Events, Verisoph

1957 Founding of Fairchild Semiconductor 0 cit. Eight engineers leave Shockley Semiconductor to found Fairchild, which co-invents the integrated circuit. Its alumni go on to found Intel, AMD, and dozens of other firms, seeding Silicon Valley. economy / science / technology ●●●●

18 December 1957 Shippingport reactor comes online 0 cit. America's first full-scale commercial nuclear power plant synchronizes to the grid in Pennsylvania. Its pressurized water design, adapted from naval reactors, becomes the world standard. economy / technology ●●

1957 Paul Baran's The Political Economy of Growth 0 cit. Baran argues that poor countries are not simply behind but are actively held back, because foreign firms and local elites drain the economic surplus that could fund development. His idea of the 'development of underdevelopment' fed directly into dependency theory. Critics on the mainstream side rejected the claim that contact with rich economies made poor ones worse. economy / politics ●●

c. 1957 The Euromarket grows in the City of London 0 cit. From the late 1950s banks in the City of London began trading US dollars held outside the United States, a pool of money the Bank of England chose not to regulate. This Euromarket let banks move money beyond the reach of national rules. Nicholas Shaxson and the Tax Justice Network argue this was the birth of the modern offshore world, a deliberate space built to escape oversight. economy / politics ●●

1958 Founding of the Central Bank of Nigeria 0 cit. Nigeria's central bank is established by ordinance in 1958 and opens in Lagos in 1959, ahead of independence. It issues the naira and oversees the banking system of Africa's most populous country. economy / politics ●●●

1958 Founding of the European Investment Bank 0 cit. The Treaty of Rome creates the European Investment Bank as the lending arm of the European Economic Community. Based in Luxembourg, it becomes the world's largest multilateral borrower and lender. economy ●●●

c. 1958 to c. 1962 Great Leap Forward 0 cit. Mao's campaign to industrialize China through people's communes and backyard steel furnaces collapses into economic disaster. The resulting famine kills tens of millions of people. economy / politics ●●●●

1958 Great Leap Forward and famine 0 cit. Mao's campaign to rapidly industrialize and collectivize agriculture from 1958 caused economic chaos. The resulting famine killed tens of millions of people. economy / society ●●●●●

1958 BankAmericard and the modern credit card 0 cit. Bank of America issued BankAmericard, which offered revolving credit rather than a bill due in full each month. It grew into the network that later became Visa. economy / technology ●●●●

1959 Founding of the Inter-American Development Bank 0 cit. Latin American countries and the United States establish the IDB in Washington, the first major regional development bank. It becomes the largest source of development financing for Latin America and the Caribbean. economy ●●

1959 The Draper Report urges US population aid 0 cit. A 1959 US advisory committee led by William Draper recommended that American foreign aid support birth control in developing countries. It helped push population control into official US policy despite early political resistance. economy / politics ●●

14 September 1960 Founding of OPEC 0 cit. Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela found the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries at a conference in Baghdad to coordinate oil policies against the dominance of Western oil companies. diplomacy / economy / politics ●●●

3 May 1960 Founding of the European Free Trade Association 0 cit. The Stockholm Convention enters into force, creating EFTA among seven European states as a free trade alternative to the European Economic Community. diplomacy / economy ●●

c. 1960 The City of London and Wall Street form a linked financial axis 0 cit. Deep ties between London's financial district and New York markets, including the growth of the eurodollar market from the late 1950s, kept Anglo-American finance closely joined. These are documented commercial arrangements, not a secret cabal. economy / politics ●

24 September 1960 Creation of the International Development Association 0 cit. The IDA was established to lend to the poorest countries on concessional terms, with low or no interest and long repayment periods. It became the World Bank's main channel for aid to low-income nations. economy / politics ●●●●

c. 1960 OHADA-style continuity: francophone Africa keeps French civil law 0 cit. Newly independent French African states retained the French civil code and colonial-era statutes largely intact at independence, along with judges and civil servants trained in French legal institutions. This continuity was later formalized in 1993 with the Organisation for the Harmonization of Business Law in Africa (OHADA) treaty, which explicitly modeled a shared commercial code for 17 mostly former French colonies on French legal concepts, keeping business law tied to Paris-trained legal tradition decades after independence. economy / politics ●●

