date: February 19

text: February 19 – Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, British former prince and second son of Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh


date: March 21

section: Births

text: March 21 – Ayrton Senna, Brazilian triple Formula One world champion (d. 1994)

source_section: Births › March


date: April 11

text: April 11 – Jeremy Clarkson, English journalist, television show host and comedian

source_section: Births › April


date: April 19

text: April 19 – Gustavo Petro, President of Colombia, 2022–2026


date: April 28

text: April 28 – Elena Kagan, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States


date: June 11

text: June 11 – Mehmet Oz, Turkish-American cardiothoracic surgeon and television personality

source_section: Births › June


date: July 3

text: July 3 – Vince Clarke, British musician and composer (Depeche Mode, Erasure)

source_section: Births › July


date: August 25

text: August 25 – Jonas Gahr Støre, Norwegian politician, Prime Minister of Norway (2021–present)

source_section: Births › August


date: September 19

text: September 19 – Yolanda Saldívar, American murderer of tejano singer Selena

source_section: Births › September


date: November 1

text: November 1 – Tim Cook, American businessman and current CEO of Apple, Inc

source_section: Births › November


date: November 27

text: November 27 – Yulia Tymoshenko, Prime Minister of Ukraine in 2005 and 2007–2010


date: December 14

text: December 14 – Ebrahim Raisi, Iranian politician, 8th President of Iran (d. 2024)

source_section: Births › December


date: December 22

text: December 22 – Jean-Michel Basquiat, American musician and graffiti painter (d. 1988)


date: January 4

section: Deaths

text: January 4 – Albert Camus, French writer, Nobel Prize winner, automobile accident (b. 1913)

source_section: Deaths › January


date: January 28

text: January 28 – Zora Neale Hurston, American folklorist, anthropologist and author (b. 1891)


date: February 10

text: February 10 – Aloysius Stepinac, Yugoslav Roman Catholic prelate (b. 1898)

source_section: Deaths › February


date: April 1

text: April 1 – Abdul Rahman of Negeri Sembilan, 1st Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaya (modern-day Malaysia), dies in office. He is replaced by Hisamuddin Alam Shah ibni Almarhum Sultan Alaeddin Sulaiman Shah, Sultan of Selangor.

source_section: Events › April


date: April 24

text: April 24 – Max von Laue, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1879)

source_section: Deaths › April


date: May 30

text: May 30 – Boris Pasternak, Russian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (declined) (b. 1890)

source_section: Deaths › May


date: July 6

text: July 6 – Hans Wilsdorf, German-Swiss watchmaker, founder of Rolex (b. 1881)

source_section: Deaths › July


date: August 23

text: August 23 – Jersey Flegg, English-Australian rugby league player and chairman (b. 1878)

source_section: Deaths › August


date: September 1

text: September 1 – Sultan Hisamuddin Alam Shah, Sultan of Selangor and 2nd Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaya, dies in office. He is replaced by Tuanku Syed Putra, Raja of Perlis.

source_section: Events › September


date: September 13

text: September 13 – Lucie Randoin, French biologist, nutritionist, expert in dietary significance of vitamins (b. 1888)

source_section: Deaths › September


date: October 12

text: October 12 – Inejiro Asanuma, Japanese politician (assassinated) (b. 1898)

source_section: Deaths › October


date: October 24

text: October 24 – Mitrofan Nedelin, Soviet Chief Marshal of the Artillery, chief of the Strategic Missile Force, Hero of the Soviet Union (b. 1902)


date: November 3

text: November 3 – Bobby Wallace, American baseball player (St. Louis Browns) and a member of the MLB Hall of Fame (b. 1873)

source_section: Deaths › November


date: November 24

text: November 24 – Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna of Russia, sister of Tsar Nicholas II (b. 1882)


date: January 3

section: Geopolitics & Diplomacy

text: January 3 – United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and consular relations with Cuba (Cuba–United States relations are restored in 2015).

source_section: Events › January


date: January 5

text: January 5 – After the 1960 military coup, General Cemal Gürsel forms the new government of Turkey (25th government).


date: January 7

text: January 7 – Following a four-day conference in Casablanca, five African chiefs of state announce plans for a NATO-type African organization to ensure common defense. The Charter of Casablanca involves the Casablanca Group: Morocco, the United Arab Republic, Ghana, Guinea, and Mali.


date: January 17

text: January 17 – President Dwight Eisenhower gives his final State of the Union Address to Congress. In a Farewell Address the same day, he warns of the increasing power of a "military–industrial complex."


date: January 20

text: January 20 – John F. Kennedy is inaugurated as the 35th President of the United States, becoming the second-youngest president to be sworn in.


date: January 25

text: January 25 – Acting to halt 'leftist excesses', a junta composed of two army officers and four civilians takes over El Salvador, ousting another junta that had ruled for three months.


date: January 30

text: January 30 – President John F. Kennedy delivers his first State of the Union Address.


date: February 15

text: February 15 – United States President John F. Kennedy warns the Soviet Union to avoid interfering with the United Nations' pacification of the Congo.

source_section: Events › February


date: March 1

text: March 1 – United States President John F. Kennedy establishes the Peace Corps.

source_section: Events › March


date: March 13

text: March 13 – United States President John F. Kennedy proposes a long-term "Alliance for Progress", between the United States and Latin America.


date: March 29

text: March 29 – The Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, allowing residents of Washington, D.C. to vote in presidential elections.


date: April 12

text: April 12 – Albert Kalonji takes the title Emperor Albert I Kalonji of South Kasai.


date: May 27

text: May 27 – Tunku Abdul Rahman, Prime Minister of Malaya, holds a press conference in Singapore, announcing his idea to form the Federation of Malaysia, comprising Malaya, Singapore, Sarawak, Brunei and North Borneo (Sabah).

source_section: Events › May


date: June 4

text: June 4 – Vienna summit: John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev meet during two days in Vienna. They discuss nuclear tests, disarmament and Germany.

source_section: Events › June


date: June 17

text: June 17 – The New Democratic Party of Canada is founded, with the merger of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) and the Canadian Labour Congress.


date: June 25

text: June 25 – Iraqi president Abd al-Karim Qasim announces his intention to annex newly independent Kuwait (such an annexation will occur in 1990).


date: August 25

text: August 25 – João Goulart replaces Jânio Quadros as President of Brazil (he is ousted in 1964).

source_section: Events › August


date: August

text: August – The United States founds the Alliance for Progress.


date: October 1

text: October 1 – Unification Day (Cameroon): The formerly British Southern Cameroons gains independence from the United Kingdom by vote of the UN General Assembly and joins with formerly French Cameroun to form the Federal Republic of Cameroon.

source_section: Events › October


date: November 24

text: November 24 – The World Food Programme (WFP) is formed as a temporary United Nations program.

source_section: Events › November


date: December 2

text: December 2 – Cold War: In a nationally broadcast speech, Cuban leader Fidel Castro announces he is a Marxist–Leninist, and that Cuba will adopt socialism.

source_section: Events › December


date: December 9

text: December 9 – Tanganyika gains independence from the United Kingdom as a Commonwealth realm, with Julius Nyerere as its first Prime Minister, with Queen Elizabeth II as Queen of Tanganyika, and represented locally by the Governor-General of Tanganyika.


date: December 10

text: December 10 – Albania–Soviet relations: The Soviet Union severs diplomatic relations with Albania.


date: December 18

text: December 18 – 1961 Indian annexation of Goa: India opens hostilities in its annexation of Portuguese India, the colonies of Goa, Damao and Diu.


date: January 17

section: Conflict & Security

text: January 17 – Patrice Lumumba of the Republic of Congo is assassinated.


date: January 25

text: January 25 – In Washington, D.C., President John F. Kennedy delivers the first live presidential news conference. In it, he announces that the Soviet Union has freed the two surviving crewmen from the July 1 1960 RB-47 shootdown incident involving a USAF reconnaissance aircraft and a MiG-19 over the Barents Sea.


date: February 4

text: February 4 – The Portuguese Colonial War begins in Angola.


date: March 15

text: March 15 – The Union of Peoples of Angola, led by Holden Roberto, attacks strategic locations in the north of Angola. These events result in the beginning of the colonial war with Portugal.


date: March 18

text: March 18 – A ceasefire takes effect in the Algerian War of Independence.


date: April 17

text: April 17 – The U.S.-backed Bay of Pigs Invasion of Cuba begins; it fails by April 19.

source_section: Events › April


date: April 20

text: April 20 – Fidel Castro announces that the Bay of Pigs Invasion has been defeated.


date: April 22

text: April 22 – Algiers putsch: Four French generals who oppose de Gaulle's policies in Algeria fail in a coup attempt.


date: May 14

text: May 14 – Civil rights movement: A Freedom Riders bus is fire-bombed near Anniston, Alabama, and the civil rights protestors are beaten by an angry mob of Ku Klux Klan members.


date: May 16

text: May 16 – Park Chung Hee takes over in a military coup, in South Korea.


date: May 21

text: May 21 – Civil rights movement: Alabama Governor John Patterson declares martial law in an attempt to restore order, after race riots break out.


date: July 25

text: July 25 – U.S. President John F. Kennedy gives a widely watched TV speech on the Berlin Crisis, warning "we will not be driven out of Berlin." Kennedy urges Americans to build fallout shelters, setting off a four-month debate on civil defense.

source_section: Events › July


date: July 31

text: July 31 – At Fenway Park in Boston, the first Major League Baseball All-Star Game tie occurs, when the game is stopped in the 9th inning due to rain (the only tie until 2002).


date: September 1

text: September 1 – The first meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement is held in Belgrade. The Soviet Union resumes nuclear testing, escalating fears over the ongoing Berlin Crisis.


text: September 1 – The Eritrean War of Independence begins with the Battle of Adal in which Hamid Idris Awate and his companions shoot at Ethiopian police and military. The war will continue until 1991.


date: September 17

text: September 17 – Military rulers in Turkey hang former prime minister Adnan Menderes, together with the former Minister of Foreign Affairs Fatin Rüştü Zorlu and former Minister of Finance Hasan Polatkan.


text: September 17 – London police arrest over 1,300 protesters in Trafalgar Square during a Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament rally.


date: September 21

text: September 21 – In France, the Organisation de l'armée secrète (OAS) slips an anti-de Gaulle message into TV programming.


date: September 28

text: September 28 – 1961 Syrian coup d'état: A military coup in Damascus, Syria effectively ends the United Arab Republic, the union between Egypt and Syria.


date: October 17

text: October 17 – 1961 Paris massacre: French police in Paris attack about 30,000 people protesting against a curfew applied solely to Algerians. The official death toll is 3, but human rights groups claim 240 dead.


date: October 27

text: October 27 – Berlin Crisis: Confrontation at Checkpoint Charlie – A standoff between Soviet and American tanks in Berlin, Germany, heightens Cold War tensions.


date: October 30

text: October 30 – Nuclear weapons testing: The Soviet Union detonates a 58-megaton yield hydrogen bomb known as Tsar Bomba, over Novaya Zemlya (it remains the largest ever man-made explosion).


