1958 - Definition and Overview

Events

January

• January 1 - Treaty of Rome founding the EU is implemented
• January 4 - Sputnik 1 falls to Earth from its orbit (launched on October 4 1957)
• January 8 - 14 year old Bobby Fischer wins the United States Chess Championship
• January 18 - Armed Lumbee Native Americans chased off an estimated 5,000 Klansmen and supporters at the town of Maxton, North Carolina.
• January 28 - Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate begin their murder spree with the killings of her parents and infant sister
• January 29 - Police capture Charles Starkweather in Wyoming
• January 31 - The first successful American satellite, Explorer I, is launched into orbit
• January 31 - James Van Allen discovers the Van Allen radiation belt

February

• February 1 - Egypt and Syria unite to form the United Arab Republic
• February 5 - Gamel Abdel Nasser is nominated to be the first president of the United Arab Republic
• February 6 - Munich Air Disaster - 21 dead, including 7 players for Manchester United
• February 11 - Marshal Chen Yi succeeds Zhou Enlai as Chinese Minister of Foreign affairs.
• February 11 - Ruth Carol Taylor is 1st African American woman hired as a flight attendant
• February 17 - Pope Pius XII declares Saint Clare the patron saint of television
• February 23 - Cuban rebels kidnap 5-time world driving champion Juan Manuel Fangio
• February 25 - Bertrand Russell launches the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
• February 28 - One of the worst school bus accidents in U.S. history occurred at Prestonsburg, Kentucky, killing 27.

March-April

• March 1 - Arturo Frondizi becomes President of Argentina
• March 1 - Samuel Alphonsus Stritch, ninth bishop (fourth archbishop) of the Roman Catholic diocese of Chicago, appointed Pro-Perfect of the Propagaion of Faith and thus becomes the first American member of the Roman Curia
• March 2 - A British team lead by Sir Vivian Fuchs completes the first crossing of the Antarctic in Snow-cat caterpillar tractors and dogsled teams in 99 days
• March 17 - The United States launches the Vanguard 1 satellite
• March 22 - Faisal becomes King of Saudi Arabia
• March 26 - The United States Army launches Explorer III
• March 27 - Nikita Khrushchev becomes Premier of the Soviet Union
• April 3 - Castro's revolutionary army begins its attacks on Havana
• April 4 - The first protest march by CND begins from Hyde Park, London, for Aldermaston, Berkshire
• April 4 - The daughter of the actress Lana Turner stabs her mother's gangster lover to death (eventually ruled self defence)
• April 6 - Soraya Esfandiary Bakhtiari divorces Muhammad Reza Shah after she is unable to produce any children.
• April 17 - King Baudouin of Belgium officially opens the World Fair in Brussels, also known as Expo '58.

May-June

• May 2 - A State of Emergency is declared in Aden
• May 12 - A formal North American Aerospace Defense Command agreement is signed between the United States and Canada
• May 13 - During a visit to Caracas, Venezuela, Vice President Richard M. Nixon's car is attacked by anti-American demonstrators
• May 15 - The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 3
• May 16 - Short-lived outburst of friendship between Arabs and Europeans in Algiers
• May 18 - An F-104 Starfighter sets a world speed record of 1,404.19 mph
• May 21 - United Kingdom Postmaster General Ernest Marples announces that from December, Subscriber Trunk Dialling will be introduced in the Bristol area. [1] (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/21/newsid_2510000/2510289.stm)
• May 23 - Explorer I ceased transmission
• May 30 - The bodies of unidentified soldiers killed in action during World War II and the Korean War are buried at the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington National Cemetery.
• June 1 - Charles De Gaulle is brought out of retirement to lead France by decree for six months
• June 1 - Iceland extends its fishing limits to 12 miles
• June 16 - Imre Nagy is hanged for treason in Hungary

