1958

This article is about the year 1958. For other uses, see 1958 (disambiguation).

1958

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	19th century 20th century 21st century
Decades:	1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s
Years:	1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961

1958 in various calendars

Gregorian calendar	1958 MCMLVIII
Ab urbe condita	2711
Armenian calendar	1407 ԹՎ ՌՆԷ
Assyrian calendar	6708
Baháʼí calendar	114–115
Balinese saka calendar	1879–1880
Bengali calendar	1365
Berber calendar	2908
British Regnal year	6 Eliz. 2 – 7 Eliz. 2
Buddhist calendar	2502
Burmese calendar	1320
Byzantine calendar	7466–7467
Chinese calendar	丁酉年 (Fire Rooster) 4655 or 4448     — to — 戊戌年 (Earth Dog) 4656 or 4449
Coptic calendar	1674–1675
Discordian calendar	3124
Ethiopian calendar	1950–1951
Hebrew calendar	5718–5719
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	2014–2015
- Shaka Samvat	1879–1880
- Kali Yuga	5058–5059
Holocene calendar	11958
Igbo calendar	958–959
Iranian calendar	1336–1337
Islamic calendar	1377–1378
Japanese calendar	Shōwa 33 (昭和３３年)
Javanese calendar	1889–1890
Juche calendar	47
Julian calendar	Gregorian minus 13 days
Korean calendar	4291
Minguo calendar	ROC 47 民國47年
Nanakshahi calendar	490
Thai solar calendar	2501
Tibetan calendar	阴火鸡年 (female Fire-Rooster) 2084 or 1703 or 931     — to — 阳土狗年 (male Earth-Dog) 2085 or 1704 or 932

1958 (MCMLVIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1958th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 958th year of the 2nd millennium, the 58th year of the 20th century, and the 9th year of the 1950s decade.

Events

January

• January 1
  • The European Economic Community (EEC) comes into being.
  • The first Carrefour store opens, in Annecy, France.
• January 3
  • Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the third overland journey to the South Pole, and is the first to use powered vehicles.
  • The West Indies Federation is formed.
• January 4 – Sputnik 1 (launched on October 4, 1957) falls to Earth from its orbit, and burns up.
• January 8 – Bobby Fischer, 14, wins the United States Chess Championship.
• January 13 - Battle of Edchera: The Moroccan Army of Liberation ambushes a Spanish patrol.
• January 18
  • Battle of Hayes Pond: Armed Lumbee Indians rout a gathering of Klansmen, in Maxton, North Carolina.
  • The first of Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concerts with the New York Philharmonic is telecast by CBS. The Emmy-winning series (one concert approximately every 3 months except for the summer) will run for more than 14 years. It will make Bernstein's name a household word, and the most famous conductor in the U.S.
• January 27 – A Soviet-American executive agreement on cultural, educational and scientific exchanges, also known as the "Lacy–Zarubin Agreement", is signed in Washington, D.C.
• January 28
  • Hall of Fame baseball player Roy Campanella is involved in an automobile accident that ends his career and leaves him paralyzed.
  • Godtfred Kirk Christiansen files a patent for the iconic plastic Lego brick. From its foundation, his company will make 400 billion Lego elements.
• January 31 – The first successful American satellite, Explorer 1, is launched into orbit.

February

• February 1 – Egypt and Syria unite, to form the United Arab Republic.
• February 2 – The word Aerospace is coined, from the words Aeroplane (aero) and Spacecraft (space), taking into consideration that the Earth's atmosphere and outerspace is to be one, or a single realm.
• February 5
  • Gamal Abdel Nasser is nominated as the first president of the United Arab Republic.
  • The Tybee Bomb, a 7,600 pound (3,500 kg) Mark 15 hydrogen bomb, is lost in the waters off Savannah, Georgia.
• February 6 – Seven Manchester United footballers are among the 21 people killed in the Munich air disaster in West Germany, on the return flight from a European Cup game in Yugoslavia. 23 people survive, but 4 of them, including manager Matt Busby and players Johnny Berry and Duncan Edwards, are in serious condition. Busby and Berry will pull through, although Berry will never play again. Edwards dies a fortnight later.
• February 11
  • The strongest ever known solar maximum is recorded.
  • Marshal Chen Yi succeeds Zhou Enlai as Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs.
  • Ruth Carol Taylor is the first African American woman hired as a flight attendant. Hired by Mohawk Airlines, her career lasts only 6 months, due to another discriminatory barrier – the airline's ban on married flight attendants.
• February 14 – The Hashemite Kingdoms of Iraq and Jordan unite in the Arab Federation, with King Faisal II of Iraq as head of state.
• February 17 – Pope Pius XII declares Saint Clare the patron saint of television.
• February 20 – A test rocket explodes at Cape Canaveral.
• February 21 – A peace symbol is designed and completed by Gerald Holtom, commissioned by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, in protest against the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment.
• February 23
  • Cuban rebels kidnap five-time world driving champion Juan Manuel Fangio, releasing him 28 hours later.
  • Arturo Frondizi is elected president of Argentina.
• February 24 – In Cuba, Fidel Castro's Radio Rebelde begins broadcasting from Sierra Maestra.
• February 25 – Bertrand Russell launches the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.
• February 28 – One of the worst school bus accidents in U.S. history occurs at Prestonburg, Kentucky; 27 are killed.

March

• March 1 – Turkish passenger ship Üsküdar capsizes and sinks in the Gulf of İzmit, Turkey; at least 300 die.
• March 2 – A British Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition team, led by Sir Vivian Fuchs, completes the first overland crossing of the Antarctic, using snowcat caterpillar tractors and dogsled teams, in 99 days, via the South Pole.
• March 8 – The USS Wisconsin is decommissioned, leaving the United States Navy without an active battleship for the first time since 1896 (she is recommissioned October 22, 1988).
• March 11 – A U.S. B-47 bomber accidentally drops an atom bomb on Mars Bluff, South Carolina. Without a fissile warhead, its conventional explosives destroy a house and injure several people.
• March 17 – The Convention on the Inter-Governmental Maritime Consultative Organization (IMCO) enters into force, founding the IMCO as a specialized agency of the United Nations.
• March 17 – The United States launches the Vanguard 1 satellite.
• March 19
  • The Monarch Underwear Company fire occurs in New York, killing 24.
  • Warner Bros. Records, the company of which would later become Warner Records, is founded by its namesake, Warner Bros. Pictures.
• March 24 – The U.S. Army inducts Elvis Presley, transforming The King Of Rock & Roll into U.S. Private #53310761.
• March 25 – Canada's Avro Arrow makes its maiden flight.
• March 26
  • The United States Army launches Explorer 3.
  • The 30th Academy Awards Ceremony takes place; The Bridge on the River Kwai wins 7 awards, including Academy Award for Best Picture.
• March 27
  • Nikita Khrushchev becomes Premier of the Soviet Union.
  • The film Run Silent, Run Deep is released in the US.

April

• April – Unemployment in Detroit reaches 20%, marking the height of the Recession of 1958 in the United States.
• April 1 – The BBC Radiophonic Workshop is established.
• April 3 – Castro's revolutionary army begins its attacks on Havana.
• April 4–7 – In the first protest march for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament from Hyde Park, London to Aldermaston, Berkshire, demonstrators demand the banning of nuclear weapons.
• April 4 – Cheryl Crane, daughter of actress Lana Turner, fatally stabs her mother's gangster lover Johnny Stompanato (the stabbing is eventually ruled as self-defense).
• April 6 – Soraya Esfandiary-Bakhtiari divorces the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi after she is unable to produce any children.
• April 14
  • The satellite Sputnik 2 (launched November 3, 1957) disintegrates during reentry from orbit.
  • Van Cliburn wins the International Tchaikovsky Competition for pianists in Moscow, breaking Cold War tensions.
• April 15 – 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 in California.
• April 17 – King Baudouin of Belgium officially opens the world's fair in Brussels, also known as Expo 58. The Atomium forms the centrepiece.
• April 20 – The Montreal Canadiens win the Stanley Cup, after defeating the Boston Bruins in 6 games.
• April 21 – United Airlines Flight 736 is involved in a mid-air collision with a U.S. Air Force F-100F jet fighter in what is now Enterprise, Nevada; all 49 persons in both aircraft are killed.
• April 22 – "Sunday Afternoon at Home", one of the most famous episodes of the comedy radio series Hancock's Half Hour, is broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in the United Kingdom for the first time.

