Events of 1958

January

• January 4 – Sputnik 1 (launched on October 4, 1957) falls to Earth from its orbit.
• January 8 – 14-year-old Bobby Fischer wins the United States Chess Championship.
• January 18 – Armed Lumbee Indians confront a handful of Klansmen in Maxton, North Carolina.
• January 28 – Hall of Fame baseball player Roy Campanella is involved in an automobile accident that ends his career and leaves him paralyzed.
• January 31 – The first successful American satellite, Explorer 1, is launched into orbit.

February

• February 1 – Egypt and Syria unite to form the United Arab Republic.
• February 2 – The word Aerospace is coined, from the words Aircraft (aero) and Spacecraft (space), taking into consideration that the Earth's atmosphere and outerspace is to be one, or a single realm.
• February 5
  • Gamel Abdel Nasser is nominated as the first president of the United Arab Republic.
  • The Tybee Bomb, a 7,600 pound (3,500 kg) Mark 15 hydrogen bomb, is lost in the waters off Savannah, Georgia.
• February 6 – Munich air disaster: 23 are killed, including 8 Manchester United players
• February 11
  • Marshal Chen Yi succeeds Zhou Enlai as Chinese Minister of Foreign affairs.
  • Ruth Carol Taylor is the first African American woman hired as a flight attendant. Hired by Mohawk Airlines, her career lasts only six months, due to another discriminatory barrier—the airline's ban on married flight attendants.
• February 14 – The Hashemite Kingdoms of Iraq and Jordan unite in the Arab Federation of Iraq and Jordan with Iraqi King Faisal II as head of state.
• February 17 – Pope Pius XII declares Saint Clare the patron saint of television.
• February 20 – A test rocket explodes at Cape Canaveral.
• February 21 – A peace symbol is designed and completed by Gerald Holtom, commissioned by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, in protest against the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment.
• February 23
  • Cuban rebels kidnap 5-time world driving champion Juan Manuel Fangio, releasing him 28 hours later.
  • Arturo Frondizi is elected president of Argentina.
• February 24 – In Cuba, Fidel Castro's Radio Rebelde 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 occurs at Prestonsburg, Kentucky; 27 are killed.

March

• March 1 – The Turkish passenger ship Uskudar capsizes and sinks at Izmit Bay, Kocaeli, Turkey; at least 300 die.
• March 2 – A British team led by Sir Vivian Fuchs completes the first crossing of the Antarctic in Snow-cat caterpillar tractors and dogsled teams in 99 days.
• March 8 – The USS Wisconsin is decommissioned, leaving the United States Navy without an active battleship for the first time since 1896 (it is recommissioned October 22, 1988).
• March 11 – A U.S. B-47 bomber accidentally drops an atom bomb on Mars Bluff, South Carolina. Its conventional explosives destroy a house and injure several people, but no nuclear fission occurs.
• March 17 – The United States launches the Vanguard 1 satellite.
• March 19 – Monarch Underwear Company fire in New York.
• March 24 – The U.S. Army inducts Elvis Presley, transforming The King Of Rock & Roll into U.S. private #53310761.
• March 25 – Canada's Avro Arrow makes its debut flight.
• March 26
  • The United States Army launches Explorer 3.
  • The 30th Academy Awards ceremony took place; The Bridge on the River Kwai wins 7 Academy Awards, including Academy Award for Best Picture.
• March 27 – Nikita Khrushchev becomes Premier of the Soviet Union.

April

• April – Unemployment in Detroit reaches 20%, marking the height of the Recession of 1958 in the United States.
• April 1 – The BBC Radiophonic Workshop is established.
• April 3 – Castro's revolutionary army begins its attacks on Havana.
• April 4 – April 7 – In the first protest march for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament from Hyde Park, London to Aldermaston, Berkshire, demonstrators demand the banning of nuclear weapons.
• April 4 – Cheryl Crane, daughter of actress Lana Turner, fatally stabs her mother's gangster lover Johnny Stompanato (the stabbing is eventually ruled as self-defense).
• April 6 – Soraya Esfandiary Bakhtiari divorces the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi after she is unable to produce any children.
• April 14
  • The satellite Sputnik 2 disintegrates in space after several orbits.
  • Van Cliburn wins the Tchaikovsky International Competition for pianists in Moscow, breaking Cold War tensions.
• April 15 – The San Francisco Giants beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 8–0 at San Francisco's Seals Stadium, in the first Major League Baseball regular season game ever played in California.
• April 17 – King Baudouin of Belgium officially opens the World Fair in Brussels, also known as Expo '58.

