Tom Stoppard's play Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead premieres.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez's novel Cien anos de soledad (One Hundred Years of Solitude) is published.

French painter Rene Magritte dies.

The Cultural Revolution in China leads to virtual civil war as anti-Mao peasants repeatedly clash with pro-Mao Red Guards.

4 Jan.

Pope Paul VI bans unorthodox liturgies such as jazz masses.

5 Jan.

Harold Pinter's play The Homecoming opens in New York.

16 Jan.

Lynden Oscar Pindling becomes the first black prime minister of the Bahama Islands.

20 Jan.

Cuba executes Enrique Gonzalez Rodriguez for allegedly acting as an agent for the Central Intelligence Agency.

20 Jan.

In the first meeting between a Roman Catholic pontiff and a Communist head of state, Pope Paul VI confers with Soviet president Nikolai Podgorny.

31 Jan.

Romania becomes the first Eastern Bloc country to recognize West Germany.

3 Feb.

Canadian prime minister Lester Pearson announces the creation of a government...