Events, Verisoph

1958 Britain forms EFTA after Free Trade Area collapses, 1958 ai_extracted 1 cit. no story When France and West Germany broke off the Free Trade Area talks in December 1958, Britain was left out of the EEC and responded by forming the European Free Trade Association. ●●

1958 CIA calls off its Indonesia operation ai_extracted 1 cit. no story After pilot Al Pope was shot down over Ambon, the CIA abandoned its covert war against President Sukarno. Allen Dulles ordered his officers across the region to stand down and destroy the evidence. ●●

1958 Frank Wisner's mental breakdown ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Frank Wisner, the CIA's covert-operations chief, returned from the Far East and suffered a severe psychotic episode. He was diagnosed with psychotic mania and treated with electroshock. ●●

1958 John Foster Dulles retires and dies ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Secretary of State Dulles fell ill, retired, and died in 1958 (1958) ●●

1958 Lebanon crisis of 1958 ai_extracted 1 cit. no story A crisis in Lebanon in 1958 followed misleading public statements by Eisenhower and Foster Dulles about American involvement. ●●

January 1958 Von Braun launches America's first satellite 0 cit. After the shock of Sputnik, von Braun's team puts Explorer 1, the first American satellite, into orbit. The former V-2 engineer became the public face of the US space effort. science / technology ●●●

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 ●●●●

1958 Khrushchev issues the Berlin Ultimatum ai_extracted 1 cit. no story On November 27, 1958, Khrushchev sent formal notes to the United States, Great Britain, and France declaring the Four-Power Agreement on Berlin null and void and insisting that West Berlin be transformed into a demilitarized free city, with a six-month ultimatum for agreement. ●●

1958 Khrushchev issues the Berlin ultimatum ai_extracted 1 cit. no story On November 10, 1958, Khrushchev delivered a speech demanding an end to Berlin's four-power status and warning that the Soviet Union intended to turn control of its access over to the East German satellite, threatening a fundamental shift in Berlin's international status. ●●

1958 Egypt and Syria form the United Arab Republic ai_extracted 1 cit. no story on with contemporary international order was taking shape. Some of the more ambitious rulers such as Nasser and Saddam Hussein attempted to enlarge their territorial reach—either through force or by means of demagogic appeals to Arab unity. The short ●●

1958 Rosenblatt builds the Perceptron neural network ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Cornell professor Frank Rosenblatt built a mathematical model of an artificial neural network he called a Perceptron. ●●

1958 Kilby conceives the monolithic integrated circuit ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Working alone during Texas Instruments' company-wide vacation, Jack Kilby sketches the idea of building multiple circuit components on one piece of silicon. ●●

1958 Kilby demonstrates the first microchip ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Kilby demonstrates a working oscillator built on a single sliver of silicon before Texas Instruments executives. ●●

1958 Pentagon creates ARPA ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Spurred by Sputnik, Eisenhower's administration establishes the Advanced Research Projects Agency inside the Pentagon. ●●

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 ●●

17 April 1958 Expo 58 0 cit. The first major world's fair after World War II built the Atomium, a giant model of an iron crystal symbolizing faith in atomic-age science. Held during the Cold War, it featured facing American and Soviet pavilions that turned the fair into a public contest over which system delivered a better standard of living, with the USSR displaying a Sputnik replica shortly after its 1957 launch. diplomacy / science ●●

1958 Referendum ratifies French Fifth Republic in Africa ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Each African territory of the French Community voted separately on the new French constitution, a vote Nkrumah says completed the dismantling of the West and Equatorial African federations. ●●

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 ●●●

1958 Lokitaung prisoners' water embargo letter published ai_extracted 1 cit. On 8 June 1958 the Observer published a letter from the political prisoners held at Lokitaung, signed by all except Kenyatta, describing years of beatings, illness, and a deliberate cutoff of drinking water. The prisoners compared their treatment to Nazi concentration camps and appealed to world opinion. ●●

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 ●●

1958 Kibaki trains at the London School of Economics 1 cit. After Makerere, Kibaki took up a scholarship at the London School of Economics and graduated in 1958 with distinction in public finance. Official biographies link this period to his Keynesian fiscal outlook: cheap money, predictable credit, tax policy and state-led infrastructure. That training helps explain why later accounts frame him as an economist-president. economy / politics ●●●●