May

• May 1
  • Arturo Frondizi becomes President of Argentina.
  • The Nordic Passport Union comes into force.
• May 9 – Actor-singer Paul Robeson, whose passport has been reinstated, sings in a sold-out one-man recital at Carnegie Hall. The recital is such a success that Robeson gives another one at Carnegie Hall a few days later. But after these two concerts, Robeson is seldom seen in public in the United States again. His Carnegie Hall concerts are later released on records and on CD.
• May 10 – Interviewed in the Chave d'Ouro café, when asked about his rival António de Oliveira Salazar, Humberto Delgado utters one of the most famous comments in Portuguese political history: "Obviamente, demito-o! (Obviously, I'll sack him!)".
• May 12 – A formal North American Aerospace Defense Command agreement is signed between the United States and Canada.
• May 13
  • French Algerian protesters seize government offices in Algiers, leading to a military coup.
  • 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 .
• May 20 – Fulgencio Batista's government launches a counteroffensive against Castro's rebels.
• May 21 – United Kingdom Postmaster General Ernest Marples announces that from December, Subscriber Trunk Dialling will be introduced in the Bristol area. [6171]
• May 23 – Explorer 1 ceases 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

• June 1
  • Charles de Gaulle is brought out of retirement to lead France by decree for 6 months.
  • Iceland extends its fishing limits to 12 miles (22.2 km).
• June 2 – In San Simeon, California, Hearst Castle opens to the public for guided tours.
• June 4 – French President Charles De Gaulle visits Algeria.
• June 16 – Imre Nagy is hanged for treason in Hungary.
• June 27 – The Peronist Party becomes legal again in Argentina.
• June 29 – Brazil beats Sweden 5–2 to win the 1958 World Cup.

July

• July 5 – Gasherbrum I, the 11th highest mountain in the world, is first ascended.
• July 7
  • President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the Alaska Statehood Act into United States law.
  • The first International House of Pancakes (IHOP) opens in Toluca Lake, Calif.
• July 9 – A 7.5 Richter scale earthquake in Lituya Bay, Alaska, causes a landslide that produces a huge 520-meter high wave
• July 10 – The first parking meters are installed in Britain.
• July 14 – Iraqi Revolution: The Iraqi monarchy is overthrown by Arab nationalists, King Faisal II is murdered and Abdul Karim Qassim assumes power.
• July 15 – In Lebanon, 5,000 United States Marines land in the capital Beirut in order to protect the pro-Western government there.
• July 17 – British paratroopers arrive in Jordan; King Hussein has asked help against pressure from Iraq.
• July 20 – Various rebel groups in Cuba join forces but the communists do not join them.
• July 24 – The first life peerage is created in Britain.
• July 26
  • Explorer program: Explorer 4 is launched.
  • Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom gives her son Charles the title of Prince of Wales.
• July 29 – The U.S. Congress formally creates the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
• July 31 – Chinese – Tibet Uprising

August

• August 3 – The nuclear powered submarine USS Nautilus becomes the first vessel to cross the North Pole under water.
• August 14 – A 4-engine Super Constellation aircraft belonging to KLM crashes into the sea with 99 people on board (the worst crash in civil aviation history up to that time).
• August 17 – The first Thor-Able rocket is launched, carrying Pioneer 0, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Launch Complex 17. The launch fails due to a first stage malfunction.
• August 18 – Vladimir Nabokov's controversial novel Lolita is published in the United States.
• August 23
  • Chinese Civil War: The Second Taiwan Strait crisis begins with the People's Liberation Army's bombardment of Quemoy.
  • President Dwight D. Eisenhower of the USA signs the Federal Aviation Act of 1958, transferring all authority over aviation in the USA to the newly created Federal Aviation Agency (FAA, later renamed Federal Aviation Administration).
• August 27 – Operation Argus: The United States begins nuclear tests over the South Atlantic.
• August 29 – Musical legend Michael Jackson is born in Gary, Indiana.
• August 30 – September 1 – Riots between blacks and whites occur in Notting Hill, London.

