50 Fun Facts About 1958

Which famous blue gem did jeweler Harry Winston send to the Smithsonian by registered mail in 1958?

The Hope Diamond travelled in a box wrapped in brown paper, insured for $1 million. Postage was $2.44 of the $145.29 bill, and the rest paid for the insurance.

Which Wham-O toy, advertised at $1.98, sold 25 million in under four months during a 1958 craze?

The Hula hoop was named after the Hawaiian dance. Wham-O borrowed the idea from bamboo hoops that Australian children played with, and sales passed 100 million within two years.

Which construction toy's modern design dates to a patent application filed in Denmark in January 1958?

Lego bricks made in 1958 still click together with the ones sold now. The company grew out of the workshop of a carpenter who began making wooden toys in 1932.

Which US agency opened on October 1, 1958, a year after the Soviet Union launched Sputnik?

NASA absorbed the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, which dated from 1915. It was set up as a civilian body to keep the American space program focused on peaceful uses.

Which singer got his first Army haircut at Fort Chaffee in March 1958 after being drafted at the height of his fame?

Elvis Presley was posted that October to a tank battalion in West Germany. While stationed there he met 14-year-old Priscilla Beaulieu, whom he later married.

Which restaurant chain did brothers Dan and Frank Carney start in Wichita in 1958 with $600 from their mother?

Pizza Hut opened as a single location run by two Wichita State students. It grew to six outlets within a year, and the brothers took the company public in 1969.

Which singer, born in Bay City, Michigan, in August 1958, left college to chase a dance career in New York?

Madonna quit college in 1978 for New York City, where she worked as an art model while looking for dance jobs. Her full name is Madonna Louise Ciccone.

Which now-familiar emblem did Gerald Holtom design in 1958 for Britain's campaign for nuclear disarmament?

The Peace sign stacks the flag semaphore signals for the letters N and D inside a circle. Holtom first thought of using a Christian cross, but several priests talked him out of it.

Which 17-year-old sat out Brazil's first two matches of the 1958 World Cup injured, then scored six goals?

Pelé hit a second-half hat-trick against France in the semi-final and became the youngest player to win a World Cup. He was nicknamed O Rei, the King, after the tournament.

Which convenience food did Momofuku Ando's company Nissin first put on sale in Japan in August 1958?

Instant noodles went on sale as Chikin Ramen and were a luxury at first: grocers sold fresh noodles for about a sixth of the price. Ando cooked and dried them by flash-frying in hot oil.

Which singer, born in Gary, Indiana, in August 1958, was the eighth of ten children and on stage at six?

Michael Jackson grew up in a two-bedroom house on a road called Jackson Street. He joined his brothers' band in 1964 as a backup musician and was sharing lead vocals by late 1965, when it became the Jackson 5.

Which musician, born in Minneapolis in June 1958, was named after his father's jazz stage name?

Prince got his name from Prince Rogers, the name his pianist father used on stage. The father led a jazz trio whose singer became the musician's mother.

Which cartoon characters did Belgian artist Peyo introduce in 1958 as bit players in a medieval comic?

The Smurfs first turned up in Johan and Peewit, a sword-and-sorcery strip. Peyo said he made up their French name, Schtroumpf, at a meal when he could not think of the word for salt.

Which card brand began in 1958 when Bank of America mailed unsolicited credit cards to homes across Fresno?

Visa started out as BankAmericard. Fresno was picked partly because it was isolated, which would limit the bad publicity if the experiment failed.

Which bear from children's books, a stowaway from Peru, made his first appearance in October 1958?

Paddington was inspired by a lone teddy bear that his creator spotted on a London shop shelf on Christmas Eve 1956. The author thought it looked forlorn and bought it for his wife.

Which rigged NBC quiz show, where Charles Van Doren beat Herb Stempel, was abruptly cancelled in October 1958?

Twenty-One had told Stempel to lose on purpose, and he went public. A New York grand jury spent that autumn questioning producers who had coached their contestants.

Which baseball team played its first game in Los Angeles in April 1958 after leaving Brooklyn?

The Dodgers won that opener 6-5 against the Giants, who had just swapped New York for San Francisco. A crowd of 78,672 watched in the Memorial Coliseum, a football and athletics stadium.