May

• May 1
  • Arturo Frondizi becomes President of Argentina.
  • The Nordic Passport Union comes into force.
• May 9 – Actor-singer Paul Robeson, whose passport has been reinstated, sings in a sold-out one-man recital at Carnegie Hall. The recital is such a success, that Robeson gives another one at Carnegie Hall a few days later; but, after this, Robeson is seldom seen in public in the United States again. His Carnegie Hall concerts are later released on records and on CD.
• May 10 – Interviewed in the Chave d'Ouro café, when asked about his rival António de Oliveira Salazar, Humberto Delgado utters one of the most famous comments in Portuguese political history: "Obviamente, demito-o! (Obviously, I'll sack him!)".
• May 12 – A formal North American Aerospace Defense Command agreement is signed between the United States and Canada.
• May 13
  • Crisis in France: French Algerian protesters seize government offices in Algiers, leading to a military coup.
  • During a visit to Caracas, Venezuela, Vice President Richard Nixon's car is attacked by anti-American demonstrators.
• May 15
  • The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 3.
  • MGM's Gigi opens in New York City, beginning its run in the U.S. after being shown at the Cannes film festival. The last of the great MGM musicals, it will become a huge critical and box office success, and win 9 Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Gigi is Lerner and Loewe's first musical written especially for film, and is deliberately written in a style evoking the team's My Fair Lady, which is still playing on Broadway at the time and cannot yet be filmed.
• May 18 – An F-104 Starfighter sets a world speed record of 1,404.19 mph (2,259.82 km/h).
• May 20 – Fulgencio Batista's government launches a counteroffensive against Castro's rebels.
• May 21 – United Kingdom Postmaster General Ernest Marples announces that from December, Subscriber Trunk Dialling will be introduced in the Bristol area.
• May 22 – President Dwight D. Eisenhower becomes the first American elected official to be broadcast on color television.
• May 23 – Explorer 1 ceases transmission.
• May 28 – Real Madrid beats A.C. Milan 3–2 at Heysel Stadium, Brussels and wins the 1957-58 European Cup (football).
• May 30 – The bodies of unidentified United States soldiers killed in action during World War II and the Korean War are buried at the Tomb of the Unknowns, in Arlington National Cemetery.

June

• June 1
  • Charles de Gaulle is brought out of retirement at Colombey-les-Deux-Églises, to lead France by decree for 6 months.
  • Iceland extends its fishing limits to 12 miles (22.2 km).
• June 2 – In San Simeon, California, Hearst Castle opens to the public for guided tours.
• June 4 – French President Charles de Gaulle visits Algeria.
• June 8 – The SS Edmund Fitzgerald is launched; she will be the largest Lake freighter for more than a dozen years.
• June 15 – Pizza Hut is founded by Dan and Frank Carney, in Wichita, Kansas.
• June 16 – Imre Nagy and other leaders of the failed Hungarian Revolution of 1956 are hanged for treason, following secret trials.
• June 20 – The iron barque Omega of Callao, Peru (built in Scotland, 1887), sinks on passage carrying guano from the Pachacamac Islands for Huacho, the world's last full-rigged ship trading under sail alone.
• June 27 – The Peronist Party becomes legal again in Argentina.
• June 29 – Brazil beats Sweden 5–2 in the final game, to win the football World Cup in Sweden.
• June 30 – The Ifni War ends in Spanish Sahara.

July

• July – The plastic hula hoop is first marketed in the United States.
• July 3 – 1958 US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement signed in Washington, D.C.
• July 5 – Gasherbrum I, the 11th highest mountain in the world, is first ascended.
• July 7
  • United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the Alaska Statehood Act into law.
  • The first International House of Pancakes (IHOP) opens in Toluca Lake, Los Angeles.
• July 9 – 1958 Lituya Bay megatsunami: A 7.8 M_w  strike-slip earthquake in Southeast Alaska causes a landslide that produces a megatsunami. The runup from the waves reaches 525 m (1,722 ft) on the rim of Lituya Bay.
• July 10 – The first parking meters are installed in Britain.
• July 11
  • Count Michael Rhédey von Kis-Rhéde, direct descendant of Samuel Aba, King of Hungary, age 60, is pistol-whipped and murdered over a few hectares of land by Czechoslovak Communists, during the collectivization process at his residence in Olcsvar, Slovakia.
  • Scottish serial killer Peter Manuel, "The Beast of Birkenshaw", is hanged at Barlinnie Prison in Glasgow, for the murder of 7 people.
• July 12
  • The Beatles, at this time known as The Quarrymen, pay 17 shillings and 6 pence to have their first recording session where they record Buddy Holly's "That'll Be the Day" and "In Spite of All the Danger", a song written by Paul McCartney and George Harrison.
  • Henri Cornelis becomes Governor-General of the Belgian Congo, the last Belgian governor prior to independence.
• July 14 – July 14 Revolution in Iraq: King Faisal is killed. Abd al-Karim Qasim assumes power.
• July 15 – In Lebanon, 5,000 United States Marines land in the capital Beirut in order to protect the pro-Western government.
• July 20 – Various rebel groups in Cuba join forces, but the communists do not join them.
• July 24 – The first life peerage under the Life Peerages Act 1958 is created in the United Kingdom.
• July 26
  • Explorer program: Explorer 4 is launched.
  • Elizabeth II gives her son and heir apparent The Prince Charles the customary title of Prince of Wales.
• July 29 – The U.S. Congress formally creates the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
• July 31 – The Tibetan resistance movement against rule by China receives support from the United States Central Intelligence Agency.

August

• August 3 – The nuclear-powered submarine USS Nautilus becomes the first vessel to cross the North Pole under water.
• August 6 – Australian athlete Herb Elliott clips almost 3 seconds off the world record for the mile run at Santry Stadium, Dublin, recording a time of 3 minutes 54.5 seconds.
• August 12 – The Federal Switchblade Act is enacted in the United States.
• August 14 – KLM Flight 607-E, a Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation, crashes into the sea with 99 people aboard.
• August 17 – The first Thor-Able rocket is launched, carrying Pioneer 0, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Space Launch Complex 17. The launch fails due to a first stage malfunction.
• August 18
  • Vladimir Nabokov's controversial novel Lolita is published in the United States.
  • Brojen Das from East Pakistan swims across the English Channel in a competition, the first Bangali as well as the first Asian to ever do it. He is first among 39 competitors.
• August 23
  • Chinese Civil War: The Second Taiwan Strait Crisis begins, with the People's Liberation Army's bombardment of Quemoy.
  • President of the United States Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the Federal Aviation Act, transferring all authority over aviation in the US to the newly created Federal Aviation Agency (FAA, later renamed Federal Aviation Administration).
• August 26 – A general strike is called in Paraguay.
• August 27 – Operation Argus: The United States begins nuclear tests over the South Atlantic.
• August 30–September 1 – Notting Hill race riots: Riots occur between blacks and whites in Notting Hill, London.

September

• September 1
  • The first Cod War begins, between the United Kingdom and Iceland.
  • Grange School is established in GRA Ikeja, Lagos.
• September 2
  • Hendrik Verwoerd becomes the 6th Prime Minister of South Africa.
  • China's first television broadcasts start at Beijing Television Station, a predecessor of China Central Television.　
• September 4 – Jorge Alessandri is the winner of Chile's presidential election.
• September 6 – Paul Robeson performs in concert at the Soviet Young Pioneer camp Artek.
• September 12 – Jack Kilby invents the first integrated circuit, while working at Texas Instruments.
• September 14 – Two rockets designed by German engineer Ernst Mohr (the first German post-war rockets) reach the upper atmosphere.
• September 27
  • Typhoon Ida kills at least 1,269 in Honshū, Japan.
  • Hurricane Helene, the worst storm of the North Atlantic hurricane season, reaches category 4 status.
• September 28 – In France, a majority of 79% says yes to the constitution of the Fifth Republic.
• September 30 – The U.S.S.R. performs a nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya.

