-   **2 January:** The Soviet mission *Luna 1* passes 6000 km from the
    [Moon](Moon.html).


-   **8 January:** Fidel Castro enters Havana.


-   **20 January:** Unidentified luminous objects are observed in Sweden.


-   **February 26:** An unidentified luminous object(s) is/are observed above London Heathrow Airport.


-   **February 28:** [Gerry Irwin](IrwinGerry.html) observes a luminous object near Cedar City. He is found "asleep".


-   **March 3:** The American mission *Pioneer 4* passes 59000 km from the [Moon](Moon.html).


-   **March 12:** Unidentified luminous objects are observed in Norway.


-   **March 15:** [Gerry Irwin](IrwinGerry.html) faints in a street of El Paso.


-   **March 16, 2 AM:** [Gerry Irwin](IrwinGerry.html) wakes up, convinced he is [February 28](#02-28). He is taken back to William Beaumont Hospital.


-   **26-27 March:** Observation in Corsica (Pennsylvania) [[case [Blue Book](BlueBook.html) #6317 unsolved]]{.source}.


-   **April 1st:** A C-118 cargo plane taking off from Mac Chord military
    airbase in Washington state collides with an unknown luminous
    object. Several witnesses see 2 yellow-orange lights approach the
    plane. The crew has time to send a distress message before
    crashing: We've hit something\... or something has hit us! MAYDAY,
    MAYDAY, this time it's it, this time it's it!


-   **April 9:** The [NASA](NASA.html) selects 9 astronauts.


-   **April 13**: The press headlines "A Red Glint in the Sky: a black sphere with a red light was observed above St-Lambert, east of Montreal, by hundreds of witnesses.


-   **April 17:** [Gerry Irwin](IrwinGerry.html) leaves William Beaumont Hospital.


-   **April 18:** [Gerry Irwin](IrwinGerry.html) leaves Fort Bliss heading to Cedar City.


-   **April 19:** [Gerry Irwin](IrwinGerry.html) arrives in Cedar City and
    goes to the site of his observation. He finds his missing jacket, a
    pencil inside, and burns a paper rolled around it. As if coming out
    of a trance, he struggles to find his way back to Cedar City.


-   **April 20:** Doctor
    [Jessup](scientifiques.html#JessupMorrisKetchum) is found dying
    in his van (car?) in a public garden in Dade County, asphyxiated by a pipe attached to the exhaust of his vehicle and passed through the window of a door.


-   **Spring:** Another jet is sent to intercept a stationary object
    detected on radar off the northeast coast of Japan. The pilot sees
    the object and is authorized to fire. The missiles have no effect
    on the unknown object which begins to pursue the plane as the radar
    follows the scene. The two signals overlap, the single object that
    results remains stationary for a moment then disappears. The
    searches conducted for several days fail: no trace of the jet is
    found. Even if it is advanced that the plane disappeared over the
    water, it remains that the radars never detected any fall after the
    "meeting" of the "blips", that a localized crash with precision at
    sea leaves traces on the surface and that one of the aircrafts
    left by its own means, which excludes for it the devastating effects
    of a collision [\[Maccabee\]]{.source}.


-   **June 18:** Sighting in Edmonton, Alberta (Canada) [[case [Blue Book](BlueBook.html) #6400 unsolved]]{.source}.


- According to some sources, the United States is establishing primitive communications with extraterrestrials.


- An odd object falls into the port of Frdynia (Poland). Divers recover a shiny metal piece, which would have been examined by the Polytechnic Institute and the Polish Navy, but part of it would have disappeared. In the following days, the body of a small humanoid found on a nearby beach would be sent to the Soviet Union.


-   **June 26-27:** [Multiple Observations of Boianai](1959-06-26_Boianai.html) (Papua New Guinea).


-   **June 30:** Observation at Patuxent River (Maryland) [[case [Blue Book](BlueBook.html) #6409 unsolved]]{.source}.


-   **July 10:** [Gerry Irwin](IrwinGerry.html) re-admitted to hospital.


-   **July 25:** Sighting in Irondequoit (New York) [[case [Blue Book](BlueBook.html) #6446 unsolved]]{.source}.


-   **1st August:** [Gerry Irwin](IrwinGerry.html) does not show up for roll call.

-   **August 7:** *Explorer 6* sends the first images of Earth.


-   **August 10:** Observation at Goose Air Base (Labrador)
    [[case [Blue Book](BlueBook.html) #6462 unsolved]]{.source}.


-   **August 12:** *Luna 2* crashes on the [Moon](Moon.html).


-   **August 17:** In Uberlandia (Brazil), many witnesses observe a bright flying object following a high-tension line. As it approaches, my switches jump and plunge the region into darkness. After its passage, the devices reposition themselves and the current is restored. No damage is reported afterwards on the installations.


-   **1st September:** [Gerry Irwin](IrwinGerry.html) is declared a deserter. He will never be seen again.


-   **September 13:** Observation at Bunker Hill Air Force Base (Indiana) [[case [Blue Book](BlueBook.html) #6507 unsolved]]{.source}.


-   **September 17:** Creation of the [SEREB](SEREB.html).


-   **September 21:** USGS takes a photo (13-146) of Groom Lake base as part of a routine mapping program, still available.


-   **24 September:** Radar observation in Redmont (Oregon) [\[Chauvin 1973\]]{.source}.


-   **October 1st:** Observation at Telephone Ridge (Oregon) [[case [Blue Book](BlueBook.html) #6534 unsolved]]{.source}.


- **4 October**


-   1st photo of the far side of the Moon, by [Luna 3](projets.html#Luna3).


- Observation in the Philippines [[case [Blue Book](BlueBook.html) #6538 unsolved]]{.source}.


-   **October 6:** Sighting in Lincoln (Nebraska) [[case [Blue Book](BlueBook.html) #6543 unsolved]]{.source}.


-   **October 16** : Death of General [George C. Marshall](MarshallGeorgeCattlet.html).


-   **October 19:** Sighting in Plainville (Kansas) [[case [Blue Book](BlueBook.html) #6563 unsolved]]{.source}.

- **November**


-   A full-scale mockup of an A-12 is delivered to [Groom Lake](Area51.html) by truck, for radar signature testing [\[McIninch\]]{.source}.


-   **November 18:** Observation in the South of Crystal Springs (Mississippi) [[case [Blue Book](BlueBook.html) #6600 unsolved]]{.source}.


-   **December 24:** Letter from the [USAF](USAF.html) to base commanders stating that UFO matters should be considered "serious" for the [USAF](USAF.html) and should ultimately be disclosed to the public (vice versa?).


-   [Joseph Hynek](HynekJosephAllen.html) sets up a number of informal
    meetings between members of the [Blue Book](BlueBook.html) project
    and the [ATIC](ATIC.html). It is decided to use the term
    *Unidentified Flying Object* and to reexamine cases in light of
    scientific knowledge of the time.


-   [Ruppelt](RuppeltEdwardJ.html) changed the conclusion of his book published 3 years earlier.

- Two physicists from Cornell University, Giuseppi Cocconi and Philip Morrison, published an article in the scientific journal *Nature* in which they discussed the use of microwaves for interstellar communication. They recommended listening on the frequency of 1420 MHz. This article motivated [Frank Drake](DrakeFrankD.html) for his project [OZMA](projets.html#OZMA).