date: April 29

text: April 29 – Ludwig Wittgenstein, Austrian philosopher (b. 1889)


date: June 16

section: Deaths

text: June 16 – Thomas Alan Goldsborough, American politician, member of the US House of Representatives from 1921 to 1939 and a United States district judge from 1939 to 1951 (b. 1877)

source_section: Deaths › June


date: July 9

text: July 9 – Harry Heilmann, American baseball player (Detroit Tigers) and a member of the MLB Hall of Fame (b. 1894)

source_section: Deaths › July


date: July 23

text: July 23 – Marshal Philippe Pétain, former Prime Minister and Head of State of France, Chief of State of Vichy France during World War II, hero commander of World War I who led the French Army to victory at the nine-month-long Battle of Verdun, for which he was called "the Lion of Verdun", dies while serving a sentence of life-imprisonment on the island of Île-d'Yeu at 95 years old.

source_section: Events › July


date: August 14

text: August 14 – William Randolph Hearst, American newspaper publisher (b. 1863)

source_section: Deaths › August


date: October 4

text: October 4 – Henrietta Lacks, American originator of the HeLa cell line (b. 1920)

source_section: Deaths › October


date: October 6

text: October 6 – Will Keith Kellogg, American industrialist, founder of the Kellogg Company (b. 1860)


date: October 16

text: October 16 – Liaquat Ali Khan, 1st Prime Minister of Pakistan (assassinated) (b. 1895)


date: December 20

text: December 20 – Anton Durcovici, Austro-Hungarian born Romanian Roman Catholic bishop and blessed (b. 1888)

source_section: Deaths › December


date: December 31

text: December 31 – Maxim Litvinov, Russian revolutionary and Soviet diplomat (b. 1876)


date: February 26

section: Geopolitics & Diplomacy

text: February 26 – Vincent Massey is sworn in, becoming the first Canadian-born Governor General of Canada.

source_section: Events › January–February


date: March 20

text: March 20 – The United States Senate ratifies a peace treaty with Japan.

source_section: Events › March–April


date: March 21

text: March 21 – Kwame Nkrumah is elected Prime Minister of the Gold Coast.


date: March 27

text: March 27 – A legislative Assembly election is held in Coorg.


date: April 18

text: April 18 – West Germany and Japan form diplomatic relations.


date: April 28

text: April 28 – The Treaty of San Francisco goes into effect, formally ending the war between Japan and the Allies, and simultaneously ending the occupation of the four main Japanese islands by the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers.


date: May 13

text: May 13 – Pandit Nehru forms his first government in India.

source_section: Events › May–June


date: May 15

text: May 15 – Diplomatic relations are established between Israel and Japan at the level of legations.


date: June 27

text: June 27 – Decree 900 in Guatemala orders the redistribution of uncultivated land.


date: July 13

text: July 13 – East Germany announces the formation of its National People's Army.

source_section: Events › July–August


date: July 26

text: July 26 – King Farouk of Egypt abdicates, nominally in favour of his infant son Fuad II.


date: August 5

text: August 5 – The Treaty of Taipei between Japan and the Republic of China goes into effect, officially ending the Second Sino-Japanese War.


date: August 11

text: August 11 – The Jordanian Parliament forces King Talal of Jordan to abdicate due to mental illness; he is succeeded by his son King Hussein.


date: August 14

text: August 14 – West Germany joins the IMF and the World Bank.


date: August 27

text: August 27 – Reparation negotiations between West Germany and Israel end in Luxembourg: Germany will pay 3 billion Deutsche Marks.


date: August 30

text: August 30 – The last Finnish war reparations are sent to the Soviet Union.


date: September 10

text: September 10 – The European Parliamentary Assembly (from March 1962, the European Parliament) opens.

source_section: Events › September–October


date: October 23

text: October 23 – The West German Federal Constitutional Court bans the Socialist Reich Party as unconstitutional for being a Nazi Party successor organization.


date: November 4

text: November 4 – 1952 United States presidential election: Republican General Dwight D. Eisenhower defeats Democratic Governor of Illinois Adlai Stevenson (correctly predicted by the UNIVAC computer).

source_section: Events › November–December


text: November 4 – Pace-Finletter MOU 1952: A Memorandum of understanding is signed between "...Air Force Secretary Finletter and Army Secretary Pace that established a fixed wing weight limit [for the Army] of five thousand pounds empty, but weight restrictions on helicopters were eliminated..."


date: November 29

text: November 29 – Korean War: U.S. President-elect Dwight D. Eisenhower fulfills a political campaign promise, by traveling to Korea to find out what can be done to end the conflict.


date: December 1

text: December 1 – Adolfo Ruiz Cortines takes office as President of Mexico.


date: December 10

text: December 10 – Albert Schweitzer is given the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize.


date: December 26

text: December 26 – Joseph Ivor Linton, the first Israeli Minister Plenipotentiary in Japan, presents his credentials to the Emperor of Japan.


date: February 21

section: Conflict & Security

text: February 21 – In Dhaka, East Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh) police open fire on a procession of students, killing 4 people and starting a country-wide protest, which leads to the recognition of Bengali as one of the national languages of Pakistan. The day is later declared "International Mother Language Day" by UNESCO.


date: March 10

text: March 10 – General Fulgencio Batista re-takes power in Cuba in a coup.


date: March 21

text: March 21 – The last two executions in the Netherlands take place.


date: March 27

text: March 27 – Konrad Adenauer survives an assassination attempt organized by members of a small underground group connected to Irgun, an Israeli militant Zionist organization.


date: April 4

text: April 4 – At a tribunal in The Hague, Israel demands reparations worth $3 billion from West Germany.


date: April 11

text: April 11 – Battle of Nanri Island: The Republic of China seizes the island from the People's Republic of China.


text: April 11 – Bolivian National Revolution: Rebels take over Palacio Quemado.


date: May 1

text: May 1 – East Germany threatens to form its own army.


date: June 13

text: June 13 – Polttoainehankinta, a secret Finnish Defence Forces operations order is approved.


date: June 19

text: June 19 – The Special Forces (United States Army) are created.


date: July 23

text: July 23 – General Mohammed Naguib leads the Free Officers (formed by Gamal Abdel Nasser – the real power behind the coup) in the overthrow of King Farouk of Egypt.


date: September 15

text: September 15 – The United Nations cedes Eritrea to Ethiopia.


date: October 17

text: October 17 – 17 October affair: Indonesian troops led by General Nasution surround the presidential palace, seeking the dismissal of the People's Representative Council; Sukarno avoids confrontation.


date: October 20

text: October 20 – Martial law is declared in Kenya, in the face of the Mau Mau uprising.


date: November 18

text: November 18 – Jomo Kenyatta is arrested in Kenya, for an alleged connection to the Mau Mau Uprising.


date: December 25

text: December 25 – One West German soldier is killed in a shooting incident in West Berlin.


text: During the Mau Mau Uprising, the poisonous latex of the African milk bush is used to kill cattle, in an incident of Biological warfare.

source_section: Events › Date unknown


date: May 18

section: Exploration & Expansion

text: May 18 – Ann Davison becomes the first woman to single-handedly sail the Atlantic Ocean.


date: July 3

text: July 3 - The SS United States Has Her maiden voyage en route from New York To Southampton And wins the Blue Riband


date: October 19

text: October 19 – Alain Bombard begins to sail from the Canary Islands to Barbados in 65 days without using provisions; he reaches them December 23.


text: The Nordic Council agrees to the unrestricted transport of people, goods and services throughout the Nordic Countries.


date: May 6

section: Religion & Belief

text: May 6 – Farouk of Egypt has himself announced as a descendant of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad.


date: April 8

section: Economy & Finance

text: April 8 – Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer: The U.S. Supreme Court limits the power of the President to seize private business, after President Harry S. Truman nationalizes all steel mills in the United States, just before the 1952 steel strike begins.


text: July 23 – The European Coal and Steel Community is established.


date: August 13

text: August 13 – Japan joins the International Monetary Fund (IMF).


date: April 7

section: Technology & Infrastructure

text: April 7 – The I Love Lucy episode "The Marriage License", aired this evening in the United States, is the first television show in history to be seen in around 10,000,000 homes, according to the American Research Bureau.


date: June 1

text: June 1 – Navigation opens on the Volga–Don Canal, connecting the Caspian Sea basin with that of the Black Sea.


date: September 6

text: September 6 – The CBC in Montreal, Quebec, goes on air launching television in Canada.


date: November 1

text: November 1 – Nuclear testing and Operation Ivy: The United States successfully detonates the first hydrogen bomb, codenamed "Mike", at Eniwetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands in the central Pacific Ocean, with a yield of 10.4 megatons.


date: March 22

section: Science & Discovery

text: March 22 – Wernher von Braun publishes the first in his series of articles titled Man Will Conquer Space Soon!, including ideas for crewed flights to Mars and the Moon.


date: May 3

text: May 3 – U.S. lieutenant colonels Joseph O. Fletcher and William P. Benedict land a plane at the geographic North Pole.


date: August 26

text: August 26 – A British passenger jet makes a return crossing of the Atlantic Ocean in the same day.


date: November 20

text: November 20 – The first official passenger flight over the North Pole is made, from Los Angeles to Copenhagen.


text: Supramar launches the first commercial high-speed craft, a hydrofoil.


date: February 6

section: Health & Medicine

text: February 6 – In the United States, a mechanical heart is used for the first time in a human patient.


date: February 7

text: February 7 – New York City announces its first crosswalk devices to be installed.


date: June 14

text: June 14 – Myxomatosis is introduced to Europe, on the French estate of Paul-Félix Armand-Delille.


date: September 2

text: September 2 – C. Walton Lillehei and F. John Lewis perform the first open-heart surgery, at the University of Minnesota.


text: November 20 – One of the first successful gender-affirming surgeries is performed in Copenhagen on Christine Jorgensen.


date: December 14

text: December 14 – The first successful surgical separation of conjoined twins is conducted in Mount Sinai Hospital, Cleveland, Ohio.


date: April 9

section: Crime & Justice

text: April 9 – Santa Teresa Church tragedy: 50 people are trampled to death in the Basilica of St. Teresa, Caracas, Venezuela, after someone shouts "Fire!"; 40 people are arrested in connection with the crush.


date: August 12

text: August 12 – Night of the Murdered Poets: 13 Soviet Jewish poets are executed.


date: January 10

section: Disasters & Accidents

text: January 10 - A Douglas C-47 Dakota operated by Aer Lingus crashes in Wales while flying from Northolt Royal Air Force Station to Dublin. All twenty-three occupants are killed.


date: January 26

text: January 26 – Black Saturday in Egypt: Rioters burn Cairo's central business district, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses.


date: April 4

text: April 4 – West Ice accidents: During a severe storm in the West Ice, east of Greenland, 78 seal hunters on 5 Norwegian seal hunting vessels vanish without a trace.


