Timeline 1958
Return to home
1958 Jan 1,
Treaties establishing the European Economic Community went into effect.
(AP, 1/1/98)
1958 Jan 1, Dr. Douglas Kelley
(45), psychiatrist, committed suicide using potassium cyanide. He was
one of the psychiatrist used by the US Army to interview Nazi war
criminals at Nuremberg and authored the book “22 Cells in Nuremberg.”
(SSFC, 2/6/05, p.A17)
1958 Jan 1, Photographer Edward
Weston (b.1886) died. A 1973 biography was titled "Edward Weston: Fifty
Years." In 1998 his model Charis Wilson published "Through Another
Lens: My Years with Edward Weston."
(SFEM, 6/30/96, p.23)(SFC, 5/18/98, p.D1)(SFC,
9/2/06, p.E3)
1958 Jan 3, The first six members
of the newly formed US Commission on Civil Rights held their first
meeting at the White House after they were sworn in by President
Eisenhower.
(AP, 1/3/08)
1958 Jan 3, Edmund Hillary reached
the South Pole (Antarctica) overland. Hillary was part of a joint New
Zealand-British ice trek that drove farm tractors on the Skelton
Glacier to the South Pole. He beat Vivian Fuchs to the South Pole by 17
days.
(SFC, 1/14/99, p.C2)(MC, 1/3/02)
1958 Jan 3, The British created
the West Indies Federation with Lord Hailes as governor general. The
federation lasted to 1962. It included Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad,
Tobago and the Windward and Leeward Islands.
(HN, 1/3/99)(WUD, 1994, p.1623)
1958 Jan 6, Moscow announced a
reduction in its armed forces by 300,000.
(HN, 1/6/99)
1958 Jan 7, USSR shrank its army
to 300,000.
(MC, 1/7/02)
1958 Jan 7, Petru Groza (74),
premier and president (Romania, 1945-58), died.
(MC, 1/7/02)
1958 Jan 8, Bobby Fisher won the
United States Chess Championship for the first time at 14 years of age.
(MC, 1/8/02)
1958 Jan 9, President Eisenhower,
in his State of the Union address to Congress, warned of the threat of
Communist imperialism.
(AP, 1/9/08)
1958 Jan 10, Jerry Lee Lewis'
"Great Balls of Fire" reached #1.
(MC, 1/10/02)
1958 Jan 13, 9,000 scientists of
43 nations petitioned the UN for a nuclear test ban.
(MC, 1/13/02)
1958 Jan 21, Charles Starkweather,
19, killed the mother, stepfather and half-sister of his 14-year-old
girlfriend, Caril Ann Fugate, at her family's home in Lincoln, Neb.
Starkweather, who had also killed a gas station attendant the previous
November, and Fugate went on a road trip which resulted in seven more
slayings. Starkweather was executed in 1959; Fugate, who maintained she
had been Starkweather's hostage, was convicted of murder and sentenced
to life; she was paroled in 1976. His slaying spree inspired the 1973
film “Badlands” starring Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek.
(SFEM, 2/8/98, p.8)(AP, 1/21/08)
1958 Jan 21, James Grover Tarver
(b.1885), Texas-born giant, died in Arkansas. He had grown to be 8 feet
4 inches tall and traveled with the Ringling Bros. and other circuses.
In 1917 he played the giant in the film “Jack and the Beanstalk.”
(SFC, 3/5/08,
p.G5)(www.forensicgenealogy.info/contest_80_results.html)
1958 Jan 21, The Soviet Union
called for a ban on nuclear arms in Baghdad Pact countries.
(HN, 1/21/99)
1958 Jan 23, Venezuela gained
liberties with the overthrow of Gen. Marcos Perez Jimenez, its last
dictator. The social democrats' Democratic Action (AD) and the
Christian Democrats (Copei) began alternating power and then entered
into the power-sharing agreement called "Pacto de Punto Fijo."
(WSJ, 2/26/99, p.A15)(SSFC, 6/24/01, p.T6)(AP,
1/23/04)
1958 Jan 24, After warming to
100,000,000 degrees, 2 light atoms were bashed together to create a
heavier atom, resulting in the 1st man-made nuclear fusion.
(MC, 1/24/02)
1958 Jan 28, Roy Campanella,
catcher for the Brooklyn Dodgers, was paralyzed in a car crash. In 1959
Topps Chewing Gum Company issued a baseball card in his honor featuring
Campanella in a wheelchair with the phrase “Symbol of Courage.”
(AH, 6/03, p.56)(http://tinyurl.com/ry7spx)
1958 Jan 29, Actors Paul Newman
and Joanne Woodward were married in Las Vegas.
(AP, 1/29/08)
1958 Jan 30, The play "Sunrise at
Campobello," by Dore Schary about Franklin D. Roosevelt's struggle
against polio, opened on Broadway with Ralph Bellamy as FDR.
(AP, 1/30/08)
1958 Jan 31, Explorer 1,
the first successful US satellite, was launched by a Jupiter-C rocket
and the United States entered the Space Age. It discovered the "Van
Allen radiation belts" around Earth named after James Van Allen. Radio
signals from the transmitter aboard the 30.8 pound satellite were
picked up in California within a few minutes after the launch. Two
months earlier, the first attempt to launch a satellite had failed.
(SFEC, 9/28/97, p.A14)(AP, 1/31/98)(SFC,
8/10/06, p.B7)
1958 Feb 1, Syria and Egypt formed
the United Arab Republic. Most Syrians resented the merger, which was
led by the radical Baath (Arab Socialist Resurrection) party. The union
of Syria and Egypt was dissolved in 1961 following a coup in Syria.
Egypt kept the name United Arab Republic until 1971.
(WUD, 1994, p.1555)(HNQ, 6/5/98)(AP, 2/1/08)
1958 Feb 5, A B-47 accidentally
dropped an unarmed thermonuclear bomb at the mouth of Georgia’s
Savannah River. It was never found.
(SFEC, 11/22/98, Par p.22)
1958 Feb 5, Gamel Abdel Nasser was
formally nominated to become the first president of the new United Arab
Republic. Egypt used the UAR name from 1961-1971.
(AP, 2/5/97)(WUD, 1994, p.1555)
1958 Feb 7, Brooklyn Dodgers
officially became the Los Angeles Dodgers, Inc.
(MC, 2/7/02)
1958 Feb 13, Georges Rouault (86),
French painter (Christ aux outrages), died.
(MC, 2/13/02)
1958 Feb 14, The Arab Federation
of Iraq and Jordan formed under Iraq’s Faisal II. King Hussein forged a
federation with Iraq, which was led by his cousin, Faisal II. The
federation failed when Faisal was killed during a revolution in Iraq.
(HNQ, 8/20/00)(MC, 2/14/02)
1958 Feb 15, Sjafroeddin
Prawiranegara formed the anti-government of Middle Sumatra.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1958 Feb 17, The comic strip
"B.C.", created by Johnny Hart (1931-2007), 1st appeared.
(http://www.toonopedia.com/bc.htm)
1958 Feb 19, Rebecca ("Becky")
Hoppe, founder of Soccer Moms of US, was born.
(MC, 2/19/02)
1958 Feb 19, Hail the size of
baseballs was reported with flash lightning over parts of Minneapolis.
(MC, 2/19/02)
1958 Feb 20, The Broadway play
“The Day the Money Stopped” opened at the Belasco Theater. It featured
the debut of actress Collin Wilcox-Paxton (d.2009 at 74).
(SFC, 10/23/09, p.D5)
1958 Feb 21, Egypt-Syria as UAR
elected Gamel Nasser president with a 99.9% vote.
(MC, 2/21/02)
1958 Feb 27, Harry Cohn, CEO of
Columbia Pictures, died of a heart attack.
(MC, 2/27/02)
1958 Mar 1, Doctors declared that
President Eisenhower had fully recovered from his stroke.
(HN, 3/1/98)
1958 Mar 2, Chart Toppers: Sweet
Little Sixteen, Chuck Berry; At the Hop, Danny & the Juniors; Oh
Julie, Crescendos; Don't, Elvis Presley.
(HC, Internet, 2/3/98)
1958 Mar 2, A multinational
expedition led by British geologist and explorer Vivian Fuchs (d.1999
at 91) completed the first overland crossing of Antarctica by way of
the South Pole in 99 days.
(SFC, 11/13/99, p.A22)(AP, 3/2/08)
1958 Mar 2, Yemen announced it
will join the United Arab Republic (Egypt and Syria).
(SC, 3/2/02)
1958 Mar 3, Nuri ash Said became
premier of Iraq.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1958 Mar 6, Form letters from
Pres. Eisenhower to 6 civilians appointees provided for them to take
office in the event of a national emergency. The group met in 1960 with
the Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization to discuss staffing for
their agencies. Pres. Kennedy relieved the group of its duties in 1961.
(SSFC, 3/21/04, p.A2)
1958 Mar 8, William Faulkner said
US schools had degenerated to become babysitters.
(MC, 3/8/02)
1958 Mar 11, A B-47 out of Hunter
AFB in Savannah, Georgia, had just leveled off at 15,000 feet, when a
bomb lock failed and dropped a nuclear bomb on the suburban
neighborhood of Florence, South Carolina. The bomb's high explosives
exploded on impact, wrecking a house and injuring several people on the
ground. The extent of radioactive contamination was never revealed.
(www.willthomasonline.net/willthomasonline/Broken_Arrows.html)
1958 Mar 14, RIAA certified its
1st gold record: Perry Como's Catch A Falling Star.
(MC, 3/14/02)
1958 Mar 17, The U.S. Navy
launched the Vanguard 1 satellite.
(AP, 3/17/02)
1958 Mar 19, The film "South
Pacific," adapted from the Rodgers and Hammerstein stage musical, was
released.
(AP, 3/19/08)
1958 Mar 21, Gary Oldman, actor
(Sid and Nancy, Criminal Law, State of Grace), was born.
(MC, 3/21/02)
1958 Mar 22, Movie producer Mike
Todd (56) and three other people were killed in the crash of Todd's
private plane near Grants, N.M.
(AP, 3/22/08)
1958 Mar 24, Rock 'n' roll singer
Elvis Presley was inducted into the Army in Memphis, Tenn. After nearly
six months of basic training at Fort Hood, Texas, Presley was posted to
Friedberg, West Germany; he was honorably discharged in 1960.
(AP, 3/23/08)
1958 Mar 25, Canada’s era of
supersonic flight began when pilot Jan Zurakowski took off from Malton
Airport near Toronto in an Avro CF-105 Arrow for a 35-minute maiden
flight. Less than a month later, Zurakowski flew the Arrow at Mach 1.5
at an altitude of 50,000 feet. In spite of the aircraft’s early
promise, the Canadian government scrapped the project before the Arrow
could be put into production.
(HN, 3/21/99)
1958 Mar 26, In the 30th Academy
Awards "The Bridge on the River Kwai" won 7 Awards, including best
picture of 1957; its director, David Lean, and star Alec Guinness also
received Oscars. Joanne Woodward was named best actress for "The Three
Faces of Eve."
