Events, Verisoph

2 October 1958 Independence of Guinea 0 cit. no story Guinea becomes independent after voting no in de Gaulle's referendum, the only French African colony to reject the French Community. 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 ●●●

c. 1958 Construction of the Dimona reactor 0 cit. With secret French help, Israel begins building a reactor and reprocessing complex in the Negev desert. Dimona becomes the heart of an undeclared weapons program, publicly exposed in late 1960. politics / war ●●●●

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 ●●●●

1 February 1958 to 1961 Formation of the United Arab Republic 0 cit. Egypt and Syria merge into the United Arab Republic under Nasser, intended as the first step toward a single Arab state. Syria secedes in 1961, and the union's failure marks the limits of pan-Arabism. politics ●●●

14 July 1958 Fall of the Kingdom of Iraq 0 cit. On 14 July 1958 army officers overthrew and killed King Faisal II, ending the Hashemite monarchy of Iraq. A republic was declared in its place. politics / war ●●●

November 1958 Nelson Rockefeller elected Governor of New York 0 cit. Nelson Rockefeller, grandson of John D. Rockefeller, was elected Governor of New York in November 1958. He served four terms and became a leading figure of the Republican Party. politics ●●●

1958 The U.S. passes the National Defense Education Act 0 cit. Alarmed by the Soviet launch of Sputnik, Congress passed the 1958 National Defense Education Act to boost teaching in science, math, and languages. It tied schooling to national security and Cold War competition. politics / science ●●

31 January 1958 Explorer 1, the first US satellite 0 cit. A team led by von Braun and JPL launched Explorer 1, the first American satellite. Its instruments discovered the Van Allen radiation belts around the Earth. politics / science / technology ●●●●

1958 French Fifth Republic and a strong presidency 0 cit. Under Charles de Gaulle, France adopted a new constitution with a powerful directly elected president alongside a prime minister and parliament. It created a semi-presidential model copied by other states. politics ●●●

July 1958 The Sputnik shock spurs the creation of NASA 0 cit. Alarmed that the Soviets had reached space first, the United States founds NASA and pours money into science education and rocketry. The American space program was born from the fear of falling behind. politics / science ●●●●

2 October 1958 Guinea votes no to the French Community, France withdraws overnight 0 cit. Guinea was the only French African territory to vote against joining Charles de Gaulle's proposed French Community, choosing full independence instead. In response, French administrators reportedly stripped offices of documents, furniture, and equipment before leaving, and France cut off aid and technical support. The episode became a cautionary example, cited by other French colonies' leaders, of the economic cost of breaking cleanly from Paris rather than negotiating continued ties. diplomacy / politics ●●

4 October 1958 France's Fifth Republic curbs parliamentary power in favor of the presidency 0 cit. A new constitution, drafted under Charles de Gaulle amid crisis over the Algerian War, creates France's Fifth Republic with a strong president and a parliament whose powers are deliberately more limited than under the unstable Fourth Republic. It is a documented example of a democracy legally rebalancing power away from parliament in response to a perceived crisis of governability, distinct from an unlawful seizure of power. politics ●●

1958 Henri Alleg Publishes "La Question" 0 cit. Journalist Henri Alleg published a firsthand account of being tortured by French paratroopers during his detention in Algiers, describing electric shock, waterboarding, and mock executions used to extract information. The French government banned the book within weeks, but it circulated widely and forced wider French public debate over the army's methods in Algeria. It remains one of the most direct contemporary documents of torture during the war. culture / politics ●●

28 September 1958 Guinea's 'No' to France under Sekou Toure 0 cit. In a referendum on joining a reformed French Community, Guinea voted no under the leadership of Ahmed Sekou Toure, choosing immediate independence instead. France responded by withdrawing abruptly, pulling out staff and equipment. Guinea became independent in October 1958, the only French African colony to reject the Community outright. diplomacy / politics ●●

October 1958 Ayub Khan's Pakistan joins the Western camp 0 cit. Field Marshal Ayub Khan took power in a coup and aligned Pakistan firmly with the United States, joining the CENTO and SEATO pacts. Washington gave arms and aid and used bases such as Peshawar for U-2 spy flights over the Soviet Union. Pakistan became an early and lasting military client in South Asia. diplomacy / politics ●●

February 1958 ARPA is founded in the shock of Sputnik 0 cit. After the Soviet Union launched Sputnik in 1957, the United States created the Advanced Research Projects Agency inside the Pentagon to make sure it was never again caught off guard by an enemy's technology. Given money and freedom to fund high-risk research, ARPA (later DARPA) would go on to seed many of the technologies that built the modern world. politics / science / technology ●●●

