April 13, 1958

Van Cliburn wins the Grand Prix of the First Tchaikovsky competition in Moscow, playing a Steinway & Sons piano. The competition has been organized at the height of the Cold War, with the intent of proving Soviet cultural superiority in the wake of the technological victory of sending a Sputnik to Earth orbit a year previously – however, Van Cliburn’s performance of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 and Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 at the competition’s finale results in eight-minute-long standing ovation, and the victory.