istoryworld
All Events
Ian Smith, now prime minister of Rhodesia, arrests leading black politicians Joshua Nkomo and Robert Mugabe
Tanganyika and Zanzibar merge as the United Republic of Tanzania
Cassius Clay (later Muhammad Ali) becomes world heavyweight champion for the first time, defeating Sonny Liston
Louis Leakey and his team discover in the Olduvai Gorge the first known speciment of the species Homo Habilis, named for its supposed tool-making abilities
Roald Dahl publishes a fantasy treat for a starving child, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
US physicists Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson discover cosmic background radiation, lending strong support to the Big Bang theory
US poet John Berryman's 77 Dream Songs introduce Henry, his alter ego
Papa Doc Duvalier, ruling through the brutal Tontons Macoutes, makes himself president of Haiti for life
The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) is founded at a congress in East Jerusalem, then part of Jordan
Robert Lowell's For the Union Dead takes its title from the last poem, about modern disregard for a Civil War monument
Sergio Leone directs A Fistful of Dollars, the first of his three 'spaghetti westerns' starring Clint Eastwood
Nelson Mandela is sentenced to life imprisonment and is sent to a gaol on Robben Island
In a match at the Oval, England cricketer Freddie Trueman becomes the first bowler to take 300 Test wickets
Fiddler on the Roof, based on a novel by Sholom Aleichem, opens on Broadway with Zero Mostel playing Tevye the Milkman
President Johnson pushes through a Civil Rights Act against strong Senate opposition
English author A.S. Byatt publishes her first novel, Shadow of a Sun
The Beijing ballet company goes political with The Red Detachment of Women, supervised by Mao Zedong's wife, Jiang Qing
Hastings Banda is prime minister of the newly independent nation of Malawi, formerly Nyasaland
A reported incident in the Gulf of Tonkin triggers US intervention against North Vietnam, in a significant step towards the Vietnam War
Two men are hanged in Britain, in the last use of capital punishment before its abolition in 1965
The Beatles reach number one in both the UK and the US with their single 'Can't Buy Me Love'
Peter Sellers plays three different roles in Stanley Kubrick's film Dr Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
New Zealand poet Fleur Adcock publishes her first collection, The Eye of the Hurricane
An Arab League summit is held in Alexandria after the break-up of the union between Egypt and Syria
After graduating from college in India, Aung San Suu Kyi moves to England to continue her education at St Hugh's College in Oxford