(AP, 3/26/08)
1958 Mar 26, The U.S. Army
launched America’s third successful satellite, Explorer 3.
(AP, 3/26/97)
1958 Mar 27, The U.S. announced a
plan to explore space near the moon.
(HN, 3/27/98)
1958 Mar 27, CBS Labs announced
new stereophonic records.
(MC, 3/27/02)
1958 Mar 27, The Havana Hilton
opened.
(MC, 3/27/02)
1958 Mar 27, Nikita Khrushchev
became Soviet premier in addition to First Secretary of the Communist
Party.
(AP, 3/27/97)(HN, 3/27/98)
1958 Mar 28, W.C. Handy, the
"Father of the Blues," died in New York at age 84.
(AP, 3/28/08)
1958 Mar 29, Aerial circus star
Clyde Pangborn died. He and playboy Hugh Herndon, Jr. complete the
first nonstop flight across the Pacific Ocean in 1931.
(HN, 10/2/99)(ON, 1/03, p.10)
1958 Mar 31, US Navy formed the
atomic sub division.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1958 Mar 31, Moscow declared a
halt on all atomic tests and asked other nations to follow.
(HN, 3/31/98)
1958 Mar, A gas analyzer was
installed on the slopes of Mauna Loa, Hawaii. It gave a reading of 314
ppm for carbon dioxide. It was part of the International Geophysical
Year project and the carbon dioxide research was under Charles Keeling.
After one year of gathering data it was clear that the whole planet has
an annual cycle for photosynthesis and respiration that is visible by
measuring carbon dioxide concentration. [See 1988].
(NOHY, Weiner, 3/90, p.33-34)
1958 Apr 1, President Eisenhower
signed a $1.85 billion emergency housing measure.
(AP, 4/1/08)
1958 Apr 2, National Advisory
Council on Aeronautics was renamed NASA.
(HN, 4/2/98)
1958 Apr 3, "Say, Darling" opened
at ANTA Theater NYC for 332 performances.
(MC, 4/3/02)
1958 Apr 3, Fidel Castro's rebels
attacked Havana.
(MC, 4/3/02)
1958 Apr 4, The 1st march against
nuclear weapons began in London with a 4-day to the Atomic Weapons
Research Establishment close to Aldermaston, England.
(Econ, 8/16/08,
p.56)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldermaston_Marches)
1958 Apr 9, A Cuban general strike
was called but failed. Urban militias in Havana and Santiago were put
down by the police.
(WSJ, 7/10/02, p.D8)
1958 Apr 13, In the 12th Tony
Awards: Sunrise at Campobello and Music Man won.
(MC, 4/13/02)
1958 Apr 13, Van Cliburn became
the first American to win the Tchaikovsky International Piano Contest
in Moscow. Lev Vlasenko (1929-1996) took 2nd place. Liu Chi Kung came
in 2nd. [see China 1959]
(SFC, 7/6/96, p.E3)(TMC, 1994, p.1958)(SFC, 8/27/96,
p.A17)(AP, 4/13/97)(SFEC, 10/22/00, Z1 p.1)
1958 Apr 14, Sputnik 2 (with dog
Laika) burned up in the atmosphere.
(MC, 4/14/02)
1958 Apr 15, In the 10th Emmy
Awards: Gunsmoke, Robert Young and Jane Wyatt won.
(MC, 4/15/02)
1958 Apr 15, The Giants baseball
team of Horace Stoneham, brought from New York to San Francisco, opened
at Seal Stadium against the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Giants won 8-0.
(SFC, 10/8/97, p.A20)(SFEC,12/797, Z1 p.4,5)
1958 Apr 16, Arnold Palmer won his
first Masters golf tournament.
(HN, 4/16/98)
1958 Apr 17, A World Fair opened
in Brussels, Belgium. The 335-foot Atomium, representing a large-scale
metal molecule, was built to celebrate the 1958 World's Fair in
Brussels. It became one of Belgium's most famous landmarks and in 2005
was restored to its shiny splendor, the faded aluminum sheets on the
nine balls fully replaced with hardy stainless steel.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expo_'58)(AP, 9/16/05)
1958 Apr 19, The last Key System
train left Oakland for SF. Ferry service from the Ferry Building ended
the next day when the Southern Pacific "Eureka" made its last crossing
from SF to Oakland.
(SFC, 8/10/98, p.A5)(SFC, 9/4/98, p.A25)(SFC,
8/7/07, p.A6)(SFC, 4/18/08, p.B1)
1958 Apr 20, The last Key System
train left San Francisco for Oakland. Ferry service from the SF Ferry
Building ended when the Southern Pacific "Eureka" made its last
crossing to Oakland. Train tracks were taken off the lower deck of the
Bay Bridge and the lanes were paved in for car traffic.
(SFC, 8/10/98, p.A5)(SFC, 9/4/98, p.A25)(SFC,
8/7/07, p.A6)(SFC, 4/18/08, p.B1)
1958 Apr 23, The film noir
thriller "Touch of Evil," starring Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh and
Orson Welles, who also directed, was released.
(AP, 4/23/08)
1958 Apr 27, Billy Graham began a
6-week Bay Area crusade at the Cow Palace in Daly City, Ca. Some 18,000
crowded inside as another 5,000 stood in the parking lot. Graham began
a 3-day revival crusade at the Cow Palace that drew nearly 700,000
people.
(SFC, 10/1/96, p.D1)(SSFC, 4/27/08, DB p.58)
1958 Apr 28, Vice President
Richard Nixon and his wife, Pat, began a goodwill tour of Latin America
that was marred by hostile mobs in Lima, Peru, and Caracas, Venezuela.
(AP, 4/28/99)
1958 Apr 28, The United States
conducted the first of 35 nuclear test explosions in the Pacific
Proving Ground as part of Operation Hardtack I.
(AP,
4/28/08)(http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Usa/Tests/Hardtack1.html)
1958 Apr 29, Daniel Day-Lewis,
actor (Last of the Mohicans, My Left Foot), was born in England.
(MC, 4/29/02)
1958 Apr 29, Michelle Pfeiffer,
actress, was born in Midway City, Calif.
(MC, 4/29/02)
1958 Apr 30, Britain's Life
Peerages Act 1958 allowed women to become members of the House of Lords.
(AP, 4/30/08)
1958 May 3, Ismael Valenzuela
(1935-2009) rode Tim Tam to victory in the Kentucky Derby.
(SFC, 9/4/09,
p.D6)(www.kentuckyderby.com/2009/history/statistics/1951-1975)
1958 May 5, The Arkansas Gazette
received the Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of the Little Rock Central
High School integration crisis; James Agee was posthumously honored for
his novel "A Death in the Family."
(AP, 5/5/08)
1958 May 7, Howard Johnson set an
aircraft altitude record in F-104.
(HN, 5/7/98)
1958 May 8, Vice President Nixon
was shoved, stoned, booed and spat upon by anti-American protesters in
Lima, Peru. Vice President Richard Nixon’s eight-nation South America
goodwill tour in May 1958 encountered violent demonstrations,
particularly in Peru and Venezuela, spurring President Dwight
Eisenhower to order the movement of U.S. forces into Caribbean bases.
(AP, 5/8/97)(HNQ, 6/14/99)
1958 May 9, The film "Vertigo"
with James Stewart and Kim Novak was released. It was directed by
Alfred Hitchcock and had been shot in the SF Bay Area. "Vertigo"
premiered in San Francisco.
(SFEC, 8/11/96, DB, p.39)(AP, 5/9/08)
1958 May 12, The United States and
Canada signed an agreement to create the North American Air Defense
Command (later the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD
for short).
(AP, 5/12/08)
1958 May 13, Stan Musial made hit
# 3000.
(SS, Internet, 5/13/97)
1958 May 13, Vice President
Nixon's limousine was battered by rocks thrown by anti-U.S.
demonstrators in Caracas, Venezuela. Nixon’s eight-nation South America
goodwill tour encountered violent demonstrations, particularly in Peru
and Venezuela, spurring President Dwight Eisenhower to order the
movement of US forces into Caribbean bases.
(AP, 5/13/97)(HNQ, 6/14/99)
1958 May 13, French troops took
control of Algiers as French settlers rioted against the French army.
(HN, 5/13/98)(MC, 5/13/02)
1958 May 15, The MGM movie musical
"Gigi," starring Leslie Caron as a young French courtesan-in-training,
was released.
(AP, 5/15/08)
1958 May 15, Vice President
Richard Nixon received a hero's welcome on his return from a
violence-marred tour of Latin America.
(AP, 5/15/08)
1958 May 15, In South Korea the
Yoido Full Gospel Church was founded by David Yonggi Cho and his
mother-in-law, Choi Ja-shil, both Assemblies of God pastors. Their
first worship service was held in the home of Choi Ja-shil. Apart from
the two pastors, only Choi Ja-shil's three daughters and one elderly
woman, who had come in to escape from the rain, attended the first
service. By 2007 Yoido counted some 830,000 members and its church in
Seoul was the largest in the world.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Yonggi_Cho)
1958 May 15, Sputnik III, the
first space laboratory, was launched in the Soviet Union.
(HN, 5/15/99)
1958 May 16, A man endured a
record 82.6 G for .04 seconds on a water-braked rocket sled at Holloman
Air Force Base. He was hospitalized for 3 days for recovery.
(SFEC, 7/2/00, Z1 p.2)
1958 May 18, Chairman Mao Tse Tung
spoke at the Second Session of the Eight Party Congress and called for
schoolchildren to assist in the elimination of the four pests, which
included sparrows, rats, flies and mosquitoes. A massive 3-day campaign
soon began to exterminate sparrows, which were thought harmful because
they ate the peasant's grain. Numerous other birds were killed in the
process and the following year a plague of locusts became a problem. In
2001 Judith Shapiro, Donald Worster and Alfred W. Crosby authored
“Mao's War Against Nature: Politics & the Environment in
Revolutionary China.”
(http://tinyurl.com/8gbhg)(Econ, 12/20/08,
p.65)(http://tinyurl.com/7m9egc)
1958 May 19, The movie "Attack of
the 50 Foot Woman" was released in the movie theaters in USA.
(DTnet, 5/19/97)
1958 May 19, The United States and
Canada formally established the North American Air Defense Command
(NORAD).
(AP, 5/19/97)(Econ, 3/5/05, p.38)
1958 May 19, British actor Ronald
Colman died in Santa Barbara, Calif., at age 67.
(AP, 5/19/08)
1958 May 23, Mao Tse Tung started
his "Great leap forward" movement in China. China tried to modernize
its economy in "The Great Leap Forward" and urged factories and farms
to meet impossible production targets. Farmers were forced to
pool their possessions and devote all land to grain cultivation. Rather
than concede failure, local officials misled central planners about
output. The result: a famine that may have killed as many as 30 million
people by the end of 1960. The story is told by Jasper Becker in his
1997 book "Hungry Ghosts: Mao’s Secret Famine."
