March 1959

1959

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March

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March 3, 1959: Pioneer 4 becomes first American object to escape Earth's gravity

March 17, 1959: USS Skate surfaces at the North Pole

March 31, 1959: Busch Gardens theme park opens in Florida

March 8, 1959: The Marx Brothers retire

The following events occurred in March 1959:

March 1, 1959 (Sunday)

Makarios

• Archbishop Makarios III returned to Cyprus. Two years earlier, he had been allowed by British authorities to leave the Seychelles, where he had been kept in exile, on condition that he never return to Cyprus. An agreement in Zurich between Britain, Greece and Turkey, released Makarios from the conditions, in return for his agreement to drop his quest for "enosis", a movement to make Cyprus part of Greek territory. Later in 1959, Makarios won the election to become the first President of Cyprus.
• The USS Tuscaloosa, USS New Orleans, USS Tennessee and USS West Virginia were stricken from the United States Naval Vessel Register.

March 2, 1959 (Monday)

• The Balkan Pact, signed in 1953 between Turkey, Greece and Yugoslavia, expired after Yugoslavia's President Tito announced that his nation would not renew it.
• Recording sessions for the album Kind of Blue by Miles Davis took place at Columbia's 30th Street Studio in New York City.

March 3, 1959 (Tuesday)

Pioneer 4

• The United States launched the Pioneer 4 probe toward the moon, shortly after midnight EST. The object became the first American spacecraft to completely escape the Earth's gravity, rather than going into orbit.
• The Mosul uprising began in Iraq as Colonel Abd al-Shawaff staged a rebellion against the government of President Abdul Karim Qasim. al-Shawaaf was killed the next day, and after the insurrection was put down, Qasim ordered the execution of officers suspected of complicity.
• In Tifton, Georgia, nine children, ranging in age from 5 to 15, drowned after a loaded school bus ran off a road into a farm pond.
• In Nyasaland (now Malawi), Colonial Governor Robert Armitage declared a state of emergency after riots broke out in that Southern African nation, banning the Nyasaland African Congress (NAC).
• At the British colonial detention camp in Hola, Kenya, where Mau Mau rebels were held, eleven prisoners were beaten to death and 20 others seriously injured by prison staff, in what later was known as the Hola massacre.
• Died: Lou Costello, 52, American comedian (famous for his partnership with Bud Abbott)

March 4, 1959 (Wednesday)

• Pioneer 4 became the second man-made object to pass the Moon and to enter an orbit around the sun, becoming the first American-made planetary object. The Soviet satellite Lunik had achieved solar orbit on January 7. Contact with Pioneer IV was lost two days later after its batteries ran out of power.
• The government of Cuba nationalized the Cuban Telephone Company, a subsidiary of ITT.
• Born:
  • Rick Ardon, Australian news anchor, in Perth
  • Irina Strakhova, Russian race walker, in Novosibirsk
• Died: Maxie Long, 80, Olympic track medalist in 1900

March 5, 1959 (Thursday)

• At Ankara, the United States agreed to defend the remaining members of the Central Treaty Organization (CENTO) in case of attack, signing bilateral defense agreements with Iran, Turkey and Pakistan.
• In Wrightsville, Arkansas, a fire at a dormitory for the Arkansas Training School for Negro Boys killed 21 boys. The doors had been locked, and 47 boys who survived the fire had kicked their way through heavy metal screens to escape.
• The Federal Reserve Bank raised the interest rate half a point to 3%
• U.S. Secretary of Defense Neil H. McElroy told reporters that "a surprise with missiles in the foreseeable future is almost impossible".

March 6, 1959 (Friday)

• Pope John XXIII issued a Notificatio banning "the spreading of images and writings that propose the devotion of The Divine Mercy" that had been the work of Sister Faustina Kowalska.
• By order of the Castro government, all rents in Cuba were reduced by 50 percent.
• Born: Tom Arnold, American actor and comedian, in Ottumwa, Iowa

March 7, 1959 (Saturday)

• "Wishing Won't Hold Berlin", by former U.S. Secretary of State Dean Acheson, appeared in The Saturday Evening Post, after Acheson concluded that the Eisenhower administration was not doing enough to respond to the Soviet ultimatum that all armies withdraw from Berlin (which was surrounded by Communist East Germany).

