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1958 in the United Kingdom:

Other years

1956 | 1957 | 1958 | 1959 | 1960

Sport and Music

British and Irish current events

1958 English cricket season

Football England | Scotland

1958 in British music

Events from the year 1958 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

• Monarch - HM Queen Elizabeth II
• Prime Minister - Harold Macmillan, Conservative Party

Events

• 6 January - Chancellor of the Exchequer Peter Thorneycroft resigns over opposition to spending cuts.^[1]
• 6 February - The Manchester United team plane flying back from a European Cup tie in Belgrade crashes on take-off after refuelling at Munich Airport in West Germany. 21 people are killed, eight of them United players. 10 other players are injured, two of them (Johnny Berry and Duncan Edwards) seriously. Manager Matt Busby is reported to be in a serious condition with multiple injuries. Among the dead is Frank Swift, a former Manchester City and England goalkeeper.^[2]
• 20 February - The government announces plans to close the 300-year-old docklands at the Isle of Sheppey, which would result in more than 2,500 workers losing their jobs.^[3]
• 21 February - Duncan Edwards dies in the early hours of morning at Munich's Recht Der Isaar Hospital, 15 days after suffering multiple injuries in the Munich air disaster.
• 25 February - Bertrand Russell launches the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.
• 2 March - 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.^[2]
• 21 March - Opening of the London Planetarium, the first planetarium in Britain.^[2]
• 4 April–7 April - The first protest march for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament from Hyde Park, London to Aldermarston, Berkshire. Demonstrators demand ban of nuclear weapons
• 30 April
  • The Life Peerages Act 1958 receives Royal Assent; the Act allows the creation of life peers who can sit in the House of Lords. As life peerages could be bestowed on women, this Act allowed for women to sit in the House of Lords for the first time.^[4]
  • The musical My Fair Lady, starring Rex Harrison and Julie Andrews, opens in London's Drury Lane theatre.^[2]
• 21 May - United Kingdom Postmaster General Ernest Marples announces that from December, Subscriber Trunk Dialling will be introduced in the Bristol area.^[5]
• 4 June - The Duke of Edinburgh's Award presented for the first time at Buckingham Palace.^[2]
• 7 June - Ian Donald publishes an article in The Lancet which describes the diagnostic use of ultrasound.^[6]
• 9 June - The Queen officially re-opens Gatwick Airport, which has been expanded at a cost of more than £7million.
• 10 July - First parking meters installed in Britain.^[2]
• 17 July - British paratroopers arrive in Jordan; King Hussein has asked for help against pressure from Iraq.
• 18–26 July - 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games held in Cardiff.
• 24 July - The first life peerage is created in Britain.
• 26 July
  • The Queen gives her son Charles the title of Prince of Wales.
  • Abolition of the presentation of debutantes to the royal court.^[2]
• 1 August - Ian Fraser, Baron Fraser of Lonsdale becomes the first life peer.^[4]
• 8 August - Barbara Wootton, Baroness Wootton of Abinger becomes the first female peer.^[4]
• 30 August–31 August - Riots between blacks and whites in Notting Hill, London.^[7]
• 1 October - The sovereignty of Christmas Island transferred from the UK to Australia.^[2]
• 4 October - BOAC uses new Comet jets to become the first airline to fly jet passenger services across the Atlantic.
• 11 October - first broadcast of the long-running BBC sports programme Grandstand.^[2]
• 16 October - first broadcast of the long-running BBC children's programme Blue Peter.^[2]
• 21 October - the first life peers, including the first women peers, enter the House of Lords.^[4]
• 28 October - the State Opening of Parliament is broadcast on television for the first time.^[2]
• 10 November - Donald Campbell sets the world water speed record at 248.62 mph.^[2]
• 24 November - Exhibition of computers held at Earl's Court, London; the first of its kind in the world.^[1]
• 5 December
  • Subscriber Trunk Dialling (STD) is inaugurated in the UK by the Queen when she dials a call from Bristol to Edinburgh and speaks to the Lord Provost.^[8]
  • The Preston Bypass, the United Kingdom's first motorway, opens to traffic for the first time.^[2]
• 10 December - English biochemist Frederick Sanger wins his first Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his work on the structure of proteins, especially that of insulin" (his second comes in 1980).^[9]

Undated

• The First Cod War between UK and Iceland.
• BBC Radiophonic Workshop created.
• German-born British mathematician Klaus Roth wins the Fields Medal for his work on the Thue-Siegel-Roth theorem.

Publications

• H. E. Bates' novel The Darling Buds of May.
• John Betjeman's anthology Collected Poems.
• Agatha Christie's novel Ordeal by Innocence.
• Ian Fleming's James Bond novel Dr. No.
• Graham Greene's novel Our Man in Havana.
• Alan Sillitoe's novel Saturday Night and Sunday Morning.
• T.H. White's novel The Once and Future King.