(WSJ 12/10/93)(SFEC, 10/7/96, A12)(WSJ, 2/7/97,
p.A14)(MC, 5/23/02)
1958 May 24, United Press
International (UPI) was formed through a merger of the United Press and
the International News Service.
(AP, 5/24/97)
1958 May 24, Pres Batista opened
an offensive against Fidel Castro's rebellion.
(MC, 5/24/02)
1958 May 25, Paul Weller, guitar
(Jam-This is the Modern World, Style Council), was born.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1958 May 26, Janice Kulsar was
born in Manhattan, N.Y. She later established renown as a denizen of
the Cafe Babar in SF, and went on to sail the world as an adventuress
and healer.
(CB, 12/28/97)
1958 May 26, Union Square in San
Francisco became a state historical landmark.
(HN, 5/26/98)
1958 May 27, Ernest Green and 600
whites graduated from Little Rock's Central High School. Green became
the first black Central High graduate.
(http://tinyurl.com/qyjp4)(www.centralhigh57.org/1957-58.htm)
1958 May 28, Mikulas
Schneider-Trvavsky (77), composer, died.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1958 May 29, Annette Bening,
actress (American Beauty, Grifters, Bugsy, Valmont), was born in
Topeka, KS.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1958 May 29, Juan Ramón
Jimenez (76), Spanish poet (Nobel 1956), died.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1958 May 30, Unidentified soldiers
killed in World War II and the Korean conflict were buried at Arlington
National Cemetery.
(AP, 5/30/97)
1958 Jun 1, "Youth Wants To Know",
TV Public Affairs; last aired on NBC. Apparently, they didn’t want to
know.
(DT, 6/1/97)
1958 Jun 1, Charles de Gaulle
became premier of France, marking the beginning of the end of the
Fourth Republic. France, on the verge of civil war over Algeria, called
De Gaulle out of retirement.
(TMC, 1994, p.1958)(AP, 6/1/08)
1958 Jun 4, French premier De
Gaulle arrived in Algiers.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1958 Jun 6, Premier Charles de
Gaulle said Algeria will always be French.
(MC, 6/6/02)
1958 Jun 7, Prince Rogers Nelson,
rock star later known as Prince, was born in Minneapolis, Minn.
(WSJ, 3/30/04, p.B1)
1958 Jun 15, Greece severed
military ties to Turkey because of the Cyprus issue.
(HN, 6/15/98)
1958 Jun 16, The US Supreme Court,
in Kent v. Dulles, ruled that artist Rockwell Kent could not be denied
a passport because of his communist affiliations.
(AP, 6/16/08)
1958 Jun 16, Imre Nagy (b.1896),
former Hungarian premier (1956) and symbol of the 1956 uprising against
Soviet rule, was hanged by the Communist government of Janos Kadar.
(www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/kbank/profiles/nagy/)(Econ, 10/21/06,
p.95)
1958 Jun 17, Radio Moscow reported
the execution of Hungarian ex-premier Imre Nagy by hanging.
(MC, 6/17/02)
1958 Jun 18, President Eisenhower
expressed support for his chief of staff, Sherman Adams, who was
accused of improperly accepting gifts from a businessman. Adams
resigned in September 1958.
(AP, 6/18/08)
1958 Jun 19, "The Lux Show
Starring Rosemary Clooney", TV Variety; last aired on NBC.
(DT, 6/19/97)
1958 Jun 19, In Washington, D.C.
nine entertainers refused to answer a congressional committee’s
questions on communism.
(HN, 6/19/98)
1958 Jun 19, Entrepreneurs Richard
Knerr and Arthur Melin sought a trademark for a plastic cylinder based
on a similar toy in Australia. Wham-O began selling the Hula Hoop
following a demonstration of a rattan hoop imported from Australia.
After one year teenagers in the US purchased some 100 million hoops at
a suggested retail price of $1.98.
(SFC, 7/1/02, p.B5)(SFC, 6/19/08, p.C3)
1958 Jun 20, FBI headquarters
learned of Ronald Reagan’s desire to star in the film "The FBI Story."
The bureau rejected the idea because of Reagan’s association with
Communist front organizations in the 1940s.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F3)
1958 Jun 21, A federal judge
allowed Little Rock Arkansas to delay school integration.
(HN, 6/21/98)
1958 Jun 23, In the Netherlands
the Praemium Erasmianum Foundation was founded by Prince Bernhard. It
awarded the annual Erasmus Prize to individuals or institutions that
have made notable contributions to European culture, society, or social
science.
(www.123exp-culture.com/t/03604490053/)
1958 Jun 24, Victor M. Gerena,
security guard who robbed $7 million (FBI wanted), was born in NYC.
(MC, 6/24/02)
1958 Jun 25, A four-day dedication
of the Mackinac Bridge linking Michigan's upper and lower peninsulas
began, even though the bridge had been open to traffic since November
1957.
(AP, 6/25/08)
1958 Jun 27, Rebel forces
kidnapped 29 US sailors and Marines and held them until Jul 18.
(SSFC, 1/20/02, p.A7)
1958 Jun 28, Alfred Noyes (77),
British poet, essayist (Robin Hood, The Highwayman), died.
(MC, 6/28/02)
1958 Jun 29, A bomb exploded at
the Bethel Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala.; there were no injuries.
(AP, 6/29/08)
1958 Jun 30, Esa-Pekka Salonen,
conductor (Giro), was born in Helsinki, Finland.
(MC, 6/30/02)
1958 Jun 30, Congress passed a law
authorizing the admission of Alaska as the 49th state in the Union, the
first new state since 1912. The Senate passed the Alaska statehood bill
by a vote of 64-20.
(HN, 6/30/98)(AP, 6/30/08)
1958 Jun, In Japan Mount Aso
erupted and left 12 people dead.
(SFEC, 4/2/00, p.A17)
1958 Jul 7, President Dwight D.
Eisenhower signed the Alaska statehood bill. Alaska became the 49th
state in January 1959.
(AP, 7/7/07)
1958 Jul 8, President Eisenhower
began a visit to Canada, where he conferred with Prime Minister John
Diefenbaker and addressed the Canadian Parliament.
(AP, 7/8/08)
1958 Jul 10, A largest tsunami on
record was caused by the fall of 90 million tons of rock and ice into
Lituya Bay, Alaska, following a local earthquake. The wave washed 500
meters up a mountain on the opposite shore.
(CW, Spring ‘99, p.30)
1958 Jul 11, Monument Valley,
straddling the Arizona-Utah border, became the 1st Navajo Tribal Park.
(SSFC, 10/6/02, p.C15)
1958 Jul 14, In Iraq Gen. Abdel
Karim al-Kassem (Qassim) assassinated Faisal II with his son and
premier. Karim proclaimed a republic. Jordan’s King Hussein succeeded
Faisal. Faisal II, Hashemite King of Iraq (1939-58), was assassinated
at Baghdad and Noeri el-Said, premier of Iraq, was murdered. Mohammed
Hadid (d.1999 at 92) served as the first finance minister under the
government of Abdel Karim Qassem.
(PC, 1992 ed, p.963)(AP, 7/14/97)(USAT, 3/24/99,
p.18A)(SFC, 8/6/99, p.D4)
1958 Jul 15, President Eisenhower
ordered 5,000 U.S. Marines to Lebanon, at the request of that country’s
president, Camille Chamoun, in the face of a perceived threat by Muslim
rebels; to help end a short-lived civil war.
(SFEC, 4/13/97, p.T8)(AP, 7/15/98)(HN, 7/15/98)
1958 Jul 16, Michael Flatley,
Irish choreographer (Lord of Dance), was born in Chicago, Ill.
(MC, 7/16/02)
1958 Jul 16, The science-fiction
film "The Fly" opened in San Francisco.
(AP, 7/16/08)
1958 Jul 20, King Hussein of
Jordan broke off diplomatic relations with UAR.
(MC, 7/20/02)
1958 Jul 23, Queen Elizabeth named
four women to peerages, the 1st women to it in Britain's House of Lords.
(AP, 7/23/97)
1958 Jul 24, Jack Kilby
(1923-2005) of Texas Instruments came up with the idea for creating the
1st integrated circuit on a piece of silicon. By September 12 he made a
working prototype.
(SFC, 10/11/00, p.A6)(SFC, 6/22/05, p.A5)(Econ,
7/25/05, p.75)
1958 Jul 26, Britain's Prince
Charles (9), was made the Prince of Wales by his mother, Queen
Elizabeth II, although his investiture did not take place until the
following year.
(AP, 7/26/08)
1958 Jul 29, President Eisenhower
signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act, which created NASA.
(AP, 7/29/97)
1958 Jul 31, There was an
anti-Chinese uprising in Tibet.
(MC, 7/31/02)
1958 Jul, Mildred Loving
(1940-2008), a woman of American Indian and black heritage, and her
white husband, Richard (d.1975), were arrested in Virginia within weeks
of arriving from Washington DC and convicted on charges of "cohabiting
as man and wife. In 1967 the US Supreme Court, in Loving v. Virginia,
struck down state laws prohibiting interracial marriages.
(Econ, 5/17/08, p.105)
1958 Jul, Soviet fighter planes
shot down an RB-50G US reconnaissance plane over the east coast of the
USSR. In 2002 William E. Burrows authored "by Any Means Necessary:
America’s Secret Air War in the Cold War."
(AH, 6/02, p.70)
1958 Aug 1, US atomic sub USS
Nautilus 1st dove under the North Pole.
(MC, 8/1/02)
1958 Aug 1, Jordan’s King Hussein
dissolved the Arab Federation of Jordan and Iraq.
(PCh, 1992, p.963)
1958 Aug 3, The nuclear-powered
submarine USS Nautilus became the first vessel to cross the North Pole
underwater.
(PCh, 1992, p.965)(AP, 8/3/97)(HN, 8/3/98)
1958 Aug 4, Mary Decker Stanley,
winner of seven track and field records, was born.
(HN, 8/4/98)
1958 Aug 4, Billboard, founded in
1894, premiered its all-genre singles Hot 100 chart.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_Hot_100)
1958 Aug 14, Gladys Love Smith
Presley (48), Elvis Presley's mother, died in Memphis, Tenn.
(AP, 8/14/08)
1958 Aug 14, KLM
Superconstellation crashed west of Ireland, killing 99.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1958 Aug 14, Frederic
Joliot-Curie, French nuclear physicist (Nobel 1936), died.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1958 Aug 16, Madonna [Ciccone],
entertainer and singer whose biggest record was "Like a Virgin," was
born.
(HN, 8/16/98)
1958 Aug 17, Belinda Carlisle,
(GoGos lead singer, Heaven on Earth), was born in Hollywood.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1958 Aug 17, World's 1st Moon
probe, US's Thor-Able, exploded at T +77 sec.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1958 Aug 18, The 1st US edition of
the novel "Lolita" by Vladimir Nabokov was published by Putnam. The 1st
French edition was in 1955.
(WSJ, 3/20/97,
p.A14)(www.loa.org/volume.jsp?RequestID=9§ion=notes)
1958 Aug 18, A TV game show
scandal investigation started.