11 July 1960 Katanga secedes with mining money behind it 0 cit. Days after Congolese independence, the mineral-rich province of Katanga declared itself a separate state under Moise Tshombe, backed by Belgian troops and, many accounts hold, by Union Miniere, which kept paying taxes to the breakaway regime. The secession helped trigger the crisis that ended with the killing of Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba. It is a stark case of foreign mining interests shaping the politics of a newly free country. economy / politics / war ●●●

14 September 1960 OPEC forms to push back 0 cit. Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela founded the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to coordinate policy and stop foreign firms from setting prices at will. It marked producing states organizing to claim more of the value of their own oil. Over the following years OPEC helped shift control of production and pricing away from the Western majors. diplomacy / economy / politics ●●●

c. 1960 The CFA franc survives independence contested 0 cit. As French colonies win independence around 1960, most keep the CFA franc rather than launching their own currencies. Monetary agreements kept the peg to France, the reserve-deposit rule, and a French seat on the central banks. Supporters point to low inflation and stability; critics argue it kept newly independent states from controlling their own money and locked in a dependent relationship with the former ruler. economy / politics ●●●

August 1960 Houphouet-Boigny's Cote d'Ivoire and French tutelage 0 cit. Felix Houphouet-Boigny led Cote d'Ivoire to independence and tied it tightly to France in the network of postcolonial ties known as Francafrique. He welcomed French troops, business and advisers and built a stable, market-friendly, pro-Western state. His country was a showcase anchor of French influence in West Africa. economy / politics ●●

14 September 1960 OPEC is founded in Baghdad 0 cit. Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela form the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to defend prices against cuts by the majors. OPEC gave producer states a common front and, in time, real power over the oil market. diplomacy / economy ●●●

1960 The term multinational corporation is coined 0 cit. Former public official and business figure David Lilienthal used the phrase multinational corporation in a 1960 lecture to describe firms based in one country but operating across many. The label spread quickly as postwar companies expanded overseas. Naming the phenomenon helped turn it into a subject of study and a target of political concern. culture / economy ●

c. 1960 Willing Buyer, Willing Seller 0 cit. At the Lancaster House talks the British insisted that the transfer of the White Highlands respect settler property rights, so land moved by purchase on a willing-buyer, willing-seller basis rather than by expropriation to the landless. The independence constitution protected private property and required compensation for any land taken. This principle meant the dispossessed had to buy back land their families had lost, and only those with money or credit could take part. diplomacy / economy / politics ●●●

c. 1960 The dollar glut and the drain on American gold 0 cit. As dollars piled up abroad through American spending, trade, and overseas bases, foreign holders increasingly claimed gold in exchange, draining US reserves. Central banks set up the London Gold Pool in 1961 to hold the price at thirty-five dollars an ounce, but it collapsed under the pressure in 1968, exposing the strain in the Bretton Woods system. economy / politics ●●

7 August 1960 Ivory Coast becomes independent under Felix Houphouet-Boigny 0 cit. Ivory Coast gained independence from France with Felix Houphouet-Boigny as president, a leader who chose close political, military, and economic ties with Paris. French advisers, troops, and companies stayed on under cooperation agreements. The relationship became a leading example of what critics later called Francafrique, France's continued influence over its former African colonies. economy / politics ●

c. 1960 Rotary spreads through the developing world as civic soft power 0 cit. As former colonies gained independence, Rotary clubs took root in cities across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. They connected local elites to an international network and channeled money into schools, clinics, and clean-water projects. Scholars describe this reach as a form of civic soft power that carried Western associational culture abroad. diplomacy / economy / society ●●

1960 The Income Doubling Plan launches the high-growth era 0 cit. Prime Minister Hayato Ikeda pledged to double national income within a decade, focusing the nation on rapid growth. Real output grew at close to ten percent a year through the 1960s. The plan channeled public attention away from bitter security politics and toward prosperity. economy / politics ●●●

30 September 1961 Founding of the OECD 0 cit. The OECD Convention, signed in December 1960, enters into force, transforming the Marshall Plan-era OEEC into a broader club of market democracies that sets economic policy standards and statistics. diplomacy / economy ●●●

1961 Founding of the Central Bank of Egypt 0 cit. Egypt establishes a dedicated central bank in Cairo, separating central banking functions from the National Bank of Egypt founded in 1898. It manages the Egyptian pound and one of Africa's largest banking systems. economy ●●

