1st January » Cameroon achieves independence from France and the United Kingdom.
6th January » National Airlines Flight 2511 is destroyed in mid-air by a bomb, while en route from New York City to Miami called Miami, Florida.
6th January » The Associations Law comes into force in Iraq, allowing registration of political parties.
7th January » The UGM-27 Polaris called Polaris missile is test launched.
9th January » 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.
19th January » Japan and the United States sign the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between the United States and Japan named US-Japan Mutual Security Treaty
20th January » Hendrik Verwoerd announces a plebiscite on whether South Africa should become a Republic.
21st January » Little Joe 1B, a Project Mercury Mercury spacecraft, lifts off from Wallops Island, Virginia with Monkeys in space Miss Sam, a female Rhesus Macaque rhesus monkey on board.
23rd January » The bathyscaphe Bathyscaphe Trieste USS 'Trieste' breaks a depth record by descending to Convert 10911 m ft in the Pacific Ocean.
24th January » 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.
25th January » The National Association of Broadcasters reacts to the "payola" scandal by threatening fines for any disc jockeys who accept money for playing particular records.
26th January » Danny Heater sets a worldwide high school basketball scoring record when he records 135 points for Burnsville High School (West Virginia)
28th January » The National Football League announced expansion teams for Dallas Cowboys known as Dallas to start in the 1960 NFL season and Minnesota Vikings called Minneapolis-St. Paul for 1961 NFL season.
30th January » The African National Party is founded in Chad, through the merger of traditionalist parties.
1st February » Four black students stage the first of the Greensboro sit-ins at a lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina.
3rd February » Prime Minister of the United Kingdom known as British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan speaks of "a Wind of Change (speech) e.g wind of change", an increasing national consciousness blowing through colonial Africa, signalling that his Government is likely
8th February » Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom issues an Order-in-Council, stating that she and her family would be known as the House of Windsor, and that her descendants will take the name "Mountbatten-Windsor".
8th February » The first eight brass star plaques are installed in the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
13th February » With the success of a nuclear test codenamed "Gerboise Bleue", France becomes the fourth country to possess nuclear weapons.
13th February » Black college students stage the first of the Nashville sit-ins at three lunch counters in Nashville, Tennessee.
16th February » The U.S. Navy submarine USS Triton SSRN-586 6 begins Operation Sandblast, setting sail from New London, Connecticut, to begin the first submerged circumnavigation of the globe.
26th February » A New York-bound Alitalia-Linee Aeree Italiane e.g Alitalia airliner crashes into a cemetery in Shannon, Ireland, shortly after takeoff, killing 34 of the 52 persons on board.
29th February » An earthquake in Morocco kills over 3,000 people and nearly destroys Agadir in the southern part of the country.
4th March » The French freighter 'La Coubre explosion called La Coubre' explodes in Havana, Cuba killing 100.
5th March » Cuban photographer Alberto Korda takes his Guerrillero Heroico iconic photograph of Marxism Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara Ernesto "Che" Guevara.
9th March » Dr. Belding Hibbard Scribner implants for the first time a shunt (medical) e.g shunt he invented into a patient, which allows the patient to receive hemodialysis on a regular basis.
17th March » U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the United States National Security Council known as National Security Council directive on the anti-Cuban covert action program that will ultimately lead to the Bay of Pigs Invasion.
21st March » Apartheid in South Africa: Sharpeville massacre e.g Massacre in Sharpeville, South Africa: Police open fire on a group of unarmed black South African demonstrators, killing 69 and wounding 180.
22nd March » Arthur Leonard Schawlow and Charles Hard Townes receive the first patent for a laser
1st April » The Television Infrared Observation Satellite known as TIROS-1 satellite transmits the :File:TIROS-1-Earth.png known as first television picture from space. Dr. Martens released its first boots, the model 1460.
4th April » France agrees to grant independence to the Mali Federation, a union of Senegal and French Sudan.
8th April » The Netherlands and West Germany sign an agreement to negotiate the return of Dutch annexation of German territory after World War II e.g German land annexed by the Dutch in return for 280 million German marks as Wiedergutmachung.
9th April » Dr. Hendrik Verwoerd, Prime Minister of South Africa and architect of apartheid, narrowly survives an assassination attempt by a white farmer called David Pratt (assassin) known as David Pratt in Johannesburg.
15th April » 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 African-American Civil Rights Movement (1955–1968) or Afr
19th April » Students in South Korea hold April Revolution named a nationwide pro-democracy protest against president of South Korea or president Syngman Rhee, eventually forcing him to resign.
25th April » The United States Navy U.S. Navy submarine USS Triton SSRN-586 6 completes the Operation Sandblast first submerged circumnavigation of the globe.
26th April » Forced out by the April Revolution, President of South Korea Syngman Rhee resigns after twelve years of dictatorial rule.
27th April » Togo gains independence from France called French-administered United Nations Trust Territories e.g UN trusteeship.
