On this day

November 2, 1959

Revisit the news, notable people, and historical moments connected to this date.

Portrait 1080 × 1920 PNG · created on your device

Filter by:

Headlines from November 2, 1959

Notable Births

Peter Mullan

1959Peter Mullan, Scottish actor, director, and screenwriter[†]

Peter Mullan is a Scottish actor and filmmaker. His credits include Riff-Raff (1991), Shallow Grave (1994), Braveheart (1995), Trainspotting (1996), My Name Is Joe (1998), The Claim (2000), Neds (2010), War Horse (2011), The Fixer (2008), Top of the Lake (2013), Mum (2016-2019), Ozark (2017-2018), Westworld (2018-2020), Cursed (2020), The North Water (2021), The Underground Railroad (2022), The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2022–2024), After the Party (2023), and Baghead (2023).

Notable Deaths

Michael Considine

1959Michael Considine, Irish-Australian trade union leader and politician (born 1885)[†]

Michael Patrick Considine was an Irish-born Australian politician and unionist. He represented the seat of Barrier in the House of Representatives from 1917 to 1922. A controversial figure, Considine was pressured to resign from the Australian Labor Party (ALP). He won in 1919 as an independent before joining the Socialist Labor Party in 1920, but his seat was abolished for the 1922 election and he was defeated in an attempt to transfer to the seat of Darling.

Historical Events

1950s quiz show scandals

1959Quiz show scandals: Twenty-One game show contestant Charles Van Doren admits to a Congressional committee that he had been given questions and answers in advance.[†]

The 1950s quiz show scandals were a series of scandals involving the producers and contestants of several popular American television quiz shows. These shows' producers secretly gave assistance to certain contestants in order to prearrange the shows' outcomes while still attempting to deceive the public into believing that these shows were objective and fair competitions. Producers fixed the shows sometimes with the free consent of contestants and out of various motives: improving ratings, greed, and the lack of regulations prohibiting such conspiracy in game show productions.

M1 motorway

1959The first section of the M1 motorway, the first inter-urban motorway in the United Kingdom, is opened between the present junctions 5 and 18, along with the M10 motorway and M45 motorway.[†]

The M1 motorway connects London to Leeds, where it joins the A1(M) near Aberford, to connect to Newcastle. It was the first inter-urban motorway to be completed in the UK; the first motorway in the country was the Preston Bypass, which later became part of the M6.

Historical Context for November 2, 1959

In 1959, the world population was approximately 2,965,950,351 people[†]