1959

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1959 (''' MCMLIX ''') was a Common Year Starting On Thursday of the Gregorian Calendar . It is also a song by The Sisters Of Mercy on the album Floodland .


EVENTS



January

• January 1 - Cultivar s of Plant s named after this date must be named in a modern language, not in Latin.


• flees Havana when forces of Fidel Castro advance.


• '', '' Our Gal Sunday '', '' Road Of Life '', and '' This Is Nora Drake ''.


• January 2 - Castro's troops approach Havana .


• January 3 - Island of Addu in the Maldives declares Independence .


• January 3 - Alaska is admitted as the 49th U.S. State .


• January 4 - In Cuba rebel troops lead by Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos enter Havana .


• January 4 - In Léopoldville 42 people are killed during clashes between the police and participants of a meeting of the Abako party.


• January 6 - Fidel Castro arrives in Havana.


• January 7 - The United States recognizes the new Cuba n government of Fidel Castro .


• January 8 - Charles De Gaulle inaugurated as the first president of French Fifth Republic .


• January 13 - Cuba n Communist s execute 71 supporters of Fulgencio Batista .


• January 22 - Knox Mine Disaster - water breaches River Slope mine in Port Griffith, Pennsylvania - 12 miners dead.

February

• February 1 - A Referendum in Switzerland turns down Female Suffrage .


• February 3 - The chartered plane transporting musicians Buddy Holly , Richie Valens , and the Big Bopper goes down in an Iowa snowstorm, killing all four occupants on board. The tragedy is later termed " The Day The Music Died ," popularized in Don McLean 's song, " American Pie ."


• 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 .


• February 16 - Blizzard causes a massive power outage in Newfoundland .


• February 17 - USA launches Vanguard II Weather Satellite .


• February 18 - Jesus Sosa Blanco , murderer of 108 people, executed in Cuba .


• February 18 - Women in Nepal vote for the first time.


• February 19 - The United Kingdom grants Cyprus its independence.


• February 22 - Lee Petty wins the first Daytona 500 .


• February 26 - Author Walter Mene throws acid on Rubens painting in Munich .

March-April

• March 1 - USS Tuscaloosa , USS New Orleans , USS Tennessee and USS West Virginia struck from the Naval Vessel Register .


• March 1 – Archbishop Makarios returns to Cyprus from exile.


• March 8 - Last television appearance of The Marx Brothers , in The Incredible Jewel Robbery .


• March 9 - The Barbie doll debuts.


• March 12 - Production of the first solid gold "Glaussen Pennies ".


• 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 Hawaii an statehood.


• March 19 - Two other islands join Addu in the United Suvadive Republic (abolished September 1963 ), in the Maldives Islands.


• March 31 - Busch Gardens in Tampa, Florida is dedicated and opens its gates.


• March 31 - Dalai Lama leaves Tibet .


• April 9 - NASA announces its selection of seven military pilots to become the first US astronauts (see Mercury Seven ).


• (April 9)-Frank Lloyd Wright, arguably the most influential American architect of the 20th century dies from an abdominal obstruction.


• April 25 - The St. Lawrence Seaway linking the North American Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean officially opens to Shipping .

May-June

• May - First Ten Tors event held in Dartmoor .


• late May / early June - Import Tariff s lifted in the United Kingdom .


• May 24 - British Empire Day becomes Commonwealth Day .


• June 3 - Singapore becomes a self governing crown colony of Britain with Lee Kuan Yew as Prime Minister.


• June 5 - A new government of the State Of Singapore is sworn in by Sir William Goode. Two former Ministers were re-elected to the Legislative Assembly.


• June 8 - The USS ''Barbero'' and United States Postal Service attempt the delivery of mail via Missile Mail .


• June 9 - The USS ''George Washington'' is launched as the first Submarine to carry Ballistic Missile s.


• June 14 - A three-front revolutionary invasion by air and sea takes place in the Dominican Republic consisting of exiles aided by Fidel Castro whose purpose was to overthrow Dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo . Within a few days all but four are captured and executed. Trujillo is killed less than two years later by men partly inspired by the deaths of the 1959 martyrs.


