1959 NEWS EVENTS
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
January
January 1
Cultivars
of plants named after this date must be named in a modern language, not in
Latin
.
Cuba
:
Fulgencio Batista
flees
Havana
when the forces of
Fidel Castro
advance.
January 2
CBS Radio
discontinues four soap operas:
Backstage Wife
,
Our Gal Sunday
,
The Road of Life
, and
This is Nora Drake
.
Castro's troops approach
Havana
.
The
Soviet Union
successfully launches the
Luna 1
spacecraft from
Baikonur Cosmodrome
.
January 3
The island of
Addu
in the
Maldives
declares
independence
.
Alaska
is admitted as the 49th
U.S. state
.
January 4
In
Cuba
, rebel troops led by
Che Guevara
and
Camilo Cienfuegos
enter the city of
Havana
.
In
Léopoldville
, 42 people are killed during food fights between the police and participants of a meeting of the
Abako
Party.
January 6
Fidel Castro
arrives in Havana.
The
International Maritime Organization
is inaugurated.
January 7
– The United States recognizes the new
Cuban
government of
Fidel Castro
.
January 8
–
Charles De Gaulle
is inaugurated as the first president of the
French Fifth Republic
.
January 10
– The
Soviet
government recognizes the new Castro government.
January 11
– The
Confédération Mondiale des Activités Subaquatiques
is founded in
Monaco
.
January 12
The
Caves of Nerja
are discovered in Spain.
Motown Records
is founded by
Berry Gordy, Jr.
January 13
–
Cuban communists
execute 71 supporters of
Fulgencio Batista
.
January 15
– The
Soviet Union
conducts its
first census
after
World War II
.
January 21
– The
European Court of Human Rights
is established.
January 22
–
Knox Mine Disaster
: Water breaches the River Slope Mine in
Port Griffith, Pennsylvania
near
Pittston, Pennsylvania
; 12 miners are killed.
January 25
–
Pope John XXIII
announces that the
Second Vatican Council
will be convened in
Rome
.
January 29
–
Walt Disney
releases his 16th animated film,
Sleeping Beauty
in
Beverly Hills
. It is Disney's first animated film to be shown in
70mm
and modern
6-track stereophonic sound
.
[1]
Also on the program is Disney's new live-action short subject
Grand Canyon
, which uses the music of
Ferde Grofe
's
Grand Canyon Suite
.
Grand Canyon
wins an
Oscar
for
Best Documentary Short
.
January 30
– Danish passenger/cargo ship
MS
Hans Hedtoft
, returning to
Copenhagen
after its maiden voyage to
Greenland
, strikes an iceberg and sinks off the Greenland coast with the loss of all 95 on board.
[2]
February
February 1
– A
referendum in Switzerland
turns down
female suffrage
.
February 3
A chartered plane transporting musicians
Buddy Holly
,
Ritchie Valens
, and
The Big Bopper
and pilot
Roger Peterson
goes down in foggy conditions near
Clear Lake, Iowa
, killing all 4 occupants on board. The tragedy is later termed "
The Day the Music Died
", popularized in
Don McLean
's
1972
song "
American Pie
".
American Airlines Flight 320
, a
Lockheed L-188 Electra
heading from
Chicago
to
New York City
, crashes into the
East River
, killing 65 of the 73 people on board.
February 6
– At
Cape Canaveral, Florida
, the first successful test firing of a
Titan intercontinental ballistic missile
is accomplished.
February 9
–
Yugoslavia
and
Spain
set trade relations (not diplomatic ones).
February 13
–
TAT-2
,
AT&T
's second
Trans-Atlantic telephone cable
goes into operation.
February 16
Fidel Castro
becomes Premier of
Cuba
.
A
blizzard
causes a massive power outage in
Newfoundland
.
February 17
– The United States launches the
Vanguard II
weather satellite
.
February 18
Jesús Sosa Blanco
, a colonel in the Cuban army of
Fulgencio Batista
, is executed in
Cuba
after being convicted of committing 108 murders for Batista.
Women in
Nepal
vote for the first time.
February 19
– The
United Kingdom
decides to grant
Cyprus
its independence.
