1959

Years:
1956 1957 1958 – 1959 – 1960 1961 1962

Decades:
1920s 1930s 1940s – 1950s – 1960s 1970s 1980s

Centuries:
19th century – 20th century – 21st century

1959 in topic:
Arts
Architecture - Art - Film - Literature - Music - Television
Science and technology
Aviation - Rail transport - Science
Other topics
Canada – Ireland – South Africa – Sport

Lists of leaders:
State leaders - Religious leaders

1959 was a common year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar).

1 Events
2 Year in topic
3 Births
4 Deaths
5 Nobel Prizes

Events

January

January 1 – Cultivars of plants named after this date must be named in a modern language, not in Latin.
January 1 – Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when forces of Fidel Castro advance
January 2 – CBS Radio cuts four soap operas: Backstage Wife Our Gal Sunday, Road of Life, and This is Nora Drake.
January 2 – Castro's troops enter Havana
January 3 – Alaska is admitted as the 49th U.S. state.
January 4 – In Léopoldville 42 people are killed during clashes between the police and participants of a meeting of the Abako party.
January 7 – The United States recognizes the new Cuban government of Fidel Castro
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 plane (called the American Pie) transporting Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and the Big Bopper goes down in an Iowa snowstorm, killing everyone 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 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

March-May

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 1 – Japanese cities Uji, Kyoto and Muroto, Kochi are founded
March 8 – Last television appearance of The Marx Brothers, in The Incredible Jewel Robbery
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
April 25 – The St. Lawrence Seaway linking the North American Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean officially opens to shipping
May – First Ten Tors event held in Dartmoor
May 27 – Sweet Green Grass Books D.A. Johnson writer illustrator

June-July

June 3 – Singapore becomes a self governing crown colony of Great 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 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 2 – Royal wedding in Belgium: Prince Albert marries the Italian princess Paola Ruffo di Calabria.
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 7 – 14:28 UT Venus 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 24 – At the opening of the American National Exhibition in Moscow, US vice-president Richard Nixon and Nikita Khrushchev have a "kitchen debate".

August-December

August 7 – Explorer program: The United States launches Explorer 6 from the Atlantic Missile Range in Cape Canaveral, Florida
August 15 – Cyprus gains independence
August 16 – Explorer VI sends back the first picture of Earth from space
August 21 – Hawaii is admitted as the 50th U.S. state.
September 13 – Luna 2 crashes onto the Moon as the first man-made object
September 15 – Russian probe Luna 2 sends back first photos of the far side of Earth's Moon
September 25 – Ceylon's prime minister SWRD Bandaranaike assassinated
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
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 15 – The Clutter Family murdered at their farm outside Holcomb, Kansas
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)

unknown date

The neutrino is first experimentally detected, by Cowan and Reines.
TAT-2 cable goes into operation.
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.