Dagen H in Sweden
A whole country switches to driving on the right overnight
On 3 September 1967 Sweden, which drove on the left, switched to the right all at once to match its neighbours. In the early morning traffic stopped, carefully moved across to the other side of the road and set off again. It was the biggest logistical operation in Swedish history.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 20th century
Did you know
Sweden switched to driving on the right despite a referendum. In 1955, 83% voted to stay on the left, but car numbers kept rising, and in 1967 the country changed sides anyway, in a single morning. Share →
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Whole world
- 1947–1991 Cold War — 20 years earlier
- 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights — 19 years earlier
- 1949 Founding of NATO — 18 years earlier
- 1980 Smallpox declared eradicated — 13 years later
- 1981 AIDS first described — 14 years later
Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1945 German surrender and Victory Day — 22 years earlier
- 1957 Sputnik 1, the first satellite — 10 years earlier
- 1961 Gagarin's flight — 6 years earlier
- 1985–1991 Perestroika — 18 years later
- 1989 Revolutions of 1989 — 22 years later
Middle East
- 1948 Founding of the State of Israel — 19 years earlier
- 1953 Iranian coup against Mosaddegh — 14 years earlier
- 1978 Camp David Accords — 11 years later
- 1979 Iranian Revolution — 12 years later
- 1980–1988 Iran–Iraq War — 13 years later
Africa
- 1960 Year of Africa — 7 years earlier
- 1963 The Organisation of African Unity is founded — 4 years earlier
- 1967 First human heart transplant — same year
- 1967–1970 Nigerian Civil War and Biafra — same year
- 1974 Lucy is discovered — 7 years later
Asia
- 1945 Atomic bombing of Hiroshima — 22 years earlier
- 1953 First ascent of Everest — 14 years earlier
- 1964 First Shinkansen high-speed railway — 3 years earlier
- 1966–1976 Cultural Revolution in China — 1 year earlier
- 1975–1979 The Khmer Rouge and the Cambodian genocide — 8 years later
Americas
- 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis — 5 years earlier
- 1969 Moon landing — 2 years later
- c. 1970 Mass deforestation of the Amazon begins — 3 years later
- 1973 Chilean coup d'état — 6 years later
- 1983 Birth of the Internet: ARPANET adopts TCP/IP — 16 years later
Oceania
- 1942 The Battle of Midway — 25 years earlier
- 1954 The Castle Bravo test at Bikini — 13 years earlier
- 1959 The Antarctic Treaty — 8 years earlier
- 1992 The Mabo decision — 25 years later
Alive at the time
- Pablo Picasso (aged 86)
- Charlie Chaplin (aged 78)
- Mao Zedong (aged 74)
- Nelson Mandela (aged 49)
- Martin Luther King Jr. (aged 38)
- Neil Armstrong (aged 37)
- Yuri Gagarin (aged 33)
- Harry S. Truman (aged 83)
- Ho Chi Minh (aged 77)
- Dwight D. Eisenhower (aged 77)