March 8, 1959 (Sunday)

• The Marx Brothers made their last screen appearance, as Groucho, Chico and Harpo Marx starred in "The Incredible Jewel Robbery" on the CBS anthology program General Electric Theater.
• A 19-year-old airman at the Davis-Monthan AFB committed suicide by setting a high altitude test chamber to simulate 73,000 feet, then pulling off his oxygen mask.
• Born: Aidan Quinn, American actor, in Rockford, Illinois

March 9, 1959 (Monday)

• The Barbie doll made its debut at the American International Toy Fair in New York. Ruth Handler named the doll for her daughter. In 1961, her son Ken would have his name bestowed on another doll.
• Born: Giovanni di Lorenzo, European journalist, in Stockholm

March 10, 1959 (Tuesday)

• When it appeared that the Dalai Lama was on the verge of arrest by the Communist government of China, a rebellion broke out as 30,000 Tibetans surrounded his palace, the Norbulingka. The Dalai Lama would say later that "That day, the people stopped my journey to the Chinese army camp ... and in the meantime, they declared the independence of Tibet.".
• Born: Mike Wallace, American race car driver, in Fenton, Missouri

March 11, 1959 (Wednesday)

Poitier

• A Raisin in the Sun, by African-American playwright Lorraine Hansberry, and starring Sidney Poitier and Claudia McNeil, made its Broadway debut, at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. The play ran for 538 performances.
• The Eurovision Song Contest 1959, staged in Cannes, was won for the Netherlands by "'n Beetje" sung by Teddy Scholten (music by Dick Schallies, text by Willy van Hemert).
• The Sikorsky SH-3 Sea King helicopter, also known as the H-3 Pelican or the S-61, was given its first flight by test pilots.
• Died: Lester Dent, 54, creator of Doc Savage

March 12, 1959 (Thursday)

• By a margin of 323 to 89, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to allow Hawaii to become the 50th state, contingent upon passage by Hawaiian voters. The night before, the Senate had voted its approval, 76–15. The bill was signed into law by President Eisenhower on March 18, 1959.
• Tomasi Kulimoetoke II became the King of Wallis Island, reigning until May 7, 2007.

March 13, 1959 (Friday)

• The United Nations General Assembly voted 56–0, with 23 abstentions, to end the UN Trusteeship over the French Cameroons by January 1, 1960, and to schedule a plebiscite in the north and south sections of the British Cameroons.
• With the admission of Hawaii voted so soon after the admission of Alaska, flag manufacturers asked that the adoption of the 50-star flag be postponed until July 4, 1960. Digby Chandler, president of Annin & Co, said that the industry had already manufactured 300,000 flags with 49 stars, and added, "If we are forced to throw all these away and start making 50-star flags for next July 4 there will be no flag industry left." One proposal was to add an eighth star in the middle row of the seven rows of seven stars.

March 14, 1959 (Saturday)

• Sharaf Rashidov was elected First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic. Answering only to Moscow, Rashidov ruled for 24 years with otherwise unlimited and corrupt power, lasting until his death on October 31, 1983.

March 15, 1959 (Sunday)

• Robert Foster, 32, set a record for holding his breath, remaining underwater for 13 minutes, 42.5 seconds (13:42.5), at San Rafael, California The record stood for 48 years, until broken by Arvydas and Diana Gaiciunas in Druskininkai, Lithuania, on June 16, 2007, at almost 16 minutes (15:58). Both Foster and the Gaiciunas siblings hyperventilated with pure oxygen beforehand in order to drive carbon dioxide from their lungs. The recognized record without such preparations is 11 minutes, 35 seconds, by freediver Stéphane Mifsud on June 8, 2009.
• The prison at the Curragh Camp, where Ireland detained suspected terrorists without formal charges, was formally closed.
• Born: Harold Baines, American baseball player, in Easton, Maryland
• Died: Duncan Hines, 78, restaurant critic who later lent his name to a line of cake mixes

