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Events
- January 1 - Cultivars of
plants named after this date must be named in a modern language, not in Latin.
- January 1 - Cuba: Fulgencio Batista overthrown by Fidel Castro.
- January 2 - CBS Radio cuts four soap
operas: Backstage
Wife Our Gal
Sunday, Road of Life, and This is Nora Drake.
- January 3 - Alaska is admitted as
the 49th U.S. state.
- January 7 - The United
States recognizes the new Cuban government of Fidel Castro
- February 6 - At Cape
Canaveral, Florida, the first successful test firing of a Titan intercontinental
ballistic missile is accomplished.
- February 16 - Fidel
Castro becomes Premier of Cuba after President Fulgencio Batista was overthrown on January 1.
- February 19 - The United Kingdom grants Cyprus its independence.
- February 22 - Lee Petty wins the first Daytona 500.
- March 9 - The Barbie doll debuts
- March 17 - Tenzin
Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, flees Tibet and travels to India.
- March 18 - American President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs bill allowing for Hawaiian
statehood.
- March - People's Republic of China invades Tibet.
- April 25 - The St. Lawrence Seaway linking the Great Lakes and the
Atlantic Ocean officially opens to shipping.
- May - First Ten Tors event held in
Dartmoor
- June 5 - The first government of the State of Singapore is sworn in.
- June 8 - The first (and only) delivery of Missile Mail.
- June 9 - The USS George Washington is launched as the first submarine to carry ballistic missiles.
- June 23 - Sean Lemass becomes
the third Taoiseach of Ireland.
- June 23 - Convicted Manhattan Project spy Klaus Fuchs is released after only nine years in prison and allowed to emigrate to
Dresden, East Germany (where he
resumed a scientific career).
- July 4 - With the admission of Alaska as
the 49th U.S. state earlier in the year, the 49-star flag of the United States debuts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
- July 24 - At the opening of the American National Exhibition in Moscow, US vice-president Richard Nixon
and Nikita Khrushchev have a "kitchen debate."
- August 7 - Explorer
program: The United States launches Explorer 6 from the Atlantic Missile Range in
Cape Canaveral, Florida.
- August 21 - Hawaii is admitted as
the 50th U.S. state.
- September 15 - Russian probe Luna
2 sends back first photos of the far side of Earth's Moon.
- October 21 - In New
York City, the Solomon R. Guggenheim
Museum opens to the public. It was designed by Frank Lloyd
Wright.
- November 1 - Ice Hockey:
After being struck in the face with a hockey puck, Montreal Canadiens goalie,
Jacques Plante offered to return to play on the condition that he can
wear his protective face mask. It was the first time such equipment was used in a regular NHL
game.
- November 2 - Quiz show scandals: "Twenty-One" game show contestant
Charles Van Doren admits to a Congressional committee that he had been given questions and
answers in advance.
- November 19 - Ford Motor Company announces the discontinuation of the unpopular Edsel.
- December 1 - Cold War:
Antarctic Treaty signed - 12 countries, including the United States and the Soviet
Union, sign a landmark treaty, which sets aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve and bans military activity on that continent (this was the first arms control agreement
established during the Cold War).
- The neutrino is first experimentally detected, by Cowan and Reines.
- TAT-2 cable goes into operation.
- Workers World Party is founded by Sam Marcy.
Year in topic
Births
- January 6 - Kathy Sledge, singer
- January 16 - Sade, singer
- January 22 - Linda
Blair, actress
- January 27 - Keith
Olbermann, news correspondent, sportscaster
- February 4 - Lawrence Taylor, American football
star
- February 11 - Corinne Shigemoto, US judo
coach
- February 16 - John
McEnroe, tennis player
- February 22 - Kyle MacLachlan, actor
- February 26 - Rolando Blackman, basketball star
- March 6 - Tom
Arnold, actor, comedian
- March 8 - Aidan Quinn, actor
- March 15 - Harold
Baines, former Major League Baseball player
- March 16 - Flavor Flav,
rap musician
- March 16 - Jens Stoltenberg, Prime Minister of Norway
- March 17 - Danny Ainge,
basketball player, coach, baseball player
- March 18 - Luc Besson,
producer, writer, director
- March 22 - Matthew
Modine, actor (Full Metal Jacket, Memphis Belle, Any Given Sunday)
- March 29 - Perry
Farrell, musician ("Jane's Addiction", "Porno for Pyros")
- April 3 - David Hyde
Pierce, actor (Frasier)
- April 22 - Ryan Stiles,
actor (The Drew Carey Show, Whose Line is it Anyway?)
- May 3 - Ben Elton, British comedian
and author
- May 3 - Uma Bharati, first woman chief minister of Madhya Pradesh
- May 15 - Andrew
Eldritch, British rock artist of The Sisters Of
Mercy
- May 20 - Bronson
Pinchot, actor
- May 20 - Israel Kamakawiwo'ole, hawaiian
singer
- May 22 - Steven
Morrissey, singer
- June 30 - Vincent
D'Onofrio, actor (Full Metal Jacket, Ed Wood, Law & Order: Criminal Intent)
- July 7 - Ben Linder, American
engineer murdered in Nicaragua (d. 1987)
- July 11 - Suzanne Vega,
singer (Bad Wisdom)
- July 26 - Kevin Spacey,
actor
- July 29 - Ruud Janssen,
artist
- August 10 - Rosanna
Arquette, actress
- August 14 - Magic
Johnson, basketball legend
- September 21 - Dave
Coulier, actor
- October 7 - Simon
Cowell, American Idol judge
- October 15 - Sarah
Ferguson, Duchess of York
- October 23 - Weird Al Yankovic, rock music parodist
- October 25 - Nancy Cartwright, voice actress (The
Simpsons, Rugrats, Kim Possible)
- October 27 - Rick
Carlisle, NBA basketball coach
- November 10 - Linda
Cohn, sports anchor
- November 14 - Paul
McGann, British actor
- November 25 - Charles Kennedy, British politician
Deaths
- January 21 - Cecil B. DeMille, director
- January 22 - Mike
Hawthorn, racing champion
- February 3 - rock and roll performers Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and The Big Bopper, in a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa. The news isn't widely known until daybreak.
- February 3 - Vincent
Astor, American philanthropist
- February 14 - Baby
Dodds, jazz musician (b. 1898)
- February 28 - Maxwell Anderson, playwright, film writer
- March 3 - Lou Costello,
actor, comedian
- March 4 - Maxey Long, American
athlete
- March 26 - Raymond
Chandler, American novelist.
- March 29 - Barthelemy Boganda, first President of the Central African Republic
- May 14 - Sidney Bechet,
jazz musician (b. 1897)
- May 24 - John Foster
Dulles, US Secretary of
State (b. 1888)
- July 15 - Billie
Holiday, jazz and blues singer
- August 6 - Preston
Sturges, director and writer
- August 15 - Blind Willie McTell, blues singer
- August 28 - Bohuslav Martinu, composer
- September 13 - Gilbert Adrian, Hollywood fashion
designer
- October 14 - Errol
Flynn, American actor.
- October 18 - Boughera El Ouafi, Algerian athlete
- November 17 - Heitor Villa-Lobos, Brazilian composer.
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