30 September 1961 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development founded 0 cit. The OECD was created from the earlier body that administered the Marshall Plan. It became a forum where wealthy market economies coordinate policy and publish economic research. economy ●●●

c. 1961 to c. 2020 The revolving door and the iron triangle 0 cit. The self-reinforcing relationship Eisenhower warned of takes durable shape: defense contractors, the Pentagon, and the congressional committees that fund them, bound by lobbying, campaign money, and a revolving door of personnel between industry and government. Documented as the iron triangle of defense policy. economy / politics ●●●

30 April 1961 Menominee termination takes effect 0 cit. The Menominee Termination Act, passed in 1954, took full effect, dissolving the Menominee Nation's federal recognition and converting the reservation into a Wisconsin county. The loss of tax-exempt trust status and federal services caused severe economic decline in the former reservation area, and the tribe spent the next decade organizing to reverse termination. economy / politics ●●

c. 1961 to c. 1995 Lockheed and the rise of the arms giants 0 cit. Firms like Lockheed grow into vast defense contractors living largely on government orders, and consolidation shrinks the field. Lockheed merges with Martin Marietta in 1995 to form Lockheed Martin, one of a handful of giants that dominate American weapons production. economy / war ●●

1961 Fanon warns of the comprador national bourgeoisie 0 cit. In The Wretched of the Earth, Frantz Fanon warns that after independence a local elite often steps into the colonizer's place as a go-between for foreign capital rather than building real industry. This 'comprador' class lives off importing and middleman deals while the economy stays tied to the former ruler. The chapter became a standard reference for how political freedom could leave economic control abroad. economy / politics ●●●

May 1961 Park Chung-hee's military rule in South Korea 0 cit. General Park Chung-hee took power in a coup and ruled for eighteen years, driving fast industrial growth under a hard authoritarian hand. The United States kept South Korea as a frontline ally with troops, aid and trade, and Park sent troops to fight alongside America in Vietnam. His Yushin constitution of 1972 entrenched near-dictatorial rule until his assassination in 1979. economy / politics ●●●

November 1961 USAID is created as an instrument of American influence 0 cit. President Kennedy signs the law creating the US Agency for International Development to run foreign aid as a tool of Cold War policy. Aid was openly meant to win allies and blunt communism, alongside genuine development work. That dual purpose is documented, and it sits at the heart of debates over aid as soft power. diplomacy / economy / politics ●●

c. 1961 The French Connection heroin pipeline 0 cit. Corsican networks refine Turkish opium into heroin in Marseille and smuggle it into the United States, a route that supplied much of America's heroin for decades. The 1961 New York police case and the film it inspired made the French Connection the public face of the postwar drug trade. economy / politics ●●

November 1961 USAID and its democracy and governance programs 0 cit. The US Agency for International Development, created in 1961, runs the government's largest foreign-aid budget and includes programs for democracy, human rights, and governance. These fund elections, courts, independent media, and civil society groups overseas. USAID money often flows alongside NED grants in the same countries. diplomacy / economy / politics ●●

1961 The Maasai Mara reserve takes the northern grasslands 0 cit. The Maasai Mara was set aside as a wildlife reserve on the Kenyan side of the Serengeti ecosystem and later enlarged. Grazing was restricted across some of the richest Maasai pasture so that wildlife and tourism could take priority. The reserve became a symbol of how land the Maasai depended on was turned into a protected asset managed largely for outsiders. economy / environment ●●●

c. 1961 Maasai pushed out of the Mara 0 cit. The Maasai Mara was set aside as a wildlife sanctuary and then a game reserve on Maasai grazing land in the southwest. Herders lost secure access to pasture and water in the core of the reserve, which was managed for tourism and wildlife. The Mara became one of Kenya's most famous parks and one of its clearest cases of pastoralists displaced for conservation. economy / environment / society ●●

2 July 1962 Founding of Walmart 0 cit. Sam Walton opens the first Walmart discount store in Rogers, Arkansas. Its logistics-driven low prices make it the world's largest retailer and largest private employer. economy ●●●

c. 1962 First Abu Dhabi Oil Exports 0 cit. Abu Dhabi began exporting oil after offshore and onshore discoveries in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Oil revenue funded the emirate's rise and later the wider federation. economy ●●●

1 October 1962 Formation of the Group of Ten 0 cit. Leading industrial countries formed the Group of Ten to support the international monetary system, and much of its work centered on the BIS in Basel. The bank became the regular meeting place for the governors of the major central banks. economy / politics ●●

