01 - French Cameroon becomes the Republic of Cameroon with
Ahmadun Ahidjo as its first president.
04 - French Nobel prize-winning novelist Albert Camus is killed in
a car crash, aged 46.
11 - Vicky Peterson of The Bangles is born.
12 - British author Nevil Shute dies (b.1899).
14 - Khrushchev says the USSR will cut its armed forces by 1.2
million over the next two years.
15 - The FB Holden is released in Australia.
18 - Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay
establish the Latin American Free Trade Association (LAFTA).
19 - USA and Japan sign a treaty of mutual cooperation and
security.
20 - UK Government curbs the sale of 'pep pills'.
22 - Michael Hutchence of Australian rock group INXS is born.
23 - Swiss engineer Jacques Piccard and US Navy Lieutenant Don
Walsh dive to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean's Marianas Trench -
at 35,813 feet (6.78 miles), the lowest point on Earth - aboard the bathyscaphe
Trieste.
24 - In Algeria, French settlers riot in response to President de
Gaulle's sacking of Commander Jacques Massu.
CATHOLICS TO BE KEPT FROM UNSAFE TV
Jan 24
- The first synod ever held in Rome was opened by Pope John
XXIII today. It is expected to direct the church back to the
straight and narrow path. Catholics will be told not to watch
films, TV programmes or plays deemed "unsafe" by the
Vatican. Women with bare arms or dressed in male clothing are to
be denied the sacrament. Priests will be forbidden to smoke in
public, and barred from theatres.
27 - Heat wave in Sydney, Australia, kills 13 people.
01 - At Greensboro, North Carolina (USA) four black students
defy a whites-only rule and sit in at a Woolworths lunch counter.
The sit in tactic spreads as the civil rights movement gathers
pace.
02 - French MPs give de Gaulle emergency powers.
03 - In South Africa, British PM Harold Macmillan makes his famous
"wind of change" speech in Cape Town urging South Africa
to abandon its policy on apartheid.
04 - Appearing at the Sands night club in Las Vegas - Frank
Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis
Jr., Peter Lawford and Joey
Bishop.
09 - A bomb explodes at the home of one of the first black
students to attend Little Rock Central High School, USA.
13 - An atomic bomb is exploded by France in the Sahara Desert,
despite UN and US opposition.
16 - US nuclear submarine USS Triton sets off on the first
underwater voyage around the world without resurfacing.
17 - Martin Luther King arrested for perjury in connection with
his state income taxes in 1956.
19 - Queen Elizabeth II gives birth to a son, Andrew Albert
Christian Edward.
21 - Fidel Castro nationalises private business in Cuba.
25 - Australia agrees to make available two satellite tracking
stations for US space program.
01 - Moroccan earth quake kills at least 1,000.
01 - Free Medicine Scheme ends in Australia. From now on each
prescription will cost five shillings, except for pensioners.
05 - Sgt Elvis Presley is discharged from the US Army.
07 - Arthur Calwell is elected new Australian Labor Party leader.
07 - Tennis player Ivan Lendl is born.
09 - Martin Luther King urges
Eisenhower to intervene to defuse
racial tension in Montgomery, Alabama.
13 - Adam Clayton of Irish rock band, U2, is born.
14 - Martial law is declared in the Belgian Congo after unrest in
which 14 people die.
15 - Syngman Rhee wins his fourth presidential election in South
Korea. Allegations of fraud lead to Rhee's resignation weeks later.
16 - Eisenhower advises Southern states to set up bi-racial talks
to hear black grievances.
21 - At a demonstration in Sharpeville, South Africa, police open
fire on unarmed protesters, killing some 70 people and injuring
180.
21 - Capital of Brazil moves from Rio de Janeiro to Brasilia.
25 - Oliver Cromwell's head is buried at Sydney Sussex College in
Cambridge, England. His head parted company with his body in 1660.
25 - In the aftermath of the Sharpeville massacre, the South
African government outlaws all non-white political organisations,
including the ANC (African National Congress).
26 - Merryman II wins the English Grand National.
30 - A state of emergency is declared in South Africa as 30,000
blacks demand the release of their leaders.
01 - First weather satellite, Tiros I, is put into space.
05 - Ben Hur wins a record ten Oscars.
