Timeline 1953
Return to home
1953 Jan 1,
Country singer Hank Williams Sr. (29) died of a drug and alcohol
overdose while enroute to a concert date in Canton, Ohio. In 1998
Mercury Records released "The Complete Hank Williams," with 225
recordings.
(AP, 1/1/98)(WSJ, 10/30/98, p.W9A)
1953 Jan 3, Frances Bolton and her
son, Oliver from Ohio, became the first mother-son combination to serve
at the same time in the United States Congress.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1953 Jan 6, Jazz trumpeter Dizzy
Gillespie threw a party for his wife Lorraine at Snookie’s in
Manhattan. His trumpet’s bell was bent upward in an accident, but he
liked the sound and had a special trumpet made with a raised bell.
(SFEC, 7/27/97, DB p.34)
1953 Jan 7, President Truman
announced in his State of the Union address that the United States had
developed a hydrogen bomb.
(AP, 1/7/98)
1953 Jan 8, An FBI report prepared
for the attorney general said that Ethel Rosenberg was "cognizant" of
her husband’s activity, though "uncooperative." A 1997 revelation by a
retired KGB officer stated that Julius helped to organize a spy ring
but wasn’t directly involved in stealing atomic secrets and that his
wife was not a spy.
(WSJ, 10/18/96, p.A15)(WSJ, 3/17/97, p.A1)
1953 Jan 14, Josip Broz Tito was
elected president of Yugoslavia by the country’s Parliament.
(AP, 1/14/98)
1953 Jan 15, The First Asian
Socialist Conference agreed on alliances with the West and land for the
peasants.
(HN, 1/15/99)
1953 Jan 17, GM introduced the
first American sports car, the two-seater Corvette at the annual NYC
Motorama Show at the Waldorf-Astoria. It was not made available for
sale to the public until June 30th.
(http://tinyurl.com/fdjur)(http://auto.howstuffworks.com/1953-corvette.htm)
1953 Jan 17, In Egypt all
political parties were dissolved and banned.
(http://countrystudies.us/egypt/32.htm)
1953 Jan 20, In the US Dwight D.
Eisenhower was inaugurated as president. He succeeded Harry S. Truman.
TV coverage sent the event to 21 million sets.
(WUD, 1994, p.1685)(SFC, 1/17/03, p.E8)
1953 Jan 22, The Arthur Miller
drama "The Crucible" opened on Broadway. It was about the 1692 Salem
witch trials and dealt a blow to the McCarthy witch hunts.
(TL, 1988, p.114)(SFC, 8/1/97, p.C14)(AP, 1/22/98)
1953 Jan 24, [Karl R] Gerd von
Rundstedt (77), gen-field marshal (Normandy), died.
(MC, 1/24/02)
1953 Jan 28, J. Fred Muggs (the
chimp) joined NBC's "Today Show."
(MC, 1/28/02)
1953 Jan 30, President Dwight
Eisenhower announced that he would pull the Seventh Fleet out of
Formosa to permit the Nationalists to attack Communist China.
(HN, 1/30/99)
1953 Jan 31-1953 Feb 1, A powerful
storm breached sea dikes in the south of the Netherlands, killing more
than 1,800 people and cementing a deep resolve among the Dutch that
their ancient enemy, water, would never kill again. 307 people died in
eastern England.
(SSFC, 3/25/01,
p.C3)(www.metoffice.com/education/secondary/students/flood.html)
1953 Jan, Pres. Eisenhower
selected Charlie Wilson, the president of General Motors, as Secretary
of Defense. During his confirmation hearing Wilson made his famous
statement: “…what was good for our country was good for General Motors,
and vice versa.”
(SSFC, 1/7/07, p.E6)
1953 Jan, Sen. Wayne Morse of
Oregon left the Republican Party to protest its domination by
conservatives. He continued to vote for a GOP majority leader to honor
his election as a Republican.
