1959

1959 

January 1st 
Fidel Castro leads Cuba to victory.

January 2nd 
Soviet Union successfully launches Luna I spacecraft from Baikonur Cosmodrome.

January 4th
After 34 hours of flight , Luna I impacts the Moon , which is tracked and observed by both Moon base Eisinga and New Amsterdam moon base personal and its sensors (1).

January 7th 
The United States recognizes the new Cuban government of Fidel Castro.

January 19th
KNRS Amsterdam visit Alpha Centauri VII ,this is the seventh visit to Alpha Centauri by the flagship of royal Netherlands space force sins its first visit to Alpha Centauri in 1958.

January 22nd 
United States air force concludes ,that less than 1 percent of UFOs are unknown objects (2).

January 23rd
Wernher Von Braun predicts that men will be living and working on the moon by 1974 , he also adds that "the Soviets can put a man on the moon this year , but can not bring them back yet’’

January 27th 
NASA , director T. Keith Glennan discloses that the first 110 candidates have bin selected , to be the first American in space, and that he believes that man will land on the moon by 1969.

February 17th 
Vanguard II, the first weather satellite, is launched by the United States, from Cape Canaveral.

February 20th 
Canada cancels the Avro Arrow program.

March 3rd 
First United states probe to enter solar orbit, Pioneer IV, is launched.

March 4th 
United states Pioneer IV misses the Moon.

March 13th 
Third Wolf class scout vessel , named KNRS Jaguar enterers in service whit the royal Netherlands space force , whit the third Wolf class scout vessel now in service , only one more Wolf class scout vessel is going to be build at New Fijenoord-Rotterdamsche space yard.

March 30th
Another Type A class shuttle designated KNRS A8 begins its test flight out of Netherlands space centre Guyana , whit this more then eight Type A class shuttle are in service whit the royal Netherlands space force , and two of them are deployed out of New Batavia outpost.

March 31st 
Dalai Lama visit India , his first visit to a foreign country ever.

April 2nd 
NASA announces the names of the seven men chosen as astronauts for project Mercury.

April 4th 
In a speech at Gettysburg College, president Dwight D. Eisenhower announces the American commitment to keeping the United Republic of China , a independent nation , and says "that our own national interests demand some help from us in sustaining the United Republic of China the morale, the economic progress and the military strength necessary to its continued its existence in freedom".

April 7th 
Prince Bernhard visits New Batavia outpost , Alpha Centauri III , flying onboard KNRS Wolf.

April 9th 
The first seven Mercury astronauts are introduced at a press conference held by NASA in Washington , by rank, they are Lt. Col. John Glenn, lieutenant commanders Wally Schirra and Alan Shepard, , air force captains Gordon Cooper, Gus Grissom and Deke Slayton, and navy Lt. Scott Carpenter.

April 10th 
The powerful Japanese Imperial household ministry , begins selecting select a bride for crown prince Akihito from among the daughters of the court nobility.

April 11th 
Prince Bernhard onboard KNRS Wolf fly’s back to Mars after having spend four days at the New Batavia outpost.

April 13th 
The United States and Great Britain ask the Soviet Union and the Japanese empire to join them , in a moratorium on above-ground nuclear weapons testing.

April 16th 
Royal Netherlands space force command makes a decision to move New Fijenoord-Rotterdamsche space yard, and Utopia Planitia space yard to a new location at Sun–Earth L3 point ,which is located behind the Sun , and relocating most of the royal Netherlands space force of world activity to Alpha Centauri III.

May 5th
KNRS Jaguar , becomes the first royal Netherlands space force ship to conduct its shakedown cruise in the Alpha Centauri system.

May 20th 
Shah of Persia arrives in the Netherlands , onboard the Tromp class cruiser HNLMS Jacob van Heemskerck , for a three day visit of the country.

May 26th 
The 1964 summer Olympic games are awarded to Detroit , United States(3).