December 1958 All-African Peoples' Conference meets in Accra 0 cit. Nkrumah and George Padmore convened the All-African Peoples' Conference in newly independent Accra, bringing the Pan-African movement onto African soil and toward mass parties rather than diaspora intellectuals. Delegates included young activists such as Patrice Lumumba of the Congo and Frantz Fanon of Algeria. The meeting coordinated support for liberation movements still fighting colonial rule. diplomacy / politics ●●

December 1958 Helps organize the All-African Peoples' Conference in Accra 0 cit. Padmore had a leading hand in the All-African Peoples' Conference, held in Accra in December 1958. It gathered nationalists and freedom fighters from across the continent, among them a young Patrice Lumumba. The meeting turned Ghana into a rallying point for African liberation movements. diplomacy / politics / society ●●●

December 1958 Ghana hosts the first All-African Peoples' Conference 0 cit. In December 1958 Nkrumah hosted the first All-African Peoples' Conference in Accra, drawing nationalists and independence leaders from across the continent. Delegates included figures such as Patrice Lumumba of the Congo. The meeting made Accra a hub of Pan-African organizing and advanced Nkrumah's vision of a united Africa. diplomacy / politics ●●

July 1958 Ghana passes the Preventive Detention Act 0 cit. In 1958 Nkrumah's government passed the Preventive Detention Act, which let it jail people without trial for up to five years. Over time it was used against political rivals, trade unionists, and critics. It marked an early and lasting turn toward authoritarian rule. politics ●●

July 1958 Banda returns to lead the Nyasaland African Congress 0 cit. At the invitation of younger nationalists, Banda returns to Nyasaland in July 1958 after decades abroad and takes the presidency of the Nyasaland African Congress. He becomes the figurehead of the campaign against the Central African Federation, the settler-dominated union of the Rhodesias and Nyasaland formed in 1953. His prestige as a Western-trained doctor gives the movement a national leader. politics ●●●

c. 1958 The New American Painting tours Europe 0 cit. The Museum of Modern Art sent The New American Painting, a show of Abstract Expressionist work by Jackson Pollock and others, on a tour of European cities. The exhibitions presented free-form abstract art as a sign of American creative freedom against Soviet-mandated realism. Historians such as Frances Stonor Saunders and Eva Cockcroft argue that this promotion functioned as a weapon of the Cold War, a reading that other art scholars dispute. culture / politics ●●

13 September 1958 Ruben Um Nyobe killed by French colonial forces 0 cit. Um Nyobe led the Union of the Peoples of Cameroon, the UPC, which demanded independence and reunification. French colonial troops tracked him down and killed him in the forest during a brutal war against the movement. The French sought to erase his memory, and his name was banned for years. His death marked the violent suppression of Cameroon's independence left. politics / war ●●

1 January 1959 Triumph of the Cuban Revolution 0 cit. Fulgencio Batista flees Cuba and Fidel Castro's guerrilla movement takes power. The revolution soon aligns with the Soviet Union, bringing communism to the Western Hemisphere. politics ●●●●

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 ●●

3 March 1959 Hola camp killings 0 cit. At the Hola detention camp in Kenya, guards beat eleven Mau Mau detainees to death and injured dozens more after they refused forced labor. The killings caused a political scandal in Britain and were among the abuses that colonial officials later worked to keep out of records that would pass to an independent Kenyan government, making Hola a central piece of evidence in the later cover-up litigation. politics / war ●●●

4 January 1959 The Léopoldville riots 0 cit. Rioting broke out in the capital after authorities banned a political rally, and the Force Publique killed many demonstrators in the crackdown. The violence shocked Belgium and made clear that colonial control was collapsing faster than expected. Brussels quickly shifted toward granting independence. politics / society ●●

c. January 1959 The John Birch Society campaigns to get the US out of the UN 0 cit. The anti-communist John Birch Society launched a long Get US Out of the United Nations campaign, casting the organization as a vehicle for a coming one-world government. This is an attributed political narrative, not an established fact about the UN's purpose. It seeded a strand of American suspicion that would attach itself to the UN for decades to come. politics / society ●●