October

• October 1
  • Tunisia and Morocco join the Arab League.
  • NASA starts operations and replaces the NACA in the United States.
• October 2 – Guinea declares itself independent from France.
• October 4
  • The new Constitution of France is signed into law, establishing the French Fifth Republic.
  • British Overseas Airways Corporation uses the new De Havilland Comet jets, to become the first airline to fly jet passenger services across the Atlantic.
• October 9 – Pope Pius XII dies.
• October 10 – The private detective drama series, 77 Sunset Strip, premieres on ABC.
• October 11 – Pioneer 1, the second and most successful of the 3 project Able space probes, becomes the first spacecraft launched by the newly formed NASA.
• October 13 – Penny Coelen is crowned as Miss World 1958 during the 8th Miss World Pageant, the first South African to win the title.
• October 16 – The long-running BBC Television children's programme Blue Peter is first broadcast.
• October 17 – An Evening with Fred Astaire, the first television show recorded on color videotape, is broadcast on NBC in the United States.
• October 18 – The first video game, “Tennis for Two,” invented by William Higinbotham, is introduced at the Brookhaven National Laboratory Visitors' Day Exhibit in the United States.
• October 19 – The Great Chinese Famine begins.
• October 21 – The Life Peerages Act entitles women to sit in the British House of Lords for the first time. The Baronesses Swanborough (Stella Isaacs, Marchioness of Reading) and Wooton (Barbara Wootton, Baroness Wootton of Abinger) are the first to take their seats.
• October 23 – The Nobel Committee announces Russian novelist Boris Pasternak as the winner of the 1958 Prize for Literature.
• October 26 – A Pan American World Airways Boeing 707 makes its first transatlantic flight.
• October 28 – Pope John XXIII succeeds Pope Pius XII, as the 261st pope.

November

• November 3
  • The new UNESCO building, World Heritage Centre, is inaugurated in Paris.
  • Jorge Alessandri is sworn in as President of Chile.
• November 10 – The bossa nova is born in Rio de Janeiro, with João Gilberto's recording of Chega de Saudade.
• November 10 – Harry Winston donates the Hope Diamond to the Smithsonian Institution.
• November 18 – En route to Rogers City, Michigan, the Lake freighter SS Carl D. Bradley breaks up and sinks in a storm on Lake Michigan; 33 of the 35 crewmen on board perish.
• November 22 – 1958 Australian federal election: Robert Menzies' Liberal/Country Coalition Government is re-elected with a slightly increased majority, defeating the Labor Party led by H.V. Evatt. This is the first election where television was used as a medium for communicating with voters. Evatt will eventually resign as Labor leader and will be replaced by his deputy Arthur Calwell.
• November 23 – The radio version of Have Gun – Will Travel premieres in the United States. It is one of the last dramas to go on the air on commercial radio. Only some NPR stations will broadcast radio dramas in years to come.
• November 25 – French Sudan gains autonomy as a self-governing member of the French colonial empire.
• November 28 – Chad, the Republic of the Congo, and Gabon become autonomous republics within the French colonial empire.
• November 30 – Gaullists win the French parliamentary election.

December

• December 1
  • Adolfo López Mateos takes office as President of Mexico.
  • Our Lady of the Angels School fire: At least 90 students and 3 nuns are killed in a fire in Chicago.
• December 5
  • Subscriber trunk dialling (STD) is inaugurated in the United Kingdom by the Queen, when she dials a call from Bristol to Edinburgh and speaks to the Lord Provost.
  • Prime Minister Harold Macmillan personally inspects and opens the United Kingdom's first ever motorway, the Preston Bypass, to traffic for the first time. (The bypass becomes part of the M6 and M55 Motorways, and is significantly upgraded in the mid 1990s.) 11 months later the M1, M45 and M10 Motorways open.
• December 9 – The right-wing John Birch Society is founded in the United States by Robert W. Welch Jr., a retired candy manufacturer.
• December 14 – The 3rd Soviet Antarctic Expedition becomes the first ever to reach the Southern Pole of Inaccessibility.
• December 15 – Arthur L. Schawlow and Charles H. Townes of Bell Laboratories publish a paper in Physical Review Letters setting out the principles of the optical laser.
• December 16
  • A fire breaks out in the Vida Department Store in Bogotá, Colombia and kills 84 persons.
  • Soviet polar pilot V. M. Perov on Li-2 rescues four Belgian polar explorers, led by Gaston de Gerlache, who have survived a plane crash in Antarctica 250 km from their base five days earlier.
• December 18
  • The United States launches SCORE, the world's first communications satellite.
  • The Bell XV-3 Tiltrotor makes the first true mid-air transition from vertical helicopter-type flight to fully level fixed-wing flight.
• December 19 – A message from U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower is broadcast from the SCORE satellite.
• December 21 – General Charles de Gaulle is elected president of France with 78.5% of the votes.
• December 24 – 1958 BOAC Bristol Britannia crash: A BOAC Bristol Britannia (312 G-AOVD) crashes near Winkton, England during a test flight.
• December 25 – Tchaikovsky's ballet The Nutcracker (the George Balanchine version) is shown on prime-time television in color for the first time, as an episode of the CBS anthology series Playhouse 90.
• December 28 – In American football, the Baltimore Colts beat the New York Giants 23–17 to win the NFL Championship Game, the first to go into sudden death overtime and "The Greatest Game Ever Played".
• December 29 – Rebel troops under Che Guevara begin to invade Santa Clara, Cuba. Fulgencio Batista resigns two days later, on the night of the 31st.
• December 30 – The Guatemalan Air Force fires on Mexican fishing boats which had strayed into Guatemalan territory, triggering the Mexico–Guatemala conflict.
• December 31 – Tallies reveal that, for the first time, the total of passengers carried by air this year exceeds the total carried by sea in transatlantic service.

Date unknown

• Nikita Khrushchev orders the Western allies to evacuate West Berlin within 6 months but backs down in the face of the Allies' unity.
• The United States, the Soviet Union, and the United Kingdom agree to stop testing atomic bombs for 3 years.
• During the International Geophysical Year, Earth's magnetosphere is discovered.
• The last legal female genital cutting occurs in the United States.
• Denatonium, the bitterest substance known, is discovered. It is used as an aversive agent in products such as bleach to reduce the risk of children drinking them.
• The Jim Henson Company is founded in the United States.
• Instant noodles go on sale for the first time.
• The Japanese 10 yen coin ceases having serrated edges after a 5-year period beginning in 1953. All 10 yen coins since have smooth edges.
• The University of New Orleans established.
• Illinois observes the centennial of the Lincoln–Douglas debates.
• Sicilian writer Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa's novel Il Gattopardo is published posthumously.
• Welsh cultural critic Raymond Williams publishes Culture and Society.
• The British Rally Championship begins its first year.
• The Professional Bowlers Tour is established at its headquarters in Seattle.
• Based on birth rates (per 1,000 population), the post-war baby boom ends in the United States as an 11-year decline in the birth rate begins (the longest on record in that country).
• GoldStar, as predecessor for LG Electronics, founded in South Korea.

