1958 US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement, Background, Quebec Agreement
The September 1944 Hyde Park Aide-Mémoire extended both commercial and military co-operation into the post-war period, but Roosevelt died on 12 April 1945, and it was not binding on subsequent administrations. In fact, it was physically lost. When Field Marshal Sir Henry Maitland Wilson raised the matter in a Combined Policy Committee meeting in June 1945, the American copy could not be found. The Quebec Agreement specified that nuclear weapons would not be used against another country without mutual consent. On 4 July, Wilson gave the British agreement for the use of nuclear weapons against Japan. On 8 August, the Prime Minister, Clement Attlee, sent a message to President Harry Truman that referred to themselves as "heads of the Governments which have control of this great force".


1958 US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement, Background, Truman administration
The British government had trusted that the US would continue to share nuclear technology, which it considered to be a joint discovery. On 9 November 1945, Attlee and the Prime Minister of Canada, Mackenzie King, went to Washington, DC, to confer with Truman about future co-operation in nuclear weapons and nuclear power. A Memorandum of Intention was signed on 16 November 1945 that made Canada a full partner and replaced the Quebec Agreement's requirement for "mutual consent" before using nuclear weapons to one for "prior consultation". There was to be "full and effective co-operation in the field of atomic energy", but British hopes were soon disappointed since it was only "in the field of basic scientific research".


1958 US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement, Background, Truman administration
Technical co-operation was ended by the United States Atomic Energy Act of 1946 (McMahon Act), which forbade passing "restricted data" to American allies under pain of death. That partly resulted from the arrest for espionage of the British physicist Alan Nunn May in February 1946 while the legislation was being debated. Fearing a resurgence of American isolationism and Britain losing its great power status, the British government restarted its own development effort, now codenamed High Explosive Research.


1958 US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement, Background, Truman administration
By the end of 1947, 1,900 long tons (1,900 t) of uranium ore from the Belgian Congo was stockpiled for the Combined Development Trust at Springfields, near Preston in Lancashire, as part of a wartime sharing agreement, along with 1,350 long tons (1,370 t) for British use. To gain access to the stockpile for their own nuclear weapons project, the Americans opened negotiations that resulted in the Modus Vivendi, an agreement that was signed on 7 January 1948 and officially terminated all previous agreements, including the Quebec Agreement. It removed the British right of consultation on the use of nuclear weapons; allowed for limited sharing of technical information between the United States, Britain and Canada and continued the Combined Policy Committee and the Combined Development Trust although the latter was renamed the Combined Development Agency.


1958 US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement, Background, Truman administration
In 1949, the Americans offered to make atomic bombs in the US available for Britain to use if the British agreed to curtail their atomic bomb programme. That would have given Britain nuclear weapons much sooner than its own target date of late 1952. Only the bomb components required by war plans would be stored in the UK, the rest would be kept in the US and Canada. The offer was rejected by the British on the grounds that it was not "compatible with our status as a first-class power to depend on others for weapons of this supreme importance".


1958 US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement, Background, Truman administration
As a counter-offer, the British proposed limiting the British programme in return for American bombs. The opposition of key American officials, including Lewis Strauss from the United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), and Senators Bourke B. Hickenlooper and Arthur Vandenberg of the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy (JCAE), coupled with security concerns aroused by the 2 February 1950 arrest of the British physicist Klaus Fuchs as an atomic spy, caused the proposal to be dropped. The June 1951 defection of Donald Maclean, who had served as a British member of the Combined Policy Committee from January 1947 to August 1948, reinforced the Americans' distrust of British security arrangements.


1958 US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement, Background, Eisenhower administration
The first British atomic bomb was successfully tested in Western Australia in Operation Hurricane on 3 October 1952,but although it was more advanced than the American bombs of 1946, Britain was still several years behind in nuclear weapons technology. On 1 November, the United States conducted Ivy Mike, the first nuclear test of a true thermonuclear device (also known as a hydrogen bomb). The JCAE saw little benefit for the US from sharing technology with Britain. The Soviet Union responded to Ivy Mike with the test of Joe 4, a boosted fission weapon on 12 August 1953. That prompted President Dwight Eisenhower, who was inaugurated in January 1953, to inform the US Congress that the McMahon Act, which he considered a "terrible piece of legislation" and "one of the most deplorable incidents in American history of which he personally felt ashamed", was obsolete.


1958 US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement, Background, Eisenhower administration
At the three-power Bermuda Conference in December 1953, Eisenhower and Churchill, who had become prime minister again on 25 October 1951, discussed the possibility of the United States giving Britain access to American nuclear weapons in wartime, which came to be called Project E. There were technical and legal issues that had to be overcome before American bombs could be carried in British aircraft. The Americans would have to disclose their weights and dimensions, and their delivery would require data concerning their ballistics. Further down the track would also be issues of custody, security and targeting. The release of such information was restricted by the McMahon Act.


1958 US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement, Background, Eisenhower administration
It was amended on 30 August 1954 by the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, which allowed for greater exchange of information with foreign nations and paved the way for the Agreement for Co-operation Regarding Atomic Information for Mutual Defence Purposes, which was signed on 15 June 1955. On 13 June 1956, another agreement was concluded for the transfer of nuclear submarine propulsion technology to Britain, which saved the British government millions of pounds in research and development costs. It precipitated a row with the JCAE over whether that was permitted under the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 and whether Britain met the security standards set by the 1955 agreement. With the 1956 presidential election approaching, Eisenhower was forced to rescind the offer.


1958 US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement, Background, Eisenhower administration
The October 1956 Suez Crisis brought relations between Britain and the United States to a low ebb. Eisenhower met with the new British prime minister, Harold Macmillan, in Bermuda in March 1957 and raised the possibility of basing US intermediate range ballistic missile (IRBM) systems in the UK. This came to be called Project Emily. There were also discussions on exchanging nuclear submarine propulsion technology for information on the British Calder Hall nuclear power plant, allowing the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) to purchase uranium ore from Canada and co-ordinating the war plans of RAF Bomber Command with those of the Strategic Air Command.


1958 US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement, Background, Eisenhower administration
Although the IRBM negotiations pre-dated the Suez Crisis, the British government touted the IRBM deal as a demonstration that the rift had been healed. The British hydrogen bomb programme attempted to detonate a thermonuclear device in the Operation Grapple test series at Christmas Island in the Pacific. The test series was facilitated by the UA, which also claimed the island. Although the first tests were unsuccessful, the Grapple X test on 8 November achieved the desired result.


1958 US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement, Negotiations, Sputnik crisis
The successful development of British thermonuclear weapons came at an opportune moment to renew negotiations with the Americans. The Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik 1, the world's first artificial satellite, on 4 October 1957, came as a tremendous shock to the American public, which had trusted that American technological superiority ensured their invulnerability. Suddenly, there was now incontrovertible proof that in at least some areas, the Soviet Union was actually ahead. In the widespread calls for action in response to the Sputnik crisis, officials in the United States and Britain seized an opportunity to mend their relationship. At the suggestion of Harold Caccia, the British Ambassador to the United States, Macmillan wrote to Eisenhower on 10 October to urge for both countries pool their resources, as Macmillan put it, to meet the Soviet challenge on every front, "military, economic and political".


1958 US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement, Negotiations, Sputnik crisis
Macmillan flew to Washington, DC, for talks on 25 October. He had concerns that the disastrous 10 October Windscale fire might prove a stumbling block in negotiations, as it might reflect badly on British expertise and provide ammunition for opponents of closer co-operation with the British. He ordered extra copies of the report into the fire to be destroyed and for the printers to destroy their type. He immediately sensed how shaken the Americans had been by Sputnik, which placed the Eisenhower administration under great public pressure to act on the deployment of IRBMs by a shocked and distraught nation.


1958 US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement, Negotiations, Sputnik crisis
Eisenhower and Macmillan agreed to form a study group headed by Sir Richard Powell, the Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Defence, and Donald A. Quarles, the United States Deputy Secretary of Defense, to consider how the deployment of IRBMs to Britain might be expedited. Another study group, under Strauss and Sir Edwin Plowden, the head of the UKAEA, would investigate nuclear co-operation and the exchange of nuclear information. The personal relationship developed between Plowden and Strauss would be crucial in converting the latter over to the idea of providing information to Britain.


1958 US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement, Negotiations, Sputnik crisis
By December, most of the issues with the IRBM negotiations had been ironed out, and a formal agreement was drawn up on 17 December, but it was not until the end of the month that it was definitely determined that Britain would receive Thor, not Jupiter, missiles.


1958 US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement, Negotiations, Sputnik crisis
However, the nuclear submarine propulsion effort was running into trouble. Under the July 1956 agreement and a February 1957 directive from Eisenhower, Royal Navy officers had been assigned to study the US Navy's nuclear submarine programme. By October 1957, its head, Rear Admiral Hyman G. Rickover, felt that their questions were slowing the deployment of the Polaris submarine-launched IRBM at a critical time. He feared that any delay might cause Congress to favour land-based missiles. By December, the British liaison officers were complaining of slow response to their questions. Rickover proposed that Westinghouse be permitted to sell the Royal Navy a nuclear submarine reactor, which would allow it to immediately proceed with building its own nuclear-powered submarine. The British government endorsed this idea, as it would save it a great deal of money.


1958 US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement, Negotiations, Amendment of McMahon Act
For their part, the British wanted the McMahon Act's restrictions on nuclear co-operation to be relaxed. They wanted to know the weight, dimensions, fusing and firing sequences, safety features, and in-flight procedures. That information would allow American bombs to be carried in British V-bombers and American warheads to be fitted to British Blue Streak missiles. That could save millions of pounds and avoid domestic political complications if Britain had to persist with nuclear testing during an international moratorium. While the British knew what they wanted, there was no consensus among the Americans as to what they wanted to provide.


1958 US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement, Negotiations, Amendment of McMahon Act
US Secretary of State John Foster Dulles was concerned that a special relationship with Britain might complicate US relationships with its other allies. Strauss, in particular, felt that a proposal to give hydrogen bomb secrets to the British would likely not get past the JCAE, and counselled drafting amendments that were sufficiently vague as to give the president the authority that he needed without arousing its ire. Eisenhower declared that the US and the UK were "interdependent" and pledged to ask Congress to amend the McMahon Act.


