1958 in The United Kingdom - Events

Events

• 6 January – Chancellor of the Exchequer Peter Thorneycroft resigns over opposition to spending cuts, an event dismissed the following day by the Prime Minister as "little local difficulties".
• 6 February – The Manchester United F.C. team plane flying back from a European Cup tie in Belgrade crashes on take-off after refuelling at Munich Airport in West Germany. 21 of the 44 people on board are killed. Seven of them are Manchester United players: captain and left-back Roger Byrne (aged 28), centre-half Mark Jones (aged 24), right-half Eddie Colman (aged 21), centre-forward Tommy Taylor (aged 26), full-back Geoff Bent (aged 25), left-winger David Pegg (aged 22), and inside-forward Bill Whelan (aged 22). Eight of the nine sports journalists travelling on the plane are also killed, including the former Manchester City and England national football team goalkeeper Frank Swift. Among the survivors are 10 United players and manager Matt Busby, who is reported to be seriously injured. Outside-right Johnny Berry and left-half Duncan Edwards are also reported to be in a serious condition.
• 20 February – The government announces plans to close the 300-year-old dockyards at Sheerness on the Isle of Sheppey, which would result in more than 2,500 workers losing their jobs.
• 21 February – Duncan Edwards dies of his injuries in a Munich hospital 15 days after the Munich air crash. Edwards, who was 21 and rated by many as the finest player in England, is the eighth Manchester United player to die.
• 25 February – Bertrand Russell launches the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, initiated at a meeting called by Canon John Collins on 15 January.
• 27 February - The final death toll of the Munich air disaster reaches 23 with the death of co-pilot Kenneth Rayment in hospital.
• 28 February – The Victorian Society, the pressure group for Victorian architecture, holds its first meeting.
• 2 March – A British team led by Sir Vivian Fuchs completes the first crossing of the Antarctic using Sno-Cat caterpillar tractors and dogsled teams in 99 days.
• 21 March – Opening of the London Planetarium, the first planetarium in Britain.
• 24 March – Work on the M1, Britain's first full length motorway, begins. The first stretch of the motorway, due to open next year, will run from London to the Warwickshire-Northamptonshire border. During the 1960s, the remainder of the motorway will be built to give London an unbroken motorway link with Leeds some 200 miles away.
• March – Removal of Derbyshire county administrative headquarters from Derby to Matlock begins.
• 1 April – BBC Radiophonic Workshop created.
• 4 April–7 April – The first protest march for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament from Hyde Park, London to Aldermarston, Berkshire, demanding a ban on nuclear weapons.
• 7 April – The Church of England gives its moral backing to family planning.
• 27 April – BOAC's first de Havilland Comet 4 makes its maiden flight.
• 30 April
  • The Life Peerages Act 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 allows for women to sit in the House of Lords for the first time.
  • The musical My Fair Lady, starring Rex Harrison and Julie Andrews, opens in London's Drury Lane theatre.
• 3 May – Bolton Wanderers win the FA Cup for the fourth time in their history with a 2-0 win over Manchester United at Wembley Stadium. Both goals are scored by centre-forward Nat Lofthouse.
• 21 May – United Kingdom Postmaster General Ernest Marples announces that from December, Subscriber Trunk Dialling will be introduced in the Bristol area.
• 27 May – Shelagh Delaney's A Taste of Honey staged by Theatre Workshop at the Theatre Royal Stratford East.
• 4 June – The Duke of Edinburgh's Award presented for the first time at Buckingham Palace.
• 7 June – Ian Donald publishes an article in The Lancet which describes the diagnostic use of ultrasound.
• 9 June – The Queen officially re-opens Gatwick Airport, which has been expanded at a cost of more than £7million.
• 3 July – Last débutante formally presented to the Queen, at Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh.
• 10 July – First parking meters installed in Britain.
• 17 July – British paratroopers arrive in Jordan; King Hussein has asked for help against pressure from Iraq.
• 18–26 July – British Empire and Commonwealth Games held in Cardiff.
• 24 July – The first life peerage is created.
• 26 July
  • The Queen gives her son Charles the customary title of Prince of Wales.
  • Abolition of the presentation of debutantes to the royal court.
• 1 August
  • Ian Fraser, Baron Fraser of Lonsdale becomes the first life peer.
  • Premiere of Carry on Sergeant, the first Carry On film.
• 8 August – Barbara Wootton, Baroness Wootton of Abinger becomes the first female peer.
• 29 August – Release of Cliff Richard's debut single Move It, which reaches No. 2 in the charts. It is credited with being one of the first authentic rock and roll songs produced outside the United States.
• 30 August–31 August – Riots between blacks and whites in Notting Hill, London.
• August – The first United States Thor missiles are deployed in the UK, operated by No. 77 Squadron RAF at RAF Feltwell.
• 1 September – The First Cod War between UK and Iceland breaks out.
• 5 September – A severe storm over south east England seriously disrupts communications.
• 16 September – Relaxation of restrictions on hire purchase.
• 1 October – The sovereignty of Christmas Island is transferred from the UK to Australia.
• 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 Television sports programme Grandstand.
• 16 October – First broadcast of the long-running BBC Television children's programme Blue Peter.
• 21 October – The first life peers, including the first women peers, enter the House of Lords. The Baronesses Swanborough (Stella Isaacs, Marchioness of Reading) and Wooton (Barbara Wooton) are the first women to take their seats.
• 25 October – The Short SC.1 experimental VTOL aircraft makes its first free vertical flight.
• 28 October – The State Opening of Parliament is broadcast on television for the first time.
• 10 November – Donald Campbell sets the world water speed record at 248.62 mph.
• 24 November – Exhibition of computers held at Earl's Court, London; the first of its kind in the world.
• 1 December – The Preston Bypass, Britain's first motorway, is opened by prime minister Harold Macmillan.
• 5 December
  • Subscriber Trunk Dialling (STD) is inaugurated by The Queen when she dials a call from Bristol to Edinburgh and speaks to the Lord Provost.
  • First service by an Royal National Lifeboat Institution Oakley Class self-righting lifeboat, RNLB J.G. Graves of Sheffield at Scarborough.
• 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).