Schnittke (25). In the evening they dine at the home of Dmitri Shostakovich (53). Foss and Dmitri Kabalevsky play a Haydn symphony four-hands on the piano.
Governor Buford Ellington of Tennessee orders an investigation into a CBS camera crew who filmed a sit-in by civil rights protestors in Nashville.
Today and tomorrow, hundreds of burning crosses are placed by Ku Klux Klan members in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina. An Alabama Klan member states, “We just wanted to show the public we are organized and ready for business.”
Concerted Piece for tape recorder and orchestra by Otto Luening (59) and Vladimir Ussachevsky (48) is performed for the first time, in New York, conducted by Leonard Bernstein (41). This is a taped “Young People’s Concert” which will be aired tomorrow. The official premiere will take place on 31 March.
Evocation no.1 for violin with piano and percussion by Ralph Shapey (39) is performed for the first time, at the Third Street Music School Settlement, New York.
27 March 1960 President Sukarno of Indonesia appoints a 261-member Parliament to support his “guided democracy” program.
28 March 1960 The World Health Organization states in Geneva that there is an undeniable link between cigarette smoking and lung cancer.
Aaron Copland (59) and Lukas Foss (37) arrive by train in Riga from Moscow.
Jeux des Tritons, an excerpt from Hans Werner Henze’s (33) ballet Undine for piano and orchestra, is performed for the first time, in Zürich.
Symphony no.12 by Henry Cowell (63) is performed for the first time, in Houston.
29 March 1960 After two days of meetings at Camp David, US President Eisenhower and British Prime Minister MacMillan agree to accept the Soviet proposal of 19 March provided the Soviets accept in advance inspection and control provisions and joint research on detection procedures.
Symphony no.9 by Darius Milhaud (67) is performed for the first time, in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.
30 March 1960 234 anti-apartheid leaders in South Africa are arrested in pre-dawn raids. This is followed by the declaration of a state of emergency by Prime Minister Henrik Verwoerd.
1 April 1960 A second atomic bomb is detonated by France in the Sahara.
Hastings Kamuzu Banda, leader of the Nyasaland African National Congress, is released from British detention after 14 months.
By a vote of 9-0-2, the UN Security Council calls on South Africa to end its apartheid policies and work towards racial harmony.
In the second concert of their Soviet tour, in the Great Hall of the Latvian State University in Riga, Aaron Copland (59) conducts his suites from Rodeo and The Tender Land. Lukas Foss (37) directs his Ode for Symphonic Orchestra and Francesca da Rimini by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (†66). The audience receives them warmly.
Tiros I, the first weather observation satellite, is launched from Cape Canaveral.
2 April 1960 Aaron Copland (59) and Lukas Foss (37) hear a Latvian folk ensemble and a 15-piece jazz band. “The jazz group had not one iota of originality, but, the degree of imitation was deeply flattering to America by implication.” (Bartig, 590)
3 April 1960 General Secretary Nikita Khrushchev ends his eleven-day state visit to France and returns home. No agreements on east-west tensions have been reached.
Aaron Copland (59) and Lukas Foss (37) arrive in Leningrad.
Greeting Overture for orchestra by Aram Khachaturian (56) is performed for the first time, in Moscow Conservatory Bolshoy Hall.
Mostly About Love, four songs for voice and piano by Virgil Thomson (63) to words of Koch, is performed for the first time, in Carnegie Recital Hall, New York. Also premiered are eight songs by Ned Rorem (36) to words of Roethke: Orchids, I Strolled Across an Open Field, The Waking, Root Cellar, Snake, Night Crow, Memory, and My Papa’s Waltz.
4 April 1960 An agreement is signed in Paris which will grant the Mali Federation independence within the French Community.
While walking the Nevsky Prospekt in Leningrad at night, Aaron Copland (59) and Lukas Foss (37) are approached by two Russian jazz musicians who recognize them from pictures in the media. They have a very lively conversation as they walk the visitors back to their hotel. “They knew everyone, except Ornette Coleman.” (Bartig, 592) Copland and Foss present them with three recordings, Lennie Tristano, Gerry Mulligan, and the Modern Jazz Quartet.
Consort of Four Trombones by Charles Wuorinen (21) is performed for the first time, in Carnegie Recital Hall, New York.
Chamber Music for 13 Players by Arthur Berger (47) is performed for the first time, in Fiesta Hall, Los Angeles.
5 April 1960 Monody for Corpus Christi for soprano, flute, horn, and violin by Harrison Birtwistle (25) is performed for the first time, in Royal Festival Hall, London.
Leonard Bernstein (41) conducts the New York Philharmonic at the White House before President Eisenhower, playing Mozart (†168) and Gershwin (†22). Eisenhower tells Bernstein that he enjoyed Rhapsody in Blue. “It’s got a theme. I like music with a theme, not all them arias and barcarolles.”
String Quartet 1959 by Gottfried Michael Koenig (33) is performed for the first time, in Cincinnati.
7 April 1960 South African troops and police raid the Capetown suburb of Nyanga arresting 1,525 blacks.
Anti-government terrorists begin attacks in two areas of Cameroon to disrupt upcoming national elections. 200-400 people are killed.
Aaron Copland (59) and Lukas Foss (37) perform in the Bolshoy Hall of the Leningrad Philharmonic. Foss directs his Symphony of Chorales and Copland his Statements and the suite from The Red Pony.
8 April 1960 The Pan-Africanist Congress and the African National Congress are banned by the South African government. Raids in five South African cities arrest several alleged leaders of the anti-apartheid movement. The number of such people now in detention reaches 400. Police raid Pimville, near Johannesburg, and arrest hundreds of blacks.
Louis Daquin’s film Les arrivistes, with music by Hanns Eisler (61), is released in France.
Two works by Gunther Schuller (34) are performed for the first time, in Carnegie Recital Hall, New York: Curtain Raiser for flute, alto clarinet, horn, and piano, and Quartet for four doublebasses. The composer plays horn in Curtain Raiser.
9 April 1960 At a trade and farm fair in Johannesburg, white farmer David Pratt walks up to Prime Minister Henrik Verwoerd and shoots him twice in the head. Pratt is immediately pounced upon by police and bystanders. Verwoerd is taken to Johannesburg General Hospital. He will survive.
Dmitri Shostakovich (53) is elected First Secretary of the new Composers’ Union of the RSFSR.
Aaron Copland (59) and Lukas Foss (37) return to Moscow from Leningrad by train.
Dimensioni II/Invenzione su Una Voce for tape by Bruno Maderna (39) is performed for the first time, in Milan.
10 April 1960 The South African cabinet confirms Lands-Forestry-Public Works Minister Paul Sauer as leader of the government until the return of Prime Minister Henrik Verwoerd. 300 blacks are arrested in a raid on Cato Manor near Durban.
Aaron Copland (59) and Lukas Foss (37) give the final performance of their tour of the Soviet Union. The Violin Sonata of Copland and the String Quartet no.1 of Foss are on the program. Copland is the pianist for his Piano Quartet. Finally, Sviatoslav Richter plays the Piano Sonata no.6 of Sergey Prokofiev (†7).
11 April 1960 Aaron Copland (59) and Lukas Foss (37) depart Moscow on a flight to Amsterdam.
Blacks in Jackson, Mississippi begin a boycott of segregated businesses.
12 April 1960 Prime Minister Debré of France warns that if Moslem voters in Algeria choose independence, the country will be partitioned into pro-France and anti-France areas.
Festival of Birds for children’s chorus and trumpet by Bohuslav Martinu (†0) is performed for the first time, in Brno.
A show opens at the Great Jones Gallery in New York including an exhibition of scores from Fontana Mix and Music Walk by John Cage (47).
14 April 1960 Bye Bye Birdie, with music by Charles Strouse, lyrics by Lee Adams and book by Michael Stewart, opens in New York.
String Quartet by Arthur Berger (47) is performed for the first time, in Nova Gallery, Boston.
15 April 1960 The Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee is founded at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina.
17 April 1960 Little Songs for children’s choir by Bohuslav Martinu (†0) is performed for the first time, in Brno.
19 April 1960 Rioting takes place in six major South Korean cities during protests against President Syngman Rhee and accusations of election rigging. 127 people are killed and over 700 injured. A state of siege is declared in those cities.
A bomb destroys the Nashville home of Alexander Looby, a black city councilman and attorney for the NAACP. No one is hurt.
20 April 1960 The Anglo-French Channel Tunnel Study Group proposes a privately funded railway tunnel under the English Channel to cost £100,000,000.
21 April 1960 The South Korean cabinet resigns, giving as a reason that they gave “insufficient assistance” to President Rhee.
Brasilia is inaugurated as the new capital of Brazil. A new Federal District is created from part of Goiás. The old Federal District is changed to the state of Guanabara.
22 April 1960 Two songs for two mezzo-sopranos and piano by Charles Wuorinen (21) to words of Strombeck are performed for the first time, at Barnard College, New York, the composer at the keyboard: The Door in the Wall and On the Raft.
Edge of Shadow for chorus, percussion and two pianos by Ross Lee Finney (53) is performed for the first time, at Grinnell College, Iowa.
Altitude for chorus and orchestra by Claude Champagne (68) is performed for the first time, over the airwaves of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in Toronto. The work makes use of the Ondes Martenot.
23 April 1960 Vice-President Chang of South Korea resigns rather than serve until the end of his term on 15 August. He is an opponent of President Syngman Rhee.
24 April 1960 About 50 blacks attempt to swim at the all-white beaches of Biloxi, Mississippi. A mob of whites attacks them with clubs and other weapons. Four people are injured. Fighting continues in the streets of the city and ten people suffer gunshot wounds.
Sonata for cello solo by Bernd Alois Zimmermann (42) is performed for the first time, in Stuttgart.
25 April 1960 A new non-party cabinet is formed by President Rhee of South Korea. Street demonstrations against Rhee resume in Seoul and other major cities.
Talks in New Dehli between Prime Ministers Chou En-lai of China and Jawaharlal Nehru of India, aimed at solving their border dispute, end in failure.
The Cuban government nationalizes all imports and exports.
Woodwind Quintet by Gottried Michael Koenig (33) is performed for the first time, in Cologne.
26 April 1960 The National Assembly of South Korea demands the resignation of President Syngman Rhee after large street demonstrations against him.
Music, for unison chorus, strings, and percussion by Michael Tippett (55) to words of Shelley, is performed for the first time, in Assembly Hall, Tunbridge Wells.
27 April 1960 President Syngman Rhee of South Korea resigns amidst protests against his rule and charges of election fraud. Foreign Minister Ho Chong forms a caretaker government.
The Republic of Togo is declared independent of France under President Sylvanus Epiphanio Olympio.
The government of the Netherlands announces plans to reinforce their land, air, and naval forces in Netherlands New Guinea.
Harold Pinter’s play The Caretaker, is performed for the first time, in London.
28 April 1960 Following the recent violence, Vice-President Elect Lee Ki Poong of South Korea dies in a suicide pact which includes his wife and two sons. He is blamed by many for the rampant corruption.
10,000 students marching from Istanbul University to government buildings to protest the lack of civil rights in the country are fired on by police and soldiers. Five are killed, 40 wounded. Martial law is declared in Istanbul and Ankara.
