October 1959

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October 5, 1959: IBM 1401, the first business computer, is introduced
October 26, 1959: Earth's people see the other side of the Moon for the first time
October 25, 1959: The last propeller driven Air Force One flight ends

The following events occurred in October 1959:

October 1, 1959 (Thursday)
  • Aleksandr Alekseyev, a Soviet KGB agent and correspondent for TASS, arrived in Cuba to forge a relationship between the U.S.S.R. and the Castro government. By October 12, he had met with Che Guevara, and by October 15 with Fidel Castro, creating a Soviet ally 90 miles from the United States.[1]
  • NFL Enterprises, the forerunner to NFL Properties, was created as a joint project between Western star Roy Rogers and the owners of the 12 NFL teams. The first licensed product was glassware, to be given away at Standard Oil filling stations.[2]
  • Born: Youssou N'Dour, Senegalese singer, in Dakar; and Brian P. Cleary, American children's author, in Lakewood, Ohio

October 2, 1959 (Friday)

October 3, 1959 (Saturday)
Theodore Roosevelt's daughter
USS Theodore Roosevelt

October 4, 1959 (Sunday)

October 5, 1959 (Monday)
  • The IBM 1401 computer and data processing system was introduced, providing the first fully transistorized computer intended for business use.[9] The three piece system, which could be rented for $2,500 a month, had a memory ranging from 1.4 KB to 16K, could read 800 punchcards per minute and could print 600 lines per minute. More than 14,000 units were installed.[10]
  • Born: Maya Lin, American architect best known for Vietnam Memorial, in Athens, Ohio; and Kelly Joe Phelps, blues musician, in Sumner, Washington

October 6, 1959 (Tuesday)

October 7, 1959 (Wednesday)
  • From 0330 to 0410 GMT, the Lunik 3 probe took the first pictures of the far side of the Moon, 29 images that were later transmitted back to Earth.[14]
  • On Baghdad's al-Rashid Street, Iraq's President Abd al-Karim Qasim was ambushed on his way to the East German embassy. The five man team, led by future Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, killed Qasim's driver and wounded Qasim. One assassin died and Saddam himself was injured, but escaped to a farm.[15] After the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, Saddam fled to the same farm, where he was captured on December 13 of that year.[16]
  • A Taiwanese RB-57 surveillance plane, flying at an altitude of 20,000 meters, was downed by three V-750 missiles as it flew near Beijing. It was the first time that a surface-to-air missile (SAM) had brought down an aircraft.[17]
  • The U.S. Court of Claims ruled that the Tlingit and Haida Indian tribes had been the original owners of southeast Alaska and entitled to monetary compensation. An award for $7.5 million was made in 1968.[18]
Mario Lanza

October 8, 1959 (Thursday)

October 9, 1959 (Friday)
  • Russell Langelle, a CIA agent with a cover as security officer at the Embassy of the United States in Moscow, was arrested as he stepped off a city bus, where he had met Soviet double-agent Pyotr Popov. Langelle was expelled from the Soviet Union, and Popov was later executed for treason.[22]
Bullard

October 10, 1959 (Saturday)
  • Fatah, Palestinian nationalist political party, was founded by Yasser Arafat, Khalil al-Wazir, and others to fight for Palestinian independence. "Fatah" is a reverse acronym for Harakat al Tahir al Filastini.[24]
  • A courageous letter of protest from author Viktor Nekrasov appeared in the Soviet weekly Literaturnaya Gazeta, after Nekrasov learned that the city planners of Kiev planned to pave over Babi Yar, site of the 1941 Nazi massacre of more than 30,000 Ukrainians, mostly Jews. Learning that a soccer stadium was to be built there, Nekrasov wrote, "How is this possible? Who could have thought of such a thing? On the site of such a colossal tragedy to make merry and play football? No! This must not be allowed!" [25] Yevgeny Yevtushenko and Anatoly Kuznetsov were inspired by Nekrasov's protest to write their own works about Babi Yar.[26]
Ray
Watts Towers
  • James Earl Ray was arrested after robbing a supermarket in St. Louis, and given a 20-year sentence in the Missouri State Penitentiary. With more than twelve years remaining on his jail term, Ray would escape on April 23, 1967, and would carry out the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. the following year.[27]
  • The Watts Towers, a metal sculpture by Simon Rodia, withstood a "10,000 pound pull" stress test and earned its right to remain a Los Angeles landmark. The city's Building and Safety Department had ordered the demolition of the landmark, but agreed to let Rodia prove that the 99-foot-tall (30 m) structure would not collapse.[28]
  • Born: Kirsty MacColl, British singer and songwriter, in Croydon (killed in boating accident, 2000)