September

• September 1 – The first Cod War begins between UK and Iceland.
• September 6 – Paul Robeson performs in concert at the Soviet Young Pioneer camp Artek.
• September 12 – Jack St. Clair Kilby invents the first integrated circuit.
• September 14 – Two rockets designed by German engineer Ernst Mohr (the first German post-war rockets) reach the upper atmosphere.
• September 27 – Typhoon Ida kills at least 1,269 in Honshū, Japan.
• September 28 – In France, a majority of 79% says yes to the constitution of the Fifth Republic.
• September 30 – The U.S.S.R. performs a nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya.

October

• October 1
  • Tunisia and Morocco join the Arab League.
  • NASA starts operations and replaces the NACA.
• October 2 – Guinea declares itself independent from France.
• October 4 – BOAC uses the new De Havilland Comet jets, to become the first airline to fly jet passenger services across the Atlantic.
• October 9 – Pope Pius XII dies.
• October 11 – Pioneer 1, the second and most successful of the 3 project Able space probes, becomes the first spacecraft launched by the newly formed NASA.
• October 21 – The Life Peerages Act entitles women to sit in the House of Lords for the first time. Baroness Swanbourough, Lady Reading and Baroness Barbara Wooton are the first to take their seats.
• October 28 – Pope John XXIII succeeds Pope Pius XII as the 261st pope.

November

• November 3 – The new UNESCO building is inaugurated in Paris.
• November 10 – The Bossa nova is born in Rio de Janeiro, with Joao Gilberto's recording of "Chega de Saudade".
• November 22 – The Menzies government in Australia is re-elected for a 5th term.
• November 23 – Have Gun, Will Travel debuts on American radio.
• November 25 – French Sudan gains autonomy as a self-governing member of the French Community.
• November 28 – Chad, the Republic of the Congo, and Gabon become autonomous republics within the French Community.
• November 30 – Gaullists win parliamentary elections in France.

December

• December 1
  • Adolfo López Mateos takes office as President of Mexico.
  • The Central African Republic becomes independent from France.
  • At least 90 students and 3 nuns are killed in a fire at Our Lady of the Angels School in Chicago.
• December 5
  • Subscriber Trunk Dialling is inaugurated in the UK by the Queen, when she dials a call from Bristol to Edinburgh and speaks to the Lord Provost. [6172]
  • The Preston bypass, the United Kingdom's first motorway, opens to traffic for the first time. This stretch is now part of the M6 and M55 motorways.
• December 6 – The 3rd launch of a Thor-Able rocket, carrying Pioneer 2, is unsuccessful due to a 3rd stage ignition failure.
• December 9 – The right-wing John Birch Society is founded in the USA by Robert Welch, a retired candy manufacturer.
• December 14 – The 3rd Soviet Antarctic Expedition becomes the first ever to reach the Southern Pole of Inaccessibility.
• December 19 – President Dwight D. Eisenhower broadcasts a message from a Project SCORE satellite.
• December 21 – General Charles de Gaulle is elected president of France with 78.5% of the votes.
• December 24 – A BOAC Bristol Britannia (312 G-AOVD) crashes near Winkton, England during a test flight.
• December 25 – Tchaikovsky's ballet The Nutcracker (the George Balanchine version) is shown on prime-time television in color for the first time, as an episode of the CBS anthology series Playhouse 90.
• December 28 – The Baltimore Colts beat The New York Giants 23–17 in overtime to win The NFL Championship.
• December 29 – Rebel troops under Che Guevara begin to invade Santa Clara, Cuba. Fulgencio Batista resigns two days later, on the night of the 31st.
• December 31 – As the year draws to a close, tallies reveal that, for the first time, total passengers carried by air exceeds total passengers carried by sea in transatlantic service.

Undated

• During the International Geophysical Year, Earth's magnetosphere is discovered.
• The Amirkabir University of Technology is founded.
• Based on birth rates (per 1,000 population), the post-war baby boom ends in the United States as an 11-year decline in the birth rate begins (the longest on record in that country).
• The last legal female genital cutting occurs 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.
• The Jim Henson Company is founded.
• The Japanese 10 yen coin ceases having serrated edges after a 5-year period beginning in 1953. All 10 yen coins since have smooth edges.
• The largest solar maximum in the recorded history of solar maxima occurs.
• Instant noodles go on sale for the first time.
• The British Rally Championship begins its first year.
• Illinois observes the centennial of the Lincoln-Douglas Debates.
• Nikita Khrushchev orders Western allies to evacuate West Berlin within 6 months but backs down in the face of the allies' unity.
• USA, USSR and Great Britain agree to stop testing atomic bombs for 3 years.

