1953 - All About All

1953

1953 is a common year starting on Thursday.

Events

January

• January 7 - President Harry S. Truman announces the United States has developed a hydrogen bomb.
• January 12 - Estonian emigres find a government in exile in Oslo
• January 13 - Marshal Josip Broz Tito chosen President of Yugoslavia
• January 15 - Georg Dertinger, foreign minister of East Germany, is arrested for spying
• January 20 - Change of US presidency from Harry S. Truman (1945-1953) to Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953-1961).
• January 22 - The Crucible, a drama by Arthur Miller, opens on Broadway
• January 24 – Mau Mau rebels in Kenya kill Ruck family – father, mother and a 6-year-old son
• January 26 - Walter Ulbricht announces that the agriculture will be collectivized in East Germany
• January 28 - Derek Bentley is executed for murder in Wandsworth Prison
• January 31-February 1 - North Sea Flood of 1953 flood kills 1,835 people in the southwestern Netherlands, 307 in the United Kingdom and several hundred at sea, including 132 on the Princess Victoria.
• January 31 - An automobile ferry the Princess Victoria sinks in the Irish Sea - 132 dead

February

• February 1 - Severe storms and spring tide flooding cause severe damage to the coasts of Belgium and the Netherlands with severe flooding in Zeeland - North Sea Flood of 1953.
• February 5 - The movie Peter Pan premieres (Roxy Theatre, New York City).
• February 11 - President Eisenhower refuses clemency appeal for Ethel and Julius Rosenberg.
• February 11 - The Soviet Union breaks diplomatic relations with Israel.
• February 13 - Transsexual Christine Jorgenson returns to New York after successful sexual reassignment surgery in Denmark
• February 18 - The first 3D film, Bwana Devil opens.
• February 19 - Censorship: Georgia approves the first literature censorship board in the United States
• February 28 - James D. Watson and Francis Crick announce that they have determined the chemical structure of DNA.

March-April

• March 1 - After an all-night dinner with Soviet Union interior minister Lavrenty Beria and future premiers Georgi Malenkov, Nikolai Bulganin and Nikita Khrushchev, Joseph Stalin collapses, having suffered a stroke that paralyzed the right side of his body.
• March 1 - Bernard Freyberg, 1st Baron Freyberg made the deputy constable and lieutenant governor of Windsor Castle
• March 5 - After 29 years of ruling the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin dies.
• March 6 - Georgy Maksimilianovich Malenkov succeeds Josef Stalin as Premier and First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
• March 11 - U.S. B-47 bomber accidentally drops an atom bomb on Mars Bluff, South Carolina. Fortunately it fails to detonate.
• March 13 - United Nations Security Council nominates Dag Hammarskjöld as United Nations Secretary General
• March 14 - Nikita Khruschev selected general secretary of the Soviet communist party
• March 17 - Nuclear test in Nevada - with 1620 spectators in 3.4 km
• March 18 - An earthquake hits western Turkey killing 250.
• March 25-26 – Lari Massacre in Kenya – Mau Mau rebels kill up to 150 kikuyu
• March 26 - Jonas Salk announces his polio vaccine.
• April 7 - Dag Hammarskjöld is elected United Nations Secretary General.
• April 8 – Jomo Kenyatta is sentenced for seven years in prison for alleged organization of Mau Mau Rebellion
• April 13 - Ian Fleming publishes his first James Bond novel, Casino Royale in the United Kingdom
• April 25 - Francis Crick and James D. Watson publish their description of the double helix structure of DNA.(::Watson, J. D. and Crick, F. H. C. (1953). Molecular structure of nucleic acids: a structure for deoxyribose nucleic acid (http://www.nature.com/genomics/human/watson-crick/index.html). Nature 171, 737-738.)

May

• May 2 - Hussein is crowned King of Jordan.
• May 2 - 38-year-old Stanley Matthews finally wins the FA Cup at his third attempt, in the famous 'Matthews Final'
• May 9 – France agrees to the provisional independence of Cambodia with the king Norodom Sihanouk
• May 10 - Town of Chemnitz in East Germany becomes Karl Marx Stad
• May 11 - The Waco Tornado: A F5 tornado hits in the downtown section of Waco, Texas killing 114.
• May 18 - At Rogers Dry Lake, California Jackie Cochran becomes the first woman to break the sound barrier (she flew in a F-86 Sabrejet at an average speed of 652.337 miles-per-hour).
• May 25 - Nuclear testing: At the Nevada Test Site, the United States conducts its first and only nuclear artillery test.
• May 29 - Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay perform the first successful ascent to the summit of Mount Everest.