(WSJ, 5/25/01, p.A14)
1953 Jan, In Russia leaders of the
alleged Jewish "Doctor’s Plot" were arrested. They were accused of
conspiring to murder the Soviet leadership. In 2003 Jonathan Brent and
Vladimir P. Naumov authored "Stalin's Last Crime: The Plot Against the
Jewish Doctors."
(WSJ, 5/8/01, p.A24)(Econ, 7/26/03, p.78)
1953 Feb 1, CBS-TV debuted
"Private Secretary", starring Ann Sothern, on this day. Ann played
Susie McNamera, private secretary to NY talent agent, Peter Sands
(played by Don Porter). The show ran during the regular TV seasons on
CBS, and last show was September 10, 1957. It ran on NBC-TV in the
summers of 1953 and 1954.
(SFC, 2/21/97, p.A26)(440 Int'l, 2/1/1999)
1953 Feb 1, "You Are There" with
Walter Cronkite premiered on CBS television.
(MC, 2/1/02)
1953 Feb 3, J. Fred Muggs, a
chimp, became a regular on NBC's Today Show.
(MC, 2/3/02)
1953 Feb 5, "Peter Pan" by Walt
Disney opened at Roxy Theater, NYC. [see Feb 11]
(MC, 2/5/02)
1953 Feb 6, US controls on wages
and some consumer goods were lifted.
(MC, 2/6/02)
1953 Feb 8, Mary Steenburgen,
actress (Parenthood, Time After Time), was born in Newport, Ark.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1953 Feb 9, "Adventures of
Superman" TV series premiered in syndication.
(MC, 2/9/02)
1953 Feb 9, General Walter Bedell
Smith, USA, ended term as 4th director of CIA. Allen W. Dulles, became
acting director of CIA and served to 1961.
(MC, 2/9/02)(SFC, 5/29/97, p.A4)
1953 Feb 9, The French destroyed
six Viet Minh war factories hidden in the jungles of Vietnam.
(HN, 2/9/97)
1953 Feb 11, Walt Disney’s "Peter
Pan" premiered. [See Feb 5]
(HN, 2/11/97)
1953 Feb 11, President Eisenhower
refused a clemency appeal for Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.
(MC, 2/11/02)
1953 Feb 12, An explosion at the
Hercules Powder Co. near Pinole, Ca., killed 12 employees.
(SFC, 11/21/03, p.E4)
1953 Feb 12, The Soviets broke off
diplomatic relations with Israel after the bombing of Soviet legation.
(HN, 2/12/97)
1953 Feb 13, Pope Pius XII asked
the U.S. to grant clemency to convicted spies Ethel and Julius
Rosenberg.
(HN, 2/13/98)
1953 Feb 15, Tenley Albright (b.
June 18, 1935) became the first American to win the women’s world
figure skating championship at a competition in Davos, Switzerland.
(Internet)
1953 Feb 17, Baseball star and
pilot Ted Williams was uninjured as his plane was shot down in Korea.
(MC, 2/17/02)
1953 Feb 18, "Bwana Devil," the
movie that heralded the 3D fad of the 1950s, opened in New York City.
(AP, 2/18/98)
1953 Feb 19, William Inge's
"Picnic," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 2/19/02)
1953 Feb 19, Georgia approved the
1st US literature censorship board.
(MC, 2/19/02)
1953 Feb 20, Riccardo Chailly,
conductor (West Berlin Symph Orch), was born in Milan, Italy.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1953 Feb 20, US Court of Appeals
ruled that Organized Baseball is a sport & not a business,
affirming the 25-year-old Supreme Court ruling.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1953 Feb 24, Karl R.G. von
Rundstedt (77), German general and field marshal at Ardennes, died.
(MC, 2/24/02)
1953 Feb 25, General de Gaulle
condemned the European Defense Community.
