At A Glance

18 August 1958 at a glance

Day of the week
18 August 1958 was a Monday.
Billboard Hot 100 No. 1
The Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 was “Volare (Nel blu dipinto di blu)” by Domenico Modugno.
Top Film of 1958
The highest-grossing film worldwide released in 1958 was South Pacific.
Bestselling Novel of 1958
“Doctor Zhivago” by Boris Pasternak was No. 1 on Publishers Weekly's US fiction list for 1958.
Top-Rated TV Show
“Gunsmoke” (CBS) was No. 1 in the Nielsen ratings for the 1958–59 season.
Star sign
The star sign for 18 August is Leo.
Chinese zodiac
In the Chinese zodiac, 18 August 1958 fell in the Year of the Dog.
Birthstone
The birthstone for August is Peridot.
Moon phase
The moon phase on 18 August 1958 was Waxing Crescent.

On this day: 18 August

  • 1958 Vladimir Nabokov's controversial novel Lolita is published in the United States.
  • 1958 Brojen Das from Bangladesh swims across the English Channel in a competition as the first Bengali and the first Asian to do so, placing first among the 39 competitors.
  • 1963 Civil rights movement: James Meredith becomes the first African American to graduate from the University of Mississippi.
  • 1965 Vietnam War: Operation Starlite begins: United States Marines destroy a Viet Cong stronghold on the Van Tuong peninsula in the first major American ground battle of the war.
  • 1966 Vietnam War: The Battle of Long Tan ensues after a patrol from the 6th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment clashes with a Viet Cong force in Phước Tuy Province.

Famous people born on August 18

  • Robert Redford, American actor, director, and producer (1936–2025)
  • Patrick Swayze, American actor and dancer (1952–2009)
  • Edward Norton, American actor (born 1969)
  • Kaitlin Olson, American actress and comedian (born 1975)

Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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Events of 1958 in the United States

A selection from Wikipedia's '1958 in the United States'. Not a complete list.

  • June 8 – The SS Edmund Fitzgerald is launched; it will be the largest freighter on the Great Lakes for more than a dozen years.
  • June 15 – The first Pizza Hut restaurant opens in Wichita, Kansas.
  • July 9 – 1958 Lituya Bay megatsunami: A 7.8 Mw strike-slip earthquake in Southeast Alaska causes a landslide that produces a megatsunami. The runup from the waves reached 525 m (1,722 ft) on the rim of Lituya Bay.

Life in the US in 1958

President

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Gas (per gallon)

$0.30

Loaf of Bread

$0.19

Average House

$10,900

Weekly Wage

$79

Or

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Famous Faces Born in the 1950s

Well-known people born in the same decade as you, not on your birthday.

Sources: Wikidata and Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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