To celebrate the 40th anniversary of ICTP, Highlights periodically includes a description of a seminal event in the Centre's history: 25 August 1960. At an international conference on high energy physics held at the University of Rochester, New York, USA, J.A. McCone, chairperson of the US Atomic Energy Commission, suggests that participants join together in urging the international community to build a high energy accelerator that would be made available to researchers from around the world. Several participants-Hans Bethe, Nicholas Kemmer, Robert Marshak, Robert Sachs and, most notably, Abdus Salam-respond by suggesting that it may be more practical to focus on the creation of a United Nations-related international centre for theoretical physics. The discussion marks the beginning of a lengthy conversation that ultimately leads to the creation of ICTP in Trieste in 1964.