(HN, 2/25/98)
1953 Feb 26, Allen W. Dulles was
promoted from deputy to 5th director of CIA.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1953 Feb 27, F-84 Thunderjets
raided North Korean base on Yalu River. A year after leaving West
Point, Lt. Joe Kingston was en route to Korea, where he, like a lot of
others, found himself retreating and advancing in a single day.
(HN, 2/27/98)
1953 Feb 28, Francis Crick
(d.2004) and James Watson discovered the structure of DNA-molecule.
Watson and Crick managed to describe the structure of DNA as a double
helix consisting of two long strings coiled around one another. About
100,000 genes, short sections of DNA, tell the cells how to build
proteins, the building blocks of life. Rosalind Franklin made the 1st
x-ray image that revealed the double helix structure of DNA. In 2002
Brenda Maddox authored "Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA." In
2003 Watson co-authored "DNA: The Secret of Life." [see Apr 25,
Sep 20, 1953]
(V.D.-H.K.p.330)(TL, 1988, p.114)(Wired, 1/97,
p.161)(SSFC, 11/10/02, p.M2)(WSJ, 3/28/03, p.W8)(AP, 2/28/04)
1953 Feb 28, Greece, Turkey and
Yugoslavia signed a 5-year defense pact in Ankara.
(HN, 2/28/98)
1953 Feb 28, Stalin met with
Beria, Bulganin, Khrushchev and Malenkov.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1953 Mar 3, Canadian Comet crashed
at Karachi, 11 killed.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1953 Mar 5, Russian Premier Joseph
Stalin died at age 73 after 29 years in power. After his death the
Chechens were allowed to return home. In 1973 Prof. Adam B. Ulam of
Harvard Univ. authored "Stalin: The Man and His Era." In 2003 Simon
Sebag Montefiore authored "Stalin : The court of the Red Tsar." In 2004
Robert Service authored “Stalin: A Biography.”
(AP, 3/5/98)(SFC, 4/1/00, p.A26)(Econ, 7/26/03,
p.78)(Econ, 1/8/05, p.74)
1953 Mar 5, Sergei Prokofiev (61),
Russian composer (Peter and the wolf), died in Moscow.
(AP, 3/5/04)
1953 Mar 6, Georgi Malenkov
(b.1902) took over as premier of the USSR. Leadership was actually in
the hands of a collective presidium that included Lavrenti P. Beria
(b.1899), Vyacheslav Molotov (b.1890), Nikolai A. Bulganin (b.1895) and
Lazar M. Kaganovich (b.1893).
(HN, 3/6/98)(WUD, 1994, p.1684)
1953 Mar 8, Census indicated
239,000 farmers gave up farming in last 2 years.
(MC, 3/8/02)
1953 Mar 9, U.S. vs. Reynolds was
a landmark ruling that formally established the government's "state
secrets" privilege, a privilege that has enabled federal agencies to
conceal conduct, withhold documents and block troublesome civil
litigation, including suits by whistle-blowers and possible victims of
discrimination. It provided a fundamental basis for much of the Bush
administration's response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, including
the USA Patriot Act and the handling of terrorist suspects. [See Oct 6,
1948]
(LAT, 4/18/04)
1953 Mar 9, Josef Stalin was
buried in Moscow.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1953 Mar 10, North Korean gunners
at Wonsan fired on the USS Missouri, the ship responds by firing 998
rounds at the enemy position.
(HN, 3/10/99)
1953 Mar 10, Charles Gordon Curtis
(92), inventor (Curtis-steam turbine), died.
(MC, 3/10/02)
1953 Mar 11, F.M. Adams became the
1st US commissioned woman army doctor.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1953 Mar 11, An American B-47
accidentally dropped a nuclear bomb on South Carolina, however the bomb
did not go off due to 6 safety catches.
(HN, 3/11/98)(MC, 3/11/02)
1953 Mar 18, Margaret L.
Augustine, project manager for Biosphere 2, was born in Buffalo, NY.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1953 Mar 18, The Braves baseball
team announced that they were moving from Boston to Milwaukee.