date: December 19

text: December 19 – Indonesian president Sukarno announces that he will take West Irian by force, if necessary.


text: December 19 – The Portuguese surrender Goa to India, after 400 years of Portuguese rule.


date: March 8

section: Exploration & Expansion

text: March 8 – Max Conrad circumnavigates the earth by light plane in 8 days, 18 hours and 49 minutes, setting a new world record.


date: March

text: March–April – Drilling for Project Mohole is undertaken off the coast of Guadalupe Island, Mexico.


date: May 4

text: May 4 – U.S. Freedom Riders begin interstate bus rides, to test the new U.S. Supreme Court integration decision.


date: February 26

section: Religion & Belief

text: February 26 – Hassan II is pronounced King of Morocco.


date: March 3

text: March 3 – Hassan II is crowned King of Morocco.


date: April 5

text: April 5 – The New Guinea Council of Western Papua is installed.


date: September 14

text: September 14 – The religious Focolare Movement opens its first North American center in New York (state).


date: January 1

section: Economy & Finance

text: January 1 – Monetary reform in the Soviet Union.


date: March 13

text: March 13 – Black and white £5 notes cease to be legal tender in the UK.


date: July 31

text: July 31 – Ireland submits the first application from a non-founding country to join the European Economic Community.


date: September 30

text: September 30 – The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is formed to replace the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC).


date: November 14

text: November 14 – The Yves Saint Laurent luxury fashion brand is founded in Rue La Boetie, Paris (France), by Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé.


section: Technology & Infrastructure

text: March 13 – 1961 Kurenivka mudslide: A dam bursts in Kiev, USSR, killing 145.


date: May 9

text: May 9 – In a speech on "Television and the Public Interest" to the National Association of Broadcasters in the United States, FCC chairman Newton N. Minow describes commercial television programming as a "vast wasteland".


date: June 12

text: June 12 – A patent for the body electrode invented by Richard M. Berman and Bernard Schwartz is applied for.


date: August 1

text: August 1 – The Six Flags Over Texas theme park officially opens to the public.


date: August 13

text: August 13 – Berlin Crisis of 1961: Construction of the Berlin Wall begins, restricting movement between East Berlin and West Berlin, and forming a clear boundary between West Germany and East Germany, Western Europe and Eastern Europe (until 1989, when Berlin and Germany both reunified in 1990, following the Fall of the Berlin Wall). On August 22 Ida Siekmann jumps from a window in her tenement building trying to flee to the West, becoming the first of at least 138 deaths at the Wall.


date: October 29

text: October 29 – Devrim, the first ever car designed and produced in Turkey, is released. The project has been completed in only 130 days almost from scratch, a period including decision on the project, research, design, development and production of four vehicles.


text: October 29 – DZBB-TV Channel 7, the Philippines' third TV station, is launched.


date: November 2

text: November 2 – Kean opens at Broadway Theater in New York City for 92 performances.


date: December 5

text: December 5 – U.S. President John F. Kennedy gives support to the Volta Dam project in Ghana.


date: December 31

text: December 31 – Ireland's first national television station, Telefís Éireann (later Raidió Teilifís Éireann), begins broadcasting.


date: January 31

section: Science & Discovery

text: January 31 – Ham, a 37-pound (17-kg) male chimpanzee, is rocketed into space aboard Mercury-Redstone 2, in a test of the Project Mercury spacecraft, designed to carry United States astronauts into space.


date: February 1

text: February 1 – The United States tests its first Minuteman I intercontinental ballistic missile.


date: February 12

text: February 12 – The USSR launches Venera 1 towards Venus.


date: February 14

text: February 14 – Discovery of the chemical elements: Element 103, Lawrencium, is first synthesized in Berkeley, California.


date: February 15

text: February 15 – The total solar eclipse of February 15, 1961, visible in the southern part of Europe, occurs.


date: March 8

text: March 8 – The first U.S. Polaris submarines arrive at Holy Loch in Scotland.


date: April 12

text: April 12 – Vostok 1: Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human in space, orbiting the Earth once before parachuting to the ground.


date: May 5

text: May 5 – Mercury program: Alan Shepard becomes the first American in space, aboard Mercury-Redstone 3.


date: May 15

text: May 15 – J. Heinrich Matthaei alone performs the Poly-U-Experiment, and is the first person to recognize and understand the genetic code. This is the birthdate of modern genetics.


date: May 19

text: May 19 – Venera 1 becomes the first man-made object to fly-by another planet by passing Venus (however, the probe lost contact with Earth a month earlier, and does not send back any data).


date: May 25

text: May 25 – Apollo program: U.S. President Kennedy announces, before a special joint session of Congress, that the United States "should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth".


date: June 16

text: June 16 – Soviet ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev defects to the West at Paris–Le Bourget Airport while on tour with the Kirov Ballet.


date: July 5

text: July 5 – The first Israeli rocket, Shavit 2, is launched.


date: July 19

text: July 19 – Trans World Airlines becomes the first airline to show regularly scheduled movies during its flights, presenting By Love Possessed to 1st-class passengers.


date: July 21

text: July 21 – Mercury program: Gus Grissom, piloting the Mercury-Redstone 4 spacecraft Liberty Bell 7, becomes the second American to go into space (sub-orbital). After splashdown, the hatch prematurely opens, and the spacecraft sinks (it is recovered in 1999).


date: August 6

text: August 6 – Vostok 2: Soviet cosmonaut Gherman Titov becomes the second human to orbit the Earth, and the first to be in outer space for more than one day.


date: August 7

text: August 7 – Vostok 2 lands in the Soviet Union.


date: August 11

text: August 11 – An annular solar eclipse is visible from the Southern Ocean.


date: September 19

text: September 19 – American couple Barney and Betty Hill claim that they saw a UFO as they returned from a trip to Canada through New Hampshire where they live. They later claim that they were abducted by aliens, among the first claimants of such an abduction.


date: November 9

text: November 9 – Robert White records a world air speed record of 6587 km/h, in an X-15.


date: March 30

section: Health & Medicine

text: March 30 – The Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs is signed at New York.


date: November 1

text: November 1 – The U.S. Interstate Commerce Commission's federal order banning segregation at all interstate public facilities officially comes into effect.


text: November 1 – The Hungry generation Movement is launched in Calcutta, India.


date: January 9

section: Crime & Justice

text: January 9 – British authorities announce they have uncovered a large Soviet spy ring, the Portland spy ring, in London.


date: February 13

text: February 13 – The Congo government announces that villagers have killed Patrice Lumumba.


date: April 11

text: April 11 – The trial of Nazi Adolf Eichmann begins in Jerusalem.


date: May 8

text: May 8 – British intelligence officer George Blake is sentenced to 42 years imprisonment for spying, having been found guilty of being a double agent in the pay of the Soviet Union, the longest non-life sentence ever handed down by a British court.


date: May 24

text: May 24 – Civil rights movement: Freedom Riders are arrested in Jackson, Mississippi for "disturbing the peace", after disembarking from their bus.


date: May 30

text: May 30 – Rafael Leónidas Trujillo, ruler of the Dominican Republic since 1930, is killed in an ambush.


date: June 22

text: June 22 – Moise Tshombe is released for lack of evidence of his connection to the murder of Patrice Lumumba.


date: August 21

text: August 21 – Jomo Kenyatta is released from prison in Kenya.


date: October 12

text: October 12 – The death penalty is abolished in New Zealand.


date: October 31

text: October 31 – Joseph Stalin's body is removed from the Lenin Mausoleum in Moscow.


date: November 11

text: November 11 – Congolese soldiers murder 13 Italian United Nations pilots.


date: December 11

text: December 11 – Adolf Eichmann is pronounced guilty of crimes against humanity for his part in The Holocaust by a war crimes tribunal of three Israeli judges. On December 15 he is sentenced to death.


date: December 30

text: December 30 – Congolese troops capture Albert Kalonji of South Kasai (who soon escapes).


date: January 3

section: Disasters & Accidents

text: January 3 – Aero Flight 311 (Koivulahti air disaster): Douglas DC-3C OH-LCC of Finnish airline Aero crashes near Kvevlax (Koivulahti), on approach to Vaasa Airport in Finland, killing all 25 on board, due to pilot error: an investigation finds that the captain and first officer were both exhausted for lack of sleep, and had consumed excessive amounts of alcohol at the time of the crash.


date: January 24

text: January 24 – 1961 Goldsboro B-52 crash: A B-52 Stratofortress, carrying two nuclear bombs, crashes near Goldsboro, North Carolina.


date: January 27

text: January 27 – Soviet submarine S-80 sinks in the Barents Sea, killing all 68 crew.


date: February 15

text: February 15 – Sabena Flight 548 crashes near Brussels, Belgium, killing 73, including the entire United States figure skating team and several coaches.


date: March 13

text: March 13 – A second B-52 crashes near Yuba City, California, after cabin pressure is lost and the fuel runs out. Two nuclear weapons are found unexploded.


date: April 8

text: April 8 – British India Steam Navigation Company passenger ship ' blows up and sinks off Dubai; 238 passengers and crew are killed.


date: April 24

text: April 24 – Swedish warship Vasa, sunk on her maiden voyage in 1628, is recovered from Stockholm Harbor.


date: May 1

text: May 1 – National Airlines Flight 337, internal to Florida, is forced by an armed hijacker to fly to Cuba, the first of a spate of such aircraft hijackings.


date: June 17

text: June 17 – A Paris-to-Strasbourg train derails near Vitry-le-François; 24 are killed, 109 injured.


date: July 7

text: July 7 – A coal mine in Czechoslovakia has one of its sections closed off in order to extinguish a fire and prevent an explosion, causing the suffocation of 108 miners still present.


date: July 12

text: July 12 – A Czechoslovak Ilyushin Il-18 crashes while attempting to land at Casablanca, Morocco, killing all 72 on board.


date: August 29

text: August 29 – A French military aircraft clips a cable of the aerial tramway connecting Pointe Helbronner and the Aiguille du Midi in the French Alps. Three cars of the tramway fall, killing five people, but the remaining 63 cable car passengers are rescued and the pilot lands his plane safely.


date: September 10

text: September 10 – During the F1 Italian Grand Prix on the circuit of Monza, German Wolfgang von Trips, driving a Ferrari, crashes into a stand, killing 14 spectators and himself.


date: September 18

text: September 18 – 1961 Ndola United Nations DC-6 crash: Secretary-General of the United Nations Dag Hammarskjöld is one of 16 to die in an air crash en route to Katanga, Congo.


date: November 8

text: November 8 – Imperial Airlines Flight 201/8 crashes while attempting to land at Richmond, Virginia, United States, killing 77 people on board.


date: December 17

text: December 17 – A circus tent fire in Niterói, Brazil kills 323.


date: May 22

section: Climate & Environment

text: May 22 – 1961 New South Wales earthquake.


date: June 1

text: June 1 – Ethiopia experiences its most devastating earthquake of the 20th century, with a magnitude of 6.7. The town of Majete is destroyed, 45% of the houses in Karakore collapse, 17 km mi of the main road north of Karakore are damaged by landslides and fissures, and 5,000 inhabitants in the area are left homeless.


