The year was 1960 and the U.S. and Russia were in a â€œspace race.â€Â An outgrowth of the Cold War, the two super powers had already sent up satellites, and plans were underway to send men into space, and eventually to land on the moon.
The first weather satellite, Tiros I, launched on 1 April 1960 and changed weather forecasting forever. Nine more satellites followed within months giving meteorologists a view of cloud cover. The addition of infrared sensors later would allow for the tracking of temperatures around the globe.
The world had long since embraced the automobile, and in 1960, nearly 57 percent of U.S. households owned an automobileÂ [Excel link], with another 21 percent owning two or more. More than 63 percent of Americans lived in urban areas, versus nearly 37 percent in rural areas.
Television was also now mainstream with nearly 90 percent of U.S. households owning a television set (52 million televisions). Fifteen years prior, it is estimated that there were fewer than 10,000 sets in the U.S.Â Viewers watched new television shows hitting the airwaves such as The Flintstones, The Andy Griffith Show, and The Bugs Bunny Show.Â While Bugs had been around for many years, he was on primetime TV in 1960.
The Civil Rights movement was taking shape and in Greensboro, North Carolina, four black college students staged a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth’s lunch counter where they were refused service. They were joined by other black students in the following days and the protest soon spread to other southern cities. Six months later, that same Woolworth’s restaurant served its first black customer. While not all of the sit-ins were successful, some other protests had similar results.
In September of 1960, Hurricane Donna, nicknamed “Deadly Donna” struck Florida and continued with hurricane strength winds all the way up the eastern coast of the U.S. to New England. The storm claimed fifty lives and caused $387 million in damages.
Do you remember 1960? Add your memories to the comments section of this post.
Image: Showing of TIROS in the old Supreme Court Chamber on April 4, 1960. Left to Right: Senators Young, Cnnon, Anderson, and Mr. William Stroud of NASA, Project Manager of the TIROS I (From the Library of Congress Photo Collection.)