The first national meeting of Students for a Democratic Society takes place in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Landscape for string quartet by Toru Takemitsu (29) is performed for the first time, in Sogetsu Hall, Tokyo. Also premiered is Takemitsu’s Le Son Calligraphie III for four violins, two violas, and two cellos, the musique concrète Water Music, and the first complete performance of Masque for two flutes.
29 April 1960 Anti-government demonstrations by Turkish students continue in Ankara when 4,000 are fired on by police. Seven people are killed, 30 wounded.
In a meeting in Chicago, the National Association of Evangelicals passes a resolution of “doubt” that a president of the Roman Catholic faith “could or would resist fully the pressures of the ecclesiastical hierarchy.”
The US State Department ends its ban on travel to Hungary.
Percy Grainger (77) gives his last public performance, at Dartmouth College.
30 April 1960 3,000 students in Istanbul are arrested in continuing unrest against the Turkish government.
The oldest bat on record is found in a cave on Mt. Aeolis, Vermont (a myotis lucifugus), at least 24 years old. It was banded on 22 June 1937 in Mashpee, Massachusetts.
Sonata for violin solo no.1 by Otto Luening (59) is performed for the first time, in Kaufmann Concert Hall, New York.
1 May 1960 American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers is shot down while flying a spy mission over Sverdlovsk, USSR. He survives and is captured.
Oxford University confers an honorary degree on Zoltán Kodály (77).
800,000 West Berliners, one-third of the city’s population, rally to hear Mayor Willy Brandt say that they are going to do everything to remain free of communism.
2 May 1960 Elliott Carter (51) wins the Pulitzer Prize in Music for his String Quartet no.2. See 25 March 1960.
3 May 1960 The resignations of South Korean President Syngman Rhee and his government are accepted by Parliament.
An agreement announced in London sets next 27 April as the date of independence for Sierra Leone.
The Convention of the European Free Trade Association comes into force between its signatories: Austria, Denmark, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
The Fantasticks, music by Schmidt, words by Jones after Rostand, opens at the Sullivan Street Playhouse, New York.
Trio concertante for clarinet, trumpet, trombone, and band by TJ Anderson (31) is performed for the first time, in Langston, Oklahoma.
5 May 1960 Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev presents evidence to the Supreme Soviet that an American spy plane was shot down over the USSR. The US responds that the plane had taken off from Turkey and was gathering weather information when it strayed off course into the Soviet Union.
Great Britain announces that it will grant independence to British Somaliland by 1 July.
As he walks from his car to a meeting of the Democratic Party, Prime Minister Adnan Menderes of Turkey is surrounded by 3,000 citizens demanding more freedom. He manages to escape the throng.
Introduction and Goodbyes, an opera for baritone and chorus by Lukas Foss (37) to words of Menotti (48), is performed for the first time, in Carnegie Hall, New York Leonard Bernstein (41) conducting.
6 May 1960 About 500 students ransack the Netherlands legation in Jakarta to protest Dutch plans to reinforce their troops in Netherlands New Guinea.
Regarding the plane shot down 1 May, US State Department spokesman Lincoln White says there was “absolutely no—NO—deliberate attempt to violate Soviet airspace…[and] never has been.”
President Eisenhower signs the Voting Rights Act of 1960.
Brabant, a song for voice and orchestra by Ton de Leeuw (33), to words of Laurey, is performed for the first time, in Breda.
Moonrise for female chorus and instrumental ensemble by Leslie Bassett (37) to words of Lawrence is performed for the first time, in Detroit.
7 May 1960 Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev announces to the Supreme Soviet that the pilot shot down on 1 May survived the incident, was captured alive, and has admitted to the espionage nature of his mission. The US State Department releases a statement that “in endeavoring to obtain information now concealed behind the Iron Curtain, a flight over Soviet territory was probably undertaken by an unarmed civilian U-2 plane.” It denies that authorization for the flight came from Washington and claims that all countries practice “intelligence collecting activities.”
Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev replaces Kliment Efremovich Voroshilov as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.
Stray Birds, a cycle for voice and piano by Kenneth Gaburo (33) to words of Tagore, is performed for the first time, at the University of Illinois.
8 May 1960 Cantate de la croix de charité op.381 by Darius Milhaud (67) to words of Masson is performed for the first time, in a broadcast to 65 countries originating in Paris, conducted by he composer.
9 May 1960 A coal mine near Ta-t’ung, Shan-hsi Province (Datong, Shanxi Province), China explodes killing 684 people. The news is censored by the Chinese government and will not be known until 1992.
As a method of protesting the West German government’s decision to deport him to East Germany, refugee Botha von Steegan sets fire to Beethoven’s (†133) birthplace in Bonn. The blaze destroys the furniture and two autograph manuscripts.
The GD Searle Company receives approval from the US Food and Drug Administration to market Enovid as a contraceptive. It is the first birth control pill.
Two works by Ernst Krenek (59) are performed for the first time, in New York: Sonatina for oboe and Monologue for clarinet solo.
10 May 1960 USS Triton, a nuclear submarine, surfaces off Rehoboth, Delaware, thus completing the first circumnavigation of the world underwater. The submarine left New London, Connecticut on 16 February and followed, as closely as possible, the route of Magellan.
After four weeks of negotiation between store owners and black community leaders, lunch counters in Nashville are peacefully desegregated.
Paris op.284b for orchestra by Darius Milhaud (67) is performed for the first time, in Brussels.
11 May 1960 Parts of the wreckage of the U-2 shot down 1 May are displayed to western journalists in Moscow, along with copies of the confession of the pilot, Francis Gary Powers.
Israeli agents capture Adolf Eichmann as he is walking to his home in Buenos Aires.
12 May 1960 Three days of hearings by the House Un-American Activities Committee in San Francisco inspire demonstrations against it by students and faculty from several area universities.
13 May 1960 Tribal fighting in the Belgian Congo spreads to Léopoldville.
Police attempting to stop students from attending a meeting of the House Un-American Activities Committee in San Francisco become violent and force out students seated outside the hearing room by means of fire hoses. 68 people are arrested.
14 May 1960 The Kenyan African National Union is formed in Kiambu, near Nairobi, by 30 anti-colonial groups. They elect Jomo Kenyatta, currently in exile, as President.
Virgil Thomson’s (63) Missa pro defunctis for male chorus, female chorus, and orchestra is performed for the first time, at the State University College of Education, Potsdam, New York, under the baton of the composer.
15 May 1960 String Quartet no.7 op.108 by Dmitri Shostakovich (53) is performed for the first time, in Glinka Concert Hall, Leningrad.
Aria for accordion by William Grant Still (65) is performed for the first time, in Town Hall, New York.
16 May 1960 The long-planned summit conference between leaders of the “Big Four” nations begins in Paris. Present are Charles de Gaulle, President of France, Nikita Khrushchev, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR and General Secretary of the CPSU, Harold MacMillan, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and Dwight Eisenhower, President of the United States. The meeting almost immediately collapses when Khrushchev demands that Eisenhower apologize for sending a U-2 spy plane over the Soviet Union and Eisenhower refuses. After meeting for three hours in the Elysée Palace, the four adjourn indefinitely.
A federal judge in New Orleans orders Orleans Parish to begin racial integration of its schools this September. Since the parish has refused to create a desegregation plan, the judge imposes one of his own.
The Cuban government announces it has completed the nationalization of all 109,921 hectares of land formerly owned by the United Fruit Company.
Theodore Maiman of the Hughes Research Laboratory in California makes a laser work for the first time.
Three works for chamber ensembles by Gunther Schuller (34) are performed for the first time, in the Circle on the Square Theatre, New York, conducted by the composer: Abstraction, Variants on a Theme of John Lewis and Variants on a Theme of Thelonius Monk.
17 May 1960 Eleven Studies for Eleven Players for flute, oboe, clarinet, trumpet, percussion, harp, piano, and three strings by Ned Rorem (36) is performed for the first time, in Baird Hall, Buffalo, conducted by the composer.
18 May 1960 At a press conference after the collapse of the Big Four summit, journalists from communist countries applaud Soviet Premier Khrushchev. Some western reporters respond with boos and heckling. Khrushchev calls them “bastards who had escaped the beating at Stalingrad.” He then goes on for two-and-a-half hours vigorously defending the Soviet position.
19 May 1960 Alan Freed and seven others are arrested in New York on charges of commercial bribery (payola).
20 May 1960 Riots begin in Japan against a security treaty before the Diet. Some demonstrators break through police and ransack the official residence of Prime Minister Kishi. This begins three weeks of almost constant demonstrations and battles with police. The House of Representatives approves the treaty in a vote with only the ruling Liberal-Democratic Party present. 500 police remove Socialist deputies who have barricaded Speaker Ichiro Kiyose in his office in an attempt to prevent the session from occurring.
The Southern Baptist Convention in Miami Beach passes a resolution against electing Roman Catholics to public office. “When a public official is inescapably bound by the dogma and demands of his church, he cannot consistently separate himself from these.”
Israeli agents drug Adolf Eichmann and fly him out of Argentina disguised as an injured El Al employee.
21 May 1960 A series of earthquakes today and tomorrow in southern Chile causes massive landslides, avalanches, and high waters as far away as Hawaii and Japan. The Chilean government estimates 5,700 people are killed, 2,000,000 made homeless. The tsunami causes the destruction of Hilo, Hawaii. In terms of energy released, it is the largest earthquake on record.
22 May 1960 Elections for the Chamber of Representatives in the Belgian Congo end today. The leading party in the new parliament will be the Congolese National Movement of Patrice Lumumba.
Der Prinz von Homburg, an opera by Hans Werner Henze (33) to words of Bachmann after Kleist, is performed for the first time, at the Hamburg Staatsoper. See 24 July 1992.
Incidental music to the radio production of Federico García Lorca’s Lament for the Death of a Bullfighter by Roberto Gerhard (63) is broadcast for the first time, over the airwaves of BBC Third Programme.
23 May 1960 Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion announces in the Knesset that Adolf Eichmann has been captured and is being transported to Israel.
57 people are killed in Hilo, Hawaii from high waves caused by the recent Chilean earthquake.
25 May 1960 180 people are reported dead and 150,000 homeless after high waves caused by the recent Chilean earthquake hit Japan.
Jules Dassin’s film Never on Sunday is released in France.
26 May 1960 2,000,000 Japanese, including 150,000 in Tokyo, demonstrate for the resignation of Prime Minister Kishi, the dissolution of the Diet and cancellation of the upcoming visit of US President Eisenhower.
27 May 1960 Amidst continuing unrest against Prime Minister Adnan Menderes, the military of Turkey seize power. Cemal Gürsel replaces Mahmud Celâl Bayar as President of Turkey.
28 May 1960 Cemal Gürsel replaces Adnan Menderes as Prime Minister of Turkey.
30 May 1960 Boris Leonidovich Pasternak dies in Peredelkino near Moscow at the age of 70.
Candidates supporting President de Gaulle win an overwhelming victory in elections in the 13 departments of Algeria.
Pope John XXIII announces that he is beginning to organize an ecumenical council, the first since 1869.
31 May 1960 On the 50th anniversary of South African independence, and in his first public appearance since an assassination attempt, Prime Minister Henrik Verwoerd says in Blomfontein that the country will develop into a “great white nation” and that whites in South Africa will be “the guardian of the black man.”
