360What happened in 1959?
8 moments from 1959 on 360n60, each told in 60 words or fewer.
- On this day · 2 January 1959
Luna 1 becomes the first spacecraft to escape Earth's gravity
On 2 January 1959, the Soviet Union launched Luna 1 towards the Moon. It missed its target by about 6,000 km, but it became the first spacecraft to escape Earth's gravity and go into orbit around the Sun. It also found the solar wind, a stream of particles flowing from the Sun.
- On this day · 17 February 1959
The first weather satellite is launched
On 17 February 1959, the United States launched Vanguard 2, the first satellite designed to measure weather, by observing cloud cover. It wobbled in orbit, so its data was hard to use. But it opened the way for weather satellites, which now help forecast storms and save lives.
- On this day · 9 March 1959
The Barbie doll goes on sale
On 9 March 1959, the American company Mattel introduced the Barbie doll at the American International Toy Fair in New York. Created by Ruth Handler and named after her daughter, Barbara, it became one of the best-selling toys in history, with more than a billion sold.
- On this day · 9 April 1959
NASA introduces its first astronauts
On 9 April 1959, NASA introduced the 'Mercury Seven', the first American astronauts, chosen from military test pilots. They included Alan Shepard, the first American in space, and John Glenn, the first to orbit Earth. They became national heroes.
- On this day · 28 May 1959
Two monkeys return safely from space
On 28 May 1959, the monkeys Able and Baker flew about 480 km high on a US rocket and returned safely, becoming the first primates to survive a flight into space. Their journey helped show that living creatures could withstand launch, weightlessness and re-entry.
- On this day · 7 August 1959
The first photograph of Earth from orbit
On 7 August 1959, the United States launched the satellite Explorer 6. A week later, it sent back the first photograph of Earth taken from orbit, a crude, blurry image of sunlit clouds over the Pacific. Today satellites photograph the whole planet every day.
- On this day · 7 October 1959
The first photographs of the Moon's far side
On 7 October 1959, the Soviet probe Luna 3 photographed the far side of the Moon, the side never seen from Earth. The blurry images showed fewer dark plains than the near side. One of the features was later named the Sea of Moscow.
- On this day · 29 December 1959
Richard Feynman imagines nanotechnology
On 29 December 1959, the physicist Richard Feynman gave a talk called 'There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom' in California. He imagined writing an entire encyclopedia on the head of a pin and building machines from individual atoms. The talk is often seen as the starting point of nanotechnology.