March 4, 1959 (Wednesday)
- Pioneer IV became the second man-made object to pass the Moon and to enter an orbit around the sun, becoming the first American-made planetary object. The Soviet satellite Lunik had achieved solar orbit on January 7. Contact with Pioneer IV was lost two days later after its batteries ran out of power.
- The government of Cuba nationalized the Cuban Telephone Company, a subsidiary of ITT.
- Born: Rick Ardon, Australian news anchor, in Perth; Irina Strakhova, Russian race walker, in Novosibirsk
- Died: Maxie Long, 80, Olympic track medalist 1900
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Famous quotes containing the word march:
“As high as mind stands above nature, so high does the state stand above physical life. Man must therefore venerate the state as a secular deity.... The march of God in the world, that is what the State is.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)