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In Cuba, a charismatic young leftist named Fidel Castro leads his guerilla forces triumphantly into Havana, toppling the government of Fulgencio Batista. While most Cubans initially celebrate Castro's victory over the unpopular, corrupt Batista, Americans fear that Castro will establish a Soviet-friendly regime just 90 miles off the Florida coast.
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A CIA-organized force of anti-Castro Cuban exiles attempts to invade Cuba, landing at a place called the Bay of Pigs. Rather than toppling Castro's government, the invasion is quickly crushed by Cuba's armed forces. President Kennedy takes full responsibility for the debacle.
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The Cuban Missile Crisis begins after American U2 surveillance flights confirm that the Soviets have placed nuclear missiles on Cuba. President John F. Kennedy rejects advice from military advisors to launch an immediate attack on Cuba.
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South Vietnamese leader Ngo Dinh Diem, a corrupt and unpopular ruler, is killed in a military coup carried out with US approval. Rather than improving the situation, Diem's murder plunges South Vietnam even deeper into crisis
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Communist China detonates its first successful atomic bomb.
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The United States, Soviet Union, and Great Britain (among other nations) sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, agreeing not to spread nuclear weapons to other countries and to limit nuclear delivery systems. The treaty gives the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency the job of inspecting nuclear facilities.
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In the Moscow Treaty, the USSR and West Germany agree to existing borders and to normalize relations between the two nations
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The Paris Peace Treaty establishes a ceasefire in Vietnam.