date: October 10

text: October 10 – A volcanic eruption on Tristan da Cunha causes the whole population to be evacuated to Britain, where they will remain until 1963.


date: October 31

text: October 31 – Hurricane Hattie devastates Belize City, Belize killing over 270. After the hurricane, the capital moves to the inland city of Belmopan.


date: November 17

text: November 17 – Michael Rockefeller, son of Governor of New York and later Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, disappears in the jungles of New Guinea.


date: January 5

section: Culture & Society

text: January 5 – Italian sculptor Alfredo Fioravanti enters the U.S. Consulate in Rome, and confesses that he was part of the team that forged the Etruscan terracotta warriors in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.


date: January 28

text: January 28 – Supercar, the first family sci-fi TV series filmed in Supermarionation, debuts on ATV in the UK.


date: March 13

text: March 13 – Monash University in Melbourne, Australia takes in its first students.


date: March 18

text: March 18 – "Nous les amoureux" sung by Jean-Claude Pascal (music by Jacques Datin, lyrics by Maurice Vidalin) wins the Eurovision Song Contest 1961 (staged in Cannes) for Luxembourg.


date: April 10

text: April 10 – South African golfer Gary Player becomes the first non-American to win the Masters Tournament.


date: April 17

text: April 17 – The 33rd Academy Awards ceremony is held in Santa Monica, California: The Apartment (1960) wins most awards, including Best Picture.


date: April 23

text: April 23 – Judy Garland performs in a legendary comeback concert at Carnegie Hall in New York City.


date: April 27

text: April 27 – President Kennedy urges newspapers to consider national interest in times of struggle against "a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy", in an address before the American Newspaper Publishers Association.


date: May 6

text: May 6 – Tottenham Hotspur F.C. becomes the first team in the 20th century to win the English league and cup double. , this is the last time Tottenham have won the English League.


date: May 28

text: May 28 – Peter Benenson's article "The Forgotten Prisoners" is published in several internationally read newspapers. This is later considered the founding of the human rights organization Amnesty International.


date: May 31

text: May 31 – Benfica beats FC Barcelona 3–2 at Wankdorf Stadium, Bern and wins the 1960–61 European Cup in association football.


date: September 12

text: September 12 – The African and Malagasy Union is founded.


date: September 17

text: September 17 – The world's first retractable roof stadium, the Civic Arena, opens in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States.


date: September 24

text: September 24 – In the U.S., the Walt Disney anthology television series, renamed Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color, moves from ABC to NBC after seven years on the air, and begins telecasting its programs in color for the first time. Years later, after Disney's death, the still-on-the-air program will be renamed The Wonderful World of Disney.


text: September 24 – The old Deutsche Opernhaus in the Berlin neighborhood of Charlottenburg is returned to its newly rebuilt house, as the Deutsche Oper Berlin.


date: October 25

text: October 25 – The first edition of Private Eye, the British satirical magazine, is published.


date: December 14

text: December 14 – Walt Disney's first live-action Technicolor musical, Babes in Toyland, a remake of the famous Victor Herbert operetta, is released, but flops at the box office.


date: December 23

text: December 23 – Luxembourg's national holiday, the Grand Duke's Official Birthday, is set on June 23 by Grand Ducal decree.


date: March 26

text: March 26 – William Hague, leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Foreign Secretary

source_section: Births › March


date: April 18

text: April 18 – Élisabeth Borne, French politician, Prime Minister of France

source_section: Births › April


date: June 1

text: June 1 – Yevgeny Prigozhin, Russian oligarch, mercenary chief and restaurateur (d. 2023)

source_section: Births › June


date: June 20

text: June 20 – Joko Widodo, 7th President of Indonesia


date: June 25

text: June 25 – Ricky Gervais, English comedian, actor, writer, director, and singer in Seona Dancing


date: July 1

text: July 1 – Diana, Princess of Wales, born The Hon. Diana Spencer, English princess consort as first wife of Charles, Prince of Wales (d. 1997)

source_section: Births › July


date: July 17

text: July 17 – António Costa, Portuguese politician, 119th Prime Minister (2015–present)


date: August 20

text: August 20 – Manuel Merino, Peruvian politician, 68th President of Peru

source_section: Births › August


date: September 13

text: September 13 – Dave Mustaine, American singer-songwriter and guitarist

source_section: Births › September


date: September 29

text: September 29 – Julia Gillard, 27th Prime Minister of Australia


date: October 30

text: October 30 – Dmitry Muratov, Russian campaigning journalist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize

source_section: Births › October


date: December 8

text: December 8 – Ann Coulter, American author, conservative commentator and attorney

source_section: Births › December


date: December 24

text: December 24 – Ilham Aliyev, 7th Prime Minister of Azerbaijan and 4th President of Azerbaijan


date: December 30

text: December 30 – Sean Hannity, American radio/television host and conservative commentator


date: January 4

text: January 4 – Erwin Schrödinger, Austrian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1887)

source_section: Deaths › January


date: January 17

text: January 17 – Patrice Lumumba, 1st Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (b. 1925)


date: April 9

text: April 9 – Zog I of Albania, Albanian political leader, 11th Prime Minister of Albania, 7th President of Albania and King of Albania (b. 1895)

source_section: Deaths › April


date: July 2

text: July 2 – Ernest Hemingway, American writer, Nobel Prize laureate (suicide) (b. 1899)

source_section: Deaths › July


date: July 12

text: July 12 – Two dams that supply water to the city of Pune in India burst, causing the death of more than 1000 residents.


text: July 17 – Ty Cobb, American baseball player and a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame (b. 1886)


date: September 18

text: September 18 – Dag Hammarskjöld, Swedish diplomat, politician and author, 2nd Secretary General of the United Nations, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1905)

source_section: Deaths › September


date: October 19

text: October 19 – Sergio Osmeña, Filipino politician, 4th President of the Philippines (b. 1878)

source_section: Deaths › October


date: November 16

text: November 16 – Sam Rayburn, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (b. 1882)

source_section: Deaths › November


date: November 19

text: November 19 – Michael Rockefeller, son of Nelson Rockefeller (disappeared on date) (born 1938)


date: December 2

text: December 2 – Dulcie Mary Pillers, English medical illustrator (b. 1891)

source_section: Deaths › December


date: December 9

text: December 9 – 1961 Australian federal election: Robert Menzies' Liberal/Country Coalition Government is re-elected with a one-seat majority, narrowly defeating the Labor Party led by Arthur Calwell. One of the closest election results in Australian history, such a result will not be replicated again until 2016. Notably, former Prime Minister Earle Page loses his seat, although he dies a few days later, never knowing the result.

source_section: Events › December


date: December 20

text: December 20 – Sir Earle Page, Australian politician, 11th Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1880)


date: December 28

text: December 28 – Edith Wilson, First Lady of the United States from 1915 to 1921 (b. 1872)


date: January 13

text: January 13 – Albania allies itself with the People's Republic of China.

source_section: Events › January


date: February 15

text: February 15 – Urho Kekkonen is re-elected president of Finland.

source_section: Events › February


date: March 8

text: March 8–12 – In Geneva, France and the Algerian FLN begin negotiations.

source_section: Events › March


date: March 18

text: March 18 – Évian Accords: France and Algeria sign an agreement in Évian-les-Bains, ending the Algerian War.


date: March 23

text: March 23 – The Scandinavian States of the Nordic Council sign the Helsinki Convention on Nordic Co-operation.


date: April 3

text: April 3 – Jawaharlal Nehru is elected de facto Prime Minister of India, for the fourth time.

source_section: Events › April


date: April 8

text: April 8 – In France, the Évian Accords are adopted in a referendum, with a majority of 90%.


date: May 6

text: May 6 – Antonio Segni is elected President of the Italian Republic.

source_section: Events › May


date: May 31

text: May 31 – The British West Indies Federation is officially wound up (under terms of the U.K. West Indies Act of 18 April) due to internal dissention.


date: June 15

text: June 15 – Students for a Democratic Society in the United States complete the Port Huron Statement.

source_section: Events › June


date: June 17

text: June 17 – The OAS signs a truce with the FLN in Algeria, but a day later announces that it will continue the fight on behalf of French Algerians.


date: June 25

text: June 25 – İsmet İnönü of the CHP forms the new government of Turkey (27th government, coalition partners; YTP and CKMP).


date: July 1

text: July 1 – 1962 Algerian independence referendum in French Algeria: Supporters of Algerian independence win a 99% majority in a referendum.

source_section: Events › July


date: July 25

text: July 25 – The International Agreement on the Neutrality of Laos is signed in Geneva.


date: July 31

text: July 31 – Algeria proclaims independence; Ahmed Ben Bella is the first President.


date: August 15

text: August 15 – The New York Agreement is signed, transferring the Dutch West New Guinea colony to Indonesia.

source_section: Events › August


date: August 16

text: August 16 – Algeria joins the Arab League.


date: August 31

text: August 31 – The Caribbean island nation of Trinidad and Tobago becomes fully independent of the United Kingdom's British Empire.


date: September 1

text: September 1 – A referendum in Singapore supports the Malayan Federation.

source_section: Events › September


date: October 5

text: October 5 – The French National Assembly censures the proposed referendum to sanction presidential elections by popular mandate; Prime Minister Georges Pompidou resigns, but President de Gaulle asks him to stay in office.

source_section: Events › October


date: November

text: Slavery in Saudi Arabia is abolished.

source_section: Events › November


date: December 7

text: December 7 – Rainier III, Prince of Monaco revises the principality's constitution, devolving some of his formerly autocratic power to several advisory and legislative councils.


date: December 9

text: December 9 – Tanganyika (modern-day Tanzania) becomes a republic within the Commonwealth of Nations, with Julius Nyerere as president.


date: December 19

text: December 19 – Britain acknowledges the right of Nyasaland (modern-day Malawi) to secede from the Central African Federation.


date: January 12

text: January 12 – The Indonesian Army confirms that it has begun operations in West Irian.


date: January 24

text: January 24 – The Organisation armée secrète (OAS, a right-wing paramilitary organization opposed to Algerian independence) bombs the French Foreign Ministry.


date: January 27

text: January 27 – The Soviet government changes all place names honoring Molotov, Kaganovich and Georgy Malenkov.


date: February 3

text: February 3 – A United States embargo against Cuba is announced.


date: February 7

text: February 7 – The United States embargo against Cuba comes into effect, prohibiting all U.S.-related Cuban imports and exports.


date: March 2

text: March 2 – A military coup in Burma brings General Ne Win to power.


date: March 19

text: March 19 – An armistice begins in Algeria; however, the OAS continues its terrorist attacks against Algerians.


date: March

text: March–May – Yi–Ta incident: At least 60,000 Chinese citizens migrate from the People's Republic of China to the Soviet Union, predominantly (but not exclusively) ethnic Kazakhs.


date: May 1

text: May 1 – Norwich City F.C. wins the English Football League Cup, beating Rochdale in the final.


date: May 23

text: May 23 – Ruben Jaramillo, Mexican peasant leader, and his wife and children, are gunned down by the Mexican army and federal police in Xochitepec, Morelos, Mexico.


