Nikita Khrushchev died on 11 September 1971 in Moscow, aged 77. The leader of the Soviet Union after Stalin's death, Khrushchev rose through the Communist Party from a peasant and metalworker background and became First Secretary in 1953. In a secret speech to the party congress in 1956 he denounced Stalin's crimes and cult of personality, beginning a limited period of de-Stalinization. His years in power saw the launch of Sputnik, the first human spaceflight, the suppression of the Hungarian uprising, the building of the Berlin Wall and the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, which brought the world close to nuclear war. His erratic style and policy failures led to his removal by party colleagues in 1964, and he spent his last years in retirement.
Before and after
- 26 July 1971Launch of Apollo 15
- 28 July 1971Birth of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
- from 14 August 1971 to 20 August 1971Stanford prison experiment
- 26 August 1971Launch of WorldCat
- 11 September 1971Death of Nikita Khrushchev
- 15 September 1971Greenpeace sails on its first voyage
- 18 September 1971Birth of Anna Netrebko
- 20 October 1971Birth of Snoop Dogg
- from 27 October 1971 to 16 May 1997Zaire
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The era
This moment belongs to the Contemporary world (1945 CE to today), the world since 1945. You can also browse everything in the 20th century.