Convention Hall arena in Miami Beach: Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr, 22, beats the world heavyweight champion Sonny Liston (the 8-to-1 favorite) in a seventh round technical knockout (Liston retired from the fight with an injured shoulder).

It was for this fight that Clay had coined his immortal catch phrase:

"float like a butterfly, sting like a bee"

predicting a knockout in the 8th round.

Later in the year Clay, the son of an escaped Kentucky slave, adopted the Muslim name of Muhammed Ali.

Cambridge, Massachusetts: It was love at first sight for these two poets who were to marry four months later.

The couple bought a house in Devon and had a second child in 1962. It was this year that Plath discovered Hughes was having an affair. He left her to move in with this lover. She moved to London but committed suicide after battling depression.