February 20
– The
Canadian Government
cancels the
CF-105 Arrow
project.
February 22
–
Lee Petty
wins the first
Daytona 500
.
March
March 1
The
USS Tuscaloosa
,
USS New Orleans
,
USS Tennessee
and
USS West Virginia
are struck from the
Naval Vessel Register
.
Archbishop
Makarios
returns to
Cyprus
from exile.
March 2
– Recording sessions for the album
Kind of Blue
by
Miles Davis
take place at
Columbia's 30th Street Studio
in New York City.
March 8
–
The Marx Brothers
make their last television appearance, in
The Incredible Jewel Robbery
.
March 9
– The
Barbie
doll debuts.
March 10
– A
Tibetan uprising
against 10 years of
Chinese
rule erupts in
Lhasa
.
March 11
Een beetje
by Teddy Scholten (music by Dick Schallies, text by Willy van Hemert) wins the
Eurovision Song Contest
for the
Netherlands
.
A Raisin in the Sun
by
Lorraine Hansberry
opens on
Broadway
.
March 17
–
Tenzin Gyatso
, the 14th
Dalai Lama
, flees
Tibet
.
March 18
– American President
Dwight D. Eisenhower
signs a
bill
allowing for
Hawaiian
statehood.
March 19
– Two other islands join
Addu
in the
United Suvadive Republic
(abolished September
1963
), in the Maldives Islands.
March 31
Busch Gardens
in
Tampa, Florida
opens.
The
Dalai Lama
is granted asylum in
India
.
April
April 6
– The
31st Academy Awards
ceremony is held.
April 8
– The
Inter-American Development Bank
(IADB) is established.
April 9
–
NASA
announces its selection of seven
military pilots
to become the first U.S.
astronauts
(later known as the
Mercury Seven
).
April 10
– Crown Prince
Akihito
of Japan marries
Shōda Michiko
, the first commoner to marry into the
Imperial House of Japan
.
April 22
– Recording sessions for the influential
jazz
album
Kind of Blue
by
Miles Davis
take place at Columbia's 30th Street Studio in New York City.
April 25
– The
St. Lawrence Seaway
linking the
Great Lakes
and the
Atlantic Ocean
officially opens to
shipping
.
April 27
–
National People's Congress
elects
Liu Shaoqi
as
Chairman of the People's Republic of China
, as a successor of
Mao Zedong
.
May
May
The first
Ten Tors
event is held in
Dartmoor
.
Import tariffs
are lifted in the
United Kingdom
.
May 2
–
1959 FA Cup Final
: Nottingham Forest defeats Luton Town 2–1.
May 18
– The
National Liberation Committee of Côte d'Ivoire
is launched in
Conakry, Guinea
.
May 21
–
Gypsy: A Musical Fable
, starring
Ethel Merman
in her last new musical, opens on
Broadway
and runs for 702 performances
May 24
– British Empire Day is renamed
Commonwealth Day
.
May 28
– Two monkeys, Able and Miss Baker are the first living beings to successfully return to Earth from space aboard the flight
Jupiter AM-18
.
June
June 3
–
Singapore
becomes a self-governing crown colony of Britain with
Lee Kuan Yew
as Prime Minister.
June 5
– A new government of the
State of Singapore
is sworn in by Sir William Goode. Two former ministers are re-elected to the Legislative Assembly.
June 8
– The
USS
Barbero
and
United States Postal Service
attempt the delivery of mail via
Missile Mail
.
June 9
– The
USS
George Washington
is launched as the first
submarine
to carry
ballistic missiles
.
June 14
Disneyland Monorail System
, the first daily operating monorail system in the
Western Hemisphere
, opens to the public in
Anaheim, California
.
A 3-front revolutionary invasion by air and sea takes place in the
Dominican Republic
, consisting of exiles aided by
Fidel Castro
and the
Venezuelan
government, whose objective is to overthrow
dictator
Rafael Leonidas Trujillo
. Within a few days most are captured and executed. Only four are released by the government. Trujillo is killed less than two years later by men partly inspired by the deaths of the 1959 revolutionaries.
June 18
– The film
The Nun's Story
, based on the best-selling novel, is released.