1st May » Formation of the western Indian states of Gujarat and Maharashtra. Also known as "Maharashtra Day".
1st May » Cold War: 1960 U-2 incident called U-2 incident: Francis Gary Powers, in a Lockheed U-2 spyplane, is shot down over the Soviet Union, sparking a diplomatic crisis.
3rd May » The Anne Frank House museum opens in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
6th May » More than 20 million viewers watch the first televised royal wedding when Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon known as Princess Margaret marries Antony Armstrong-Jones, 1st Earl of Snowdon known as Anthony Armstrong-Jones at Westminster Abbey.
7th May » Cold War: U-2 Crisis of 1960 Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev announces that his nation is holding American Lockheed U-2 named U-2 pilot Gary Powers.
10th May » The nuclear submarine USS Triton SSRN-586 6 completes Operation Sandblast, the first underwater circumnavigation of the earth.
11th May » In Buenos Aires, Argentina, four Israeli Mossad agents capture fugitive Nazism named Nazi Adolf Eichmann who is living under the alias of Ricardo Klement.
13th May » Hundreds of University of California, Berkeley students congregate for the first day of protest against a visit by the House Un-American Activities Committee called House Committee on Un-American Activities. Thirty-one students are arrested, and the Free
16th May » Theodore Maiman operates the first optical laser (a ruby laser), at Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, California.
22nd May » An earthquake measuring 9.5 on the moment magnitude scale, now known as the 1960 Valdivia earthquake e.g Great Chilean Earthquake, hits southern Chile. It is the most powerful earthquake ever recorded.
24th May » Following the 1960 Valdivia earthquake, the largest ever recorded earthquake, Puyehue-Cordón Caulle 1960 eruption known as Cordón Caulle begins to erupt.
17th June » The Nez Perce people Nez Perce tribe is awarded $4 million for convert 7 e6acre km2 of land undervalued at 4 cents/acre in the 1863 treaty.
20th June » The Mali Federation gains independence from France (it later splits into Mali and Senegal).
23rd June » The United States Food and Drug Administration declares Mestranol/norethynodrel named Enovid to be the first officially approved combined oral contraceptive pill in the world.
25th June » Two cryptography or cryptographers working for the United States National Security Agency left for vacation to Mexico, and from there Martin and Mitchell Defection named defected to the Soviet Union.
26th June » The former British Protectorate of British Somaliland gains its independence as Somaliland.
26th June » Madagascar gains its independence from France.
30th June » Belgian Congo or Congo gains independence from Belgium.
1st July » Ghana becomes a Republic and Kwame Nkrumah becomes its first President of Ghana known as President as Queen Elizabeth II ceases to be its Head of state.
4th July » Due to the post-Independence Day admission of Hawaii as the 50th U.S. state on August 21, 1959, the 50-star flag of the United States debuts in Philadelphia, almost ten and a half months later (see Flag Act).
8th July » Francis Gary Powers is charged with espionage resulting from his flight over the Soviet Union.
11th July » France legislates for the independence of Republic of Dahomey Dahomey (later Benin), Republic of Upper Volta Upper Volta (later Burkina Faso Burkina) and Niger.
11th July » Congo Crisis: The State of Katanga breaks away from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
11th July » 'To Kill a Mockingbird' by Harper Lee is first published, in the United States.
12th July » Orlyonok, the main Young Pioneer camp of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic or Russian SFSR, is founded.
14th July » Jane Goodall arrives at the Gombe Stream Reserve in present-day Tanzania to begin her famous study of chimpanzees in the wild.
16th July » USS George Washington SSBN-598 6 a modified Skipjack class submarine successfully test fires the first ballistic missile while submerged.
20th July » The Polaris missile is successfully launched from a submarine, the USS George Washington SSBN-598 6, for the first time.
1st August » Dahomey (later renamed Benin) declares independence from France.
1st August » Islamabad is declared the federal capital of the Government of Pakistan.
3rd August » Niger gains independence from France.
5th August » Burkina Faso, then known as Republic of Upper Volta named Upper Volta, becomes independent from France.
6th August » Cuban Revolution: Cuba nationalizes American and foreign-owned property in the nation.
8th August » South Kasai secedes from the Republic of the Congo (Léopoldville) known as Congo.
13th August » The Central African Republic declares independence from France.
15th August » Republic of the Congo (Brazzaville) becomes independent from French Fourth Republic known as France.
16th August » Cyprus gains its independence from the United Kingdom.
16th August » Joseph Kittinger parachutes from a balloon over New Mexico at convert 102800 ft m, setting three records that held until 2012: High-altitude jump, free fall, and highest speed by a human without an aircraft.
17th August » Decolonization: Gabon gains independence from France.
19th August » Cold War: In Moscow, Russia, Soviet Union, downed American Lockheed U-2 known as U-2 aviator e.g pilot Francis Gary Powers is sentenced to ten years imprisonment by the Soviet Union for espionage.
