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.
Brasília, a newly planned city in the interior, officially replaces Rio de Janeiro as Brazil's capital.
Immediately after independence from Belgium, the Congo descended into secession, foreign intervention and civil war, ending when Mobutu Sese Seko seized power in 1965.
Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela found the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries at the Baghdad Conference.
The National Liberation Front of South Vietnam (Viet Cong) is founded to oppose the South Vietnamese government.
The National Liberation Front (FLN) fights French rule; the war ends with the Évian Accords and Algerian independence in 1962.
A conflict between North Vietnam and the Viet Cong on one side and South Vietnam, backed by the United States and its allies, on the other; it ends with the fall of Saigon in 1975.
A campaign of rapid industrialisation and collectivisation leads to a great famine that kills tens of millions.