Audrey Hepburn
stars as the title character; she later says that this is her favorite film role. The film is a
box-office
hit, and is nominated for several
Oscars
.
June 23
Sean Lemass
becomes the third
Taoiseach
of
Ireland
.
Convicted
Manhattan Project
spy
Klaus Fuchs
is released after only nine years in a British prison and allowed to emigrate to
Dresden
,
East Germany
where he resumes a scientific career.
June 25
– A
KH-1
Corona
, believed to be the first operational spy satellite, is launched as science mission "
Discoverer
4" from
Vandenberg Air Force Base
aboard a
Thor-Agena
rocket.
June 26
Elizabeth II
(
Queen of Canada
) and
U.S. President
Dwight Eisenhower
open the
Saint Lawrence Seaway
.
Darby O'Gill and the Little People
, a film based on
H.T. Kavanagh's
short stories
, is released in the U.S. by
the Walt Disney Company
after a
world premiere
in
Ireland
.
June 30
– Twenty-one students are killed and more than a hundred injured when an American North American
F-100 Super Sabre
jet crashes into Miamori Elementary School on the island of
Okinawa
. The pilot ejected before the plane struck the school.
[3]
July
July 2
–
Prince Albert of Belgium
marries Italian
Donna
Paola Ruffo di Calabria
.
July 4
– With the admission of
Alaska
as the 49th
U.S. state
earlier in the year, the 49-star
flag of the United States
debuts in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
.
July 7
– At 14:28 UT
Venus
occults
the star
Regulus
. The rare event (which will next occur on October 1, 2044) is used to determine the diameter of Venus and the structure of Venus' atmosphere.
July 14
Groups of
Kurdish
and
communist
militias rebel in
Kirkuk, Iraq
against the central government.
[4]
July 15
– A
strike
occurs against the United States'
steel
industry
.
July 17
– The first skull of
Australopithecus
is discovered by
Louis Leakey
and his wife
Mary Leakey
in the
Olduvai Gorge
of
Tanzania
.
July 22
– A
Kumamoto University
medical research group studying
Minamata disease
concludes that it is caused by
mercury
.
July 24
– At the opening of the
American National Exhibition
in
Moscow
,
United States Vice President
Richard Nixon
and
USSR Premier
Nikita Khrushchev
engage in the "
Kitchen Debate
".
July 25
– The
SR-N1
hovercraft
crosses the
English Channel
from
Calais
to
Dover
in just over 2 hours, on the 50th anniversary of
Louis Blériot
's first crossing by
heavier-than-air
craft.
August
August 4
–
Martial law
is declared in
Laos
.
August 7
Explorer program
: The United States launches
Explorer 6
from the Atlantic Missile Range in
Cape Canaveral
,
Florida
.
United States
: The
Roseburg Oregon Blast
kills 14 and causes $12 million worth of damage.
August 8
– A
flood
in
Taiwan
kills 2,000.
August 14
–
Explorer 6
sends the first picture of Earth from orbit.
August 15
–
Cyprus
gains
independence
.
August 17
The
1959 Hebgen Lake earthquake
in southwest Montana kills 28.
Columbia Records
releases
Miles Davis
' groundbreaking album,
Kind of Blue
.
August 19
– The
Central Treaty Organization
(CENTO) is established.
August 21
–
Hawaii
is admitted as the 50th
U.S. state
.
August 24
–
Cyprus
joins the
United Nations
.
August 26
– The original
Mini
designed by Sir
Alec Issigonis
is launched.
September
September 14
–
Luna 2
becomes the first man-made object to crash on the
Moon
.
September 15
–
September 28
–
USSR Premier
Nikita Khrushchev
and his wife tour the
United States
, at the invitation of
U.S. President
Dwight David Eisenhower
.
September 16
– The
Xerox 914
, the first plain paper copier, is introduced to the public.
September 17
The first
Navy Navigation Satellite System
Transit 1A
is launched but fails to reach orbit.
The
Hypersonic
North American X-15
Research Vehicle, piloted by
Scott Crossfield
, makes its first powered flight at
Edwards Air Force Base
, California.
