December 1959

December 1, 1959 (Tuesday)

• The Antarctic Treaty was signed by all 12 nations that had stations in Antarctica. It came into force on June 23, 1961. Article I provides that "Antarctica shall be used for peaceful purposes only."
• Humble Oil Company was acquired by Standard Oil of New Jersey, later Exxon.
• Allegheny Airlines Flight 371, flying from Philadelphia to Cleveland, crashed, killing 24 of the 25 people on board.
• The children's bedtime program Das Sandmännchen premiered on West German television channels SFB, BR, WDR and NDR, nine days after a similar program debuted on television in East Germany. Production for it ceased in 1991 because of the German Reunification.
• Born:
• *Billy Childish, English artist; in Chatham, Kent
• *Wally Lewis, Australian rugby star and sportscaster; in Hawthorne, Queensland

  December 2, 1959 (Wednesday)

• Kurt Franz, who had been a deputy commander of the Treblinka concentration camp, was arrested in Düsseldorf after 14 years working as a cook. He was released from prison in 1993.
• The collapse of a dam at Malpasset released the waters of the Reyran River and killed 433 people in the French city of Fréjus. At, cubic metres of water were released from Fréjus.
• Behind the Great Wall, presented by Walter Reade, Jr. in "AromaRama", made its debut at the DeMille Theater in New York. The Italian film was edited by Reade to include various scents circulated by the theater air conditioning system. The release preceded, by three weeks, the debut of Scent of Mystery, in Smell-O-Vision.

  December 3, 1959 (Thursday)

• U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower departed the United States for a "mission of peace and goodwill" that would last nearly three weeks, taking him and bringing him to eleven nations on three continents. The American president visited Italy, Turkey, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, India, Greece, Tunisia, France, Spain and Morocco.

  December 4, 1959 (Friday)

• Puyi, the last Emperor of China, received a "special pardon" from the Supreme People’s Court and was released from Fushun War Criminals Prison following his ten years of imprisonment for his involvement with the Japanese interwar and WWII-era puppet state Manchukuo.
• "Sam", an American-born rhesus monkey, was launched toward space from Wallops Island, Virginia, at on the Little Joe 2 suborbital flight to test the emergency escape mechanism. At altitude, the capsule was jettisoned and climbed further to reach, then returned to Earth. The spacecraft was recovered by the. "Sam" withstood the trip and the recovery in good condition.
• Born: Christa Luding-Rothenburger, German multiple athlete, each two titles on speed skating for Winter Olympics and ISU World Sprint Speed Skating Championships, a one title on track cycling for 1986 UCI Track Cycling World Championships; in Weißwasser, Saxony, East Germany
• Died: Hubert Marischka, 77, Austrian director

  December 5, 1959 (Saturday)

• The Syracuse University Orangemen defeated the UCLA Bruins 36–8 to finish as college football's only unbeaten and untied team. The following Monday, Syracuse became the national champion, finishing No. 1 in both the AP and UPI polls.

  December 6, 1959 (Sunday)

• The Stadio San Paolo, with a capacity for 85,012 fans, opened in Fuorigrotta, Italy, as the home stadium for the Napoli soccer football club. The "Azzurri" beat visiting Juventus, 2–1.
• Canton, Ohio, began its quest to host a Pro Football Hall of Fame, with an editorial in the Canton Repository.
• Born: Satoru Iwata, Japanese CEO of Nintendo; in Sapporo

  December 7, 1959 (Monday)

• Olongapo, a U.S. Navy base at Subic Bay, was turned over to Philippine control, along with its infrastructure. Its 60,000 Filipino residents became citizens of the Philippines, and the area became the municipality of Olongapo City.
• Tenney Engineering Corporation was chosen by the Space Task Group to construct the Mercury altitude test chamber in Hangar S at Cape Canaveral. When completed, altitude pressure would simulate. The chamber, a vertical cylinder with domed ends, was in diameter and high. The chamber was designed to allow a partial spacecraft functional check in a near-vacuum environment.

