October 1960

Saturday 01:

Nigeria gains independence from the United Kingdom.

Monday 03:

The Andy Griffith Show debuts.

Tuesday 04:

An Eastern Airlines Lockheed L-188 Electra flying from Boston crashes, killing 62 people after a bird strike.

Friday 07:

1960 - "Route 66" premieres.

Wednesday 12:

Cold War: Nikita Khrushchev pounds his shoe on a table at a General Assembly of the United Nations meeting to protest discussion of Soviet Union policy toward Eastern Europe

Thursday 13:

1960 World Series: Baseballer Bill Mazeroski becomes the first person to end a World Series with a home run.

Friday 14:

U.S. presidential candidate John F. Kennedy first suggests the idea for the Peace Corps.

Wednesday 19:

Mauretania gains independence from France.

Monday 24:

Nedelin catastrophe: An R-16 ballistic missile explodes on the launch pad at the Soviet Union's Baikonur Cosmodrome space facility, killing 165. Among the dead is Field Marshall Mitrofan Nedelin, whose death is reported to have occurred in a plane crash.

Saturday 29:

In Louisville, Kentucky, Cassius Clay (who later takes the name Muhammad Ali) wins his first professional fight.