1953 - What happened in 1953 ?

January 1953

Wednesday 07:

President Harry Truman announces that the United States has developed a hydrogen bomb.

Thursday 08:

René Mayer becomes Prime Minister of France.

Tuesday 13:

Marshal Josip Broz Tito chosen President of Yugoslavia.

Monday 19:

68% of all United States television sets were tuned in to I Love Lucy to watch Lucy give birth.

Thursday 22:

The Crucible, a drama by Arthur Miller, opens on Broadway.

February 1953

Thursday 05:

The movie Peter Pan premieres (Roxy Theatre, New York City).

Wednesday 11:

The Soviet Union breaks off diplomatic relations with Israel.

Wednesday 18:

Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz sign an $8,000,000 contract to continue the I Love Lucy television series through 1955.

Thursday 19:

Censorship: Georgia approves the first literature censorship board in the United States.

Saturday 28:

James D. Watson and Francis Crick announce to friends that they have determined the chemical structure of DNA; formal announcement April 25 following publication in April Nature (pub. April 2).

March 1953

Sunday 01:

Joseph Stalin collapses, having suffered a stroke. He dies four days later.

Friday 06:

Georgy Maksimilianovich Malenkov succeeds Josef Stalin as Premier and First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

Wednesday 18:

An earthquake hits western Turkey killing 250.

Thursday 19:

Academy Awards are first televised.

Thursday 26:

Jonas Salk announces his polio vaccine.

April 1953

Tuesday 07:

Dag Hammarskjöld is elected United Nations Secretary General.

Wednesday 08:

Mau Mau leader Jomo Kenyatta is convicted by Kenya's British rulers.

Thursday 09:

Warner Brothers premieres the first 3-D film, entitled House of Wax

Friday 24:

Winston Churchill is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.

Saturday 25:

Francis Crick and James D. Watson publish Molecular structure of nucleic acids: a structure for deoxyribose nucleic acid describing the double helix structure of DNA.

May 1953

Saturday 02:

Hussein is crowned King of Jordan.

Monday 11:

The Waco Tornado: An F5 tornado hits downtown Waco, Texas, killing 114.

Monday 18:

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 (1049.835 km/h) at Rogers Dry Lake, California).

Monday 25:

Nuclear testing: At the Nevada Test Site, the United States conducts its first and only nuclear artillery test.

Friday 29:

Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay are the first people to reach the summit of Mount Everest.

June 1953

Tuesday 02:

Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, the first to be televised.

Monday 08:

The United States Supreme Court rules that Washington, D.C. restaurants could not refuse to serve black patrons.

Tuesday 09:

Flint-Worcester Tornadoes: A tornado spawned from the same storm system as the Flint tornado hits in Worcester, Massachusetts killing 94.

Saturday 13:

Hungarian Prime Minister Mátyás Rákosi is replaced by Imre Nagy

Wednesday 17:

Workers Uprising: In East Germany, the Soviet Union orders a division of troops into East Berlin to quell a rebellion.

July 1953

Wednesday 15:

John Reginald Christie, British serial killer executed.

Monday 20:

The United Nations Economic and Social Council votes to make UNICEF a permanent agency.

Sunday 26:

Arizona Governor John Howard Pyle orders a law enforcement crackdown on Short Creek, Arizona, home to a polygamous sect of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Monday 27:

Korean War ends: The United States, People's Republic of China, and North Korea, sign an armistice agreement. Syngman Rhee, president of South Korea, refuses to sign but pledges to observe the armistice.

Thursday 30:

Rikid?zan holds a ceremony announcing the establishment of the Japan Pro Wrestling Alliance.

August 1953

Friday 07:

Ohio admitted to the union, retroactive to 1803 (this is disputed by some).

Wednesday 12:

Nuclear testing: The Soviet atomic bomb project proceeded with the detonation of Joe 4, the first Soviet thermonuclear weapon.

Monday 17:

Addiction: First meeting of Narcotics Anonymous in Southern California.

Wednesday 19:

Cold War: The CIA helps to overthrow the government of Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran and reinstate the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

Friday 28:

Nippon Television broadcasts Japan's first television show, including its first TV advertisement.

September 1953

Monday 07:

Nikita Khrushchev becomes head of the Soviet Central Committee.

Saturday 12:

John F. Kennedy marries Jackie Bouvier.

Sunday 13:

Nikita Khrushchev appointed secretary-general of the Soviet Union.

October 1953

Monday 05:

Earl Warren is sworn in as the 14th Chief Justice of the United States.

Monday 12:

"The Caine Mutiny Court Martial" opens at Plymouth Theatre, New York

Wednesday 14:

The Qibya massacre was carried out by Israeli troops in a West Bank village.

Thursday 15:

British nuclear test Totem 1 detonated at Emu Field, South Australia.

Friday 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 1953

Monday 09:

Cambodia becomes independent from France.

Saturday 21:

Authorities at the British Natural History Museum announce that the skull of the "Piltdown Man", held to be one of the most famous fossil skulls in the world, was a hoax.

Wednesday 25:

The England football team suffer their first home defeat against continental opposition

December 1953

Thursday 03:

The Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty between the United States and Republic of China is signed in Washington, DC.

Wednesday 09:

General Electric announces that all Communist employees will be discharged from the company

Thursday 10:

Dr. Albert Schweitzer is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Thursday 24:

NBC's Dragnet becomes the first network-sponsored television program

Friday 25:

A fire breaks out in Shek Kip Mei, Hong Kong.