1959 Calendar
What Happened In Year 1959?
- January 2, 1959 – Luna 1, the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon and to orbit the Sun, is launched by the Soviet Union
- January 3, 1959 – Alaska is admitted as the 49th U.S. state.
- February 8, 1959 – New Year’s Day in Chinese calendar. Start of the year of the Earth Pig in Chinese astrology.
- March 10, 1959 – Tibetan uprising: Fearing an abduction attempt by China, 300,000 Tibetans surround the Dalai Lama’s palace to prevent his removal.
- March 17, 1959 – Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, flees Tibet for India.
- March 24, 1959 – The Party of the African Federation is launched by Léopold Sédar Senghor and Modibo Keita.
- April 9, 1959 – Project Mercury: NASA announces the selection of the United States’ first seven astronauts, whom the news media quickly dub the “Mercury Seven”.
- June 9, 1959 – The USS George Washington is launched. It is the first submarine to carry ballistic missiles.
- June 30, 1959 – A United States Air Force F-100 Super Sabre from Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, crashes into a nearby elementary school, killing 11 students plus six residents from the local neighborhood.
- July 21, 1959 – Elijah Jerry “Pumpsie” Green becomes the first African-American to play for the Boston Red Sox, the last team to integrate. He came in as a pinch runner for Vic Wertz and stayed in as shortstop in a 2-1 loss to the Chicago White Sox.
- July 25, 1959 – SR-N1 hovercraft crosses the English Channel from Calais to Dover in just over 2 hours.
- August 7, 1959 – The Lincoln Memorial design on the U.S. penny goes into circulation. It replaces the “sheaves of wheat” design, and was minted until 2008.
- September 12, 1959 – Premiere of Bonanza, the first regularly scheduled TV program presented in color.
- September 23, 1959 – Iowa farmer and corn breeder Roswell Garst hosts Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev.
- October 2, 1959 – The anthology series The Twilight Zone premieres on CBS television.
- October 19, 1959 – The first discothèque opens, the Scotch-Club in Aachen, Germany.
- November 1, 1959 – In Rwanda, Hutu politician Dominique Mbonyumutwa is beaten up by Tutsi forces, leading to a period of violence known as the wind of destruction.
- November 2, 1959 – The first section of the M1 motorway, the first inter-urban motorway in the United Kingdom, is opened between the present junctions 5 and 18, along with the M10 motorway and M45 motorway
- December 20, 1959 – The Walker family murders are committed.
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