1960




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    General 1960

Miss World 1960
Norma Cappagli
( Miss Argentina )


Miss Universe 1960
Linda Bement (U.S.A.)

1960 Rome Olympics
British Olympic Gold Medal Winners
Don Thompson   50km walk
Anita Lonsborough  200 metres breaststroke

1960 Academy Awards - The 'Oscars'

Best Actor: Burt Lancaster ( Elmer Gantry )  
Best Actress: Elizabeth Taylor ( Butterfield 8 )
Best Film: The Apartment
                            


1960 Eurovision
Song Contest

1960 Winner: France
Jacqueline Boyer  'Tom Pillibi'




1960 - General


The Average Wage: £14.10s.8d

Sony market the first all-transistor television set
France tests its first atomic bomb in the Sahara desert
Adolf Eichmann
is found living under false name in Argentina
The inertia seat belt is invented and marketed by Britax
Berry Gordy forms the Tamla and Motown record labels
Vaccines are introduced for measles and rubella

Unemployment quoted at 355,000
Mao Tse-Tung issues his 'little red book'
Cliff Richard makes his first U.S. tour

Teflon is patented
Actor
Tommy Sands marries Nancy Sinatra
Pentel invent the fibre tipped pen

'Cathy's Clown' by the Everly Brothers is WB1 - Warner Brothers first U.K. release

Bobby Darin marries Alexandra Zuck, better known as Sandra Dee

Elvis gets his first U.K. gold disc for 'Its Now Or Never' - his 35th in total

Automatic pin-spotters for bowling alleys are introduced into the U.K.




January 1960

1st Cameroon gains independence

10th Nasser lays the foundation stone of the Aswan High Dam

12th Author Nevil Shute dies aged 60

12th The only feature film made in 'Smell-O-Vision', Scent of Mystery, opens in Chicago

20th The government announces curbs on the sale of 'pep-pills'












February 1960

Joe Meek launches the 'Triumph' record label

9th The Hollywood 'Walk Of Fame' is dedicated

17th Elvis Presley achieves his first 'Gold' album

18th The 1960 Winter Olympics open in Squaw Valley, Idaho U.S.A.

19th Prince Andrew is born

21st Fidel Castro nationalises all American owned businesses in Cuba

22nd The government announces plans to build a supersonic airliner

26th Princess Margaret's engagement to Anthony Armstrong-Jones is announced





March 1960

2nd Elvis Presley visits the U.K. for the only time while his plane is refuelled in Scotland

5th Elvis gets his discharge papers from the U.S. Army

10th Record Retailer / Music Week publishes the first U.K. L.P. chart listing

10th Record Retailer / Music Week publishes the first U.K. top 50 singles chart

14th The government announces plans for a Thames Barrier to prevent floods

17th A new style £1 note goes into circulation

21st The Sharpeville massacre in Witwatersrand, South Africa results in over 200 deaths and injuries







April 1960

The Everly Brothers visit Britain for the first time

1st Tiros 1 the first meteorological satellite is launched, built by RCA

13th Stirling Moss receives a 1 year ban for dangerous driving

13th British Government announces plans to scrap the 'Blue Streak' project

17th Eddie Cochran is killed in car crash near Chippenham. Gene Vincent and Sharon Sheeley are also hurt

21st Pirate radio ship 'Veronica' begins broadcasting

21st Brasilia succeeds Rio de Janeiro as capital of Brazil









May 1960

American film star Tommy Sands starts his national service in the U.S.A.F.

The Cavern Club books its first rock / pop acts:
Cass and the Casanovas and Rory Storme and The Hurricanes

1st Gary Powers is shot down in a U2 spy plane over Sverdlovsk

6th 29 year old Princess Margaret marries Anthony Armstrong-Jones

5th The Beetals (Beatles) fail an audition to become Billy Fury's backing band

17th The Queen Mother opens the Kariba Dam on the Zambesi river

18th Real Madrid win football's European Cup for the 5th time in a row

30th Nobel Prize winning author Boris Pasternak dies aged 70






June 1960

B.B.C.s Desert Island Discs celebrates its 500th edition

7th The first N.H.S. hearing aids are issued

9th Armstrong-Siddeley cars announces that it is to cease production

19th Jaguar takes over the Daimler Motor Company

19th Two British drivers, Chris Bristow and Alan Stacey are killed in the Belgian Grand Prix.
Other Grand Prix standard drivers killed in 1960 were Harry Blanchard and Harry Schell

20th Floyd Patterson defeats Ingemar Johansson to become World Heavyweight Boxing Champion

23rd The Royalty theatre opens in London

29th The B.B.C. television centre in West London opens






July 1960

The laser is first demonstrated by Theodore Maiman at Hughes Research Laboratories

6th Politician Aneurin 'Nye' Bevan dies aged 62

12th Kruschev vows to back Cuba in expulsion of U.S. from its Guantanamo naval base

18th Donald Campbell makes the first test run in the new £1 million Bluebird car

21st Francis Chichester sets a new cross-Atlantic sailing record of 40 days in Gypsy Moth II












August 1960

16th Cyprus gains independence. Archbishop Makarios is elected the first President

22nd Belka and Strelka, launched on the 19th, are the first dogs to return alive from a space shot.

18th 'The Pill' goes on sale in the U.S.A. after the American Food and Drug Administration
approves use of Enovid-10. The U.K. has to wait another 12 months

19th Penguin books are prosecuted for obscenity over plans to publish 'Lady Chatterley's Lover'

23rd Oscar Hammerstein II dies

25th The 1960 Olympic Games open in Rome

31st East Germany closes its border with West Berlin






September 1960

12th The M.O.T. test for vehicles over 10 years old is introduced

19th Traffic wardens and parking tickets are seen for the first time in London. 344 tickets are issued

26th The first televised presidential debate between Kennedy and Nixon is broadcast

27th The first 'travelator' opens at Bank underground station

30th Nigeria gains independence












October 1960

The Hawker-Siddeley VTOL P1127 'Harrier' makes its first flight

Sammy Davis Jr marries Mai Britt despite death threats from the Ku Klux Klan

2nd Anthony Wedgwood-Benn resigns from Labour's National Executive Committee

3rd Brigitte Bardot leaves hospital following a suicide attempt

9th Southern England is hit by the worst flooding since 1953

21st Britain's first nuclear submarine H.M.S. Dreadnought is launched

22nd Cassius Clay has his first professional fight in Louisville, Kentucky

28th Britain's first urban motorway, the M62, opens in Manchester





November 1960

OPEC is set up to control world oil prices

2nd The courts decide that 'Lady Chatterley's Lover' can be published

5th Comedian Mack Sennett dies

5th Actor Ward Bond of 'Wagon Train' dies

5th 33 year old singer Johnny Horton is killed in a car crash

9th John F.Kennedy is elected 35th President of the United States

10th The Royal Shakespeare Company is formed under director Peter Hall

10th Penguin's initial print run of 200,000 of 'Lady Chatterley's Lover' sells out on the first day

16th Actor Clark Gable dies aged 59

31st The official end of National Service is declared as the last 2,049 men are inducted



December 1960

2nd Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier become divorced

5th Leyland Motors announces that it is to take over Standard-Triumph International

9th The first episode of Coronation Street is shown on television

14th The Australia vs West Indies test match ends in the first ever 'tied' game

20th Richard Baer, the last Kommandant of Auswitz, is arrested in West Germany