The following events occurred in March 1959:
March 1, 1959 (Sunday)
Archbishop Makarios III returned to Cyprus. Two years earlier, he had been allowed by British authorities to leave the Seychelles, where he had been kept in exile, on condition that he never return to Cyprus. An agreement in Zurich between Britain, Greece and Turkey, released Makarios from the conditions, in return for his agreement to drop his quest for "enosis", a movement to make Cyprus part of Greek territory. Later in 1959, Makarios won the election to become the first President of Cyprus. The , , and were stricken from the United States Naval Vessel Register.
March 2, 1959 (Monday) The Balkan Pact, signed in 1953 between Turkey, Greece and Yugoslavia, expired after Yugoslavia's President Tito announced that his nation would not renew it. Recording sessions for the album Kind of Blue by Miles Davis took place at Columbia's 30th Street Studio in New York City.
March 3, 1959 (Tuesday) The United States launched the Pioneer 4 probe toward the Moon, shortly after midnight EST. The object became the first American spacecraft to completely escape the Earth's gravity, rather than going into orbit. The Mosul uprising began in Iraq as Colonel Abd al-Shawaff staged a rebellion against the government of President Abdul Karim Qasim. al-Shawaaf was killed the next day, and after the insurrection was put down, Qasim ordered the execution of officers suspected of complicity. At the British colonial detention camp in Hola, Kenya, where Mau Mau rebels were held, 11 prisoners were beaten to death and 20 others seriously injured by prison staff, in what later was known as the Hola massacre. In Tifton, Georgia, nine children, ranging in age from 5 to 15, drowned after their school bus ran off a road and overturned into a farm pond. In Nyasaland (now Malawi), Colonial Governor Robert Armitage declared a state of emergency after riots broke out in that Southern African nation, banning the Nyasaland African Congress (NAC). Died: Lou Costello, 52, American comedian who was famous for his partnership with Bud Abbott in the duo of Abbott and Costello, died of a heart attack, shortly after completion of filming of The 30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock, his only film after the partnership with Abbott ended.
March 4, 1959 (Wednesday)
Pioneer 4 became the second man-made object to pass the Moon and to enter an orbit around the Sun, becoming the first American-made planetary object. The Soviet satellite Luna 1 had achieved solar orbit on January 7. Contact with Pioneer IV was lost two days later after its batteries ran out of power. The government of Cuba nationalized the Cuban Telephone Company, a subsidiary of ITT. Born: Rick Ardon, Australian news anchor, in Perth Irina Strakhova, Russian race walker, in Novosibirsk Died: Maxie Long, 80, American Olympic track medalist in 1900
March 5, 1959 (Thursday) At Ankara, the United States agreed to defend the remaining members of the Central Treaty Organization (CENTO) in case of attack, signing bilateral defense agreements with Iran, Turkey and Pakistan. In Wrightsville, Arkansas, a fire at a dormitory for the Arkansas Training School for Negro Boys killed 21 boys. The doors had been locked, and 47 boys who survived the fire had kicked their way through heavy metal screens to escape. The Federal Reserve Bank raised the interest rate half a point to 3% U.S. Secretary of Defense Neil H. McElroy told reporters that "a surprise with missiles in the foreseeable future is almost impossible".
March 6, 1959 (Friday) Pope John XXIII issued a notificatio banning "the spreading of images and writings that propose the devotion of The Divine Mercy" that had been the work of Sister Faustina Kowalska. By order of the Castro government, all rents in Cuba were reduced by 50 percent. Space Task Group and McDonnell Aircraft Corporation officials met to discuss spare part and ground support equipment requirements for Project Mercury. Born: Tom Arnold, American actor and comedian, in Ottumwa, Iowa
March 7, 1959 (Saturday) "Wishing Won't Hold Berlin", by former U.S. Secretary of State Dean Acheson, appeared in The Saturday Evening Post, after Acheson concluded that the Eisenhower administration was not doing enough to respond to the Soviet ultimatum that all armies withdraw from Berlin (which was surrounded by Communist East Germany).
March 8, 1959 (Sunday)
The Marx Brothers made their last screen appearance, as Groucho, Chico and Harpo Marx starred in "The Incredible Jewel Robbery" on the CBS anthology program General Electric Theater. An abort test was conducted at Wallops Island on a full-scale model of the Mercury spacecraft with the escape tower, using a Recruit escape rocket. The configuration did not perform as expected (erratic motion), and as a result, the Langley Research Center was requested to test small-scale flight models of the abort system to determine its motion in flight. A 19-year-old airman at Davis-Monthan AFB committed suicide by setting a high-altitude test chamber to simulate , entering, then pulling off his oxygen mask. Born: Aidan Quinn, American actor; in Rockford, Illinois
March 9, 1959 (Monday) The Barbie doll made its debut at the American International Toy Fair in New York. Ruth Handler named the doll for her daughter. In 1961, her son Ken would have his name bestowed on another doll. The Langley Research Center began exploratory noise transmission tests for Project Mercury. Meanwhile, tests began at Langley and at Wallops Island on several types of ablating materials with a simulation of temperature and other conditions that would be expected from atmospheric re-entry from orbit. Born: Giovanni di Lorenzo, European journalist, in Stockholm
March 10, 1959 (Tuesday) When it appeared that the Dalai Lama was on the verge of arrest by the Communist government of China, a rebellion broke out as 30,000 Tibetans surrounded his palace, the Norbulingka. The Dalai Lama would say later that "That day, the people stopped my journey to the Chinese army camp ... and in the meantime, they declared the independence of Tibet.". Born: Mike Wallace, American race car driver, in Fenton, Missouri
March 11, 1959 (Wednesday) The Eurovision Song Contest 1959, staged in Cannes, was won for the Netherlands by "'n Beetje" sung by Teddy Scholten (music by Dick Schallies, text by Willy van Hemert). The Sikorsky SH-3 Sea King helicopter, also known as the H-3 Pelican or the S-61, was given its first flight by test pilots. At Wallops Island, Langley's Pilotless Aircraft Research Division conducted the first full-scale Project Mercury test simulating a pad-abort situation. For the first the flight made a straight climb, then pitched through several turns and impacted at sea. The malfunction was traced to the loss of a graphite insert from one of the three abort rocket nozzles, which had caused a misalignment of thrust.
