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.
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 23 — Convicted Manhattan Project spy Klaus Fuchs is released after nine years in a British prison and allowed to emigrate to Dresden, East Germany (where he resumes a scientific career).
June 25 — A KH-1 Corona satellite, believed to be the first operational spy satellite, is launched as science mission 'Discoverer 4' from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, aboard a Thor-Agena rocket.
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 this 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 it).
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 (1939 film) is shown on television for the second time, but gains a larger viewing audience than its first television outing, spurring CBS to make it an annual tradition.
The Henney Kilowatt goes on sale in the U.S., becoming the first production electric car in almost three decades, but only 47 models will be sold in its 2-year production run.
First femurofArlington Springs Man is found on Santa Rosa Island, California, by Phil C. Orr. The remains are subsequently dated to 13,000 years BP, making them potentially the oldest known human remains in North America.
Media related to 1959 in the United States at Wikimedia Commons
