Dwight Eisenhower, Nikita Khrushchev and their wives at a state dinner, 1959.
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.
Governor of Ohio: C. William O'Neill (Republican) (until January 12), Michael DiSalle (Democratic) (starting January 12)
Governor of Oklahoma: Raymond D. Gary (Democratic) (until January 12), J. Howard Edmondson (Democratic) (starting January 12)
Governor of Oregon: Robert D. Holmes (Democratic) (until January 12), Mark Hatfield (Republican) (starting January 12)
Governor of Pennsylvania: George M. Leader (Democratic) (until January 20), David L. Lawrence (Democratic) (starting January 20)
Governor of Rhode Island: Dennis J. Roberts (Democratic) (until January 6), Christopher Del Sesto (Republican) (starting January 6)
Governor of South Carolina: George Bell Timmerman, Jr. (Democratic) (until January 20), Ernest Hollings (Democratic) (starting January 20)
Governor of South Dakota: Joe Foss (Republican) (until January 6), Ralph Herseth (Democratic) (starting January 6)
Governor of Tennessee: Frank G. Clement (Democratic) (until January 19), Buford Ellington (Democratic) (starting January 19)
Governor of Texas: Price Daniel (Democratic)
Governor of Utah: George Dewey Clyde (Republican)
Governor of Vermont: Joseph B. Johnson (Republican) (until January 8), Robert T. Stafford (Republican) (starting January 8)
Governor of Virginia: J. Lindsay Almond (Democratic)
Governor of Washington: Albert D. Rosellini (Democratic)
Governor of West Virginia: Cecil H. Underwood (Republican)
Governor of Wisconsin: Vernon W. Thomson (Republican) (until January 5), Gaylord A. Nelson (Democratic) (starting January 5)
Governor of Wyoming: Milward L. Simpson (Republican) (until January 5), John J. Hickey (Democratic) (starting January 5)
Lieutenant Governors[]
Lieutenant Governor of Alabama: William G. Hardwick (Democratic) (until month and day unknown), Albert B. Boutwell (Democratic) (starting month and day unknown)
Lieutenant Governor of California: Harold J. Powers (Republican) (until January 5), Glenn Malcolm Anderson (Democratic) (starting January 5)
Lieutenant Governor of Colorado: Frank L. Hays (Republican) (until month and day unknown), Robert Lee Knous (Democratic) (starting month and day unknown)
Lieutenant Governor of Iowa: William H. Nicholas (Republican) (until month and day unknown), Edward J. McManus (Democratic) (starting month and day unknown)
Lieutenant Governor of Kansas: Joseph W. Henkle, Sr. (Democratic)
Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky: Harry Lee Waterfield (Democratic) (until month and day unknown), Wilson W. Wyatt (political party unknown) (starting month and day unknown)
Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana: Lether Frazar (Democratic)
Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts: Robert F. Murphy (Democratic)
Lieutenant Governor of Michigan: Philip A. Hart (Democratic) (until January 1), John B. Swainson (Democratic) (starting January 1)
Lieutenant Governor of New Mexico: vacant (until January 1), Ed V. Mead (Democratic) (starting January 1)
Lieutenant Governor of New York: Malcolm Wilson (Republican) (starting January 1)
Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina: Luther E. Barnhardt (Democratic)
Lieutenant Governor of North Dakota: Francis Clyde Duffy (Republican) (until month and day unknown), Clarence P. Dahl (Republican) (starting month and day unknown)
Lieutenant Governor of Ohio: Paul M. Herbert (Republican) (until January 12), John W. Donahey (Democratic) (starting January 12)
Lieutenant Governor of Oklahoma: Cowboy Pink Williams (Democratic) (until January 12), George Nigh (Democratic) (starting January 12)
Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania: Roy E. Furman (Democratic) (until January 20), John Morgan Davis (Democratic) (starting January 20)
January 2 – CBS Radio cuts four soap operas: Backstage Wife, Our Gal Sunday, The Road of Life and .
January 3 – Alaska is admitted as the 49th U.S. state (seeHistory of Alaska).
January 7 – The United States recognizes the new Cuban government of Fidel Castro.
January 22 – Knox Mine Disaster: Water breaches the River Slope Mine near Pittston City, Pennsylvania in Port Griffith; 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 would produce until 1989's The Little Mermaid.
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".
February 6 – At Cape Canaveral, Florida, the first successful test firing of a Titan intercontinental ballistic missile is accomplished.
February 17 – The United States launches the Vanguard IIweather satellite.
February 22 – Lee Petty wins the first Daytona 500.
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 – American 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 9: NASA announces the "Mercury Seven"
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 record clean sweep of all nine of its nominations would not be tied again until 1988, and would 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 – USS Barbero and United States Postal Service attempt the delivery of mail via Missile Mail.
June 9 – USS George Washington is launched as the first submarine to carry ballistic missiles.
June 23 – Convicted Manhattan Project spy Klaus Fuchs is released after only nine years in a British prison and allowed to emigrate to Dresden, East Germany (where he resumes a scientific career).
June 26
Queen Elizabeth II and U.S. 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, two days after its world premiere in Ireland.
July–September[]
August 21: Hawaii admitted as 50th state
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 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 from the Atlantic Missile Range in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
The Roseburg Oregon Blast kills 14 and causes $12 million worth of damage.
Miles Davis' influential jazz album Kind of Blue is released.
August 21 – Hawaii is admitted as the 50th and last U.S. state (seeHistory of Hawaii).
October–December[]
October 21: The Guggenheim opens
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.
October 13 – Launch of Explorer 7.
October 21 – In New York City, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (designed by Frank Lloyd Wright) opens to the public.
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.
November 25 - Nick Van Til and Ernie Strack opens the first Strack & Van Til in Highland, Lake County, Indiana.
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 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.
1959: Potamkin Chevrolet, Philadelphia
Undated[]
The Henney Kilowatt goes on sale in the United States, becoming the first mass-produced electric car in almost three decades.
Ongoing[]
Cold War (1947–1991)
Space Race (1957–1975)
Births[]
January 1 – Andy Andrews, American tennis player
January 2 – Joe Bevilacqua, radio producer and dramatist
January 5 – Clancy Brown, actor and voice actor
January 8 – Keith Rodden, NASCAR crew chief
January 9
Mark Martin, race car driver and coach
Otis Nixon, baseball player
January 10 – Larry McReynolds, auto racing commentator
January 27 – Keith Olbermann, television sports and political commentator
January 28 – Megan McDonald, children's author
January 29 – Michael Sloane, actor, director and screenwriter