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| | Home | The 1950's | 1958 |
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1958 A brief history of the events that shaped 1958. |
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| January |
| 4th |
Sputnik 1 falls to Earth from its orbit (launched on October 4, 1957) |
| 8th |
14 year old Bobby Fischer wins the United States Chess Championship |
| 13th |
9,235 scientists publish a plea to stop nuclear bomb tests |
| 31st |
The first successful American satellite, Explorer 1, is launched into orbit |
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| February |
| 1st |
Egypt and Syria unite to form the United Arab Republic |
| 2nd |
The word Aerospace is coined, from the words Aircraft (aero) and Spacecraft (space) taking into consideration that the Earth's atmosphere and outerspace is to be one, or a single realm |
| 5th |
Gamel Abdel Nasser is nominated to be the first president of the United Arab Republic |
| 5th |
Tybee Bomb a 7,600 pound (3,500 kg) Mark 15 hydrogen bomb was lost in the waters off Savannah, Georgia |
| 6th |
The Munich air disaster leaves 23 dead, including 8 Manchester United players on their way home from a European tie in Munich |
| 14th |
The Hashemite Kingdoms of Iraq and Jordan unites in the Arab Federation of Iraq and Jordan with the Iraqi King Faisal II as head of state |
| 21st |
Peace symbol designed and completed by Gerald Holtom, commissioned by Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, in protest against the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment |
| 23rd |
Cuban rebels kidnap 5-time world driving champion Juan Manuel Fangio. They release him 28 hours later |
| 23rd |
Arturo Frondizi wins presidential elections in Argentina |
| 24th |
In Cuba, Radio Rebelde, radio of rebels of Fidel Castro, begins broadcasting from Sierra Maestra |
| 25th |
Bertrand Russell launches the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament |
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| March |
| 1st |
Turkish passenger ship Uskudar capsized and sank at Izmit Bay, Kocaeli, Turkey, killing at least 300 |
| 2nd |
A British team led by Sir Vivian Fuchs completes the first crossing of the Antarctic in Snow-cat caterpillar tractors and dogsled teams in 99 days |
| 11th |
U.S. B-47 bomber accidentally drops an atom bomb on Mars Bluff, South Carolina. Its conventional explosives destroy a house and injure several people, but no nuclear fission occurs |
| 17th |
The United States launches the Vanguard 1 satellite |
| 24th |
The U.S. Army inducts Elvis Presley, transforming The King Of Rock & Roll into U.S. private #53310761 |
| 26th |
The United States Army launches Explorer 3 |
| 26th |
The 30th Academy Awards ceremony takes place in Los Angeles, California |
| 27th |
Nikita Khrushchev becomes Premier of the Soviet Union |
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| April |
| 3rd |
Fidel Castro's revolutionary army begins its attacks on Havana |
| 4th |
The first protest march for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament from Hyde Park, London to Aldermaston, Berkshire. Demonstrators demand ban of nuclear weapons |
| 4th |
Cheryl Crane, the daughter of actress Lana Turner, fatally stabs her mother's gangster lover Johnny Stompanato (eventually ruled as self-defense) |
| 6th |
Soraya Esfandiary Bakhtiari divorces the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi after she is unable to produce any children |
| 17th |
King Baudouin of Belgium officially opens the World Fair in Brussels, also known as Expo '58 |
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| May |
| 9th |
Actor & singer Paul Robeson, whose passport has been reinstated, sings in a sold-out one-man recital at Carnegie Hall. The recital is such a success that Robeson gives another one at Carnegie Hall a few days later. But after these two concerts, Robeson is seldom seen in public in the United States again. His Carnegie Hall concerts are later released on records and on CD |
| 10th |
Bolton won The FA cup |
| 13th |
French Algerian protesters seize government offices in Algiers, leading to a military coup |
| 13th |
During a visit to Caracas, Venezuela, Vice President Richard M. Nixon's car is attacked by anti-American demonstrators |
| 15th |
The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 3 |
| 18th |
An F-104 Starfighter sets a world speed record of 1,404.19 mph |
| 20th |