1962 Publication of Capitalism and Freedom 0 cit. Milton Friedman publishes Capitalism and Freedom, arguing that free markets are essential to political liberty and proposing policies such as floating exchange rates, school vouchers, and a negative income tax. The book brought Chicago School ideas to a broad public audience and became a manifesto for free-market reform in the following decades. economy / politics ●●●

c. 1962 BCEAO established as shared central bank for West African CFA states 0 cit. The Banque Centrale des Etats de l'Afrique de l'Ouest (BCEAO) was formalized as the shared central bank for the West African CFA franc zone, succeeding the colonial-era currency board. Member states' foreign exchange reserves were required to be pooled and, historically, a large share deposited in an operations account at the French Treasury, meaning day-to-day monetary decisions remained tied to Paris even after each member had its own flag and government. economy ●●

30 September 1962 National Farm Workers Association Founded 0 cit. Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta founded the National Farm Workers Association in Fresno to organize farmworkers, most of them Mexican and Mexican American, who faced low wages, pesticide exposure, and unsafe field conditions with little legal protection. The organization merged with the Filipino-led Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee in 1966 to form the United Farm Workers. economy / society ●●

30 January 1962 Common Agricultural Policy 0 cit. The six member states of the European Economic Community agreed on a shared farm policy with guaranteed prices, common markets, and subsidies. It became the largest single item in the community budget and one of its most contested programs. diplomacy / economy / politics ●●

c. 1962 British Loans Finance the Land Transfer 0 cit. The resettlement schemes were paid for largely by British government loans and by bodies such as the World Bank and the Commonwealth Development Corporation, with settlers compensated at market value. Independent Kenya and its new farmers took on the debt of buying land that had been seized from Africans decades earlier. Critics note the striking result that the formerly colonized effectively paid the colonizers to leave the stolen highlands. diplomacy / economy ●●

c. 1962 The military becomes the first buyer of the microchip 0 cit. When the integrated circuit was new and expensive, its first big customers were the military's Minuteman missile and NASA's Apollo program, which needed small, reliable electronics at any price. Those guaranteed government orders funded the early chip industry until costs fell enough for a commercial market to appear. economy / technology / war ●●

c. 1962 Willing Buyer, Willing Seller Land Settlement 0 cit. Land in the former White Highlands was transferred under a 'willing buyer, willing seller' scheme, financed by British loans, that required Africans to purchase farms rather than reclaim them. Schemes such as the Million-Acre Settlement moved some land to smallholders, but the arrangement favoured those with money and connections, and much land passed to an African elite and to former loyalists. The landless Mau Mau fighters who had fought over land largely could not afford to buy it. economy / politics ●●●

1962 The million-acre scheme buys out white farmers 0 cit. Under a willing-buyer, willing-seller plan backed by British loans, the World Bank and the Commonwealth Development Corporation, the state bought more than a million acres from departing white farmers and resettled tens of thousands of African families. The settlers were compensated in cash rather than dispossessed, and many left while others stayed on. The scheme defused the land question by paying off the settlers instead of returning land to the Mau Mau fighters who had fought for it. economy / politics ●●●

1962 Kenya borrows to buy back the stolen highlands 0 cit. The land was taken by conquest under the Crown Lands Ordinances of 1902 and 1915, with no compensation to the Africans dispossessed. Sixty years later, under willing-buyer, willing-seller, the independent Kenyan state paid the departing settlers full market value to recover it, financed by British and World Bank loans that Kenya then repaid with interest into the 1970s and 1980s. The formerly colonized effectively bought back their own stolen land on credit, and much of it went to the political elite and loyalist buyers who could afford it rather than to the landless or the fighters. Historians such as Colin Leys read this as the financial core of a neo-colonial settlement; defenders argue it was the only price of a peaceful handover. economy / politics ●●

c. 1962 Kenya's willing buyer, willing seller land schemes 0 cit. The land question that ran through the Kenya conferences was handled by buying out European farmers rather than seizing their land. Schemes such as the Million-Acre Settlement Scheme, launched in 1962, worked on a willing buyer, willing seller basis and were funded by British loans and grants. They transferred large tracts of the former White Highlands to African smallholders while protecting property rights and cushioning departing settlers. economy / politics ●●

c. 1962 Settlement schemes and elite land buying 0 cit. After independence the British-funded 'Million-Acre Settlement Scheme' transferred former White Highlands farms to Africans. Alongside smallholder resettlement, much of the best land was bought by the political elite, including the Kenyatta family and the Kiambu circle around the president. The later Ndung'u land report documents that senior figures were among the largest African buyers. Historians read this as the point where land became the main currency of patronage. economy / politics / society ●●●