07 - Blacks riot against apartheid in Durban.
09 - South African Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd shot in
Johannesburg.
13 - Racing driver Stirling Moss loses his drivers license for a
year for dangerous driving.
17 - Eddie Cochran dies in a car crash on the A4 near Chippenham
in Wiltshire, England. Gene Vincent suffers minor injuries in the
same accident.
18 - Discoverer XIV launches the first US spy satellite.
19 - In Korea, Rhee declares martial law as police shoot dead 30
marchers protesting against "rigged" elections.
19 - Flood of East Germans in flight to West.
21 - The newly formed Commonwealth Police force begins operation
in Australia.
21 - Brasilia replaces Rio de Janeiro as capital of Brazil.
21 - Rhee's cabinet resigns in Seoul after 115 protesters were
reported killed by police.
25 - Ten blacks are shot in a Mississippi race riot after blacks
gather on a segregated beach.
25 - Australian pubs and theatres are permitted to stay open on
Anzac Day for the first time. Organised sport is also allowed in
the afternoon.
26 - Roger Taylor of Duran Duran is born.
27 - Korean president Syngman Rhee resigns following a week of
rioting and bloodshed in the streets to protest against
irregularities in last months elections.
28 - Martial law is declared in Turkey following student riots in
Ankara and Istanbul.
01 - An American U2 spy plane is downed inside the Soviet
Union. The Russians announce they will put the pilot, Francis Gary
Powers, on trial as a spy.
02 - Convicted US rapist Caryl Chessman is executed in San Quentin
prison after 12 years on death row.
04 - Leonid Brezhnev succeeds Marshall Voroshilov as Head of State
in USSR.
SOVIETS CLAIM US PLANE WAS SPYING
May
5 - The Russians today admitted shooting down an American U2
aircraft which, they claimed, had deliberately violated Soviet air
space to wreck the forthcoming Summit talks.
 The announcement by
the Soviet leader, Mr Khrushchev, has prompted a sharp reaction in
Washington where Senators say the incident means a grim future for
US-Soviet relations.
In Moscow the belief is that the plane was on a spying mission,
but the Americans claim that the aircraft, piloted by a 30 year
old civilian named Francis Gary Powers, must have strayed off
course, and was only carrying out weather research. The cameras on
board were for taking pictures of clouds, according to the State
Department in Washington.
06 - England's Princess Margaret weds commoner, photographer
Antony Armstrong-Jones in Westminster Abbey.
07 - Wolverhampton Wanderers defeat Blackburn Rovers 3-0 in
British FA Cup Final.
07 - US admits that the downed U2 plane was on a spying mission.
09 - The Food and Drug Administration in Washington DC approves
the contraceptive pill for use.
10 - Bono (Paul Hewson), U2 vocalist, is born.
11 - The liner France is launched at St Nazaire.
16 - Nikita Khrushchev cancels Paris summit meeting over U2
incident (the spyplane, not the birth of Bono!).
17 - US Democratic hopeful Hubert Humphrey gives up after campaign
defeats.
18 - Real Madrid win European Cup for record fifth year after
beating Eintracht Frankfurt 7 - 3.
22 - Thousands die as a 26-foot wave hits Chile at 125mph.
ISRAELIS CAPTURE DEATH CAMP ORGANISER
May
23 - Adolf Eichmann, the SS officer who master-minded the
"Final Solution", Hitler's extermination of six million
Jews, is in Israeli hands and will be put on trial for his life.
Announcing this news to a startled Knesset today, Mr Ben Gurion,
the Prime Minister, described Eichmann as "one of the
greatest of the Nazi war criminals".
Reports in Israel speak of a daring operation carried out by the
Israeli intelligence service, Mossad, to seize Eichmann from
Argentina where he had been living under an assumed identity. The
Israeli's have never ceased searching for Eichmann who disappeared
at the end of the war 15 years ago. They accuse him of being the
"technician of death", the man who organised the
transportation of the Jews from all over Europe to the gas
chambers.
24 - In Australia, the Victorian State Parliament passes a bill
to legalise off-course betting for horse racing - the TAB.
27 - In Turkey, premier Adnan Menderes is ousted in a military
coup.
28 - Martin Luther King is acquitted of perjury.
