1958 (MCMLVIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1958th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 958th year of the 2nd millennium, the 58th year of the 20th century, and the 9th year of the 1950s decade.
Calendar year
Events
[edit]
The World record loop is showcased towards the end of the video.
January
[edit]
Main article: January 1958
January 1 – The European Economic Community (EEC) comes into being.[1]
January 3 – The West Indies Federation is formed.[2]
January 4
Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the third overland journey to the South Pole, the first to use powered vehicles.[3]
Sputnik 1 (launched on October 4, 1957) falls towards Earth from its orbit and burns up.[4]
January 13 – Battle of Edchera: The Moroccan Army of Liberation ambushes a Spanish patrol.[5]
January 27 – A Soviet-American executive agreement on cultural, educational and scientific exchanges, also known as the "Lacy–Zarubin Agreement", is signed in Washington, D.C.[6]
February
[edit]
Main article: February 1958
February 1 – Egypt and Syria unite to form the United Arab Republic.[7]
February 2 – The Falcons aerobatic team of the Pakistan Air Force led by Wg Cdr Mitty Masud set a world record performing a 16 aircraft diamond loop in F-86 Sabres. 30,000 people àre in attendance including President Iskandar Ali Mirza, General Ayub Khan, Air Marshal Asghar Khan, Air Commodore Nur Khan, C-in-C Turkish Air Force Hamdullah Suphi Göker, Chief of the Iraqi Air Force Abdul Kadhim Abaddi, Chief of the Imperial Iranian Air Force and Chief Guest King Zahir Shah in whose honor the performance has been organized.[8][9]
February 5 – 1958 Tybee Island mid-air collision: A U.S. B-47 bomber jettisons a hydrogen bomb into Wassaw Sound off Tybee Island, Georgia; it is never recovered.[10]
February 6 – Seven Manchester United footballers are among the 21 people killed in the Munich air disaster in West Germany, on the return flight from a European Cup game in Yugoslavia. 23 people survive; manager Matt Busby and players Johnny Berry and Duncan Edwards are in a serious condition. Berry will never play again and Edwards dies a fortnight later, as does the co-pilot.[11]
February 11 – Marshal Chen Yi succeeds Zhou Enlai as Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs.
February 14 – The Hashemite Kingdoms of Iraq and Jordan unite in the Arab Federation, with King Faisal II of Iraq as head of state.
February 23
Cuban rebels kidnap five-time world driving champion Juan Manuel Fangio, releasing him 28 hours later.[12]
Arturo Frondizi is elected president of Argentina.
February 24 – In Cuba, Fidel Castro's Radio Rebelde begins broadcasting from Sierra Maestra.
February 25 – Bertrand Russell launches the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in the United Kingdom, initiated at a meeting called by Canon John Collins on January 15.[13] The campaign peace symbol has been launched on 21 February by Gerald Holtom. Protests will focus on the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment at Aldermaston.
February 28 – Prestonsburg bus disaster: One of the worst school bus accidents in U.S. history occurs in Kentucky when a school bus hits a truck and falls into a river, resulting in 27 deaths, 26 of them schoolchildren. Twenty-two others are rescued.[14]
March
[edit]
Main article: March 1958
March 1 – Turkish passenger ship Üsküdar capsizes and sinks in a sudden gale while crossing the Gulf of İzmit, Turkey; many of the 272 who die are teenage students.[15]
March 2 – A British Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition team, led by Sir Vivian Fuchs, completes the first overland crossing of the Antarctic, using snowcat caterpillar tractors and dogsled teams, in 99 days, via the South Pole.
March 8 – The USS Wisconsin is decommissioned, leaving the United States Navy without an active battleship for the first time since 1896 (she is recommissioned October 22, 1988).
March 11 – 1958 Mars Bluff B-47 nuclear weapon loss incident: A U.S. B-47 bomber accidentally drops an atom bomb on Mars Bluff, South Carolina. Without a fissile warhead, its conventional explosives destroy a house and injure six people.[16]
March 17 – The United States launches the Vanguard 1 satellite.
