Fifty Years Ago
We all know that Montclair High School opened its doors in 1959, but what else happened that year?
Mattel introduced the Barbie doll.
"The Twilight Zone" premiered.
The Soviet probe Luna 2 crashed onto the moon, becoming the first man-made object to reach it.
Alaska and Hawaii became the 49th and 50th states.
NASA introduced the first US astronauts, the Mercury Seven.
Walt Disney's Sleeping Beauty was released.
Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and The Big Bopper were killed in an airplane crash -- "The Day the Music Died," later commemorated in Don Maclean's song "American Pie."
The Dalai Lama fled Tibet and was granted asylum in India.
Monkeys Able and Miss Baker became the first living creatures to successfuly return to Earth from space, aboard Jupiter AM-18.
The first skull of Australopithecus was discovered by Louis and Mary Leakey in the Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania.
First known human with HIV dies in the Congo.
The following people were born:
"The Twilight Zone" premiered.
The Soviet probe Luna 2 crashed onto the moon, becoming the first man-made object to reach it.
Alaska and Hawaii became the 49th and 50th states.
NASA introduced the first US astronauts, the Mercury Seven.
Walt Disney's Sleeping Beauty was released.
Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and The Big Bopper were killed in an airplane crash -- "The Day the Music Died," later commemorated in Don Maclean's song "American Pie."
The Dalai Lama fled Tibet and was granted asylum in India.
Monkeys Able and Miss Baker became the first living creatures to successfuly return to Earth from space, aboard Jupiter AM-18.
The first skull of Australopithecus was discovered by Louis and Mary Leakey in the Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania.
First known human with HIV dies in the Congo.
The following people were born:
- Rigoberta Menchu (Nobel Peace Prize recipient)
- Brian Setzer (of The Stray Cats)
- Robert Smith (of The Cure)
- Flavor Flav
- Morrissey
- Hugh Laurie ("House", "Stuart Little")
- Magic Johnson
- Simon Cowell
- Marie Osmond
- "Weird Al" Yankovic
- Sandra Cisneros (author of The House on Mango Street, one of the novels read by 9th graders at MHS today)
And what about 1960, the year the first class of seniors at MHS graduated?
The Winter Olympics were held in Squaw Valley, CA.
Four black students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University staged a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, NC.
Joanne Woodward received the first star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Elvis Presley returned home from Germany after two year tour of duty in the Army.
Ben Hur won the Academy Award for Best Picture of 1959, as well as 10 other Oscars.
The FDA approved the first birth control pill.
President Eisenhower signed the Civil Rights Act of 1960 into law.
To Kill a Mockingbird was published. Today, this is a core text for 9th grade English.
OPEC was formed.
Cassius Clay (later known as Muhammad Ali) won his first professional fight.
The following people were born:
Four black students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University staged a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, NC.
Joanne Woodward received the first star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Elvis Presley returned home from Germany after two year tour of duty in the Army.
Ben Hur won the Academy Award for Best Picture of 1959, as well as 10 other Oscars.
The FDA approved the first birth control pill.
President Eisenhower signed the Civil Rights Act of 1960 into law.
To Kill a Mockingbird was published. Today, this is a core text for 9th grade English.
OPEC was formed.
Cassius Clay (later known as Muhammad Ali) won his first professional fight.
The following people were born:
- Valerie Bertinelli
- Bono
- Antonio Banderas
- Joan Jett
- Jean-Claude Van Damme
- Neil Gaiman (author of the Sandman series, etc.)