June-July

• June 2 - Coronation of Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom at Westminster Abbey.
• June 8 - Flint-Worcester Tornadoes: A tornado hits in Flint, Michigan and kills 115. This is the last tornado to claim more than 100 lives.
• June 8 - Austria and Soviet Union form diplomatic relations
• June 9 - CIA Technical Services Staff head Sidney Gottlieb approves of the use of LSD in a MKULTRA subproject.
• June 9 - Flint-Worcester Tornadoes: A tornado spawned from the same storm system as the Flint tornado hits in Worcester, Massachusetts killing 94.
• June 12 - Currency reform causes riots in Czechoslovakia
• June 13 - Hungarian Prime Minister Mátyás Rákosi is replaced by Imre Nagy.
• June 16 - Soviet Union and Yugoslavia form diplomatic relations
• June 17 - Workers Uprising: In East Germany, the Soviet Union orders a Division (military) of troops into East Berlin to quell a rebellion.
• June 18 - Egypt declares a republic
• June 19 - Execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
• June 30 - The first Chevrolet Corvette is built at Flint (Michigan)
• July 4 - Strikes and riots in coal mining regions in Poland
• July 5 - First meeting of the assembly of the European Economic Community in Strasbourg, France
• July 10 – Soviet official paper Pravda announces that Lavrenti Beria has been deposed from his positions as a head of NKVD
• July 18 - Flood in the Hodno island in Japan - 1700 dead, 7000 injured
• July 26 - Fidel Castro and his brother lead a disastrous assault on the Moncada Barracks - preliminary to the Cuban Revolution.
• July 27 - Korean War ends: The United States, People's Republic of China, North Korea, and South Korea sign an armistice agreement.

August-October

• August 5 - Operation Big Switch, operation to repatriate prisoners of war after the Korean War
• August 7 - Ohio admitted as a U. S. state, retroactive to 1803.
• August 8 - Soviet prime minister Georgi Malenkov announces that Soviet Union has a hydrogen bomb
• August 11 - Earthquake devastates islands of the Ionian Sea
• August 13 - 4 million workers go on strike in France to protest austerity measures
• August 17 - Addiction: First meeting of Narcotics Anonymous in Southern California, see October 5.
• August 18 - Kinsey report
• August 19 - Cold War: The CIA helps to overthrow the government of Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran and retain Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi on the throne (see: Operation Ajax).
• August 20 - French government oust the sultan of Morocco and exiles him to Corsica
• August 20 - USA gives West Germany 382 ships it captured during World War Two
• August 25 - General strike ends in France
• September 5 - United Nations does not accept Soviet Union's suggestion to accept China as a member
• September 7 - Nikita Khrushchev becomes head of the Soviet Central Committee.
• September 25 - Hurricane in South-East Asia - over 1000 dead
• September 25 - First German prisoners of war return from Soviet Union to West Germany
• September 26 - Rationing of sugar ends in the United Kingdom
• October - The UNIVAC 1103 is the first commercial computer to use random access memory.
• October 5 - First meeting of Narcotics Anonymous (first planning session was held August 17)
• October 9 - Konrad Adenauer is re-elected as a German chancellor
• October 12 - "The Caine Mutiny Court Martial" opens at Plymouth Theatre, New York.
• October 30 - Cold War: US President Dwight D. Eisenhower formally approves the top secret document National Security Council Paper No. 162/2, which states that the United States' arsenal of nuclear weapons must be maintained and expanded to counter the communist threat.

November-December

• November 5 - David Ben Gurion resigns as a prime minister of Israel
• November 9 - Cambodia becomes independent from France.
• November 9 - King Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia dies
• November 21 - Authorities at the British Natural History Museum announce that the skull of the "Piltdown Man", one of the most famous fossil skulls in the world, is a hoax.
• November 23 - Moscow announces that Lavrenti Beria has been executed
• November 25 - England lose 6-3 to Hungary at Wembley Stadium, their first ever loss to a continental team at home
• November 29 - French paratroopers take Dien Bien Phu
• December 2 - United Kingdom and Iran reform diplomatic relations
• December 8 - US president Dwight D. Eisenhower delivers his Atoms for Peace address to the UN General Assembly in New York City
• December 23 – Soviet Union announces officially that Lavrenti Beria has been executed
• December 24 - 153 people die as a result of the Tangiwai disaster when the railway bridge collapses at Tangiwai, New Zealand sending a fully loaded passenger train into the Whangaehu River
• December 30 - The first color television sets go on sale for about $1,175 (American dollars).

Births

January-February

• January 8 - Bruce Sutter, baseball player
• January 10 - Pat Benatar, American singer
• January 10 - Bobby Rahal, American race car driver
• January 19 - Desi Arnaz Jr., American actor
• January 21 - Paul Allen, American entrepreneur
• January 22 - Jim Jarmusch, American director
• January 26 - Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Prime Minister of Denmark
• February 7 - Dan Quisenberry, baseball player (d. 1998)
• February 8 - Mary Steenburgen, American actress
• February 11 - Philip Anglim, American actor
• February 11 - Alan Rubin, American musician
• February 17 - Norman Pace, British actor and comedian
• February 21 - William Petersen, American actor
• February 25 - Martin Kippenberger, German artist
• February 25 - José María Aznar, Spanish politician

