August 1959

August 1, 1959 (Saturday)

• Georges Vanier was asked to serve as Governor General of Canada, the first French Canadian, and only the second Canadian native overall, to hold the job. He took office on September 15 and served until his death in 1967.
• John Gotti, 18, was arrested for the first time, in a raid on a New York gambling establishment.
• Born: Joe Elliott, British rock singer, in Sheffield

  August 2, 1959 (Sunday)

• Rioting broke out in Temirtau, a Virgin Lands Campaign city being built in the Kazakh S.S.R. Before Soviet authorities restored order, 16 rioters were killed, and 109 soldiers and policemen were injured.

  August 3, 1959 (Monday)

• Portuguese soldiers and civilian police fired on a crowd of strikers at a dock in Pijiguiti, Portuguese Guinea, killing as many 50 and wounding 100. The massacre was the start of a 13-year battle that culminated in the independence of the colony in 1974 as Guinea-Bissau.
• The Army's Combat Development Experimentation Center unveiled the "Soldier of Tomorrow", described in a press release as "America's ultimate weapon – the man." The soldier of 1965 would have "a helmet with a built-in radio, infra-red binoculars and his own rocket device", a "jump belt", which "will enable him to cross streams and cliffs with ease".
• Major General Donald N. Yates was appointed as the U.S. Department of Defense representative for Project Mercury support operations.
• Born: Koichi Tanaka, Japanese scientist, recipient of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, in Toyama

  August 4, 1959 (Tuesday)

• U.S. Secretary of State Christian Herter presented a check to Carlos P. Romulo, President of the Philippines, for $23,862,751 for damages caused by the 1934 devaluation of Philippine currency, caused when the U.S. abandoned the gold standard. The U.S. agreed to pay for war damages, but rejected fifteen other claims totalling.
• Born: Robbin Crosby, American rock guitarist, in La Jolla, California

  August 5, 1959 (Wednesday)

• U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower approved a change in America's Basic National Security Policy, providing that "The United States will be prepared to use chemical and biological weapons to the extent that such use will enhance the effectiveness of the armed forces. The decisions as to their use will be made by the President."
• Three months of negotiations between the Soviet Union, and the United States, Great Britain and France, ended in Geneva with no resolution on the future of Berlin.
• Died: Edgar A. Guest, 77, English-born American poet for the Detroit Free Press who published 11,000 poems between 1898 and his death. At his height, he was syndicated in 300 newspapers and was dubbed "The People's Poet".

  August 6, 1959 (Thursday)

• Four F-102 aircraft were made available for use by the Mercury astronauts to maintain proficiency in high performance vehicles.
• The B-17 Flying Fortress was used in an American military operation for the last time. An unmanned radio-controlled drone was guided over the White Sands Missile Range and shot down by Falcon air-to-air missiles from F-101 and F-106 jets.
• Born: Donna Lewis, Welsh singer-songwriter, in Cardiff
• Died: Preston Sturges, 60, American film director and writer

  August 7, 1959 (Friday)

• In Taiwan, 1,075 people died in floods after Typhoon Ellen caused 1,164 mm of rain to fall over three days.
• Six city blocks in downtown Roseburg, Oregon, were levelled at by the explosion of a dynamite truck. The blast killed 14 people and left a crater.
• The United Nations reported a deficit of $7,469,150. More than 60 member nations had not paid annual dues.
• Pakistan passed the Elective Bodies Disqualification Order, barring 75 leaders in East Pakistan from political activity until December 31, 1966.

  August 8, 1959 (Saturday)

• After more than 1,000 performances in the London production of My Fair Lady, Julie Andrews retired from the role of Eliza Doolittle, freeing her to go on to a career in film and television. She was replaced in the role by Anne Rogers.
• A fatal car accident ignited a wildfire in the Decker Canyon near Lake Elsinore, California. The ensuing blaze killed six firefighters.
• Died: Albert Namatjira, 57, Australian aboriginal artist and activist. Namatjira was the first Northern Territory aboriginal person to be granted Australian citizenship and the right to vote in national elections.