Births

January

Matt Frewer

Boris Tadić

Lorenzo Lamas

Ellen DeGeneres

• January 1
  • Grandmaster Flash, African-American hip-hop/rap DJ
  • Dave Silk, American professional ice hockey player
• January 2 – Vladimir Ovchinnikov, Russian pianist
• January 4
  • Matt Frewer, Canadian-American actor (Max Headroom)
  • James J. Greco, American businessman
  • Julian Sands, English actor
  • Lorna Doom, American musician (d. 2019)
• January 5 – Junko Yagami, Japanese singer and songwriter
• January 7 – Yasmin Ahmad, Malaysian film director, writer and scriptwriter (d. 2009)
• January 8 – Betsy DeVos, American businesswoman and politician, 11th Secretary of Education
• January 9
  • Rob McClanahan, American professional ice hockey player
  • Mehmet Ali Ağca, Turkish militant, would-be assassin of Pope John Paul II
  • Stephen Neale, British philosopher
• January 10
  • Samira Said, Moroccan singer
  • Terrence Scammell, Canadian voice director and voice actor
• January 11
  • Alyson Reed, American dancer and actress
  • Vicki Peterson, American rock musician (The Bangles)
  • Trevor Taylor, Jamaican-German singer and musician (Bad Boys Blue) (d. 2008)
• January 12
  • Arun Govil, Indian television actor
  • Christiane Amanpour, British-Iranian journalist and television host
  • Curt Fraser, American ice hockey coach
• January 13
  • Ricardo Acuña, Chilean tennis player
  • Juan Pedro de Miguel, Spanish handball player (d. 2016)
• January 15 – Boris Tadić, Serbian president
• January 20
  • Lorenzo Lamas, American actor, martial artist and reality show participant
  • Masuo Amada, Japanese voice actor
• January 21 – Hussein Saeed Mohammed, Iraqi football player
• January 23 – Steve Christoff, American professional ice hockey player
• January 24 – Jools Holland, British musician
• January 26
  • Anita Baker, American soul and R&B singer
  • Ellen DeGeneres, American actress, comedian, and television host
• January 27
  • Kadri Mälk, Estonian artist and jewelry designer
  • Susanna Thompson, American actress
• January 28 – Maitê Proença, Brazilian actress
• January 29 – Stephen Lerner, American labor and community activist
• January 31 – Mamoon al-Farkh, Syrian Actor and Theatre director (d. 2020)

February

Ice-T

Andriy Bal

Jack Coleman

Tim Kaine

Maggie Hassan

• February 1 – Ryō Horikawa, Japanese voice actor
• February 4 – Tomasz Pacyński, Polish writer (d. 2005)
• February 5 – Fabrizio Frizzi, Italian television presenter (d. 2018)
• February 7 – Kevin Schon, American voice actor
• February 8
  • Marina Silva, Brazilian politician
  • Sherri Martel, American professional wrestler (d. 2007)
• February 9
  • Cyrille Regis, English footballer (d. 2018)
  • Walid al-Kubaisi, Norwegian-Iraqi author, journalist, translator, film director and government scholar (d. 2018)
• February 10 – Michael Weiss, jazz pianist and composer
• February 11
  • Michael Jackson, British broadcasting executive
  • Regina Maršíková, Czechoslovakian tennis player
• February 13 – Pernilla August, Swedish actress
• February 14
  • Grant Thomas, Australian rules footballer
  • Francisco Javier López Peña, Basque separatist
• February 16
  • Ice-T, American rapper, songwriter, and actor
  • Andriy Bal, Ukrainian football player and coach (d. 2014)
  • Nancy Donahue, American fashion model and entrepreneur
• February 18 – Gar Samuelson, American drummer (d. 1999)
• February 19
  • Leslie David Baker, African-American actor
  • Steve Nieve, English musician
• February 20 – Jamal Hamdan, Lebanese actor and voice actor
• February 21
  • Jack Coleman, American actor and screenwriter
  • Jake Burns, Irish punk singer
  • Jake Steinfeld, American actor
  • Mary Chapin Carpenter, American singer
• February 24 – Todd Fisher, American actor
• February 25 – Kurt Rambis, American basketball player
• February 26
  • Silva Zurleva, Bulgarian journalist (d. 2020)
  • María Casal, Spanish actress
  • Susan Helms, American astronaut
  • Tim Kaine, American politician
• February 27
  • Max Crivello, Italian artist
  • Maggie Hassan, U.S. Senator from New Hampshire
  • Michael LeMoyne Kennedy, American lawyer and political activist (d. 1997)
  • Nancy Spungen, American groupie and girlfriend of Sid Vicious (d. 1978)
• February 28
  • Natalya Estemirova, Russian activist (d. 2009)
  • Phil Hayes, British voice actor
  • Mark Pavelich, American professional ice hockey player

March

Miranda Richardson

Andy Gibb

Sharon Stone

Albert II, Prince of Monaco

Holly Hunter

Gary Oldman

Elio de Angelis

Maurice LaMarche

• March 1 – Nik Kershaw, English singer
• March 3 – Miranda Richardson, English actress
• March 4 – Patricia Heaton, American actress
• March 5 – Andy Gibb, English singer, songwriter, performer, and teen idol (d. 1988)
• March 7 – Rik Mayall, English comedian and actor (d. 2014)
• March 8 – Gary Numan, British singer
• March 9
  • Linda Fiorentino, American actress
  • Mary Murphy, Dance choreographer
• March 10
  • Steve Howe, American baseball player (d. 2006)
  • Sharon Stone, American actress and producer
  • Frankie Ruiz, Puerto Rican singer (d. 1998)
  • Hiroshi Yanaka, Japanese voice actor
• March 11 – Anissa Jones, American child actress (“Family Affair”) (d. 1976)
• March 13 – Linda Robson, English actress
• March 14
  • Bruno Dumont, French film director and screenwriter
  • Albert II, Prince of Monaco
• March 15
  • Anne Davies, British television presenter and newsreader
  • John Friedrich, American actor
• March 16 – Phillip Wilcher, Australian pianist (The Wiggles)
• March 18
  • John Elefante, American singer and producer (Kansas)
  • Kayo Hatta, American film director (d. 2005)
• March 20 – Holly Hunter, American actress
• March 21 – Gary Oldman, English actor and filmmaker
• March 23
  • Eldon Hoke, American singer and drummer (d. 1997)
  • Michael Sorich, American voice actor, actor, writer, director and voice director
• March 24 – Roland Koch, German politician
• March 25 – James McDaniel, American actor
• March 26
  • Elio de Angelis, Italian race car driver (d. 1986)
  • Todd Joseph Miles Holden, American-born social scientist, author, basketball coach
  • Hala Fouad, Egyptian actress (d. 1993)
• March 27 – Jessica Soho, Philippine television celebrity and reporter
• March 28
  • Bart Conner, American gymnast
  • Curt Hennig, American professional wrestler (d. 2003)
  • Edesio Alejandro, Cuban music composer
• March 29 – Anu Lamp, Estonian actress
• March 30
  • Maurice LaMarche, Canadian voice actor
  • Lucy Turnbull, Lord Mayor of Sydney, wife of Malcolm Turnbull
• March 31
  • Dietmar Bartsch, German politician
  • Lisa Michelson, American voice actress (d. 1991)

April

Alec Baldwin

Peter Capaldi

Andie MacDowell

Luis Guillermo Solís

Michelle Pfeiffer

• April 1 – D. Boon, American singer and guitarist (d. 1985)
• April 3
  • Alec Baldwin, American actor
  • Jaan Rekkor, Estonian actor
• April 4
  • Cazuza, Brazilian poet, singer and composer (d. 1990)
  • Constance Shulman, American actress
  • Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, Thai billionaire businessman (d. 2018)
• April 6 – Sophie Muller, British music video director
• April 7 – Shinobu Adachi, Japanese voice actress
• April 10 – Yefim Bronfman, Russian-born pianist
• April 11
  • Hussniya Jabara, Israeli Arab politician
  • Luc Luycx, Belgian coin designer
  • Stuart Adamson, Scottish singer and guitarist (Big Country) (d. 2001)
• April 12 – Ginka Zagorcheva, Bulgarian athlete
• April 14
  • Peter Capaldi, Scottish actor
  • Junko Sakurada, Japanese actress and singer
  • John D'Aquino, American film and television actor
• April 15
  • Keith Acton, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
  • Benjamin Zephaniah, British writer and musician
• April 18 – Saviour Pirotta, British/Maltese children's author
• April 21
  • Andie MacDowell, American actress
  • Yoshito Usui, Japanese manga artist (Crayon Shin-chan) (d. 2009)
• April 24
  • Susan Tsvangirai, Spouse of the Prime Minister of Zimbabwe (d. 2009)
  • Brian Paddick, British former deputy assistant commissioner and most senior openly gay police officer
• April 25
  • Fish, Scottish singer
  • Luis Guillermo Solís, President of Costa Rica
• April 26
  • Ingolf Lück, German actor, comedian and television host
  • Giancarlo Esposito, Italian-American actor
• April 28 – Hal Sutton, American golfer
• April 29
  • Michelle Pfeiffer, American actress
  • Eve Plumb, American actress
• April 30 – Guillermo Capetillo, Mexican actor, voice actor, singer and matador

