The first attempt to launch an American satellite into orbit ends in fire, with the rocket failing to produce enough thrust to take off. The booster falls over and explodes on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral, destroying the Vanguard TV-3 satellite, intended to be America’s contribution to the International Geophysical Year. The blame is later placed on the insistence of not using proven military rockets as launch vehicles.
The 14th episode of Sam Rolfe’s western series Have Gun – Will Travel is broadcast on CBS in the United States, starring Richard Boone. The episode is the beginning of a four-week consecutive streak of scripts written by future Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, a frequent writer in the series’ early seasons. 
The 15th episode of Sam Rolfe’s western series Have Gun – Will Travel is broadcast on CBS in the United States, starring Richard Boone. The episode is the second of a four-week consecutive streak of scripts written by future Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, a frequent writer in the series’ early seasons.
The 14th episode of the syndicated western series Boots and Saddles is broadcast in the United States, starring John Pickard. This episode is written by future Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and guest stars future Star Trek series regular DeForest Kelley, the first of many collaborations with Roddenberry.
The 16th episode of Sam Rolfe’s western series Have Gun – Will Travel is broadcast on CBS in the United States, starring Richard Boone. The episode is the third of a four-week consecutive streak of scripts written by future Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, a frequent writer in the series’ early seasons. The script wins the Best Teleplay award from the Writers’ Guild of America.
The 17th episode of Sam Rolfe’s western series Have Gun – Will Travel is broadcast on CBS in the United States, starring Richard Boone. The episode is the fourth of a four-week consecutive streak of scripts written by future Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, a frequent writer in the series’ early seasons.
The United States succeeds in launching its own artificial satellite, Explorer 1, atop a Juno 1 rocket. Instruments developed by Dr. James Van Allen reveal the existence of radiation surrounding the Earth, and the areas of radiation are subsequently named the Van Allen radiation belts. The satellite itself is designed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and remains in orbit until 1970 – just the first hint of JPL’s knack for making spacecraft that last longer than their rated lifespans.
The 92nd episode of The Adventures Of Superman airs in syndication, starring George Reeves, Noel Neill, and Jack Larson. This is the sixth season premiere.
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Under the direction of President Eisenhower, the U.S. Department of Defense establishes a high-tech think tank, the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), to conduct scientific and technological research with both national security implications and purely for technological advancement. The formation of ARPA is a direct response to the Soviet launch of the Sputnik satellite, and in the years ahead ARPA will lay the cornerstone of what will later become known as the Internet, as well as making significant strides in space science, though the space-related part of ARPA’s initial charter will later be transferred to a new agency called NASA. As the Cold War heats up, ARPA will be renamed DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) and its slate of R&D projects will become almost entirely military-oriented.
The 93rd episode of The Adventures Of Superman airs in syndication, starring George Reeves, Noel Neill, and Jack Larson.
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The 94th episode of The Adventures Of Superman airs in syndication, starring George Reeves, Noel Neill, and Jack Larson.
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Destiny and the Raven, the pilot script for an unproduced series, Warrior: The Life Of Sam Houston, is completed by future Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry for Screen Gems, the television production arm of Columbia Pictures. This will become the first Roddenberry pilot committed to film, starring Gregg Palmer and George Keymas, though it will not result in a series; a second pilot script, titled Exile, will remain unfilmed. The series concept, under the working title The Man From Texas, has been in development since at least September 1957.
The 95th episode of The Adventures Of Superman airs in syndication, starring George Reeves, Noel Neill, and Jack Larson.
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The 96th episode of The Adventures Of Superman airs in syndication, starring George Reeves, Noel Neill, and Jack Larson.
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The 14th episode of the syndicated western series Boots and Saddles is broadcast in the United States, starring John Pickard. This episode is written by future Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, whose working title for the story was “The Pushcart Brigade”.
The 97th episode of The Adventures Of Superman airs in syndication, starring George Reeves, Noel Neill, and Jack Larson.
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The 98th episode of The Adventures Of Superman airs in syndication, starring George Reeves, Noel Neill, and Jack Larson.
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The 99th episode of The Adventures Of Superman airs in syndication, starring George Reeves, Noel Neill, and Jack Larson.
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The 100th episode of The Adventures Of Superman airs in syndication, starring George Reeves, Noel Neill, and Jack Larson.
