LOSE YOURSELF IN 1964

OUR BUSES IN HAVANA

Leyland Motors managed to upset the US government by signing a major contract with Fidel Castro’s government for the sale and export of buses to Cuba. The deal called for 450 45-seater Leylandmcw Olympic buses, plus spare parts, to be delivered to the Caribbean Island within 12 months, in exchange for £3.7m. There was also an option for Cuba to buy 1000 more vehicles for a similar unit price over the next five years. Leyland also set up an office and repair facility in Cuba and received six Cuban technicians for maintenance training, who were no doubt delighted to temporarily swap Havana for Lancashire. However, the deal fell foul of the USA’S economic embargo against Cuba and stern words were exchanged between the administrations of Prime Minister Alec Douglas-home and President Lyndon B Johnson. The blockade-busting buses from Britain became an election issue during the campaigns of both leaders later in 1964.

With John F Kennedy’s pledge to land a man on the moon before the end of the decade having been made two years previously NASA continued to aim for the lunar surface with its Ranger 6 mission. There were no astronauts aboard – just six TV cameras to transmit high-quality imagery back to Earth before the spacecraft crashed into the moon. The intention was to look for possible landing sites for Apollo manned flights. Blast-off was on 30 January, and all went well save for the cameras accidentally turning themselves on for 67 seconds two minutes after launch. This created a short circuit, so nothing happened when the signal was sent to turn the cameras on as Ranger 6 headed towards the surface. The craft impacted with the moon without a single image being sent back to NASA.