March-May

• March 1 - Richard Bruton, Irish politician and economist
• March 6 - Jan Kjærstad, Norwegian author
• March 12 - Carl Hiaasen, American author
• March 12 - Ron Jeremy, American actor
• March 16 - Isabelle Huppert, French actress
• March 16 - Richard Stallman, American free software proponent
• March 23 - Chaka Khan, American singer
• March 26 - Elaine Chao, U.S. Secretary of Labor
• April 1 - Barry Sonnenfeld, American film producer and director
• April 11 - Guy Verhofstadt, Prime Minister of Belgium
• April 11 - Andrew Wiles, British-born mathematician
• April 16 - J. Neil Schulman, American writer and activist
• May 6 - Tony Blair, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
• May 15 - George Brett, baseball player
• May 15 - Mike Oldfield, English composer
• May 16 - Pierce Brosnan, Irish actor
• May 19 - Victoria Wood, British comic actress
• May 20 - Robert Doyle, Australian politician
• May 24 - Alfred Molina, English actor
• May 26 - Michael Portillo, English politician
• May 29 - Danny Elfman, American composer
• May 30 - Colm Meaney, Irish actor

June-August

• June 1 - David Berkowitz, American serial killer
• June 8 - Bonnie Tyler, Welsh singer
• June 13 - Tim Allen, American actor
• June 21 - Benazir Bhutto, Prime Minister of Pakistan
• July 14 - Bebe Buell, American model and singer
• July 15 - Jean-Bertrand Aristide, President of Haiti
• July 15 - Mila Pivnicki, First Lady of Canada
• July 29 - Geddy Lee, Canadian musician (Rush)
• August 5 - Rick Mahler, baseball player (d. 2005)
• August 9 - Robert Cray, American musician
• August 11 - Hulk Hogan, American professional wrestler
• August 18 - Louie Gohmert, American politician
• August 19 - Benoît Régent, French actor (d. 1994)
• August 31 - György Károly, Hungarian author

October-December

• October 2 - Brandon Wilson, American author and explorer
• October 7 - Christopher Norris, British actress
• October 9 - Tony Shalhoub, American actor
• October 12 - Serge Lepeltier, French politician
• October 12 - Les Dennis, British comedian and television presenter
• October 22 - Jeff Goldblum, American actor
• October 27 - Robert Picardo, American actor
• October 31 - Michael J. Anderson, American actor
• November 4 - Carlos Gutierrez, American politician
• November 14 - Dominique de Villepin, Prime Minister of France
• November 18 - Alan Moore, English writer and magician
• November 19 - Robert Beltran, American actor
• November 19 - Tom Villard, American actor (d. 1994)
• November 28 - Ben Bolt, American guitarist
• November 29 - Alex Grey, American artist
• December 6 - Gary Ward, baseball player
• December 8 - Kim Basinger, American actress
• December 13 - Ben Bernanke, American economist
• December 13 - Bob Gainey, Canadian hockey player

Deaths

• January 1 - Hank Williams, American musician (b. 1923)
• January 28 - James Scullin, ninth Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1876)
• March 2 - Jim Lightbody, American runner (b. 1882)
• March 5 - Herman J. Mankiewicz, American writer and producer (b. 1897)
• March 5 - Sergei Prokofiev, Russian composer (b. 1891)
• March 5 - Joseph Stalin, Soviet leader (b. 1879)
• March 24 - Queen Mary the Dowager Queen Mother, queen of George V of the United Kingdom (b. 1867)
• March 28 - Jim Thorpe, American athlete (b. 1887)
• May 29 - Man Mountain Dean, American professional wrestler (b. 1891)
• July 26 - Nikolaos Plastiras, Greek general and politician (b. 1883)
• July 29 - Richard William Pearse, New Zealand airplane pioneer (b. 1877)
• August 22 - Jim Tabor, baseball player (b. 1916)
• September 2 - General Jonathan Wainwright, U.S. Medal of Honor recipient (b. 1883)
• September 8 - Fred M. Vinson, Chief Justice of the United States (b. 1890)
• September 28 - Edwin Hubble, American astronomer (b. 1889)
• October 3 - Arnold Bax, English composer (b. 1887)
• October 8 - Kathleen Ferrier, British contralto (b. 1912)
• October 25 - Holger Pedersen, Dutch linguist (b. 1867)
• October 27 - Thomas Wass, English cricketer (b. 1873)
• November 8 - Ivan Alekseyevich Bunin, Russian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1870)
• November 8 - John van Melle, Dutch-born author (b. 1883)
• November 9 - Dylan Thomas, Welsh poet and author (b. 1914)
• November 21 - Larry Shields, American musician (b. 1893)
• November 27 - Eugene O'Neill, American writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1888)
• November 29 - Sam De Grasse, Canadian actor (b. 1875)
• November 30 - Francis Picabia, French painter and poet (b. 1879)
• December 18 - Robert Millikan, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1868)
• December 27 - Julian Tuwim, Polish poet (b. 1894)

Nobel Prizes

• Physics - Frits (Frederik) Zernike
• Chemistry - Hermann Staudinger
• Medicine - Hans Adolf Krebs, Fritz Albert Lipmann
• Literature - Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill
• Peace - George Catlett Marshall