(MC, 8/18/02)
1958 Aug 18, Fidel Castro made a
speech on Cuban pirate radio Rebelde.
(MC, 8/18/02)
1958 Aug 21, Walter Schumann (44),
choral director (Ford Show), died.
(SC, 8/21/02)
1958 Aug 23, China resumed fire on
Quemoi and Matsu.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1958 Aug 24, Leo Blech (87),
German conductor and composer, died.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1958 Aug 25, The game show
"Concentration" premiered on NBC-TV.
(AP, 8/25/08)
1958 Aug 25, President Eisenhower
signed a measure providing pensions for former U.S. presidents and
their widows.
(AP, 8/25/08)
1958 Aug 25, Momofuku Ando (48),
head of Japan’s Nissin Food Products, announced that he had finally
perfected his flash-frying method and therefore invented the instant
noodle.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Momofuku_Ando)
1958 Aug 26, Alaskans went to the
polls to overwhelmingly vote in favor of statehood.
(AP, 8/26/08)
1958 Aug 26, Ralph Vaughan
Williams (85), English composer (Fantasia on Themes of Thomas Tallis),
died.
(MC, 8/26/02)
1958 Aug 27, The Arkansas
Legislature voted 94-1 to pass a law allowing Gov. Orval E. Faubus to
close public schools in the face of forced integration. Ray S. Smith
(1924-2007) was the only dissenting legislator.
(SFC, 11/13/07, p.D9)
1958 Aug 27, USSR launched Sputnik
3 with 2 dogs aboard.
(MC, 8/27/01)
1958 Aug 28, Ernest Orlando
Lawrence (b.1901), US physicist, Nobel Prize winner (1939), died.
(RTH, 8/28/99)
1958 Aug 29, Michael Jackson
(d.2009), pop singer, entertainer, was born in Gary, Ind., the 7th of
nine children.
(SFC, 6/14/05, p.D6)(SFC, 6/26/09, p.A1)
1958 Aug 29, Air Force Academy
opened in Colorado Springs, Colo.
(MC, 8/29/01)
1958 Aug 31, Edwin Moses, track
star, was born. Olympic Gold Medalist [1976, 1984] & Hall of Famer:
400-meter hurdles: the first athlete to use 13 strides between hurdles;
1983 winner of Sullivan Award: the U.S. outstanding amateur athlete.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1958 Aug, The CBS TV game show
“Dotto,” hosted by Jack Narz (1922-2008), was cancelled following
allegations that the show was rigged.
(SFC, 10/17/08, p.B8)
1958 Sep 2, President Eisenhower
signed the National Defense Education Act, which provided aid to public
and private education to promote learning in such fields as math and
science.
(AP, 9/2/08)
1958 Sep 5, The novel "Doctor
Zhivago" by Russian author Boris Pasternak was published in the United
States for the first time.
(AP, 9/5/98)
1958 Sep 5, Martin Luther King was
arrested in an Alabama protest for loitering and fined $14 for refusing
to obey police.
(HN, 9/5/98)
1958 Sep 5, The 1st color video
recording on magnetic tape was presented in Charlotte, NC.
(MC, 9/5/01)
1958 Sep 6, Miss Mississippi Mary
Ann Mobley was crowned Miss America 1959 in Atlantic City, N.J.
(AP, 9/6/08)
1958 Sep 11, Responding to
Communist China's artillery attacks on the Taiwan-held islands of
Quemoy and Matsu, President Eisenhower said in a broadcast address the
US had to be prepared to fight to prevent a communist takeover of the
islands.
(AP, 9/11/08)
1958 Sep 12, The US Supreme Court,
in Cooper v. Aaron, unanimously ruled that Arkansas officials who were
resisting public school desegregation orders could not disregard the
high court's rulings.
(AP, 9/12/08)
1958 Sep 15, A commuter train
crashed through a drawbridge, killing 48 in Newark, NJ.
(http://www.emergency-management.net/traincrash.htm)
1958 Sep 20, Rev. Martin Luther
King was stabbed by Izola Curry, a deranged woman, during a book
signing on 125th St. in Harlem. Dr. Aubre De Lambert Maynard (d.1999 at
97) performed a successful operation on King who had a knife embedded
in his sternum. Curry was later found mentally incompetent.
(SFC, 3/25/99, p.C3)(AP, 9/20/08)
1958 Sep 22, The detective TV show
"Peter Gunn" premiered on NBC with Craig Stevens (d.2000 at 81) as the
private eye.
(SFC, 5/13/00, p.A19)(AP, 9/22/08)
1958 Sep 22, Sherman Adams,
assistant to President Eisenhower, resigned amid charges of improperly
using his influence to help an industrialist. Critics of the Eisenhower
Administration called Chief Presidential Adviser Sherman Adams the
"Assistant President" because they considered him to be too powerful.
Adams was the former governor of New Hampshire. Adams resigned after it
was revealed that a Boston industrialist had given him gifts in
exchange for preferential treatment before the Federal Trade Commission
and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
(AP, 9/22/97)(HNQ, 6/13/98)
1958 Sep 22, The nuclear submarine
USS Skate remained a record 31 days under the North Pole.
(MC, 9/22/01)
1958 Sep 24, "The Donna Reed
Show" premiered on ABC-TV.
(AP, 9/24/08)
1958 Sep 25, John B Watson, US
psychologist and behaviorist, died.
(MC, 9/25/01)
1958 Sep 28, Voters in the African
country of Guinea overwhelmingly favored independence from France.
(AP, 9/28/08)
1958 Sep 30, The police drama
"Naked City" debuted on ABC-TV.
(AP, 9/30/08)
1958 Sep, Orval Faubus
(1910-1994), governor of Arkansas, shut Little Rock’s schools to
prevent any more black children from attending white schools.
(Econ, 9/22/07,
p.44)(www.africanamericans.com/LittleRock.htm)
1958 Sep, A Navy plane crashed
during a training mission in Washington’s Puget Sound. The plane
carried an unarmed nuclear weapon that was never found.
(SFEC, 11/22/98, Par p.22)
1958 Oct 1, America’s National
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was inaugurated [See Apr 2,
Jul 29].
(SFC, 10/2/07, p.A6)
1958 Oct 1, American Express
launched its first credit card.
(www.bostonapartments.com/loans/american_express_credit_card.html)
1958 Oct 1, Britain transferred
Christmas Island (south of Java) to Australia.
(MC, 10/1/01)
1958 Oct 2, Marie Stopes, birth
control pioneer, died.
(MC, 10/2/01)
1958 Oct 2, The former French
colony of Guinea in West Africa proclaimed its independence from France
under the leadership of Sekou Toure.
(WP, 6/29/96, p.A15)(AP, 10/2/97)
1958 Oct 4, The first
trans-Atlantic passenger jetliner service was begun by British Overseas
Airways Corporation (BOAC) with flights between London and New York.
(AP, 10/4/97)
1958 Oct 4, In Minnesota a single
engine military Cessna L-19 crashed into Green Lake and took the life
of Captain Richard P. Carey, 36, who was returning to the Willmar
airfield from Rochester. The pane was recovered in 2005.
(AP, 8/14/05)
1958 Oct 5, Racially desegregated
Clinton High School in Clinton, Tenn., was mostly leveled by an early
morning bombing.
(AP, 10/5/08)
1958 Oct 6, The US nuclear
submarine Seawolf surfaced after spending 60 days submerged.
(AP, 10/6/08)
1958 Oct 7, In Pakistan President
Iskander Mirza abrogated the Constitution and declared Martial Law in
the country. Field Marshal Muhammad Ayub Khan was named chief martial
law administrator.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayub_Khan)
1958 Oct 8, Dr. Ake Senning
installed the 1st pacemaker in Stockholm. Arne Larsson (43) received
the pacemaker, which was built Dr. Rune Elmqvist.
(Econ, 3/7/09, TQ p.25)
1958 Oct 9, Pope Pius XII died, 19
years after he was elevated to the papacy. He was succeeded by Pope
John the 23rd. In 1999 John Cornwell published "Hitler's Pope: The
Secret History of Pius XII."
(WSJ, 4/25/97, p.A18)(AP, 10/9/00)(SFC, 9/7/99, p.A4)
1958 Oct 10, The private-eye
series "77 Sunset Strip" premiered on ABC-TV. The hour-length American
television private detective series, created by Roy Huggins, starred
Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., Roger Smith, and Edd Byrnes.
(AP,
10/10/08)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/77_Sunset_Strip)
1958 Oct 11, The lunar probe
Pioneer 1 was launched; it failed to go as far as planned, fell back to
Earth, and burned up in the atmosphere.
(AP, 10/11/97)
1958 Oct 14, Paul Osborn's "World
of Suzie Wong," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 10/14/01)
1958 Oct 14, Brendan Behan's
"Hostage," premiered in London.
(MC, 10/14/01)
1958 Oct 16, Tim Robbins, West
Covina, Ca., actor (Bull Durham, Shawshank Redemption), was born.
(MC, 10/16/01)
1958 Oct 17, The special "An
Evening with Fred Astaire," the first major TV program produced on
color videotape, aired on NBC.
(AP, 10/17/08)
1958 Oct 19, John Bloom, [Joe Bob
Briggs], drive-in movie critic, was born.
(MC, 10/19/01)
1958 Oct 23, Boris Pasternak won
the Nobel Prize in literature. However, Soviet authorities pressured
Pasternak into relinquishing the award.
(SFC,11/27/97, p.B3)(AP, 10/23/99)
1958 Oct 23, De Gaulle offered
Algerian defiance "peace of the brave."
(MC, 10/23/01)
1958 Oct 23, USSR lent money to
UAR to build Aswan High Dam.
(MC, 10/23/01)
1958 Oct 25, The last U.S. troops
left Beirut
(HN, 10/25/98)
1958 Oct 26, Pan American Airways
pilot Samuel H. Miller (d.2001 at 84) flew the first Boeing 707
passenger service jetliner from New York’s Idlewild Airport (later JFK)
to Paris; the trip took eight hours and 41 minutes. 111 passengers flew
aboard the Clipper America and a ticket cost $489.60. The plane was
christened a week earlier by Mamie Eisenhower. The first New York
London transatlantic jet passenger service was inaugurated by BOAC.
[see Oct 4]
(AP, 10/26/97)(WSJ, 10/23/98, p.W6)(HN,
10/26/98)(SFC, 9/12/01, p.A21)
1958 Oct 27, In Pakistan Field
Marshal Muhammad Ayub Khan carried out the country’s first military
coup. He announced that "our ultimate aim is to restore democracy but
of the type that people can understand." Corruption had become so
widespread within the national and civic systems of administration that
Ayub Khan was welcomed as a national hero by the people. This launched
more than a decade of military rule.
(www.storyofpakistan.com/articletext.asp?artid=A065)(SFEC, 8/3/97,
p.A15)(SFEC, 11/21/99, p.A22)
1958 Oct 28, The Samuel Beckett
play "Krapp's Last Tape" premiered in London.