29 - Stirling Moss wins Monaco Grand Prix.
30 - Soviet author, Boris Leonidovich Pasternak (b.1890) dies.
30 - Melbourne (Australia) cafe owner Sam Borg is found
mysteriously battered to death in his bedroom with the door nailed
shut from inside.
01 - Television comes to New Zealand with AKTV Channel 2.
06 - Argentine government demand the return of Adolf Eichmann from
Israel.
08 - Mick Hucknall (Simply Red) is born.
10 - In Australia, a TAA plane crashes off Mackay, Queensland,
killing 29.
19 - Two British drivers, Bristow and Stacey, die in the Belgian
Grand Prix. Stirling Moss is injured.
20 - John Taylor (Duran Duran) is born.
PATTERSON FIRST TO REGAIN A LOST TITLE
June
20 - The world heavyweight title is back in the United States
after just a year in European hands. Floyd Patterson delivered a
merciless left hook to the head of Ingemar Johansson half way
through the fifth round of their return bout, to knock the
champion out and administer the first defeat in the Swede's 23
fight career.
For Patterson the revenge was sweet, and made him the first
heavyweight to regain a lost world title, a feat that has eluded
such greats as James J Corbett, Jim Jeffries, Jack Dempsey and Joe
Louis.
22 - Eleven die in a blaze in one of Liverpool's (UK) biggest
department stores.
22 - Sino-Soviet split brought into open.
23 - The Cavern Club in Liverpool relaxes its Jazz-only policy and
allows rock groups to play.
26 - British Somaliland becomes independent.
26 - Madagascar becomes independent as the Malagasy Republic.
27 - Australian rocker Johnny O'Keefe is seriously injured in a
car crash near Kempsey, NSW.
30 - National Service military
training, introduced in 1951,
officially ends in Australia.
30 - The Belgian Congo becomes independent under President Youlou.
01 - Italian Somaliland joins British Somaliland to form the
new Republic of Somalia.
02 - Neale Fraser beats Rod Laver in the all-Australian men's
singles final at Wimbledon. Maria Bueno beats Sue Reynolds in the
women's final.
03 - Jack Brabham wins the French Grand Prix.
06 - Civil War begins in Congo. Army mutinies against the
government and UN Peacekeeping forces are called in.
07 - The USSR shoots down a US aircraft over the Barents Sea.
07 - £100,000 lottery win leads to Australia's first kidnap as
8-year-old Sydney boy, Graeme Thorne, is abducted.
08 - Soviet court finds US pilot guilty of spying.
11 - Richie Sambora (Bon Jovi) is born.
11 - Moise Tshombe, prime minister of the Congolese province of
Katanga, declares independence.
13 - US Democratic party nominates John F Kennedy for Presidency.
15 - First UN troops arrive in Congo.
CHICHESTER IN RECORD SOLO ATLANTIC TRIP
July 21 - The solo Atlantic sailor, Francis Chichester, sailed
into New York in Gypsy Moth II today, setting a new record of 40
days for the crossing from Plymouth, The 58 year old sailor who
has had lung cancer for two years, battled against
hurricane-strength winds for part of the voyage. His clothes were
tossed about so much in the 39-foot sloop's locker that holes were
worn in them. He had to abandon a plan to dine every evening in a
dinner jacket because it became mouldy.
FIRST WOMAN PM ELECTED IN CEYLON
July 21
- Mrs Sirimavo Bandaranaike, widow of the assassinated
Prime Minister and leader of Ceylon's Sri Lanka Freedom Party, was
sworn in today as the world's first woman Prime Minister.
 In the
general election yesterday her party won 75 seats out of 150.
Mrs Banaranaike, who entered politics only after the death of
her husband last September, swore to carry on his "socialist
programmes which reflect the national aspirations of the
people".
23 - CBS announces it will build a skyscraper headquarters on
the Avenue of the Americas in New York, two blocks north of the
RCA building, home of NBC. CBS has purchased the site, almost one
acre of land, for a reported $7 million. Noted architect Eero
Sarrinen will design the site, to be completed by the spring of
1964.
25 - Republican Party nominates Vice President Richard M Nixon for
Presidency.
