1958 in Belgium

← 1957 1956 1955 1958 in Belgium → 1959 1960 1961
Decades:	1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s
See also:	Other events of 1958 List of years in Belgium

Events in the year 1958 in Belgium.

Incumbents

• Monarch – Baudouin^[1]
• Prime Minister – Achille Van Acker (to 26 June); Gaston Eyskens (from 26 June)

Events

January

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 20–23 July – World Archery Championships held in Brussels.

September

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• En 50 ans, documentary film is released.^[6]

Publications

• Léon Kochnitzky, Negro Art in the Belgian Congo (New York, Belgian Government Information Center)^[7]

Performances

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

• 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

• 16 July – Sabine de Bethune, politician
• 14 December – Jan Fabre, artist

Deaths

• 6 January – Princess Joséphine Caroline of Belgium
• 11 April – Alfred De Taeye (born 1905), politician

References