(HN, 3/18/98)
1953 Mar 19, Tennessee Williams'
"Camino Real," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1953 Mar 19, The Academy Awards
ceremony was televised for the first time; "The Greatest Show on Earth"
was named best picture of 1952. Gary Cooper & Shirley Booth won for
best actor and actress.
(AP, 3/19/99)
1953 Mar
20, In the Soviet Union Nikita Khrushchev became the head of a five-man
group called the Secretariat, although for all intents and purposes, he
is in a leadership role that will gradually push Malenkov aside. In
September Khrushchev was officially given the title of First Secretary
of the Communist Party.
(www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=2612)(WP,
3/21/53, p.3)
1953 Mar 23, Raoul Dufy, French
fauve painter, died.
(WSJ, 5/4/99, p.A20)(MC, 3/23/02)
1953 Mar 24, Mary (85), queen of
Great Britain and North Ireland, died.
(MC, 3/24/02)
1953 Mar 25, The USS Missouri
fired on targets at Kojo, North Korea, the last time her guns fire
until the Persian Gulf War of 1992.
(HN, 3/25/99)
1953 Mar 26, Eisenhower offered
increased aid in Vietnam to France.
(HN, 3/25/98)
1953 Mar 26, Dr. Jonas Salk of the
University of Pittsburgh announced that a vaccine against polio had
been successfully tested in a small group of adults and children. By
April 1955, the vaccine had undergone further testing and gained
federal approval for public use. Salk’s polio vaccine was so successful
that by 1961 the incidence of polio had decreased by 95 percent. Dr.
Joseph Melnick (d.2001 at 86) was among the first to have discovered
that the polio virus belonged to the larger enterovirus group and were
chiefly transmitted by fecal contamination.
(HNPD, 3/26/99)(SFC, 1/23/01, p.C2)
1953 Mar 27, Charles Bohlen was
named the U.S. ambassador to the USSR
(HN, 3/27/98)
1953 Mar 28, In the 7th Tony
Awards: Crucible and Wonderful Town won.
(MC, 3/28/02)
1953 Mar 28, Jim Thorpe (b.1887),
native American decathlon athlete (Olympics-gold-1912), died in Lomita,
California.
(AP,
3/28/02)(www.reference.com/browse/wiki/Jim_Thorpe)
1953 Mar 30, Einstein announced a
revised unified field theory.
(MC, 3/30/02)
1953 Mar 31, Department of Health,
Education and Welfare was established.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1953 Mar 31, UN Security Council
nominated Dag Hammarskjöld secretary-general.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1953 Mar, The US CIA’s Tehran
station reported that an Iranian general had approached the US embassy
for support in an army-led coup. Based on this information Allen
Dulles, director of the CIA, approved $1 million to be used to help
bring about the fall of Prime Minister Mossadegh.
(SFEC, 4/16/00, p.A18)
1953 Apr 1, Barry Sonnenfeld,
director (When Harry Met Sally, Big), was born.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1953 Apr 2, Jean Epstein (56),
French director (Vive la Vie), died.
(MC, 4/2/02)
1953 Apr 3, Walter Annenberg of
Philadelphia began a national TV Guide. His father had published Radio
Guide and he bought TV Forecast in Chicago and local television guides
in New York , Philadelphia and Washington to begin his operation. A
picture of the first cover featured Lucy and Desi Arnaz’ baby (I Love
Lucy).
(www.tvhistory.tv/tv_guide1.htm)(WSJ, 5/8/98,
p.W10)(www.fiftiesweb.com/pop/tv-guide.htm)
1953 Apr 7, The U.N. General
Assembly elected Dag Hammarskjöld (1905-1961) as Secretary-General
of the UN.
(WUD, 1994, p.1684)(AP, 4/7/97)
1953 Apr 8, A Federal Grand Jury
in SF indicted Hugh Bryson, pres. of the National Union of Marine Cooks
and Stewards, on charges that he falsely claimed that he was not a
communist in a Taft-Hartley affidavit.
