Events

• January 4 - Sputnik 1 falls to Earth from its orbit (launched on October 4, 1957)
• January 8 - 14 year old Bobby Fisher[?] 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 26 - Explorer IV launched
• October 1 - NASA created to replace NACA

• 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
  • Gigi
  • Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
  • The Defiant Ones
  • Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo, starring Jimmy Stewart
• 1958 in literature
• 1958 in music
  • January 20 - Elvis Presley receives his draft notice
• 1958 in sports
• 1958 in television
  • 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 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 - Frédéric 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[?]