Home Introduction On Campus Rocket Man Off campus History We found you Karen Grassle Missing In memory of ... Karen Ewing Class reunions 40 years later 41 years later 45 years later Brown Bag reunions 2002 2003 2004 2006 Ventura High School Alumni Foundation Useful links Newsletters  Be sure to vist the Blog, too

Ventura High School What about off campus? Not everything important was happening on the VHS campus in 1959. News was being made around the world, songs were being sung, movies and TV were being watched and books were being read. Remember any of these? Big news Republican Dwight "Ike" Eisenhower was president and Richard M. Nixon was vice president. They had won by a landslide in the November 1956 election, defeating Adlai Stevenson. The Democrats won a majority in both Houses. The European Economic Community (Common Market) became effective Jan. 1, 1959 Fidel Castro, leader of the Cuban revolution, came to power. Alaska became the 49th state in January, and Hawaii became the 50th in August. British Prime Minister Macmillan made an 11-day visit to the USSR in February, the first such visit since World War II. The St. Lawrence Seaway, the largest waterway (400 miles) since the Panama Canal, opened in April. The first transatlantic TV broadcast, sent from London to Montreal and relayed to New York, showed Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip leaving for Canada to open the St. Lawrence Seaway. Singapore became a self-governing state within the British Commonwealth in June. Vice President Nixon visited Russia to open the American National Exhibition, where he and Nikita Khrushchev carried on the "Kitchen Debate" on the merits of capitalism vs. communism. In September, Khrushchev visited the United States. The Russian Luna II became the first spacecraft to land on the moon, although it crashed. (Sputnik I was launched in 1957.) The U.S. Post Office Court ruled that D.H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover is not objectionable. Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper were killed in a plane crash. Barbie was introduced to the toy world. If her dimensions were copied on a human scale, they'd be 33-18-28. "Island in the Sun" was the first film to deal with interracial marriage. Selective Service (the draft) was still in operation. -- From The Twentieth Century, An Almanac and 1999 People Weekly Almanac   Famous people born in 1959 Jan. 22: Linda Blair, entertainer Feb. 16: John McEnroe, tennis Oct. 13: Marie Osmond, entertainer  -- From 1959 Pages of Time, A Nostalgia News Report   Top movies of 1959 Ben-Hur Sleeping Beauty The Shaggy Dog Operation Petticoat Darby O'Gill and the Little People  -- From 1999 People Weekly Almanac Top Movie Stars of 1959  Rock Hudson Cary Grant James Stewart Doris Day Debbie Reynolds Glenn Ford Frank Sinatra John Wayne Jerry Lewis Susan Hayward  -- From 1999 People Weekly Almanac Top TV shows Because TV seasons span two years, this list includes the top shows of 1958-59 and 1959-60 1958-59   Gunsmoke Wagon Train Have Gun, Will Travel The Rifleman The Danny Thomas Show Maverick Tales of Wells Fargo The Real McCoys I've Got a Secret Wyatt Earp The Price Is Right The Red Skelton Show Zane Grety Theater/Father Knows Best (tie) The Texan Wanted, Dead or Alive/Peter Gunn (tie) Cheyenne Perry Mason The Tennessee Ernie Ford Show 1959-60 Gunsmoke Wagon Train Have Gun, Will Travel The Danny Thomas Show The Red Skelton Show Father Knows Best/77 Sunset Strip (tie) The Price Is Right Wanted: Dead or Alive Perry Mason The Real McCoys The Ed Sullivan Show The Bing Crosby Show The Rifleman The Tennessee Ernie Ford Show T:he Lawman Dennis the Menace Cheyenne Rawhide Maverick -- From 1999 People Weekly Almanac Top popular songs of 1959 Billboard's Top 10 Singles "The Battle of New Orleans," Johnny Horton "Mack the Knife," Bobby Darin "Personality," Lloyd Price "Venus," Frankie Avalon "Lonely Boy," Paul Anka "Dream Lover," Bobby Darin "The Three Bell," Browns "Come Softly to Me," Fleetwoods "Kansas City," Wilbert Harrison "Mr. Blue," Fleetwoods Billboard's Top 10 Albums Music from 'Peter Gunn,'" Henry Mancini "Gigi," soundtrack "South Pacific," soundtrack "From the Hungry i," Kingston Trio "The Kingston Trio at Large," Kingston Trio "Sing Along with Mitch," Mitch Miller "Inside Shelley Berman," Shelley Berman "Exotica, Vol. 1," Martin Denny "My Fair Lady," original cast "Flower Drum Sung," original cast  -- From 1999 People Weekly Almanac Top books of 1959  Fiction   "Exodus," Leon Uris "Doctor Zhivago," Boris Pasternak :"Hawaii," James Michener  "Advise and Consent," Allen Drury "Lady Chatterley's Lover," D.H. Lawrence "The Ugly American," William J. Lederer and Eugene L. Burdick "Dear and Glorious Physician," Taylor Caledwell "Lolita," Vladimir Nabokov "Mrs. 'Arris Goes to Paris," Paul Gallico "Poor No More, "Robert Ruark  Non-fiction   "'Twixt Twelve and Twenty," Pat Boone "Folk Medicine," D.C. Jarvis "For 2 cents Plain," Harry Golden'" "The Status Seekers," Vance Packard "Act One," Moss Hart "Charley Weaver's Letters from Mamma," Cliff Arquette "The Elements of Style," William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White "The General Foods Kitchens Cookbook" "Only in America," Harry Golden "Mine Enemy Grows Older," Alexander King -- From 1999 People Weekly Almanac