- January 13
- Gas explosion in Belgium coal mine kills 14. [1]
- January 14
- Yugoslavia elects its first president (Marshal Josip Tito). [1]
- January 15
- German Democratic Republic Minister of Foreign Affairs Georg Dertingen is arrested for "espionage". [1]
- January 16
- Egyptian Premier General Naguib disbands all political parties. [1]
- January 17
- The General Motors Motorama opens to the general public in New York City. The prototype Chevrolet Corvette "Dream Car" is displayed to the public for the first time. The roadster is white with red interior, fiberglass body, 235-cid straight-6 engine, and two-speed automatic. Also on display at the Motorama: Buick fiberglass-bodied two-passenger Wildcat, Oldsmobile fiberglass-bodied four-passenger convertible Starfire, Cadillac fiberglass-bodied two-passenger roadster Le Mans. [8]
- January 20
- First US telecast transmitted to Canada from Buffalo, New York, USA. [1]
- January 27
- Netherlands ends Marshall Plan aid. [1]
- January 29
- First movie in Cinemascope (The Robe) premieres. [1]
- January 31
- Princess Victoria capsizes off Stanraer, Scotland; 133 die. [1]
- Hurricane-like winds flood Netherlands drowning nearly 2,000. [1]
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- February 1
- Sea water at the levees of Netherlands reach 15 feet above normal high tide, destroying 90 levees, killing 1835 people and 200,000 cattle. 300 farms and 3000 buildings are swept away. [1572.38]
- February 12
- USSR breaks diplomatic relations with Israel. [1]
- February 18
- Premiere of first 3-D feature film - Bwana Devil (New York City, New York). [1]
- February 28
- Cambridge University scientists James D. Watson and Frances H.C. Crick announce that they have determined the double-helix structure of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), the molecule containing human genes. [1] [129] [226]
- March 3
- In Pecklesheim, Federal Republic of Germany, a meteorite falls harmlessly to the ground. [521]
- Canadian Comet plane crashes at Karachi, 11 killed. [1]
- March 5
- Josef V Stalin, Soviet leader responsible for 11 million murders, dies at age 73. [1] [226.49]
- March 6
- Malenkov becomes chairman of the USSR. [1]
- March 9
- Josef Stalin buried in Moscow. [1]
- March 11
- An American B-47 accidentally drops a nuclear bomb on South Carolina, the bomb doesn't go off due to six safety catches. [1]
- March 14
- Nikita Khrushchev succeeds Malenkov as Secretary of Soviet Communist Party. [1]
- March 17
- US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site. [1]
- March 18
- Earthquake strikes West Turkey, 250 die. [1]
- March 22
- Antonín Zápotocky chosen as president of Czechoslovakia. [1]
- March 24
- US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site. [1]
- March 26
- Dr Jonas Salk announces new vaccine to prevent polio [myelitis]. [1] [5]
- March 27
- 21 die in a train crash in Conneaut, Ohio, USA. [1]
- In Denmark, the Act of Succession gives right of succession to Danish throne to women. [1528.12]
- March 30
- Albert Einstein announces revised unified field theory. [1]
- March 31
- United Nations Security Council nominates Dag Hammarskjöld for Secretary-General. [1] [7]
- April 1
- J van Bale appointed Governor of New Guinea. [1]
- April 2
- Raab forms his first government in Austria. [1]
- April 7
- First west-to-east jet transatlantic nonstop flight. [1]
- Dag Hammarskjöld of Sweden elected second United Nations Secretary-General. [1]
- April 9
- TV Guide publishes first issue. [1]
- April 10
- House of Wax, first 3-D movie, is released (New York City, New York). [1]
- April 14
- Viet-Minh offensive in Laos. [1]
- April 15
- Malans National Party wins South African elections. [1]
- April 24
- Winston Churchill knighted by Queen Elizabeth II. [1]
- April 25
- Francis Crick and James D. Watson publish an article describing the double helix structure of DNA. [1] [5]
- April 27
- First general elections in British Guyana, won by Jagans PPP. [1]
- Wrestler Freddie Blassie coins the term "Pencil neck geek". [1]
- May 2
- Feisal II installed as king of Iraq. [1]
- Hussein I installed as king of Jordan. [1] [626.221]
- May 4
- Pulitzer prize awarded to Ernest Hemingway (Old Man and The Sea). [1]
- May 5
- City of Chemnitz, German Democratic Republic, changed to Karl-Marx-Stadt in honor of the 135th birthday of Karl Marx. [37]
- May 6
- German former army commander Erich von Manstein is freed from captivity. [10]
- May 11
- Tornado kills 114 in Waco, Texas, USA (US$39 million damage). [1]
- Winston Churchill criticizes John Foster Dulles' domino theory. [1]
- May 15
- Osip Zadkines monument to "The destroyed city" unveiled in Rotterdam, Netherlands. [1]
- May 19
- Nuclear explosion in Nevada (fall-out in Saint George, Utah). [1]
- May 21
- French Government of Mayer resigns. [1]
- May 24
- Pope Pius XII publishes encyclical Doctor Mellifluus. [1]
- May 25
- At the Nevada Test Site, the U.S. conducts its first and only nuclear artillery test. [1] [5]
- First non-commercial educational television station-Houston, Texas, USA. [1]
- May 26
- Dutch Convair crashes at Schipholweg, two die. [1]