1958 Kibaki teaches economics at Makerere 1 cit. After graduating from LSE, Kibaki returned to Makerere as an assistant lecturer in economics from 1958 to 1960. The job placed him in academia during the last years before Kenyan independence. He left that university post for direct party work as the independence struggle moved toward formal politics. economy / politics ●●●

1958 Dairy becomes a controlled board economy 1 cit. The Dairy Industry Act of 1958 created the Kenya Dairy Board and gave it power to organize, regulate and develop milk production and marketing. Dairy was not just cows and milk; it was another board-controlled agricultural channel where producers met the state through registration, quality rules, prices and marketing structures. economy / politics ●●●

3 June 1958 Gavaghan receives an MBE after the Mwea camp campaign 4 cit. Terence John Frederick Gavaghan, District Officer in Charge of Rehabilitation at the Mwea Works Camps, was appointed MBE in the 1958 Birthday Honours. Later biographical accounts connect the honour and promotion to his work unblocking the detention system. The point is direct: the empire did not merely tolerate the Mwea method; it rewarded the officer associated with it. politics / society / war ●●●

1 December 1959 Antarctic Treaty System wikidata 0 cit. international treaties concerning Antarctica ●●●

1959 HIV/AIDS wikidata 0 cit. no story spectrum of conditions caused by HIV infection ●●●

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 ●●

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 ●●●●

12 January 1959 Motown Records is founded 0 cit. Berry Gordy started Motown Records in Detroit and built a hit factory of Black pop and soul. Its polished sound crossed over to a wide audience and shaped 1960s music. culture ●●●●

13 September 1959 Luna 2 reaches the Moon 0 cit. The Soviet probe Luna 2 became the first spacecraft to reach the surface of another world when it struck the Moon. It marked another Soviet lead in the early space race. exploration / science / technology ●●●

c. 1 January 1959 to c. 1976 Air America flies the CIA's secret wars 0 cit. The CIA ran Air America, an airline that moved arms, supplies, and personnel for covert operations in Laos and beyond. It became a symbol of the agency's hidden role in Southeast Asia. technology / war ●●

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 ●●

1959 J. P. Morgan and Company disappears into Guaranty Trust ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Quigley traces the decline of the House of Morgan from a partnership founded in 1861 to incorporation in 1940 and its final absorption into the Guaranty Trust Company in 1959. ●●

1959 Khrushchev visits the United States ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Khrushchev's visit to the United States on September 15-17, 1959 marked a turning point in Soviet-American relations. Impressed despite himself by American prosperity, he revoked his six-month Berlin deadline at Camp David. ●●

1959 Castro marches into Havana ai_extracted 1 cit. no story The steady attrition of Batista's support let Castro's forces advance across Cuba, and on New Year's Day 1959 he marched into Havana. Within two weeks his firing squads began executing Batista supporters and dissidents. ●●

1959 Tibetan revolt crushed, Dalai Lama flees, 1959 ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Chinese pressure on Tibet peaked in March 1959 with an attempt to arrest the Dalai Lama. The resulting revolt was crushed in two weeks and the Dalai Lama fled to India. ●●

1959 Fortune reveals where New York policy is really made, 1959 ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Gatto cites a 1959 Fortune article that described the private metropolitan clubs where national policy and major deals were actually decided in New York City. ●●

1959 Conant publishes The American High School Today ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Gatto states that Conant's 1959 book The American High School Today drove the growth of large secondary schools and the consolidation of small school districts in the 1960s. He treats it as a lever for making schools bigger. ●●

1959 Eisenhower lays the CIA headquarters cornerstone ai_extracted 2 cit. no story President Eisenhower laid the cornerstone for the CIA's headquarters, calling comprehensive information essential to peace. He warned that in intelligence, success cannot be advertised and failure cannot be explained. ●●

1959 Bissell takes over clandestine service as Castro seizes power ai_extracted 1 cit. no story On the same day Richard Bissell became chief of the CIA's clandestine service, Fidel Castro came to power in Cuba. The coincidence framed the agency's next decade. ●●

1959 Bissell proposes eliminating Castro ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Bissell sent Dulles a memo urging consideration of removing Fidel Castro. Dulles struck the word 'elimination' and substituted 'removal' before approving the effort. ●●

1959 Death of John Foster Dulles ai_extracted 2 cit. no story Secretary of State John Foster Dulles died on May 24, 1959, after shaping Cold War foreign policy. His funeral was broadcast live on national television. ●●

1959 Reynolds and TI win the British Aluminium War ai_extracted 1 cit. no story By January, 6,1959, Reynolds/TI announced that it had achieved majority control of British Aluminium stock. Siegmund Warburg had defied the British... ●●

