Business: Bulova watches tested on television thrown over Niagara falls
Entertainment: "Rock Around the CLock" spurs worldwide interest in new music Elvis Presley records
Artists include Chagall, Picasso Films include La Strada (Fellini), Rear Window (Hitchcock), The Seven Samurai
Music includes Aaron Copland, Schonberg, Gian Carlo Mennotti, Stravinsky, Toscanini retires Writers include Ernest Hemingway (Nobel),
Aldous Huxley, Thomas Mann, Mauriac, Montherlant, JB Priestley, Giradoux, e.e. cummings, Tennessee Williams (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof),
Thornton Wilder, William Golding (Lord of the Flies), John Masters, CP Snow, JRR Tolkien (Lord of the Rings), Dylan Thomas (posth),
Charles A Lindbergh "Herblock" wins second Pulitzer for cartoons
Fashion: Cecil Beaton authors "Glass of Fashion" as history of style
Cristobal Balenciaga introduces style that would become classic 1950s – feminine yet ultra-modern
Medicine: First kidney transplant Pincus Rock and Garcia develop birth control pill
Religion: Pope Pius XII proclaims Pope Pius X a saint Billy Graham begins holding evangelistic meetings in NY London and Berlin
Science: Barghoorn and Tyler show bacteria in rocks over 2 billion years old 100 known chemical elements
Linus Pauling wins Nobel Prize for Chemistry for study of molecular forces
Sports: British Roger Bannister runs mile in under four minutes
Technology: Dacron becomes early artificial fiber Color television broadcasts MASER invented First Mach 2 flight
Deaths: Enrico Fermi, Henri Matisse, Lionel Barrymore, Oskar Straus
Africa
General: Start of African colonies gaining independence 'till 1960
Algeria: National Liberation Front (FLN) declares war against French rule - independence 1962 Earthquake
Egypt: General Nasser elected president to 1970
Ethiopia: Emperor Haile Selassie in Bonn
Gold Coast: National Liberation Movement begins
Morocco: Desert locust plague - $14 million in crops destroyed,
Sudan: Smallpox
Americas
General: Che Guevara meets Fidel Castro
Argentina: Juan Peron's last full year as president
Canada: Toronto hit by hurricane Hazel US and Canada agree to build radar warning stations across northern Canada (Distant Early Warning "DEW" line)
Guatemala: US overthrows Presiddent Arbenz and 200 k citizens die as result
Paraguay: Pro-American Alfredo Stroessner becomes president
Mexico: Flooding along Texas border
Asia
General: War between Burma and Indo-China ends SEATO (South-East Asia) seeks to limit Communism Burma and Japan sign treaty
Cambodia: Independence
China: Flooding of Yangtzee in China kills 40,000 US signs pact with Nationalist China
Japan: Ferryboat sinks in hurricane killing 1000 Godzilla King of the Monsters debuts in Japan US-Japanese defense agreement
Laos: Independence
South Vietnam: Smallpox Start of Communist attempts to overtake country
Tibet: Flooding
Vietnam: Siege of Vietnam's fortress Dien Bien Phu
Geneva Conference divides North and South Vietnam set up with 17th parallel boundary with Vietminh French surrender at Dien Bien Phu
Europe
General: Eurovision network formed France and W Germany sign cultural and economic agreement
Concern in Europe and America about fallout and radioactive waste
France US USSR and Britain discuss future of Germany – USSR insists on division between east and west
Great Britain: Independent Television Authority established GPO tower in London designed Temple of Mithras excavated in London
Roger Bannister breaks 4 minute mile Gordon Richards becomes first professional jockey to be knighted Tornado hits Liverpool
Death of British philanthropist Seebohm Rowntree Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip begin Commonwealth tour
Greece: Disturbances in Cyprus and Greece over union
Italy: Absorbs Trieste as new territory - end of independence
Soviet Union: USSR Central Observatory near Leningrad opened Malenkov becomes Premier of USSR
Spain: Quake measures 7.9
Switzerland: Grock the musical clown retires
West Germany: Theodor Heuss elected President
Yugoslavia: Marshall Tito visits Greece and India
Middle East
Austria: Avalances in Alps kill
Iran: Flooding 3000 die in storm
Pacific
Marshall Islands: Exposure to high doses of radiation – cancer doses high by 1974
Entertainment: Gene Roddenberry is signed by Hollywood agent Top shows include The Jackie Gleason ShowToast of the Town with Ed Sullivan and at #1 I Love Lucy 19 million US homes have televisions
Artists include Bill Haley and The Comets, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra
Law: Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka Kansas rules segregation illegal
Military: Hydrogen bomb tested on Bikini Island Fort Detrick begins experimenting with hepatitis, plague, yellow fever, encephalitis,
Rift Valley Fever, rickettsia and microbes on Seventh Day Adventists CIA starts Projcet QKHILLTOP for brainwashing
News: 1768 newspapers in US
Politics: Roy Cohn resigns as Sen. Joseph McCarthy's chief counsel Senator Joseph R McCarthy continues anti-Communist activities culminating in televised hearing to prove infiltration into Army –
- formal censure and condemnation by Senate resolution follows "Under God" added to pledge
Eisenhower and Churchill meet in Washington and sign Potomac Charter
Science: Concern in Europe and America about fallout and radioactive waste
Robert Oppenheimer dismissed from government service and security clearance withdrawn
Sports: World Series first broadcast in color
Technology: US starts major domination of new technologies Revenue for television surpasses radio
US launches nuclear powered Nautilus
East
General: St. Lawrence Seaway project approved by Eisenhower Northeast United States hurricane
New York: Tap dancer Gregory Hines makes Broadway debut
Pennsylvania: Dr. Jonas Salk starts inocculations against polio in Pittsburg
Rhode Island: Newport hurricane First annual Jazz festival at Newport
Midwest
Illinois: World Council of Churches convened
Missouri: Philadelphia Athletics baseball moves to Kansas City