May

Ellen Ochoa

Drew Carey

Annette Bening

Marie Fredriksson

• May 4 – Keith Haring, American artist (d. 1990)
• May 5 – Robert DiPierdomenico, Australian rules footballer
• May 10
  • May 10 – Rick Santorum, American Senator
  • May 10 – Ellen Ochoa, American astronaut, first Hispanic woman to go into space
• May 11 – Christian Brando, American actor and eldest child of Marlon Brando (d. 2008)
• May 12
  • Tony Oliver, American voice actor
  • Eric Singer, American rock drummer
  • Dries van Noten, Belgian designer
• May 14 – Anna Höglund, Swedish writer and illustrator
• May 15 – Ron Simmons, American professional wrestler
• May 17 – Paul Whitehouse, Welsh actor, writer and comedian
• May 18 – Toyah Willcox, English actress and singer
• May 19 – Jenny Durkan, American politician
• May 20
  • Ron Reagan, American political pundit and son of President Ronald Reagan
  • Jane Wiedlin, American musician and actress
• May 21 – Tom Feeney, American Republican politician from the state of Florida
• May 22 – Denise Welch, English actress
• May 23
  • Mitch Albom, American author
  • Drew Carey, American comedian and actor
  • Lea DeLaria, American comedian and actress
• May 25
  • Carrie Newcomer, American singer-songwriter and musician
  • Paul Weller, English singer-songwriter
• May 26
  • Margaret Colin, American actress
  • Moinul Ahsan Saber, Bangladeshi writer and editor
  • Timo Korhonen, Finnish mechanic and businessman
• May 27
  • Neil Finn, New Zealand singer and songwriter
  • Linnea Quigley, American actress
  • Gus Rodríguez, Mexican actor, screenwriter, producer, director, gamer, and video game journalist (d. 2020)
• May 29
  • Annette Bening, American actress
  • Juliano Mer-Khamis, Israeli actor, director, filmmaker and political activist (d. 2011)
• May 30
  • Marie Fredriksson, Swedish rock guitarist and singer-songwriter (d. 2019)
  • Ted McGinley, American actor

June

Ahmed Abdallah Mohamed Sambi

Prince

Keenen Ivory Wayans

Barry Adamson

Bruce Campbell

Jeffrey Lee Pierce

• June 1 – Nambaryn Enkhbayar, Mongolian lawyer and politician, 3rd President of Mongolia
• June 2
  • Lex Luger, former American professional wrestler
  • Brian Regan, American stand-up comedian
• June 3 – Margot Käßmann, Lutheran theologian, German bishop
• June 4 – Gordon P. Robertson, American televangelist and son of Pat Robertson
• June 5
  • Eric Strobel, American professional ice hockey player
  • Ahmed Abdallah Mohamed Sambi, Comoroan businessman and politician, President of Comoros
• June 7 – Prince, African-American musician (d. 2016)
• June 8
  • Cyril O'Reilly, American actor
  • Keenen Ivory Wayans, African-American comedian, actor, and director
• June 11
  • Tim Draper, American venture capitalist
  • Barry Adamson, English singer and bass player
• June 12
  • Rebecca Holden, American actress, singer, and entertainer
  • Meredith Brooks, American singer, songwriter and guitarist
• June 14
  • Masami Yoshida, Japanese athlete (d. 2000)
  • Eric Heiden, American speed skater
• June 15 – Wade Boggs, American baseball player
• June 17 – Jello Biafra, American punk musician and activist (Dead Kennedys)
• June 18
  • Peter Altmaier, German jurist and politician, Federal Minister for Special Affairs of Germany
  • Gary Martin, British voice actor and actor
• June 20
  • Chuck Wagner, American actor
  • Teiyū Ichiryūsai, Japanese voice actress
• June 21 – Eric Douglas, American actor (d. 2004)
• June 22
  • Rocío Banquells, Mexican pop singer and actress
  • John Murray, American actor
  • Bruce Campbell, American actor, producer, writer and director
• June 24
  • John Tortorella, American ice hockey coach
  • Tom Lister Jr., American actor and professional wrestler
• June 25 – Serik Akhmetov, 8th Prime Minister of Kazakhstan
• June 26 – Glen Stewart Godwin, American fugitive and convicted murderer
• June 27
  • Jeffrey Lee Pierce, American musician (d. 1996)
  • Magnus Lindberg, Finnish composer
• June 28 – Félix Gray, French singer and songwriter
• June 29
  • Jeff Coopwood, American actor, broadcaster and singer
  • Rosa Mota, Portuguese long-distance runner
  • Mohamed Bendahmane, Algerian swimmer
• June 30
  • Karl Friesen, Canadian ice hockey goaltender
  • Tommy Keene, American singer-songwriter (d. 2017)
  • Pam Royle, British television presenter, journalist and voice coach
  • Esa-Pekka Salonen, Finnish conductor and composer
  • Irina Vorobieva, Russian pair skater
  • Vasily Yakusha, Belarusian rower

July

Kevin Bacon

Neetu Singh

Fiona Shaw

Wong Kar-wai

Billy Mays

Kate Bush

Mark Cuban

• July 1 – Tom Magee, Canadian world champion powerlifter and strongman competitor
• July 2
  • Pavan Malhotra, Indian actor
  • Rainer Hasler, Liechtensteiner footballer (d. 2014)
  • Thomas Bickerton, American Methodist bishop
• July 3 – Didier Mouron, Swiss artist
• July 5
  • Avigdor Lieberman, Israeli politician
  • Bill Watterson, American cartoonist (Calvin and Hobbes)
  • Kyoko Terase, Japanese voice actress
  • Veronica Guerin, Irish journalist (d. 1996)
• July 6 – Jennifer Saunders, British comedian and actress
• July 7 – Michala Petri, Danish recorder player
• July 8
  • Kevin Bacon, American actor
  • Neetu Singh, Indian actress
• July 9
  • Jacob Joseph, Malaysian football coach
  • Robin Kermode, English actor, author and communications coach
  • Abdul Latiff Ahmad, Malaysian politician
• July 10
  • Salleh Said Keruak, Malaysian politician
  • Chileshe Kapwepwe, Zambian accountant and corporate executive
  • Fiona Shaw, Irish actress
  • Jaka Singgih, Indonesian businessman and politician
• July 11 – Mark Lester, English actor
• July 12 – Valery Kipelov, Russian music artist and composer
• July 13
  • Roger L. Jackson, American voice actor
  • Arun Pandian, Indian film actor, director, producer and politician
• July 14 – Jujie Luan, Chinese-Canadian fencer
• July 15
  • Christian Dornier, French mass murderer
  • Austin Hayes, Irish footballer (d. 1986)
  • Jörg Kachelmann, Swiss presenter, journalist and entrepreneur in the meteorological field
  • Mac Thornberry, American politician
• July 16
  • Mick Cornett, American politician
  • Sally Ponce Enrile, Filipino politician
  • Jack Enrile, Filipino politician
  • Michael Flatley, Irish-born dancer
  • Sabine de Bethune, Belgian politician
• July 17
  • Wong Kar-wai, Hong Kong second wave filmmaker
  • Suzanne Moore, English journalist
• July 18 – Malou de Guzman, Filipino stage, television and film actress
• July 19
  • Azumah Nelson, Ghanaian boxer
  • Jonathan Lee, Taiwanese musician
• July 20
  • Bala Garba Jahumpa, Gambian politician
  • Billy Mays, American infomercial salesperson (d. 2009)
• July 22
  • David Von Erich, American professional wrestler (d. 1984)
  • Tatsunori Hara, Japanese professional-baseball coach and player
• July 24 – Joe McGann, English actor
• July 26 – Jesús Barrero, Mexican actor and voice actor (d. 2016)
• July 27
  • Kimmo Hakola, Finnish composer
  • Margarethe Schreinemakers, German television presenter
  • Christopher Dean, British ice dancer and Olympian
• July 28
  • Terry Fox, Canadian athlete and cancer activist (d. 1981)
  • Deon van der Walt, South African tenor (d. 2005)
• July 30 – Kate Bush, English musician
• July 31 – Mark Cuban, American entrepreneur and basketball team owner

