Editing 1959 (section)

===January===
[[File:Luis Korda 02.jpg|right|thumb|upright|[[January 8]]: [[Fidel Castro]] arrives in [[Havana]]]]
{{Main|January 1959}}
* [[January 1]] – [[Cuba]]: [[Fulgencio Batista]] flees [[Havana]] when the forces of [[Fidel Castro]] advance.<ref>{{cite book|title=Handbook on the Cuban Armed Forces|publisher=DIA|year=1979|page=1}}</ref>
* [[January 2]] – Soviet lunar probe [[Luna 1]] is the first human-made object to attain [[escape velocity]] from Earth. It reaches the vicinity of Earth's [[Moon]], where it was intended to crash-land, but instead becomes the first [[spacecraft]] to go into [[heliocentric orbit]].
* [[January 3]]
** [[Alaska]] is admitted as the 49th U.S. state.
** The southernmost island of the [[Maldives]] [[archipelago]], [[Addu Atoll]], declares its independence from the Kingdom of the Maldives, initiating the [[United Suvadive Republic]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Suvadive Revolt – Addu 1959|url=http://www.maldivesroyalfamily.com/suvadive/maldives_suvadive_OShea.shtml|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040812181513/http://www.maldivesroyalfamily.com/suvadive/maldives_suvadive_OShea.shtml|archive-date=2004-08-12|url-status=live}}</ref>
* [[January 4]]
** In [[Cuba]], rebel troops led by [[Che Guevara]] and [[Camilo Cienfuegos]] enter the city of [[Havana]].
** [[Léopoldville riots]]: At least 49 people are killed during clashes between the police and participants of a meeting of the [[ABAKO]] Party in [[Kinshasa|Léopoldville]] in the [[Belgian Congo]].
* [[January 6]] – The [[International Maritime Organization]] is inaugurated.
* [[January 7]] – The United States recognizes the new [[Cuba]]n government of [[Fidel Castro]].
* [[January 8]] – [[Charles de Gaulle]] is inaugurated as the first president of the [[French Fifth Republic]].
* [[January 9]] – The [[Vega de Tera disaster]] in Spain, a flood caused by a dam collapse, nearly destroys the town of [[Ribadelago]] and kills 144 residents.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://elpais.com/diario/1999/01/10/espana/915922818_850215.html |title=40 años de la tragedia de Ribadelago, en la que murieron 144 personas |language=es |first=José |last=Lera |date=10 January 1999 |location=Zamora |access-date=12 September 2018 |newspaper=[[El País]] |publisher=[[PRISA]]}}</ref>
* [[January 10]] – The [[Soviet government]] recognizes the new Castro government of Cuba.
* [[January 11]] – The [[Confédération Mondiale des Activités Subaquatiques]] is founded in [[Monaco]].
* [[January 12]] – The [[Motown]] record label is founded as Tamla by [[Berry Gordy]] in [[Detroit]].
* [[January 15]] – The [[Soviet Union]] conducts its [[Soviet Census (1959)|first census]] after [[World War II]].
* [[January 21]] – The [[European Court of Human Rights]] is established.
* [[January 22]] – [[Knox Mine disaster]]: Water breaches the River Slope Mine in [[Port Griffith, Pennsylvania|Port Griffith]], near [[Pittston, Pennsylvania]], United States; 12 miners are killed.
* [[January 25]]
** [[American Airlines]] begins the first U.S. domestic jet service with a [[Boeing 707]] [[airliner]] flight between [[New York City|New York]] and [[Los Angeles]].<ref>{{cite news|title=Today in History|newspaper=Washington Post Express|date=25 January 2012|page=26}}</ref>
** [[Pope John XXIII]] announces that the [[Second Vatican Council]] will be convened in Rome.
* [[January 30]] – Danish passenger/cargo ship {{MS|Hans Hedtoft}}, returning to [[Copenhagen]] after its maiden voyage to [[Greenland]], strikes an iceberg and sinks off the Greenland coast with the loss of all 95 on board.<ref>{{cite news|title=Three Rescue Vessels Reach Ship-Iceberg Collision Scene|location=Oakland|newspaper=Tribune|date=1959-01-31|page=1}}</ref>