The Febreristas, a newly formed left-wing group, seize power in Paraguay

Marian Anderson's concert at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington effectively launches the US civil rights movement

Algerian nationalist Ferhat Abbas produces a manifesto demanding independence from France

Mao Zedong becomes official leader of the Chinese Communist Party, as the elected Chairman of the Central Committee and the Politburo

An uprising in Guatemala brings in a revolutionary junta and a left-wing programme of reform

from July - more than 5000 Germans, among them Rommel, die because of the Stauffenberg plot

Demonstrations in Algeria spark off an uprising against French rule, which is put down with the loss of perhaps 10,000 Muslim lives

In their manifesto Refus global fifteen artists and authors attack the values of conservative Quebec

Radical young members, including Nelson Mandela, take control of the ANC

Ahmed Ben Bella forms the Front de Libération National (FLN) to fight for Algerian independence

An outbreak of terrorism in Kenya is orchestrated by a secret Kikuyu organization, the Mau Mau

Jomo Kenyatta, charged with having organized the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya, is sentenced to seven years in prison

George Grivas leads a guerrilla movement, EOKA, fighting for Cyprus's independence from Britain and union with Greece

A radical manifesto and acts of terrorism alert the world to the emergence of the FLN, committed to independence for Algeria

A military uprising in Argentina forces Perón to resign and go into exile

Baptist pastor Martin Luther King leads the Montgomery Bus Boycott after Rosa Parks is arrested for not giving up her seat to a white man

Students are fired on in Budapest when protesting against repressive Communist policies

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

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

French Algerians seize government buildings in Algiers, in a campaign to ensure that Algerian remains French

The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) is launched in Britain with Bertrand Russell as president

Nationalist Kurds in the north of Iraq launch a guerrilla war against the new government in Baghdad

ETA (Euzkadi Ta Askatasuna) is formed in Spain as a guerrilla organization to win Basque independence

The Dalai Lama escapes from Tibet to India after the Chinese suppression of an armed uprising costing thousands of Buddhist lives

UK prime minister Harold Macmillan, in Cape Town, warns the white settlers of Africa that 'the wind of change' is blowing through their continent