istoryworld
Events relating to asia
The Iranian prime minister Mohammed Mossadegh is removed from office in an armed coup sponsored by the CIA and Britain's MI6
Cambodia wins independence from the colonial power, France
Japanese film director Akira Kurosawa directs The Seven Samurai
Hungarian photographer Robert Capa is killed by a land mine in Vietnam
The Battle of Dien Bien Phu ends with the surrender to the Vietminh of 12,000 French troops
The French abandon Vietnam, leaving the country divided at the seventeenth parallel
In an armistice ending the Indochina War, France acknowledges the independence of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam
Korean evangelist Sun Myung Moon launches the Unification Church, a mission to unify world Christianity
Norodom Sihanouk abdicates as king of Cambodia and becomes the country's prime minister
Indian director Satyajit Ray makes his first film, Pather Panchali
With US backing, South Vietnam declares itself an independent republic
Israeli troops invade the Sinai peninsula, a province of Egypt bordering the Suez canal
Japanese novelist Yukio Mishima publishes The Temple of the Golden Pavilion
With his Hundred Flowers Campaign ('Let a hundred flowers bloom'), Mao Zedong invites criticism and then locks up the critics
Tunku Abdul Rahman becomes the first prime minister of independent Malaya
Egypt and Syria merge as the United Arab Republic (but disengage three years later)
Yasser Arafat and others in Kuwait found Al-Fatah, a secret organization advocating armed resistance against Israel
The king of Iraq, Faisal II, is murdered in Baghdad in a coup led by Abdul Karim Qassim
Nationalist Kurds in the north of Iraq launch a guerrilla war against the new government in Baghdad
Mao Zedong imposes on China a Great Leap Forward, an attempt at industrialization that results in economic chaos and widespread famine
Ayub Khan, commander-in-chief of the Pakistani army, replaces Iskander Mirza as president in a bloodless coup
Liu Shaoqi replaces Mao Zedong as China's president after the Great Leap Forward fiasco, but Mao remains Chairman
Lee Kuan Yew becomes the first prime minister of the newly independent state of Singapore
Achmed Sukarno assumes dictatorial powers, operating an Indonesian policy officially known as Guided Democracy
Solomon Bandaranaike is assassinated by a Buddhist monk after only three years as prime minister of Sri Lanka
