| 1959-11-01
Montreal Canadiens goaltender Jacques Plante wears a protective mask for the first time in an NHL game.
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| 1959-02-06
Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments files the first patent for an integrated circuit.
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| 1959-06-09
The USS George Washington is launched. It is the first submarine to carry ballistic missiles.
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| 1959-07-31
The Basque separatist organisation ETA is founded.
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| 1959-08-17
Quake Lake: Quake Lake is formed by the magnitude 7.5 1959 Yellowstone earthquake near Hebgen Lake in Montana.
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| 1959-06-08
The USS Barbero and United States Postal Service attempt the delivery of mail via Missile Mail.
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| 1959-09-19
Nikita Khrushchev is barred from visiting Disneyland.
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| 1959-10-21
President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs an executive order transferring Wernher von Braun and other German scientists from the United States Army to NASA.
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| 1959-09-08
The Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) is established.
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| 1959-03-17
Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, flees Tibet for India.
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| 1959-11-23
General Charles de Gaulle, President of France, declares in a speech in Strasbourg his vision for a "Europe, "from the Atlantic to the Urals."
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| 1959-01-02
Luna 1, the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon and to orbit the Sun, is launched by the U.S.S.R.
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| 1959-01-03
Alaska is admitted as the 49th U.S. State.
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| 1959-10-02
The anthology series The Twilight Zone premieres on CBS television.
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| 1959-07-01
Specific values for the international yard, avoirdupois pound and derived units (e.g. inch, mile and ounce) are adopted after agreement between the U.S.A., the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth countries.
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| 1959-02-06
At Cape Canaveral, Florida, the first successful test firing of a Titan intercontinental ballistic missile is accomplished.
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| 1959-07-01
The Party of the African Federation holds its constitutive conference.
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| 1959-02-19
The United Kingdom grants Cyprus independence, which is then formally proclaimed on August 16, 1960.
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| 1959-10-26
The world sees the far side of the Moon for the first time.
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| 1959-07-15
The steel strike of 1959 begins, leading to significant importation of foreign steel for the first time in United States history.
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| 1959-07-07
14:28 UT Venus occults the star Regulus. This rare event is used to determine the diameter of Venus and the structure of the Venusian atmosphere.
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| 1959-07-21
Elijah Jerry "Pumpsie" Green becomes the first African-American to play for the Boston Red Sox, the last team to integrate. He came in as a pinch runner for Vic Wertz and stayed in as shortstop in a 2-1 loss to the Chicago White Sox.
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| 1959-08-07
The Lincoln Memorial design on the U.S. penny goes into circulation. It replaces the "sheaves of wheat" design and is still in use.
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| 1959-11-01
In Rwanda, Hutu politician Dominique Mbonyumutwa is beaten up by Tutsi forces, leading to a period of violence known as the wind of destruction.
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| 1959-04-27
The last Canadian missionary leaves the People's Republic of China.
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| 1959-09-27
Nearly 5000 people die on the main Japanese island of Honshū as the result of a typhoon.
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| 1959-09-18
Vanguard 3 is launched into Earth orbit.
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| 1959-11-15
Four members of the Herbert Clutter Family are murdered at their farm outside Holcomb, Kansas.
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| 1959-09-23
Iowa farmer Roswell Garst hosts Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev.
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| 1959-09-14
The Soviet probe Luna 2 crashes onto the Moon, becoming the first man-made object to reach it.
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| 1959-10-12
At the national congress of APRA in Peru a group of leftist radicals are expelled from the party. They will later form APRA Rebelde.
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| 1959-01-20
The first flight of the Vickers Vanguard.
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| 1959-04-10
Akihito, future Emperor of Japan, weds Michiko.
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| 1959-12-01
Cold War: Opening date for signature of the Antarctic Treaty, which sets aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve and bans military activity on the continent.
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| 1959-07-24
At the opening of the American National Exhibition in Moscow, U.S. Vice President Richard Nixon and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev have a "Kitchen Debate".
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| 1959-07-04
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.
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| 1959-09-12
The Soviet Union launches a large rocket, Lunik II, at the moon.
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| 1959-10-07
U.S.S.R. probe Luna 3 transmits first ever photographs of the far side of the moon.
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| 1959-09-15
Nikita Khrushchev becomes the first Soviet leader to visit the United States.
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| 1959-04-25
The St. Lawrence Seaway, linking the North American Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean, officially opens to shipping.
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| 1959-08-14
Founding and first official meeting of the American Football League.
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| 1959-06-23
Convicted Manhattan Project spy Klaus Fuchs is released after only nine years in prison and allowed to emigrate to Dresden, East Germany where he resumes a scientific career.
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| 1959-02-16
Fidel Castro becomes Premier of Cuba after dictator Fulgencio Batista was overthrown on January 1.
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| 1959-03-24
The Party of the African Federation is launched by Léopold Sédar Senghor and Modibo Keita.
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| 1959-07-29
First United States Congress elections in Hawaii as a state of the Union.