June 3rd 
Lee Kuan Yew becomes the first prime minister of the Dominion of Singapore.

June 14th 
Vulcan survey ship D'pra arrives at orbit of Alpha Centauri III , where it will observe what the Netherlands are doing on the planet by order of the Vulcan High Command.

July 8th
Two American military advisors become the first Americans killed in the United Republic of China , by a imperial Japanese army attack in the divided province of Sichuan.

July 9th
The United States resumes U-2 spy plane flights over the republic of China-Nanking after several months of not having flown over areas controlled by the Japanese puppet state.

July 13th 
New Batavia outpost , Alpha Centauri III , population reaches 500 , is elevated to a colony status by the royal Netherlands space force command.

Augustus 14th 
Earth is photographed from outer space for the first time , by American satellite , Explorer VI, which had been launched on August 7th.

Augustus 28th 
India's Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru declares in a speech , that India will protect the borders and independence of the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan and in some extent the independent nation of Tibet.

September 3rd
A new Singaporean flag is raised , the new flag is based on the old flag it replaces , who was used for more then 140 years , is another indication that the Dominion of Singapore is a independent nation in the Commonwealth of Nations ,wile retaining its relation to Great Britain.

September 13th 
The first Soviet satellite , Luna II crashed near the Sea of Tranquility ,on the Moon , several hours latter , four royal Netherlands space force personal operating from Moon base Eisinga arrive at Luna II impact side to investigate it , and recover it for study at Moon base Eisinga.

September 14th 
The Soviet Union announced the success of Luna II on Moscow radio with the words ‘’yesterday on the 13th of September, the second Soviet cosmic rocket reached the surface of the moon’’.

September 17th 
A typhoon kills 2,000 in Japan and Japanese Korea.

September 24th 
In the race to be the first to photograph the dark side of the Moon, the United States suffers a setback when the Atlas-Able rocket explodes on the launch pad during tests.

October 4th 
Luna III , is launched by the Soviet Union.

October 6th
Just before it is about to send the first pictures of the far side of the Moon , Luna III suffers a malfunction of a unknown kind , preventing it from sending pictures to the Soviet Union (4).

October 7th 
A Philippines RB-57 surveillance plane, flying at an altitude of 20,000 meters, is downed by three ground to air missiles as it flew over Tahoka (5) , becoming the first aircraft downed by a surface-to-air missile.

October 12th 
Yuri Gagarin and Georgi Shonin are among the first test pilots selected to be Soviet cosmonauts, following evaluations at the air base at Murmansk.

December 14th 
The strategic rocket forces is created in the Soviet Union as a separate branch of the military, with responsibility over all Soviet ballistic missiles.

December 17th
United Nations committee on peaceful use of outer space is established.

December 19th 
Utopia Planitia space yard construction after vive years is completed , and immediately is renamed L3 space yard , after the new location it will be moved to , New Fijenoord-Rotterdamsche space yard which will keep it current name , will be move as soon as the last of the Wolf class scout vessel is completed , to its new location at Sun–Earth L3 point.

(1) Luna I only posed radio equipment, tracking transmitter, telemetry system and five different sets of scientific devices for studying interplanetary space , it was decided that it pose no treat to the two Netherlands Moon bases , and therefore was allowed to reach orbit of the Moon.

(2) the sightings that the United States air force concludes , are unknown objects , are , royal Netherlands space force probes , shuttles and the occasional spaceship orbiting earth.

(3) OTL the 1964 Summer Olympic Games were awarded to Tokyo , whit second place being Detroit , but here in this timeline the 1964 Summer Olympic Games where awarded to Detroit.

(4) the malfunction of Luna III happen , when the royal Netherlands space force jammed it , preventing Luna III from sending its pictures to the soviet Union ,and as a result crashed on the Moon surface.

(5) Tahoka is the Japanese name for Taipei , which is the Japanese colonial government capitol of Formosa.