date: April 11

text: April 11 – Pan Am Flight 526A, Douglas DC-4 Clipper Endeavor, suffers failure of two engines and ditches in rough seas 11.3 miles (18 km) northwest of San Juan, Puerto Rico in the Atlantic Ocean, sinking in minutes; 52 of the 69 people on board die. After this accident the implementation of pre-flight safety demonstrations is recommended. The aircraft's wreckage will be discovered in 2026.


date: April 26

text: April 26 – United States Navy aircraft carrier Wasp collides with destroyer Hobson while on exercises in the Atlantic Ocean, killing 175 men.


date: June 1

text: June 1 – The Roman Catholic Church bans the books of André Gide.


date: June 13

text: June 13 – "Catalina affair": Soviet MiG-15 fighter planes shoot down a Swedish military Douglas C-47 Skytrain, carrying out signals intelligence gathering operations over the Baltic Sea, killing all 8 crew; three days later they shoot down a Catalina flying boat, searching for possible survivors.


date: August 31

text: August 31 – An accident causing 13 deaths results in closure of the Grenzlandring as an auto race circuit in Wegberg, Germany.


date: October 8

text: October 8 – Three trains collide in the Harrow and Wealdstone rail crash near London, England, killing 112 people and injuring 340 people, making it the worst rail disaster in the UK since the 1915 Quintinshill rail disaster.


date: December 20

text: December 20 – The crash of a United States Air Force C-124 Globemaster at Moses Lake, WA kills 86 servicemen.


date: February 25

section: Climate & Environment

text: February 25 – The Parícutin active volcano in Michoacán, west central Mexico, ceases its discontinuous eruption after spewing forth a gigaton of lava, and burying San Juan Parangaricutiro.


date: March 15

text: March 15–16 – 73 inches (1,870 mm) of rain falls in Cilaos, Réunion, the most rainfall in one day up to that time.


date: March 21

text: March 21 – Tornadoes ravage the lower Mississippi River Valley, leaving 208 dead, through March 22.


date: June 10

text: June 10 – 1952 San Juan earthquake. A magnitude 6.8 earthquake kills five people on Argentina's San Juan Province.


date: July 21

text: July 21 – The 7.3 Kern County earthquake strikes California's southern Central Valley with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme), killing 12 and injuring hundreds.


date: August 16

text: August 16 – Lynmouth, North Devon, England is devastated by floods; 34 die.


date: August 18

text: August 18 – A 7.5 earthquake shakes the Tibet region leaving a balance of 54 fatalities.


date: August 22

text: August 22 – The most damaging aftershock of the 1952 Kern County earthquake sequence strikes with a moment magnitude of 5.8, and a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe). This event damages several hundred buildings in Bakersfield, California, with total additional losses of $10 million, with two associated deaths and some injuries.


date: September 18

text: September 18 – The Soviet Union vetoes Japan's application for membership in the United Nations.


date: November 5

text: November 5 – The 9.0 Severo-Kurilsk earthquake hits the Kamchatka Peninsula of the Soviet Union with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme). A tsunami took the lives of more than 2,300 people.


date: February 14

section: Culture & Society

text: February 14–25 – The Winter Olympics are held in Oslo, Norway.


date: February 15

text: February 15 – The State Funeral of King George VI of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the British Dominions and the last Emperor of India, takes place. George VI's coffin is brought in procession through London to Paddington Station where a royal train brings the King to Windsor, where his funeral and burial take place at St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle.


date: April 1

text: April 1 – Al Arabi sports and association football club is founded in Qatar.


date: April 9

text: April 9 – Hugo Ballivián's government is overthrown by the Bolivian National Revolution, which starts a period of agrarian reform, universal suffrage and the nationalization of tin mines.


date: April 18

text: April 18 – Bolivia National Revolution: A universal vote enables indigenous peoples and women to vote, nationalizes mines and enacts agrarian reform.


date: June 15

text: June 15 – Anne Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl is published in English-language translation.


date: June 26

text: June 26 – The Pan-Malayan Labour Party is founded in Malaya, as a union of statewide labour parties.


date: June 28

text: June 28 – The First Miss Universe pageant is held. Armi Kuusela from Finland wins the title of Miss Universe 1952.


date: July 19

text: July 19–August 3 – The 1952 Summer Olympics are held in Helsinki, Finland.


date: August 29

text: August 29 – Composer John Cage's 4′33″, during which the performer does not play, premieres in Woodstock, New York.


date: September 30

text: September 30 – The Revised Standard Version of the Bible is published in the United States.


date: October 14

text: October 14 – The United Nations begins work in the new United Nations building in New York City, designed by Le Corbusier and Oscar Niemeyer.


date: January 25

section: Births

text: January 25 – Peter Tatchell, Australian-born British human rights activist

source_section: Births › January


date: February 7

text: February 7 – John Hickenlooper, American politician, 42nd Governor of Colorado

source_section: Births › February


date: March 11

text: March 11 – Douglas Adams, English author (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) (d. 2001)

source_section: Births › March


date: March 18

text: March 18 – Salome Zourabichvili, Georgian politician, 5th President of Georgia


date: March 23

text: March 23 – Rex Tillerson, United States Secretary of State


date: May 13

text: May 13 – John Kasich, Governor of Ohio

source_section: Births › May


date: July 4

text: July 4 – Álvaro Uribe, President of Colombia

source_section: Births › July


date: August 19

text: August 19 – Jonathan Frakes, American actor (Star Trek: The Next Generation)

source_section: Births › August


date: September 25

text: September 25 – Christopher Reeve, American actor, activist (Superman) (d. 2004)

source_section: Births › September


date: October 5

text: October 5 – Imran Khan, former Prime Minister of Pakistan and cricketer

source_section: Births › October


date: November 5

text: November 5 – Bill Walton, American basketball player, commentator (d. 2024)

source_section: Births › November


date: November 28

text: November 28 – S. Epatha Merkerson, African-American actress (Law and Order)


date: December 1

text: December 1 – Rick Scott, American politician, 45th Governor of Florida, U.S. Senator (Florida)

source_section: Births › December


date: December 9

text: December 9 – Michael Dorn, African-American actor (Star Trek: The Next Generation)


date: January 11

text: January 11 – Jean de Lattre de Tassigny, French general, posthumous Marshal of France (b. 1889)

source_section: Deaths › January


date: January 28

text: January 28 – Nicolae Constantin Batzaria, Ottoman statesman, Romanian writer (b. 1874)


date: February 6

text: February 6 – Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh, becomes monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the British Dominions: Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Pakistan and Ceylon. The princess, who is on a visit to Kenya when she hears of the death of her father, King George VI, aged 56, takes the regnal name Elizabeth II.

source_section: Events › January–February


date: February 19

text: February 19 – Knut Hamsun, Norwegian author, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1859)

source_section: Deaths › February


date: March 5

text: March 5 – Sir Charles Sherrington, British physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1857)

source_section: Deaths › March


date: April 21

text: April 21 – Sir Stafford Cripps, British Labour politician, former Chancellor of the Exchequer (b. 1889)

source_section: Deaths › April


date: June 12

text: June 12 – Michael von Faulhaber, German Cardinal Archbishop of Munich (b. 1869)

source_section: Deaths › June


date: July 21

text: July 21 – Pedro Lascuráin, Mexican diplomat, 34th President of Mexico (b. 1856)

source_section: Deaths › July


date: July 26

text: July 26 – Eva Perón, Argentine political leader, and First Lady to and partner in power of President Juan Perón (b. 1919)


text: July 26 – Maria Eva Duarte De Peron, known as "Evita", Argentina's first lady, dies aged 33 of cancer in Buenos Aires. The Argentine government's declaration of national mourning causes all business, entertainment, leisure and work to a standstill.

source_section: Events › July–August


date: October 19

text: October 19 – Ernst Streeruwitz, Austrian businessman and politician, 6th Chancellor of Austria (b. 1874)

source_section: Deaths › October


date: November 26

text: November 26 – Sven Hedin, Swedish explorer, geographer and geopolitician (b. 1865)

source_section: Deaths › November


text: November 28 – Elena of Montenegro, Queen of Italy, consort of Victor Emmanuel III (b. 1869)


date: December 8

text: December 8 – Charles Lightoller, British merchant marine officer, second officer of RMS Titanic (b. 1874)

source_section: Deaths › December


date: January 14

text: January 14 – Marshal Josip Broz Tito is chosen President of Yugoslavia.

source_section: Events › January


date: February 11

text: February 11 – The Soviet Union breaks diplomatic relations with Israel, after a bomb explodes at the Soviet Embassy, in reaction to the 'Doctors' plot'.

source_section: Events › February


date: February 12

text: February 12 – The Nordic Council is inaugurated.


date: February 28

text: February 28 – Greece, Turkey, and Yugoslavia sign the Balkan Pact.


date: March 6

text: March 6 – Georgy Malenkov succeeds Joseph Stalin, as Premier and First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

source_section: Events › March


date: April 7

text: April 7 – Dag Hammarskjöld is elected Secretary-General of the United Nations.

source_section: Events › April


date: May 9

text: May 9 – Australian Senate election, 1953: The Liberal/Country Coalition Government, led by Prime Minister Robert Menzies, holds their Senate majority, despite gains made by the Labor Party, led by H. V. Evatt. This is the first occasion where a Senate election is held without an accompanying House of Representatives election.

source_section: Events › May


text: May 9 – France agrees to the provisional independence of Cambodia, with King Norodom Sihanouk.


date: June 7

text: June 7 – Italian general election: the Christian Democracy party wins a plurality in both legislative houses.

source_section: Events › June


date: June 13

text: June 13 – Hungarian Prime Minister Mátyás Rákosi is replaced by Imre Nagy.


date: June 18

text: June 18 – Egypt declares itself a republic.


date: July 10

text: July 10 – The Soviet official newspaper Pravda announces that Lavrentiy Beria has been deposed as head of the NKVD.

source_section: Events › July


date: August 22

text: August 22 – The last prisoners are repatriated from Devil's Island to France.

source_section: Events › August


date: September 23

text: September 23 – The Pact of Madrid is signed by Francoist Spain and the United States of America, ending a period of virtual isolation for Spain.

source_section: Events › September


date: September 25

text: September 25 – The first German prisoners of war return from the Soviet Union to West Germany.


date: October 1

text: October 1 – The Mutual Defense Treaty Between the United States and the Republic of Korea is concluded in Washington, D.C.

source_section: Events › October


date: October 5

text: October 5 – Earl Warren is appointed Chief Justice of the United States, by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.


date: October 9

text: October 9 – West German federal election, 1953: Konrad Adenauer is re-elected as German chancellor.


date: November 5

text: November 5 – David Ben-Gurion resigns as prime minister of Israel.

source_section: Events › November


date: November 9

text: November 9 – Cambodia becomes independent from France.


date: December 2

text: December 2 – The United Kingdom and Iran reform diplomatic relations.

source_section: Events › December


date: December 8

text: December 8 – U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivers his Atoms for Peace address, to the United Nations General Assembly.


date: December 25

text: December 25 – The Amami Islands are returned to Japan, after 8 years of United States military occupation.