date: June 30

text: June 30 – The last soldiers of the French Foreign Legion leave Algeria.


date: July 13

text: July 13 – In what the press dubs the "Night of the Long Knives", United Kingdom Prime Minister Harold Macmillan dismisses one-third of his Cabinet.


date: August 11

text: August 11 – King Kong vs. Godzilla is released in Japan, becoming the first Godzilla and King Kong film in colour. It also becomes the 3rd film in both franchises.


date: August 22

text: August 22 – Petit-Clamart attack: An assassination attempt is made against French President Charles de Gaulle by machine-gunning his car in the Paris suburbs. The mastermind, Jean Bastien-Thiry, will later be executed.


date: August 24

text: August 24 – A group of armed Cuban exile terrorists fire at a hotel in Havana from a speedboat.


date: October 16

text: October 16 – Cuban Missile Crisis begins when U.S. President Kennedy is told of photographs (taken from U-2 flights) showing Soviet nuclear weapon installations being constructed on Cuba in the Caribbean. A stand-off ensues for 12 days between the United States and the Soviet Union, threatening the world with nuclear war.


date: October 27

text: October 27 – Cuban Missile Crisis: Vasily Arkhipov, executive officer of Soviet submarine B-59, refuses to launch nuclear torpedoes against the U.S. Navy. This event is widely regarded as crucial in averting a worldwide nuclear war.


date: October

text: The first black student, James Meredith, registers at the University of Mississippi, escorted by Federal Marshals to protect him from official obstruction and violent segregationalist protest, the "Ole Miss riot of 1962".


date: November 20

text: November 20 – Cuban Missile Crisis: In response to the Soviet Union agreeing to remove its missiles from Cuba, President John F. Kennedy ends the blockade of the island.


date: November 21

text: November 21 – The Sino-Indian War ends with a Chinese victory with India surrendering Aksai Chin to China.


date: December 2

text: December 2 – Vietnam War: After a trip to Vietnam at the request of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield becomes the first American official to make a pessimistic public comment on the war's progress.


date: December 8

text: December 8 – The North Kalimantan National Army revolts in Brunei, in the first stirrings of the Indonesian Confrontation.


date: December 24

text: December 24 – Cuba releases the last 1,113 participants in the Bay of Pigs Invasion to the U.S., in exchange for food worth $53 million.


date: December 30

text: December 30 – United Nations troops occupy the last rebel positions in Katanga; Moise Tshombe moves to South Rhodesia.


date: February 18

text: February 18 – 1962 NHRA Winternationals: Carol Cox becomes the first woman allowed to race at a National Hot Rod Association national event in the United States; she wins in the Super Stock class.


date: March 15

text: March 15 – Katangan Prime Minister Moise Tshombe begins negotiations to rejoin the Congo.


date: May 1

text: May 1 – Dayton Hudson Corporation opens the first of its Target discount stores, in Roseville, Minnesota.


date: July 30

text: July 30 – Trans-Canada Highway officially opens throughout the 4645 mi between St. John's, Newfoundland, and Victoria, British Columbia, by completion of the Rogers Pass section, making it at this time the world's longest uninterrupted highway.


date: November 17

text: November 17 – Dulles International Airport, in Washington, D.C., is dedicated by President John F. Kennedy.


date: January 3

text: January 3 – The office of Pope John XXIII announces the excommunication of Fidel Castro for preaching communism and interfering with Catholic churches in Cuba.


date: May 25

text: May 25 – The new Coventry Cathedral is consecrated in England. On 30 May, Benjamin Britten's War Requiem is premiered here.


date: October 11

text: October 11 – Second Vatican Council: Pope John XXIII convenes the first ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church in 92 years.


text: December 8 – The first period of the Second Vatican Council closes.


date: February 14

text: February 14 – First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy takes television viewers on a tour of the White House.


date: May 5

text: May 5 – Twelve East Germans escape to the West via a tunnel under the Berlin Wall.


date: July 23

text: July 23 – Telstar relays the first live trans-Atlantic television signal.


date: July 25

text: July 25 – The first attack helicopter company, Utility Tactical Transport Helicopter Company, of the United States Army is formed on Okinawa Island, Japan.


date: August 24

text: August 24 – Indonesia officially launches television with the establishment of TVRI television network or Televisi Republik Indonesia (Indonesian National Channel), broadcasting the opening of the 1962 Asian Games.


date: September 12

text: September 12 – The first Kohl's department store chain is opened in Brookfield, Wisconsin.


date: October

text: Johnny Carson takes over as permanent host of NBC's The Tonight Show on television, a post he will hold for 30 years.


date: November 3

text: November 3 – Earliest recorded use of the term "personal computer", in the report of a speech by computing pioneer John Mauchly in The New York Times.


date: November 24

text: November 24 – The first episode of That Was the Week That Was, the groundbreaking satirical comedy program hosted by David Frost, is broadcast on BBC Television in the United Kingdom.


date: November 26

text: November 26 – Mies Bouwman starts presenting the first live TV-marathon fundraising show (Open Het Dorp in the Netherlands), which lasts 23 hours non-stop.


date: December 15

text: December 15 – Storm over the North Sea: Belgian pirate radio station Radio Uylenspiegel is knocked off the airwaves, never to operate again.


date: January 26

text: January 26 – U.S. spacecraft Ranger 3 is launched to study the Moon; it later misses the Moon by 22,000 mi km.


date: February 4

text: February 4 – First successful winter ascent of the Matterhorn's north face, by Hilti von Allmen and Paul Etter, is completed.


text: February 4–5 – During a new moon and solar eclipse, an extremely rare grand conjunction of the classical planets occurs (it includes all five of the naked-eye planets plus the Sun and Moon), all of them within 16° of one another on the ecliptic. The total solar eclipse of February 5, 1962 is visible in Asia, Australia and the Pacific Ocean, and is the 49th solar eclipse of Solar Saros 130.


date: February 10

text: February 10 – Captured American spy pilot Francis Gary Powers is exchanged for captured Soviet spy Rudolf Abel, in Berlin.


date: February 20

text: February 20 – Project Mercury: Aboard Friendship 7, John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit the Earth, three times in 4 hours, 55 minutes.


date: April 21

text: April 21 – The Century 21 Exposition World's Fair opens in Seattle, United States. This is also the Opening Day of the Seattle Space Needle.


date: May 6

text: May 6 – A test of a W47 warhead fired from a Polaris missile – the only time a nuclear missile has been test fired with its warhead detonated – occurs near Palmyra Atoll south of Hawaii.


date: May 24

text: May 24 – Project Mercury: Scott Carpenter orbits the Earth 3 times, in the U.S. Aurora 7 space capsule.


date: July 10

text: July 10 – AT&T's Telstar, the world's first commercial communications satellite, is launched into orbit and activated the next day.


date: July 14

text: July 14 – Norma Nolan of Argentina is crowned Miss Universe 1962.


date: July 17

text: July 17 – Nuclear testing: The "Small Boy" test shot Little Feller I becomes the last atmospheric test detonation, at the Nevada Test Site.


date: July 22

text: July 22 – Mariner program: The U.S. Mariner 1 spacecraft flies erratically several minutes after launch and has to be destroyed.


date: July 31

text: July 31 – Solar eclipse of July 31, 1962: An annular solar eclipse is visible in South America, the Atlantic Ocean, Africa and the Indian Ocean, and is the 36th solar eclipse of Solar Saros 135.


date: August 13

text: August 13 – First successful ascent of the Matterhorn's west face, by Renato Daguin and Giovanni Ottin.


date: August 18

text: August 18 – Norway launches its 1st sounding rocket, Ferdinand 1, from Andøya Space Center and becomes a space nation.


date: August 27

text: August 27 – NASA launches the Mariner 2 space probe.


date: September 12

text: September 12 – President John F. Kennedy, in his "We choose to go to the Moon" speech at Rice University, reaffirms that the U.S. will put a man on the Moon by the end of the decade.


date: September 29

text: September 29 – The Canadian Alouette 1, the first satellite built outside the United States and the Soviet Union, is launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.


date: October 3

text: October 3 – Project Mercury: Mercury-Atlas 8 – U.S. astronaut Walter Schirra orbits the Earth six times, in the Sigma 7 space capsule.


date: November 1

text: November 1 – The Soviet Union begins dismantling its missiles in Cuba.


date: December 14

text: December 14 – U.S. spacecraft Mariner 2 passes by Venus, becoming the first spacecraft to transmit data from another planet.


date: March 7

text: March 7 – Ash Wednesday Storm: A snow storm batters the Mid-Atlantic.


date: April 18

text: April 18 – The Commonwealth Immigrants Act in the United Kingdom removes free immigration from the citizens of member states of the Commonwealth of Nations, requiring proof of employment in the U.K. This comes into effect on 1 July.


date: July 1

text: July 1 – A heavy smog develops over London.


text: 1962–1965 rubella epidemic, originating in Europe and spreading to the United States.

source_section: Events › Ongoing


date: February 12

text: February 12 – Six members of the Committee of 100 of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in the U.K. are found guilty of a breach of the Official Secrets Act.


date: March 24

text: March 24 – OAS leader Edmond Jouhaud is arrested in Oran.


date: April 7

text: April 7 – Milovan Đilas, author and former vice-president of Yugoslavia is re-arrested.


date: April 13

text: April 13 – OAS leader Edmond Jouhaud is sentenced to death in France.


date: April 14

text: April 14 – A Cuban military tribunal convicts 1,179 Bay of Pigs attackers.


date: April 20

text: April 20 – OAS leader Raoul Salan is arrested in Algiers.


date: May 14

text: May 14 – Milovan Đilas is given a further sentence in Yugoslavia, for publishing Conversations with Stalin.


date: May 23

text: May 23 – Raoul Salan, founder of the French terrorist Organisation armée secrète, is sentenced to life imprisonment in France.


date: June 12

text: June 12 – Alcatraz escape attempt: Frank Morris, John Anglin and Clarence Anglin escape from the Alcatraz Island prison in the United States; it is never confirmed that they make it ashore.


date: August 5

text: August 5 – Anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela is arrested by the South African government near Howick, and charged with incitement to rebellion. On November 7, he is sentenced to imprisonment.


date: August 17

text: August 17 – East German border guards kill 18-year-old Peter Fechter as he attempts to cross the Berlin Wall into West Berlin, leading to mass protests on the Western side.


date: October 22

text: October 22 – John Vassall, a former clerical officer in British naval intelligence, is sentenced to 18 years imprisonment after admitting to passing secret material to the Soviet Union.


date: October 26

text: October 26 – Spiegel affair: German police occupy the offices of Der Spiegel in Hamburg.


date: November 1

text: November 1 – The comic book antihero Diabolik first appears in Italy.


date: November 2

text: November 2 – Greville Wynne, a British trader acting as a courier for MI6, is arrested by the KGB in Budapest and imprisoned in Moscow after confessing to espionage.


date: November 5

text: November 5 – West German defense minister Franz Josef Strauß is relieved of his duties over the Spiegel affair due to his alleged involvement in police action against the magazine.