March 16, 1959 (Monday)

• The Republic of Iraq signed a treaty of economic cooperation with the Soviet Union, providing for financial aid totaling 550 million Soviet rubles (equivalent to $47,000,000 USD at the time)
• Born
  • Jens Stoltenberg, Prime Minister of Norway 2000-2001 and 2005-2013; in Oslo
  • Flavor Flav, American rapper (as William Jonathan Drayton, Jr.), in Roosevelt, New York
  • Michael J. Bloomfield, American astronaut on three shuttle missions, in Flint, Michigan
• Died: John B. Salling, 112, American Civil War veteran, in Kingsport, Tennessee. His death left one surviving veteran claimant, Walter Williams of Houston, whose age and service were later disputed.

March 17, 1959 (Tuesday)

• Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, escaped Tibet and found sanctuary in India.
• USS Skate surfaced at the North Pole after spending a record 12 days under the polar ice cap. In a ceremony at the pole, the ashes of polar explorer Sir Hubert Wilkins, who had died in 1958, were scattered at the pole.
• Born: Danny Ainge, Boston Celtics guard and Toronto Blue Jays second baseman, in Eugene, Oregon

March 18, 1959 (Wednesday)

• U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Hawaii Statehood Bill into law at a White House ceremony, but the process of admission was not over. "Under this legislation," said Ike, "the citizens of Hawaii will soon decide whether their islands shall become our 50th state." Voters still had to elect new officials and decide on whether to accept all of the bill's provisions, with statehood conditioned on Palmyra Island not being included.
• Born:
  • Luc Besson, French film director (The Fifth Element), in Paris
  • Irene Cara, American singer (Fame), in New York City

March 19, 1959 (Thursday)

• After the Beijing government ordered the Dalai Lama to report without his bodyguards, fighting broke out in Lhasa, Tibet, as Tibetans battled Chinese troops. The Chinese government stated that thousands of rebels had attacked Lhasa and had been defeated after a two-day battle by Chinese troops.
• Two other islands joined Addu in the United Suvadive Republic in the Maldives Islands (the republic was abolished September 1963).
• The Shaggy Dog was first shown.

March 20, 1959 (Friday)

• In Modesto, California, the record for phonebooth stuffing was broken as 32 "slightly built" students at Modesto Junior College packed themselves into a regulation sized booth—7 feet tall and 32 inches square. However, for safety reasons, the booth was set on its side, and the telephone had been removed. Earlier in the month, 25 students in South Africa had broken the record of 19.
• A unidentified visitor to Lenin's Mausoleum, in Moscow, threw a hammer at the sarcophagus housing Lenin's remains, breaking the glass. The event was not reported in the Soviet press and would not be revealed until after the breakup of the Soviet Union.
• Born:
  • Sting (as Steve Borden) American pro wrestler, in Omaha,
  • Steve McFadden, British actor (Phil Mitchell in EastEnders), in London

March 21, 1959 (Saturday)

• The University of California won the NCAA basketball championship, defeating West Virginia 71–70. Cal blew a 13-point lead in the second half, and the Mountaineers came within one point with 0:53 left. West Virginia did not foul until 0:02 was left. Denny Fitzpatrick's free throw missed, but the Mountaineers' Jerry West was not able to get the ball until time had run out.
• Born: Nobuo Uematsu, composer, in Kochi, Japan

March 22, 1959 (Sunday)

• In a televised address, Cuban's new leader, Fidel Castro announced that, effective immediately, he was outlawing all racial discrimination. Previously segregated clubs, parks and beaches were opened to Cuba's black residents by law.
• The Constitutional Assembly of Mauritania approved a democratic constitution for the African state, which would become independent of France in 1960. Provisions for a multiparty parliamentary system would last only five years, after which Governor Moktar Ould Daddah's Mauritanian People's Party became the only legal party.
• Born: Matthew Modine, American film actor, in Loma Linda, California

March 23, 1959 (Monday)

• Nine miners were killed in an explosion at Brimstone, Tennessee.
• Lee Harvey Oswald earned his GED, with a passing score of 77. He had dropped out of the tenth grade of Fort Worth High School in 1956.