(AP, 10/28/08)(SFEC, 10/15/00, DB p.50)
1958 Oct 28, The Roman Catholic
patriarch of Venice, Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, was elected Pope, taking
the name John XXIII.
(AP, 10/28/97)
1958 Oct 29, Boris Pasternak
refused the Nobel prize for literature. Pasternak's novel "Dr. Zhivago"
was on the best seller list in the west.
(WSJ, 10/10/95, p.A-14)(MC, 10/29/01)
1958 Oct 29, Dr. F. Mason Sones
became the 1st doctor to perform a coronary angiogram.
(MC, 10/29/01)
1958 Oct, The Kingston Trio
released the "Ballad of Tom Dooley."
(SFC, 7/10/96, p.E5)(SFEC, 8/11/96, DB, p.52)
1958 Nov 4, Edmund G. "Pat" Brown
was elected as democratic governor of California.
(SSFC, 1/30/05, p.C1)
1958 Nov 4, Angelo G. Roncalli was
crowned as Pope John XXIII.
(MC, 11/4/01)
1958 Nov 12, Warren Harding
(d.2002 at 77), Wayne Merry and George Whitmore scaled the "nose" of El
Capitan in California’s Yosemite Valley. They had spent 47 days of
climbing over 16 months to reach the top of the 2,99 foot cliff. In
1970 Harding and Dean Caldwell spent 27 days climbing another route up
El Capitan. Harding later authored "Downward Bound."
(SFC, 3/9/02, p.A24)(SSFC, 11/9/08, p.B6)
1958 Nov 15, Tyrone Power (44),
actor, died of a heart attack in Madrid, Spain, while filming "Solomon
and Sheba."
(AP, 11/15/08)
1958 Nov 18, The cargo freighter
SS Carl D. Bradley sank during a storm in Lake Michigan, claiming 33 of
the 35 lives on board.
(AP, 11/18/08)
1958 Nov 18, The 1st true
reservoir in Jerusalem opened.
(MC, 11/18/01)
1958 Nov 21, Mel Ott (49),
Baseball Hall-of-Famer, died in New Orleans.
(AP, 11/21/08)
1958 Nov 21, A Soviet-East German
commission met in East Berlin to discuss the transfer to East German
control of Soviet functions and end its occupation status in Berlin.
(AP, 11/21/02)
1958 Nov 25, Charles F. Kettering
(82), inventor of the auto self-starter, died.
(MC, 11/25/01)
1958 Nov 27, Artur Rodzinski (66),
Polish conductor and composer, died.
(MC, 11/27/01)
1958 Nov 28, The U.S. reported the
first full-range firing of an ICBM
(DT, 11/28/97)
1958 Nov 28, The Middle Congo
province of French Equatorial Africa voted to proclaim itself
independent as the Congo Republic (Brazzaville). French Equatorial
Africa, was a federation of French territories in Central Africa that
included Chad, Gabon, Middle Congo and Ubanga-Shari. Each became
autonomous in 1958.
(WUD, 1994, p.567)(DT, 11/28/97)
1958 Nov 28, The African nation of
Chad became an autonomous republic within the French community.
(AP, 11/28/97)
1958 Nov 30, Australian explorer
Sir Hubert Wilkins (70) died. In 1959 the USS Skate became the 1st
submarine to surface at the North Pole and the ships crew held a
funeral service and scattered the ashes of Wilkins (d.1958), who had
attempted the feat in 1931.
(ON, 1/02, p.9)
1958 Dec 1, The Rodgers and
Hammerstein musical "Flower Drum Song" opened on Broadway.
(AP, 12/1/97)
1958 Dec 1, In Chicago Our Lady of
Angels School burned. 92 students and 3 nuns were killed.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1958 Dec 9, Robert H.W. Welch Jr.
and 11 other men met in Indianapolis to form the anti-Communist John
Birch Society.
(AP, 12/9/97)
1958 Dec 10, The first domestic
passenger jet flight took place in the United States as a National
Airlines Boeing 707 flew 111 passengers from New York City to Miami.
(AP, 12/10/97)
1958 Dec 13, Ahmed Mukhtar Baban,
premier of Iraq, was executed along with Burhanuddin Bashajan, Iraqi
minister of Foreign Affairs and Rafiq Aref, Iraqi chief-staff Arabs
Statenbond.
(MC, 12/13/01)
1958 Dec 14, The United States,
Britain and France rejected Soviet demands that they withdraw their
troops from West Berlin and agreed to liquidate the Allied occupation
in West Berlin.
(AP, 12/14/02)
1958 Dec 17, Howard Hickey (41)
was named coach of the SF 49ers to replaced Frank Albert, who had
retired unexpectedly.
(SSFC, 12/14/08, p.54)
1958 Dec 19, An Eisenhower White
House memo gave authority to senior military commanders to retaliate
with nuclear weapons if the president could not be reached or was
unable to respond to a nuclear attack against the US in a policy known
as "pre-delegation authority."
(SFC, 3/21/98, p.A2)(SFC, 9/2/98, p.A5)
1958 Dec 21, Charles de Gaulle
(1890-1970), having come out of retirement, was elected to a seven-year
term as the first president of the Fifth Republic of France. De Gaulle
selected Maurice Couve de Murville (d.1999 at 92) as his foreign
minister.
(AP, 12/21/98)(SFC, 12/25/99, p.B4)(Econ, 10/04/08,
p.56)
1958 Dec 28, At Yankee Stadium the
Baltimore Colts beat the NY Giants in the NFL championship game 23-17,
after the game went into overtime for the first time. In 2008 Mark
Bowden authored “The Best Game Ever: The Birth of the Modern NFL.”
(WSJ, 6/9/08,
p.A15)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1958_NFL_Championship_Game)
1958 Dec 28, A Chipmunks song
(Alvin, Simon & Theodore with David Seville) hit #1. "The Chipmunk
Song" went on to win 3 statues in the Grammys.
(SFEC, 2/21/99, DB p.38)(SFC, 12/24/99, p.C3)(MC,
12/28/01)
1958 Dec 31, Cuba’s dictator Juan
Batista fled as Rebels under Fidel Castro marched into Havana.
(MC, 12/31/01)
1958 H.C. Westermann (1922-1981),
sculptor, created "Memorial to the Idea of Man if He Was an Idea." His
work was laced with dark humor.
(WSJ, 4/18/02, p.D7)
1958 John Diebenkorn, California
figurative painter, made his " Woman and Mirror."
(SFEC, 3/16/97, DB p.33)
1958 Jasper Johns had his debut
show at the Castelli Gallery in New York and became an overnight
success. This year he painted his work "Tennyson."
(WSJ, 10/17/96, p.A20)
1958 Georgia O'Keeffe created her
oil on canvas painting "Ladder to the Moon."
(SFEC, 8/10/97, p.T7)(SSFC, 6/22/03, p.C8)
1958 David Park, American artist,
painted: "Man in a T-Shirt" and "Untitled".
(SFEC, 12/1/96, DB p.21)(SFC, 8/23/97, p.A20)
1958 Picasso made his sketch
"Femme Nue Assise."
(SFC, 7/5/96, DB, p.36)
1958 Stanley Spencer, English
artist, painted "The Crucifixion."
(SFC, 10/14/97, p.B1)(SFC, 6/5/98, p.C1)
1958 Allan Kaprow, inventor of the
events known as Happenings, wrote an influential article that described
the drip paintings of Jackson Pollock as pivotal in the way the
artist’s action was converted directly into art content.
(SFC, 2/10/98, p.E4)
1958 Jorge Amado (d.2001 at 88),
Brazilian writer, published his novel "Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon."
(SFC, 8/9/01,
p.D2)(www.biography.com/search/article.do?id=9182926)
1958 Jean Anouilh wrote his play
"Becket."
(SFC, 9/27/96, p.C6)
1958 Roger Brown authored “Words
and Things,” a look at the influence of language on thought and the
evolution of speech.
(WSJ, 2/23/08, p.W8)
1958 Max Frisch, Swiss dramatist,
wrote his expressionistic drama "The Firebugs." It was about a
businessman lured into complicity with a band of terrorists.
(SFC, 2/17/00, p.B3)
1958 "The Magic-Maker: E.E.
Cummings" by Charles Norman, poet and biographer, was published.
(SFC, 9/16/96, p.A15)
1958 Chinua Achebe of Nigeria
authored the novel "Things Fall Apart." It was about the Igbo tribe's
efforts to guard its way of life against English colonialism and was
made into a theater production in 1997. It sold millions of copies
worldwide and was voted Africa's best book of the century. In 2004
Achebe rejected a Nigerian national honors award, protesting conditions
in the West African nation and saying renegades were trying to turn his
home state into "a bankrupt and lawless fiefdom."
(WSJ, 2/09/99, p.A20)(SFEC, 8/6/00, BR p.4)(P,
10/18/04)
1958 E. Digby Baltzell (1916-1996)
published "Philadelphia Gentlemen: The Making of a National Upper
Class."
(SFC, 8/20/96, p.A18)
1958 William Carrol Bark
(1909-1996), professor emeritus of history at Stanford, published
"Origins of the Medieval World."
(SFC, 10/18/96, A23)
1958 Algis Budrys published his
sci-fi novel "Who," in which was described an artificial heart, 5-years
before a working version was developed.
(SFEC, 11/24/96, Z1 p.2)
1958 New York papers reported that
San Francisco writer and bon vivant Barnaby Conrad was dying due to a
goring wound received in a Spanish bullfight. Conrad survived and later
opened the Matador nightclub in SF.
(SSFC, 11/16/03, p.E3)
1958 Herb Caen, SF newspaper
columnist, was lured back to The Chronicle following 8 years with the
SF Examiner.
(SFEC, 2/2/97, p.A13)
1958 Cliffs Notes, created by
Cliff Hillegass (d.2001 at age 83), began publishing condensed studies
of literary works in Lincoln, Nebraska.
(WSJ, 7/5/00, p.B1)(SSFC, 5/6/01, p.A27)
1958 Edwin Dale Jr. (d.1999 at
75), NY Times journalist, co-authored "Inflation and Recession?" with
Richard E. Mooney.
(SFC, 5/11/99, p.A19)
1958 Sirs Vivian Fuchs and Edmund
Hillary published "The Crossing of Antarctica."
(SFC, 11/13/99, p.A22)
1958 Economist John Kenneth
Galbraith authored “The Affluent Society.”
(Econ, 1/10/09, p.76)
1958 Graham Greene published his
novel “Our Man in Havana.” It captured Cuba on the cusp of sweeping
change.
(WSJ, 8/25/06, p.A1)
1958 Nora Johnson (b.1933)
published her novel “The World of Henry Orient.” It was made into film
in 1964. her father was filmmaker Nunally Johnson.
(WSJ, 8/6/04, p.W8)
1958 Louis Kelso collaborated with
the philosopher Mortimer Adler to write “The Capitalist Manifesto.” It
is considered the primary source of Kelso’s economic theories.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_O._Kelso)
1958 Prince Lampedusa authored the
novel "The Leopard" which portrayed a decadent Sicilian aristocracy
that made changes only in order to ensure that everything remained the
same.
