Russian and Warsaw Pact troops invade Hungary to end the uprising and arrest Imre Nagy

The Kremlin imposes János Kádár on Hungary as head of a new government

The ballet Spartacus, with music by Aram Khachaturian, has its premiere in Leningrad

Danish architect Jørn Utzon wins the competition to design Sydney Opera House

French critic Roland Barthes develops in Mythologies the theory of semiotics, relating to signs and symbols

De Valera takes stringent measures against the IRA and Sinn Fein, detaining activists in an internment camp

Fred Hoyle, William Fowler, and Margaret and Geoffrey Burbidge explain stellar nucleosynthesis

The Hawk in the Rain is English author Ted Hughes' first volume of poems

Six founding nations (Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, West Germany) establish the European Economic Community (EEC)

Arnold Schoenberg's opera Moses and Aaron, incomplete at his death, has its premiere in Zurich

Nikita Khrushchev's position in the Soviet Communist party is secure after the failure of a plot to remove him

Polish-born British composer Andrzej Panufnik wins an international reputation with his Sinfonia elegiaco

The publication of the novel Justine launches Lawrence Durrell's Alexandria Quartet

Spanish-born Paris designer Cristóbal Balenciaga produces an ostensibly shapeless garment, the 'sack', that greatly excites the world of fashion

David Lean directs William Holden, Alec Guinness and Jack Hawkins in The Bridge on the River Kwai

English author John Braine publishes his first novel, Room at the Top

English author Stevie Smith publishes her collection of poems Not Waving but Drowning

Laurence Olivier brings the music-hall artist Archie Rice vibrantly to life in John Osborne's The Entertainer

The USSR launches Sputnik, the world's first artificial satellite

Swedish director Ingmar Bergman's film The Seventh Seal wins the Jury Prize at Cannes

Christian Dior dies and is followed by Yves St Laurent as head designer at the famous fashion house

German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen uses three separate orchestras to achieve acoustic space in Gruppen

Boris Pasternak's only novel, Doctor Zhivago, is first published in an Italian translation

The Russian spacecraft Sputnik II puts into space a living creature, the dog Laika

Eight members of the Manchester United football team die in an air crash when flying back to England from Belgrade via Munich