- January 9
- Dam across Tera River collapses after heavy winter rains, 135 die. [1]
- January 11
- Bollingen Prize for poetry awarded to Theodore Roethke. [1]
- January 13
- French president Charles de Gaulle grants amnesty to 130 Algerian death row convicts. [1]
- King Boudouin promises Belgian Congo independence. [1]
- January 22
- US Air Force concludes less than 1 percent of UFOs are unknown objects. [1]
- January 25
- Pope John XXIII proclaims second Vatican council. [1]
- January 26
- Italy government of Fanfani resigns. [1]
- January 29
- Buena Vista premieres Disney's animated feature film Sleeping Beauty at the Fox Wilshire Theater in Los Angeles, California. The film is based on Charles Perrault's version of the story of Sleeping Beauty. [5] [6]
- January 30
- The ABC TV network airs the Walt Disney Presents TV show, entitled The Peter Tchaikovsky Story. The show is the first stereophonic broadcast of a television program. In some cities, one channel is transmitted on an AM radio station, the other channel on an FM station. [6]
- February 1
- Swiss males vote against voting rights for women. [1]
- Texas Instruments requests patent of integrated circuit. [1]
- February 3
- American Airlines' Electra crashes in New York's East River, killing 65. [1]
- Buddy Holly, rocker ("That'll be the Day"), dies in a plane crash in Iowa at age 22. [1] [457]
- Richie Valens, rock vocalist ("Donna", "La Bamba"), killed in plane crash in Iowa at age 17. [1] [457]
- Jiles Perry Richardson AKA The Big Bopper, rocker ("Chantilly Lace"), dies in a plane crash in Iowa at age 28. [1] [457]
- February 4
- Israel begins exporting copper ore. [1]
- February 6
- US first successful Titan intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). [1]
- February 7
- Fidel Castro proclaims new Cuban constitution. [1]
- February 10
- Dutch Princess Wilhelmina publishes Lonely, but not alone. [1]
- Tornado in Saint Louis kills 19 and injures 265. [1]
- February 12
- The US Mint releases the 1959 Lincoln Memorial cent to circulation. (The design is retired in 2008, after 430 billion are struck.) [512.44]
- February 13
- Miro Cardon, premier of Cuba, resigns. [1]
- February 15
- Antonio Segni forms Italian government. [1]
- February 16
- Fidel Castro names himself Cuba's premier after overthrowing Batista. [1]
- February 17
- First weather satellite launched, Vanguard 2, 9.8kg. [1]
- February 19
- Britain, Turkey and Greece sign agreement granting Cyprus independence. [1]
- Gabon adopts its constitution. [1]
- US Air Force rocket-powered rail sled attains Mach 4.1 (4970 kph), New Mexico. [1]
- February 28
- Launch of Discoverer 1 (WTR)-first polar orbit. [1]
- March 1
- Archbishop Makarios returns to Cyprus after three years. [1]
- March 3
- Pioneer 4 is launched; becomes first US probe to enter solar orbit. [1]
- British government arrests Hastings Banda of Nyasaland, ends emergency crisis. [1]
- March 5
- Iran and US sign economic and military treaty. [1]
- March 6
- Farthest radio signal heard (Pioneer IV, 400,000 miles away). [1]
- March 8
- Pro-Egyptian coup fails in Mosul, Iraq. Abdel Wahab Shawwaf, Iraqi Colonel/putschist, is murdered. [1]
- March 9
- First known radar contact is made with Venus. [1]
- The first Barbie doll, Mattel's "Barbie Millicent Roberts", goes on display at the American Toy Fair in New York City. Eleven inches tall, Barbie is the first mass-produced toy doll in the United States with adult features. [1] [129] [300.C4]
- March 10
- 300,000 Tibetans band together in revolt, surrounding the Norbulinka Palace of the Dalai Lama in defiance of Chinese occupation forces. [1] [129]
- March 11
- Teddy Scholten wins Eurovision Song festival with "A Little Bit". [1]
- March 12
- Dutch Liberal Party wins second parliamentary elections. [1]
- March 16
- Iraq and USSR sign economic/technical treaty. [1]
- March 17
- Australia and USSR restore diplomatic relations. [1]
- Tibet's Dalai Lama is evacuated to India. [1] [129]
- March 18
- President Dwight D Eisenhower signs Hawaii statehood bill. [1]
- March 24
- Iraq withdraws from the Baghdad Pact. [1]
- March 25
- French President Charles de Gaulle acknowledges Oder-Neisse boundary. [1]
- March 28
- Eleven days after Tibet uprising, China dissolves Tibet's government and installs Panchen Lama. [1]
- April 4
- Federation of Mali, consisting of Senegal and French Sudan, is founded (dissolved 1960). [1]
- April 7
- Radar first bounced off sun, from Stanford, California. [1]
- April 12
- France Observator reports torture practice by French army in Algeria. [1]
- April 13
- US Air Force launches Discoverer II into polar orbit. [1]
- Vatican edict forbids Roman Catholics from voting for communists. [1]
- April 15
- Fidel Castro begins US goodwill tour. [1]
- April 16
- Datu Abdul Rozak inaugurated as premier of Malaysia federation. [1]
- April 17
- A bright fireball is photographed by a synchronized network of cameras over Czechoslovakia, breaking up into about 19 pieces, with four recovered near Pribram. The photos allow determination of the asteroid belt as place of origin. [523]
- April 19
- Uprising in La Paz, Bolivia, fails. [1]
- April 23
- First heliport in Britain opens in London. [1]
- April 25
- The St. Lawrence Seaway, linking the North American Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean, officially opens to shipping. [1] [5]
- April 26
- April 27
- Liu Sjau-chi elected President of People's Rebublic of China. [1]
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