Events 1 - 200 of 525
- Jan 1 BOAC Britannia flies London to NY in a record 7h57m
- Jan 1 European Economic Community, better known as the European Common Market starts operation
- Jan 1 WMBD TV channel 31 in Peoria, IL (CBS) begins broadcasting
- Jan 2 Dmitri Shostakovich' 2nd Piano concert, premieres in NY
- Jan 3 Australian cricket fast bowler Lindsay Kline takes a hat-trick (Eddie Fuller, Hugh Tayfield, Neil Adcock) as South Africa dismissed for 99 in follow-on 2nd Test at Cape Town
- Jan 3 The West Indies Federation is formed, made up of former British Caribbean territories, with the capital Port of Spain
Hillary Reaches the South Pole
Jan 4 NZ team led by Edmund Hillary reaches the South Pole, the 1st to reach the Pole overland using motor vehicles and the 1st since Amundsen in 1911 and Scott in 1912
- Jan 4 Sputnik 1 reenters atmosphere & burns up
- Jan 6 Bollingen Prize for poetry awarded to E. E. Cummings
- Jan 6 WIPR TV channel 6 in San Juan, PR (PBS) begins broadcasting
Gibson's 'Flying V'
Jan 7 Gibson Guitars receives US patent for their 'Flying V' electric guitar model; eventually used by Albert Collins, Jimi Hendrix, Marc Bolan of T-Rex, Dave Davies of the Kinks, and Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top
- Jan 7 USSR reduces army to 300,000
Robertson Scores 56
Jan 9 In basketball Oscar Robertson (Cin) scores 56, Seton Hall team 54
Great Balls of Fire
Jan 10 Jerry Lee Lewis' "Great Balls of Fire" reaches #1 on the UK pop charts
- Jan 12 NCAA adds 2 point conversion to football scoring
Schayes Sets Record
Jan 12 Syracuse National Dolph Schayes sets NBA record at 11,770 points
- Jan 13 9,000 scientists of 43 nations petition UN for nuclear test ban
- Jan 13 Moroccan Liberation Army ambushes Spanish patrol in the Battle of Edchera.
- Jan 13 US newspaper "Daily Worker" ceases publication
- Jan 15 New York Yankees announce that 140 MLB games to be televised on WPIX TV this season in a deal worth over $1 million dollars
- Jan 16 William Gibson's "Two for the Seesaw" premieres in NYC
- Jan 18 Willie O’Ree is the 1st African-American to appear in the NHL, making his debut for the Boston Bruins in a 3-0 victory in Montreal
- Jan 19 Canadian Football Council renamed Canadian Football League
- Jan 20 A group attempting the 1st surface crossing of Antarctic join up at the South Pole
- Jan 20 KUED TV channel 7 in Salt Lake City, UT (PBS) begins broadcasting
- Jan 21 KMOT TV channel 10 in Minot, ND (NBC) begins broadcasting
- Jan 21 Phillies agree to televise 78 games into NYC (doesn't happen)
Losing All-Star Wins MVP
Jan 21 St Louis Hawks forward Bob Pettit becomes first member of the losing team to win the NBA All-Star MVP award; scores 28 points and grabs 26 rebounds, even though East beats West, 130-118
Longest Innings in Test History
Jan 23 Pakistani cricket batsman Hanif Mohammad scores record 337 runs in 970 minutes in drawn 1st Test v West Indies at Bridgetown, longest innings in Test history
- Jan 24 After warming to 100,000,000 degrees, 2 light atoms are bashed together to create a heavier atom, resulting in 1st man-made nuclear fusion
Laskow Heads Defense Forces
Jan 26 Haim Laskow replaces Moshe Dayan as Israeli Chief of the General Staff - in charge of Israeli Defense Forces
Campanella Paralyzed
Jan 28 Dodger catcher Roy Campanella is paralyzed in an automobile wreck
- Jan 28 The Lego Group patents their design of interlocking Lego bricks, still compatible with bricks produced today
- Jan 29 Murderer, Charles Starkweather, captured by police in Wyoming
- Jan 30 1st 2-way moving sidewalk goes into service in Dallas, Texas
- Jan 30 Dore Schary's "Sunrise at Campobello" premieres in NYC
- Jan 30 MLB Commissioner Ford Frick announces that players and coaches, rather than fans, will vote on selections for the All-Star Game; vote returns to the fans in 1970
