Unknown Speaker: "Three, two, one, ignition, liftoff. Liftoff."

Unknown Speaker: "There she goes! You can hear the roar as it slowly lifts from its pad, a streaming flame behind it as it goes ... "

Announcer: This is one of the sounds of the Space Age. Hear this and other big news stories of the year on 1961 Review, over this station soon.

Announcer: That, believe it or not, is the voice of a computer, and if you don't believe a computer can sing, tune in this station for the 1961 Review.

1961, the Year in Perspective, a capsule history in sound and word.

1961 was a year of great hopes and great anxieties; of great conflicts and crises and small progress toward resolving them; a year that brought back familiar names in a different and sometimes tragic vein: Hammarskjِld, Castro, Khrushchev. In the perspective of time, these events stand out.

On January 20th, the United States inaugurated its 35th President. The young Senator from Massachusetts became the first Roman Catholic and the youngest man ever to hold that office. The voice of John Fitzgerald Kennedy in his Inaugural Address challenged East and West alike.

President John F. Kennedy: "Let both sides seek to invoke the wonders of science instead of its terrors. Together let us explore the stars, conquer the deserts, eradicate disease, tap the ocean depth and encourage the odds in commerce. Let both sides unite to ease in all corners of the Earth the command of Isaiah to undo the heavy burden and let the oppressed go free."