Events 1 - 200 of 373
- Jan 1 Largest check issued, National Bank of Chicago to Sears ($960.242 billion)
- Jan 1 Russia introduces a new ruble worth $1.11
- Jan 2 Hawaii's, then all time low temperature, 14°F recorded atop Haleakale
Election of Interest
Jan 3 Adam Clayton Powell Jr. elected Chairman of US House Education and Labor Committee
- Jan 3 An explosion at the Nuclear Reactor Testing Station in Idaho Falls kills three operators
- Jan 3 US breaks diplomatic relations with Cuba
- Jan 4 Longest recorded strike ends as the Danish barbers' assistants end a 33 year strike
- Jan 7 Trucial States (now UAE) issue their 1st postage stamps
- Jan 8 Bollingen Prize for poetry awarded to Yvor Winters
- Jan 8 The French vote for Algerian independence from French rule in the wake of seven years of guerrilla war
- Jan 9 Twins agree on $500,000 payment to AA for Minn/St Paul territory
- Jan 11 Racial riot at University of Georgia
- Jan 12 UN genocide pact goes into effect
- Jan 16 Russian espionage ring detected in Great Britain
Event of Interest
Jan 17 President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivers a televised farewell address to the nation three days before leaving office, in which he warns against the accumulation of power by the "military-industrial complex".
- Jan 17 US President Dwight Eisenhower allegedly orders assassination of Congo's Patrice Lumumba
- Jan 18 Zanzibar's Afro-Shirazi party wins 1 seat by a single vote & parliament by a single seat
JFK Inaugurated
Jan 20 Democrat John F. Kennedy, the youngest elected President of the United States, is administered his oath of office at his inauguration by Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren. Robert Frost recites "Gift Outright".
Event of Interest
Jan 20 Yugoslav ex-vice-president Milovan Djilas flees
Event of Interest
Jan 24 Edward Albee's "American Dream" premieres in NYC
- Jan 24 Lazard Brothers Ltd draw a check for $334,867,807.68
- Jan 25 Military coup in El Salvador
- Jan 26 1st woman personal physician to a US President - Janet G. Travell (to John F. Kennedy)
- Jan 28 Republic of Rwanda proclaimed
- Jan 29 US female Figure Skating championship won by Laurence Owen
- Jan 29 US male Figure Skating championship won by Bradley Lord
- Jan 30 JFK asks for an Alliance for Progress & Peace Corps
Event of Interest
Jan 31 David Ben-Gurion resigns as Prime Minister of Israel
- Jan 31 Ham the chimpanzee is 1st primate in space (158 miles) aboard Mercury/Redstone 2
- Jan 31 Houston voters approve bond to finance luxury domed stadium
- Jan 31 Kanhai completes twin tons (117 & 115) v Aust at Adelaide
- Jan 31 NATO secretary-general Paul-Henri Spaak says he'll resign
- Jan 31 USAF launches Samos spy satellite to replace U-2 flights
- Feb 1 1st full-scale test of US Minuteman ICBM is successful
Event of Interest
Feb 1 British minister Enoch Powell makes medical insurance more expensive
Event of Interest
Feb 4 "Angolan War of Independence" begins
- Feb 4 Sputnik 7 launches into Earth orbit; probable Venus probe failure
- Feb 6 "Jail, No Bail" Jail-in movement starts in Rock Hill, South Carolina
- Feb 9 Joseph Ileo appointed Premier of Congo
- Feb 10 Niagara Falls hydroelectric project begins producing power
- Feb 11 Robert Weaver sworn in as Administrator of the Housing and Home Finance Agency, the 1st African American to be appointed to a US cabinet-level position
- Feb 12 USSR launches Venera 1 toward Venus
- Feb 13 Soviet Union fires a rocket from Sputnik V to Venus
