September 18, 1961

That fall of 1961, gas ran $0.31 a gallon and Kennedy was in the White House — the Soviet Union was pushing hard on the question of Germany and Khrushchev was signaling he wanted a direct meeting with Kennedy to resolve it. On television, "Gunsmoke" remained the country's top-rated show, while at the movies audiences were filling seats for "The Hustler," and Ray Charles had the number one song in the country with "Hit The Road Jack." The New York Yankees won the World Series that October, defeating the Cincinnati Reds, and just weeks later test pilot Robert White set a world air speed record of 4,093 miles per hour in an X-15 rocket plane.