Editing 1958 (section)

=== December ===
{{Main|December 1958}}
* [[December 1]]
** [[Our Lady of the Angels School fire]]: 90 students and 3 nuns are killed in a fire in Chicago.
** [[Adolfo López Mateos]] takes office as [[President of Mexico]].
* [[December 14]] – The [[3rd Soviet Antarctic Expedition]] becomes the first ever to reach the Southern [[Pole of Inaccessibility]].
* [[December 15]] – [[Arthur Leonard Schawlow|Arthur L. Schawlow]] and [[Charles Hard Townes|Charles H. Townes]] of [[Bell Laboratories]] publish a paper in ''[[Physical Review|Physical Review Letters]]'' setting out the principles of the [[optical laser]].<ref>{{cite journal|title=The Research Frontier|journal=Air University Quarterly Review|publisher=U.S. Air University|issue=October|year=1961|page=113}}</ref>
* [[December 16]]
** A fire breaks out in the Vida Department Store in [[Bogotá, Colombia]] and kills 84 persons.
** [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] polar pilot V. M. Perov on [[Li-2]] rescues four Belgian polar explorers, led by [[Gaston de Gerlache]], who have survived a plane crash in [[Antarctica]] 250&nbsp;km from their base five days earlier.<ref>[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015019278947;view=1up;seq=456 Rescue of Belgian Plane Crew in Antarctic], Soviet Bloc International Geophysical Year Information, January 16, 1959, U. S. Department of Commerce, pp. 18–19</ref>
* [[December 18]]
** The United States launches [[SCORE (satellite)|SCORE]], the world's first [[communications satellite]].
** The [[Bell XV-3]] [[Tiltrotor]] makes the first true mid-air transition from vertical helicopter-type flight to fully level fixed-wing flight.
* [[December 19]] – A message from U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower is broadcast from the [[SCORE (satellite)|SCORE satellite]].
* [[December 21]] – General [[Charles de Gaulle]] is elected president of France with 78.5% of the votes.
* [[December 24]] – [[1958 BOAC Bristol Britannia crash]]: A [[BOAC]] [[Bristol Britannia]] (312 [[G-AOVD]]) crashes near Winkton, England, during a test flight, killing nine people. Three crew members survive.<ref>{{ASN accident|id=19581224-1}}</ref>
* [[December 29]] – [[Battle of Santa Clara]]: Rebel troops under [[Camilo Cienfuegos]] and [[Che Guevara]] begin to invade [[Santa Clara, Cuba]].<ref>{{cite book | last = Calder | first = Simon | title = Cuba | publisher = Vacation Work | location = Oxford | year = 1999 | isbn = 9781854582218 | page=263}}</ref>
* [[December 30]] – The [[Guatemalan Air Force]] fires on Mexican fishing boats which had strayed into [[Guatemala]]n territory, triggering the [[Mexico–Guatemala conflict]].
* [[December 31]] – After the fall of Santa Clara, Cuban President [[Fulgencio Batista]] flees the country.