September 1958

September 1, 1958 (Monday)

• The first Cod War began between the United Kingdom and Iceland as Iceland's new fishing limits went into effect. Eleven British fishing trawlers ignored the ban, carrying out their operations within of Iceland, the former limit, and four Royal Navy frigates entered the area to prevent the seizure of the British fishing boats by the Gæslan, Iceland's Coast Guard. The first confrontation came when the anti-submarine warship HMS Palliser sailed, with guns manned, in front of an Icelandic guard ship as it was approaching British fishermen.

  September 2, 1958 (Tuesday)

• All 11 people on a U.S. Air Force C-130 plane were killed after the aircraft strayed across the border from Turkey and crashed in the Soviet Union, impacting northwest of Yerevan, capital of the Armenian SSR. The Soviet Foreign Ministry acknowledged on September 12 that the plane "fell" inside the Soviet border and that six crew members were killed, but made no mention of the fate of the other five. Eventually, the Soviets, who denied that the plane had been shot down, would return six bodies to the U.S. authorities. A statement from the Kremlin said, "The Soviet people understand the sufferings of the American citizens who have lost relatives and close friends. But it is not the Soviet Union that should be asked to reply to these people. We recommend asking those who gave the order to the United States plane to violate the border of the Soviet Union... They and only they are responsible for the plane's catastrophe."
• Regular television broadcasting began in the People's Republic of China at 6:30 in the evening as Peking Television inaugurated three hours and 30 minutes of nightly programming. On May 1, Peking Television had made experimental broadcasts of two hours on an irregular basis. The 3 1/2 hour programming limit would continue for 20 years until 1978.
• The Navy of Taiwan and the Navy of the People's Republic of China fought a brief battle in the Taiwan Strait near the island of Quemoy, after eight Communist Chinese torpedo boats attacked a Taiwanese supply convoy. Taiwan's Defense Ministry said that two Communist torpedo boats were sunk in the first battle, and three more were downed 30 minutes later.
• All 19 people on a U.S. Military Air Transport Service C-124 cargo plane died when it crashed into the sea, five minutes after departing Guam on the last part of its trip to Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines.
• Hendrik Verwoerd, a staunch proponent of the policy of apartheid, became the new Prime Minister of South Africa after his parliamentary colleagues in the ruling National Party elected him as the new NP leader to succeed the late J. G. Strijdom. Verwoerd, the Minister of Native Affairs, was favored over two other candidates, Justice Minister and Acting Premier C. R. Swart, and Interior Minister Eben Dönges.
• As more formerly racially segregated school districts in the U.S. had different reactions to integration, the school district in Fulton, Kentucky, peacefully enrolled 20 African-American students to join the 161 White students at the small town's high school, after the town's mayor worked with local churches and other agencies to prepare the transition. At the same time, the school board of Arlington County, Virginia, refused to allow 30 black students to be admitted to its whites-only schools and Arkansas Governor Orval E. Faubus declared that he would close all schools before allowing racial integration.
• A man in Old Bridge Township, New Jersey, narrowly avoided death when a block of ice fell from an airplane and crashed through his kitchen ceiling. Dominic Bacigalupo reported that he had left the kitchen seconds earlier, after preparing coffee, to watch a 9:00 pm TV program with his wife.
• Born: Zdravko Krivokapić, Prime Minister of Montenegro, 2020 to 2022; in Nikšić, SR Macedonia, Yugoslavia

  September 3, 1958 (Wednesday)

• The Tamil Language Act was passed in Ceylon, providing for the use of the Tamil language as a medium of teaching in schools, the language for examinations for admission to the Public Service, and for use in state correspondence and administrative purposes in the nation's Northern Province and the Eastern Province. The legislation substantially fulfilled at least the part of the Bandaranaike-Chelvanayakam Pact of 1957 dealing with the use of Sinhalese, spoken by the majority of Sri Lankan residents, and Tamil, spoken by the Tamil minority.
• Died: Lieutenant-General Giffard Le Quesne Martel, 68, British Army officer and military engineer who was a pioneer in tank strategy in war time.

  September 4, 1958 (Thursday)

• Communist China proclaimed that its territorial waters were extended from to from the Chinese mainland and from the offshore islands of Quemoy, Little Quemoy, Matsu, Tatan, Ehrtan and Tungting.
• Jorge Alessandri received more votes than the other candidates in Chile's presidential election, but fell short of the requirement of receiving a majority of the votes cast, requiring the Chilean Congress to choose between Alessandri and runner-up Salvador Allende.