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The British Broadcasting Corporation, in order to meet its producers’ requests for more unusual sound effects and music than is presently held in its sound library, establishes the BBC Radiophonic Workshop in room 13 of the BBC’s Maida Vale recording studios. Concentrating on tape manipulation and found sounds altered with analog effects (and only later delving into the earliest waves of analog synthesizers), the Workshop produces music for such legendary BBC productions as The Quatermass Experiment and the theme music for Doctor Who. Founding members include Desmond Briscoe, Daphne Oram and Dick Mills.
The 101st episode of The Adventures Of Superman airs in syndication, starring George Reeves, Noel Neill, and Jack Larson.
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The 102nd episode of The Adventures Of Superman airs in syndication, starring George Reeves, Noel Neill, and Jack Larson.
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The 103rd episode of The Adventures Of Superman airs in syndication, starring George Reeves, Noel Neill, and Jack Larson.
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The 104th and final episode of The Adventures Of Superman airs in syndication, starring George Reeves, Noel Neill, and Jack Larson.
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The third episode of the western series Jefferson Drum is broadcast on NBC in the United States, starring Jeff Richards as the titular old west newspaper editor. R.G. Armstrong guest stars in an episode written by future Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry.
The seventh episode of the NBC western series Jefferson Drum is broadcast in the United States, starring Jeff Richards and Cyril Delevanti. Karen Steele guest stars. This episode is written by future Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry.
The U.S. Weather Bureau uses a mobile Doppler radar transmitting and receiving in the 3cm bandwidth to measure wind speeds in a tornado striking El Dorado, Kansas, which kills 13 people living in that city. With Doppler radar’s ability to detect and measure the velocity of wind and rain moving toward and away from the radar itself, it is ideally suited for tornado observations and detection. This mobile radar is later given to the Bureau’s National Severe Storms Laboratory in the 1960s, and is the beginning of a lengthy research program that culminates in the nationwide rollout of Doppler-based NEXRAD (Next Generation Radar) in the 1990s.
The 11th episode of the NBC western series Jefferson Drum is broadcast in the United States, starring Jeff Richards and Cyril Delevanti. Skip Homeier guest stars. This episode is written by future Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry.
Also referred to as “Pioneer 0”, the Pioneer space probe is launched by the US Air Force, with the intention of sending it to the moon. Just over a minute after Pioneer’s Thor-Able booster lifts off, the first stage explodes, and Pioneer’s short flight ends in the Atlantic Ocean. The next Pioneer space probe will be handled by the newly formed National Aeronautics and Space Administration later in 1958.
Implementing a revolutionary new take on an idea that has existed on paper since the 1940s, recently-hired Texas Instruments engineer Jack Kilby demonstrates the first fully-functional integrated circuit, with all of the electronic components encased in germanium. While the U.S. Air Force immediately places an order for TI’s new integrated circuits, other engineers continue to refine Kilby’s invention, with Fairchild Semiconductor producing ICs encased in silicon. The move to silicon for ICs leads to smaller electronic devices and the development of microcomputer technology.
The first episode of H.G. Wells’ The Invisible Man, based on Wells’ story, premieres on ITV; the series will be shown later in the U.S. on CBS. Lisa Daniely and Deborah Watling (Doctor Who) star.
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The second episode of H.G. Wells’ The Invisible Man, based on Wells’ story, premieres on ITV; the series will be shown later in the U.S. on CBS. Adrienne Corri (A Clockwork Orange) stars.
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Less than a year after launching the first Earth-orbiting artificial satellite, the Soviet Union makes its first attempt to launch an unmanned space vehicle toward the moon. The flight of Luna E-1 #1 lasts a mere 92 seconds before its launch vehicle explodes in mid-air. Further attempts will be made by Sergei Korolev’s team of engineers to launch a lunar spacecraft, giving the escalating international space race a new (if somewhat obvious) target for both unmanned and crewed space flights over the next decade.
The third episode of H.G. Wells’ The Invisible Man, based on Wells’ story, premieres on ITV; the series will be shown later in the U.S. on CBS. Deborah Watling (Doctor Who) stars.
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The 43rd episode of Sam Rolfe’s western series Have Gun – Will Travel is broadcast on CBS in the United States, starring Richard Boone. This episode is written by future Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, a frequent writer in the series’ early seasons.