WHAT ALL HAPPENED FEBRUARY TO AUGUST 1958
Find out what all happened February to August 1958

Charles de Gaulle comes out of retirement to lead France by decree for six months. (1. June 1958)

United Press International is formed through a merger of the United Press and the International News Service. (24. May 1958)

Nuri as-Said becomes the prime minister of Iraq for the eighth time. (3. March 1958)

Explorer program: Explorer 4 is launched. (26. July 1958)

Egypt and Syria join to form the United Arab Republic. (22. February 1958)

Lituya Bay is hit by a megatsunami. The wave is recorded at 524 meters high, the largest in recorded history. (9. July 1958)

Flooding of Canada's St. Lawrence Seaway begins. (1. July 1958)

Cuban rebels kidnap 5-time world F1 champion Juan Manuel Fangio. (23. February 1958)

The wooden roller coaster at Playland, which is in the Pacific National Exhibition, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada opens. It is still open today. (17. June 1958)

The CND peace symbol is displayed in public for the first time in London. (4. April 1958)

The trade mark Velcro is registered. (13. May 1958)

May 1958 crisis: a group of French military officers lead a coup in Algiers demanding that a government of national unity be formed with Charles de Gaulle at its head in order to defend French control of Algeria. (13. May 1958)

Memorial Day: the remains of two unidentified American servicemen, killed in action during World War II and the Korean War respectively, are buried at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery. (30. May 1958)

A school bus in Floyd County, Kentucky hits a wrecker truck and plunges down an embankment into the rain-swollen Levisa Fork River. The driver and 26 children die in what remains one of the worst school bus accidents in U.S. history. (28. February 1958)

Founding of the Benelux Economic Union, creating a testing ground for a later European Economic Community. (3. February 1958)

The nuclear submarine USS Nautilus travels beneath the Arctic ice cap. (3. August 1958)

The African Regroupment Party is launched at a meeting in Paris. (26. March 1958)

Cold War: American Van Cliburn wins the inaugural International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. (13. April 1958)

A parcel bomb sent by Ngo Dinh Nhu, younger brother and chief adviser of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem, fails to kill King Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia. (31. August 1958)

The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 3. (15. May 1958)