1958 CE

The May 1958 crisis in France ends the Fourth Republic and returns Charles de Gaulle to power; the United Arab Republic briefly unites Egypt and Syria; China launches the Great Leap Forward; the 1958 FIFA World Cup sees Brazil win its first title with a breakout performance by Pelé; the 14 July Revolution topples Iraq's monarchy; the 1958 Lebanon crisis prompts U.S. intervention; the Prestonsburg, Kentucky, bus disaster kills 27 children; the Our Lady of the Angels School fire kills 95 in Chicago; and Tennis for Two, created by William Higinbotham, becomes an early video game.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

January 3 – The West Indies Federation is formed.source
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.source
February 1 – Egypt and Syria unite to form the United Arab Republic.source
February 11 – Marshal Chen Yi succeeds Zhou Enlai as Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs.source
February 14 – The Hashemite Kingdoms of Iraq and Jordan unite in the Arab Federation, with King Faisal II of Iraq as head of state.source
February 23 – Arturo Frondizi is elected president of Argentina.source
April 1 – The Treaty of Angra de Cintra is signed by Spain and Morocco, ending the Spanish protectorate in Morocco.source
May 1 – The Nordic Passport Union comes into force.source
May 1 – Arturo Frondizi becomes President of Argentina.source
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!)".source
May 12 – A formal North American Aerospace Defense Command agreement is signed between the United States and Canada.source
July 12 – Henri Cornelis becomes Governor-General of the Belgian Congo, the last Belgian governor prior to independence.source
September 2 – Hendrik Verwoerd becomes the 6th Prime Minister of South Africa.source
September 4 – Jorge Alessandri is the winner of Chile's presidential election.source
September 28 – In the 1958 French constitutional referendum, a majority of 79% says yes to the constitution of the Fifth Republic.source
October 1 – Tunisia and Morocco join the Arab League.source
October 1 – The United Kingdom transfers sovereignty of Christmas Island from Singapore to Australia.source
October 4 – The new Constitution of France is signed into law, establishing the French Fifth Republic.source
November 3 – The new UNESCO building, World Heritage Centre, is inaugurated in Paris.source
November 3 – Jorge Alessandri is sworn in as President of Chile.source
November 25 – French Sudan gains autonomy as a self-governing member of the French colonial empire.source
November 28 – Chad, the Republic of the Congo and Gabon become autonomous republics within the French colonial empire.source
November 30 – Gaullists win the French parliamentary election.source
December 1 – Adolfo López Mateos takes office as President of Mexico.source

Conflict & Security

January 13 – Battle of Edchera: The Moroccan Army of Liberation ambushes a Spanish patrol.source
February 23 – Cuban rebels kidnap five-time world driving champion Juan Manuel Fangio, releasing him 28 hours later.source
March 8 – The is decommissioned, leaving the United States Navy without an active battleship for the first time since 1896 (she is recommissioned October 22, 1988).source
April 3 – In Cuba, Castro's revolutionary army begins its attacks on Havana.source
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.source
May 13 – During a visit to Caracas, Venezuela, Vice President Richard Nixon's car is attacked by anti-American demonstrators.source
May 13 – Crisis in France: French Algerian protesters seize government offices in Algiers, leading to a military coup.source
May 20 – The Cuban government of Fulgencio Batista launches a counteroffensive against Castro's rebels.source
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.source
June 30 – The 1957–58 Ifni War ends in Spanish Sahara.source
July 14 – July 14 Revolution in Iraq: King Faisal II and several family members are executed. Abd al-Karim Qasim assumes power.source
July 15 – 1958 Lebanon crisis: 5,000 United States Marines land in the Lebanese capital Beirut in support of the pro-Western government.source
August 6 – The Law of Permanent Defense of Democracy, which outlawed the Communist Party of Chile and banned 26,650 persons from the electoral lists, is repealed.source
August 7 – 1958 East Pakistan-India border skirmishes, a skirmish between East Pakistan and the Indian Army in Laxmipur.source
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.source
August 26 – A general strike is called in Paraguay.source
August 30–September 1 – Notting Hill race riots: Riots occur between blacks and whites in Notting Hill, London.source
September 1 – The first Cod War begins between the United Kingdom and Iceland.source
December 29 – Battle of Santa Clara: Rebel troops under Camilo Cienfuegos and Che Guevara begin to invade Santa Clara, Cuba.source
December 30 – The Guatemalan Air Force fires on Mexican fishing boats which had strayed into Guatemalan territory, triggering the Mexico–Guatemala conflict.source
December 31 – After the fall of Santa Clara, Cuban President Fulgencio Batista flees the country.source

