Explore 1065 historical events from 1950–1959.
William Archibald Scott Brown, known as Archie, was a British Formula One and sports car racing driver from Scotland who had a prodigious racing ability despite having the fingers …
Archie Scott Brown, Scottish race car driver (born 1927)
Francis Harry Rowe was a senior Australian public servant, best known for his time as Director-General of the Department of Social Services.
Frank Rowe, Australian public servant (born 1895)
Juan Ramón Jiménez Mantecón was a Spanish poet, a prolific writer who received the 1956 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his lyrical poetry, which in the Spanish language constitutes…
Juan Ramón Jiménez, Spanish poet and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1881)
Ronald Charles Colman was an English actor who started his career in theatre and silent film in his native country, then emigrated to the United States, where he had a highly succe…
Ronald Colman, English actor (born 1891)
Ezra Weston Loomis Pound was an American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a collaborator in Fascist Italy and the Salò Republic during Wo…
Controversial American poet Ezra Pound (pictured) was released from St
United Air Lines Flight 736 was a scheduled American transcontinental passenger service flown daily by United Airlines between Los Angeles and New York City. On April 21, 1958, the…
United Airlines Flight 736 collided with a U
The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the oldest railroad in the United States and the first steam-operated common carrier. Construction of the line began in 1828, and it operated as…
Service ended on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's Royal Blue Line, one of the first major electrified train lines in th
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 until his resignation in 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he represented California in b…
US vice president Richard Nixon's motorcade was attacked by a mob in Caracas, Venezuela
Frederick Benjamin Carlin was an Australian adventurer who was the first person to circumnavigate the world in an amphibious vehicle. Born in Northam, Western Australia, Carlin att…
The Australian adventurer Ben Carlin (pictured) became the only person to circumnavigate the world in an amphibious vehi
The Lockheed F-104 Starfighter is an American single-engine, supersonic interceptor. Created as a day fighter by Lockheed as one of the "Century Series" of fighter aircraft for the…
The Lockheed F-104 Starfighter, a supersonic interceptor aircraft, set a world flight airspeed record of 1,404
The 1958 anti-Tamil pogrom and riots in Ceylon, also known as the 58 riots, refer to the first island-wide ethnic riots and pogrom to target the minority Tamils in the Dominion of …
Ethnic riots mostly targeting the minority Sri Lankan Tamils broke out in Ceylon, resulting in at least 158 deaths over
The McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II is an American tandem two-seat, twin-engine, all-weather, long-range supersonic jet interceptor and fighter-bomber that was developed by McDonn…
The F-4 Phantom II, the principal air superiority jet fighter for both the U
The Suez Crisis, also known as the second Arab–Israeli war, the Tripartite Aggression in the Arab world and the Sinai War in Israel, was a British–French–Israeli invasion of Egypt …
Suez Crisis: The Suez Canal is reopened following the introduction of UNEF peacekeepers to the region
Ngô Đình Diệm was a South Vietnamese politician who was the final prime minister of the State of Vietnam (1954–1955) and later the first president of South Vietnam from 1955 until …
South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem began a state visit to the United States, his regime's main sponsor
Patricia De Martelaere was a Flemish philosopher, professor, author and essayist. Born in Zottegem, Belgium, her full name was Patricia Marie Madeleine Godelieve. She graduated in …
Patricia De Martelaere, Belgian philosopher, author, and academic (died 2009)
Teresa "Teri" Austin is a Canadian animal care activist and former actress. She had her greatest acting success in the 1980s and 1990s, and is best known for her role as Jill Benne…
Teri Austin, Canadian actress
The Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the full title of which is the Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institutions and…
Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery enters into force
The Vickers VC.1 Viking is a British twin-engine short-range airliner derived from the Vickers Wellington bomber and built by Vickers-Armstrongs Limited at Brooklands near Weybridg…
A Vickers VC
Walter Francis O'Malley was an American sports executive who owned the Brooklyn / Los Angeles Dodgers team in Major League Baseball from 1950 to 1979. In 1958, as owner of the Dodg…
Walter O'Malley, the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, agrees to move the team from Brooklyn to Los Angeles
Malden Island, sometimes called Independence Island in the 19th century, is a low, arid, uninhabited atoll in the central Pacific Ocean, about 39 km2 (15 sq mi) in area. It is one …
At Malden Island in the Pacific Ocean, Britain tests its first hydrogen bomb in Operation Grapple
Apartheid was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an authorita…
South Africa's government approves of racial separation in universities
Lance Taylor, known professionally as Afrika Bambaataa, was an American disc jockey, rapper and record producer. He was notable for releasing a series of genre-defining electro tra…
Afrika Bambaataa, American disc jockey (died 2026)
Dwane Lyndon Casey is an American retired basketball coach who most recently served as the head coach of the Detroit Pistons before transitioning to a front office position with th…
Dwane Casey, American basketball coach
Dame Julia Wendy Macur, DBE, known as The Rt Hon Lady Justice Macur, is a British judge of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales. Between April 2017 and December 2019, she was t…
Julia Macur, English lawyer and judge