August 13, 1961: The German Democratic Republic -- better known as East Germany, since it was not democratic and not a republic -- closes the border between the Eastern and Western Sectors of Berlin, to thwart its inhabitants' attempts to escape to the West. Construction of the Berlin Wall is started. The day is known as Barbed Wire Sunday.
After the defeat of the Nazis in 1945, the German capital of Berlin was divided into 4 Sectors, 1 for each of the main victorious Allies: American, British, French and Soviet. In 1948, the Soviet Union sealed the border, trying to starve West Berlin (American, British and French) into submission. In response, President Harry S Truman started the Berlin Airlift, and the Soviets couldn't stop it, and gave up.
Now, in 1961, tensions had been again been rising between America and the Soviet Union over the status of Berlin. In June, President John F. Kennedy and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev met for a summit in Vienna, Austria. It was the only time they would meet face-to-face.
The 67-year-old Khrushchev, already a hardened veteran of World War I by the time JFK was born in 1917, thought he could intimidate the youngest man ever elected President of the United States. He was right: The 44-year-old Kennedy was out of his league -- for the moment. By July, he was calling up U.S. Army Reserve units to send to West Berlin, because Khrushchev was doing the same on his side.
The Warsaw Pact, dominated by the Soviets with East Germany as its 2nd-ranking partner, called the Wall "the Antifascist Protection Rampart." The idea was that it was supposed to keep America and its NATO allies, including Britain and France, out. This was a cover: So many people were fleeing from East Berlin to West Berlin that the Pact was willing to put up Der Berliner Mauer, heavily guarded by sniper towers, to stop them.
In his speech accepting the 1964 Republican Presidential nomination, Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona called it "the wall of shame in Berlin." But Kennedy was relieved: Better a wall than a war. Time magazine named Kennedy its Man of the Year for 1961.
The Cold War had nearly gotten hot, but had cooled off again. It nearly became World War III in October 1962, with the Cuban Missile Crisis. But Kennedy and Khrushchev, communication by translator-aided phone, avoided it. In June 1963, Kennedy proposed a Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, and Khrushchev accepted it.
Later that month, Kennedy visited West Berlin. At City Hall, not far from the Wall, he gave a speech remembered for its metaphor-launching close: "All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin. Therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words, 'Ich bin ein Berliner.'" More important were these words, earlier: "Freedom has many difficulties, and democracy is not perfect. But we have never needed to put a wall up to keep our people in."
Goldwater thought he could use "the wall of shame" to beat Kennedy in 1964. But when Kennedy died a year before the election, from an assassin's bullet, Goldwater knew his chance of winning had also died. The Cold War was supposed to be his issue, not the Democrats' and the new President, Lyndon Johnson, clobbered him with it (among other issues).
In 1987, another President, Ronald Reagan, spoke in front of the Brandenburg Gate, which turned out to be a convenient landmark between East and West, with the Wall blocking access to it, and challenged the current Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev: "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"
He didn't. It would be another 2 1/2 years, after Reagan left office, before the East German government removed travel restrictions, rendering the Wall meaningless, and it was the people of Berlin, East and West, who began tearing it down, after 28 years.
No one is sure how many people tried to escape through openings in the Wall, or climbing over it, or tunneling under it, during those 28 years. A fair estimate was 5,000 succeeding, and about 200 being shot and killed in the attempt.
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August 13, 1961 was a Sunday. Actress Dawnn Lewis was born.
This was the off-season for the NFL, the AFL, the NBA and the NHL. But it was still the era of Sunday doubleheader, so a full slate of Major League Baseball games was played, and then some:
* The New York Yankees split a doubleheader with the Washington Senators at Griffith Stadium in Washington.
The Senators won the opener, 12-2. Bud Daley got shelled, and then so did Hal Reniff. The only Yankee runs came on a pair of solo home runs -- Roger Maris' 44th of the season, and Mickey Mantle’s 45th.
The Yankees won the nightcap, 9-4. Jim Coates went the distance for the win. Maris hit his 45th homer, and Clete Boyer hit his... 8th. Mantle didn't get a hit in this game.
* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Boston Red Sox, 6-5 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. The Sox scored in the 1st inning, and led 1-0 in the 4th, 3-1 in the 5th, and scored in their half of the 10th and the 11th, and still blew it. They blew 4 separate leads.
Arnold Earley pitched to 1 batter in the game, Russ Snyder, who bunted on him, and Earley threw the ball away, allowing the winning run to score in the bottom of the 11th inning.
* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 13-4 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. This was the 16th game in a string of 23 consecutive losses for the Phils, still the longest in MLB since 1899.
* The Los Angeles Angels beat the Cleveland Indians, 8-7 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.
* The Chicago White Sox beat the Kansas City Athletics, 9-3 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.
* The Milwaukee Braves beat the Chicago Cubs, 8-3 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Hank Aaron got 2 hits, neither of them a home run. Eddie Mathews hit one.
* The Minnesota Twins beat the Detroit Tigers, 13-5 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.
* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 8-0 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Despite allowing 8 hits, Stan Williams pitched a shutout.
* And the Cincinnati Reds beat the San Francisco Giants, 8-1 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Willie Mays went 1-for-4 in a losing cause.
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