- May 28
- Premiere of first animated 3-D cartoon in Technicolor: Melody. [1]
- May 29
- Edmund P Hillary of New Zealand and Nepalese Sherpa Tensing Norkay are first to reach summit of Mount Everest in Nepal, the highest mountain on earth. [1] [35] [107.43] [129]
- May 30
- The Auckland Harbour Bridge officially opens in Auckland, New Zealand. [5]
- May 31
- Lebanese President Camille Shamun disbands government. [1]
- June 2
- Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in Westminster Abbey, England. [1] [129] [859.37]
- In London, England, the news of Edmund Hillary reaching the peak of Mount Everest is first reported. [107.43]
- June 5
- Denmark adopts a new constitution. [1]
- June 7
- First color network telecast in compatible color, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. [1]
- June 8
- Cluster of six tornadoes touch down in Flint, Michigan, USA killing 113. [1]
- June 9
- Tornado strikes Worcester, Massachusetts, USA, destroying Assumption College, killing 100. [1]
- June 17
- Riots in German Democratic Republic for reunification. [1]
- June 18
- Egypt proclaimed a republic, General Neguib becomes president. [1843.958]
- US Air Force C124 Globemaster crashes near Tokyo, Japan, killing 129 servicemen. [1]
- June 19
- Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were convicted of conspiring to pass U.S. atomic secrets to the Soviets, are executed by electric chair at Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, New York. [129] [897.44]
- June 25
- First passenger plane to fly commercially around the world in under 100 hours. [1]
- June 30
- The first production Corvette rolls off the assembly line at Chevrolet Plant Number 35, near Flint, Michigan, USA. The Corvette is the first dream-car to become a production model, and first series-production car with a fiberglass body. [8]
- (month unknown)
- The Abee enstatife meteorite falls in Canada. [523.92]
- July 14
- King Faisal of Iraq and other family members are killed. [626.220]
- July 23
- Former German General Nickolaus von Falkenhorst is freed from British captivity. He was condemned to death in 1946 for his part in the execution of captured British commandos. [10]
- July 26
- Fidel Castro leads attack on Moncada Barracks, begins Cuban revolution. [1]
- July 27
- Armistice signed at Panmunjom ends Korean War. During the fighting, 54,000 American soldiers were killed. [35] [1181.438] [1738.7]
- August 1
- Northern Rhodesia becomes part of Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. [1]
- August 5
- Operation "Big Switch": Korean War prisoners exchanged at Panmunjom. [1]
- August 8
- US and South Korea initial a mutual security pact. [1]
- August 12
- The Soviet atomic bomb project proceeds with the detonation of Joe 4, the first Soviet thermonuclear weapon. [1] [5]
- August 20
- The Soviet Union acknowledges that it had tested the hydrogen bomb. [1] [5]
- August 28
- Nippon Television broadcasts Japan's first television show, including its first TV advertisement. [5]
- September 3
- The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is established. [278.473]
- September 5
- First privately operated atomic reactor-Raleigh, North Carolina, USA. [1]
- September 12
- Nikita Khrushchev becomes first Secretary of USSR Communist Party. [1]
- September 17
- First successful separation of Siamese twins. [1]
- September 27
- Typhoon destroys 1/3 of Nagoya, Japan. [1]
- October 1
- Indian state of Andhra Pradesh partitioned from Madras. [1]
- October 13
- Burglar alarm-ultrasonic or radio waves-patented by Samuel Bagno. [1]
- October 22
- Laos gains full independence from France. [1]
- October 30
- Dr Albert Schweitzer and General George C Marshall win Nobel Peace Prize. [1]
- November 9
- Cambodia gains independence within French Union. [1]
- November 20
- Scott Crossfield in Douglas Skyrocket, first to break Mach 2 (1300mph). [1]
- November 21
- Authorities at the British Natural History Museum announce that the "Piltdown Man" skull, discovered in 1912, and held to be one of the most famous fossil skulls in the world, was a hoax. [1] [5]
- December 7
- Israel's Prime Minister Ben-Gureon retires. [1]
- December 16
- Charles E Yeager flies over 2,575 kph (1,650 mph) in Bell X-1A (first man to fly at nearly two and one-half times the speed of sound). [1]
- December 17
- US Federal Communications Commission reverses its prior approval of a color television format that favored CBS-TV, instead approving RCA's black and white-compatible color TV specifications, benefitting the RCA-owned National Broadcasting Company. [1] [457]
- December 23
- Lavrenti P Beria, soviet minister of internal security, executed. [1]
- December 24
- Two fast express trains crash head-on, killing 103 (Czechoslovakia). [1]
- René Coty elected President of France. [1]
- Wellington-Auckland (New Zealand) express train swept away in flood kills 166. [1]
- December 25
- Avalanche of lava kills 150 (Ruapehu volcano, New Zealand). [1]
- The United States returns control of the Amami Islands, north of Okinawa, to Japan. [10] [323.37]
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