What Happened in 1960 — Events, Births & Deaths

National Airlines Flight 2511 is destroyed in mid-air by a bomb, while en route from New York City to Miami.

The Associations Law comes into force in Iraq, allowing registration of political parties.

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.

The Reserve Bank of Australia, the country's central bank and banknote issuing authority authorized by the 1959 Reserve Bank Act, is established.

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.

Japan and the United States sign the US–Japan Mutual Security Treaty

Scandinavian Airlines System Flight 871 crashes near Ankara Esenboğa Airport in Turkey, killing all 42 aboard.

Little Joe 1B, a Mercury spacecraft, lifts off from Wallops Island, Virginia, with Miss Sam, a female rhesus monkey, on board.

Avianca Flight 671 crashes at Montego Bay, Jamaica airport, killing 37 people.

A coal mine collapses at Holly Country, South Africa, killing 435 miners.

The bathyscaphe USS Trieste breaks a depth record by descending to 10,911 metres (35,797 ft) in the Pacific Ocean.

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.

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.

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.

The African National Party is founded in Chad, through the merger of traditionalist parties.

Four black students stage the first of the Greensboro sit-ins at a lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina.

British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan speaks of "a wind of change", signalling that his Government is likely to support decolonisation.

Queen Elizabeth II issues an Order-in-Council, proclaiming the House of Windsor and declaring that her descendants will take the name Mountbatten-Windsor.

With the success of a nuclear test codenamed "Gerboise Bleue", France becomes the fourth country to possess nuclear weapons.

Black college students stage the first of the Nashville sit-ins at three lunch counters in Nashville, Tennessee.

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.

China successfully launches the T-7, its first sounding rocket.

A New York-bound Alitalia airliner crashes into a cemetery in Shannon, Ireland, shortly after takeoff, killing 34 of the 52 persons on board.

A Kyiv-bound Aeroflot airliner crashes on approach to Snilow Airport in Lviv, killing 32 of the 33 people on board.

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.

The French freighter La Coubre explodes in Havana, Cuba, killing 100.

Indonesian President Sukarno dismisses the Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat (DPR), 1955 democratically elected parliament, and replaces it with DPR-GR, the parliament of his own selected members.

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.

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.

Northwest Airlines Flight 710 explodes and crashes near Cannelton, Indiana, killing 63.

Apartheid: Sharpeville massacre, South Africa: Police open fire on a group of black South African demonstrators, killing 69 and wounding 180.

Arthur Leonard Schawlow and Charles Hard Townes receive the first patent for a laser.

The TIROS-1 satellite transmits the first television picture from space.

France agrees to grant independence to the Mali Federation, a union of Senegal and French Sudan.

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.

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.

The United States launches Transit 1-B, the world's first satellite navigation system.

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.

Students in South Korea hold a nationwide pro-democracy protest against president Syngman Rhee, eventually forcing him to resign.

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.

Forced out by the April Revolution, President of South Korea Syngman Rhee resigns after 12 years of dictatorial rule.

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.

More than 20 million viewers watch the first televised royal wedding when Princess Margaret marries Antony Armstrong-Jones at Westminster Abbey.

Cold War: U-2 Crisis of 1960: Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev announces that his nation is holding American U-2 pilot Gary Powers.

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.

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.

Theodore Maiman operates the first optical laser (a ruby laser), at Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, California.

The Great Chilean earthquake, measuring 9.5 on the moment magnitude scale, hits southern Chile, becoming the most powerful earthquake ever recorded.

A tsunami caused by an earthquake in Chile the previous day kills 61 people in Hilo, Hawaii.

Following the 1960 Valdivia earthquake, the largest ever recorded earthquake, Cordón Caulle begins to erupt.

In Turkey, a military coup removes President Celâl Bayar and the rest of the democratic government from office.

The Lake Bodom murders occur in Finland.

Trans Australia Airlines Flight 538 crashes near Mackay Airport in Mackay, Queensland, Australia, killing 29.

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.

Charlotte Motor Speedway holds its first NASCAR race, the inaugural World 600.

The Mali Federation gains independence from France (it later splits into Mali and Senegal).

The United States Food and Drug Administration declares Enovid to be the first officially approved combined oral contraceptive pill in the world.

Venezuelan President Rómulo Betancourt is injured in an assassination attempt.

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.

The former British Protectorate of British Somaliland gains its independence as Somaliland.

Madagascar gains its independence from France.

Belgian Congo gains independence as Republic of the Congo (Léopoldville).

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.

Ghana becomes a republic and Kwame Nkrumah becomes its first President as Queen Elizabeth II ceases to be its head of state.

The 50-star flag of the United States debuts in Philadelphia following the admission of Hawaii as the 50th U.S. state over ten months prior (August 21, 1959), in accordance with the Flag Acts.

Francis Gary Powers is charged with espionage resulting from his flight over the Soviet Union.

