Also in April 1958
1st: Composers Daphne Oram and Desmond Briscoe launch the BBC Radiophonic Workshop at Maida Vale Studios, London.
Set up to create sound effects for both BBC TV and radio, the Workshop will, over the next 40 years, contribute to programmes such as Doctor Who, Quartermass and the Pit and The Goon Show and employ musicians including Delia Derbyshire and Paddy Kingsland.
2nd: Played by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Malcolm Sargent, Vaughan Williams’s Ninth Symphony gets an unenthusiastic reception at its premiere at the Royal Festival Hall. Reflecting on the critics’ reaction, the composer, now 85 years old, says ‘I don’t think they can quite forgive me for still being able to do it at my age.’
6th: At Augusta National Golf Club, Arnold Palmer wins The Masters for the first time, taking the title by one stroke and earning himself the tournament’s coveted Green Jacket. Palmer, 28, will go on to win The Masters, one of golf’s four ‘major’ tournaments, on three further occasions.
9th: Having established a base for his Movimiento 26 de Julio revolutionary army in the Sierra Maestra mountains, Fidel Castro tries to bring further pressure on Fulgencio Batista’s government by calling a general strike across Cuba. The strike is only partially observed, but Batista’s forces subsequently struggle to subdue Castro’s guerrilla forces, which grow in number and influence.
14th: Sputnik 2 disintegrates as it re-enters Earth’s atmosphere. When launched in November, the Soviet Spacecraft attracted global attention, and no little controversy, for carrying the first ever living creature to orbit the Earth. Contained in a closely monitored capsule, its sole passenger, a dog called Laika, died of overheating soon after take-off.