date: December 30

text: December 30 – Ramon Magsaysay becomes the 7th President of the Philippines.


date: January 24

text: January 24 – Mau Mau Uprising: Rebels in Kenya kill the Ruck family (father, mother, and six-year-old son).


date: February 3

text: February 3 – Batepá massacre: Hundreds of native creoles, known as forros, are massacred in São Tomé, by the colonial administration and Portuguese landowners.


date: February 11

text: February 11 – United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower refuses a clemency appeal for Ethel and Julius Rosenberg.


date: March 25

text: March 25–26 – Lari Massacre in Kenya: Mau Mau rebels kill up to 150 Kikuyu natives.


date: May 25

text: May 25 – Nuclear testing: At the Nevada Test Site, the United States conducts its only nuclear artillery test: Upshot-Knothole Grable.


date: June 1

text: June 1 – Uprising in Plzeň: Currency reform causes riots in Czechoslovakia.


date: June 17

text: June 17 – Workers' Uprising in East Germany: The Soviet Union orders a Division of troops into East Berlin to quell a rebellion.


date: July 26

text: July 26 – Fidel Castro and his brother lead a disastrous assault on the Moncada Barracks, preliminary to the Cuban Revolution.


date: July 27

text: July 27 – The Korean War ends, with the Korean Armistice Agreement: The United Nations Command (Korea) (United States), China and North Korea sign an armistice agreement at Panmunjom, and the north remains communist, while the south remains capitalist. No formal peace treaty is ever signed.


date: August 5

text: August 5 – Operation Big Switch: Prisoners of war are repatriated to the United States after the Korean War.


date: August 8

text: August 8 – Soviet prime minister Georgi Malenkov announces that the Soviet Union has a hydrogen bomb.


date: August 15

text: August 15–19 – Cold War: 1953 Iranian coup d'état – Overthrow of the democratically elected Prime Minister of Iran, Mohammad Mosaddegh, by Iranian military in favour of strengthening the monarchical rule of the Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, with the support of the United States Central Intelligence Agency (as "Operation Ajax") and the United Kingdom.


date: August 20

text: August 20 – The French government ousts King Mohammed V of Morocco, and exiles him to Corsica.


date: August 25

text: August 25 – The French general strike ends.


date: October 9

text: October 9 – Fearing communist influence in British Guiana, the British Government suspends the constitution, declares a state of emergency, and militarily occupies the colony.


date: October 12

text: October 12 – The play The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial opens at the Plymouth Theatre, New York.


date: November 9

text: November 9 – The Laotian Civil War begins between the Kingdom of Laos and the Pathet Lao, all the while resuming the First Indochina War against the French Army in a Two-front war.


date: November 20

text: November 20–22 – First Indochina War: Operation Castor – In a massive airborne operation in Vietnam, French forces establish a base at Điện Biên Phủ.


date: November 25

text: November 25 – Match of the Century (1953 England v Hungary football match): The England national football team loses 6–3 to Hungary at Wembley Stadium, their first ever loss to a continental team at home.


date: November 29

text: November 29 – First Indochina War: Battle of Dien Bien Phu – French paratroopers consolidate their position at Điện Biên Phủ.


date: November 30

text: November 30 – Kabaka crisis: Edward Mutesa II, the kabaka (king) of Buganda, is deposed and exiled to London by Sir Andrew Benjamin Cohen, Governor of Uganda.


date: December 7

text: December 7 – A visit to Iran by American Vice President Richard Nixon sparks several days of riots, as a reaction to the August 19 overthrow of the government of Mohammed Mossadegh by the U.S.-backed Shah. Three students are shot dead by police in Tehran. This event becomes an annual commemoration.


date: January 6

text: January 6 – The Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma.


date: January 12

text: January 12 – Estonian émigrés found a government-in-exile in Oslo.


date: May 29

text: May 29 – 1953 British Mount Everest expedition: Sir Edmund Hillary from New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay from Nepal become the first men to reach the summit of Mount Everest.


date: July 3

text: July 3 – The first ascent of Nanga Parbat in the Pakistan Himalayas, the world's ninth highest mountain, is made by Austrian climber Hermann Buhl alone on a German–Austrian expedition.


date: August

text: August – High Arctic relocation of Inuit families by the Government of Canada.


date: November 21

text: November 21 – Puerto Williams is founded in Chile, as the southernmost settlement of the world.


date: June 2

text: June 2 – Elizabeth II is crowned Queen of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms, at Westminster Abbey.


date: January 24

text: January 24 – Leader of East Germany Walter Ulbricht announces that agriculture will be collectivized in East Germany.


date: July 9

text: July 9 – The U.S. Treasury formally renames the Bureau of Internal Revenue; the new name (which had previously been used informally) is the Internal Revenue Service.


text: Global meat packing industry JBS is founded in Anapolis, Goias, Brazil.

source_section: Events › Date unknown


date: January 19

text: January 19 – 71.1% of all television sets in the United States are tuned into I Love Lucy, to watch Lucy give birth to Little Ricky, which is more people than those who tune into Dwight Eisenhower's inauguration the next day.


date: March 13

text: March 13 – The United Nations Security Council nominates Dag Hammarskjöld from Sweden as United Nations Secretary General.


date: March 17

text: March 17 – The first nuclear test of Operation Upshot–Knothole is conducted in Nevada, with 1,620 spectators at 3.4 km mi.


date: March 19

text: March 19 – The 25th Academy Awards Ceremony is held (the first one broadcast on television).


date: April 16

text: April 16 – President Eisenhower delivers his "Chance for Peace" speech, to the National Association of Newspaper Editors.


date: May 15

text: May 15 – The Standards And Recommended Practices (SARPS) for Aeronautical Information Service (AIS) are adopted by the ICAO Council. These SARPS are in Annex 15 to the Chicago Convention, and 15 May is celebrated by the AIS community as "World AIS Day".


date: May 18

text: May 18 – At Rogers Dry Lake, Californian Jackie Cochran becomes the first woman to exceed Mach 1, in a North American F-86 Sabre at 652.337 mph kn km/h.


date: June 30

text: June 30 – The first roll-on/roll-off ferry crossing of the English Channel, Dover–Boulogne, takes place.


text: July 9 – Inauguration of the south lane of the Rodovia Anchieta.


date: August 12

text: August 12 – Soviet atomic bomb project: "Joe 4", the first Soviet thermonuclear weapon, is detonated at Semipalatinsk Test Site, Kazakh SSR.


date: October 23

text: October 23 – Alto Broadcasting System (ABS) in the Philippines makes the first television broadcast in southeast Asia, through DZAQ-TV. Alto Broadcasting System is the predecessor of what will later become ABS-CBN Corporation.


date: October

text: October – The UNIVAC 1103 is the first commercial computer to use random-access memory.


date: November 20

text: November 20 – The Douglas D-558-2 Skyrocket, piloted by Scott Crossfield, becomes the first manned aircraft to reach Mach 2.


date: December 17

text: December 17 – The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approves color television (using the NTSC standard).


text: China First Building Corporation, a partial predecessor of China State Construction Engineering, is founded in Beijing.


date: January 14

text: January 14 – The CIA-sponsored Robertson Panel first meets to discuss the UFO phenomenon.


date: February 28

text: February 28 – James Watson and Francis Crick of Britain's University of Cambridge announce their discovery of the structure of the DNA molecule.


date: April 25

text: April 25 – Francis Crick and James Watson publish "Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid", their description of the double helix structure of DNA.


date: September 4

text: September 4 – The discovery of REM sleep is first published, by researchers Eugene Aserinsky and Nathaniel Kleitman.


date: October 10

text: October 10 – Roland (Monty) Burton wins the 1953 London to Christchurch air race, in under 23 hours flying time.


date: February 13

text: February 13 – Transsexual Christine Jorgensen returns to New York after successful sex reassignment surgery in Denmark.


date: March 26

text: March 26 – Jonas Salk announces his polio vaccine.


date: March 29

text: March 29 – A fire at the Littlefield Nursing Home in Largo, Florida, kills 33 persons, including singer-songwriter Arthur Fields.


date: May 5

text: May 5 – Aldous Huxley first tries the psychedelic hallucinogen mescaline, inspiring his book The Doors of Perception.


date: May 11

text: May 11 – Waco tornado outbreak: An F5 tornado hits in the downtown section of Waco, Texas, killing 114.


date: May 20

text: May 20–21 – A tornado outbreak tears through Port Huron, Michigan and Sarnia, Ontario, leaving eight people dead and 123 people injured.


date: June 7

text: June 7–9 – Flint–Worcester tornado outbreak sequence: A single storm-system spawns 46 tornadoes of various sizes, in 10 states from Colorado to Massachusetts, over 3 days, killing 246.


date: June 8

text: June 8 – On the second day of the Flint–Worcester tornado outbreak sequence, a tornado kills 116 in Flint, Michigan; it will be the last to claim more than 100 lives, until the 2011 Joplin tornado.


date: June 9

text: June 9 – CIA Technical Services Staff head Sidney Gottlieb approves of the use of LSD in an MKUltra subproject.


date: September 26

text: September 26 – Rationing of sugar ends in the UK.


date: January 15

text: January 15 – Georg Dertinger, foreign minister of East Germany, is arrested for spying.


text: January 15 – British security forces in West Germany arrest 7 members of the Naumann Circle, a clandestine Neo-Nazi organization.


date: March 8

text: March 8 – The Thieves World, which has been transformed into the Russian mafia, are freed from prisons by the Malenkov regime, ending the Bitch Wars.


date: April 8

text: April 8 – Jomo Kenyatta is sentenced to 7 years in prison for the alleged organization of the Mau Mau Uprising in the British Kenya Colony.


date: August 17

text: August 17 – The first planning session of Narcotics Anonymous is held in Southern California (see October 5).


date: October 5

text: October 5 – The first meeting of Narcotics Anonymous is held (the first planning session was held August 17).


date: December 23

text: December 23 – The Soviet Union announces officially that Lavrentiy Beria has been executed.


date: March 1

text: March 1 – Joseph Stalin suffers a stroke, after an all-night dinner with Soviet Union interior minister Lavrentiy Beria and future premiers Georgy Malenkov, Nikolai Bulganin, and Nikita Khrushchev. The stroke paralyzes the right side of his body and renders him unconscious until his death on March 5.


date: April 16

text: April 16 – The Habar Corporation's building in Chicago, United States, catches fire, killing 35 employees.


date: June 18

text: June 18 – Tachikawa air disaster: A United States Air Force Douglas C-124 Globemaster II crashes just after takeoff from Tachikawa Airfield near Tokyo, Japan, killing all 129 people on board in the worst air crash in history up to this time, and the first with a confirmed death toll exceeding 100.


date: July 17

text: July 17 – The greatest recorded loss of United States midshipmen in a single event results from an aircraft crash near NAS Whiting Field.


date: December 24

text: December 24 – Tangiwai disaster: A railway bridge collapses at Tangiwai, New Zealand, sending a fully loaded passenger train into the Whangaehu River; 151 are killed.


