1959

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 - The Dalai Lama flees Tibet and travels to India.
   * March 18 - American President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs bill allowing
     for Hawaiian statehood.
   * March - China annexes 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
   * 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.

   * TAT-2 cable goes into operation.

Art, Culture & Fashion

   * 1959 in film
        o Ben-Hur
        o The Diary of Anne Frank
        o Anatomy of a Murder
        o Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest, starring Cary Grant and Eva
          Marie Saint
   * 1959 in literature
        o Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein:
        o The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass:
   * 1959 in music
        o 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".
        o 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
        o Fall Scandals involving rigged network quiz shows create havoc
          within the television industry.
        o Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone debuts
        o 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 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 20 - Bronson Pinchot, actor
   * May 22 - Steven Morrissey, singer
   * July 11 - Suzanne Vega, US singer
   * July 26 - Kevin Spacey, film actor
   * October 15 - Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York
   * 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 know 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 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.

Science

   * The neutrino is first experimentally detected, by Cowan and Reines.

Nobel Prizes

   * Physics - Emilio Gino Segr�, - Owen Chamberlain
   * Chemistry - Jaroslav Heyrovsky
   * Medicine - Severo Ochoa, Arthur Kornberg
   * Literature - Salvatore Quasimodo
   * Peace - Philip J. Noel-Baker

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