Important Historical Events of the year 1960, Year 1960 in History

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List of 1960 Major News Events in History, Most Important Historical Events in 1960

What happened in the year 1960?

Date	Event
January 1, 1960	Cameroon achieves independence from France and the United Kingdom.
January 6, 1960	National Airlines Flight 2511 is destroyed in mid-air by a bomb, while en route from New York City to Miami.
January 6, 1960	The Associations Law comes into force in Iraq, allowing registration of political parties.
January 9, 1960	President of Egypt Gamal Abdel Nasser opens construction on the Aswan Dam by detonating ten tons of dynamite to demolish twenty tons of granite on the east bank of the Nile.
January 14, 1960	The Reserve Bank of Australia, the country's central bank and banknote issuing authority authorized by the 1959 Reserve Bank Act, is established.
January 18, 1960	Capital Airlines Flight 20 crashes into a farm in Charles City County, Virginia, killing all 50 aboard, the third fatal Capital Airlines crash in as many years.
January 19, 1960	Japan and the United States sign the US–Japan Mutual Security Treaty
January 19, 1960	Scandinavian Airlines System Flight 871 crashes near Ankara Esenboğa Airport in Turkey, killing all 42 aboard.
January 21, 1960	Little Joe 1B, a Mercury spacecraft, lifts off from Wallops Island, Virginia with Miss Sam, a female rhesus monkey on board.
January 21, 1960	Avianca Flight 671 crashes at Montego Bay, Jamaica airport, killing 37 people.
January 21, 1960	A coal mine collapses at Holly Country, South Africa, killing 435 miners.
January 23, 1960	The bathyscaphe USS Trieste breaks a depth record by descending to 10,911 metres (35,797 ft) in the Pacific Ocean.
January 24, 1960	Algerian War: Some units of European volunteers in Algiers stage an insurrection known as the "barricades week", during which they seize government buildings and clash with local police.
January 25, 1960	The National Association of Broadcasters in the United States reacts to the "payola" scandal by threatening fines for any disc jockeys who accept money for playing particular records.
January 28, 1960	The National Football League announces expansion teams for Dallas to start in the 1960 NFL season and Minneapolis-St. Paul for the 1961 NFL season.
January 30, 1960	The African National Party is founded in Chad, through the merger of traditionalist parties.
February 1, 1960	Four black students stage the first of the Greensboro sit-ins at a lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina.
February 3, 1960	British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan speaks of "a wind of change", signalling that his Government was likely to support decolonisation.
February 8, 1960	Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom issues an Order-in-Council, stating that she and her family would be known as the House of Windsor, and that her descendants will take the name Mountbatten-Windsor.
February 8, 1960	The Hollywood Walk of Fame is established.
February 13, 1960	With the success of a nuclear test codenamed "Gerboise Bleue", France becomes the fourth country to possess nuclear weapons.
February 13, 1960	Black college students stage the first of the Nashville sit-ins at three lunch counters in Nashville, Tennessee.
February 16, 1960	The U.S. Navy submarine USS Triton begins Operation Sandblast, setting sail from New London, Connecticut, to begin the first submerged circumnavigation of the globe.
February 19, 1960	China successfully launches the T-7, its first sounding rocket.
February 26, 1960	A New York-bound Alitalia airliner crashes into a cemetery in Shannon, Ireland, shortly after takeoff, killing 34 of the 52 persons on board.
February 29, 1960	The 5.7 Mw  Agadir earthquake shakes coastal Morocco with a maximum perceived intensity of X (Extreme), destroying Agadir and leaving 12,000 dead and another 12,000 injured.
March 4, 1960	The French freighter La Coubre explodes in Havana, Cuba, killing 100.
March 5, 1960	Indonesian President Sukarno dismissed the Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat (DPR), 1955 democratically elected parliament, and replaced with DPR-GR, the parliament of his own selected members.
March 9, 1960	Dr. Belding Hibbard Scribner implants for the first time a shunt he invented into a patient, which allows the patient to receive hemodialysis on a regular basis.
March 17, 1960	U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the National Security Council directive on the anti-Cuban covert action program that will ultimately lead to the Bay of Pigs Invasion.