- Jan 30 UK House of Lords passes bill allowing women to take seats
"Jackpot Bowling"
Jan 31 "Jackpot Bowling" premieres on NBC with Leo Durocher as host
- Jan 31 Earth's radiation belt first discovered by space scientist James van Allen and his team at Iowa University [1]
- Jan 31 US launches their 1st artificial satellite, Explorer 1
- Feb 1 "Volare" ("Nel blu dipinto di blu") single released by Domenico Modugno (Grammy Award Record of the Year, Song of the Year 1958)
- Feb 1 1st US satellite (Explorer I) launched
- Feb 1 Egypt & Syria announce plans to merge into United Arab Republic
- Feb 1 Manchester United beats Arsenal, 5-4 at Highbury in the team's last game on British soil, 5 days prior to the plane crash at Munich airport that killed 7 players
- Feb 1 Tommy Taylor scores 2 goals and Duncan Edwards 1, in Manchester United's 5-4 win vs Arsenal at Highbury; pair amongst 7 players killed 5 days later when team’s charter plane crashes at Munich airport
- Feb 1 WFTV TV channel 9 in Orlando, FL (ABC) begins broadcasting
- Feb 2 Syria joins Egypt in United Arab Republic
- Feb 2 WRIK (now WLUZ) TV channel 7 in Ponce, PR (PTC) begins broadcasting
- Feb 3 Royal Teens' "Short Shorts" enters Top 40 chart & peaks at #3
- Feb 4 MLB Hall of Fame fails to elect anyone for 1st time since 1950
- Feb 5 Clifton R Wharton confirmed as 1st US African American foreign minister (to Romania)
- Feb 5 Gamel Abdel Nasser nominated 1st President of United Arab Republic
- Feb 5 Test cricket debut of outstanding West Indian spin bowler Lance Gibbs, 2nd Test v Pakistan in Port-of-Spain
- Feb 5 Vanguard TV-3 back-up launches into Earth orbit; reaches 6 km
- Feb 6 21 dead in air crash at Munich-Riem Airport; 8 players and 3 staff are from the Manchester United football team
Williams Highest Paid
Feb 6 Future Baseball Hall of Fame outfielder Ted Williams becomes highest paid player in MLB when he re-signs with Boston Red Sox for $135,000
- Feb 7 1st showing of Dutch auto-transmission car, the DAF 600
- Feb 7 Dodgers officially become the Los Angeles Dodgers, Inc
- Feb 8 Edgar Whitehead succeeds Garfield Todd as premier of South Rhodesia
- Feb 8 French planes bomb Sakiet, Tunisia, 75 die
- Feb 8 KIRO TV channel 7 in Seattle, WA (CBS) begins broadcasting
- Feb 11 BBC pioneering series "Your Life in Their Hands" first broadcast presented by Dr. Charles Fletcher, 1st major TV series to deal with medicine
Event of Interest
Feb 11 China's 1st National People's Congress adopts the first edition of Hanyu Pinyin created by Zhou Youguang as the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese
- Feb 11 Marshal Chen Yi succeeds Chu En-lai as Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs
- Feb 11 Ruth Carol Taylor is 1st African-American woman hired as flight attendant, Ithaca NY
- Feb 11 WTVC TV channel 9 in Chattanooga, TN (ABC) begins broadcasting
Sports History
Feb 12 Boston Celtic Bill Russell grabs 41 rebounds to beat Syracuse Nationals, 119-101
- Feb 12 General Miguel Ydegoras Fuentes elected President of Guatemala
- Feb 14 Arab Federation of Iraq & Jordan forms
- Feb 15 Ice Dance Championship at Paris won by June Markham/Courtney Jones GRB
- Feb 15 Ice Pairs Championship at Paris won by Barbara Wagner/Rob Paul of CAN
- Feb 15 Sjafroeddin Prawiranegara forms anti-government of Middle Sumatra
- Feb 17 Comic strip "BC" 1st appears
- Feb 17 WETV (now WPBA) TV channel 30 in Atlanta, GA (PBS) begins broadcasting
Music History
Feb 19 Carl Perkins leaves Sun Records for Columbia Records
The Brothers Karamazov
Feb 20 Adaptation of Fyodor Dostoevsky's "The Brothers Karamazov", starring Yul Brynner and featuring William Shatner's film debut, premieres at Radio City Music Hall, NYC
Arcaro's 4,000th Winner
Feb 20 American future Hall of Fame jockey Eddie Arcaro rides his 4,000th winner on Riding Ban in the 8th race at Santa Anita