date: January 31

text: January 31–February 1 – The North Sea flood of 1953 kills 1,836 people in the southwestern Netherlands (especially Zeeland), 307 in the United Kingdom, and several hundred at sea, including 133 on the ferry in the Irish Sea.


date: February 1

text: February 1 – The surge of the North Sea flood continues from the previous day.


date: March 18

text: March 18 – The Yenice–Gönen earthquake affects western Turkey, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (violent), causing at least 1,070 deaths, and $3.57 million in damage.


text: June 9 – On the third day of the Flint–Worcester tornado outbreak sequence, a tornado spawned from the same storm system as the Flint tornado the day before hits in Worcester, Massachusetts, killing 94.


date: August 12

text: August 12 – The 1953 Ionian earthquake of magnitude 7.2 totally devastates Cephalonia and most of the other Ionian Islands, in Greece's worst natural disaster in centuries.


date: February 19

text: February 19 – Georgia approves the first literature censorship board in the United States.


text: March 1 – Bernard Freyberg, 1st Baron Freyberg is made deputy constable and lieutenant governor of Windsor Castle.


date: May 2

text: May 2 – Hussein is crowned King of Jordan.


date: August 13

text: August 13 – Four million workers go on strike in France to protest against austerity measures.


date: October 6

text: October 6 – UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund, is made a permanent specialized agency of the United Nations.


date: November 20

text: November 20 – Authorities at the Natural History Museum, London announce that the skull of Piltdown Man (allegedly an early human discovered in 1912) is a hoax.


date: December 6

text: December 6 – With the NBC Symphony Orchestra, conductor Arturo Toscanini performs what he claims is his favorite Beethoven symphony, Eroica, for the last time. The live performance is broadcast across the United States on radio, and later released on records and CD.


date: January 1

text: January 1 – Gary Johnson, American businessman, politician and 29th Governor of New Mexico

source_section: Births › January


date: January 20

text: January 20 – Jeffrey Epstein, American financier and sex offender (d. 2019)


date: January 21

text: January 21 – Paul Allen, American entrepreneur, co-founder of Microsoft (d. 2018)


text: February 19 – Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, Argentine lawyer and politician, President of Argentina and Vice President of Argentina

source_section: Births › February


date: March 19

text: March 19 – Lenín Moreno, Ecuadorian politician, 44th President of Ecuador

source_section: Births › March


date: March 26

text: March 26 – Elaine Chao, American politician, wife of Senator Mitch McConnell


date: May 6

text: May 6 – Aleksandr Akimov, Soviet engineer who was the shift supervisor during the events of the Chernobyl disaster (d. 1986)

source_section: Births › May


date: July 21

text: July 21 – Jeff Fatt, Australian musician, former member of The Wiggles

source_section: Births › July


text: August 12 – Carlos Mesa, President of Bolivia

source_section: Births › August


date: September 23

text: September 23 – Alexey Maslov, commander-in-chief of the Russian Ground Forces

source_section: Births › September


date: October 21

text: October 21 – Peter Mandelson, British politician and member of the Labour Party

source_section: Births › October


date: November 11

text: November 11 – Andy Partridge, British musician and frontman of the band XTC

source_section: Births › November


date: November 13

text: November 13 – Andrés Manuel López Obrador, President of Mexico (2018–2024)


date: December 13

text: December 13 – Ben Bernanke, American economist, Federal Reserve System chairman

source_section: Births › December


text: January 1 – Hank Williams, American singer-songwriter and musician (b. 1923)

source_section: Deaths › January


date: February 24

text: February 24 – Gerd von Rundstedt, German field marshal (b. 1875)

source_section: Deaths › February


date: March 24

text: March 24 – Mary of Teck, consort of George V of the United Kingdom (b. 1867)

source_section: Deaths › March


date: March 28

text: March 28 – Jim Thorpe, Native-American athlete, Olympic medalist and professional baseball player (b. 1887)


date: June 18

text: June 18 – René Fonck, French aviator, top Allied World War I Flying Ace (b. 1894)

source_section: Deaths › June


date: June 19

text: June 19 – Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, American communist spies (b. 1918 and 1915, respectively) (executed on same day)


date: July 16

text: July 16 – Hilaire Belloc, French-born British writer and historian (b. 1870)

source_section: Deaths › July


date: July 31

text: July 31 – Robert A. Taft, American politician, United States Senate Majority Leader (b. 1889)


date: September 8

text: September 8 – Fred M. Vinson, Chief Justice of the United States (b. 1890)

source_section: Deaths › September


date: November 8

text: November 8 – Ivan Bunin, Russian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1870)

source_section: Deaths › November


date: November 9

text: November 9 – Dylan Thomas, Welsh poet and author (b. 1914)


date: November 27

text: November 27 – Eugene O'Neill, American writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1888)


date: December 19

text: December 19 – Robert Andrews Millikan, American physicist Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1868)

source_section: Deaths › December


date: December 23

text: December 23 – Lavrentiy Beria, Minister of Internal Affairs of the Soviet Union (b. 1899)


date: January 17

text: January 17 – In Yugoslavia, Milovan Đilas, one of the leading members of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, is relieved of his duties.

source_section: Events › January


date: January 25

text: January 25 – The foreign ministers of the United States, Britain, France and the Soviet Union meet at the Berlin Conference.


date: February 19

text: February 19 – 1954 transfer of Crimea: The Soviet Politburo of the Soviet Union orders the transfer of the Crimean Oblast from the Russian SFSR to the Ukrainian SSR.

source_section: Events › February


date: February 25

text: February 25 – Lt. Col. Gamal Abdel Nasser becomes premier of Egypt.


date: April 11

text: April 11 – In a general election in Belgium, the dominant Christian Social Party wins 95 of the 212 seats in the Chamber of Representatives, and 49 of the 106 seats in the Senate. The government led by Jean Van Houtte loses their majority in parliament. The two other main parties, the Socialist and Liberal Party, subsequently form a rare "purple" government, with Achille Van Acker as Prime Minister.

source_section: Events › April


date: April 22

text: April 22 – The 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees comes into force, defining the status of refugees and setting out the basis for granting right of asylum.


date: May 15

text: May 15 – The Latin Union (Unión Latina) is created by the Convention of Madrid. Its member countries use the five Romance languages: Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Romanian. It suspended operations in 2012.

source_section: Events › May


date: May 17

text: May 17 – Brown v. Board of Education (347 US 483 1954): The Supreme Court of the United States rules unanimously that segregated schools are unconstitutional.


text: May 17 – Adnan Menderes of the Democrat Party forms the new (21st) government of Turkey.


date: May 20

text: May 20 – Chiang Kai-shek is re-elected as the president of the Republic of China, by the National Assembly.


date: May 29

text: May 29 – 1954 Australian federal election: Robert Menzies' Liberal/Country Coalition Government is re-elected with a decreased majority, defeating the Labor Party led by H.V. Evatt. The election has come shortly after the Petrov Affair, arguably helping the Government survive what was initially predicted to be a defeat.


date: June 18

text: June 18 – Pierre Mendès France becomes prime minister of France.

source_section: Events › June


date: September 6

text: September 6 – The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) treaty is signed in Manila, Philippines.

source_section: Events › September


date: September 18

text: September 18 – Finnish president J. K. Paasikivi is the first Western head of state to be awarded the highest honor of the Soviet Union, the Order of Lenin.


date: September 24

text: September 24 – The Cochabamba–Santa Cruz highway connecting western and eastern Bolivia is inaugurated.


date: September 25

text: September 25 – Footscray Football Club wins their first Australian Football League Grand Final.


date: October 23

text: October 23 – Paris Agreement sets up the Western European Union to implement the Treaty of Brussels (1948), providing for mutual self-defence and other collaboration between Belgium, France, West Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Germany is granted admission to the NATO which becomes effective in 1955.

source_section: Events › October


date: November 5

text: November 5 – Japan and Burma sign a peace treaty in Rangoon, to end their long-extinct state of war.

source_section: Events › November


date: November 14

text: November 14 – Egyptian president Muhammad Naguib is deposed, and Gamal Abdel Nasser replaces him.


date: November 21

text: November 21 – People's Action Party, an eventual dominative political party in Singapore, was established.


date: December 15

text: December 15 – The Netherlands Antilles is created out of the Dutch Caribbean nations. It is dissolved between 1986 and 2010.

source_section: Events › December


date: December 24

text: December 24 – Laos gains full independence from France.


text: The Boy Scouts of America desegregates on the basis of race.

source_section: Events › Date unknown


text: In South Vietnam, the Viet Minh is reorganised into the Viet Cong.


date: March 1

text: March 1 – U.S. Capitol shooting incident: Four Puerto Rican nationalists open fire in the United States House of Representatives chamber and wound 5; they are apprehended by security guards.

source_section: Events › March


date: March 13

text: March 13 – Việt Minh forces under General Võ Nguyên Giáp began a massive artillery bombardment on the French military, beginning the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, the climactic battle of the First Indochina War.


date: March 19

text: March 19 – Joey Giardello knocks out Willie Tory at Madison Square Garden in the first televised boxing prize fight to be shown in colour.


date: March 23

text: March 23 – In Vietnam, the Viet Minh capture the main airstrip of Dien Bien Phu. The remaining French Army units there are partially isolated.


date: March 25

text: March 25 – The Soviet Union recognises the sovereignty of East Germany. Soviet troops remain in the country.


date: March 27

text: March 27 – The Castle Romeo nuclear test explosion is executed at Bikini Atoll, in the Marshall Islands.


date: April 3

text: April 3 – Petrov Affair: Diplomat Vladimir Petrov defects from the Soviet Union and asks for political asylum in Australia.


date: April 14

text: April 14 – Aneurin Bevan resigns from the British Labour Party's Shadow Cabinet in protest over his party's failure to oppose the rearmament of West Germany.


date: April 22

text: April 22 – Senator Joseph McCarthy begins hearings investigating the United States Army for being "soft" on Communism.


date: April 28

text: April 28 – U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles accuses Communist China of sending combat troops to Indo-China to train Viet Minh guerrillas.


date: May 4

text: May 4 – General Alfredo Stroessner deposes Federico Chaves in a coup d'état in Paraguay; from August 15 he will hold the office of President until 1989.


date: May 7

text: May 7 – First Indochina War: The Battle of Dien Bien Phu ends in a French defeat (the battle began on March 13).


date: May 11

text: May 11 – U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles declares that Indochina is important but not essential to the security of Southeast Asia, thus ending any prospect of American intervention on the side of France.


date: May 14

text: May 14 – The Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict is adopted in The Hague, Netherlands.


date: May 16

text: May 16 – Beginning of the Kengir uprising in the Gulag.


date: June 9

text: June 9 – McCarthyism: Joseph N. Welch, special counsel for the United States Army, lashes out at Senator Joseph McCarthy, during hearings on whether Communism has infiltrated the Army, saying, "Have you, at long last, no decency?" The exchange results in the decline of McCarthy's popularity.


