Timeline - 1960 - 1969

1960

• January - An agreement was signed by the USA and Holland to station nuclear weapons in Holland, including Honest John and Nike missiles, plus nuclear capable F-104G Starfighters.
• 2nd January - John F. Kennedy announced his intention to run for the United States presidency in November.
• 10th January - British prime minister Harold MacMillan delivered his first "Wind of Change" speech in Accra. His speech hinted at a move towards de-colonisation of British possessions in Africa. He repeated fundamentally the same speech in Capetown, South Africa on the 3rd February.
• 19th January - The United States and Japan signed a Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security, a defence treaty allowing the US to maintain military bases in Japan.
• 1rd February - Harold MacMillan delivered his second "Wind of Change" speech  in Capetown, South Africa.
• 11th February - Skirmishes on the Chinese-Indian border caused the deaths of 12 Indian soldiers.
• 13th February - France became the world's fifth nuclear power, after testing its first nuclear weapon, code-named "Gerboise Bleue" (Blue Desert Rat), in northern Africa.
• 17th March - US president Dwight Eisenhower endorsed a CIA plan to overthrow the Castro regime in Cuba by supporting an invasion by Cuban exiles. This gave rise to the Bay of Pigs invasion in April 1961.
• April - The US deployed Jupiter missiles in Italy and Turkey. These missile bases gave the US the ability to launch a short-range nuclear strike on the Soviet Union.
• 25th April - South Korean leader Syngman Rhee was forced out of office and replaced by a democratic government.
• 1st May - Soviet ground defences shot down a U2 spy-plane and detained its US pilot, Capt. Francis Gary Powers. Five days later Soviet leaders unveiled evidence of American spying, embarrassing the US and sparking an international incident.
• 7th May - After previously claiming that Powers' U-2 was collecting weather information, the US government finally admitted that it was on a surveillance mission.
• 16th May - Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev demanded an American apology for the U2 incident (above). This led to the abandonment of a planned US-Soviet summit in Paris.
• June - Sino-Soviet split - The Chinese leadership, angered at being treated as the "junior partner" to the Soviet Union, declared its version of Communism superior and begin to compete with the Soviets for influence, thus adding a third dimension to the Cold War.
• 1st July - A Soviet fighter jet shot down an American RB47H ELINT reconnaissance aircraft over the Barents Sea. Four American crewmen were killed and two others taken prisoner by the Soviets.
• 28th July - Richard Nixon was affirmed as the Republican candidate for the US presidential election in November.
• 31st July - British and Commonwealth forces defeated communist guerrillas in Malaya.
• 6th August - Cuban leader Fidel Castro ordered the nationalisation of all American-owned property.
• 9th August - The Pathet Lao (communist) revolt in Laos began.
• 12th October - While addressing the United Nations, Nikita Khrushchev became agitated and threw a tantrum at criticisms of Soviet policies in eastern European.
• 19th October - The US placed a partial embargo on Cuba, banning the export of all items except food and medicine.
• 8th November - John F. Kennedy was elected US president, defeating Richard Nixon in one of the closest presidential elections in American history.
• 20th December - The National Liberation Front, a nationalist-communist insurgency, was formed in South Vietnam. The West came to know the NLF as the Viet Cong.

1961

• 3rd January - The US announced the severing of diplomatic ties with Cuba.
• 9th January - British authorities announced the discovery of a Soviet spy ring based in the town of Portland.
• 17th January - Outgoing US president Dwight Eisenhower delivered his farewell address and warned of the growing influence of a "military-industrial complex".
• 20th January - John F. Kennedy was sworn in as US president. In his inauguration speech, Kennedy warned that the US would  "...bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend [and] oppose any foe..." to ensure the continuation of freedom.

• 4th February - Angolan nationalists, including communists, began an insurgency against Portuguese rule.
• 12th April - Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space and first to orbit the Earth when the Soviet Union successfully launched Vostok 1.
• 17th April - The CIA-backed invasion of Cuba, focused on the Bay of Pigs, commenced. It was defeated within three days.
• 5th May - Alan Shepard became the first American to travel into space. It was a sub-orbital flight in a capsule called Freedom 7. He was later to command the Apollo 14 mission.
• 16th May - The democratic government in South Korea was overthrown following a military coup led by General Park Chung-hee.
• 25th May -  John F. Kennedy announced the US intention to put a man on the moon - kickstarting the Apollo program.

• June - The US began installing nuclear-capable Jupiter missiles in Turkey, increasing its capacity to launch against the USSR.
• 3rd June - Nikita Khrushchev and John F. Kennedy began a two-day summit in Vienna, Austria.
• 4th June - Khrushchev ended the summit with another ultimatum, giving the allies until December 31st to withdraw from Berlin. This marked the start of the Berlin Crisis, which contributed to the construction of the Berlin Wall.
• 16th June - While visiting Paris, Russian ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev defected and requested political asylum. Nureyev's defection caused a sensation around the world.
• 25th July - John F. Kennedy rejected Khrushchev's ultimatum on Berlin and called for US military reinforcements in western Europe.
• 13th August - East German troops closed the border with West Berlin and began construction of the Berlin Wall.
• 17th August - Alliance for Progress aid to Latin America from the US began.
• 1st September - The Soviet Union resumed testing of nuclear weapons in the atmosphere, with a detonation at Semipalitinsk
• 18th September - A plane crash in eastern Africa killed United Nations Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold and 15 others.
• 26th October - The beginning of a tense two-day standoff between US and Soviet tanks at Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin.
• 31st October - The Soviet Union detonated "Tsar Bomba", at 50 megatons the most powerful nuclear device ever tested, although it is believed that the USSR developed a weapon of 100 megatons.
• 18th November - John F. Kennedy authorised the deployment of 18,000 military advisors to support the struggle against communist insurgents in South Vietnam.

