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Updated: 26-Oct-2001 1959


[ '45-'49 | '50-'59 | '60-'69 | '70-'79 | '80-'89 | '90-'99 | '00- ]
[ 1950 | 1951 | 1952 | 1953 | 1954 | 1955 | 1956 | 1957 | 1958 | 1959 ]

1959

1 Jan

Overthrow of the Batista régime in Cuba by Fidel Castro.

11 June

Opening of Four-Power Meeting of Foreign Ministers in Geneva (France, the United Kingdom, the United States and the USSR) on the German question.

19 Aug

The Baghdad Pact signed on 24 February 1955 becomes the Central Treaty Organisation (CENTO). Full members: Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Turkey and United Kingdom. Associate member: United States. Its headquarters is set up in Ankara. (Dissolved, 26 September 1979).

20 Nov

Austria, Denmark, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom initial the Stockholm Convention establishing the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) (1) .

15-22 Dec

Inauguration of the new NATO Headquarters at the Porte Dauphine in Paris.

Additional information:

  1. Finland became an associate member of EFTA in 1961. Iceland joined in 1970. Denmark and the United Kingdom withdrew from EFTA on joining the EEC on 1 January 1973. Portugal withdrew from EFTA on 1 January 1986.