The year 1959 (MCMLIX) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar.

Table of contents

Events of 1959

January 2: Castro's guerilla troops

January

• January 1
  • Cultivars of plants named after this date must be named in a modern language, not in Latin.
  • 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.
  • Castro's troops approach Havana.

• January 3
  • Island of Addu in the Maldives declares independence.
  • Alaska is admitted as the 49th U.S. state.
• January 4
  • In Cuba, rebel troops led by Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos enter the city of Havana.
  • In Léopoldville 42 people are killed during food fights 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 Cuban government of Fidel Castro.
• January 8 - Charles De Gaulle inaugurated as the first president of French Fifth Republic.
• January 12 - The Caves of Nerja were discovered in Spain.

Jan.3 Alaska

• January 13 - Cuban communists execute 71 supporters of Fulgencio Batista.
• January 22 - Knox Mine Disaster - water breaches River Slope mine in Port Griffith, Pennsylvania - 12 miners dead.
• January 24 - The formation of the Nu Tetarton chapter of Phi Sigma Kappa at Rutgers University.
• January 25 - Pope John XXIII announces that the Second Vatican Council will be convened in Rome.

February

Feb. 3: Crash kills musicians

• February 1 - A referendum in Switzerland turns down female suffrage.
• February 3 - The chartered plane transporting musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper goes down in foggy conditions near Clear Lake, Iowa, 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 13 - *TAT-2 cable goes into operation.
• February 16
  • Fidel Castro becomes Premier of Cuba.
  • A blizzard causes a massive power outage in Newfoundland.
• February 17 - USA launches the Vanguard II weather satellite.
• February 18
  • Jesús Sosa Blanco, murderer of 108 people, executed in Cuba.
  • Women in Nepal vote for the first time.
• February 19 - The United Kingdom grants Cyprus its independence.
• February 20 - The Canadian Government cancels the CF-105 Arrow project.
• February 22 - Lee Petty wins the first Daytona 500.
• February 26 - Author Walter Mene throws acid on a Rubens painting in Munich.

March

• March 1
  • USS Tuscaloosa, USS New Orleans, USS Tennessee and USS West Virginia struck from the Naval Vessel Register.
  • 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 10 - Tibetan uprising against ten years of Chinese occupation in Lhasa.
• March 11
  • Een beetje by Teddy Scholten (music by Dick Schallies, text by Willy van Hemert) wins Eurovision Song Contest 1959 for Netherlands.
  • A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry opens on Broadway in New York.
• 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 Hawaiian 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.
  • Dalai Lama leaves Tibet.

April

• April 6 - 31st Academy Awards ceremony
• April 9 - NASA announces its selection of seven military pilots to become the first US astronauts (see Mercury Seven).
• April 10 - Japanese prince Akihito married Shōda Michiko.
• April 25 - The St. Lawrence Seaway linking the North American Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean officially opens to shipping.

May

• May - First Ten Tors event held in Dartmoor.
• late May / early June - import tariffs lifted in the United Kingdom.
• May 24 - British Empire Day is renamed Commonwealth Day.

June

• 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 missiles.
• 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 revolutionaries.
• June 18 - The film The Nun's Story, based on the best-selling novel, is released. Audrey Hepburn stars as the title character; she will later say that this is her favorite film role. The film is a box-office hit, and is nominated for several Oscars.
• June 23
  • Sean Lemass becomes the third Taoiseach of Ireland.
  • Convicted Manhattan Project spy Klaus Fuchs is released after only nine years in British prison and allowed to emigrate to Dresden, East Germany (where he resumed a scientific career).
• June 26
  • Queen Elizabeth II and US President Dwight Eisenhower open the Saint Lawrence Seaway.
  • Darby O'Gill and the Little People, a film based on H.T. Kavanagh's short stories, is released in the U.S. by Walt Disney, after world premiering in Ireland.