(WSJ, 2/26/99, p.A15)
1958 Robert Lewis wrote "Method—or
Madness?," a book on his theories of acting that extended the system of
acting developed by Konstantin Stanislovsky. It combined an emotional
truth from the actor’s past that was relived in performance—with
technique.
(SFC,11/25/97, p.A22)
1958 Forrest McDonald, historian,
authored “We the People,” an argument against Charles A. Beard’s 1913
book “An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United
States.”
(WSJ, 8/12/04, p.D8)
1958 Sir Lawrence van der Post
(1906-1996) wrote "The Lost World of the Kalahari."
(SFC, 12/17/96, p.B4)
1958 Myra Cohn Livingston
(1926-1996), children’s poet and anthologist, wrote her first book of
poems "Whispers and Other Poems." She later wrote "The Child as Poet;
Myth of Reality."
(SFC, 8/27/96, p.A17)
1958 William Manchester (d.2004),
US historian and biographer, authored “The Arms of Krupp,” a history of
the German steel and munitions makers.
(SFC, 6/2/04, B7)
1958 James Michener (d.1997 at 90)
wrote "The Hokusai Sketchbook."
(SFC,10/17/97, p.A17)
1958 Dennis Murphy (1932-2005)
authored “The Sergeant.” In 1971 he wrote the script for film version.
(SFC, 10/11/05, p.B9)
1958 Boris Pasternak’s novel "Dr.
Zhivago" was on the best seller list.
(WSJ, 10/10/95, p.A-14)
1958 Marcel Reich-Ranicki,
Polish-born Holocaust survivor, defected to West Germany. He was soon
drawn into "Gruppe 47," the literary circle of Walter Jens and Heinrich
Boll. In 1960 he joined Die Zeit as a literary critic.
(SFC, 9/2/02, p.D5)
1958 Paul Robeson, singer and
actor, wrote his autobiography "Here I Stand."
(WSJ, 4/9/98, p.A21)
1958 Huston Smith (b.1919)
authored “The Religions of Man.”
(SSFC, 5/17/09, Books
p.H1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huston_Smith)
1958 Girodias published "Candy,"
authored by Terry Southern.
(SSFC, 3/11/01, BR p.7)
1958 Telford Taylor published "The
March of Conquest." He helped write the rules for Nuremberg Trials.
(SFC, 5/26/98, p.B2)
1958 Leon Uris authored his
best-seller "Exodus."
(AP, 6/24/03)(SFC, 6/25/03, p.A25)
1958 Michael Young (1915-2002),
British sociologist, authored “The Rise of Meritocracy.” It was Lord
Young's ideas that inspired the shake up of secondary education in the
1960s, leading to the rise of comprehensive schools, where children of
all abilities and backgrounds are brought together under one roof.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4035181.stm)
1958 The "Film Quarterly" began
publishing from UC Berkeley under editor Ernest Callenbach. In 1999
Brian Henderson and Ann Martin edited "Film Quarterly: Forty Years A
Selection."
(SFEC, 3/7/99, BR p.3)(SFEC, 8/22/99, BR p.5)
1958 William Gibson's play "Two
for the Seesaw," premiered in NYC with Anne Bancroft and Henry Fonda.
(SFC, 5/23/02, p.D9)
1958 Miyoshi Umeki starred in
Rodgers and Hammerstein’s "The Flower Drum Song." It based on the 1957
novel by C.Y. Lee and was made into a film in 1961.
(SFC, 10/9/97, p.C3)(SFC, 9/12/07, p.A17)
1958 Ludmilla Chiriaeff
(1924-1996), Latvian-born dance pioneer, founded the Les Grandes
Ballets Canadiens.
(SFC, 9/24/96, p.B2)
1958 George Ballanchine premiered
his ballet "Stars and Stripes."
(SFC, 11/7/96, p.E3)
1958 Hans Werner Henze wrote his
ballet "Undine."
(SFEC, 1/17/99, DB p.29)
1958 Vito Scotti (1918-1996)
played Rama from India in "Gunga Ram" on Andy Devine’s TV show "Andy’s
Gang."
(SFC, 6/12/96, p.C2)
1958 The TV program "The Ann
Sothern Show" starred Don Porter and Ann Sothern and ran to 1961.
(SFC, 2/21/97, p.A26)
1958 The "Peter Gunn" detective
show premiered with Craig Stevens (d.2000 at 81) as the private eye.
(SFC, 5/13/00, p.A19)
1958 Bing Crosby and Rosemary
Clooney recorded "Fancy Meeting You Here." It was reissued in 2001.
(WSJ, 11/28/01, p.A16)
1958 Don Gibson wrote his songs "I
Can't Stop Loving You," and "Oh, Lonesome Me." Both songs made No. 1.
(SFC, 3/13/99, p.E6)
1958 Domenico Modugno made a hit
with "Volare."
(SFC, 11/30/02, p.D1)
1958 Johnny Otis, R&B writer
and producer, wrote "Willie and the Hand Jive." In 2000 the 3-CD boxed
set: The Johnny Otis Rhythm and Blues Caravan: The Complete Savoy
Recordings" was produced.
(SFC, 4/4/00, p.B2)
1958 The song “Endless Sleep,” by
Rockabilly singer and songwriter Ralph Joseph Reynolds, (d.2008 at 75)
sold over a million copies and kicked in the melodramatic teen tragedy
genre.
(SFC, 11/19/08, p.B7)
1958 Sharon Sheeley (1950-2002)
wrote the song "Poor Little Fool" and Ricky Nelson turned it into a hit.
(SFC, 5/25/02, p.A27)
1958 Link Wray recorded "Rumble,"
and showed the way for the "power cord," and the conception of the
electric guitar as a weapon.
(SFC, 7/7/97, p.E1)
1958 Jimmy Lyons directed the
first Monterey Jazz Festival and featured Louis Armstrong, Gerry
Mulligan, Turk Murphy, Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington and Dizzie
Gillespie. Radio host Jimmy Lyons and Chronicle jazz critic Ralph
Gleason came up with the idea. In 1997 William Minor and Bill Wishner
wrote: "Monterey Jazz Festival: Forty Legendary Years."
(SFC, 6/30/96, B9)(SFEM, 9/15/96,
p.6)(SFEC,12/14/97, BR p.7)
1958 The first "greatest hits"
album was produced: "Johnny’s Greatest Hits" featured the songs of
Johnny Mathis. It was on Billboard’s Top 100 chart for 9 years.
(SFC, 7/7/96, DB p.40)
1958 Ed Townsend (1929-2003) wrote
his hit song "For Your Love."
(SSFC, 8/17/03, p.A27)
1958 Sheb Wooley (d.2003 at 82)
recorded the hit song "Purple People Eater." He starred in a movie of
the same name in 1988.
(SFC, 9/18/03, p.A21)
1958 Faron Young sang his country
hit "Alone With You."
(SFC, 12/12/96, p.C8)
1958 Mercury Records released a
recording of the 1812 Overture that featured the antique canon of West
Point. It became a standard for testing stereo sound equipment.
(WSJ, 2/3/97, p.A12)
1958 Benjamin Britten composed his
Nocturne for Tenor and Chamber Orchestra.
(SFC, 3/5/99, p.C5)
1958 The Harry Simeone Chorale
recorded the Fred Waring song: "Little Drummer Boy."
(SFC, 12/24/99, p.C8)
1958 The Country Music Association
(CMA) was founded in Nashville.
(SFEC,10/19/97, Par p.2)
1958 Rex Humbard (1919-2007),
televangelist, built the 5,400 seat, marble-and-glass Cathedral of
Tomorrow in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. It was specially built to handle
televised services.
(SSFC, 9/23/07, p.B5)
1958 The Lafayette Pavilion
Apartments, a part of the Lafayette Park development in Detroit, Mich.,
was completed. The 78-acre urban renewal project, planned by Mies van
der Rohe, Ludwig Hilberseimer and Alfred Caldwell, was originally
called the Gratiot Park Development. It was built over the old
neighborhood called Black Bottom. Chicago developer Herbert Greenwald
(d.1959) assembled the team to demolish the build the project, which
was completed in 1965. In 1966 the US national Park Service listed
Lafayette Park on the national Register of Historic Places.
(WSJ, 12/22/07,
p.W12)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lafayette_Park,_Detroit)
1958 The renegade Whip Jones
started the ski area Aspen Highlands.
(Hem, Dec. 94, p.78)
1958 The Historic Charleston’s
Revolving Fund was established to buy endangered buildings and hold
them until a sensitive buyer could be found.
(Hem. 1/95, p. 70)
1958 Harry Winston, a noted New
York Jeweler, donated the blue Hope Diamond to the Smithsonian
Institute.
(Smith., 5/95, p.18-20)(THC, 12/3/97)
1958 Charles E. Dederich (d.1997
at 83), dentist, founded Synanon in northern California. It was a
communitarian scheme to rehabilitate drug addicts based on the 12-step
Alcoholics Anonymous program. It used an encounter session called "The
Game" to work out problems with group pressure and venting.
(SFEC, 3/3/97, p.A21)(SFEM, 4/13/97, p.32)
1958 The Achievement Rewards for
College Students (ARCS) was co-founded in SF by Barbara Chisholm Cole
(d.1998 at 82) to assist students with scholarships in the natural
sciences, medicine and engineering.
(SFC, 5/11/98, p.A20)
1958 Al Lapin Jr. (d.2004) and
younger brother Jerry Lapin founded the Int’l. House of Pancakes (IHOP)
with a single outlet at Toluca Lake in LA County. Lapin left IHOP in
1973.
(SFC, 6/21/04, p.B4)
1958 A rattlesnake roundup began
in Seetwater, Texas, for ranchers concerned about rattlesnakes biting
their cattle. It grew to become the world’s largest such event.
(Econ, 3/21/09, p.36)
1958 Robert Welch, candy baron,
founded the John Birch Society. The society was named after an Army
intelligence officer killed by Chinese Communists a week after World
War II ended. The organization is a conservative group that believes a
powerful group of "insiders" is manipulating global events in an
attempt to create a totalitarian, atheistic one-world government.
(SFC, 8/5/96, p.A5)
1958 Audrey Hepburn in the film
"How to Steal a Million" wore a Hubert de Givenchy suit that was
auctioned in 1997 for $10,350. The suit was part of Saint Laurent’s
first collection as the successor to Christian Dior.
(SFC,10/31/97, p.C2)
1958 Abram Games (1914-1996),
master of graphic arts, received the Order of the British Empire for
his WW II posters. His parents were Latvian immigrants from 1904.
(SFC, 9/27/96, p.A24)
1958 Gregory Stout (d.1999 at 83)
helped found the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.
(SFC, 3/16/99, p.A17)
1958 The American Association of
Retire Persons (AARP) was founded.
