Alternate Timeline of the 20th Century Part IV (1951-1975)

10/1/1951 – A slight easing of winter conditions allows McArthur’s exceptional circumstances to occur. A tidal wave of Chinese armour and manpower hits the allied front as more than 5 million Chinese enter the war. Over the next week, the allies are pushed back more than 100 kilometres.

2/2/1951 – The Allies manage to slow the Chinese and North Korean advance, but the push southwards is relentless. Prime Minister Menzies gives permission for everything short of nuclear weapons to be used against the communist forces.

14/3/1951 – Australia, America and Germany have mobilised every technological advantage against the communist armies. Australian jet fighters have destroyed the Chinese Air Force, American and Australian B-52’s have obliterated the communist supply routes, and Australian warships have launched cruise missiles against supply stores and infrastructure. German, Australian and US fighter bombers relentlessly pound the communist frontline troops with Napalm and white phosphorous.

3/4/1951 – The communist advance is finally stopped in a line running from just south-west of the 38th parallel to just north-east of it. Both sides begin to dig in as stalemate starts to develop.

15/5/1951 – Savage human wave assaults by China and North Korea fail to move the front line by more than a few kilometres. However, counterattacks by the technologically superior Allies are no more successful.

18/6/1951 – The heads of government of the three nuclear powers – the USA, Australia and Germany – meet with General McArthur in Guam. McArthur urges the politicians to consider the use of nuclear weapons to force China to withdraw from the war. Without China, North Korea would have to surrender as well. While President Eisenhower decides to mull over the decision, Prime Minister Menzies and Chancellor Adenauer reject the idea outright. “There have to be options that don’t involve the incineration of millions of civilians”, states Menzies.

20/7/1951 – The German Kaiser Wilhelm III dies in Berlin at the age of 69. He is buried in a lavish ceremony after an official 30-day period of mourning. His son takes the throne as Frederick IV.

4/8/1951 – The Allies decide to ask Russia for help in mediating a possible end to the war in Korea. Krushchev agrees to try, but makes no firm promises. He sends invitations to Mao and Kim Il-Sung to meet in Moscow. Both leaders accept.

19/9/1951 – Krushchev announces that talks on the war would begin in Moscow in the following month. The war is now in a firm stalemate with Allied technical superiority failing to overcome Chinese and North Korean manpower.

22/10/1951 – After some delays, the talks in Russia finally begin. The communists, who are launching the majority of attacks are losing on average 1000 men a day killed and twice that number wounded. Daily allied losses are about 300 killed and 850 wounded. The lower allied death to wounded ration is mainly due to superior medical facilities including the introduction of Mobile Army Surgical Hospitals or MASH’s.

17/11/1951 – The left wing of the Australian Labour Party announces a split from the main body to form a separate party called the Democratic Labour Party. The consequences for the main Labour Party will be disastrous.

10/12/1951 – Germany and America use jet fighters for the first time. The United States unveils the F-14 Tomcat while Germany’s newest aircraft is called the Me 262. France unveils its first jet fighter, the Mirage 1, in an air attack on Viet Minh bases in northern Vietnam. Britain and Austria decided to not re-invent the wheel, but purchase the new planes from the US, Australia and Germany.

28/1/1952 – President Eisenhower uses the State of the Union Address to announce that he will run for another term as President. The Address is the first State of the Union to be televised. Nearly half of all American households have a television with a choice of four channels – ABC, NBC, CBS and PBS - that they can watch. The new medium has spread to Europe, Australia, New Zealand and a number of Asian, African and South American countries as well. Most countries have two or three channels.

11/2/1952 – Australia’s wartime Prime Minister John Curtin dies of a stroke and is buried with a full State funeral. Two days later, Labour leader Ben Chifley retires due to cancer and is succeeded by Arthur Calwell.

24/3/1952 – The space age officially begins when Australia shoots a satellite into orbit. The satellite is launched from their Woomera Space Base and stays in orbit for 14 days before burning up in the atmosphere on re-entry.

28/4/1952 – The Americans enter the space age by launching a satellite of their own. This satellite is launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida and its trip lasts for more than a month. Both Nations now work on trying to keep satellites in orbit permanently.

2/5/1952 – King Edward’s younger brother George, Duke of York, dies from throat cancer. Since the nearly 58-year-old Edward VIII is childless, George’s oldest daughter Elizabeth becomes the heir to the throne.

30/6/1952 – Australia shoots a small, unmanned probe at the moon with the aim of landing it there. The probe misses by 2000 kilometres but sends back detailed pictures of Earth’s natural satellite.

