World Events

Population: 2.997 billion

Nobel Peace Prize: Philip John Noel-Baker (UK)

Cuban President Batista resigns and flees (Jan. 1). Fidel Castro assumes power (Feb. 16).

Tibet's Dalai Lama escapes to India (Mar. 31).

Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev tours the United States, meeting with Eisenhower at Camp David.

Britain recognizes the independence of Cyprus.


U.S. Events

President: Dwight D. Eisenhower

Vice President: Richard M. Nixon

Population: 177,829,628

Life expectancy: 69.9 years

Homicide Rate (per 100,000): 4.6

Economics

US GDP (1998 dollars): $507.2 billion

Federal spending: $92.10 billion

Federal debt: $287.5 billion

Consumer Price Index: 29.1

Unemployment: 6.8%

Cost of a first-class stamp: $0.04

Alaska (Jan. 3) and Hawaii (Aug. 21) become the 49th and 50th states.

St. Lawrence Seaway opens, allowing ocean ships to reach Midwest (April 25).


Sports

World Series

LA Dodgers d. Chicago White Sox (4-2)

NBA Championship

Boston d. Minneapolis Lakers (4-0)

Stanley Cup

Montreal d. Toronto (4-1)

Wimbledon

Women: Maria Bueno d. D. Hard (6-4 6-3)

Men: Alex Olmedo d. R. Laver (6-4 6-3 6-4)

Kentucky Derby Champion

Tomy Lee

NCAA Basketball Championship

California d. West Virginia (71-70)

NCAA Football Champions

Syracuse (11-0-0)


Entertainment

Pulitzer Prizes

Fiction: The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters, Robert Lewis Taylor

Music: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, John La Montaine

Drama: J. B. Archibald MacLeish

Oscars awarded in 1959

Academy Award, Best Picture: Gigi, Arthur Freed, producer (MGM)

Nobel Prize for Literature: Salvatore Quasimodo (Italy)

Grammys awarded in 1959

Record of the Year: Nel Blu Dipinto di Blu (Volare), Domenico Modugno

Album of the Year: The Music From Peter Gunn, Henry Mancini (RCA)

Song of the Year: "Nel Blu Dipinto di Blu," Domenico Modugno, songwriter

Miss America: Mary Ann Mobley (MS)

The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences sponsors the first Grammy Award ceremony for music recorded in 1958.

Frank Sinatra wins his first Grammy Award -- Best Album for Come Dance with Me.

Rumors of cheating on quiz shows erupt into a national scandal.

Movies

Some Like It Hot, North by Northwest, Ben-Hur, Anatomy of a Murder, Room at the Top

Books

William Burroughs, Naked Lunch

D. H. Lawrence, Lady Chatterley's Lover

Robert Lowell, Life Studies

Norman Mailer, Advertisements for Myself

James A. Michener, Hawaii

Grace Paley, The Little Disturbances of Man

Boris Pasternak, Doctor Zhivago

Philip Roth, Goodbye Columbus and Five Short Stories

Science

Nobel Prizes in Science

Chemistry: Jaroslav Heyrovsky (Czechoslovakia), for development of polarography, an electrochemical method of analysis

Physics: Emilio Segre and Owen Chamberlain (both US), for demonstrating the existence of the anti-proton

Physiology or Medicine: Severo Ochoa and Arthur Kornberg (both US), for discoveries related to compounds within chromosomes that play a vital role in heredity

Jack S. Kilby of Texas Instruments (US) supervises the development of the first integrated circuit.

The US Navy launches the Vanguard satellite.

The Lunik II probe (USSR) reaches the moon; Lunik III photographs the dark side of the moon for the first time. Background: Space Exploration


Deaths

Lou Costello

Cecil B. De Mille

Mel Ott

Frank Lloyd Wright