Births

• 24 January - Jools Holland, British musician
• 27 January - Alan Milburn, British Labour politician and MP for Darlington
• 29 January - Linda Smith, comedian (died 2006)
• 1 February - Eleanor Laing, British Conservative politician, MP for Epping Forest, and Shadow Minister for Women
• 7 February - Matt Ridley, English science writer
• 11 February - Michael Jackson, British broadcast executive
• 12 February - Steve Grand, English computer scientist
• 20 February - James Wilby, British actor
• 1 March - Nik Kershaw, English singer
• 3 March - Miranda Richardson, English actress
• 5 March - Andy Gibb, English-born singer (died 1988)
• 8 March - Gary Numan, British singer
• 13 March - Caryl Phillips, British writer
• 16 March - Chris Mole, British Labour politician and MP for Ipswich
• 18 March - Neil Brand, British writer and composer
• 21 March - Gary Oldman, English actor
• 6 April - Graeme Base, Australian children's illustrator and author
• 6 April - Jackie Gallagher, English footballer
• 12 April - Will Sergeant, English guitarist (Echo & the Bunnymen)
• 15 April
  • Benjamin Zephaniah, British writer and musician
  • Abu Hamza al-Masri, Muslim cleric convicted of inciting racial hatred and murder
  • Sir Robert Smith, 3rd Baronet, British Liberal Democrat politician and MP for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine
• 24 April - Brian Paddick, British police commander
• 25 April - Fish, Scottish singer
• 3 May - Sandi Toksvig, Danish-born comedian, author, and radio presenter
• 4 May
  • Caroline Spelman, British Conservative politician, MP for Meriden, Shadow Secretary of State for Local and Devolved Government Affairs
  • Jane Kennedy, British Labour politician, MP for Liverpool Wavertree
• 18 May - Toyah Willcox, actress and singer
• 25 May - Paul Weller, English singer-songwriter (The Jam, The Style Council)
• 7 June - Ivan Henderson, British Labour politician and MP for Harwich
• 23 June - John Henry Hayes, British Conservative politician, MP for South Holland and The Deepings, and Chairman of the Cornerstone Group
• July 1 — Les Morton, English racewalker
• 6 July - Jennifer Saunders, British comedienne
• 30 July
  • Kate Bush, British singer and songwriter
  • Daley Thompson, athlete and Olympic champion
• 7 August - Bruce Dickinson, English musician
• 10 August - Rosie Winterton, British Labour politician, MP for Doncaster Central, and member of the Privy Council
• 13 August - Feargal Sharkey, Northern Irish musician, former lead singer of The Undertones.
• 16 August - Madonna, American-born singer, songwriter, and actress
• 29 August - Lenny Henry, British entertainer
• 18 September - Linda Lusardi, British model, actress, and television presenter
• 21 September - Simon Mayo, British radio presenter
• 23 September - Danielle Dax, British musician
• 27 September - Irvine Welsh, novelist
• October - Craig Murray, former UK Ambassador to Uzbekistan
• 14 October - Thomas Dolby, English musician
• 20 October - Dave Finlay, Northern Irish professional wrestler
• 26 October - Shaun Woodward, British Labour politician and MP for St Helens South
• 27 October - Simon Le Bon, English musician (Duran Duran)
• 1 November - Mark Austin, English newsreader (ITN)
• 2 November - Mark Phillip Hendrick, British Labour Co-operative politician and MP for Preston
• 25 November - Kim Ashfield, British model
• 2 December - Andrew George, British Liberal Democrat politician and MP for St Ives
• 6 December - Nick Park, English filmmaker and animator

Unknown date

• Tim Bevan, New Zealand-born film producer (Working Title Films)
• Peter Capaldi, Scottish actor and director
• Michael Caton-Jones, Scottish film director
• Philip Dunne, British Conservative politician and MP for Ludlow
• Omar Bakri Muhammad, Syrian-born Muslim cleric

Deaths

• 6 February - Manchester United players in the Munich air disaster:
  • Roger Byrne team captain (born 1929)
  • Geoff Bent (born 1932)
  • Eddie Colman (born 1936)
  • Duncan Edwards (born 1936)
  • Mark Jones (born 1933)
  • David Pegg (born 1935)
  • Tommy Taylor (born 1932)
  • Liam Whelan (born 1935)
• 13 February - Christabel Pankhurst, English suffragette (born 1880)
• 21 February - Duncan Edwards, Manchester United footballer (born 1936)
• 26 March - Phil Mead, English cricketer (born 1887)
• 16 April - Rosalind Franklin, British crystallographer (born 1920)
• 19 April - Billy Meredith, Welsh footballer (born 1874)
• 3 May - Frank Foster, English cricketer (born 1889)
• 19 May - Ronald Colman, English actor (born 1891)
• 9 June - Robert Donat, English film and stage actor (born 1905)
• 13 June - Edwin Keppel Bennett, British writer (born 1887)
• 28 June - Alfred Noyes, English poet (born 1880)
• 20 July - Margaret Haig Thomas, Viscountess Rhondda, political campaigner and businesswoman (born 1883)
• 26 August - Ralph Vaughan Williams, British composer (born 1872)
• 25 September - Henry Arthur Evans, Welsh Conservative politician (born 1898)
• 2 October - Marie Stopes, birth control advocate, suffragette and palaeontologist (born 1880)
• 17 October - Charlie Townsend, English cricketer (born 1876)
• 24 October - G. E. Moore, British philosopher, author of Principia Ethica (born 1873)
• 30 October - Rose Macaulay, novelist (born 1881)
• 24 November - Robert Cecil, 1st Viscount Cecil of Chelwood, English politician and diplomat, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (born 1864)
• 2 December - Alan McKibbin, Northern Irish politician (born 1892)

References

See also