World Events
The Russian spacecraft Lunik III reaches and takes photographs of the far side of the moon.- Uprising in Tibet against China is crushed; the Dalai Lama flees to India.
- Dictator Fidel Castro takes power through armed revolution in Cuba and forces General Batista into exile. Castro institutes agrarian reforms.
- Alaska is proclaimed the 49th state and Hawaii becomes the 50th state of the United States of America.
