- — Africa:
Katanga secedes; the Congo Crisis
An army mutiny and Moïse Tshombe's Belgian-backed secession of Katanga plunge the new state into crisis and UN intervention.
Era: Belgian Congo & Independence
Sources: Patrice Lumumba · Wikipedia
- — North America:
Civil war and the Maya genocide
A thirty-six-year conflict leaves some 200,000 dead or disappeared, mostly Maya, with the state held by the CEH to have committed genocide.
Era: Revolution, Coup, and Civil War
Sources: Guatemala Peace Agreements, 1996 (Memory of the World) · UNESCO, Efrain Rios Montt · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Guatemala: History (Postcolonial period and after) · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Africa:
Revolt breaks out
The Baixa de Cassanje cotton workers' revolt, the 4 February attack on a Luanda prison, and the UPA's 15 March uprising in the north marked the start of Angola's war of independence against Portugal.
Era: Revolt, liberation movements and independence
Sources: History of Angola · Wikipedia, Angola — Colonialism, Independence, Civil War (history) · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Baixa do Cassange Revolt · Museu do Aljube (Resistance and Freedom Museum, Lisbon)
- — North America:
Bay of Pigs invasion
A brigade of U.S.-backed Cuban exiles lands at the Bay of Pigs in an attempt to overthrow Castro and is defeated within days.
Era: The Revolution and the Cold War
Sources: The Bay of Pigs Invasion and its Aftermath, April 1961-October 1962 · U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian, Bay of Pigs invasion · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Africa:
Armed struggle begins at Mount Adal
Hamid Idris Awate and a small ELF band fire on Ethiopian forces, the conventional start of the thirty-year Eritrean War of Independence.
Era: Federation, Annexation and the Thirty-Year War
Sources: Eritrean War of Independence · Wikipedia, History of Eritrea · Wikipedia
- — Asia:
The Brunei revolt
The Parti Rakyat Brunei's armed wing launches an uprising against the sultanate and the Malaysia plan; British forces crush it within days, and the party is banned.
Era: The 1962 Revolt, Independence, and the Modern Sultanate
Sources: History of Brunei · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — North America:
Cuban Missile Crisis
Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba trigger a thirteen-day confrontation; a U.S. quarantine and a Soviet agreement to withdraw the missiles avert nuclear war.
Era: The Revolution and the Cold War
Sources: The Cuban Missile Crisis, October 1962 · U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian, Cuban missile crisis · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Africa:
Haile Selassie annexes Eritrea
After steadily eroding Eritrean autonomy, the emperor dissolves the federation and annexes Eritrea as a province, hardening the independence war.
Era: Federation, Annexation and the Thirty-Year War
Sources: Federation of Ethiopia and Eritrea · Wikipedia, History of Eritrea · Wikipedia
- — Africa:
Armed struggle begins on the mainland
Because the islands were unsuited to guerrilla war, the PAIGC waged its armed campaign on the Guinea-Bissau mainland from 1963, while Cape Verdean cadres filled the party's leadership.
Era: Cabral, the PAIGC, and independence
Sources: Amílcar Lopes Cabral (1924–1973) · BlackPast.org, Amílcar Cabral · Wikipedia, History of Cape Verde · Wikipedia
- — Asia:
Breakdown and the Green Line
After President Makarios proposed constitutional changes, intercommunal violence broke out in December 1963; Turkish Cypriots withdrew from government and a ceasefire line dubbed the 'Green Line' was drawn through Nicosia.
Era: Independence, the Breakdown of Power-Sharing and UNFICYP
Sources: Establishment of UNFICYP (Security Council Resolution 186, 4 March 1964) · United Nations (UNFICYP), Cyprus profile – Timeline · BBC News
- — Africa:
The war of independence begins
The PAIGC launched its armed campaign with attacks on Portuguese garrisons in the south, opening a guerrilla war that would steadily expand the "liberated zones" across the interior.
Era: Cabral, the PAIGC and the war of independence
Sources: Guinea-Bissau War of Independence · Wikipedia, History of Guinea-Bissau · Wikipedia, Guinea-Bissau (country overview and history) · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Asia:
Indonesian Confrontation (Konfrontasi)
Indonesia's President Sukarno opposes the new federation and wages an undeclared campaign of armed confrontation against Malaysia until 1966, drawing in Britain, Australia and the United States.