November 1959 The 1959 Hutu Revolution 0 cit. A wave of violence known as the Hutu Revolution swept the country, with Hutu crowds attacking Tutsi, burning homes, and killing thousands. Belgium, now backing the Hutu majority, let the monarchy collapse and oversaw the shift of power. Tens of thousands of Tutsi fled into neighboring Uganda, Burundi, Congo, and Tanganyika, the start of a refugee population that would shape the region for decades. politics / war ●●●

c. 1959 Moderate settlers accept African majority rule 0 cit. Michael Blundell and his New Kenya Group broke with settler hardliners and accepted that Kenya would move to a multiracial and then African-led government. Denounced as traitors by die-hards, they read the arithmetic correctly: the settlers could not win. Their shift cleared the way for the negotiated handover rather than a fight to the last. politics ●●

19 February 1959 The London Agreement on Cyprus 0 cit. On 19 February 1959 Britain, Greece, Turkey, and the two Cypriot community leaders, Archbishop Makarios and Fazil Kucuk, signed the London Agreement at Lancaster House. Building on terms agreed at Zurich days earlier, it set up an independent Cyprus with a Greek Cypriot president and a Turkish Cypriot vice-president and fixed power-sharing quotas. Cyprus became independent in August 1960, though the constitution soon broke down. diplomacy / politics ●●

23 September 1959 Dies in London and his ashes are interred in Ghana 0 cit. Padmore died in London in September 1959. His ashes were carried to Ghana and interred at Christiansborg Castle in Accra, in the country whose independence he had helped bring about. Historians including Leslie James argue that his influence on a generation of independence leaders has been under-remembered. politics / society ●●

March 1959 State of Emergency and detention at Gwelo 0 cit. On 3 March 1959 the colonial authorities declare a State of Emergency and, in Operation Sunrise, arrest Banda and hundreds of Congress activists. Banda is flown out and held in Gwelo prison in Southern Rhodesia; scores of Africans are killed in the wider crackdown. The future pro-Western life president is thus jailed by the British before independence. politics ●●●

1959 Serengeti and Ngorongoro evictions push the Maasai out 0 cit. When the Serengeti National Park was fixed in 1959 the Maasai living inside it were moved out and resettled in the neighbouring Ngorongoro Conservation Area. There they faced tightening limits on grazing and cultivation in the name of protecting wildlife. It began a long pattern in Tanzania of treating Maasai land use as a threat to conservation. environment / 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 ●●●

1 August 1960 Independence of Benin 0 cit. no story Dahomey, later renamed Benin, becomes independent from France during the wave of African decolonization in 1960. politics ●●●

5 August 1960 Independence of Burkina Faso 0 cit. no story Upper Volta, renamed Burkina Faso in 1984, becomes independent from France. politics ●●●

1 January 1960 Independence of Cameroon 0 cit. no story French Cameroon becomes independent; the southern British Cameroons joined it in 1961 to form a federal republic. politics ●●●

13 August 1960 Independence of the Central African Republic 0 cit. no story The Central African Republic becomes independent from France, formerly the colony of Ubangi-Shari. politics ●●●

11 August 1960 Independence of Chad 0 cit. no story Chad becomes independent from France, with Francois Tombalbaye as its first president. politics ●●●

30 June 1960 Independence of the Democratic Republic of the Congo 0 cit. no story The Belgian Congo becomes independent with Patrice Lumumba as prime minister, followed quickly by the Congo Crisis. politics ●●●

15 August 1960 Independence of the Republic of the Congo 0 cit. no story The French Congo becomes the independent Republic of the Congo with Brazzaville as its capital. politics ●●●

16 August 1960 Independence of Cyprus 0 cit. no story Cyprus becomes an independent republic after British rule, under a power-sharing constitution between Greek and Turkish Cypriots. politics ●●●

17 August 1960 Independence of Gabon 0 cit. no story Gabon becomes independent from France, the last of the French Equatorial African states to do so in August 1960. politics ●●●

7 August 1960 Independence of Ivory Coast 0 cit. no story Ivory Coast becomes independent from France under Felix Houphouet-Boigny. politics ●●●

26 June 1960 Independence of Madagascar 0 cit. no story Madagascar becomes independent from France as the Malagasy Republic. politics ●●●

22 September 1960 Independence of Mali 0 cit. no story After the short-lived Mali Federation with Senegal collapses, the Republic of Mali proclaims its full independence. politics ●●●

28 November 1960 Independence of Mauritania 0 cit. no story Mauritania becomes independent from France as the Islamic Republic of Mauritania. politics ●●●

3 August 1960 Independence of Niger 0 cit. no story Niger becomes independent from France with Hamani Diori as its first president. politics ●●●

