| AN EVENT IN HISTORY |
| 1961-1980 |
| 1961 |
| Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba fails. |
| Soviet cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin, is the first man in space. |
| Sealing of East German border and building of Berlin Wall. |
| South Africa leaves British Commonwealth, and becomes a Republic. |
| 1962 |
| Cuban Missile Crisis - world stands on brink nuclear war. |
| Algeria independent from France. |
| Brazil wins soccer World Cup. |
| Chinese-Indian war. |
| AdolfEichmann (captured by Mossad agents in 1960) is sentenced to death and hanged in Israel for his part in the Holocaust. |
| 1963 |
| A quarter of million people participate in the civil rights March on Washington. Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. makes his "I have a dream" speech. |
| USA and USSR establish "hotline" connection. |
| President Kennedy visits Berlin: "Ich bin ein Berliner". |
| Nuclear Test Ban treaty. |
| President Kennedy assassinated in Dallas, Texas. |
| 1964 |
| Olympic games in Tokyo broadcast worldwide by satellite. |
| Golf Of Tonkin incident between US and North Vietnam. |
| US Surgeon General warns against cigarette smoking. |
| China tests her first atomic bomb. |
| Nelson Mandela imprisoned in South Africa, for opposing Apartheid. |
| 1965 |
| Vietnam war escalation begins, 150,000 US troops deployed to Vietnam. |
| US black nationalist leader, Malcolm X, is assassinated in Harlem. |
| Rhodesia makes Unilateral Declaration of Independence from Great Britain, in order to preserve white minority rule. |
| 1966 |
| Chinese leader, Mao Zedong launches Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). |
| England win the soccer World Cup, defeating West Germany 4-2 after extra time. |
| 1967 |
| Israel defeats Arabs in Six Day War. |
| Dr Christiaan Bernard performs first heart transplant, Cape Town, South Africa. |
| Biafra (1967-1970) declares independence from Nigeria, and is blockaded leading to massive starvation. |
| 1968 |
| Soviet forces invade Czechoslovakia ending Prague Spring liberalization. |
| Student riots in Paris and other European cities. |
| Communists launch Tet offensive in Vietnam (ending in a US military victory, but a psychological defeat). |
| Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. assassinated. |
| Robert Kennedy assassinated. |
| 1969 |
| Colonel Gaddafi becomes Libyan leader. |
| Neil Armstrong is first man to walk on moon. |
| First trial flights of Concorde, the Anglo-French supersonic airliner. |
| 1970 |
| Pro-US coup in Cambodia. |
| US invadesCambodia to attack Communist base areas. |
| Four students killed at KentState during a demonstration against US invasion of Cambodia. |
| The Beatles disband. |
| Venera 7 (USSR) is first probe to return data from the surface of another planet (Venus). |
| Brazil wins soccer World Cup. |
| 1971 |
| Intel introduces the 4004, the first microprocessor. |
| Britain adopts decimal currency |
| Indo-Pakistan war.East Pakistan becomes the separate state of Bangladesh. |
| First (and last) British launched satellite, "Prospero", launched from Woomera, Australia. |
| 1972 |
| US launches Christmas bombing campaign against Hanoi, North Vietnam. |
| FBI director, J. Edgar Hoover dies. |
| "Pong" introduces the video game craze. |
| SALT I treaty limiting nuclear arms signed by US and USSR. |
| Terrorist attack at Munich Olympics, 11 Israeli athletes killed. |
| 1973 |
| Israel defeats Arabs in Yom Kippur War. |
| US and North Vietnam sign peace agreement (Paris Peace Treaty). |
| Oil priced doubled by Persian Gulf states. |
| General Pinochet overthrows the elected Allende government in Chile in a violent coup. |
| Britain, Ireland and Denmark join European Economic Community. |
| British TV networks introduce first teletext system. |
| 1974 |
| India conducts her first nuclear test. |
| Richard Nixon resigns as US President. |
| Turkey invades Cyprus. NATO allies Greece and Turkey, on the brink of war. |
| Emperor HaileSelassie deposed in Ethiopia. |
| West Germany wins soccer World Cup. |
| 1975 |
| Civil war begins in Lebanon. |
| North Vietnamese take Saigon ending Vietnam war. |
| Soyuz-Apollo test flight (US and Soviet spaceships dock). |
| Death of Spanish dictator, Franco. |
| Portuguese colonies Angola and Mozambique independent. |
| Altair introduce Altair MITS 8800, first personal computer. |
| Microsoft founded. |
| 1976 |
| Concorde (first supersonic airliner) makes first commercial flights. |
| Viking 1 and probes land on Mars and beam back photographs. |
| US bicentennial (200 years since independence). |
| Chinese leader, Mao Zedong, dies. |
| 1977 |
| Gary Gilmore becomes first person executed in United States since 1967. |
| Star Wars hits the cinemas. |
| Collision between two Boeing jumbo jets at Los Rodeos airport, Tenerife, in the worst air disaster in history. |
| Apple Computer founded. |
| Egyptian President, AnwarSadat, visits Israel. |
| 1978 |
| Camp David Peace Treaty between Israel and Egypt. |
| First test tube baby born in Britain. |
| Mass murder/suicide of members of Jim Jones' religious cult in Guyana. |
| Space Invaders video game developed by Taito in Japan. |
| Argentina wins soccer World Cup. |
| 1979 |
| Shah overthrown in Iranian revolution. |
| Three Mile Island nuclear accident in US. |
| US embassy in Iran seized by & suot; students", and embassy staff held hostage. |
| Soviets forces invade Afghanistan. |
| Voyager I discovers faint ring system around Jupiter. |
| Visicalc, first spreadsheet software introduced. |
| Former US space station, Skylab, re-enters the Earth's atmosphere and debris is scattered in the Indian Ocean and Western Australia. |
| 1980 |
| Start of Iran-Iraq war. |
| US boycotts Moscow Olympics. |
| John Lennon assassinated. |
| LechWalesa leads Solidarity union movement in Poland against communist government. |
| CNN launched. |
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