France legislates for the independence of Dahomey (later Benin), Upper Volta (later Burkina Faso) and Niger.

Congo Crisis: The State of Katanga breaks away from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is first published, in the United States.

Orlyonok, the main Young Pioneer camp of the Russian SFSR, is founded.

Jane Goodall arrives at the Gombe Stream Reserve in present-day Tanzania to begin her study of chimpanzees in the wild.

Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 1-11 ditches off Polillo Island in the Philippines, killing one person and injuring 44.

The Polaris missile is successfully launched from a submarine, the USS George Washington, for the first time.

Sirimavo Bandaranaike is sworn in as prime minister of Ceylon, becoming the world's first democratically elected female head of government.

The German Volkswagen Act comes into force.

Dahomey (later renamed Benin) declares independence from France.

Islamabad is declared the federal capital of the Government of Pakistan.

Niger gains independence from France.

Burkina Faso, then known as Upper Volta, becomes independent from France.

Cuban Revolution: Cuba nationalizes American and foreign-owned property in the nation.

Ivory Coast becomes independent from France.

South Kasai secedes from the Congo.

Chad declares independence from France.

Echo 1A, NASA's first successful communications satellite, is launched.

The Central African Republic declares independence from France.

Republic of the Congo (Brazzaville) becomes independent from France.

Cyprus gains its independence from the United Kingdom.

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.

Aeroflot Flight 036 crashes in Soviet Ukraine, killing 34.

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.

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.

Senegal breaks from the Mali Federation, declaring its independence.

The Games of the XVII Olympiad commence in Rome, Italy.

Air France Flight 343 crashes on approach to Yoff Airport in Senegal, killing all 63 aboard.

The first election of the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile. The Tibetan community observes this date as Democracy Day.

Poet Léopold Sédar Senghor is the first elected President of Senegal.

Muhammad Ali (then known as Cassius Clay) wins the gold medal in the light heavyweight boxing competition at the Olympic Games in Rome.

In Huntsville, Alabama, US President Dwight D. Eisenhower formally dedicates the Marshall Space Flight Center (NASA had already activated the facility on July 1).

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.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is founded.

Congo Crisis: Mobutu Sese Seko seizes power in a military coup, suspending parliament and the constitution.

Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Pakistani President Ayub Khan sign the Indus Waters Treaty for the control and management of the Indus, Chenab, Jhelum, Ravi, Sutlej and Beas rivers.

The Sudanese Republic is renamed Mali after the withdrawal of Senegal from the Mali Federation.

USS Enterprise, the world's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, is launched.

In Chicago, the first televised debate takes place between presidential candidates Richard M. Nixon and John F. Kennedy.

The Flintstones, the first prime-time animated sitcom, premieres on ABC television.

Eastern Airlines flight 375 crashes on takeoff from Boston's Logan International Airport, killing 62 people of the 72 aboard.

Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev pounds his shoe on a desk at the United Nations to protest a Philippine assertion.

The United States imposes a near-total trade embargo against Cuba.

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.

An airplane carrying the Cal Poly football team crashes on takeoff in Toledo, Ohio.

Penguin Books is found not guilty of obscenity in the trial R v Penguin Books Ltd, the Lady Chatterley's Lover case.

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.

At the Kasakela Chimpanzee Community in Tanzania, Jane Goodall observes chimpanzees creating tools, the first-ever observation in non-human animals.

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.

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.

A military coup against President Ngô Đình Diệm of South Vietnam is crushed.

Ruby Bridges becomes the first black child to attend an all-white elementary school in Louisiana.

The Mirabal sisters of the Dominican Republic are assassinated.

Mauritania becomes independent of France.

Patrice Lumumba is arrested by Mobutu Sese Seko's men on the banks of the Sankuru River, for inciting the army to rebellion.

The musical Camelot debuts at the Majestic Theatre on Broadway. It will become associated with the Kennedy administration.

The first episode of Coronation Street, the world's longest-running television soap opera, is broadcast in the United Kingdom.

French forces crack down in a violent clash with protesters in French Algeria during a visit by French president Charles de Gaulle.

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.

Convention against Discrimination in Education of UNESCO is adopted.

Richard Pavlick is arrested for plotting to assassinate U.S. President-Elect John F. Kennedy.

King Mahendra of Nepal suspends the country's constitution, dissolves parliament, dismisses the cabinet, and imposes direct rule.

A United Air Lines 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.

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.

Munich C-131 crash: Twenty passengers and crew on board as well as 32 people on the ground are killed.

Vietnam War: The National Liberation Front of South Vietnam, popularly known as the Viet Cong, is formally established in Tân Lập village, present day Tây Ninh province.

Hilkka Saarinen née Pylkkänen is murdered in the so-called "oven homicide" case in Krootila, Kokemäki, Finland.

Anna Bligh, Australian politician, 37th Premier of Queensland

Gertrude Vanderbilt, American stage actress (born c. 1885)