Events 201 - 353 of 353
- Jul 21 Francis Chichester arrive in NY aboard Gypsy Moth II, setting record of 40 days for a solo Atlantic crossing
Election of Interest
Jul 21 Sirimavo Bandaranaike becomes the world's 1st female elected head of government, as Prime Minister of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka)
Presidential Convention
Jul 27 US Vice-president Richard Nixon nominated for presidential candidate at Republican convention in Chicago
- Jul 28 US Republican National convention selects Richard Nixon as candidate
Event of Interest
Jul 31 Elijah Muhammad, leader of Nation of Islam, calls for a black state
- Aug 1 Benin (Dahomey) gains independence from France
- Aug 1 Islamabad declared as the federal capital of the Government of Pakistan.
- Aug 3 Lee Petty and his sons, Richard & Maurice race against each other for the first and only time at Dixie Speedway in Birmingham, Alabama; Richard 2nd, Lee 3rd
- Aug 3 Niger gains independence from France
- Aug 4 Rocket propelled USAF research aircraft sets record at 2,150 MPH
- Aug 5 Burkina Faso (formerly Upper Volta) declares independence from France
- Aug 6 The UN Security Council lay down rules which would allow UN forces to enter Congo
- Aug 7 Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) gains independence from France
- Aug 7 Students stage kneel-in demonstrations in Atlanta churches
- Aug 8 Charges against 53 of the 76 Africans detained after the Sharpeville massacre in South Africa are dropped
- Aug 8 Ivory Coast declares independence
- Aug 8 South Kasai secedes from the Congo.
- Aug 9 Race riot in Jacksonville, Florida
- Aug 10 Discoverer 13 launched into orbit; returned 1st object from space
- Aug 10 Nicolaas Jouwe forms PANA in New Guinea
- Aug 11 Chad declares Independence from France
- Aug 12 Echo 1, 1st communications satellite, is launched by NASA
- Aug 12 USAF Major Robert M White takes X-15 to an altitude of 41,600 m
- Aug 13 Central African Republic & Chad proclaim independence from France
- Aug 13 USSR withdraws advisors from China
- Aug 14 UN peace-keeping troops deployed to the Republic of Congo
- Aug 15 Congo (formerly Congo/Brazzaville) declares Independence from France
- Aug 15 UFO is sighted by 3 California patrolmen
- Aug 16 Britain grants independence to crown colony of Cyprus
- Aug 16 Joseph Kittinger parachutes from balloon at 31,330 m (84,700')
- Aug 16 Republic of Congo (Zaire, Dem Rep of Congo) forms
Event of Interest
Aug 17 Francis Gary Powers U-2 spy trial opens in Moscow
- Aug 17 Gabon gains independence from France (National Day)
- Aug 17 Indonesia drops diplomatic relations with Netherlands
- Aug 18 1st photograph bounced off a satellite, Cedar Rapids, Iowa and Richardson, Texas
- Aug 19 American CIA pilot Francis Gary Powers convicted of spying by USSR (U-2 incident); sentence to 3 years in prison plus 7 in a labor camp, he served 17 months before being exchanged for a captured Soviet KGB spy
- Aug 19 Soviet Sputnik 5 carries 2 dogs, 2 rats, 40 mice, 1 rabbit and fruit flies into space, 1st animals to return alive from orbit
- Aug 19 The first commercial atomic energy reactor, owned by the Yankee Atomic Electric Company, achieves a self-sustaining nuclear reaction in Rowe, Deerfield River, Massachusetts
- Aug 20 Senegal breaks from Mali federation, declaring independence
- Aug 20 USSR recovers 2 dogs, 1st living organisms to return from space
- Aug 23 World's largest frog (3.3 kg) caught (Equatorial Guinea)
- Aug 24 -127°F (-88°C), Vostok, Antarctica (world record)
- Aug 24 60 people die when a bus plunges off bridge into Turvo River, Brazil
Event of Interest
Aug 25 Demonstrations against Congolese prime minister Patrice Lumumba
- Aug 29 Jordan premier Hazza-el-Madjali deadly injured at bomb attack
- Aug 30 East Germany imposes a partial blockade on West Berlin
- Aug 31 Agricultural Hall of Fame forms
- Sep 2 The first election of the Parliament of the Central Tibetan Administration, in history of Tibet. The Tibetan community observes this date as the Democracy Day.