July

• July - The medical research group studying Minamata disease comes to the conclusion that mercury is the cause.
• July 1 - The opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway by Canada and the United States, officiated by Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II
• 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 8 - Charles Ovnand and Dale R. Buis become the first Americans killed in action in Vietnam.
• July 15 - Steel industry strike in USA.
• July 17 - The first skull of Australopithecus is discovered by Louis Leakey and his wife Mary Leakey in the Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania.
• July 24 - At the opening of the American National Exhibition in Moscow, US Vice President Richard Nixon and USSR Premier Nikita Khrushchev have a "kitchen debate."

August

• August 4 - Martial law declared in Laos.
• August 7 - Explorer program: The United States launches Explorer 6 from the Atlantic Missile Range in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
• August 7 - United States The Roseburg Oregon Blast kills 14 and causes $12 million worth of damage.
• August 8 - Flood in Taiwan leaves 2,000 dead.
• August 14 - Explorer 6 sends the first picture of Earth from space.
• August 15 - Cyprus gains independence.
• August 17 -United States Hebgen Lake Earthquake, Southwest Montana, Kills 28
• August 21 - Hawaii is admitted as the 50th U.S. state.
• August 24 - Cyprus joins United Nations.

September

• September 13 - Luna 2 crashes onto the Moon as the first man-made object on the moon.
• September 23 - The M/S Princess of Tasmania Australia’s first passenger RO/RO diesel ferry makes maiden voyage across Bass Strait.
• September 25 - Ceylon's prime minister SWRD Bandaranaike assassinated.
• September 26 - Superpower Typhoon Vera hit central Honshū. Japanese authority estimate killing at least 5,098, injuring another 38,921, 1,533,000 are homeless. Most of victim and damage at Nagoya erea, where occurred with storm surge.

Sept.13: Luna 2.

October

• October 2 - Rod Serling's classic anthology series The Twilight Zone premieres on CBS.
• October 7 - U.S.S.R. probe Luna 3 sends back first ever photos of the far side of the Moon.
• October 12
  • At the national congress of APRA in Peru a group of leftist radicals is expelled from the party. They will later form APRA Rebelde.
  • Large scale diamond robbery in London.
• October 13 - USA launches Explorer 7.
• 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.
  • Lee Harvey Oswald announces in Moscow that he will never return to the United States.

November

• November 2 - The first section of the M1 motorway was opened between the present junctions 5 and 18.
• November 8 - Leeds City Tramways closes down.
• November 12 - The Warner Bros. epic The Miracle, very loosely based on the 1911 stage pantomime produced by Max Reinhardt, is released. It is a critical and financial bomb.
• November 15 - The Clutter family of Holcomb, Kansas is brutally murdered.
• November 18 - MGM's widescreen, multimillion dollar, Technicolor version of Ben-Hur, starring Charlton Heston, is released and becomes the studio's greatest hit up to that time. It is critically acclaimed and eventually wins 11 Academy Awards - a record held until 1998, when 1997's Titanic becomes the first film to equal the record.

December

• 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).
• December 2 - Malpasset dam in southern France collapses and water flows over the town of Frejus: 412 dead.
• December 13 - Three years after its first telecast, MGM's The Wizard of Oz is shown on television for only the second time, but it gains an even larger viewing audience than its first television outing, spurring CBS to make it an annual tradition.
• December 14 - Makarios selected first president of Cyprus.

Undated

• Pantyhose are introduced by Glen Raven Mills.
• Workers World Party is founded by Sam Marcy.
• The first known human with HIV dies in Congo. PMID 9468138
• The current (as of 2006) design of the Japanese 10 yen coin was put into circulation.
• The Caspian Tiger became extinct in Iran by this date.

Ongoing

• Algerian War (1954-62)
• First Sudanese Civil War (1955-72)
• Marshall Plan
• Mau Mau Uprising (1952-60)

