The Year 1959 From The People History

1959 the unemployment problems eased to 5.5%. Television programmes included "Rawhide", "Bonanza" and "The Twilight Zone", movies included "Some Like it Hot", "Ben Hur" and "North by Northwest". Alaska is admitted to the union and becomes the 49th state and Hawaii is admitted to the the Union and became the 50th State. The Boeing 707 Jet Airliner comes into service and little girls love the Barbie Dolls made by Mattel. Fidel Castro comes to power in Cuba.
1959 was 50 years ago this year

What Events Happened in 1959

• Fidel Castro comes to power in Cuba after Revolution with the first communist state in the west

• Mattel's Barbie Doll is Launched

• Alaska becomes the 49th State of the United States

• Hawaii becomes the 50th State of the United States

• The new Labor Reform Act passed to control union powers.

• The Austin Seven ( Mini ) from the British Motor Corporation goes on sale for £500 August 30th

• Hudson and Nash join on January 14th to become AMC (American Motors Association

• Archbishop Makarios is elected president of the Independent Cyprus Republic

• The United Kingdom grants Cyprus its independence.

• Flood in Taiwan leaves 2,000 dead.

• St Lawrence Seaway a joint US / Canadian venture is completed linking the great lakes to the Atlantic Ocean

• US Unemployment reaches 1.4 million

• NASA introduces America's first astronauts to the world including John H. Glenn Jr, and Alan Shepard Jr.

• Typhoon Vera with winds over 160 mph strikes Japanese island of Honshu, killing nearly 5,000 people.

• Direct Dial Payphones Introduced In The UK

• Southend Pier Pavilion is destroyed by fire

• An International agreement is signed to preserve Antartica

• Richard Nixon and Nikita Khrushchev argue about advantages of communism and capitalism in a Kitchen known as the ( Kitchen Debate ) on July 24th

• The first known human with HIV dies in Congo.

• Ecuador President declares martial law following riots in the countries capitol.

• The spiritual leader of Tibet, the Dalai Lama flees Tibet and obtains political asylum in India,

Popular Culture

• The US Grammy Music Awards Started

• The last musical from Rodgers and Hammerstein "The Sound of Music" opens on broadway

• The chartered plane transporting musicians Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and the Big Bopper goes down in an   Iowa   snowstorm, killing all four occupants on board. The tragedy is later termed "The Day the Music Died," popularized in Don McLean's song, "American Pie."

• The Film Ben-Hur premieres in New York City

Popular Films

• Ben-Hur
• Some Like It Hot
• Anatomy of a Murder
• North by Northwest
• Sleeping Beauty

Popular Singers

• Doris Day
• Frank Sinatra
• Connie Francis
• Jim Reeves
• Cliff Richard
• Ella Fitzgerald

Popular TV Programmes

• Bonanza premieres on NBC, the first weekly television series broadcast completely in color
• Juke Box Jury premieres on BBC Television
• Dixon of Dock Green (UK)
• The Huckleberry Hound Show

Check out our TV Shows From The 50s whenever possible we have included a trailer to jog your memory. Series trailers and more information are found on the decade they started.

Technology 1959

• Boeing 707 Jet Airliner comes into service cutting 8 hrs from transatlantic Flight



• USSR Luna 2 crashes onto the Moon as the first man-made object and Luna 3 sends back first photos of the far side of Earth's Moon



• First Pictures Of Earth From Space Taken By Explorer 6



• IBM shipped the transistor-based IBM 1401 mainframe.



• Full size hovercraft, the SR-N1 by Sir Christopher Cockerell tested at Cowes on the Isle of Wight



• Xerox launches the first commercial copier



• US Launches first Weather Station in Space



• First Section of M1 Motorway from London to Birmingham Opens



• De Beers manufactures a synthetic Diamond



• QANTAS introduces the Boeing 707 on its Sydney-San Francisco route, the first transpacific service flown by jet.

Inventions Invented by Inventors and Country ( or attributed to First Use )
Microchip USA by Jack Kilby
Etch A Sketch France by Arthur Grandjean
Computer Modem USA
Lunar Probe Russia Lunik I passed the Moon;
Lunar Probe Russia Lunik II crashed on the Moon;
Lunar Probe Russia Lunik III photographed the far side of the Moon

Major World Political Leaders 1959

Australia Prime Minister Sir Robert Menzies

Brazil President Juscelino Kubitschek

Canada Prime Minister John Diefenbaker

China Chairman of the People's Republic of China Liu Shaoqi

France President René Coty Till 8 January
France President Charles de Gaulle From 8 January

Germany Chancellor Konrad Adenauer

India Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru

Italy Prime Minister Amintore Fanfani Till 15 February
Italy Prime Minister Antonio Segni From 15 February

Japan Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi

Mexico President Adolfo López Mateos

Russia / Soviet Union
First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Nikita Khrushchev

South Africa Prime Minister Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd

United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower

United Kingdom Prime Minister Harold Macmillan

Political Elections 1959

British General Election 1959 Harold Macmillan ( Conservative )defeats Hugh Gaitskell ( Labour ) and Jo Grimond ( Liberal )


The Information above is taken from our new page that gives world leaders from 1920 to current.
WorldLeaders