(SFEC,11/23/97, Par p.4)
1958 The Brooklyn Dodgers baseball
team became the LA Dodgers.
(SFEC, 9/15/96, Par p.14)
1958 Horace Stoneham brought the
New York Giants to San Francisco.
(SFC, 10/8/97, p.A20)
1958 Pavel Cerenkov, Russian
physicist, was awarded the Nobel prize for his work in the 1930s
showing when a charged particle travels through any medium at a speed
exceeding the speed of light in the medium (but not the speed of light
in a vacuum), it emits light in a cone. This is called Cerenkov
radiation.
(JST-TMC,1983, p.99)
1958 Joshua Lederberg (1925-2008),
molecular biologist, won the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for
discovering that bacteria reproduced sexually in a process called
recombination. Lederberg shared the prize with Prof. George Tatum of
Yale and George Beadle.
(SFC, 2/8/08, p.B9)
1958 Pres. Eisenhower named John
McCone head of the Atomic Energy Commission. In 1961 Kennedy named him
head of the CIA.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F5)
1958 Pres. Eisenhower gave the
green light for the Corona project, which would create satellites to
spy on the Soviet Union. The new Lockheed Corp. facility in Palo Alto,
Ca., quickly became involved in the program, which remained classified
until 1995. Satellites equipped with parachutes kept tabs on the
Eastern Bloc from 1960-1972.
(SFC, 9/15/06, p.D3)
1958 The US Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency (DARPA) was formed in response to the Soviet
launch of Sputnik.
(SFC, 5/26/03, p.B1)
1958 A US B-47 bomber dropped a
7,600 pound, Mark-15 hydrogen bomb off the Georgia coast after it
collided with a Navy fighter jet. It became one of “11 Broken Arrows,”
nuclear bombs never found during air or sea accidents. Evidence of
unusual radiation in the area turned up in 2004 prompting a renewed
search.
(SFC, 9/30/04, p.A7)
1958 US Congress banned futures
trading in onions to stop speculation on prices. Onion farmers had
lobbied Michigan congressman Gerald Ford to ban trading in onion
futures. They blamed speculators for the volatility in the crops’
prices.
(Econ, 10/11/08, SR p.16)(Econ, 11/14/09, p.93)
1958 A serious recession hit the
US and unemployment went to 7.7 percent.
(TMC, 1994, p.1958)
1958 A bond market crash occurred
when falling interest rates caused bondholders to speculate.
(WSJ, 11/12/96, p.A20)
1958 The US minted its last Wheat
Ear penny.
(SFEC, 9/8/96, Par p.21)
1958 George Wallace ran for
governor of Alabama but was defeated by John Patterson, a rabid racist
with ties to the Klan. Patterson was the son of lawyer Albert
Patterson, assassinated in 1954.
(WSJ, 4/17/00, p.A30)(USAT, 6/29/04, p.7A)
1958 Bill Egan became Alaska’s 1st
governor.
(AH, 10/04, p.42)
1958 Nelson A. Rockefeller
(1908-1979) was elected governor of New York. He beat Averell Harriman.
A biography by Cary Reich was written in 1996 titled: "The Life of
Nelson A. Rockefeller: Worlds to Conquer (1908-1958)."
(SFC, 10/3/96, p.E2)
1958 Nuclear submarines began to
home-port in San Diego.
(SFC, 8/25/98, p.A20)
1958 Leonard Reiffel began a
classified study on the benefits and effects of a nuclear explosion on
the moon sponsored by a US Air Force special weapons center.
(SFC, 5/16/00, p.A7)
1958 US marines landed in Lebanon
to help put down an insurrection.
(TMC, 1994, p.1958)
1958 Secretary John Foster Dulles
firmly opposed a proposed U.S. visit by Nikita Khrushchev,
warning it would confer recognition on the "Kremlin gangsters" and
dispirit the captive people of Eastern Europe. Dulles symbolized the
hard line anti-Soviet position. Dulles died in 1959 and later in the
year Khrushchev visited the U.S. and a spirit of coexistence between
the U.S. and Soviet Union began to flower.
(HNQ, 6/23/99)
1958 Frank Moss (1911-2003),
liberal Utah Democratic was elected US Senator (1958-1976). He served
until 1976 when he was defeated by Orrin Hatch.
(SFC, 2/3/03, p.B4)
1958 In SF Enrico Banducci, owner
of the hungry i nightclub, opened his North Beach sidewalk café
on Broadstreet and named in Enrico’s.
(SFC, 4/4/07, p.E3)
1958 Lefty O’Doul (1897-1969),
former baseball player and manager, opened a saloon opened at 333 Geary
St. in San Francisco where friends and family could come to eat and
meet with sports stars. Increased rents forced the bar to close at the
end of 1997. It later re-opened as a bar and restaurant.
(SFC, 7/18/97,
p.A1)(www.leftyodouls.biz/whoislefty.html)
1958 T. Jack Foster, a land
developer from Texas, purchased Brewer Island and several square miles
of march for $200,000. He dredged the wetlands for 6 years to form 230
acres of lagoons and pumped 18 million cubic yards of mud and sand on
to the island, raising it slightly above sea level. He planned a SF Bay
Area, scientifically controlled community that became known as Foster
City. George Gatter served on the planning team for Foster City. By
2006 Foster City had grown to some 29,000 residents.
(Ind, 8/4/01, 5A)(SFC, 8/31/06, p.B7)(SFC, 6/14/09,
p.H2)
1958 The Barbie doll was patented
by Mattel, but not marketed until 1959. Ruth Handler invented the
Barbie Doll, named after her daughter in 1959. The full Barbie name was
Barbara Millicent Roberts.
(SFC, 8/19/98, Z1 p.6)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R34)(SFC,
8/7/99, p.D3)
1958 Best Foods Inc., merged with
Corn Products Refining Co.
(WSJ, 5/28/96, p. R-45)
1958 In Fair Lawn, New Jersey, a
new Nabisco bakery opened.
(WSJ, 11/22/08, p.W4)
1958 Binney & Smith Inc.,
makers of Crayola crayons, introduced the 64-count Crayola crayon box
that included the new "Indian red" color. The former "Prussian blue"
was renamed "midnight blue."
(SFC, 7/28/99, p.B12)
1958 The British investment firm
S.G. Warburg initiated the first hostile takeover bid for British
Aluminum on behalf of the American group Reynolds and Tube Investments.
(SFC, 6/16/99, p.B4)
1958 The Hearst Corp. acquired
Popular Mechanics magazine and launched WTAE-TV, Pittsburgh.
(SFC, 8/7/99, p.A9)
1958 McDonald’s hit the 100
million mark in this year.
(WSJ, 11/13/98, p.B1)
1958 Arnold Neustadter began
marketing Rolodex, a rotary card filing system, invented by his
employee Hildaur L. Neilsen. Neustadter had patented the system in 1956.
(WSJ, 11/24/07, p.W7)
1958 The aluminum can was
introduced as a food container.
(SFC, 8/4/05, p.C1)
1958 Ford Motor built the
prototype car of the future called the Nucleon. It was powered by a
nuclear reactor.
(SFC, 1/13/99, Z1 p.3)
1958 The last Packard rolled off
the assembly line.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1958 Industry experts in 1996
picked the 1958 Packard as the number 6 worst American-made car.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1958 Industry experts in 1996
picked the 1958 Edsel as the number 9 worst American-made car.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1958 The 1,500 room Stardust
casino-hotel opened in Las Vegas, Nv. In 2006 Boyd Gaming Corp. planned
to tear it down and build a $4 billion complex.
(SFC, 1/5/06, p.C1)
1958 Thompson Products merged with
Ramo-Wooldridge. It would become known as TRW in 1965.
(F, 10/7/96, p.70)
1958 Toyota and Datsun introduced
small cars into the US.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1958 A Western Flyer peddle car in
good shape would fetch $800 in 1997.
(SFC, 7/9/97, Z1 p.3)
1958 Legos, the toy Lego building
block kit with simple red bricks, was introduced with 8-stud bricks
that could be combined 24 ways. The company was founded by Danish
carpenter Ole Kirk Christiansen in 1932. Legos became a registered
trademark in 1954. The name was derived from “les godt,” Danish for
play well.
(SFC, 1/9/99, p.B8)(Econ, 10/28/06, p.76)
1958 Masudaya, a Japanese toy
maker, introduced Radicon, a battery powered mechanical robot. Radicon
was followed by Nonstop, Sonic, Target and Machine Man.
(WSJ, 8/6/99, p.W12)
1958 Hal Anger (1920-2005)
demonstrated his gamma camera at a meeting of the Society of Nuclear
Medicine. It employed gamma radiation to depict metabolic processes
within a living body.
(SFC, 11/12/05, p.B5)
1958 Arthur Schawlow and Charles
Townes developed their laser, light amplification by stimulated
emission of radiation, while working at Bell labs. They received a
patent in 1960.
(www1.bell-labs.com/history/laser/)(www.ipmall.info/about/user11.asp)
1958 An American scientist made a
dwarf grow with human growth serum. In 1967 some patients began to
display CJD disease, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, from hormone prepared
with contaminated pituitary glands.
(SFEC, 5/21/00, p.A1,14)
1958 Dr. Samuel L. Katz of Duke
Univ. co-developed the Edmonston B vaccine against measles.
(SFC, 11/16/00, p.A19)
1958 Dr. Aaron Lerner (1920-2007)
led a Yale team in the discovery of melatonin, a hormone from the
pineal gland in the brain. It was later found to regulate human
sleep-wake cycles.
(SFC, 2/19/07, p.B4)
1958 The virus that causes
hemorrhagic fever was identified. A rare mouse that is both host and
vector of the disease in Argentina rapidly multiplied when rangelands
were converted to maize fields.
(NH, 2/97, p.53)
1958 The rapid development of
penicillin-resistance by staphylococci led to the compound 05865 (later
known as vancomycin) being fast-tracked for approval by the
FDA. It became the best weapon against bacteria that were no
longer vulnerable to other drugs. In 1988 bacteria resistant to
vancomycin began to be detected.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vancomycin)(SFEC,
9/14/97, p.C1,4)
1958 Monkeypox was first described
in Denmark when several monkey imports developed lesions. The disease
emerged in the Congo in 1970 with sporadic outbreaks over the years,
primarily in Central and West Africa. Ten percent of those infected can
die, and there is evidence of person-to-person transmission.
(AP, 11/29/06)
1958 An anti-trust court case
forced AT&T to license its non-telephone related technology to
anyone who asked.
(Econ, 6/12/04, p.38)
1958 Mercedes-Benz brought the 1st
diesel to the US market, the rounded, pokey 190D.
(WSJ, 1/14/05, p.W10)
1958 The US launched its first
satellite, a 31-lb device.
(TMC, 1994, p.1958)
1958 Passenger service by air over
the Atlantic exceeded passenger steamship crossings for the 1st time.
(SSFC, 12/14/03, p.D2)
1958 Charles D. Keeling
(1928-2005), atmospheric chemist, began monitoring the pure air at
Mauna Loa, Hawaii, and the South Pole. Subsequent CO2 readings
indicated climbed steadily and became known as the Keeling Curve.
