1958 in Belgium
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| See also: | Other events of 1958 List of years in Belgium | ||||
Events in the year 1958 in Belgium.
Incumbents[edit]
- Monarch – Baudouin[1]
- Prime Minister – Achille Van Acker (to 26 June); Gaston Eyskens (from 26 June)
Events[edit]
January[edit]
- 1 January – Treaty of Rome establishing European Economic Community comes into force.[2]: 904
- 10 January – Konrad Adenauer and Robert Schuman received honorary doctorates from the Catholic University of Leuven.[2]: 904
February[edit]
- 3 February – Treaty creating Benelux Economic Union signed, to come into force 1 November 1960, providing for free movement of workers, capital, services, and goods between Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg.[3]
March[edit]
- 11 March – Prince Albert takes his seat in the Senate.[2]: 904
- 12 March – Fud Leclerc comes sixth in the Eurovision Song Contest, singing "Ma petite chatte".
- 18 March – Atomium completed.[2]: 904
April[edit]
- 4 April – Tourist information office opens on the Place de Brouckère, Brussels.[4]: 175
- 12 April – Bokrijk open-air museum opens.
- 17 April – King Baudouin opens Expo 58, the first major World's Fair since the Second World War.[4]: 184 John Carl Studder of El Paso, Texas, had queued for 48 hours to be the first visitor admitted.[2]: 904
May[edit]
- 18 May
- Demonstration of about 200,000 marches through Brussels to protest the Socialist government's education policy.[2]: 904
- A Douglas DC-7 on a Sabena flight to Léopoldville crashes in Casablanca, with 65 fatalities and 4 survivors.[2]: 904
- 28 May – Real Madrid wins the European Cup Final against A.C. Milan in the Heysel Stadium, Brussels
June[edit]
- 1 June – General election held: Christian Democrats become the largest group in parliament.
- 15 June
- Tony Brooks wins the 19th Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps.
- Brussels Film Festival opens, with Georges Simenon chairing the jury.[2]: 907
- 22 June – Olivier Gendebien, partnered with Phil Hill in the Scuderia Ferrari team, comes first in the 24 Hours of Le Mans.[2]: 906
- 26 June
- 45th Tour de France starts in Brussels.[4]: 164
- Gaston Eyskens (Christian Social Party) replaces Achille Van Acker (Socialist Party) as Prime Minister.[2]: 906
July[edit]
- 20–23 July – World Archery Championships held in Brussels.
September[edit]
- 9 September – USS Skate (SSN-578) ceremonially welcomed in Zeebrugge after its Arctic mission.[2]: 906
- 25 September – Belgian government intervenes to reduce the price of Belgian coal, with 7,855,000 tonnes stockpiled but uncompetitively expensive on international markets.[2]: 906
October[edit]
- 4 October – Sabena breaks Brussels–Paris air speed record with an S58 helicopter.[2]: 904
- 10 October – Patrice Lumumba founds Mouvement National Congolais.[2]: 906
- 12 October – Municipal elections; Christian Social Party makes gains.[2]: 904
- 19 October – Expo 58 closes.[4]: 171
November[edit]
- 6 November – Political agreement reached on post-war reforms to educational policy, ending a period of contention known as the "Second School War".
- 28 November – Patrice Lumumba declares in Léopoldville that "Independence is not a gift of Belgium but a fundamental right of the Congolese people."[2]: 904
December[edit]
- 1 December – Francis Walder awarded the Prix Goncourt for his Saint-Germain ou la négociation.[2]: 907
- 11 December – Dominique Pire receives the Nobel Peace Prize.[5]
Full date unknown[edit]
Publications[edit]
- Léon Kochnitzky, Negro Art in the Belgian Congo (New York, Belgian Government Information Center)[7]
Performances[edit]
- May
- 2 May – Annie Fischer performs at Expo58.[4]: 160
- June
- 22 June – Galina Ulanova performs at Expo58.[4]: 160
- 24 June – Amália Rodrigues performs at Expo58.[4]: 160
- August
- 20 August – First performance of Gian Carlo Menotti's Maria Golovin at Expo58.[2]: 904
Film[edit]
- Nature documentary Les Seigneurs de la forêt[2]: 907 – English version with narration by Orson Welles distributed internationally by 20th Century Fox as Lords of the Forest (UK) or Masters of the Congo Jungle (US)
Births[edit]
- 16 July – Sabine de Bethune, politician
- 14 December – Jan Fabre, artist
Deaths[edit]
- 6 January – Princess Joséphine Caroline of Belgium
- 11 April – Alfred De Taeye (born 1905), politician
References[edit]
- ^ "Baudouin I | king of Belgium". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 28 March 2019.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Alain de Gueldre et al., Kroniek van België (Antwerp and Zaventem, 1987).
- ^ H.F. van Panhuys, L.J. Brinkhorst, and H.H. Maas (eds.), International Organisation and Integration (Deventer and Leyden, 1968), p. 978.
- ^ a b c d e f g Gonzague Pluvinage, Expo 58: Between Utopia and Reality (Racine, 2008)
- ^ "The Nobel Peace Prize 1958".
- ^
- African Film Festival of Cordoba-FCAT (license CC BY-SA-3.0)
- ^ "Negro Art in the Belgian Congo". New York, Belgian Government Information Center. 1958.
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