1959 History, Fun Facts and Trivia

1959 Fun Facts, Trivia and History

• World Changing Event: Antarctic Treaty: 12 countries, including the United States and the Soviet Union, signed a treaty that set aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve and bans military activity on the continent
• The Top Song was Mack The Knife by Bobby Darin
• Influential Songs include: Sea of Love by Phil Phillips, Teen Beat by Sandy Nelson, Peter Gunn by Ray Anthony and La Bamba by Ritchie Valens
• The Movies to Watch include On The Beach, Porgy and Bess, Rio Bravo, North by Northwest, The Beat Generation, Compulsion, Gidget, Li’l Abner, Plan 9 From Outer Space and Ben-Hur
• The Most Famous Person in America was probably Elvis Presley
• Notable books include: Hawaii by James A. Michener and Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D. H. Lawrence
• The first house with a built-in bomb shelter was shown, in Pleasant Hills, Pennsylvania.
• Price of Kellogg’s Variety Cereal 10 pack in 1959: 49 cents
• The Fad: Phonebooth Stuffing
• The Disneyland Monorail System opened to the public in Anaheim, California.
• Motown was founded by Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records
• Rodgers & Barer’s musical Once Upon a Mattress premiered in NYC
• The Funny Duo were: Mike Nichols and Elaine May
  The Funny Satirist: Tom Lehrer
• The Day The Music Died: On February 3, 1959, rock and roll musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. (The Big Bopper) Richardson were killed in a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa, along with the pilot, Roger Peterson.

“The Quotes:”
“There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man’s fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call ‘The Twilight Zone.’”
– Rod Serling, narrating The Twilight Zone

“Well, nobody’s perfect.”
– Joe E. Brown, in Some Like It Hot

After filming Some Like it Hot in 1959 Billy Wilder said about filming another movie with Marilyn Monroe, “I have discussed this with my doctor and my psychiatrist and they tell me I’m too old and too rich to go through this again.”

The Scandals & Tragedies:
Airplane Celebrity Death: (February 3rd) Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, Big Bopper. This was the day the Music Died.

Mysterious TV Star Violent Death: George Reeves (gunshot wound – murder or suicide?)

In testimony before congress, gameshow contestant Charles Van Doren admitted he had been coached before appearing on NBC’s 21 game show in 1956.

1928’s scandalous Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence was officially published in the United States.
D.H. had been dead since 1930.

The Guggenheim Museum

The Guggenheim Museum opened in Manhattan, New York City on October 15, 1959. ushering in a new era of architecture for museum spaces. The Guggenheim Museum in New York City has been a landmark for the arts. The museum is famous for its unique spiral design by architect Frank Lloyd Wright, which has become iconic of modern architecture around the world.

The museum was founded by Solomon R. Guggenheim and his wife Peggy as a place to house their art collection. The building’s construction was funded in part by the proceeds from the sale of paintings by Wassily Kandinsky, who was one of the museum’s earliest acquisitions. The building’s design was nearly complete when Frank Lloyd Wright died in 1959, but the project had already been so closely associated with Wright that it is often referred to as a “Frank Lloyd Wright creation”. His vision for this iconic building has stood the test of time and inspired many other museums throughout the world.

The Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, is the historic venue where Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper gave their final performances on February 2, 1959.

A 1959 earthquake in Montana caused an 80 million ton landslide that created Quake Lake, by blocking the Madison River in the Gallatin National Forest. 28 people were killed.

Kiwi fruit is named after Kiwi birds, and prior to 1959 were known as Chinese Gooseberries. They originated in China and came to Australia in the early 1900s.

The British Alpine Hannibal Expedition, led by John Hoyte, found the path used by Hannibal’s army to cross the Alps and invade Roman Italy successfully traversed the Alps from France to Italy with an 11yr old former circus elephant named Jumbo.

In 1959, Westerns were the most popular television shows. There were 26 running that year.

In 1959 the FDA proposed a standard for peanut butter that was not finalized until a decision by the U.S District Court of Appeals in 1970. The final standard required a 90% peanut content.

Bob Timm and John Wayne Cook broke the World Record for the longest manned, refueled flight in 1959 by traveling 150,000 miles over 64 days without landing.