date: November 26

text: November 26 – Spiegel affair: German police end their occupation of the offices of Der Spiegel.


date: December 14

text: December 14 – Leonardo da Vinci's early 16th-century painting the Mona Lisa is assessed for insurance purposes at US$100 million before touring the United States for several months, the highest insurance value for a painting in history. However, the Louvre, its owner, chooses to spend the money that would have been spent on the insurance premium on security instead.


date: January 8

text: January 8 – Harmelen train disaster: 93 die in the worst Dutch rail disaster.


date: January 30

text: January 30 – Two of the high-wire "Flying Wallendas" are killed when their famous seven-person pyramid collapses during a performance in Detroit.


date: February 7

text: February 7 – Luisenthal Mine Disaster: A coal mine explosion in Saarland, West Germany, kills 299.


date: March 1

text: March 1 – American Airlines Flight 1 (a Boeing 707) crashes on takeoff at New York International Airport, after a rudder malfunction causes an uncontrolled roll, resulting in the loss of control of the aircraft, with the loss of all 95 on board.


date: March 16

text: March 16 – Flying Tiger Line Flight 739, a Lockheed L-1049H Super Constellation chartered by the United States Military Air Transport Service, and carrying mainly United States Army personnel bound for South Vietnam, vanishes over the western Pacific Ocean, with the loss of all 107 on board (no wreckage or bodies are ever found).


date: April 26

text: April 26 – The U.S. Ranger 4 spacecraft crashes into the far side of the Moon without returning any scientific data.


date: May 3

text: May 3 – Mikawashima train crash: 160 die in a triple-train disaster near Tokyo.


date: May 22

text: May 22 – Continental Airlines Flight 11 crashes near Unionville, Missouri, after the in-flight detonation of a bomb near the rear lavatory in a suicide bombing committed as insurance fraud; all 45 passengers and crew aboard are killed.


date: June 3

text: June 3 – Air France Flight 007 (a Boeing 707) crashes on take-off at Orly Airport in Paris; 130 of 132 people on board are killed, 2 flight attendants survive. Most victims are cultural and civic leaders of Atlanta.


date: June 22

text: June 22 – Air France Flight 117 (a Boeing 707 jet) crashes into terrain during bad weather in Guadeloupe in the West Indies, killing all 113 on board, the airline's second fatal accident in just 3 weeks, and the third fatal 707 crash of the year.


date: September 23

text: September 23 – Flying Tiger Line Flight 923, a Lockheed L-1049H Super Constellation registered as N6923C, ditched into the Atlantic Ocean killing 28 occupants out of 76 on board. The remaining 48 were rescued six hours later.


text: November 5 – A coal mining disaster in Ny-Ålesund kills 21 people; the Norwegian government is forced to resign in the aftermath of this accident, in August 1963.


date: November 23

text: November 23 – United Air Lines Flight 297 crashes in Columbia, Maryland due to a bird strike, killing all 17 on board.


date: February 17

text: February 17 – Heavy storms and high tides result in the North Sea flood of 1962 on Germany's North Sea coast, mainly around Hamburg; more than 300 people die and thousands lose their homes.


date: September 1

text: September 1 – Typhoon Wanda strikes Hong Kong, killing at least 130 and injuring more than 600.


date: September 26

text: September 26 – The North Yemen Civil War erupts.


date: September 27

text: September 27 – A flash flood in Barcelona, Spain, kills more than 440 people.


date: October 8

text: October 8 – Spiegel affair: German magazine Der Spiegel publishes an article revealing NATO criticism of the Bundeswehr (West German defence forces)' poor preparedness; a political scandal erupts.


date: October 20

text: October 20 – The Sino-Indian War, a border dispute involving two of the world's largest nations (India and the People's Republic of China), erupts into fighting.


date: December 30

text: December 30 – An unexpected storm buries Maine under five feet of snow, forcing the Bangor Daily News to miss a publication date for the only time in history. The same day, also, the Netherlands are covered with several feet of snow.


date: January 15

text: January 15 – French designer Yves Saint Laurent launches his own fashion house.


date: February 11

text: February 11 – The inaugural 24 Hours of Daytona sports car endurance race is run as a 3-hour event, at Daytona Beach, Florida, United States.


date: March 18

text: March 18 – "Un premier amour", sung by Isabelle Aubret (music by Claude-Henri Vic, lyrics by Roland Stephane Valade), wins the Eurovision Song Contest 1962 (staged in Luxembourg) for France.


date: April 9

text: April 9 – The 34th Academy Awards Ceremony is held in the United States; West Side Story wins Best Picture.


date: May 2

text: May 2 – S.L. Benfica beats Real Madrid 5–3 at the Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam to win the 1961–62 European Cup in association football.


date: May 14

text: May 14 – Juan Carlos of Spain marries the Greek Princess Sophia in Athens.


date: May 30

text: May 30 – The 1962 FIFA World Cup begins in Chile.


date: June 11

text: June 11 – U.S. President John F. Kennedy gives the commencement address at Yale University.


date: June 17

text: June 17 – Brazil beats Czechoslovakia 3–1, to win the 1962 FIFA World Cup.


date: June 25

text: June 25 – Engel v. Vitale: The United States Supreme Court rules that mandatory prayers in public schools are unconstitutional.


text: June 25 – MANual Enterprises v. Day: The United States Supreme Court rules that photographs of nude men are not obscene, decriminalizing nude male pornographic magazines.


date: June 26

text: June 26 – A 2-day steel strike begins in Italy in support of increased wages and a five-day working week.


date: July 12

text: July 12 – The Rolling Stones make their debut at London's Marquee Club, opening for Long John Baldry.


date: July 19

text: July 19 – The first annual Swiss & Wielder Hoop and Stick Tournament is held.


date: September 19

text: September 19 – Atlantic College opens its doors for the first time in Wales, marking the birth of the pioneering United World College educational movement.


date: September 22

text: September 22 – Bob Dylan premieres his song "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall", at Carnegie Hall in New York City.


date: November 6

text: November 6 – Apartheid: The United Nations General Assembly passes a resolution condemning South Africa's racist apartheid policies and calls for all UN member states to cease military and economic relations with the nation.


date: November 25

text: November 25 – The 1962 Bavarian state election is held.


date: December 8

text: December 8 – The 1962–63 New York City newspaper strike begins, affecting all of the city's major newspapers; it will last for 114 days.


date: December 10

text: December 10 – David Lean's epic film Lawrence of Arabia, featuring Peter O'Toole, Omar Sharif, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins and Anthony Quinn, premieres in London; 6 days later, it opens in the U.S.


date: February 6

text: February 6 – Axl Rose, American musician, singer-songwriter of Guns N' Roses

source_section: Births › February


date: February 15

text: February 15 – Srettha Thavisin, Thai businessman and politician, 30th Prime Minister of Thailand


date: April 12

text: April 12 – Sheila Kennedy, American model, actress and contestant on Big Brother 9

source_section: Births › April


date: April 13

text: April 13 – Hillel Slovak, Israeli-American guitarist (Red Hot Chili Peppers) (d. 1988)


date: April 16

text: April 16 – Antony Blinken, American diplomat, 71st United States Secretary of State


date: May 17

text: May 17 – Ferenc Krausz, Hungarian-born attosecond physicist, Nobel Prize laureate

source_section: Births › May


date: May 31

text: May 31 – Dina Boluarte, Peruvian politician, 64th President of Peru


date: June 12

text: June 12 – Jordan Peterson, Canadian clinical psychologist and professor of psychology

source_section: Births › June


date: August 18

text: August 18 – Felipe Calderón, Mexican politician, 50th President of Mexico

source_section: Births › August


date: September 2

text: September 2 – Keir Starmer, British politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

source_section: Births › September


date: November 1

text: November 1 – Anthony Kiedis, American rock singer (Red Hot Chili Peppers)

source_section: Births › November


date: November 12

text: November 12 – Naomi Wolf, American author, feminist and political consultant


date: November 28

text: November 28 – Jon Stewart, American actor, comedian, media critic and television personality, host of The Daily Show (1999–2015)


date: December 21

text: December 21 – Steven Mnuchin, 77th United States Secretary of the Treasury

source_section: Births › December


date: March 15

text: March 15 – Arthur Compton, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1892)

source_section: Deaths › March


date: May 23

text: May 23 – Rubén Jaramillo, peasant leader, assassinated by the Mexican Army (b. 1900)

source_section: Deaths › May


date: June 2

text: June 2 – Vita Sackville-West, English writer and landscape gardener (b. 1892)

source_section: Deaths › June


date: June 4

text: June 4 – William Beebe, American naturalist, ornithologist, marine biologist and entomologist (b. 1877)


date: July 6

text: July 6 – William Faulkner, American writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1897)

source_section: Deaths › July


date: July 26

text: July 26 – George Preca, Maltese Roman Catholic priest and saint (b. 1880)


date: July 29

text: July 29 – Sir Ronald Fisher, English-born statistician and geneticist (b. 1890)


date: August 5

text: August 5 – Death of Marilyn Monroe: Actress Marilyn Monroe is found dead aged 36 from an overdose of sleeping pills and chloral hydrate at her home in Brentwood, Los Angeles; it is officially ruled a "probable suicide" (the exact cause has been disputed).

source_section: Events › August


date: August 9

text: August 9 – Hermann Hesse, German-born writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1877)

source_section: Deaths › August


date: August 26

text: August 26 – Dušan Simović, Yugoslav general, 18th Prime Minister of Yugoslavia (b. 1882)


date: October 6

text: October 6 – Tod Browning, American film director (b. 1880)

source_section: Deaths › October


date: November 7

text: November 7 – Eleanor Roosevelt, American politician, diplomat and activist, First Lady of the United States (b. 1884)

source_section: Deaths › November


date: November 8

text: November 8 – Willis H. O'Brien, American stop motion animator (b. 1886)


date: November 18

text: November 18 – Niels Bohr, Danish physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1885)


date: January 19

text: January 19 – Soviet spy Gheorghe Pintilie is removed from his position as Deputy Interior Minister of the Romanian People's Republic, as a step in ensuring Romania's political independence; the Workers' Party Politburo discusses way of neutralizing "Soviet intelligence networks [...] which Gheorghe Pintilie had coordinated."

source_section: Events › January


date: February 5

text: February 5 – The European Court of Justice's ruling in Van Gend en Loos v Nederlandse Administratie der Belastingen establishes the principle of direct effect, one of the basic tenets of European Union law.

source_section: Events › February


date: February 27

text: February 27 – Juan Bosch takes office as the 41st president of the Dominican Republic.


date: March 30

text: March 30 – Indigenous Australians are legally allowed to drink alcohol in New South Wales.

source_section: Events › March


date: April 7

text: April 7 – Yugoslavia is proclaimed to be a socialist republic, and Josip Broz Tito is named President for Life.

source_section: Events › April


date: April 22

text: April 22 – Lester Bowles Pearson becomes the 14th Prime Minister of Canada.


date: April 28

text: April 28 – 1963 general election is held in Italy.


