60

• February 23 - Charles XI becomes king of Sweden.
• March 16 - The Long Parliament disbands
• May 8 - The Parliament of England declares Prince Charles Stuart King Charles II of England.
• May 23 - King Charles II of England reaches the shores of his Kingdom. On May 29 he arrives in London and assumes the throne, marking the beginning of the English Restoration.
• November 28 - At Gresham College, 12 men, including Christopher Wren, Robert Boyle, John Wilkins, and Sir Robert Moray meet after a lecture by Wren and decide to found "a College for the Promoting of Physico-Mathematicall Experimentall Learning}" (later known as the Royal Society).
• Blaise Pascal's The Provincial Letters, a defense of the Jansenist Antoine Arnauld, was ordered shredded and burned by King Louis XIV of France.

Births

• January - Pierre Helyot, French historian
• February 19 - Friedrich Hoffmann, physician and chemist (+ 1742)
• April 16 - Hans Sloane, British physician
• May 2 - Alessandro Scarlatti, Italian composer (+ 1725)
• May 28 - George I, King of Great Britain (+ 1727)
• September - Daniel Defoe, British writer (Robinson Crusoë)
• December 4 - André Campra, French composer
• Andreas Schlueter, Polish sculptor and architect

Deaths

• April 3 - The Pony Express makes its first run.
• Victor Emmanuel, king of Sardinia seizes the whole of the Papal States besides Rome (see Vatican City) and unites Italy.
• Robert Wilhelm Bunsen discovers Cesium and Rubidium (see Discovery of the chemical elements)
• September 7 - Lady Elgin is accidentally rammed and sunk in Lake Michigan, hundreds drown.
• October - John Hanning Speke and James Augustus Grant leave Zanzibar to search for source of the Nile.
• November 6 - U.S. presidential election, 1860: Abraham Lincoln beats John C. Breckinridge and is elected as the 16th President of the United States, the first Republican to hold that office.
• December 26 - Confederate diplomatic envoys James Mason and John Slidell are freed by the United States government, thus heading off a possible war between the United States and Great Britain.
• December 29 - The first British seagoing ironclad warship, the HMS Warrior is launched.
• Vladivostok, Russia is founded.

Year in topic

• 1860 in literature
  • Mason Jackson becomes art editor of the Illustrated London News.
• 1860 in sports
  • Willie Park wins the first British Open golf tournament.
  • First running of the Queen's Plate in Toronto, Ontario, North America's oldest thoroughbred horse race.

Births

• January 1 - George Washington Carver, educator, activist, botanist
• January 11 - Marie Bashkirtseff, artist
• January 25 - Charles Curtis, American vice-president (+ 1936)
• January 29 - William Jacob Baer, American painter (+ 1941)
• January 29 - Anton Chekhov, Russian playwright and short story writer (+ 1904)
• February 11 - Rachilde (Marguerite Vallette-Eymery), French author
• February 29 - Herman Hollerith, inventor of the first electric tabulating machine.
• March 13 - Hugo Wolf, Austrian composer
• March 19 - William Jennings Bryan, American politician
• May 9 - J. M. Barrie, author (+ 1937)
• May 25 - James McKeen Cattell, first professor of psychology in U.S.
• May 29 - Isaac Albéniz, Spanish composer
• July 3 - Charlotte Perkins Gilman, feminist writer (+ 1935)
• July 7 - Gustav Mahler, composer
• July 19 - Lizzie Borden, murder suspect
• September 13 - John Pershing, American general
• John Coughlin, Chicago alderman
• Frederick George Jackson, British Arctic explorer (+ 1938)
• Albert Giraud, Belgian poet (+ 1929)
• Lancelot Speed, illustrator (+ 1931)

