On this day
Revisit the news, notable people, and historical moments connected to this date.
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Shot dead with woman companion J Drake in auto, Queens; his underworld ties recalled; por
issue of bank and investment co control of corps whose stock is held in their trust and investment portfolios raised in Sen Antitrust subcom scheduled probe of possible control over major drug mfrs by 3 banks and 8 investment cos; comment
Eisenhower expected to stress, in talks with Khrushchev, US determination to safeguard Western rights; views of both revd
O Caruthers impressions of Baltic capitals of Vilna, Riga and Tallinn
2 teen-agers invade PS 109 classroom, rob teacher at knifepoint
1959Andrew Bolt, Australian journalist[†]
Andrew Bolt is an Australian conservative social and political commentator. He has worked at the News Corp-owned newspaper company The Herald and Weekly Times (HWT) for many years, for both The Herald and its successor, the Herald Sun. His current roles include blogger and columnist at the Herald Sun and host of television show The Bolt Report each weeknight. In Australia, Bolt is a controversial public figure, who has frequently been accused of abrasive demeanour, racist views and inappropriate remarks on various political and social issues.
1959Trevor Dodds, Namibian golfer[†]
Trevor George Dodds is a Namibian professional golfer who formerly played on the PGA Tour. He is known for winning the 1998 edition of Greater Greensboro Chrysler Classic.
1959Rich Gedman, American baseball player and coach[†]
Richard Leo Gedman is an American professional baseball hitting adviser with the Boston Red Sox, and a former coach and player. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a catcher for the Red Sox (1980–1990), Houston Astros (1990–1991), and St. Louis Cardinals (1991–1992). Listed at 6 feet 0 inches (1.83 m) and 210 pounds (95 kg), he batted left-handed and threw right-handed.
1959Ilya Kormiltsev, Russian poet and translator (died 2007)[†]
Ilya Valeryevich Kormiltsev was a Russian poet, translator, and publisher. Kormiltsev is most famous for working during the 1980s and the 1990s as a songwriter in Nautilus Pompilius, one of the most popular rock bands in the Soviet Union and, later, Russia. He was also a prominent literary translator and publisher. Since 1997, he translated into Russian many important pieces of modern prose, such as Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club, or Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting. In 2003, he established Ultra.Kultura publishing house, which immediately gained a scandalous reputation and was closed by the authorities in 2007. Through its brief history, Ultra.Kultura published numerous counter-culture books in a wide range from ultra-right to radical left authors.
1959S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike, Sri Lankan lawyer and politician, 4th Prime Minister of Sri Lanka (born 1899)[†]
Solomon West Ridgeway Dias Bandaranaike, also known as "The Silver Bell of Asia", was a Sri Lankan statesman who served as the fourth Prime Minister of the Dominion of Ceylon, serving from 1956 until his assassination in 1959. The founder of the left-wing and Sinhalese nationalist Sri Lanka Freedom Party, he was elected the fourth Prime Minister of Ceylon after creating a powerful coalition called the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna and contesting on the lines of Sinhalese nationalism and democratic socialism. He achieved a landslide victory over the ruling United National Party in the general elections in 1956.
1959Leslie Morshead, Australian general (born 1889)[†]
Lieutenant General Sir Leslie James Morshead, was an Australian soldier, teacher, businessman, and farmer, whose military career spanned both world wars. During the Second World War, he led the Australian and British troops at the Siege of Tobruk (1941) and at the Second Battle of El Alamein, achieving decisive victories over Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps. His soldiers nicknamed him "Ming the Merciless", later simply "Ming", after the villain in the Flash Gordon comics.
1959Teodor Ussisoo, Estonian furniture designer and educator (born 1878)[†]
Teodor Ussisoo was an Estonian pedagogue, furniture designer, and interior architect.
1959Typhoon Vera, the strongest typhoon to hit Japan in recorded history, makes landfall, killing 4,580 people and leaving nearly 1.6 million others homeless.[†]
Typhoon Vera, also known as the Isewan Typhoon , was an exceptionally intense tropical cyclone that struck Japan in September 1959, becoming the strongest and deadliest typhoon on record to make landfall on the country, as well as the only one to do so as a Category 5 equivalent storm. The storm's intensity resulted in catastrophic damage of unparalleled severity and extent, and was a major setback to the Japanese economy, which was still recovering from World War II. In the aftermath of Vera, Japan's disaster management and relief systems were significantly reformed, and the typhoon's effects would set a benchmark for future storms striking the country.
In 1959, the world population was approximately 2,965,950,351 people[†]