1 October 1960 Independence of Nigeria 0 cit. no story Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, becomes independent from Britain. politics ●●●●

4 April 1960 Independence of Senegal 0 cit. no story Senegal signs the independence agreement with France as part of the Mali Federation, becoming a separate republic when the federation split in August 1960. politics ●●●

1 July 1960 Independence of Somalia 0 cit. no story British Somaliland and the Italian-administered trust territory unite as the independent Somali Republic. politics ●●●

27 April 1960 Independence of Togo 0 cit. no story French Togoland becomes the independent Togolese Republic. politics ●●●

5 July 1960 to 25 November 1965 Congo Crisis 0 cit. no story The newly independent Congo collapses into secession, UN intervention, and Cold War proxy struggle, with Prime Minister Lumumba murdered. Mobutu's 1965 coup ends the crisis and begins three decades of dictatorship. politics / war ●●●

13 November 1960 to 29 December 1996 Guatemalan Civil War 0 cit. no story Leftist guerrillas fight US-backed military governments for 36 years. State violence, including genocidal campaigns against Maya communities, accounts for most of the roughly 200,000 dead. politics / war ●●●

13 February 1960 Gerboise Bleue 0 cit. France detonates its first atomic bomb in the Algerian Sahara, becoming the fourth nuclear power. The test fulfills de Gaulle's demand for an independent deterrent outside American control. politics / war ●●●●

c. July 1960 Sino-Soviet split 0 cit. The alliance between the Soviet Union and China breaks down over ideology and leadership of the communist world, and Khrushchev withdraws Soviet advisers from China in 1960. Open polemics follow and the two powers become rivals. politics ●●●●

26 September 1960 The Kennedy-Nixon televised debate 0 cit. The first televised presidential debate reached a large national audience and highlighted the growing power of television in politics. It marked a shift toward the visual image in American campaigns. culture / politics ●●●

3 February 1960 The Wind of Change Speech 0 cit. Prime Minister Harold Macmillan told South Africa's parliament that a wind of change was blowing through Africa. The speech signaled Britain's acceptance that decolonization could not be stopped. politics ●●●●

1 October 1960 Nigerian Independence 0 cit. Britain's most populous African colony became independent. Its transition was part of a rapid wave that ended British rule across most of Africa within a few years. politics ●●●

1 February 1960 Greensboro sit-ins spark a wave of protest 0 cit. Four Black college students sat at a segregated lunch counter and refused to leave, launching sit-ins across the South. The nonviolent tactic drew thousands of young people into the civil rights movement. politics / society ●●

21 March 1960 Sharpeville massacre kills anti-pass protesters 0 cit. South African police opened fire on a peaceful crowd protesting the pass laws, killing 69 people, many shot in the back. The massacre drew global condemnation and pushed the liberation movement toward armed struggle. politics / society ●●●

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 ●

21 March 1960 Sharpeville massacre 0 cit. South African police shot dead sixty-nine unarmed protesters demonstrating against the pass laws. The massacre drew world condemnation and pushed the anti-apartheid movement toward armed struggle. politics / society ●●●

3 February 1960 Macmillan's Wind of Change speech 0 cit. British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan told South Africa's parliament that a wind of change was blowing through Africa as nationalism grew. The speech signalled that Britain accepted the coming end of its African empire. politics ●●

30 June 1960 to 1961 Congo independence and the Lumumba crisis 0 cit. Belgium granted the Congo independence with little preparation, and the country fell into crisis within days. Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba was overthrown and murdered in early 1961 with Belgian and Western involvement. politics / war ●●●

1 October 1960 Nigeria becomes independent 0 cit. Nigeria gained independence from Britain as Africa's most populous nation. Its federation joined together very different regions inside borders inherited from colonial rule. 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 African states expand schools after independence 0 cit. Newly independent African nations rushed to expand schools as a path to development and nationhood. Enrolment grew fast, but funding gaps, exam bottlenecks and colonial-era curricula limited results. politics / society ●●●

c. 1960 UNESCO drives global literacy and access goals 0 cit. UNESCO ran world literacy programs and gathered comparable education data across nations. It helped spread the idea that schooling is a universal right that states should guarantee. politics / society ●●●

21 March 1960 Sharpeville massacre by South African police 0 cit. South African police opened fire on a crowd protesting pass laws outside a police station in Sharpeville, killing 69 people and wounding over 180, many shot in the back while fleeing. The massacre drew international condemnation and prompted the United Nations to pass its first resolution against apartheid. It became one of the most cited examples of police violence enforcing apartheid policy. politics ●●●