Which satellite, the first launched by the United States, detected the Van Allen radiation belt in 1958?

Explorer 1 kept returning data until its batteries ran out after nearly four months. It followed two Soviet Sputniks into orbit and flew as part of the International Geophysical Year.

Which Everest climber reached the South Pole in January 1958 driving converted Ferguson tractors?

Edmund Hillary was only meant to lay supply depots for a British crossing party, but he pressed on and beat it to the Pole by about two weeks. No one had arrived there overland for 46 years.

What does the one-eyed, one-horned creature in Sheb Wooley's 1958 hit 'The Purple People Eater' want to join?

A rock and roll band is what brings the creature down from outer space. Wooley's novelty record topped the Billboard pop chart from June 9 to July 14, with a sped-up tape for the alien's voice.

Which singer's 1958 British tour collapsed after three concerts when the press learned his bride was 13?

Jerry Lee Lewis was 22 and insisted that Myra, who was also his cousin, was really 15. A lone news agency reporter at Heathrow Airport uncovered the marriage.

Which team won the 1958 NFL title at Yankee Stadium in the first championship decided by sudden-death overtime?

The Baltimore Colts beat the New York Giants 23-17 in what became known as the Greatest Game Ever Played. Johnny Unitas forced overtime with a drive to a tying field goal seven seconds from time.

Which English club's young team, the Busby Babes, was devastated by a plane crash at Munich in February 1958?

Manchester United were flying home from a European Cup tie in Belgrade and had stopped to refuel. Slush on the runway slowed the plane on its third takeoff attempt, and 23 people died.

Which 1958 Hitchcock thriller replaced Citizen Kane at the top of Sight & Sound's critics' poll in 2012?

Vertigo drew mixed reviews when it opened and was only later hailed as its director's masterpiece. James Stewart plays a retired San Francisco detective with a crippling fear of heights.

Which 1958 MGM musical about Parisian high society won all nine Oscars it was nominated for?

Gigi set a record with its nine wins, Best Picture among them, but it lasted only a year: Ben-Hur took eleven at the next ceremony. The film is often called the last great MGM musical.

Which future star of Bullitt was paid $3,000 for his first leading role, in 1958's The Blob?

Steve McQueen was billed as Steven McQueen in the tale of a carnivorous alien that crash-lands in Pennsylvania. That September he also began the CBS series Wanted Dead or Alive.

Which one-word title is spoken three times in the Champs' Latin-flavoured instrumental, a number one in 1958?

Tequila was recorded in three takes as a B-side, with its writer Danny Flores speaking the title himself. It won the Grammy for Best Rhythm & Blues Performance at the first awards.

Which teen idol from TV's Ozzie and Harriet topped the very first Billboard Hot 100 chart in August 1958?

Ricky Nelson did it with 'Poor Little Fool'. He had played himself on his parents' sitcom since the age of eight, first on radio and then on television.

Which campaign did Mao Zedong launch in 1958 to industrialise rural China through people's communes?

The Great Leap Forward caused a famine that killed between 15 and 55 million people. False harvest reports from the countryside were used to set grain quotas, which made the hunger worse.

Which wartime general came out of retirement in 1958 to lead France and founded the Fifth Republic?

Charles de Gaulle was brought back when the war in Algeria threatened to topple the Fourth Republic. Voters approved his new constitution, with its strong presidency, in a referendum.

Which guitarist's 1958 single 'Johnny B. Goode' was later sent into deep space on the Voyager Golden Record?

Chuck Berry's hit is the only rock-and-roll song among the 27 on the record, which left Earth aboard both Voyager spacecraft in 1977. In 1958 it peaked at number two on the R&B chart.

Which squeaky-voiced group did Ross Bagdasarian create by speeding up tape for a 1958 Christmas hit?

The Chipmunks were all sung by Bagdasarian himself, who was down to his last $200 when he bought the tape recorder. Their single sold 4.5 million copies in seven weeks.

Which Domenico Modugno song, only third at Eurovision in 1958, won the first Grammy for Record of the Year?

Volare is the popular name for 'Nel blu, dipinto di blu', about a man who dreams of painting himself blue and flying. It was Billboard's number-one single of the year in America.

Which 15-year-old won over John Lennon in 1958 by playing 'Raunchy' on the top deck of a Liverpool bus?

