Fifty Years Ago Today, December 15, 1965

First Space Linkup Success

The Gemini 6 and 7 astronauts conducted the world's first rendezvous in space today. The successful in-flight formation of the two craft, slightly more than 20 feet apart, pushed the United States past a major milestone on the road to the moon.

Viet Nam

U.S. Air Force planes today knocked out a major power plant only 14 miles from the big North Vietnamese port of Haiphong in another escalation of the war against the Communists. The Hanoi-Haiphong areas never before had been attacked directly.

China's A-Threat

Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara said today Communist China may start stockpiling nuclear weapons and the missiles to deliver them within the next two years.

This story was originally published December 14, 2015 at 2:51 PM with the headline "Fifty Years Ago Today, December 15, 1965 ."