55 Years Ago This Week
April 2 – A United Nations delegation arrives in Aden as its independence approaches. The delegation leaves April 7, accusing British authorities of lack of cooperation. The British say the delegation did not contact them.
April 3
April 4
April 5 – Police in West Berlin arrested 11 people, most of them students, on accusations they planned to assassinate U.S. Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey during his April 6 visit. The Spassguerrilla group, dedicated to humorous protests, would be released 34 hours later, after Humphrey's departure and after a search of their apartments showed that they were harmless and that their attack on the Humphrey motorcade would consist of wheat flour, soluble paint, pies and the Vice President's favorite dessert, pudding.
April 6
April 7 – Israeli Mirage jet fighters shot down six Syrian MiG-21s in one day, two months before the start of the Six-Day War. Earlier in the day, Syrian troops fired from the Golan Heights at a tractor being driven by a farmer from the kibbutz of Gadot, and then began firing mortar shells in and around the community. Israeli tanks took up positions and fired back, and Syrian tanks then mobilized. At 1:30 in the afternoon, Israel's Mirage fighters began bombing and strafing the Golan Heights, and at 1:45, the Syrian Air Force scrambled its MiG-21s, which were all shot down in the battle, while the Israelis suffered no losses. The first air battle began at 1:58 when a pair of Mirages fired at two MiGs that were patrolling over the Syrian capital, Damascus. Israeli pilot Iftach Spector downed both planes with the assistance of his wingman, Beni Romach.
April 8
Selections from Billboard's Hot 100 for the week, with a Bubbling Under bonus:
Leaving the chart:
Recent and new on the chart:
"Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon," Neil Diamond
(#10 US)
"Release Me (and Let Me Love Again)," Engelbert Humperdinck
(#4 US; #28 AC; #1 UK)
"I Got Rhythm," The Happenings
(#3 US; #28 UK)
"The Happening," The Supremes
(#1 US the week of May 13, 1967; #12 R&B; #6 UK)
Bubbling under:
"Break on Through (to the Other Side)," The Doors
(#126 US)
And new on the boob tube:
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Timeline entries are quoted from the Wiki pages for the month or year and Mark Lewisohn's The Beatles Day by Day, with minor editing as needed.
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April 2 – A United Nations delegation arrives in Aden as its independence approaches. The delegation leaves April 7, accusing British authorities of lack of cooperation. The British say the delegation did not contact them.
April 3
- Larry O'Brien, the United States Postmaster General (and the future Commissioner of the National Basketball Association) said in a speech that the U.S. Department of the Post Office should be abolished and replaced by a nonprofit government corporation. "If we ran our telephone system the way we run the post office, the carrier pigeon business would still have a great future," O'Brien told a gathering of magazine publishers and editors. The Postal Reorganization Act would be signed in 1970 and the cabinet-level department would be replaced on July 1, 1971 by the U.S. Postal Service.
- Paul McCartney flies to the USA, via Paris, to see Jane Asher in Denver, Colorado, but spends his first day in Los Angeles.
April 4
- In a speech titled "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence," his strongest antiwar declaration up to that time, Martin Luther King Jr. denounced U.S. involvement in Vietnam and related his own discussions with African-Americans in the past several months. "I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos," King said, "without first having spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today, our own government." King, who would be assassinated exactly one year later, addressed a gathering at the Riverside Church in New York City.
- The popular Peanuts comic strip entered a new era with the introduction of a new character that would later be given the name "Woodstock". The tiny bird, who landed on Snoopy, would become the dog's sidekick, and the comic would gradually shift from the misfortunes of Charlie Brown to the adventures of dog and bird.
- Johnny Carson quit his job as host of The Tonight Show, the day after the NBC network had broadcast another rerun of one of his prior shows. Carson had not performed while the AFTRA strike continued against the American TV and radio networks. During the two weeks after the AFTRA strike failed, singer Jimmy Dean and comedian Bob Newhart took over hosting duties. Carson would receive a raise and return on April 24.
- The organizers of the Monterey Pop Festival--among whom is Derek Taylor--persuade Paul McCartney by telephone to join the advisory board. Paul's first piece of advice is that they should book the Jimi Hendrix Experience to appear.
April 5 – Police in West Berlin arrested 11 people, most of them students, on accusations they planned to assassinate U.S. Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey during his April 6 visit. The Spassguerrilla group, dedicated to humorous protests, would be released 34 hours later, after Humphrey's departure and after a search of their apartments showed that they were harmless and that their attack on the Humphrey motorcade would consist of wheat flour, soluble paint, pies and the Vice President's favorite dessert, pudding.
