1958 (MCMLVIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar.

Events

January

• January 1 - Treaty of Rome founding the EU is implemented.
• January 3 - The West Indies Federation is formed.
• 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 13 - 9235 scientists publish a plea to stop nuclear bomb tests.
• January 18 - Armed Lumbee Indians confront a handful of Klansmen at the town of Maxton, North Carolina.
• January 23 - Following a two-day general strike, dictator Marcos Pérez Jiménez of Venezuela was overthrown by a military-popular uprising.
• 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

• 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 20 - Test rocket explodes in Cape Canaveral
• February 23 - Cuban rebels kidnap 5-time world driving champion Juan Manuel Fangio. They release him 28 hours later
• February 23 - Arturo Frondizi wins presidential elections in Argentina
• February 24 - In Cuba, Radio Rebelde, radio of rebels of Fidel Castro, begins broadcasting from Sierra Maestra
• 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.