My Look Back: 1959

College boys in phone booth, 1959
Photo from LIFE Photo Archive

It's a new year and hopefully you haven't done anything as crazy as these college dudes did in 1959 as part of your new year's resolutions (or as part of any resolutions for that matter).  1959 was the end of an era you could say, one that led to the sexual revolution that started in the 60's and segued into free love, war, disco fever, and eventually crazy 80's metal band hair (or something like that).  Here's a look back at the last year of the wonderful 1950's.

• Fidel Castro assumed power of Cuba on February 16th
• Alaska and Hawaii became the 49th and 50th states of the United States of America
• Cost of a first class stamp was .04 cents
• Mattel launched the Barbie doll
• The Grammy Awards were founded
• Popular singers of the day included Ella Fitzgerald, Doris Day, Frank Sinatra and Connie Francis
• Bonanza was the first weekly television show to be broadcast in color
• Xerox introduced the first commercial copy machine
• Sade, Jason Alexander, John McEnroe, Morrissey, Tom Arnold, Kevin Spacey and Rosanna Arquette were born
• Popular movies included Some Like it Hot, North by Northwest, Ben-Hur, and Room at the Top
• The Etch A Sketch was invented
• The Los Angeles Dodgers won the World Series against the Chicago White Sox after having just moved from Brooklyn in 1958. The White Sox would not see a World Series again until 2005 and it had been 40 years since they had been in the World Series when they lost to the Dodgers in 1959