February 3, 1959, "The Day the Music Died":Buddy Holly (left),J.P. Richardson (middle), andRitchie Valens (right) killed in plane crash (below)

The following events occurred inFebruary 1959:

• Male voters inSwitzerlandvoted overwhelmingly against allowing women the right to vote, by a margin of 654,924 to 323,306. It was not until 1971 that Swiss women were granted full suffrage. On the same day, however,Vaud became the first of thecantons of Switzerland to allow voting in provincial elections. TheCanton of Neuchâtel followed on September 27.^[1][2]
• Between February 1 and 14, some 508 records were reviewed for prospectiveProject Mercury pilot candidates of which about 110 appeared to qualify. The special committee on Life Sciences decided to divide these into two groups and 69 prospective pilot candidates were briefed and interviewed inWashington, D.C. Out of this number, 53 volunteered for the Mercury program, and 32 of the 53 were selected for further testing. The committee agreed there was no further need to brief other individuals, because of the high qualities exhibited in the existing pool of candidates. These 32 were scheduled for physical examination at theLovelace Clinic,Albuquerque, New Mexico.^[3]
• Died:Frank Shannon, 84, American actor who played (Dr. Zarkov) in theFlash Gordon serials

• The "Regiment of Spirit Soldiers"launched an uprising against the Chinese government at Sizhuang County,Henan, China.^[4]
• Nine hikers died mysteriously while on an expedition in the Ural Mountains of Russia in theDyatlov Pass incident.^[5]
• Thirty-fivetest pilots from theUnited States Navy,Marine Corps andAir Force attended a briefing atthe Pentagon inArlington, Virginia, whereNASA representatives invited them to become candidates for thefirst group of Americanastronauts.^[6][7]
• Schools inNorfolk andArlington County, Virginia, integrated peacefully, as 21 African American students began classes at formerly all-white schools. At Stratford Middle School, with 1,076 white and 4 black pupils, in Arlington, there were fewer absences than usual despite threats of a boycott, and white students volunteered to escort the new students to class. In Norfolk, 7,000 of 10,000 students, including 17 African-Americans, returned to senior and junior highs after four months of attending private schools or being tutored.^[8]
• After arriving from Green Bay, Wisconsin,Buddy Holly,Ritchie Valens andJ.P. Richardson gave their last performances, appearing at theSurf Ballroom at 460 North Shore Drive inClear Lake, Iowa.^[9][10]
• Born:Jari Tervo, Finnish author; inRovaniemi

• American singers J.P. Richardson, 28, "The Big Bopper",Buddy Holly, 22, andRitchie Valens, 17, were killed in the crash of a private plane on their way toFargo, North Dakota. They had boarded the plane atMason City, Iowa, along with pilotRoger Peterson.Waylon Jennings had given his seat to Richardson, and Valens and Holly's guitaristTommy Allsup had flipped a coin to see who would get the other seat on the plane.^[11] The plane, aBeechcraft Bonanza, took off at12:50 a.m. and crashed minutes later on the farm of Delbert Juhl, killing all four persons on board.^[12][13] This became popularly known as "The Day the Music Died".
• American Airlines Flight 320 from Chicago crashed into the East River while trying to land atLa Guardia Airport, killing 65 of the 73 persons on board.^[14]
• Martin Luther King Jr.,Coretta Scott King andLawrence D. Reddick departed from Idlewild Airport New York for a tour of the Middle East and India.^[15]
• Died:Vincent Astor, 67, American philanthropist who inherited a fortune after the death of his father on the RMSTitanic in 1912, then donated most of it to various charities.

• InChelyabinsk in the Soviet Union, Latvian speed skaterNikolay Shtelbaums broke the world record for the 10,000 meter skate, set byHjalmar Andersen in 1952. Shtelbaums completed the 10K skate in 16 minutes, 31.4 seconds, besting the Andersen's 1952 mark by 1.2 seconds.
• Born:Lawrence Taylor, American NFL linebacker for the New York Giants from 1981 to 1998, inductee to thePro Football Hall of Fame; inWilliamsburg, Virginia^[16]
• Died:Una O'Connor, 78, Irish actress

