Time Magazine Reports: The 1960s Quiz

Answer: Belgian Congo

The Belgian Congo, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, was ill-prepared for democracy. In its article 'BELGIAN CONGO: Democracy with Spears' 'Time' reported, "Some 2,000,000 citizens of the Belgian Congo were in the throes of their first election. Voters did not seem to think that balloting was enough. Spear-carrying Baluba tribesmen chased Luluas through the streets of Leopoldville. One angry group descended on a police post and stoned the cops. In five weeks of electioneering, 57 people were dead."
Five days after the election, on July 5, an army unit mutinied, violence spread, factions formed and soon Belgium, the US, the UN, Cuba and the Soviet Union were involved directly or indirectly in fighting more vicious than most Westerners could imagine.

Also in 1960: American U-2 spy plane shot down over Russia, African-American students stage sit-in at Greensboro, NC lunch counter, cost of gasoline $.25/gallon.

Answer: A vast wasteland

'Time' reported that Minnow challenged network executives and station owners to watch their programming from sign-on to sign-off. "They would see, he told them, 'a vast wasteland - a procession of game shows, violence, audience participation shows, formula comedies about totally unbelievable families, blood and thunder, mayhem, violence, sadism, murder, western bad men, western good men, private eyes, gangsters, more violence, and cartoons. And, endlessly, commercials-many screaming, cajoling and offending. And, most of all, boredom.'"

Also in 1961: April 20, Fidel Castro announces the Bay of Pigs Invasion has been defeated, first disposable diaper introduced in US, 'Carry Back' wins Kentucky Derby.

Answer: Scored 100 points in a game

'Time' reported, "the Philadelphia Warriors' towering Wilt the Stilt Chamberlain had a hot night in chocolateville. He dumped in 31 points in one quarter and 59 in a half. With teammates feeding the ball at every chance, the 7-ft. 1-in. center, overall sank 36 baskets in 63 tries, added 28 points at the foul line. His game-end total of 100 points was an N.B.A. record, and so was the 169-147 score by which the Warriors won".
The 100 points and 28 free throws weren't the only NBA records Chamberlain set that night which still stand. His 59 points in a half, 35 field goals made, 63 field goals attempted and four other records from the game are still unbroken.

Also in 1962: First transatlantic TV transmission via 'Telstar' satellite, Nobel Prize for Literature won by John Steinbeck, price of Ford Cortina in UK 591 pounds.

Answer: Harold Macmillan

In June's recap article, 'The Price of Christine,' 'Time' listed the scandal's main characters, "...red-haired Christine Keeler, who came from Middlesex to sling hash at 17, and at 21 was the West End's most-called girl; John Profumo, 48, the able War Minister and man-about-Mayfair, whose virile charm proved something of a Tory asset... and Dr. Stephen Ward, 43, a socialite osteopath (and son of the Anglican canon of Rochester Cathedral), who said he liked helping attractive girls of humble birth adapt to "the needs and stresses of modern living.""
Profumo resigned after he was found to have lied about his affair with Keeler, who was later convicted of perjury. Ward committed suicide near the end of his trial on morals charges. Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, though not involved in the affair, was held responsible for his cabinet minister's indiscretions and resigned in October 1963. In October 1964, Labour won the general election and took office for the first time since 1951.

Also in 1963: Pope John XXIII dies and is succeeded by Paul VI, cost of a first-class stamp increases to $.04, Indiana State Fair Coliseum Explosion kills 74.

Answer: Loving v. Virginia Supreme Court ruling - states cannot prohibit interracial marriage

'Time's article 'The Congress: The Final Vote' detailed the effort that went into passage of the Civil Rights Act, "The bill's opponents died hard. They brought up amendment after amendment, not in any expectation that the changes would be adopted, but rather as a time-consuming effort to delay the moment of truth. In one day, the Senate had 34 roll calls."
"The ban on discrimination in employment and labor unions does not become effective for a year. But effective immediately, and likely to cause the fastest fireworks, is the wide-ranging public accommodations section.
Civil rights leaders were yearning to start testing that section. And even as the final Senate vote approached, there was an indication in St. Augustine, Fla., of what the summer might hold.
There, five Negroes and two white fellow demonstrators dived into the swimming pool at the segregated Monson Motor Lodge. The motel manager, furious, grabbed two jugs of muriatic acid, a cleansing agent, tried unsuccessfully to splash the stuff on the swimmers. Cops moved in, one of them stripped off his shoes and socks, leaped gracelessly into the water and pummeled the swimmers with his fists. When the fracas was over, 34 people, including the swimmers and other civil righters who kept dry, were hauled off to jail."

Also in 1964: Jack Ruby convicted of murder in slaying of Lee Harvey Oswald, UCLA wins its first NCAA basketball title, defeating Duke, US average family income $6000.