March 24, 1959 (Tuesday)

• The integrated circuit was shown off for the first time by Texas Instruments, at an electronics industry convention in New York.
• The Imam Abd al-Rahman al-Mahdi, son of the Mahdi, founder of the Umma Party in Sudan, and leader of the mahdiyah sect of Islam, died after a reign of 50 years and was succeeded by his son, Siddiq al-Mahdi; who died on October 2, 1961.
• A proposal was introduced in the City Council of New York City to study the possibility of the city seceding from the New York State and becoming its own state.
• As Communist rebels took control in Iraq, Prime Minister Abdel Karim Kassem announced his nation's withdrawal from the Baghdad Pact. The withdrawal had been expected following the July 14, 1958, revolution that overthrew the government of King Feisel II.

March 25, 1959 (Wednesday)

• French President Charles De Gaulle opened his first presidential press conference with a statement that France supported German reunification "as the aim and normal destiny of the German people. provided that [they] do not question their present frontiers to the west, east, north or south." "Germany today is not a danger to us," said De Gaulle as he announced a new relationship with his World War II adversary

March 26, 1959 (Thursday)

• Italy and the United States signed an agreement providing for thirty medium range Jupiter missiles to be deployed on Italian soil, the first placement of the new MRBM.
• International radio communication was blocked out for 11 hours, beginning at 5 p.m. Pacific time. It was believed that an eruption on the sun disrupted transmissions, although such disturbances normally lasted only 30 minutes.
• A circus lion terrorized New York's Madison Square Garden after escaping a cage, running around the arena, then jumping a rail and walking into the main lobby. Ponto, the 800-pound star of the Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey big cat act, was captured 15 minutes later after wandering into a blocked corridor.
• Tenor saxophonist John Coltrane held initial recording sessions for the album Giant Steps with Cedar Walton and Lex Humphries.
• Died: Raymond Chandler, 70, creator of Philip Marlowe

March 27, 1959 (Friday)

• North Carolina became the first state in the nation to require polio vaccines for all children. The measure, already approved in the Senate, passed 73–3 in the House and was signed by Governor Luther H. Hodges.

March 28, 1959 (Saturday)

• The government of Tibet, Ganden Phodrang, was abolished by an order signed by Chinese premier Zhou Enlai, and the Dalai Lama was replaced by a puppet ruler, the Panchen Lama.

March 29, 1959 (Sunday)

• Barthélemy Boganda, Prime Minister of the Central African Republic, was slated to become its first President, but was killed in the crash of a French airliner. After taking off from Berberati for the capital, Bangui, the plane crashed, killing the Prime Minister and eight other people. In celebration of the martyred founding father of the nation, March 29 is a legal holiday in the C.A.R., as Boganda Day.
• Born: Barry Blanchard, Canadian mountaineer, in Calgary

March 30, 1959 (Monday)

• The Dalai Lama took flight from Lhasa to the monastery of Tawang Town, a disputed territory controlled by the Indian government, with the help of CIA operatives, Tibetan guerrillas, and the government of Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. With 85,000 of his co-ethnics, the Lama settled in the town of Dharamsala, in the Himachal Pradesh state of India.
• In two decisions (Bartkus v. Illinois, 359 U.S. 121 and Abbate v. United States 359 U.S. 187), the United States Supreme Court ruled that a person could be charged with the same crime in both state and federal court proceedings without violating the double jeopardy clause of the Fifth Amendment ("nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb"), under the dual sovereignty doctrine.
• Chief Judge Akio Date of the District Court in Tokyo ruled in the Sunakawa case that the stationing of United States military forces in Japan violated Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution. The decision was reversed in the Supreme Court of Japan on December 14.

March 31, 1959 (Tuesday)

• Action Comics No. 252 (May 1959) reached newsstands, and, in a story entitled "The Supergirl From Krypton", introduced Supergirl to the world.
• Busch Gardens in Tampa, Florida, opened to the public as a hospitality facility with bird garden following a dedication ceremony. Until it was superseded by Walt Disney World, the (by then) African safari park was Florida's leading tourist attraction.