• TheU.S. State Department released tapes that showed that Soviet jets hadshot down an unarmed American C-130 transport plane on September 2, 1958. Transmissions between the two fighter planes, identified as "201" and "218", had been intercepted in Turkey. The Soviets denounced the tapes as a "clumsy fake". On the same day, Soviet PremierNikita S. Khrushchev invited U.S. PresidentDwight D. Eisenhower to visit Moscow, adding that he could bring anyone, and go anywhere, he chose. In his speech, Khrushchev referred to the Secretary of State and said, "Mr. Dulles, if you so desire, then for the sake of ending the Cold War, we are even prepared to admit your victory in this war that is unwanted by the peoples. Regard yourselves, gentlemen, as victors in this war, but end it quickly."^[17]
• Thetitle E-1 for U.S. Air Force personnel was revised from Basic Airman toAirman Basic.^[18]

• Jack Kilby, working forTexas Instruments, filed for a patent for the firstintegrated circuit, which was granted as U.S. Patent 3,138,743 on June 23, 1964.^[19] Kilby had recorded his inspiration on July 24, 1958, writing "The following circuit elements could be made on single slice: resistors, capacitor, distributed capacitor, transistor" and put these on a silicon wafer.^[20]
• Following industry-wide competition, a formal contract for research and development of theMercury spacecraft was negotiated with theMcDonnell Aircraft Corporation. The contract called for design and construction of 12 Mercury spacecraft. Later, orders were placed with the company for eight additional spacecraft, two procedural trainers, an environmental trainer, and seven checkout trainers. McDonnell had been engaged in studying the development of a crewed spacecraft since theNACA presentation in mid-March 1958.^[3]
• Born:Ken Nelson, English record producer; inLiverpool

• Former SS ColonelSepp Dietrich was released from prison in Munich after serving half of a sentence for assisting in the execution of high-ranking German officers in 1934.^[21]

• After spending a record 64 days, 22 hours and 21 minutes aloft, two fliers landed their Cessna 172 in Las Vegas. Pilot John Cook and businessman Bob Timm had taken off on December 4, 1958, and on January 23, had broken the previous record of 50 days. They refueled twice each day atBlythe, California, from a truck that would drive 90 miles per hour (140 km/h) beneath the plane.^[22]
• At the Lovelace Clinic inAlbuquerque, New Mexico, the medical tests for theMercury astronaut selection began.^[3]
• Died:Daniel F. Malan, 84,Prime Minister of South Africa to 1948 to 1954 and architect of apartheid

• In the BritishAden Protectorate, theUnited Kingdom created the six memberFederation of Arab Emirates of the South, a political federation of the emirates ofBeihan andAudhali; the sultanates ofDhala,Fadhli, andYafi as-Sufla; and the sheikdom ofal-Awalaq al-Ulya, a move that enraged Yemeni nationalists who claimed Aden as part of Yemen.^[23]
• Died:William J. Donovan, 76, Director of the United StatesOffice of Strategic Services (OSS) during World War II, and one of the persons who helped organized theCentral Intelligence Agency (CIA). PresidentDwight D. Eisenhower remarked, "What a man! We have lost the last hero!"^[24] A retired Army Major General, Donovan was the first person to be awarded the Medal of Honor, the Distinguished Service Cross and the Distinguished Service Medal.^[25]

• The firstICBM, theR-7 Semyorka missile, became operational atPlesetsk in the Soviet Union. The missile, capable of hitting targets at a range of 12,000 kilometres (7,500 mi) was first tested on December 15, 1959.

• At 2:20 a.m. CST,a tornado in St. Louis killed 21 people and injured hundreds. The twister flattened a neighborhood two blocks fromBusch Stadium I.^[26]
• Wind tunnel tests of Project Mercury configuration models were started. By the end of the year, over 70 different models had been tested by facilities at the Air Force'sArnold Engineering Development Center and the NASALangley,Ames, andLewis Research Centers.^[3]

