Events, Verisoph

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 ●●●●

1960 The laser 1 cit. Theodore Maiman built the first working laser, producing a narrow, intense beam of coherent light. Lasers now drive fiber optics, surgery, manufacturing, scanners and data storage. science / technology ●●●●

1960 The contraceptive pill 0 cit. Regulators approved the first oral contraceptive pill for birth control. Reliable contraception gave women greater control over childbearing and reshaped families and society. science ●●●●

c. 1960 Modern decline of Freemasonry 0 cit. American Freemasonry peaked at about four million members in the late 1950s and has fallen steadily since, a pattern echoed in Britain and Europe. Aging membership and falling interest in fraternal groups drove the drop. religion / society ●●●

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 ●●

1960 The Year of Africa 2 cit. Seventeen African colonies gained independence in a single year, most of them French. It marked the high point of the post-war wave of decolonization on the continent. 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 ●●●●

13 November 1960 to 1996 Guatemalan civil war begins after the coup 0 cit. The 1954 coup helped trigger a civil war in which US-backed security forces killed an estimated 200,000 people, most of them Maya civilians. A UN truth commission later found acts of genocide by the state. society / war ●●●●

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 ●●●

9 May 1960 FDA approves the contraceptive pill Enovid 0 cit. The US Food and Drug Administration approved Enovid as the first oral contraceptive in 1960, research that Margaret Sanger and heiress Katharine McCormick had funded through Gregory Pincus. The pill gave women reliable control over reproduction and reshaped family planning worldwide. science / society ●●●●●

c. 1960 Samizdat: self-publishing under censorship 0 cit. Soviet dissidents copy and pass banned texts by hand and typewriter, a practice known as samizdat. It shows how speech routes around even total censorship, and it kept a suppressed literature alive until the system fell. culture / society ●●●

1960 Quigley: I have studied this network for twenty years ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Quigley states he knows the international Anglophile network, which he identifies as the Round Table Groups, because he studied it for twenty years and was allowed in the early 1960s to examine its papers and secret records. ●●

1960 Forced collectivization of East German agriculture ai_extracted 1 cit. no story In three months, February-April 1960, almost a million East German farmers were forced into fewer than 20,000 collective farms by violence and social pressure. As in Stalin's Russia, the result was a collapse of agricultural production. ●●

1960 Mikoyan trade agreement draws Cuba toward the USSR ai_extracted 1 cit. no story The long visit of Soviet Deputy Premier Anastas Mikoyan in February 1960 forced a US reconsideration of its nonintervention policy toward Cuba. The agreement promised Cuba petroleum and arms for its sugar and led toward Soviet diplomatic ties. ●●

1960 Soviet advisers withdrawn from China, 1960 ai_extracted 1 cit. no story In the summer of 1960 the Soviet Union pulled almost all its technical and military advisers out of China. Quigley marks this as a major step in the deepening Sino-Soviet rift. ●●

1960 Independence of Nigeria, 1960 ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Nigeria, the largest British colonial territory with 35 million people, did not become free until 1960, its delay caused by deep internal divisions among its three regions. ●●

1960 Independence of the Mali Republic, 1960 ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Senegal and the Sudanese Republic, briefly joined as the Mali Republic, won independence in April 1960, setting off a flood of declarations of independence across French Africa. ●●

1960 Formation of the Brazzaville Twelve, 1960 ai_extracted 1 cit. no story In December 1960 twelve French-oriented African states formed the Brazzaville Twelve, a moderate, pro-French bloc for cooperation in Africa and at the United Nations. ●●

1960 De Gaulle forces through French nuclear force bill, 1960 ai_extracted 1 cit. no story In November-December 1960 De Gaulle used Article 49 to create an independent French nuclear force without letting the Assembly debate or vote on the bill, despite an apparent majority against it. ●●

1960 School administrators grow far faster than students, 1960-1990 ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Gatto cites figures that from 1960 to 1990 student population rose 61 percent while the number of school administrators grew 342 percent. ●●