Exploration & Expansion

January 4 – Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the third overland journey to the South Pole, the first to use powered vehicles.source
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.source
June 1 – Iceland extends its fishing limits to 12 miles (22.2 km).source
July 26 – Explorer program: Explorer 4 is launched in the United States.source
September 18 – BankAmericard, the first credit card to be widely offered, is launched in Fresno, California in what becomes known as the "Fresno Drop".source
December 14 – The 3rd Soviet Antarctic Expedition becomes the first ever to reach the Southern Pole of Inaccessibility.source
December 16 – 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.source
For the first time, the total of transatlantic passengers carried by air this year exceeds the total carried by sea.source

Religion & Belief

October 28 – Pope John XXIII succeeds Pope Pius XII, as the 261st pope.source

Economy & Finance

October – GoldStar, predecessor of LG Electronics, is founded in South Korea.source
November 20 – The Jim Henson Company is founded as Muppets, Inc. in the United States.source

Technology & Infrastructure

February 24 – In Cuba, Fidel Castro's Radio Rebelde begins broadcasting from Sierra Maestra.source
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. The campaign peace symbol has been launched on 21 February by Gerald Holtom. Protests will focus on the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment at Aldermaston.source
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.source
April 17 – King Baudouin of Belgium officially opens the world's fair in Brussels, also known as Expo 58. The Atomium forms the centrepiece.source
April 20 – The Montreal Canadiens win the Stanley Cup in ice hockey, after defeating the Boston Bruins in 6 games.source
August 3 – The nuclear-powered submarine becomes the first vessel to cross the North Pole under water.source
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.source
September 2 – China's first television broadcasts start at Beijing Television Station, a predecessor of China Central Television.source
September 12 – Jack Kilby invents the first integrated circuit, while working at Texas Instruments.source
September 14 – Two rockets designed by German engineer Ernst Mohr (the first German post-war rockets) reach the upper atmosphere.source
October 17 – An Evening with Fred Astaire, the first television show recorded on color videotape, is broadcast on NBC in the United States.source
October 18 – Tennis for Two, a game invented by William Higinbotham and considered to be the first pure entertainment computer game, is introduced at the Brookhaven National Laboratory Visitors' Day Exhibit in the United States.source
October 26 – A Pan American World Airways Boeing 707 makes its first transatlantic flight.source
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.source

Science & Discovery

January 4 – Sputnik 1 (launched on October 4, 1957) falls towards Earth from its orbit and burns up.source
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 are 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.source
March 17 – The United States launches the Vanguard 1 satellite.source
April 13 – The Soviet satellite Sputnik 2 (launched November 3, 1957) disintegrates during reentry from orbit.source
May 1 – U.S. space scientist James van Allen announces the discovery of Earth's magnetosphere.source
May 15 – The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 3.source
May 18 – A U.S. Lockheed F-104 Starfighter sets a world speed record of 1404.19 mi/h km/h.source
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.source
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.source
September 30 – The U.S.S.R. performs a nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya.source
October 1 – NASA starts operations and replaces the NACA in the United States.source
October 4 – 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.source
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.source
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.source
December 18 – The Bell XV-3 Tiltrotor makes the first true mid-air transition from vertical helicopter-type flight to fully level fixed-wing flight.source
December 18 – The United States launches SCORE, the world's first communications satellite.source
December 19 – A message from U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower is broadcast from the SCORE satellite.source
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.source

Crime & Justice

June 16 – Imre Nagy and other leaders of the failed Hungarian Revolution of 1956 are hanged for treason, following secret trials.source