The Blue and White March (later retitled Blue Towers) for orchestra by Irving Fine (45) is performed for the first time, in Symphony Hall, Boston. It is a reworking of The Blue and the White, a march he wrote for Brandeis University.
1 June 1960 It is reported that 54,000 people fled to West Berlin since 1 January.
All 403 of the Turkish members of Parliament who voted for an investigation of the Peoples Republican Party are arrested by the military government.
2 June 1960 A contract dispute between Actors Equity and the League of New York Theatres closes Broadway for the first time since 1919.
Sete vezes for voice and piano by Heitor Villa-Lobos (†0) to words of Vasconcellos, is performed for the first time, in Rio de Janeiro. See 29 January 1962.
Tarrant Moss, a song by Charles Ives (†6) to words of Kipling, is performed for the first time, in New Haven.
Côte d’Ivoire, Dahomey, Upper Volta, and Niger announce that they will seek independence within the French community.
4 June 1960 A general strike by Japanese trade unions adds to the chorus of indignation against the government of Prime Minister Kishi.
6 June 1960 Joaquín Rodrigo (58) is awarded the Order of Officier des Arts et Lettres by the French government.
7 June 1960 Radical elements of the current wave of protest in Japan promise to harm US President Eisenhower and Emperor Hirohito if Eisenhower visits the country as planned.
Blacks in the Pondoland African Reserve in Southeast Cape Province, South Africa, demonstrating against unpopular government decisions, are fired on by black police. 25 civilians and five policemen are killed.
8 June 1960 Argentina demands the return of Adolf Eichmann to its soil.
The Inter-American Peace Committee of the OAS charges that the Dominican government is guilty of “flagrant and widespread violations of human rights” including “denial of free assembly and of free speech, arbitrary arrests, cruel and inhuman treatment of political prisoners, and the use of intimidation and terror as political weapons.”
Words for Music Perhaps for speaker, bass clarinet, trumpet, percussion, piano, viola, and cello by Michael Tippett (55) to words of Yeats, is performed for the first time, over the airwaves of the BBC Third Programme, the composer conducting.
10 June 1960 6,000 rock-throwing demonstrators surround a car carrying White House Press Secretary James Hagerty, US Ambassador Douglas MacArthur II, and Presidential Appointments Secretary Thomas Stephens as they attempt to drive from Haneda Airport to Tokyo. After an hour and 20 minutes police manage to make enough room for a US Marine helicopter to land and spirit the men away.
11 June 1960 Kontakte no.12 1/2 for electronic sound generators, piano, and percussion on four-track tape by Karlheinz Stockhausen (31) is performed for the first time, in Cologne. Also premiered is Anagrama for four vocal soloists, chorus, and eleven players by Mauricio Kagel (28).
A Midsummer Night’s Dream op.64, an opera by Benjamin Britten (46) to words of Pears and the composer after Shakespeare, is performed for the first time, in Jubilee Hall, Aldeburgh.
12 June 1960 The University of Vermont confers an honorary doctorate on Carl Ruggles (84).
Poème for viola and chamber orchestra by Karel Husa (38) is performed for the first time, in Cologne. It is Husa’s first systematic use of serial techniques.
13 June 1960 Don for soprano and piano by Pierre Boulez (35) to words of Mallarmé is performed for the first time, in Cologne, as part of the first complete performance of Pli selon pli. See 5 July 1962.
14 June 1960 A report to the UN Trusteeship Council shows that Belgium is willing to hold general elections in the trust territory of Ruanda-Urundi early next year, as a prelude to independence.
French President de Gaulle makes a nationwide broadcast appealing to Moslem rebels in Algeria to come to Paris and negotiate an end to the fighting. “We have never been closer to a real solution.”
The University of Illinois sacks biology professor Leo F. Koch for condoning pre-marital sex by college students.
15 June 1960 Rioting resumes in Tokyo against the government and the visit of US President Eisenhower. 20,000 demonstrators battle 5,000 police, breaking through their lines and into the Diet compound where they create considerable damage. They also make it into a US Air Force area and set fire to 14 police trucks. Police using tear gas manage to restore order.
The constitution of South Korea is changed to provide for a parliamentary government.
Manuel Beaton, Cipriano Beaton, and Felipe Martinez are executed in Santiago de Cuba for counterrevolutionary activities. They led an anti-Castro guerilla band.
String Quartet no.3 by Isang Yun (42) is performed for the first time, in Cologne.
Variations I for any number of players with any means of producing sounds by John Cage (47) is performed for the first time, in Cologne by David Tudor playing piano.
Incidental music to Mac Low’s play The Marrying Maiden, A Play of Changes by John Cage (47) is performed for the first time, at the Living Theatre on 6th Avenue, New York.
16 June 1960 Prime Minister Kishi of Japan formally postpones a visit by US President Eisenhower scheduled to begin in three days. There have been three weeks of riots and demonstrations against Kishi’s government and the visit.
The British governor of Nyasaland lifts the state of emergency imposed 15 months ago.
Cuba orders two legal attaches in the US embassy out of the country for conspiring with counterrevolutionaries.
Psycho, a film by Alfred Hitchcock, is shown for the first time, in New York.
17 June 1960 Onna no saka, a film with music by Toshiro Mayuzumi (31), is released in Japan.
18 June 1960 The US retaliates for the Cuban actions of 16 June by expelling two members of the Cuban mission in Washington.
19 June 1960 The Japan-US security treaty, which has been the object of so much unrest in Japan, is ratified by the Japanese Diet.
The International Commission of Jurists, a NGO recognized by the UN, claims that China has committed genocide in its occupation of Tibet.
Apparitions for orchestra by György Ligeti (37) is performed for the first time, in Cologne. It is wildly cheered and marks Ligeti’s first great success as a composer.
20 June 1960 The Federation of Mali is declared independent of France under Chief of State Modibo Keita.
The Provisional Government of Algeria, in Tunis, agrees to peace talks with France.
The winner of the Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Music is “Leonard Bernstein (41) and the New York Philharmonic in Moscow” on CBS.
21 June 1960 Addressing the Third Congress of the Romanian Workers Party in Bucharest, Nikita Khrushchev asserts his belief that war is not inevitable and Marx and Lenin should be interpreted with flexibility.
Anon. in Love, six songs for tenor and guitar or orchestra by William Walton (58) to words of that most prolific and mercurial of authors, Anonymous, is performed for the first time, at Shrubland Park Hall, Ipswich.
22 June 1960 The US Senate ratifies the Japan-US security treaty, thus bringing it into force.
Addressing the Third Congress of the Romanian Workers Party in Bucharest, one day after a speech by General Secretary Nikita Khrushchev, the Chinese delegate, Peng Chen, refrains from endorsing Khrushchev’s peaceful coexistence policy.
Transición I for electronic sounds by Mauricio Kagel (28) is performed for the first time, in Berlin.
President Juscelino Kubitscheck de Oliveira of Brazil establishes the Museu Villa-Lobos (†0) in Rio de Janeiro.
23 June 1960 The UN Security Council (8-0-3) calls on Israel to make “appropriate reparation” for violating Argentine sovereignty in the abduction of Adolf Eichmann.
Suite on the Frescoes of Piero della Francesca by Bohuslav Martinu (†0) is performed for the first time, in Granada, Spain.
24 June 1960 A car bomb planted by agents of Dominican President Rafael Trujillo explodes in Caracas next to a car carrying Venezuelan President Romulo Betancourt. Colonel Ramón Armas Pérez and a bystander are killed. Betancourt and Minister of Defense General Josué López Henríquez are slightly injured. Señora Betancourt is unhurt.
25 June 1960 A new 283-person Parliament for Indonesia is installed in Jakarta. Every member is hand picked by President Sukarno.
For the first time, a FLN delegation flies openly to Paris to begin negotiations with France on the future of Algeria.
26 June 1960 Seppun dorobo, a film with music by Toshiro Mayuzumi (31), is released in Japan.
British Somaliland is declared independent.
The Malagasy Republic is declared independent of France under President Philibert Tsiranana.
By today, 100 people have been arrested in the plot to kill Venezuelan President Romulo Betancourt.
27 June 1960 Warsaw Pact delegations at the Geneva disarmament conference begun 15 March walk out claiming the NATO members are not negotiating in good faith.
28 June 1960 In a border clash between Chinese and Nepali troops, one Nepali soldier is killed.
29 June 1960 The Communist Party newspaper People’s Daily of Peking rejects Nikita Khrushchev’s belief that war is not inevitable. “Only when the imperialist…and the capitalist system…are really abolished can there really be lasting world peace.”
Four days of negotiations between FLN leaders and French officials at Melun, France end in failure.
When a US-owned oil refinery at Santiago de Cuba refuses a government order to refine Soviet oil, the Cuban government nationalizes it.
30 June 1960 Chinese Prime Minister Chou En-lai apologizes for the border clash of 28 June and promises to return the body of the dead Nepalese soldier.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is declared independent of Belgium under President Joseph Kasavubu and Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba. The ceremony, attended by King Baudouin I, takes place in Léopoldville.
Leftists begin ten days of protests throughout Italy against the use of neo-Fascist support for Prime Minister Tambroni’s government. Eleven people will be killed, a thousand injured.
1 July 1960 Soviet fighters shoot down a US RB-47 over the Barents Sea north of Russia. Two of the six-man crew survive and are imprisoned.
The former British Somaliland joins with Italian Somaliland to form the independent Somali Republic under President Aden Abdullah Osman Dar and Prime Minister Muhammad Haji Ibrahim Egal.
Ghana becomes a republic. Kofi Kwame Nkrumah is named President.
Fighting between tribal groups in the Congo erupts in Léopoldville and Luluabourg.
New works are performed in the Basel Kongresshalle for the 500th anniversary of Basel University, including Cantata academica, carmen basiliense op.62 for solo voices, chorus, and orchestra by Benjamin Britten (46) and March for orchestra by Paul Hindemith (64).
4 July 1960 Congolese troops fire on demonstrators in Coquilhativille. 10 people are killed, 20 injured.
5 July 1960 The army of the Democratic Republic of the Congo mutinies in Thysville. Europeans flee from Léopoldville to Brazzaville.
6 July 1960 The mutiny in the Congolese army spreads to Léopoldville.
Representatives of Great Britain, Greece, Turkey, and Cyprus initial an agreement in London providing for the independence of Cyprus.
7 July 1960 At the congress of the Czechoslovak Communist Party in Prague, a new constitution is adopted and the name of the country is changed to the Czechsoslovak Socialist Republic.
Belgium sends troops to the Congo.
Luigi Nono (36) delivers the lecture “Text-Musik-Gesang I” at Darmstadt.
Dr. Theodore Maiman of the Hughes Aircraft Company Culver City laboratories announces his team has achieved the first true amplification of light with a laser (light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation).
8 July 1960 Mutinous soldiers take control of Léopoldville for 12 hours until President Kasavubu accedes to their demands to fire all Belgians in the government.
Luigi Nono (36) delivers the lecture “Text-Musik-Gesang II” at Darmstadt.
9 July 1960 General Secretary Khrushchev threatens military action if the United States attempts to overthrow Fidel Castro.
Belgian airplanes begin refugee flights from Léopoldville.