Births

January-February

• January 1 - Azali Assoumani, President of the Comoros
• January 5 - Clancy Brown, American actor
• January 9
  • Rigoberta Menchú, Guatemalan writer, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
  • Mark Martin, NASCAR driver
• January 16 - Sade, Nigerian-born singer
• January 17 - Susanna Hoffs, Lead singer of The Bangles
• January 21
  • Paulo Miklos, Brazilian singer and actor
  • Alex McLeish, Birmingham City and ex-Scotland manager
• January 24 - Nastassja Kinski, German actress
• January 27 - Keith Olbermann, American news correspondent and sportscaster
• January 31 - Kelly Moore, American race car driver
• February 3 - Laurence Tolhurst, cofounder and former drummer/keyboardist of The Cure
• February 4 - Lawrence Taylor, American football player
• February 6 - Ken Nelson, English record producer
• February 10 - Dennis Gentry, American football player
• February 14 - Renee Fleming, American soprano
• February 16 - John McEnroe, American tennis player
• February 22 - Kyle MacLachlan, American actor
• February 26 - Rolando Blackman, Panamanian basketball player

March-April

• March 4 - Rick Ardon, Australian news presenter
• March 6 - Tom Arnold, American actor and comedian
• March 8 - Aidan Quinn, Irish/American actor
• March 9 - Giovanni di Lorenzo, German-Italian journalist and talk show host
• March 10 - Mike Wallace, American race car driver
• March 15 - Harold Baines, baseball player
• March 16
  • Flavor Flav, American rapper
  • 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
  • Irene Cara, American singer
• March 20
  • Steve Borden, American wrestler
  • Steve McFadden, British actor
• March 21 - Nobuo Uematsu, Japanese composer
• March 22 - Matthew Modine, American actor
• March 29
  • Barry Blanchard, Canadian mountaineer
  • Perry Farrell, American musician
• April 1 - Denise Nickerson, American actress
• April 2 - Badou Zaki, Morrocan football player and manager
• 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 15 - Fruit Chan, Hong Kong film director
• April 16 - Alison Ramsay, Scottish field hockey player
• April 20 - Clint Howard, American actor and producer
• April 21 - Robert Smith, British musician (The Cure)
• April 21 - Jerry Only American musician Bassist (The Misfits)
• April 22
  • Catherine Mary Stewart, Canadian actress
  • Ryan Stiles, American actor
  • Terry Francona, American baseball player and manager
• April 25 - Tony Phillips, American baseball player
• April 27 - Sheena Easton, Scottish singer
• April 30 - Stephen Harper, Canadian politician and present Prime Minister (2006- )

May-June

• May 3 - Uma Bharati, Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh
• May 3 - Ben Elton, British comedian and writer
• May 5
  • Ian McCulloch, English singer (Echo & the Bunnymen)
  • Steve Stevens, American guitarist
  • Peter Molyneux, British game programmer
• May 10 - Victoria Rowell, American actress
• May 14 - Patrick Bruel, French singer
• May 15 - Andrew Eldritch, British musician (The Sisters of Mercy)
• May 17 - Marcelo Loffreda, Argentine rugby player and coach
• May 17 - Jim Nantz, American sports announcer
• May 19 - Nicole Brown Simpson, ex-wife of O.J. Simpson and murder victim (d. 1994)
• May 20 - Israel Kamakawiwo'ole, American singer (d. 1997)
• May 21 - Brian Lenihan, Jnr, Irish politician
• May 22 - Steven Morrissey, British singer
• May 24 - Pelle Lindbergh, Swedish-born hockey player (d. 1985)
• May 27 - Katherine Lanpher, American journalist
• May 29 - Adrian Paul, British actor
• June 8 - Bernard White, Sri Lankan-born American actor, screenwriter and film director
• June 11 - Hugh Laurie, British actor and comedian
• June 12 - John Linnell, American musician (They Might Be Giants)
• June 14 - Marcus Miller, American bassist
• June 20 - Chris Williams, African-American actor
• June 22
  • Wayne Federman, American comedian, actor, and author
  • Ed Viesturs, American mountaineer
• 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, American professional wrestler
• July 11
  • Richie Sambora, American musician
  • Suzanne Vega, American singer
• July 13 - Richard Leman, British field hockey player
• July 16 - Gary Anderson, American football player
• July 18 - Mel Purcell, American tennis player
  • Rick Bragg, American writer
  • Kevin Spacey, American actor
• July 27 - Hugh Green, American football player
• July 29
  • Sanjay Dutt, Indian actor
  • 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 4 - Robbin Crosby, American guitarist (Ratt) (d. 2002)
• August 8 - Christoph Theinert, German cellist and composer
• August 10 - Rosanna Arquette, American actress
• August 11 - Gustavo Cerati, Argentinian singer
  • Yoshiaki Murakami, Japanese investor
• August 13 - Danny Bonaduce, American actor
• August 14 - Magic Johnson, American basketball player
• August 15 - Scott Altman, American astronaut
• August 17
  • Jonathan Franzen, American author
  • Brad Wellman, American baseball player
• August 18 - June Angela, Asian-American actress, singer, and dancer
• August 21 - Jim McMahon, American football player
• August 25 - Sönke Wortmann, German film director
• August 27 - Juan Fernando Cobo, Colombian artist
• August 29
  • Rebecca De Mornay, American actress
  • Stephen Wolfram, British scientist
• August 30 - Mark 'Jacko' Jackson, Australian footballer and actor