March 19 – The Monarch Underwear Company fire occurs in New York, United States, killing 24 people.
March 26 – The 30th Academy Awards Ceremony takes place in Hollywood; The Bridge on the River Kwai wins 7 awards, including Academy Award for Best Picture.
March 27 – Nikita Khrushchev becomes Premier of the Soviet Union.
April
[edit]
Main article: April 1958
April 1 – The Treaty of Angra de Cintra is signed by Spain and Morocco, ending the Spanish protectorate in Morocco.[17]
April 3 – In Cuba, Castro's revolutionary army begins its attacks on Havana.
April 13 – The Soviet satellite Sputnik 2 (launched November 3, 1957) disintegrates during reentry from orbit.[18]
April 14 – Van Cliburn wins the International Tchaikovsky Competition for pianists in Moscow, easing Cold War tensions.[19]
April 17 – King Baudouin of Belgium officially opens the world's fair in Brussels, also known as Expo 58. The Atomium forms the centrepiece.
April 20 – The Montreal Canadiens win the Stanley Cup in ice hockey, after defeating the U.S. Boston Bruins in 6 games.
April 21 – United Airlines Flight 736 is involved in a mid-air collision with a U.S. Air Force F-100F jet fighter over what becomes Enterprise, Nevada; all 49 persons in both aircraft are killed.
April 28 – A bomber flown by a U.S. Central Intelligence Agency operative in support of Indonesian Permesta rebels bombs the harbor at Balikpapan, Borneo, Indonesia, hitting an Indonesian naval corvette and two British oil tankers. In June, the Indonesian and British governments both claim that Indonesian rebels are responsible for such attacks, concealing the C.I.A.'s involvement.
May
[edit]
Main article: May 1958
May 1
Arturo Frondizi becomes President of Argentina.[20]
U.S. space scientist James van Allen announces the discovery of Earth's magnetosphere.[21]
The Nordic Passport Union comes into force.
May 10 – Interviewed in the Chave d'Ouro café, when asked about his rival António de Oliveira Salazar, Humberto Delgado utters one of the most famous comments in Portuguese political history: "Obviamente, demito-o! (Obviously, I'll sack him!)".
May 12 – A formal North American Aerospace Defense Command agreement is signed between the United States and Canada.
May 13
Crisis in France: French Algerian protesters seize government offices in Algiers, leading to a military coup.
During a visit to Caracas, Venezuela, Vice President Richard Nixon's car is attacked by anti-American demonstrators.
May 15 – The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 3.
May 18 – A U.S. Lockheed F-104 Starfighter sets a world speed record of 1,404.19 mph (2,259.82 km/h).
May 20 – The Cuban government of Fulgencio Batista launches a counteroffensive against Castro's rebels.
May 22 – U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower becomes the first American elected official to appear on color television.
May 28 – Real Madrid beats A.C. Milan 3–2 at Heysel Stadium, Brussels, and wins the 1957–58 European Cup in Association football.
May 30 – The bodies of unidentified United States 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
[edit]
Main article: June 1958
June 1
Charles de Gaulle is brought out of retirement at Colombey-les-Deux-Églises to lead France by decree for 6 months.
Iceland extends its fishing limits to 12 miles (22.2 km).
June 4 – French Prime Minister Charles de Gaulle visits Algeria.
June 16 – Imre Nagy and other leaders of the failed Hungarian Revolution of 1956 are hanged for treason, following secret trials.
June 20 – The iron barque Omega of Callao, Peru (built in Liverpool, 1887), the world's last full-rigged ship trading under sail alone, sinks on passage carrying guano from the Pachacamac Islands for Huacho.[22]
June 29 – Brazil beats Sweden 5–2 in the final game to win the football World Cup in Sweden.
