istoryworld
All Events
President Kennedy appoints his younger brother Robert to the position of US attorney-general
Patrice Lumumba is sent to Katanga, where he is murdered
Political activist Jane Jacobs publishes an influential polemic, The Death and Life of Great American Cities
Hassan II begins a 38-year reign as the king of Morocco
President Kennedy establishes the Peace Corps, enabling US volunteers to work abroad
Atmosphères, by the Hungarian composer György Ligeti, achieves a mysterious blend of sound in what he calls 'micropolyphony'
J.D. Salinger publishes Franny and Zooey, the second of his collections of stories about the Glass family
The trial of Adolf Eichmann begins in an Israeli court in Jerusalem, with TV cameras permitted to broadcast the event live around the world
Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human to travel in space, orbiting the earth once in Vostok 1
Former British colony Sierra Leone becomes an independent state within the Commonwealth
British author Roald Dahl publishes a novel for children, James and the Giant Peach
An invasion force of about 1500 Cuban exiles comes ashore in Cuba's Bay of Pigs in an attempt to topple the Castro regime
Two days after landing in the Bay of Pigs, 114 Cuban exiles are dead and about 1300 have been captured
Joshua Nkomo founds ZAPU, the Zimbabwe African People's Union, in the British colony of Southern Rhodesia
Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti makes his operatic debut in Reggio Emilia, as Rodolfo in La Bohème
US astronaut Alan Shepard becomes the first American in space, with a suborbital flight in Freedom 7
Arthur Miller writes the screenplay for The Misfits for his wife, Marilyn Monroe
Caribbean novelist V.S. Naipaul features his Trinidad family in A House for Mr Biswas
Two French generals, Raoul Salan and Edmond Jouhaud, form the OAS (Organisation de l'Armée Secrète) to preserve French rule in Algeria
Rafael Trujillo, dictator of the Dominican Republic for the past 30 years, is killed by a machine-gun attack on his car
Commonwealth opposition to apartheid causes South Africa to leave the organization and become a republic
US author Joseph Heller publishes his first novel, Catch-22, set in the last months of World War II
British choreographer John Cranko becomes director of the Stuttgart Ballet
The drug Thalidomide, synthesized in West Germany, is shown to have been the cause of severe defects in about 12,000 children born in 46 countries
Russian dancer Rudolf Nureyev defects from the Kirov company at Le Bourget airport and seeks political asylum in France
