World Statistics
Population: 2.997 billion
Nobel Peace Prize:
Philip John Noel-Baker (UK)
Cuban President Batista resigns and flees
(Jan. 1). Fidel Castro assumes power (Feb. 16).
Tibet's Dalai Lama escapes to India (Mar. 31).
Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev tours the United States, meeting
with Eisenhower at Camp David.
Britain recognizes the independence of Cyprus.
U.S. Statistics
President: Dwight D. Eisenhower
Vice President: Richard M. Nixon
Population: 177,829,628
Life expectancy: 69.9 years
Homicide Rate (per 100,000): 4.6
Alaska (Jan. 3) and Hawaii (Aug. 21)
become the 49th and 50th states.
St. Lawrence Seaway opens, allowing ocean ships to reach Midwest
(April 25).
Economics
US GDP (1998 dollars): $507.2 billion
Federal spending: $92.10 billion
Federal debt: $287.5 billion
Consumer Price Index: 29.1
Unemployment: 6.8%
Cost of a first-class stamp: $0.04
Sports
World Series
LA Dodgers d. Chicago White Sox (4-2)
NBA Championship
Boston d. Minneapolis Lakers (4-0)
Stanley Cup
Montreal d. Toronto (4-1)
Wimbledon
Women: Maria Bueno d. D. Hard (6-4 6-3)
Men: Alex Olmedo d. R. Laver (6-4 6-3 6-4)
Kentucky Derby Champion
Tomy Lee
NCAA Basketball Championship
California d. West Virginia (71-70)
NCAA Football Champions
Syracuse (11-0-0)
Pulitzer Prizes
Fiction: The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters, Robert Lewis Taylor
Music: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, John La Montaine
Drama: J. B. Archibald MacLeish
Oscars awarded in 1959
Academy Award, Best Picture: Gigi, Arthur Freed, producer (MGM)
Nobel Prize for Literature: Salvatore Quasimodo (Italy)
Miss America: Mary Ann Mobley (MS)
Events
The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences sponsors the
first Grammy Award ceremony for music recorded in 1958.
Frank Sinatra wins his first Grammy Award -- Best Album for Come
Dance with Me.
Rumors of cheating on quiz shows erupt into a national scandal.
Movies
Some Like It Hot, North by Northwest, Ben-Hur, Anatomy of a
Murder, Room at the Top
Books
William Burroughs, Naked Lunch
D. H. Lawrence, Lady Chatterley's Lover
Robert Lowell, Life Studies
Norman Mailer, Advertisements for Myself
James A. Michener, Hawaii
Grace Paley, The Little Disturbances of Man
Boris Pasternak, Doctor Zhivago
Philip Roth, Goodbye Columbus and Five Short Stories
Science
Nobel Prizes in Science
Chemistry: Jaroslav Heyrovsky (Czechoslovakia), for development of
polarography, an electrochemical method of analysis
Physics: Emilio Segre and Owen Chamberlain (both US), for
demonstrating the existence of the anti-proton
Physiology or Medicine: Severo Ochoa and Arthur Kornberg (both US),
for discoveries related to compounds within chromosomes that play a
vital role in heredity
Jack S. Kilby of Texas Instruments (US)
supervises the development of the first integrated circuit.
The US Navy launches the Vanguard satellite.
The Lunik II probe (USSR) reaches the moon; Lunik III photographs
the dark side of the moon for the first time.
Deaths
Lou Costello
Cecil B. De Mille
Mel Ott
Frank Lloyd Wright