A Raisin in the Sun, by African-American playwright Lorraine Hansberry, and starring Sidney Poitier and Claudia McNeil, made its Broadway debut, at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. The play ran for 538 performances. Died: Lester Dent, 54, creator of Doc Savage
March 12, 1959 (Thursday) By a margin of 323 to 89, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to allow Hawaii to become the 50th state, contingent upon passage by Hawaiian voters. The night before, the Senate had voted its approval, 76–15. The bill was signed into law by President Eisenhower on March 18, 1959. Tomasi Kulimoetoke II became the King of Wallis Island, reigning until May 7, 2007. Born: Milorad Dodik, Bosnian Serb politician who served, 2018 to 2022, as the Serbian member of the 3-person Presidency of Bosnia & Herzegovina and as the troika's Chairman, November 2020 to July 2021; in Banja Luka, Yugoslavia
March 13, 1959 (Friday) The United Nations General Assembly voted 56–0, with 23 abstentions, to end the UN Trusteeship over the French Cameroons by January 1, 1960, and to schedule a plebiscite in the north and south sections of the British Cameroons. With the admission of Hawaii voted so soon after the admission of Alaska, flag manufacturers asked that the adoption of the 50-star flag be postponed until July 4, 1960. Digby Chandler, president of Annin & Co, said that the industry had already manufactured 300,000 flags with 49 stars, and added, "If we are forced to throw all these away and start making 50-star flags for next July 4 there will be no flag industry left." One proposal was to add an eighth star in the middle row of the seven rows of seven stars.
March 14, 1959 (Saturday) Sharaf Rashidov was elected First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic. Answering only to Moscow, Rashidov ruled for 24 years with otherwise unlimited and corrupt power, lasting until his death on October 31, 1983.Peter L. Roudik, The History of the Central Asian Republics (Greenwood Publishing Group, 2007), p138
March 15, 1959 (Sunday) Robert Foster, 32, set a record for holding his breath, remaining underwater for 13 minutes, 42.5 seconds (13:42.5), at San Rafael, CaliforniaNorris McWhirter, Guinness Book of World Records (Bantam Books, 1986) p43; "Man Holds His Breath Under Water For 13 minutes, 42 Seconds" , Ocala (FL) Star-Banner, March 16, 1959, p12 The record stood for 48 years, until broken by Arvydas and Diana Gaiciunas in Druskininkai, Lithuania, on June 16, 2007, at almost 16 minutes (15:58). Both Foster and the Gaiciunas siblings hyperventilated with pure oxygen beforehand in order to drive carbon dioxide from their lungs. The recognized record without such preparations is 11 minutes, 35 seconds, by freediver Stéphane Mifsud on June 8, 2009. The prison at the Curragh Camp, where Ireland detained suspected terrorists without formal charges, was formally closed.Robert William White, Ruairí Ó Brádaigh: The Life and Politics of an Irish Revolutionary (Indiana University Press, 2006), p87 Born: Harold Baines, American baseball player, in Easton, Maryland Died: Duncan Hines, 78, restaurant critic who later lent his name to a line of cake mixes
March 16, 1959 (Monday) The Republic of Iraq signed a treaty of economic cooperation with the Soviet Union, providing for financial aid totaling 550 million roubles (equivalent to US$47,000,000 at the time) Procurement of five developmental pressure suits for Project Mercury astronauts, at a cost of $25,000 apiece (equivalent to almost $260,000 apiece more than 60 years later), was requested by the Space Task Group from NASA Headquarters. Born: Michael J. Bloomfield, American astronaut on three shuttle missions; in Flint, Michigan Flavor Flav (stage name for William Jonathan Drayton, Jr.), American rapper; in Roosevelt, New York Jens Stoltenberg, Prime Minister of Norway 2000–2001 and 2005–2013; in Oslo Died: John B. Salling, 112, American Civil War veteran, in Kingsport, Tennessee. His death left one surviving veteran claimant, Walter Williams of Houston, whose age and service were later disputed.
March 17, 1959 (Tuesday) Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, escaped Tibet and found sanctuary in India.p3
USS Skate surfaced at the North Pole after spending a record 12 days under the polar ice cap. In a ceremony at the pole, the ashes of polar explorer Sir Hubert Wilkins, who had died in 1958, were scattered at the pole. Funds were requested to purchase six main parachute and 12 drogue parachute canisters from the Goodyear Aircraft Corporation in support of the Little Joe and Big Joe phases of Project Mercury. McDonnell Aircraft inspected the completed Mercury spacecraft mock-up and directed a restudy of pilot escape; rearrangement of crew space to make handles, actuators, and other instruments more accessible to the pilot; and modification of the clock, sequence lights, and other displays. Born: Danny Ainge, Boston Celtics guard and Toronto Blue Jays second baseman; in Eugene, Oregon
March 18, 1959 (Wednesday)