1960 Snapshot
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The Vibe
Pop Culture
Camelot Era
Slang
"The Ginchiest"
Price Check
Gas: $0.31
Notable Deaths
Albert Camus, Clark Gable
Music & Style
Early Motown
World Affairs
JFK Election
Vietnam Escalates
Year's Summary
- Global Events: The 'Year of Africa' as 17 African nations gain independence. The U-2 spy plane incident escalates tensions between the US and USSR. John F. Kennedy wins a razor-thin presidential election.
- Culture & Mood: The dawn of the 'Sixties.' A sense of youthful vigor enters politics and society. The first televised presidential debates change how leaders are chosen.
- Fashion & Slang: The birth of the 'Mod' look. If you like something, it's 'The Ginchiest.'
- Fun Fact: The Aluminum can is introduced for soda, and the first Etch A Sketch toy hits the shelves, becoming an instant classic!
- 1 Jan 1960: Independence of Cameroon Initiates African Decolonization Year – French Cameroon gained full independence as the Republic of Cameroon, marking the historic dawn of 'Year of Africa' in which seventeen African nations successfully achieved freedom from colonial rule.
- 1 Feb 1960: Greensboro Sit-Ins Spark Civil Rights Movement Momentum – Four African American college students initiated a peaceful sit-in at a segregated Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, galvanizing widespread nonviolent direct action across the American South.
- 1 May 1960: U-2 Spy Plane Incident Escalates Cold War Tensions – An American Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance aircraft was shot down over Soviet airspace, leading to the capture of pilot Francis Gary Powers and causing the immediate collapse of the East-West Paris Summit.
- 11 May 1960: Capture of Adolf Nazi War Criminal Eichmann – Israeli Mossad intelligence agents successfully captured fugitive Nazi SS officer Adolf Eichmann in Buenos Aires, Argentina, leading to his historic war crimes trial in Jerusalem.
- 1 Jul 1960: Establishment of the Republic of Ghana – Ghana officially adopted a new republican constitution, severing final constitutional ties to the British monarchy and establishing Kwame Nkrumah as its first president.
- 5 Jul 1960: Independence of the Democratic Republic of the Congo – The Congo gained independence from Belgium, quickly triggering the complex Congo Crisis and major international Cold War diplomatic interventions in Central Africa.
- 11 Aug 1960: Chad Proclaims Independence from France – Continuing the rapid wave of decolonization across equatorial Africa, Chad officially declared its sovereign independence, joining the international community.
- 8 Nov 1960: John F. Kennedy Elected 35th President of the United States – In one of the closest presidential elections in US history, Democrat John F. Kennedy narrowly defeated Republican opponent Richard Nixon, ushering in the political era of the 'New Frontier.'