June 30 – The 1957–58 Ifni War ends in Spanish Sahara.[17]
July
[edit]
Main article: July 1958
July 9 – 1958 Lituya Bay megatsunami: A 7.8 Mw strike-slip earthquake in Southeast Alaska causes a landslide that produces a megatsunami. The runup from the waves reaches 525 m (1,722 ft) on the rim of Lituya Bay.
July 12 – Henri Cornelis becomes Governor-General of the Belgian Congo, the last Belgian governor prior to independence.
July 14 – July 14 Revolution in Iraq: King Faisal II and several family members are executed. Abd al-Karim Qasim assumes power.[23]
July 15 – 1958 Lebanon crisis: 5,000 United States Marines land in the Lebanese capital Beirut in support of the pro-Western government.[24]
July 24 – Fourteen life peerages, the first under the Life Peerages Act 1958, are created in the United Kingdom.[25]
July 26
Explorer program: Explorer 4 is launched in the United States.[26]
Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom announces that she is giving her son Prince Charles the customary title for the heir apparent of Prince of Wales.[27] The announcement is made at the end of the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games, held in Cardiff.
July 29 – The U.S. Congress formally creates the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).[28]
August
[edit]
Main article: August 1958
August 3 – The nuclear-powered submarine USS Nautilus becomes the first vessel to cross the North Pole under water.[29]
August 6
Australian athlete Herb Elliott clips almost 3 seconds off the world record for the mile run at Santry Stadium, Dublin, recording a time of 3 minutes 54.5 seconds.
The Law of Permanent Defense of Democracy, which outlawed the Communist Party of Chile and banned 26,650 persons from the electoral lists,[30] is repealed.[31]
August 7 – 1958 East Pakistan-India border skirmishes, a skirmish between East Pakistan and the Indian Army in Laxmipur.
August 14 – KLM Flight 607-E, a Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation, crashes into the Atlantic with 99 people aboard, all of whom are killed.[32]
August 17 – The first Thor-Able rocket is launched, carrying Pioneer 0, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Space Launch Complex 17. The launch fails due to a first stage malfunction.
August 18 – Brojen Das from East Pakistan swims across the English Channel in a competition, the first Bangali as well as the first Asian to ever do it. He is first among 39 competitors.
August 21–October 15 – Illinois observes the centennial of the Lincoln–Douglas debates.
August 23 – The Second Taiwan Strait Crisis begins with the People's Republic of China's People's Liberation Army shelling the island of Kinmen (Quemoy) which is controlled by the Republic of China (Taiwan)'s Kuomintang forces.
August 26 – A general strike is called in Paraguay.
August 30–September 1 – Notting Hill race riots: Riots occur between blacks and whites in Notting Hill, London.[33]
September
[edit]
Main article: September 1958
September 1 – The first Cod War begins between the United Kingdom and Iceland.
September 2
Hendrik Verwoerd becomes the 6th Prime Minister of South Africa.
China's first television broadcasts start at Beijing Television Station, a predecessor of China Central Television.[34]
September 4 – Jorge Alessandri is the winner of Chile's presidential election.
September 12 – Jack Kilby invents the first integrated circuit, while working at Texas Instruments.
September 14 – Two rockets designed by German engineer Ernst Mohr (the first German post-war rockets) reach the upper atmosphere.
September 18 – BankAmericard, the first credit card to be widely offered, is launched in Fresno, California in what becomes known as the "Fresno Drop".[35]
September 27
Typhoon Ida kills at least 1,269 people in Honshū, Japan.
Hurricane Helene, the worst storm of the North Atlantic hurricane season, reaches category 4 status.
September 28
In the 1958 French constitutional referendum, a majority of 79% says yes to the constitution of the Fifth Republic.
Fernando Rios, a Mexican tour guide in New Orleans, dies from injuries suffered in an incident of gay bashing.[36]
September 30 – The U.S.S.R. performs a nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya.
October
[edit]
Main article: October 1958
October – GoldStar, predecessor of LG Electronics, is founded in South Korea.[37]
October 1
Tunisia and Morocco join the Arab League.
