Political tension rose as the Liberal Party government shut down the Kyunghyang Shinmun and executed Cho Bong-am of the Progressive Party case. Typhoon Sarah, which struck on Chuseok, became the worst natural disaster since the founding of the republic, and at year's end the first repatriation ship carrying Korean residents of Japan to North Korea set sail.
The year in Korea
Apr 30The government ordered the closure of the Kyunghyang Shinmun, a newspaper critical of the Rhee administration. [Source]
Jul 31Cho Bong-am, sentenced to death in the Progressive Party case, was executed; the Supreme Court acquitted him on retrial in 2011. [Source]
Sep 17Typhoon Sarah passed near Busan on Chuseok, leaving 849 people dead or missing. [Source]
Dec 14The first ship repatriating Korean residents of Japan to North Korea departed from Niigata, Japan. [Source]
Jan 1The Cuban Revolution triumphed as dictator Fulgencio Batista fled the country. [Source]
Songs, shows & trends
Products & services
A-501, the first Korean-made radio — In November 1959 Goldstar produced Korea's first domestically made vacuum-tube radio. [Source]
Music
Lee Mi-ja – “Nineteen-Year-Old’s Pure Heart” — The debut song of Lee Mi-ja, who would become known as the “Queen of Elegy.” [Source]
Patti Kim debuts on the Eighth Army stage — She made her singing debut on the U.S. Eighth Army stage in 1959. [Source]
TV & broadcasting
Fire at HLKZ-TV — Korea's first TV station lost all its broadcasting equipment in a fire on February 2. [Source]
Year League: the best year
Sources
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