date: June 26

text: June 26 – David Ben-Gurion is replaced by Levi Eshkol as prime minister of Israel.

source_section: Events › June


date: July 30

text: July 30 – The Soviet newspaper Izvestia reports that British diplomat and double agent Kim Philby has been given asylum in Moscow.

source_section: Events › July


text: August 5 – The United States, United Kingdom and Soviet Union sign the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.


date: August 30

text: August 30 – The Moscow–Washington hotline (a direct teleprinter link) is inaugurated by U.S. President John F. Kennedy.


date: September 1

text: September 1 – Establishment of language areas and facilities in Belgium comes into effect. This will become the foundation for further state reform in Belgium.

source_section: Events › September


date: September 16

text: September 16 – Malaysia is formed through the merging of the Federation of Malaya and the British crown colony of Singapore, North Borneo (renamed Sabah) and Sarawak.


date: September 24

text: September 24 – The United States Senate ratifies the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.


date: October 2

text: October 2 – Nigeria becomes a republic; The 1st Republican Constitution is established.

source_section: Events › October


text: October 2 – The Presidential Commission on the Status of Women in the United States issues its final reports to President Kennedy.


date: October 10

text: October 10 – Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, signed on August 5, takes effect.


date: October 16

text: October 16 – Ludwig Erhard replaces Konrad Adenauer as Chancellor of West Germany.


date: October 19

text: October 19 – Alec Douglas-Home succeeds Harold Macmillan as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.


date: November 25

text: November 25 – State funeral of John F. Kennedy: President Kennedy is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Schools around the nation cancel classes that day; millions watch the funeral on live international television. Lee Harvey Oswald's funeral takes place on the same day.

source_section: Events › November


date: November 30

text: November 30 – 1963 Australian federal election: Robert Menzies' Liberal/Country Coalition Government is re-elected with an increased majority to an unprecedented eighth term in office, defeating the Labor Party led by Arthur Calwell. (This would be the final lower house election won by Menzies, who would retire from office during the term as the longest-serving Prime Minister in Australian history; he would be replaced by Harold Holt.)


date: December 10

text: December 10 – Zanzibar gains independence from the United Kingdom, as a constitutional monarchy under Sultan Jamshid bin Abdullah.

source_section: Events › December


date: December 12

text: December 12 – Kenya gains independence from the United Kingdom, with Jomo Kenyatta as prime minister.


date: December 31

text: December 31 – Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland dissolves.


date: January 2

text: January 2 – Vietnam War – Battle of Ap Bac: The Viet Cong win their first major victory.


date: January 13

text: January 13 – 1963 Togolese coup d'état: A military coup in Togo results in the installation of coup leader Emmanuel Bodjollé as president.


date: January 26

text: January 26 – The Australia Day shootings rock Perth; 2 people are shot dead and 3 others injured by Eric Edgar Cooke.


date: March 4

text: March 4 – In Paris, six people are sentenced to death for conspiring to assassinate President Charles de Gaulle. De Gaulle pardons five, but the other conspirator, Jean Bastien-Thiry, is executed by firing squad several days later.


date: June 3

text: June 3 – Huế chemical attacks: The Army of the Republic of Vietnam rains liquid chemicals on the heads of Buddhist protestors, injuring 67 people. The United States threatens to cut off aid to the regime of Ngô Đình Diệm.


date: June 11

text: June 11 – In Saigon, Buddhist monk Thích Quảng Đức commits self-immolation to protest the oppression of Buddhists by Ngô Đình Diệm's government.


date: June 12

text: June 12 – Civil Rights activist Medgar Evers is assassinated by white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith


date: June 26

text: June 26 – John F. Kennedy gives his "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech in West Berlin, Germany.


date: July 7

text: July 7 – Double Seven Day scuffle: Secret police loyal to Ngô Đình Nhu, brother of President Ngô Đình Diệm, attack American journalists including Peter Arnett and David Halberstam at a demonstration during the Buddhist crisis in South Vietnam.


date: July 11

text: July 11 – South Africa: police raid Liliesleaf Farm to the north of Johannesburg, arresting a group of African National Congress leaders.


date: August 15

text: August 15 – Trois Glorieuses: President Fulbert Youlou is overthrown in the Republic of Congo after a three-day uprising in the capital, Brazzaville.


date: August 21

text: August 21 – Xá Lợi Pagoda raids: The Army of the Republic of Vietnam Special Forces loyal to Ngô Đình Nhu, brother of President Ngô Đình Diệm, vandalise Buddhist pagodas across South Vietnam, arresting thousands and leaving an estimated hundreds dead. In the wake of the raids, the Kennedy administration by Cable 243 orders the United States Embassy, Saigon to explore alternative leadership in the country, opening the way towards a coup against Diệm.


date: August 28

text: August 28 – Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his "I Have a Dream" speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to an audience of at least 250,000, during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. It is, at that point, the single largest protest in American history.


date: September 15

text: September 15 – American civil rights movement: The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing, in Birmingham, Alabama, kills 4 and injures 22.


date: September 18

text: September 18 – Rioters burn down the British Embassy in Jakarta, to protest the formation of Malaysia.


date: September 25

text: September 25 – In the Dominican Republic, Juan Bosch is deposed by a coup d'état led by the military with civilian support.


date: October 3

text: October 3 – 1963 Honduran coup d'état: A violent coup in Honduras pre-empts the October 13 election, ends a period of reform under President Ramón Villeda Morales and begins two decades of military rule under General Oswaldo López Arellano.


date: October 7

text: October 7 – Buddhist crisis: Amid worsening relations, outspoken South Vietnamese First Lady Madame Ngo Dinh Nhu arrives in the US for a speaking tour, continuing a flurry of attacks on the Kennedy administration.


date: October 14

text: October 14 – A revolution starts in Radfan, South Yemen, against British colonial rule.


date: November 2

text: November 2 – 1963 South Vietnamese coup: Arrest and assassination of Ngo Dinh Diem, the South Vietnamese President.


date: November 6

text: November 6 – 1963 South Vietnamese coup: Coup leader General Dương Văn Minh takes over as leader of South Vietnam.


date: November 22

text: November 22 – Assassination of John F. Kennedy: In a motorcade in Dallas, Texas, U.S. President John F. Kennedy is fatally shot by Lee Harvey Oswald, and Governor of Texas John Connally is seriously wounded at 12:30 CST. Upon Kennedy's death, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson becomes the 36th president of the United States.


date: November 29

text: November 29 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson establishes the Warren Commission to investigate the assassination of John F. Kennedy.


date: December 3

text: December 3 – The Warren Commission begins its investigation into the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy.


text: August 15- King of Prussia Mall opens to the public in the Philadelphia Metropolitan area and is one of the top ten largest malls in the U.S.


date: April 11

text: April 11 – Pope John XXIII issues his final encyclical, Pacem in terris, entitled On Establishing Universal Peace in Truth, Justice, Charity and Liberty, the first papal encyclical addressed to "all men of good will", rather than to Roman Catholics only.


date: April 21

text: April 21–23 – The first election of the Supreme Institution of the Baháʼí Faith (known as the Universal House of Justice, whose seat is at the Baháʼí World Centre on Mount Carmel in Haifa, Israel) is held.


date: May 8

text: May 8 – Huế Phật Đản shootings: The Army of the Republic of Vietnam opens fire on Buddhists who defy a ban on the flying of the Buddhist flag on Vesak, the birthday of Gautama Buddha, killing 9. Earlier, President Ngô Đình Diệm allowed the flying of the Vatican flag in honour of his brother, Archbishop Ngô Đình Thục, triggering the Buddhist crisis in South Vietnam.

source_section: Events › May


date: June 17

text: June 17 – In Abington School District v. Schempp, the US Supreme Court ruled that compulsory prayer and Bible-reading violated the First Amendment.


date: June 21

text: June 21 – Pope Paul VI (Giovanni Battista Montini) succeeds Pope John XXIII as the 262nd pope.


date: September 29

text: September 29 – The second period of the Second Vatican Council in Rome opens.


date: December 4

text: December 4 – The second period of the Second Vatican Council closes.


date: January 29

text: January 29 – French President Charles de Gaulle vetoes the United Kingdom's entry into the European Common Market.


date: April 29

text: April 29 – Buddy Rogers becomes the first WWWF Champion.


date: June 4

text: June 4 – President of the United States John F. Kennedy signs Executive Order 11110, authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury to continue issuing silver certificates.


date: June 13

text: June 13 – The New York Commodity Exchange begins trading silver futures contracts.


date: June 15

text: June 15 – The AC Cobra makes its first appearance at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. It will go on to win its class the following year.


date: June 20

text: June 20 – Establishment of the Moscow–Washington hotline (officially, the Direct Communications Link or DCL; unofficially, the "red telephone"; and in fact a teleprinter link) is authorized by the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding in Geneva by representatives of the Soviet Union and the United States.


date: July 1

text: July 1 – ZIP codes are introduced by the United States Postal Service.


date: August 28

text: August 28 – Philips introduces the Compact Cassette primarily for dictation and voice recording purposes. By 1965, hardware improvements eventually allow for it to reliably function as a music format.


date: October 1

text: October 1 – Construction company GK Međimurje, one of the largest Croatian construction and civil engineering companies (with more than 8,000 employees in 1980s), founded in Čakovec.


date: October 30

text: October 30 – The car manufacturing firm Lamborghini is founded in Italy.


date: December 7

text: December 7 – The first instant replay system to use videotape instead of film is used by Tony Verna, a CBS-TV director, during a live televised sporting event, the Army–Navy Game of college football played in Philadelphia, United States.


date: December 20

text: December 20 – The Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials begin.


text: The TAT-3 transatlantic communications cable goes into operation.

source_section: Events › Date unknown


text: The classic Porsche 911 is first produced.


text: Ivan Sutherland writes the revolutionary Sketchpad program and runs it on the Lincoln TX-2 computer at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.


date: January 9

text: January 9 – A total penumbral lunar eclipse is visible in the Americas, Europe, Africa and Asia, and is the 56th lunar eclipse of Lunar Saros 114. Gamma has a value of −1.01282. It occurs on the night between Wednesday, January 9 and Thursday, January 10, 1963.


date: January 17

text: January 17 – A last quarter moon occurs between the penumbral lunar eclipse and the annular solar eclipse, only 12 hours, 29 minutes after apogee.


date: January 25

text: January 25 – A large annular solar eclipse covers 99.5% of the Sun and a narrow path (at most 19.6 km (12.2 mi)). It is visible in Chile, Argentina, South Africa and Madagascar, and is the 26th solar eclipse of Solar Saros 140. Gamma has a value of -0.48984.


date: May 2

text: May 2 – Berthold Seliger launches near Cuxhaven a 3-stage rocket with a maximum flight altitude of more than (the only sounding rocket developed in Germany).


date: May 15

text: May 15 – Project Mercury: NASA launches Gordon Cooper on Mercury-Atlas 9, the last Mercury mission (on June 12 NASA Administrator James E. Webb tells Congress the program is complete).


date: May 23

text: May 23 – Fidel Castro visits the Soviet Union.


