The Dutch government began the process to reclassify strong cannabis into the hard drugs category. The change would mean that coffee shops that sell the drug would no longer be able to sell cannabis with more than 15% THC, the active chemical in the drug.

The dark far side of the Moon was photographed for the first time and pictures relayed back to Earth by Russia's Luna 3 spacecraft. After passing the moon, the Luna 3 looked back from a distance of 63,500 km to take 29 photos of the sunlit far side of the moon. The photos, taken over a period of 40 mins. were developed onboard and radioed back to earth on 18 Oct 1959. They covered 70% of the far side. The photographs were very noisy and of low resolution, but many features could be recognized. Despite the poor quality, they provided the first view ever of this part of the moon. (The far side of the moon cannot be viewed from earth because the moon rotates and revolves in such a way that the same part always faces Earth.)