29/7/1952 – Only months after retiring, Australia’s former and wildly popular Opposition leader Ben Chifley dies from lung cancer.

18/8/1952 – President Eisenhower is officially confirmed as the Republican Party’s candidate for President. The Democrats endorse Adlai Stevenson to oppose him.

20/9/1952 – A year after they have begun, negotiations to end the war in Korea seem to be going nowhere. Krushchev, who is hosting the talks, warns that he is not prepared to mediate forever and will set a deadline if there is no progress soon.

5/10/1952 – Former president Calvin Coolidge dies aged 80. This leaves Herbert Hoover as the only ex-President still alive.

4/11/1952 – President Eisenhower is elected to his second term after thrashing Adlai Stevenson by 442-89 in the Electoral College.

23/12/1952 – Firebrand Wisconsin senator Joseph McCarthy gives a speech in Wheeling, West Virginia where he alleges that 205 employees of the State Department are known communists. With the Korean War being more than 2 years old, this is a concern and the US Congress sets up a committee to investigate the claim.

20/1/1953 – President Eisenhower and Vice-President Nixon are sworn in for their 2nd terms.

1/2/1953 – Nikita Krushchev, fed up with the recalcitrance of the Communist and Allied negotiators at the Korean peace talks, uses a speech to his parliament to give the negotiators 6 months to solve the conflict. He becomes so agitated that he takes off his shoe and bangs it on the podium, to the cheers of the other Members.

12/3/1953 – Nearly 50 years after oil is found in Iran, American and British companies find oil in Saudi Arabia. Over the next few months, more oil is found in Iraq, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Bahrain.

6/4/1953 – China and North Korea launch a major offensive to try to bring the war to a military conclusion. The offensive lasts three weeks and then collapses with heavy loss of life on the communist side in particular. The communists decide to stop all offensives and step up negotiations.

22/5/1953 – Peace talks in Moscow are starting to make slow, but steady progress, with the major sticking points relating to the exchange of prisoners. Khrushchev agrees to extend the deadline until the end of the year.

30/6/1953 – Negotiations in Moscow are now making rapid progress, as both sides are weary of the war. It is announced that and end to the Korean War is not far off.

27/7/1953 – A ceasefire comes into effect in Korea. The result of the war is a stalemate, with the new border and a demilitarised zone being established along the frontline. North Korea stays communist under the leadership of Kim Il-Sung, while South Korea stays democratic under the leadership of Syngman Rhee. The war has cost the lives of 380,000 North Korean and 114,000 Chinese troops. South Korea has suffered 227,000 dead, the US has lost 36,940 men, Germany 8142, Austria 5455, Australia 3746, Britain 1078, and about 10,000 soldiers from other nations have also died. Nearly 1,000,000 civilians on both sides have also lost their lives.

31/8/1953 – The migration of Palestinian Arabs from Israel to the largely Palestinian occupied territories of the West Bank (which is part of Jordan) and Gaza Strip (part of Egypt) is virtually complete. About 1,000,000 Arabs live in the two areas while only about 40,000 remain in Israel proper. Israel’s Jewish population has risen to 3.5 million.

29/9/1953 – The Tydings Committee, set up to investigate communist sympathisers in the US State department, finds that Joseph McCarthy’s accusations were mostly groundless and that there is no proof that anyone named by him is a communist or communist sympathiser. McCarthy’s credibility suffers a serious blow, but he calls the committee report a whitewash and vows to continue “exposing the red menace wherever it exists”.

19/10/1953 – After nationalising Iran’s oil reserves two years earlier, the Iranian Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh is overthrown in a CIA-led coup which restores an absolute monarchy to the country.

20/11/1953 – Australia’s Prime Minister, Robert Menzies, is re-elected to a second term. His coalition government wins the election by six seats over Arthur Calwell’s Labour Party.

31/12/1953 – Investment by British, Dutch and American oil companies in Arab countries begins to make itself felt as the economies of the countries improve. All Arab countries are absolute monarchies and Islamic theocracies, and they start to use the incoming money to arm themselves. The exception is Jordan, which has little oil and has to rely on trading other goods with its oil-rich neighbours. Israel, which is surrounded by potential enemies, also starts to arm itself.

5/1/1954 – The last occupying forces from World War 2 leave Japan as its transition to a parliamentary democracy is complete. Only an American Army base on Okinawa remains.

1/2/1954 – Hawaii is admitted to the US as the 49th State of the Union.

