Britain and the World 1959

BRITAIN AND THE WORLD SINCE 1953

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	1959
Jan1	The Cuban dictator Batista flees to Miami as the revolutionary forces of Fidel Castro capture Santiago. Two days later he enters Havana and becomes Head of State
Jan2	The first spacecraft to orbit the Sun, Mechta (Luna 1) was launched by the USSR.
Jan3	Alaska becomes the 49th state of the USA
Jan12	Henry Cooper became the British and European heavyweight boxing champion when he defeated Brian London on points
Jan22	Mike Hawthorn the World Motor Racing Champion is killed on the Guildford Bypass
Jan26	The SAS begin secret operations against rebels in Oman - the action finishes five days later
Feb2	Buddy Holly's last performance. He alongside Richie Valens and The Big Bopper die in an aircrash near Clearlake, Iowa
	In a referendum, The Swiss people vote against extending the vote to women
Feb6	United States successfully test-fired for the first time a Titan intercontinental ballistic missile from Cape Canaveral.
Feb15	Barbie doll goes on sale in the USA
Feb16	Communist revolutionary leader Fidel Castro is sworn in as prime minister of Cuba
Feb18	Jesus Sosa Blanco who killed 108 people is executed in Cuba
	Women in Nepal vote for the first time but in segregated polling stations
Mar8	Marx Brothers final TV performance
Mar26	The death of US novelist Raymond Chandler aged 70
Mar10	A full scale revolt against Chinese rule by native Tibetans met with a ferocious response from China. The Dalai Lama was forced to flee and went into exile in India
Apr21	The largest fish ever hooked by a rod and reel was landed by Alfred Dean in South Australia. It was a 16-foot, 10-inch White Shark that weighed in at 2,664 pounds.
May24	Empire Day becomes Commonwealth Day
May28	US launces two monkeys into space
Jun3	Singapore gains independence with Lee Kuan Yew as Prime Minister of the Republic.
Jun8	Liberace defended himself when he successfully sued William Connor, "Cassandr a" of the Daily Mirror, for libel
Jun23	Klaus Fuchs, a German communist spy and naturalized Briton, was released from prison in England after serving nine years of a 14-year sentence for passing atomic secrets to Russia
Jun26	St. Lawrence Seaway, connecting the Great Lakes with the Atlantic, was opened by Queen Elizabeth II and President Eisenhower.
July3	De Gaulle announces that soon France will have a nuclear arsenal - on Nov21 France votes against a UN test ban treaty and on Feb 2 1960 explodes its first nuclear bomb in the Sahara Desert
July5	David Ben Gurion resigns as Israel's Prime Minister
Aug15	Cyprus becomes independent
Aug16	Explorer V1 which was launched a week earlier sends back the first picture of earth from space
Aug18	BMC Mini car launched designed by Alec Issingonis
Aug21	Hawai becomes the 50th State of USA
Sep5	Introduction of Subscriber Trunk Dialling (STD) in Britain
Sep13	The Soviet space probe Luna 2 became the first man-made object to reach the Moon when it crashed onto the lunar surface.
Oct3	Postcodes introduced in Great Britain for the first time
Oct14	The actor Erroll Flynn dies
Oct31	Riots in the Belgian Congo and the arrest of Patrice Lumumba
Nov1	First section of M1 motorway opened
Nov15	The Clutter Family are murdered at their farm outside Holcomb Kansas. The murder and its consequences form the basis for Truman Capote's book "In Cold Blood"
Dec14	Archbishop Makarios is elected President of Cyprus
Dec23	Former British Foreign Secretary and appeaser Lord Halifax dies

Last Updated 16/02/10 09:17

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