- January 4
- European Free Trade Association forms in Stockholm, Sweden. [1]
- January 9
- Building of Aswan dam in Egypt begins. [1]
- January 10
- Bollingen Prize for poetry awarded to Delmore Schwartz. [1]
- January 14
- Tuindorp-Oostzaan in Northern Amsterdam, flooded. [1]
- January 19
- US President Dwight Eisenhower and Japanese Premier Kishi sign US-Japanese Security pact. [1]
- January 21
- Rock fall traps 437 at Coalbrook, South Africa, 417 die of methane poisoning. [1]
- January 22
- French President Charles de Gaulle escapes assassination attempt by General Massu. [1]
- January 23
- Jacques Piccard and Donald Walsh take Swiss-built US Navy bathyscaph Trieste to a record submersible depth of 10,911 metres underwater in Mariana Trench, Pacific Ocean. [1] [5] [192.49]
- January 24
- Algeria rises against French President Charles de Gaulle. [1]
- January 28
- First photograph bounced off Moon, from Washington DC. [1]
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- January 30
- Dutch communist trade union EVC'58 disbands. [1]
- February 1
- Extreme right-wing rebels in Algiers surrender. [1]
- February 7
- Old handwriting found at Qumran, near the Dead Sea. [1]
- February 8
- Queen Elizabeth II announces her descendants other than princes and princesses of the Royal Family are to bear the surname Mountbatten-Windsor. [614.21]
- February 12
- Chinese army kills 12 Indian soldiers. [1]
- February 13
- France performs first nuclear test at Reggane Proving Grounds, Algeria. [1] [5]
- February 14
- Marshal Ayub Khan elected President of Pakistan. [1]
- February 16
- US nuclear submarine USS Triton sets off on underwater round-world trip. [1]
- February 19
- Protest strike in Poznan, Poland. [1]
- February 24
- Italian government of Segni falls. [1]
- February 26
- Soviet premier Khrushchev voices support for Indonesia. [1]
- February 27
- Oil pipeline from Rotterdam, Netherlands to Ruhrgebied opens. [1]
- February 29
- First Playboy Club, featuring bunnies, opens in Chicago, Illinois, USA. [1]
- Earthquake kills 1/3 of Agadir, Morocco, population (12,000) in 15 seconds. [1]
- John Kennedy makes "missile gap" the US Presidential campaign issue. [1]
- March 4
- French freighter La Coubre explodes in Havana, Cuba, killing 100. [1]
- March 6
- President Sukarno disbands Indonesia's parliament. [1]
- March 8
- The Republic of the Niger gains independence. [1367.1450]
- March 10
- USSR agrees to stop nuclear testing. [1]
- March 11
- Pioneer 5 launched into solar orbit between Earth and Venus. [1]
- March 14
- Fourteen die in a train crash in Bakersfield, California, USA. [1]
- March 15
- Key Largo Coral Reef Preserve established (first underwater park). [1]
- March 17
- US President Dwight Eisenhower forms anti-Castro-exile army under the US Central Intelligence Agency. [1]
- March 21
- Sharpeville Massacre: Police kill 72 in South Africa and outlaws African National Congress. [1]
- March 22
- First patent for lasers, granted to Arthur Schawlow and Charles Townes. [1]
- March 25
- First guided missile launched from nuclear powered submarine (Halibut). [1]
- Italian government Tambroni forms. [1]
- March 26
- Iraq executes 30 after attack on President Kassem. [1]
- March 28
- Pope John raises the first Japanese, first African, and first Filipino cardinals. [1]
- Scotch factory explodes burying 20 firefighters (Glasgow, Scotland). [1]
- April 1
- France performs nuclear test at Reggane Proving Grounds, Algeria. [1]
- RCA TIROS (TV and Infra-Red Observation 'weather' Satellite) I launched. [1]
- U Nu elected premier of Burma. [1]
- April 4
- Project Ozma begins at Green Bank radio astronomy center. [1]
- Senegal declares independence from France. [1]
- April 8
- Netherlands and Germany sign accord concerning war casualties. [1]
- April 9
- South African premier Verwoerd wounded in battle. [1]
- April 11
- First weather satellite launched (Tiros 1). [1]
- April 13
- France becomes the fourth nuclear nation, exploding an A-Bomb in Sahara. [1]
- Transit 1B, first navigational satellite, placed in Earth orbit. [1]
- April 17
- American Samoa sets up a constitutional government. [1]
- April 21
- Brasilia becomes the capital of Brazil. [1]
- April 24
- Heavy earthquake strikes South Persia, 500 killed. [1]
- April 27
- First atomic powered electric-drive submarine launched (Tullibee). [1]
- France grants Togo independence. [1]
- South Korean President Syngman Rhee resigns. [1]
- May 1
- India's Bombay state splits into Gujarat and Maharashtra states. [1]
- Russia shoots down American pilot Francis Gary Powers' U-2 spy plane over Sverdlovsk. [1] [129]
- May 2
- Pulitzer prize awarded to Allen Drury (Advise and Consent). [1]
- May 6
- More than 20 million viewers watch the first ever televised royal wedding service, when England's Princess Margaret marries Anthony Armstrong-Jones (Lord Snowdon) at Westminster Abbey, London. [5] [906.34]
- US President Dwight Eisenhower signs Civil Rights Act of 1960. [1]
- Students attack Dutch embassy in Djakarta. [1]
- Trotsky's murderer Jacques Mornard (Ramón Mercader), freed in México. [1]
- May 7
- Leonid Brezhnev replaces Kliment Voroshilov as President of USSR. [1]
- Michael Tal beats Botvinnik 12.5-8.5 for world chess championship. [1]
- USSR announces Francis Gary Powers confessed to being a US Central Intelligence Agency spy. [1]
- May 8
- USSR and Cuba resume diplomatic relations. [1]
- May 9
- Nigeria becomes a member of the British Commonwealth. [1]
- US is first country to legally allow use of the birth control pill. [1]
- US sends U-2 spy plane over USSR. [1]
- May 10
- US atomic submarine USS Triton completes first circumnavigation of globe under water. [1]
- May 11
- French passenger liner France launched. [1]
- Israeli soldiers capture Adolf Eichmann in Buenos Aires, Argentina. [1]
- May 15
- Sputnik 4 launched into Earth orbit; later recovery failed. [1]
- May 16
- Big four summit in Paris, France collapses as USSR levels spy charges against USA. [1]
- Theodore Maiman operates the first optical laser in Malibu, California, USA. [5]
- May 17
- First atomic reactor system to be patented, JW Flora, Canoga Park, California, USA. [1]
- May 19
- Alan Freed and eight other disk jockeys accused of taking radio payola. [1]
- Belgian parliament requires rest day for self-employed. [1]
- May 22
- A 9.5-magnitude earthquake occurs off the coast of Chile, killing about 1700 and leaving 2 million homeless. The resulting tsunami kills people in Hawaii, Japan, and the Philippines. This is the largest earthquake recorded to date. [1] [105] [383.A8]
- May 23
- Israel announces capture of German Adolf Eichmann in Argentina. [1]
- May 27
- Military coup overthrows democratic government of Turkey. [1]
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