1/3/1954 – Alaska follows Hawaii into the US as it is admitted as the 50th State of the Union.

4/4/1954 – Dwight D. Eisenhower gives his "domino theory" speech during a news conference. The domino theory speculates that if one land in a region (e.g. Vietnam) came under the influence of communism, then the surrounding countries (e.g. Laos, Cambodia, Thailand) would follow in a domino effect.

1/5/1954 – The Palestinians on the West Bank and in the Gaza strip form three separate organisations for the purpose of reclaiming their territory from Israel. The three organisations are the mostly secular Palestinian Liberation organisation or PLO, the moderately Islamic Hamas group and the radically Muslim Islamic Jihad. The three organisations have the same overall goal – the ultimate destruction of Israel - but spend the first few months fighting each other for control. King Hussein of Jordan and the newly elected President Nasser of Egypt do nothing to prevent the establishment of these organisations or to stop them from fighting each other.

12/6/1954 – A major communist uprising begins on the three major Indonesian islands of Java, Sumatra and Borneo. The Indonesian president Sukarno asks Western nations for help. Weary of being sucked into another Asian quagmire, the only help that is given from western nations is material help from Australia and New Zealand. No foreign troops are sent.

8/7/1954 – After initial setbacks, the Indonesian military gains the upper hand over communist rebels and begins a campaign of merciless retribution and suppression. By the end of the year more than 300,000 people have died and the Communists cease to exist as a political movement in Indonesia. The price for this is a virtual military dictatorship headed by Sukarno.

13/8/1954 – Viet Minh forces isolate a large part of the French army in French Indochina on an airbase called Dien Bien Phu. More than 48,000 Vietnamese communists besiege roughly 10,800 French troops. Both sides realise that the outcome of this battle will most likely determine the outcome of the 8-year conflict.

13/9/1954 – After a month of fighting, about half of the airbase is in Viet Minh hands at a cost of some 5000 Vietnamese and 1000 French lives. The French are constantly being reinforced but weight of numbers is beginning to tell. Most French civilians in the colony are starting to pack their bags.

7/10/1954 – The siege of Dien Bien Phu ends as Viet Minh forces overrun what is left of the airbase. About 10,000 French troops are taken prisoner. 2,293 French have been killed and another 5,195 wounded. The Vietnamese have suffered nearly 8,000 deaths and 15,000 wounded. The US and Switzerland broker talks in Geneva to decide the future of the colony. Overall, the conflict has cost 94,000 French and 300,000 Viet Minh lives.

21/11/1954 – A conference in Geneva splits French Indochina into four parts – the Kingdom of Cambodia, the communist controlled People’s Republic of Laos, the communist controlled Democratic People’s Republic of (North) Vietnam, and the Republic of South Vietnam under the leadership of the US-appointed Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem.

22/12/1954 - The division of Vietnam is meant to be temporary until elections scheduled for 1956 clarify under which system Vietnam is to be ruled. Negotiations on these elections run into difficulty when the South Vietnamese delegation walks out on the talks.

1/1/1955 – Britain’s African colonies of Ghana and Nigeria gain independence, as do the former German colonies of Namibia and Mozambique.

2/2/1955 – Having just extracted itself from one colonial war, France becomes embroiled in a second one, this time in Algeria. Islamic militants in the oil-rich colony launch guerrilla attacks against French institutions and civilians.

19/3/1955 – After several failed attempts over the past few years, Australia manages to shoot a satellite into orbit and keep it there. The satellite, called “Hermes” stays in a stationary orbit above Australia for 20 years and is used for telecommunications.

20/4/1955 – India’s spiritual leader, Mahatma Ghandi is assassinated by a Hindu fanatic. The assassin is promptly torn apart and burnt by an enraged mob.

20/5/1955 – America shoots its first permanent satellite into space, following the Australian attempt of two months earlier. A successful German-French attempt follows on May 30.

11/6/1955 – Three Palestinians open fire at an Israeli bus stop, killing five civilians before running off. Hamas claims responsibility for the attack.

2/7/1955 – Israel retaliates for the bus stop attack by launching an airborne missile at what it thinks is the car of the Hamas leader. The leader of Hamas is not in the car, however, his wife, three children and two bodyguards are. There are no survivors.

14/8/1955 – British Prime Minister Winston Churchill calls an election and announces his retirement from politics as a whole.

29/9/1955 – Winston Churchill’s successor, Anthony Eden, is confirmed as Prime minister by winning the election by a comfortable margin.