1958 US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement, Negotiations, Amendment of McMahon Act
Crucially, he managed to secure the support of Carl T. Durham, the chairman of the JCAE. Eisenhower met with congressional leaders on 3 December 1957 and pressed for more discretion to co-operate with all America's NATO allies, not just Britain. Indeed, the administration negotiated agreements with Australia, Canada and NATO. Eisenhower did not yet have wholehearted support for the proposal, but outright opposition from US Senator Clinton Anderson failed to attract much support.


1958 US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement, Negotiations, Amendment of McMahon Act
On 27 January 1958, Strauss sent Durham the administration's proposed legislative changes, and the JCAE Subcommittee on Agreements for Cooperation, chaired by Senator John Pastore, held hearings from 29 to 31 January. Quarles and Major General Herbert Loper, the Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Atomic Energy Affairs, were forced to deal with pointed questions about nuclear proliferation.


1958 US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement, Negotiations, Amendment of McMahon Act
British information security, or the lack thereof no longer seemed so important now that the Soviet Union was apparently ahead and the UK had independently developed the hydrogen bomb, but the JCAE objected to the terms of the proposed deal to trade British uranium-235 for US plutonium under which the US would pay USD$30 per gram for plutonium that cost $12 per gram to produce in the UK.


1958 US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement, Negotiations, Amendment of McMahon Act
The amendments were passed by the US House of Representatives on 19 June but not without changes that now limited exchanges of nuclear weapons data to nations that had made substantial progress in the field. The same restriction applied to the actual transfer of non-nuclear components of nuclear weapons. American nuclear weapons were to remain under US custody and could not be turned over to allies except in wartime. The sale of nuclear reactors for submarines and nuclear fuel for them and other military reactors was permitted. Only the UK qualified as a nation that had made substantial progress. The bill passed Congress on 30 June 1958 and was signed into law by Eisenhower on 2 July 1958.


1958 US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement, Negotiations, Amendment of McMahon Act
The 1958 US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement was signed by Dulles and Samuel Hood, the British Minister in Washington, DC, on 3 July and was approved by Congress on 30 July.


1958 US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement, Implementation, Details
The agreement enables the US and the UK to exchange classified information with the objective of improving each party's "atomic weapon design, development, and fabrication capability". While the US has nuclear co-operation agreements with other countries, including France and some NATO countries, none of them is similar in scope to the US-UK Mutual Defence Agreement. Macmillan called it "the Great Prize".


1958 US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement, Implementation, Details
Article 2 of the treaty covered joint development of defence plans; the mutual training of personnel in the use and defence against nuclear weapons; the sharing of intelligence and evaluation of enemy capabilities; the development of nuclear delivery systems and the research, development and design of military reactors. The treaty called for the exchange of "classified information concerning atomic weapons when, after consultation with the other Party, the communicating Party determines that the communication of such information is necessary to improve the recipient's atomic weapon design, development and fabrication capability".


1958 US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement, Implementation, Details
The US would communicate information about atomic weapons that were similar to UK atomic weapons. For the immediate future, that would exclude information about thermonuclear weapons. Confidential intelligence matters are also covered by the agreement. The UK government has not published those sections "because of the necessity for great confidentiality and because of the use that such information would be to other would-be nuclear states. In other words, it might well assist proliferation".


1958 US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement, Implementation, Details
Article 3 provided for the sale to the UK of one complete nuclear submarine propulsion plant, as well as the uranium needed to fuel it for ten years. Because of concerns expressed by the JCAE, the AEC would determine the price that Britain would pay for highly enriched uranium (HEU). The treaty did not originally allow for non-nuclear components of nuclear weapons to be given to Britain. It was amended on 7 May 1959 to give Britain access to non-nuclear components and to permit the transfer of special nuclear material such as plutonium, HEU and tritium. The treaty paved the way for the subsequent Polaris Sales Agreement, which was signed on 6 April 1963. The two agreements have been "the cornerstone of the UK-US nuclear relationship for nearly 60 years".


1958 US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement, Implementation, Nuclear weapons development
The AEC invited the British government to send representatives to a series of meetings in Washington, DC, on 27 and 28 August 1958 to work out the details. The US delegation included Willard Libby, AEC deputy chairman; Loper; Brigadier General Alfred Starbird, AEC Director of Military Applications; Norris Bradbury, director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory; Edward Teller, director of the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory; and James W. McRae, president of the Sandia Corporation.


1958 US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement, Implementation, Nuclear weapons development
The British representatives were Sir Frederick Brundrett, the Chief Scientific Adviser to the Ministry of Defence, and Victor Macklen from the Ministry of Defence; and William Penney, William Cook and E. F. Newly from the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment at Aldermaston. The Americans disclosed the details of nine of their nuclear weapon designs: the Mark 7, Mark 15/39, Mark 19, Mark 25, Mark 27, Mark 28, Mark 31, Mark 33 and Mark 34.


1958 US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement, Implementation, Nuclear weapons development
In return, the British provided the details of seven of theirs, including Green Grass; Pennant, the boosted device which had been detonated in the Grapple Z test on 22 August; Flagpole, the two-stage device scheduled for 2 September; Burgee, scheduled for 23 September; and the three-stage Halliard 3. The Americans were impressed with the British designs, particularly with Halliard 1, the heavier version of Halliard 3. Cook, therefore, changed the Grapple Z programme to fire Halliard 1 instead of Halliard 3. Macmillan noted in his diary with satisfaction:


1958 US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement, Implementation, Nuclear weapons development
in some respects we are as far, and even further, advanced in the art than our American friends. They thought interchange of information would be all give. They are keen that we should complete our series, especially the last megaton, the character of which is novel and of deep interest to them.


1958 US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement, Implementation, Nuclear weapons development
An early benefit of the agreement was to allow the UK to "Anglicise" the W28 nuclear warhead as the Red Snow warhead for the Blue Steel missile. The British designers were impressed by the W28, which was not only lighter than the British Green Grass warhead used in Yellow Sun but also remarkably more economical in its use of expensive fissile material. The Yellow Sun Mark 2 using Red Snow cost £500,000 compared with £1,200,000 for the Mark 1 with Green Grass.


1958 US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement, Implementation, Nuclear weapons development
A 1974 CIA proliferation assessment noted: "In many cases [Britain's sensitive technology in nuclear and missile fields] is based on technology received from the US and could not legitimately be passed on without US permission". The UK National Audit Office noted that most of the UK Trident programme warhead development and production expenditure had been incurred in the US, which supplied special materials and "certain warhead-related components and services". There is evidence that the warhead design of the British Trident system is similar to or even based upon the US W76 warhead fitted in US Navy Trident missiles, with design and blast model data supplied to the UK.


1958 US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement, Implementation, Nuclear weapons development
Britain soon became dependent on the United States for its nuclear weapons, as it lacked the resources to produce a range of designs. The treaty allowed the UK to receive US nuclear weapons for the Royal Air Force (RAF) and British Army of the Rhine (BAOR) under Project E. Similar custody arrangements were made for the Thor missiles supplied under Project Emily. The UK was able to carry out underground nuclear tests at the US Nevada Test Site, where the first British test took place on 1 March 1962. British nuclear testing in the United States continued until it was abruptly halted by President George H. W. Bush in October 1992. Major subcritical nuclear tests continued to occur, most notably the Etna test in February 2002 and the Krakatau test in February 2006.


1958 US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement, Implementation, Special nuclear materials barter
Under the agreement 5.37 tonnes of UK-produced plutonium was sent to the US in exchange for 6.7 kg of tritium and 7.5 tonnes of HEU between 1960 and 1979. A further 470 kg of plutonium was swapped between the US and the UK for reasons that remain classified. Some of the UK-produced plutonium was used in 1962 by the US for the only known nuclear weapon test of reactor-grade plutonium. The plutonium sent to the US included some produced in UK civil Magnox reactors, and the US gave assurances that the civil plutonium was not used in the US nuclear weapons programme. It was used in civil programmes which included californium production and reactor research.


1958 US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement, Implementation, Special nuclear materials barter
Some of the fissile materials for the UK Trident warhead were purchased from the US, but much of the HEU supplied by the US was used not for weapons but as fuel for the growing fleet of UK nuclear submarines. Under the treaty, the US supplied the UK with not only nuclear submarine propulsion technology but also a complete S5W pressurised water reactor of the kind used to power the US  Skipjack-class submarines. That was used in the Royal Navy's first nuclear-powered submarine, HMS Dreadnought, which was launched in 1960 and commissioned in 1963.


1958 US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement, Implementation, Special nuclear materials barter
The S5W was fuelled by uranium enriched to between 93 and 97 per cent uranium-235. In return for a "considerable amount" of information regarding submarine design and quietening techniques being passed on to the United States, reactor technology was transferred from Westinghouse to Rolls Royce, which used it as the basis for its PWR1 reactor used in the UK's  Valiant,  Resolution,  Churchill,  Swiftsure and  Trafalgar submarines.


1958 US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement, Implementation, Special nuclear materials barter
The UK produced HEU at its facility in Capenhurst, but production for military purposes ceased there in March 1963. Thereafter, uranium oxide was imported from Australia, Canada, Namibia, South Africa, the United States and Zaire and processed into uranium hexafluoride at Springfields. It was then shipped to the US, where it was enriched at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant near Piketon, Ohio. HEU was then flown back to the UK in RAF aircraft.


1958 US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement, Implementation, Special nuclear materials barter
In 1994, with the Portsmouth plant about to close, the treaty was amended with the US requirement to "provide" uranium enrichment services changed to one to "arrange" them. By March 2002, the UK had a stockpile of 21.86 tonnes of HEU, about 80 years' supply for the Royal Navy's nuclear-powered submarines.


