1957: the USSR launched the first satellite, and six countries signed the Treaty of Rome, the seed of the future EU.
The events
- 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.
- Treaty of Rome1957 · Rome. France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg signed in Rome the treaty creating the European Economic Community and its common market. It became the core of the future European Union.
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: Ghana became one of the first countries in sub-Saharan Africa to throw off colonial rule, and the USSR launched the first satellite.
- 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.