Earth Orbiter (Feb. 20): John H. Glenn Jr. rides his Mercury capsule, Friendship 7, into space to become the first American to orbit the Earth.

Adieu, Algeria (March): The French government signs a cease-fire agreement with rebels fighting for Algerian independence. The accord ends eight years of bloody fighting and leads to the end of French colonial rule in the North African land.

	Wilt Chamberlain

Point Man (March 2): Wilt Chamberlain of the Philadelphia Warriors becomes the first basketball player to score 100 points in a game.

Smoking & Cancer (March 7): Britain's Royal College of Physicians concludes that cigarette smoking is a cause of lung cancer.

Trusted Man (April 16): Walter Cronkite makes his debut as anchorman on the "CBS Evening News."

	Marilyn Monroe

Death of a Goddess (Aug. 5): At age 36, the cinema phenomenon born as Norma Jean Baker and known to the world as Marilyn Monroe is found dead at her Los Angeles home, a bottle of sleeping pills at her side. Police hesitate to call it a suicide, but Monroe's psychoanalyst says she had tried to kill herself twice before. Beginning her rags-to-riches career as a model, Monroe dyed her hair blond for a shampoo commercial and scored her screen breakthrough in "Niagara." Her marriages to New York Yankees star Joe DiMaggio and playwright Arthur Miller both failed. As her personal life slid downward, Monroe became more dependent on drugs.

New Network Face (Sept. 10): Mal Goode becomes the first black network TV correspondent, working for ABC.

Desegregating Ole' Miss (Sept. 30): Federal marshals flock to the University of Mississippi in Oxford to ensure that James H. Meredith, a black Air Force veteran, gets settled into his dorm. Meredith earlier had tried to enter the school for classes, but Mississippi Gov. Ross Barnett blocked his entry and led a white-supremacy rally. Upon the marshals' arrival, a riot ensues. The next day, federal troops are sent to quell the fighting. By the time order is restored, dozens have been injured and two civilians are dead.

13 Days of Fear (Sept. 30): The nuclear genie nearly escapes from the bottle during October's Cuban missile crisis, as the United States and the Soviet Union teeter on the brink of war.

	Kennedy

Oct. 16: President Kennedy sees photos proving Soviets have installed ballistic missiles in Cuba, only 90 miles from U.S. soil.
Oct. 22: Kennedy announces a naval blockade of Cuba will take effect in two days.
Oct. 25: Adlai E. Stevenson, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, displays U-2 surveillance photos to members of the U.N. Security Council.

	Khrush- chev

Oct. 27: Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev offers to remove the Cuban missile bases, under U.N. supervision, and demands that the United States remove missiles from Turkey.
Oct. 28: Khrushchev agrees to withdraw missiles from Cuba. Kennedy agrees to lift the blockade and pledges not to invade Cuba.

Late-Night King (Oct. 1): Johnny Carson takes over as host of NBC's "Tonight" show. He late-night reign will last 30 years.

Dickering With the Future (Nov. 7): After losing the California governor's race, a sour Richard Nixon vows that he has run his last campaign, and tells the assembled media, "You won't have Dick Nixon to kick around any more ... because this is my last press conference."