To many historians, 1963 was a pivotal year. Yet for many of us around 50 years ago, it was more like a roller coaster of ups and downs, highs and lows. An online CBS News retrospective earlier this year dubbed 1963 “The Year Everything Happened.” The CBS piece continued: “Martin Luther King Jr.s famous I Have a Dream speech, the JFK assassination and the beginning of Beatlemania are just some of the history-altering events that made 1963 one of the most memorable years in U.S. history.” New Yorks prestigious Howard Greenberg Gallery of photographs in the media held a special exhibit earlier this year chronicling the year half a century ago, focusing mostly on photos of the civil rights movement, the March on Washington and President Kennedys assassination. But so much more happened, and some of us remember like it was yesterday: BIG EVENTS ■ President Kennedy was killed in Dallas, Nov. 22; the man accused of doing the shooting, Lee Harvey Oswald, was killed two days later by nightclub owner Jack Ruby on live TV. ■ U.S. Supreme Court ruled local governments cannot require the Lords Prayer or Bible verses in public schools. The Court also ruled that a lawyer must be provided to a defendant in a criminal case if the defendant cannot afford to hire one. ■ The Washington-Moscow “hotline” was established as a way to prevent nuclear war, Aug. 30. ■ Astronaut Gordon Cooper orbited the Earth 22 times in 34-plus hours in the final solo Mercury mission on May 15-16. On June 16, Soviet Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space. CIVIL RIGHTS
Posted on: Sun, 10 Nov 2013 19:22:42 +0000