1958

1845–1958	Germany [earth sciences]	German naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt lays the basis of modern geography with the publication of Kosmos/Cosmos, in which he arranges geographic knowledge in a systematic fashion.
1950–1959	USA [everyday life]	The number of people in the USA who live in the suburbs increases by 44% in the 1950s.
1950–1980	UK [television]	Watch With Mother, a series for young children featuring favourite characters such as Andy Pandy, the Flowerpot Men, Rag, Tag, and Bobtail, and the Woodentops, is shown on British television.
1956–1961	UK [television]	In addition to its successful run on radio, Hancock's Half-Hour, starring the comedian Tony Hancock, supported by Sid James, is shown on British television. It is scripted by Alan Simpson and Ray Galton.
1958	USA [television]	45.6 million households in the USA have television sets.
1958	USA [toys and games]	The hula hoop is developed by the Wham-O Manufacturing Co. of San Gabriel, California.
1958	UK [television]	Blue Peter, a children's magazine programme, starts on British television. The original presenters include Leila Williams and Christopher Trace, and later Valerie Singleton, Peter Purves, and John Noakes.
1958	UK [television]	Grandstand, the world's longest-running live sports programme, starts on British television. It is presented by David Coleman and later Frank Bough and Desmond Lynam.
1958	USA [sculpture]	The US artist Jasper Johns sculpts Light Bulb and paints Three Flags.
1958	France [memoirs]	The French writer and philosopher Simone de Beauvoir publishes her first volume of autobiography, Mémoires d'une jeune fille rangée/Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter.
1958	France, USA [music]	The French-born US composer Edgard Varèse completes his electronic work Poème électronique/Electronic Poems.
1958	Germany [philosophy]	The German physicist and philosopher Werner Heisenberg publishes Physics and Philosophy.
1958	USA [philosophy]	The German-born US philosopher Hannah Arendt publishes The Human Condition.
1958	Austria [philosophy]	The notebooks, The Blue Book and The Brown Book, of the Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein are published posthumously.
1958	England [philosophy]	The Russian-born English philosopher Isaiah Berlin publishes Two Concepts of Liberty.
1958	Ireland, France [plays]	The play Krapp's Last Tape, by the Irish writer Samuel Beckett, is first performed, at the Royal Court Theatre in London, England.
1958	UK [plays]	The play The Birthday Party, by the English dramatist Harold Pinter, is first performed, in Cambridge, England.
1958	Switzerland [plays]	The play Biedermann und die Brandstifter/The Fireraisers, by the Swiss dramatist Max Frisch, is first performed, in Zürich, Switzerland.
1958	USA [popular music]	The US rhythm and blues musician Chuck Berry releases the singles ‘Sweet Little Sixteen’ and ‘Johnny B Goode’.
1958	China [political events]	Communist China launches the ‘Great Leap Forward’, aiming to increase industrial output at great speed, especially the production of steel. Communes become the basis of agricultural production.
1958	USA [fiction]	The US writer Truman Capote publishes his novella Breakfast at Tiffany's.
1958	England [fiction]	The English writer Alan Sillitoe publishes his novel Saturday Night and Sunday Morning.
1958	Nigeria [fiction]	The Nigerian Ibo writer Chinua Achebe publishes his novel Things Fall Apart.
1958	USA [banking and finance]	The Bank of America issues the first recognizable multipurpose credit card, the Bank Americard, later known as Visa; the American Express charge card is also launched.
1958	Ireland [biography]	The Irish writer Brendan Behan publishes his autobiographical Borstal Boy.
1958	USA [cinema and film]	The film musical South Pacific, based on Tales of the South Pacific by James Michener and directed by Joshua Logan, is released in the USA. With music and lyrics by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, it stars Mitzi Gaynor, Rossano Brazzi, Ray Walston, and John Kerr.
1958	USA [cinema and film]	The film Touch of Evil, directed by Orson Welles, is released in the USA. He also stars in it, along with Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh, and Marlene Dietrich.
1958	USA, England [cinema and film]	The film Vertigo, directed by the English film-maker Alfred Hitchcock, is released in the USA, starring James Stewart and Kim Novak.
1958	USA [cinema and film]	The film Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, directed by Richard Brooks, is released in the USA. Based on the play by Tennessee Williams, it stars Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman, Burl Ives, Jack Carson, Judith Anderson, Madeline Sherwood, and Larry Gates.
1958	USA [civic and commercial buildings]	The Seagram Building in New York City, designed by the German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and the US architect Phillip Johnson, is completed.
20 January 1958	UK [motor vehicles]	Radar is first used in Britain to catch speeding drivers.
17 February 1958	UK [companies and organizations]	The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) is founded at a public meeting in London, England. Speakers at the meeting include the philosopher Bertrand Russell, the author J B Priestley, the politician Michael Foot, the historian A J P Taylor, and the chairman Canon John Collins.
17 June 1958	Hungary, USSR [political events]	Imre Nagy, independent communist and premier of Hungary 1953–55, who tried to gain Hungary's independence from the USSR, is executed in Budapest, Hungary (62).
10 July 1958	UK [motor vehicles]	The first parking meters in Britain are introduced in Mayfair, London, England.
14 July 1958	Iraq, Jordan [revolution]	Brigadier Abdul Karim Kassem mounts a coup in Baghdad, Iraq, and King Faisal II, his heir, and the prime minister Nuri-es-Said are murdered. King Hussein of Jordan assumes power as head of the Arab Federation.
19 July 1958	Iraq, Egypt, Syria [treaties]	Following the coup in Iraq, Iraq (nominally under the control of King Hussein of Jordan) and the United Arab Republic (UAR), formed of Egypt and Syria, sign a treaty of mutual defence, and on 20 July the UAR severs relations with Jordan.
28 August 1958	USA [births and deaths]	Michael Jackson, US rock singer, born in Gary, Indiana.
29 August 1958	China [law and government]	The Chinese politburo approves the creation of a rural economy based on agricultural communes, the backbone of Maoist economic policy.
12 September 1958	USA [information technology]	US electrical engineer Jack Kilby demonstrates the first integrated circuit. It consists of transistors, resistors, and capacitors contained within a silicon substrate. It leads to the third generation of computers.
19 September 1958	Algeria, Egypt [revolution]	The Algerian rebel leader Ferhat Abbas makes a proclamation in Cairo, Egypt, of the establishment of a Provisional Government of the Republic of Algeria.
October 1958	UK, USA [aircraft]	The first scheduled transatlantic jet services are launched, by British Overseas Airways Corporation flying a Comet IV between London, England, and New York City, followed by Pan-Am flying a Boeing 707 between Paris, France, and New York City.
2 October 1958	Guinea [decolonization]	Guinea becomes independent, having already rejected membership of the French Union.
24 October 1958	France, Algeria [diplomacy]	The French prime minister Charles de Gaulle says he is willing to discuss a ceasefire with nationalist rebels in Algeria, but his proposal is rejected by the Algerian Provisional Government on 25 October.
15 December 1958	USA, Switzerland, Austria [births and deaths]	Wolfgang Pauli, Austrian-born US physicist, who discovered the principle that no two electrons in the same atom can have the same energy, dies in Zürich, Switzerland (57).
30 December 1958	Africa [international organizations]	The French West African states of Chad, Congo, Gabon, Mali, Mauritania, and Senegal decide to form a federation within the French Community.