About INTERTEL Timeline of the 1960s 0 A summary of the main events of Intertel’s lifetime Senator John F Kennedy announces he will run for President of the USA 2 January 1960 USA break off diplomatic relations with Cuba 3 January 1960 Construction of the Aswan Dam in Egypt begins 9 January 1960 British PM Harold Macmillan makes his first ‘Wind of Change’ speech 10 January 1960 The Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security is signed by Japan and the USA 19 January 1960 Rebellion against French presence in Algeria begins 24 January 1960 Sit-ins begin in segregated lunch counters in the USA 1 February 1960 Harold Macmillan makes his ‘Wind of Change’ speech again, this time to the South African parliament 3 February 1960 France tests an atomic bomb in the Algerian desert 13 February 1960 The photo of Che Guevara, seen since on millions of t-shirts, is taken by Alberto Korda 5 March 1960 3,500 American soldiers to be sent to Vietnam 6 March 1960 The Australian Broadcasting Commission’s television station in Adelaide begins broadcasting 11 March 1960 A ceasefire is declared in Algeria 18 March 1960 Nikita Khrushchev and Charles de Gaulle meet for talks 23 March 1960 Census day in the US. Population is 179,323,175 1 April 1960 April Revolution against President Syngman Rhee of South Korea begins 19 April 1960 Brasilia replaces Rio de Janeiro as capital of Brazil 21 April 1960 The USSR shoots down a US spy plane and captures Gary Powers, its pilot 1 May 1960 The European Free Trade Association is founded 3 May 1960 The Civil Rights Act 1960 becomes law in the US 6 May 1960 The Australian Broadcasting Commission’s television station in Perth begins broadcasting 7 May 1960 The Kenya African National Union is founded 14 May 1960 Military coup in Turkey 27 May 1960 Television begins in New Zealand 1 June 1960 The Australian Broadcasting Commission’s television station in Hobart begins broadcasting 4 June 1960 Ghana becomes a republic 1 July 1960 Cuba nationalises all foreign-owned assets 6 August 1960 Cyprus becomes independent from the UK 16 August 1960 President Adolfo López Mateos of Mexico nationalises the electricity system 21 September 1960 Kennedy and Nixon hold a televised debate 26 September 1960 Jânio Quadros elected president of Brazil 3 October 1960 Whites in South Africa vote to become a republic 5 October 1960 Nigeria joins the United Nations 7 October 1960 ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover’ is not obscene: UK court 2 November 1960 John F Kennedy elected president of the USA 8 November 1960 Church of England archbishop Geoffrey Fisher holds talks with Pope John XXIII 2 December 1960 Charles de Gaulle visits Algeria; riots break out, killing 127 9 December 1960 Military coup in Ethiopia 13 December 1960 Counter-coup in Ethiopia restores Haile Selassie to the throne 17 December 1960 John F Kennedy becomes 35th president of the USA 20 January 1961 The US Peace Corps are established 1 March 1961 JFK proposes an anti-Communist ‘Alliance for Progress’ with Latin America 13 March 1961 “Two Faces of Japan” (Rediffusion) airs on NET 2 April 1961 Failed coup in Portugal 13 April 1961 Cuban exiles supported by the US invade the Bay of Pigs 17 April 1961 The Bay of Pigs invasion is defeated 20 April 1961 ‘Freedom Riders’ begin to challenge illegal segregation on US interstate buses 4 May 1961 The FCC chairman, Newton Minow, calls US commercial TV ‘a vast wasteland’ 9 May 1961 Military coup in South Korea 16 May 1961 Race riots in Alabama 21 May 1961 JFK promises to put a man on the moon, and bring him home safely, before the decade is out 25 May 1961 South Africa becomes a republic and leaves the Commonwealth 31 May 1961 Huge earthquake in Ethiopia 1 June 1961 JFK and Khrushchev hold talks in Vienna 4 June 1961 “The Quiet War” (Rediffusion) airs on NET 4 June 1961 “The Heartbeat of France” (Rediffusion) airs on NET 16 July 1961 The UK begins talks on membership of the EEC; it will be turned down 10 August 1961 East Germany begins building a wall between East and West Berlin 13 August 1961 The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s affiliate TV station in Pembroke begins broadcasting 19 August 1961 The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s affiliate TV station in Prince George begins broadcasting 20 August 1961 João Goulart becomes president of Brazil 25 August 1961 Eritrea begins armed struggle for independence from Ethiopia 1 September 1961 UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld killed