1959

Events

• January 1 - End of the Battle of Santa Clara. Fulgencio Batista is overthrown as dictator of Cuba by Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement, who assume control of the country.
• January 3 - Robert Byrd is elected to the United States Senate.
• March - The American Nazi Party is founded by George Lincoln Rockwell.
• April 17 - Vito Genovese, boss of the Genovese crime family, is convicted of drug trafficking and is sentenced to 15 years in prison.
• May 17 - Che Guevara launches the first Cuban land reform campaign.
• May 23 - Beginning of the Laotian Civil War.
• June 5 - Lee Kuan Yew is named the first Prime Minister of Singapore.
• June 19 - The National Party passes the Bantu Self-Governence Act, which orders all Colored people to be removed from South Africa proper and relocated to designed homelands (Bantustans) within the country's borders.
• July 25 - At the opening of the American National Exhibition in Moscow, United States Vice President Richard Nixon and USSR Premier Nikita Khrushchev engage in the "Kitchen Debate".
• July 31 - ETA is founded.
• August - Beginning of the Great Chinese Famine.
• August 5 - Maurice Yaméogo is named the first President of Upper Volta.
• November 2 - Beginning of the Rwandan Revolution.
• November 15 - The Clutter family murders take place in Holcomb, Kansas when all four members of the Clutter family are killed by Perry Edward Smith and Richard Hickock.
• Unknown - Fatah is founded by Yasser Arafat.

Births

Villain births

• January 20 - Joel Rifkin
• January 26 - Roy Whiting
• February 3 - Jeff Doucet
• March 1 - Nick Griffin
• July 7 - John Miller
• July 25 - Anatoly Onoprienko
• July 26 - Michael Bruce Ross
• August 1 - Ángel Maturino Reséndiz
• August 8 - Frank R. James
• August 17 - David Koresh
• August 19 - Anthony Sowell
• August 21 - Shawn Nelson
• August 27 - Gundolf Köhler
• October 25 - Kieran Fleming
• October 29 - John Magufuli
• November 22 - Pamela Ann Fahy
• December 1 - Emmanuel Rukundo
• December 18 - Charles Stuart
• Unknown - Pascal Simbikangwa
• Unknown - Andrew Hall

Victim births

• May 19 - Nicole Brown Simpson
• May 30 - Winfield Mowder
• June - Aaron Webster
• October 17 - Marie Lilienberg
• November 23 - Dominique Dunne
• December 27 - Margaret Fetterolf
• Unknown - Steven Hicks

Deaths

Villain deaths

• February 7 - Daniel François Malan
• June 22 - Karl Jäger
• June 23 - Fritz Kraemer
• June 25 - Charles Starkweather
• July 27 - Aleksandar Tsankov
• September 18 - Harvey Glatman
• October 9 - Shirō Ishii
• October 14 - Günther Tamaschke
• October 15 - Stepan Bandera
• December 28 - Ante Pavelić

Victim deaths

• June 17 - Elizabeth Figg
• November 15 - Herbert, Bonnie, Nancy, and Kenyon Clutter