Ongoing

• Cold War
• Cuban Revolution
• Mau Mau Uprising

Births

January

• January 1 – Grandmaster Flash, African-American hip-hop/rap DJ
• January 2 – Vladimir Ovchinnikov, Russian pianist
• January 3 – James J. Greco, American businessman
• January 4 – Matt Frewer, Canadian/American actor (Max Headroom)
• January 9 – Mehmet Ali Ağca, Turkish militant, would-be assassin of Pope John Paul II
• January 11 – Vicki Peterson, American rock musician
• January 13 – Ricardo Acuña, Chilean tennis player
• January 15 – Boris Tadić, Serbian president
• January 20 – Lorenzo Lamas, American actor, martial artist and reality show participant
• January 24 – Jools Holland, British musician
• January 25 – Dinah Manoff, American Tony-winning actress
• January 26 – Ellen DeGeneres, American actress and comedian
• January 27 – Kadri Mälk, Estonian artist and jewelry designer

February

• February 1 – Ryo Horikawa, Japanese voice actor
• February 4 – Tomasz Pacyński, Polish writer (d. 2005)
• February 8 – Sherri Martel, American professional wrestler (d. 2007)
• February 11
  • Michael Jackson, British broadcasting executive
  • Regina Maršíková, Czechoslovakian tennis player
• February 13 – Pernilla August, Swedish actress
• February 14
  • Grant Thomas, Australian rules footballer
  • Francisco Javier Lopez Pena, Basque separatist
• February 16 – Ice-T, African-American singer, songwriter, and actor
• February 21
  • Jake Burns, Irish punk singer
  • Mary Chapin Carpenter, American singer
• February 25 – Kurt Rambis, American basketball player
• February 26 – Susan Helms, American astronaut
• February 28 – Natalya Estemirova, Russian activist (d. 2009)

March

• March 1 – Nik Kershaw, English singer
• March 3 – Miranda Richardson, English actress
• March 5 – Andy Gibb, English-born singer (d. 1988)
• March 7 – Rik Mayall, English comedian and actor
• March 8 – Gary Numan, British singer
• March 10
  • Steve Howe, American baseball player (d. 2006)
  • Sharon Stone, American actress
• March 13 – Linda Robson, English actress
• March 14 – Albert II, Prince of Monaco
• March 18 – Kayo Hatta, American film director (d. 2005)
• March 20 – Holly Hunter, American actress
• March 21 – Gary Oldman, English actor
• March 25 – James McDaniel, American actor
• March 26 – Todd Joseph Miles Holden, American-born social scientist, author, basketball coach
• March 28
  • Bart Conner, American gymnast
  • Edesio Alejandro, Cuban music composer

April

• April 3 – Alec Baldwin, American actor (30 Rock)
• April 4 – Cazuza, Brazilian poet, singer and composer (d. 1990)
• April 10
  • Yefim Bronfman, Russian-born pianist
  • Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, African-American musician and record producer
• April 11 – Luc Luycx, Belgian coin designer
• April 12 – Ginka Zagorcheva, Bulgarian athlete
• April 15
  • Keith Acton, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
  • Benjamin Zephaniah, British writer and musician
• April 21 – Andie MacDowell, American actress
• April 24 – Brian Paddick, British former deputy assistant commissioner and most senior openly gay police officer
• April 25 – Fish, Scottish singer
• April 28 – Hal Sutton, American golfer
• April 29 – Michelle Pfeiffer, American actress

May

• May 4 – Keith Haring, American artist
• May 10 – Rick Santorum, Former U.S. Senator
• May 11 – Christian Brando, American actor and eldest child of Marlon Brando (d. 2008)
• May 12
  • Dries Van Noten, Belgian designer
  • Eric Singer, American rock drummer
• May 15 – Ron Simmons, American professional wrestler
• May 18 – Toyah Willcox, English actress & singer
• May 21 – Tom Feeney, American Republican politician from the state of Florida
• May 23
  • Mitch Albom, American author
  • Drew Carey, American comedian and actor
• May 25 – Paul Weller, English singer-songwriter
• May 27 – Neil Finn, New Zealand singer and songwriter
• May 29 – Annette Bening, American actress
• May 30 – Marie Fredriksson, Swedish singer-songwriter