1958 US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement, Implementation, Joint Working Groups
Most of the activity under the treaty is information exchange through Joint Working Groups (JOWOG). At least 15 of them were established in 1959. Subjects investigated included


1958 US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement, Implementation, Joint Working Groups
one-point safety, computer codes, metallurgy and fabrication technology for beryllium, uranium and plutonium, corrosion of uranium in the presence of water and water vapour, underground effects tests, outer-space testing, clandestine testing, the technology of lithium compounds, high explosives, deuterium monitors, extinguishing plutonium fires, high-speed cameras, mechanical safing, liquid and solid explosive shock initiation, environmental sensing switches, neutron sources, tritium reservoirs, telemetry, hydrodynamic and shock relations for problems with spherical and cylindrical symmetry, nuclear cross sections, radiochemistry, atomic demolition munitions, warhead hardening, asymmetric detonations, terrorist nuclear threat response, nuclear weapons accidents and waste management.


1958 US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement, Implementation, Joint Working Groups
Between 2007 and 2009, staff of the Atomic Weapons Establishment paid 2,000 visits to US nuclear facilities. As of 2014 there are also two enhanced collaborations jointly developing capabilities:


1958 US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement, Implementation, Mutual benefit
The Anglo-American special relationship proved mutually beneficial although it has never been one of equals after the World Wars since the US has been far larger than Britain both militarily and economically. Lorna Arnold noted:


1958 US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement, Implementation, Mutual benefit
The balance of advantage in the exchanges was necessarily in Britain's favour but they were not entirely one-sided. In some areas, notably electronics and high explosives, the British were equal or perhaps even superior, and in many areas they had valuable ideas to contribute, as the American scientists, and notably Teller, appreciated.


1958 US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement, Implementation, Mutual benefit
A 1985 report by the US State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research reported that the US was "profoundly involved and benefited greatly" from the treaty.


1958 US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement, Renewal
The treaty was amended on 7 May 1959, 27 September 1968, 16 October 1969, 22 June 1974, 5 December 1979, 5 June 1984, 23 May 1994 and 14 June 2004. Most amendments merely extended the treaty for another five or ten years; others added definitions and made minor changes. As of 2020, the most recent renewal was on 22 July 2014, extending the treaty to 31 December 2024, with minor changes for the Trident nuclear programme.


1958 US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement, Renewal
A 2004 legal opinion obtained by the British American Security Information Council (BASIC) argued that renewal of the treaty violated Article VI of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which required signatories to take steps towards nuclear disarmament, but that was not accepted by the British government. In July 2014, Baroness Warsi, the Senior Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs from 2012 to 2014, stated the government's position:


1958 US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement, Renewal
We are committed to the goal of a world without nuclear weapons and firmly believe that the best way to achieve this is through gradual disarmament negotiated through a step-by-step approach within the framework of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The UK has a strong record on nuclear disarmament and continues to be at the forefront of international efforts to control proliferation, and to make progress towards multilateral nuclear disarmament. The UK-USA Mutual Defence Agreement is, and will continue to be, in full compliance with our obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.


1958 Ubangi-Shari constitutional referendum
A referendum on the new constitution of France was held in Ubangi-Shari on 28 September 1958 as part of a wider referendum held across the French Union. The new constitution would see the country become part of the new French Community if accepted, or result in independence if rejected. It was approved by 98.77% of voters.


1958 Ugandan general election
General elections were held in Uganda between 20 and 24 October 1958. They were the first elections to the Legislative Council, and were boycotted by the Ganda. The result was a victory for the Uganda National Congress, which won five of the ten seats.


1958 United States Grand Prix for Sports Cars
The 1958 United States Grand Prix for Sports Cars was a sports car race held at Riverside International Raceway on October 12, 1958. It was the fourth and final round of the 1958 USAC Road Racing Championship season, the seventeenth round of the Sports Car Club of America's Pacific Coast Championship, the second running of the Riverside Grand Prix, and the first post-World War II running of the United States Grand Prix. The race was held over 62 laps of Riverside's 3.3-mile (5.3 km) circuit, for a total of 203.1 miles (326.9 km).


1958 United States Grand Prix for Sports Cars
Chuck Daigh won the race overall, driving one of Lance Reventlow's Scarab-Chevrolets. The race is also noteworthy in the annals of international racing, as the strong second-place finish by a local driver named Dan Gurney earned him a test drive in a factory Ferrari Formula 1 car, effectively launching the Californian's legendary racing career.


1958 United States Grand Prix for Sports Cars
The weather at this event was very warm, even for a desert climate that routinely saw daytime temperatures of 100F plus during the summer. On race day the temperature reached an extraordinary high for the era 95 °F (35 °C); with winds gusting up to 9.9 miles per hour (15.9 km/h) on race day. Even with the global warming that emerged decades after the late 1950s, the maximum temperature of Riverside, California never exceeded 79.2 °F (26.2 °C) for the month of October 2013.


1958 United States Grand Prix for Sports Cars, Entry
The race was open to cars meeting the Sports Car Club of America's B Modified through G Modified classes. Although named "modified", most of the cars in classes C through G were factory-built sports racing cars. The field was unusually large for an American sports car race, attracted in large part by a large purse consisting of $14,500 ($130,065.17 in today's money).


1958 United States Grand Prix for Sports Cars, Qualifying
Pole position winners in each class are marked in bold.


1958 United States Grand Prix for Sports Cars, Support races
Two support races were held: a production car race won by Skip Hudson in a Chevrolet Corvette, and an under-1400cc race won by Jock Ross in a Cooper-Climax.


1958 United States House of Representatives elections
The 1958 United States House of Representatives elections was an election for the United States House of Representatives in 1958 which occurred in the middle of  Dwight Eisenhower's second term.


1958 United States House of Representatives elections
The economy was suffering the Recession of 1958, which Democrats blamed on Eisenhower. The President's Republican Party lost 48 seats in this midterm election, increasing the Democratic Party's majority to a commanding level. Another factor which may have contributed to the Democratic gains include public consternation over the launch of Sputnik and Cold War politics.


1958 United States House of Representatives elections
Disappointment with the results led House Republicans to replace Minority Leader Joseph W. Martin Jr. with his deputy, Charles Halleck.


1958 United States House of Representatives elections, Texas
Texas eliminated its at-large district and added a new 22nd district formed from part of the Houston area 8th district.


1958 United States House of Representatives elections, Washington
Washington redistricted its at-large seat into a 7th district formed in the Seattle suburbs designed to include the at-large incumbent Don Magnuson's residence.


1958 United States House of Representatives elections in California
The United States House of Representatives elections in California, 1958 was an election for California's delegation to the United States House of Representatives, which occurred as part of the general election of the House of Representatives on November 4, 1958. Democrats picked up three seats, taking a majority of the delegation, which they would keep ever since except for a brief tie with the Republicans in the 104th Congress.


1958 United States House of Representatives elections in California, Results
Final results from the Clerk of the House of Representatives:


1958 United States House of Representatives elections in South Carolina
The 1958 United States House of Representatives elections in South Carolina were held on November 4, 1958 to select six Representatives for two-year terms from the state of South Carolina. The primary election in the 2nd congressional district was held on June 10. All six incumbents were re-elected and the composition of the state delegation remained solely Democratic.


1958 United States House of Representatives elections in South Carolina, 1st congressional district
Incumbent Democratic Congressman L. Mendel Rivers of the 1st congressional district, in office since 1941, was unopposed in his bid for re-election.


1958 United States House of Representatives elections in South Carolina, 2nd congressional district
Incumbent Democratic Congressman John J. Riley of the 2nd congressional district, in office since 1951, defeated E.B. Linder in the Democratic primary and was unopposed in the general election.


1958 United States House of Representatives elections in South Carolina, 3rd congressional district
Incumbent Democratic Congressman William Jennings Bryan Dorn of the 3rd congressional district, in office since 1951, was unopposed in his bid for re-election.


1958 United States House of Representatives elections in South Carolina, 4th congressional district
Incumbent Democratic Congressman Robert T. Ashmore of the 4th congressional district, in office since 1953, was unopposed in his bid for re-election.


1958 United States House of Representatives elections in South Carolina, 5th congressional district
Incumbent Democratic Congressman Robert W. Hemphill of the 5th congressional district, in office since 1957, was unopposed in his bid for re-election.


1958 United States House of Representatives elections in South Carolina, 6th congressional district
Incumbent Democratic Congressman John L. McMillan of the 6th congressional district, in office since 1939, was unopposed in his bid for re-election.


1958 United States House of Representatives elections in Virginia
The 1958 United States House of Representatives elections in Virginia were held on November 4, 1958 to determine who will represent the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States House of Representatives. Virginia had ten seats in the House, apportioned according to the 1950 United States Census. Representatives are elected for two-year terms.


1958 United States Senate election in Arizona
The 1958 United States Senate elections in Arizona took place on November 4, 1958. Incumbent Republican U.S. Senator Barry Goldwater ran for reelection to a second term, and defeated former U.S. Senator, and then-Governor, Ernest McFarland in the general election. The election was a virtual rematch from 1952, where Goldwater defeated McFarland by a narrow margin. Goldwater had attributed the 1952 win to the unpopularity of President Harry S. Truman and popular Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy endorsing his campaign.


1958 United States Senate election in Arizona
This would be McFarland's final run for statewide office. He became an Associate Justice of the Arizona Supreme Court in 1965 and Chief Justice in 1968 before retiring from public service.


1958 United States Senate election in California
The 1958 United States Senate election in California was held on November 4, 1958.


1958 United States Senate election in California
Incumbent Senator William F. Knowland opted not to run for re-election, choosing instead to run for election as Governor. Incumbent Governor Goodwin Knight exchanged places with Knowland and lost to U.S. Representative Clair Engle in the midst of a national landslide for the Democratic Party.


1958 United States Senate election in California
This was one of ten seats Democrats gained from the Republican Party in 1958, part of a record swing (including the elections of new Senators from Alaska and Hawaii).


1958 United States Senate election in Connecticut
The United States Senate election of 1958 in Connecticut was held on November 4, 1958. Democratic Thomas J. Dodd defeated incumbent senator William A. Purtell who ran for a second term.


1958 United States Senate election in Connecticut
This was one of ten seats Democrats gained from the Republican Party in 1958, part of a record swing (including the elections of new Senators from Alaska and Hawaii).


