If anyone has ever been born to be a great baseball player, possibly the best Venezuelan ballplayer of all time, it was Luis Aparicio. His calling was in his genes, and at age 19, during a game between the Maracaibo Gavilanes and the Caracas Pastora, he received from his father the glove and bat his old man had used until then. The senior player retired. His son would not only follow his footsteps, but also reach a pinnacle in baseball history.

Two years later, when Luis was called up to play for the Chicago White Sox, manager Marty Marion found that the cause of his limited defensive performance, in contrast to his exceptional base-running skills (he had led the minor leagues in base-running in 1954) was actually that the glove he used was too big for him. By changing to a smaller glove, added to his prodigious speed and catlike reflexes, he managed to make some of the most memorable catches in baseball. 

By the end of the season, Luis was named Rookie of the Year at the dawn of a brilliant career that spanned 18 years in the big leagues. Throughout that time, he led the American League in stolen bases for nine consecutive years, won the World Series with the Baltimore Orioles (1966), earned nine Golden Globes and was voted into nine All-Star Games. When he retired, he was the all-time leader in games played, assistances and double plays for Major League shortstops. He was voted to the Hall of Fame in 1984.

In Venezuela, the government signed contracts with Italian firms Innocenti and Fiat to build the country's first steel company. Also, a new set of rules was enacted for granting subsequent oil concessions. In August, the director of National Security, Pedro Estrada, denounced a plot to murder Pérez Jiménez and accused AD party leader Carlos Andrés Pérez of scheming it. That same month, Juan Domingo Perón arrived in Venezuela.

On December 31st, Pérez Jiménez announced that the year would end with an investment in public works of USD 795,154, which was "the largest ever made in Venezuela." Around the world, Sudan broke free from the British; Morocco and Tunisia gained independence from France; Hungary rebelled against the USSR. After Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal, France and the United Kingdom, with the support of Israel, attacked the areas adjacent to the Canal, but the operation failed, marking the end of colonialism in the Middle East.

In November, Soviet troops crushed the Hungarian revolution launched in October. Bolivia granted voting rights to its indigenous population, women and members of the military. Dwight Eisenhower was reelected President of the United States. An air crash took the life of Mexican idol, singer Pedro Infante. On December 2nd, Fidel Castro landed on the Cuban coastline.