istoryworld
All Events
Frank Lloyd Wright's Guggenheim Museum opens in New York after seventeen years of work on the project
UK prime minister Harold Macmillan, in Cape Town, warns the white settlers of Africa that 'the wind of change' is blowing through their continent
French Cameroun becomes independent as the republic of Cameroun, with Ahmadou Ahidjo as the first president
US film director Jules Dassin makes Never on Sunday, starring the Greek actress Melina Mercouri
Kenneth Kaunda is elected president of UNIP, a new party fighting for an independent Northern Rhodesia
South African police fire on a crowd in Sharpeville, near Johannesburg, killing more than sixty people
French choreographer Maurice Béjart is the first director of Belgium's new Ballet of the 20th Century
French Togo becomes independent as the republic of Togo, with Sylvanus Olympio as president
A Liverpool group of musicians call themselves Long John & the Silver Beatles – a name soon shortened to something more memorable
Italian firm director Michelangelo Antonioni makes L'Avventura, with Monica Vitti in the leading role
Guatemala is terrorized by government-linked death squads and emergent guerrilla groups
Soviet forces shoot down a US high-altitude U-2 spy plane and capture the pilot, Gary Powers
EFTA (European Free Trade Association) brings together the European nations outside the EEC
Cyprus becomes an independent nation, free of British colonial rule, with Archbishop Makarios as president
Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann, discovered in Buenos Aires, is kidnapped by Israeli agents
US jazz saxophonist John Coltrane forms his own 'hard bop' group
20-year-old Spanish tenor Placido Domingo sings his first major role, as Alfredo in La Traviata in the Mexican city of Monterrey
The Colossus is US author Sylvia Plath's first collection of poems
Italian film director Federico Fellini makes La Dolce Vita, an episodic study of life along the Via Veneto in Rome
Fellini's Dolce Vita features the work of the distinguished painter of still lives, Giorgio Morandi
Aung San's widow, Ma Khin Kyi, moves with her children to Delhi, as Burma's ambassador to India
The Brazilian government moves to Brasilia, into public buildings designed by Oscar Niemeyer
French Sudan becomes independent as the republic of Mali, with Modibo Keita as president
Madagascar becomes independent (under the name Malagasy republic from till 1975), with Philibert Tsiranana as president
The Quiet Revolution in Quebec begins with the election of Jean Lesage and the Liberals
