1958

align="center" colspan=2 | Years:
1955 1956 1957 - 1958 - 1959 1960 1961

align="center" colspan=2 | Decades:
1920s 1930s 1940s - 1950s - 1960s 1970s 1980s

align="center" | Centuries:
19th century - 20th century - 21st century

1958 was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar).

Events

January 1 - Treaty of Rome founding the EU is implemented
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 18 - Armed Lumbee Native Americans chased off an estimated 5,000 Klansmen and supporters at the town of Maxton, North Carolina.
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 - 21 dead, including 7 players for Manchester United
February 11 - Marshal Chen Yi succeeds Zhou Enlai as Chinese Minister of Foreign affairs.
February 11 - Ruth Carol Taylor is 1st African American woman hired as a flight attendant
February 17 - Pope Pius XII declares Saint Clare the patron saint of television
February 23 - Cuban rebels kidnap 5-time world driving champion Juan Manuel Fangio
February 25 - Bertrand Russell launches the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
February 28 - One of the worst school bus accidents in U.S. history occurred at Prestonsburg, Kentucky, killing 27.

March 1 - Arturo Frondizi becomes President of Argentina
March 1 - Samuel Alphonsus Stritch, ninth bishop (fourth archbishop) of the Roman Catholic diocese of Chicago, appointed Pro-Perfect of the Propagaion of Faith and thus becomes the first American member of the Roman Curia
March 2 - A British team lead by Sir Vivian Fuchs completes the first crossing of the Antarctic in Snow-cat caterpillar tractors and dogsled teams in 99 days
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
April 3 - Castro's revolutionary army begins its attacks on Havana
April 4 - The first protest march by CND begins from Hyde Park, London, for Aldermaston, Berkshire
April 4 - The daughter of the actress Lana Turner stabs her mother's gangster lover to death (eventually ruled self defence)
April 6 - Soraya Esfandiary Bakhtiari divorces Muhammad Reza Shah after she is unable to produce any children.
April 17 - King Baudouin of Belgium officially opens the World Fair in Brussels, also known as Expo '58.

May 2 - A State of Emergency is declared in Aden
May 12 - A formal North American Aerospace Defense Command agreement is signed between the United States and Canada
May 13 - During a visit to Caracas, Venezuela, Vice President Richard M. Nixon's car is attacked by anti-American demonstrators
May 15 - The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 3
May 16 - Short-lived outburst of friendship between Arabs and Europeans in Algiers
May 18 - An F-104 Starfighter sets a world speed record of 1,404.19 mph
May 21 - United Kingdom Postmaster General Ernest Marples announces that from December, Subscriber Trunk Dialling will be introduced in the Bristol area. http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/21/newsid_2510000/2510289.stm
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.
June 1 - Charles De Gaulle is brought out of retirement to lead France by decree for six months
June 1 - Iceland extends its fishing limits to 12 miles
June 16 - Imre Nagy is hanged for treason in Hungary

July 5 - First ascent of Gasherbrum I, 11th highest mountain in the world
July 7 - President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the Alaska Statehood Act into United States law
July 10 - First parking meters installed in Britain
July 14 - Iraqi Revolution: In Iraq the monarchy is overthrown by Arab nationalists and Abdul Karim Qassim becomes the nation's new leader
July 14 - A left wing military coup in Iraq leads to the murder of the king, Faisal II
July 15 - In Lebanon, 5,000 United States Marines land in the capital Beirut in order to protect the pro-Western government there
July 24 - The first life peerage is created in Britain
July 26 - Explorer program: Explorer IV is launched
July 29 - The U.S. Congress formally creates the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
August 3 - The nuclear powered submarine USS Nautilus (SSN-571) became the first vessel to cross the North Pole under water
August 23 - Chinese Civil War: The Second Taiwan Strait crisis begins with the People's Liberation Army's bombardment of Quemoy.
August 30 - September 1 - Riots between blacks and whites in Notting Hill, London

September 14 - Two rockets of the German engineer Ernst Mohr reach as first German post-war rockets the upper atmosphere
September 28 - In France, a majority of 79% says yes to the constitution of the Fifth Republic.
October 1 - Tunisia and Morocco join the Arab League
October 1 - NASA starts operations and replaces the NACA
October 2 - Guinea declares itself independent from France
October 4 - BOAC uses new Comet jets to become the first airline to fly jet passenger services across the Atlantic.
October 9 - Pope Pius XII dies.
October 11 - Pioneer program: NASA launches the lunar probe Pioneer 1 (the probe falls back to Earth and burns up)
October 28 - Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli becomes Pope and takes the name Pope John XXIII.

The First Cod War between UK and Iceland
BBC Radiophonic Workshop created
During the International Geophysical Year, Earth's magnetosphere is discovered
The United States conducts Operation Argus during August and September
Foundation of Amirkabir University of Technology
Based on birth rates (per 1,000 population), the post-war baby boom ended in the United States as an eleven-year decline in the birth rate began - the longest on record in that country
Last female circumcision in the United States.
Denatonium, the bitterest substance known is discovered. It is used as an aversive agent in products such as bleach to reduce the risk of children drinking them.
Van Cliburn wins the Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition in the USSR, breaking cold war tensions.