After five months of protests, lunch counters at seven downtown stores in Charlotte, North Carolina are desegregated.
10 July 1960 800 Belgian troops attack mutinous soldiers in Katanga Province, Congo. They restore order in Elisabethville. The Congolese government appeals to the UN for military aid in putting down rebellions.
1,000,000 civil servants strike in France for 24 hours in a pay dispute.
Eight Pieces for Piano by György Kurtág (34) is performed for the first time, in Darmstadt.
11 July 1960 The USSR claims it shot down a US reconnaissance plane in their airspace over the Barents Sea on 1 July. A US plane was lost in that area on that date, but denies it was on a spy mission.
Prime Minister Moishe Tshombe of Katanga Province declares independence from the Congo.
Agreements signed today in Paris provide for the independence of Côte d’Ivoire, Dahomey, Niger, and Upper Volta within the French Community.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is published in the US by JB Lippincott & Co.
12 July 1960 2,000,000 civil servants in India begin a five-day strike in a pay dispute.
The Congolese government formally requests US troops to help put down rebellions. They also ask Belgium to withdraw its troops to those bases reserved for them under joint military agreements.
Agreements signed today in Paris provide for the independence of the Congo Republic, Chad, and the Central African Republic within the French Community.
Colloquy for violin and piano by Thea Musgrave (32) is performed for the first time, in the Town Hall, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.
13 July 1960 Belgian troops take control of important areas of Léopoldville including the airport. They continue to deploy in the country to protect whites from Congolese.
An agreement signed today in Paris provides for the independence of Gabon within the French Community.
14 July 1960 The United Nations Security Council votes (8-0-3) to send peace keeping troops to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and calls on Belgium to withdraw its forces, seen as the cause of the unrest.
Fire in a psychiatric hospital in Guatemala City kills over 200 people.
Songs About Spring, a cycle for soprano and orchestra by Dominick Argento (23) to words of cummings, is performed for the first time, at the Eastman School of Music, Rochester, New York. See 22 May 1951.
15 July 1960 Japanese Prime Minister Nobosuke Kishi resigns in the face of widespread unrest against his government.
Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba demands that all Belgian troops and diplomatic personnel leave the Congo. UN troops from Ghana and Tunisia begin arriving in the country.
An act calling for the independence of Nigeria is approved by the British Parliament without opposition. Independence is set for 1 October.
16 July 1960 UN contingents from Morocco and Ethiopia land in the Congo.
18 July 1960 China pays 50,000 rupees to Nepal for the death of a Nepali soldier on 28 June.
Hayato Ikeda replaces Nobosuke Kishi as Prime Minister of Japan.
The newly appointed UN commander in the Congo, Maj. General Carl Carlsson von Horn of Sweden, arrives in Léopoldville with his staff to set up operations.
19 July 1960 Three leaders of the National Democratic Party of Southern Rhodesia are arrested by British authorities.
The UN Security Council votes 9-0-2 to send the dispute between the US and Cuba to the Organization of American States.
20 July 1960 The Congolese government calls on the Soviet Union or any other country to intervene militarily in the Congo if Belgian forces do not leave and the UN can not secure the peace.
20,000 Southern Rhodesians marching on Salisbury to protest the arrests of yesterday are dispersed by police.
21 July 1960 Sirimavo Bandaranaike, wife of murdered prime minister SWRD Bandaranaike, replaces Dudley Senanayake as Prime Minister of Ceylon.
Rioting Southern Rhodesians stone police cars in Salisbury. 150 are arrested.
22 July 1960 A UN Security Council resolution calls on Belgium to withdraw its troops from the Congo and requires all states to refrain from intervention in the country, except under UN auspices.
24 July 1960 Blacks in Bulawayo, Southern Rhodesia attack police and any non-black establishment. Troops are dispatched. Over three days of rioting, twelve people are killed, 113 injured and 350 arrested.
25 July 1960 A constitutional conference for Nyasaland opens in London.
The lunch counter at the FW Woolworth store in Greensboro, North Carolina is officially desegregated.
26 July 1960 Amintore Fanfani replaces Fernando Tambroni as Prime Minister of Italy.
The Soviet Union vetoes a UN Security Council resolution calling for an independent investigation of the shooting down of a US military plane in the Barents Sea. It also vetoes a resolution asking that the Red Cross be allowed to visit the two US airmen currently held by the USSR.
Congolese Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba ends two days of talks with Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld and Security Council members in New York. Lumumba demands the removal of all Belgian troops, to be negotiated by the UN, a neutral foreign policy and the maintenance of UN troops in the country to keep order.
After a week of racial violence surrounding lunch counter sit-ins by blacks, a 09:00-18:00 curfew is imposed on Greenville, South Carolina.
27 July 1960 The United States, the Soviet Union, and the United Kingdom agree in Geneva to ban atmospheric nuclear testing and all underground testing over 4.5 on the Richter scale.
After talks with Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld in Brussels, Belgian Prime Minister Gaston Eyskens refuses to withdraw Belgian troops from the Congo. He claims they are protecting Europeans there.
28 July 1960 Agreement is reached in Paris allowing for the independence of Mauritania on 28 November.
29 July 1960 Elections for the first bicameral legislature in South Korea are held. The Democratic Party wins majorities in both houses.
Élégie et rondeau for alto saxophone and piano by Karel Husa (38) is performed for the first time, at the Eastman School of Music, Rochester, New York. See 6 May 1962.
Concerto for two alto saxophones by Paul Hindemith (64) is performed for the first time, in Rochester, New York 27 years after it was composed.
30 July 1960 Algerian terrorist Abderrahmane Laklifi, who led a 1958 attack on a Lyon police station, is executed in that city.
1 August 1960 The Republic of Dahomey (Benin) is declared independent of France under President Hubert Maga.
Lunch counters in several stores in Durham, North Carolina and Miami are integrated after sit-in demonstrations.
Circles for female voice, harp, and percussion by Luciano Berio (34) to words of cummings is performed for the first time, at Tanglewood, Lenox, Massachusetts.
2 August 1960 Early Voyagers, a ballet by Ned Rorem (36) to a scenario by Truman Capote, is performed for the first time, at Jacob’s Pillow, Lee, Massachusetts.
3 August 1960 The Republic of Niger is declared independent of France under Prime Minister Hamani Diori.
Prime Minister Moise Tshombe of Katanga Province orders the mobilization of all able-bodied male citizens to resist a threat by the UN to enter the area militarily.
In a joint statement, Argentina and Israel declare the Eichmann affair “closed.”
The first complete performance of the Four Last Songs by Ralph Vaughan Williams (†1) to words of his wife Ursula Vaughan Williams, is heard over the airwaves of the BBC Home Service. See 27 November 1959.
4 August 1960 The constitutional conference for Nyasaland ends in London in an air of harmony and accord. A new constitution is produced giving blacks a wider suffrage and greater voice in the government.
The Legislative Council of Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) outlaws racial discrimination in all public eating establishments and movie theatres.
5 August 1960 The Republic of Upper Volta (Burkina Faso) is declared independent of France under President Maurice Yaméogo.
When a UN plane carrying civilian technicians arrives at Elisabethville, Katanga, provincial authorities force it to return without unloading.
6 August 1960 The first scientific description of a working laser appears in Nature, written by Theodor Maiman.
7 August 1960 The Republic of Côte d’Ivoire is declared independent of France under President Félix Houphouët-Boigny.
President Joseph Kasavubu of the Congo sends word to Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld that Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba is incapable of keeping order in the country and that a confederation of semi-autonomous provinces is the only solution.
A report by a committee of the International Commission of Jurists charges that China has committed genocide in Tibet and attempted to wipe out Buddhism in the province.
Robert Ashley (30), Gordon Mumma (25), Roger Reynolds (26), and George Cacioppo, having driven from Ann Arbor, Michigan, attend a week-long composers’ conference organized by the Canadian League of Composers in Stratford, Ontario. Among the luminaries present are Luciano Berio (34), Edgar Varèse (76), Roy Harris (62), Ernst Krenek (59), and George Rochberg (42). The four decide that they could organize a better conference and by the time they arrive home, they have planned the ONCE Festival.
Turetzky Pieces for flute, clarinet, and double bass by Charles Wuorinen (22) is performed for the first time, in Westbrook, Connecticut.
8 August 1960 South Kasai province declares itself independent of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
A conviction of endangering state security, and a 15-year prison sentence, for Algerian Henri Alleg is set aside by the Supreme Appeals Court in France. Alleg wrote a book called The Question which describes how French authorities tortured him during interrogation.
9 August 1960 Elements of the Laotian military seize control of Vientiane and oust the government of Prime Minister Tiao Samsonith. They broadcast appeals to other troops to stop fighting Pathet Lao guerrillas. Most of the government is at the royal capital, Luang Prabang, for the funeral of the late King Sisavang Vong.
The UN Security Council votes 9-0-2 to demand the withdrawal of Belgian troops from the Congo and to send UN troops into Katanga Province to enforce the demand. Prime Minister Lumumba recalls all troops to active duty and threatens to invade Katanga.
10 August 1960 The Canadian government enacts a Bill of Rights.
11 August 1960 The Republic of Chad is declared independent of France under President François Tombalbaye.
US ships recover an instrument capsule brought into orbit by Discoverer XIII in the Pacific Ocean. It is the first time a payload is recovered from orbit.
12 August 1960 Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld personally leads 240 United Nations troops (Sweden) into Katanga Province, Congo. As they approach Elisabethville, they are informed that only Hammarskjöld’s plane would be allowed to land. When Hammarskjöld threatens to take them all back to Léopoldville, Katanga Prime Minister Moise Tshombe gives clearance for all eight planes to land.
The first telecommunication satellite, Echo I, is launched by NASA. Its sole function is to bounce radio waves back to Earth.
Solo for Voice 2 by John Cage (47) is performed for the first time, at Tanglewood, Lenox, Massachusetts, simultaneously with a performance of Concert for Piano and Orchestra.
13 August 1960 Yun Po Sun is sworn in as President of the Republic of Korea. This is a ceremonial post in the new parliamentary system.
Two works by Peter Sculthorpe (31) are performed for the first time, in Attingham Hall, Shropshire: Sun for voice and piano to words of Lawrence, and Sonata for viola and percussion.
The Central African Republic is declared independent of France under President David Dacko.
UN troops begin taking over guard duties of Belgian troops in Elisabethville.
14 August 1960 Music is broadcast for the first time via artificial Earth satellite when a recording of America the Beautiful is bounced off Echo I from New Jersey to California.
Belgian troops formally withdraw from Katanga Province and return to their base at Kamina.
15 August 1960 Prince Souvanna Phouma forms a neutral cabinet in Laos and pledges to end fighting between government troops and Pathet Lao guerrillas.
The Republic of Congo is declared independent of France under President Fulbert Youlou.
1,000 more UN troops enter Katanga. Some (Sweden, Morocco) reinforce those in Elisabethville and others (Mali Federation) go to Albertville.
16 August 1960 The Republic of Cyprus is declared independent of Great Britain under President Archbishop Makarios.
700 UN troops (Ethiopia) arrive at the Kamina base. Prime Minister Lumumba declares martial law for six months and demands the withdrawal of white UN troops. Police arrest a number of Belgians and other Europeans. Congolese troops go to the Léopoldville airport and force Belgian troops there to board a plane for Brussels.
