1958

Years :	1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961
Centuries:	19th century · 20th century · 21st century
Decades:	1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s
Years:	1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961

1958 by topic:
Arts
Architecture - Art - Film - Literature - Music - Television
Science and technology
Archaeology - Aviation - Meteorology - Rail transport - Radio - Science
By country
Australia - Canada - India - Ireland - Mexico - South Africa
Other topics
Awards - Sport - Law - State leaders - Religious leaders
Birth and death categories
Births - Deaths

1958 (MCMLVIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar.

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Events

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January

January 1 - Treaty of Rome founding the EU is implemented.
January 3 - The West Indies Federation is formed.
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 13 - 9235 scientists publish a plea to stop nuclear bomb tests.
January 18 - Armed Lumbee Indians confront a handful of Klansmen at the town of Maxton, North Carolina.
January 23 - Following a two-day general strike, dictator Marcos Pérez Jiménez of Venezuela was overthrown by a military-popular uprising.
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.

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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 20 - Test rocket explodes in Cape Canaveral
February 23 - Cuban rebels kidnap 5-time world driving champion Juan Manuel Fangio. They release him 28 hours later
February 23 - Arturo Frondizi wins presidential elections in Argentina
February 24 - In Cuba, Radio Rebelde, radio of rebels of Fidel Castro, begins broadcasting from Sierra Maestra
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.

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March-April

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 led by Sir Vivian Fuchs completes the first crossing of the Antarctic in Snow-cat caterpillar tractors and dogsled teams in 99 days
March 8 - USS Wisconsin is decomissioned, leaving the United States Navy without an active battleship for the first time since 1896.
March 11 - The US B-47 bomber drops a nuclear bomb in the Mars Bluff, South Carolina
March 17 - The United States launches the Vanguard 1 satellite
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-April 7 - The first protest march for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament from Hyde Park, London to Aldermarston, Berkshire. Demonstrators demand ban of nuclear weapons
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 the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi 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.

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May

May 1 - Arturo Frondizi becomes President of Argentina
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 20 - Batista's government launches counteroffensive against Castro's rebels
May 21 - United Kingdom Postmaster General Ernest Marples announces that from December, Subscriber Trunk Dialling will be introduced in the Bristol area. [1]
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.

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June

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 4 - Charles De Gaulle visits Algeria
June 16 - Imre Nagy is hanged for treason in Hungary
June 27 - Peronist party becomes legal again in Argentina
June 29 - Brazil beat Sweden 5-2 to win the 1958 World Cup

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July

July 5 - First ascent of Gasherbrum I, 11th highest mountain in the world
July 7 - President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the Alaska Statehood Act into United States law
July 10 - 7.5 Richter scale earthquake in Lituya Bay, Alaska, causes a landslide that produces a huge 520 meter high wave
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 17 - British paratroopers arrive in Jordan; king Hussein has asked help against pressure from Iraq
July 20 - Various rebel groups in Cuba join forces but communists do not join the deal
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)

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August-October

August 3 - The nuclear powered submarine USS Nautilus (SSN-571) 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 14 - Two rockets designed by German engineer Ernst Mohr (the first German post-war rockets) reach the upper atmosphere
September 27 - Hurricane Vera in Honshu, Japan, kills 615
September 28 - In France, a majority of 79% says yes to the constitution of the Fifth Republic.
September 30 - U.S.S.R. performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya U.S.S.R.
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 4 - BOAC uses new Comet jets to become the first airline to fly jet passenger services across the Atlantic.
October 9 - Pope Pius XII dies.
October 11 - Pioneer 1, the second and most successful of three project Able space probes, became the first spacecraft launched by the newly formed NASA.
October 28 - John XXIII is elected Pope.

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November

November 3 - New UNESCO building inaugurated in Paris
November 22 - Menzies Government (Australia) re-elected for a 5th Term
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
November 30 - Gaullists win parliamentary elections in France

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December

December 1 - Central African Republic becomes independent from France.
December 1 - At least 90 students and 3 nuns are killed in a fire at Our Lady of the Angels School in Chicago.
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]
December 5 - 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.
December 9 - The John Birch Society is formed in the USA
December 14 - The 3rd Soviet Antarctic Expedition becomes the first ever to reach The Pole of Relative Inaccessibility
December 21 - General Charles de Gaulle is elected president of France with 78.5% of the votes.
December 28 - The Baltimore Colts beat The New York Giants 23-17 in overtime to win The NFL Championship.
December 29 - Rebel troops under Che Guevara begin to invade Santa Clara in Cuba

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unknown dates

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 legal female circumcision in the United States.
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.
Van Cliburn wins the Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition in the USSR, breaking cold war tensions.
The Jim Henson Company founded