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| 1959-06-26
The Saint Lawrence Seaway opens, opening North America's Great Lakes to ocean-going ships.
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| 1959-09-23
The MS Princess of Tasmania, Australia’s first passenger roll-on/roll-off diesel ferry, makes her maiden voyage across Bass Strait.
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| 1959-07-20
The Organization for European Economic Cooperation admits Spain.
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| 1959-08-17
Kind of Blue by Miles Davis, the much acclaimed and highly influential best selling jazz recording of all time, is released.
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| 1959-12-13
Archbishop Makarios becomes the first President of Cyprus.
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| 1959-01-08
Fidel Castro's Cuban Revolution is completed with the takeover of Santiago de Cuba.
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| 1959-07-25
SR-N1 hovercraft crosses the English Channel from Calais to Dover in just over 2 hours.
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| 1959-05-30
The Auckland Harbour Bridge, crossing the Waitemata Harbour in Auckland, New Zealand, is officially opened by Governor-General Lord Cobham.
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| 1959-02-03
A plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa kills Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, The Big Bopper, and pilot Roger Peterson and the incident becomes known as The Day the Music Died.
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| 1959-06-23
A fire in a resort hotel in Stalheim (Norway) kills 34 people.
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| 1959-05-26
Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Harvey Haddix retires the first 36 Milwaukee Braves batters to face him, only to lose his bid for a perfect game in the 13th inning.
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| 1959-12-29
The Lisbon Metro begins operation.
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| 1959-10-19
The first discothèque opens.
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| 1959-02-20
The Avro Arrow program to design and manufacture supersonic jet fighters in Canada is cancelled by the Diefenbaker government amid much political debate.
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| 1959-01-04
Luna 1 becomes the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon.
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| 1959-01-22
Knox Mine Disaster: Water breaches the River Slope Mine near Pittston City, Pennsylvania in Port Griffith; 12 miners are killed.
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| 1959-11-02
The first section of the M1 motorway, the first inter-urban motorway in the United Kingdom, is opened between the present junctions 5 and 18, along with the M10 motorway and M45 motorway
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| 1959-10-21
In New York City, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, opens to the public.
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| 1959-06-20
A rare June hurricane struck Canada's Gulf of St. Lawrence killing 35.
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| 1959-01-01
Fulgencio Batista, president of Cuba, is overthrown by Fidel Castro's forces during the Cuban Revolution.
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| 1959-02-22
Lee Petty wins the first Daytona 500.
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| 1959-06-14
A group of Dominican exiles with leftist tendencies that departed from Cuba land in the Dominican Republic with the intent of deposing Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina. Save for four of them, all are killed and/or executed by Trujillo's army.
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| 1959-06-05
The first government of the State of Singapore is sworn in.
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| 1959-11-19
The Ford Motor Company announces the discontinuation of the unpopular Edsel.
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| 1959-02-17
Project Vanguard: Vanguard 2 – The first weather satellite is launched to measure cloud-cover distribution.
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| 1959-11-02
Quiz show scandals: Twenty One game show contestant Charles Van Doren admits to a Congressional committee that he had been given questions and answers in advance.
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| 1959-08-21
President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs an executive order proclaiming Hawaii the 50th state of the union. Hawaii's admission is currently commemorated by Hawaii Admission Day
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| 1959-09-25
Solomon Bandaranaike, Prime Minister of Sri Lanka is mortally wounded by a Buddhist monk, Talduwe Somarama, and dies the next day.
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| 1959-03-16
EUROAVIA, the European Association of Aerospace students is founded, which is the very first initiative towards European cooperation in Aerospace.
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| 1959-10-31
Lee Harvey Oswald attempts to renounce his American citizenship at the US Embassy in Moscow, USSR.
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| 1959-08-07
Explorer program: Explorer 6 launches from the Atlantic Missile Range in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
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| 1959-04-09
Project Mercury: NASA announces the selection of the United States' first seven astronauts, whom the news media quickly dub the "Mercury Seven".
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| 1959-06-30
A United States Air Force F-100 Super Sabre from Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, crashes into a nearby elementary school, killing 11 students plus six residents from the local neighborhood.
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| 1959-05-18
Launch of the National Liberation Committee of Côte d'Ivoire in Conakry, Guinea.
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| 1959-01-07
The United States recognizes the new Cuban government of Fidel Castro.
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| 1959-03-31
The 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, crosses the border into India and is granted political asylum.
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| 1959-03-09
The Barbie doll makes its debut at the American International Toy Fair in New York.
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| 1959-03-18
President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs a bill into law allowing for Hawaiian statehood, which would become official on August 21.
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| 1959-03-10
Tibetan uprising: Fearing an abduction attempt by China, 300,000 Tibetans surround the Dalai Lama's palace to prevent his removal.
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| 1959-06-18
Governor of Louisiana Earl Long is committed to a state mental hospital; he responds by having the hospital's director fired and replaced with a crony who proceeds to proclaim him perfectly sane.
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| 1959-09-12
Premiere of Bonanza, the first regularly-scheduled TV program presented in color.
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