17 August 1960 Indonesia breaks diplomatic relations with the Netherlands over West Irian.
The Republic of Gabon is declared independent of France under President Gabriel Léon M’ba.
Swedish UN troops withdraw from Léopoldville airport, leaving it in the hands of Congolese and Ghanaian UN troops.
Before a military tribunal in the Trade Union House in Moscow, attended by 2,000 spectators including world press and members of his family, Francis Gary Powers pleads guilty to piloting a U-2 spy plane over Soviet territory.
Two explosions take place near the home of a white real estate agent in Chattanooga, Tennessee just hours after he advertised sale of homes to blacks.
18 August 1960 Army officers who took over the government of Laos turn over all powers to the new government headed by Prime Minister Souvanna Phouma.
Congolese troops attack, beat, and rob eight UN (Canada) soldiers at Léopoldville Airport. They are rescued by other UN (Ghana) troops who come to their aid. Congolese soldiers are then cleared from the airport.
19 August 1960 Chang Myon becomes the first Prime Minister of the Republic of Korea under the new parliamentary system.
A military tribunal in Moscow finds Francis Gary Powers guilty and sentences him to ten years in confinement, the first three years in prison.
Crises, a dance by Merce Cunningham on the first six player piano studies of Conlon Nancarrow (47), is performed for the first time, in New London, Connecticut.
20 August 1960 The Republic of Senegal withdraws from the Federation of Mali and becomes independent under Prime Minister Mamadou Dia.
Soviet scientists recover two dogs, Strelka and Belka, they sent into space yesterday aboard Sputnik 5. Accompanying the dogs are four mice, a rat, a jar of flies, germs, algae, fungi, plants, seeds, and sections of human and rabbit skin. They are the first living creatures to return from space and show no immediate ill effects.
Organization of American States foreign ministers vote to sever relations with the Dominican Republic, impose an arms embargo and economic sanctions as a result of “acts of aggression and intervention” against Venezuela. The Dominican government is implicated in the assassination attempt on President Romulo Betancourt.
22 August 1960 After two days of meetings on the Congo issue, the UN Security Council declines to change the mandate of the Secretary General in the country.
24 August 1960 Congolese government forces are sent into Kasai Province to prevent a secessionist movement. One group lands in the capital Luluabourg while another marches overland from Léopoldville.
An oral live-virus poliomyelitis vaccine is approved by the US Public Health Service. It was developed by Dr. Albert Sabin of Cincinnati.
25 August 1960 The Games of the Seventeenth Olympiad of the Modern Era open in Rome.
26 August 1960 Wireless Fantasy for tape by Vladimir Ussachevsky (48) is performed for the first time, in New York.
27 August 1960 Congolese troops take the secessionist capital Bakwanga, Kasai Province and move to within 30 km of Katanga Province. Five US and three UN airmen are attacked and beaten at UN headquarters in Stanleyville by Congolese soldiers. They are rescued by other UN (Ethiopia) troops.
Madrigale Spirituale Supra Salmo Secundo for male chorus, two oboes, two violins, cello, and piano by Charles Wuorinen (22) to words from the Bible is performed for the first time, in Bennington, Vermont.
28 August 1960 Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba of the Congo demands that all UN troops withdraw from the country as soon as all Belgian soldiers are out.
OAS foreign ministers meeting in San José, Costa Rica adopt resolutions condemning “communist intervention” in the Americas. The Cuban delegation walks out.
29 August 1960 Prime Minister Hazza al-Majali of Jordan and eleven others are killed when a time bomb explodes in his Amman office. King Hussein names Bahat al-Tahouni to replace him. Syria is suspected.
30 August 1960 The Chinese service of Radio Moscow begins broadcasting condemnations of Chinese “dogmatism.”
31 August 1960 The state of emergency, in place since March, is ended in South Africa.
A mob of Trujillo supporters ransack the offices of two opposition parties in the Dominican Republic. The leader of one, Ramón Gonzalez de Leon, is carried off by the mob for lynching but is saved by police.
28 black first-graders enroll in eight previously all-white elementary schools in Knoxville, Tennessee without incident.
1 September 1960 The “Manifesto of the 121” appears in France. It attacks the French army for using torture and other fascist techniques against Algerian rebels, and asserts the right of French conscripts to desert in Algeria. It is signed by mostly leftist famous people, including Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Françoise Sagan, Simone Signoret, and some veterans of the resistance. This will change the political climate in France and street demonstrations against the war will begin by the end of October.
Governor Richard Turnbull appoints Julius Nyerere as the first Chief Minister of Tanganyika. Nyerere’s Tanganyika African National Union won all but one seat in voting for the region’s first elected assembly based on equal suffrage.
The US Supreme Court denies appeals to delay school desegregation in Houston, New Orleans, and Delaware.
2 September 1960 Police battle striking students at the University of El Salvador. Faculty at the University’s medical school suspend classes because of the “barbarous attitude…shown against defenseless students” and the “murder and torture of prisoners by so-called security forces.”
Symphony no.2 by William Walton (58) is performed for the first time, in Usher Hall, Edinburgh. Critics are disappointed.
3 September 1960 The Warped ones, a film with music by Toshiro Mayuzumi (31), is released in Japan.
High Let the Song Ascend for voice, flute, and piano by Henry Cowell (63) is performed for the first time, in Milton, New York.
4 September 1960 Soviet transport planes begin ferrying Lumumba’s forces into Kasai province.
5 September 1960 Speaking on Léopoldville radio, Congolese President Joseph Kasavubu dismisses Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba and replaces him with Senate President Joseph Ileo. 90 minutes later, Lumumba makes a counter broadcast claiming Kasavubu is no longer president and appealing to Congolese troops to support him.
The government of El Salvador declares a state of siege for 30 days, claiming there is a “widespread Communist plot” to overthrow the government.
Hurricane Donna passes north of Puerto Rico causing 107 deaths on the island.
6 September 1960 Léopold Sédar Senghor becomes the first President of the Republic of Senegal.
Congolese President Joseph Kasavubu closes airports in Léopoldville, Bakwanga, Stanleyville, and Luluabourg to all but UN planes. This is to prevent transport of troops into secessionist provinces by 10-15 Soviet planes. UN troops surround UN headquarters and the President’s home. Demonstrators marching to Lumumba’s home to demand he obey Kasavubu are fired on by Congolese troops. Many are killed or wounded.
Bernon Mitchell and William Martin, mathematicians at the National Security Agency of the US, appear at a news conference in the Foreign Ministry of the USSR in Moscow. They have defected, convinced that espionage activities of the US are “dangerous to world peace.”
Representatives of all American nations except the Dominican Republic meet in Bogotá to discuss a concerted effort to aid underdeveloped countries in the hemisphere.
7 September 1960 Chairman of the Council of State (head of state) Wilhelm Pieck of the German Democratic Republic dies of a heart attack in East Berlin.
The National Assembly of the Congo resolves that the declarations by both Kasavubu and Lumumba ousting each other from office are void.
150 Protestant clergy and laymen, meeting in Washington, declare “a Roman Catholic President would…be under extreme pressure by the hierarchy of his church” to follow Vatican foreign policy. The group is headed by Rev. Dr. Norman Vincent Peale.
8 September 1960 The Senate of the Congo votes confidence in the government of Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba.
Penguin Books is charged with obscenity in a British court for publishing Lady Chatterley’s Lover by DH Lawrence.
9 September 1960 Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba of the Congo announces that he has taken over the functions of head of state as well as command of the armed forces. President Joseph Kasavubu iterates his sacking of Lumumba and orders Joseph Ileo to form a government.
At a meeting of the UN Security Council in New York, Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld blames Patrice Lumumba for the ongoing violence in the Congo, saying his troops have engaged in severe human rights abuses.
10 September 1960 Regularly scheduled color television programs begin in Japan.
The UN announces a cease-fire agreed to by the Congolese army and secessionist provinces of Katanga and Kasai.
The US informs the USSR that when General Secretary Nikita Khrushchev visits the UN, his movements will be limited to Manhattan Island. The same goes for Prime Ministers Mahmet Shehu of Albania and Janos Kadar of Hungary.
Constitutional rights, suspended in Venezuela after the 24 July assassination attempt on President Betancourt, are restored.
Hurricane Donna turns north to hit southern Florida.
11 September 1960 The Games of the Seventeenth Olympiad of the Modern Era close in Rome. In 18 days of competition, 5,338 athletes from 83 countries took part.
Anne Gosfield is born in Philadelphia, the daughter of restaurant owners.
12 September 1960 Walter Ulbricht is named Chairman of the Council of State, succeeding Wilhem Pieck.
On orders of Congolese President Kasavubu, Prime Minister Lumumba is arrested and taken to Camp Léopold II but is released after three hours. He leads a victory parade through Léopoldville.
Speaking in a televised address to Protestant clergy in Houston, presidential candidate Senator John Kennedy states that he would never allow the Roman Catholic Church to dictate to him in matters of public policy.
Hurricane Donna makes landfall again in Wilmington, North Carolina and by evening is crossing Long Island into New England. As many as 350 people are killed by the storm.
During Hurricane Donna, all the residents of the Flanders Inn in Arlington, Vermont, including Carl Ruggles (84), are forced out into the storm by a fire followed by an explosion. Ruggles is taken in by the wife of the rector of St. James Episcopal Church. Most of his property and all of his music are saved.
13 September 1960 All political parties in Indonesia are suspended by President Sukarno.
The Parliament of the Congo votes in joint session 88-25 to give special powers to Prime Minister Lumumba against President Kasavubu. Independent observers doubt that there were that many members present and insist there was not a quorum. At the demand of three African countries and the USSR, the UN ends control of Léopoldville radio and opens the country’s airports. Lumumba petitions the UN for specific military aid or he will “seek such assistance elsewhere.”
Representatives of 19 American republics sign the Act of Bogotá, a sweeping economic aid program for Latin America. Cuba refuses to sign. The Dominican Republic is barred from the meeting.
The US Justice Dept. sues in Memphis federal court to stop 27 people and two banks from a campaign to discourage blacks from voting.
14 September 1960 Elements of the Congolese army led by Colonel Joseph Mobutu seize control of the government in Léopoldville. Mobutu declares that President Kasavubu and Prime Minister Lumumba may retain their positions but that he will run the government until early next year. He appeals for support to the UN. Prime Minister designate Joseph Ileo supports the coup and names Mobutu as army commander. Kasavubu and Ileo suspend Parliament for two months. Lumumba is arrested and taken to Camp Léopold II.
The office of Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is given over to a College of Commissioners.
After five days of meetings in Baghdad, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries is formed by Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela.
The Security Council refuses to seat either rival delegation from the Congo. Soviet delegate Valerian Alyeksandrovich Zorin calls Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld a “willing tool” of colonialists and he has “taken under his trusteeship the stooges of Belgian aggression.”
Triptych for tenor and orchestra by Thea Musgrave (32) to words of Chaucer, is performed for the first time, in Royal Albert Hall, London.
15 September 1960 When the Senate of the Congo attempts to convene in Léopoldville, they are chased away by Mobutu’s troops.
Police in San Salvador battle citizens protesting the state of siege declared ten days ago. Several people are killed or wounded.