August

Don Swayze

Angela Bassett

Madonna

Steve Guttenberg

Tim Burton

Michael Jackson

• August 1
  • María Ignacia Benítez, Chilean politician (d. 2019)
  • Michael Penn, American singer
  • Adrian Dunbar, Irish actor and director
• August 2 – Shō Hayami, Japanese voice actor and singer
• August 3 – Lambert Wilson, French actor
• August 5 – Andriy Fedetskyi, Ukrainian football player (d. 2018)
• August 7
  • Bruce Dickinson, English musician (Iron Maiden)
  • Russell Baze, Canadian/American champion jockey
• August 10
  • Don Swayze, American actor
  • Rami Hamdallah, Palestine politician
• August 13 – Lizzie Grey, American musician (d. 2019)
• August 15
  • Rondell Sheridan, American actor
  • Victor Shenderovich, Russian writer
  • Chiharu Suzuka, Japanese voice actress
• August 16
  • Angela Bassett, African-American actress
  • Madonna, American-born singer, songwriter, and actress
• August 17 - Belinda Carlisle, American singer
• August 18
  • Reg E. Cathey, African-American actor (d. 2018)
  • Madeleine Stowe, American actress
• August 19
  • Gordon Brand Jnr, Scottish professional golfer (d. 2019)
  • Anthony Muñoz, American football player
  • Brendan Nelson, Australian politician
• August 20 – Nicholas Bell, English actor based in Australia
• August 22
  • Brady Boone, American professional wrestler (d. 1998)
  • Colm Feore, American-born Canadian actor
• August 24 – Steve Guttenberg, American actor
• August 25
  • Tim Burton, American film director
  • Christian LeBlanc, American actor
• August 26 – Billy Ray Irick, American convicted murderer (d. 2018)
• August 27 – Normand Brathwaite, African-Canadian comedian and television and radio host
• August 29
  • Michael Jackson, African-American singer, songwriter and dancer (d. 2009)
  • Lenny Henry, English comedian and actor
• August 30 – Muriel Gray, Scottish author, broadcaster and journalist
• August 31 – Julie Brown, American actress

September

Jeff Foxworthy

File:Jennifer Tilly 2014.jpg

Jennifer Tilly

Janez Janša

Rachid Taha

Joan Jett

Kevin Sorbo

• September 4 – Drew Pinsky, American celebrity doctor
• September 6
  • Jeff Foxworthy, American comedian, actor, author
  • Sione Vailahi, Tongan professional wrestler
• September 8
  • Mitsuru Miyamoto, Japanese voice actor
  • Reiko Terashima, Japanese manga artist and illustrator
  • Stevie Vallance, Canadian actress, voice actress, stage performer, singer, casting director and voice director
• September 9 – Colin Murdock, Canadian voice actor
• September 10
  • Chris Columbus, American film director/writer/producer
  • Siobhan Fahey, Irish singer (Bananarama, Shakespears Sister)
• September 11 – Julia Nickson-Soul, Singapore actress
• September 13 – Paweł Przytocki, Polish conductor
• September 14
  • Silas Malafaia, Brazilian evangelical pastor, author, and televangelist
  • Michael Bollner, German actor
  • Jeff Crowe, New Zealand cricketer
• September 15 – Wendie Jo Sperber, American actress (d. 2005)
• September 16
  • Orel Hershiser, American baseball player
  • Jennifer Tilly, Canadian/American actress
• September 17 – Janez Janša, 2-Time Prime Minister of Slovenia
• September 18
  • Rachid Taha, Algerian singer and activist (d. 2018)
  • Jeff Bostic, American football player
• September 19 – Lita Ford, British musician
• September 21 – Bruno Fitoussi, French poker player
• September 22
  • Andrea Bocelli, Italian tenor
  • Joan Jett, American rock musician
• September 23 – Marvin Lewis, American football coach
• September 24
  • Kevin Sorbo, American actor
  • Eamonn Healy, Irish chemist
• September 26 – Darby Crash, American rock songwriter, singer (Germs) (d. 1980)
• September 27
  • Shaun Cassidy, American actor, producer and screenwriter
  • Irvine Welsh, Scottish writer
• September 29
  • Eduardo Cunha, Brazilian politician, former President of the Chamber of Deputies of Brazil
  • Tom Buhrow, German journalist and intendant of the WDR
• September 30 – Marty Stuart, American singer

October

Neil deGrasse Tyson

Tanya Tucker

Tim Robbins

Viggo Mortensen

• October 3 – Chen Yanyin, Chinese sculptor
• October 4
  • Ned Luke, American actor
  • Wendy Makkena, American actress
• October 5 – Neil deGrasse Tyson, American astrophysicist and science communicator
• October 8 – Ursula von der Leyen, German politician, President of the European Commission
• October 9 – Michael Paré, American actor
• October 10 – Tanya Tucker, American singer
• October 13 – Jamal Khashoggi, Saudi journalist (d. 2018)
• October 14
  • Thomas Dolby, English rock musician
  • Peter Kloeppel, German television journalist
• October 15 – Masako Katsuki, Japanese voice actress
• October 16
  • Noel Cleal, Australian rugby league player
  • Tim Robbins, American actor and film director
• October 17 – Alan Jackson, American country singer and songwriter
• October 20
  • Scott Hall, American professional wrestler
  • Mark King, English pop-rock guitarist and singer (Level 42)
  • Viggo Mortensen, Danish-American actor
• October 22 – Keena Turner, American football player
• October 23 – Hiroyuki Kinoshita, Japanese actor and voice actor
• October 25
  • Phil Daniels, English actor
  • Kornelia Ender, German swimmer
• October 26 – Pascale Ogier, French actress (d. 1984)
• October 27 – Simon Le Bon, English rock singer
• October 29
  • Blažej Baláž, Slovak painter
  • Stefan Dennis, Australian actor & singer

November

Megan Mullally

Oscar Nunez

David Reivers

Jamie Lee Curtis

• unknown date – Geng Yanbo, Chinese politician
• November 2 – Willie McGee, African-American baseball player
• November 5 – Robert Patrick, American actor
• November 7 – Dmitry Kozak, Russian politician and deputy Prime Minister of Russia
• November 8 – Jeff Speakman, American actor and martial artist
• November 10 – Vicky Rosti, Finnish singer, former Eurovision contestant
• November 12
  • Megan Mullally, American actress, singer and media personality
  • Hiromi Iwasaki, Japanese singer
• November 14 – Sergio Goyri, Mexican actor
• November 16
  • Sooronbay Jeenbekov, President of Kyrgyzstan
  • Marg Helgenberger, American actress
  • Boris Krivokapić, Serbian academic
• November 17 – Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, American actress and singer
• November 18
  • Laura Miller, American politician
  • Oscar Nunez, Cuban-American actor and comedian
• November 19 – Michael Wilbon, American sportswriter
• November 21 – David Reivers, Jamaican actor
• November 22
  • Jamie Lee Curtis, American actress
  • Bruce Payne, English actor and producer
  • Ibrahim Ismail of Johor, Sultan of Johor
• November 24 – Nick Knight, British photographer
• November 25 – Darlanne Fluegel, American actress
• November 27 – Tetsuya Komuro, Japanese music producer and songwriter
• November 28 – Dave Righetti, American baseball player
• November 30
  • Juliette Bergmann, Dutch bodybuilder
  • Stacey Q, American singer & actress