- Feb 20 LA Coliseum approves 2-year pact allowing LA Dodgers to use facility whilst Dodger Stadium is completed in time for the 1962 MLB season
- Feb 21 British artist Gerald Holtom designs Nuclear Disarmament logo, based on blended semaphore signals for the letters N and D; it later became an international peace symbol
- Feb 21 Egypt-Syria as United Arab Republic elect Nasser president (99.9% vote)
- Feb 22 Australian swimmer Jon Konrads sets 6 world records in 2 days
- Feb 22 Egypt & Syria form United Arab Republic (UAR)
- Feb 22 Indonesian air force bombs Padang, Sumatra and Menado, Celebes
F1 World Champion
Feb 23 5-time F1 World Drivers champion Juan Manuel Fangio is kidnapped by Cuban rebels from Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement; released soon after Cuban GP
- Feb 23 Arturo Frondizi elected President of Argentina
- Feb 23 Last Municipal arc light at Mission & 25th removed in San Francisco (installed 1913)
- Feb 23 USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR
- Feb 27 USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR
- Feb 28 West Indies 1-504 in reply to Pakistan 328, day 3 of 3rd Test Cricket
Cricket Record
Mar 1 21-year-old West Indian cricket all-rounder Garfield Sobers turns his maiden Test century into a world record 365no in the Windies' 3rd Test win over Pakistan in Kingston, Jamaica; Sobers and Conrad Hunte (260) 446 run partnership for 2nd wicket
- Mar 1 Samuel Alphonsus Stritch, is appointed Pro-Prefect of the Propagation of Faith and thus becomes the first American member of the Roman Curia
- Mar 2 1st surface crossing of Antarctic continent is completed in 99 days
- Mar 2 Yemen announces it would join the United Arab Republic
- Mar 3 KTVU TV channel 2 in Oakland-San Francisco, California (IND) 1st broadcast
- Mar 3 Nuri ash Said becomes premier of Iraq
- Mar 5 Explorer 2 fails to reach Earth orbit
- Mar 5 KDUH TV channel 4 in Scottsbluff-Hay Spring, NB (ABC) 1st broadcast
- Mar 7 Chicago Cardinals announce they will play their 1958 opener in Buffalo
- Mar 8 Silky Sullivan comes from 40 lengths back to win by 3 at Santa Anita
Event of Interest
Mar 8 William Faulkner says US school degenerated to become babysitters
- Mar 9 Detroit Pistons forward George Yardley III scores 26 points in 111-90 defeat to Syracuse Nationals; 1st NBA player to score 2,000 points in a season
- Mar 11 American B-47 accidentally drops nuclear bomb 15,000 ft on a family home in Mars Bluff, South Carolina; creates crater 75 ft across, bomb without its nuclear capsule
- Mar 11 Starting this season, AL batters are required to wear batting helmets
- Mar 12 British Empire Day is renamed "Commonwealth Day"
- Mar 13 Government troops land in Sumatra Indonesia
- Mar 14 Recording Industry Association of American created
- Mar 14 RIAA certifies 1st gold record - Perry Como's single "Catch A Falling Star"
- Mar 14 South Africa's government prohibits the African National Congress
- Mar 14 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- Mar 14 USSR performs atmospheric nuclear test
- Mar 15 KULR TV channel 8 in Billings, MT (NBC/ABC/CBS) begins broadcasting
- Mar 15 Oscar Robertson of Cincinnati Royals scores a NBA midwest region-record 56-point game
- Mar 15 Royals basketball star Maurice Stokes collapses during a playoff game with encephalitis; He goes into a coma & is permanently disabled
- Mar 15 USSR performs atmospheric nuclear test in Ground Zero, Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan (of 36 total for 1958)
- Mar 16 LPGA Titleholders Championship Women's Golf, Augusta CC: Beverly Hanson wins by 5 strokes ahead of Betty Dodd
- Mar 17 US Navy launches Vanguard 1 into orbit (2nd US), measures Earth shape
- Mar 18 MLB Los Angeles Dodgers announce their mascot and clown Emmett Kelly will not perform in 1958
Event of Interest
Mar 19 Britain's first planetarium opens at Madame Tussaud's, London
