Trivia Questions About Things From The
50s - 1958
Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition
completes what?
A: The third overland journey to the South Pole.
Sputnik 1 after being launched on October 4, 1957, does
what?
A: Falls to Earth from its orbit and burns up.
Who wins the United States Chess Championship?
A: 14-year-old Bobby Fischer.
Anne de Vries releases the fourth and final volume of what?
A: Journey Through the Night.
Hall of Fame baseball player Roy Campanella is involved in
a what?
A: An automobile accident that ends his career and leaves him paralyzed.
The first successful American satellite, Explorer 1, is
what?
A: Launched into orbit.
What is lost in the waters off Savannah,
Georgia?
A: A 7,600 pound Mark 15 hydrogen bomb.
Ruth Carol Taylor is the first what?
A: African American woman hired as a flight attendant.
What does Pope Pius XII declare?
A: Saint Clare the patron saint of television.
The U.S. Army inducts
Elvis Presley, transforming The King
Of Rock & Roll into what?
A: U.S. Private #53310761.
The Bridge on the
River Kwai wins how many Academy Awards?
A: Seven, including Academy Award for Best Picture.
In 1958 what does Nikita Khrushchev become?
A: The Premier of the Soviet Union.
What does the satellite Sputnik 2 do in space after several
orbits?
A: It disintegrates.
The San Francisco Giants beat the
Los Angeles Dodgers 8–0
at San Francisco's Seals Stadium, in the first Major League Baseball regular
season game ever played where?
A: In California.
The Montreal Canadiens win the Stanley Cup after defeating
whom?
A: The Boston Bruins in six games.
An F-104 Starfighter sets a world speed record of what?
A: 1,404.19 mph.
Who is brought out of retirement to lead France by decree
for 6 months?
A: Charles de Gaulle.
What does Iceland do with its fishing limits?
A: Increases them to 12 miles.
What food outlet is founded?
A: Pizza Hut.
Who is hanged for treason in Hungary?
A: Imre Nagy.
What does President Dwight D. Eisenhower do?
A: He signs the Alaska Statehood Act into law.
The first what opens in Toluca Lake, Los Angeles?
A: International House of Pancakes (IHOP).
In Lebanon, who lands in the capital Beirut in order to
protect the pro-Western government there?
A: 5,000 United States Marines.
Elizabeth II gives her son and heir apparent The
Prince
Charles what?
A: The customary title of Prince of Wales.
What does the U.S. Congress formally create?
A: The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
The nuclear-powered submarine USS Nautilus becomes the
first vessel to do what?
A: Cross the North Pole under water.
In 1958 Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the Federal Aviation Act,
transferring all authority over aviation in the USA to what newly created
agency?
A: The Federal Aviation Agency (FAA, later renamed Federal Aviation
Administration).
What did Jack Kilby invent?
A: The first integrated circuit.
What country declares itself independent from France?
A: Guinea.
What happened to Pope Pius XII?
A: He dies.
Who does the Nobel Committee announce as the winner of the
1958 Prize for Literature?
A: Boris Pasternak.
What Pope succeeds Pope Pius XII as the 261st pope?
A: Pope John XXIII.
Harry Winston donates what to the Smithsonian Institution?
A: The Hope Diamond.
Ted Kennedy marries who?
A: Virginia Joan Bennett at St. Joseph's Church in Bronxville, New York.
Adolfo López Mateos takes office as what?
A: President of Mexico.
The right-wing John Birch Society is founded in the United
States by whom?
A: Robert W. Welch, Jr., a retired candy manufacturer.
The United States launches what?
A: SCORE, the world's first communications satellite.
A message from U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower is
broadcast from where?
A: The SCORE satellite.
Who is elected president of France with 78.5% of the votes?
A: General Charles de Gaulle.
USA, USSR and Great Britain agree to stop testing what for
3 years?
A: Atomic bombs.
What food item goes on sale for the first time?
A: Instant noodles.
