October 1959 in History

Events in History

Oct 4 USSR Luna 3 sent back 1st photos of Moon's far side
Oct 6 Soviet Luna 3, 1st successful photographic spacecraft, impacts Moon

Far Side of the Moon Revealed

Oct 7 Far side of Moon seen for the 1st time, courtesy of USSR's Luna 3 space probe

The first ever photo of the far side of the Moon, taken by the Soviet spacecraft Luna 3

Election of Interest

Oct 8 Conservatives led by Harold Macmillan win the British general election

Event of Interest

Oct 9 Lee Harvey Oswald arrives in Southampton, England

Former Soldier and Assassin Lee Harvey Oswald

Oct 10 Lee Harvey Oswald signs guestbook in hotel Helsinki
Oct 10 Pan Am begins regular flights around the world
Oct 12 At the national congress of APRA in Peru a group of leftist radicals are expelled from the party. They will later form APRA Rebelde.

Event of Interest

Oct 17 Queen Elizabeth II is fined $140 for withdrawing her race horse

Queen of the United Kingdom Elizabeth II

Oct 17 Stinchcomb Memorial in Cleveland Metroparks' dedicated
Oct 19 Florence Henderson joins Today Show panel
Oct 19 William Gibson's "Miracle Worker" premieres in NYC
Oct 20 Clark Griffith of Senators says team will not move the franchise
Oct 21 Contra revolutionaries bomb Havana

Event of Interest

Oct 21 Guggenheim Museum, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, opens in New York

Oct 21 Players Association approves 2 All-Star Games in 1960, to be held in KC & NY
Oct 23 Chinese troops move into India, 17 die
Oct 27 Rare Pacific hurricane kills 2,000 in Western Mexico

Les Negres

Oct 28 Jean Genet's play "Les Negres" premieres in Paris

Asterix

Oct 29 "Asterix" is first published in the French magazine "Pilote" by Rene Goscinny, illustrated by Albert Uderzo

Cartoonist and Children's Author Albert Uderzo

Oct 31 Lee Harvey Oswald announces in Moscow he will never return to USA
Oct 31 USSR & Egypt sign contracts for building Aswan High Dam

Birthdays in History

Oct 3 Carmen Russo, Miss Teenage Italy (1972), born in Genoa, Italy
Oct 5 David Shannon, American Caldecott Medal-winning children's book writer and illustrator (No, David!), born in Washington, D.C.
Oct 5 Maya Lin, American designer (Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Civil Rights Memorial), born in Athens, Ohio
Oct 6 Brian Higgins, American politician (US Representative for New York, 2005-present), born in Buffalo, New York
Oct 6 Walter Ray Williams Jr, bowler (twice Player of the Year)
Oct 7 Jean-Marc Fournier, French Canadian politician, born in Châteauguay, Canada
Oct 7 Lourdes Flores, Peruvian politician, born in Lima, Peru
Oct 8 Carlos I. Noriega, Peruvian-American astronaut (STS 84, sk 97), born in Lima, Peru
Oct 9 Bill Lee, American politician, Governor of Tennessee (2019-), born in Franklin, Tennessee
Oct 9 Boris Nemtsov, Russian politician, born in Sochi, Soviet Union (d. 2015)
Oct 11 Bob Inglis, American politician (Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from South Carolina), born in Savannah, Georgia
Oct 12 Abigail Kingsley Alling, American executive (Biosphere 2), born in NYC, New York
Oct 12 Anna Escobedo Cabral, 42nd Treasurer of the United States, born in San Bernardino, California
Oct 15 Emeril Lagasse, American chef (Emeril Live), born in Fall River, Massachusetts
Oct 15 Sarah Margaret Ferguson, English Duchess of York, born in London, England
Oct 17 Mark Peel, Australian historian and academic

Oct 17 Ron Drummond, American writer
Oct 18 Kirby Chambliss, Aerobatic pilot and Red Bull Air Racer
Oct 18 Steve Swayne, Dartmouth Professor
Oct 20 Shuping Wang, Chinese doctor who exposed China's HIV crisis, born in Fugou County, Henan, China (d. 2019)
Oct 22 Arto Salminen, Finnish writer (d. 2005)
Oct 24 Michelle Lujan Grisham, American politician, Governor of New Mexico (2019-), born in Los Alamos, New Mexico

Evo Morales (63 years old)

Oct 26 Bolivian politician and 80th President of Bolivia (2006-2019), born in Isallawi, Bolivia

Oct 29 John Magufuli, Tanzanian politician (President of Tanzania (2015-2021), born in Chato, Tanganyika (d. 2021)
Oct 31 Neal Stephenson, American author, born in Fort Meade, Maryland

Deaths in History

Oct 6 Bernard Berenson, American art critic (Italian Painters of the Renaissance), dies at 94
Oct 8 Balthasar van der Pol, Dutch physicist (Comparison of Van der Pol), dies at 70
Oct 10 Prince Friedrich Aloys Johannes Maria, Prince of Liechtenstein, dies at 88
Oct 12 Arnoldt Bronnen, writer, dies at 63
Oct 15 Lipót Fejér, Hungarian mathematician (b. 1880)

Oct 15 Ukrainian nationalist, leader of the terrorist Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN-B), Nazi collaborator and anti-communist, assassinated via cyanide gas at 50 by the KGB in Munich, West Germany