April 6
- Bill Baird, an advocate for reform of restrictions against birth control, was arrested in front of 2,500 people at an auditorium at Boston University, shortly after announcing that he would challenge the Massachusetts state law. Baird handed a can of Emko spermicidal foam and a condom to a 19-year-old student and was taken off the stage by Boston police, who charged him with providing contraceptives to a minor, distributing medicines without a pharmacist or medical license, and "illegally exhibiting an obscene object". Baird would fight his conviction to the U.S. Supreme Court which would, on March 22, 1972, reverse the lower courts in the case of Eisenstadt v. Baird.
- Marking the largest ransom in United States history up to that time, $250,000 was paid by the president of a bank in Beverly Hills, California, for the safe release of his 11-year-old son, who had been kidnapped from his home three days earlier. A few days short of three years later, Ronald Lee Miller, an investigator for the Internal Revenue Service, would be indicted for the crime before the 3-year statute of limitations expired. After his conviction, Miller would be sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. None of the ransom money would ever be found.
- "The City on the Edge of Forever", a favorite episode of fans of the TV show Star Trek, was telecast for the first time, at 8:30 p.m. Eastern time and again at 8:30 Pacific time. One newspaper summarized that night's plot as "Under the influence of drugs, Dr. McCoy plunges through a time portal and into the New York City of the 1930s."
April 7 – Israeli Mirage jet fighters shot down six Syrian MiG-21s in one day, two months before the start of the Six-Day War. Earlier in the day, Syrian troops fired from the Golan Heights at a tractor being driven by a farmer from the kibbutz of Gadot, and then began firing mortar shells in and around the community. Israeli tanks took up positions and fired back, and Syrian tanks then mobilized. At 1:30 in the afternoon, Israel's Mirage fighters began bombing and strafing the Golan Heights, and at 1:45, the Syrian Air Force scrambled its MiG-21s, which were all shot down in the battle, while the Israelis suffered no losses. The first air battle began at 1:58 when a pair of Mirages fired at two MiGs that were patrolling over the Syrian capital, Damascus. Israeli pilot Iftach Spector downed both planes with the assistance of his wingman, Beni Romach.
April 8
- One week after he and his cabinet resigned, French Prime Minister Georges Pompidou formed "a substantially unchanged cabinet" that included opposition party members who had lost re-election to parliament, including Foreign Minister Maurice Couve de Murville and Armed Forces Minister Pierre Messmer.
- "Puppet on a String" by Sandie Shaw (music and lyrics by Bill Martin and Phil Coulter) wins the Eurovision Song Contest 1967 for the United Kingdom.
- John Lennon visits the workshop of coachworks company J. P. Fallon Ltd, in Chertsey, Surrey, to investigate the possibility of having his Rolls-Royce repainted in psychedelic style. It is possible, and the car goes into the workshop a few days later.
Selections from Billboard's Hot 100 for the week, with a Bubbling Under bonus:
Leaving the chart:
- "Darling Be Home Soon," The Lovin' Spoonful (8 weeks)
- "The Hunter Gets Captured by the Game," The Marvelettes (11 weeks)
- "Let's Fall in Love," Peaches & Herb (12 weeks)
- "Niki Hoeky," P.J. Proby (10 weeks)
Recent and new on the chart:
"Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon," Neil Diamond
(#10 US)
"Release Me (and Let Me Love Again)," Engelbert Humperdinck
(#4 US; #28 AC; #1 UK)
"I Got Rhythm," The Happenings
(#3 US; #28 UK)
"The Happening," The Supremes
(#1 US the week of May 13, 1967; #12 R&B; #6 UK)
Bubbling under:
"Break on Through (to the Other Side)," The Doors
(#126 US)
And new on the boob tube:
- Gilligan's Island, "The Pigeon"
- The Monkees, "Monkees Get Out More Dirt"
- The Rat Patrol, "The Hour Glass Raid"
- The Invaders, "Storm"
- Star Trek, "The City on the Edge of Forever"
- That Girl, "The Mating Game" (season finale)
- Dragnet 1967, "The Hit and Run Driver"
- The Wild Wild West, "The Night of the Bogus Bandits" (season finale)
- Tarzan, "Algie B for Brave"
- The Time Tunnel, "Town of Terror" (series finale)
- Hogan's Heroes, "The Reluctant Target" (season finale)
- The Man from U.N.C.L.E., "The Five Daughters Affair" – Part 2
- Get Smart, "A Man Called Smart: Part 1"
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Timeline entries are quoted from the Wiki pages for the month or year and Mark Lewisohn's The Beatles Day by Day, with minor editing as needed.
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