Top News Stories from 1959

World Events

World Statistics

Population: 4.378 billion
population by decade
Nobel Peace Prize: Philip John Noel-Baker (UK)
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U.S. Events

U.S. Statistics

Vice President: Richard M. Nixon
Population: 177,829,628
Life expectancy: 69.9 years
Homicide Rate (per 100,000): 4.6
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Economics

US GDP (1998 dollars): $507.2 billion
Federal spending: $92.10 billion
Federal debt $287.5 billion
Consumer Price Index: $29.1
Unemployment: 6.8%
Cost of a first-class stamp: $0.04

Sports

World Series
LA Dodgers d. Chicago White Sox (4-2)
NBA Championship
Boston d. Minneapolis Lakers
Stanley Cup
Montreal d. Toronto
Wimbledon
Women: Maria Bueno d. D. Hard (6-4 6-3)
Men: Alex Olmedo d. R. Laver (6-4 6-3 6-4)
Kentucky Derby Champion
Tomy Lee
NCAA Basketball Championship
California d. West Virginia
NCAA Football Champions
Syracuse (11-0-0)

Entertainment

Entertainment Awards

Pulitzer Prizes
Fiction: The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters, Robert Lewis Taylor
Music: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, John La Montaine
Drama: J. B. Archibald MacLeish
Academy Award, Best Picture: Gigi, Arthur Freed, producer (MGM)
Nobel Prize for Literature: Salvatore Quasimodo (Italy)
Record of the Year: "Nel Blu Dipinto di Blu" (Volare), Domenico Modugno
Album of the Year: The Music From Peter Gunn, Henry Mancini (RCA)
Song of the Year: "Nel Blu Dipinto di Blu," Domenico Modugno, songwriter
Miss America: Mary Ann Mobley (MS)
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Events

  • The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences sponsors the first Grammy Award ceremony for music recorded in 1958.
  • Frank Sinatra wins his first Grammy Award -- Best Album for Come Dance with Me.
  • Rumors of cheating on quiz shows erupt into a national scandal.

Movies

  • Some Like It Hot, North by Northwest, Ben-Hur, Anatomy of a Murder, Room at the Top

Books

Science

Nobel Prizes in Science

Chemistry: Jaroslav Heyrovsky (Czechoslovakia), for development of polarography, an electrochemical method of analysis
Physics: Emilio Segre and Owen Chamberlain (both US), for demonstrating the existence of the anti-proton
Physiology or Medicine: Severo Ochoa and Arthur Kornberg (both US), for discoveries related to compounds within chromosomes that play a vital role in heredity
More Nobel Prizes in 1998...

Death

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