September-October

• September 2 - Guy Laliberté, Quebec Cirque du soleil founder
• 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, Irish actor
• September 18 - Sérgio Britto, Brazilian singer and keyboardist
• September 21
  • Dave Coulier, American actor
  • Stan Van Gundy, American basketball coach
• September 29 - Benjamin Sehene, Rwandan writer
• September 30 - Ettore Messina, Italian basketball coach
• October 1 - Youssou N'Dour singer
• October 3
  • Fred Couples, American golfer
  • Greg Proops, American comedian
  • Jack Wagner, American actor
• October 4 - Chris Lowe, British musician
• October 7
  • Lourdes Flores, Peruvian politician
  • Simon Cowell, English music producer and television talent show judge
• October 9 - Michael Pare, American actor
• October 10 - Kirsty MacColl, British singer and songwriter (d.2000)
• October 13 - Marie Osmond, American singer
• October 15
  • Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York
  • Emeril Lagasse, American chef and restaurant owner
• October 17 -
  • Ron Drummond, American writer, editor, and music historian
  • Richard Roeper, American film critic
• October 21 - Ken Watanabe, Japanese actor
• October 21 - Tony Ganios, American actor
• October 23 - "Weird Al" Yankovic, American singer and parodist
• October 25 - Christina Amphlett, Australian singer (Divinyls)
• October 26 - Evo Morales, President of Bolivia
• October 27 - Rick Carlisle, American basketball coach
• October 31 - Neal Stephenson, American writer

November-December

• November 1 - Nancy Cartwright, American actress and comedian
• November 5 - Bryan Adams, Canadian singer and photographer
• November 7 - Billy Gillispie, American basketball coach
• November 8 - Selçuk Yula, Turkish football player and topscorer.
• November 9 - Tony Slattery, British comedian and actor
• November 10 - Linda Cohn, American sports reporter
• November 14 - Paul McGann, British actor
• November 18 - Jimmy Quinn, Irish footballer and football manager
• November 23 - Dominique Dunne, American actress (d. 1982)
• November 25 - Charles Kennedy, British politician
• November 28 - Judd Nelson, American actor
• November 29
  • Kim Delaney, American actress
  • Platon Lebedev, a Russian former CEO of Group Menatep, best known as the business partner of Mikhail Khodorkovsky
• November 30 - Lorraine Kelly, British presenter and journalist
• December 6 - Satoru Iwata, president of Nintendo
• December 20 - Sandra Cisneros, Mexican-born author
• December 21 - Florence Griffith Joyner, American athlete (d. 1998)
• December 24 - Keith Deller, English darts player
• December 27 - Gerina Dunwich, American author
• December 31
  • Alfie Anido, Flipino actor (d. 1981)
  • Val Kilmer, American actor
• date unknown - Willie Doherty, Irish artist

Deaths

January-March

• January 2 - William D. Francis, Australian botanist (b. 1889)
• January 3 - Edwin Muir, Scottish poet, novelist and translator (b. 1887)
• January 21 - Cecil B. DeMille, American film director (b. 1881)
• January 22 - Mike Hawthorn, English race car driver (b. 1929)
• February 1 - Frank Shannon, American actor (b. 1874)
• February 3 - Killed in the crash of a private plane:
  • 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 23 - Luis Palés Matos, Puerto Rican poet (b. 1898)
• February 26</