WHAT ALL HAPPENED AUGUST TO DECEMBER 1958
Find out what all happened August to December 1958

The Our Lady of the Angels School fire in Chicago kills 92 children and three nuns. (1. December 1958)

Iskander Mirza, the first President of Pakistan, is deposed in a bloodless coup d'état by General Ayub Khan, who had been appointed the enforcer of martial law by Mirza 20 days earlier. (27. October 1958)

The Hope Diamond is donated to the Smithsonian Institution by New York diamond merchant Harry Winston. (10. November 1958)

"Greatest Game Ever Played" – Baltimore Colts defeat the New York Giants in the first ever National Football League sudden death overtime game at New York's Yankee Stadium. (28. December 1958)

Art Kane photographs 57 notable jazz musicians in the black and white group portrait "A Great Day in Harlem" in front of a Brownstone in New York City. (12. August 1958)

The Preston By-pass, the UK's first stretch of motorway, opens to traffic for the first time. (It is now part of the M6 and M55 motorways.) (5. December 1958)

Pioneer program: NASA launches the lunar probe Pioneer 1 (the probe falls back to Earth and burns up). (11. October 1958)

The U.S. manned space-flight project is renamed Project Mercury. (7. October 1958)

The first two German post-war rockets, designed by the German engineer Ernst Mohr, reach the upper atmosphere. (14. September 1958)

The Smurfs, a fictional race of blue dwarves, later popularized in a Hanna-Barbera animated cartoon series, appear for the first time in the story La flute à six schtroumpfs, a Johan and Peewit adventure by Peyo, which is serialized in the weekly Spirou magazine. (23. October 1958)

President of Pakistan Iskander Mirza, with the support of General Ayub Khan and the army, suspends the 1956 constitution, imposes martial law, and cancels the elections scheduled for January 1959. (7. October 1958)

Iceland expands its fishing zone, putting it into conflict with the United Kingdom, beginning the Cod Wars. (1. September 1958)

The 3rd Soviet Antarctic Expedition becomes the first to reach the southern pole of inaccessibility. (14. December 1958)

Herbert Hoover eclipses John Adams as having the longest retirement of any former U.S President. Hoover would live another ten years, his record 35-year retirement still holding the record as of 2013. (5. August 1958)

Guinea declares its independence from France. (2. October 1958)

United States Air Force Academy opens in Colorado Springs, Colorado. (29. August 1958)

Pioneer 0, America's first attempt at lunar orbit, is launched using the first Thor-Able rocket and fails. Notable as one of the first attempted launches beyond Earth orbit by any country. (17. August 1958)

The Guatemalan Air Force sinks several Mexican fishing boats alleged to have breached maritime borders, killing 3 and sparking international tension. (30. December 1958)

The District of Columbia's Bar Association votes to accept African-Americans as member attorneys. (14. October 1958)

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