1962 The Million-Acre Settlement Scheme begins 0 cit. Kenya launches a scheme to transfer about one million acres of European mixed farms in the White Highlands to African families over roughly five years. Land is bought from willing settler sellers at market value and handed to settlers who can pay for it. The programme runs from 1962 to 1966 and settles tens of thousands of families, but only where they can meet the purchase terms. economy / politics ●●●

1962 Loans buy the settlers out and Kenya inherits the debt 0 cit. The main buyer of the settler farms is the Kenyan government, financed by loans from Britain and the World Bank, with the Commonwealth Development Corporation also involved. Departing European farmers are paid market value for land much of which had been taken by conquest. Independent Kenya takes on the repayment, so the new nation pays off the debt of buying back its own land. diplomacy / economy ●●●

c. 1962 The operations account ties African reserves to the French Treasury 0 cit. After independence the CFA is run through two central banks, the BCEAO in West Africa and the BEAC in Central Africa, but each keeps an operations account at the French Treasury. Member states are required to deposit a large share of their foreign reserves in Paris, and France holds seats on the boards that set monetary policy. The arrangement guarantees the fixed peg while placing key decisions partly in French hands. economy / politics ●●●

c. 1962 Bermuda pioneers captive insurance 0 cit. From the early 1960s Bermuda let companies set up their own in-house insurers, called captives, in a place with no corporate income tax. The island grew into a leading home for captive insurance and global reinsurance. It showed how a small territory could carve out a specialised offshore niche. economy ●

c. 1963 Luxembourg as a cross-border finance hub 0 cit. The listing of the first eurobond in 1963 launches Luxembourg as a center for international capital markets. It grows into the world's second-largest domicile for investment funds after the United States. economy ●●●

10 June 1963 U.S. Equal Pay Act targets wage discrimination 0 cit. The Equal Pay Act made it illegal to pay women less than men for the same work. It was an early legal win of the second-wave movement, though pay gaps persisted. economy / politics ●●

1963 Bacchus energy tonic is named for the Roman god of wine 0 cit. Dong-A Pharmaceutical of South Korea launched its Bacchus tonic in 1963, named after Bacchus, the Roman god of wine. culture / economy / religion ●

c. 1963 to c. 1980 The Harambee self-help school movement 0 cit. Communities across Kenya build and fund their own Harambee schools through collective self-help, dramatically expanding access to secondary education after independence. economy / society ●●

c. 1963 The World Bank becomes the top external funder of education 0 cit. The World Bank made its first education loan in 1963 and grew into the largest outside financier of schooling in developing countries. Its funding gave it strong influence over national education policy. economy / politics ●●●●

4 June 1963 Executive Order 11110 and the silver-certificate myth contested 0 cit. Kennedy signs Executive Order 11110, delegating existing authority over silver certificates. A popular conspiracy theory recasts it as Kennedy trying to strip the Federal Reserve of its power and a motive for his murder. The documented reality is a minor technical order that did not challenge the Fed; the theory is not supported by the record. economy / politics ●●

c. 1963 BEAC established for Central African CFA states 0 cit. The Banque des Etats de l'Afrique Centrale (BEAC) was set up as the shared central bank for the Central African CFA franc zone, mirroring the West African BCEAO. Like its western counterpart, it pooled member reserves and kept a large deposit requirement at the French Treasury, tying six newly independent states' monetary policy to decisions made in Paris. economy ●●

12 December 1963 Kenya's independence keeps British-trained civil service and land structures 0 cit. Kenya became independent from Britain with its civil service, judiciary, and police largely staffed by officials trained under colonial administration, and with a land-purchase program (the Million Acre Settlement Scheme) that compensated departing white settler farmers through UK-guaranteed loans rather than confiscating land outright. The arrangement meant Kenya's new government took on debt to buy back land from settlers whose original claims dated to colonial-era expropriation. economy / politics ●●

c. 1963 The 'brain drain' names the flight of skilled workers 0 cit. British observers coin the term 'brain drain' for the emigration of scientists and professionals, and it is soon applied to poorer countries losing doctors, engineers, and graduates to richer ones. The pattern means the periphery pays to train people whose skills then serve the core. Debate continues over whether remittances and returning migrants offset the loss. economy / science ●●