1962

• 22nd January - The Organisation of American States suspended Cuba's membership, following intensive lobbying by Washington.
• 7th February - The US embargo on Cuba which began in October 1961, was further extended to include most food and medicines.
• 10th February - Detained U2 pilot Gary Powers was returned to the US, in exchange for a captured KGB agent, Colonel Rudolf Abel.
• February 20th - John Glenn became the first US astronaut to orbit the Earth.
• 5th May - East German university students completed a 150-metre long tunnel under the Berlin Wall. Twelve people used it to escape to West Germany.
• 17th August - East German border guards shot Peter Fechter, 18, as he attempted to escape into West Berlin. Unassisted by the Grepo, Fechter slowly bled to death.
• 15th October - The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) reported that U2 surveillance photographs had revealed the installation of Soviet ballistic missiles in Cuba.
• 22nd October - John F. Kennedy appeared on television and addressed the American people.

• 26th October - US military commanders set DEFCON 2, prepared ballistic missiles and stocked B-52 bombers with nuclear weapons. In the UK 40 nuclear armed Vulcan bombers were crewed and on 15 minute alert and nuclear missiles at four sites were prepared to launch.
• 29th October - Khrushchev announced the withdrawal of the missiles, following backroom negotiations with the US.
• 20th November - Kennedy suspended the American naval blockade of Cuba.

1963

• 11th June - Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc committed suicide by setting himself on fire on a street in Saigon as, a protest against the persecution of Buddhists in South Vietnam, it was captured by television crews and photographers and published throughout the world.
• 16th June - Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space. Soviet propaganda hailed this as evidence of gender equality in the USSR.
• 20th June - The US and USSR agreed to install a hotline to allow direct communication in the event of a nuclear crisis. Despite numerous pictures of red telephones in newspapers, it was actually a data link using teleprinters.
• 20th June - Swedish air force colonel Stig Wennerstrom was arrested for espionage, after passing secret documents to the Soviets. He was later sentenced to life in prison but paroled after serving 11 years.
• 21st June - France announced that it was withdrawing its navy from the North Atlantic fleet of NATO.
• 26th June - While visiting West Berlin, John F. Kennedy delivered his famous "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech.

• July 30th - British spy Kim Philby was granted political asylum in the Soviet Union.
• 5th August - The US, UK and USSR signed the Partial Test Ban Treaty, which prohibited non-underground nuclear test explosions. The treaty took effect in October.
• 16th October - Konrad Adenauer resigned as the chancellor of West Germany.
• 19th October - Alexander (Alec) Frederick Douglas-Home (Conservative) became UK Prime Minister.
• 2nd November - South Vietnamese leader Ngo Dinh Diem was assassinated during a coup by army officers. The coup proceeded with the backing of the CIA and the White House.
• 22nd November - John F. Kennedy was shot and killed in Dallas by Lee Harvey Oswald. There is much speculation over whether communist countries, or even the CIA, were involved in his assassination, but none of it was ever proven. Kennedy's vice-president Lyndon B. Johnson became President of the United States.

1964

• 30th March - 1st April - A military-led coup d'tat overthrew democratically elected president Joäo Goulart in Brazil. Goulart's proposals, such as land reform and bigger control of the state in the economy, were seen as "communist", though he was from the Labour party.
• 20th April - US President Lyndon Johnson in New York, and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev in Moscow, simultaneously announced  plans to cut back production of materials for making nuclear weapons.
• 27th May - Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru died. 
• 4th August - US President Lyndon B. Johnson claimed that North Vietnamese naval vessels had fired on two American destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin. Although there was a first attack, it was later proven that American vessels had entered North Vietnamese territory, and that the second attack was proven unfounded. The Gulf of Tonkin Incident led to the open involvement of the United States in the Vietnam War, after the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.
• 7th August - The US Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, authorising president Lyndon Johnson to take action to protect American personnel and allies in Vietnam.
• 14th October - Leonid Brezhnev replaced Khrushchev as Soviet leader.
• 16th October - China tested its first nuclear weapon. The test made China the world's fifth nuclear power.
• James (Harold) Wilson (Labour) became UK Prime Minister.
• 3rd November - Lyndon Johnson was re-elected president of the United States.

