Britain and the World 1960

BRITAIN AND THE WORLD SINCE 1953

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.	1960
Jan1	Cameroon gains independence
Jan9	Work begins on the constuction of the Aswan High Dam in Egypt
Jan23	U.S. navy bathyscaphe Trieste dived to a record depth of 35,810 feet (10,916 meters) in the Pacific Ocean..
Jan24	A major insurrection began in Algiers against French colonial policy in the country.
Feb3	British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan Macmillan went to Cape Town and made his famous Wind of Change speech which warned all those (including some of his own Tory Party) who resisted the end of colonial rule, that the time had come when people throughout the world, especially in Africa, should be helped towards independence.
Feb9	Adolph Coors, III, chairman of the board of the Coors Brewing Company, was kidnapped and later murdered near his Colorado home. His family received a $500,000 ransom demand letter, but the letter was never followed up by the kidnapper. The FBI launched a nationwide search for the suspected kidnapper -- Joseph Corbett, Jr., a prison escapee. Corbett was apprehended in Canada, returned to USA, and convicted in a Colorado court. He received a mandatory life sentence.
Feb11	The worlds largest airship ZPG-3W is destroyed in a storm in Massachusetts
Feb18	Eighth Winter Olympic Games were formally opened in Squaw Valley, California, by Vice President Richard Nixon.
Feb29	The first Playboy Club, featuring waitresses clad in ``bunny'' outfits, opened in Chicago. (Hugh Hefner closed the corporate-owned clubs in 1986, calling them ``passe.'')
Mar1	A devastating earthquake centred on Agadir Morocco leaves over 12,000 people dead
Mar1	Elvis Presley completes his military service in Germany and returns to the US on 5 March
Mar17	New one pound notes issued by Bank of England
Mar18	Last steam locomotive of British Railways named
Mar21	The Sharpeville Massacre - Many black South Africans are killed by the police for protesting about the introduction of a law requiring all blacks to carry ID papers. The numbers are difficult to estimate as many of the dead were removed by the police as they had been killed with illegal soft nosed bullets
Apr1	Tiros I, the world's first meteorological satellite, which transmitted cloud cover pictures, was launched.
Apr4	The first three female priests are ordained in Sweden
Apr17	Eddie Cochrane the US rock and roll singer dies in a car crash at Chippenham Wiltshire. He was 21 years old
Apr20	Tim Dinslade claims to have photographed the Loch Ness monster
May1	Soviet missile shoots down the US U2 spy plane - the pilot Gary Powers is captured. The Americans falsely claimed that it was a weather recording plane but from this point on it became obvious that only satellites could spy safely because the USSR had proved their anti-aircraft missiles were capable of high altitudes.
May11	Mossad agents in Buenos Aires kidnap Adolf Eichmann and return him to stand trial in Israel. The Israeli government did not announce the "extradition" until May23. After a famous trial held in Jerusalem he is hanged on 31st May 1962
May6	Princess Margaret marries Antony Armstrong-Jones.
Jun4	The French novelist Albert Camus dies in a car crash
Jun30	Belgian Congo gains independence from Belgium and immediately plunges into civil war
Jul6	The architect of the National Health Service Aneurin Bevan dies
Jul12	The first Etch-A-Sketch went on sale
Jul21	Francis Chichester, English navigator and yachtsman, arrived in New York aboard Gypsy Moth II, having set a record of 40 days for a solo Atlantic crossing.
July27	OECD is founded
Aug15	Britain's first motorway restaurant is opened on the M1 at Newport Pagnell.
Aug18	The first commercially produced oral contraceptive, Enovid 10 was launched in Skokie, Illinois.
Aug25	The 17th Olympic Games of the modern era opens in Rome
Sep5	European Heavyweight title boxing match between Dick Richardson and Brian London at Coney Beach Arena in Porthcawl. The fight ended with a mass brawl in the ring - the infamous "Brawl in Porthcawl"
Sep10	The first English Football League game is televised - Blackpool and Bolton Wanderers drew 0-0
Sep12	MOT tests on motor vehicles introduced
Sep14	OPEC (Iran,Iraq,Kuwait,Saudi Arabia and Venezuela) is founded
Sep15	Traffic Wardens are introduced to London for the first time
Sep26	The first televised Presidential debate between Kennedy and Nixon attracts an audience of millions
Oct1	HMS Dreadnought (nuclear submarine) launched
	Nigeria gains independence
Oct7	The highest three hour rainfall total ever recorded in the UK occurred at Horncastle Lincs - 178mm
Oct10	Penguin Books is sued with regard to the D.H. Lawrence book "Lady Chatterley's Lover"
Oct19	Martin Luther King along with others is arrested during a sit-in at a lunch counter - he is released eight days later
Nov7	On the 43rd anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution missiles are displayed in the Red Square Parade
Nov9	John F Kennedy is elected President of the USA defeating the Republican Richard Nixon by less than half a million votes. He becomes the first Irish Catholic President of the States
Nov10	200,000 copies of "Lady Chatterly's Lover" are sold on the first day of publication
Nov14	The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is created following a Venezuelan initiative. Its headquarters is in the Hague, Netherlands.
Dec9	The first episode of "Coronation Street" is screened
Dec14	The Crown Prince of Ethiopia fails in an unsuccessful coup whilst Haile Selassie is abroad in Brazil

Last Updated 24/02/03 10:52

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