1960 Year of Africa: seventeen African nations gain independence 0 cit. In a single year, seventeen African countries, most of them former French and Belgian colonies including Congo, Nigeria, and Senegal, achieved independence. The rapid wave reflected both sustained anti-colonial pressure and colonial powers' calculations about the cost of continued rule after World War Two. Many of the new states inherited borders and economic structures designed for colonial extraction rather than self-government. politics ●●●

c. 1960 The Year of Africa: seventeen colonies become independent 0 cit. Seventeen African countries, most of them former French colonies plus Nigeria, Somalia, and others, gained independence in 1960 alone. Nearly all retained the currency, legal codes, civil service structures, and trade relationships built under colonial rule, so political sovereignty arrived well before, or often without, corresponding economic independence. This is the peak year of the broader 1945-1975 wave of decolonization. politics ●●●

c. 1960 Jacques Foccart's Africa cell formalized inside the Elysee 0 cit. Jacques Foccart, an aide to Charles de Gaulle, built a personal network of intelligence contacts, business figures, and African heads of state that ran French Africa policy largely outside normal diplomatic channels for three decades. This network, later termed Foccart's cellule africaine, negotiated defense pacts, arranged financial and political backing for allied leaders, and organized interventions, and gave rise to the term Françafrique for the resulting web of ties between France and its former colonies. diplomacy / 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 ●●

c. 1960 Privy Council remains final court of appeal for many Commonwealth states 0 cit. Many former British colonies, including Caribbean and African states, kept the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London as their court of final appeal for years or decades after independence, rather than establishing fully independent top courts. Several Caribbean nations continue this arrangement into the 2020s, an enduring example of judicial sovereignty lagging well behind flag independence. politics ●

1 October 1960 Nigeria's independence retains British common law and colonial borders 0 cit. Nigeria became independent from Britain with its legal system built on English common law and its territory unchanged from colonial-era borders that had joined together over 250 distinct ethnic groups under a single administration. Both the legal framework and the borders persisted after independence, and the tensions from combining diverse regions inside boundaries drawn for administrative convenience are widely cited as a contributing factor in the 1967-1970 Biafran civil war. politics ●●

c. August 1960 Cyprus independence file destruction 0 cit. In the run-up to Cypriot independence on 16 August 1960, British administrators destroyed or shipped out files relating to the suppression of the EOKA insurgency and colonial security operations. Cyprus later appeared among the territories whose withheld records surfaced in the migrated archives at Hanslope Park. politics / war ●●

c. October 1960 Nigeria independence file destruction 0 cit. Ahead of Nigerian independence on 1 October 1960, colonial officials in Lagos and other stations destroyed files considered too sensitive to leave behind, following the same instructions applied across Britain's African territories. Surviving correspondence about the process later formed part of the evidence used to reconstruct how Operation Legacy operated colony by colony. politics ●

c. 1 January 1960 Kitson publishes Gangs and Counter-Gangs 0 cit. Frank Kitson published an account of his Mau Mau-era operations describing the recruitment and use of counter-gangs against insurgents. The book made his methods available as doctrine to a wider British military and police audience and marked the first public codification of the informer-and-counter-gang approach developed in Kenya. politics / war ●●

31 July 1960 Malayan Emergency declared over 0 cit. The colonial government formally declared the Malayan Emergency over after twelve years of counterinsurgency against the Malayan Communist Party's guerrillas. British and Malayan officials credited Special Branch's intelligence-led approach, built on informant networks and population control, as the decisive element of the campaign, and the "Malayan model" was subsequently studied and exported to other British counterinsurgency efforts. politics / war ●●

12 January 1960 The State of Emergency Ends 0 cit. The government lifted the State of Emergency after more than seven years, with the forest revolt long since crushed and most detainees released or dead. In the same period the first Lancaster House conference in London opened the path toward African majority rule. The end of the Emergency shifted the struggle from the forests to constitutional negotiation. Many former fighters and detainees emerged to find their land gone and loyalists in control. politics ●●

30 June 1960 Congo independence and the fall of Lumumba 0 cit. The Belgian Congo became independent with Patrice Lumumba as its first prime minister. Within weeks the state fell into crisis with an army mutiny, the secession of Katanga, and foreign intervention. Lumumba was removed and, in January 1961, killed; later inquiries pointed to Belgian and Western complicity, and Belgium formally expressed regret in 2002. politics / war ●●●

