January 30 - The junta ruling South Vietnam since the overthrow of President Ngo Dinh Diem is itself toppled from power in a bloodless coup led by Maj. Gen. Nguyen Khanh.
March 31 - The military overthrows Brazilian President João Goulart, starting 21 years of dictatorship in Brazil.
April 19 - The coalition government of Laos, headed by Prince Souvanna Phouma, is deposed by a right-wing military group led by Brig. Gen. Kouprasith Abhay.
June 3 - South Korean President Chung Hee Park declares martial law in Seoul after 10,000 student demonstrators overpower police.
July 6 - Malawi declares its independence from the United Kingdom.
August 16 - Vietnam War: In a coup, General Nguyen Khanh replaces Duong Van Minh as South Vietnam's chief of state and establishes a new constitution, which the U.S. Embassy helped draft.
October 14 - 15 - Nikita Khrushchev is deposed as leader of the Soviet Union; Leonid Brezhnev and Alexei Kosygin assume power.
October 24 - Northern Rhodesia, a former British protectorate, becomes the independent Republic of Zambia, ending 73 years of British rule.
November 3 - The Bolivian government of President Victor Paz Estenssoro is overthrown by a military rebellion led by General Alfredo Ovando Candía, commander-in-chief of the armed forces.