  September 5, 1958 (Friday)

• Canada's Prime Minister John Diefenbaker introduced his proposal for what would become the Canadian Bill of Rights, declaring in his speech to a joint session of the Canadian Parliament that "An Act for the Recognition and Preservation of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms" would "act as a landmark by means of which Canadians, through Parliament, would have redeclared those things which have made Canada great... the realization that wherever a Canadian may live, whatever his race, his religion or his colour, the Parliament of Canada would be jealous of his rights." The House of Commons gave a first reading of Bill C-60 and, pursuant to Diefenbaker's plan, withdrew the legislation so that the Canadian public could discuss the proposal. The Canadian Bill of Rights legislation would be re-introduced and be approved on August 10, 1960.

  September 6, 1958 (Saturday)

• The Food Additives Amendment of 1958 was signed into law by U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower as an amendment to the existing Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, taking effect immediately. While non-toxic substances that were being added to food prior to the law's passing were given the designation of "generally recognized as safe", new additives had to be evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. The most notable amendment was the "Delaney Clause", named for the person who pushed for its inclusion, New York U.S. Congressman James J. Delaney, with the provision that "the Secretary of the Food and Drug Administration shall not approve for use in food any chemical additive found to induce cancer in man, or, after tests, found to induce cancer in animals," within limitations.
• Former Soviet Premier Nikolai Bulganin, who had been forced to resign on March 27, was removed from his post as a member of the ruling Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, in a measure approved by the Party's Central Committee. The announcement was made by Radio Moscow, which also reported that the 21st Communist Party Congress would take place on January 27.
• The U.S. television show Wanted Dead or Alive, a Western starring Steve McQueen, premiered on CBS.
• Paul Robeson performed in concert at the Soviet Young Pioneer camp Artek.
• Born: Jeff Foxworthy, American comedian and TV actor; in Atlanta

  September 7, 1958 (Sunday)

• U.S. Navy warships escorted a Taiwanese convoy through the Strait of Taiwan in order to supply the island of Quemoy, which had been blockaded by the People's Republic of China. The heavy cruiser, like the other ships, escorted the Taiwanese freighters to within of Quemoy and stayed in international waters.
• Tipperary won its second consecutive Gaelic Athletic Association hurling championship, defeating Galway, 4-9 to 2-5, before a crowd of 47,000 people at Dublin's Croke Park.
• Ashley Cooper of Australia won the men's singles title of the U.S. Open tournament, capturing three of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments by beating Mal Anderson in five sets, 6–2, 3–6, 4–6, 10–8, and 8–6. Cooper won the Australian Open in January and Wimbledon in July. Althea Gibson of the U.S., who had also won at Wimbledon in May, defeated Darlene Hard 6-1 and 6-2, after having lost the first of three sets, 3-6.
• Born:
• *Danny Chan, Hong Kong pop music singer and actor; in Pok Fu Lam, British Hong Kong
• *Joaquín Climent, Spanish TV actor; in Requena, Valencia
• Died: Daniel Ouezzin Coulibaly, 49, prime minister of the colony of French Upper Volta as president of the governing council. His successor, Maurice Yaméogo, would become the first President of Upper Volta upon the West African nation's independence in 1960.

  September 8, 1958 (Monday)

• The Islamic Republic of Pakistan purchased the port city of Gwadar, and the surrounding enclave of of land, from the Sultanate of Oman for the amount of 5.5 billion Pakistani rupees, equivalent at the time to three million U.S. dollars. The area, across the Arabian Sea from the rest of Oman, had been Omani territory since its conquest in 1797.

  September 9, 1958 (Tuesday)

• The crash of a Flying Tiger Line cargo plane, a Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation, killed all eight people on board. The chartered freight carrier was delivering supplies to Tokyo from Travis Air Force Base in the U.S., and crashed into the side of Mount Oyama.
• The first published criticism of Soviet author Boris Pasternak in the USSR, whose novel Doctor Zhivago had recently been published in the West, appeared in the official literary journal Literaturnaya Gazeta. Critic Viktor Pertsov, while not addressing the novel at that time, set up the condemnation of the author, writing about "the decadent religious poetry of Pasternak", which he said "reeks of mothballs from the Symbolist suitcase of 1908–10 manufacture."
• U.S. physicist Robert H. Dicke was awarded a patent for "Molecular Amplification Generation Systems and Methods", an outline for building an infrared laser.
• In fiction, September 9, 1958 is the date that Jake Epping, the protagonist in Stephen King's bestselling novel 11/22/63 travels to whenever he enters a time portal, with the ultimate goal of preventing the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy. In the television adaptation for Hulu, 11.22.63, the date was altered to October 21, 1960 for purposes of telling the story over a three-year period rather than five years.
• Died: Saeed bin Maktoum bin Hasher Al Maktoum, 80, Emir of Dubai (now part of the United Arab Emirates, since 1912. He was succeeded the next day by his son, Rashid bin Saeed.