- Mar 19 Garfield Sobers completes a century in each innings for WI vs. Pakistan
- Mar 20 50 inches of snow falls across the Mason–Dixon line
- Mar 20 Clandestine Burasi Bizim Radio (communist) begins transmitting
- Mar 20 Greek Clandestine Radio (communist), Voice of Truth 1st transmission
- Mar 21 Dr. Ernest Lawrence, nuclear scientist and Nobel laureate, receives first West Point Sylvanus Thayer Award, presented to an outstanding US citizen whose service in the national interest exemplifies devotion to ideals of West Point motto: "Duty, Honor, Country"
- Mar 21 USSR performs atmospheric nuclear test
- Mar 22 USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR
Elvis Presley in the Army
Mar 24 Elvis Presley joins the U.S. Army (serial number 53310761)
Sports History
Mar 25 Sugar Ray Robinson is 1st boxing champ to win 5 times
- Mar 25 West German parliament desires German atomic weapons
The Bridge on the River Kwai
Mar 26 30th Academy Awards-"The Bridge on the River Kwai" wins Best Picture, Joanne Woodward & Alec Guinness win Best Actress and Best Actor, respectively
- Mar 26 The African Regroupment Party (PRA) is launched at a meeting in Paris
- Mar 26 US Army launches America's third successful satellite, "Explorer III"
- Mar 27 CBS Labs announce new stereophonic records
- Mar 27 Havana Hilton opens in Cuba, later HQ for Fidel Castro
Event of Interest
Mar 27 Nikita Khrushchev becomes Soviet Premier as well as First Secretary of the Communist Party
- Mar 31 US Navy forms atomic submarine division
- Mar 31 USSR suspends nuclear weapons tests, & urges US & Britain to do same
- Apr 1 KVIQ TV channel 6 in Eureka, CA (NBC/ABC/CBS) begins broadcasting
- Apr 1 Marshal Nikolai Bulganin appointed Chairman of the Board of the State Bank of the USSR
- Apr 2 Antillean Brewery (Amstel beer) opens
- Apr 2 Wind speed reaches a record 450 kph in tornado, Wichita Falls, Texas
- Apr 3 Fidel Castro's rebels attack Havana
Lana Turner Daughter Stabs Boyfriend
Apr 4 Cheryl Crane (14), daughter of actress Lana Turner, stabs to death organized crime figure Johnny Stompanato, her mother's boyfriend, in self-defense; crime later ruled a "justifiable homicide"
Tueur sans Gages
Apr 4 Eugene Ionesco's play "Tueur sans Gages" (The Killer Without Reason) premieres in Darmstadt
- Apr 4 First march against nuclear weapons is held, from London to Aldermaston in England, home of the Defence Ministry's Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE)
- Apr 4 The CND Peace Symbol displayed in public for the first time in London
- Apr 5 Ripple Rock, an underwater threat to navigation in the Seymour Narrows in Canada is destroyed in one of the largest ever non-nuclear controlled explosions
- Apr 7 Dodgers erect 42-foot screen in left field at LA Coliseum to cut down on home runs, since it is only 250 feet down the line
- Apr 10 Northern strip of Spanish Sahara ceded to Morocco
- Apr 11 Brooks Hall in Civic Center dedicated in San Francisco, California
- Apr 12 Flemish Open air museum opens in Bokrijk
- Apr 13 12th Tony Awards: "Sunrise at Campobello" (play) and "The Music Man" (musical) win
- Apr 13 Classical pianist Van Cliburn (23) is the first American to win the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, USSR
Space Dog Laika Launched to her Death
Apr 14 Soviet spacecraft Sputnik 2 with space dog Laika aboard burns up during reentry into Earth's atmosphere
Emmy Awards
Apr 15 10th Emmy Awards: Gunsmoke, Robert Young & Jane Wyatt win
- Apr 15 1st baseball game in California, SF Giants beat LA Dodgers, 8-0
- Apr 16 French government of Gaillard falls due to Tunisia crisis
Event of Interest
Apr 17 Brussels World Fair opens in Belgium, with a model by chemist Rosalind Franklin who had died of cancer the day before
Ezra Pound Released
Apr 18 A United States federal court rules that poet Ezra Pound is to be released from an insane asylum.
