Confronted by a popular uprising, Communist leaders in Hungary bring back the reformist prime minister Imre Nagy

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

Communist activist Fidel Castro returns from Mexico to Cuba to organize guerrilla warfare against the Batista regime

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

The new hard-line Hungarian government headed by János Kádár tries and executes Imre Nagy

Dictator Fulgencio Batista flees from Cuba, leaving Havana open to Fidel Castro and his victorious guerrillas

Fidel Castro begins more than four decades of authoritarian rule in Cuba

Vice-president Richard Nixon engages in a 'kitchen debate' with Soviet leader Nikita Khruschev at a US exhibition in Moscow

The Vietcong, or NLF, is formed as a guerrilla force to liberate South Vietnam from the US-backed government

The East German government erects the Berlin Wall to prevent an exodus of its citizens

Frelimo emerges as a Marxist guerrilla group dedicated to winning independence for Mozambique

US intelligence reveals nuclear missile bases under construction in Cuba, causing an international crisis

President Kennedy sends the US navy to prevent delivery of Soviet missiles to Cuba

A deal between President Kennedy and Soviet premier Khrushchev defuses the Cuban missile crisis

British diplomat Kim Philby defects to the USSR and is discovered to have been a Soviet spy

Saloth Sar, changing his name to Pol Pot, begins to build up the Cambodian Communist party and Khmer Rouge

Nikita Khrushchev is forced from office as Soviet leader by a conservative faction that includes Leonid Brezhnev

The USSR enters a brief period of coalition leadership by Alexei Kosygin as prime minister and Leonid Brezhnev as Party First Secretary

The Soviet spacecraft Luna 10 orbits the moon and broadcasts the Internationale to the 23rd Congress of the Communist Party

Leonid Brezhnev, taking the title General Secretary (last used by Stalin), makes it plain that he is the Soviet leader

Communist leaders Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping are attacked in China's Cultural Revolution as the biggest and worst 'capitalist roaders'

Che Guevara arrives in Bolivia in the hope of fomenting a left-wing revolution

Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara is captured and executed in Bolivia

Nicolae Ceauşescu becomes president of the State Council of Romania