1963 Year

In a way, it may have been the best of the Rose Bowls, the granddaddy of them all, so to speak. Wisconsin won it, 37-42. Wait a minute! you exclaim. Wisconsin never won a Rose Bowl! That's what you think. Never mind the score. An irrelevancy. Trust me on this. You have often heard a beaten team growl, "We didn't lose--time just ran out on us"? Well, Wisconsin could say this with a perfectly straight face. The time was New Year's Day 1963. The game was a rout.

The church bombing has been like a toothache, said Mayor Bernard Kincaid, a cold, dull pain that never goes away. No matter if the rest of the body feels good--or society hums along smoothly-- there has always been a shame and discomfort in being the city where four black girls were killed by a bomb in 1963. That is, until now.

Racial hatred and a desire to halt the civil rights movement led a Ku Klux Klansman to bomb a Birmingham church in 1963, killing four black girls, a federal prosecutor said on the opening day of the historic murder trial. Thomas Blanton Jr.'s "hatred and hostility toward African Americans" provided the 62-year-old defendant with a motive to bomb the 16th Street Baptist Church, U.S. Atty. Doug Jones told a Birmingham court.

Racial hatred and a desire to halt the civil rights movement led a Ku Klux Klansman to bomb a Birmingham church in 1963, killing four black girls, a federal prosecutor said on the opening day of the historic murder trial. Thomas Blanton Jr.'s "hatred and hostility toward African Americans" provided the 62-year-old defendant with a motive to bomb the 16th Street Baptist Church, U.S. Atty. Doug Jones told a Birmingham court.

The church bombing has been like a toothache, said Mayor Bernard Kincaid, a cold, dull pain that never goes away. No matter if the rest of the body feels good--or society hums along smoothly-- there has always been a shame and discomfort in being the city where four black girls were killed by a bomb in 1963. That is, until now.

When Neil Armstrong became the first person to set foot on the moon, on July 20, 1969, he uttered a phrase that has been carved in stone and quoted across the planet: "That's one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind. " The grainy black-and-white television images of him taking his first lunar stroll were watched by an estimated 600 million people worldwide - and firmly established him as one of the great heroes of the 20th century. Armstrong, who had heart surgery in early August, died Saturday in Cincinnati at 82, said NASA spokesman Bob Jacobs.

Paul Neel, a professor at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, has been appointed state architect by Gov. George Deukmejian. If confirmed by the Senate, Neel would succeed Michael Bocchicchio, who resigned Nov. 15. The state architect is in charge of erecting state buildings. Neel, 56, has operated his own architectural firm since 1963, one year after he became professor of architecture at Cal Poly. Neel, a Republican, would serve until Jan. 15, 1991.

Hal David, the renowned pop music lyricist whose prolific collaboration with composer Burt Bacharach produced a wealth of enduringly memorable hits in the 1960s and early '70s , including "Walk On By," "What the World Needs Now Is Love" and the Oscar-winning "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head," died Saturday in Los Angeles. He was 91. David died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center of complications from a stroke, according to his wife, Eunice. "As a lyric writer, Hal was simple, concise and poetic - conveying volumes of meaning in the fewest possible words and always in service to the music," songwriter Paul Williams, president of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, said in a statement.

Oversized north-south windows and glass doors bring mountain and canyon views into this two-story contemporary in the Hollywood Hills West area that has been rebuilt and updated with home automation features. The master suite includes a sitting area, double doors opening to a balcony, a soaking tub that fills from the ceiling, and a double shower. Location: 7555 Devista Drive, Los Angeles 90046 Asking price: $1.49 million Last sold: Last year for $650,000 Year built: 1963 Year remodeled: 2012 Design/build team: Welly Yang and Dina Morishita House size: Three bedrooms, 21/2 bathrooms, 3,111 square feet Lot size: 11,003 square feet Features: Glass-walled entryway, front-door security camera, media/wine room, eat-in kitchen seating for six, Bertazzoni appliances, Cat-5 wiring, glass fireplace, Zen-inspired rock and water garden, two-car garage Website: http://www.shawnkormondy.com/featuredlistings/ About the area: Last year, 226 single-family homes sold in the 90046 ZIP Code at a median price of $887,000, according to DataQuick.

The first time I met A.J. Liebling was when I went to work at the New Yorker in 1946, shortly after being discharged from the Army. He did not immediately recognize me as one of the Greatest Generation (I was in civilian clothes), but he knew my work for the magazine and he invited me to lunch. He looked like an owlish Humpty-Dumpty, round in head and body, and he wore round, wire-rimmed eyeglasses and walked pigeon-toed with a kind of dainty deliberation.

In a way, it may have been the best of the Rose Bowls, the granddaddy of them all, so to speak. Wisconsin won it, 37-42. Wait a minute! you exclaim. Wisconsin never won a Rose Bowl! That's what you think. Never mind the score. An irrelevancy. Trust me on this. You have often heard a beaten team growl, "We didn't lose--time just ran out on us"? Well, Wisconsin could say this with a perfectly straight face. The time was New Year's Day 1963. The game was a rout.

In one way, "Place of Execution," which premieres Sunday on PBS' "Masterpiece Contemporary," is a typical "cozy" mystery. There is a manor house involved and an assortment of colorful locals who may or may not have committed murder. But the story, based on the book by Val McDermid, is more ambitious than that: In 1963, 13-year-old Alison Carter (Poppy Goodburn) walked away from that manor house and disappeared. The image of a beautiful young girl vanishing from a tiny, picaresque English village surrounded by the requisite but still dramatic wind-swept moor captivates George Bennett (Lee Ingleby)

Soviet-born pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy, back in Moscow after an absence of 26 years, said today he wanted to endorse the reform process begun by Kremlin leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev. "Had I been invited earlier, I would have not thought twice or three times, but 10 times before agreeing to come," Ashkenazy, who was born in the city of Gorky to Jewish parents, told a news conference at Moscow's Culture Fund headquarters.