WHAT ALL HAPPENED FEBRUARY TO AUGUST 1960
Find out what all happened February to August 1960

A New York-bound Alitalia airliner crashes into a cemetery in Shannon, Ireland, shortly after takeoff, killing 34 of the 52 persons on board. (26. February 1960)

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". (8. February 1960)

Senegal breaks from the Mali Federation, declaring its independence. (20. August 1960)

Cold War: U-2 incident – Francis Gary Powers, in a Lockheed U-2 spyplane, is shot down over the Soviet Union, sparking a diplomatic crisis. (1. May 1960)

Republic of the Congo (Brazzaville) becomes independent from France. (15. August 1960)

An earthquake measuring 9.5 on the moment magnitude scale, now known as the Great Chilean Earthquake, hits southern Chile. It is the most powerful earthquake ever recorded. (22. May 1960)

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 in the 1960s. (15. April 1960)

China successfully launches the T-7, its first sounding rocket. (19. February 1960)

Dr. Hendrik Verwoerd, Prime Minister of South Africa and architect of apartheid, narrowly survives an assassination attempt by a white farmer called David Pratt in Johannesburg. (9. April 1960)

Jane Goodall arrives at the Gombe Stream Reserve in present-day Tanzania to begin her famous study of chimpanzees in the wild. (14. July 1960)

Apartheid in South Africa: Massacre in Sharpeville, South Africa: Police open fire on a group of unarmed black South African demonstrators, killing 69 and wounding 180. (21. March 1960)

Ghana becomes a Republic and Kwame Nkrumah becomes its first President as Queen Elizabeth II ceases to be its Head of state. (1. July 1960)

Decolonization: Gabon gains independence from France. (17. August 1960)

With the success of a nuclear test codenamed "Gerboise Bleue", France becomes the fourth country to possess nuclear weapons. (13. February 1960)

More than 20 million viewers watch the first televised royal wedding when Princess Margaret marries Anthony Armstrong-Jones at Westminster Abbey. (6. May 1960)

Dr. Belding Hibbard Scribner implants for the first time a shunt he invented into a patient, which allows the patient to receive hemodialysis on a regular basis. (9. March 1960)

Sputnik program: Korabl-Sputnik 2 – the Soviet Union launches the satellite with the dogs Belka and Strelka, 40 mice, 2 rats and a variety of plants. (19. August 1960)

Black college students stage the first of the Nashville sit-ins at three lunch counters in Nashville, Tennessee. (13. February 1960)

In Turkey, a military coup removes President Celal Bayar and the rest of the democratic government from office. (27. May 1960)

Congo gains independence from Belgium. (30. June 1960)