- Feb 14 Element 103, Lawrencium, 1st produced in Berkeley Calif
- Feb 15 Plane crash kills entire US figure skating team outside Brussels airport in Belgium enroute to World Championships in Prague from NYC; 73 crew and passengers (including 34 American skaters, coaches, officials, and other team members), and a farmer on the ground are lost
- Feb 16 1st all-solid-propellant rocket put in orbit, Wallops Island, Virginia
- Feb 16 China uses its 1st nuclear reactor
- Feb 16 NASA Explorer 9 mission launches satellite for the 1st time from Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, Virginia; this was also the 1st all-solid-propellant rocket put into orbit
- Feb 19 Albania disavows Chinese "Revisionism"
- Feb 21 Friedrich Durrenmatt's "Die Physiker" premieres in Zurich
- Feb 21 Gabon adopts constitution
- Feb 21 Mercury-Atlas 2 reentry Test reaches 172 km
- Feb 24 NASA Explorer S-45 mission; ionosphere beacon satellite fails to reach Earth orbit
- Feb 25 Paul Bikle in glider climbs from 1208 m at release to record 14,10
- Feb 27 The first congress of the Spanish Trade Union Organisation is inaugurated
Appointment of Interest
Feb 28 JFK names Henry Kissinger special advisor
- Mar 1 US President JFK establishes the Peace Corps
- Mar 3 King Hassan II ascends to throne of Morocco
- Mar 4 Paul-Henri Spaak resigns as Secretary-General of NATO
- Mar 6 1st London minicabs introduced
- Mar 6 Dutch guilder revalued 4.74%
- Mar 6 Dutch Queen Juliana celebrates 12½ year jubilee
- Mar 8 Jean Kerr's "Mary, Mary" premieres in NYC
Event of Interest
Mar 8 US nuclear submarine Patrick Henry arrives at Scottish naval base of Holy Loch from South Carolina in a record underseas journey of 66 days 22 hrs
- Mar 9 Mine cave-in in Japan, kills 72
Space Dog Laika Launched to her Death
Mar 9 Soviet flight Sputnik 9 carries and returns from orbit a dog named Chernushka (Blackie), frogs and a guinea pig
Event of Interest
Mar 17 Jaguar head William Lyons debuts the first E-Type model at the Geneva International Motor Show, creating a sensation
- Mar 17 NY DA arrests professional gamblers who implicate Seton Hall players
- Mar 17 South Africa leaves British Commonwealth
- Mar 25 Explorer 10 launched into elongated Earth orbit (177/181,000 km)
- Mar 25 Sputnik 10 carries a dog into Earth orbit; later recovered
- Mar 27 Black demonstrators in Charleston staged ride-ins on street cars
- Mar 27 Failed assassination attempt on King Saif al-Islam Achmad of Yemen
- Mar 29 23rd Amendment to the US Constitution ratified, allowing Washington, D.C. residents to vote in presidential elections
Event of Interest
Mar 29 After a 4½ year trial Nelson Mandela is acquitted of treason in Pretoria
Appointment of Interest
Mar 29 Economist John Kenneth Galbraith is appointed US Ambassador to India
Event of Interest
Mar 30 NASA civilian pilot Joseph A. Walker takes X-15 169,600' (51,690 m)
- Mar 30 The Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs is signed at New York
- Mar 31 Aklilou Habtewold becomes 1st premier of Ethiopia
- Apr 3 Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia is sold to J Schleifer Properties
- Apr 5 Dutch governor Platteel installs New Guinea Council
- Apr 8 British liner "Dara" explodes in Persian Gulf, kills 236
- Apr 10 Dutch foreign minister Luns talks to JFK about New Guinea
- Apr 11 Austrian 4th & last government of Raab resigns
'The Banality of Evil'
Apr 11 Trial of Adolf Eichmann for war crimes in World War II begins in Jerusalem, Israel