Disasters & Accidents

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.source
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.source
March 1 – Turkish passenger ship capsizes and sinks in a sudden gale while crossing the Gulf of İzmit, Turkey; many of the 272 who die are teenage students.source
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.source
March 19 – The Monarch Underwear Company fire occurs in New York, United States, killing 24 people.source
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.source
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.source
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.source
December 1 – Our Lady of the Angels School fire: 90 students and 3 nuns are killed in a fire in Chicago.source
December 16 – A fire breaks out in the Vida Department Store in Bogotá, Colombia and kills 84 persons.source
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.source

Climate & Environment

July 9 – 1958 Lituya Bay megatsunami: A 7.8 strike-slip earthquake in Southeast Alaska causes a landslide that produces a megatsunami. The runup from the waves reaches 525 m on the rim of Lituya Bay.source
September 27 – Hurricane Helene, the worst storm of the North Atlantic hurricane season, reaches category 4 status.source
September 27 – Typhoon Ida kills at least 1,269 people in Honshū, Japan.source

Culture & Society

April 14 – Van Cliburn wins the International Tchaikovsky Competition for pianists in Moscow, easing Cold War tensions.source
May 28 – Real Madrid beats A.C. Milan 3–2 at Heysel Stadium, Brussels, and wins the 1957–58 European Cup in Association football.source
June 29 – Brazil beats Sweden 5–2 in the final game to win the football World Cup in Sweden.source
July 24 – Fourteen life peerages, the first under the Life Peerages Act 1958, are created in the United Kingdom.source
July 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. The announcement is made at the end of the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games, held in Cardiff.source
August 21–October 15 – Illinois observes the centennial of the Lincoln–Douglas debates.source
November 10 – Harry Winston donates the Hope Diamond to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.source

Births

January 8 – Betsy DeVos, American businesswoman and politician, 11th Secretary of Educationsource
January 24 – Mike Harmon, American stock car racing driver, crew chief, and team ownersource
January 26 – Ellen DeGeneres, American actress, comedian and television hostsource
May 18 – Toyah Willcox, English singer-songwriter, actress, and television presentersource
May 19 – Jenny Durkan, American attorney, federal prosecutor and politiciansource
May 30 – Marie Fredriksson, Swedish rock guitarist and singer-songwriter (d. 2019)source
June 14 – Olaf Scholz, 9th Chancellor of Germanysource
September 2 – Zdravko Krivokapić, Montenegrin politician, Prime Minister of Montenegrosource
September 7 – Goran Hadžić, Croatian Serb politician and President the Republic of Serbian Krajina during the Croatian War of Independencesource
October 5 – Neil deGrasse Tyson, American astrophysicist and science communicatorsource
October 8 – Ursula von der Leyen, German politician, President of the European Commissionsource
November 3 – Derrike Cope, American stock car racing driver and team ownersource
December 1 – Candace Bushnell, American writer (Sex & the City), journalist and television producersource
December 24 – Michael Flynn, American lieutenant general and former U.S. national security advisorsource

Deaths

January 7 – Petru Groza, Romanian politician, 46th Prime Minister of Romania (b. 1884)source
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.source
February 6 – Manchester United footballers and journalists who died in Munich air disastersource
February 21 – Duncan Edwards English footballer, died from injuries sustained in the Munich air disaster (b. 1936)source
March 11 – Ole Kirk Christiansen, Danish businessman, founder of The Lego Group (b. 1891)source
April 16 – Rosalind Franklin, English crystallographer (b. 1920)source
July 15 – Nuri al-Said, Iraqi politician, 7th Prime Minister of Iraq (b. 1888)source
July 27 – Claire Lee Chennault, American aviator and general, leader of the Flying Tigers (b. 1893)source
August 27 – Ernest Lawrence, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1901)source
September 28 – Fernando Rios, a Mexican tour guide in New Orleans, dies from injuries suffered in an incident of gay bashing.source
October 14 – Sir Douglas Mawson, Australian geologist and polar explorer (b. 1882)source
November 24 – Robert Cecil, 1st Viscount Cecil of Chelwood, English politician and diplomat, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1864)source
December 12 – Milutin Milanković, Yugoslav mathematician, astronomer, climatologist and geophysicist, (b. 1879)source
December 15 – Wolfgang Pauli, Austrian-born American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1900)source