30 - Tony Curtis and wife Janet Leigh purchase the Desert Skies
Hotel, a Palm Springs resort hotel. Plans are to convert it and
the surrounding land into a country club.
04 - A USAAF rocket-propelled research aircraft sets a world
speed record for manned aircraft of 2150 mph.
07 - In Cuba, Castro nationalises all US-owned property in
retaliation for "US economic aggression".
12 - In Liverpool, England, drummer Pete Best joins The Silver
Beetles (Beatles).
12 - A USAAF rocket aircraft sets an altitude record of 131,000
feet.
14 - Jack Brabham wins the Portuguese Grand Prix to become Formula
One World Champion.
THREE WAY CHARTER MAKES CYPRUS FREE
Aug 16
- Cyprus became a republic at midnight with a 21-gun salute
but little crowd enthusiasm. Fearing riots, most Cypriots kept off
the streets. British rule now ends and Archbishop Makarios becomes
President. Sir Hugh Foot, the British Governor, made an appeal for
peace. "People who have been at the edge of hell do not want
to go back", he said.
16 - Kidnapped Graeme Thorne's murdered body is found in a cave
at Seaforth, Sydney (Australia).
17 - The Beatles begin a three month engagement at the Indra
Club in Hamburg, Germany.
19 - Francis Gary Powers sentenced to ten years in Soviet prison
for espionage.
19 - A Soviet spacecraft carrying two dogs makes 17 orbits of the
Earth before returning safely.
25 - XVIIth Olympic Games open in Rome.
25 - Cassius Clay wins the gold medal in the light heavyweight
boxing class at the seventeenth Olympic Games in Rome.
29 - Jordanian Premier Hazza Majali is assassinated by a bomb.
03 - St George win the Australian Rugby League Grand Final for
the third consecutive year, beating Eastern Suburbs 31-6.
08 - Penguin Books is tried for publishing D H Lawrence's banned
novel Lady Chatterley's Lover. The publishing company were found
not guilty of obscenity on November 2nd.
ROME GAMES A SPECTACULAR SUCCESS
Sept 9 - Few sportsmen have won the hearts of the Latins as
comprehensively as Bill Roycroft, the 46 year old Australian
horseman who left his hospital bed - he had broken his collarbone
in a fall - and helped Laurie Morgan and Neale Lavis to victory
over the cream of the world's riders in the Three-Day Equestrian
Event for teams.
Though the games were held at the height of the Mediterranean
summer against medical advice, they were a spectacular success.
Memorable victories seen around the world - for these Games were
the first to get saturation TV coverage - were those of the
Tennessee beauty, Wilma Rudolph, Frankfurt office worker Armin
Hary, local hero Livio Berruti and the Ethiopian marathon runner
Abebe Bikila. Rudolph, a polio victim who could not walk properly
until she was eight - won all three sprint records for the USA.
The unknown Bikila, barefoot and untroubled, led home the marathon
runners to win the first track and field gold medal ever to go to
Africa.
10 - Siobhan Fahey (Bananarama) is born.
11 - Wilma Rudolph from Tennessee sprints her way to triple gold
at the Rome Olympics, winning the 100 meter and 200 meter races,
and forming part of a triumphant 400 meter relay team. Rudolph
suffered from polio as a child and only learned to walk properly
at 8 years of age.
11 - The first episode of Danger
Man (starring Patrick McGoohan) is broadcast on British television.
13 - The director of public prosecution in Britain is called upon
to ban all records of the American hit Tell Laura I Love Her, by
Ray Peterson. The song is being denounced in Britain as likely to
inspire a teen-age "glorious death cult." The song tells
of a lovesick youngster who drives in a stock car race to win the
hand of his sweetheart. He crashes and just before dying, groans
out the words of the title.
16 - Donald Campbell survives after crashing Bluebird at 350 mph
in Britain.
21 - In Australia, Melbourne win their first VFL Grand Final in
six years defeating Collingwood 8.14 to 2.2.
22 - Joan Jett (born Joan Larkin) is born.
25 - The first atomic-powered aircraft carrier, the USS Enterprise
is launched in the USA.
26 - Kennedy and Nixon draw in debate on US Television.
27 - British suffragette, Estelle Sylvia Pankhurst (b.1882) dies.
