January 2, 1959 (Friday)
- The Soviet Union successfully launched the Luna 1 satellite from Baikonur Cosmodrome. Luna 1 became the first man-made object to escape the pull of the Earth's gravity.
- As Castro's rebel forces rolled into Havana, the 32 year old leader named Dr. Manuel Urrutia Lleo as President of Cuba.
- CBS Radio cut four soap operas: Backstage Wife, Our Gal Sunday, The Road of Life, and This is Nora Drake.
- Died: William D. Francis, 69, Australian botanist
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)