1958 - The year Paul Newman and Robert Redford got married!

Breaking the hearts of a million gals, 1958 was the year heart-throbs Paul Newman and Robert Redford got married, creating a media sensation.

NOTE - The Administration Team for this site has recently received complaints that the title of this post in combination with the photograph above appears to imply that the photograph can be interpreted as Robert and Paul simulating an obscene act - we therefore wish to make it clear that it is absolutely not the intention of the poster to suggest such a thing.

Paul married actress Joanne Woodward and Robert married a bloke called Lola Van Wagenen.

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Sputnik - A Triumph of Soviet Technology

Early in 1958, the Soviet satellite Sputnik 1 successfully returned to earth, and started the SPACE RACE.

Later that year, the U.S. Government in craven desperation formed NASA, the North American Space Agency, in a panic at the supremacy of Soviet technological space achievement.

Those yankees sure were sweating!

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Elvis On Draft - new in '58

1958 was the year Elvis received his draft papers to join the U. S. Army.

Elvis could easily have taken a softer option and been given preferential treatment, but chose instead to show his solidarity with ordinary folk like you and me.

D'ya ever have one of those days, boys!

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A Proper Socialist Pope

1958 was the first and only year that a proper socialist (John XXIII) won the world-famous pope competition.

Like his childhood hero Jesus, John believed that the rich should give ALL of their money to the poor.

He was also the first pope to support a woman's right to choose, and was fervently in favour of Lesbian, Gay, Transgender and BSDM rights (hope I've not missed anyone out.)

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1958 - When Hairstyles Had Style

There's something about the ladies' hairstyles of 1958 that drives me crazy - the combination of sexiness and classiness and - well - sheer pazazz - seems to have got itself just right in that year. This is the 1958 "Smooth Waves" look, thanks for photo from www.hji.co.uk who show shots of other styles from 1958, that sexy, classy year!

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1958 - Bertie forms CND

In 1958, Bertrand Russell, who was one of the greatest philosophers of all time and Britain's Cleverest Man, joined with Dora Russell (no relation), J. B. Priestley, Fenner Brockway, Victor Gollancz, Canon John Collins and Michael Foot to form the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND).



Russell's main areas of expertise were logic and the philosophy of mathematics, but he did not hide behind abstraction to shirk the duties of a public intellectual. Not only would Bertie sign and make political declarations, but he would march with ordinary folk like you, and was even willing to go to prison for his beliefs.

They just don't make 'em like that anymore.

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1958 - Solar Maximum - The Fire Last Time

1958 was the year of the largest Solar Maximum on record - the sun's activity was at its highest that year, and some believe that this record-breaking high-energy level within our corner of the cosmos - the Northern Lights could be seen from as far south as Mexico - has a causal connection with the remarkable nature of 1958.

The next biggie is due in 2012 - let's rock and roll!

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In 1958, Great Britain got its first motorway

Heralding a new age of transportation and making it easier for ordinary folk like you and me to get to the seaside, 1958 was the year Great Britain saw its first motorway, the Preston Bypass. Prime Minister Harold Macmillan opened the motorway to great fanfare on the 5th of December.

Some were alarmed that with horses and carts not being allowed on motorways, there might be an adverse effect on the trade of rag-and-bone persons.

Such fears, however, soon proved to be unfounded.

An Automobile Association patrol van on the hard-shoulder.

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