1959

From top to bottom, left to right: The Cuban Revolution brings Fidel Castro to power after toppling Fulgencio Batista; construction of the Ho Chi Minh Trail begins, later crucial in the Vietnam War; The Day the Music Died plane crash kills Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson; Miss Baker becomes one of the first animals to survive spaceflight; the Kitchen Debate reflect Cold War tensions between Richard Nixon and Nikita Khrushchev; the 1959 Tibetan uprising forces the 14th Dalai Lama into exile; the Léopoldville riots ignite unrest in the Congo; the Malpasset Dam collapse kills hundreds in France; and Typhoon Vera devastates Japan.