1965

• 24th January - Former British prime minister Winston Churchill died.
• 24th February - US and South Vietnamese planes commenced Operation Rolling Thunder, an ongoing bombing campaign against military and industrial targets in North Vietnam.
• 8th March - US combat troops begin arriving in Vietnam. By 1968 there would be a half million American soldiers deployed there.
• 28th April - US forces invaded the Dominican Republic to head off a communist revolution there.
• 29th April - Australian prime minister Robert Menzies announced that his government would deploy a battalion of combat troops to Vietnam, to support American forces there.
• 28th July - US president Lyndon Johnson announced that another 50,000 combat troops would be sent to Vietnam.
• 15th August - Outbreak of Second Indo-Pakistani War.  
• 23rd September - The Second Indian-Pakistani War ended in a cease-fire.
• 30th September -  Six Indonesian generals were murdered as part of the 30 September Movement.
• 8th October - The Indonesian military began a series of mass killings, targeting communists, suspected communists and ethnic groups. Ten days later the Indonesian government outlawed the local communist party.
• 6th November -  The US and Cuban government agreed to allow Cubans to resettle in the United States if they wish.
• 11th November - The Rhodesian colonial government under Ian Douglas Smith declared UDI.
• 14th November - The Battle of Ia Drang, the first major battle between US and North Vietnamese forces in the Vietnam War.
• 5th December - Several hundred civilians attended a public demonstration in Moscow, protesting against the arrest of two dissident writers.
• 25th December - US President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered a bombing pause in Vietnam. It lasted for 37 days until the 31st of January.

1966

• 10th February - Two Soviet writers, Yuli Daniel and Andrei Sinyavsky, were sentenced to prison terms for criticising the government.
• 10th  March - France withdrew from NATO command structure.
• 31st March - The Soviets launched Luna 10, the first man-made probe to orbit the Moon.
• 8th April - Leonid Brezhnev became general secretary of the Soviet Union, further consolidating his power.
• 27th April - Soviet foreign minister Andrei Gromyko visited the Vatican and met Pope Paul VI.
• 8th May - Communist China detonated a third nuclear device.
• 16th May -  Mao Zedong and his followers initiated the Cultural Revolution. It soon became a mass movement driven by radical students, who targeted those suspected of disloyalty.
• 20th June - French president Charles de Gaulle began a visit to the Soviet Union.

1967

• 12th March - In a coup  General Suharto successfully overthrew Achmed Sukarno as president of Indonesia.
• 25th April - Thirty three Latin American and Caribbean countries signed the Treaty of Tlatelolco in Mexico City, which sought the prohibition of nuclear weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean.
• 5th June - In response to Egypt's aggression, Israel invaded the Sinai Peninsula, beginning the Six-Day War.  
• 23rd June - U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson met with Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin in Glassboro, New Jersey for a three-day summit.
• 8th August - Five nations signed the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) declaration in Bangkok, a commitment to co-operate in the struggle against communism.

1968

• 5th January - Alexander Dubcek became leader of the Communist Party in Czechoslovakia.
• 21st January - An American B-52 bomber carrying four hydrogen bombs crashed into the sea near Thule, Greenland. This led to an expensive salvage operation and radioactive contamination of the area.
• 23rd January - The USS Pueblo, an American naval vessel being used to gather intelligence, was boarded and seized by North Korean troops. The ship was claimed as a prize of war. Its 82 crewmen were detained, interrogated and tortured for 11 months, before being released in December 1968.
• 31st March - The UK government disbanded the Civil Defence Corps, Industrial Civil Defence Service, National Hospital Service Reserve, and the  Auxiliary Fire Service. The Royal Observer Corps was also re-organised and significantly reduced including the closure of a number of monitoring posts.
• 4th April - US civil rights activist Dr Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee
• 10th May - The Paris peace talks on Vietnam commenced, involving the US, North and South Vietnam and the Viet Cong.
• 1st July - The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) was opened for signature.
• 3rd August - Warsaw Pact nations signed the "Bratislava Declaration", affirming their loyalty to socialism in both government and the economy.
• 20th August - Prague Spring Reforms in Communist Czechoslovakia resulted in Warsaw Pact intervention to crush them. Soviet and Warsaw Pact armies entered Czechoslovakia, resulting in the rollback of the Prague Spring liberal reforms.
• 13th September - Albania withdrew from the Warsaw Pact, in response to the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia.
• 5th November -  Former vice president Richard Nixon was elected 37th president of the United States, carrying 32 states.
• 12th November - Leonid Brezhnev said the Soviet Union would intervene in the affairs of Soviet bloc nations if Moscow believes socialism is under threat. This becomes known as the Brezhnev Doctrine.
• 23rd December - The captain and crew of the USS Pueblo were released by North Korea.

1969

• 20th January - Richard Nixon was inaugurated as US president.
• 2nd March - Tensions between the USSR and China reached flashpoint when Chinese troops ambushed Soviet patrols on the Ussuri River. This marked the beginning of the Sino-Soviet border war.
• 20th July - The US space program reached its pinnacle, with the landing of two Apollo XI astronauts on the Moon.

• 3rd November - Nixon unveiled his policy of Vietnamisation, announcing that US combat troops would be gradually withdrawn from Vietnam, their roles taken by South Vietnamese troops.
• 17th November - US and Soviet negotiators began talks on strategic arms limitation (SALT 1).