June

• June 2 – Lex Luger, American professional wrestler
• June 3 – Margot Käßmann, Lutheran theologian, German bishop
• June 7 – Prince, Multiracial American musician
• June 8 – Keenen Ivory Wayans, African-American comedian, actor, and director
• June 12 – Rebecca Holden, American actress, singer, and entertainer
• June 15 – Wade Boggs, American baseball player
• June 17 – Jello Biafra, American punk musician and activist (Dead Kennedys)
• June 20 – Chuck Wagner, American actor
• June 22 – Bruce Campbell, American actor, producer, writer and director
• June 24 – Curt Fraser, American ice hockey coach
• June 27 – Magnus Lindberg, Finnish composer
• June 28 – Félix Gray, French singer and songwriter
• June 29 – Jeff Coopwood, American actor, broadcaster and singer
• June 29 – Rosa Mota, Portuguese long-distance runner
• June 30 – Esa-Pekka Salonen, Finnish conductor and composer

July

• July 2 – Thomas Bickerton, American Methodist bishop
• July 5 – William Watterson, American cartoonist (Calvin and Hobbes)
• July 6 – Jennifer Saunders, British comedian
• July 7 – Michala Petri, Danish recorder player
• July 8 – Kevin Bacon, American actor
• July 8 – Pauline Quirke, British actress
• July 15 – Mac Thornberry, American politician
• July 15 – Austin Hayes, Irish footballer (d. 1986)
• July 16 – Michael Flatley, Irish-born dancer
• July 20 – Billy Mays, American infomercial salesperson (d. 2009)
• July 22 – Tatsunori Hara, Japanese professional-baseball coach and player
• July 28 – Terry Fox, Canadian athlete and cancer activist (d. 1981)
• July 30 – Kate Bush, British singer and songwriter
• July 31 – Mark Cuban, American entrepreneur and basketball team owner

August

• August 1 – Adrian Dunbar, Irish actor and director
• August 7
  • Bruce Dickinson, English singer
  • Russell Baze, champion jockey
• August 10 – Don Swayze, American actor
• August 15 – Victor Shenderovich, Russian writer
• August 16
  • Madonna, American-born singer, songwriter, and actress
  • Angela Bassett, African-American actress
• August 17 – Belinda Carlisle, American singer
• August 19 – Anthony Muñoz, American football player
• August 20 – Nicholas Bell, English actor based in Australia
• August 22 – Colm Feore, American-born actor
• August 24 – Steve Guttenberg, American actor
• August 25 – Tim Burton, American film director
• August 27 – Normand Brathwaite, African-Canadian comedian and television and radio host
• August 29 – Lenny Henry, British comedian
• August 29 – Michael Jackson, African-American singer, songwriter and dancer (d. 2009)

September

• September 6
  • Jeff Foxworthy, American comedian, actor, author
  • Sione Vailahi, professional wrestler ("The Barbarian")
• September 8
  • Mitsuru Miyamoto, Japanese voice actor
  • Reiko Terashima, Japanese manga artist and illustrator
• September 10
  • Chris Columbus , American film director/writer/producer
  • Siobhan Fahey, Irish singer
• September 13 – Pawel Przytocki, Polish conductor
• September 14
  • Michael Bollner, German actor
  • Jeff Crowe, New Zealand cricketer
• September 16 – Orel Hershiser, American baseball player
• September 19 – Azumah Nelson, Ghanaian boxer
• September 21 – Bruno Fitoussi, French poker player
• September 22
  • Joan Jett, American musician
  • Andrea Bocelli, Italian tenor
• September 23 – Marvin Lewis, American football coach
• September 24 – Kevin Sorbo, American actor
• September 25
  • Michael Madsen, American actor
  • Eamonn Healy, Irish chemist
• September 30 – Marty Stuart, American singer

October

• October 14 – Thomas Dolby, English rock musician
• October 16 – Tim Robbins, American actor
• October 17 – Alan Jackson, American country singer and songwriter
• October 20
  • Viggo Mortensen, American actor
  • Mark King, British musician
  • Scott Hall, American professional wrestler
• October 25 – Phil Daniels, English actor
• October 27 – Simon Le Bon, English rock singer
• October 29 – Blazej Balaz, Slovak painter