Event of Interest
Apr 12 Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first person to orbit Earth (Vostok 1)
Event of Interest
Apr 17 1,400 Cuban exiles land in Bay of Pigs in a doomed attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro
- Apr 18 CONCP is founded in Casablanca as a united front of African movements opposing Portuguese colonial rule
- Apr 20 American Harold Graham makes 1st rocket belt flight
- Apr 21 Dirk Stikker chosen as secretary general of NATO
- Apr 21 French army revolts in Algeria
- Apr 21 USAF Maj Robert M White takes X-15 to 32,000 m
- Apr 22 Uprising of French parachutist of General Salan and Challe in Algeria
- Apr 23 Algiers putsch by French generals
Sinking of the Vasa
Apr 24 17th century Swedish warship Vasa, which sunk on her maiden voyage in 1628, is salvaged
- Apr 24 JFK accepts "sole responsibility" following Bay of Pigs
Event of Interest
Apr 25 Belgium government of Gaston Eyskens falls over the Unitary Law
- Apr 25 France performs nuclear test at Reggane Proving Grounds Algeria
- Apr 25 Mercury/Atlas rocket lifted off with an electronic mannequin
- Apr 25 Premier Moise Tsjombe of Katanga arrested in Congo
- Apr 25 Robert Noyce patents integrated circuit
- Apr 25 Unmanned Mercury test explodes on launch pad
- Apr 26 French paratroopers' revolt suppressed in Algeria
- Apr 27 NASA launches Explorer 11 into Earth orbit to study gamma rays
- Apr 27 Sierra Leone declares independence from UK
- Apr 28 Lt Col Gueorgui Mossolov takes E-66A to 34,714 m altitude
- Apr 30 1st shuttle flights between Washington, D.C., Boston & NYC begin (Eastern)
- Apr 30 Premier Fidel Castro of Cuba receives Lenin-Peace Prize
- May 1 1st US airplane hijacked to Cuba
- May 1 Fidel Castro announces there will be no more elections in Cuba
Event of Interest
May 1 Pulitzer prize awarded to Harper Lee for her novel "To Kill a Mockingbird"
- May 1 Tanganyika granted full internal self-government by Britain
- May 4 1st on-the-road Spacemobile lecture given.
- May 4 CORE begins freedom rides from Washington, D.C.
- May 4 Malcolm Ross & Victor Prather reach 34,668 m (record) in balloon
- May 4 South Africa ANC leader John Nkadimeng arrested
Event of Interest
May 5 Alan Shepard becomes 1st American in space (aboard Freedom 7)
- May 6 Omer Vanaudenhove chosen chairman of Belgium Liberal Party
- May 8 1st practical sea water conversion plant-Freeport, Texas
- May 8 Alan Shepard receives NASA Distinguished Service Medal, Washington
- May 9 FCC Chairman Newton N Minow criticizes TV as a "vast wasteland"
- May 9 Jim Gentile is 4th to hit grand slams in consecutive innings
- May 10 "Beyond the Fringe" premieres in London
- May 14 Bus with 1st group of Freedom Riders bombed & burned in Alabama
- May 15 36 Unification church couples wed in Korea
Catholic Encyclical
May 15 Pope John XXIII publishes encyclical Mater et Magistra
- May 17 Columbia Records officially opens the Pitman Pressing Plant, designed by American architect Minoru Yamasaki, in Pitman, New Jersey
- May 17 Fidel Castro offers to exchange Bay of Pigs prisoners for 500 bulldozers
- May 19 New pier opens in Scheveningen, the Netherlands
- May 20 Mauritania adopts constitution
- May 20 White mob attacks "Freedom Riders" in Montgomery, Alabama
- May 21 Governor Patterson declares martial law in Montgomery, Alabama
- May 22 1st revolving restaurant (Top Of The Needle in Seattle) opens
- May 24 27 Freedom Riders arrested in Jackson, Mississippi
- May 24 Cyprus joins the Council of Europe.
