Top News Stories from 1960

World Events

• American U-2 spy plane, piloted by Francis Gary Powers, shot down over Russia (May 1).
• Khrushchev kills Paris summit conference because of U-2 (May 16).
• Communist China and Soviet Union split in conflict over Communist ideology.
• Senegal, Ghana, Nigeria, Madagascar, and Zaire (Belgian Congo) gain independence.
• There are 900 US military advisers in South Vietnam. Background: Vietnam War
• Top Nazi murderer of Jews, Adolf Eichmann, captured by Israelis in Argentina (May 23)—executed in Israel in 1962.

U.S. Events

• John F. Kennedy defeats Richard Nixon in a closely-fought presidential race.
• Black sit-in at Greensboro, N.C., diner receives national attention. Background: Civil Rights

Economics

Sports

World Series

NBA Championship

Stanley Cup

Wimbledon

Kentucky Derby Champion

NCAA Basketball Championship

NCAA Football Champions

Entertainment

Events

• Seventy million people watch the presidential debate between Sen. John F. Kennedy and Vice President Richard Nixon.
• John Coltrane forms his own quartet and becomes the voice of jazz's New Wave movement.
• Ninety percent of U.S. homes have a television set.
• Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho terrifies movie-goers and becomes one of the year's most successful films, as well as one of the most memorable psychological thrillers.

Movies

• Psycho, The Apartment, The Sundowners, Sons and Lovers

Books

• John Barth, The Sot-Weed Factor
• Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird
• Flannery O'Connor, The Violent Bear It Away
• Anne Sexton, To Bedlam and Part Way Back
• William Styron, Set This House on Fire
• John Updike, Rabbit, Run

Science

• The first working laser is built by T. H. Maiman (US).
• Echo I, the first communications satellite, is launched.
• NASA launches Tiros I, the first weather satellite. Background: Space Exploration

Death

• Boris Pasternak
• Emily Post
• Lawrence Tibbett
• Clark Gable

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