1958 United States Senate election in Delaware
The 1958 United States Senate election in Delaware took place on November 4, 1958. Incumbent Republican U.S. Senator John J. Williams was narrowly re-elected to a third term in office over Democratic former Governor Elbert Carvel.


1958 United States Senate election in Florida
The 1958 United States Senate election in Florida was held on November 4, 1958.


1958 United States Senate election in Florida
After fending off a primary challenge from former Senator Claude Pepper, the incumbent Senator Spessard Holland was easily re-elected to a third term in office.


1958 United States Senate election in Florida, Democratic primary, Campaign
The incumbent Senator Holland, a firm conservative, was challenged by former Senator Claude Pepper, who had been unseated in 1950. Holland had played a role in recruiting George A. Smathers to run against the liberal Pepper in that election. The two served as colleagues in the Senate from 1947 to 1951.


1958 United States Senate election in Indiana
The 1958 United States Senate election in Indiana was held on November 4, 1958.


1958 United States Senate election in Indiana
Incumbent Republican Senator William E. Jenner did not seek a third full term in office and was replaced by Democrat Vance Hartke, the mayor of Evansville. Hartke defeated incumbent Republican Governor of Indiana Harold W. Handley.


1958 United States Senate election in Indiana
This was one of ten seats Democrats gained from the Republican Party in 1958, part of a record swing (including the elections of new Senators from Alaska and Hawaii).


1958 United States Senate election in Indiana, General election, Campaign
Senator William Jenner resigned shortly before the election and urged Governor Harold Handley, Jenner's political protégé, to seek his seat. A plan was proposed whereby Handley would resign the governorship, his lieutenant would appoint him Senator, and he would finish the term and run as an incumbent. When the plan was revealed to the party leadership, they strongly advised him to not implement the it because they feared it would hurt the party and be perceived as a scandal.


1958 United States Senate election in Indiana, General election, Campaign
Handley did not resign from the governorship during his campaign and was widely criticized for the unprecedented action. Hartke accused Handley of raising taxes, breaking of his campaign promise, his reluctance in supporting right-to-work, and rising state unemployment. Statewide unemployment was just above 10% in April, but dropped to 6.9% by the end of September.


1958 United States Senate election in Maine
The 1958 United States Senate election in Maine was held on September 8, 1958.


1958 United States Senate election in Maine
Senator Frederick Payne was defeated in his bid for a second term by a wide margin. This was one of a record twelve seats Democrats gained from the Republican Party.


1958 United States Senate election in Maryland
The 1958 United States Senate election in Maryland was held on November 4, 1958.


1958 United States Senate election in Maryland
Senator James Glenn Beall narrowly defeated Baltimore Mayor Thomas D'Alesandro for re-election to a second term. Beall's victory came despite a national landslide for Senate Democrats.


1958 United States Senate election in Massachusetts
The 1958 United States Senate election in Massachusetts was held on November 4, 1958. Democratic incumbent John F. Kennedy was reelected to a second six-year term, defeating Republican candidate Vincent J. Celeste.


1958 United States Senate election in Massachusetts, General election, Campaign
Kennedy was overwhelmingly popular in Massachusetts and the 1958 elections were a wave election favoring the Democratic Party. Celeste's campaign was poorly funded but the candidate worked 17-hour days, running his campaign out of his law offices and attempting to frame the race as one pitting a working-class child of Sicilian immigrants against "that millionaire Jack Kennedy."


1958 United States Senate election in Massachusetts, General election, Campaign
The Kennedy campaign had bought and produced thousands of pieces of campaign material with the slogan "Be Proud of Your Vote!" but scrapped them after Celeste's nomination, as Senator Kennedy's father Joe thought the slogan could alienate Italian-Americans and divide the state on ethnic lines.


1958 United States Senate election in Massachusetts, General election, Results
Kennedy defeated Celeste by a margin of 874,608 votes; this represented the largest margin of victory in a statewide Massachusetts election up to that point.


1958 United States Senate election in Michigan
The 1958 United States Senate election in Michigan was held on November 4, 1958.


1958 United States Senate election in Michigan
Incumbent Senator Charles E. Potter was defeated in his bid for re-election to a second term by Lieutenant Governor Philip A. Hart. This was one of a record twelve seats Democrats gained from the Republican Party.


1958 United States Senate election in Michigan, Republican primary, Results
Senator Potter was unopposed for re-nomination by the Republican Party.


1958 United States Senate election in Minnesota
The 1958 United States Senate election in Minnesota took place on November 4, 1958. Democratic U.S. Representative Eugene McCarthy defeated incumbent Republican U.S. Senator Edward John Thye, who sought a third term.


1958 United States Senate election in Mississippi
The 1958 United States Senate election in Mississippi took place on November 4, 1958. Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator John C. Stennis was re-elected to a third term in office.


1958 United States Senate election in Mississippi
Because Stennis was unopposed in the general election, his victory in the August 26 primary was tantamount to election. Stennis was also unopposed in the primary.


1958 United States Senate election in Mississippi, Democratic primary
The Democratic primary election was held on August 26, 1958.


1958 United States Senate election in Mississippi, Bibliography
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1958 United States Senate election in Missouri
The 1958 United States Senate election in Missouri was held on November 4, 1958.


1958 United States Senate election in Missouri
Incumbent Senator Stuart Symington was re-elected to a second term in office.


1958 United States Senate election in Missouri, Republican primary, Results
Hazel Palmer became the first woman ever nominated for United States Senate in Missouri.


1958 United States Senate election in Montana
The 1958 United States Senate election in Montana took place on November 4, 1958. Incumbent United States Senator Mike Mansfield, who was first elected to the Senate in 1952, ran for re-election. Mansfield won the Democratic primary comfortably, and moved on to the general election, where he was opposed by Lou W. Welch, a millworker and the Republican nominee. In contrast to the close campaign in 1952, Mansfield defeated Welch in a landslide and won his second term in the Senate easily.


1958 United States Senate election in Nebraska
The 1958 United States Senate election in Nebraska took place on November 4, 1958. The incumbent Republican Senator, Roman Hruska, was re-elected to a full term, having previously been elected in a special election. He defeated Frank B. Morrison.


1958 United States Senate election in Nevada
The 1958 United States Senate election in Nevada was held on November 4, 1958. Incumbent Republican U.S. Senator George W. Malone ran for re-election to a third term, but was defeated by Democrat Howard Cannon.


1958 United States Senate election in Nevada, Republican primary, Results
Senator Malone was unopposed for re-nomination by the Republican Party.


1958 United States Senate election in Nevada, General election, Campaign
This campaign was considered one of the most competitive and highly watched in the nation in 1958. Senator Malone was known nationally as a leader within the Republican Party's right wing and held key appointments on the Senate Finance and Interior Committees.


1958 United States Senate election in Nevada, General election, Campaign
Malone campaigned on his experience and seniority in the Senate, using the slogan "He Knows Nevada Best." He received support from Eisenhower cabinet secretaries Fred Seaton and Ezra Taft Benson. Benson, one of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, was especially influential among Nevada's large Mormon population. His endorsement was seen as particularly important in light of Cannon's Mormon faith. Late in the campaign, Malone published full-page ads touting his effort to save Nevada from a federal gambling tax.


1958 United States Senate election in Nevada, General election, Campaign
Cannon focused his attacks on Malone's absentee record in the Senate and his reputation on Capitol Hill as an unpopular extremist.


1958 United States Senate election in Nevada, General election, Results
Cannon won the election by a safe margin owing to his overwhelming support in his native Clark County, which contained 47 percent of the state's registered voters. He was the first candidate from southern Nevada elected to the United States Senate.


1958 United States Senate election in New Jersey
The 1958 United States Senate election in New Jersey was held on November 4, 1958.


1958 United States Senate election in New Jersey
Incumbent Senator H. Alexander Smith chose not to seek a third term in office. Democratic U.S. Representative Harrison Williams won the open seat over U.S. Representative Robert Kean. This was one of a record twelve seats Democrats gained from the Republican Party in 1958.


1958 United States Senate election in New York
The United States Senate election of 1958 in New York was held on November 4, 1958. Incumbent Republican Senator Irving Ives retired. Republican Representative Kenneth Keating defeated Democrat Frank Hogan to succeed Ives. As of 2021, this is the last time the Republicans won the Class 1 Senate seat in New York.


1958 United States Senate election in New York, Candidates, Independents and third parties, Liberal
The Liberal Party initially chose Thomas K. Finletter as its nominee for Senate, but after Finletter lost the Democratic nomination to Frank Hogan, Finletter withdrew and the party endorsed Hogan instead.


1958 United States Senate election in North Dakota
The 1958 United States Senate election in North Dakota took place on November 4, 1958, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the State of North Dakota, concurrently with other Class 1 elections to the Senate and various other federal, state, and local elections.


1958 United States Senate election in North Dakota
Incumbent Republican Senator William Langer was re-elected to a fourth term, defeating a primary challenge from Lieutenant Governor Francis Clyde Duffy and winning the general election with 57.21% of the vote, defeating Democratic-NPL candidate Raymond G. Vendsel who won 41.49% of the vote. Two independent candidates, Arthur C. Townley and Custer Solem, also ran, had minimal impact on the outcome of the election, winning 1,700 (0.83%) and 973 (0.48%) votes, respectively. Townley was known as the creator of the National Non-Partisan League, and had previously sought North Dakota's other senate seat in 1956. This was the last time North Dakota's class 1 seat was won by a Republican until Kevin Cramer won it in 2018.


1958 United States Senate election in Ohio
The 1958 United States Senate election in Ohio was held on November 4, 1958.


1958 United States Senate election in Ohio
Incumbent Senator John W. Bricker was defeated in his bid for a third term by U.S. Representative Stephen M. Young. This was one of a record twelve seats Democrats gained from the Republican Party in 1958.


1958 United States Senate election in Pennsylvania
The 1958 United States Senate election in Pennsylvania was held on November 4, 1958. Incumbent Republican U.S. Senator Edward Martin did not seek re-election. The Republican nominee, Hugh Scott, defeated Democratic nominee George M. Leader for the vacant seat.


