Major Events of 1959 The unemployment problems eased to 5.5%.
Television programs included "Rawhide", "Bonanza"
and "The Twilight Zone", movies included "Some Like it
Hot", "Ben Hur" and "North by Northwest". Hawaii
was admitted to the Union and became the 50th State. The Boeing 707
Jet Airliner comes into service and little girls love the Barbie Dolls
made by Mattel. Fidel Castro comes to power in Cuba.
Cost of Living 1959
How Much things cost in 1959
Yearly Inflation Rate USA 1.01%
Average Cost of new house $12,400.00
Average Yearly Wages $5,010.00
Cost of a gallon of Gas 25 cents
Average Cost of a new car $2,200.00
Movie Ticket $1.00
Loaf of Bread 20 cents
Kodak Movie camera $67.50
Ladies Stockings $1.00
What
Events Happened in 1959
Fidel Castro
comes to power in Cuba after Revolution with the first communist state
in the west
Mattel's Barbie Doll is Launched
Alaska becomes the 49thState of the United States
Hawaii becomes the 50th State of the United States
Hudson and Nash become the AMC (American Motors Association
Archbishop Makarios is elected president of the Independent Cyprus
Republic
The United Kingdom grants Cyprus its independence.
Flood in Taiwan leaves 2,000 dead.
St Lawrence Seaway a joint US / Canadian venture is completed linking
the great lakes to the Atlantic Ocean
US Unemployment reaches 1.4 million
NASA introduces America's first astronauts to the world including
John H. Glenn Jr, and Alan Shepard Jr.
An International agreement is signed to preserve Antartica
The first known human with HIV dies in Congo.
The spiritual leader of Tibet, the Dalai Lama flees Tibet and obtains
political asylum in India.
Popular Culture 1959
The US Grammy Music Awards Started
The chartered plane transporting musicians
Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and the Big Bopper goes down in an Iowa
snowstorm, killing all four occupants on board. The tragedy is later
termed "The Day the Music Died," popularised in Don McLean's
song, "American Pie."
The Film Ben-Hur premieres in New York
City
Popular Films
Ben-Hur
Some Like It Hot
Anatomy of a Murder
North by Northwest
Sleeping Beauty
Popular Singers
Elvis Presley
Doris Day
Frank Sinatra
Connie Francis
Jim Reeves
Cliff Richard
Ella Fitzgerald
Popular TV Programs
Bonanza premieres on NBC, the first weekly
television series broadcast completely in color
Technology 1959
Boeing 707 Jet Airliner comes into
service cutting 8 hrs from transatlantic Flight
USSR Luna 2 crashes onto the Moon
as the first man-made object and Luna 3 sends back first photos of the
far side of Earth's Moon
IBM shipped the transistor-based IBM
1401 mainframe.
Xerox launches the first commercial
copier
US Launches first Weather Station in Space
De Beers manufactures a synthetic Diamond
QANTAS introduces the Boeing 707 on its
Sydney-San Francisco route, the first transpacific service flown
by jet.
Inventions Invented by Inventors and Country ( or attributed to First
Use )
Microchip USA by Jack Kilby Etch A Sketch France by Arthur Grandjean Computer Modem USA Lunar Probe Russia Lunik I passed the Moon; Lunar Probe
Russia Lunik II crashed on the Moon; Lunar Probe Russia Lunik III photographed the far side of the Moon