Events from the year 1959 in the United States. With the admittance of Alaska and Hawaii, this is the last year in which states are added to the union.
Incumbents
Federal government President: Dwight D. Eisenhower (R-Kansas/Pennsylvania) Vice President: Richard Nixon (R-California) Chief Justice: Earl Warren (California) Speaker of the House of Representatives: Sam Rayburn (D-Texas) Senate Majority Leader: Lyndon B. Johnson (D-Texas) Congress: 85th (until January 3), 86th (starting January 3)
State governments Governors and lieutenant governors Governors
Lieutenant governors
Events
January–March
January 2 — CBS Radio ends four soap operas: Backstage Wife, Our Gal Sunday, The Road of Life and This is Nora Drake. January 3 — Alaska is admitted as the 49th U.S. state (see History of Alaska). January 7 — The United States recognizes the new Cuban government of Fidel Castro. January 12 – The Motown record label is founded as Tamla by Berry Gordy in Detroit. January 22 — Knox Mine Disaster: Water breaches the River Slope Mine near Pittston City in Port Griffith, Pennsylvania; 12 miners are killed. January 29 — Walt Disney releases his 16th animated film, Sleeping Beauty, in Beverly Hills. It is the final fairy tale adaptation released by Disney during his lifetime and the last the studio will produce until 1989's The Little Mermaid; also Disney's first animated film to be shown in 70mm and modern 6-track stereophonic sound. Also on the program is Disney's new "pictorial interpretation" Grand Canyon, which uses the music of Ferde Grofé's Grand Canyon Suite. Grand Canyon wins an Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject). February 3 A chartered plane transporting musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper crashes in foggy conditions near Clear Lake, Iowa, killing all four occupants on board, including pilot Roger Peterson. The tragedy is later termed "The Day the Music Died", popularized in Don McLean's 1971 song "American Pie". Future country star Waylon Jennings was scheduled to be on the plane, but gave up his seat to The Big Bopper. American Airlines Flight 320, a Lockheed L-188 Electra from Chicago crashes into the East River on approach to New York City's LaGuardia Airport, killing 65 of the 73 people on board. February 6 — At Cape Canaveral, Florida, the first successful test firing of a Titan intercontinental ballistic missile is accomplished. February 13 — TAT-2, AT&T's second transatlantic telephone cable, goes into operation. February 17 — The Vanguard II weather satellite is launched to measure cloud cover for the United States Navy. February 22 — Lee Petty wins the first Daytona 500. March 1 — , , and are stricken from the Naval Vessel Register. March 3 — Lunar probe Pioneer 4 becomes the first American object to escape dominance by Earth's gravity. March 11 — A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry opens on Broadway in New York City. March 18 — U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs a bill allowing for Hawaiian statehood. March 31 — The first Busch Gardens amusement park, in Tampa, Florida, is dedicated and opens its gates.
April–June
April 6 — The 31st Academy Awards ceremony, hosted by Jerry Lewis, Mort Sahl, Tony Randall, Bob Hope, David Niven and Laurence Olivier, is held at Pantages Theatre in Hollywood. Vincente Minnelli's Gigi wins a record nine awards, including Best Motion Picture and Best Director for Minnelli. The film's clean sweep of all nine of its nominations will not be tied again until 1988, and will not be broken until 2004. Gigi is also equalled in nominations by Stanley Kramer's The Defiant Ones. April 9 — NASA announces its selection of the "Mercury Seven", seven military pilots to become the first U.S. astronauts. April 25 — The Saint Lawrence Seaway linking the North American Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean officially opens to shipping. May 8 — The first Little Caesars pizza restaurant is opened by Mike Ilitch and his wife Marian in Garden City, Michigan. May 21 — Gypsy: A Musical Fable, starring Ethel Merman in her last new musical, opens on Broadway and runs for 702 performances. May 28 — Jupiter AM-18 rocket launches two primates, Miss Baker and Miss Able, into space from Cape Canaveral along with living microorganisms and plant seeds. Successful recovery makes them the first living beings to return safely to Earth after space flight. June 8 — and the United States Postal Service attempt the delivery of mail via Missile Mail. June 9 — The USS George Washington is launched at Groton, Connecticut, as the first submarine to carry ballistic missiles (December 30 — commissioned). June 14 – At Disneyland in Anaheim, California, new rides are opened in the Tomorrowland area: The Disneyland Monorail, the world's first regularly operating passenger-carrying monorail (Alweg system), dedicated by U.S. Vice President Richard Nixon. The Matterhorn Bobsleds, the world's first tubular steel roller coaster. June 23 — Convicted Manhattan Project spy Klaus Fuchs is released after nine years in a British prison and allowed to emigrate to Dresden, East Germany (where he resumes a scientific career). June 25 — A KH-1 Corona satellite, believed to be the first operational spy satellite, is launched as science mission 'Discoverer 4' from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, aboard a Thor-Agena rocket. June 26 Queen Elizabeth II (as monarch of Canada) and U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower open the Saint Lawrence Seaway. Darby O'Gill and the Little People, a film based on Herminie T. Kavanagh's short stories, is released in the U.S. by Walt Disney, two days after its world premiere in Ireland.