March 21, 1960	Apartheid: Sharpeville massacre, South Africa: Police open fire on a group of black South African demonstrators, killing 69 and wounding 180.
March 22, 1960	Arthur Leonard Schawlow and Charles Hard Townes receive the first patent for a laser.
April 1, 1960	The TIROS-1 satellite transmits the first television picture from space.
April 4, 1960	France agrees to grant independence to the Mali Federation, a union of Senegal and French Sudan.
April 8, 1960	The Netherlands and West Germany sign an agreement to negotiate the return of German land annexed by the Dutch in return for 280 million German marks as Wiedergutmachung.
April 9, 1960	Dr. Hendrik Verwoerd, Prime Minister of South Africa and architect of apartheid, narrowly survives an assassination attempt by a white farmer, David Pratt in Johannesburg.
April 13, 1960	The United States launches Transit 1-B, the world's first satellite navigation system.
April 15, 1960	At Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina, Ella Baker leads a conference that results in the creation of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, one of the principal organizations of the civil rights movement in the 1960s.
April 19, 1960	Students in South Korea hold a nationwide pro-democracy protest against president Syngman Rhee, eventually forcing him to resign.
April 21, 1960	Brasília, Brazil's capital, is officially inaugurated. At 09:30, the Three Powers of the Republic are simultaneously transferred from the old capital, Rio de Janeiro.
April 25, 1960	The United States Navy submarine USS Triton completes the first submerged circumnavigation of the globe.
April 26, 1960	Forced out by the April Revolution, President of South Korea Syngman Rhee resigns after 12 years of dictatorial rule.
May 1, 1960	Cold War: U-2 incident: Francis Gary Powers, in a Lockheed U-2 spyplane, is shot down over the Sverdlovsk Oblast, Soviet Union, sparking a diplomatic crisis.
May 6, 1960	More than 20 million viewers watch the first televised royal wedding when Princess Margaret marries Anthony Armstrong-Jones at Westminster Abbey.
May 7, 1960	Cold War: U-2 Crisis of 1960: Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev announces that his nation is holding American U-2 pilot Gary Powers.
May 9, 1960	The Food and Drug Administration announces it will approve birth control as an additional indication for Searle's Enovid, making Enovid the world's first approved oral contraceptive pill.
May 13, 1960	Hundreds of University of California, Berkeley students congregate for the first day of protest against a visit by the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
May 16, 1960	Theodore Maiman operates the first optical laser (a ruby laser), at Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, California.
May 22, 1960	The Great Chilean earthquake, measuring 9.5 on the moment magnitude scale, hits southern Chile, becoming the most powerful earthquake ever recorded.
May 23, 1960	A tsunami caused by an earthquake in Chile the previous day kills 61 people in Hilo, Hawaii.
May 24, 1960	Following the 1960 Valdivia earthquake, the largest ever recorded earthquake, Cordón Caulle begins to erupt.
May 27, 1960	In Turkey, a military coup removes President Celâl Bayar and the rest of the democratic government from office.
June 5, 1960	The Lake Bodom murders occur in Finland.
June 10, 1960	Trans Australia Airlines Flight 538 crashes near Mackay Airport in Mackay, Queensland, Australia, killing 29.
June 17, 1960	The Nez Perce tribe is awarded $4 million for 7 million acres (28,000 km2) of land undervalued at four cents/acre in the 1863 treaty.
June 19, 1960	The first NASCAR race was held at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
June 20, 1960	The Mali Federation gains independence from France (it later splits into Mali and Senegal).
June 23, 1960	The United States Food and Drug Administration declares Enovid to be the first officially approved combined oral contraceptive pill in the world.
June 24, 1960	Assassination attempt of Venezuelan President Rómulo Betancourt.
June 25, 1960	Cold War: Two cryptographers working for the United States National Security Agency left for vacation to Mexico, and from there defected to the Soviet Union.
June 26, 1960	The former British Protectorate of British Somaliland gains its independence as Somaliland.
June 26, 1960	Madagascar gains its independence from France.
June 30, 1960	Belgian Congo gains independence as Republic of the Congo (Léopoldville).