12/10/1955 – The United States launches a probe at the moon. The probe makes a soft landing in the Sea of Tranquillity a few days later.

16/11/1955 – The United States sends the first living creature into space – a dog named Laika. Unfortunately the dog dies when it runs out of oxygen before returning to Earth.

8/12/1955 – Australia also sends an animal into space – a chimpanzee named Bluebeard. Bluebeard meets his doom when the capsule’s parachute fails to open on re-entry.

28/1/1956 – Dwight Eisenhower announces that he will not run for another term as President and endorses his Vice-President, Richard Nixon, as the Republican candidate.

25/2/1956 – A combined German-French mission is next to launch an animal into space. A dachshund named Frederick, after the German Emperor, is the unlucky winner. The mission fails when the spacecraft does not go into orbit but floats off into deep space.

22/3/1956 – Emperor Charles III of Austria-Hungary dies of pneumonia aged 68. He is succeeded by his son, 49-year-old Leopold VII.

10/4/1956 – Robert Menzies scores a crushing victory over Arthur Calwell and is elected to his third successive term and fourth overall as Prime Minister. Calwell resigns the Labour Party leadership and is replaced by Herbert Evatt.

14/5/1956 – Kaiser Frederick IV approves a change in the German constitution that extends German parliamentary terms to five years, from the present 3 or 4. The changes take effect in 1960. France and Austria-Hungary implement similar changes, bringing the electoral cycles of all major European Nations – Britain, France, Germany, Russia, Italy and Austria-Hungary - into line.

6/6/1956 – The US, France and Britain announce that an offer to fund the building of Egypt’s Aswan Dam is withdrawn, due to Egypt’s sponsorship of terrorism attacks against Israel.

26/7/1956 – Egyptian President Nasser announces the nationalisation of the Suez Canal, ostensibly to raise funds for the building of the Aswan Dam.

5/8/1956 – British and French paratroopers land at various ports, bridges and other facilities along the canal, and quickly establish control. The action is, however, widely condemned by the United States and other western nations. Saudi Arabia announces an oil embargo against Britain and France which the US refuses to fill.

6/9/1956 – The US, led by Vice-President and Presidential candidate Nixon, brokers a deal in Rome, which enables the withdrawal of British and French troops, the reopening of the Canal and a contingent of Danish, Canadian and New Zealand forces and officials to facilitate any disputes. The crisis is seen as a victory for Nasser and greatly enhances his standing in the Arab world.

4/10/1956 – The Danish, Canadian and New Zealand forces take up their stations as the Rome agreement comes into effect.

2/11/1956 – Largely due to his role in resolving the Suez crisis, Richard Nixon wins the presidential election over Adlai Stevenson in a landslide. The Electoral College vote is 457-74 and Stevenson only wins 7 of the 50 States. The Republicans also win control of both Houses of Congress, albeit by small margins.

8/12/1956 – The terror campaign against Israel continues as a car bomb explodes outside a Tel Aviv restaurant, killing 10 people. In retaliation, Israel annihilates a Gaza TV station killing more than 50 employees.

20/1/1957 – Richard Nixon is sworn in as the 33rd President of the United States. His Vice-President is the firebrand senator from Wisconsin, Joseph McCarthy.

6/2/1957 – A rigged election in Cuba removes the minority Communist Party from parliament and entrenches President Batista in power. The Communist Party under Fidel Castro refuses to accept the result and takes to the hills to start guerrilla warfare.

9/3/1957 – China’s Five-Year plan designed to transform the country from an agrarian economy dominated by peasant farming, into a modern, industrialised communist society is announced. Mao dubs it the “Great Leap Forward”. The hope is to industrialise by making use of the massive supply of cheap labour and avoid having to import heavy machinery. To achieve this Mao advocates a further round of collectivisation in the Chinese countryside where already existing small collectives are merged into huge People's communes containing an average of 5000 households each. Mao sees grain and steel production as the key pillars of economic development and encourages the establishment of small backyard steel furnaces in every commune and in each urban neighbourhood.

15/4/1957 – As Vice-President and therefore President of the Senate, Joseph McCarthy manages to snare himself a seat on the Permanent Senate Subcommittee of Investigations charged with investigating matters of Homeland Security. It is the perfect vehicle for McCarthy to push his anti-communist agenda and over the next 2 years will hold 169 hearings, calling 653 witnesses of which 83 will refuse to answer questions about espionage and subversive activities on constitutional grounds and whose names will therefore be made public.

26/5/1957 – Ministers from the Benelux countries as well as Germany, Austria-Hungary, France and Italy meet in Rome to discuss the formation of a European trading block. Britain is invited but does not attend.

