Explore 4408 historical events from 1960–1969.
On 10 June 1960, a Fokker Friendship passenger aircraft operated by Trans Australia Airlines (TAA) was on approach at night to land at Mackay, Queensland, Australia when it crashed…
Trans Australia Airlines Flight 538 crashes near Mackay Airport in Mackay, Queensland, Australia, killing 29
The Nez Perce are an Indigenous people of the Plateau who still live on a fraction of the lands on the southeastern Columbia River Plateau in the Pacific Northwest. This region has…
The Nez Perce tribe is awarded $4 million for 7 million acres (28,000 km2) of land undervalued at four cents/acre in the
British Somaliland, officially the Somaliland Protectorate, was a protectorate of the United Kingdom in the territory of modern Somaliland. It was bordered by Italian Somalia, Fren…
The former British Protectorate of British Somaliland gains its independence as Somaliland
The wedding of Princess Margaret and Antony Armstrong-Jones took place on Friday, 6 May 1960 at Westminster Abbey in London. Princess Margaret was the younger sister of Queen Eliza…
More than 20 million viewers watch the first televised royal wedding when Princess Margaret marries Antony Armstrong-Jon
The Cold War was a period of international geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc …
Cold War: U-2 Crisis of 1960: Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev announces that his nation is holding American U-2 pilot Ga
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is a federal agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The FDA is responsible for protecting and promoting p…
The Food and Drug Administration announces it will approve birth control as an additional indication for Searle's Enovid
The University of California, Berkeley is a public land-grant research university in the Southside and Northside neighborhoods of Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 18…
Hundreds of University of California, Berkeley students congregate for the first day of protest against a visit by the H
Theodore Harold Maiman was an American engineer and physicist who is widely credited with the invention of the laser. Maiman's laser led to the subsequent development of many other…
Theodore Maiman operates the first optical laser (a ruby laser), at Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, California
Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country in the Indian Ocean that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying of…
Madagascar gains its independence from France
The Belgian Congo was a Belgian colony in Central Africa from 1908 until independence in 1960. It is today the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
Belgian Congo gains independence as Republic of the Congo (Léopoldville)
The Republic of Dahomey, simply known as Dahomey, was established on 4 December 1958, as a self-governing colony within the French Community. Prior to attaining autonomy, it had be…
France legislates for the independence of Dahomey (later Benin), Upper Volta (later Burkina Faso) and Niger.
The 1960 Valdivia earthquake and tsunami or the Great Chilean earthquake occurred on 22 May 1960. Most studies have placed it at 9.4–9.6 on the moment magnitude scale, making it th…
The Great Chilean earthquake, measuring 9
A tsunami is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and und…
A tsunami caused by an earthquake in Chile the previous day kills 61 people in Hilo, Hawaii
The 1960 Valdivia earthquake and tsunami or the Great Chilean earthquake occurred on 22 May 1960. Most studies have placed it at 9.4–9.6 on the moment magnitude scale, making it th…
Following the 1960 Valdivia earthquake, the largest ever recorded earthquake, Cordón Caulle begins to erupt
Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a smaller part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black S…
In Turkey, a military coup removes President Celâl Bayar and the rest of the democratic government from office
Charlotte Motor Speedway is a 1.500 mi (2.414 km) quad-oval intermediate speedway in Concord, North Carolina. It has hosted various major races since its inaugural season of racing…
Charlotte Motor Speedway holds its first NASCAR race, the inaugural World 600
The Russian Children's Center "Orlyonok" is a federal state all-year camp for children aged 11–16. It is located in the Southern Federal District of Russia, on the eastern shore of…
Orlyonok, the main Young Pioneer camp of the Russian SFSR, is founded.
The UGM-27 Polaris missile was a two-stage solid-fueled nuclear-armed submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM). As the United States Navy's first SLBM, it served from 1961 to 19…
The Polaris missile is successfully launched from a submarine, the USS George Washington, for the first time.
The Volkswagen Act is a set of German federal laws enacted in 1960, regulating the privatization of Volkswagenwerk GmbH into the Volkswagen Group. In order to maintain government…
The German Volkswagen Act comes into force.
Project Echo was the first passive communications satellite experiment. Each of the two American spacecraft, launched in 1960 and 1964, were metalized balloon satellites acting as …
Echo 1A, NASA's first successful communications satellite, is launched.
The Mali Federation was a federation in West Africa that linked the French colonies of Senegal and the Sudanese Republic for two months in 1960. It was founded on 4 April 1959 as a…
The Mali Federation gains independence from France (it later splits into Mali and Senegal)
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is a federal agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The FDA is responsible for protecting and promoting p…
The United States Food and Drug Administration declares Enovid to be the first officially approved combined oral contrac
Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and various islands and islets…
Venezuelan President Rómulo Betancourt is injured in an assassination attempt
Cryptography, or cryptology, is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of adversarial behavior. More generally, cryptography is about constru…
Cold War: Two cryptographers working for the United States National Security Agency left for vacation to Mexico, and fro