WHAT ALL HAPPENED APRIL TO DECEMBER 1959
Find out what all happened April to December 1959

SR.N1 hovercraft crosses the English Channel from Calais, France to Dover, England in just over 2 hours. (25. July 1959)

The Saint Lawrence Seaway opens, opening North America's Great Lakes to ocean-going ships. (26. June 1959)

Premiere of Bonanza, the first regularly scheduled TV program presented in color. (12. September 1959)

The North Vietnamese Army establishes Group 559, whose responsibility is to determine how to maintain supply lines to South Vietnam; the resulting route is the Ho Chi Minh trail. (19. May 1959)

Montreal Canadiens goaltender Jacques Plante wears a protective mask for the first time in an NHL game. (1. November 1959)

French President Charles de Gaulle declares in a speech in Strasbourg his vision for "Europe, from the Atlantic to the Urals". (23. November 1959)

The Party of the African Federation holds its constitutive conference. (1. July 1959)

U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs an executive order transferring Wernher von Braun and other German scientists from the United States Army to NASA. (21. October 1959)

Venus occults the star Regulus. This rare event is used to determine the diameter of Venus and the structure of the Venusian atmosphere. (7. July 1959)

The MS Princess of Tasmania, Australia's first passenger roll-on/roll-off diesel ferry, makes her maiden voyage across Bass Strait. (23. September 1959)

The current flag of Singapore is adopted, six months after Singapore became self-governing within the British Empire. (3. December 1959)

Portugal's state police force PIDE fires upon striking workers in Bissau, Portuguese Guinea, killing over 50 people. (3. August 1959)

A team of computer manufacturers, users, and university people led by Grace Hopper meets to discuss the creation of a new programming language that would be called COBOL. (8. April 1959)

The anthology series The Twilight Zone premieres on CBS television. (2. October 1959)

A rare June hurricane strikes Canada's Gulf of St. Lawrence killing 35. (20. June 1959)

In New York City, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, opens to the public. (21. October 1959)

Kind of Blue by Miles Davis, the much acclaimed and highly influential best selling jazz recording of all time, is released. (17. August 1959)

The first successful photocopier, the Xerox 914, is introduced in a demonstration on live television from New York City. (16. September 1959)

A fire in a resort hotel in Stalheim (Norway) kills 34 people. (23. June 1959)

The Auckland Harbour Bridge, crossing the Waitemata Harbour in Auckland, New Zealand, is officially opened by Governor-General Charles Lyttelton, 10th Viscount Cobham. (30. May 1959)