- Apr 18 Government troops reconquer Padang, Middle-Sumatra, Indonesia
- Apr 18 NL single-game record crowd of 78,682 as the Los Angeles Dodgers win their first ever home game over San Francisco Giants, 6-5, at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
- Apr 20 Morocco demands departure of Spanish troops
- Apr 20 Stanley Cup Final, Boston Garden, Boston, MA: Montreal Canadiens' 3-peat; beat Boston Bruins, 5-3 for a 4-2 for series win
Sports History
Apr 23 Gil Hodges hits his 300th HR & Pee Wee Reese plays in 2,000th game
Event of Interest
Apr 28 US Vice President Richard Nixon begins goodwill tour of Latin America
- Apr 28 Vanguard TV-5 launched for Earth orbit (failed)
- Apr 30 Ted Williams is 10th major league player to get 1,000 extra-base hits
- May 1 Ambonese rebellion bombs Ambon, conquers Morotai
- May 1 Arturo Frondizi sworn in as President of Argentina
- May 2 Yanks threaten to broadcast games nationwide if NL goes ahead with plans to broadcast, games into NYC
- May 3 WINS suspends disc jockey Alan Freed for being charged with inciting a riot at a Boston concert, he quits, charges are dropped
- May 4 Alberto Lleras Camargo chosen as president of Colombia
- May 5 KNME TV channel 5 in Albuquerque, NM (PBS) begins broadcasting
- May 5 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction awarded to James Agee for "Death in the Family"
- May 5 US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands
- May 7 US Air Force Major Howard Johnson sets world aircraft altitude record in a Lockhead F-104 Starfighter at 27,810 m
Dracula Released
May 8 Classic Hammer horror film "Dracula" film starring Christopher Lee as the eponymous vampire alongside Peter Cushing, directed by Terence Fisher released
Little Rock Crisis
May 8 US President Eisenhower orders National Guard out of Central High School, Little Rock, Arkansas
- May 8 US VP Richard Nixon is shoved, stoned, booed and spat upon by protesters in Peru
Vertigo Released
May 9 "Vertigo", American film noir psychological thriller directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak, is released
Sports History
May 9 Russian Mikhail Botvinnik recaptures world chess championship
- May 11 US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Bikini Island
- May 11 US performs its second atmospheric nuclear test of the day, this one at Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands
- May 12 "Nee Nee Na Na Na Na Nu Nu" by Dicky Doo & The Don'ts hits #40
- May 12 US & Canada form North American Air Defense Command (NORAD)
- May 12 US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands
- May 13 French settlers riot against French army in Algeria
- May 13 Jordan & Iraq form Arab Federation
Musial 8th to 3,000
May 13 MLB player Stan Musial is 8th to get 3,000 hits
- May 13 MLB San Francisco Giants teammates Willie Mays & Darryl Spencer each hit 2 HRs & a triple, and combine for 10 RBI in a 16-9 win over the Dodgers at Los Angeles
Admirals
Aviators
Gangsters
Generals
Industrialists
Suffragists