January 1, 1959 (Thursday)
- Cuban President Fulgencio Batista fled to the Dominican Republic as the forces of Fidel Castro closed in. Before leaving, Batista named Judge Carlos Manuel Piedra as provisional president. Piedra ordered a cease-fire moments after taking office. At 10:00 pm, the ships F.M. Robinson, Jack W. Wilke and the Peterson were directed to sail to Cuba to evacuate Americans if necessary.
- Cultivars of plants, such as new varieties of roses, could no longer bear a Latin name, as of this date, based on an amendment to the ICNCP, the International Code for Nomenclature of Cultivated Plants.
- Born: Azali Assoumani, President of the Comoros 1999–2002; in Mitsoudjé
Read more about this topic: January 1959
Famous quotes containing the word january:
“and you undid the reins
and I undid the buttons,
the bones, the confusions,
The New England postcards,
the January ten o’clock night,
and we rose up like wheat....”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)