July-August

• July 5 - First ascent of Gasherbrum I, 11th highest
• July 7 - President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the Alaska Statehood Act into United States law
• July 10 - First parking meters installed in Britain
• July 14 - Iraqi Revolution: In Iraq the monarchy is overthrown by Arab nationalists and Abdul Karim Qassim becomes the nation's new leader
• July 14 - A left wing military coup in Iraq leads to the murder of the king, Faisal II
• July 15 - In Lebanon, 5,000 United States Marines land in the capital Beirut in order to protect the pro-Western government there
• July 24 - The first life peerage is created in Britain
• July 26 - Explorer program: Explorer IV is launched
• July 29 - The U.S. Congress formally creates the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
• August 3 - The nuclear powered submarine USS Nautilus became the first vessel to cross the North Pole under water
• August 23 - Chinese Civil War: The Second Taiwan Strait crisis begins with the People's Liberation Army's bombardment of Quemoy.
• August 30 - September 1 - Riots between blacks and whites in Notting Hill, London

September

September 14 - Two rockets of the German engineer Ernst Mohr reach as first German post-war rockets the upper atmosphere September 28 - In France, a majority of 79% says yes to the constitution of the Fifth Republic.

October-December

• October 1 - Tunisia and Morocco join the Arab League
• October 1 - NASA starts operations and replaces the NACA
• October 2 - Guinea declares itself independent from France
• October 9 - Pope Pius XII dies.
• October 11 - Pioneer program: NASA launches the lunar probe Pioneer 1 (the probe falls back to Earth and burns up)
• October 28 - Angleo Giuseppe Roncalli becomes Pope and takes the name Pope John XXIII.
• November 23 - Have Gun, Will Travel debuts on radio
• November 25 - French Sudan gains autonomy as a self-governing member of the French Community
• November 28 - Chad, the Republic of the Congo, and Gabon become autonomous republics within the French Community
• December 1 - Central African Republic becomes independent from France
• December 5 - Subscriber Trunk Dialling (STD) is inaugurated in the UK by the Queen when she dials a call from Bristol to Edinburgh and speaks to the Lord Provost. [2] (http://www.bt.com/archives/history/19461959.htm#1958)
• December 9 - John Birch Society formed in the USA
• December 21 - General de Gaulle is elected president of France with 78,5% of the votes.

unknown date

• The First Cod War between UK and Iceland
• BBC Radiophonic Workshop created
• During the International Geophysical Year, Earth's magnetosphere is discovered
• The United States conducts Operation Argus during August and September
• Foundation of Amirkabir University of Technology
• Based on birth rates (per 1,000 population), the post-war baby boom ended in the United States as an eleven-year decline in the birth rate began - the longest on record in that country
• Last female circumcision in the United States.
• Bitrex (a trademark of UK company Macfarlan Smith) or denatonium benzoate, the bitterest substance known is discovered. It is used as an aversive agent in products such as bleach to reduce the risk of children drinking them.

Year in topic

• 1958 in film
  • Gigi
  • Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
  • The Defiant Ones
  • Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo, starring Jimmy Stewart
• 1958 in literature
  • August 18 - Vladimir Nabokov's controversial novel Lolita is published.
  • Rona Jaffe's The Best of Everything becomes a bestseller.
• 1958 in music
  • January 20 - Elvis Presley receives his draft notice
• 1958 in rail transport
• 1958 in sports
• 1958 in television
  • Ampex demonstrates their design for a color Video Tape Recorder

Births

January-March

• January 20 - Lorenzo Lamas, actor
• January 24 - Jools Holland, musician
• January 26 - Ellen DeGeneres, actress, comedienne
• February 11 - Michael Jackson, controller of BBC2.
• February 11 - Regina Marsikova, Czechoslovakian tennis player.
• February 13 - Pernilla August, actress
• February 16 - Ice-T, singer, songwriter, actor (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit)
• February 21 - Mary Chapin Carpenter, singer
• February 24 - Sammy Kershaw, musician
• March 3 - Miranda Richardson, actress
• March 4 - Patricia Heaton, actress (Everybody Loves Raymond)
• March 5 - Andy Gibb, singer (d. 1988)
• March 8 - Gary Numan, singer
• March 10 - Sharon Stone, actress
• March 14 - Prince Albert of Monaco
• March 20 - Holly Hunter, actress
• March 21 - Gary Oldman, actor