December 1963 Kenya as a pro-Western anchor in East Africa 0 cit. Under Jomo Kenyatta and then Daniel arap Moi, Kenya chose a capitalist, pro-Western path and became a key US and British partner in the region. It offered port and military access, hosted Western business and aid, and stood against Soviet influence in the Horn of Africa. Western governments kept support flowing despite Moi's one-party repression. economy / politics ●●

c. 1963 Flag Independence and the Loyalist Victory Thesis contested 0 cit. Drawing the threads together, historians such as Daniel Branch, David Anderson, and Caroline Elkins argue that Kenya won a flag independence that left the colonial state, the police, the land structure, and the loyalist class in place, while the Mau Mau who fought got little. In this reading, echoed by the neocolonialism thesis of writers like Frantz Fanon and Ngugi wa Thiong'o, the collaborators were the true winners of independence. It is a well-supported historical argument, advanced by named scholars, not a settled verdict, and other historians stress that Kenyatta's caution also held a fragile new nation together. economy / politics / society ●●●

1963 The landless fighters wanted land, not a market 0 cit. The Mau Mau fighting core came largely from landless Kikuyu squatters evicted from the White Highlands and the poor of the crowded reserves, and their central demand was the return of the land, given to those who had fought and lost it. The negotiated settlement did the opposite: land was bought and sold at market price, and the largest African buyers were the political elite, the Kenyatta family among them, who accumulated substantial holdings. Historians such as Frank Furedi and Tabitha Kanogo read Kenyatta's refusal to honour Mau Mau as partly a class interest, since rewarding the fighters' land claim would have threatened the property order and the elite's own gains. The veterans were left landless and sidelined, and the radical redistribution they had fought for never came. economy / politics / society ●●

December 1963 Independence keeps the commodity export model 0 cit. Kenya became independent in December 1963 but kept the economic structure built under colonial rule. It remained an exporter of tea, coffee, and other raw crops and an importer of finished goods. Ownership shifted over time to Kenyans, yet the underlying role of raw supplier and manufactures buyer stayed in place. economy / politics ●●●

30 December 1964 Founding of UNCTAD 0 cit. The UN General Assembly makes the UN Conference on Trade and Development a permanent organ, based in Geneva, to represent developing countries' interests in international trade. diplomacy / economy ●●

10 September 1964 Founding of the African Development Bank 0 cit. Newly independent African states establish their own development bank under the Organisation of African Unity, headquartered in Abidjan. It becomes the continent's premier development finance institution. economy / politics ●●●

25 January 1964 Founding of Nike 0 cit. Phil Knight and coach Bill Bowerman found Blue Ribbon Sports to import Japanese running shoes, relaunching it as Nike in 1971. Its swoosh and athlete marketing make it the world's largest sportswear company. culture / economy ●●

15 June 1964 Group of 77 founded 0 cit. Developing countries formed the Group of 77 at a UN trade conference to advance their shared economic interests. It became the largest coalition of developing nations within the United Nations. economy / politics ●●

23 June 1964 UNCTAD founded with Prebisch as first head 0 cit. The UN Conference on Trade and Development was created after developing countries pushed for a body to address the trade terms Prebisch had criticized, and Prebisch became its first Secretary-General. UNCTAD pressed for preferential trade terms for former colonies, but its recommendations carried no binding force, and its limited influence relative to the IMF and World Bank is often cited as evidence of how little leverage newly independent states actually held in the postwar economic order. diplomacy / economy ●●

c. 1964 Slater Walker Securities founded 0 cit. Jim Slater and Peter Walker founded Slater Walker Securities, a merchant bank that grew through buying undervalued companies and selling their assets piece by piece. Slater became the best-known practitioner of what the British press dubbed "asset stripping." The firm's methods were widely copied and widely attacked as destructive to the companies involved, a charge Slater rejected, arguing he was correcting a market that undervalued assets. economy ●●