date: June 17

text: June 17 – A CIA-engineered military coup occurs in Guatemala.


date: June 27

text: June 27 – Guatemalan President Jacobo Árbenz steps down in a CIA-sponsored military coup, triggering a bloody civil war that continues for more than 35 years.


date: July 21

text: July 21 – First Indochina War: The Geneva Conference sends French forces to the south, and Vietnamese forces to the north, of a demarcation line. The agreement leads to the establishment of the North Vietnam regime and the state of South Vietnam.

source_section: Events › July


date: August 1

text: August 1 – The First Indochina War ends with the Vietnam People's Army in North Vietnam, the Vietnamese National Army in South Vietnam, the Kingdom of Cambodia in Cambodia, and the Kingdom of Laos in Laos, emerging victorious against the French Army.

source_section: Events › August


date: October 31

text: October 31 – Algerian War of Independence: The Algerian National Liberation Front begins a revolt against French rule.


date: November 1

text: November 1 – The FLN attacks representative and public buildings of the French colonial power.


date: November 10

text: November 10 – U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower dedicates the USMC War Memorial (Iwo Jima Memorial), at the Arlington National Cemetery.


date: December 2

text: December 2 – Red Scare: The United States Senate votes 67–22 to censure Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy, for "conduct that tends to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute."


date: April 10

text: April 10 – The modern form of value-added tax is first implemented by Maurice Lauré, joint director of the French tax authority, in France's Ivory Coast colony.


date: April 26

text: April 26 – An international conference on Korea and Indo-China opens in Geneva.


date: July 31

text: July 31 – 1954 Italian expedition to K2: Italian mountaineers Lino Lacedelli and Achille Compagnoni become the first to reach the summit of the second highest mountain in the world, in the Karakoram range.


date: May 1

text: May 1 – The Unification Church is founded in South Korea.


date: June 14

text: June 14 – The words "under God" are added to the United States Pledge of Allegiance.


date: May 22

text: May 22 – The common Nordic Labour Market act is signed.


date: July 1

text: July 1 – The Common Nordic Labor Market Act comes into effect.


date: November 23

text: November 23 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average rises 3.27 points, or 0.86 percent, closing at an all-time high of 382.74. More significantly, this is the first time the Dow has surpassed its peak level, reached just before the Wall Street Crash of 1929.


date: January 3

text: January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting.


date: January 7

text: January 7 – Georgetown–IBM experiment: The first public demonstration of a machine translation system is held in New York, at the head office of IBM.


date: January 20

text: January 20 – The US-based National Negro Network is established, with 46 member radio stations.


date: March 28

text: March 28 – Puerto Rico's first television station, WKAQ-TV, commences broadcasting.


date: March 30

text: March 30 – The first operational subway line in Canada opens in Toronto.


date: May 14

text: May 14 – The Boeing 367-80, prototype for the later Boeing 707 jetliner, is rolled out in the United States, after about 2 years of development.


date: May 29

text: May 29 – Creation and first meeting of the Bilderberg Group.


date: June 27

text: June 27 – The world's first atomic power station opens at Obninsk, near Moscow.


date: July 15

text: July 15 – The Boeing 367-80 (or Dash 80), prototype of the Boeing 707 series, makes its maiden flight.


date: July 29

text: July 29 – The construction of Yad Vashem started in Jerusalem. It is an official memorial center to commemorate the victims of the persecution of the Jews by the Nazis and their accomplices in Europe.


date: August 23

text: August 23 – A United States Air Force Lockheed C-130 Hercules makes its first flight at Burbank, California, manufactured by Lockheed Martin.


date: September 11

text: September 11 – The Miss America Pageant is broadcast on television for the first time.


date: September 27

text: September 27 – The Tonight Show first airs on live television on NBC in the United States being the first late night talk show.


date: September 30

text: September 30 – The , the first nuclear-powered submarine in the world, is commissioned into the United States Navy.


date: October 18

text: October 18 – Texas Instruments announces the development of the first commercial transistor radio. The Regency TR-1 goes on sale the following month.


date: November 2

text: November 2 – The radio program Hancock's Half Hour, a pioneer in situation comedy, is first broadcast on BBC Radio (a television version will follow in 1956).


text: November 2 – The dock workers' strike in the UK comes to an end.


date: December 1

text: December 1 – The first Hyatt Hotel, The Hyatt House Los Angeles, opens on the grounds of Los Angeles International Airport. It is the first hotel in the world built on an airport property.


date: December 4

text: December 4 – The first Burger King opens in Miami, Florida.


text: The first electric drip brew coffeemaker is patented in Germany and named the Wigomat after its inventor Gottlob Widmann.


text: The TV dinner is introduced, by American entrepreneur Gerry Thomas.


text: New Zealand engineer Sir William Hamilton develops the first pump-jet engine (the "Hamilton Jet") capable of propelling a jetboat.


date: January 21

text: January 21 – The first nuclear-powered submarine, the , is launched in Groton, Connecticut, by First Lady of the United States Mamie Eisenhower.


date: March 9

text: March 9 – American journalists Edward R. Murrow and Fred W. Friendly produce a 30-minute See It Now documentary, entitled A Report on Senator Joseph McCarthy.


date: April 7

text: April 7 – Dwight D. Eisenhower gives his "domino theory" speech, during a news conference.


date: April 12

text: April 12 – Bill Haley & His Comets record "Rock Around the Clock" in their first session for American Decca in New York City; it is released on May 20 as a B-side, but only in 1955 becomes a #1 hit, helping to initiate the rock and roll craze.


date: April 14

text: April 14 – A Soviet spy ring in Australia is unveiled.


date: April 26

text: April 26 – Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai is released in Japan.


date: July 1

text: July 1 – The United States officially begins using the international unit of the nautical mile, equal to 6,076.11549 ft. or 1,852 meters.


date: September 14

text: September 14 – The Soviet Union carries out the Totskoye nuclear exercise.


text: October 18 – The comic strip Hi and Lois, by Mort Walker and Dik Browne, is launched in the United States.


date: February 23

text: February 23 – The first mass vaccination of children against polio begins in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States.


date: June 22

text: June 22 – Sarah Mae Flemming is expelled from a bus in South Carolina, for sitting in a white-only section.


date: July 4

text: July 4 – Food rationing in Great Britain ends, with the lifting of restrictions on sale and purchase of meat, 14 years after it began early in World War II, and nearly a decade after the war's end.


date: December 23

text: December 23 – J. Hartwell Harrison and Joseph Murray perform the world's first successful kidney transplantation, in Boston, Massachusetts.


text: Gerbils (Meriones unguiculatus) are brought to the United States by Dr. Victor Schwentker.


date: January 15

text: January 15 – Mau Mau leader Waruhiu Itote is captured in Kenya.


date: March 28

text: March 28 – The trial of A. L. Zissu and 12 other Zionist leaders ends with harsh sentences in Communist Romania.


text: June 22 – Parker–Hulme murder case: Pauline Parker, 16 and her friend Juliet Hulme, 15, bludgeon Parker's mother to death using a brick, at Victoria Park in New Zealand.


date: July 15

text: July 15 – Juan Fangio, Argentine driver for German Grand Prix team Mercedes-Benz, makes a new fastest lap of the Silverstone Circuit in England, with an average speed of 100.35 mph, the previous record being 100.16 mph.


date: August 24

text: August 24 – Brazilian president Getúlio Vargas commits suicide, after being accused of involvement in a conspiracy to murder his chief political opponent, Carlos Lacerda.


date: December 3

text: December 3 – A German court dismisses charges against Werner Naumann, head of the Neo-Nazi Naumann Circle.


text: The case of Lothar Malskat, who had admitted that he had painted the supposedly antique frescoes in Marienkirche himself, goes to trial.


date: January 10

text: January 10 – BOAC Flight 781, a de Havilland Comet jet plane, disintegrates in mid-air due to metal fatigue, and crashes in the Mediterranean near Elba; all 35 people on board are killed.


date: March 29

text: March 29 – A C-47 transport with French nurse Geneviève de Galard on board is wrecked on the runway at Dien Bien Phu.


date: April 8

text: April 8 – A Royal Canadian Air Force Canadair Harvard collides with a Trans-Canada Air Lines Canadair North Star over Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, killing 37 people.


date: May 26

text: May 26 – A fire on board the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Bennington, off Narragansett Bay, Massachusetts, kills 103 sailors.


date: June 7

text: June 7 – English cryptanalyst, mathematician and computer scientist Alan Turing, age 41, commits suicide by cyanide poisoning.


date: September 5

text: September 5 - KLM flight 633, a Lockheed L-1049C Super Constellation named “Triton”, attempted to ditch into the river Shannon immediately after takeoff from Shannon Airport, Ireland. 28 of the 56 passengers and crew were killed


date: September 26

text: September 26 – Japanese ferry Tōya Maru sinks during a typhoon in the Tsugaru Strait. More than 1,100 people are killed, 7 other ships are wrecked, and at least nine others seriously damaged.


date: November 12

text: November 12 – The main immigration port-of-entry in New York Harbor at Ellis Island closes permanently.


date: November 30

text: November 30 – In Sylacauga, Alabama, a four-kilogram piece of the Hodges Meteorite crashes through the roof of a house and badly bruises a napping woman, in the first documented case of an object from outer space hitting a person.


date: January 12

text: January 12 – Avalanches in Austria kill more than 200.


date: March 1

text: March 1 – U.S. officials announce that a hydrogen bomb test (Castle Bravo) has been conducted, on Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. The explosion produces a yield of 15 megatons TNT instead of the predicted 5 MT; the Japanese fishing vessel Daigo Fukuryū Maru is caught up inside the fallout zone, some 80 miles from the explosion with several of her crew members suffering from radiation sickness as a consequence.


date: April 11

text: April 11 – This day is denoted as the most boring day in the 20th century by True Knowledge, an answer engine developed by William Tunstall-Pedoe. No significant newsworthy events, births, or deaths are known to have happened on this day.


date: September 9

text: September 9 – The 6.7 Chlef earthquake shakes northern Algeria, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme). The shock destroys Orléansville, leaving 1,243–1,409 dead, and 5,000 injured.


date: October 11

text: October 11 – Hurricane Hazel crosses over Haiti, killing 1,000.


date: October 15

text: October 15 – Hurricane Hazel makes U.S. landfall; it is the only recorded Category 4 hurricane to strike as far north as North Carolina


date: October 25

text: October 25 – Landslides caused by heavy rains hit Salerno, Italy, killing about 300.


date: March 25

text: March 25 – The 26th Academy Awards Ceremony is held.


date: April 1

text: April 1 – The U.S. Congress and President Dwight D. Eisenhower authorize the founding of the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado.


text: April 1 – South Point School in India is founded, and becomes the largest school in the world by 1992.


date: April 4

text: April 4 – Legendary symphony conductor Arturo Toscanini experiences a lapse of memory during a concert broadcast live from Carnegie Hall in New York City. At this concert's end, his retirement is announced, and he never conducts in public again.