• 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).


• June 26 - Queen Elizabeth II and US Dwight Eisenhower open Saint Lawrence Seaway .

July-September

• .


• 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 .


• occulted the star Regulus . The rare event which will next occur on October 1 , 2044 was used for determining the diameter of Venus and the structure of Venus' atmosphere.


• July 15 - Steel industry Strike in USA .


• 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 4 - Martial Law declared in Laos .


• launches Explorer 6 from the Atlantic Missile Range in Cape Canaveral , Florida .


• August 8 - Flood in Taiwan leaves 2,000 dead.


• August 14 - Explorer VI sends the first picture of Earth from space.


• August 15 - Cyprus gains Independence .


• August 21 - Hawaii is admitted as the 50th U.S. State .


• August 24 - Cyprus joins United Nations .


• September 13 - Luna 2 crashes onto the Moon as the first man-made object.


• September 25 - Ceylon 's prime minister SWRD Bandaranaike assassinated.

October-December

• October 2 - Rod Serling 's classic anthology series '' The Twilight Zone '' premieres on CBS .


• October 7 - Russian probe Luna 3 sends back first photos of the far side of Earth's Moon.


• October 12 - At the national congress of APRA in Peru a group of leftist radicals are expelled from the party. They will later form APRA Rebelde .


• October 12 - Large scale diamond robbery in London.


• October 13 - USA launches Explorer VII .


• October 21 - Mau Mau leader Dedan Kimathi is arrested in Nyeri , Kenya .


• October 21 - In New York City , the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum opens to the public. It was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright .


• October 31 - Riots in the Belgian Congo .


• October 31 - Lee Harvey Oswald announces in Moscow he won't ever return to U.S. .


• November 2 - The first section of the M1 Motorway , the first in Britain , was opened between the present junctions 5 and 18.


• 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).


• December 2 - Malpasset Dam in southern France collapses and water flows over the town of Frejus - 412 dead.


• December 14 - Makarios selected first President Of Cyprus .

Unknown date

• The Neutrino is first experimentally detected, by Cowan and Reines .


• TAT-2 cable goes into operation(February 13).


• Workers World Party is founded by Sam Marcy .


• The first skull of Australopithecus is discovered by Louis Leakey and his wife Mary Leakey in the Olduvai Gorge , Tanzania .


• Serengeti becomes a nature preserve.


• The first known human with HIV dies in Congo . PMID 9468138


• " Raisin In The Sun " by Lorraine Hansberry opens on Broadway in New York .

BIRTHS


Unknown date

• Willie Doherty , Irish artist

January-February

• January 1 - Azali Assoumani , President of the Comoros


• January 6 - Kathy Sledge , American singer


• January 9 - Rigoberta Menchú , Guatemalan writer, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize


• January 10 - Simon Sunatori , Canadian inventor


• January 16 - Sade , Nigerian-born singer


• January 17 - Susanna Hoffs , American singer ( The Bangles )


• January 24 - Nastassja Kinski , German actress


• January 27 - Keith Olbermann , American news correspondent and sportscaster


• February 4 - Lawrence Taylor , American football player


• February 14 - Renee Fleming , American soprano


• February 16 - John McEnroe , American tennis player


• February 22 - Kyle MacLachlan , American actor


• February 23 - Richard Dodds , British field hockey player


• February 26 - Rolando Blackman , Panamanian basketball player

March-April

• March 6 - Tom Arnold , American actor and comedian


• March 8 - Aidan Quinn , American actor


• March 9 - Rodney A. Grant , American actor


• March 10 - Mike Wallace , American race car driver


• March 15 - Harold Baines , baseball player


• March 16 - Flavor Flav , American rapper


• March 16 - Jens Stoltenberg , Prime Minister Of Norway


• March 17 - Danny Ainge , American basketball player, coach, and baseball player