Fulgencio Batista's government launches counteroffensive against Castro's rebels |
| 30th |
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 |
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| June |
| 1st |
Charles de Gaulle is brought out of retirement to lead France by decree for six months |
| 1st |
Iceland extends its fishing limits to 12 miles (22.2 km) |
| 4th |
Charles De Gaulle visits Algeria |
| 8th |
The football World Cup Finals begin in Sweden |
| 16th |
Imre Nagy is hanged for treason in Hungary |
| 27th |
Peronist party becomes legal again in Argentina |
| 29th |
Brazil win the football World Cup, beating hosts Sweden 5 - 2 in the final |
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| July |
| 7th |
First International House of Pancakes (IHOP) opens in Toluca Lake, Calif |
| 9th |
7.5 Richter scale earthquake in Lituya Bay, Alaska, causes a landslide that produces a huge 520-meter high wave |
| 10th |
First parking metres installed in Britain |
| 14th |
The Iraqi monarchy is overthrown by Arab nationalists, King Faisal II is murdered and Abdul Karim Qassim assumes power |
| 15th |
In Lebanon, 5,000 United States Marines land in the capital Beirut in order to protect the pro-Western government there |
| 17th |
British paratroopers arrive in Jordan; King Hussein has asked help against pressure from Iraq |
| 26th |
Explorer 4 is launched |
| 26th |
Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom gives her son Charles the title of Prince of Wales |
| 29th |
The U.S. Congress formally creates the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) |
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| August |
| 3rd |
The nuclear powered submarine USS Nautilus (SSN-571) becomes the first vessel to cross the North Pole under water |
| 14th |
A 4 engined Super Constellation aircraft belonging to KLM had crashed into the sea with 99 people on board. At the time, this was described as probably the worst crash in civil aviation history |
| 18th |
Vladimir Nabokov's controversial novel Lolita is published in the United States |
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| September |
| 1st |
Beginning of the First Cod War between UK and Iceland
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| 12th |
Jack St. Clair Kilby invents first integrated circuit |
| 14th |
Two rockets designed by German engineer Ernst Mohr (the first German post-war rockets) reach the upper atmosphere |
| 27th |
Typhoon Ida in Honshū, Japan kills at least 1,269 |
| 30th |
The Soviet Union performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya U.S.S.Rs |
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| October |
| 1st |
Tunisia and Morocco join the Arab League |
| 1st |
NASA starts operations and replaces the NACA |
| 4th |
BOAC uses new Comet jets to become the first airline to fly jet passenger services across the Atlantic |
| 9th |
Pope Pius XII dies |
| 11th |
Pioneer 1, the second and most successful of three project Able space probes, became the first spacecraft launched by the newly formed NASA |
| 21st |
The Life Peerages Act entitle women to sit in the House of Lords for the first time. Baroness Swanbourough, Lady Reading and Baroness Barbara Wooton are the first to take their seats |
| 28th |
Pope John XXIII succeeds Pope Pius XII as the 261st pope |
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| November |
| 3rd |
New UNESCO building inaugurated in Paris |
| 10th |
Birth of the Bossa nova in Rio de Janeiro, Joao Gilberto records "Chega de Sudade" |
| 22nd |
Robert Menzies Government (Australia) re-elected for a 5th Term |
| 25th |
French Sudan gains autonomy as a self-governing member of the French Community |
| 28th |
Chad, the Republic of the Congo, and Gabon become autonomous republics within the French Community |
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| December |
| 1st |
Central African Republic becomes independent from France |
| 5th |
The Preston bypass, the United Kingdom's first motorway, opens to traffic for the first time. This stretch is now part of the M6 and M55 motorways |
| 14th |
The 3rd Soviet Antarctic Expedition becomes the first ever to reach the Southern Pole of Inaccessibility |
| 21st |
General Charles de Gaulle is elected president of France with 78.5% of the votes |
| 24th |
BOAC Bristol Britannia 312 G-AOVD Crashes near Winkton England during a test flight |
| 29th |
Rebel troops under Che Guevara begin to invade Santa Clara in Cuba |
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