1958 United States Senate election in Tennessee
The 1958 United States Senate election in Tennessee was held on November 3, 1958. Democrat Albert Gore Sr. was re-elected to a second term. Gore survived a primary challenge from former Governor Prentice Cooper and easily defeated Republican Hobart Atkins in the general election.


1958 United States Senate election in Texas
The 1958 United States Senate election in Texas was held on November 4, 1958. Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Ralph Yarborough won a competitive primary against former Senator William Blakley and handily defeated newspaper publisher Roy Whittenburg in the general election.


1958 United States Senate election in Utah
The 1958 United States Senate election in Utah was held on November 4, 1958.


1958 United States Senate election in Utah
Incumbent Senator Arthur V. Watkins was defeated by Salt Lake County Attorney Frank Moss in a three-way race that also included former Governor J. Bracken Lee running as an independent. This was one of a record twelve Senate seats Democrats gained from the Republican Party in 1958. Even in such a strong year for Democrats, Moss's victory in Utah was seen as a major upset.


1958 United States Senate election in Utah, Background
Utah at this time was seen as a safely Republican seat. Utah had not elected a Democratic Governor or United States Senator since 1944. The state voted for Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower by 17 points in 1952 and 29 points in 1956. It was one of only three states in the West which had trended towards Eisenhower in 1956, and the Republicans swept all congressional seats and state offices by substantial margins. The state had also not elected a Democratic Governor or United States Senator since 1944.


1958 United States Senate election in Utah, Background
By June 1958, the state was considered the only "safe Republican" area in the entire nation. In the face of the national Democratic surge, one Republican expert was quoted, "I haven't had any bad reports from [Utah] — recently."


1958 United States Senate election in Utah, Republican primary, Results
Watkins easily won re-nomination by the Republican Party for a third term. Mattison carried only his home county of Sevier along with bordering Piute and Wayne Counties.


1958 United States Senate election in Utah, General election, Campaign
Senator Watkins made several key errors in the months and years preceding his defeat. He supported a strengthening of the Robinson–Patman Act, which angered business interests in the state and led the Utah Association of Petroleum Retailed to back Moss. The metal mining industry, which is a key part of the Utah economy, also grew dissatisfied with Watkins after Congress failed to pass favorable legislation. He also angered some rural voters by failing to take a side in a reclamation project that pitted development interests in Carbon County against those in Sanpete County.


1958 United States Senate election in Utah, General election, Campaign
Perhaps most importantly, Watkins angered conservative and right-wing voters within his own party by leading the committee which voted for the censure of anti-communist Senator Joseph McCarthy.


1958 United States Senate election in Utah, General election, Campaign
In the general election, Lee campaigned on the repeal of the federal income tax and a general reduction of taxes. He limited his previous criticisms of the Eisenhower administration and of the United Nations, though he continued to criticize foreign aid and federal spending in general. For his own part, Watkins campaigned on the issue of seniority. He claimed that if re-elected, he would be appointed to the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee. Lee responded by reminding Watkins that his predecessor, Senator Abe Murdock, was on this committee during his first and only term. Moss noted that seniority, even on a powerful committee, would mean little so long as Watkins's Republican Party remained the minority in the Senate.


1958 United States Senate election in Utah, General election, Campaign
Moss gained support by contrasting himself to the much older Watkins and Lee in a series of public appearances. At one such event late in the campaign at the University of Utah, Lee said that all politicians were corrupt. Given Lee's own long career in politics and many electoral campaigns, the crowd laughed. As Lee's campaign began to decline and Moss's surged, a number of high-profile national Democratic leaders came to Utah to campaign. They included Senators Lyndon Baines Johnson, George Smathers, and Warren Magnuson. The Moss campaign brought in AFL-CIO lobbyist Esther Peterson and local communications executive George C. Hatch to provide strategic advice and communications expertise.


1958 United States Senate election in Utah, General election, Campaign
In the final weeks of the race, the Moss campaign ran a double-pronged strategy: boosting Lee's appeal to Republican voters while drawing away his Democratic supporters. They first hosted a "Let's Sack Brack" rally featuring newly-elected Senator Edmund Muskie and Congressman John E. Moss of California. As Lee gained attention as the outsider candidate, he began to attack both parties equally as a single "machine." Watkins turned his attention to Lee and intensified his attacks. In the final weeks of the campaign, the Democrats carried out an intensive phone-banking operation, calling potential Lee supporters to claim that Moss was the only candidate who could unseat Watkins.


1958 United States Senate election in Utah, General election, Campaign
Watkins polled ahead for most of the campaign, but in the final weeks polls were published showing both Moss and Lee in the lead. Ultimately, his victory was credited to the presence of Lee in the race, which split Republican voters, and his own campaign's youthful energy.


1958 United States Senate election in Vermont
The 1958 United States Senate election in Vermont took place on November 4, 1958. Incumbent Republican Ralph Flanders did not run for re-election to another term in the United States Senate. Republican candidate Winston L. Prouty defeated Democratic candidate Frederick J. Fayette to succeed him.


1958 United States Senate election in Virginia
The 1958 United States Senate election in Virginia was held on November 4, 1958. Incumbent Senator Harry F. Byrd, Sr. was re-elected to a fifth term after defeating Independent Louise Wensel and Social Democrat Clarke Robb.


1958 United States Senate election in Washington
The 1958 United States Senate election in Washington was held on November 4, 1958. Incumbent Democrat Henry M. Jackson won a second term in office over Republican William Bantz.


1958 United States Senate election in West Virginia
The 1958 United States Senate election in West Virginia was held on November 4, 1958. Robert Byrd was elected Senator, and he held the seat until 2010, upon his death.


1958 United States Senate election in West Virginia, Background
In 1956 Senator Harley M. Kilgore died, and former Senator Chapman Revercomb won his seat in the 1956 special election. The election was held alongside the 1958 midterms, where Republicans had a net loss nationally. Revercomb lost re-election to Robert Byrd. West Virginia was one of the many states that was flipped from Republican to Democrat in the 1958 midterms.


1958 United States Senate election in Wisconsin
The 1958 United States Senate election in Wisconsin was held on November 4, 1958. Incumbent Democrat William Proxmire, who had won a special election to finish the term of the late Senator Joe McCarthy, was re-elected to a full term in office over Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Roland J. Steinle, a Republican.


1958 United States Senate election in Wyoming
The 1958 United States Senate election in Wyoming took place November 4, 1958. Incumbent Republican Senator Frank A. Barrett ran for re-election to his second term. He was challenged by Gale W. McGee, a University of Wyoming professor and the Democratic nominee. Despite the state's strong Republican lean, McGee ran an energetic campaign against Barrett, earning the support of the national Democratic establishment. McGee ultimately narrowly upset Barrett, winning 51% of the vote to Barrett's 49%.


1958 United States Senate elections
The 1958 United States Senate elections were elections for the United States Senate which occurred in the middle of President Dwight D. Eisenhower's second term.


1958 United States Senate elections
As is common in midterm elections, the party in the White House lost seats, but losses this year were heavy due to the Recession of 1958, the Eisenhower Administration's position on right-to-work issues that galvanized labor unions (which supported Democrats), and the launch of Sputnik.


1958 United States Senate elections
The Democratic Party gained a record 15 seats in this election, defeating 10 Republican incumbents, gaining three open Republican seats, and winning both seats from the new state of Alaska. This gave the Democrats a strong Senate majority of 64–34 over the Republicans, the largest swing in the history of the Senate.


1958 United States Senate elections
This is only one of two occasions in U.S. history that 10 or more Senate seats changed hands in a midterm election (the other being in 1946), and also one of five occasions where 10 or more Senate seats changed hands in an election, with the other occasions being in 1920, 1932, 1946, and 1980.


1958 United States Senate elections, Incumbents who lost re-election (or appointee who lost election), Republicans replaced by Democrats
West Virginia's delegation changed from two Republicans to two Democrats.


1958 United States Senate elections, Results summary
For the November 5 and 25, 1958 regular and special elections.


1958 United States Senate elections, Results summary
Colored shading indicates party with largest share of that row.


1958 United States Senate elections, Race summaries, Special / new state elections
In the special elections, the winners were seated during 1958 or before January 3, 1959. In the new state elections, the winners were seated with the new Congress on January 3, 1959. Ordered by election date.


1958 United States Senate elections, Race summaries, Elections leading to the next Congress
In these regular elections, the winners were elected for the term beginning January 3, 1959; ordered by state.


1958 United States Senate elections, Alaska
Alaska would become a new state January 3, 1959 and it elected two initial senators November 25, 1958 in advance of statehood. The Democratic Party thereby picked up 2 more seats.


1958 United States Senate elections, Alaska
In their next elections, Alaska's senators would be elected to 6-year terms.


1958 United States Senate elections, Alaska
The class 2 race, for the 2-year term ending in 1961, was between the Democratic incumbent territorial delegate Bob Bartlett, and the Republican Juneau attorney R. E. Robertson.


1958 United States Senate elections, Alaska
Bartlett would be re-elected twice and serve until his 1968 death.


1958 United States Senate elections, Alaska
The class 3 race, for the 4-year term ending in 1963, pitted two former territorial governors, Democrat Ernest Gruening against Republican Mike Stepovich. Gruening won a close race.


1958 United States Senate elections, Alaska
Gruening would be re-elected in 1962 and serve until losing renomination in 1968.


1958 United States Senate elections, Connecticut
In Connecticut, Democrat Thomas J. Dodd defeated incumbent senator William A. Purtell who ran for a second term.


1958 United States Senate elections, Delaware
Two-term Republican John J. Williams was re-elected to a third term.


1958 United States Senate elections, Delaware
Williams would be re-elected in 1964, serving four terms until his 1970 retirement.


1958 United States Senate elections, Florida
Incumbent Democrat Senator Holland, a conservative, was challenged by former senator Claude Pepper, who had been unseated in 1950. Holland had played a role in recruiting George A. Smathers to run against the liberal Pepper in that election. The two served as colleagues in the Senate from 1947 to 1951.


1958 United States Senate elections, Indiana
Incumbent Republican William E. Jenner did not seek a second full term in office and was replaced by Democrat Vance Hartke, the mayor of Evansville. Hartke defeated incumbent Republican Governor of Indiana Harold W. Handley.


