1959
Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st centuryDecades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s - 1950s - 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s
Years: 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 - 1959 - 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964
See also:
| Table of contents |
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2 Year in topic 3 Births 4 Deaths 5 Nobel Prizes |
Events
- January 1 - Cuba: Fulgencio Batista overthrown by Fidel Castro.
- January 2 - CBS Radio cuts four soap operas: Backstage Wife Our Gal Sunday, Road of Life, and This is Nora Drake.
- January 3 - Alaska is admitted as the 49th U.S. state.
- January 7 - The United States recognizes the new Cuban government of Fidel Castro
- 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 after President Fulgencio Batista was overthrown on January 1.
- February 19 - The United Kingdom grants Cyprus its independence.
- February 22 - Lee Petty wins the first Daytona 500.
- 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.
- March - People's Republic of China invades Tibet.
- April 25 - The St. Lawrence Seaway linking the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean officially opens to shipping.
- June 8 - the first (and only) delivery of Missile Mail
- June 23 - Sean Lemass becomes Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland.
- 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 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 21 - Hawaii is admitted as the 50th U.S. state.
- September 15 - Russian probe Luna 2 sends back first photos of the far side of Earth's Moon.
- October 21 - In New York City, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum opens to the public. It was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.
- 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 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).
- 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
- 1959 in literature
- Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein:
- The Tin Drum by Gunter 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 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 6 - Kathy Sledge, singer
- January 16 - Sade, singer
- January 22 - Linda Blair, actress
- February 4 - Lawrence Taylor, American football star
- February 11 - Corinne Shigemoto, US judo coach
- February 16 - John McEnroe, tennis player
- February 22 - Kyle MacLachlan, actor
- March 6 - Tom Arnold, actor, comedian
- March 8 - Aidan Quinn, actor
- March 15 - Harold Baines, former Major League Baseball player
- March 16 - Flavor Flav, rap musician
- March 16 - Jens Stoltenberg, Prime Mininster of Norway
- March 17 - Danny Ainge, basketball player, coach, baseball player
- March 18 - Luc Besson, producer, writer, director
- March 22 - Matthew Modine, actor
- March 29 - Perry Farrell, musician ("Jane's Addiction", "Porno for Pyros")
- April 3 - David Hyde Pierce, actor
- May 3 - Ben Elton, British comedian and author
- May 3 - Uma Bharati, first woman chief minister of Madhya Pradesh
- May 20 - Bronson Pinchot, actor
- May 20 - Israel Kamakawiwo'ole, hawaiian singer
- May 22 - Steven Morrissey, singer
- July 7 - Ben Linder, American engineer murdered in Nicaragua (d. 1987)
- July 11 - Suzanne Vega, US singer
- July 26 - Kevin Spacey, film actor
- July 29 - Ruud Janssen, artist
- October 15 - Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York
- October 23 - Weird Al Yankovic, rock music parodist
- November 14 - Paul McGann, British actor
- November 25 - Charles Kennedy, British politician
Deaths
- January 21 - Cecil B. DeMille, director
- January 22 - Mike Hawthorn, racing champion
- February 3 - 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 28 - Maxwell Anderson, playwright, film writer
- March 3 - Lou Costello, actor, comedian
- March 26 - Raymond Chandler, American novelist.
- March 29 - Barthelemy Boganda, first President of the Central African Republic
- July 15 - Billie Holiday, jazz and blues singer
- August 6 - Preston Sturges, director and writer
- August 15 - Blind Willie McTell, blues singer
- August 28 - Bohuslav Martinu, composer
- September 13 - Gilbert Adrian, Hollywood fashion designer
- October 14 - Errol Flynn, American actor.
- November 17 - Heitor Villa-Lobos, Brazilian composer.
Nobel Prizes
- Physics - Emilio Gino Segrè, - Owen Chamberlain
- Chemistry - Jaroslav Heyrovsky
- Medicine - Severo Ochoa, Arthur Kornberg
- Literature - Salvatore Quasimodo
- Peace - Philip J. Noel-Baker