Cartridge Music for amplified sounds by John Cage (48) is performed for the first time, over the airwaves of Radio Bremen. See 6 October 1960.
16 September 1960 Congolese troops occupy the Parliament building in Léopoldville to prevent its convening. Patrice Lumumba escapes from confinement. President Kasavubu orders all diplomatic and military personnel from Warsaw Pact countries to leave the Congo within 48 hours.
17 September 1960 A compromise Security Council resolution on the Congo crisis, drafted by Ceylon and Tunisia, is vetoed by the Soviet Union. A special meeting of the General Assembly is called.
The Cuban government nationalizes three US banks in Havana.
Dialoghi for cello and orchestra by Luigi Dallapiccola (56) is performed for the first time, in Teatro La Fenice, Venice.
18 September 1960 Colonel Mobutu orders the withdrawal of all Congolese troops from the secessionist provinces of Katanga and Kasai.
Fidel Castro and a delegation from Cuba arrive in New York to attend the opening of the 15th session of the UN General Assembly. Originally intending to stay at the Shelburne Hotel they decide not to, saying the hotel made “unacceptable cash demands.” They move uptown to the Theresa Hotel in Harlem.
Parliamentary elections in Sweden leave the parties virtually unchanged and the Social Democratic Party of Prime Minister Tage Erlander in power.
Dimensions of Time and Silence for chorus and instruments by Krzysztof Penderecki (26) is performed for the first time, in Warsaw.
19 September 1960 The leaders of India and Pakistan sign four agreements in Karachi over the development of the Indus River.
General Secretary Nikita Khrushchev arrives in New York aboard a Soviet liner, along with the Communist Party leaders of Hungary, Bulgaria, and Romania, to attend the opening of the 15th session of the UN General Assembly. He has called for a summit of the world’s leaders to attend to questions of disarmament and an unprecedented number of heads of state and government are arriving in the city.
20 September 1960 Colonel Joseph Mobutu installs a College of Commissioners to form the government of the country. The members are chosen by President Kasavubu.
14 nations are admitted to the United Nations: the Republic of Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Republic of Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of Congo, the Republic of Cyprus, the Republic of Dahomey, the Republic of Gabon, the Republic of the Ivory Coast (Côte d’Ivoire), the Malagasy Republic, the Republic of Niger, the Somali Republic, the Republic of Togo and the Republic of Upper Volta.
The General Assembly approves an African-Asian resolution on the Congo. It supports the actions of Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld and urges his continued involvement, appoints a group to reconcile the various factions in the Congo, provides for a UN fund under UN control to assist the Congo, and calls on all member states to refrain from sending military assistance to any faction.
Ballerina Ida Rubinstein dies in Vence, France at the age of 75.
The Hostage by Brendan Behan opens in New York City.
21 September 1960 The Cello Concerto of Dmitri Shostakovich (53) is given its British premiere in Royal Festival Hall, London. Since Benjamin Britten’s (46) music is also on the program, Britten was invited by Shostakovich to join him in his box. Afterwards, Britten meets the soloist, Mstislav Rostropovich, who pleads with him to write something for cello.
By order of President Eisenhower, and above the protests of US conservatives and military, the Panamanian flag is raised in the Canal Zone, simultaneously with the US flag.
Scontri (Collisions) for orchestra by Henryk Górecki (26) is performed for the first time, in Warsaw. Audience members shower the composer with cheers and protests.
22 September 1960 The Republic of Mali is proclaimed, separate from Senegal.
Benjamin Britten (46) meets with Mstislav Rostropovich and the conductor Gennadi Rozhdestvensky in Rostropovich’s hotel room at the Prince of Wales, Kensington. It is agreed that Britten will write a cello sonata provided Rostropovich will premiere it at the Aldeburgh Festival next summer.
Flötenstück neunphasig for flute and piano by Ernst Krenek (60) is performed for the first time, in Venice.
24 September 1960 Cuba officially recognizes the Peking government of China, the first country in Latin America to do so.
A performance by John Cage (48), Merce Cunningham, Earle Brown (33), and others at the Teatro La Fenice during the Venice Biennale causes a near riot. One audience member, Igor Stravinsky (78), does not feel it reaches to the level of his own scandale.
26 September 1960 David Pratt, who attempted to kill South African Prime Minister Henrik Verwoerd, is declared mentally unfit to stand trial.
The first nationally televised debate between opposing US presidential candidates takes place, originating in Chicago.
27 September 1960 Novorossisk Chimes for orchestra by Dmitri Shostakovich (54) is performed for the first time, at the Flame of Eternal Glory, Heroes Square, Novorossisk. The leaders of the city government asked Shostakovich to select appropriate pieces from the classical repertoire for a tape to be played at the monument. They were astonished and pleased when the composer wrote a work especially for this purpose. The recording is played every hour at the flame.
Monumentum pro Gesualdo di Venosa ad CD anum, arrangements for orchestra by Igor Stravinsky (78) of three madrigals by Carlo Gesualdo (†347), is performed for the first time, in Venice the composer conducting.
28 September 1960 The French cabinet bans the signatories to the “Manifesto of the 121” of 1 September. They may not work in government supported theatres, television or radio. Teachers and other civil servants who signed the document are immediately suspended.
The Republic of Mali and the Republic of Senegal are admitted to the United Nations.
29 September 1960 President Kasavubu of the Congo turns over all administrative authority to the College of Commissioners.
The US State Department announces that all embassy personnel in Havana, as well as 4,000 US citizens in Cuba, are urged to send their dependents home because of harassment by police.
30 September 1960 French police raid three leftist periodicals today and tomorrow, arresting ten people.
The US State Department urges its citizens not to visit Cuba “unless there are compelling reasons.”
Quaestio Temporis for chamber orchestra by Ernst Krenek (60) is performed for the first time, over the airwaves of NDR originating in Hamburg the composer conducting.
Toccata festiva op.36 for organ and orchestra by Samuel Barber (50) is performed for the first time, at Philadelphia Academy of Music. The work was commissioned to inaugurate the Academy’s new Aeolian-Skinner organ.
Introduction, Scherzo and Fugue op.74 for cello, winds, and timpani by Wallingford Riegger (75) is performed for the first time, in Rochester, New York.
1 October 1960 The prime ministers of China and Burma sign their border treaty in Peking on China’s national day.
Nigeria is declared independent of Great Britain under Queen Elizabeth II and Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa. At ceremonies in Lagos, the official transfer of power is made by Princess Alexandra of Kent.
This is the approximate date that LaMonte Young (24) moves to New York from California.
John Cage (48), Merce Cunningham and others perform at the Hebbel Theatre in Berlin. Some in the audience go into an uproar during Cage’s Music Walk, but like Venice, the audience is strongly divided. Many curtain calls are made.
2 October 1960 The French Actors’ Union strikes the state television network to protest the bans of 28 September.
String Quartet no.8 by Dmitri Shostakovich (54) is performed for the first time, in Glinka Concert Hall, Leningrad. The work is dedicated “to the memory of the victims of fascism and war.”
Four motets for voice and piano by Paul Hindemith (64) to words from the Bible are performed for the first time, in Berlin: Ascendente Jesu in naviculam, Angelus Domini apparuit, Dicebat Jesus scribis et pharisaels, and Cum factus esset Jesus annorum duodecim.
Remembrance for chorus and organ by Leslie Bassett (37) to words of Rupert is performed for the first time, in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
3 October 1960 French police battle 8,000 conservative youths in the streets of Paris. The marchers are protesting the Manifesto of the 121 issued 1 September.
Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld refuses to resign as demanded by the Soviet Union. His comments are met by a standing ovation by a majority of delegates.
The European Court of Human Rights opens its first case in Strasbourg.
Mass for Solo Voice with piano accompaniment by Virgil Thomson (63) is performed for the first time, in Town Hall, New York. See 20 May 1974.
4 October 1960 Troops loyal to Colonel Mobutu seize control in Oriental Province and arrest government officials loyal to Patrice Lumumba.
5 October 1960 White voters in South Africa approve a change from a constitutional monarchy to a republic.
67 important French educators issue a declaration more moderate in tone than the Manifesto of the 121. Nevertheless, they declare that a French Algeria is no longer possible, and they support French soldiers who refuse to be a party to acts of torture in Algeria.
6 October 1960 185 prominent French conservatives, including seven members of the Académie Française, declare the Manifesto of the 121 to be an act of treason.
Cartridge Music for amplified sounds by John Cage (48) is performed before a live audience for the first time, at Mary Bauermeister’s Studio in Cologne. Among the performers are Cornelius Cardew (24), Christian Wolff (26), Nam June Paik and David Tudor. Simultaneously, the composer performs his Solo for Voice 2. During Nam June Paik’s Etude for Piano, Paik suddenly rises from the piano and enters the audience, attacking Cage and Tudor, shredding Cage’s clothes with scissors, then leaving the hall. See 15 September 1960.
7 October 1960 Nigeria is admitted to the United Nations.
Soviet leader Khrushchev announces that he has given de facto recognition to the Provisional Government of Algeria.
Concerto for Improvising Instruments for flute, clarinet, cello, percussion, and piano by Lukas Foss (38) is performed for the first time, in Philadelphia, the composer at the keyboard.
8 October 1960 A False Student, a film with music by Toshiro Mayuzumi (31), is released in Japan.
Blacks in Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia riot after police help a white victim of a traffic accident but do nothing to help a black victim. Rioters burn and loot white businesses. Police open fire with machine guns. Seven people are killed, over 100 injured.
The Story of a Real Man, an opera by Sergey Prokofiev (†7) to words of Mendelson and the composer after Polevoy, is staged for the first time, at the Bolshoy Theatre, Moscow. See 3 December 1948.
9 October 1960 Sechs Vermessene for piano by Ernst Krenek (60) is performed for the first time, in Kassel.
10 October 1960 A cyclone and tidal wave kill 5,000 people in East Pakistan (Bangladesh).
The College of Commissioners demands the UN arrest Patrice Lumumba or face military action by the Congolese army.
11 October 1960 Peace negotiations begin in Vientiane between the right wing leader Phoumi Nosavan and the communist Pathet Lao, chaired by Prince Souvanna Phouma.
The UN command in Léopoldville refuses Congolese demands for the arrest of Patrice Lumumba.
Five anti-Castro rebel leaders are executed by firing squad in Santa Clara.
The British government’s Monckton Commission recommends that power in the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland be devolved to more local levels and that each part of the federation be given the right to secede. They also recommend increased African representation in the Assembly.
12 October 1960 Speaking at a political rally in Tokyo, Inejiro Asanuma, chairman of the Socialist Party of Japan, is stabbed to death by Otoya Yamaguchi, an ultra-nationalist student. The Socialist Party are leaders against the defense treaty with the United States. Yamguchi is arrested by police.
When Philippine diplomat Lorenzo Sumulong makes anti-Soviet statements in a speech to the UN General Assembly, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev bangs his shoe on his desk and shouts out that Sumulong is a lackey of imperialists. Later, with the meeting in an uproar, General Assembly President Frederick Boland bangs his gavel so fiercely that it breaks. He then suspends the meeting.
13 October 1960 Soviet General Secretary Nikita Khrushchev departs New York for home.
Seven Cubans and one US citizen are executed by firing squad in Santiago de Cuba after being convicted of invading Oriente Province. 18 others receive jail terms.