1959 Roy Thomson acquires the Sunday Times ai_extracted 1 cit. no story In July 1959, Siegmund advised Roy Thomson, the Toronto barber’s son who owned a chain of Canadian newspapers, in his purchase of the Sunday Times.... ●●

December 1959 The Antarctic Treaty sets the continent aside for peace 0 cit. Twelve nations sign the Antarctic Treaty, freezing territorial claims and reserving the whole continent for peaceful scientific research. It is one of the most successful arms-control and conservation agreements ever made. diplomacy / science ●●●

1959 Khrushchev submits draft Berlin peace treaty ai_extracted 1 cit. no story On January 10, 1959, Khrushchev submitted to the other three occupying powers a draft peace treaty which defined the new status of both Berlin and East Germany, implementing his demands regarding Berlin's demilitarization and future status. ●●

1959 Robert Mullen and Company founded ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Levenda asserts that the Mullen Company was founded in 1959 as a front for the CIA, where E. Howard Hunt would later work after his retirement. ●●

1959 Texas Instruments unveils the solid circuit ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Texas Instruments publicly unveils Kilby's integrated circuit, calling it a solid circuit, at a New York engineering conference. ●●

1959 Noyce conceives his integrated circuit design ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Robert Noyce, working independently at Fairchild, writes in his notebook the idea of placing multiple devices on a single piece of silicon connected by printed metal lines. ●●

1959 French West and Equatorial African federations dissolved ai_extracted 1 cit. no story The federal institutions that had linked France's West and Equatorial African colonies were wound up, leaving small separate states unable to pool revenue, which Nkrumah presents as the deliberate mechanics of balkanisation. ●●

1959 Nkrumah opens the Bank of Ghana ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Nkrumah recalls his own speech opening the Bank of Ghana, in which he set out the decisive part a central bank must play in a country's drive for economic and financial self-government. ●●

1959 AFL-CIO wins control of the ICFTU executive ai_extracted 1 cit. no story The American AFL-CIO union centre fought for and won control of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions executive board at a Brussels meeting, extending Washington's reach into international labour 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 ●●●

3 March 1959 Hola Camp Massacre 3 cit. Guards at the Hola detention camp beat eleven detainees to death and seriously injured dozens more after they refused forced labor, in an incident colonial officials initially tried to explain away as deaths from drinking contaminated water. A subsequent inquiry exposed the cover-up and the routine violence within the camp system, causing a political scandal in Britain. The massacre became a turning point in British public and parliamentary opinion against the emergency measures and contributed to the winding down of the detention system. politics / war ●●●

3 March 1959 Hola Massacre 1 cit. Guards at Hola detention camp beat to death eleven Mau Mau detainees who refused forced labor, part of the wider colonial detention system that police screening had fed. The killings were initially covered up as deaths from contaminated water before an official inquiry exposed the beatings, provoking outrage in the British Parliament and accelerating the end of detention without trial in Kenya. 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 Commons rejects independent inquiry into the camps ai_extracted 1 cit. Despite mounting evidence of abuse and eyewitness affidavits from former prison officers, the House of Commons voted in February 1959 against an independent inquiry into Kenya's prisons and detention camps. The motion failed along party lines, 232 to 288. ●●

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 ●●●

19 April 1960 April Revolution wikidata 0 cit. no story popular uprising in South Korea in April 1960 by labor and student groups, precipitated by the killing of a high school student by a tear-gas shell in March; led to the resignation of the president S. Rhee and the transition to the Second Republic ●●●

April 1960 Finance Minister Sato declines to revise the BoJ Law ai_extracted 1 cit. In April 1960 the new finance minister Eisaku Sato declared that with two conflicting committee recommendations he could not introduce legislation to change the BoJ Law, leaving MoF's legal supremacy over the central bank intact. ●●●

1960 Ikeda becomes prime minister with the income doubling plan ai_extracted 1 cit. Hayato Ikeda became prime minister in 1960 and made the income doubling plan his cabinet's major policy aim, with fiscal expenditures rising more than 25 percent per year on the back of high growth. ●●●

1960 U.S.-Japan Security Treaty pushed through the Diet ai_extracted 1 cit. In 1960 Prime Minister Kishi pushed the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty through the Diet despite severe public opposition, having police remove opposing politicians; the treaty was ratified at the cost of his career. ●●●●

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 ●●

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 ●●●