date: May 6

text: May 6 – Roger Bannister runs the first sub-four minute mile, in Oxford, England.


date: May 8

text: May 8 – The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) is formed in Manila, Philippines.


date: May 17

text: May 17 – The Royal Commission on the Petrov Affair in Australia begins its inquiry.


date: May 29

text: May 29 – Diane Leather becomes the first woman to run a sub-five minute mile, in Birmingham, England.


date: June 6

text: June 6 – The grand opening of the sculpture of Yuriy Dolgorukiy takes place in Moscow (this statue is one of the main monuments of Moscow).


date: June 15

text: June 15 – The UEFA (Union of European Football Associations) is formed in Basel, Switzerland.


date: July 4

text: July 4 – "Miracle of Bern": West Germany beats Hungary 3–2 to win the 1954 FIFA World Cup.


date: July 10

text: July 10 – Peter Thomson becomes the first Australian to win the British Open Golf Championship.


date: July 19

text: July 19 – Release of Elvis Presley's first single, a cover of "That's All Right", by Sun Records (recorded July 5 in Memphis, Tennessee).


date: July 29

text: July 29 – The Fellowship of the Ring, the first of three volumes in J.R.R. Tolkien's epic fantasy novel, The Lord of the Rings, is published in London.


date: August 16

text: August 16 – The first issue of Sports Illustrated magazine is published in the United States.


date: September 8

text: September 8 – SEATO is established in Bangkok, Thailand.


date: September 14

text: September 14 – English composer Benjamin Britten's chamber opera version of The Turn of the Screw receives its world premiere, at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice, Italy.


date: September 17

text: September 17 – William Golding's allegorical dystopian novel Lord of the Flies is published in London.


date: September 20

text: September 20 – The first Moomins comic strip is published in the London newspaper The Evening News.


date: November 3

text: November 3 – The first Godzilla film premieres in Tokyo.


date: November 13

text: November 13 – Great Britain defeats France, to capture the first ever Rugby League World Cup in Paris in front of around 30,000 spectators


date: November 22

text: November 22 – Berman v. Parker (348 U.S. 26): The U.S. Supreme Court upholds the federal slum clearance and urban renewal programs.


date: December 3

text: December 3 – Väinö Linna's war novel The Unknown Soldier (Tuntematon sotilas) is published.


date: January 4

text: January 4 – Tina Knowles, African-American fashion designer; mother of R&B singers Beyoncé and Solange Knowles

source_section: Births › January


date: January 17

text: January 17 – Robert F. Kennedy Jr., environmental lawyer, 2024 United States presidential election candidate


date: January 29

text: January 29 – Oprah Winfrey, African-American actress, talk show hostess, producer and publisher


date: April 29

text: April 29 – Jerry Seinfeld, American actor, comedian and producer (Seinfeld)

source_section: Births › April


date: May 20

text: May 20 – David Paterson, American politician, 55th Governor of New York

source_section: Births › May


date: June 25

text: June 25 – Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States

source_section: Births › June


date: September 2

text: September 2 – Andrej Babiš, Czech entrepreneur and politician, 12th Prime Minister of the Czech Republic

source_section: Births › September


date: September 6

text: September 6 – Carly Fiorina, American businesswoman, CEO of HP (1999–2005) and Senator Ted Cruz's running mate in the 2016 presidential election


date: September 21

text: September 21 – Shinzō Abe, Prime Minister of Japan (d. 2022)


text: September 21 – Phil "Philthy Animal" Taylor, English drummer (Motörhead and Waysted) (d. 2015)


date: October 13

text: October 13 – Mordechai Vanunu, a former Israeli nuclear technician who revealed secrets of its nuclear weapons program

source_section: Births › October


date: November 8

text: November 8 – Kazuo Ishiguro, Japanese-born British author, Nobel Prize laureate

source_section: Births › November


date: November 14

text: November 14 – Condoleezza Rice, American politician, 66th United States Secretary of State


date: November 30

text: November 30 – Lawrence Summers, US economist, 71st US Treasury Secretary


date: January 11

text: January 11 – John Simon, 1st Viscount Simon, British politician (b. 1873)

source_section: Deaths › January


date: February 1

text: February 1 - Edwin Howard Armstrong, American electrical engineer (b. 1890)

source_section: Deaths › February


date: April 3

text: April 3 – Aristides de Sousa Mendes, Portuguese diplomat and humanitarian (b. 1885)

source_section: Deaths › April


date: April 17

text: April 17 – Lucrețiu Pătrășcanu, Romanian communist activist and sociologist (b. 1900)


date: May 14

text: May 14 – Heinz Guderian, German World War II general (b. 1888)

source_section: Deaths › May


date: June 7

text: June 7 – Alan Turing, British mathematician, cryptanalyst, and pioneer computer scientist (b. 1912)

source_section: Deaths › June


date: July 13

text: July 13 – Frida Kahlo, Mexican painter (b. 1907)

source_section: Deaths › July


date: August 6

text: August 6 – Emilie Dionne, one of the Dionne quintuplets, dies of asphyxiation following an epileptic seizure. She is the first of the Canadian five to perish; three live into the 21st century.


date: August 19

text: August 19 – Alcide De Gasperi, Italian statesman and Christian Democracy politician, 30th Prime Minister of Italy (b. 1881)

source_section: Deaths › August


date: October 9

text: October 9 – Robert H. Jackson, United States Supreme Court associate justice and chief prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials (b. 1892)

source_section: Deaths › October


date: October 19

text: October 19 – Hugh Duffy, American baseball player (Boston Braves) and a member of the MLB Hall of Fame (b. 1866)


date: October 22

text: October 22 – Jibanananda Das, Indian poet, writer, novelist and essayist in Bengali (b. 1899)


date: November 28

text: November 28 – Enrico Fermi, Italian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1901)

source_section: Deaths › November


text: November 30 – Wilhelm Furtwängler, German conductor (b. 1886)


date: January 3

text: January 3 – José Ramón Guizado becomes president of Panama.

source_section: Events › January


date: February 19

text: February 19 – The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) is established, at a meeting in Bangkok.

source_section: Events › February


date: February 24

text: February 24 – The Baghdad Pact (CENTO), originally known as Middle East Treaty Organization (METO), is signed between Iraq and Turkey.


date: April 6

text: April 6 – Anthony Eden becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

source_section: Events › April


date: April 16

text: April 16 – The Burma–Japan Peace Treaty, signed in Rangoon on November 5, 1954, comes into effect, formally ending a state of war between the two countries.


date: May 6

text: May 6 – The Western European Union Charter becomes effective.

source_section: Events › May


date: May 9

text: May 9 – West Germany joins the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).


text: May 14 – Eight Communist Bloc countries, including the Soviet Union, sign a mutual defence treaty in Warsaw, Poland, that is called the Warsaw Pact (it will be dissolved in 1991).


date: May 15

text: May 15 – The Austrian State Treaty, which restores Austria's national sovereignty, is concluded between the 4 occupying powers following World War II (the United Kingdom, the United States, the Soviet Union, and France) and Austria, setting it up as a neutral country.


date: June 26

text: June 26 – The Freedom Charter of the anti-apartheid South African Congress Alliance is adopted, at a Congress of the People in Kliptown.

source_section: Events › June


date: June 30

text: June 30 – The Simonstown Agreement provides for control of the naval base at Simon's Town in the Union of South Africa to transfer from the British Royal Navy to the South African Navy.


date: July 18

text: July 18–23 – Geneva Summit between the United States, Soviet Union, United Kingdom and France.

source_section: Events › July


text: July 18 – Illinois Governor William Stratton signs the Loyalty Oath Act, that mandates all public employees take a loyalty oath to the State of Illinois and the United States or lose their jobs.


date: September 18

text: September 18 – The United Kingdom formally annexes the uninhabited Atlantic island of Rockall.

source_section: Events › September


date: September 24

text: September 24 – Dwight D. Eisenhower, president of the United States, suffers a coronary thrombosis while on vacation in Denver, Colorado. Vice President Nixon assumed administrative duties and presided over Cabinet and National Security Council meetings while Eisenhower recovers.


date: October 14

text: October 14 – The Organization of Central American States secretariat is inaugurated.

source_section: Events › October


date: October 26

text: October 26 – After the last Allied troops have left Austria, and following the provisions of the Austrian Independence Treaty, the country declares its permanent neutrality.


text: October 26 – Ngô Đình Diệm proclaims Vietnam to be a republic, with himself as its President (following the State of Vietnam referendum on October 23), and forms the Army of the Republic of Vietnam.


date: November 15

text: November 15 – The Democratic Party of Japan and Japan Liberal Party merge to form the Japan Liberal Democratic Party, beginning the "1955 System".

source_section: Events › November


date: November 23

text: November 23 – The Cocos Islands in the Indian Ocean are transferred from British to Australian control.


date: December 9

text: December 9 – Adnan Menderes of DP forms the new government of Turkey (22nd government).

source_section: Events › December


date: December 10

text: December 10 – 1955 Australian federal election: Robert Menzies' Liberal/Country Coalition Government is re-elected with a substantially increased majority, defeating the Labor Party led by H. V. Evatt. This election comes in the immediate aftermath of the devastating split in the Labor Party, which leads to the formation of the Democratic Labor Party. The DLP will preference against Labor, and keep the Coalition in office until 1972.


date: December 20

text: December 20 – Cardiff is declared by the British Government as the capital of Wales.


date: December 31

text: December 31 – Austria becomes independent, under terms of the May 15 Austrian State Treaty.


date: January 18

text: January 18–20 – Battle of Yijiangshan Islands: The Chinese Communist People's Liberation Army seizes the islands from the Republic of China (Taiwan).


date: January 25

text: January 25 – The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union announces the end of the war between the USSR and Germany, which began during World War II in 1941.


date: February 10

text: February 10 – The United States Seventh Fleet helps the Republic of China evacuate the Chinese Nationalist army and residents from the Tachen Islands to Taiwan.


date: March 2

text: March 2 – Claudette Colvin, a 15-year-old African-American girl, refuses to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, to a white woman after the driver demands it. She is carried off the bus backwards, while being kicked, handcuffed and harassed on the way to the police station. She becomes a plaintiff in Browder v. Gayle (1956), which rules bus segregation to be unconstitutional.

source_section: Events › March


date: April 1

text: April 1 – EOKA starts a resistance campaign against British rule in the Crown colony of Cyprus.


date: April 5

text: April 5 – Richard J. Daley defeats Robert Merrian to become Mayor of Chicago, by a vote of 708,222 to 581,555.


date: April 11

text: April 11 – Taekwondo, a form of Korean martial arts, is officially recognized in South Korea. A board convened by General Choi Hong Hi, including master instructors, historians and societal leaders, officially adopts the name Taekwon-Do for the unified Korean martial art.


text: April 11 – The Taiwanese Kuomintang put a bomb on the airplane Kashmir Princess, killing 16 but failing to assassinate the People's Republic of China leader, Zhou Enlai.