1958 United States Senate elections, Indiana
Jenner resigned shortly before the election and urged Handley, Jenner's political protégé, to seek his seat. A plan was proposed whereby Handley would resign the governorship, his lieutenant would appoint him senator, and he would finish the term and run as an incumbent. When the plan was revealed to the party leadership, they strongly advised him to not implement it because they feared it would hurt the party and be perceived as a scandal.


1958 United States Senate elections, Indiana
Handley did not resign from the governorship during his campaign and was widely criticized for the unprecedented action. Hartke accused Handley of raising taxes, breaking of his campaign promise, his reluctance in supporting right-to-work, and rising state unemployment. Statewide unemployment was just above 10% in April, but dropped to 6.9% by the end of September.


1958 United States Senate elections, Maine
Maine held its election September 8, 1958, in keeping with its routine practice of holding elections before the November national Election Day. Democrat Edmund Muskie defeated one-term Republican incumbent, Frederick G. Payne by a wide margin, 61–39%.


1958 United States Senate elections, Minnesota
In Minnesota, Democratic Representative Eugene McCarthy defeated incumbent senator Edward John Thye who ran for a third term.


1958 United States Senate elections, Mississippi
Two-term Democrat John C. Stennis was re-elected with no opposition.


1958 United States Senate elections, Mississippi
Stennis would be re-elected four more times, serving until his retirement in 1989.


1958 United States Senate elections, Missouri
Incumbent Democrat Stuart Symington was re-elected to a second term. Hazel Palmer was the first woman ever nominated for United States senator in Missouri.


1958 United States Senate elections, Montana
Incumbent Mike Mansfield, who was first elected to the Senate in 1952, ran for re-election. Mansfield won the Democratic primary comfortably, and moved on to the general election, where he was opposed by Lou W. Welch, a millworker and the Republican nominee. In contrast to the close campaign in 1952, Mansfield defeated Welch in a landslide and won his second term in the Senate easily.


1958 United States Senate elections, Nebraska
Republican Roman Hruska had won a 1954 special election and ran for a full term. He beat Democratic attorney Frank B. Morrison.


1958 United States Senate elections, Nebraska
Hruska would be re-elected two more times and serve until his 1976 retirement.


1958 United States Senate elections, Nebraska
Morrison would be elected Governor of Nebraska in 1960 and serve there for six years, twice again meanwhile running unsuccessfully for U.S. senator.


1958 United States Senate elections, Nevada
In Nevada, incumbent Republican George W. Malone ran for re-election to a third term, but was defeated by Democrat Howard Cannon.


1958 United States Senate elections, Nevada
The campaign was considered one of the most competitive and highly watched in the nation in 1958. Senator Malone was known nationally as a leader within the Republican Party's right wing and held key appointments on the Senate Finance and Interior Committees.


1958 United States Senate elections, Nevada
Malone campaigned on his experience and seniority in the Senate, using the slogan "He Knows Nevada Best." He received support from Eisenhower cabinet secretaries Fred Seaton and Ezra Taft Benson. Benson, one of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, was especially influential among Nevada's large Mormon population. His endorsement was seen as particularly important in light of Cannon's Mormon faith. Late in the campaign, Malone published full-page ads touting his effort to save Nevada from a federal gambling tax.


1958 United States Senate elections, Nevada
Cannon focused his attacks on Malone's absentee record in the Senate and his reputation on Capitol Hill as an unpopular extremist.


1958 United States Senate elections, Nevada
Cannon won the election by a safe margin owing to his overwhelming support in his native Clark County, which contained 47 percent of the state's registered voters. He was the first candidate from southern Nevada elected to the United States Senate.


1958 United States Senate elections, Nevada
Senator Malone was unopposed for re-nomination by the Republican Party.


1958 United States Senate elections, New Jersey
Incumbent Republican H. Alexander Smith chose not to seek a third term in office. Democratic U.S. Representative Harrison Williams won the open seat over U.S. Representative Robert Kean.


1958 United States Senate elections, New York
Incumbent Republican Irving Ives retired. Republican Representative Kenneth Keating defeated Democrat Frank Hogan to succeed Ives.


1958 United States Senate elections, North Carolina (special)
Democrat W. Kerr Scott had died April 16, 1958 and former Democratic Governor of North Carolina B. Everett Jordan was appointed April 19, 1958 to continue the term, pending a special election. Jordan was then re-elected in November.


1958 United States Senate elections, North Carolina (special)
Jordan would later be twice re-elected and serve until 1973.


1958 United States Senate elections, North Dakota
Incumbent Republican, and former Non-Partisan League (NPL) senator, William Langer, was re-elected to a fourth term, defeating North Dakota Democratic NPL Party (Dem-NPL) candidate Raymond G. Vendsel.


1958 United States Senate elections, North Dakota
Only Langer filed as a Republican, and the endorsed Democratic-NPL candidate was Raymond G. Vendsel. Langer and Vendsel won the primary elections for their respective parties.


1958 United States Senate elections, North Dakota
Two independent candidates, Arthur C. Townley and Custer Solem, also filed before the deadline but had minimal impact on the outcome of the election, totaling less than 3,000 votes combined. Townley was known as the creator of the National Non-Partisan League, and had previously sought North Dakota's other senate seat in 1956.


1958 United States Senate elections, Ohio
Incumbent Republican John W. Bricker was defeated in his bid for a third term by U.S. Representative Stephen M. Young.


1958 United States Senate elections, Pennsylvania
Incumbent Republican Edward Martin did not seek re-election. The Republican nominee, Hugh Scott, defeated the term-limited Democratic Governor of Pennsylvania George M. Leader for the vacant seat.


1958 United States Senate elections, Pennsylvania
Scott would be twice re-elected, rising to the Senate Minority leader, and serve until retiring in 1977. Leader retired from public service after the defeat.


1958 United States Senate elections, Rhode Island
Two-term incumbent Democrat John Pastore was easily re-elected over Republican attorney Bayard Ewing, a repeat of their 1952 race.


1958 United States Senate elections, Rhode Island
Ewing would later serve as the national chairman of the United Way (1969–1972) and the Rhode Island School of Design (1967–1985).


1958 United States Senate elections, Vermont
Incumbent Republican Ralph Flanders did not run for re-election to another term in the United States Senate. Republican candidate Winston L. Prouty defeated Democratic candidate Frederick J. Fayette to succeed him.


1958 United States Senate elections, Virginia
Incumbent Harry F. Byrd Sr. was re-elected after defeating Independent Louise Wensel and Social Democrat Clarke Robb.


1958 United States Senate elections, West Virginia, West Virginia (regular)
In 1956 senator Harley M. Kilgore died, and former senator William Revercomb won his seat in the 1956 special election. Revercomb lost re-election to Robert Byrd, who would hold the seat until his 2010 death.


1958 United States Senate elections, West Virginia, West Virginia (special)
Incumbent Democrat Matthew M. Neely died January 8, 1958 and Republican John D. Hoblitzell Jr. was appointed January 25, 1958 to continue the term, pending a special election.


1958 United States Senate elections, West Virginia, West Virginia (special)
Former Democratic congressman Jennings Randolph was elected to finish the term that would run through 1961.


1958 United States Senate elections, West Virginia, West Virginia (special)
Randolph would be re-elected four times and serve until his retirement in 1985. Hoblitzell resumed his business interests and died January 6, 1962.


1958 United States Senate elections in Alaska
The 1958 United States Senate elections in Alaska were held November 25, 1958. The elections were held in anticipation of Alaska's admission as the forty-ninth State in the union, effective January 3, 1959. The state held two simultaneous elections to determine their first senators.


1958 United States Senate elections in Alaska
Both elections were won by the Democratic Party. The new Senators, Bob Bartlett and Ernest Gruening, were sworn into office alongside those Senators elected in the 1958 United States Senate elections held three weeks earlier.


1958 United States Senate elections in Alaska, Class 2
This election was for the class 2 term expiring in 1961. It was won by Democrat Bob Bartlett.


1958 United States Senate elections in Alaska, Class 3
This election was for the class 3 term expiring in 1963. It was won by Democrat Ernest Gruening.


1958 United States Senate special election in North Carolina
The 1958 United States Senate special election in North Carolina was held on November 2, 1958. Interim Democratic Senator B. Everett Jordan was elected to complete the unexpired term of Senator W. Kerr Scott, who had died in April.


1958 United States Senate special election in North Carolina, Background
On April 16, 1958, Senator W. Kerr Scott died in office. On April 19, Governor of North Carolina Luther H. Hodges appointed B. Everett Jordan to fill the vacant seat until a successor could be duly elected. A special election to finish Kerr's term was scheduled for November 2, 1958, concurrent with the general election.


1958 United States Senate special election in North Carolina, Background
Jordan's appointment capped a twelve-year period during which eight different men held this Senate seat. He would hold the seat until 1975.


1958 United States Senate special election in West Virginia
The 1958 United States Senate special election in West Virginia was held on November 4, 1958, concurrent with a regular election. The election was called due to the death of Senator Matthew M. Neely.


1958 United States Senate special election in West Virginia
Democrats Randolph and Byrd both won their seats, amid a national wave election.


1958 United States Senate special election in West Virginia, Democratic primary, Campaign
While campaigning with Robert C. Byrd, Randolph was involved in a car accident, veering into oncoming traffic and killing another driver. According to the testimony of Byrd, Randolph fell asleep at the wheel and woke up shortly before hitting the other driver. Wetzel County prosecutor Jack Hawkins declined to file charges, and Byrd's insurance company settled with the victim's widow out of court, being forced to pay the full sum of Byrd's liability, $22,500.


1958 United States elections
The 1958 United States elections were held on November 4, 1958, and elected members of the 86th United States Congress. The election took place in the middle of Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower's second term. Eisenhower's party suffered large losses. They lost 48 seats to the Democratic Party in the House of Representatives, and also lost thirteen seats in the U.S. Senate to the Democrats. This marked the first time that the six-year itch phenomenon occurred during a Republican presidency since Ulysses S. Grant's second term in 1874. Alaska and Hawaii were admitted as states during the 86th Congress.