December

Dynamite Kid

Nick Park

File:Drama League 2010 Bebe Neuwirth (cropped).jpg

Bebe Neuwirth

• December 1
  • Charlene Tilton, American actress
  • Javier Aguirre, Mexican football player and manager
• December 2 – Mina Asami, Japanese actress
• December 5 – Dynamite Kid, English professional wrestler (d. 2018)
• December 6
  • Nick Park, English filmmaker and animator
  • Debbie Rowe, American ex-wife of Michael Jackson
• December 10
  • Liliana Řeháková, Czech ice dancer (d. 2008)
  • Cornelia Funke, German author
  • Annelore Zinke, East German gymnast
  • David Paul Grove, Canadian actor and voice actor
• December 11
  • Tom Shadyac, American director and producer
  • Nikki Sixx, American rock musician
  • Isabella Hofmann, American actress
• December 12
  • Monica Attard, Australian journalist
  • Lucie Guay, Canadian canoer
  • Dag Ingebrigtsen, Norwegian musician
  • Sheree J. Wilson, American actress
• December 13 – Lynn-Holly Johnson, American ice skater and actress
• December 14
  • Mike Scott, Scottish singer-songwriter (The Waterboys)
  • Spider Stacy, English musician (The Pogues)
  • François Zocchetto, French politician
• December 15 – Alfredo Ormando, Italian writer (d. 1998)
• December 16 – Katie Leigh, American voice actress
• December 18 – Julia Wolfe, American composer
• December 19 – Limahl, English singer
• December 21 – Kevin Blackwell, English football manager
• December 22 – Lenny von Dohlen, American film actor
• December 25
  • Cheryl Chase, American voice actress
  • Dimi Mint Abba, Mauritanian musician and singer (d. 2011)
  • Hanford Dixon, American football player
  • Rickey Henderson, African-American baseball player
  • Alannah Myles, Canadian singer-songwriter
• December 26 – Mieko Harada, Japanese actress
• December 28
  • Twila Paris, American Christian musician
  • Joe Diffie, American Country singer (d. 2020)
• December 29 – Lakhdar Belloumi, Algerian football player
• December 31 – Bebe Neuwirth, American actress

Deaths

January

Cafer Tayyar Eğilmez

Petru Groza

Prince Oskar of Prussia

• January 1 – Edward Weston, American photographer (b. 1886)
• January 3 – Cafer Tayyar Eğilmez, Turkish general (b. 1877)
• January 4 – Archie Alexander, American designer and governor (b. 1888)
• January 7
  • Margaret Anglin, American stage actress (b. 1876)
  • Petru Groza, Romanian politician, 46th Prime Minister of Romania and head of the State (b. 1884)
• January 8 – Paul Pilgrim, American athlete (b. 1883)
• January 9 – Karl Reinhardt, German philologist. (b. 1886)
• January 11 – Edna Purviance, American actress (b. 1895)
• January 13 – Jesse L. Lasky, American film producer (b. 1880)
• January 16 – Aubrey Mather, English actor (b. 1885)
• January 19 – Cândido Rondon, Brazilian military officer (b. 1865)
• January 20 – Ataúlfo Argenta, Spanish conductor and pianist (b. 1913)
• January 27 – Prince Oskar of Prussia (b. 1888)
• January 30
  • Jean Crotti, Swiss artist (b. 1878)
  • Ernst Heinkel, German aircraft designer and manufacturer (b. 1888)

February

Prince Heinrich of Bavaria

• February 1 – Clinton Davisson, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1888)
• February 4
  • Monta Bell, American actor (b. 1891)
  • Henry Kuttner, American author (b. 1915)
• February 6
  • Geoff Bent (b. 1932)
  • Roger Byrne (b. 1929)
  • Eddie Colman (b. 1936)
  • Mark Jones (b. 1933)
  • David Pegg (b. 1935)
  • Tommy Taylor (b. 1932)
  • Liam "Billy" Whelan (b. 1935), all footballers that perished in the Munich air disaster
• February 7 – Walter Kingsford, English actor (b. 1882)
• February 10 – Aleksander Klumberg, Estonian decathlete (b. 1899)
• February 11 – Ernest Jones, Welsh neurologist and psychoanalyst (b. 1879)
• February 13
  • Christabel Pankhurst, English suffragette (b. 1880)
  • Georges Rouault, French painter (b. 1871)
  • Helen Twelvetrees, American actress (b. 1908)
• February 14 – Prince Heinrich of Bavaria (b. 1922)
• February 16 – Situ Qiao, Chinese painter (b. 1902)
• February 17 – Marguerite Snow, American actress (b. 1889)
• February 20 – Thurston Hall, American actor (b. 1882)
• February 21 – Duncan Edwards English footballer (b. 1936), injury in the Munich air disaster
  • Henryk Arctowski, Polish scientist and explorer (b. 1871)
• February 27 – Harry Cohn, American film producer (b. 1891)

March

Princess Ingeborg of Denmark

• March 1 – Giacomo Balla, Italian painter (b. 1871)
• March 6 – Anton Reinthaller, Austrian right wing politician (b. 1895)
• March 11 – Ole Kirk Christiansen, Danish businessman (b. 1891)
• March 12 – Princess Ingeborg of Denmark (b. 1878)
• March 17 – Bertha De Vriese, Belgian physician (b. 1877)
• March 20 – Adegoke Adelabu, Nigerian politician (b. 1915)
• March 21 – Cyril M. Kornbluth, American writer (b. 1923)
• March 22 (in plane crash)
  • Mike Todd, American film producer (b. 1909)
  • Art Cohn, American screenwriter (b. 1909)
• March 23
  • Charlotte Walker, American actress (b. 1876)
  • Florian Znaniecki, Polish philosopher and sociologist (b. 1882)
• March 24 – Herbert Fields, American librettist and screenwriter (b. 1897)
• March 25 – Tom Brown, American musician (b. 1888)
• March 26 – Phil Mead, English cricketer (b. 1887)
• March 28
  • W. C. Handy, African-American blues composer (b. 1873)
  • Chuck Klein, American baseball player (Philadelphia Phillies) and a member of the MLB Hall of Fame (b. 1904)

April

Prince Ferdinand of Bavaria

• April 2
  • Willie Maley, Scottish football player and manager (b. 1868)
  • Jōsei Toda, Japanese educator and activist (b. 1900)
• April 4 – María Luisa Sepúlveda, Chilean composer (b. 1898)
• April 5 – Prince Ferdinand of Bavaria (b. 1884)
• April 8
  • Alcibíades Arosemena, Panamanian politician, 15th President of Panama (b. 1883)
  • George Jean Nathan, American drama critic (b. 1882)
  • Frank Eaton, American Deputy Marshal (b. 1860)
  • Frank Kingdon-Ward, English botanist and explorer (b. 1885)
• April 15 – Estelle Taylor, American actress (b. 1894)
• April 16 – Rosalind Franklin, English crystallographer (b. 1920)
• April 17 – Rita Montaner, Cuban singer, pianist and actress (b. 1900)
• April 18 – Maurice Gamelin, French general (b. 1872)
• April 19 – Billy Meredith, Welsh footballer (b. 1874)

May

• May 2 – Henry Cornelius, South African-born director (b. 1913)
• May 3 – Frank Foster, English cricketer (b. 1889)
• May 5 – James Branch Cabell, American writer (b. 1879)
• May 7
  • Joan Comorera, Spanish politician (b. 1894)
  • Mihkel Lüdig, Estonian composer, organist and choir conductor (b. 1880)
• May 18 – Jacob Fichman, Israeli poet and essayist (b. 1881)
• May 19
  • Ronald Colman, English actor (b. 1891)
  • Marie Pujmanová, Czechoslovak poet and novelist (b. 1893)
  • Jadunath Sarkar, Indian historian (b. 1870)
• May 20 – Frédéric François-Marsal, 59th Prime Minister of France (b. 1874)
• May 22 – Sir Richmond Palmer, British lawyer and colonial administrator (b. 1877)
• May 26 – Constantin Cantacuzino, Romanian aviator (b. 1905)
• May 29 – Juan Ramón Jiménez, Spanish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1881)

June

Kurt Alder

• June 2
  • Townsend Cromwell, American oceanographer (plane crash) (b. 1922)
  • Bell M. Shimada, American fisheries scientist (plane crash) (b. 1922)
• June 6
  • Lloyd Hughes, American actor (b. 1897)
  • Virginia Pearson, American actress (b. 1886)
• June 8 – Nicola da Gesturi, Italian Roman Catholic priest and blessed (b. 1882)
• June 9 – Robert Donat, English actor (b. 1905)
• June 13 – Edwin Keppel Bennett, British writer (b. 1887)
• June 14 – Ibrahim Hashem, Jordanian lawyer and politician, 3-time Prime Minister of Jordan (b. 1888)
• June 16
  • Alexander Chervyakov, Prime Minister of the Byelorussian SSR (suicide) (b. 1892)
  • Imre Nagy, Hungarian politician, 44th Prime Minister of Hungary (executed) (b. 1896)
  • Nereu Ramos, Brazilian politician, 20th President of Brazil (b. 1888)
• June 20 – Kurt Alder, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1902)
• June 21
  • Herbert Brenon, American film director (b. 1880)
  • Robert L. Ghormley, American admiral (b. 1883)
• June 26 – George Orton, Canadian athlete (b. 1876)
• June 27 – Vytautas Augustauskas, Soviet educator (b. 1904)
• June 28 – Alfred Noyes, English poet (b. 1880)

July

King Faisal II of Iraq

Nuri al-Said

Iven Carl Kincheloe Jr.