• March 18 - Luc Besson , French film producer, writer, and director


• March 21 - Nobuo Uematsu , Japanese composer


• March 22 - Matthew Modine , American actor


• March 29 - Barry Blanchard , Canadian mountaineer


• March 29 - Perry Farrell , American musician


• April 3 - David Hyde Pierce , American actor


• April 10 - Brian Setzer , American guitarist ( Stray Cats )


• April 11 - Ana María Polo , Cuban-born judge and television personality


• April 16 - Alison Ramsay , Scottish field hockey player


• April 21 - Robert Smith , British musician ( The Cure )


• April 22 - Catherine Mary Stewart , Canadian actress


• April 22 - Ryan Stiles , American actor


• April 27 - Sheena Easton , Scottish Singer


• April 30 - Stephen Harper , Canadian politician

May-June

• May 3 - Uma Bharati , Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh


• May 3 - Ben Elton , British comedian and writer


• May 5 - Steve Stevens , American guitarist


• May 14 - Patrick Bruel , French singer


• May 15 - Andrew Eldritch , British musician ( The Sisters Of Mercy )


• May 20 - Israel Kamakawiwo'ole , American singer (d. 1997 )


• May 20 - Bronson Pinchot , American actor


• May 22 - Steven Morrissey , British singer


• May 29 - Adrian Paul , British actor


• June 11 - Hugh Laurie , British actor and comedian


• June 12 - John Linnell , American musician ( They Might Be Giants )


• June 15 - Yevgeni Shchukin , Russian painter


• June 26 - Mark McKinney , Canadian actor and comedian


• June 27 - Clint Boon , British musician ( Inspiral Carpets )


• June 30 - Vincent D'Onofrio , American actor

July-August

• July 3 - Julie Burchill , British journalist


• July 6 - Richard Dacoury , French basketball player


• July 7 - Ben Linder , American engineer (d. 1987 )


• July 9 - Kevin Nash Former WWE,WCW, and TNA wrestler


• July 10 - Janet Julian , American actress


• July 11 - Richie Sambora , American musician


• July 11 - Suzanne Vega , American singer


• July 13 - Richard Leman , British field hockey player


• July 16 - Gary Anderson , American football player


• July 26 - Rick Bragg , American writer


• July 26 - Kevin Spacey , American actor


• July 27 - Hugh Green , American Football Linebacker


• July 29 - Sanjay Dutt , Indian actor


• July 29 - Ruud Janssen , Dutch artist


• August 1 - Joe Elliott , British singer Def Leppard )


• August 2 - Apollonia Kotero , American actress and singer


• August 3 - Koichi Tanaka , Japanese scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize In Chemistry


• August 9 - Steven Felker , American Entrepreneur


• August 10 - Rosanna Arquette , American actress


• August 14 - Magic Johnson , American basketball player


• August 21 - Jim McMahon , American football player


• August 27 - Juan Fernando Cobo , Colombian artist


• August 29 - Stephen Wolfram , British scientist


• August 30 - Mark 'Jacko' Jackson , Australian footballer and actor

September-October

• September 4 - Kevin Harrington , Australian actor


• September 8 - Daler Nazarov , Tajik composer, singer, and actor


• September 14 - Morten Harket , Norwegian singer ( A-ha )


• September 17 - Charles Lawson , Northern Irish actor


• September 21 - Dave Coulier , American actor


• September 29 - Benjamin Sehene , Rwandan writer


• October 3 - Fred Couples , American golfer


• October 3 - Greg Proops , American comedian


• October 3 - Jack Wagner , American actor


• October 7 - Lourdes Flores , Peruvian politician.


