1959

Years: 1956 1957 1958 - 1959 - 1960 1961 1962
Decades: 1920s 1930s 1940s - 1950s - 1960s 1970s 1980s
Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century 1959 in art 1959 in aviation 1959 in film 1959 in literature 1959 in music 1959 in radio 1959 in science 1959 in sports 1959 in television 1959 in Canada

Table of contents

1 Events
2 Year in topic
3 Births
4 Deaths
5 Nobel Prizes

Events

January 1 - Cultivars of plants named after this date must be named in a modern language, not in Latin.
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.
May - First Ten Tors event held in Dartmoor
June 5 - The first government of the State of Singapore is sworn in.
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 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 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 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
- 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 GÃÂ¼nter 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
January 27 - Keith Olbermann, news correspondent, sportscaster
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
February 26 - Rolando Blackman, basketball star
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 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 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
June 30 - Vincent D'Onofrio, actor (Full Metal Jacket, Ed Wood, )
July 7 - Ben Linder, American engineer murdered in Nicaragua (d. 1987)
July 11 - Suzanne Vega, singer (Bad Wisdom)
July 26 - Kevin Spacey, actor
July 29 - Ruud Janssen, artist
August 10 - Rosanna Arquette, actress
August 14 - Magic Johnson, basketball legend
September 21 - Dave Coulier, actor
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 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 3 - Vincent Astor, American philanthropist
February 14 - Baby Dodds, jazz musician (b. 1898)
February 28 - Maxwell Anderson, playwright, film writer
March 3 - Lou Costello, actor, comedian
March 4 - Maxey Long, American athlete
March 26 - Raymond Chandler, American novelist.
March 29 - Barthelemy Boganda, first President of the Central African Republic
May 14 - Sidney Bechet, jazz musician (b. 1897)
May 24 - John Foster Dulles, US Secretary of State (b. 1888)
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.
October 18 - Boughera El Ouafi, Algerian athlete
November 17 - Heitor Villa-Lobos, Brazilian composer.

Nobel Prizes

Physics - Emilio Gino SegrÃÂ¨, - Owen Chamberlain
Chemistry - Jaroslav Heyrovsky
Medicine - Severo Ochoa, Arthur Kornberg
Literature - Salvatore Quasimodo
Peace - Philip John Noel-Baker