1958





Events

   * January 4 - Sputnik 1 falls to Earth from its orbit (launched on
     October 4, 1957)
   * January 8 - 14 year old Bobby Fischer wins the United States Chess
     Championship
   * January 28 - Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate begin their
     murder spree with the killings of her parents and infant sister
   * January 29 - Police capture Charles Starkweather in Wyoming.
   * January 31 - The first successful American satellite, Explorer I, is
     launched into orbit.
   * January 31 - James Van Allen discovers the Van Allen radiation belt
   * February 1 - Egypt and Syria unite to form the United Arab Republic.
   * February 5 - Gamel Abdel Nasser is nominated to be the first president
     of the United Arab Republic.
   * February 6 - Munich Air Disaster
   * February 11 - Marshal Chen Yi succeeds Chou En-Lai as Chinese Minister
     of Foreign affairs.
   * February 11 - Ruth Carol Taylor is 1st African-American woman hired as
     a flight attendant
   * February 23 - Cuban rebels kidnap 5-time world driving champion Juan
     Manuel Fangio.
   * March 17 - The United States launches the Vanguard 1 satellite.
   * March 22 - Faisal becomes King of Saudi Arabia
   * March 26 - The United States Army launches Explorer III.
   * March 27 - Nikita Khrushchev becomes Premier of the Soviet Union
   * May 12 - A formal North American Aerospace Defense Command agreement is
     signed between the United States and Canada.
   * May 13 - During a visit to Caracas, Venezuela, Vice President Richard
     M. Nixon's car is attacked by anti-American demonstrators.
   * May 15 - The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 3.
   * May 18 - An F-104 Starfighter sets a world speed record of 1,404.19
     mph.
   * May 23 - Explorer I ceased transmission
   * May 30 - The bodies of unidentified soldiers killed in action during
     World War II and the Korean War are buried at the Tomb of the Unknowns
     in Arlington National Cemetery.
   * July 7 - President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the Alaska Statehood Act
     into United States law.
   * July 14 - Iraqi Revolution: In Iraq the monarchy is overthrown by Arab
     nationalists and Abdul Karim Kassem becomes the nation's new leader.
   * July 15 - In Lebanon, 5,000 United States Marines land in the capital
     Beirut in order to protect the pro-Western government there.
   * July 26 - Explorer program: Explorer IV is launched.
   * July 29 - The United States Congress formally creates the National
     Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
   * October 1 - NASA starts operations and replaces the NACA
   * October 2 - Guinea declares itself independent from France.
   * October 11 - Pioneer program: NASA launches the lunar probe Pioneer 1
     (the probe falls back to Earth and burns up).
   * October 28 - Angleo Giuseppe Roncalli becomes Pope and takes the name
     Pope John XXIII.

   * BBC Radiophonic Workshop created
   * During the International Geophysical Year, Earth's magnetosphere is
     discovered
   * The United States conducts Operation Argus during August and September

Art, Culture & Fashion

   * 1958 in film
        o Gigi
        o Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
        o The Defiant Ones
        o Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo, starring Jimmy Stewart
   * 1958 in literature
        o August 18 - Vladimir Nabokov's controversial novel Lolita is
          published.
   * 1958 in music
        o January 20 - Elvis Presley receives his draft notice
   * 1958 in television
        o Ampex demonstrates their design for a color Video Tape Recorder

Births

   * January 20 - Lorenzo Lamas, actor
   * January 24 - Jools Holland, musician
   * January 26 - Ellen DeGeneres, actress, comedienne
   * February 11 - Michael Jackson, controller of BBC2.
   * February 11 - Regina Marsikova, Czechoslovakian tennis player.
   * February 13 - Pernilla August, actress
   * February 16 - Ice-T, singer, songwriter, actor
   * February 21 - Mary Chapin Carpenter, singer
   * February 24 - Sammy Kershaw, musician
   * March 3 - Miranda Richardson, actress
   * March 5 - Andy Gibb, singer (+ 1988)
   * March 10 - Sharon Stone, actress
   * March 14 - Prince Albert of Monaco
   * March 20 - Holly Hunter, actress
   * March 21 - Gary Oldman, actor
   * April 3 - Alec Baldwin, actor
   * April 21 - Andie MacDowell, actress
   * May 16 - Amp Fiddler, musician (P Funk)
   * May 20 - Ron Reagan, dancer, talk show host, son of former President
     Ronald Reagan
   * May 23 - Drew Carey comedian, actor
   * May 27 - Neil Finn, New Zealand singer and songwriter
   * May 27 - Wayne Williams, murderer in Atlanta
   * July 28 - Terry Fox, cancer activist
   * August 7 - Bruce Dickinson, English heavy metal musician
   * October 5 - Bernie Mac. Actor, comedian.
   * October 14 - Thomas Dolby, English rock musician
   * October 16 - Tim Robbins, American actor
   * December 6 - Nick Park, film-maker and animator

Deaths

   * January 11 - Edna Purviance, actress
   * January 30 - Jean Crotti, Swiss artist
   * February 4 - Henry Kuttner, science fiction author
   * March 21 - Cyril M. Kornbluth, science fiction writer
   * March 22 - Michael Todd, producer
   * March 28 - W.C. Handy - Blues composer
   * May 19 - Ronald Colman, actor
   * August 14 - FrŽdŽric Joliot, scientist
   * December 15 - Wolfgang Ernst Pauli, physicist

Nobel Prizes

   * Physics - Pavel Alekseyevich Cherenkov, Ilya Mikhailovich Frank, Igor
     Yevgenyevich Tamm
   * Chemistry - Frederick Sanger
   * Medicine - George Wells Beadle, Edward Lawrie Tatum, Joshua Lederberg
   * Literature - Boris Leonidovich Pasternak
   * Peace - George Henri Pire