Events January January 1 - Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. January 2 - Lunar probe Luna 1 was the first man-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reached the vicinity of Earth's Moon, and was also the first spacecraft to be placed in heliocentric orbit. January 3 The three southernmost atolls of the Maldive archipelago (Addu Atoll, Huvadhu Atoll and Fuvahmulah island) declare independence. Alaska is admitted as the 49th U.S. state. January 4 In Cuba, rebel troops led by Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos enter the city of Havana. Léopoldville riots: At least 49 people are killed during clashes between the police and participants of a meeting of the ABAKO Party in Léopoldville in the Belgian Congo. January 6 – The International Maritime Organization is inaugurated. January 7 – The United States recognizes the new Cuban government of Fidel Castro. January 8 – Charles de Gaulle is inaugurated as the first president of the French Fifth Republic. January 9 – The Vega de Tera disaster in Spain nearly destroy the town of Ribadelago and kills 144 residents. January 10 – The Soviet government recognizes the new Castro government of Cuba. January 11 – The Confédération Mondiale des Activités Subaquatiques is founded in Monaco. January 15 The Soviet Union conducts its first census after World War II. January 21 – The European Court of Human Rights is established. January 22 – Knox Mine disaster: Water breaches the River Slope Mine in Port Griffith, Pennsylvania, near Pittston, Pennsylvania; 12 miners are killed. January 25 The Boeing 707 airliner begins service. Pope John XXIII announces that the Second Vatican Council will be convened in Rome. January 29 – Walt Disney releases his 16th animated film, Sleeping Beauty in Beverly Hills. It is Disney's first animated film to be shown in 70mm and modern 6-track stereophonic sound. Also on the program is Disney's new live-action short subject Grand Canyon, which uses the music of Ferde Grofé's Grand Canyon Suite. Grand Canyon wins an Oscar for Best Documentary Short. January 30 – Danish passenger/cargo ship , returning to Copenhagen after its maiden voyage to Greenland, strikes an iceberg and sinks off the Greenland coast with the loss of all 95 on board. February February 2 – Nine ski hikers mysteriously perish in the northern Ural Mountains in the Dyatlov Pass incident and are all found