Era: The Formation of Malaysia and Singapore's Separation
Sources: Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964–1968: Indonesia/Malaysia (Konfrontasi and separation) · U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian, Malaysia: Political transformation (occupation, federation, NEP) · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Asia:
Breakdown of power-sharing and intercommunal violence
After President Makarios proposed constitutional amendments curtailing Turkish-Cypriot safeguards, the partnership collapsed and intercommunal violence broke out; Turkish Cypriots withdrew from the bicommunal state into enclaves.
Era: The Bicommunal Republic and Its Breakdown
Sources: Cyprus - History · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Cyprus - 1963 Constitutional Breakdown (Country Studies) · U.S. Library of Congress (Federal Research Division)
- — Asia:
The Aden Emergency
Nationalist groups led by the National Liberation Front waged a guerrilla and urban insurgency against British rule in Aden and its protectorate, hastening Britain's decision to withdraw.
Era: The Two Yemens: Revolution and Independence
Sources: A Short History of the Aden Emergency · Imperial War Museums, Aden: Yemen, Map, Population and Facts · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Asia:
The Secret War bombing
The United States drops more than two million tons of bombs on Laos to cut the Ho Chi Minh Trail, making it the most heavily bombed country per capita; vast unexploded ordnance remains a deadly legacy.
Era: Civil War, the Secret War, and the Pathet Lao
Sources: Lao Special Guerrilla Unit and Royal Lao Army Veteran Interviews · Library of Congress, U.S. Conventional Weapons Destruction Program in Lao PDR · U.S. Department of State, Indochina wars · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Africa:
War of independence begins
FRELIMO launches its first armed attacks in Cabo Delgado, opening a decade-long guerrilla war against Portuguese colonial forces.
Era: FRELIMO, Liberation War and Independence
Sources: Mozambican War of Independence · Wikipedia, Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO) · EBSCO Research Starters
- — Asia:
Gulf of Tonkin and U.S. escalation
The Gulf of Tonkin incident leads Congress to pass a resolution authorizing the vast escalation of direct U.S. military involvement in the war.
Era: The Wars: Independence, Division, and Reunification
Sources: Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (1964) · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Vietnam War · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — North America:
U.S. intervention and civil war
A Constitutionalist rising to restore Bosch sparks civil war; President Johnson sends some 22,000 U.S. troops in Operation Power Pack, the second U.S. intervention of the century.
Era: Intervention, Balaguer, and Democracy
Sources: Milestones in the History of U.S. Foreign Relations, 1961-1968 · U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian, History of the Dominican Republic · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Asia:
The anti-communist mass killings
Following the 30 September coup attempt blamed on the PKI, an army-led purge kills an estimated 500,000 to over a million suspected communists and others, a vast atrocity that paves Suharto's path to power.
Era: Sukarno, the New Order and Democratic Indonesia
Sources: Indonesia: US Documents Released on 1965-66 Massacres · Human Rights Watch, Indonesian mass killings of 1965–66 · Wikipedia
- — Asia:
Outbreak of the Dhofar rebellion
An uprising began in the neglected southern province of Dhofar against Said bin Taimur's rule, growing into a Marxist-led insurgency that would dominate Omani affairs for a decade.
Era: Decline, British Influence and Isolation
Sources: Oman: The early period · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Ancient Oman: Archaeological Digs and Historical Discoveries in the Sultanate of Oman · Library of Congress
- — Africa:
FROLINAT and the civil war
The National Liberation Front of Chad (FROLINAT) launched an insurgency rooted in northern and Muslim discontent, beginning decades of civil war.
Era: Independence and civil war
Sources: Civil War Begins in Chad · EBSCO Research Starters, François Tombalbaye · Wikipedia
- — South America:
FARC formally established
The Southern Bloc guerrillas adopt the name Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) at their second conference, formalising the organization that becomes the country's largest leftist insurgency.
Era: Armed Conflict and the Search for Peace
Sources: Operación Soberanía (en Marquetalia) · Comisión de la Verdad (Colombia), History of Colombia · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Africa:
Armed struggle begins at Omugulugwombashe
SWAPO's military wing, PLAN, fought South African forces at Omugulugwombashe, marking the start of the armed liberation war and of South Africa's long Border War.