October 11, 1959 (Sunday)
  • War broke out in the Belgian Congo between two rival tribes, the Lulua and the Baluba, in the city of Luluabourg (now Kananga).[29] Fighting would continue throughout the first campaigns for the first elected legislature in May, 1960, in advance of the Congo's independence from Belgium.[30]
  • Elections were held in the Malagasy Republic on the island of Madagascar for the leaders of 739 rural communes, scheduled to take office on January 1. "The great majority of rural voters," a historian would later note, "had no idea what the new communes were for, and most of the officers elected not only were illiterate but lacked a sense of civic responsibility." [31]
  • Died:
    • Bert Bell, 64, the Commissioner of the National Football League, died of a heart attack while attending the Eagles-Steelers game in Philadelphia. Bell, who had been Commissioner since 1946, had owned both teams earlier in his career. Sports columnist Red Smith later wrote, "It was like Caruso dying in the third act of Pagliacci".[32]
    • Rex Griffin, 53, American country singer
    • Nop Bophann, the editor of Pracheachon, a leftist newsweekly in Cambodia, died of his wounds two days after he was shot by the kingdom's security police while leaving his office. One author would comment later, "His death was probably intended as a gesture of reassurance to the Right that, notwithstanding Cambodia's difficulties with America, the communists would be held in check." [33]

October 12, 1959 (Monday)

October 13, 1959 (Tuesday)

October 14, 1959 (Wednesday)
  • Ruth Urdanivia, a widow in Allentown, Pennsylvania, murdered her five children with overdoses of barbiturates, and unsuccessfully attempted suicide. After being found sane to stand trial, she pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison. She was paroled in 1967.[37]
Flynn

October 15, 1959 (Thursday)
  • A B-52F Stratofortress bomber, carrying two nuclear weapons, collided with a KC-135 refueling tanker, causing both planes to explode in mid-air [38] and killing seven of the 12 people on the two airplanes, though four members of the bomber crew were able to parachute to safety. [39] The collision happened over Breckinridge County, Kentucky in the U.S., with the bomber (and its nuclear weapons) crashing on a farm near the community of Glen Dean and the tanker hitting a hillside near McQuady . [40] The two nuclear weapons on the bomber were recovered without release of radiation.[41]
  • Ukrainian nationalist Stepan Bandera was murdered by KGB agent Bogdan Stashinsky in Munich, West Germany. The weapon was a gun that fired hydrogen cyanide gas into Bandera's face. Stashinsky, who had killed newspaperman Lev Rebet in the same manner in 1957, swallowed an antidote and escaped.[42]
The cast of The Untouchables, with Stack on far right
  • The television series The Untouchables, based on the autobiography of federal Prohibition enforcement agent Eliot Ness, premiered on ABC as one of the most violent shows ever to be shown on television, with killings of Chicago gangsters shown on every episode. [43] Starring Robert Stack as Ness, the show would run for four seasons and 118 episodes, and was popular in spite of (or perhaps because of) its violent nature.
  • The Antarctic Conference opened in Washington with representatives of 12 nations in attendance. The Antarctic Treaty was signed on December 1 and became effective in 1961.[44]
  • Born:
  • Died:
    • Phetsarath Rattanavongsa, 69, former Prime Minister of Laos who served for six months as the head of state after King Sisavang Vong was temporarily removed from office
    • Elliott White Springs, 63, American World War I ace credited with shooting down 16 enemy aircraft