- Sep 4 -12] Hurricane Donna, kills 148 in the Caribbean & US
Election of Interest
Sep 5 Poet Léopold Sédar Senghor is elected as the 1st President of Senegal
- Sep 5 President Kasavubu fires premier Patrice Lumumba of Congo
- Sep 8 German Democratic Republic limits access to East-Berlin for West Berliners
- Sep 11 The Young Americans for Freedom, meeting at home of William F. Buckley, Jr., promulgate the Sharon Statement
Event of Interest
Sep 12 John F. Kennedy avers he does not speak for the Roman Catholic Church, and neither does the Church speak for him.
Event of Interest
Sep 19 "LIFE" magazine celebrates artist Anna Mary "Grandma" Moses' 100th birthday by putting her on their cover
- Sep 20 UN General Assembly admit 13 African countries & Cyprus (96 nations)
- Sep 22 Mali (formerly French Sudan) declares independence from France
- Sep 24 International Development Association (UN agency) comes into existence
- Sep 24 USS Enterprise, 1st nuclear power aircraft carrier, launched
- Sep 25 For 1st time since 1927, Pirates clinch NL pennant
- Sep 26 1st of 4 TV debates Nixon & Kennedy took place (Chicago)
United Nations Speech
Sep 26 Cuban leader Fidel Castro delivers a 4 hour and 29 minute long speech at the United Nations
- Sep 27 Europe's 1st "moving pavement" (travelator), opens at Bank station on the London Underground
- Sep 28 "Sunrise at Campobello" premieres at Palace theater
- Sep 30 On Howdy Doody's last show Clarabelle finally talks "Goodbye Kids"
- Sep 30 West Germany signs trade agreement with East Germany
- Oct 1 Nigeria becomes the 99th member of the United Nations
- Oct 1 Nigeria gains independence from Great Britain (National Day)
Theater Premiere
Oct 1 Wole Soyinka's play "A Dance of the Forests" is first performed as part of Nigerian Independence celebrations
- Oct 3 Janio Quadros elected president of Brazil
- Oct 3 San Francisco's White House department store is the 1st to accept BankAmericard
- Oct 4 Courier 1B Launched; 1st active repeater satellite in orbit
- Oct 5 British Labour party demands unilateral nuclear disarmament
- Oct 5 Eastern AL Electra turbo-prop crashed in Boston Harbor (61 die)
- Oct 7 JFK and Richard Nixon's second presidential debate
- Oct 9 Cowboy QB Eddie LeBaron throws shortest touchdown pass (2")
- Oct 10 16 California Poly football team members die in plane crash in Toledo
- Oct 10 Cyclone hits coast of Gulf of Bengal; about 4000 die
- Oct 11 Hurricane ravages East-Pakistan (6,000 die)
- Oct 12 JFK and Richard Nixon's third presidential debate
United Nations Speech
Oct 12 Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev bangs his shoe on his desk at UN General Assembly session
- Oct 13 Opponents of Fidel Castro executed in Cuba
- Oct 14 Belgian senator Victor Leemans reveals huge gas field in Groningen
- Oct 14 Peace Corps 1st suggested by John F. Kennedy in a speech at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor
- Oct 16 NL votes to admit Houston & NY to league
- Oct 17 US & Britain sign an accord granting US access to the British nuclear submarine base in Holy Loch, Scotland
- Oct 18 In Britain, News Chronicle & Daily Mail merge and London Evening Star merges with Evening News
- Oct 19 France grants Mauritania independence
Event of Interest
Oct 19 Martin Luther King Jr. arrested in Atlanta sit-in
- Oct 19 US imposes embargo on exports to Cuba
- Oct 20 1st fully mechanized post office opened, Providence, Rhode Island
- Oct 21 1st British nuclear sub HMS Dreadnought launched
- Oct 21 JFK & Nixon clashed in 4th & final presidential debate (NYC)
- Oct 24 Disaster on USSR's Baikonoer launch pad, kills missile expert Nedelin & team (165 die-unconfirmed); USSR claims killed in plane crash
- Oct 25 1st electronic wrist watch placed on sale, NYC
- Oct 25 Cuba nationalizes all remaining US businesses
- Oct 27 AL admits LA & Washington to the league
- Oct 29 Chartered C46 carrying Cal State's football team crashes, kills 16
- Oct 30 Guatemala's "La Hora" reports plan for invasion on Cuba
- Oct 30 Michael Woodruff performs the first successful kidney transplant in the United Kingdom at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.
