Above: Jayne Mansfield poses in a bathtub with yet another of her unusual hairdos. We’re thinking it’s probably a wig, in whole or in part. She wore wigs often, but her real hair was almost a trademark. Even so, she was never afraid to cover it for the sake of a good shot. She even cut it occasionally, with excellent results, such as you see in the 1962 photo at right. We don’t have an exact date on the bubbly tub image, but most sources place it around 1960. Want to see one her wildest hair-dos? Click this link.
1961—Soviets Launch Venus Probe
The U.S.S.R. launches the spacecraft Venera 1, equipped with scientific instruments to measure solar wind, micrometeorites, and cosmic radiation, towards planet Venus. The craft is the first modern planetary probe. Among its many achievements, it confirms the presence of solar wind in deep space, but overheats due to the failure of a sensor before its Venus mission is completed.