19th August » List of spacecraft called Sputnik Sputnik program: 'Korabl-Sputnik 2': The Soviet Union launches the satellite with the dogs Soviet space dogs Belka and Strelka Belka and Strelka, 40 mouse mice, two rats and a variety of plants.
20th August » Senegal breaks from the Mali Federation, declaring its independence.
2nd September » 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 (Tibet) named Democracy Day.
5th September » The poet Léopold Sédar Senghor is elected as the first President of Senegal.
5th September » Muhammad Ali (then Cassius Clay) wins the gold medal in the Boxing at the 1960 Summer Olympics e.g light heavyweight boxing competition at the Olympic Games in Rome.
8th September » In Huntsville, Alabama, US President Dwight D. Eisenhower formally dedicates the Marshall Space Flight Center (NASA had already activated the facility on July 1).
10th September » At the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, Abebe Bikila becomes the first sub-Saharan African to win a gold medal, winning the marathon in bare feet.
14th September » The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is founded.
14th September » Congo Crisis: With Central Intelligence Agency e.g CIA help, Mobutu Sese Seko seizes power in a military coup, suspending parliament and the constitution.
18th September » Fidel Castro arrives in New York City as the head of the Cuban delegation to the United Nations.
22nd September » The Sudanese Republic is renamed Mali after the withdrawal of Senegal from the Mali Federation.
26th September » In Chicago, the first Television e.g televised United States presidential election debates e.g debate takes place between presidential candidates Richard M. Nixon and John F. Kennedy.
28th September » Mali and Senegal join the United Nations.
29th September » Nikita Khrushchev, leader of Soviet Union, disrupts a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly with a number of angry outbursts.
1st October » Nigeria gains independence from the United Kingdom.
12th October » Cold War: Nikita Khrushchev shoe-banging incident named pounds his shoe on a desk at United Nations General Assembly meeting to protest a Philippine assertion of Soviet Union colonial policy being conducted in Eastern Europe
12th October » Television viewers in Japan unexpectedly witness the assassination of Inejiro Asanuma, leader of the Japan Socialist Party, when he is stabbed and killed during a live broadcast.
19th October » Cold War: The United States government imposes a United States embargo against Cuba or near-total trade embargo against Cuba, which remains in effect today.
29th October » In Louisville, Kentucky, Cassius Clay (who later takes the name Muhammad Ali) wins his first professional fight.
29th October » An airplane carrying the Cal Poly football team plane crash known as Cal Poly football team crashes on takeoff in Toledo, Ohio.
30th October » Michael Woodruff performs the first successful kidney transplant in the United Kingdom at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.
1st November » While campaigning for President of the United States, John F. Kennedy announces his idea of the Peace Corps.
3rd November » The land that would become the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge was 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 Swam
4th November » At the Kasakela Chimpanzee Community in Tanzania, Dr. Jane Goodall observes Eastern chimpanzee called chimpanzees creating tools, the first-ever observation in non-human animals.
8th November » John F. Kennedy defeats Richard Nixon in one of the United States presidential election, 1960 e.g closest presidential elections of the twentieth century to become the 35th president of the United States.
9th November » Robert McNamara is named president of Ford Motor Co., the first non-Ford to serve in that post. A month later, he resigned to join the administration of newly elected John F. Kennedy.
11th November » A military coup against President of Vietnam named President Ngo Dinh Diem of South Vietnam 1960 South Vietnamese coup attempt known as is crushed.
25th November » The Mirabal sisters of the Dominican Republic are assassination known as assassinated.
28th November » Mauritania becomes independent of France.
1st December » Paul McCartney and Pete Best are arrested (and later deported) from Hamburg, Germany, after accusations of attempted arson.
3rd December » The musical 'Camelot (musical) Camelot' debuts at the Majestic Theatre (Broadway) Majestic Theatre on Broadway theatre Broadway. It will become associated with the John F. Kennedy Kennedy administration.
11th December » French forces crack down in a violent clash with protesters in French Algeria during a visit by President of France known as French President Charles de Gaulle.
13th December » While Emperor of Ethiopia Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia visits Brazil, his Kebur Zabagna Imperial Bodyguard 1960 Ethiopian coup attempt seizes the capital and proclaims him deposed and his son, Crown Prince Amha Selassie Asfa Wossen, Emperor.
15th December » Richard Paul Pavlick or Richard Pavlick is arrested for plotting to assassinate President-elect of the United States called U.S. President-Elect John F. Kennedy.
17th December » Troops loyal to Emperor Haile Selassie I in Ethiopia crush the 1960 Ethiopian coup attempt called coup that began December 13, returning power to their leader upon his return from Brazil. Haile Selassie absolves his son of any guilt.
17th December » 1960 Munich Convair 340 crash: 20 passengers and crew on board as well as 32 people on the ground are killed.
20th December » The Viet Cong named National Front for the Liberation of Vietnam is formed.
31st December » The Farthing (British coin) called farthing coin ceases to be legal tender in the United Kingdom.