January: Aged just 43, John F. Kennedy succeeds Dwight Eisenhower as the 35th President of the United States of America

February: The Beatles perform for the first time at the Cavern Club in Liverpool, England. They'd make a total of 292 appearances there

March: With Executive Order 10924 President Kennedy establishes the volunteer Peace Corps with the aim to promote world peace

April: On his only flight, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human in space, orbiting the Earth once in Vostok 1

May: As a swift response to the Soviets, Alan Shepard becomes the first American in space aboard Mercury-Redstone 3

June: Ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev defects from the Soviet Union requesting asylum while in Paris with the Kirov Ballet

July: Gus Grissom, piloting the Mercury-Redstone 4 capsule Liberty Bell 7, becomes the second American to go into space

August: Soviet cosmonaut Gherman Titov becomes second human to orbit the Earth, & first to be in outer space for more than a day

September: United Nations Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld dies in air crash en route to cease-fire negotiations in Katanga, Congo

October: Joseph Stalin's preserved body is removed from the Lenin Mausoleum & instead buried in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis

November: The United Nations General Assembly unanimously elects U Thant to the position of acting Secretary-General

December: After being found guilty of war crimes an Israeli tribunal sentences Adolf Eichmann to die for his part in The Holocaust