25 South African students climbed into a telephone booth, setting a world’s record for the ‘event’ that they had just created. For visitors born before 1990, a ‘phone booth’ contained a large ‘cellphone’ that was connected via wires to other telephones. Originally costing a nickel (5 cents) for a three-minute call.

Ben Hur won 11 Oscars.

The Rat Pack first appeared, including Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford, and Joey Bishop.

Russia’s ‘Luna-2’ landed on the moon, the first successful landing by an unmanned craft.

The Conair hair dryer changed the way hair was styled in the American household.

Neil Sedaka’s first Top Ten Hit Oh! Carol referred to his high school girlfriend Carol Klein. She is better known as songwriter/singer Carole King.

Scientists discovered the Y chromosome was needed to create males.

The opening scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark was inspired by a comic book story from 1959 – The Prize of Pizarro, in Uncle Scrooge #26 where Donald Duck, his nephews, and Uncle Scrooge must evade a succession of booby traps.

A Cement Truck crashed near Winganon, Oklahoma in 1959, It was too heavy to move, so locals painted and decorated it like a spaceship.

MLB player Stan Musial demanded his paycheck be cut by $20,000 after he had a subpar year in 1959.

Ermal Fraze devised a can opening method in 1959 (patent #3439833) that would come to dominate the canned beverage market. His invention was the “pull-tab”.

The United States built a plane, the North American X-15, that was capable of going 4,520 MPH.

Disneyland Monorail System, the first daily operating monorail system in The Americas, opened to the public in Anaheim, California.

In 1959 the “inch” was adjusted by 2 millionths of an inch, to make it equal exactly 25.4 millimeters.

The USA has been sending checks annually for $4,085 to Cuba for the lease of Guantanamo Bay. Since 1959, only one check has been cashed, by accident. The 1903 Lease for Guantanamo has no fixed expiration date.

Television cartoon Futurama is named after an exhibit at the 1939 World’s Fair that showed what they thought the world would be like in 1959.

January 3rd: Alaska became state # 49.

August 21st: Hawaii became the 50th state.

Firsts:
The BIC Crystal ballpoint pen was first sold in the US in 1959 for $0.19. It is still sold for about $0.19.

Mattel’s Barbie doll and board game RISK debuted.

Volvo invented the seatbelt in 1959 and then left the patent open so other car manufacturers could use its design.

In 1959 Entemann’s created the see-through cake box.

Guggenheim Museum, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, 1071 Fifth Avenue, Manhattan, New York, opened.

Motown Records (then called Tamla Records) was founded by Berry Gordy, Jr.

Bonanza premiered on NBC. It was the first regularly scheduled TV program presented in color.

The Twilight Zone premiered on CBS.

Troll Dolls were originally created in 1959 by Danish fisherman and woodcutter Thomas Dam.

The Boeing 707 airliner began service.

The first appearance of Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy was in a 1959 comic book called Tales to Astonish, issue #13.

1959 Billboard Number One Songs
December 27, 1958 – January 18, 1959:
Chipmunk Song – David Seville & The Chipmunks

January 19 – February 8:
Smoke Gets In Your Eyes – The Platters

February 9 – March 8:
Stagger Lee – Lloyd Price

March 9 – April 12:
Venus – Frankie Avalon

April 13 – May 10:
Come Softly To Me – The Fleetwoods

May 11 – May 17:
The Happy Organ Dave Baby – Cortez

May 18 – May 31:
Kansas City – Wilbert Harrison

June 1 – June 12:
The Battle Of New Orleans – Johnny Horton

July 13 – August 9:
Lonely Boy – Paul Anka

August 10 – August 23:
A Big Hunk O’ Love – Elvis Presley

August 24 – September 20:
The Three Bells – The Browns

September 21 – October 4:
Sleep Walk – Santo & Johnny

October 5 – November 15:
Mack The Knife – Bobby Darin

November 16 – December 13:
Mr. Blue – The Fleetwoods

December 14 – December 27:
Heartaches – The Number Guy Mitchell

December 28, 1958 – January 3, 1960:
Why – Frankie Avalon