No camera caught Khrushchev banging his shoe at the UN. On 12 October 1960 a photo shows a shoe on his desk, but whether he pounded it is still debated; biographer William Taubman, after interviewing witnesses, concluded he did.
More amazing facts
- 1959 · 1974 Hiroo Onoda was not the last soldier of World War II. Private Teruo Nakamura held out even longer and was arrested in Indonesia on 18 December 1974.
- 1959 Humanity first saw the far side of the Moon in 1959.
- 1960 In 1960, 17 African countries gained independence — more than in any other single year in history.
- 1960 · 1969 · 2012 Until 2012, only two people had been to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, six times fewer than had walked on the Moon.
- 1961 Gagarin flew into space in April 1961; that August, the Berlin Wall went up.
- 1961 A space dog's daughter lived in the White House.