1958 United States elections
The ranks of liberal Democrats swelled as the Republican Party suffered several losses in the Northeast and the West. The election contributed to a weakening of the conservative coalition and those opposed to the civil rights movement, allowing for the eventual passage of the Great Society and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The election saw an influx of northern Democrats who sought to reform the Congressional seniority system, which often gave the best positions to senior southerners who rarely faced difficult re-elections and thus were able to rack up long terms of service.


1958 United States gubernatorial elections
United States gubernatorial elections were held in 1958, in 34 states, concurrent with the House and Senate elections, on November 4, 1958 (September 8 in Maine, November 25 in Alaska). Alaska held its first gubernatorial election on achieving statehood.


1958 United States gubernatorial elections
In Colorado, Maine and Ohio, the governor was elected to a 4-year term for the first time, instead of a 2-year term.


1958 Upper Voltan constitutional referendum
A referendum on the new constitution of France was held in Upper Volta on 28 September 1958 as part of a wider referendum held across the French Union. The new constitution would see the country become part of the new French Community if accepted, or result in independence if rejected. It was approved by 99.18% of voters.


1958 Uruguayan Primera División, Overview
It was contested by 10 teams, and Peñarol won the championship.


1958 Uruguayan constitutional referendum
A constitutional referendum was held in Uruguay on 30 November 1958 alongside general elections. Two proposals for amendments to the constitution were put to voters, but both were rejected.


1958 Uruguayan constitutional referendum, Proposals
Proposal 1 was put forward by the Ruralista/Herrerista faction of the National Party through the General Assembly, and proposed a presidential system of government, separating the presidential and parliamentary elections, and abolishing the lema system.


1958 Uruguayan constitutional referendum, Proposals
Proposal 2 was put forward by the Civic Union through a popular initiative, and proposed introducing a presidential system of government.


1958 Uruguayan general election
General elections were held in Uruguay on 30 November 1958, alongside a constitutional referendum. Following the end of a schism between the National Party and the Independent National Party, the National Party received almost half the vote, winning a majority of seats in the National Council of Government, the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, and allowing it to lead the government for the first time since 1865.


1958 Utah Redskins football team
The 1958 Utah Redskins football team represented the University of Utah during the 1958 NCAA University Division football season. Home games were played on campus in Salt Lake City at Ute Stadium.


1958 Utah Redskins football team
Under first-year head coach Ray Nagel, the Redskins were 4–7 overall and 3–3 in the Mountain States Conference (Skyline). The defending conference champions, they were led on the field by senior quarterback Lee Grosscup and junior safety (& halfback) Larry Wilson, a future member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.


1958 Utah Redskins football team, NFL draft
Utah had one player selected in the 1959 NFL Draft.


1958 Utah State Aggies football team
The 1958 Utah State Aggies football team was an American football team that represented Utah State University in the Skyline Conference during the 1958 NCAA University Division football season. In their fourth season under head coach Ev Faunce, the Aggies compiled a 3–7 record (2–5 against Skyline opponents), tied for sixth in the Skyline Conference, and were outscored by opponents by a total of 188 to 123.


1958 VFA season
The 1958 Victorian Football Association season was the 77th season of the Australian rules football competition. The premiership was won by the Williamstown Football Club, after it defeated Moorabbin in the grand final replay on 4 October by 32 points. It was Williamstown's ninth premiership, drawing it level with Footscray for the most premierships won in VFA history, and it was the fourth of five premierships won in six seasons between 1954 and 1959.


1958 VFA season, Association Membership
The 1958 season marked the beginning of the expansion of the Association from fourteen clubs to twenty clubs. The Association had been planning for a scheme to expand into the fastest developing outer suburbs since as early as 1946, when it was still playing under and trying to promote the throw-pass rules.


1958 VFA season, Association Membership
This current plan was made public in 1956, when the Association announced its intention to expand to twenty teams, proposing a vision which focused on expansion further into the outer suburbs of greater Melbourne – Dandenong to the south-east, Heidelberg or Greensborough to the north-east, Sunshine to the west and Frankston to the south – as well as a proposed expansion into the regional markets of Ballarat and Bendigo.


1958 VFA season, Association Membership
Between 1958 and 1966, a total of seven new clubs – Dandenong, Frankston, Mordialloc, Sunshine, Waverley and Werribee from greater Melbourne and Geelong West from regional Victoria – joined the Association, as well as Caulfield (in the form of a merger with Brighton); and with the departure of Moorabbin in 1964, this brought the number of clubs to twenty.


1958 VFA season, Association Membership
In 1958, the first two new clubs of this expansion joined the Association to bring numbers to sixteen: Mordialloc and Dandenong, both switching from the Federal District League. Mordialloc announced in August 1957 that it had accepted the Association's invitation, and revealed that it had been approached to join at short notice for the 1957 season, but had declined. Dandenong voted to accept its invitation in September 1957, although only by a small 53–49 majority. The Federal District League, which was not consulted prior to the Association extending the invitations to its teams and had lost Moorabbin the same way in 1951, was unhappy with the "back-door methods" that the Association had taken.


1958 VFA season, Association Membership
Part of the Association's plans to expand to twenty clubs was the partitioning of the Association into two divisions of ten teams. The Association ultimately split into a first division and a second division with promotion and relegation between them from 1961; but, the other alternative considered attempted to reduce the travel burden between outlying suburbs by partitioning the Association into northern and southern divisions, with the winner of each division to contest the Association-wide premiership at the end of the season.


1958 VFA season, Association Membership
To trial the geographic division structure, the clubs were divided into northern and southern sections in the 1958 fixture, and clubs were drawn to play other clubs in their own section twice and clubs from the other section only once; but, the final results were compiled into a single ladder and a single finals series.


1958 VFA season, Association Membership
The Camberwell Football Club, which was struggling due to poor support, had considered withdrawing from the Association prior to the start of the season, but decided to remain. Northcote and Brighton both operated as amateur clubs throughout the season, and Preston became amateur after June 11, abandoning its £4/10/– match payments.


1958 VFA season, Premiership
The home-and-home season was played over only eighteen matches, a reduction from the twenty matches played in previous years. No matches were held for the two weekends of the Interstate Carnival, which was held in Melbourne. The top four clubs then contested a finals series under the Page–McIntyre system to determine the premiers for the season.


1958 VFA season, Notable events, Interstate Carnival
The Association fielded its representative team in the 1958 Melbourne Carnival, competing in Section 1. The team was captained by Camberwell's Ken Ross.


1958 VFA season, Notable events, Interstate Carnival
The Association finished last with a record of 1–3 and a poorer percentage than South Australia; the Association's final match of the carnival was against the then-winless South Australia, but South Australia's large win was enough to consign the Association to last place. As a result, the Association was relegated directly to Section 2 for the following carnival.


1958 VFA season, Notable events, Interstate Carnival
Barry Metcalfe (Mordialloc) was named in the All-Australian team on the wing; he was the only Association player named in the team.


1958 VFL Grand Final
The 1958 VFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Melbourne Football Club and Collingwood Football Club, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on 20 September 1958. It was the 62nd annual grand final of the Victorian Football League, staged to determine the premiers for the 1958 VFL season. The match, attended by 97,956 spectators, was won by Collingwood by 18 points, marking that club's 13th premiership victory.


1958 VFL Grand Final
This was Melbourne's fifth successive grand final appearance. The Demons had won the previous three premierships and were looking to equal Collingwood's 1927–1930 record (which still stands) of four consecutive premierships. Collingwood would not win another Grand Final for 32 years, despite numerous appearances, until 1990.


1958 VFL Grand Final, A "Great Comeback": Implications and tactics
The Collingwood Magpies’ unexpected victory did not end the Melbourne Demons’ long domination of the VFL finals, but it did preserve the Magpies cherished record of four consecutive premierships. It has been remembered, and studied, as a notable case of an underdog team overcoming multiple disadvantages, while ignoring much of the tactical advice it was offered by sports journalists and others.


1958 VFL Grand Final, A "Great Comeback": Implications and tactics
The Melbourne Age described the Magpies’ victory as a "Great Comeback" which "must go down not only as one of the most important in the illustrious history of their great club, but also as one of the best on record." The Collingwood Football Club's website claims that, "while Melbourne was regarded as the near-perfect football team, Collingwood was regarded merely as a modest team of hard-workers".


1958 VFL Grand Final, A "Great Comeback": Implications and tactics
Regarded by most as an ordinary team fuelled more by old-fashioned 'G and D' than by any innate football talent, embarrassingly thrashed by Melbourne in the 2nd semi final, missing both their skipper Frank Tuck and arguably their most talented player in Bill Twomey, the Magpies entered the 1958 grand final as the longest odds outsiders for years.


1958 VFL Grand Final, A "Great Comeback": Implications and tactics
The 1958 finals contest between Melbourne and the Magpies in fact commenced a fortnight before the grand final, when these two teams met in the . The winner would move straight into the grand final. The loser would need to win a further "preliminary final" (against North Melbourne, the remaining team in contention) if it was to win its way back into the grand final.


1958 VFL Grand Final, A "Great Comeback": Implications and tactics
Melbourne  had beaten Collingwood nine times in a row in finals games, and before the 'Pies beat North Melbourne in the preliminary final, they'd won just two of their last six matches. Melbourne hadn't lost to the 'Pies for more than three years, and that had been at Victoria Park. They had also won the last nine matches against them on the MCG. Melbourne also started with an almost full-strength line-up.


1958 VFL Grand Final, A "Great Comeback": Implications and tactics
The odds against Collingwood lengthened after Melbourne won the Second Semi-Final by a crushing 45 points. The Magpies were subsequently much criticised, and ridiculed, for being uncompetitive. Collingwood's pacey first rover Thorold Merrett had relished the big ground, but the team as a whole had not. The Melbourne Herald’s chief football writer Alf Brown joked that by half-time Collingwood's only hope was “to phone up the old Merrett homestead and ask for seventeen more, just like little Thorold”.