1960 Gatto's figure on Black two-parent households in New York, 1960 ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Gatto argues that in 1960, 85 percent of African American children in New York lived in intact two-parent households, a share he claims fell sharply as schools and welfare bureaucracies expanded. ●●

1960 U-2 spy plane shot down over the Soviet Union ai_extracted 1 cit. A CIA U-2 was downed deep inside Russia and its pilot, Francis Gary Powers, was captured alive. The incident wrecked a planned summit and exposed American cover stories. ●●

1960 Eisenhower says he would like to resign after U-2 lies ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Confronted with the collapse of the U-2 cover story, Eisenhower privately said he wished to resign. The episode ended the doctrine of plausible deniability. ●●

1960 Eisenhower orders Lumumba eliminated ai_extracted 1 cit. no story At a National Security Council meeting, President Eisenhower directed that Congolese prime minister Patrice Lumumba be killed. The order was recalled years later in secret Senate testimony. ●●

1960 Kennedy defeats Nixon by a razor-thin margin ai_extracted 1 cit. no story John Kennedy narrowly won the 1960 presidential election. Nixon blamed the CIA for his defeat. ●●

1960 Kennedy elected president, retains Allen Dulles ai_extracted 1 cit. no story John F. Kennedy wins a narrow victory in the presidential election. Two days later, he announces his cabinet selections, including retaining Allen Dulles as CIA director. ●●

1960 NSC weighs military action over the Congo ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Ambassador Timberlake briefs the National Security Council on August 1. The council decides the United States must be prepared to take military action to prevent Soviet intervention in the Congo. ●●

1960 Kasavubu dismisses Prime Minister Lumumba ai_extracted 1 cit. no story President Kasavubu broadcasts an announcement on Radio Leo dismissing Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba and naming a successor, precipitating a major political crisis. ●●

1960 Mobutu seizes power in the Congo ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Colonel Joseph Mobutu announces on Radio Leo that he has decided to neutralize both Lumumba and Kasavubu, close parliament, and establish military rule under a College of Commissars. ●●

1960 Lumumba escapes house arrest in Leopoldville ai_extracted 1 cit. no story During a tropical rainstorm, Patrice Lumumba escapes from his residence which has been surrounded by guards. He flees Leopoldville in a convoy attempting to reach his stronghold in Stanleyville. ●●

1960 First postwar German stock listed in London ai_extracted 1 cit. no story In 1960, Siegmund arranged a London share quotation for the August Thyssen steel combine—the first listing of a German stock since the war. Since... ●●

1960 Corona: the space race's secret twin, the spy satellite 0 cit. The United States begins the top-secret Corona program, the first spy satellites, which photographed the Soviet Union from orbit and were not declassified until 1995. Behind the public race to the Moon ran a hidden race to watch the enemy from space. technology / war ●●●

1960 Nigeria gains independence from Britain ai_extracted 1 cit. no story When Nigeria was granted independence from Britain in 1960, it was bequeathed a democratic constitution that provided for regular elections. ●●

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 Licklider publishes 'Man-Computer Symbiosis' ai_extracted 2 cit. no story J.C.R. Licklider's paper proposed a tight coupling of human brains and computing machines. ●●

1 February 1960 Greensboro sit-ins 0 cit. Four Black college students sat down at a segregated Woolworth's lunch counter and refused to leave after being denied service, sparking a wave of nonviolent sit-ins across the South. The tactic spread to dozens of cities within weeks and helped launch the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Woolworth's desegregated its lunch counters later that year. society ●●

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 Mervin B. Hogan documents Nauvoo Masonic records 0 cit. Mervin B. Hogan, a Latter-day Saint and active Freemason, spent decades researching and publishing detailed studies of the Nauvoo Masonic lodges using original lodge minutes and Grand Lodge correspondence. His work, produced from within both traditions, became a key primary-source basis for later historians examining the documented links between early Mormon leadership and Freemasonry, regardless of their conclusions about what the connection meant. religion ●

