Modern Era · Central Asia · Politics
1960
U-2 shot down over USSR
May 1, 1960
A CIA spy plane on a photoreconnaissance run at seventy thousand feet was hit by a Soviet missile near Sverdlovsk, deep inside Russian territory. Washington claimed it was a weather plane that had strayed off course. Khrushchev produced the wreckage and the pilot, Francis Gary Powers, alive. A Paris summit collapsed. The Cold War briefly looked hot.
In context
Also in 1960 (7 other events on record)
- Great Chilean Earthquake · South America · Disaster
- Year of Africa · Africa · Politics
- The Pill approved · North America · Science
- Sharpeville massacre · Africa · Politics
- Congo Crisis · Africa · Politics
- Kennedy elected · North America · Politics
Before and after in Central Asia
Before and after in Politics
Era
Modern Era (1901–2000), one of 590 events from that era on Saeculum.