November 1959

November 1, 1959 (Sunday)

• In Rwanda, violence between the Hutu and Tutsi people was triggered by an attack upon Hutu activist Dominique Mbonyumutwa. Over the next two weeks 300 people, mostly Tutsi, were killed, in what was known as the wind of destruction.
• John Howard Griffin, a white writer from Mansfield, Texas, began the process of making himself look black in order to research his classic book, Black Like Me.
• Jacques Plante of the Montreal Canadiens became the first NHL goalie in modern times to wear a face mask, donning it after a shot from Andy Bathgate struck him in the face. The Canadiens won 3–1. Soon, all goalies were wearing masks.

  November 2, 1959 (Monday)

• Charles Van Doren, famous for being the all-time winner on the TV game show Twenty One, admitted in a hearing in Congress that he had been supplied the answers in advance.
• Born: Saïd Aouita, Moroccan distance runner, 1987 world champion in the 5000 meter race and 1984 Olympic gold medalist; in Kenitra. Aouita at one time held the world record for fastest ever 1500 meters ; 3000 meters and 5000 meters

  November 3, 1959 (Tuesday)

• In elections for Israel's Knesset, David Ben-Gurion's Mapai Party retained power, capturing 47 of the 120 seats, but still 13 short of a majority.
• Speaking at France's École Militaire, President Charles de Gaulle announced that France would build its own nuclear strike force, the "force de frappe", "whether we make it ourselves or buy it".
• Rioting broke out in Panama after a crowd of 2,000 students in Panama clashed with police at the American controlled Panama Canal Zone.

  November 4, 1959 (Wednesday)

• Six Israeli jets and four Egyptian MiG-17s clashed in a dogfight near the border between the two nations. All planes reportedly returned safely and the battle did not lead to further action.
• The government of Morocco imposed emergency measures after more than 6,700 people had been paralyzed by tainted cooking oil, including the death penalty for manufacturers who had sold the oil in Meknes during the feast of Ramadan in September and October. Peanut oil had been mixed with a jet aircraft engine rinse purchased as surplus from a United States Air Force base at Nouasseur, and the victims were poisoned by tricresyl phosphate. More than 10,000 people eventually required treatment for injuries. Five of the manufacturers were sentenced to death, but never executed.
• Little Joe 1A was launched in a test for a planned abort under high aerodynamic load conditions. This flight was a repeat of the failed Little Joe 1 launch that had been planned for August 21, 1959. After lift-off, the pressure sensing system was to supply a signal when the intended abort dynamic pressure was reached. An electrical impulse was then sent to the explosive bolts to separate the spacecraft from the launch vehicle. Up to this point, the operation went as planned, but the impulse was also designed to start the igniter in the escape motor. The igniter activated, but pressure failed to build up in the motor until a number of seconds had elapsed. Thus, the abort maneuver, the prime mission of the flight, was accomplished at a dynamic pressure that was too low. For this reason, a repeat of the test was planned. All other events from the launch through recovery occurred without incident. The flight attained an altitude of 9 statute miles, a range of 11.5 statute miles, and a speed of.
• Died:
• *U.S. Congressman Charles A. Boyle of Illinois, 52, was killed in an automobile accident as he returned from a long day of campaigning on behalf of Chicago Democrats.
• *U.S. Congressman Steven V. Carter of Iowa, 44, died the same day of cancer.

  November 5, 1959 (Thursday)

• The Mercury astronauts were fitted with pressure suits and indoctrinated as to their use at the B. F. Goodrich Company, Akron, Ohio.
• Test pilot Albert Scott Crossfield encountered trouble at on the third flight of the North American X-15 rocket plane and was unable to jettison his fuel because of a steep glide. The plane buckled on a hard landing on a dry lake bed. By chance, the split occurred between the cabin and the fuel tanks, and the fuel did not ignite.
• Born: Bryan Adams, Canadian pop singer, in Kingston, Ontario

  November 6, 1959 (Friday)

• In Boston, Dr. Bernard Lown was inspired to create the direct current heart defibrillator after using 400 volts of electricity to restore the heart rhythm of a patient, known to history only as "Mr. C___".
• Died: Jose P. Laurel, 68, President of the Philippines during Japanese occupation; Laurel was installed as the leader of the Japanese puppet-state, the Second Philippine Republic, from 1943 to 1946 and later received amnesty for collaboration with the enemy

  November 7, 1959 (Saturday)