• October 9 - Michael Pare , American actor


• October 10 - Kirsty MacColl , British singer-songwriter


• October 15 - Sarah Ferguson , Duchess of York


• October 17 - Ron Drummond , American writer, editor, and music historian


• October 21 - Ken Watanabe , Japanese actor


• October 23 - "Weird Al" Yankovic , American singer and parodist


• October 25 - Nancy Cartwright , American voice actress


• October 26 - Evo Morales , President Of Bolivia


• October 27 - Rick Carlisle , American basketball coach

November-December

• November 10 - Linda Cohn , American sports reporter


• November 14 - Paul McGann , British actor


• November 18 - Jimmy Quinn , Northern Irish footballer and football manager


• November 23 - Dominique Dunne , American actress (d. 1982 )


• November 25 - Charles Kennedy , Scottish politician


• November 28 - Judd Nelson , American actor


• December 13 - Nadia Russ , Ukrainian-born artist


• December 14 - Dana Childs , American radio personality and basketball coach


• December 21 - Florence Griffith Joyner , American athelete (d. 1998 )


• December 27 - Gerina Dunwich , American author


• December 31 - Val Kilmer , American actor

DEATHS


January-April

• January 21 - Cecil B. DeMille , American film director (b. 1881 )


• January 22 - Mike Hawthorn , English race car driver (b. 1929 )


• February 3 - Killed in a private plane crash:


• --- The Big Bopper , American singer (b. 1930 )


• --- Buddy Holly , American singer (b. 1936 )


• --- Richie Valens , American singer (b. 1941 )


• February 3 - Vincent Astor , American philanthropist (b. 1891 )


• February 4 - Una O'Connor , Irish actress (b. 1880 )


• February 11 - Marshall Teague , American race car driver (b. 1922 )


• February 14 - Baby Dodds , American jazz musician (b. 1898 )


• February 15 - Owen Willans Richardson , British physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1879 )


• February 28 - Maxwell Anderson , American screenwriter (b. 1888 )


• March 3 - Lou Costello , American actor and comedian (b. 1906 )


• March 4 - Maxey Long , American athlete (b. 1878 )


• March 16 - John B. Salling , disputed last-surviving American Civil War veteran (b. 1846 ?)


• March 26 - Raymond Chandler , American-born novelist (b. 1888 )


• March 29 - Barthélemy Boganda , first President Of The Central African Republic (b. 1910 )


• April 9 - Frank Lloyd Wright , American architect (b. 1867 )

May-October

• May 5 - Carlos Saavedra Lamas , Argentine politician, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1878 )


• May 14 - Sidney Bechet , American musician (b. 1897 )


• May 24 - John Foster Dulles , United States Secretary Of State (b. 1888 )


• June 9 - Adolf Otto Reinhold Windaus , German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1876 )


• June 23 - Boris Vian , French writer, poet, singer, and musician (b. 1920 )


• July 11 - Charlie Parker , English cricketer (b. 1882 )


• July 15 - Ernest Bloch , Swiss composer (b. 1880 )


• July 17 - Billie Holiday , American singer (b. 1915 )


• August 5 - Edgar Guest , English poet (b. 1881 )


• August 6 - Preston Sturges , American film director and writer (b. 1898 )


• August 15 - Blind Willie McTell , American singer (b. 1901 )


• August 16 - Wanda Landowska , Polish harpsichordist (b. 1879 )


• August 19 - Jacob Epstein , American-born sculptor (b. 1880 )


• August 28 - Bohuslav Martinů , Czech composer (b. 1890 )


• October 6 - Bernard Berenson , American art historian (b. 1865 )


• October 7 - Mario Lanza , American tenor (b. 1921 )


• October 14 - Errol Flynn , Australian actor (b. 1909 )


• October 16 - George C. Marshall , United States Secretary Of State , recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1880 )


• October 18 - Boughera El Ouafi , Algerian athlete (b. 1898 )

November-December

• November 15 - Charles Thomson Rees Wilson , Scottish physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1869 )


• November 17 - Heitor Villa-Lobos , Brazilian composer (b. 1887 )


• December 22 - Gilda Gray , Polish-born dancer and actress (b. 1901 )

NOBEL PRIZES

• Physics - Emilio Gino Segrè , Owen Chamberlain


• Chemistry - Jaroslav Heyrovský


• Physiology Or Medicine - Severo Ochoa , Arthur Kornberg


• Literature - Salvatore Quasimodo


• Peace - Philip John Noel-Baker

EXTERNAL LINKS

• 1959 Coin Pictures