March 15, 1959 (Sunday)
- Robert Foster, 32, set a record for holding his breath, remaining underwater for 13 minutes, 42.5 seconds (13:42.5), at San Rafael, California The record stood for 48 years, until broken by Arvydas and Diana Gaiciunas in Druskininkai, Lithuania, on June 16, 2007, at almost 16 minutes (15:58). Both Foster and the Gaiciunas siblings hyperventilated with pure oxygen beforehand in order to drive carbon dioxide from their lungs. The recognized record without such preparations is 11 minutes, 35 seconds, by freediver Stéphane Mifsud on June 8, 2009
- The prison at the Curragh Camp, where Ireland detained suspected terrorists without formal charges, was formally closed.
- Born: Harold Baines, American baseball player, in Easton, Maryland
- Died: Duncan Hines, 78, restaurant critic who later lent his name to a line of cake mixes
Read more about this topic: March 1959
Famous quotes containing the word march:
“What if there’s nothing up there at the top?
Where are the captains that govern mankind?
What tears down a tree that has nothing within it?
A blast of wind, O a marching wind,
March wind, and any old tune,
March march and how does it run.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)