• Meeting inSwitzerland atZürich, Prime MinisterKonstantinos Karamanlis ofGreece and Prime MinisterAdnan Menderes ofTurkey signed the first oftwo agreements concerning the upcoming independence from theUnited Kingdom of the island ofCyprus, which had large populations of Greek and Turkish Cypriots. The two nations, after consulting with the leaders of their respective ethnic communities on Cyprus, agreed to a constitution that would provide for both groups to be represented in the Cypriot government, and temporarily abandoned their conflicting demands. Greece refrained from pursuingenosis, the incorporation of the entire island as Grecian territory, and Turkey refrained from pursuing a partition of the island between the Turks in the north and the Greeks in the south. The two sides would sign a second agreement, the Treaty of Guarantee, with the United Kingdom in London on February 19.^[27]
• TheRoyal Air Force made its first public launch of one of its 60Thor missiles, at a press conference atRAF Feltwell base. The intermediate range missiles had a range of 1,600 miles (2,600 km).^[28]
• Space Task Group andArmy Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA) personnel met atHuntsville, Alabama, to discussRedstone andJupiter flight phases of Project Mercury. During the course of the meeting the following points became firm: (1) Space Task Group was the overall manager and technical director of this phase of the program, (2) ABMA was responsible for the launch vehicle until spacecraft separation, (3) ABMA was responsible for the Redstone launch vehicle recovery (this phase of the program was later eliminated since benefits from recovering the launch vehicle would have been insignificant), (4) Space Task Group was responsible for the spacecraft flight after separation, (5) McDonnell was responsible for the adapters for theMercury-Redstone configuration, and (6) ABMA would build adapters for theMercury-Jupiter configuration.^[3]
• After five seasons of being officially known as theCincinnati Redlegs, baseball'sCincinnati Reds reverted to their former name as evidenced by the release of their 1959 spring training media guide to the nation's sportswriters. The club's general manager,Gabe Paul, who said in 1953 that he had made the change to "Redlegs" because "we wanted to be certain we wouldn't be confused with the Russian Reds" insisted to reporters that "We haven't changed a thing. Reds... Redlegs... Red Stockings... they're all part of our name. We just decided to use Reds a little more." TheUPI pointed out that "virtually every piece of publicity from the club spoke of the team as the 'Redlegs' since 1953."^[29]
• Died:Marshall Teague, 36, American race car driver, was killed in an accident at the Daytona Speedway, 11 days before the start of the firstDaytona 500.^[30][31]

• The new version of theLincoln cent was introduced on Abraham Lincoln's 150th birthday. While the portrait of Lincoln was unchanged, the tails side had theLincoln Memorial replacing the "wheat penny".
• The last B-36 bomber was decommissioned.

• Fidel Castro took an official governmental role as he replacedJose Miro Cardona asPrime Minister of Cuba.^[32]

• TheUnited States Weather Bureau released a report that concluded "that the world is in the midst of a long-term warming trend", based on data gathered in Antarctica. Dr.Helmut Landsberg, director of the bureau's office of climatology, said that the cause of theglobal warming was unknown, but added, "One theory is that the change is man-made, that a blanket ofcarbon dioxide given off by the burning of coal and oil retards the radiation of heat by the earth."^[33]
• Born:Renée Fleming, American soprano; inIndiana, Pennsylvania
• Died:Warren "Baby" Dodds, 60, American jazz musician

• InGuatemala, PresidentMiguel Ydigoras Fuentes acted to put down an Indian uprising that had been organized by his opponent Raul Estuardo Lorenzana. Ydigoras would later write in his 1963 autobiographyMy War with Communism that the rebellion was the first of several Communist Cuban plots against his government.^[34]
• Police in New York City concluded what was, at the time, the second-largest drug bust in American history, arresting 27 people between 8:30 Saturday night and 5:00 Sunday morning, and seizing 32 pounds (15 kg) of heroin with a "street value of $3,660,800". A January 1958 roundup in Elmont, New York, had netted 35 pounds (16 kg) and 17 arrests.^[35]
• The medical examinations at the Wright Air Development Center for the final selection of the Mercury astronauts began.^[3]
• Nine people in a single car were killed when their vehicle was hit head-on by another vehicle onUnited States Highway 281 south ofAlamo, Texas. The driver of the other vehicle, whose speedometer was frozen at 80 miles per hour (130 km/h) after the collision, also died.^[36]
• Died:Owen Willans Richardson, 79, British physicist who received the 1928Nobel Prize in Physics for his discoveries inthermionic emission and for his development ofRichardson's law.^[37]

• The French ocean linerSSÎle de France was retired, sailing fromLe Havre to Japan for use as scrap metal.
• Born:John McEnroe, American tennis player who won the U.S. Open championship four times (1979, 1980, 1981, 1984) and the Wimbledon championships three times (1981, 1983, 1984); at the U.S. Air Force base inWiesbaden,West Germany^[38]