Answer: 190,000

In the December 23 issue, 'World: The Giant Bottleneck' described the difficulties the US faced in providing "the wherewithal to fight the war, not the Communist enemy but the beans and bread, bullets and billets necessary for the daily support of 170,000 American fighting men. Between the U.S. and its forces in the field lies a transport pipeline some 9,000 miles long. It flows freely until it hits the ports and beaches of South Viet Nam, where a dearth of deep-water piers, tugs, lighters and warehousing has created a bottleneck of giant and dangerous proportions."

By the time the story appeared, the number was 190,000 and continued climbing to nearly 500,000 in 1967.

Also in 1965: US unemployment 5.2%, Ranger 8 photographs possible landing sites for Apollo program before crashing into Moon, Grammy Record of the Year 'The Girl From Ipanema' by Stan Getz and Astrud Gilberto.

Answer: Men of Honor

In 'Men of Honor' Cuba Gooding played US Navy diver Carl Brashear who lost his leg in an accident during the recovery of the bomb which fell into the Mediterranean.
A month later 'Time' reported 'La Bomba Recuperada!' "Admiral William Guest ordered crewmen on the sea-stained, 2,100-ton submarine rescue ship U.S.S. Petrel to start heaving in on the winch. Four cold, tense hours later, as dawn exploded over the Mediterranean horizon, the sunken 2,800-lb. H-bomb that had defied every attempt at retrieval for 80 days splashed out of the water onto the Petrel's fantail...
"They have pulled it up!" In Madrid, one newspaper suggested that the recovery was a Holy Week "miracle.""

Also in 1966: US Supreme Court decides Miranda vs. Arizona, protecting rights of the accused, France withdraws its forces from NATO, Texas Western with first all African-American starting lineup defeats Kentucky for NCAA basketball championship.

Answer: Monterey

"I'm just blowing my mind!" cried a net-stockinged coed last week on the Monterey County Fairgrounds in California. She wasn't the only one. Around her, bedecked with beads, boots, faded Levi's, granny dresses, stovepipe hats, bells and tambourines, 50,000 members of the turned-on generation celebrated the rites of life, liberty and the pursuit of hippiness...
Onstage in the 7,000-seat arena, an English group called The Who set off smoke bombs, smashed a guitar and kicked over their drums. American Singer Jimi Hendrix topped that by plucking his guitar strings with his teeth, and for an encore set the entire instrument on fire."
The first significant US pop festival, the KFRC Fantasy Fair and Magic Mountain Music Festival, was held just a week before Monterey on the slopes of Mount Tamalpais in Marin County, California.

Also in 1967: Richard Speck sentenced to death for killing 8 student nurses in Chicago, Muhammad Ali refuses military service to protest Viet Nam War and is stripped of heavyweight title, Elvis Presley and Priscilla Beaulieu are married in Las Vegas.

Answer: Biafra

In 1967 longstanding ethnic, religious and cultural differences led to an independence movement in the Igbo dominated provinces in southeastern Nigeria. A military coup leaving the Hausa people in control of the government triggered the revolution. By mid-1968 the larger and better armed Nigerian forces were beginning to squeeze Biafra's army into a shrinking area.
"Even as the peace talks began, federal troops were pushing deeper inside Biafra, thrusting into parts of Port Harcourt, the last major city in Biafran hands and Nigeria's second largest seaport. A modern oil boomtown before the war, Port Harcourt supplied Biafra's fuel needs, acted as a vital link for its Lisbon-based airlift of arms and materiel, and-by the mere fact of its possession-served as a morale booster for Biafra and its 8,500,000 Ibo tribesmen, led by Lieut. Colonel Odumegwu Ojukwu."
The war lasted longer than it should have due in part to clumsy strategy on the part of Nigeria's military leaders but largely due to Nigeria's willingness to surround and starve the Biafrans. The famine in Biafra and pictures of starving Biafran children made the rebel nation a sympathetic cause, but generated little military support from other nations. The war sputtered along until January of 1970.
Responding to the humanitarian crisis in Biafra, Bernard Kouchner and other French physicians performed heroic relief work which led to the creation of Doctors Without Borders in 1971.

Also in 1968: US B-52 crashes in Greenland scattering components of four nuclear bombs, rock musical 'Hair' opens on Broadway, UK cost of petrol 5 shillings, 5 pence/gallon.

Answer: Nazi UFOs flying from Antarctic bases

As 'Time' pointed out, "Oddly enough, even flying-saucer buffs were pleased. "UFOs can now be given the serious scientific attention they require, free from military considerations," said Stuart Nixon, spokesman for a group of saucer activists who call themselves NICAP (for National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena). Nixon proposed continuation of the probe by a joint federal-private agency, but the suggestion is not likely to be entertained seriously in Washington or academic quarters. In a year when man has assured himself that there are no moonmen or Martians, UFOs seem more than ever to be a product of terrestrial imaginations."
There's still a lot of interest in UFO sightings, just not on the part of the Air Force so far as we know.

Also in 1969: New York Jets upset the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III, Russian and Chinese troops clash along the Ussuri River, year end Dow Jones closing average 800.