Entertainment: Russian Boria Pasternak publishes Doctor Zhivago "I Love Lucy" goes off the air,
Writers include Albert Camus, William Faulkner, Jack Kerouac (On The Road), Gore Vidal, Dr. Seuss (The Cat in the Hat),
Ayn Rand (Atlas Shrugged) Artists include Chagall, Le Corbusier Music includes Carl Orff, Stravinsky, Leonard Bernstein(West Side Story),
Meredith Willson (The Music Man), artists include Elvis Presley, Fats Domino, Jerry Lee Lewis, Patsy Cline, Harry Belafante The Miracle Worker broadcast on television Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story performed
Medicine: Asian flu pandemic kills 4 million worldwide
Politics: Internation Atomic Energy Agency established
Science: First satellite with Soviet's Sputnik Giberellin isolated Nobelium discovered
International Geophysical Year Crick proposes RNA and DNA functions
Deaths: Christian Dior, Diego Rivera, John Sibelius, Arturo Toscanini, The Aga Khan,
Joseph McCarthy, Humphrey Bogart, Admiral Richard E Byrd
Africa
Egypt: UN's Jammarskjold visits Nasser - UN reopens Suez Canal to navigation
Ghana: Gold Coast becomes independent and changes name - first sub-Saharan country to do so
Americas
General: OAS (Central America) settles dispute between Nicaragua and Honduras
Bermuda: Eisenhower and Macmillan hold Bermuda conference
Cuba: Guerrilla activity under Castro against Batista
Mexico: Earthquake hits Mexico City
Asia
China: Premier Zhou Enlai survives assassination attempt aboard the Kashmir Princess jet
India: Smallpox in Calcutta
Malay: Becomes independent monarchy and renamed Malaysia
Mongolia: Quake
Europe
General: Treaty of Rome sets up EEC (European Economic Community) or Common Market
Great Britain: Anthony Eden resigns and Harold Macmillan becomes Prime Minister Queen Elizabeth visits Canada and the US and addresses UN General Assembly
Wolfenden Report on homosexuality and prostitution published in Britain, British bank interest rate raised
Regular London-Moscow air service started Britain explodes thermonuclear bomb in central Pacific
Sir Lawrence Olivier receives honorary doctorate from Oxford New Cambridge Modern History begins publication
Hungary: Death of Nicolaus von Horthy ex-regent of Hungary
Norway: Death of King Haakon VII of Norway – succeeded by son Olaf V
Soviet Union: Sputnik I sends signals and Sputnik II launched with Laika on board Chou En-lai visits Moscow
Gromyko becomes USSR Foreign Minister - Molotov Malenkov Spekilov and Zhukov sacked
Spain: Franco announces Spanish monarchy will be restored on his death
West Germany: Saarland annexed by Germany
Middle East
General: Fort Salmanassar in Nimrud-Kalash excavated
President Eisenhower formulates "Eisenhower Doctrine" for protection of Middle Eastern nations from Communist aggression
Israel: Israeli forces withdraw from Sinai Peninsula and hand over Gaza strip to UN forces US resumes aid to Israel
Business: Teamsters Union expelled from AFL-CIO when Jimmy Hoffa refuses to expel criminals and union refuses to expel Hoffa
Crime: Arrest of Ed Gein – serial killer who had severed heads as bedposts, skin lampshades skullcap soup bouls, human heart, face mask of skin, lips necklace, mammary vest made of vaginas and breasts, and a nipple belt – some he dug up
Culture: Jack Kerouac publishes On the Road revving up Beatnik culture
"Beat" and "beatnik" take hold to describe "Beat Generation" described in Kerouac's "On The Road"
Entertainment: Bridge on the River Kwai debuts Leave it to Beaver premieres
Charles Van Doren wins $129 million on "Twenty One"
Law: Civil Rights Act passed
Medicine: McGill University uses LSD studies for depression – gave electroshocks while on LSD
Sports: Mickey Mantle wins American League All-Star sixth year in a row Bobby Fischer age 13 becomes world chess champion
Transportation: Major John Glenn sets speed record in jet
East
Maryland: Reports of a goatman
Massachusetts: Dust devil lifts children into the air
Pennsylvania: Childrens Hospital in Philadelphia experiments on children from 3-11 removing blood and restraining children
Midwest
Illinois: East St. Louis receives 16.5 inches of rain in 24 hours
Iowa: Cancelled check from Kansas City found in Ottumwa, IA (200 mi) after tornado