The British Gold Coast became independent Ghana under Kwame Nkrumah, the first sub-Saharan African colony to gain independence after World War II.
Tunku Abdul Rahman proclaims the Federation of Malaya's independence from Britain at Merdeka Stadium in Kuala Lumpur.
After Nasser nationalises the Suez Canal, Israel, Britain and France attack Egypt but withdraw under US and Soviet pressure.
In 1960, seventeen African countries gained independence, most of them former French colonies along with Nigeria, Somalia and the Congo.
South African police opened fire on a crowd protesting pass laws at Sharpeville, killing 69 people; the ANC and PAC were subsequently banned.
Immediately after independence from Belgium, the Congo descended into secession, foreign intervention and civil war, ending when Mobutu Sese Seko seized power in 1965.
James Watson and Francis Crick publish the double-helix model of DNA in Nature, drawing in part on Rosalind Franklin's X-ray diffraction data.