February 7, 1959 (Saturday)
- 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 at Blythe, California, from a truck that would drive 90 miles per hour (140 km/h) beneath the plane.
- Former SS Colonel Sepp 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.
- Died: Daniel F. Malan, 84, Prime Minister of South Africa 1948–1954 and architect of apartheid
Read more about this topic: February 1959
Famous quotes containing the word february:
“In my experience, if you have to keep the lavatory door shut by extending your left leg, it’s modern architecture.”
—Nancy Banks-Smith, British columnist. Guardian (London, February 20, 1979)