tower separated as scheduled and the drogue and main parachutes deployed as planned. The test was fully successful. April 13, 1959 (Monday) The United States and Britain asked the Soviet Union to join in a moratorium on above-ground nuclear weapons testing. Singer Mario Lanza gave his final concert, in Kiel, West Germany. He would die on October 7 of the same year. Two small-scale spacecraft escape-tower combinations were launched successfully at Wallops Island, and on the next day a full-scale spacecraft escape system was launched. The complete sequence of events - escape system firing, escape tower jettisoning, parachute deployment, landing, and helicopter recovery - was satisfactory. NASA placed a request with the Navy for the use of its Aviation Medical Acceleration Laboratory at Johnsville, Pennsylvania. NASA desired to use the laboratory's AMAL human centrifuge in support of the Mercury astronaut training program. Rear Admiral J. W. Gannon was appointed by Donald A. Quarles, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense, to head a Department of Defense group to study with NASA the recovery aspects of Project Mercury. The United States launched the Discoverer II satellite from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at . The capsule was successfully ejected but lost after a timing error sent it to Norway rather than Hawaii. Died: Eduard van Beinum, 57, Dutch conductor, collapsed of a heart attack while rehearsing with the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam. Van Beinum was reportedly leading the orchestra in playing Brahms' First Symphony in C Minor "when he lowered his baton and called for a pause", then fell to the floor. April 14, 1959 (Tuesday) The Robert A. Taft Memorial, a carillon with 27 bells, was dedicated in Washington. President Eisenhower and former president Hoover delivered remarks before a crowd of 5,000 people. The Atlas D missile was launched from Cape Canaveral in its first test. With a range of , the missile could travel farther than any previously produced in the United States. The rocket exploded soon after launch, as did two other Atlas D launches, until succeeding on July 29, 1959. The Grumman OV-1 Mohawk, built as the U.S. Army's reconnaissance airplane, made its first flight. April 15, 1959 (Wednesday) Four men hijacked a Cuban airliner to the United States. They landed the plane at in Miami. Fidel Castro arrived in Washington for an 11-day tour of the United States. U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles resigned after