Il pigmalione, a scena drammatica by Gaetano Donizetti (†112), is performed for the first time, in the Teatro Donizetti, Bergamo. It was the composer’s first stage work, written during his student days in 1816.
14 October 1960 The Cuban government nationalizes about 400 private companies.
Walter Piston’s (66) Violin Concerto no.2 is performed for the first time, in Pittsburgh.
15 October 1960 As water rises to 50 cm in the lobby of his Venice hotel, Igor Stravinsky (78) is evacuated in the arms of a porter.
String Quartet no.12 op.90 by Alois Haba (67) is performed for the first time, in Donaueschingen.
16 October 1960 Two US citizens are executed by firing squad for their part in the invasion of Oriente Province by anti-Castro forces.
Two new works are performed for the first time, in Donaueschingen: Anaklasis for strings and percussion by Krzysztof Penderecki (26) and Chronochromie for orchestra by Olivier Messiaen (51). The audience requires that Anaklasis be encored.
Concerto for violin, cello, ten winds, and percussion by Leon Kirchner (41) is performed for the first time, at the Baltimore Museum of Art, the composer conducting.
17 October 1960 French Roman Catholic cardinals and archbishops condemn acts of torture, reprisal and terrorism from both sides in Algeria.
14 winners of television quiz shows in the US, including Charles Van Doren, are arrested for falsely testifying that they never received answers in advance.
Four US chain stores announce that lunch counters in 150 stores in 112 southern cities will be integrated.
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William L. Shirer is published in New York.
19 October 1960 Agreements are signed in Paris calling for the independence of Mauritania on 28 November.
Anti-government riots break out in Caracas after the arrest of three members of a leftist party.
20 October 1960 General Secretary Nikita Khrushchev announces that the Soviet Union has submarines that can fire missiles.
Unruly Congolese troops begin a week of disorders in Léopoldville.
While campaigning for president, Senator John Kennedy issues a statement saying the US must support anti-Castro forces in exile and in Cuba “who offer eventual hope of overthrowing Castro.” His opponent, Vice-President Richard Nixon, calls it “the most shockingly reckless proposal ever made in our history by a presidential candidate…”
21 October 1960 Alberto Cavalcanti’s film Herr Puntila und sein Knecht Matti, with music by Hanns Eisler (62), is released in West Germany.
Symphony no.7 by William Schuman (50) is performed for the first time, in Boston, commissioned for the 75th anniversary of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
Time Cycle for soprano and orchestra by Lukas Foss (38) to words of Nietzsche, Auden, Housman, and Kafka, is performed for the first time, in Carnegie Hall, New York the composer at the piano and Leonard Bernstein (42) conducting. See 10 July 1961.
22 October 1960 Mystery of the Himalayas, a film with music by Toshiro Mayuzumi (31), is released in Japan.
George Rochberg’s (42) Time-Span for orchestra is performed for the first time, in St. Louis.
23 October 1960 The Howard Hanson Inter-Faith Chapel is dedicated at the University of Rochester to celebrate Hanson’s (63) 35th anniversary as director of the Eastman School of Music. As part of the festivities, Creator of Infinities Beyond Our Earth for chorus by Howard Hanson to words of Hansen is performed for the first time.
John Sturges’ film The Magnificent Seven is released in the United States.
Lines and Contrasts for 16 horns by Gunther Schuller (34) is performed for the first time, in Los Angeles.
24 October 1960 Incidental music to Shakespeare’s play King Lear by Peter Sculthorpe (31) is performed for the first time, at Oxford.
26 October 1960 Ashita hareru ka, a film with music by Toshiro Mayuzumi 31 is released in Japan.
The Congolese government and Colonel Mobutu agree to confine their army to barracks until discipline can be restored.
Leftist army officers overthrow the regime of President José María Lemus of El Salvador in a bloodless coup. Lemus seeks asylum in Costa Rica.
Wesleyan University Press publishes the first collected thought of John Cage (48), Silence.
27 October 1960 Hundreds of thousands march in major French cities for a negotiated settlement in Algeria. They battle with police and conservative counter demonstrators.
The new governing junta in El Salvador lifts the state of siege in place since 25 September and restores civil rights.
After a week of anti-government riots in Venezuela, ten people have been killed, over 100 injured.
28 October 1960 Carré no.10 for four orchestras and four choruses by Karlheinz Stockhausen (32) is performed for the first time, over the airwaves of NDR, originating in Hamburg. Mauricio Kagel (28) and the composer are among the conductors. The audience is loudly divergent in opinion.
29 October 1960 A Cuban airliner on a domestic flight is taken over at gunpoint by the co-pilot and eight passengers. When the pilot refuses their demand to fly to Key West, a gunfight ensues. One person is killed, three wounded. The plane flies to Key West and the nine request asylum.
30 October 1960 A cyclone hits East Pakistan killing about 10,000 people. Over 500,000 are left homeless.
2 November 1960 Otoya Yamaguchi, assassin of Socialist Party leader Inejiro Asanuma, hangs himself in his Tokyo cell.
A London court exonerates Penguin Books for publishing Lady Chatterley’s Lover by DH Lawrence. They find it is not obscene.
Dmitri Mitropoulos dies in Milan of a heart attack while rehearsing at La Scala.
3 November 1960 Maharashtra State offers 20 rupees to any man who has a vasectomy.
Rajeshwar Dayal, chief UN official in the Congo, reports to the General Assembly that conditions there have gone downhill, largely because of the lack of a political settlement, the incompetence of the Mobutu government and the return of Belgian colonialists. He believes the only road is to restore President Kasavubu and Prime Minister Lumumba to power.
Ha venido: canciones para Silvia for soprano solo and six sopranos by Luigi Nono (36) to words of Machado is performed for the first time, in London conducted by Bruno Maderna (40).
4 November 1960 After two years in Britain, Peter Sculthorpe (31) boards a plane at Heathrow Airport and flies home to Australia.
Jonathan Leakey discovers a lower jaw to a new species which will be named Homo habilis, in Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. It is 1,750,000 years old.
In a nationwide broadcast, President de Gaulle of France promises to respect the outcome of a referendum in Algeria, even if the vote is for independence.
5 November 1960 Diversions for orchestra by Irving Fine (45) is performed for the first time, in Symphony Hall, Boston. See 22 March 1987.
6 November 1960 Peter Sculthorpe (31) arrives in Melbourne after two years in Britain.
7 November 1960 The secretary general of the French administration in Algeria, André Jacomet, resigns in protest to the speech of 4 November.
8 November 1960 Eight UN (Ireland) soldiers are killed in an ambush in northern Katanga.
The legislature of the State of Louisiana passes 28 laws designed to prevent racial integration in the public schools.
About 500,000 transportation workers strike in Brazil, closing down ports and railroads.
Elections in the United States ensure the victory of Senator John Kennedy as President over Vice President Richard Nixon. His Democratic Party loses one seat in the Senate and 20 in the House of Representatives, but retains its majorities. The popular vote is the closest for any presidential election in the history of the country.
9 November 1960 The US, fearing that Patrice Lumumba is a Communist, attacks the Dayal report and insists that the presence of Belgians in the Congo only helps the situation.
The 7 November resignation of André Jacomet is not accepted. He is required to return to Paris where he is sacked.
Marc Blitzstein (55), David Diamond (45) and a friend drive from Florence to Rome where Blitzstein will work on his opera Sacco and Vanzetti.
10 November 1960 Five battalions of paratroopers begin a coup against the government of Ngo Dinh Diem of South Vietnam.
A summit of communist party leaders from 81 countries convenes in Peking. Chairman Mao Tse-tung does not attend.
Black sit-in demonstrators are sprayed with water, powder, and insecticide at a segregated lunch counter in Nashville.
A federal judge prohibits implementation of school segregation laws in Louisiana.
The New Orleans School Board approves a plan to admit five black children to white schools.
11 November 1960 Military leaders in Luang Prabang renounce their allegiance to Prime Minister Souvanna Phouma and proclaim for the anti-communist General Phoumi.
Thousands of conservative young people take part in Armistice Day demonstrations in Algiers. They riot, attacking police, destroying buses, and ransacking the USIS cultural center. Over 100 people are injured.
After Congress approves a pay raise, and police surround their building, striking transportation workers in Rio de Janeiro vote to go back to work.
12 November 1960 Loyal troops arrive in Saigon and put down a revolt by members of the South Vietnamese army.
Aaron Copland appears on Leonard Bernstein’s (42) network television program “Young People’s Concerts”. It is part of celebrations surrounding Copland’s 60th birthday.
13 November 1960 President Gursel of Turkey announces that the National Union Committee is abolished and replaced with a new committee which will prepare the road back to democracy.
A fire in a movie theater in Amoudah, Syria kills over 200 children.
The Louisiana State Legislature takes control of the New Orleans schools, fires the superintendant and orders them closed. A federal judge prohibits state interference in schools.
Edson Hymns and Fuguing Tunes for chorus and orchestra by Henry Cowell (63) are performed for the first time, in Poughkeepsie, New York.
New Dances for chamber orchestra by TJ Anderson (32) is performed for the first time, in Oklahoma City.
14 November 1960 A train crashes into another at Stéblová, Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic). 118 people are killed.
Four black children are enrolled in white New Orleans schools to the jeers of angry whites. They are the first Louisiana schools to be integrated. Only ten percent of the normal white students attend.
15 November 1960 In voting for the Danish Folketing, leftist parties make good gains over the center-right. The Social Democrats remain in power.
Rioting erupts during a rally of the White Citizens Council in New Orleans. Seven whites are arrested in violent demonstrations at a desegregated school.
The USS George Washington sails from Charleston, South Carolina, the first submarine equipped with nuclear missiles.
16 November 1960 US President Eisenhower order his navy to patrol the Caribbean coast of Central America to prevent invasion from Cuba. The action comes after requests from the governments of Guatemala and Nicaragua.
About 2,000 whites attack City Hall in New Orleans. Police and firemen prevent them from reaching the school board office, but damage is done outside the building and four black bystanders are set upon, beaten, and hospitalized.
17 November 1960 New rioting erupts in New Orleans with stabbings and fire bombs. 200 white and black longshoremen battle. 250 people are arrested, 29 for carrying concealed weapons.
The University of Tennessee agrees to allow black students next Autumn.
18 November 1960 Soliloquy for narrator, string quartet, and percussion by Ralph Shapey (39) is performed for the first time, in Kaufman Auditorium of the 92nd Street Y, New York conducted by the composer.
20 November 1960 At the Pathet Lao headquarters in Samneua, Laotian Prime Minister Souvanna Phouma announces agreements in principle to end the civil war and form a national unity government between his administration, the Pathet Lao, and the right-wing organization of General Phoumi.
National elections in Japan result in gains for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
Earth Shall be Fair, a cantata for chorus and orchestra by Robert Ward (43) to words of C. Bax and the Bible, is performed for the first time, in Des Moines, Iowa.
21 November 1960 Gunfire breaks out in Léopoldville between Congolese soldiers and UN (Tunisia) troops. The Congolese attempt to arrest the Ghanaian representative Nathaniel Welbeck who has been ordered out of the country. The Tunisians open fire. Eight people are killed. The UN will put Welbeck on a plane back to Ghana.
