Soviet Union Premier Nikita Khruschev pounding his shoe at the United Nations, October 12, 1960.
http://www.deceptively-simple.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/khrushchev_shoe1.jpg

Excerpts from the source...

Khrushchev repeatedly disrupted the proceedings in the United Nations General Assembly in September-October 1960 by pounding his fists on the desk and shouting in Russian.

The notorious shoe-banging incident occurred during a debate, on 12 October over a Russian resolution decrying colonialism. Infuriated by a statement of the Filipino delegate Lorenzo Sumulong which charged the Soviets with employing a double standard, Khrushchev accused Sumulong of being "a jerk, a stooge and a lackey of imperialism". Later Khrushchev appeared to have pulled off his right shoe and started banging it on his desk.

On another occasion, Khrushchev said in reference to capitalism, "Мы вас похороним!" (My vas pokhoronim!), translated to "We will bury you". This phrase, ambiguous both in the English language and in the Russian language, was interpreted in several ways. Later, he would refer back to the comment and state, "I once got in trouble for saying, 'We will bury you'. Of course, we will not bury you with a shovel. Your own working class will bury you".
Source(s):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikita_Khrushchev

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JFK accepting the Democratic party's nomination.

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/images/jfk1960dnc.jpeg
Source(s):
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/images/jfk1960dnc.jpeg

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On May 1, 1960 the Soviet Union shoots down an American U-2 reconnaissance airplane over Soviet airspace and captures pilot Gary Powers, forcing U.S. to admit to aerial spying. Powers was tried and charged with espionage.
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The 1960 Kapoho Eruption of Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii.

Once There Was a Kapoho
Once there was a Kapoho
Where children played barefooted
Until the evening sun disappeared
And kerosene lamps and gas lamps
Beckoned each child home.

Once there was a Kapoho
Where outhouses and water tanks
Prominently stood as sentry guards
And `ohi`a firewood sent signals above rooftops,
Announcing a hot furo for the tired and the toiled.

Once there was a Kapoho
Where mothers pumping sewing machines
Marked the end of summer;
Homemade clothes and one-strapped schoolbags
For the first of September.

Once there was a Kapoho
Without television but battery-run radios
For "The Romance of Helen Trent,"
Dr. Malone and Arthur Godfrey.

Once there was a Kapoho
Without washing machines
But wooden washboards against concrete tubs
And slippery, muddy denims boiled in Saloon Pilot cans.

Once there was a place
Without shopping malls and Liberty House,
But catalogs from Sears and Montgomery Ward,
Dream-makers, before turning into a Charmin or MD.
Once there was Christmas without lights.

Yes, once there was a place
So simple and free
Where children swam in Warm Springs
And fished in Green Lake,
Played marbles and Ojame
And Steal Steal Stone.

Once there was a place
Where life went on without questions.
Sons went off to war,
Teachers taught the 3 Rs
Parents were the PTA
And children pledged allegiance.

Yes, once there was such a place
Until MADAME PELE said, "No more!"
And scattered all the children
Like stars in the universe,
Echoing Thomas Wolfe,
"You can't go home again."

Copyright Frances H. Kakugawa
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Ha. As a matter of fact, if the year 1960 comes to mind, I see an image of a smiling Nixon, recollected from the back of a 1960 original Presidential debate guide that I have, in which has portrait photos of a smiling Nixon and smiling Kennedy.

http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/6370/nkdebate.jpg
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May 1, 1960
An American U-2 spy plane is shot down while conducting espionage over the Soviet Union. The incident derailed an important summit meeting between President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev that was scheduled for later that month. Eisenhower considered the "stupid U-2 mess" one of the worst debacles of his presidency.

On May 1, 1960, a U-2 flight piloted by Francis Gary Powers disappeared while on a flight over Russia. The CIA reassured the president that, even if the plane had been shot down, it was equipped with self-destruct mechanisms that would render any wreckage unrecognizable and the pilot was instructed to kill himself in such a situation. Based on this information, the U.S. government issued a cover statement indicating that a weather plane had veered off course and supposedly crashed somewhere in the Soviet Union. With no small degree of pleasure, Khrushchev pulled off one of the most dramatic moments of the Cold War by producing not only the mostly-intact wreckage of the U-2, but also the captured pilot-very much alive. A chagrined Eisenhower had to publicly admit that it was indeed a U.S. spy plane.
Source(s):
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=2654

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