date: May 7

text: May 7 – Newcastle United F.C. beat Manchester City F.C. 3–1 to win the 1955 FA Cup final in English Association football.


date: August 18

text: August 18 – The First Sudanese Civil War begins.

source_section: Events › August


date: August 20

text: August 20 – Hundreds of people are killed in anti-French rioting in Morocco and Algeria.


date: August 25

text: August 25 – The last Soviet Army forces leave Austria.


date: August 26

text: August 26 – Satyajit Ray's film Pather Panchali is released in India.


date: September 6

text: September 6 – Istanbul pogrom: Istanbul's Greek minority is the target of a government-sponsored pogrom.


date: September 16

text: September 16 – The military coup to unseat President Juan Perón of Argentina is launched at midnight.


date: September 19

text: September 19–21 – President of Argentina Juan Perón is ousted in a military coup.


date: October 27

text: October 27 – The film Rebel Without a Cause, starring James Dean, is released in the United States.


date: November 1

text: November 1 – Official start date of the Vietnam War between the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and Republic of Vietnam; the north is allied with the Viet Cong.


date: April 15

text: April 15 – The first franchised McDonald's restaurant is opened by Ray Kroc, in Des Plaines, Illinois.


date: April 18

text: April 18–24 – The Asian-African Conference is held in Bandung, Indonesia.


date: May 15

text: May 15 – Lionel Terray and Jean Couzy become the first people to reach the summit of Makalu, the fifth-highest mountain in the world, on the 1955 French Makalu expedition. The entire team of climbers reaches the summit over the next two days.


date: May 18

text: May 18 – Free movement of residents between North and South Vietnam ends.


date: May 25

text: May 25 – Joe Brown and George Band are the first to climb Kangchenjunga in the Himalayas, as part of the British Kangchenjunga expedition led by Charles Evans.


date: September 14

text: September 14 – Pope Pius XII elevates many of the apostolic vicariates in Africa to Metropolitan Archdioceses.


date: December 5

text: December 5 – The American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations merge, to become the AFL–CIO.


date: December 31

text: December 31 – General Motors becomes the first American corporation to make a profit of over 1 billion dollars in 1 year.


date: January 17

text: January 17 – , the first nuclear-powered submarine, puts to sea for the first time, from Groton, Connecticut.


date: July 17

text: July 17 – The first atomic-generated electrical power is sold commercially, partially powering Arco, Idaho, from the U.S. National Reactor Testing Station; on July 18, Schenectady, New York, receives power from a prototype nuclear submarine reactor at Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory.


text: July 17 – The Disneyland theme park opens in Anaheim, California, an event broadcast on the American Broadcasting Company television network.


date: August 1

text: August 1 – The prototype Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance aircraft first flies, in Nevada.


date: September 22

text: September 22 – Commercial television starts in the United Kingdom with the Independent Television Authority's first ITV franchises beginning broadcasting in London, ending the BBC monopoly.


date: October 5

text: October 5 – Disneyland Hotel opens to the public in Anaheim, California.


date: November 3

text: November 3 – The Rimutaka Tunnel opens on the New Zealand Railways, at 5.46 mi (8.79 km), the longest in the Southern Hemisphere at this time.


date: December 14

text: December 14 – The Tappan Zee Bridge over the Hudson River, in New York State, opens to traffic.


date: March 20

text: March 20 – The movie adaptation of Evan Hunter's novel Blackboard Jungle premieres in the United States, featuring the famous single "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley & His Comets. Teenagers jump from their seats to dance to the song.


date: July 7

text: July 7 – The New Zealand Special Air Service is formed.


date: September 16

text: September 16 – A Soviet Navy Zulu-class submarine becomes the first to launch a ballistic missile.


date: November 19

text: November 19 – C. Northcote Parkinson first propounds 'Parkinson's law', in The Economist.


date: December 22

text: December 22 – American cytogeneticist Joe Hin Tjio discovers the correct number of human chromosomes, forty-six.


date: January 22

text: January 22 – In the United States, The Pentagon announces a plan to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), armed with nuclear weapons.


date: April 5

text: April 5 – Winston Churchill resigns as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, due to ill-health, at the age of 80.


date: April 12

text: April 12 – The Salk polio vaccine, having passed large-scale trials earlier in the United States, receives full approval by the Food and Drug Administration.


date: April 17

text: April 17 – Imre Nagy, the communist Premier of Hungary, is ousted for being too moderate.


date: September 2

text: September 2 – Under the guidance of Dr. Humphry Osmond, Christopher Mayhew ingests 400 mg of mescaline hydrochloride and allows himself to be filmed as part of a Panorama special for BBC TV in the U.K. that is never broadcast.


date: November 26

text: November 26 – The British Governor of Cyprus declares a state of emergency on the island.


date: December 19

text: December 19 – Australian comedian Barry Humphries first introduces his character Edna Everage on stage in Melbourne.


text: World population: 2,755,823,000

source_section: Events › World population


date: July 13

text: July 13 – Ruth Ellis is hanged for murder in London, becoming the last woman ever to be executed in the United Kingdom.


date: August 28

text: August 28 – Black 14-year-old Emmett Till is lynched and shot in the head for allegedly whistling at a white woman in Money, Mississippi; his white murderers, Roy Bryant and J. W. Milam, are acquitted by an all-white jury.


date: September 24

text: September 24 – Founder of Swiss watchmaker Glycine Watch SA, Eugène Meylan, age 64, is murdered.


date: October 4

text: October 4 – The Reverend Sun Myung Moon is released from prison in Seoul, South Korea.


date: December 1

text: December 1 – In Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks refuses to obey bus driver James F. Blake's order that she give up her seat to make room for a white passenger, and is arrested, leading to the Montgomery bus boycott.


date: January 23

text: January 23 – The Sutton Coldfield rail crash kills 17, near Birmingham, England.


date: February 16

text: February 16 – Nearly 100 die in a fire at a home for the elderly in Yokohama, Japan.


date: February 22

text: February 22 – In Chicago's Democratic primary, Mayor Martin H. Kennelly loses to the head of the Cook County Democratic Party, Richard J. Daley, 364,839 to 264,077.


date: May 11

text: May 11 – Japanese National Railways' ferry Shiun Maru sinks after a collision with sister ship Uko Maru, in thick fog off Takamatsu, Shikoku, in the Seto Inland Sea of Japan; 166 passengers (many children) and 2 crew members are killed. This event is influential in plans to construct the Akashi Kaikyō Bridge (built 1986–98).


date: June 11

text: June 11 – Le Mans disaster: Eighty-three people are killed and at least 100 are injured after two race cars collide in the 1955 24 Hours of Le Mans.


date: June 13

text: June 13 – Mir mine, the first diamond mine in the Soviet Union, is discovered.


date: July 27

text: July 27 – El Al Flight 402 from Vienna (Austria) to Tel Aviv, via Istanbul, is shot down over Bulgaria. All 58 passengers and crewmen aboard the Lockheed Constellation are killed.


date: August 22

text: August 22 – Eleven schoolchildren are killed when their school bus is hit by a freight train in Spring City, Tennessee.


date: September 30

text: September 30 – Actor James Dean is killed when his automobile collides with another car at a highway junction, near Cholame, California.


date: October 29

text: October 29 – Soviet battleship Novorossiysk explodes at moorings in Sevastopol Bay, killing 608 (the Soviet Union's worst naval disaster to date).


date: November 1

text: November 1 – A time bomb explodes in the cargo hold of United Airlines Flight 629, a Douglas DC-6B, over Longmont, Colorado, killing all 39 passengers and 5 crew members on board.


date: August 19

text: August 19 – Hurricane Diane hits the northeastern United States, killing over 200 people and causing over $1 billion in damage.


date: September 3

text: September 3 – Little Richard records "Tutti Frutti" in New Orleans; it is released in October.


date: September 19

text: September 19 – Hurricane Hilda kills about 200 people in Mexico.


date: September 21

text: September 21–30 – Hurricane Janet, one of the strongest North Atlantic tropical cyclones on record, sweeps the Lesser Antilles and Mexico, causing more than 1,020 deaths.


date: January 7

text: January 7 – Marian Anderson is the first African-American singer to perform at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.


date: June 7

text: June 7 – The television quiz program The $64,000 Question premieres on CBS-TV in the United States, with Hal March as the host.


date: July 28

text: July 28 – The first Interlingua Congress is held in Tours, France, leading to the foundation of the Union Mundial pro Interlingua.


date: August 27

text: August 27 – The first edition of the Guinness Book of Records is published, in London.


date: September 10

text: September 10 – The long-running Western television series Gunsmoke debuts, on the CBS network in the United States.


date: September 15

text: September 15 – Vladimir Nabokov's controversial novel Lolita is published in Paris, by Olympia Press.


date: October 2

text: October 2 – Alfred Hitchcock Presents debuts on the CBS TV network in the United States.


date: October 3

text: October 3 – The Mickey Mouse Club debuts on the ABC-TV network in the United States.


date: October 11

text: October 11 – 70-mm film for projection is introduced, with the theatrical release of Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical film, Oklahoma!.


date: October

text: Captain Kangaroo debuts on CBS network in the United States.


date: December 4

text: December 4 – The International Federation of Blood Donor Organizations is founded in Luxembourg.


date: December 5

text: December 5 – The Montgomery Improvement Association is formed in Montgomery, Alabama, by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and other Black ministers to coordinate the Montgomery bus boycott by Black people.


