THURSDAY BACKTRACK: Music and news from 60 years ago - week ending 10 February 1962

At #3 is Chubby Checker's 'Let's Twist Again':

Giles cartoon for this week: When the world didn't end

See the first news item below for details. A not-yet-disproven reading is that the planetary alignment indicated that the Anti-Christ might be born on this day - he would now be 60 years old.

Here is an astrological chart for 5 January 1962:

Source and comment

Some memorable events (via Wikipedia):

5 February: 'During a solar eclipse, an extremely rare grand conjunction of the classical planets occurred, for the first time since 1821. It included all 5 of the naked-eye planets plus the Sun and Moon), all of them within 16° of one another on the ecliptic. Saturn, Jupiter, Mars and Venus were on one side of the Sun, while Mercury and Earth were on the opposite side. When the Moon crossed between the Earth and the Sun, the eclipse was visible over India, where predictions of the world's end had been made.'

    'French President Charles de Gaulle informed the nation that he was negotiating with the FLN for the independence of Algeria, conditional on a guarantee of the rights of "the minority of European origin in Algerian activities", and "an effective association" between Algeria and France.'

    'Hours before the Beatles were scheduled to play at the Cavern Club, drummer Pete Best told his fellow musicians that he was ill and wouldn't be able to appear. Determined not to cancel the show, the group called around for a replacement and Ringo Starr, whose group had the day off, appeared in Best's place.'

6 February: 'The city of Memphis, Tennessee, ordered the desegregation of its lunch counters, formerly limited to white customers only.'

7 February: 'A coal mine explosion in Saarland, West Germany killed 299 people. The blast occurred at the coal mine, located near Völklingen, at around 9:00 am.'

    'The United States Air Force announced that in the first 15 years of its Project Blue Book investigation of U.F.O. sightings, there was no evidence that any of the 7,369 unidentified flying object reports indicated a threat to national security, any technological advances "beyond the range of our present day scientific knowledge", and no sign of "extraterrestrial vehicles under intelligent controls".'

    'The United States government ban against all U.S.-related Cuban imports (and nearly all exports) went into effect at one minute after midnight. The next day, the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R. approved a $133 million program of military aid to Cuba, after having delayed action on it for four months.'

8 February: 'A demonstration against the Organisation armée secrète, called for by the PCF (Communist Party), was repressed at the Charonne metro station. Nine members of the Confédération Générale du Travail trade union were crushed to death after police chased a crowd down into the gates that closed off the subway station, in an event later called the "Charonne massacre".'

    'The United States and the United Kingdom announced an agreement between the two nations to allow the U.S. to test nuclear weapons at Christmas Island, a British possession in the Pacific Ocean.'

    'The British government announced that it would grant independence to Jamaica effective August 6, 1962.'

9 February: 'Spain requested admission to the European Economic Community. Membership was not be approved until 1986.'

10 February: 'At 8:52 a.m. local time, captured American spy pilot Francis Gary Powers was exchanged for captured Soviet spy Rudolf Abel in Berlin, at the Glienicke Bridge between Wannsee and Potsdam. Powers had been shot down over Russia on May 1, 1960 while flying a U-2 spyplane. Abel had been arrested in New York on June 21, 1957. Frederic L. Pryor, a 28-year-old American student who had been arrested in East Berlin on August 25, was released as part of the deal as well.'

UK chart hits, week ending 10 February 1962 (tracks in italics have been featured previously)

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