The United Kingdom transfers sovereignty of Christmas Island from Singapore to Australia.[38]
NASA starts operations and replaces the NACA in the United States.
October 2 – Guinea declares itself independent from France, rejecting that nation's new constitution.
October 4
The new Constitution of France is signed into law, establishing the French Fifth Republic.
The British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) uses one of its new de Havilland Comet 4s, G-APDB, to make the first commercial transatlantic flight by a jet airliner, from London to New York International Airport, Anderson Field via Gander.[39]
October 11 – Pioneer 1, the second and most successful of the 3 project Able space probes, becomes the first spacecraft launched by the newly formed NASA.[40]
October 17 – An Evening with Fred Astaire, the first television show recorded on color videotape, is broadcast on NBC in the United States.[41]
October 18 – Tennis for Two, a game invented by William Higinbotham and considered to be the first pure entertainment computer game,[42] is introduced at the Brookhaven National Laboratory Visitors' Day Exhibit in the United States.
October 26 – A Pan American World Airways Boeing 707 makes its first transatlantic flight.
October 28 – Pope John XXIII succeeds Pope Pius XII, as the 261st pope.
November
[edit]
Main article: November 1958
November 3
The new UNESCO building, World Heritage Centre, is inaugurated in Paris.
Jorge Alessandri is sworn in as President of Chile.
November 10 – Harry Winston donates the Hope Diamond to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.
November 18 – En route to Rogers City, Michigan, United States, the Lake freighter SS Carl D. Bradley breaks up and sinks in a storm on Lake Michigan; 33 of the 35 crewmen on board perish.
November 20 – The Jim Henson Company is founded as Muppets, Inc. in the United States.
November 22 – 1958 Australian federal election: Robert Menzies' Liberal/Country Coalition Government is re-elected with a slightly increased majority, defeating the Labor Party led by H.V. Evatt. This is the first election where television is used as a medium for communicating with voters. Evatt will eventually resign as Labor leader and will be replaced by his deputy Arthur Calwell.
November 25 – French Sudan gains autonomy as a self-governing member of the French colonial empire.
November 28 – Chad, the Republic of the Congo and Gabon become autonomous republics within the French colonial empire.
November 30 – Gaullists win the French parliamentary election.
December
[edit]
Main article: December 1958
December 1
Our Lady of the Angels School fire: 90 students and 3 nuns are killed in a fire in Chicago.
Adolfo López Mateos takes office as President of Mexico.
December 14 – The 3rd Soviet Antarctic Expedition becomes the first ever to reach the Southern Pole of Inaccessibility.
December 15 – Arthur L. Schawlow and Charles H. Townes of Bell Laboratories publish a paper in Physical Review Letters setting out the principles of the optical laser.[43]
December 16
A fire breaks out in the Vida Department Store in Bogotá, Colombia and kills 84 persons.
Soviet polar pilot V. M. Perov on Li-2 rescues four Belgian polar explorers, led by Gaston de Gerlache, who have survived a plane crash in Antarctica 250 km from their base five days earlier.[44]
December 18
The United States launches SCORE, the world's first communications satellite.
The Bell XV-3 Tiltrotor makes the first true mid-air transition from vertical helicopter-type flight to fully level fixed-wing flight.
December 19 – A message from U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower is broadcast from the SCORE satellite.
December 21 – General Charles de Gaulle is elected president of France with 78.5% of the votes.
December 24 – 1958 BOAC Bristol Britannia crash: A BOAC Bristol Britannia (312 G-AOVD) crashes near Winkton, England, during a test flight, killing nine people. Three crew members survive.[45]
December 29 – Battle of Santa Clara: Rebel troops under Camilo Cienfuegos and Che Guevara begin to invade Santa Clara, Cuba.[46]
December 30 – The Guatemalan Air Force fires on Mexican fishing boats which had strayed into Guatemalan territory, triggering the Mexico–Guatemala conflict.
December 31 – After the fall of Santa Clara, Cuban President Fulgencio Batista flees the country.