(WSJ, 12/14/07,
p.B1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_David_Keeling)
1958 Monta Bell, silent film
director, died.
(SFEC, 10/13/96, DB p.54)
1958 Harry Cohn, the tyrannical
boss of Columbia Pictures, died.
(SFC, 6/1/01, p.C11)
1958 Charles Franklin Kettering
(1876-1958) died. As president of Delco he introduced the
electric-starter in 1912, one of many inventions that he pioneered.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1958 Tyrone Power, film actor,
died on a Madrid movie set.
(SFC, 6/1/01, p.C11)
1958 Mobster Johnny Stompanato was
stabbed to death by Cheryl Crane as her mother, Lana Turner, watched in
horror. Stompanato and actress Lana Turner had been lovers.
(SFEC, 3/16/97, z1 p.4)(USAT, 10/8/97, p.4D)
1958 A periodic flowering took
place in the bamboo forests of Bangladesh leading to a plague of rats.
The flowering recurred in 2008 causing a similar rodent plague.
(SFC, 2/16/08, p.B6)
1958 Pierre Culliford (Peyo),
Belgian cartoonist, created the gnomelike Smurfs for publisher Charles
Dupuis (d.2002 at 84). Hanna-Barbera turned it into a US cartoon
program in 1981.
(SFC, 12/3/02, p.A24)
1958 The British government sent
out a pamphlet to farmers titled “Home Defence and the Farmer.”
(Econ, 7/31/04, p.48)
1958 Sir John Woolf (d.1999 at
86), British film producer, established Anglia Television.
(SFC, 7/1/99, p.C4)
1958 William Phillips of the
London School of Economics showed that for much of the previous 100
years, unemployment was low in Britain when wage inflation was high,
and high when inflation was low. This came to be called the “Phillips
curve.”
(Econ, 10/14/06, p.79)
1958 In Britain the Notting Hill
Riots were a series of violent demonstrations against non-whites in the
ethnically diverse northwest London neighborhood of Notting Hill. This
event first drew public attention to the growing problem of racial
tension in Britain.
(HNQ, 9/30/00)
1958 Yu Qiuli became petroleum
minister and took charge of building the Daqing oil field, the largest
in China.
(SFC, 2/6/99, p.A21)
1958 In Cuba Johnny Weissmuller
played in a celebrity golf tournament and saved himself from Castro’s
guerrillas by beating his chest and performing his famous yell thereby
invoking requests for autographs.
(SDUT, 6/6/97, p.E2)
1958 The French film "Le Beau
Serge" starred Gerard Blain (d.2000) and was directed by Claude Chabrol.
(SFC, 12/19/00, p.B5)
1958 Marcel Carne (1906-1990),
French film director, made "The Cheaters" (Les Tricheurs) with
Jean-Paul Belmondo.
(SFC, 11/1/96, p.A28)
1958 France exited from Morocco.
(G&M, 7/31/97, p.A18)
1958 Maurice Papon was named the
police chief of Paris.
(SFC, 4/3/98, p.B2)
1958 Jean Dausset (1916-2009),
French immunologist, discovered the human leukocyte antigen (HLA)
tissue system allowed doctors to verify compatibility between donor and
receiver for an organ transplant.
(AP, 6/24/09)
1958 One in 5 French workers was
engaged in farming. By 2004 this shrunk to just over 3%.
(Econ, 5/29/04, p.51)
1958 Jawaharlal Nehru, prime
minister of India, trekked for a month to make a treaty with Bhutan. He
demanded to be met at the border by someone of equal rank. King
Wangchuk balked at making the trip and quickly appointed his aide,
Jigme Palden Dorji, as prime minister to meet Nehru 127 miles away by
mule and foot.
(WSJ, 3/6/97, p.A8)(Econ, 5/14/05, p.46)
1958 India began designing and
buying equipment for a plutonium reprocessing plant at Trombay, which
would provide it capability for atomic weapons.
(SFC, 5/28/98, p.A9)
1958 Dhirubhai Ambani (d.2002)
founded India's project-building Reliance Corp. In 2002 its sales
reached $16.8 billion.
(Econ, 12/20/03, p.98)(Econ, 11/27/04, p.69)
1958 In Indonesia Gen. Abdul Haris
Nasution (d.2000 at 81) pushed through the adoption of a policy that
allowed the military a direct role in national politics.
(SFC, 9/6/00, p.D2)
1958 A secret war in Indonesia
ended abruptly when Allen Pope, a CIA contract pilot, was downed in a
dogfight. Pope was carrying a trove of documents that revealed the
extent of US involvement. The CIA had been sending weapons and advisers
to anti-government rebels on Indonesia’s Sulawesi island as mercenaries
mounted combat sorties in a fleet of unmarked B-26 bombers. Indonesia
later received a batch of 10 C-130 transport planes from the US in
exchange for Pope’s release.
(AP, 4/24/05)(AP, 5/20/09)
1958 Iraq’s Prime minister Fadhel
al-Jamali (1903-1997) was sentenced to death after the military coup.
He was freed after Morocco interceded and he later became an advisor to
Pres. Habib Bourguiba of Tunisia who granted him citizenship.
(SFC, 5/27/97, p.A22)
1958 Saddam Hussein was recruited
by his uncle Khairalla Msallat, an army officer and fervent Arab
nationalist, to assassinate a prominent communist in Tikrit. Saddam
killed his victim, a distant cousin, with a single shot to the head.
Hussein was arrested and imprisoned for six months, then released for
lack of evidence.
(www.moreorless.au.com/killers/hussein.html)
1958 Mourad Faham smuggled the
Aleppo Codex out of Syria to Turkey and then to Jerusalem, where it was
presented to the president of Israel. In 1982 the first missing page,
from the Book of Chronicles, surfaced in New York and was sent to join
rest of the manuscript. In 2007 another fragment, a piece from the
Exodus story of the 10 plagues, was sent to Jerusalem. Sam Sabbagh, an
Aleppo Jew living in New York, had carried it in wallet for decades as
good luck charm.
(AP, 9/27/08)
1958 In Japan Sue Sumii published
the first volume of her novel "The River With No Bridge." It was about
the plight of the burakumin (the untouchables) of Japan. She died
working on the 8th volume in 1997 at age 95.
(SFC, 6/24/97, p.A19)
1958 In Japan the Tokyo Tower was
erected in the capital city as a relay for radio and TV signals. In
1998 it faced replacement.
(SFC, 12/11/98, p.D4)
1958 Japan’s Shimano Industrial
Co. (bicycle part manufacturer) passed to the leadership of Shozo
Shimano, age 30. He implemented a 4-point strategic plan that was: 1)
to continue to manufacture components. 2) modernize the distribution
system. 3) initiate an aggressive export program. 4) implement a new
technical development program to make the best components.
(Hem, 8/96, p.33)
1958 Japan’s Tokyo
Telecommunications changed its name to Sony Corp.
(WSJ, 3/7/05, p.A8)
1958 Jordan’s King Hussein
forged a federation with Iraq, which was led by his cousin, Faisal II.
The federation soon failed when Faisal was killed during a revolution
in Iraq.
(HNQ, 8/20/00)
1958 Christian Lebanese Pres.
Camille Chamoun asked pres. Eisenhower to send US Marines to help end a
short-lived civil war.
(SFEC, 4/13/97, p.T8)
1958 Morocco’s crown prince and
army chief Hassan II crushed a rebellion in the Rif Mountains.
(Econ, 7/15/06,
p.46)(www.oefre.unibe.ch/law/icl/mo__indx.html)
1958 Arequipa, Peru, was hit by an
earthquake.
(SSFC, 6/24/01, p.A16)
1958 Alexander Solzhenitsyn
(1918-2008), Russian writer, completed the first draft of "In the First
Circle," a novel, set during Stalin's rule. It was about the effects of
incarceration and forced labor on the minds and souls of innocent and
intelligent men. He immediately put it through two revisions. He wrote
4th draft in 1962. In 1968 it was first published in the West. A
Russian edition came out in 1978. A new edition in 2009 included parts
left out in earlier editions.
(http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204488304574431450891084972.html)
1958 Russia’s Premier Nikita
Khrushchev decided to establish a town devoted entirely to science.
This resulted in the construction of Akademgorodok, 20 miles from
Novosibirsk.
(WSJ, 3/20/07, p.B10)
1958 In central Moscow Detsky Mir
(Children's World), a new huge toy store, opened. In 2008 the hulking
block-long building across from the KGB's notorious Lubyanka
headquarters closed for a 3-year, $200 million renovation project.
(AP, 7/2/08)
1958 The Goldstar electronics firm
was founded in South Korea. It later became known as LG Electronics.
(Econ, 1/24/09, p.70)
1958 In Sri Lanka P.P. James (34)
was falsely jailed for the murder of his father, who remained alive
after being knifed by an assailant. James spent the next 50 years in
jail, a victim of the country’s bureaucracy.
(AP, 4/20/08)
1958 In Sudan the 1st in a series
of military coups overthrew the civilian-elected government.
(WSJ, 10/22/03, p.A4)
1958 The US CIA began airdropping
weapons over Tibet.
(WSJ, 8/30/08, p.A8)
1958-1960 Billy Higgins, drummer, played with Ornette
Coleman’s quartet.
(SFEM, 10/5/97, p.)
1958-1961 China underwent its Great Leap Forward.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Leap_Forward)
1958-1962 The TV game show “Play Your Hunch” featured
Merv Griffin as host.
(WSJ, 8/15/07, p.D12)
1958-1962 The West Indies Federation was comprised of
British territorial islands in the West Indies that included Barbados,
Jamaica, Trinidad, Tobago, along with the Windward and Leeward Island
colonies.
(WUD, 1994, p.1623)
1958-1964 These are the years covered in the Beatles
Anthology I CD released recently.
(WSJ, 11/22/95, p.A-8)
1958-1966 Jay DeFeo (d.1989), SF artist, created her
massive painting "The Rose." She was married to artist Wally Hedrick.
(SFEC, 8/25/96, BR p.39)(SSFC, 1/25/04, p.E5)
1958-1969 Generals seized power in Pakistan. Field
Marshal M. Ayub Khan announced that "our ultimate aim is to restore
democracy but of the type that people can understand."
(SFEC, 8/3/97, p.A15)(SFEC, 11/21/99, p.A22)
1958-1970 Japan achieves economic superpower status.
Restrictions on foreign travel are removed and huge numbers of Japanese
begin to travel abroad.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 216)
1958-1973 The TV game show "Concentration" was hosted
by Art James (1929-2004). It was NBC's longest running game show.
(SFC, 4/1/04, p.B7)
1958-1996 In 1997 David Platzker compiled a "Catalog
Raisonne" of the graphic art produced during this time by Claes
Oldenburg: "Printed Stuff: Prints, Posters, and Ephemera by Claes
Oldenburg."
(SFEC, 10/5/97, BR p.4)
Go to 1959