text: June 13 – The cancellation of Mercury-Atlas 10 effectively ends the United States' crewed spaceflight Project Mercury.


date: June 16

text: June 16 – Vostok 6 carries Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman into space.


date: June 19

text: June 19 – Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space, returns to Earth, landing in the Soviet Union.


date: July 19

text: July 19 – American test pilot Joe Walker, flying the X-15, reaches an altitude of 65.8 miles (105.9 kilometers), making it a sub-orbital spaceflight by recognized international standards.


date: July 26

text: July 26 – NASA launches Syncom 2, the world's first geostationary (synchronous) satellite.


date: August 22

text: August 22 – American test pilot Joe Walker again achieves a sub-orbital spaceflight according to international standards, this time by piloting the X-15 to an altitude of 67.0 miles (107.8 kilometers).


date: November 1

text: November 1 – Arecibo Observatory, a radio telescope, officially begins operation in Puerto Rico.


date: December 5

text: December 5 – The Seliger Forschungs-und-Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH demonstrates rockets for military use to military representatives of non-NATO-countries near Cuxhaven. Although these rockets land via parachute at the end of their flight and no allied laws are violated, the Soviet Union protests this action.


text: Harvey Ball invents the ubiquitous smiley face symbol.


text: David H. Frisch and J.H. Smith prove that the radioactive decay of mesons is slowed by their motion (see Einstein's special relativity and general relativity).


date: January 1

text: January 1 – Bogle–Chandler case: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation scientist Dr. Gilbert Bogle and Mrs. Margaret Chandler are found dead (presumed poisoned), in bushland near the Lane Cove River, Sydney, Australia.


date: February 10

text: February 10 – Five Japanese cities located on the northernmost part of Kyūshū are merged and become the city of Kitakyūshū, with a population of more than 1 million.


date: May 1

text: May 1 – The Coca-Cola Company introduces its first diet drink, Tab cola.


date: May 13

text: May 13 – A smallpox outbreak hits Stockholm, Sweden, lasting until July.


date: November

text: Miike coal mine explosion: A coal mine explosion kills 458 and sends 839 carbon monoxide poisoning victims to the hospital.


date: April 16

text: April 16 – Martin Luther King, Jr. issues his "Letter from Birmingham Jail".


date: April 20

text: April 20 – In Quebec, Canada, members of the terrorist group Front de libération du Québec bomb a Canadian Army recruitment center, killing night watchman Wilfred V. O'Neill.


date: June 20

text: June 20 – Swedish Air Force Colonel Stig Wennerström is arrested as a spy for the Soviet Union.


date: August 8

text: August 8 – The Great Train Robbery takes place in Buckinghamshire, England.


date: September 10

text: September 10 – Sicilian Mafia boss Bernardo Provenzano is indicted for murder (he is captured 43 years later, on April 11, 2006).


date: February 12

text: February 12 – Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 705 crashes in the Florida Everglades, killing all 43 aboard.


date: March 5

text: March 5 – Country music star Patsy Cline is killed in a plane crash along with country performers Cowboy Copas, Hawkshaw Hawkins, and manager Randy Hughes, during a flight from Kansas City, Missouri, back to Nashville.


date: April 10

text: April 10 – The U.S. nuclear submarine Thresher sinks 220 smi nmi km east of Cape Cod; all 129 aboard (112 crewmen plus yard personnel) die.


date: April 12

text: April 12 – The Soviet nuclear powered submarine K-33 collides with the Finnish merchant vessel M/S Finnclipper in the Danish Straits. Although severely damaged, both vessels make it to port.


date: May 4

text: May 4 – The Le Monde Theater fire in Dioirbel, Senegal, kills 64 people.


date: August 14

text: August 14 – A huge and devastating forest fire hits the region around Paraná State, Brazil. According to government documents, two million hectares (4.94 million acres) are lost to burning and 110 persons perished.


date: October 24

text: October 24 – Fire at the Soviet Union's Baikonur Cosmodrome in an R-9 Desna underground missile silo; seven people are killed.


date: October 31

text: October 31 – 1963 Indiana State Fairgrounds Coliseum gas explosion: 81 die in a gas explosion during a Holiday on Ice show at the Indiana State Fairgrounds Coliseum in Indianapolis, United States.


date: November 7

text: November 7 – 11 German miners are rescued from a collapsed mine after 14 days in what becomes known as the "Wunder von Lengede" ("miracle of Lengede").


date: November 8

text: November 8 – Finnair aircraft OH-LCA crashes before landing at Mariehamn Airport on Åland.


date: November 23

text: November 23 – The Golden Age Nursing Home fire kills 63 elderly people near Fitchville, Ohio, United States.


date: November 29

text: November 29 – Trans-Canada Air Lines Flight 831, a Douglas DC-8 crashes into a wooded hillside after taking-off from Dorval International Airport near Montreal, killing all 118 on board, the worst air disaster for many years in Canada's history.


date: November

text: Tsurumi rail accident: A triple train disaster in Yokohama kills 161.


date: December 8

text: December 8 – A lightning strike causes the crash of Pan Am Flight 214 near Elkton, Maryland, United States, killing 81 people.


date: December 10

text: December 10 – Chuck Yeager narrowly escapes death while testing an NF-104A rocket-augmented aerospace trainer when his aircraft goes out of control at 108,700 feet (nearly 21 miles up) and crashes. He parachutes to safety at 8,500 feet after vainly battling to gain control of the powerless, rapidly falling craft. In this incident he becomes the first pilot to make an emergency ejection in the full pressure suit needed for high altitude flights.


date: December 22

text: December 22 – The cruise ship TSMS Lakonia burns 180 mi km north of Madeira, with the loss of 128 lives.


date: February 21

text: February 21 – The 5.6 Marj earthquake affects northern Libya with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), causing 290–375 deaths and 375–500 injuries.


date: March 17

text: March 17 – Mount Agung erupts on Bali, killing approximately 1,500.


date: July 26

text: July 26 – An earthquake in Skopje, Yugoslavia (present-day North Macedonia) leaves 1,800 dead.


date: October 4

text: October 4 – Hurricane Flora, one of the worst Atlantic storms in history, hits Hispaniola and Cuba, killing nearly 7,000 people.


date: October 9

text: October 9 – In northeast Italy, over 2,000 people are killed when a large landslide behind the Vajont Dam causes a giant wave of water to overtop it.


date: November 9

text: November 9 – Two disasters in Japan:


date: November 14

text: November 14 – A volcanic eruption under the sea near Iceland creates a new island, Surtsey.


date: December 21

text: December 21 – Cyprus Emergency: Inter-communal fighting erupts between Greek and Turkish Cypriots.


date: March 22

text: March 22 – The Beatles first album Please Please Me was released in the UK and became a huge commercial success.


date: March 23

text: March 23 – "Dansevise" by Grethe & Jørgen Ingmann (music by Otto Francker, text by Sejr Volmer-Sørensen) wins the Eurovision Song Contest 1963 (staged in London) for Denmark.


date: March 28

text: March 28 – Civil rights movement: Over one hundred high school students conduct a sit-in protest in Rome, Georgia.


date: April 6

text: April 6 – The Kingsmen record their influential cover of "Louie Louie" in Portland, Oregon, released in June.


date: April 8

text: April 8 – The 35th Academy Awards ceremony is held. Lawrence of Arabia wins Best Picture.


date: April 14

text: April 14 – The Institute of Mental Health (Belgrade) is established.


date: May 22

text: May 22 – A.C. Milan beats Benfica 2–1 at Wembley Stadium, London and wins the 1962–63 European Cup (football).


date: May 25

text: May 25 – The Organisation of African Unity is established in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.


date: June 5

text: June 5 – The first annual National Hockey League Entry Draft is held in Montreal, Canada.


date: June 20

text: June 20 – War film The Great Escape (starring Steve McQueen and Richard Attenborough) is premiered in London.


date: August 24

text: August 24 – First games played in the Bundesliga, the primary professional Association football league in West Germany, replacing the Oberliga.


date: September 6

text: September 6 – The Centre for International Intellectual Property Studies (CEIPI) is founded.


date: September 19

text: September 19 – Iota Phi Theta fraternity is founded at Morgan State College in Baltimore, Maryland


date: September 23

text: September 23 – King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals is established by a Saudi Royal Decree as the College of Petroleum and Minerals.


date: October 1

text: October 1 – U.S. President John F. Kennedy toasts Emperor Haile Selassie at a luncheon in Rockville, Maryland.


date: November 7

text: November 7 – The star-studded movie It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World premieres in Los Angeles.


date: November 10

text: November 10 – Malcolm X makes a historic speech in Detroit, Michigan ("Message to the Grass Roots").


date: November 23

text: November 23 – The long-running sci-fi television series Doctor Who premieres on BBC TV in the United Kingdom.


date: November 29

text: November 29 – Foundation stone for Mirzapur Cadet College is laid in East Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh).


text: The IEEE Computer Society is founded.


date: February 17

text: February 17 – Jensen Huang, Taiwanese-American businessman, electrical engineer and philanthropist, co-founder of NVIDIA

source_section: Births › February


date: February 20

text: February 20 – Jon Christensen (politician), American politician and member of the US House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999


date: March 2

text: March 2 – Anthony Albanese, 31st Prime Minister of Australia

source_section: Births › March


date: March 22

text: March 22 – Martín Vizcarra, Peruvian engineer and politician, 67th President of Peru


date: March 27

text: March 27 – Quentin Tarantino, American actor, director, writer and producer


date: April 6

text: April 6 – Rafael Correa, President of Ecuador

source_section: Births › April


date: April 18

text: April 18 – Conan O'Brien, American television entertainer and talk show host


date: May 8

text: May 8 – Anthony Field, Australian singer, musician and actor (The Wiggles)

source_section: Births › May


date: May 31

text: May 31 – Viktor Orbán, Prime Minister of Hungary


date: August 24

text: August 24 – Hideo Kojima, Japanese director, screenwriter, video game designer and video game producer

source_section: Births › August


text: October 1 – Iriana Joko Widodo, 7th First Lady of Indonesia, wife of Joko Widodo

source_section: Births › October


date: October 2

text: October 2 – Maria Ressa, Filipina American campaigning journalist, Nobel Prize laureate


date: November 2

text: November 2 – Brian Kemp, American politician, 83rd Governor of Georgia

source_section: Births › November


date: December 18

text: December 18 – Brad Pitt, American actor and film producer, co-founder of Plan B Entertainment

source_section: Births › December


date: January 18

text: January 18 – Hugh Gaitskell, British politician, leader of the Labour Party (b. 1906)

source_section: Deaths › January


date: January 23

text: January 23 – Mohammad Ali Bogra, Pakistani statesman, politician and diplomat, 3rd Prime Minister of Pakistan (b. 1909)


date: March 18

text: March 18 – Sir Hubert Gough, British general (b. 1870)

source_section: Deaths › March


date: April 14

text: April 14 – Abdel Messih El-Makari, Egyptian Coptic Orthodox monk, priest and saint (b. 1892)

source_section: Deaths › April


date: May 28

text: May 28 – Ion Agârbiceanu, Romanian writer, journalist, politician and priest (b. 1882)

source_section: Deaths › May


date: June 17

text: June 17 – Alan Brooke, 1st Viscount Alanbrooke, British Field Marshal (b. 1883)

source_section: Deaths › June


date: June 28

text: June 28 – Frank Baker, American baseball player (Philadelphia Athletics) and a member of the MLB Hall of Fame (b. 1886)


date: July 4

text: July 4 – Bernard Freyberg, 1st Baron Freyberg, British army general and Governor-General of New Zealand (b. 1889)

source_section: Deaths › July


date: August 27

text: August 27 – W. E. B. Du Bois, American civil rights activist (b. 1868)

source_section: Deaths › August


date: August 30

text: August 30 – Guy Burgess, British spy, one of the Cambridge Five (b. 1911)


text: November 2 – Ngô Đình Diệm, South Vietnamese politician, 1st President of the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) (assassinated) (b. 1901)

source_section: Deaths › November


text: November 2 – Ngô Đình Nhu, South Vietnamese politician, State Counsellor of South Vietnam (assassinated) (b. 1910)


date: November 22

text: November 22 – C. S. Lewis, Irish-born British critic, novelist (The Chronicles of Narnia) and Christian apologist (b. 1898)


text: November 22 – Aldous Huxley, English-born novelist (Brave New World) (b. 1894)


date: January 1

text: January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved.

