Part II – 1958

1953 | 1954 | 1955 | 1956 |1957 | 1958 | 1959
1960 | 1961 | 1962 | 1963 | 1964 | 1965 | 1966
1967 | 1968 | 1969 | 19701971 | 1972 | 1973
1974 | 1975 | 1976 | 1977 | 1978 | 1979 | 1980
1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987
1988 | 1989 | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | Epilogue, 1993

Events

Pope Pius XII died (10/09/58) and Pope John XXIII succeeded him. (10/28/58)

According to a Gallup Poll, Eleanor Roosevelt was the most admired woman in the United States. (1958)


Lifestyles

The Hula Hoop was a national fad for 25 million Americans who paid $3 for the hip swiveling experience.

When the city commissioner of hospitals in New York ordered the chief of obstetrics at King’s County General Hospital not to fit a diaphragm for a diabetic Protestant mother of three children, who had already had two Caesarean section deliveries, the story of the unwritten ban on contraceptive counseling broke in the newspapers again. While the Catholic archdiocese and Catholic organizations of both doctors and lay people defended the ban, the policy, based on the doctrines of one religious denomination, was publicly condemned by almost everyone else. Non-Catholic religious groups and many medical, civil liberties and civic organizations demanded that the policy be revoked. A new policy was instituted that recognized contraceptive measures as proper medical practice, though it was condemned by the Catholic archdiocese as “an immoral practice.” In succeeding years, the same battle had to be fought and won in other cities throughout the United States over the bitter opposition of the local Catholic archdiocese. (1958)


Education

Marion E. Kenworthy (1891-1980) became the first woman president of the American Psychoanalytic Association. In 1930, she was Columbia University’s first female psychiatry professor. (1958)


Media

John Kenneth Galbraith’s book The Affluent Society tied inflation and recession to the materialistic public and the tired policies of timid leaders.(1958)


The Backlash

The John Birch Society was organized by Robert Welch. (12/09/58)

Phyllis and Fred Schlafly set up the Cardinal Mindszenty Foundation to “educate the world about communism.” (1958)

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