• Vanguard 2, the firstweather satellite, was launched at10:55 a.m. fromCape Canaveral to measurecloud cover for the United States Navy.^[39]
• The first formal meeting of the Navy-NASA Committee on Project Mercury search and recovery operations was held. They decided that joint recovery exercises would be initiated as soon as possible. The committee members determined that the Navy, particularly theAtlantic Fleet, could support operations fromWallops Island; could perform search and recovery operations along theAtlantic Missile Range, using the selected Project Mercury vehicles; and that naval units could support operations in the escape area between Cape Canaveral andBermuda.^[3]
• Adnan Menderes, the Prime Minister of Turkey, was among 20 people on board an airplane en route from Rome to London thatcrashed on its approach toGatwick Airport. Menderes was scheduled to meet with Prime Ministers Macmillan of Britain and Karamanlis of Greece for an agreement concerning the island of Cyprus.^[40] Menderes survived the crash but was deposed the following year and executed on September 17, 1961.

• Elections were held inNepal for the first time in its history, as voters chose candidates for 18 of the 109 lower house seats, with the remainder to be chosen on eight other days.^[41]

• TheNational Assembly Building of Slovenia, designed by Vinko Glanz, was opened inLjubljana,Yugoslavia, nearly five years after construction had started in 1954. A session of the Slovenian People's Assembly followed the ceremonies.^[42]
• In London, representatives of Greece, Turkey and the United Kingdom signed the Treaty of Guarantee, the second oftwo agreements regarding Cyprus, with all three nations being granted the right to intervene militarily, if necessary, to protect members of one ethnic community from the other, or to uphold the jointly-accepted constitution.^[27]
• In a speech, Dr.T. Keith Glennan estimated that Project Mercury would cost over $200 million. Glennan said the cost was high because a new area of technology was being explored with no precedents or experience from which to draw, and because theworld-wide tracking network construction was a tremendous undertaking.^[3]
• Debbie Reynolds was granted a divorce fromEddie Fisher. "My husband became interested in another woman", she testified in a Los Angeles hearing. Reports added that she did so "never mentioning the name ofElizabeth Taylor".^[43]
• Died:Daniel A. Reed, 83, U.S. Congressman for New York since 1919, and former football coach at the University of Cincinnati (1899–1911)^[44]

• At the Mkariba hydroelectric dam at Rhodesia, 17 men were killed when the platform they were on collapsed, sending them falling 200 feet (61 m) down a shaft.^[45]
• Canada cancelled theAvro Arrow program.
• Responsibility for planning and contracting for Project Mercury tracking facilities was formally assigned to the Langley Research Center.^[3]
• In testimony before theUnited States Senate Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences,NASA Deputy AdministratorHugh L. Dryden and DeMarquis D. Wyatt, Assistant to the Director of Space Flight Development, described the long-range objectives of the agency'sspace program: a multi-person orbitingspace station; a permanent crewed orbiting laboratory; uncrewedlunar probes; and crewed lunar orbital,lunar-landing, and - ultimately -interplanetary flight.^[46]

• TheDouglas DC-8 30 Series, a longer-range version of the DC-8 passenger jet, made its first flight.^[47]
• The New Yorker published "On the Sidewalk",John Updike's parody ofOn the Road.^[48]
• The Ben Hecht Show, a live television program on New York's WABC-TV, was cancelled permanently after Hecht's guest, surrealist painterSalvador Dalí, used the word "orgasm" in an interview.Ben Hecht, a screenwriter whom Mike Wallace described as "a trifle profane" on the air, had already been in trouble with the station. Wallace would later describe the episode as "the 'Orgasm and Out!' show".^[49]

• The very firstDaytona 500, nowNASCAR's preeminentstock car racing event, was held atDaytona Beach, Florida, withJohnny Beauchamp andLee Petty crossing the finish line within fractions of a second of each other, and both faster than the existing NASCAR speed record. "NASCAR officials stationed at the finish line first gave Beauchamp the nod by 12 inches," one sportswriter would write the next day, but added "Petty insisted he had Beauchamp by two feet."^[50] Although the race took 3 hours and 41 minutes to complete, it would take three days for the race to be won, and only after NASCAR officials reviewed photographic evidence.