Undated
[edit]
For the first time, the total of transatlantic passengers carried by air this year exceeds the total carried by sea.
Denatonium, 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.[47]
^United States. Congress. House. Committee on Science and Astronautics (1961). Communications Satellites: Hearings Before the Committee on Science and Astronautics, U.S. House of Representatives... U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 448.
^East Asian History. Institute of Advanced Studies, Australian National University. 2000. p. 155.
^Kozovoi, Andrei (January 2, 2016). "A foot in the door: the Lacy–Zarubin agreement and Soviet-American film diplomacy during the Khrushchev era, 1953–1963". Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television. 36 (1): 21–39. doi:10.1080/01439685.2015.1134107. ISSN 0143-9685. S2CID 155781953.
^Great Britain. Central Office of Information. Reference Division; British Information Services (1959). Middle East Background. British Information Services. p. 30.
^John M. Logsdon (2004). Exploring the Unknown: Selected Documents in the History of the U.S. Civil Space Program. NASA. p. 158.
^"Drumcliff". Sjöhistoriska Samfundet. 1999. Archived from the original on January 13, 2013. Retrieved February 15, 2011.
^Al Hayah, Dar (1960). Majzarat Al Rihab: A Journalistic Investigation on the Death of the Hashemite Royal Family on 14 July 1958 in Baghdad (in Arabic). Beirut: Dar Al Hayah. p. 42.
^Slide, Anthony (1992). Nitrate won't wait: a history of film preservation in the United States. Jefferson, N.C: McFarland & Co. p. 117. ISBN 9780899506944.
^Smith, Alexander (January 28, 2014). "Tennis Anyone?". They Create Worlds. Archived from the original on December 25, 2015. Retrieved February 3, 2016.
^"The Research Frontier". Air University Quarterly Review (October). U.S. Air University: 113. 1961.
^"UPI Almanac for Sunday, Jan. 12, 2020". United Press International. January 12, 2020. Archived from the original on January 13, 2020. Retrieved June 27, 2020. … journalist Christiane Amanpour in 1958 (age 62)
^"The Total Package". WCW.com (via Wayback Machine). World Championship Wrestling. Archived from the original on November 10, 2000. Retrieved July 22, 2013.
^The Statesman's Yearbook 2012: The Politics, Cultures and Economies of the World. Palgrave Macmillan UK. 2017. p. 349. ISBN 9781349590513.
^Evan C. Gutierrez. "Rocio Banquells". All Music.com. Retrieved August 24, 2019.
^Boylan, Jennifer Finney (2025). Cleavage: Men, Women, and the Space Between Us. New York: Celadon Books (published February 4, 2025). ISBN 978-1-250-26188-5. Archived from the original on February 6, 2025. Retrieved June 29, 2025 – via WBUR.
^Weisbrot, Robert (1998). Xena, Warrior Princess : the official guide to the Xenaverse. New York: Doubleday. p. 141. ISBN 9780385491365.
^Roderick L. Sharpe; Jeanne Koekkoek Stierman (2008). Maestros in America: Conductors in the 21st Century. Scarecrow Press. p. 212. ISBN 9781461669487.
^Constance Valis Hills (2014). Tap Dancing America: A Cultural History. Oxford University Press. p. 205. ISBN 978-0-19-022538-4.
^Bettinson, Gary (2014). The Sensuous Cinema of Wong Kar-wai: Film Poetics and the Aesthetic of Disturbance. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. p. 2. ISBN 978-9888139293.
^Chase's calendar of events 2021: the ultimate go-to guide for special days, weeks and months. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. 2020. p. 503. ISBN 9781641434249.
^Bony, Anne; Grima, Joseph; Delavan, Tom (2019). Vincenzo de Cotiis: Works. New York: Rizzoli Electa. p. 267. ISBN 978-0-8478-6609-0.
^Conger, Amy (1992). Edward Weston – Photographs From the Collection of the Center for Creative Photography. Tucson: Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona, 1992. Page 45. ISBN 0-938262-21-1