On This Day

October 1958 in History

Events in History

  • Oct 1 Britain transfers Christmas Island (south of Java) to Australia
  • Oct 1 US space agency NASA begins operations incorporating earlier National Advisory Council on Aeronautics and other bodies
  • Oct 2 Guinea (French Guinea) gains independence from France (National Day)
  • Oct 2 USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR
  • Oct 4 French Fifth Republic is established
  • Oct 4 Transatlantic commercial jet passenger service began (BOAC)
  • Oct 5 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
  • Oct 5 USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR
  • Oct 6 US nuclear sub USS Seawolf remains a record 60 days under the north pole
  • Oct 7 Potter Stewart appointed to US Supreme Court
  • Oct 7 US manned space-flight project renamed Project Mercury
  • Oct 8 Dr Ake Senning installs first pacemaker (Stockholm)
  • Oct 8 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
  • Oct 9 Israeli navy inaugrates its first submarine
  • Oct 10 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
  • Oct 10 USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR
  • Oct 11 2nd US Moon probe, Pioneer 1, reaches 113,810 km, falls back
  • Oct 12 CVP wins municipal elections in Belgium
  • Oct 12 USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR

Event of Interest

Oct 13 Burial of Pope Pius XII on the 41st anniversary of the "Miracle of the Sun"

Pius XII
260th Pope Pius XII

Event of Interest

Oct 14 Brendan Behan's "Hostage" premieres in London

Brendan Behan
Irish Poet and Playwright Brendan Behan
  • Oct 14 Malagasy Republic becomes autonomous republic in French Community
  • Oct 14 Paul Osborn's "World of Suzie Wong" premieres in NYC
  • Oct 14 The District of Columbia Bar Association votes to accept black Americans as members.
  • Oct 14 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
  • Oct 15 Tunisia drops diplomatic relations with Egypt
  • Oct 15 USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya, USSR
  • Oct 16 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
  • Oct 19 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
  • Oct 21 1st women in British House of Lords
  • Oct 23 De Gaulle offers Algerians defiance "peace of the brave"

Nobel Prize

Oct 23 Soviet novelist Boris Pasternak, wins Nobel Prize for Literature

Boris Pasternak
Novelist and Poet Boris Pasternak
  • Oct 23 The Springhill Mine Bump - underground earthquake traps 174 miners in No. 2 colliery at Springhill, Nova Scotia, deepest coal mine in North America. By 1st November rescuers had dug out 100 victims, with death toll at 74.
  • Oct 23 USSR lends money to UAR to build Aswan High Dam
  • Oct 24 USSR lends Egypt 400 million rubles to build Aswan Dam
  • Oct 26 PanAm flies first transatlantic jet from New York to Paris
  • Oct 26 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
  • Oct 27 General Ayub Khan succeeds Iskander Mirza as President of Pakistan

Papal Inauguration

Oct 28 Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli elected Pope, taking name John XXIII

John XXIII
Pope John XXIII
  • Oct 28 Pete Runnels wins Comeback Player of Year (avg went from .230 to .322)
  • Oct 29 Boris Pasternak refuses the Nobel Prize for Literature
  • Oct 29 Dr F Mason Sones is first doctor to perform a coronary angiogram
  • Oct 29 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

Birthdays in History

  • Oct 5 AndrĂ© Kuipers, Dutch astronaut
  • Oct 5 Brent W. Jett Jr, American naval officer and NASA astronaut (STS 72, sk:81), born in Pontiac, Michigan
  • Oct 6 Joseph Finder, American novelist
  • Oct 8 Steve Coll, American journalist (The New Yorker) and writer (The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in the American Century), born in Washington, D.C.
  • Oct 8 Ursula von der Leyen, German politician, 1st woman elected President of European Commission, born in Ixelles, Brussels
  • Oct 10 John M. Grunsfeld, American physicist and astronaut (STS 67, 81), born in Chicago, Illinois

Jamal KhashoggiJamal Khashoggi (1958-2018)

Oct 13 Saudi Arabian progressive journalist, author, and editor-in-chief of Al-Arab News Channel who was brutally murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, born in Medina, Saudi Arabia

Jamal Khashoggi
  • Oct 13 Maria Cantwell, American politician (Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Washington), born in Indianapolis, Indiana
  • Oct 20 Lynn Flewelling, American fantasy author (Nightrunner series), born in Maine
  • Oct 21 Andre Geim, Russian-British physicist (2010 Nobel Prize for isolation of Graphene), born in Sochi, Russia [1]
  • Oct 23 Michael Eric Dyson, American activist, professor, author, born in Detroit, Michigan
  • Oct 27 Lee Carter, Alabama Judge of the 25th Judicial Circuit
  • Oct 29 David Remnick, American writer and editor of The New Yorker, born in Hackensack, New Jersey

Deaths in History

  • Oct 1 Robert Falk, Russian painter (b. 1886)
  • Oct 2 Marie Stopes, British birth control pioneer, dies at 77
  • Oct 8 Ran Bosilek, Bulgarian author (b. 1886)

Pius XIIPius XII (1876-1958)

Oct 9 260th Roman Catholic Pope (1939-58), dies of heart failure at 82

Pius XII
  • Oct 11 Johannes R. Becher, German writer and politician, dies at 67
  • Oct 12 Gerard Hordijk, Dutch architect and painter, dies at 59
  • Oct 14 Douglas Mawson, Australian geologist, Antarctic explorer, and educator, dies of a cerebral hemorrhage at 76
  • Oct 15 Jan Poortenaar, Dutch painter, etcher and cartoonist, dies at 72
  • Oct 17 Paul Outerbridge, American photographer, dies at 63
  • Oct 24 G. E. Moore, English philosopher (systematic approach to ethical problems), dies at 84
  • Oct 27 Frederik Gerretson [Geerten Gossaert], Dutch historian, poet and politician, dies at 74
  • Oct 27 Joseph Klausner, Polish-Israeli new testament expert, dies at 84
  • Oct 29 Zoe Akins, American playwright (Pulitzer Prize for Drama 1935), dies at 71
  • Oct 30 Rose Macaulay, English writer (The Towers of Trebizond), dies at 77

Historical Figures

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