THURSDAY BACKTRACK: Music and news from 60 years ago - week ending 24 June 1961

Del Shannon's 'Runaway' stays at #2 all month, behind Elvis' 'Surrender':

Some memorable events (via Wikipedia):

18 June: the OAS, a terrorist organisation trying to force France to keep possession of Algeria,

bombs the Paris-to-Strasbourg express train, killing dozens and injuring over 100. 

The newspaper splash above is found here.

19 June: Kuwait, a British protectorate since 1899, gains independence (photo source.)

 Iraq's leader Abdul Karim Qasim, who seized power there in 1958, lays claim to Kuwait six days later.

Britain sends forces to defend the country in Operation Vantage.

War criminal and mass murderer Adolf Eichmann, kidnapped in Argentina and put on trial in Israel, gives evidence in his defence, claiming he was merely obeying orders. 

He is found guilty on December 15 and hanged on May 31 the following year, his body cremated and the ashes thrown into the sea.

21 June: the USA's first desalination plant opens in Freeport, Texas.

(Image via 'Historic Photographs' Facebook page)

21 June: 'A thin TV screen only 4 inches thick with an automatic timing device to record TV programs for later viewing is the wave of the future as shown at the Home Furnishings Market in Chicago.'

24 June: despite a ban in Dade County, Florida, Henry Miller's controversial book 'Tropic of Cancer' is published in the USA by Grove Press, 27 years after its first publication in Europe. Booksellers are still threatened with prosecution for violating anti-obscenity laws; in 1964 the US Supreme Court rules that the book is not obscene because it has some redeeming social value.

UK chart hits, week ending 24 June 1961

Htp: Clint's labour-of love compilation https://www.sixtiescity.net/charts/61chart.htm

1	Surrender	Elvis Presley	RCA
2	Runaway	Del Shannon	London
3	Temptation	The Everly Brothers	Warner Brothers
4	Pasadena	The Temperance Seven	Parlophone
5	The Frightened City	The Shadows	Columbia
6	Hello Mary Lou / Travellin' Man	Ricky Nelson	London
7	You'll Never Know	Shirley Bassey	Columbia
8	But I Do	Clarence 'Frogman' Henry	Pye
9	Pop Goes The Weasel / Bee*Bom	Anthony Newley	Decca
10	Halfway To Paradise	Billy Fury	Decca
11	I Told Every Little Star	Linda Scott	Columbia
12	A Girl Like You	Cliff Richard and The Shadows	Columbia
13	Runnin' Scared	Roy Orbison	London
14	More Than I Can Say	Bobby Vee	London
15	Have A Drink On Me	Lonnie Donegan	Pye
16	Well I Ask You	Eden Kane	Decca
17	What'd I Say	Jerry Lee Lewis	London
18	Little Devil	Neil Sedaka	RCA
19	Weekend	Eddie Cochran	London
20	Ring Of Fire	Duane Eddy	London