Where Did This Happen?: 1960s Edition Quiz

Answer: France

Although decolonisation of Africa had a slow start, beginning with Liberia (USA) in 1847, the process accelerated during the 1950s and 1960s. 1960 was an extraordinary year, in which seventeen countries shook off their colonial masters.

France's lost African colonies during 1960 were, in chronological order, (giving their conventional modern names):
Cameroon, Togo, Mali, Senegal, Madagascar, Benin, Niger, Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Chad, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Gabon and Mauritania.

The transfer of power seemed to be mostly by consultation, unlike the violent revolution and bloody conflict which was the Algerian War. Algeria did not gain its independence from France until July, 1962.

Answer: Soviet Union

Yuri Gagarin, the first Cosmonaut, was 27 when he orbited the planet, reaching an altitude of 203 miles above the earth.

The total flight took 108 minutes, and on re-entry the extremely fit Air Force pilot was subjected to up to 8 times the force of gravity (8G's), which may well have rendered an average person unconscious. The Russians had no means of returning the Vostok 1 to earth intact, so Gagarin ejected from his spacecraft about 4 miles up, and parachuted to earth.

Alan Shepard became the first US astronaut in May 1961, flying Freedom 7, the first Project Mercury flight.

Answer: Cuba

For 13 days in October 1962 the world teetered on the edge of nuclear war when a US spy plane photographed Russian nuclear weapons being set up on Cuba. President Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev engaged in threats and negotiations.
The US blockaded Cuba to prevent shipping in of further armaments. The Attorney General, Bobby Kennedy, was instrumental in negotiating a face-saving agreement: withdrawal of all nuclear warheads from Cuba in exchange for a US guarantee that they would not invade Cuba (as they had during the failed Bay of Pigs incident in 1961). Kennedy also agreed to dismantle and remove US missiles in Turkey which were aimed at the Soviet Union, providing that this was not publicised as part of the deal.

Just how close the world came to major disaster was illustrated in the movie "Thirteen Days" starring Kevin Costner. I recall the sense of doom we all felt at the time, and the overwhelming relief when agreement was reached.

Answer: Yugoslavia

Yugoslavia was brought together as a country in 1918, and was originally called "the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes".

Josip Broz Tito was a partisan leader during WWII, fighting the Germans. Politically active from a young age, he became Prime Minister in 1944, and when the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia came into being, he assumed the title of President for Life. He ruled the diverse mix of former nations with an iron fist until his death in 1980.

A turbulent time followed his death, resulting in huge loss of life; and the euphemism "Ethnic Cleansing" was first coined to attempt to justify mass murder of sections of the population based on their ethnic origins. Eventually, six new nations emerged from the conflict: Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro and Slovenia.

Answer: Britain

The Beatles were the advance guard in "The British Invasion" which began in 1964, when they were interviewed by Ed Sullivan and brought their brand of Rock and Roll to the States. They were rapidly followed by the Rolling Stones, the Who, Herman's Hermits, and many others.

American youth found the "different" British sound a refreshing change, and embraced it along with the rebellious and somewhat subversive wave of counter-culture that was spreading worldwide at the time.

Answer: England

Mary Quant was born in England to Welsh parents. With a diploma in art and millinery training, she, Archie McNair and Quant's husband, Alexander Plunket Greene, launched Mary's first fashion shop in London.

She was soon producing and selling bright, innovative clothing that appealed to younger women. She claimed to have invented the mini, and later, hotpants.

It was also in 1965 that English model Jean Shrimpton wore a Colin Rolfe mini dress to the Melbourne, Australia Spring Racing Carnival, scandalising conservative society, and delighting photographers and young people.

Answer: India

Indira Gandhi was the third elected Prime Minister of India, serving initially for 11 years, and after a few years in the political wilderness, for a further 5 years before she was assassinated by her own bodyguards while still in office.

Prior to her entry into politics, she had acted as hostess and personal assistant to her father, Jawaharlal Nehru, the country's first elected Prime Minister after the end of British colonial rule.

Answer: South Africa

In December 1967 Dr Christiaan Barnard announced to the world that his team had successfully completed the world's first successful human to human heart transplant. The patient, Louis Washkansky, aged 54, regained consciousness and was interviewed. Unfortunately, he died 18 days later of pneumonia, largely caused by the first-generation anti-rejection drugs.

Barnard's second heart transplant about a month later allowed that patient to return home, and he survived a further year and a half. Over the intervening 50 years, huge strides have been made in both surgical techniques and in the life-supporting anti-rejection drugs. Now most such operations are combined heart-lung transplants, which reduces some of the shock to the patient's system.

Answer: Egypt

The British had completed a dam (Aswan Low Dam) downstream in 1902, which was operating to capacity, and it was clear that Egypt required another larger dam to supply regular flows of water to its agriculture and electricity to its industry.

President Nasser had angered Britain, France and the USA by taking control of the Suez Canal, so he looked to the Soviet Union for financial assistance. The main international concern was the inundation of the ancient Egyptian site of Abu Simbel, with its two massive temples. A remarkable international rescue mission was launched to move the temples and colossal statuary to a new location.

Also in 1968 Martin Luther king was assassinated, and Apollo 7 was launched.

Answer: United States

On July 16th, Apollo 11 was launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and entered lunar orbit 3 days later. On July 20th, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin descended to the Moon in the lunar module "the Eagle" while Michael Collins remained aboard Apollo.

All over the world people who were unable to watch at home stood in front of shop windows to watch and to hear Neil Armstrong's transmission, "One small step..."