What Happened in 1958?

MAJOR EVENTS:

• Efforts at school desegregation in the southern U.S. are met with impassioned resistance
• U.S. launches its first satellite, Explorer I; NASA established
• Vice President Richard Nixon’s goodwill tour of South America sparks open protests and rioting
• Egypt and Sudan form the United Arab Republic
• U.S. Marines intervene in Lebanon to bolster government

BUSINESS & ECONOMY:

• Economic slowdown in U.S. causes sharp rise in unemployment

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY:

• Nuclear submarine jm makes the first underwater crossing of the North Pole
• U.S. launches satellites that detect the Van Allen radiation belts around the earth, and determine that the earth is not perfectly round
• Experimental nuclear power plant goes into operation
• The Microchip co-invented by Jack Kilby

SPORTS:

• World Series: New York Yankees over Milwaukee, 4-3
• Arnold Palmer wins his first Masters golf tournament

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT:

• Movies: Gigi, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Me and the Colonel
• Songs: Catch a Falling Star, Chipmunk Song, Volare, The Purple People Eater, At the Hop
• TV Shows: You Asked for It, Wagon Train, To Tell the Truth, The Rifleman, Donna Reed Show, Have Gun Will Travel
• Books: A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry; Exodus, Leon Uris; Dr. Zhivago, Boris Pasternak; Masters of Deceit, J. Edgar Hoover; Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Truman Capote; The Affluent Society, John K. Gailbraith
• The "Cha Cha" becomes a dance craze
• New York’s Guggenheim Museum, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, opens

EVERYDAY LIFE:

• Stereo recordings become available
• "Barbie" doll introduced, becoming an instant success
• Average Cost of a new house $12,750

FUN FACTS:

• "Hula Hoops" become a national craze
• Madonna and Michael Jackson were born
• The Hope Diamond is donated to the Smithsonian Institution