George Harrison had failed a first audition for Lennon's skiffle group, the Quarrymen, that March because he seemed too young. His school friend Paul McCartney arranged the second try.

Which chess prodigy, 15, got tickets to the Soviet Union in 1958 from the TV game show I've Got a Secret?

Bobby Fischer had become the youngest ever US champion at 14, but his mother could not afford the airfare to Moscow. The show's producers arranged round-trip tickets for him and his sister Joan.

Which golfer won the first of his four Masters titles in 1958 after a disputed ruling on the 12th hole?

Arnold Palmer played a second ball when an official refused him relief for an embedded tee shot, and his par with it was later allowed to stand. He won by a single stroke.

Which sport did William Higinbotham simulate on an oscilloscope in 1958 for one of the earliest video games?

Tennis for Two was built for a public open day at Brookhaven National Laboratory and played with two custom aluminium controllers. It was then dismantled and largely forgotten until the late 1970s.

Which invention did Jack Kilby build at Texas Instruments in 1958, as a new hire with no summer vacation?

The integrated circuit put a whole circuit's components on one piece of semiconductor, first a sliver of germanium. Kilby shared the 2000 Nobel Prize in Physics for it.

Which jetliner did Pan Am put into regular service in October 1958 with a flight from New York to Paris?

The Boeing 707 needed a fuel stop at Gander, Newfoundland, on that first trip. Britain's BOAC had opened the first regular transatlantic jet service three weeks earlier.

Which nuclear submarine became the first vessel to reach the North Pole, passing under the ice in August 1958?

USS Nautilus made the trip, codenamed Operation Sunshine, as an American answer to Sputnik. It surfaced northeast of Greenland after 96 hours under the ice.

Which territory's statehood act did President Eisenhower approve in July 1958, clearing the way for a 49th state?

Alaska's act cleared the Senate by 64 votes to 20 that June. The territory formally joined the Union on January 3, 1959, once the president signed the official declaration.

Which pope, elected at 76 in October 1958 as an expected caretaker, later called the Second Vatican Council?

John XXIII had been Angelo Roncalli, the Patriarch of Venice, and his election came as a surprise. The council he called opened in October 1962 and ran for three years.

Which mocking label for a 1950s literary crowd is traditionally traced to an April 1958 column by Herb Caen?

Beatnik is said to join the Beat Generation's name to -nik, an ending in vogue after Sputnik. Jack Kerouac complained that pundits like Caen were turning his 'beatific' idea into jokes.

Which Nigerian author published his debut novel Things Fall Apart in London in June 1958?

Chinua Achebe wrote it while working at the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation. Its hero Okonkwo, a proud Igbo clan leader, resists colonial rule and the arrival of Christianity.

Which Russian won the 1958 Nobel Prize in Literature a year after Doctor Zhivago first came out, in Italy?

Boris Pasternak cabled the Swedish Academy that he was 'infinitely grateful, touched, proud'. The Communist Party was enraged by the award and forced him to decline it.

Which American pianist, 23, won Moscow's first Tchaikovsky Competition in 1958 and got a ticker-tape parade?

Van Cliburn drew an eight-minute standing ovation in the final. The judges felt they had to ask Nikita Khrushchev for permission before giving first prize to an American.

Which country merged with Egypt in February 1958 to form the short-lived United Arab Republic under Nasser?

Syria walked out of the union after a coup in 1961. Egypt went on calling itself the United Arab Republic for another ten years.

Which five-time Formula One champion was kidnapped from a Havana hotel by Castro's rebels in February 1958?

Juan Manuel Fangio was taken by two gunmen from the Hotel Lincoln, where he was staying for the Cuban Grand Prix. President Batista ordered the race to go ahead without him.

Which 1958 Hanna-Barbera series featured Yogi Bear and became the first animated show to win an Emmy?

The Huckleberry Hound Show won its sponsor, Kellogg's, when Joseph Barbera pitched it in Chicago to a room of forty-five people. Yogi proved so popular that he got his own series in 1961.

Which country's new 12-mile fishing limit in September 1958 set off the first 'Cod War' with Britain?

Iceland pushed its fishery zone out from 4 to 12 nautical miles at midnight on 1 September, and Britain refused to accept it. A British journalist coined the nickname within days.