- May 24 NASA Explorer Ionosphere research mission fails to reach Earth orbit
- May 25 JFK announces US goal of putting a man on the Moon before the end of decade
- May 25 NASA civilian pilot Joseph A. Walker takes X-15 to 32,770 m
- May 26 Freedom Ride Coordinating Committee establishes in Atlanta
- May 26 USAF bomber flies Atlantic in a record of just over 3 hours
- May 27 1st black light is sold
Event of Interest
May 28 Amnesty International founded in London (Nobel Peace Prize 1977)
The Orient Express
May 28 Last trip (Paris to Bucharest) on the Orient Express (after 78 years)
- May 28 Record 27 HRs hit in 7 AL games
- May 30 Dutch DC-8 crashes after takeoff at Lisbon, 62 die
- May 30 Long time Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo is assassinated in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
- May 30 Maris hits his 10th & 11th of 61 HRs
- May 31 Arthur Michael Ramsey appointed the 100th Archbishop of Canterbury
- May 31 Judge Irving Kaufman orders Board of Ed of New Rochelle, to integrate
- May 31 Union of South Africa becomes a republic, leaves Commonwealth
Meeting of Interest
May 31 US President John F. Kennedy visits Charles de Gaulle in Paris
Summit of Interest
Jun 4 US President John F. Kennedy and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev meet at the Vienna Summit in Austria
- Jun 11 Norm Cash becomes 1st Detroit Tiger to hit a ball out of Tiger Stadium
- Jun 12 Dutch Lockheed Electricity "Sirius" accident at Cairo, kills 20
- Jun 14 106°F, hottest temperature in San Francisco
- Jun 15 Expansion Washington Senators are 30-30, latest date an expansion team will be at .500, Washington will lose their next 10 games
- Jun 16 Reconnaissance satellite Discoverer 25 launched from the US
- Jun 19 Charlie Finley, changes A's manager Joe Gordon (26-33) for Hank Bauer
- Jun 19 Kuwait declares independence from UK
- Jun 19 US Supreme Court struck down a provision in Maryland's constitution requiring state office holders to believe in God
- Jun 22 Moise Tsjombe freed from prison in Congo
- Jun 23 The Antarctic Treaty, ensuring that Antarctica is used for peaceful purposes; for international cooperation in scientific research; and does not become the scene or object of international discord, comes into force
- Jun 23 USAF Major Robert M White takes X-15 to an altitude of 32,830 m
- Jun 24 Iraq demands dominion over Kuwait
- Jun 25 Iraq announces that Kuwait is a part of Iraq (Kuwait disagrees)
- Jun 27 Ghana imposes a total ban on exports to South Africa and South West Africa
- Jun 28 Phils and San Francisco set then record longest night game (5h11m) 7-7 15 innings tie
- Jun 29 Launch of Transit 4a, with 1st nuclear power supply (SNAP-3)
- Jun 29 The International Labour Organisation (ILO) calls for South Africa's withdrawal at the Geneva Conference in protest of the racial policies of the South African government
- Jun 30 Buddy Rogers beats Pat O'Conner in Chicago, to become NWA champ
- Jun 30 NASA Explorer Micrometeoroid research mission fails to reach Earth orbit
- Jul 1 Haleakala National Park forms in Hawaii
- Jul 5 80 die in collisions in Algiers
- Jul 6 Portuguese ship explodes near Mozambique, kills 300
- Jul 7 James R Hoffa elected chairman of Teamsters
- Jul 8 Fred Trueman takes 5-0 in 24 balls to rip through Aussies
- Jul 8 Portuguese steamer "Save" breaks up off Mozambique, 227 die
- Jul 11 Gene Kiniski beats Verne Gagne in Minneapolis, to become NWA champ
- Jul 14 Finland's Miettunen government forms
- Jul 15 Spain accepts equal rights for men and women
- Jul 17 John Chancellor becomes news anchor of "Today Show"
- Jul 18 Commissioner Ford Frick rules Babe Ruth's record of 60 HR in 154-game sched in 1927, must be broken in 1st 154 of 162 games
- Jul 20 French military forces break the Tunisian siege of Bizerte
- Jul 21 Launch of Mercury 4 (Liberty Bell) with Grissom
- Jul 24 Beginning of a trend, a US commercial plane is hijacked to Cuba
- Jul 24 Edwin Newman becomes news anchor of Today Show