Golf Major
Jul 3 British Open Golf, Muirfield: 23 year old South African Gary Player wins the first of his 9 major titles, 2 strokes clear of runners-up Fred Bullock and Flory Van Donck
Gary Player
- Jul 3 Wimbledon Women's Tennis: Maria Bueno of Brazil wins her first of 3 Wimbledon singles titles beating Darlene Hard 6-4, 6-3
- Jul 4 America's new 49-star flag honoring Alaska statehood unfurled
- Jul 4 Cayman Islands separated from Jamaica, made a crown colony
- Jul 4 Island Records founded in Jamaica
- Jul 5 Ben-Gurion's Israeli government resigns
- Jul 5 Indonesia restores constitution
- Jul 5 Jack Gelber's "Connection" premieres in NYC
- Jul 6 LPGA Championship, Sheraton Hotel CC: Betsy Rawls wins by 1 stroke from Patty Berg
- Jul 6 Saar becomes part of German Federal Republic
- Jul 6 WENH TV channel 11 in Durham, NH (PBS) begins broadcasting
Event of Interest
Jul 7 26th MLB All Star Game, Forbes Field, Pittsburgh: Willy Mays triples to score Hank Aaron as NL wins 5-4
Hank Aaron
- Jul 12 NBC uses cameras to show catchers signals during Yankee-Red Sox game
- Jul 14 USS Long Beach, first nuclear powered cruiser launched at Quincy, Mass
- Jul 15 The US steel strike of 1959 begins, leading to significant importation of foreign steel for the first time in United States history.
- Jul 17 2,000 ft long by 1,300 foot wide section of ridge falls into Madis
- Jul 17 Tibet abolishes serfdom
- Jul 17 River Canyon extending man-made Lake Hebgen by 5 miles. (Montana)
Scientific Discovery
Jul 17 Paleoanthropologist Mary Leakey discovers partial skull of a new species of early human ancestor, Zinjanthropus boisei or 'Zinj' (now called Paranthropus boisei) lived in Africa almost 2 million years ago
Mary Leakey
Film Premier
Jul 17 "North by Northwest" directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint premieres in Los Angeles
Alfred Hitchcock
- Jul 18 African American William 'Bill' Wright is the 1st colored person to win a major golf tournament (U.S. Amateur Public Links Championships)
- Jul 18 "The Nun's Story" based on the novel by Kathryn Hulme, starring Audrey Hepburn premieres in Los Angeles
- Jul 18 46th Tour de France won by Federico Bahamontes of Spain
- Jul 21 1st nuclear powered merchant ship, NS Savannah, named, Camden NJ
- Jul 21 Red Sox are last team to use a black player (Pumpsie Green)
- Jul 22 Ed Wood's cult classic "Plan 9 From Outer Space", called one of the worse films ever, premieres
- Jul 22 Benjamin Britten's "Missa Brevis" in D premieres
- Jul 22 Natural gas found at Slochteren, Groningen, Netherlands
Event of Interest
Jul 23 US Vice Presidnet Richard Nixon begins visit to USSR
Richard Nixon
- Jul 24 500,000th Dutch TV set registered
Event of Interest
Jul 24 US Vice President Richard Nixon argues with Nikita Khrushchev, known as "Kitchen Debate"
Nikita Khrushchev
Richard Nixon
- Jul 25 SR-N1 hovercraft crosses the English Channel from Calais to Dover in just over 2 hours.
- Jul 26 Betsy Rawls wins LPGA Western Golf Open
- Jul 27 Abbas Ali Baig scores 112 for India v England on debut
- Jul 27 William Shea announces plans to have a baseball team in NYC in 1961
- Jul 28 United Kingdom starts using postal codes
- Jul 28 Hawaii's 1st US election sends 1st Asian-Americans to Congress
- Jul 29 First United States Congress elections in Hawaii as a state of the Union.
- Jul 30 In his major league debut, SF Giant Willie McCovey goes 4-for-4
- Jul 31 1st exhibit of bongos at Cleveland Metroparks Zoo opens
Event of Interest
Jul 31 Cliff Richard and the Shadows have their 1st British No. 1 single with "Living' Doll" (biggest British single of 1959)
Cliff Richard