Deaths

• January 1 - Independence of Cameroon
• January 11 - Chad declares its independence.
• January 23 - Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh in the bathyscaphe USS Trieste break a depth record when they descend to the bottom of Challenger Deep 35,820 feet (10,750 meters) below sea level in the Pacific Ocean.
• January 25 - The National Association of Broadcasters reacts to the Payola scandal by threatening fines for any disk jockeys who accepted money for playing particular records
• February 9 - Joanne Woodward receives the first star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
• February 13 - Nuclear testing: France tests its first atomic bomb.
• February 21 - Cuban leader Fidel Castro nationalizes all businesses in Cuba.
• February 29 - Earthquake totally destoys Agadir, Morocco.
• March 6 - Vietnam War: The United States announces that 3,500 American troops are going to be sent to Vietnam.
• March 21 - Apartheid: Massacre in Sharpeville, South Africa: Afrikaner police open fire on a group of unarmed black South African demonstrators, killing 69 and wounding 180.
• March 22 - A.L. Schawlow & C.H. Townes receive the first patent for a laser.
• April 1 - The United States launches the first weather satellite, TIROS-1.
• April 27 - Togo gains independence from French-administered UN trusteeship.
• May 9 - Reproductive rights: The Food and Drug Administration approves sale of the birth control pill.
• May 10 - The nuclear submarine USS Nautilus completes the first under water circumnavigation of the earth.
• May 11 - In Buenos Aires four Mossad agents abduct fugitive Nazi Adolf Eichmann who was using the assumed name "Ricardo Klement."
• May 15 - Sputnik 4 is launched into Earth orbit.
• May 16 - Nikita Khrushchev demands an apology from US President Dwight D. Eisenhower for U-2 spy plane flights over the Soviet Union thus ending a Big Four summit in Paris.
• May 23 - Prime Minister of Israel David Ben-Gurion announces that Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann has been captured.
• May 27 - In Turkey, General Cemal Gürsel leads a military coup d'etat removing President Celal Bayar and the rest of the democratic government.
• June 20 - Independence of Mali and Senegal
• June 24 - Avro 748 first flight at Woodford, UK
• July 1 - A Soviet MiG fighter north of Murmansk in the Barents Sea shot down a six-man RB-47 crew. Two young United States Air Force officers survived and were imprisoned in Moscow's dreaded Lubyanka prison. (see RB-47H shot down)
• July 4 - With the admission of Hawaii as the 50th U.S. state earlier in the year, the 50-star flag of the United States debuts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
• July 20 - Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) elected Sirimavo Bandaranaike Prime Minister, the world's first female head of government.
• August 6 - Cuban Revolution: In response to a United States embargo, Cuba nationalizes American and foreign-owned property in the nation.
• August 7 - Côte d'Ivoire becomes independent.
• August 16 - Joseph Kittinger parachutes from a balloon over New Mexico at 102,800 feet (31,333 m). He sets unbeaten (as of 2003) world records for: high-altitude jump; free-fall by falling 16 miles (25.7 km) before opening his parachute; and fastest speed by a human without an aircraft, 982 km/h (614 mi/h).
• August 16 - Cyprus gains its independence from the United Kingdom.
• August 17 - Gabon gains independence from France.
• August 19 - Cold War: In Moscow, downed American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers is sentenced to ten years imprisonment by the Soviet Union for espionage.
• August 19 - Sputnik program: The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 5 with the dogs Belka and Strelka (Russian for "Squirrel" and "Little Arrow"), 40 mice, 2 rats and a variety of plants. The spacecraft will return to earth the next day and all animals will be recovered safely.
• August 20 - Senegal breaks from the Mali federation, declaring independence.
• September 1 - Disgruntled railroad workers effectively halt operations of the Pennsylvania Railroad, marking the first shutdown in the history of the company (event lasted 2 days).
• September 8 - In Huntsville, Alabama, US President Dwight D. Eisenhower formally dedicates the Marshall Space Flight Center (NASA had already activated the facility on July 1).
• October 12 - Cold War: Nikita Khrushchev pounds his shoe on a table at a General Assembly of the United Nations meeting to protest discussion of Soviet Union policy toward Eastern Europe.
• October 14 - US presidential candidate John F. Kennedy first suggests the idea for the Peace Corps.
• October 29 - In Louisville, Kentucky, Cassius Clay (who later took the name Muhammad Ali) wins his first professional fight.
• November 1 - While campaigning for President of the United States, John F. Kennedy announces his idea of the Peace Corps.
• November 2 - Penguin Books is found not guilty of obscenity in the Lady Chatterley's Lover case.
• November 8 - U.S. presidential election, 1960: In a close race, John F. Kennedy is elected over Richard M. Nixon, becoming the youngest man to hold that office.
• November 15 - The Polaris missile is test launched.
• November 28 - Mauritania becomes independent of France.
• November 30 - Production of the De Soto automobile brand ceases.
• December 1 - Patrice Lumumba, the deposed premier of the Republic if the Congo was arrested by troops of Col. Joseph Mobutu
• December 1 - A 5-ton Soviet space ship containing animals, insects and plants was launched into orbit. The spacecraft burned up upon re-entry.
• December 2 - The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. Geoffrey Francis Fisher, talked with Pope John XXIII for about an hour in the Vatican. It was the first time in more than 500 years that a head of the Anglican church had visited the Pope.
• December 2 - U.S President Dwight D. Eisenhower authorized the use of $1M for the relief and resettlement of Cuban refugees in Florida. Cuban refugees were arriving in Florida at the rate of 1,000 a week.
• December 4 - Admission to the United Nations of Mauritania was vetoed by the USSR.
• December 5 - Pierre Lagaillarde, who led 1958 and 1960 insurrections in Algeria, failed to appear in a Paris court. He was reported to have fled with 4 fellow defendants to Spain en route to Algeria.
• December 7 - The United Nations Security Council was called into session by the USSR to consider the Soviet demands that the U.N. seek the immediate release of former Congolese Premier Patrice Lumumba.
• December 9 - French President Charles de Gaulle's visit to Algeria was marked by bloody riots by European and Muslim mobs in Algeria's largest cities, killing 127 people.
• December 12 - A Federal Court ruling that Louisiana's anti-integration laws were unconstitutional was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.
• December 13 - While the Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia was on a visit to Brazil, a revolt against his rule was carried out by his Imperial Guard. The rebels proclaimed the emperor's son, Crown Prince Asfa-Wossen.
• December 14 - Antione Gizenga proclaimed in Stanleyville in the Republic of the Congo that he had assumed the premiership.
• December 15 - King Mahendra Bir Bikram Shah Deva of Nepal deposed the government and took power into his own hands.
• December 16 - U.S Secretary of State Christian Herter announced that the United States would commit five atomic submarines and 80 Polaris missiles to NATO by the end of 1963.
• December 16 - A collision of a United Airlines DC-8 and a TWA Super-Constellation over New York City killed 128 on planes and 6 on the ground.
• December 17 - Troops loyal to Haile Selassie I in Ethiopia suppressed the revolt that started on December 13 and gave power back to their leader upon his return from Brazil. Haile Selassie absolved his son of any guilt.
• December 19 - Fire swept through the USS Constellation, the U.S's largest aircraft carrier, while it was under construction at a Brooklyn Navy Yard pier, injuring 150 and killing 50.
• December 20 - Discoverer XIX was launched into polar orbit from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Caifornia. It was designed to measure radiation.
• December 27 - France set off its third nuclear test blast at its atomic proving grounds at Reggan, Algeria.
• December 31 - The farthing coin, used in Great Britain since the 13th century, ceases to be legal tender.