1 October 1960 Nigeria gains independence from Britain 0 cit. Nigeria, Africa's most populous territory, became independent from Britain as a federation of regions. Its size and mix of peoples made it a major test case for post-colonial nation-building. Regional and ethnic tensions would later erupt into the Biafran civil war. politics / society ●●

21 March 1960 Sharpeville massacre in South Africa 0 cit. South African police opened fire on a crowd protesting the apartheid pass laws, killing 69 people, many shot in the back. The killings drew global condemnation and pushed the ANC and PAC toward armed resistance. The date is now marked internationally as a day against racial discrimination. politics / society ●●

January 1960 The Brussels Round Table Conference 0 cit. Belgian officials and Congolese leaders met in Brussels and agreed on a rapid timetable for independence, set for later that year. The speed left little time to build institutions, train administrators, or resolve regional rivalries. Critics have argued the rushed handover helped set the stage for the crisis that followed. diplomacy / politics ●●

30 June 1960 Congolese independence and Lumumba's speech 0 cit. The Congo became independent, with Patrice Lumumba as prime minister and Joseph Kasa-Vubu as president. At the ceremony Lumumba delivered a defiant speech denouncing the injustices of colonial rule, angering Belgium and unsettling Western governments. Independence arrived amid high hopes and deep fragility. politics / society ●●●

5 July 1960 The Force Publique mutiny 0 cit. Days after independence, Congolese soldiers mutinied against their remaining Belgian officers, demanding Africanization and better pay. The revolt spread and order broke down, prompting Belgium to send troops in the name of protecting its citizens. The mutiny opened the wider Congo Crisis. politics / war ●●

11 July 1960 Katanga secedes under Tshombe 0 cit. The mineral-rich Katanga province declared independence under Moïse Tshombe, backed by Belgian troops, Union Minière money, and foreign mercenaries. The secession cut the new government off from its richest source of revenue. It became the central battleground of the Congo Crisis and drew in the United Nations. politics / war ●●●

14 September 1960 Mobutu's first coup and the sidelining of Lumumba 0 cit. After President Kasa-Vubu and Prime Minister Lumumba tried to dismiss each other, army chief Joseph-Désiré Mobutu seized power in a coup and neutralized both. Lumumba was placed under house arrest, guarded by UN and Congolese troops. Western governments, viewing Lumumba as a Soviet-leaning threat, welcomed his removal. politics / war ●●

1960 The missile gap that wasn't 0 cit. In the late 1950s and the 1960 campaign, politicians warned of a 'missile gap' in which the Soviets supposedly outbuilt American nuclear forces. Eisenhower doubted it, and U-2 and satellite intelligence soon showed the United States was ahead, not behind. A documented case of a threat claim that outran the evidence while driving weapons spending. politics / war ●●

8 November 1960 The 1960 election 0 cit. John F. Kennedy narrowly beats Vice President Richard Nixon in one of the closest elections of the century, helped by the first televised presidential debates. At 43 he becomes the youngest man elected president, taking office as the Cold War security state stood at its peak. politics / society ●●

May 1960 The U-2 incident exposes American spy flights 0 cit. Soviet air defenses shoot down an American U-2 spy plane deep inside Soviet territory and capture its pilot, Francis Gary Powers. Washington first denied the mission, then was caught out when Moscow produced the pilot. The affair wrecked a planned Paris summit and hardened tensions. politics / technology / war ●●

c. 1960 The Sino-Soviet split fractures the communist world 0 cit. Ideological and national rivalry drives Communist China and the Soviet Union apart, ending their alliance and by 1969 leading to armed border clashes. The split shattered the image of a single monolithic communist bloc and later opened the way for Nixon's opening to China. diplomacy / politics ●●

September 1960 Washington targets Patrice Lumumba in the Congo 0 cit. Congo's first elected prime minister, Patrice Lumumba, is dismissed in a power struggle months after independence and placed under threat. The US Senate's Church Committee later found that the CIA had plotted to assassinate him, including a scheme to poison him, though he was ultimately killed in January 1961 by Katangan separatists with Belgian involvement. His removal cleared the path for army chief Mobutu. politics / war ●●●

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 ●●●

14 December 1960 Resolution 1514 declares an end to colonial rule 0 cit. The General Assembly passed the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, known as Resolution 1514. It stated that all peoples have the right to self-determination and called for a swift end to colonialism. The vote gave the growing bloc of newly independent nations a charter for their cause and turned the UN into an arena for decolonization. politics / society ●●●