• It was reported that the United States might put a man into space as early as February 26, 1959, withScott Crossfield, a test pilot for North American Aviation, flying the X-15 to a point 200 miles (320 km) above the Earth, well above the 100 kilometres (62 mi) altitude that defines the beginning of "outer space". Under the plan, the X-15 was to be carried to 40,000 feet (12,000 m) aboveUtah'sWendover Air Force Base by a B-52 jet, then separate and ignite rocket fuel to climb into space. Crossfield was one of seven X-15 astronauts, as wasNeil A. Armstrong. The X-15 would be tested by Crossfield in March, but would not be launched into space.^[51]
• Born:Kyle MacLachlan, American actor known for the TV showTwin Peaks; inYakima, Washington

• On his 91st birthday,W. E. B. Du Bois addressed a crowd of thousands atPeking University and was afterward given a party byForeign MinisterChen Yi. The day before, the African-American author had been given an official state reception by China's Prime MinisterZhou Enlai.^[52]
• Died:Luis Palés Matos, 60, Puerto Rican poet

• InSan Luis, Mexico, seven children were killed, and 23 people injured, when a packed grandstand collapsed during a school festival.^[53]

• Three days after the race had been held,Lee Petty was declared the official winner of the firstDaytona 500 and the man initially ruled to have crossed the finish line first,Johnny Beauchamp, a close second.Bill France, the president ofNASCAR, announced the decision at a press conference in Daytona Beach, Florida, and said that films and photos taken at the finish line had shown that Petty crossed the line ahead of Beauchamp.^[54]
• Norway andIsrael signed an agreement inOslo, providing Israel for the first time withdeuterium oxide, also known as "heavy water", a key step in Israel's atomic program.^[55]

• InSalisbury,Southern Rhodesia, Prime MinisterEdgar Whitehead declared a state of emergency and ordered the arrest of more than 500 suspected members of theAfrican National Congress.^[56]
• The Navy destroyer escortUSS Roy O. Hale intercepted and boarded a Russian fishing trawler off Newfoundland, "to check whether it was responsible for damage five days earlier to five transatlantic cables". TheNovorossisk, with a crew of 54, was released after a five-man team conducted an inspection.^[57]
• Born:Rolando Blackman,Panama-born American basketball player; inPanama City
• Died:
  • Princess Alexandra, Duchess of Fife, 67, eldest grandchild of KingEdward VII of the United Kingdom
  • René Belbenoît, 59, who wrote the bookDry Guillotine after his escape fromDevil's Island in 1935, died of cardiac arrest at his home in the United States.^[58]

• The wreckage of the American B-24 bomberLady Be Good was found nearly 16 years after the plane had crashed in the Libyan desert. TheLady Be Good and its crew of nine had become lost onApril 4, 1943, while returning from a bombing raid during World War II, and then had to ditch in the desert sands. The men had died of thirst and exposure within a few days, and the bodies would be located a year later, onFebruary 11, 1960.^[59] The discovery of theLady Be Good would inspireRod Serling to write "King Nine Will Not Return", the first episode of thesecond season ofThe Twilight Zone.^[60]
• In Boston, theCeltics beat theLakers (at that time a Minneapolis team) 173 to 139 for the highest score by a team in a regulation NBA game; and, at the time, the highest ever for a losing team. NBA PresidentMaurice Podoloff said that he would ask officials of both teams whether the players were faithfully defending, or just "goofing off".^[61] The record was tied on November 10, 1990, by Phoenix Suns (173–145 vs. Denver) for highest number of points in a regulation game. The record, set in overtime on December 13, 1983, is Detroit 186, Denver 184.

• At 1:49 PST,Discoverer 1 was launched fromVandenberg Air Force Base to serve as a "north–south polar satellite". The launch was actually the first of theProject CORONAreconnaissance satellites used by the CIA to spy on the Soviet Union. The first launch, and the next 11, were failures.^[62] A declassified CIA report concluded that "Today, most people believe the DISCOVERER I landed somewhere near the South Pole."^[63]
• Born:Jim Ronayne, Irish star ofGaelic football who played for the Dublin team for ten seasons; inClontarf, Dublin
• Died:Maxwell Anderson, 70, American playwright known forWhat Price Glory?

• February 1959
• February by year
• Months in the 1950s

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