Era: The liberation struggle, the Border War and the road to independence
Sources: South West African People's Organisation (SWAPO) · Wikipedia, History of Namibia · Wikipedia, South African Border War · Wikipedia
- — South America:
Death of Che Guevara
The revolutionary Ernesto Che Guevara is captured and killed by the Bolivian army while leading a failed guerrilla campaign in the southeast.
Era: The National Revolution and Military Rule
Sources: Bolivia: A Country Study · Library of Congress, Federal Research Division
- — Asia:
The Six-Day War and loss of the West Bank
In the war with Israel, Jordan lost the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and a fresh wave of Palestinian refugees fled into the East Bank, deepening the kingdom's demographic transformation.
Era: Modern Jordan: Hussein, the Wars, Peace and Abdullah II
Sources: Jordan: Transjordan, the Hashemite Kingdom, and the Palestine war · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1949, The Near East, South Asia, and Africa (Jordan) · U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian
- — Africa:
The Nigerian Civil War
Federal forces under General Gowon fought to reunify the country and blockaded Biafra; the resulting famine and fighting killed an estimated one to two million people, mostly civilians, before Biafra surrendered in January 1970.
Era: Independence, the Biafran civil war and military rule
Sources: Nigerian Civil War · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Civil war breaks out in Nigeria (6 July 1967) · HISTORY
- — Asia:
Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza
In the Six-Day War Israel captured the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, placing most Palestinians under a military occupation that endures.
Era: Occupation, Dispossession, and the Present
Sources: Six-Day War · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Palestine - region, history · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Europe:
Prague Spring crushed by Warsaw Pact
Alexander Dubcek's reforms of 'socialism with a human face' were ended when roughly half a million Warsaw Pact troops, led by the Soviet Union, invaded Czechoslovakia in August 1968.
Era: Expulsion, Communism, the Velvet Revolution and the Modern Republic
Sources: Prague Spring · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Warsaw Pact · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Europe:
Derry civil rights march and the start of the Troubles
The RUC baton-charged a civil rights march in Derry, scenes broadcast worldwide; the day is widely regarded as the beginning of the Troubles. Of the 3,532 deaths the Sutton Index records from 1969 to 2001, republican paramilitaries caused 58 per cent, loyalist paramilitaries 29 per cent and the British security forces 10 per cent.
Era: The Republic, Europe and the Northern Question
Sources: A Chronology of the Conflict, 1968 · CAIN, Ulster University, Sutton Index of Deaths: summary by organisation responsible · CAIN, Ulster University
- — Asia:
Tet Offensive
A coordinated communist surprise offensive across South Vietnam, though costly militarily, undermines American public support and shifts the war toward U.S. withdrawal.
Era: The Wars: Independence, Division, and Reunification
Sources: Vietnam War · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — North America:
War with El Salvador
A brief border war with El Salvador, rooted in migration disputes, erupts amid a football tournament and hardens the military's role.
Era: Military Rule and the Cold-War Frontier
Sources: Honduras: History · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Africa:
Assassination of Eduardo Mondlane
FRELIMO's founding president is killed by a parcel bomb in Dar es Salaam; after a leadership struggle, Samora Machel emerges at the head of the movement.
Era: FRELIMO, Liberation War and Independence
Sources: Eduardo Mondlane · Wikipedia, Samora Machel · Wikipedia
- — Europe:
The Troubles in Northern Ireland
Three decades of conflict over Northern Ireland's constitutional status followed the civil rights protests of 1968. The Sutton Index records 3,532 deaths between July 1969 and 2001: 58 per cent caused by republican paramilitaries, 29 per cent by loyalist paramilitaries and 10 per cent by the British security forces.
Era: World wars, decolonisation, and the modern UK
Sources: Sutton Index of Deaths: summary by organisation responsible · CAIN, Ulster University, Malcolm Sutton: An Index of Deaths from the Conflict in Ireland · CAIN, Ulster University
War & Rupture in the 1960s
Every event in the Terralore archive tagged war and rupture — wars, invasions, conquests, battles and armed conflict, narrowed to the 1960s — 33 of them, drawn from 29 nations, running from 1960 to 1969. Each entry keeps the sources it was verified against and links back to the chronicle it came from.
- Events
- 33
- Nations
- 29
- Earliest
- 1960
- Latest
- 1969
- Asia
- 12
- Africa
- 11
- North America
- 5
- Europe
- 3
- South America
- 2
Every entry below is the same record, with the same sources, as the one on its nation’s chronicle.