WHAT ALL HAPPENED APRIL TO DECEMBER 1960
Find out what all happened April to December 1960

The former British Protectorate of British Somaliland gains its independence as Somaliland. (26. June 1960)

Madagascar gains its independence from France. (26. June 1960)

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

Paul McCartney and Pete Best are arrested (and later deported) from Hamburg, Germany, after accusations of attempted arson. (1. December 1960)

Independence of Somalia. (1. July 1960)

Cold War: Nikita Khrushchev 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 (12. October 1960)

In Chicago, the first televised debate takes place between presidential candidates Richard M. Nixon and John F. Kennedy. (26. September 1960)

Following the 1960 Valdivia earthquake, the largest ever recorded earthquake, Cordón Caulle begins to erupt. (24. May 1960)

The Mali Federation gains independence from France (it later splits into Mali and Senegal). (20. June 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)

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)

The Nez Perce tribe is awarded $4 million for 7 million acres (28,000 km2) of land undervalued at 4 cents/acre in the 1863 treaty. (17. June 1960)

An airplane carrying the Cal Poly football team crashes on takeoff in Toledo, Ohio. (29. October 1960)

A military coup against President Ngo Dinh Diem of South Vietnam is crushed. (11. November 1960)

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

Theodore Maiman operates the first optical laser (a ruby laser), at Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, California. (16. May 1960)

Islamabad is declared the federal capital of the Government of Pakistan. (1. August 1960)

Nikita Khrushchev, leader of Soviet Union, disrupts a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly with a number of angry outbursts. (29. September 1960)

Echo 1A, NASA's first successful communications satellite, is launched. (12. August 1960)

The Polaris missile is successfully launched from a submarine, the USS George Washington, for the first time. (20. July 1960)