April-August

• April 3 - Alec Baldwin, American actor
• April 10 - Yefim Bronfman, Russian pianist
• April 10 - Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, R&B producer and musician
• April 21 - Andie MacDowell, American actress
• April 28 - Hal Sutton, American golfer
• April 29 - Michelle Pfeiffer, American actress
• April 29 - Eve Plumb, actress
• May 11 - Christian Brando, Marlon Brando's son
• May 16 - Amp Fiddler, musician (P Funk)
• May 20 - Ron Reagan, dancer, talk show host, son of former President Ronald Reagan
• May 23 - Mitch Albom, author
• May 23 - Drew Carey, comedian, actor
• May 26 - Wayne Hussey, British rocker The Mission
• May 26 - Pete Michaels, comedian, singer, actor
• May 27 - Neil Finn, New Zealand singer and songwriter
• May 27 - Wayne Williams, murderer in Atlanta
• May 28 - Annette Bening, actress
• June 7 - Prince (artist), musician
• June 8 - Keenen Ivory Wayans, comedian, actor, director
• June 30 - Esa-Pekka Salonen, Finnish conductor and composer
• July 2 - Thomas Bickerton, United Methodist Bishop
• July 15 - Mac Thornberry, American politician
• July 28 - Terry Fox, cancer activist (d. 1981)
• July 30 - Kate Bush, British singer-songwriter
• July 31 - Mark Cuban, technology entrepreneur and Dallas Mavericks owner
• August 7 - Bruce Dickinson, English heavy metal musician
• August 16 - Madonna, musician, songwriter, actress
• August 19 - Anthony Muñoz, American football Hall of Famer
• August 22 - Colm Feore, actor (Pearl Harbor, Chicago, The Chronicles of Riddick)
• August 29 - Michael Jackson, American pop singer

September-December

• September 10 - Dan Castellaneta, voice actor (The Simpsons)
• September 16 - Orel Hershiser, baseball pitcher
• September 22 - Andrea Bocelli, singer
• September 23 - Marvin Lewis, American football coach
• October 5 - Bernie Mac, actor, comedian
• October 14 - Thomas Dolby, English rock musician
• October 16 - Tim Robbins, American actor
• November 18 - Laura Miller, mayor of Dallas, Texas
• November 25 - Kim Ashfield, British model
• November 28 - Dave Righetti, baseball pitcher
• December 6 - Nick Park, film-maker and animator
• December 25 - Hanford Dixon, American football player
• December 25 - Rickey Henderson, baseball player
• December 31 - Bebe Neuwirth, actress

Unknown Date

• Tip Tipping, American movie actor, stunt (d. 1993)

Deaths

• January 1 - Edward Weston, photographer
• January 8 - Paul Pilgrim, American athlete
• January 11 - Edna Purviance, actress
• January 30 - Jean Crotti, Swiss artist
• February 4 - Henry Kuttner, science fiction author
• February 13 - Christabel Pankhurst, suffragette
• March 21 - Cyril M. Kornbluth, science fiction writer
• March 22 - Michael Todd, Academy Award winning film producer
• March 25 - Tom Brown, jazz musician (b. 1888)
• March 28 - W.C. Handy, blues composer
• May 19 - Ronald Colman, actor
• June 26 - George Orton, Canadian athlete
• July 14 - King Faisal II of Iraq and most of his family
• August 14 - Gladys Presley, Elvis Presley's mom
• August 14 - Frédéric Joliot, scientist
• October 9 - Pope Pius XII
• November 27 - Artur Rodzinski, Croatian conductor (b. 1892)
• December 8 - Tris Speaker, Baseball Hall of Famer (b. 1888)
• December 15 - Wolfgang Ernst Pauli, physicist

Nobel Prizes

• Physics - Pavel Alekseyevich Cherenkov, Ilya Mikhailovich Frank, Igor Yevgenyevich Tamm
• Chemistry - Frederick Sanger
• Medicine - George Wells Beadle, Edward Lawrie Tatum, Joshua Lederberg
• Literature - Boris Leonidovich Pasternak
• Peace - Georges Pire