Death of General Franco, Spain 1975

Vietnam War 1965-1975

International oil crisis 1973

Apollo 11 and Neil Armstrong, first moonwalk 1969

Suez crisis 1956

Launch of Sputnik satellite 1957

Construction of the Berlin Wall 1961

Arab-Israeli Six Day War 1968

Centre George Pompidou opens, Paris 1977

IKEA first shop opens, Sweden 1958

Archigram group and magazine founded 1963

Dieter Rams appointed Design Director at Braun, Germany 1960

Exposition Universelle, Brussels 1958

MITI Design Division established, Japan 1959

Pop art emerges, UK 1956

Terence Conran's first Habitat shop opens, London 1964

Honorary Doctorate from the Royal College of Art 1980

Awarded RSA Gold Medal for services to Industrial Design 1962

Starts designing again with Adriaan Hermsen 1977

Death of Don Russell 1970

Opens CoID's Design Centre, 28 Haymarket, London 1956

Ray Leigh becomes design director 1967

Appointed Master of the Art Worker's Guild 1962

RSA Presidential Award for Design Management 1979

Royal Warrant granted 1961

Bill Ould becomes managing director 1966

Dies at Kingcombe 1980

Chairs designed by R.D.Russell for Coventry Cathedral 1960

Ray Leigh becomes managing director 1971

Appointed Senior Fellow at Royal College of Art 1959

'Skill' address at the Royal Society of Arts 1978

Trevor Chinn becomes chief designer 1969