  December 8, 1959 (Tuesday)

• Nikita Khrushchev sent a secret memo to the Soviet Politburo, outlining his proposal for a change in Soviet defense strategy, with an emphasis on building the nation's nuclear arsenal as a deterrent against invasion. The Politburo approved the proposal on December 14, followed by the CPSU Central Committee on December 26, and the announcement was made public on January 14.
• Louis G. Cowan was fired from his job as President of the CBS Television Network as a result of the quiz show scandals of 1959. Cowan had become president after the success of a show that he had created, The $64,000 Question.
• A SAM Colombia airliner, with 42 passengers and three crew, disappeared shortly after takeoff from the San Andrés island resort while bringing vacationers on the trip to the Colombian mainland at Cartagena, with a final destination of Medellín. The Curtiss C-46 gave its last report 20 minutes after departure, stating that its altitude was. The only trace of the airplane was found on December 16, when the right main gear wheel assembly was located in the sea.
• The government of Suriname, at the time a self-governing constituent state in South America within the jurisdiction of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, issued Decree G B No. 105, adopting a new flag, which would be raised on December 15. Upon full independence on November 25, 1975, the Republic of Suriname would adopt a new flag.
• The eight-person crew of the RNLB Mona died when their boat capsized during a night-time rescue operation.

  December 9, 1959 (Wednesday)

• U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower continued his foreign trip, being greeted by more than a million people in New Delhi before meeting the King of Afghanistan in Kabul. No American President visited Afghanistan again until 2006.
• The Norwegian freighter Oslo Motorship Buffalo was turned over by high winds, on the fifth day of a storm that claimed more than 100 lives across Europe. All 20 persons on board were killed.
• Born:
• *Mario Cantone, American actor and comedian; in Stoneham, Massachusetts
• *Terry Moran, American journalist, Senior White House corespondent at ABC News, in Chicago

  December 10, 1959 (Thursday)

• The People's Republic of China began a campaign urging Chinese people worldwide to "come back to the arms of the Motherland", and sent four ships to foreign ports for that purpose. Approximately 100,000 people took advantage of the offer.
• The United States withdrew its last military personnel from Iceland, where it had 5,200 people at Keflavik.
• The "Old Location Massacre" took place in Windhoek, the capital of the colony of South West Africa. Police killed eleven black Africans who were protesting their forced relocation to the new "township" of Katutura.
• In college basketball, Bowling Green State hit only 35.4% of its shots in a 74–68 loss to DePaul. Two days later, Bowling Green lost to Bradley, 99–72. Falcons' player Billy Reed later testified that he and other players had been point shaving after being paid by Jack Molinas.

  December 11, 1959 (Friday)

• The city of Albert Lea, Minnesota, was placed under martial law by order of Governor Orville Freeman, as 80 National Guardsmen occupied the town to intervene in a strike at the Wilson Packing Company. A federal court ruled twelve days later that Governor Freeman had overstepped his authority, holding that "military rule cannot be imposed upon a community simply because it may seem to be more expedient than to enforce the law by using the National Guard to aid the local civil authorities".
• U.S. Central Intelligence Agency Director Allen Dulles received a top secret memo from J.C. King, Director of the agency's Western Hemisphere Division, recommending that "thorough consideration be given the elimination of Fidel Castro". The first of many CIA-sponsored assassination attempts, none of them successful, took place the next July.
• Born: Lisa Gastineau, American socialite and reality show star, as Lisa D'Amico in Rockland County, New York
• Died: Jim Bottomley, 59, American baseball player

  December 12, 1959 (Saturday)

• The first elections in Nigeria took place in advance of the West African nation's independence from Britain. Nigeria became independent on October 1, 1960.
• ASECNA, which regulates air traffic control in Africa, was created by a treaty signed in Saint-Louis, Senegal. The acronym stands for Agence pour la SECurité de la NAvigation aérienne en Afrique et à Madagascar.
• UNCOPUOS, the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, was established.
• The test launch of an uncrewed Titan rocket from Cape Canaveral failed four seconds after ignition, with the rocket collapsing on the launch pad and exploding. Nobody was injured, but the film clip of the launch remains a feature in documentaries about the American space program.
• Paraguayan forces drove off an attempted invasion by rebels, who crossed over from Argentina to attack at Pilar and Encarnacion.

  December 13, 1959 (Sunday)

• An explosion levelled two apartment houses in a suburb of Dortmund, West Germany, at Of 34 people in the Aplerbeck buildings, 26 were killed.
• The Archbishop Makarios III was elected the first President of Cyprus, with 67 percent of the votes of the Greek Cypriot community.
• The Wizard of Oz was aired for the second time on CBS television. This telecast was such a success that it spurred CBS to make the film an annual television tradition. The film had been shown only once before on TV.
• Born: Johnny Whitaker, American actor known for portraying "Jody" in Family Affair; in Van Nuys, California