October 16, 1959 (Friday)
  • Lee Harvey Oswald arrived in Moscow on a six-day visa, and applied for Soviet citizenship. Coincidentally, he would begin work at the Texas School Book Depository four years to the day later, on October 16, 1963.[45]
  • Television was inaugurated in the State of Western Australia as TVW7 went on the air.[46]
Marshall

October 17, 1959 (Saturday)

October 18, 1959 (Sunday)
  • The X-3C, a circular wing hovercraft designed at Princeton University, made its first flight. Twenty feet in diameter and constructed of aluminum, the X-3C has been described as the closest approximation to a flying saucer.[49]
  • Former President Harry S. Truman appeared in a series of comic sketches on The Jack Benny Program. Critics disagreed on whether the dignity of the American presidency had been compromised.[50]
  • Died: Boughera El Ouafi, 61, Algerian runner and 1928 Olympic marathon winner, was shot to death while dining in a cafe

October 19, 1959 (Monday)

October 20, 1959 (Tuesday)

October 21, 1959 (Wednesday)
The Guggenheim
  • The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, popularly referred to as "the Guggenheim", opened in New York. The art museum, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, is built in the form of a spiral.[53]
  • After being told to leave the U.S.S.R., Lee Harvey Oswald slashed his wrists at his Moscow hotel room. His life was saved after Rima Shirokova found Oswald unconscious and had him taken to the Botkinskaya Hospital.[54]
  • Major Pedro Díaz Lanz, who had been chief of the Cuban Air Force until defecting in July, flew an airplane from Florida and dropped thousands of leaflets over Havana, then returned to the U.S. In the chaos that followed, two people died and 45 were injured, and Fidel Castro charged that the United States had bombed Cuba.[55]
  • Wernher von Braun's team of rocket scientists was transferred from the Army Ballistic Missile Agency to NASA.[56]
  • Kongka Pass incident: Ten members of India's Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) were killed near Ladakh at Hot Springs, while defending against an incursion by soldiers from neighboring China. The other members of the 21-man patrol were taken prisoner, though later released. October 21 is now observed as Police Commemoration Day throughout India.[57]
  • Born:

October 22, 1959 (Thursday)
  • Rioting broke out in San'ya, the ghetto area of Tokyo, as a crowd of about 300 attacked the local police station.[58]
  • The Franco-German Extradition Treaty, adopted in 1951, went into effect.[59]
  • VES (vesicular exanthema of swine), which had caused a 15-month-long epizootic in 1952 and 1953, was declared to be eradicated.[60]
  • Died: Joseph Cahill, 68, Premier of New South Wales since 1952, died of a heart attack

October 23, 1959 (Friday)

October 24, 1959 (Saturday)
  • Cuba instituted Law 851, nationalizing more than 150 American investments, including the hotels, casinos and racetrack. Foreign tourism, which had been nearly 275,000 in 1957, fell to 87,000 by 1960.[63]
  • Playboy's Penthouse began a brief run on syndicated television. Broadcast live from Chicago, the program was in the format of a cocktail party hosted by Hugh Hefner. Besides increasing sales of the magazine, the program paved the way to the creation of the Playboy Clubs.[64]

October 25, 1959 (Sunday)

October 26, 1959 (Monday)

October 27, 1959 (Tuesday)
  • More than 1,000 people in Mexico were killed by a hurricane that struck the states of Colima and Jalisco. The town of Minatitlán was heaviest hit, with winds, floods and landslides.[69]
  • Pakistan's President Muhammad Ayub Khan instituted the program he called "Basic Democracy", whereby the nation would be divided into 80,000 constituencies, each of which would elect its own representative. These 80,000 persons would elect members of parliament and provincial legislatures, as well as the President, and would carry out governmental programs.[70]
  • Born: Rick Carlisle, American NBA player, later coach of the NBA 2010-11 champion Dallas Mavericks; in Ogdensburg, New York

October 28, 1959 (Wednesday)
  • The synthetic fabric spandex (trademarked as Lycra) was introduced by DuPont, relying upon a "Fiber K", a synthetic elastomer that was lighter and more durable than conventional elastic, making it ideal for swimsuits.[71]
  • U.S. Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts began the planning of a presidential run with a meeting at Bobby Kennedy's home in Hyannisport.[72]

