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Events
January-February
January 1 - Cultivars of plants named after this date must be named in a modern language, not in Latin.
January 1 - Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when forces of Fidel Castro advance
January 2 - CBS Radio cuts four soap operas: Backstage Wife Our Gal Sunday, Road of Life, and This is Nora Drake.
January 2 - Castro's troops enter Havana
January 3 - Alaska is admitted as the 49th U.S. state.
January 4 - In Léopoldville 42 people are killed during clashes between the police and participants of a meeting of the Abako party.
January 7 - The United States recognizes the new Cuban government of Fidel Castro
January 22 - Knox Mine Disaster - water breaches River Slope mine in Port Griffith, Pennsylvania - 12 miners dead
February 1 - A referendum in Switzerland turns down female suffrage
February 6 - At Cape Canaveral, Florida, the first successful test firing of a Titan intercontinental ballistic missile is accomplished
February 16 - Fidel Castro becomes Premier of Cuba
February 18 - Jesus Sosa Blanco, murderer of 108 people, executed in Cuba
February 18 - Women in Nepal vote for the first time
February 19 - The United Kingdom grants Cyprus its independence
February 22 - Lee Petty wins the first Daytona 500
March-May
March 1 - USS Tuscaloosa, USS New Orleans, USS Tennessee and USS West Virginia struck from the Naval Vessel Register
March 1 – Archbishop Makarios returns to Cyprus from exile
March - People's Republic of China invades Tibet
March 1 - Japanese cities Uji, Kyoto and Muroto, Kochi are founded
March 8 - Last television appearance of The Marx Brothers, in The Incredible Jewel Robbery
March 9 - The Barbie doll debuts
March 17 - Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, flees Tibet and travels to India
March 18 - American President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs bill allowing for Hawaiian statehood
April 25 - The St. Lawrence Seaway linking the North American Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean officially opens to shipping
May - First Ten Tors event held in Dartmoor
June-September
June 3 - Singapore becomes a self governing crown colony of Great 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 were re-elected to the Legislative Assembly.
June 8 - The first (and only) delivery of Missile Mail
June 9 - The USS George Washington is launched as the first submarine to carry ballistic missiles
June 23 - Sean Lemass becomes the third Taoiseach of Ireland.
June 23 - Convicted Manhattan Project spy Klaus Fuchs is released after only nine years in prison and allowed to emigrate to Dresden, East Germany (where he resumed a scientific career).
July 2 - Royal wedding in Belgium: Prince Albert marries the Italian princess 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 - 14:28 UT Venus occulted the star Regulus. The rare event which will next occur on October 1, 2044 was used for determining the Venus diametre and the structure of Venus' atmospherer.
July 24 - At the opening of the American National Exhibition in Moscow, US vice-president Richard Nixon and Nikita Khrushchev have a "kitchen debate".
August 7 - Explorer program: The United States launches Explorer 6 from the Atlantic Missile Range in Cape Canaveral, Florida
August 15 - Cyprus gains independence
August 16 - Explorer VI sends back the first picture of Earth from space
August 21 - Hawaii is admitted as the 50th U.S. state.
September 13 - Luna 2 crashes onto the Moon as the first man-made object
September 15 - Russian probe Luna 2 sends back first photos of the far side of Earth's Moon
September 25 - Ceylon's prime minister SWRD Bandaraike assassinated
October-December
October 21 - Mau Mau leader Dedan Kimathi is arrested in Nyeri, Kenya
October 21 - In New York City, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum opens to the public. It was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.
October 31 - Riots in the Belgian Congo
November 1 - Ice Hockey: After being struck in the face with a hockey puck, Montreal Canadiens goalie, Jacques Plante offered to return to play on the condition that he can wear his protective face mask. It was the first time such equipment was used in a regular NHL game.
November 2 - Quiz show scandals: "Twenty-One" game show contestant Charles Van Doren admits to a Congressional committee that he had been given questions and answers in advance
November 15 - The Clutter Family murdered at their farm outside Holcomb, Kansas
November 19 - Ford Motor Company announces the discontinuation of the unpopular Edsel
December 1 - Cold War: Antarctic Treaty signed - 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 (this was the first arms control agreement established during the Cold War)
unknown date
The neutrino is first experimentally detected, by Cowan and Reines.
TAT-2 cable goes into operation.
Workers World Party is founded by Sam Marcy.
Year in topic
1959 in film
Ben-Hur
The Diary of Anne Frank
Anatomy of a Murder
Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest, starring Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint
1959 in literature
Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein:
The Tin Drum by Günter Grass:
1959 in music
February 3 - News of the early-morning plane crash that killed Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and The Big Bopper becomes widely known. This date becomes known as "The Day The Music Died".
An expressway is built through the Bronx in New York City; this causes the mass exodus of middle-class residents, making the Bronx into a progressively poorer ghetto over the years and is often cited as a major cause of the rise of hip hop in the 1970s
1959 in rail transport
1959 in science
1959 in sports
1959 in television
Fall – Scandals involving rigged network quiz shows create havoc within the television industry.
Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone debuts
Bonanza debuts, starring Lorne Greene.
Births
January
January 6 - Kathy Sledge, singer
January 16 - Sade, singer
January 24 - Nastassja Kinski, actress
January 27 - Keith Olbermann, news correspondent, sportscaster
February
February 4 - Lawrence Taylor, American football star
February 11 - Corinne Shigemoto, US judo coach
February 14 - Renee Fleming, Canadian soprano
February 16 - John McEnroe, tennis player
February 22 - Kyle MacLachlan, actor
February 26 - Rolando Blackman, basketball star
March
March 6 - Tom Arnold, actor, comedian
March 8 - Aidan Quinn, actor
March 9 Rodney A. Grant, Native American actor
March 15 - Harold Baines, former Major League Baseball player
March 16 - Flavor Flav, rap musician
March 16 - Jens Stoltenberg, Prime Minister of Norway
March 17 - Danny Ainge, basketball player, coach, baseball player
March 18 - Luc Besson, producer, writer, director
March 22 - Matthew Modine, actor (Full Metal Jacket, Memphis Belle, Any Given Sunday)
March 29 - Perry Farrell, musician ("Jane's Addiction", "Porno for Pyros")
April-September
April 3 - David Hyde Pierce, actor (Frasier)
April 22 - Ryan Stiles, actor (The Drew Carey Show, Whose Line is it Anyway?)
May 3 - Ben Elton, British comedian and author
May 3 - Uma Bharati, first woman chief minister of Madhya Pradesh
May 15 - Andrew Eldritch, British rock artist of The Sisters of Mercy
May 20 - Bronson Pinchot, actor
May 20 - Israel Kamakawiwo'ole, Hawaiian singer
May 22 - Steven Morrissey, singer
May 29 - Adrian Paul, actor best known for his role in the television series Highlander
June 30 - Vincent D'Onofrio, actor (Full Metal Jacket, Ed Wood, )
July 3 - Julie Burchill, UK journalist
July 7 - Ben Linder, American engineer murdered in Nicaragua (d. 1987)
July 11 - Suzanne Vega, singer (Bad Wisdom)
July 16 - Gary Anderson, American football player
July 26 - Kevin Spacey, actor
July 29 - Ruud Janssen, artist
July 29 - Sanjay Dutt, actor
August 10 - Rosanna Arquette, actress
August 14 - Magic Johnson, basketball legend
August 21 - Jim McMahon, American football quarterback
+ September 11 - Bert Anciaux, Belgian politician
September 21 - Dave Coulier, actor
October-December
October 3 - Fred Couples, American golfer
October 3 - Greg Proops, comedian
October 7 - Simon Cowell, American Idol judge
October 15 - Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York
October 23 - Weird Al Yankovic, rock music parodist
October 25 - Nancy Cartwright, voice actress (The Simpsons, Rugrats, Kim Possible)
October 27 - Rick Carlisle, NBA basketball coach
November 10 - Linda Cohn, sports anchor
November 14 - Paul McGann, British actor
November 23 - Dominique Dunne, actress (Poltergeist) (d. 1982)
November 25 - Charles Kennedy, British politician
December 27 - Gerina Dunwich, occult author
Deaths
January 21 - Cecil B. DeMille, American film director
January 22 - Mike Hawthorn, racing champion
February 3 - American rock and roll performers Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and The Big Bopper, in a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa. (The news isn't widely known until daybreak.)
February 3 - Vincent Astor, American philanthropist
February 11 - Marshall Teague, race car driver (b. 1922)
February 14 - Baby Dodds, American jazz musician (b. 1898)
February 28 - Maxwell Anderson, playwright, film writer
March 3 - Lou Costello, American actor, comedian
March 4 - Maxey Long, American athlete
March 26 - Raymond Chandler, American novelist
March 29 - Barthélemy Boganda, first President of the Central African Republic
April 9 - Frank Lloyd Wright, American architect (b. 1867)
May 14 - Sidney Bechet, American jazz musician (b. 1897)
May 24 - John Foster Dulles, US Secretary of State (b. 1888)
July 15 - Billie Holiday, American jazz and blues singer
August 6 - Preston Sturges, American film director and writer
August 11 - Mario Lanza, American tenor (b. 1921)
August 15 - Blind Willie McTell, American blues singer
August 28 - Bohuslav Martinu, composer
September 13 - Gilbert Adrian, Hollywood fashion designer
October 14 - Errol Flynn, American actor
October 16 - George C. Marshall, American general, US Secretary of State, US Secretary of Defense, Nobel Peace Prize recipiant, & director of the American Red Cross (b.1880)
October 18 - Boughera El Ouafi, Algerian athlete
November 17 - Heitor Villa-Lobos, Brazilian composer
Physics - Emilio Gino Segrè, - Owen Chamberlain
Chemistry - Jaroslav Heyrovský
Medicine - Severo Ochoa, Arthur Kornberg
Literature - Salvatore Quasimodo
Peace - Philip John Noel-Baker
Category:1959
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