November

• November 2 – Willie McGee, African-American baseball player
• November 8 – Jeff Speakman, American actor and martial artst
• November 10 – Vicky Rosti, Finnish singer, former Eurovision contestant
• November 16
  • Marg Helgenberger, American actress
  • Boris Krivokapić, Serbian academic
• November 18 – Laura Miller, Mayor of Dallas, Texas
• November 19 – Michael Wilbon, American sportswriter
• November 21 – David Reivers , Jamaican actor
• November 22 – Jamie Lee Curtis, American actress
• November 27 – Tetsuya Komuro, Japanese music producer and song writer
• November 28 – Dave Righetti, American baseball player
• November 29 – Kim Delaney, American actress
• November 30 – Juliette Bergmann, Dutch bodybuilder

December

• December 1 – Charlene Tilton, American actress
• December 5 – Dynamite Kid, English professional wrestler
• December 6 – Nick Park, English filmmaker and animator
• December 10 – Cornelia Funke, German author
• December 11
  • Janko Ferk, Austrian lawyer and writer
  • Nikki Sixx, American rock musician
• December 13 – Lynn-Holly Johnson, American ice skater and actress
• December 21 – Kevin Blackwell, English football manager
• December 25 – Hanford Dixon, American football player
• December 25 – Rickey Henderson, African-American baseball player
• December 29 – Lakhdar Belloumi, Algerian football player
• December 31 – Bebe Neuwirth, American actress

Deaths

January–June

• January 1
  • Edward Weston, American photographer (b. 1886)
  • Archibald Alphonso Alexander, American designer/governor (b. 1888)
• January 7 – Margaret Anglin, stage actress (b. 1876)
• January 8 – Paul Pilgrim, American athlete (b. 1883)
• January 11 – Edna Purviance, American actress (b. 1895)
• January 13 – Jesse L. Lasky, American film produer (b. 1880)
• January 16 – Aubrey Mather, English actor (b. 1885)
• January 19 – Cândido Rondon, Brazilian military officer (b. 1865)
• January 30 – Jean Crotti, Swiss artist (b. 1878)
• February 1 – Clinton Davisson, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1888)
• February 2 – Walter Kingsford, English actor (b. 1881)
• February 4
  • Monta Bell, American actor (b. 1891)
  • Henry Kuttner, American author (b. 1915)
• February 13
  • Christabel Pankhurst, English suffragette (b. 1880)
  • Georges Rouault, French painter (b. 1871)
  • Helen Twelvetrees, American actress (b. 1908)
• February 17 – Marguerite Snow, American actress (b. 1889)
• February 20 – Thurston Hall, American actor (b. 1882)
• February 27 – Harry Cohn, American film producer (b. 1891)
• March 11 – Princess Ingeborg of Denmark (b. 1878)
• March 20 – Adegoke Adelabu, Nigerian politician (b. 1915) (car crash)
• March 21 – Cyril M. Kornbluth, American writer (b. 1923)
• March 22 (in plane crash)
  • Mike Todd, American film producer (b. 1909)
  • Art Cohn, American screenwriter (b. 1909)
• March 24 – Herbert Fields, American librettist and screenwriter (b. 1897)
• March 25 – Tom Brown, American musician (b. 1888)
• March 26 – Phil Mead, English cricketer (b. 1887)
• March 28 – W. C. Handy, African-American blues composer (b. 1873)
• April 8 – George Jean Nathan, American drama critic (b. 1882)
• April 15 – Estelle Taylor, American actress (b. 1894)
• April 16 – Rosalind Franklin, British crystallographer (b. 1920)
• April 19 – Billy Meredith, Welsh footballer (b. 1874)
• May 2 – Henry Cornelius, South African-born director (b. 1913)
• May 3 – Frank Foster, English cricketer (b. 1889)
• May 19 – Ronald Colman, English actor (b. 1891)
• May 26 – Constantin Cantacuzino, Romanian aviator (b. 1905)
• May 29 – Juan Ramón Jiménez, Spanish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1881)
• June 6
  • Lloyd Hughes, American actor (b. 1897)
  • Virginia Pearson, American actress (b. 1886)
• June 9 – Robert Donat, English actor (b. 1905)
• June 13 – Edwin Keppel Bennett, British writer (b. 1887)
• June 16
  • Aleksandr Chervyakov, Prime Minister of the Byelorussian SSR (suicide) (b. 1892)
  • Imre Nagy, Prime Minister of Hungary (executed) (b. 1896)
• June 20 – Kurt Alder, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1902)
• June 21 – Herbert Brenon, American film director (b. 1880)
• June 26 – George Orton, Canadian athlete (b. 1876)
• June 28 – Alfred Noyes, English poet (b. 1880)