October 29, 1959 (Thursday)
Cienfuegos
  • Camilo Cienfuegos, the 26-year-old Commander of Cuba's revolutionary army, took off in a Cessna 310 from Camagüey, bound for Havana, along with three other people. The airplane vanished without a trace, although a bulletin on November 4 from Cuba announced that Cienfuegos had been found on "an island off southern Cuba".[73] Cienfuegos was later celebrated as a Cuban martyr.[74]
  • The character of Astérix the Gaul made his debut, appearing in the first regular issue of the comic magazine Pilote.[75]
  • The Arkansas State Press, an African-American weekly newspaper founded in 1941 by Lucious Bates, published its last issue. During its 14 years, the newspaper had lobbied to end racial discrimination in Arkansas.[76]
  • Died: Sisavang Vong, 74, King of Laos, since independence an King of Luang Prabang during the French colonial period since 1904, died in Luang Phrabang. He was succeeded by Crown Prince Savang Vatthana, who would be the last monarch.[77]

October 30, 1959 (Friday)

October 31, 1959 (Saturday)
Lee Oswald USMC
  • Lee Harvey Oswald entered the U.S. Embassy in Moscow and told officer Richard Edward Snyder that he wished to renounce his American citizenship. Snyder accepted Oswald's passport and a written note, but told Oswald that further paperwork would need to be completed. Oswald did not complete the process and returned to the United States in 1962.[83] News of the defection made the front pages of American newspapers four years before he would resurface as the accused assassin of John F. Kennedy.[84]
  • Born: Neal Stephenson, American sci-fi author (The Diamond Age) writer, in Fort Meade, Maryland