31 December 1964 Bracero Program Ends 0 cit. The Bracero Program formally ended after Congress declined to renew it, following years of documented reports of wage theft, unsafe working conditions, and exploitation of contract laborers, alongside pressure from labor unions who argued the program undercut domestic farmworker wages. Over its 22-year run the program had brought an estimated 4.6 million contract labor placements of Mexican workers into the United States. economy / politics ●●

1964 UNCTAD gives the South a forum 0 cit. The UN Conference on Trade and Development is founded, with Raul Prebisch as its first secretary-general, to push for trade rules that favor development. It argued for stable commodity prices and easier access to rich markets. UNCTAD became the main platform where poorer countries pressed their case against the existing economic order. diplomacy / economy ●●

1964 The Patman hearings reveal foundations as CIA conduits 0 cit. Congressman Wright Patman's investigation into tax-exempt foundations stumbles onto evidence that some served as pass-throughs for secret CIA money. The finding was an early, documented crack in the wall between private philanthropy and covert operations. It set the stage for the larger exposure that followed. economy / politics ●●

22 November 1965 Founding of the UN Development Programme 0 cit. The UN General Assembly merges the Expanded Programme of Technical Assistance and the Special Fund to create UNDP, the UN's main body for development aid to poorer countries. diplomacy / economy / society ●●

30 July 1965 Creation of Medicare and Medicaid 0 cit. Johnson signs the Medicare and Medicaid amendments to the Social Security Act at the Truman Library, handing the first Medicare card to Harry Truman. The programs give federal health coverage to the elderly and the poor and transform American medicine. economy / society ●●●●

9 September 1965 Founding of HUD 0 cit. Johnson signs the act creating the Department of Housing and Urban Development as part of the Great Society, and it begins operating that November. Robert Weaver becomes its first secretary and the first Black cabinet member. economy / society ●●●

c. 1965 to c. 1997 Mobutu, Zaire, and lending to a dictator 0 cit. Western governments and lenders channeled billions to Mobutu Sese Seko's Zaire despite well-known looting of the treasury. The case became a leading example of debt incurred by a corrupt ruler that citizens were later expected to repay. economy / politics ●●●

1965 Nkrumah publishes 'Neo-Colonialism, the Last Stage of Imperialism' 0 cit. Ghanaian president Kwame Nkrumah published a book arguing that formally independent African states remained economically and politically controlled by former colonial powers and multinational corporations, a condition he termed neocolonialism. The book argued that political sovereignty without economic control was incomplete liberation. It became a foundational text for later dependency theory and critiques of Western influence in postcolonial states. economy / politics ●●

1965 Kwame Nkrumah publishes Neo-Colonialism, the Last Stage of Imperialism 0 cit. Ghanaian president Kwame Nkrumah published Neo-Colonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism, arguing that former colonial powers and Western corporations had replaced direct rule with financial and economic control over nominally sovereign African states, using aid, investment terms, and currency arrangements as leverage. The book's central term, neo-colonialism, became the standard label for the broader pattern this dataset documents, though Nkrumah's framing of it as a deliberate, coordinated system is his own thesis rather than a settled historical finding. economy / politics ●●●

c. 1965 Hanson Trust founded 0 cit. James Hanson and Gordon White built Hanson Trust into a sprawling conglomerate that grew mainly by acquiring companies, cutting costs sharply, and selling off divisions that did not fit its model. Hanson became one of the largest companies in Britain by the late 1980s using this approach. Critics called it asset stripping dressed up as management; Hanson's defenders said it forced complacent, badly run businesses to become efficient. economy ●●

8 September 1965 Delano Grape Strike Begins 0 cit. Filipino American grape pickers with the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee walked out in Delano, California, and were joined a week later by Cesar Chavez's National Farm Workers Association, beginning a strike and consumer boycott that lasted five years. The combined effort, which became the United Farm Workers, eventually won the first collective bargaining contracts for farmworkers in US history in 1970. economy / society ●●●

November 1965 Mobutu's Zaire as a Cold War client 0 cit. Mobutu Sese Seko ruled Zaire for over three decades as one of Africa's most reliable US and Western allies. Washington and its partners gave aid, arms and cover in return for anti-communism and a base for operations, including support for rebels in neighboring Angola. His kleptocratic rule was tolerated until the Cold War ended and his usefulness faded. economy / politics ●●

