Thursday, March 03, 2022

THURSDAY BACKTRACK: Music and news from 60 years ago - week ending 3 March 1962

At #3 is Kenny Ball and His Jazzmen with 'March of the Siamese Childen':



Giles cartoon for this week: IRA Ceasefire

(see 26 February below)

Some memorable events (via Wikipedia):

26 February: 'The Irish Republican Army officially called off its five-year Border Campaign in Northern Ireland. In press releases dropped off at newspapers there as well as in Ireland, the IRA publicity bureau wrote, "The Leadership of the Resistance Movement has ordered the termination of 'The Campaign of Resistance to British Occupation'... all arms and other materials have been dumped and all full-time active service volunteers have been withdrawn." With the exception of a series of 17 bank robberies to finance the organization, the IRA violence halted until 1969.'

27 February: 'After getting word that U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy was preparing to fire him from his job as Director of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover gave the Attorney General a memorandum of an FBI investigation of Judith Exner, noting that she had made phone calls to the private line of Robert's brother, U.S. President John F. Kennedy. Hoover remained FBI Director until his death in 1972.'

    'The United Kingdom's House of Commons voted 277-170 in favour of the Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1962, designed to limit the immigration into Great Britain by residents of India, Pakistan, and the West Indies.'

28 February: 'A group of 15 American Jupiter missiles, with nuclear warheads, became operational at the Izmir U.S. Air Force Base at Çiğli [western Turkey], within range to strike the Soviet Union 1,000 miles away. The presence of American nuclear missiles in a nation bordering the U.S.S.R. became an issue during the Cuban Missile Crisis, when Soviet nuclear missiles were brought to Cuba, within striking distance of the United States. The missiles were withdrawn from both Turkey and Cuba following the crisis.'

    'The Beatles appeared at the Cavern Club in Liverpool on a triple bill with Gerry & the Pacemakers and Johnny Sandon and the Searchers.'

1 March: 'Benedicto Kiwanuka became the interim Prime Minister of Uganda as the African colony was granted self-government by the United Kingdom. He would be replaced by Milton Obote the next month, before Uganda's independence on October 9, and would later be murdered by Ugandan President Idi Amin in 1972.'

    'The very first K-Mart discount store (now Kmart) was opened by the S.S. Kresge Corporation, in Garden City, Michigan, United States. Kresge CEO Harry Cunningham founded and oversaw the growth of what would be the largest chain of American discount stores by 1964. In 1990. K-Mart's #1 spot would be yielded to Wal-Mart, also founded in 1962.'

'"The Incredible Hulk" was introduced as the first issue of the comic book, by that name, on the shelves of US stores and newsstands. Issue #1 was post-dated to May 1962 in accordance with industry practice.'

2 March: 'In Burma (now Myanmar), General Ne Win and the Burmese Army staged a nearly bloodless coup d'état against the civilian government of Prime Minister U Nu. U Nu was arrested, along with the nation's president, the Chief Justice, and five of his cabinet members. Ne Win would rule the nation until his retirement in 1988, and military rule continued.'

    'In a nationally broadcast address, President Kennedy announced that the United States would resume atmospheric nuclear testing within six weeks unless the Soviet Union ceased above-ground testing while pursuing the proposed Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. The U.S. would resume atmospheric testing on April 25 after the U.S.S.R. continued. A limited test ban treaty would be signed on July 25, 1963.'

3 March: 'The United Kingdom designated all land south of 60°S latitude and between longitudes 20°W and 80°W as the British Antarctic Territory, making a claim to an area of 1,710,000 square kilometres or 660,000 square miles. In addition to the wedge of the Antarctic continent, the territory included the uninhabited South Orkney Islands and the South Shetland Islands, while putting South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands under the jurisdiction of the Falkland Islands. The claim to the territories was not recognized by Argentina.'

    'Liu Cheng-sze, a second lieutenant in Communist China's air force, defected to Taiwan, bringing with him a Soviet-built MiG-15 jet fighter. Liu had broken away from a training mission, then flew the jet 200 miles south and landed near Taipei, where he surrendered to the Nationalist Chinese Air Force.[20] A parade was held in his honour on March 10, with 200,000 people turning out to honour him.'

UK chart hits, week ending 3 March 1962 (tracks in italics have been featured previously)
Htp: Clint's labour-of love compilation https://www.sixtiescity.net/charts/61chart.htm

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