July–September
July 8 — Charles Ovnand and Dale R. Buis become the first Americans killed in action in Vietnam. July 15 — Steel strike of 1959: Labor union strike in the U.S. steel industry. July 21 — Grove Press, Inc. v. Christenberry decided, affirming that copies of Lady Chatterley's Lover may be distributed in the U.S. under the First Amendment.Grove Press, Inc. v. Christenberry, 175 F. Supp. 488 (SDNY 1959), 21 July 1959. July 24 At the opening of the American National Exhibition in Moscow, U.S. Vice President Richard Nixon and USSR Premier Nikita Khrushchev have a "kitchen debate." 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. August 7 Explorers program: Launch of Explorer 6 satellite from the Atlantic Missile Range in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The Roseburg blast in Oregon, caused when a truck carrying explosives catches fire, kills 14 and causes $12 million worth of damage. August 17 The 1959 Hebgen Lake earthquake in southwest Montana kills 28. Miles Davis' influential jazz album Kind of Blue is released. August 21 — Hawaii is admitted as the 50th and last U.S. state (see History of Hawaii). August 22 — American Football League founded by Lamar Hunt August 28–September 7 — The 1959 Pan American Games are held in Chicago. September 15-28 — Premier of the Soviet Union Nikita Khrushchev and his wife tour the U.S. at the invitation of President Eisenhower. September 16 — The Xerox 914, the first plain paper copier, is introduced to the public. September 17 — The hypersonic North American X-15 research aircraft, piloted by Scott Crossfield, makes its first powered flight at Edwards Air Force Base, California.
October–December
October 2 — Rod Serling's classic anthology series The Twilight Zone premieres on CBS. October 8 — The Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Chicago White Sox, 4 games to 2, to win their 2nd World Series Title in baseball. October 13 — Launch of Explorer 7 satellite. October 21 — The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum of modern art (designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, who died April 9) opens to the public in New York City. November 15 — The brutal Clutter family murders are committed in Holcomb, Kansas. 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 this 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 it). November 22 — Boston Patriots founded by William H. Sullivan November 25 — Nick Van Til and Ernie Strack open the first Strack & Van Til grocery store in Highland, Lake County, Indiana. November — The MOSFET (metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor), also known as the MOS transistor, is invented by Mohamed Atalla and Dawon Kahng at Bell Labs. December 1 — Cold War: Antarctic Treaty — 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 (the first arms control agreement established during the Cold War). December 13 — Three years after its first telecast, MGM's The Wizard of Oz (1939 film) is shown on television for the second time, but gains a larger viewing audience than its first television outing, spurring CBS to make it an annual tradition.
Undated The Supremes girl group is founded as The Primettes in Detroit. Car tailfin design reaches its apex with such as the Cadillac Eldorado, Chevrolet Impala second generation model, Dodge Silver Challenger and Imperial Crown Sedan. The Henney Kilowatt goes on sale in the U.S., becoming the first production electric car in almost three decades, but only 47 models will be sold in its 2-year production run. Nylon pantyhose (or sheer tights) are first sold on the open market as 'Panti-Legs' by Glen Raven Knitting Mills. First femur of Arlington Springs Man is found on Santa Rosa Island, California, by Phil C. Orr. The remains are subsequently dated to 13,000 years BP, making them potentially the oldest known human remains in North America.
Ongoing Cold War (1947–1991) Space Race (1957–1975) Civil Rights Movement (1954-1968)
Births
January January 1 – Andy Andrews, tennis player January 2 – Joe Bevilacqua, radio producer and dramatist January 5 – Clancy Brown, actor and voice actor January 9 Mark Martin, race car driver and coach Otis Nixon, baseball player January 10 – Larry McReynolds, auto racing commentator January 15 – Kenny Easley, American football player (d. 2025) January 27 – Keith Olbermann, television sports and political commentator January 28 – Megan McDonald, children's author January 29 – Michael Sloane, actor, director and screenwriter
February February 1 – Wade Wilson, American football player and coach (died 2019) February 4 Pamelyn Ferdin, actress and activist Lawrence Taylor, American football player and sportscaster February 14 – Renée Fleming, soprano February 16 – John McEnroe, tennis player February 18 – James Metzger, businessman and philanthropist February 19 – Roger Goodell, businessman and football administrator February 22 – Kyle MacLachlan, actor
March
March 6 – Lars Larson, conservative talk show host"Lars Kristopher Larson". Who's Who in the West, 26th ed. Accessed June 17, 2013 via LexisNexis. March 8 Lester Holt, journalist and news anchor Kato Kaelin, witness in the O. J. Simpson murder case March 15 – Harold Baines, baseball player and coach March 16 – Flavor Flav, rapper March 17 Christian Clemenson, actor Danny Ainge, basketball player, coach and baseball player March 18 – Irene Cara, singer-songwriter and film actress (d. 2022) March 20 – Sting, pro wrestler March 22 – Matthew Modine, actor March 31 – Arun Raha, executive director and chief economist for Washington state
April April 3 – David Hyde Pierce, actor April 13 – Kim Guadagno, first Lt. Governor of New Jersey April 15 – Thomas F. Wilson, actor, writer, musician, painter, voice-over artist, stand-up comedian and podcaster April 18 – Susan Faludi, feminist