• July 2 – Martha Boswell, American singer (b. 1905)
• July 3 – Charles Bathurst, 1st Viscount Bledisloe, English politician, 4th Governor-General of New Zealand (b. 1867)
• July 5 – Patriarch Vikentije II (b. 1890)
• July 9 – James H. Flatley, American naval aviator and admiral (b. 1906)
• July 14 (killed during coup d'état):
  • King Faisal II of Iraq (b. 1935)
  • 'Abd al-Ilah, Prince of Iraq (b. 1913)
• July 15
  • Julia Lennon, English mother of John Lennon (b. 1914)
  • Nuri al-Said, Iraqi politician, 7th Prime Minister of Iraq (b. 1888)
• July 18 – Henri Farman, pioneer French aviator and aircraft company founder (b. 1874)
• July 20 – Franklin Pangborn, American actor (b. 1889)
• July 24 – Mabel Ballin, American actress (b. 1887)
• July 25 – Harry Warner, American studio executive (b. 1881)
• July 26 – Iven Carl Kincheloe Jr., American Korean War fighter ace and test pilot (b. 1928)
• July 27 – Claire Lee Chennault, American aviator and general, leader of the Flying Tigers (b. 1893)
• July 30 – William A. Glassford, American admiral (b. 1886)

August

Ernest Lawrence

• August 2 – Michele Navarra, Italian Sicilian Mafia boss (b. 1905)
• August 3 – Peter Collins, British Formula 1 driver (b. 1931)
• August 4 – Mario Zanin, Italian Roman Catholic prelate and monsignor (b. 1890)
• August 8 – Barbara Bennett, American actress (b. 1906)
• August 9 – Felipe Boero, Argentine composer (b. 1884)
• August 12 – Augustus Owsley Stanley, American politician, Governor of Kentucky (b. 1867)
• August 14
  • Frédéric Joliot-Curie, French physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (b. 1900)
  • Gladys Presley, American mother of Elvis Presley (b. 1912)
• August 16
  • José Domingues dos Santos, Portuguese politician, 89th Prime Minister of Portugal (b. 1885)
  • Paul Panzer, German actor (b. 1872)
• August 18 – Bonar Colleano, American actor (b. 1924)
• August 21
  • Stevan Hristić, Yugoslav composer (b. 1885)
  • Kurt Neumann, German film director (b. 1908)
• August 22 – Roger Martin du Gard, French writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1881)
• August 24
  • Paul Henry, Northern Irish artist (b. 1876)
  • J. G. Strijdom, 5th Prime Minister of South Africa (b. 1893)
• August 26 – Ralph Vaughan Williams, English composer (b. 1872)
• August 27 – Ernest Lawrence, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1901)
• August 29 – Marjorie Flack, American artist, illustrator and writer (b. 1897)

September

Estate Tatanashvili

• September 3 – Sir Giffard Le Quesne Martel, British army general (b. 1889)
• September 11
  • Hans Grundig, German artist (b. 1901)
  • Robert W. Service, Scottish-born Canadian poet (b. 1874)
• September 16 – Alma Bennett, American actress (b. 1904)
• September 23
  • Alfred Piccaver, British-born American operatic tenor (b. 1884)
  • Walter Friedrich Otto, German classical philologist (b. 1874)
• September 25 – John B. Watson, American psychologist (b. 1878)
• September 27 – Adolfo Salazar, Spanish historian, composer and diplomat (b. 1890)
• September 30 – Estate Tatanashvili, Soviet general (b. 1902)

October

Pope Pius XII

• October 9 – Pope Pius XII (b. 1876)
• October 11 – Maurice de Vlaminck, French painter (b. 1876)
• October 14 – Douglas Mawson, Australian geologist and polar explorer (b. 1882)
• October 15 – Jack Norton, American actor (b. 1882)
• October 16 – Michalis Souyioul, Greek composer (b. 1906)
• October 17
  • Celso Benigno Luigi Costantini, Italian Roman Catholic cardinal and eminence (b. 1876)
  • Charlie Townsend, English cricketer (b. 1876)
  • Paul Outerbridge, American photographer (b. 1896)
• October 24 – G. E. Moore, British philosopher of (Principia Ethica) (b. 1873)
• October 26 – Herbert A. Bartholomew, American farmer and politician (b. 1871)
• October 27 – Marshall Neilan, American actor and director (b. 1891)
• October 29 – Zoë Akins, American playwright, poet and author (b. 1886)

November

C. Ganesha Iyer

Tyrone Power

• November 4 – Sam Zimbalist, American film producer (b. 1904)
• November 8 – C. Ganesha Iyer, Ceylon Tamil Philologist (b. 1878)
• November 11 – André Bazin, French film critic and theorist (b. 1918)
• November 15 – Tyrone Power, American actor (b. 1914)
• November 16 – Samuel Hopkins Adams, American writer (b. 1871)
• November 19 – Vittorio Ambrosio, Italian general (b. 1879)
• November 21 – Mel Ott, American baseball player (New York Giants) and a member of the MLB Hall of Fame (b. 1909)
• November 24
  • Robert Cecil, 1st Viscount Cecil of Chelwood, English politician and diplomat, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1864)
  • Harry Parke, American comedian (b. 1904)
• November 27
  • Artur Rodziński, Polish conductor (b. 1892)
  • Georgi Damyanov, Bulgarian Communist political, Chairman of the Presidium of the National Assembly and head of the State (b. 1892)
• November 30 – Oscar C. Badger II, American admiral (b. 1890)

December

Willie Applegarth

Wolfgang Pauli

• December 1 – Boots Mallory, American actress (b. 1913)
• December 4 – José María Caro Rodríguez, Chilean Roman Catholic cardinal and eminence (b. 1866)
• December 5
  • Willie Applegarth, British Olympic athlete (b. 1890)
  • Patras Bokhari, Pakistani humorist (b. 1898)
• December 8 – Tris Speaker, American baseball player (Cleveland Indians) and a member of the MLB Hall of Fame (b. 1888)
• December 11 – Alberto Meschi, Italian anarchist (b. 1879)
• December 12
  • Slobodan Jovanović, Serbian intellectual and politician (b. 1869)
  • Milutin Milanković, Yugoslav mathematician, astronomer, climatologist and geophysicist, (b. 1879)
  • Albert Walsh, Lieutenant Governor of Newfoundland (b. 1900)
• December 13 – Tim Moore, American comedian (b. 1887)
• December 15 – Wolfgang Pauli, Austrian-born American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1900)
• December 21
  • Lion Feuchtwanger, German novelist and playwright (b. 1884)
  • H. B. Warner, English actor (b. 1875)
• December 27 – Mustafa Merlika-Kruja, 16th Prime Minister of Albania (b. 1887)
• December 29 – Doris Humphrey, American dancer and choreographer (b. 1895)

Date unknown

• Stylianos Lykoudis, Greek admiral (b. 1878)
• Thomas Chrostwaite, American educator (b. 1873)

Nobel Prizes

• Physics – Pavel Alekseyevich Cherenkov, Ilya Mikhailovich Frank, and Igor Yevgenyevich Tamm
• Chemistry – Frederick Sanger
• Physiology or Medicine – George Wells Beadle, Edward Lawrie Tatum, and Joshua Lederberg
• Literature – Boris Leonidovich Pasternak
• Peace – Georges Pire