Turning 65 in 2024?
If you celebrate your 65th birthday in 2024, you’re in the company of a host of famous faces – including Simon Cowell, singers Bryan Adams and Sade, Emma Thompson, and Hugh Laurie. But what else was going on in 1959?
It was a year filled with moments that would shape the cultural landscape for years to come. Here we look back at some of the events that made 1959 such a memorable year.
Space age
1959 saw big developments in space exploration. On February 17th the first weather satellite, Vanguard 2, was launched to measure cloud cover for the US Navy. On April 9th NASA announced their selection of seven military pilots (the Mercury Seven) to become the first US astronauts. In August the first picture of Earth from orbit was taken by Explorer 6 and in September the Soviet Union’s Luna 2 is the first ever man-made object to crash on the moon, and in October the first photos of the far side of the moon are obtained by the USSR’s Luna 3.
Moves toward equality?
Times were beginning to change globally, in February 1959, women voted for the first time in Nepal and in the University of Oxford elevated its five affiliated women’s colleges to equal status with its men’s colleges, revising its original rules. 1959 was also the year that saw US toy company Mattel launch what would become the iconic Barbie, a toy which has been criticised for reinforcing unhelpful stereotypes but has since tried to throw off this reputation with its live action movie release last year.
A Disney classic
Sleeping Beauty, Disney’s second full length animated feature and their first using the 70mm widescreen process, took $6million and nearly a decade to complete and was actually a flop when it was released in January 1959, grossing just $5.3million and losing $900,000 for the distributor and resulting in layoffs at the animation studio. Subsequent re-releases have been successful, and it has become one of Disney’s most artistically acclaimed features.
On a serious note
Now that you’re 65, it’s a good time to think about the future and in particular your plans for retirement. You may know exactly what you want to do and when and how much income you’ll need to do it, or you may feel unable to think that far ahead. Don’t forget that Aspira can help you to plan for the future. If you’d like to discuss how you might want to retire, to review your current arrangements or for help with any other aspect of your financial future click here to let us know and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.
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