27 - Fidel Castro visits Manhattan. Refused admission by New
York's upscale hotels, Castro and his entourage eventually end up
at the Hotel Theresa in Harlem.
27 - Pan American Airways announces it will lease 15 floors in a
skyscraper being constructed over Grand Central Terminal in
Manhattan. It is the largest single lease of office space in the
city.
27 - Pontiac introduces its 1961 models. They are 4" shorter
and 2½" narrower than the 1960 model.
01 - Nigeria becomes an independent republic within the
Commonwealth.
03 - Brigitte Bardot leaves hospital in Nice after recovering from
a suicide attempt.
05 - Former President Harry Truman states publicly that
Richard
Nixon "never told the truth in his life" and that anyone
who votes for Nixon "ought to go to Hell".
06 - A referendum in South Africa favours the establishment of a
republic.
11 - Thousands die as Pakistan is battered by a tidal wave and a
hurricane.
11 - Japanese socialist leader Inejiro Asanuma is murdered in
Tokyo by a right-wing student.
14 - Warragamba Dam officially opened in Sydney, Australia, by
Premier Heffron.
18 - The British newspaper News Chronicle is merged with the Daily
Mail and the London evening newspaper The Star is merged with
The
Evening News.
18 - Soviet newspaper Pravda prints its first attack on the
Chinese Communists.
19 - US imposes an embargo on shipments to Cuba.
20 - Australian immunologist Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet wins
Nobel Prize for Medicine.
21 - Queen Elizabeth II launches HMS Dreadnought, the first
British nuclear submarine.
21 - The Hawker P1127 vertical take-off "jump" jet makes
its first test flight.
22 - Cassius Clay has his first bout as a professional boxer, in
Louisville, Kentucky.
24 - Bertrand Russell resigns as leader of CND in UK.
26 - South Vietnamese army clashes with Viet Cong guerrillas.
01 - British PM Macmillan announces a Bill to allow US nuclear
submarines to use Holy Loch in Scotland.
01 - In Australia, Hi Jinx wins the Melbourne Cup.
02 - A jury at the Old Bailey finds that the novel Lady
Chatterley's Lover by DH Lawrence is not obscene. The book had
been banned in Britain for 30 years.
07 - Missiles appear for the first time at the annual parade in
Red Square, Moscow, USSR.
KENNEDY SCRAPES HOME
Nov 09 - After a night of uncertainty John Fitzgerald Kennedy has
emerged as the new President of the United States by a narrow
margin. He obtained only 120,000 more votes than his Republican
opponent, Vice-President Nixon.
Kennedy accepted at Hyannis,
Massachusetts, his pregnant wife, Jacqueline, by his side. He
grinned and said: "So now my wife and I prepare for a new
Administration and a new baby".
At 43 JFK is the youngest to win the Presidency. He is also the
first Roman Catholic. His father is a self-made millionaire, who
was wartime ambassador in London. Kennedy was raised with Boston's
elite, going to Princeton and Harvard. He is expected to bring a
cadre of Eastern intellectuals into Government, replacing the
businessmen favoured by President
Eisenhower.
10 - Penguin's first run of Lady Chatterley's Lover - 200,000
copies - sells out on the first day of publication in Britain.
16 - US actor, Clark William Gable (b. 1901) dies.
17 - British statesman, William Wedgwood Benn (b.1877) dies.
18 - British singer Kim Wilde is born.
19 - The Hawker Siddeley P1127 (Kestrel) Vertical Take-off and
Landing aircraft is flown for the first time.
19 - Stephen Bradley appears in Sydney Central Court charged with
Graeme Thorne's kidnap and murder.
26 - The New Zealand Labour party loses office after just one
term. Keith Holyoake forms a National Government with a majority
of 12 seats.
09 - The first episode of Coronation
Street is broadcast by Granada TV.
16 - Beatle George Harrison is deported from Germany for
working underage.
16 - Two airliners collide in a snowstorm over New York, killing
137 people.
20 - Richard Baer, the last commandant of Auschwitz, is arrested
in West Germany.
27 - France explodes a third atomic device in the Sahara.
31 - Last day for 'call up' to National Service in UK.
"Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build a
bridge even when there is no river"
Nikita Khrushchev.
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