in a plane crash 18 September 1961 “Dawn Over the Mountains” (NHK) airs on NET 25 September 1961 Military coup in Syria, ending the union with Egypt 28 September 1961 The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s television station in Edmonton begins broadcasting 1 October 1961 Riots in Paris over a curfew on Algerians in the city 17 October 1961 Mauritania and Mongolia join the United Nations 27 October 1961 US and USSR tanks face each other across Checkpoint Charlie in divided Berlin 27 October 1961 18,000 US ‘military advisors’ sent to South Vietnam 18 November 1961 “Postscript to Empire” airs on NET 20 November 1961 U Thant becomes Secretary-General of the United Nations 30 November 1961 Telefís Éireann comes on air 31 December 1961 Pope John XXIII excommunicates Cuba’s Fidel Castro 3 January 1962 “Don’t Label Me” (CBC) airs on NET 6 January 1962 The USSR and Cuba sign a trade pact 9 January 1962 Albania switches allegiance from the USSR to the People’s Republic of China 13 January 1962 Cuba is suspended from the Organization of American States 22 January 1962 The USA begins an embargo on Cuba 3 February 1962 Military coup in Burma 2 March 1962 “Forty Million Shoes” (CBC) airs on NET 19 March 1962 Commonwealth Immigration Bill drastically reduces non-white immigration into the UK 18 April 1962 Educational Television Facilities Act begins federal funding for NET 1 May 1962 “Living with a Giant” (Rediffusion) airs on NET 14 May 1962 JFK makes a televised announcement in support of Civil Rights for African-Americans 11 June 1962 Algeria becomes independent of France 5 July 1962 The satellite ‘Telstar’ is launched 10 July 1962 Nelson Mandela arrested in South Africa 5 August 1962 “America Abroad” (Rediffusion) airs on NET 6 August 1962 Singapore referendum supports joining nearby states to form Malaysia 1 September 1962 The USSR and Cuba sign an arms deal 2 September 1962 James Meredith becomes the first African-American to register at the University of Mississippi. He needs a guard of Federal Marshals. 1 October 1962 “The Unfinished Revolution” airs on NET 1 October 1962 Uganda becomes independent from the UK 9 October 1962 Cuba: US spy planes discover USSR nuclear missiles on the island 14 October 1962 A border war begins between India and China 20 October 1962 Cuba: JFK makes a televised address revealing the presence of Soviet missiles on the island 22 October 1962 Cuba: the US Navy confronts a USSR cargo vessel sailing to Cuba. The Soviet ship changes course 24 October 1962 Cuba: the USSR announces it will remove the nuclear missiles from the island 28 October 1962 The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s affiliate TV station in Terrace begins broadcasting 1 November 1962 The United Nations condemns South Africa’s apartheid policy 6 November 1962 Cuba: the USA ends the blockade of the island 20 November 1962 Ceasefire in the the China-India border war 21 November 1962 Senator Mike Mansfield returns to the US after visiting Vietnam. He is pessimistic about US involvement 2 December 1962 Tanganyika becomes independent from the UK 9 December 1962 The Australian Broadcasting Commission’s television station in Canberra begins broadcasting 18 December 1962 North Vietnam wins substantial victory in the Battle of Ap Bac 2 January 1963 Racist George Wallace becomes governor of Alabama 14 January 1963 “Tahiti–Pacific Cocktail” (ABC) airs on NET 21 January 1963 Harvey Ganntt joins Clemson University in South Carolina, the last college to officially desegregate 28 January 1963 Trading with and travelling to Cuba made illegal for US citizens 8 February 1963 Women win the right to vote in Iran 27 February 1963 Sit-ins begin in Birmingham, AL, against segregation 3 April 1963 “The Turkish Question” airs on NET 8 April 1963 Birmingham, AL, police respond to segregation protests with police dogs and fire hoses 2 May 1963 The Catholic government of South Vietnam begins persecuting Buddhists 8 May 1963 Kuwait joins the United Nations 14 May 1963 Government forces spray Buddhist protestors with chloroacetone, to the shock of the US government 3 June 1963 Pope John XXIII dies 3 June 1963 The Equal Pay Act becomes law in the United States 10 June 1963 The “red telephone” (actually a teleprinter) direct line from the White House to the Kremlin is authorised 20 June 1963 Giovanni Battista Montini becomes Pope Paul VI 21 June 1963 “Ich bin ein Berliner” 26 June 1963 “Twelve Flags South” (ABC) airs on NET 22 July 1963 Huge earthquake in Yugoslavia 26 July 1963 