date: January 5

text: January 5 – Mamata Banerjee, Indian politician, Chief Minister of West Bengal

source_section: Births › January


date: January 17

text: January 17 – Katalin Karikó, Hungarian-born biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate


date: January 28

text: January 28 – Nicolas Sarkozy, 23rd President of France


date: February 24

text: February 24 – Steve Jobs, American businessman and founder of Apple Computer (d. 2011)

source_section: Births › February


date: July 9

text: July 9 – Lindsey Graham, American politician, lawyer, U.S. Army soldier, U.S. Senator (R-Sc.) and unsuccessful 2016 presidential candidate (d. 2026)

source_section: Births › July


date: August 4

text: August 4 – Alberto Gonzales, American lawyer and 80th United States Attorney General

source_section: Births › August


date: September 16

text: September 16 – Đorđe Božović, Serbian criminal and paramilitary commander in the Yugoslav Wars (d. 1991)

source_section: Births › September


date: October 28

text: October 28 – Bill Gates, American businessman and co-founder of Microsoft

source_section: Births › October


date: October 30

text: October 30 – Heidi Heitkamp, American politician, senator, attorney general and tax commissioner from North Dakota


date: November 6

text: November 6 – Catherine Asaro, American science fiction and fantasy author, singer and teacher

source_section: Births › November


text: November 6 – William H. McRaven, U.S. Navy admiral and SEAL, leader of planning for Operation Neptune Spear


date: November 11

text: November 11 – Friedrich Merz, German politician, Chancellor of Germany


date: November 17

text: November 17 – Steve Chalke, British Baptist minister, founder of Oasis Charitable Trust, UN Special Adviser on Human Trafficking and social activist


date: December 28

text: December 28 – Liu Xiaobo, Chinese literary critic and human rights activist, Nobel Peace Prize laureate (d. 2017)

source_section: Births › December


date: March 3

text: March 3 – Katharine Drexel, American Roman Catholic foundress and saint (b. 1858)

source_section: Deaths › March


date: March 11

text: March 11 – Sir Alexander Fleming, Scottish scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1881)


date: March 19

text: March 19 – Mihály Károlyi, 1st President of Hungary and 20th Prime Minister of Hungary (b. 1875)


date: March 23

text: March 23 – Artur Bernardes, 12th President of Brazil (b. 1875)


date: April 10

text: April 10 – Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, French Jesuit priest, philosopher, paleontologist and geologist (b. 1881)

source_section: Deaths › April


date: August 5

text: August 5 – Carmen Miranda, Portuguese-born Brazilian singer and actress (b. 1909)

source_section: Deaths › August


date: August 11

text: August 11 – Frank Seiberling, American inventor, co-founder of Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company (b. 1859)


date: August 12

text: August 12 – Thomas Mann, German novelist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1875)


text: September 16 – Leo Amery, British Conservative politician and journalist( b. 1873)

source_section: Deaths › September


date: October 25

text: October 25 – Sadako Sasaki, Japanese atomic bomb sickness victim (b. 1943)

source_section: Deaths › October


date: November 4

text: November 4 – Cy Young, American baseball player (Cleveland Spiders) and member of the MLB Hall of Fame (b. 1867)

source_section: Deaths › November


date: December 6

text: December 6 – Honus Wagner, American baseball player (Pittsburgh Pirates) and a member of the MLB Hall of Fame (b. 1874)

source_section: Deaths › December


date: December 13

text: December 13 – António Egas Moniz, Portuguese neurologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1874)


date: December 15

text: December 15 – Otto Braun, German politician, Minister President of the Free State of Prussia (b. 1872)


date: January 1

text: January 1 – The Anglo-Egyptian Condominium ends in Sudan after 57 years.

source_section: Events › January


date: January 16

text: January 16 – Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser vows to Liberate Palestine.


date: March 2

text: March 2 – Morocco declares its independence from France.

source_section: Events › March


date: March 20

text: March 20 – Tunisia gains independence from France.


date: April 9

text: April 9 – Habib Bourguiba is elected President of the National Constituent Assembly of the Kingdom of Tunisia; on April 15 he becomes prime minister.

source_section: Events › April


date: April 18

text: April 18 – Maria Desylla-Kapodistria is elected mayor of Corfu, becoming the first female mayor in Greece.


date: May 8

text: May 8 – The constitutional union between Indonesia and the Netherlands is dissolved.

source_section: Events › May


date: May 25

text: May 25 – India announces the institution of diplomatic relations with Francoist Spain.


date: June 1

text: June 1 – Vyacheslav Molotov resigns as foreign minister of the Soviet Union; he later becomes ambassador to Mongolia.

source_section: Events › June


date: June 6

text: June 6 – In Singapore, chief minister David Marshall resigns a little over a year into his chief ministership, after the breakdown of talks regarding internal self-government in London.


date: June 23

text: June 23 – Gamal Abdel Nasser becomes the 2nd president of Egypt, a post he holds until his death in 1970.


date: July 10

text: July 10 – The British House of Lords defeats the abolition of the death penalty.

source_section: Events › July


date: July 30

text: July 30 – A joint resolution of Congress is signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, authorizing "In God we trust" as the U.S. national motto.


date: August 17

text: August 17 – West Germany bans the Communist Party of Germany.

source_section: Events › August


date: October 19

text: October 19 – The Soviet–Japanese Joint Declaration of 1956 is signed in Moscow, ending the legal state of war between the Soviet Union and Japan (with effect from December 12) and making possible the restoration of diplomatic relations between the two nations.

source_section: Events › October


date: October 29

text: October 29 – Tangier Protocol: The international city Tangier is reintegrated into Morocco.


date: November 1

text: November 1 – The States Reorganisation Act of India reforms the boundaries and names of Indian states. Three new states, Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, are formed.

source_section: Events › November


date: November 6

text: November 6 – 1956 United States presidential election: Republican incumbent Dwight D. Eisenhower defeats Democratic challenger Adlai Stevenson, in a rematch of their contest 4 years earlier.


date: November 12

text: November 12 – Morocco, Sudan and Tunisia join the United Nations.


date: December 12

text: December 12 – Japan becomes a member of the United Nations.

source_section: Events › December


date: January 8

text: January 8 – Operation Auca: Five U.S. evangelical Christian missionaries, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, Ed McCully, Jim Elliot and Pete Fleming, are killed for trespassing by the Waorani people of Ecuador, shortly after making contact with them.


date: January 25

text: January 25–26 – Finnish troops reoccupy Porkkala, after Soviet troops vacate its military base. Civilians can return February 4.


date: February 14

text: February 14–25 – The 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union is held in Moscow.

source_section: Events › February


date: March 9

text: March 9 – The Soviet Armed Forces suppress mass demonstrations in the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic, reacting to Nikita Khrushchev's de-Stalinization policy.


date: March 19

text: March 19 – At age 48, Dutch boxer Bep van Klaveren contests his last match in Rotterdam.


date: April 7

text: April 7 – Spain relinquishes its protectorate in Morocco.


date: June 14

text: June 14 – The Flag of the United States Army is formally dedicated.


date: June 28

text: June 28 – Poznań 1956 protests: Labour riots in Poznań, Poland, are crushed with heavy loss of life. Soviet troops fire at a crowd protesting high prices, killing 53 people.


date: September 21

text: September 21 – Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza García is assassinated.

source_section: Events › September


date: October 23

text: October 23 – The Hungarian Revolution breaks out against the pro-Soviet government, originating as a student demonstration in Budapest. Hungary attempts to leave the Warsaw Pact.


date: October 24

text: October 24 – The Protocol of Sèvres, a secret agreement between Israel, France and the United Kingdom, is signed, allowing the former to invade the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt and occupy the Suez Canal with the support of the other two governments, giving rise to the Suez Crisis.


date: October 26

text: October 26 – Soviet Red Army troops invade Hungary.


date: October 29

text: October 29 – Suez Crisis: Israel invades the Sinai Peninsula and pushes Egyptian forces back toward the Suez Canal.


date: November 3

text: November 3 – Khan Yunis massacre (Suez Crisis): Israeli soldiers shoot dead hundreds of Palestinian refugees and local inhabitants in Khan Yunis Camp.


date: November 4

text: November 4 – Hungarian Revolution of 1956: More Soviet troops invade Hungary, to crush the revolt that started on October 23. Thousands are killed, more are wounded, and nearly a quarter million leave the country.


date: November 7

text: November 7 – Suez Crisis: The United Nations General Assembly adopts a resolution calling for the United Kingdom, France and Israel to withdraw their troops from Arab lands immediately.


date: November 11

text: November 11 – Hungarian Revolution of 1956: Last insurgents succumb to the invading Soviet army.


date: December 3

text: December 3 – The 1956 Bush Terminal explosion occurs in Brooklyn, United States.


date: April 19

text: April 19 – British diver Lionel (Buster) Crabb (working for MI6) dives into Portsmouth Harbour, to investigate a visiting Soviet cruiser, and vanishes.


date: May 18

text: May 18 – Lhotse main summit, the fourth highest mountain (on the Nepalese–Tibetan border) is first ascended, by Fritz Luchsinger and Ernst Reiss.


date: June 29

text: June 29 – President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956, creating the Interstate Highway System in the United States.


date: July 8

text: July 8 – The mountain Gasherbrum II, on the border of Pakistan and China, is first ascended, by an Austrian expedition.


date: November 14

text: November 14 – An eight-mile long stretch of highway is opened west of Topeka, Kansas, creating the first portion of the Interstate Highway System in the United States and the first highway to be completed with funds from the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956.


date: November 25

text: November 25 – Fidel Castro and Che Guevara depart from Tuxpan, Veracruz, Mexico, en route to Santiago de Cuba aboard the yacht Granma, with 82 men.


date: February 25

text: February 25 – Nikita Khrushchev attacks the veneration of Joseph Stalin, in a speech "On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences", at a secret session concluding the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. This is not officially made public in the Soviet Union at this time but becomes known in the West in June.


date: March 9

text: March 9 – The British deport Archbishop Makarios from Cyprus to the Seychelles.


date: March 23

text: March 23 – Pakistan becomes the first Islamic republic, and a national holiday is observed in the country, including the state of East Pakistan.


date: May 2

text: May 2 – The United Methodist Church in America decides, at its General Conference, to grant women full ordained clergy status. It also calls for an end to racial segregation in the denomination.


date: August

text: The first interfaith dialogue between Christians, Jews and Muslims with over 850 participants takes place at the monastery of Toumliline in Azrou, Morocco.


date: October 5

text: October 5 – Cecil B. DeMille's epic film The Ten Commandments, starring Charlton Heston as Moses, is released in the United States. It will be in the top ten of the worldwide list of highest-grossing films of all time, adjusted for inflation.


date: December 4

text: December 4 – The Million Dollar Quartet (Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash) get together at Sun Studio, for the first and last time in history.


date: March 1

text: March 1 – The International Air Transport Association finalizes a draft of the radiotelephony spelling alphabet, for the International Civil Aviation Organization.


date: March 10

text: March 10 – The Fairey Delta 2 breaks the World Air Speed Record, raising it to 1132 mph km/h or Mach 1.73, an increase of some 300 mph km/h over the previous record, and thus becoming the first aircraft to exceed 1000 mph km/h in level flight.


date: June 8

text: June 8 – General Electric/Telechron introduces model 7H241 "The Snooz Alarm", the first snooze alarm clock ever.


date: July 2

text: July 2 – A laboratory experiment involving scrap thorium at Sylvania Electric Products in Bayside, New York, results in an explosion.


date: July 13

text: July 13 – John McCarthy (Dartmouth), Marvin Minsky (MIT), Claude Shannon (Bell Labs) and Nathaniel Rochester (IBM) assemble the first coordinated research meeting on the topic of artificial intelligence, at Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, in the United States.


date: July 26

text: July 26 – Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalizes the Suez Canal, sparking international condemnation.


date: September 13

text: September 13 – The hard disk drive is invented by an IBM team, led by Reynold B. Johnson.


text: September 13 – The dike around the Dutch polder East Flevoland is closed.


date: September 16

text: September 16 – Television broadcasting in Australia commences.


date: September 25

text: September 25 – The submarine transatlantic telephone cable opens.


date: September 27

text: September 27 – The Bell X-2 becomes the first crewed aircraft to reach Mach 3.


date: October 10

text: October 10 – The prototype Lockheed L-1649 Starliner, the final Lockheed Constellation model, makes its first flight.


date: October 17

text: October 17 – The world's first industrial-scale commercial nuclear power plant is opened at Calder Hall in the UK.