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 France signs defense accords securing bases across former African colonies 0 cit. Around the time of independence, France signed a series of defense and military-cooperation accords with most of its former African colonies, guaranteeing French troops the right to intervene and maintain permanent bases in countries such as Senegal, Ivory Coast, Gabon, and Djibouti. These accords, kept partly secret in some cases, gave France a standing military presence in Africa that persisted for decades after decolonization and were used repeatedly to prop up allied governments. diplomacy / war ●●●

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 ●●

1960 Congo becomes independent ai_extracted 1 cit. no story On the day the Congo became independent, Nkrumah writes, there began a chapter of financial manoeuvring by Belgian and American interests that historians would later scrutinise closely. ●●

1960 Belgium dissolves the Comite Special du Katanga ai_extracted 1 cit. no story A hurried Belgian decree issued three days before the Congo's independence day dissolved the semi-official Comite Special du Katanga, a manoeuvre Nkrumah says was designed to keep control of mineral wealth out of Congolese hands. ●●

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 ●

January 1960 End of the Mau Mau Emergency 1 cit. The colonial government formally lifted the State of Emergency after nearly eight years, during which police, Special Branch, the GSU's colonial-era precursor units, and military forces killed an estimated 11,000 or more Mau Mau fighters and detained roughly 150,000 to 320,000 Kenyans, figures drawn from British colonial records and later historical research. The Emergency left the Kenya Police with an institutional legacy of counter-insurgency and mass detention. politics / war ●●●

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 ●●

c. 1960 The Disputed Death Toll 0 cit. The human cost of the Emergency is sharply contested. Official colonial figures recorded about 11,000 to 12,000 Mau Mau and suspects killed, along with roughly 1,800 African civilians and 32 European settlers killed by Mau Mau. Historian Caroline Elkins later argued from census analysis that the true toll of deaths in the camps and villages ran into the tens of thousands and possibly far higher, while demographer John Blacker estimated around 50,000 excess deaths and historian David Anderson put combat deaths near 20,000. These estimates remain disputed, and the higher figures are attributed to their authors rather than settled fact. society / 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 July 1960 The United Nations intervenes in the Congo 0 cit. The UN Security Council authorized a large peacekeeping force, known as ONUC, to help restore order and press Belgium to withdraw. The mission became one of the largest and most controversial of the early UN, caught between the central government, Katanga, and Cold War rivalries. It struggled to end the secession without taking sides in Congolese politics. diplomacy / 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 ●●

9 May 1960 FDA approves the birth control pill 0 cit. U.S. regulators approved the first oral contraceptive for birth control, giving women new control over whether and when to have children. The pill reshaped women's lives, work, and the wider sexual and feminist movements. science / society ●●●

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 ●●

c. 1960 Guatemala falls into decades of civil war 0 cit. The coup ended Guatemala's democratic decade and ushered in a string of military rulers. From 1960 a civil war ground on for thirty-six years, with US-backed forces waging a scorched-earth campaign that a later truth commission judged to be genocide against Maya communities. An estimated 200,000 people were killed or disappeared, most at the hands of the state. society / war ●●●

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 ●●●

c. January 1960 The General Assembly speaks for all but decides little 0 cit. As decolonization swelled the membership, the General Assembly became a global forum where every nation had one vote and an equal voice. Yet its resolutions were only recommendations, not law. The design left the many gathered in the Assembly to debate while the few on the Security Council held the power to act. politics / society ●●

14 July 1960 The UN sends ONUC into the Congo crisis 0 cit. Days after Congolese independence, the UN launched ONUC, one of its largest early peacekeeping operations, as the country fractured and the mineral-rich Katanga province seceded. The mission was caught between Cold War rivals and Belgian mining interests. What began as help for a new nation drew the UN into a crisis it could neither control nor cleanly resolve. politics / war ●●●