September 23
– The
M/S Princess of Tasmania
, (
Australia
's first
passenger
RO/RO
diesel
ferry
), makes its maiden voyage across the
Bass Strait
.
September 25
–
Ceylon
's prime minister
S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike
is assassinated.
September 26
Typhoon Vera
hits central
Honshū
, Japan, killing an estimated 5,098, injuring another 38,921, and leaving 1,533,000 homeless. Most of the victims and damage are centered in the
Nagoya
area.
The first official large unit action of the
Vietnam War
takes place, when two companies of the
ARVN
23d Division are ambushed by a well-organized
Vietcong
force of several hundred, identified as the "2d Liberation Battalion".
September 30
–
Soviet Union
leader
Nikita Khrushchev
meets
Mao Zedong
in
Beijing
.
October
October 1
– The
10th anniversary of the People's Republic of China
is celebrated with pomp across the country.
October 2
–
Rod Serling
's classic anthology series
The Twilight Zone
premieres on
CBS
.
October 7
– The
U.S.S.R.
probe
Luna 3
sends back the first ever photos of the
far side of the Moon
.
October 12
– At the national
APRA
Congress in
Peru
, a group of leftist radicals is expelled from the party; they later form
APRA Rebelde
.
October 13
– The United States launches
Explorer 7
.
October 21
– In
New York City
, the
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
(designed by
Frank Lloyd Wright
) opens to the public.
October 29
– First appearance of
Astérix
the Gaul.
[5]
October 31
– Riots break out in the
Belgian Congo
.
November
November 1
– In
Rwanda
,
Hutu
politician
Dominique Mbonyumutwa
is beaten up by
Tutsi
forces, leading to a period of violence known as the
wind of destruction
.
November 2
– At a ceremony near
Toddington
, British
Minister of Transport
Ernest Marples
opens the first section of the
M1 Motorway
, between
Watford
and
Crick
, along with two
spur
motorways, the
M45
and
M10
. Three decades of large scale motorway construction follow, leading to the rapid expansion of the
UK
motorway network
.
November 12
– The
Warner Bros.
religious epic
The Miracle
, very loosely based on the 1911 stage pantomime
Das Mirakel
, is released. It is a critical and financial bomb.
November 15
– The Clutter family of
Holcomb, Kansas
is brutally murdered, inspiring
Truman Capote
's
In Cold Blood
.
November 18
–
MGM
's widescreen, multimillion dollar,
Technicolor
version of
Ben-Hur
, starring
Charlton Heston
, is released and becomes the studio's greatest hit up to that time. It is critically acclaimed and eventually wins 11
Academy Awards
– a record held until
1998
, when 1997's
Titanic
becomes the first film to equal the record. To the present day, the 1959
Ben-Hur
remains the last MGM film to win a Best Picture Oscar, though
Doctor Zhivago
, another MGM film, was nominated in 1965.
November 20
– The
Declaration of the Rights of the Child
is adopted by the
United Nations
.
December
December 1
–
Cold War
–
Antarctic Treaty
: 12 countries, including the United States and the
Soviet Union
, sign a landmark
treaty
, which sets aside
Antarctica
as a scientific preserve and bans military activity on that
continent
(the first
arms control
agreement established during the Cold War).
December 2
–
Malpasset Dam
in southern France collapses and water flows over the town of
Frejus
, killing 412.
December 8
– The
Mona
, a lifeboat based at Broughty Ferry in Scotland, capsizes during a rescue attempt, with the loss of 8 lives.
December 14
–
Makarios III
is selected the first
president of Cyprus
.
Date unknown
Pantyhose
is introduced by Glen Raven Mills.
The
Workers World Party
is founded by
Sam Marcy
.
The first known human with
HIV
dies in the
Congo
.
[6]
The current (as of 2006) design of the
Japanese
10 yen coin
is put into circulation.
The
Caspian Tiger
becomes extinct in Iran.
The
Henney Kilowatt
goes on sale in the United States, becoming the first mass-produced
electric car
in almost three decades.
Erving Goffman
publishes his seminal study in
sociology
,
The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life
.
The iconic 1959
Cadillac
is introduced, ending the
tailfin
wars begun in 1948.