WHAT ALL HAPPENED JANUARY TO JUNE 1960
Find out what all happened January to June 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)

Brasília, Brazil's capital, is officially inaugurated. At 09:30, the Three Powers of the Republic are simultaneously transferred from the old capital, Rio de Janeiro. (21. April 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)

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

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

Little Joe 1B, a Mercury spacecraft, lifts off from Wallops Island, Virginia with Miss Sam, a female rhesus monkey on board. (21. January 1960)

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

The National Football League announced expansion teams for Dallas to start in the 1960 NFL season and Minneapolis-St. Paul for 1961 NFL season. (28. January 1960)

Capital Airlines Flight 20 crashes into a farm in Charles City County, Virginia, killing all 50 aboard, the third fatal Capital Airlines crash in as many years. (18. January 1960)

Four black students stage the first of the Greensboro sit-ins at a lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina. (1. February 1960)

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

U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the National Security Council directive on the anti-Cuban covert action program that will ultimately lead to the Bay of Pigs Invasion. (17. March 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)

Avianca Flight 671 crashes and burns upon landing at Montego Bay, Jamaica, killing 37. It is the worst air disaster in Jamaica's history and the first for Avianca. (21. January 1960)

The United States Food and Drug Administration declares Enovid to be the first officially approved combined oral contraceptive pill in the world. (23. June 1960)

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

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

The Reserve Bank of Australia, the country's central bank and banknote issuing authority, is established. (14. January 1960)

France agrees to grant independence to the Mali Federation, a union of Senegal and French Sudan. (4. April 1960)