July 1, 1960	The Trust Territory of Somaliland (the former Italian Somaliland) gains its independence from Italy. Concurrently, it unites as scheduled with the five-day-old State of Somaliland (the former British Somaliland) to form the Somali Republic.
July 1, 1960	Ghana becomes a republic and Kwame Nkrumah becomes its first President as Queen Elizabeth II ceases to be its head of state.
July 4, 1960	Due to the post-Independence Day admission of Hawaii as the 50th U.S. state on August 21, 1959, the 50-star flag of the United States debuts in Philadelphia, almost ten and a half months later (see Flag Acts (United States)).
July 8, 1960	Francis Gary Powers is charged with espionage resulting from his flight over the Soviet Union.
July 11, 1960	France legislates for the independence of Dahomey (later Benin), Upper Volta (later Burkina Faso) and Niger.
July 11, 1960	Congo Crisis: The State of Katanga breaks away from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
July 11, 1960	To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is first published, in the United States.
July 12, 1960	Orlyonok, the main Young Pioneer camp of the Russian SFSR, is founded.
July 14, 1960	Jane Goodall arrives at the Gombe Stream Reserve in present-day Tanzania to begin her study of chimpanzees in the wild.
July 20, 1960	Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) elects Sirimavo Bandaranaike Prime Minister, the world's first elected female head of government.
July 20, 1960	The Polaris missile is successfully launched from a submarine, the USS George Washington, for the first time.
July 21, 1960	Sirimavo Bandaranaike is elected Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, becoming the world's first female head of government
July 28, 1960	The German Volkswagen Act comes into force.
August 1, 1960	Dahomey (later renamed Benin) declares independence from France.
August 1, 1960	Islamabad is declared the federal capital of the Government of Pakistan.
August 3, 1960	Niger gains independence from France.
August 5, 1960	Burkina Faso, then known as Upper Volta, becomes independent from France.
August 6, 1960	Cuban Revolution: Cuba nationalizes American and foreign-owned property in the nation.
August 7, 1960	Ivory Coast becomes independent from France.
August 9, 1960	South Kasai secedes from the Congo.
August 11, 1960	Chad declares independence from France.
August 12, 1960	Echo 1A, NASA's first successful communications satellite, is launched.
August 13, 1960	The Central African Republic declares independence from France.
August 15, 1960	Republic of the Congo (Brazzaville) becomes independent from France.
August 16, 1960	Cyprus gains its independence from the United Kingdom.
August 16, 1960	Joseph Kittinger parachutes from a balloon over New Mexico, United States, at 102,800 feet (31,300 m), setting three records that held until 2012: High-altitude jump, free fall, and highest speed by a human without an aircraft.
August 19, 1960	Cold War: In Moscow, Russia, Soviet Union, downed American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers is sentenced to ten years imprisonment by the Soviet Union for espionage.
August 19, 1960	Sputnik program: Korabl-Sputnik 2: The Soviet Union launches the satellite with the dogs Belka and Strelka, 40 mice, two rats and a variety of plants.
August 20, 1960	Senegal breaks from the Mali Federation, declaring its independence.
August 25, 1960	The Games of the XVII Olympiad commence in Rome, Italy.
September 2, 1960	The first election of the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile. The Tibetan community observes this date as Democracy Day.
September 5, 1960	Poet Léopold Sédar Senghor is the first elected President of Senegal.
September 5, 1960	Muhammad Ali (then known as Cassius Clay) wins the gold medal in the light heavyweight boxing competition at the Olympic Games in Rome.
September 8, 1960	In Huntsville, Alabama, US President Dwight D. Eisenhower formally dedicates the Marshall Space Flight Center (NASA had already activated the facility on July 1).
September 10, 1960	At the Summer Olympics in Rome, Abebe Bikila becomes the first sub-Saharan African to win a gold medal, winning the marathon in bare feet.
September 14, 1960	The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is founded.
September 14, 1960	Congo Crisis: Mobutu Sese Seko seizes power in a military coup, suspending parliament and the constitution.
September 18, 1960	Fidel Castro arrives in New York City as the head of the Cuban delegation to the United Nations.
