1956
- Suez Crisis
- Hungarian revolution
- Alec Dickson helps refugees on the Hungarian Austrian boarder.
1957
- European Economic Community Established
- Soviet Satellite Sputnik Launches Space Age
- Summer: Alec had been sowing the seeds of youth volunteer service through meetings with schools and voluntary organisations.
- Autumn: The first request arrives from the Bishop of Borneo, highlighting the need for voluntary primary and secondary teachers
1958
- Mao Zedong launches the "Great Leap Forward"
- Hula Hoops become popular
- Lego toy bricks first introduced
- NASA founded
- Mid May: David Brown becomes the first volunteer
- September: A further 15 volunteers depart for Sarawak, Ghana, Nigeria and Zambia
1959
- Castro comes to power in Cuba
- VSO gets its first government grant of £9,000
- The first female volunteers are recruited; they precede Britain’s first female minister by six years
- VSO forms its first corporate partnerships, with ICI, Metropolitan Vickers and AEI
1960
- Harold Macmillan's Wind of Change speech
- Volunteers sent for the first time to South Africa, where VSO still has a programme today
1961
- Berlin Wall erected
- Peace Corps founded
- Soviets launch First Man in Space
1962
- VSO Local Supporter Groups are born. Corby, Warrington, Kettering and Oxford were the first, with Brighton, Cardiff, Leicester, Liverpool, Manchester and York following in 1963.
1963
- Martin Luther King Jr. makes his I Have a Dream speech
- Blind volunteer Roger Goodchild leads a team of four technical volunteers in the Aden Protectorate (now Yemen). Since then several hundred volunteers with disabilities have shared their skills and bought a unique perspective to placements.
1964
- Nelson Mandela sentenced to life in prison
- Volunteers placed for the first time in Brazil, Brunei, Burundi, Chile, Libya and Saudi Arabia
1965
- USA sends troops to Vietnam
- in 1965-66, VSO sends a record 1410 volunteers overseas
1966
- Mao Zedong launches the Cultural Revolution
- Retired librarian Ivy Hill becomes, at the age of 60, VSO's first older volunteer.
1968
- Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated
- First volunteers are sent to Anguilla, Turks and Caicos Islands
1969
- Neil Armstrong walks on the Moon
- VSO closes programme in the Seychelles following a successful period of work
1971
- Indo-Pakistan war. East Pakistan becomes the separate state of Bangladesh
- VSO opens its first programme office in Papua New Guinea
1972
- 17 Local Campaign Groups are involved in community work.
- VSO takes on a campaigning role to influence the policy and practice of volunteer sending agencies.
1973
- Nixon orders ceasefire in Vietnam
1974
- Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia, deposted
- Last school-leaver volunteer placed
1975
- Khmer Rouge seizes power in Cambodia
- The two volunteer physiotherapists recruited this year were called Miss Stretch and Miss Pain!
1976
- North and South Vietnam join to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam
- First volunteers are sent to Tonga, where a programme stayed open for 23 years
1977
- South Africa anti-Apartheid leader Steve Biko tortured to death
1978
- First test-tube baby born
- The average age of a VSO volunteer is now 25
1979
- Margaret Thatcher first woman Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
- Mother Theresa awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
- VSO volunteers are sent to Western Samoa for the first time
1981
- First space shuttle flight
1983
- Following the Black July riot, Sri Lanka descends into a civil war
- VSO puts in print a strategy for education work: the Development Education Plan
1989
- VSO accepts applications from those with children for the first time - but only if they are married
1990
- The first VSO volunteers go to Eastern Europe following the break-up of the Soviet Union
1993
- Bosnian war: Fall of Srebrenica
- VSO's Overseas Training Programme (OTP) launched, which later becomes Youth for Development (YFD).
1997
- Tony Blair appointed Prime Minister of the UK
- Rwanda's Minister of Education requests that VSO open a programme in Rwanda
1999
- European currency introduced
- VSO Business Partnerships launched
- First Global Xchange takes place
2000
- Amidst controversy, George W Bush wins the Florida State recount and becomes US President
- VSO begins recruiting volunteers from Kenya, Uganda and the Philippines
- The number of volunteers recruited from outside the UK now makes up almost a quarter of all VSO volunteers.
2001
- World Trade Center attacked
- VSO's ground-breaking 'National Volunteering' scheme, promoting in-country volunteering, begins
2002
- The United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development opens
- "Valuing Teachers", VSO's first international advocacy campaign, launched
2004
- The Madrid train bombings kill 190 people
- Partnership with Mitra establishes strong working relationships with India
2005
- The Year of Volunteers takes place in the UK
- Post-Tsunami response
- VSO merges with beso (British Executive Services Overseas) and begins sending volunteers on short term placements
2006
- Ban Ki-moon (South Korean) is elected as the new Secretary-General of the UN
- VSO's Diaspora Volunteering Scheme established
2008
- The 2008 African Cup of Nations is held in Ghana
- VSO's 50th Anniversary celebrations get under way