1957: Ghana became one of the first countries in sub-Saharan Africa to throw off colonial rule, and the USSR launched the first satellite.
The events
- Independence of Ghana1957 · Accra. The British colony of the Gold Coast, led by Kwame Nkrumah, became independent Ghana, the first sub-Saharan African country to throw off colonial rule. Its example inspired the decolonisation of the continent.
- Sputnik 1, the first satellite1957 · Baikonur. On 4 October 1957 the Soviet Union put the first artificial Earth satellite into orbit, its radio beeps picked up around the world. The launch opened the Space Age and started the space race between the USSR and the United States.
More amazing facts
- 1938 Three months after the Munich Agreement, Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann in Berlin discovered the fission of uranium.
- 1953 Spring 1953: the structure of DNA was published on 25 April, and on 29 May Hillary and Tenzing reached the top of Everest.
- 1956 In autumn 1956 the world watched two crises at once: the Anglo-French landing at the Suez Canal and Soviet tanks in Budapest.
- 1957 1957: the USSR launched the first satellite, and six countries signed the Treaty of Rome, the seed of the future EU.
- 1960 In 1960, 17 African countries gained independence — more than in any other single year in history.
- 1961 Gagarin flew into space in April 1961; that August, the Berlin Wall went up.