source_section: Events › January


date: January 22

text: January 22 – Kenneth Kaunda is inaugurated as the first Prime Minister of Northern Rhodesia.


date: February 4

text: February 4 – The Government of the United States authorizes the Twenty-fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution, outlawing the poll tax.

source_section: Events › February


date: February 5

text: February 5 – India backs out of its promise to hold a plebiscite in the disputed territory of Kashmir. In 1948, India had taken the issue of Kashmir to the United Nations Security Council and offered to hold a plebiscite in the held Kashmir under UN supervision.


date: March 28

text: March 28 – King Saud of Saudi Arabia abdicates. His brother, Prince Faisal, does not officially assume the throne until November.

source_section: Events › March


date: April 11

text: April 11 – The Brazilian Congress elects Field Marshal Humberto de Alencar Castelo Branco as President of Brazil.

source_section: Events › April


date: April 20

text: April 20 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson in New York, and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev in Moscow, simultaneously announce plans to cut back production of materials for making nuclear weapons.


date: April 26

text: April 26 – Tanganyika and Zanzibar merge to form Tanzania.


text: May 28 – The Charter of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) is released by the Arab League.

source_section: Events › May


date: June 21

text: June 21 – Spain beats the Soviet Union 2–1 to win the 1964 European Nations Cup.

source_section: Events › June


date: June 26

text: June 26 – Moise Tshombe returns to the Democratic Republic of the Congo from exile in Spain.


date: July 2

text: July 2 – The United States Civil Rights Act of 1964 is enacted.

source_section: Events › July


date: July 20

text: July 20 – The National Movement of the Revolution is established in the Republic of the Congo, becoming the country's sole legal political party.


date: August 24

text: August 24–27 – The Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City nominates incumbent President Lyndon B. Johnson for a full term, and U.S. Senator Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota as his running mate.

source_section: Events › August


date: October 1

text: October 1 – The Shinkansen high-speed rail system, the world's first such system, is inaugurated in Japan, for the first sector between Tokyo and Osaka.

source_section: Events › October


date: October 5

text: October 5 – Elizabeth II and The Duke of Edinburgh begin an 8-day visit to Canada.


date: October 14

text: October 14–15 – Nikita Khrushchev is deposed as leader of the Soviet Union; Leonid Brezhnev and Alexei Kosygin assume power.


date: October 15

text: October 15 – 1964 United Kingdom general election: The Labour Party wins a narrow victory over Sir Alec Douglas-Home's Conservative Party, which has been in power for 13 years. The new prime minister is Harold Wilson.


date: October 22

text: October 22 – Canada: A Federal Multi-Party Parliamentary Committee selects a design to become the new official Flag of Canada.


date: November 3

text: November 3 – 1964 United States presidential election: Incumbent President Lyndon B. Johnson defeats Republican challenger Barry Goldwater with over 60 percent of the popular vote.

source_section: Events › November


date: December 1

text: December 1 – Gustavo Díaz Ordaz takes office as President of Mexico.

source_section: Events › December


date: December 5

text: December 5 – Australian Senate election, 1964: The Liberal/Country Coalition Government led by Prime Minister Robert Menzies hold their status quo, while the Labor Party led by Arthur Calwell lose one seat to the Democratic Labor Party, who hold the balance of power in the Senate alongside independent Reg Turnbull.


date: December 12

text: December 12 – Jamhuri Day: Kenya becomes a republic, with Jomo Kenyatta as its first President.


date: December 30

text: December 30 – The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) is established as a permanent organ of the UN General Assembly.


date: January 30

text: January 30 – General Nguyễn Khánh leads a bloodless military coup d'état, replacing Dương Văn Minh as Prime Minister of South Vietnam.


date: February 9

text: February 9 – The Beatles perform for the first time for an American audience on The Ed Sullivan Show to a record television audience of 73 million people, launching Beatlemania in the United States, as part of The British Invasion.


date: March 6

text: March 6 – American boxer Cassius Clay announces the change of his name to Muhammad Ali.


date: March 31

text: March 31 – The military overthrows Brazilian President João Goulart in a coup, starting 21 years of dictatorship in Brazil, lasting until 1985.


date: April 20

text: April 20 – Nelson Mandela makes his "I Am Prepared to Die" speech at the opening of the Rivonia Trial, a key event for the anti-apartheid movement.


date: May 24

text: May 24–25 – The crowd at a football match in Lima, Peru, riots over a referee's decision in the Peru-Argentina game; 319 are killed, 500 injured.


date: May 27

text: May 27 – The ongoing Colombian conflict starts, with an assault by 1,000 Colombian soldiers, backed by fighter planes and helicopters, against about 50 guerrillas in the community of Marquetalia.


date: June 11

text: June 11 – Cologne school massacre: In Cologne, West Germany, Walter Seifert attacks students and teachers in an elementary school with a flamethrower, killing 10 and injuring 21.


date: July 16

text: July 16 – Six days of race riots begin in Harlem, New York, United States, apparently prompted by the shooting of a teenager.


date: July 19

text: July 19 – Vietnam War: At a rally in Saigon, South Vietnamese Prime Minister and military leader Nguyễn Khánh calls for expanding the war into North Vietnam.


date: July 21

text: July 21 – Race riots begin in Singapore between ethnic Chinese and Malays.


date: August 5

text: August 5 – Vietnam War: Operation Pierce Arrow – Aircraft from carriers USS Ticonderoga and USS Constellation bomb North Vietnam in retaliation for strikes against U.S. destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin.


text: August 5 – The Simba rebel army in the Democratic Republic of the Congo captures Stanleyville, and takes 1,000 Western hostages.


date: August 7

text: August 7 – Vietnam War: The United States Congress passes the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, giving U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson broad war powers to deal with North Vietnamese attacks on U.S. forces.


date: August 16

text: August 16 – Vietnam War: In a coup, General Nguyễn Khánh replaces Dương Văn Minh as South Vietnam's chief of state and establishes a new constitution, drafted partly by the U.S. Embassy.


date: September 11

text: September 11 – In Jacksonville, Florida, during a tour of the United States, John Lennon announces that the Beatles will not play to a segregated audience.

source_section: Events › September


date: September 24

text: September 24 – The Warren Commission, the first official investigation of the assassination of United States President John F. Kennedy, submits its written report.


date: October 14

text: October 14 – American civil rights movement leader Martin Luther King Jr. becomes the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, which is awarded to him for leading non-violent resistance to end racial prejudice in the United States.


date: November 10

text: November 10 – Australia partially reintroduces compulsory military service due to the Indonesian Confrontation.


date: November 19

text: November 19 – The United States Department of Defense announces the closing of 95 military bases and facilities, including Fort Jay, the Brooklyn Navy Yard and the Brooklyn Army Terminal.


date: November 24

text: November 24 – Belgian paratroopers and mercenaries capture Stanleyville, but a number of hostages die in the fighting, among them American Evangelical Covenant Church missionary Paul Carlson.


date: November 28

text: November 28 – Vietnam War: United States National Security Council members, including Robert McNamara, Dean Rusk, and Maxwell Taylor, agree to recommend a plan for a 2-stage escalation of bombing in North Vietnam, to President Lyndon B. Johnson.


date: December 11

text: December 11 – Che Guevara addresses the United Nations General Assembly. A bazooka attack is launched at the Headquarters of the United Nations in New York City.


date: December 14

text: December 14 – Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States (379 US 241 1964): The U.S. Supreme Court rules that, in accordance with the Civil Rights Act of 1964, establishments providing public accommodation must refrain from racial discrimination.


date: January 5

text: January 5 – In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras I of Constantinople meet in Jerusalem.


date: July 22

text: July 22 – The second meeting of the Organisation of African Unity is held.


date: September 14

text: September 14 – The third period of the Second Vatican Council opens.


date: November 21

text: November 21 – Second Vatican Council: The third period of the Catholic Church's ecumenical council closes. Lumen gentium, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, is promulgated.


text: The Vishva Hindu Pariṣad is founded in India.

source_section: Events › Date unknown


date: January 6

text: January 6 – A British firm, the Leyland Motor Corp., announces the sale of 450 buses to the Cuban government, challenging the United States blockade of Cuba.


date: March 20

text: March 20–June 6 – The first United Nations Conference on Trade and Development takes place.


date: May 9

text: May 9 – South Korean President Park Chung Hee reshuffles his Cabinet, after a series of student demonstrations against his efforts to restore diplomatic and trade relations with Japan.


date: February 27

text: February 27 – The Italian government asks for help to keep the Leaning Tower of Pisa from toppling over.


date: April 20

text: April 20 – In the UK, BBC Two television starts broadcasting for the first time.


date: May 1

text: May 1 – At 4:00 a.m., John George Kemeny and Thomas Eugene Kurtz run the first computer program written in BASIC (Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code), an easy to learn high level programming language which they have created. BASIC is eventually included on many computers and even some games consoles.


date: June 20

text: June 20 – The Ford GT40 makes its first appearance at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Its first victory will come 2 years later in 1966.


date: September 4

text: September 4 – The Forth Road Bridge opens over the Firth of Forth in Scotland.


date: October 5

text: October 5 – Twenty-three men and thirty-one women escape to West Berlin through a narrow tunnel under the Berlin Wall.


date: October 22

text: October 22 – A 5.3 kiloton nuclear device is detonated at the Tatum Salt Dome, 21 mi km from Hattiesburg, Mississippi, as part of the Vela Uniform program. This test is the Salmon phase of the Atomic Energy Commission's Project Dribble.


date: October

text: October – Robert Moog demonstrates the prototype Moog synthesizer.


text: November 21 – The Verrazano–Narrows Bridge across New York Bay opens to traffic (the world's longest suspension bridge at this time).