istoryworld
All Events
Syria withdraws from the United Arab Republic (UAR) seeing it as unacceptably dominated by Egypt
President Kennedy commits the US to placing a man on the moon and bringing him back safely by 1970
The novelist Ernest Hemingway kills himself with a shotgun in his log cabin in Idaho
Nelson Mandela and the ANC adopt guerrilla tactics against the apartheid regime in South Africa
In Babi Yar the dissident Soviet poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko tackles the subject of Russian anti-Semitism
Polish composer Witold Lutoslawski uses 'aleatory counterpoint' in his Venetian Games
The East German government erects the Berlin Wall to prevent an exodus of its citizens
French film director François Truffaut makes Jules et Jim, starring Jeanne Moreau and Oskar Werner
The UN secretary general, Dag Hammarskjöld, dies in a plane crash while trying to secure peace in Katanga
Largely under the influence of Tito, a summit is held by nations eager to be non-aligned in the Cold War
The southern part of the British Cameroons votes to merge with Cameroun, becoming the federal republic of Cameroon
Rudolf Nureyev makes his first appearance in a western company, dancing in The Sleeping Beauty for the Marquis de Cuevas
Tanganyika becomes an independent nation with Julius Nyerere as prime minister
British novelist Muriel Spark publishes The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, set in an Edinburgh school in the 1930s
General Ne Win seizes power in a coup in Burma and establishes a single-party isolationist dictatorship
In a series of informal meetings, Harold Macmillan tries to persuade Charles de Gaulle that Britain should join the EEC
A peaceful demonstration at Rangoon university is dispersed by gunfire, resulting in the death of dozens of students
Harold Macmillan dismisses a third of his cabinet, including his chancellor, in what becomes known as 'the night of the long knives'
Sean Connery creates on screen the role of 007 in the first James Bond film, Dr No
Andy Warhol creates a stir when his paintings of Campbell's soup cans are exhibited at the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles
Frelimo emerges as a Marxist guerrilla group dedicated to winning independence for Mozambique
US singer Bob Dylan writes one of his best-known songs, Blowin' in the Wind (included in his 1963 album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan)
James Baldwin's third novel Another Country explores the conflicts in the life of a young unemployed black musician
Sam Walton opens the first Wal-Mart Discount store, in Rogers, Arkansas
President de Gaulle makes a surprise appointment, selecting the little-known Georges Pompidou to be the French premier