19/6/1957 – Is the planet Venus a twin of Earth, with conditions suitable for life? The Germans and French send the first interplanetary probe to try and find out.

21/7/1957 – Australia sends another chimpanzee, named Goliath, into space. Everything goes smoothly and Goliath returns unharmed. He spends the rest of his life in luxury.

8/8/1957 – Britain announces that a raft of its sub-Saharan colonies will achieve independence on January 1, 1958. France is embroiled in a colonial war in Algeria, and therefore far less magnanimous.

15/9/1957 – David Ben-Gurion is elected to his second stint as Prime Minister of Israel, after a two-year period out of office.

30/10/1957 – A car bomb explodes outside the New Zealand embassy in Tel Aviv. Islamic Jihad claims responsibility stating that the bomb is a protest against New Zealand’s presence at the Suez Canal. New Zealand Prime Minister Walter Nash calls in the ambassador of Egypt (where Islamic Jihad is based) and personally hauls him over the coals.

2/11/1957 - New Zealand Prime Minister Walter Nash, clearly still pissed at the embassy bombing, calls the blast an act of barbarism, lodges a strong protest with Egypt and warns that any further such events will be considered an act of war by the country that harbours the terrorist organisation.

20/12/1957 – After a six-month journey, the German-French Venus probe reaches its destination. It plunges into the planets atmosphere and is squashed like a bug roughly 3000 metres above the surface. “Clearly, the planet is not suitable for life”, says a German astronomer, “we will try again.”

1/1/1958 – A host of British, Belgian and Portuguese colonies in sub-Saharan Africa gain independence from their former European masters. The countries include Kenya, Tanzania, Zaire, Angola and Rhodesia whose northern half is split off into Black-governed Zambia and whose southern half stays White-ruled Rhodesia. The only European colonial power left in Africa is France, which shows no sign of wanting to relinquish its colonies.

22/2/1958 – A group of 100 Palestinian terrorists from Islamic Jihad and Hamas attack a contingent of 30 New Zealand soldiers on the Suez Canal. After a vicious 4-hour gun battle, the New Zealanders are rescued by Danish and Canadian troops. Two New Zealanders are dead and 19 wounded, while the Palestinians suffer 46 dead and 36 wounded.

5/3/1958 - Only swift action in the form of a crackdown by Egypt on Hamas and Islamic Jihad prevents a serious escalation of the conflict with New Zealand. A number of the leaders of the two organisations are imprisoned or executed, but New Zealand announces its withdrawal from the Suez Security Force. Norway and Sweden offer to send their troops as replacements.

14/4/1958 – When black seamstress Rosa Parks refuses to move to the back of the bus in Birmingham, Alabama, she is thrown bodily off the bus by the driver and some white passengers. She lands awkwardly on the pavement and breaks her neck. Her death causes a week-long race riot which results in the drivers lynching and 77 other, mostly white, deaths. President Nixon has to send in the army to restore order.

26/5/1958 – A Buddhist monk publicly burns himself to death in Saigon, South Vietnam. It is in protest at the corrupt regime of Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem and his ongoing refusal to hold elections.

18/6/1958 – The first human in space is Australian Charles Ulm, who blasts off from Woomera Space Station in South Australia. He soars to 500 kilometres above the Earth’s surface and stays in space for more than an hour before landing safely in the West Australian desert. A few days later he receives a tickertape parade in Sydney.

24/7/1958 – The US Supreme Court overturns the practise of segregation in a court case involving the right of black school students to attend predominately white High Schools.

12/8/1958 – Cuban revolutionaries under Fidel Castro win a major battle against Batista’s government forces. The revolutionaries control the eastern half of the country and a significant amount of the countryside in the rest of the island.

4/9/1958 – When a group of black High School students attempt to commence classes at a white High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, they are blocked by State Police and white civilians. The following day President Nixon has to use Military Police to ensure the black students get to class. More than 50 whites, including the Arkansas governor are arrested in violent demonstrations.

19/10/1958 – A second Australian, Bert Hinkler, blasts off from Woomera. He is the first human to reach orbit and orbits the Earth 17 times in just over 26 hours.

30/11/1958 – Cuban revolutionaries annihilate a Government regiment near Havana, causing panic to spread to the city. Batista’s government is beginning to disintegrate.

2/12/1958 – Vice-President McCarthy urges his boss to send American units to Cuba in order to help the Batista regime stay in power. Nixon, distracted by civil rights problems and slumping polls at home, refuses, saying he will not interfere in Cuba’s internal affairs.

