December 1958

Monday 01:

Our Lady of the Angels School fire in Chicago, Illinois kills 92 children and three nuns.

Thursday 04:

Dahomey (present-day Benin) becomes a self-governing country within the French Community.

Friday 05:

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. http://www.bt.com/archives/history/19461959.htm#1958

Tuesday 09:

John Birch Society founded.

Thursday 11:

Upper Volta declares its independence from France

Sunday 14:

3rd Soviet Antarctic Expedition becomes the first ever to reach The Pole of Relative Inaccessibility

Tuesday 16:

A fire at a store in Bogotá, Colombia kills 83 people.

Thursday 18:

Niger becomes an autonomous state within the French Community on December 4, 1958, after the establishment of the Fifth French Republic. Following full independence on August 3, 1960, however, membership was allowed to lapse.

Sunday 21:

Charles de Gaulle is elected as the first President and establishes the Fifth Republic