  August 9, 1959 (Sunday)

• The SM-65 Atlas, America's first intercontinental ballistic missile, with a range of, was declared to be operational after successful testing.
• Born: Kurtis Blow, American rap artist, in New York City

  August 10, 1959 (Monday)

• Four of the five singers for The Platters, who had hit No. 1 earlier in the year with "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes", were arrested in Cincinnati and charged with soliciting prostitutes and using drugs. The charges were eventually dismissed, but the group's concert dates were cancelled, and disc jockeys refused to play their records, for several months.
• Born: Rosanna Arquette, American actress, in New York City

  August 11, 1959 (Tuesday)

• Sheremetyevo International Airport opened at the site of the former Sheremetyevsky Air Base near Moscow as the second civilian airport to serve the Russian capital, in order to supplement the smaller Vnukovo International Airport. Initially limited to domestic traffic, its first civilian flight was the arrival of an Aeroflot Tupolev Tu-104B jet flight from Leningrad, and it would begin international flights on June 1, 1960, and it is now the busiest airport in Russia.
• The longest home run of all time was hit in a minor league baseball game in Carlsbad, New Mexico. Gil Carter literally knocked the ball out of the park, clearing the left field light tower at Montgomery Field. His team, the Carlsbad Potashers, lost to the Odessa Dodgers, 6–2, in the Sophomore League game. The ball was found the next day, from home plate.
• Born:
• *Gustavo Cerati, Argentinian rock musician, in Buenos Aires
• *Yoshiaki Murakami, Japanese corporate raider, in Osaka

  August 12, 1959 (Wednesday)

• In the U.S., high schools in Little Rock, Arkansas, reopened, a year after being closed in order to avoid integration. Governor Orval E. Faubus addressed a crowd of 1,000 segregationists in front of the State Capitol while the two schools, each admitting three black students, were beginning classes. Afterward, a group of 200 protestors outside of Central High School were dispersed by the city police.
• The New Projects Panel of Space Task Group met for the first time, with H. Kurt Strass in the chair. The panel considered problems related to atmospheric reentry at speeds approaching escape velocity, maneuvers in the atmosphere and space, and parachute recovery for an Earth landing. Alan B. Kehlet of STG's Flight Systems Division was assigned to oversee the overhauling of a second-generation capsule to incorporate several advances over the Mercury spacecraft. A goal was set for a capsule to carry three astronauts, capable of maneuvering in space and in the atmosphere. The primary reentry system would be designed for water landing, with land landing as a secondary goal.
• The city of Crosslake, Minnesota, was incorporated.

  August 13, 1959 (Thursday)

• North Korea and Japan agreed on terms for repatriation of Koreans living in Japan. Over the next two years, thousands moved back to their homes in North Korea, even with an option to live in South Korea.
• The Philippines Department of Education declared that Pilipino, a standardized form of Tagalog, would replace English as the national language of instruction for grades 1 through 4.
• Born: Danny Bonaduce, American TV actor; in Broomall, Pennsylvania

  August 14, 1959 (Friday)

• Typhoon Georgia struck Japan, killing 137 people. Hitting Honshu Island, the typhoon caused the worst damage in history to Japan's rail lines.
• The formation of the American Football League was announced at a press conference in Chicago, with at least six teams to begin play in autumn 1960, in New York, Los Angeles, Houston, Dallas, Denver and Minneapolis. Founder Lamar Hunt would later say that he had envisioned the AFL as being a six-team league in its inaugural season, but that interest from Ralph Wilson and others led to an 8-team circuit.
• Earth was photographed for the first time from an orbiting satellite, Explorer 6, which had been launched on August 7. The first image, taken from an altitude of about 27,000 km or 17,000 miles, showed the clouds over the northern Pacific Ocean. Although the photo was crude, it demonstrated the potential of observing weather patterns from orbit.
• NASA Headquarters approved a Space Task Group proposal that negotiations be undertaken with McDonnell for the fabrication of six additional Mercury spacecraft.
• The Federal Radiation Council was created by Executive Order 10831. Consisting of six cabinet members and the Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, the council was established to advise the American President on federal standards for radiation and nuclear plant safety.
• Born: Magic Johnson, American NBA player; in Lansing, Michigan

  August 15, 1959 (Saturday)

• The first fatal crash of a passenger jet killed five American Airlines crewmen, who were on a training flight of a Boeing 707. The crew were practicing landings at a private airfield owned by Grumman Aircraft when the jet crashed in a potato field at Calverton, New York, at.
• The Mercury astronauts began their initial centrifuge training at the Aviation Medical Acceleration Laboratory.
• Born: Scott Altman, American astronaut on four space shuttle missions; in Lincoln, Illinois