The following events occurred in May 1960:
May 1, 1960: USSR shoots down American U-2 spy plane and captures USAF spy pilot Francis Gary Powers alive
May 22, 1960: Earthquake strikes Chile, triggers tsunamis and aftershocks that kill over 5,000 people in Chile, U.S., and Japan
May 16, 1960: Physicist Theodore Maiman makes successful test of the first laser
Wreckage of the U-2, on display in a Moscow museum
The following events occurred in January 1960:
January 23, 1960: The bathyscaphe Trieste descends seven miles to the ocean floor
January 4, 1960: Albert Camus killed in auto accident
January 24, 1960: French Algerians erect barricades
10 Nouveaux Francs