1959 - What happened in 1959 ?

January 1959

Thursday 01:

Fulgencio Batista, President of the Republic of Cuba, is overthrown by Fidel Castro's forces.

Friday 02:

CBS Radio cuts four soap operas: Backstage Wife, Our Gal Sunday, Road of Life, and This is Nora Drake.

Sunday 04:

Luna 1 becomes the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon.

Thursday 08:

Michel Debré becomes Prime Minister of France

Thursday 29:

Sleeping Beauty, the last animated feature produced by Walt Disney to be based upon a fairy tale, was first released.

February 1959

Tuesday 03:

The Day The Music Died: A plane crash kills rock-and-roll performers Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper.

Friday 06:

At Cape Canaveral, Florida, the first successful test firing of a Titan intercontinental ballistic missile is accomplished.

Monday 16:

Fidel Castro becomes Premier of Cuba after President Fulgencio Batista was overthrown on January 1.

Tuesday 17:

The first weather satellite, Vanguard 2, was launched to measure cloud-cover distribution.

Sunday 22:

Lee Petty wins the first Daytona 500.

March 1959

Tuesday 03:

The San Francisco Giants officially name their new stadium Candlestick Park.

Sunday 08:

Last television appearance of The Marx Brothers, in The Incredible Jewel Robbery

Tuesday 17:

Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, flees Tibet and travels to India.

Wednesday 18:

American President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs a bill into law allowing for Hawaiian statehood, which would become official on August 21.

Tuesday 31:

The 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, crosses the border into India and is granted political asylum.

April 1959

Thursday 09:

Mercury program: NASA announces the selection of the United States' first seven astronauts which the news media quickly dub the "Mercury Seven".

Saturday 25:

David Carr, a 25-year-old Briton, enters Royal Manchester Infirmary in England. His death later that year was in 1990 attributed to AIDS by a director at the infirmary, Gerald Corbitt; a 1995 by Corbitt cowrote an update noting that the virus was from 1990.

May 1959

Monday 04:

The first Grammy Awards are announced.

Monday 18:

Launching of the National Liberation Committee of Côte d'Ivoire in Conakry, Guinea.

June 1959

Friday 05:

The first government of the State of Singapore is sworn in.

Monday 08:

The USS Barbero and United States Postal Service attempt the delivery of mail via Missile Mail.

Tuesday 09:

The USS George Washington is launched as the first submarine to carry ballistic missiles.

Thursday 18:

1959 Governor of Louisiana Earl K. Long is committed to a state mental hospital; he responds by having the hospital's director fired and replaced with a crony who proceeds to proclaim him perfectly sane.

Tuesday 23:

A fire in a resort hotel in Stalheim, Norway kills 34 people.

July 1959

Wednesday 01:

The Party of the African Federation (PFA) holds its constitutive conference.

Saturday 04:

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.

Tuesday 07:

14:28 UT Venus occults the star Regulus. This rare event was used to determine the diameter of Venus and the structure of the Venusian atmosphere.

Monday 20:

Elias Tsirimokos becomes Prime Minister of Greece.

Friday 24:

At the opening of the American National Exhibition in Moscow, US vice-president Richard Nixon and Nikita Khrushchev have a "kitchen debate."

August 1959

Friday 07:

Explorer program: The United States launches Explorer 6 from the Atlantic Missile Range in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Friday 21:

President Eisenhower signs an executive order proclaiming Hawaii the 50th state of the union.

September 1959

Saturday 12:

Bonanza premiers. First regularly-scheduled TV program presented in color.

Monday 14:

The Soviet probe Luna 2 crashes onto the Moon, becoming the first man-made object to reach it.

Tuesday 15:

Nikita Khrushchev becomes the first Soviet leader to visit the United States.

Friday 25:

Solomon Bandaranaike, prime minister of Sri Lanka is assassinated by a Buddhist monk, Talduwe Somarama, and dies the next day.

Sunday 27:

Nearly 5000 people die on the main Japanese island of Honshu as the result of a typhoon.

October 1959

Friday 02:

The Twilight Zone pilot premieres.

Wednesday 07:

Far side of the Moon seen for first time, compliments of U.S.S.R.'s Luna 3.

Wednesday 21:

US President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs an executive order transferring Wernher von Braun and other German scientists from the United States Army to NASA.

November 1959

Monday 02:

Ice Hockey: After being struck in the face with a puck, goalkeeper Jacques Plante returns to play wearing a protective mask for the first time in professional play.

Sunday 15:

Four members of the Herbert Clutter Family murdered at their farm outside Holcomb, Kansas.

Wednesday 18:

William Wyler's film Ben-Hur premieres at Loew's Theater in New York City.

Thursday 19:

Ford Motor Company announces the discontinuation of the unpopular Edsel.

December 1959

Tuesday 01:

Cold War: Antarctic Treaty signed , which sets aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve and bans military activity on that continent.

Sunday 13:

Archbishop Makarios becomes the first President of Cyprus

Monday 14:

Motown record label is founded in Detroit, Michigan.