• The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Taft-Hartley Act, and ordered 500,000 striking steelworkers to return to work for the next 80 days. In an 8–1 decision, Justice Douglas dissenting, the Court declared that the strike "imperils the national safety".
• After his troops had control of most of the disputed Ladakh border region with India, China's Premier Zhou Enlai proposed that both sides withdraw their troops. When the Sino-Indian War was fought in 1962, China insisted on the border being based on the lines of "actual control" of 1959.
• The rivalry between Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain began as Russell and the Boston Celtics defeated Chamberlain's Philadelphia Warriors, 115–106. During the 1960s, Chamberlain won more scoring titles, while Russell won more team championships. Their last meeting was in Game 7 of the 1969 NBA Finals, when Boston beat the Los Angeles Lakers 108–106.
• Born: Billy Gillispie, American basketball coach, in Abilene, Texas
• Died: Victor McLaglen, 72, Western actor

  November 8, 1959 (Sunday)

• Egypt and the Sudan signed a treaty governing use of the Nile River, clearing the way for construction projects there.
• Habib Bourguiba, the President of Tunisia, was unopposed in his first election bid, as were all 90 candidates for the legislative seats in the Majlis al-Nuwaab.
• Between this date and December 5, 1959, the tentative design and layout of the Mercury Control Center to be used to monitor the orbiting flight of the Mercury spacecraft were completed. The control center would have trend charts to indicate the astronaut's condition and world map displays to keep continuous track of the Mercury spacecraft.
• Elgin Baylor broke the NBA scoring record with 64 points in the Minneapolis Lakers' 136–115 win over the visiting Boston Celtics.
• Born:
• *Selçuk Yula, Turkish footballer, in Ankara
• Died:
• *Frank S. Land, 69, founder of the Order of DeMolay
• *William Langer, 73, U.S. Senator from North Dakota since 1941

  November 9, 1959 (Monday)

• Seventeen days before Thanksgiving, Arthur Flemming, the U.S. Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, warned that some of the 1959 crop of cranberries was tainted with the carcinogen aminotriazole, and said that if a housewife did not know where the berries in a product came from, "to be on the safe side, she doesn't buy". Cranberry sales plummeted, but producers responded by finding ways to promote year-round sales of cranberry products, including cranberry juice.
• The first Ski-doo, a snowmobile with a new, light-weight engine, was manufactured in Valcourt, Quebec, one of 250 made on the first day of production. The lighter engine made snowmobiling more practical, and within a decade, more than 200,000 Ski-doos were being sold annually in North America.
• Born:
• *Tony Slattery, British comedian and TV actor, in Stonebridge, London
• *Donnie McClurkin, American gospel singer, in Amityville, New York
• *Angela Spivey, American gospel singer, in Chicago

  November 10, 1959 (Tuesday)

• , at in length and 5,000 tons the largest submarine to that time, joined the U.S. Navy's nuclear sub force. With two nuclear reactors, the Triton had cost $100,000,000 to build. Meanwhile, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev claimed in an interview that he had told President Eisenhower in August that "your submarines are not so bad, but the speed of our atomic submarines is double yours."
• Space Task Group personnel visited McDonnell to monitor the molding of the first production-type couch for the Mercury spacecraft.
• Born:
• *Linda Cohn, the first full-time female sports anchor in the United States; in Selden, New York
• *Mackenzie Phillips, American TV actress ; in Alexandria, Virginia

  November 11, 1959 (Wednesday)

• Werner Heyde, a psychiatrist who had guided the euthanizing of more than 100,000 handicapped persons in Nazi Germany, surrendered to police in Frankfurt after 13 years as a fugitive. As director of the Reich Association of Hospitals, Dr. Heyde had carried out "Action T4". Men, women and children who were mentally or physically handicapped were the victims of Heyde's "mercy killing" from 1939 to 1942, usually by lethal injection. Sentenced in absentia to death, Heyde had been practicing in Flensburg as "Dr. Fritz Sawade". On February 13, 1964, five days before his trial was to start, Dr. Heyde hanged himself at the prison in Butzbach.

  November 12, 1959 (Thursday)

• William Morrison, 1st Viscount Dunrossil was selected to become the new Governor-General of Australia. Morrison, a native of Scotland, had retired earlier in the year as Speaker of the House of Commons. Prior to his selection, it was speculated that Princess Margaret, sister to Queen Elizabeth II, would be selected as the Head of State and representative of the Crown in Australia.
• NASA Administrator T. Keith Glennan and Deputy Secretary of Defense Thomas S. Gates Jr. signed a NASA-Department of Defense agreement, relevant to the principles governing reimbursement of costs incurred by NASA or the Department of Defense in support of Project Mercury.