Suites nos. 1 and 2 for chamber orchestra by Heitor Villa-Lobos (†1) are performed for the first time, in the Teatro Municipal, Rio de Janeiro.
22 November 1960 The UN General Assembly votes 53-24-19 to seat the delegation headed by President Kasavubu rather than the one headed by Prime Minister Lumumba.
24 November 1960 Edgar Meyer is born in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, the son of Edgar Meyer, Sr., a bass player and composer.
25 November 1960 Five days of anti-government riots take place in Caracas which will cause eight deaths and over 200 injuries.
The last seven soap operas on US radio give their final performances.
Khovanshchina, an opera by Modest Musorgsky (†79) to his own words, is performed for the first time in an arrangement completed and orchestrated by Dmitri Shostakovich (54). See 23 May 1959.
Harvest of Shame, chronicling the horrific conditions of migrant farm workers in the United States, airs for the first time on CBS television.
28 November 1960 The Islamic Republic of Mauritania is declared independent of France under President Moktar Ould Daddah.
Patrice Lumumba escapes from the UN (Morocco) troops guarding him in Léopoldville. Col. Mobutu orders a nationwide manhunt for him.
President Betancourt of Venezuela suspends constitutional rights and orders the army into the street to stop the anti-government violence.
Richard Wright dies of a heart attack in Paris.
Sonata no.1 for violin solo by Ernst Krenek (60) is performed for the first time, in Darmstadt.
29 November 1960 A menina das nuvens, a musical adventure by Heitor Villa-Lobos (†1) to words of Benedetti, is performed for the first time, at the Teatro Municipal, Rio de Janeiro.
30 November 1960 The Loneliness of Bunjil for violin, viola, and cello by Peter Sculthorpe (31) is performed for the first time, in Royal Festival Hall, London.
The white boycott of two integrated schools in New Orleans is almost total. Only two white children attend one school, none in the other. White mobs taunt and scuffle with parents of the two white children as they pick up their children after school. However, beginning tomorrow, whites will slowly return to the schools.
Peronists stage a revolt in Santa Fe and Salta Provinces which is quickly put down by Argentine troops.
1 December 1960 Armed by the US, conservative forces of General Phoumi begin a drive on Vientiane to oust the neutralist government of Prince Souvanna Phouma of Laos.
Congolese troops capture Patrice Lumumba in Mweka, Kasai Province.
2 December 1960 Patrice Lumumba and three members of his cabinet are brought to Léopoldville to stand trial for abuse of power.
The USSR begins a series of pronouncements attacking the West and Dag Hammarskjöld as being responsible for the arrest of Lumumba.
Armed students in the Central University in Caracas surrender to surrounding troops, thus ending the violence of the last week.
3 December 1960 Nine people are killed in fighting between Congolese troops and Lumumba supporters in Kikwit. UN (Morocco) troops are dispatched to halt stop the battle.
Camelot by Lerner and Loewe opens in New York.
4 December 1960 Bernard Salumu, a Lumumba supporter, takes power in Oriental Province and announces that it is seceding from the Congo. Today begins a week of attacks by Baluba tribesmen on UN troops and Katanga police in northern Katanga. Over 100 are reportedly killed.
The Soviet Union vetoes the admission of Mauritania to the UN after the Security Council refused to take up the application of Mongolia.
5 December 1960 Five right-wing leaders of the January insurrection in Algeria fail to appear at their trial in Paris and are believed to have crossed into Spain.
As Alan Paton, president of the Liberal Party, returns to South Africa, his passport is seized. Paton lectured in the US and UK against apartheid.
The US Supreme Court rules that racial discrimination in bus terminal restaurants is a violation of law.
Police form a barricade to protect white parents and children attending two integrated New Orleans schools from rocks and other objects hurled at them by white mobs.
Osvaldo Noé Golijov is born in La Plata, Argentina. His father is a physician, his mother a piano teacher.
Dialoge, concerto for two pianos and orchestra by Bernd Alois Zimmermann (42), is performed for the first time, in Cologne. See 10 March 1968.
6 December 1960 81 national and regional communist parties make a joint declaration from Moscow of solidarity in the struggle against capitalism.
A French law is enacted calling for the creation of an atomic force independent of NATO.
Divertimento for chamber ensemble by Lejaren Hiller (36) is performed for the first time, at the University of Illinois, Urbana.
7 December 1960 Lumumba supporters in Stanleyville (surrounded by Congolese troops) threaten to start beheading Europeans if Lumumba is not released within 48 hours.
Yugoslavia announces that its military contingent in the Congo is being withdrawn because the UN has taken sides with Kasavubu and Mobutu. The UAR also announces a withdrawal of its troops.
8 December 1960 A list of names and addresses of owners of cars used to take white children to integrated schools in New Orleans is widely circulated and sent to the state legislature. There has been an increased campaign of vandalism and intimidation against white parents who send their children to integrated schools.
O Magnum Mysterium for chorus, organ, and instrumental ensemble by Peter Maxwell Davies (26) is performed for the first time, in Cirencester Parish Church of St. John the Baptist, Gloucestershire, the composer conducting.
9 December 1960 The neutral Laotian government of Prince Souvanna Phouma collapses in the face of a military threat from the conservative General Phoumi, whose forces are armed by the US. Members of the cabinet flee Vientiane for Cambodia. A military regime takes over in the capital.
Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru reports that Chinese forces have evacuated Longju and moved five kilometers north due to an epidemic.
President de Gaulle begins a six-day tour of Algeria to explain his referendum. He is avoiding large cities where most Europeans, opposed to his plan, live. Europeans stage a general strike in Algiers and Oran to protest the visit. This turns to violence and 100 people are injured, 400 arrested.
About 1,000 whites in Stanleyville are placed in a school so that they can be protected by UN (Ethiopia) troops.
10 December 1960 Indonesia announces its troops will be withdrawn from the Congo because the UN mission there has failed.
Algerian Moslems begin counterdemonstrations to the events of yesterday. They battle Europeans in Algiers, Oran, and Orléansville. Police move in to break up the rioting. Over 700 people are injured.
Ernesto Guevara, President of the Cuban National Bank, says in Moscow that Cuba supports the manifesto adopted on 6 December.
11 December 1960 Soviet planes begin arriving in Vientiane with arms to help the Laotian government against conservative forces armed by the US.
French paratroopers fire on Moslem demonstrators in Algiers and Oran. Moslems also clash with police and French conservatives. 65 people are killed
Ludus de nato infante mirificus, a Christmas play by Carl Orff (65) to his own words, is performed for the first time, in Stuttgart.
12 December 1960 Keith Holyoake replaces Walter Nash as Prime Minister of New Zealand.
Moslem demonstrators attempting to cross a barricade between them and the European section of Algiers are fired on by French troops. Eight people are killed. The Moslems go on to ransack Jewish businesses and a synagogue.
Morocco announces that its troops in the Congo, the largest of any nation, will be withdrawn because they are no longer upholding the “legal authorities.” Guinea also pledges a withdrawal because the mission in the Congo is contrary to the UN Charter.
The three African delegates to a London conference on Rhodesia and Nyasaland, Kenneth Kaunda, Joshua Nkomo and Hastings Kamuzu Banda, walk out “because of the determination of the white settlers in Southern Rhodesia to continue white domination…”
The US Supreme Court rules that Louisiana’s recently passed anti-integration laws are unconstitutional and that they may not interpose state law over federal law.
Monologue for piano by Thea Musgrave (32) is performed for the first time, at Birkbeck College, London.
Symphony no.11 by Darius Milhaud (68) is performed for the first time, in Dallas.
13 December 1960 Conservative Laotian forces of General Phoumi fight their way into Vientiane against troops loyal to the government.
French troops fire on European demonstrators in Bône, Algeria. Two are killed, 15 injured.
A rival government for the Congo is set up in Stanleyville by Lumumba supporter Antoine Gizenga.
14 December 1960 Elements of the Imperial Guard occupy the palace and other key points in Addis Ababa in an attempt to overthrow Emperor Haile Selassie I, who is currently abroad.
Representatives of 18 European and two North American nations sign the charter of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, in Paris.
A Soviet veto in the Security Council denies Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld increased powers to deal with the Congo situation.
15 December 1960 Loyal army units attack rebels in Addis Ababa.
16 December 1960 After four days of fighting, conservative forces of General Phoumi take control of Vientiane, Laos.
Loyal troops force rebels out of the Imperial Palace and other places in Addis Ababa but not before the rebels execute 19 hostages, including cabinet ministers and other government officials.
UN (Nigeria) attack Congolese troops in Bukavu to rescue 52 members of an Austrian medical team held as disguised Belgians. One UN soldier is killed, several wounded.
A United Airlines DC-8 collides with a TransWorld Airlines L-1049 above New York City. The first falls to earth in Brooklyn while the second crashes into Staten Island. 134 people are killed, including six on the ground.
17 December 1960 Emperor Haile Selassie returns to Addis Ababa after the quashing of a coup attempt against him. Independent reports put the total death toll in the insurrection at 1,000.
18 December 1960 A new right-wing government takes power in Laos, led by Prince Boun Oum.
20 December 1960 An organization to cover the communist insurrection in South Vietnam is formed, calling itself the National Liberation Front.
The United Nations General Assembly votes 63-8-27 to recognize the right of the Algerian people to self-determination and independence. But four days of debate on the Congo crisis fails to find agreement on a solution.
Songs of War and Peace, a cantata by Alfred Schnittke (26) to words of Leontyev and Pokrovsky, is performed for the first time, in the Great Hall of Moscow Conservatory.
Incidental music to Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Thea Musgrave (32) is performed for the first time, at the Old Vic Theatre, London.
22 December 1960 Samuel Barber’s (50) orchestral work Die natali op.37 is performed for the first time, in Symphony Hall, Boston.
25 December 1960 Congolese troops loyal to Patrice Lumumba raid Bukavu and carry off Prime Minister Jean Miruho of Kivu Province, three of his ministers, and the commander of the Kivu garrison.
Duke Ellington (61) plays Come Sunday at a midnight mass in Paris.
An episode of the CBS television series The Twentieth Century entitled “Admiral Byrd” with music by Ulysses Kay (43) is shown for the first time, over the airwaves of the network.
26 December 1960 The Soviet film Ballad of a Soldier opens in New York.
27 December 1960 For the third time, France sets off a nuclear explosion in the Sahara.
28 December 1960 Sonata for organ op.86 by Vincent Persichetti (45) is performed for the first time, at Washington University in St. Louis.
29 December 1960 Eleven people (seven in absentia) are sentenced to death in Amman for the killing of Prime Minister Hazza al-Majali on 29 August.
30 December 1960 The new right-wing Laotian government which forced its way into power earlier this month appeals to the UN and the world for help against Communist forces it says are infiltrating from North Vietnam.
Federal courts in Tennessee block the eviction orders for 700 black sharecroppers. They are being evicted because they tried to register to vote.
Peru breaks relations with Cuba charging that it was helping to foment rebellion in the country.
31 December 1960 Four of those condemned 29 December are publicly hanged in Amman.
©2004-2016 Paul Scharfenberger
21 May 2016
Last Updated (Saturday, 21 May 2016 04:44)