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 ●

January 1960 The Lancaster House conferences 0 cit. In a series of conferences in London beginning in 1960, Britain and Kenyan delegates negotiated the path to majority rule and a new constitution. The talks conceded an African elected majority and set the framework for independence, while exposing rifts between the KANU and KADU parties over central versus regional power. The settlement shaped Kenya's first constitution and its early political map. diplomacy / politics ●●

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 ●●●

1960 The Corona satellites photograph the world from orbit 0 cit. Behind a cover story about a science program called Discoverer, the US ran Corona, a fleet of spy satellites that dropped film capsules back through the atmosphere to be caught in midair. The program stayed secret until 1995 and gave America its first look at Soviet military sites from space. diplomacy / technology / war ●●

c. 1960 The Colour Bar on the Highlands Falls 3 cit. By 1959-60 the formal racial barrier that had reserved the Highlands for whites was coming down, and Africans and Indians could in principle buy land there. That was a real end to the legal white preserve. But it was not restitution: buyers still needed money, credit, an available seller and board approval. The land question moved from open race law into market purchase, title, debt and political access. diplomacy / economy / politics ●●●●●

1960 Willing Buyer, Willing Seller for the Highlands 2 cit. At the Lancaster House talks the British insisted that the Highlands change hands by purchase on a willing-buyer, willing-seller basis, with settlers paid market value and their property rights written into the independence constitution. This ruled out giving the land back to those it had been taken from. The dispossessed would have to buy their land again, and only those with money, credit, or connections could take part, a point stressed in accounts of the loyalist land inheritance. diplomacy / economy / politics ●●●

c. 1960 No Uhuru Without Kenyatta 0 cit. As Kenya moved toward independence, the Kenya African National Union made Kenyatta's release its central demand, campaigning under the slogan that there could be no uhuru, or freedom, without him. Though still in restriction, he was elected KANU president in absentia in 1960. The campaign fused his personal fate with the nation's, cementing his standing as the indispensable founding leader. politics ●●

1 July 1960 British Somaliland and Italian Somaliland unite as the Somali Republic 0 cit. British Somaliland gained independence on 26 June 1960 and, five days later, joined the former Italian Somaliland, which became independent on 1 July, to form the united Somali Republic. The union was rushed and celebrated as a first step toward Greater Somalia. Legal and administrative differences between the British-run north and Italian-run south were papered over, and northern grievances about the terms surfaced quickly. politics / society ●●●

May 1960 The Corfield Report and the official story 0 cit. In 1960 the government published F. D. Corfield's official history of the origins of Mau Mau, which blamed Kenyatta and cast the oath as a return to primitive savagery. The report leaned on the lurid oath descriptions that the colonial state had promoted throughout the Emergency. Later historians, among them Bruce Berman, David Anderson, and Caroline Elkins, read Corfield as the state's self-justifying account rather than a reliable record. It remains a key source for understanding how the colonial government wanted the oath, and the whole rebellion, to be seen. politics / society / war ●●

1 October 1960 Nigeria's peaceful transfer of power 0 cit. Nigeria, Britain's largest African colony, moved to independence through constitutional conferences and elections without a war against settlers. Like the rest of West Africa it had no white minority occupying the farmland. The calm handover underlines that Kenya's violence came from its settler question, not from decolonisation itself. politics ●●

c. 1960 Kenya's settlers too few to rule alone 0 cit. At their peak around independence Kenya's white settlers numbered roughly 60,000 against several million Africans, a far smaller share than in South Africa or Rhodesia. They controlled land and the Legislative Council but had nowhere near the numbers to hold the whole country by force. This weakness meant that when Britain moved toward majority rule, the settlers could not mount a Rhodesian-style breakaway. politics / society ●●●

February 1960 Macmillan's 'Wind of Change' signals British retreat 0 cit. British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan told South Africa's parliament that a 'wind of change' was blowing through Africa and that Britain would back African majority rule. The speech told Kenya's settlers that London would not defend a white-minority state on their behalf. Without British backing and without the numbers to stand alone, their position was untenable. diplomacy / politics ●●