Year in topic

• 1960 in film
  • The Apartment
  • Spartacus, directed by Stanley Kubrick, starring Kirk Douglas, Laurence Olivier, John Gavin, Jean Simmons, Charles Laughton, Peter Ustinov, and Tony Curtis.
  • Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho
  • The Alamo starring John Wayne
• 1960 in literature
• 1960 in music
• 1960 in sports
  • September 9 - First American Football League (AFL) game is played. (Denver Broncos 13, Boston Patriots 10)
• 1960 in television
  • February 11 - Jack Paar walks off his TV show because his monologue had been edited the night before, in favor of a three minute news update. Parr walked out at the beginning of the show, announced that he was quiting, said "There's got to be a better way to make a living," and walked off the stage. After network executives personally apologized, Parr returned to the show a month later. His first show back started with the words "As I was saying before I was interrupted..."
  • American Presidential Candidates John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon debate live on television. The candidates behavior during the debate most likely altered the outcome of the election. In addition to being the first Presidential debates to be broadcast on television, the debates also marked the first time "split screen" images were used by a network.
  • The Andy Griffith Show premieres
  • Hanna Barbara's The Flintstones make their debut
  • 90% of homes in the United States now own a television set, and over one hundred million television sets in use worldwide

Births

• January 3 - Joan Chen, actress
• January 4 - Michael Stipe, singer for R.E.M
• January 6 - Nigella Lawson, celebrity chef, writer
• January 6 - Howie Long, American football star
• January 11 - Stanley Tucci, actor
• January 12 - Oliver Platt, actor
• January 13 - Kevin Anderson, actor
• January 22 - Michael Hutchence, musician ("INXS") (+ 1997)
• January 24 - Nastassja Kinski, actress
• January 29 - Greg Louganis, Olympics gold medalist in swimming
• February 11 - Richard A Mastracchio, astronaut.
• February 19 - Prince Andrew, second son of Queen Elizabeth II
• February 29 - Tony Robbins, motivational speaker
• March 4 - Mykelti Williamson, actor
• March 7 - Ivan Lendl, tennis player
• March 13 - Adam Clayton, bassist for the rock band U2
• March 21 - Ayrton Senna, automobile racer (+ 1994)
• March 26 - Marcus Allen, American football star
• April 4 - Hugo Weaving, actor
• April 26 - Roger Taylor, musician ("Duran Duran")
• May 10 - Bono, singer of U2
• May 18 - Yannick Noah, tennis player
• May 21 - Jeffrey Dahmer, serial killer
• August 24 - Cal Ripken, Jr, baseball star
• September 9 - Hugh Grant, actor
• October 30 - Diego Maradona, soccer player
• November 10 - Neil Gaiman, author
• November 25 - John F. Kennedy, Jr, lawyer and journalist (+1999)

Deaths

• January 4 - Albert Camus Author Nobel Prize winner 1957
• January 12 - Nevil Shute, writer
• January 24 - Edwin Fischer, pianist and conductor
• November 5 - Mack Sennett, pioneer producer/director

Nobel Prizes

• Creation of the First Triumvirate, a political alliance between Julius Caesar, Pompey the Great and Marcus Licinius Crassus

Births

• Prince Ptolemy of Egypt, later Pharaoh Ptolemy XIV of Egypt (or 59 BC).

Deaths