US/USSR/UK Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty is signed 5 August 1963 James Meredith graduates from the University of Mississippi 18 August 1963 Buddhist sites across South Vietnam smashed by government forces, again to US government shock 21 August 1963 “I Have a Dream” 28 August 1963 The Federation of Malaysia comes into being 16 September 1963 Nigeria becomes a republic 2 October 1963 Military coup in Honduras 3 October 1963 Harold Macmillan resigns as prime minister of the UK 18 October 1963 Sir Alec Douglas-Home becomes prime minister of the UK 19 October 1963 US-backed coup in South Vietnam; president Ngô Đình Diệm murdered 2 November 1963 Coup leader Dương Văn Minh becomes head of state in South Vietnam 6 November 1963 Malcolm X makes his “Message to the Grass Roots” speech in Detroit, MI 10 November 1963 President John F Kennedy murdered in Dallas, TX. Lyndon B Johnson succeeds him 22 November 1963 Alleged assassin of JFK, Lee Harvey Oswald, murdered on live television by Jack Ruby 24 November 1963 Zanzibar becomes independent from the UK 10 December 1963 Kenya becomes independent from the UK 12 December 1963 “Ten Million Strong” (ABC) airs on NET 16 December 1963 Civil war begins between Greek and Turkish Cypriots 21 December 1963 New US president Lyndon B Johnson announces his “War on Poverty” 8 January 1964 Nationalist coup in Zanzibar 12 January 1964 Amendment XXIV to the US constitution bans states from using poll taxes to discriminate against African-American voters 23 January 1964 Military coup in South Vietnam. Nguyễn Khánh becomes the new leader 30 January 1964 African-American and Puerto Rican children begin a schools boycott in New York over de facto segregation 3 February 1964 Cuba cuts supplies of clean water to the US naval base on the island at Guantanamo Bay 6 February 1964 Dương Văn Minh returns as leader of South Vietnam 8 February 1964 Military coup in Brazil 31 March 1964 Associated-Rediffusion becomes Rediffusion Television (trading as Rediffusion, London) 6 April 1964 “A King’s Revolution” (Rediffusion) airs on NET 6 April 1964 Failed military coup in Laos 19 April 1964 Tanzania is formed from the merger of Tanganyika and Zanzibar 26 April 1964 Viet Cong sink the USNS Card in Saigon harbour 2 May 1964 “Algeria: What Price Freedom?” (CBC) airs on NET 4 May 1964 12 men publicly burn their draft cards in New York, the first known such protest against the Vietnam War 12 May 1964 Jawaharlal Nehru, prime minister of India since independence, dies aged 74 27 May 1964 Nelson Mandela sentenced to life imprisonment in South Africa 12 June 1964 “Room Down Under” airs on NET 15 June 1964 Civil Rights Act officially abolishes segregation in the US 2 July 1964 “The New Italian” airs on NET 6 July 1964 Nguyễn Khánh returns as leader of South Vietnam 16 July 1964 Race riots in Harlem, New York 18 July 1964 Race riots in Singapore 21 July 1964 Total number of US military forces in South Vietnam is 21,000 27 July 1964 Congress expands the Vietnam War into North Vietnam 7 August 1964 “Africa: The Hidden Frontiers” (Rediffusion) airs on NET 24 August 1964 Malta becomes independent from the UK 21 September 1964 War of independence against Portugal begins in Mozambique 25 September 1964 Race riots in Philadelphia, PA 28 September 1964 Bullet trains begin operation in Japan, from Tokyo to Osaka 1 October 1964 The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s television station in Newfoundland begins broadcasting 1 October 1964 Opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics 10 October 1964 Martin Luther King awarded the Nobel Peace Prize 14 October 1964 Labour Party wins UK general election; Harold Wilson becomes prime minister 15 October 1964 Party coup in the Kremlin deposes Nikita Khrushchev; Leonid Brezhnev becomes leader 15 October 1964 People’s Republic of China detonates a nuclear bomb, becoming the 5th acknowledged nuclear power in the world 16 October 1964 “Crisis in Canada” airs on NET 18 October 1964 Zambia becomes independent from the UK 24 October 1964 Phan Khắc Sửu becomes head of state in South Vietnam 26 October 1964 Lyndon B Johnson heavily defeats Barry Goldwater in the US presidential election 3 November 1964 Military coup in Bolivia 3 November 1964 “Stronger Since the War” (ABC) airs on NET 18 November 1964 “America: The Dollar Poor” (Rediffusion) airs on NET 23 December 1964 LBJ announces his “Great Society” plans 4 January 1965 “America: the Edge of Abundance” (Rediffusion) airs on NET 20 January 1965