References
  1. Sergei N. Khrushchev (translator Shirley Benson), Nikita Khrushchev and the Creation of a Superpower (Pennsylvania State University Press, 2001), p491
  2. Michael Oriard, Brand NFL: Making and Selling America's Favorite Sport (University of North Carolina Press, 2007), p3
  3. M. Keith Booker, Science Fiction Television: A History (Praeger, 2004), pp 8–9
  4. Jurg Gerber and Eric L Jensen, Encyclopedia of White-collar Crime (Greenwood Press, 2007), pp46–47
  5. Ramesh K. Arora and Rajni Goyal, Indian Public Administration: Institutions and Issues (Wishwa Prakashan, 1995), p287
  6. "The Passion for Research", by Maurice Allais, in Eminent Economists: Their Life Philosophies (Cambridge University Press, 1993), pp39–41
  7. "Big Stick A-Sub Goes Down Ways", Oakland Tribune, October 4, 1959, p1
  8. Paolo Ulivi, with David M. Harland, Lunar Exploration: Human Pioneers and Robotic Surveyors (Springer-Verlag, 2004) pp26–28
  9. IBM Archives.
  10. Edwin D. Reilly, Milestones in computer science and information technology (Greenwood Press, 2003), pp129–130
  11. J. Hoberman, The Magic Hour: Film at Fin de Siècle (Temple University Press, 2003), pp152–153; "2 Witnesses Bare TV Quiz Show Fix", Oakland Tribune, October 6, 1959, p1
  12. Shabtai Rosenne and Terry D Gill, The World Court: What It Is and How It Works (Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1989), pp190–191
  13. Amos J. Peaslee, International Governmental Organizations, Pt. 2: Agriculture, Commodities, Fisheries, Food, and Plants (Nijhoff, 1975) pp321–322
  14. Paolo Ulivi, with David M. Harland, Lunar exploration: human pioneers and robotic surveyors (Springer-Verlag, 2004) pp26–28
  15. Andrew Cockburn and Patrick Cockburn, Saddam Hussein: An American Obsession (Verso, 2002), p72
  16. FBI notes: Saddam Hussein sought familiar refuge, Associated Press, July 2, 2009
  17. Steve Zaloga, Red SAM: The SA-2 Guideline Anti-Aircraft Missile (New Vanguard Press, 2007) p8
  18. Patrick Daley and Beverly A James, Cultural Politics and the Mass Media: Alaska Native Voices (University of Illinois Press, 2004), p81
  19. Frank Conley, General Elections Today (St. Martin's Press, 1994), pp27–31
  20. "Seven Greatest World Series Relief Appearances", by George Vass, Baseball Digest (October 1995), pp21–22
  21. Arkady B. Tsfasman, from Totalitarian and Authoritarian Regimes in Europe: Legacies and Lessons from the Twentieth Century (Berghahn Books, 2006), p559
  22. Tennent H. Bagley, Spy Wars: Moles, Mysteries, and Deadly Games (Yale University Press, 2007), pp74–75
  23. Betty Kaplan Gubert, Miriam Sawyer and Caroline M. Fannin, Distinguished African Americans in Aviation and Space Science (Oryx Press, 2002), pp55–60
  24. Kameel B. Nasr, Arab and Israeli Terrorism: The Causes and Effects of Political Violence, 1936–1993 (McFarland & Co., 1997), pp40–41
  25. p65
  26. William Korey, in The Holocaust in the Soviet Union: Studies and Sources on the Destruction of the Jews in the Nazi-occupied Territories of the USSR, 1941–1945 (M.E. Sharpe, 1993), p45
  27. "Ray, James Earl", The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives, Vol. V, pp469–471
  28. Sarah Schrank, Art and the City: Civic Imagination and Cultural Authority in Los Angeles (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009), p145
  29. "Association des Lulua-Freres", in Historical Dictionary of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, by Emizet Francois Kisangani (Rowman & Littlefield, 2016) p79
  30. Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja, The Congo: From Leopold to Kabila: A People's History (Zed Books, 2002) p104
  31. Virginia Thompson, Richard Adloff, The Malagasy Republic: Madagascar Today (Stanford University Press, 1965) p151
  32. Mark Yost, Tailgating, Sacks, and Salary Caps: How the NFL Became the Most Successful Sports League in History (Kaplan Publishing, 2006), pp63–64
  33. Philip Short, Pol Pot: Anatomy of a Nightmare (Henry Holt and Company, 2004) p130
  34. Rip Bulkeley and Graham Spinardi, Space Weapons: Deterrence or Delusion? (Barnes & Noble Books, 1986), p17
  35. Colin Burgess and Rex Hall, The First Soviet Cosmonaut Team: Their Lives, Legacy, and Historical Impact (Springer, 2009), pp18–19
  36. Mark Williamson, Spacecraft Technology: The Early Years (Institution of Electrical Engineers, 2006.), pp132–133
  37. R. Barri Flowers and H. Loraine Flowers, Murders in the United States: Crimes, Killers and Victims of the Twentieth Century (McFarland & Co., 2004), p138