July–December

• July 2 – Martha Boswell, American singer (b. 1905)
• July 14 (killed during coup d'état):
  • King Faisal II of Iraq (b. 1935)
  • 'Abd al-Ilah, former regent of Iraq (b. 1913)
• July 15 – Julia Lennon, English mother of John Lennon (b. 1914)
• July 18 – Henry Farman, pioneer French aviator and aircraft company founder (b. 1874)
• July 20 – Franklin Pangborn, American actor (b. 1889)
• July 24 – Mabel Ballin, American actress (b. 1887)
• July 27
  • Claire Chennault, American leader of the Flying Tigers (b. 1893)
  • Harry Warner, American studio executive (b. 1881_
• August 8 – Barbara Bennett, American actress (b. 1906)
• August 14
  • Frédéric Joliot, French physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (b. 1900)
  • Gladys Presley, American, mother of Elvis Presley (b. 1912)
• August 16 – Paul Panzer, German actor (b. 1872)
• August 18 – Bonar Colleano, American actor (b. 1924)
• August 22 – Roger Martin du Gard, French writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1881)
• August 24 – Paul Henry, Northern Irish artist (b. 1876)
• August 26 – Ralph Vaughan Williams, English composer (b. 1872)
• August 27 – Ernest Lawrence, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1901)
• September 11
  • Hans Grundig, German artist (b. 1901)
  • Robert W. Service, Scottish-born Canadian poet (b. 1874)
• September 16 – Alma Bennett, American actress (b. 1904)
• September 23 – Alfred Piccaver, British-American operatic tenor (b. 1884)
• October 9 – Pope Pius XII (b. 1876)
• October 17
  • Charlie Townsend, English cricketer (b. 1876)
  • Paul Outerbridge American photographer (b. 1896)
• October 15 – Jack Norton, American actor (b. 1882)
• October 24 – G. E. Moore, British philosopher of (Principia Ethica) (b.

• October 27 – Marshall Neilan, American actor and director (b. 1891)
• October 29 – Zoë Akins, American playwright, poet, and author (b. 1886)
• November 15
  • Samuel Hopkins Adams, American writer (b. 1871)
  • Tyrone Power, American actor (b. 1914)
• November 19 – Vittorio Ambrosio, Italian general (b. 1879)
• November 21 – Mel Ott, American baseball player (b. 1909)
• November 24
  • Robert Cecil, 1st Viscount Cecil of Chelwood, English politician and diplomat, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1864)
  • Harry Parke, American comedian (b. 1904)
• November 27 – Artur Rodziński, Polish conductor (b. 1892)
• December 1 – Boots Mallory, American actress (b. 1913)
• December 8 – Tris Speaker, American baseball player (b. 1888)
• December 13 – Tim Moore, American comedian (b. 1887)
• December 15 – Wolfgang Ernst Pauli, Austrian-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1900)
• December 21 – H.B. Warner, English actor (b. 1875)
• December 29 – Doris Humphrey, American dancer and choreographer (b. 1895)

Ship events

• List of ship launches in 1958
• List of ship commissionings in 1958
• List of ship decommissionings in 1958

Nobel Prizes

• Physics – Pavel Alekseyevich Cherenkov, Ilya Mikhailovich Frank, Igor Yevgenyevich Tamm
• Chemistry – Frederick Sanger
• Physiology or Medicine – George Wells Beadle, Edward Lawrie Tatum, Joshua Lederberg
• Literature – Boris Leonidovich Pasternak
• Peace – Georges Pire

Academy Awards

• Best Picture: The Bridge on the River Kwai, Sam Spiegel
• Best Foreign Language Film: Mon Oncle,
• Best Documentary Feature: Albert Schweitzer, Jerome Hill
• Best Animated Feature: Birds Anonymous, Edward Selzer
• Best Director: David Lean, The Bridge on the River Kwai
• Best Actor: Alec Guinness, The Bridge on the River Kwai
• Best Actress: Joanne Woodward, The Three Faces of Eve
• Best Supporting Actor: Red Buttons, Sayonara
• Best Supporting Actress: Miyoshi Umeki, Sayonara
• Best Original Screenplay: George Wells, Designing Woman
• Best Adapted Screenplay: Novel by Pierre Boulle; screenplay by Michael Wilson and Carl Foreman, The Bridge over the River Kwai