The Chilean military under General Augusto Pinochet overthrows President Salvador Allende, beginning a 17-year military dictatorship.
The Argentine military overthrows President Isabel Perón and installs a junta associated with the "Dirty War".
Revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara is captured and executed by the Bolivian army in La Higuera.
The Sandinista National Liberation Front enters Managua after dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle flees, ending the Somoza family's rule.
Argentina seizes the Falkland Islands; Britain dispatches a task force and retakes the islands after a 74-day conflict.
A 13-day standoff between the United States and the Soviet Union over nuclear missiles in Cuba brings the world closest to nuclear war.
CIA-backed Cuban exiles land at the Bay of Pigs in an attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro but are defeated within days.