Desert of Algeria. February 18 – The 1960 Winter Olympics begin at the Squaw Valley Ski Resort in Placer County, California. February 26 – Alitalia Flight 618: An airliner en route to New York crashes into a cemetery at Shannon, Ireland, shortly after takeoff, killing 34 of the 52 persons on board. February 29 – The 5.7 Agadir Earthquake shakes coastal Morocco with a maximum perceived intensity of X (Extreme), destroying Agadir and leaving 12,000 dead and another 12,000 injured. March March 5 – Alberto Korda takes his iconic photograph of Che Guevara, Guerrillero Heroico, in Havana. March 6 Vietnam War: The United States announces that 3,500 American soldiers will be sent to Vietnam. The Canton of Geneva in Switzerland gives women the right to vote. March 17 Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 710 crashes near Tell City, Indiana, killing all 63 on board. U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower approves a covert Central Intelligence Agency plan to train a paramilitary force against Cuba, which would result in the 1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion. March 21 – The Sharpeville massacre in South Africa results in more than 69 dead, 300 injured. March 22 – Arthur Leonard Schawlow and Charles Hard Townes receive the first patent for a laser, in the United States. March 23 – Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev meets French President Charles de Gaulle in Paris. March 29 – "Tom Pillibi" by Jacqueline Boyer (music by André Popp, text by Pierre Cour) wins the Eurovision Song Contest 1960 for France. April April 1 Abdul Rahman of Negeri Sembilan, 1st Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia, dies in office. He is replaced by Hisamuddin Alam Shah ibni Almarhum Sultan Alaeddin Sulaiman Shah, Sultan of Selangor. The United States launches the first weather satellite, TIROS-1. The 1960 United States Census begins. There are 179,323,175 U.S. residents on this day. All people from Latin America are listed as white, including blacks from the Dominican Republic, European whites from Argentina and Mexicans who resemble Native Americans. April 4 – At the 32nd Academy Awards Ceremony, Ben-Hur wins a record number of Oscars, including Best Picture. April 9 – Gunman David Pratt shoots South African Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd in Johannesburg, wounding him seriously. April 12 – Eric Peugeot, the youngest son of the founder of the Peugeot Corporation, is kidnapped in Paris. He is released on April 15, in exchange for $300,000 in ransom. April 19