istoryworld
All Events
The husband-and-wife team Charles and Ray Eames design a much copied lounge chair and footstool, made of moulded plywood with padded leather cushions
Anastasio Somoza is assassinated on a visit to Panama, but the dictatorship of Nicaragua remains in his family
Karlheinz Stockhausen's Song of the Children combines electronic sounds and the human voice
The Sadler's Wells Ballet, dancing now at Covent Garden, is renamed the Royal Ballet
Russian dancer Galina Ulanova proves a sensation on tour in Europe and the USA in her late forties
The USA and Britain withdraw their offer of financial aid for Nasser's Aswan dam
Egypt's president Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalizes the Suez canal and wins Soviet finance for his Aswan dam
Sicilian author Giuseppe de Lampedusa completes his novel The Leopard, but does not live to see it published
Eugene O'Neill's searing account of tensions within his own family, Long Day's Journey into Night, has its premiere in Stockholm
Lawrence Ferlinghetti is prosecuted and acquitted for publishing Allen Ginsberg's Howl
Hans Werner Henze's opera The Stag King has its premiere in Berlin
John Osborne's play Look Back in Anger features in the first season of London's new English Stage Company
Nasser disregards a French and British ultimatum to withdraw from the Suez canal
Students are fired on in Budapest when protesting against repressive Communist policies
Confronted by a popular uprising, Communist leaders in Hungary bring back the reformist prime minister Imre Nagy
Israeli troops invade the Sinai peninsula, a province of Egypt bordering the Suez canal
The British and French bomb Egyptian airfields, and land troops near Port Said and the Suez canal
Russian and Warsaw Pact troops invade Hungary to end the uprising and arrest Imre Nagy
The Kremlin imposes János Kádár on Hungary as head of a new government
Under international pressure Britain and France agree to a humiliating withdrawal from Suez
Melbourne hosts the Olympics, in what becomes known as 'the Friendly Games'
18-year-old Australian sprinter Betty Cuthbert wins three gold medals in the Melbourne Olympics, at 100m, 200m and 400m
Japanese novelist Yukio Mishima publishes The Temple of the Golden Pavilion
The MPLA (Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola) is formed as a guerrilla movement to end Portuguese rule
Communist activist Fidel Castro returns from Mexico to Cuba to organize guerrilla warfare against the Batista regime
