March 19, 1958

Gas cost $0.31 a gallon in the spring of 1958, and the Dow Jones stood at 584 — a tense Cold War standoff with the Soviet Union dominated the headlines, as Secretary of State John Foster Dulles publicly rejected Soviet terms for a summit meeting, warning that the United States would negotiate only from a position of strength. On the cultural front, "April Love" by Pat Boone held the top spot on the charts, and "The Bridge on the River Kwai" was packing movie theaters across the country. The St. Louis Hawks had just defeated the Boston Celtics to claim the NBA championship, while earlier that spring, on March 2nd, British explorer Sir Vivian Fuchs and his team completed the first overland crossing of Antarctica, traveling by snowcat and dogsled through 99 days of polar conditions to reach the other side of the continent.