  38. "Crash in Air Sighted Over Four States— Jet Bomber Held Atom Weapon", Chicago Daily Tribune, October 16, 1959, p. 1
  39. "A-Armed B52, Tanker Crash In Flames Near Hardinsburg", Lexington (KY) Leader, October 16, 1959, p. 1
  40. "Air Force Probing Mid-Air Jet Collision— 2 Black Gashes Mark Graves of 8 Fliers; Unexploded A-Bomb Cargo Under Wraps", by Alan Levy, The Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY) October 16, 1959, p. 1
  41. Jon Lake, B-52 Stratofortress Units in Combat, 1955–1973 (Oxford Osprey 2004), p18
  42. Joseph J. Trento, The Secret History of the CIA (Carroll & Graf, 2005), p180
  43. Gary R. Edgerton, The Columbia History of American Television (Columbia University Press, 2007), p196
  44. G.E. Fogg, A History of Antarctic Science (Cambridge University Press, 1992), p177
  45. The Warren Commission Report, p12, p15
  46. Farewell Cinderella: Creating Arts and Identity in Western Australia (University of Western Australia Press, 2003), p232
  47. Ian Linden, Church and Revolution in Rwanda (Manchester University Press, 1977), p267
  48. The Cambridge Guide to American Theatre, 2d. Ed. (Cambridge University Press, 2007), p403
  49. Leonard G. Cramp, UFOs and Anti-gravity: Piece For a Jig-saw (Adventures Unlimited Press, 1996), pp43–44
  50. Alan Schroeder, Celebrity-in-chief: How Show Business Took Over the White House (Westview Press, 2004), p61
  51. The Miracle Worker, Patty Duke fan site
  52. "A Woman's Place" in Oxford Today Magazine
  53. John H. Davis, The Guggenheims: An American Epic (S.P.I. Books, 1989), pp198–200
  54. The Warren Commission Report, pp 691–692
  55. Alan L. McPherson, Yankee No!: Anti-Americanism in U.S.-Latin American Relations (Harvard University Press, 2003), pp59–61
  56. David J. Darling, The Complete Book of Spaceflight: From Apollo 1 to Zero Gravity (Wiley, 2003), p363
  57. N.R. Madhava Menon, ed., Criminal Justice: India Series (Allied Publishers, 2002), Vol. 8, pp182–183
  58. Joe Moore, The Other Japan: Conflict, Compromise, and Resistance Since 1945 (M.E. Sharpe, 1997), pp91–92
  59. Israel Yearbook on Human Rights 1977, (Martinus Nijhoff, 1977), pp67–68
  60. George W. Beran, ed., Handbook of Zoonoses, 2d. Ed., Section B, p445
  61. Reports of Judgments, Advisory Opinions and Orders (United Nations Publications, 2003), p73
  62. S.T. Joshi, Icons of Horror and the Supernatural: An Encyclopedia of Our Worst Nightmares (Greenwood Press, 2007), p397
  63. Mark M. Miller and Tony L. Henthorne, Investment in the New Cuban Tourist Industry: A Guide to Entrepreneurial Opportunities (Quorum Books, 1997), p6
  64. Gene N. Landrum, Entrepreneurial Genius: The Power of Passion (Brendan Kelly Pub., 2004), pp153–154
  65. Connie Survivors website
  66. Our Lady of the Highways website
  67. European Space Agency website
  68. "British to See Valiant First", Detroit News, October 21, 1959, p. 15
  69. "Mexico Storm Toll Total Nears 1,500", San Antonio Express and News, October 31, 1959, p1
  70. Khoon Choy Lee, Diplomacy of a Tiny State (World Scientific, 1993), pp148–149
  71. Dan Parker, The Bathing Suit: Christian Liberty or Secular Idolatry (Xulon Press, 2003), pp151–152
  72. Shaun Casey, The Making of a Catholic President: Kennedy vs. Nixon, 1960 (Oxford University Press, 2009), p26
  73. "Bulletin", Oakland Tribune, November 4, 1959, p1
  74. Paco Ignacio Taibo, Guevara, Also Known as Che (St. Martin's Griffin, 1999), pp290–291
  75. "Les BD oubliées D'Astérix". BDoubliées (in French). Retrieved 2013-10-03.
  76. "Bates, Lucious Christopher", in Arkansas Biography: A Collection of Notable Lives (University of Arkansas Press, 2000), pp20–21
  77. Grant Evans, The Politics of Ritual and Remembrance: Laos Since 1975 (University of Hawaiʻi Press, 1998), pp89–90
  78. "Lumumba, Patrice", in Encyclopedia of African History (CRC Press, 2005), pp858–859
  79. Elizabeth D. Schafer, Auburn: Plainsmen, Tigers, and War Eagles (Arcadia, 2003), p20
  80. "One Survivor Tells Fate of 26 in Crash", Oakland Tribune, November 2, 1959, p1; "Fiftieth Anniversary: The Final Flight of Piedmont Airlines 349", Crozet (VA) Gazette, October 13, 2009
  81. Alert Operations and the Strategic Air Command, 1957–1991 (GPO, 1991), p5
  82. Luke Uka Uche, Mass Media, People, and Politics in Nigeria (Concept Publishing, 1989), pp60–62
  83. The Warren Commission Report, pg 392
  84. "Texas Marine Gives Up U.S. For Russia", The Miami News, October 31, 1959, p1
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