Entertainment: Anniversaries of Handel Haydn Purcell celebrated Artists include Chagall, Joan Miro,
Writers include Saul Bellow, Norman Mailer, James Thurber, William Faulkner, Françoise Sagan, Graham Greene,
John Updike, Stanley Kunitz, Ian Fleming (Goldfinger), Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Politics: UN pushes toward disarmament
Religion: Pope John XXIII announces calling of first Ecumenical Council since 1870
Science: Structure of viruses documented Leakey excavates at Olduvai gorge, discovers "Nutcracker Man" Australopithecus boisei Soviet spacecraft reaches moon
Lejeune discovers Trisomy 21 cause Nobel prize for discovery of antiproton Alvarez discovers neutral xi-particle
Nobel prize to Ochoa and Kornberg for their synthesis of RNA and DNA
Sports: Frisbee introduced Edward B Elliott lands 97-pound blue catfish Heinz Wixhmann lands 92-pound Chinook salmon and Alfred Dean lands 2664 pound shark
Technology: Minsky and McCarthy establish AI lab Jack Kirby and Robert N Noyce invent the microchip First hypersonic flight
Deaths: Frank Lloyd Wright, Mario Lanza, Billie Holiday, Cecil B DeMille, Ethel Barrymore
Africa
Angola: War
Congo: Violence bordering on civil war against Belgians and other Europeans Estimated start of AIDS in Kinshasa Belgium grants reforms
Côte d'Ivoire: French West Africa dissolved and breaks apart
Brunei: Negara Brunei adopts its first constitution
Dahomey: French West Africa dissolved and breaks apart
Egypt: Nasser nationalizes Suez Canal
Guinea: French West Africa dissolved and breaks apart
Kenya: Imprisoned leader released Mau-Mau guerrilla war against British ends
Mali: French West Africa dissolved and breaks apart
Mauritania: French West Africa dissolved and breaks apart
Niger: French West Africa dissolved and breaks apart
Nyasaland: Disturbances in Nyasaland – Hastings Banda arrested
Senegal: French West Africa dissolved and breaks apart - Senegal and French Sudan form Mali Federation to 1960
South Africa: De Beers manufactures synthetic diamond
Sudan: Dictator assumes power
Tanganyika: Louis SB Leakey finds skull of "Nutcracker Man"
Upper Volta: (Burkina Faso) French West Africa dissolved and breaks apart
Americas
Canada: St. Lawrence Seaway is opened
Cuba: End of Cuban Revolution, Castro and Communists to power driving out president Fulgencio Batista US-owned sugar mills appropriated
Dominican republic: Cuban President Batista flees to Dominican Republic
Haiti: Food shortage
Mexico: Landslides in Minatitlan kill 5000
Asia
Ceylon: (Sri Lanka) President Bandaranaike assassinated and wife becomes first woman prime minister in world
Japan: Typhoon kills 5000 Japanese doctor had deceased wife embalmed and sleeps next to her for ten years
Laos: Hanoi sends weapons to guerrilla groups
Singapore: Separation from China
South Vietnam: Infiltration of S Vietnam begins via Ho Chi Minh Trail
Tibet: Dalai Lama flees to India for safety as China crushes rebellion
Europe
General: Oil discovered in North Sea European free Trade Association (The Seven) ratify treaty
France: De Gaulle re-instated as president Flooding in Frejus (French Riviera) when dam breaks and 412 killed
Jean Louis Barrault becomes head of French theater De Gaulle proclaimed President of Fifth Republic of France
Great Britain: TV Coverage of British General election First section of London-Birmingham Motorway opens Printing strike
Macmillan visits former allied countries
Ireland: De Valera becomes President of Eire
Italy: Lightning storm
Soviet Union: Luna 2 (Lunik) reaches the moon - Luna III transmits photographs of dark side of the moon U
SSR launches rocket with monkeys aboard Khrushchev visits Albania and US
Dyatlov Pass Incident – nine hikers in Ural Mountains abandon camp in only their underwear – large amounts of radiation detected
Switzerland: Death of Grock the Swiss music clown
West Germany: Becomes industrial power of W Europe Anti-Semitism flares at Cologne
Death of German car racing champion Rudolf Caricciola Heinrich Lubke elected President
Middle East
United Arab Republic: Britain and United Arab Republic resume diplomatic relations
Pacific
Antarctica: Antarctic Treaty limits exploitation of Antarctica
Business: Production of the Edsel ends after two years with $00 million dollar loss
President Eisenhower invokes Taft-Hartley Act to halt steelworkers' strike and longshoremen's strike
Crime: Organized crime becomes focus of FBI
Culture: US Postmaster General Summerfield bans TH Lawrence's "Lady Chatterley's Lover" from mail on grounds of obscenity – overturned next year
Entertainment: "The Day the Music Dies" with the death of Buddy Holly Ritchie Valens and "The Big Bopper" Ben Hur wins eleven Academy Awards Debut of The Twilight Zone Cheating on quiz shows rumored
"The Sound of Music" debuts as a musical on Broadway (not the film) Singer Ray Charles begins career Ruth Handler creates Barbie
Politics: Khrushchev tours Eisenhower visits W German England India and eight other nations
Science: US launches monkeys into space that successfully return - nicknamed Able and Miss Baker US artificial planet Pioneer 4 at Woomera
Sports: Hula hoops reach 100 million in sales Frisbees invented Jack Nicklaus wins US Golf Amateur
Technology: First US nuclear-powered merchant vessel "Savannah"
East
New York: First International Congress of Oceanography held in NY New York City Council proposes the city become a separate (51st) state
Midwest
South
West and Pacific
California: Mt. Shasta records 189 inches of snow in 7 days
Hawaii: 50th State
Idaho: 182 accumulated inches of snow at Mullen Pass