See:
Wikipedia.
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 1 - USS Tuscaloosa, USS New Orleans, USS Tennessee and USS West Virginia
struck from the Naval Vessel Register.
March 1 - Japanese cities Uji, Kyoto and Muroto, Kocki are founded.
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).
Other:
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
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 1 -
Gerrit Aalt van den Houten.
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 8 -
Leendert (Coen) van den Houten.
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?).
April 28 -
Janna Adriana Margaretha van den Houten.
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 24 -
Tom van Houten.
June 30 -
Vincent D'Onofrio, actor (Full Metal Jacket, Ed Wood, Law & Order: Criminal Intent).
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 8 -
Johan den Hollander.
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 7 -
Josina Theresia Kleiss.
November 9 -
Sandra Schuurman.
November 10 -
Linda Cohn, sports anchor.
November 14 -
Paul McGann, British actor.
November 25 -
Charles Kennedy, British politician.
December 2 -
Nicolaas van den Houten.
December 21 -
Jozua van den Houten.
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 5 -
Cornelis van den Houten.
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).
June 1 -
Johanna van den Houten.
June 6 -
Kornelis van den Houten.
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 9 -
Gerrit van de Sluis.
November 17 -
Heitor Villa-Lobos, Brazilian composer.
December 1 -
Jacomina Johanna van der Weele.
Cornelis van den Houten.
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