1958 VFL Grand Final, A "Great Comeback": Implications and tactics
The Melbourne Age in its  on the Semi-Final said that Collingwood "thoroughly deserved to lose", and described how "a strong united Melbourne defence simply smothered a pathetically weak Collingwood attack", which "lacked pace on the big ground". It said the Magpies were short on "skill and ability", and that, while Collingwood's defenders were not disgraced, the "lumbering top-heavy Collingwood attack took a thrashing". Summing up the game's lessons, it stated, "It was obvious that pace and cleverness, at the expense of marking power, must be introduced if Collingwood is going to play better. . . .


1958 VFL Grand Final, A "Great Comeback": Implications and tactics
Rover Ken Bennett is slow." Collingwood had been reputed a short team, and the witticism “Collingwood six-footer” had come into use in the 1950s  for a supposedly tall  player who was in fact less than six feet (183 cm.) tall. Now, Beames implied, the selectors had gone too far in choosing taller but slower players.


1958 VFL Grand Final, A "Great Comeback": Implications and tactics
The next week a re-organised Magpies team, playing to what seemed a different game-plan, swept aside North Melbourne. However the football writers still gave the Magpies almost no chance of winning the grand final against Melbourne.


1958 VFL Grand Final, A "Great Comeback": Implications and tactics
The Magpies were handicapped by the loss through injuries of Frank Tuck, centre-half-back Ron Kingston, half-forward Brian Dorman, and centre-man Bill Twomey. Hence they were forced to take several unseasoned players, including four teenagers, into the often-gladiatorial world of a VFL grand final. The newcomers included the 19 year-old future Collingwood hall-of-fame member Kevin Rose, and the 20 year-old future interstate centre-man, John Henderson, playing their fifth and seventh games respectively. However more effective on the day were the somewhat more experienced tyros: Brian Beers, Graeme Fellowes, Ken Bennett, and also Ron Reeves, whose pace and anticipation in the back pocket made it difficult in the last quarter for Melbourne to chase down Collingwood's lead.


1958 VFL Grand Final, A "Great Comeback": Implications and tactics
One of Collingwood's main assets had been  what the historian (and passionate Carlton supporter) Manning Clark later called ; but, as mentioned, both Kingston and Tuck missed the grand final. Against that, Melbourne's coach Norm Smith was adept at devising ways to counter opposing champions. Collingwood's reliance on younger players, whose talents (and wet-weather skills) were less well known to him, may have made Smith's match-plans less precise than usual.


1958 VFL Grand Final, Home ground advantage
In those days each team had its own ground. However the Melbourne Cricket Ground was by far the most suitable venue in Victoria  for accommodating finals crowds, which could exceed 100,000 persons. Hence the Melbourne Demons, as was usual in that era, enjoyed home-ground advantage throughout the finals. The  playing area was an exceptionally broad oval, and visiting teams needed to adjust their style of play and their team balance to its wider spaces. The playing surface was variable in wet weather.


1958 VFL Grand Final, Home ground advantage
The cricket pitches in the centre sometimes became a "glue-pot", whereas elsewhere the ground might be firm enough for skilled players to baulk and maneuver almost as if on a dry ground. Match-practice on this ground was limited, since a team would play only one or at most two finals matches before reaching the grand final.


1958 VFL Grand Final, Home ground advantage
The Melbourne forwards were skilled at positioning themselves so as to leave open spaces into which one or other of them could "lead" to mark the ball unopposed; and they were skilled at choosing the right moment to do this when the ball was being kicked towards them. Other teams that tried to do the same might find that their skills and timing, which they had honed on much smaller grounds, were not right for the Melbourne Cricket Ground; and they might be left looking slow and unskilled. However, Melbourne's home-ground advantage might be expected to diminish as the finals went on; and Collingwood's loss in the semi-final meant they had the experience of a second finals match on this ground before reaching the grand final.


1958 VFL Grand Final, Magpies’ coaching strategy and defiance of media analysis
Much of the media criticism centred on the Magpies’ supposed lack of leg-speed, and particularly on their diminutive 18-year-old second rover Ken Bennett. Thus the Melbourne Age’s football writer Percy Beames, in a preview article in the Age on the morning of the grand final titled ,  anticipated that, "The slow roving of Ken Bennett could show up badly against the speed of [Melbourne's] Frank Adams."


1958 VFL Grand Final, Magpies’ coaching strategy and defiance of media analysis
The Magpies’ coach and selectors did not follow this advice. They stuck with Bennett, a skilled wet-weather player, throughout the finals; and in the grand final, which was played on a wet and in parts muddy ground, he proved a match winner. They also brought in, for the Preliminary Final  and the grand final, a slow-moving but extremely tall ruckman Graeme Fellowes, who helped neutralise the height-advantage  of Melbourne's very tall ruckman Bob Johnson, and put great pressure upon Melbourne's unusual tactic of playing only two tall ruckmen (plus two "ruck rovers").


1958 VFL Grand Final, Magpies’ coaching strategy and defiance of media analysis
This in turn put pressure on Melbourne's forward line. Their full-forward  Athol Webb was fast but only 180 cm tall. To compete for high marks near goal Melbourne relied heavily on their hard-worked 198 cm ruckman Bob Johnson, who "rested" from the ruck in the forward pocket. In the grandfinal Johnson while "resting" was opposed by another famous ruckman, Collingwood's Ray Gabelich, and he scored only one goal.


1958 VFL Grand Final, Magpies’ coaching strategy and defiance of media analysis
Despite their lack of experienced players, Collingwood made a bold decision to omit their champion Back Pocket player Lerrel Sharp, whose skills had been rewarded three times with interstate selection. Sharp seemed an ideal opponent for Melbourne's rovers Ian Ridley and Frank 'Bluey' Adams, both of whom were proven goal-kickers, when these were “resting” in Melbourne's Forward Pocket. However, earlier that season he had been injured and was replaced by a younger player Ron Reeves, whose form was so good that Sharp did not regain his place. In the Grand Final Melbourne tested out Reeves.


1958 VFL Grand Final, Magpies’ coaching strategy and defiance of media analysis
Aware that their Full-Forward Athol Webb might be out-marked, they sometimes directed their kicks instead to a marking contest between Reeves and the resting rover. They knew from the Second Semi-final that Reeves was, for his size, an excellent high-mark in dry weather. Yet the spinning torpedo punt kick, which was used in those days in wet weather, was both difficult to mark and unpredictable in flight. If the inexperienced defender lost his nerve and allowed many of these  to spill to ground, the Melbourne rovers were likely to score heavily.


1958 VFL Grand Final, Magpies’ coaching strategy and defiance of media analysis
There was debate about the tactics the Magpies used to curb the creativity and strength of Melbourne's great play-maker and ball-distributor Ron Barassi. Barassi was classed as a ruck rover, meaning that he was significantly taller and heavier than (though almost as agile as) the smallish rovers whose task it was to collect the ball from the ground after the ruckmen knocked it down. Barassi, according to his ,  was "revered as one of the most feared enforcers in the VFL"; and the Collingwood rovers Bennett and Thorold Merrett, both very lightly-built, seemed vulnerable against him.


1958 VFL Grand Final, Magpies’ coaching strategy and defiance of media analysis
The Magpies’ coach Phonse Kyne had Barassi closely followed (and confronted) by Barry Harrison, a player who was, in turn, significantly taller than Barassi (188 cm tall, versus 179 cm). Percy Beames, in the same preview of the grand final, remarked that this tactic had proved quite effective in the Second Semi-Final but warned it would not succeed a second time: "Barassi  can do a lot better than in the last game, more so, now that he has had the experience and knows what to expect from the ‘shadowing’ tactics of Harrison." In fact the Magpies stuck with this tactic, which proved equally effective in the grand final.


1958 VFL Grand Final, Magpies’ coaching strategy and defiance of media analysis
Collingwood came closer to following Beames's advice in their choice of wingmen. These were important on the broad Melbourne Cricket Ground. They were usually small, agile players who excelled in foot-speed, not in high marking. But Melbourne had a champion wingman Brian Dixon who was quite tall. Hence Melbourne sometimes found an avenue to goal by kicking the ball high towards Dixon, who would out-mark a smaller opponent. Collingwood, however, also had a tall champion wingman in Ken Turner (who, like Dixon, represented Victoria several times at interstate level).


1958 VFL Grand Final, Magpies’ coaching strategy and defiance of media analysis
In the Second Semi-Final Collingwood had sought a comprehensive height advantage by playing the tall defender Mike Delanty (185 cm) on one wing; but in the grand final they played Delanty at Centre-Half-Back, improving team balance. Turner played on the same wing as Dixon, and prevailed, collecting 21 kicks and (despite the wet ball) 10 marks.


1958 VFL Grand Final, Magpies’ coaching strategy and defiance of media analysis
Contrary to several warnings that Collingwood would be exposed for lack of pace on the big ground, by the third quarter of the grand final the Ampol commentator noted that their players, "were gaining the upper hand. They were faster, and playing in front of their men."


1958 VFL Grand Final, Magpies’ coaching strategy and defiance of media analysis
At half time Collingwood were 2 points ahead, but after a third quarter in which their acting captain Murray Weideman temporarily got the better of Melbourne's champion Centre-Half-Back Don Williams,  Collingwood led by five and a half goals. Ironically, two of the most dangerous forwards, Melbourne's wily Geoff Tunbridge and Collingwood's Bill Serong were being kept goal-less, having been matched with top defenders.


1958 VFL Grand Final, Magpies’ coaching strategy and defiance of media analysis
At the three-quarter-time break Collingwood's Coach Phonse Kyne was heard shouting to his players that Melbourne would come back hard at them, and imploring,  Collingwood's best remaining half-back Peter Lucas and Melbourne's brilliant first-rover Ian Ridley were both injured, and replaced. In the final quarter, Melbourne attacked repeatedly, while keeping Collingwood goal-less; but theycould make up only two and a half goals of the deficit, losing by an even three goals.


1958 VFL Grand Final, Criticism of Magpies’ tactics
Football writers  Percy Beames in the Age and Alf Brown in the Herald  agreed that the Magpies’ "vigor", although expected, disconcerted some of the Melbourne players, either by intimidating them or by sucking them into retaliating rather than concentrating on football. (Both Harrison and Barassi were reported by the umpire on one count each of rough conduct; though neither was subsequently penalised by the VFL tribunal.)