February 15, 1959 (Sunday)
- In Guatemala, President Miguel Ydigoras Fuentes acted to put down an Indian uprising that had been organized by his opponent Raul Estuardo Lorenzana. Ydiogras would later write in his 1963 autobiography My War with Communism that the rebellion was the first of several Communist Cuban plots against his government.
- 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 at 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.
- Nine persons in a single car were killed when their vehicle was hit head-on by another vehicle on United States Highway 281 south of Alamo, Texas. The driver of the other vehicle, whose speedometer was frozen at 80 miles (130 km) per hour after the collision, also died.
- Died: Owen Willans Richardson, 79, laureate, 1928 Nobel Prize in Physics
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Famous quotes containing the word february:
“If a man is a good lawyer, a good physician, a good engineer ... he may be a fool in every other capacity. But no deficiency or mistake of judgment is forgiven to a woman ... and should she fail anywhere, if she has any scientific attainment, or artistic faculty, instead of standing her interest as an excuse, it is censured as an aggravation and offence.”
—E.P.P., U.S. women’s magazine contributor. The Una, p. 28 ( February 1855)