September 22, 1960	The Sudanese Republic is renamed Mali after the withdrawal of Senegal from the Mali Federation.
September 24, 1960	USS Enterprise, the world's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, is launched.
September 26, 1960	In Chicago, the first televised debate takes place between presidential candidates Richard M. Nixon and John F. Kennedy.
October 1, 1960	Nigeria gains independence from the United Kingdom.
October 4, 1960	An airliner crashes on takeoff from Boston's Logan International Airport, killing 62 people.
October 12, 1960	Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev pounds his shoe on a desk at the United Nations to protest a Philippine assertion.
October 12, 1960	Japan Socialist Party leader Inejiro Asanuma is stabbed to death during a live television broadcast.
October 19, 1960	The United States imposes a near-total trade embargo against Cuba.
October 24, 1960	Nedelin catastrophe: An R-16 ballistic missile explodes on the launch pad at the Soviet Union's Baikonur Cosmodrome space facility, killing over 100 people, including Field Marshal Mitrofan Nedelin.
October 29, 1960	An airplane carrying the Cal Poly football team crashes on takeoff in Toledo, Ohio.
November 2, 1960	Penguin Books is found not guilty of obscenity in the trial R v Penguin Books Ltd, the Lady Chatterley's Lover case.
November 3, 1960	The land that would become the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge is established by an Act of Congress after a year-long legal battle that pitted local residents against Port Authority of New York and New Jersey officials wishing to turn the Great Swamp into a major regional airport for jet aircraft.
November 4, 1960	At the Kasakela Chimpanzee Community in Tanzania, Dr. Jane Goodall observes chimpanzees creating tools, the first-ever observation in non-human animals.
November 8, 1960	John F. Kennedy is elected as the 35th President of the United States, defeating incumbent Vice President Richard Nixon, who would later be elected president in 1968 and 1972.
November 9, 1960	Robert McNamara is named president of the Ford Motor Company, becoming the first non-Ford family member to serve in that post. He resigns a month later to join the newly-elected John F. Kennedy administration.
November 11, 1960	A military coup against President Ngô Đình Diệm of South Vietnam is crushed.
November 14, 1960	Ruby Bridges becomes the first Black child to attend an all-White elementary school in Louisiana.
November 25, 1960	The Mirabal sisters of the Dominican Republic are assassinated.
November 28, 1960	Mauritania becomes independent of France.
December 1, 1960	Patrice Lumumba is arrested by Mobutu Sese Seko's men on the banks of the Sankuru River, for inciting the army to rebellion.
December 3, 1960	The musical Camelot debuts at the Majestic Theatre on Broadway. It will become associated with the Kennedy administration.
December 9, 1960	The first episode of Coronation Street, the world's longest-running television soap opera, is broadcast in the United Kingdom.
December 11, 1960	French forces crack down in a violent clash with protesters in French Algeria during a visit by French President Charles de Gaulle.
December 13, 1960	While Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia visits Brazil, his Imperial Bodyguard seizes the capital and proclaims him deposed and his son, Crown Prince Asfa Wossen, Emperor.
December 14, 1960	Convention against Discrimination in Education of UNESCO is adopted.
December 15, 1960	Richard Pavlick is arrested for plotting to assassinate U.S. President-Elect John F. Kennedy.
December 15, 1960	King Mahendra of Nepal suspends the country's constitution, dissolves parliament, dismisses the cabinet, and imposes direct rule.
December 16, 1960	A United Airlines Douglas DC-8 and a TWA Lockheed Super Constellation collide over Staten Island, New York and crash, killing all 128 people aboard both aircraft and six more on the ground.
December 17, 1960	Troops loyal to Emperor Haile Selassie in Ethiopia crush the coup that began December 13, returning power to their leader upon his return from Brazil. Haile Selassie absolves his son of any guilt.
December 17, 1960	Munich C-131 crash: Twenty passengers and crew on board as well as 32 people on the ground are killed.
December 23, 1960	Hilkka Saarinen née Pylkkänen is murdered in the so-called the "oven homicide" case in Krootila, Kokemäki, Finland.