2/1/1959 – The last of Batista’s forces surrender to Fidel Castro’s revolutionaries in Havana. Batista makes it to his yacht and flees to the Bahamas and then to the United States, which grants him asylum. Castro implements communist rule in Cuba beginning with the nationalisation of every private enterprise in the country.

12/2/1959 – Thousands of foreigners, mainly Americans, and Cuban supporters of Batista flee the island as Communist rule begins to take effect.

10/3/1959 – Two years after being implemented, China’s “Great Leap Forward” is proving to be an economic and social disaster. The enthusiasm of the Chinese for making steel in backyard furnaces has resulted in no labour for the agricultural sector with resulting food shortages causing a famine that has claimed a staggering 15 million lives. To add insult to injury, the steel is of such poor quality as to be useless. The policy is quietly abandoned, with Mao blaming “counter-revolutionaries” for its failure and using the opportunity rid himself of any rivals.

17/4/1959 – In the wake of the Cuban debacle, President Nixon sacks Secretary of State Christian Herter and replaces him with 71-year-old John Foster Dulles who embarks on his second stint in the post, having served President Eisenhower throughout his Presidency.

28/5/1959 – King Victor Emanuel III of Italy dies at the age of 89. He is succeeded by his son Umberto II.

4/6/1959 – American Alan Shepard is the first American in space when he blasts off from Cape Canaveral in Florida. He reaches a height of 300 kilometres and spends a few hours in space before landing safely in the Gulf of Mexico.

14/7/1959 – After 18 months of testing, the Germans and French send a second probe to Earth’s neighbour, Venus.

5/8/1959 – John Glenn becomes the second American to travel into space and the first to orbit the Earth. His trip last 48 hours and he circles the planet 20 times during this time.

9/9/1959 – After two years of negotiations Italy’s new king Umberto II announces the signing of the Treaty of Rome. The treaty will found a trading block called the European Economic Community or EEC composed of Germany, France, Austria-Hungary, Italy, Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg. Tariffs will be abolished, multi-country companies are allowed and citizens of the member states will be allowed to travel and work in any other member state without a special visa or permit.

23/10/1959 – Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies wins his fourth election in a row, against Herbert Evatt of the Labour Party.

28/11/1959 – The hard drinking US Vice-President Joseph McCarthy dies of liver failure in his home state of Wisconsin.

6/12/1959 – A day after McCarthy’s funeral, President Nixon announces Senator Prescott Bush of Connecticut will be the new Vice-President and his running mate for the 1960 election.

1/1/1960 – The European Economic Community comes into existence as the Treaty of Rome takes effect.

17/2/1960 – After a seven-month trip, the German-French probe to Venus reaches its destination. This time it reaches the planet’s surface and takes measurements of the atmosphere, temperature and surface before it is crushed by the atmospheric pressure.

8/3/1960 – In a series of primaries known as Super Tuesday, Senator and former vice-presidential candidate John F. Kennedy virtually wraps up the Democratic nomination for president. Republican President Nixon and Vice-President Bush are running unopposed.

13/4/1960 – Long-serving German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer retires at the election and is replaced by Ludwig Erhard when the conservative CDU retains power.

21/5/1960 – A long-running communist insurgency in Malaya ends with the defeat and annihilation of rebel forces by Australian and Malayan troops.

11/6/1960 – Elections in Austria-Hungary and Italy bring Social Democrats to power in both countries.

23/7/1960 – President Nixon vetoes a bill to establish a national system of highways, saying it is too expensive and that roads are a State responsibility.

19/8/1960 – After 15 years in power, Nikita Khrushchev of the Socialist Party is replaced by Leonid Brezhnev of the Nationalist Party.

27/9/1960 – Singapore and Malaya announce an amicable divorce, effective from January 1, 1961. Malaya announces that it will change its name to Malaysia on that date.

3/10/1960 – Charles de Gaulle replaces Rene Coty as President of France, while Anthony Eden, still tainted by the Suez Crisis in 1956 is voted out of office when the Labour Party under Harold Wilson is victorious.

8/11/1960 – Democrat John F. Kennedy defeats incumbent President Richard Nixon by an Electoral College margin of 303-234. The national popular vote margin is a lot closer with Kennedy carrying 11 states by three percentage points or less, while Nixon wins 5 states by the same margin.

10/12/1960 – The French Congo wins independence from its colonial master, the first French African colony to do so. It changes its name to Central African Republic on January 1.