18 March 1965 ICSID creates a court for companies to sue states contested 0 cit. The World Bank sponsored the Convention that set up the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes, giving foreign investors a forum to bring claims directly against governments. Combined with a growing web of investment treaties, it became the backbone of investor-state dispute settlement, or ISDS. Supporters say it protects investors from expropriation, while critics argue it lets corporations challenge public-interest laws before private tribunals. diplomacy / economy ●●

9 August 1965 Singapore becomes independent and is run as Singapore Inc 0 cit. On separation from Malaysia, Lee Kuan Yew's government set out to run the new state with the discipline of a company, courting investors, planning long term, and paying ministers like executives. Commentators labeled the approach Singapore Inc, a nation managed as if it were a corporation. It became the leading example of the country-as-firm idea. economy / politics / society ●●●

c. 1965 Air America and the secret war in Laos 0 cit. During the Vietnam War the CIA's airline Air America flew supplies to Hmong allies fighting in Laos. In his 1972 book The Politics of Heroin, Alfred McCoy alleged those aircraft also moved opium for allied warlords; the CIA disputed the charge, but later reviews confirmed the agency worked closely with traffickers. economy / politics / war ●●

1965 Independent Kenya formalises 'invest where it pays' contested 0 cit. Sessional Paper No. 10 of 1965, the founding economic blueprint of independent Kenya, argued for concentrating development where the returns would be highest, which meant the already-developed central and highland areas. Critics then and since read it as a decision to carry the colonial map forward rather than correct it, entrenching the gap between centre and periphery. The interpretation is contested, but the pattern of investment that followed largely matched the colonial one. economy / politics ●●●

c. 1965 A 'hollow' independence that kept the colonial state 0 cit. Scholars such as Colin Leys and Bruce Berman argue that Kenya's negotiated independence preserved the colonial administrative state and passed power and property to a small African elite rather than remaking society. Land bought from settlers often went to well-placed buyers, and the machinery of provincial administration carried on. Critics call this a hollow or neo-colonial independence, a description others contest as too dismissive of real change. economy / politics ●●

1965 Kwame Nkrumah publishes Neo-Colonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism 0 cit. Ghana's president Kwame Nkrumah argued in this book that former colonies could hold flags and anthems while foreign capital still directed their economies and, at times, their governments. He called this arrangement neo-colonialism and named it the last stage of imperialism. The United States protested the book and reportedly cut aid to Ghana. The thesis is presented here as Nkrumah's own analysis. economy / politics ●●●

c. 1965 France names the dollar's 'exorbitant privilege' 0 cit. French officials, with the phrase later tied to finance minister Valery Giscard d'Estaing, complain of the exorbitant privilege the United States enjoys by issuing the world's reserve currency. Because others need dollars, America can borrow cheaply and run deficits that would sink other countries. The phrase became the standard name for the advantage, and the title of Barry Eichengreen's history of it. economy / politics ●●

1965 The Akosombo Dam on the Volta River is completed 0 cit. The Akosombo Dam on the Volta River was completed in 1965 and formally opened in early 1966, creating one of the world's largest reservoirs. It was Nkrumah's flagship project, meant to power industry and an aluminum smelter and to prove African self-development. The scheme drove growth but also debt, and displaced tens of thousands of people. economy / society ●●

1965 Nkrumah publishes Neo-Colonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism 0 cit. In 1965 Nkrumah published Neo-Colonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism, arguing that former colonies stayed under foreign economic control despite formal independence. The book angered Washington and reportedly cost Ghana United States aid. It became an influential text in Pan-African and anti-imperialist thought. economy / politics ●●

1965 Sessional Paper No. 10 and import-substitution industry 0 cit. Sessional Paper No. 10 of 1965, African Socialism and its Application to Planning in Kenya, set out a mixed economy with an active state. Through the 1960s and 1970s Kenya pursued import-substitution industrialization, using tariffs and protection to build local factories for goods once imported. Textiles, food processing, and assembly plants grew behind these barriers. economy / politics ●●

18 March 1965 ICSID Convention creates the investor-state arbitration system contested 0 cit. The Convention on the Settlement of Investment Disputes established the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes at the World Bank, giving foreign investors a forum to sue host governments directly. Combined with bilateral investment treaties, it underpins investor-state dispute settlement, or ISDS, in which tribunals can order states to pay damages over policy or regulatory changes. Supporters call it neutral protection for cross-border investment; critics argue it lets private tribunals second-guess sovereign public-interest laws. diplomacy / economy / politics ●●●