- Oct 31 Cyclone hits coast of Gulf of Bengal; about 10,000 die
- Nov 1 Benelux treaty goes into effect
Historic Publication
Nov 2 Penguin Books cleared of obscenity for publishing DH Lawrence's "Lady Chatterley's Lover"
- Nov 3 Ivory Coast adopts constitution
Historic Discovery
Nov 4 Mary Leakey and Louis Leakey discover first Homo habilis jaw fragments (OH 7) at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania
- Nov 8 John F. Kennedy is elected President of the United States, defeating Republican candidate Richard Nixon who was the incumbent Vice President
How Britain Fell in Love with Lady Chatterley
Nov 10 Uncensored version of D. H. Lawrence's "Lady Chatterley’s Lover" finally goes on sale in the UK after a jury finds publisher Penguin Books not guilty in an obscenity trial
Coup d'état
Nov 12 Coup against South Vietnamese President Ngô Đình Diệm fails
- Nov 12 Mercury-Redstone 1 test launch fails at 10 cm altitude
- Nov 14 2 passenger trains collided at high-speed killing 110 (Czech)
- Nov 14 Belgium threatens to leave UN due to criticism on its policy on Congo
Judge With a Passion For Civil Rights
Nov 14 New Orleans elementary schools begin desegregation under an order from U.S. Circuit Judge J. Skelly Wright, the McDonogh Three join McDonogh 19 Elementary School and Ruby Bridges joins William Frantz Elementary School. They are met with death threats and racial slurs while the schools faced immediate boycotts.
- Nov 15 USS G Washington, 1st sub with nuclear ballistic missiles, launched
- Nov 16 NL batting champion Dick Groat of the Pittsburgh Pirateds wins MVP
- Nov 16 U.S. marshals escort four six-year-old African-American girls to previously all-white public schools in New Orleans, in response to death threats against the girls and race riots
- Nov 18 Copyright office issues its 10 millionth registration
- Nov 19 Mickey Vernon is hired as 1st manager of new Washington team
- Nov 22 French National Meeting decide to build own nuclear weapons
- Nov 23 Tiros 2, a weather satellite is launched
- Nov 25 First atomic reactor for research & development, Richland, Wa
Assassination
Nov 25 Three of the four Mirabal sisters, opponents of the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo of the Dominican Republic, are assassinated
- Nov 27 Dr Felix Houphouet-Boigny becomes president of Ivory Coast
- Nov 27 Patrice Lumumba flees Leopoldville, Congo
- Nov 28 Mauritania gains independence from France (National Day)
- Nov 30 French Senate condemns building own nuclear weapons
- Nov 30 Tad Mosels "All the Way Home" premieres in NYC
- Dec 1 Patrice Lumumba caught in the Congo
Scientific Discovery
Dec 2 Paleoanthropologist Louis Leakey discovers 1.4 million year old Homo erectus (Olduvai Hominid 9) in Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania
Nobel Prize
Dec 10 Willard Libby wins the Nobel prize in Chemistry for his work developing carbon-14 dating (radiocarbon dating).
- Dec 11 Black Sunday - Riot in Algiers; pro-independence demonstrations turn violent, 114 die
- Dec 11 Cleveland Brown's Bernie Parrish sets club record for longest interception return with a 92 yard run
- Dec 13 Laos General Fumi Nosavang occupies Vientiane
- Dec 14 Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD) forms
- Dec 16 TWA 266 & United 826 collide over Staten Island, kills 134
- Dec 18 General Meeting of UN condemns apartheid
- Dec 19 Fire aboard USS Constellation, under construction at Brooklyn (50 die)
- Dec 19 Mercury-Redstone 1A reaches 210 km in test flight
- Dec 20 Auschwitz commandant Richard Bar arrested in German FR
- Dec 20 The National Liberation Front, better known as the Viet Cong, is officially formed in South Vietnam
- Dec 23 Jan De Quay's Dutch government falls
- Dec 23 King Saud of Saudi Arabia takes power
- Dec 24 Dutch bishops question papacy values
- Dec 27 France performs nuclear test