(SFC, 4/4/03, p.E6)
1953 Apr 8, Jomo Kenyatta
(1891-1978), one of modern Africa's earliest nationalist leaders, was
convicted by Kenya's British rulers for leading the Mau Mau Rebellion
against the white settlers of his country. Along with five other Mau
Mau leaders, he was subsequently sentenced to seven years' hard labor.
(MC, 4/8/02)
1953 Apr 10, The first 3-D horror
movie "House of Wax," produced by Warner Bros. and starring Vincent
Price, premiered in New York City. It was directed by Andre de Toth
(d.2002 at 89).
(AP, 4/9/97)(HN, 4/10/98)(SFC, 11/1/02, p.A28)
1953 Apr 11, Oveta Culp Hobby
became the first Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare. President
Dwight D. Eisenhower had named her head of the Federal Security Agency,
which, later that year, was elevated to a Cabinet position and renamed
the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, with Hobby becoming
its first Secretary on April 11. She held the Cabinet position until
1955. Hobby had led the War Department's Women's Interest
Section, served as Director of the Women's Army Corps during WWII and
was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal.
(AP, 4/11/97)(HNQ, 8/18/99)
1953 Apr 14, Viet Minh invaded
Laos with 40,00 troops in their war against French colonial forces.
(HN, 4/14/01)
1953 Apr 17, Mickey Mantle hit a
home run in Washington's Griffith Stadium off the Senator's Chuck
Stobbs that was entered in the Guinness Book of World Records as
measuring 565 feet. The distance was later said to have been padded.
(WSJ, 7/9/03, p.A1)
1953 Apr 20, Operation Little
Switch began in Korea, the exchange of sick and wounded prisoners of
war.
(HN, 4/20/99)
1953 Apr 24, British statesman
Winston Churchill was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham
Palace.
(AP, 4/24/97)(HN, 4/24/98)
1953 Apr 25, The magazine Nature
published an article by biologists Francis Crick and James Watson,
describing the "double helix" of DNA.
(HN, 4/25/01)
1953 Apr 26, In Korea two U.S. Air
Force B-29s dropped leaflets behind enemy lines, offering a $50,000
reward and political asylum to any pilot delivering an intact MiG-15 to
American forces for study.
(HNPD, 9/28/98)
1953 Apr 27, President Dwight D.
Eisenhower signed Executive Order 10450: Security Requirements for
Government Employment. The order listed "sexual perversion" as a
condition for firing a federal employee and for denying employment to
potential applicants. Homosexuality, moral perversion, and communism
were categorized as national security threats; the issue of homosexual
federal workers had become a dire federal personnel policy concern.
(http://tinyurl.com/3bblwc)
1953 Apr 28, French troops
evacuated northern Laos.
(HN, 4/28/98)
1953 Apr, In British Guyana Dr.
Cheddi B. Jagan was elected chief minister.
(SFC, 3/7/97, p.A24)
1953 May 2, Prince Hussein became
King Hussein (17) as he inherited the royal title from his father Talal.
(SFC, 1/23/99, p.A10)(SFC, 2/6/99, p.A13)
1953 May 4, Pulitzer prize was
awarded to E. Hemingway (Old Man & The Sea).
(MC, 5/4/02)
1953 May 7, "Can Can" opened at
Shubert Theater in NYC for 892 performances.
(MC, 5/7/02)
1953 May 11, An F5 tornado hit
downtown Waco, Texas, killing 114 people with 597 injured. Damages were
estimated at $200 million.
(SSFC, 5/11/03, Par p.11)(SFC, 5/11/09, p.D8)
1953 May 11, Winston Churchill
criticized the domino theory of John Foster Dulles.
(MC, 5/11/02)
1953 May 16, Django Reinhardt
(b.1910), Gypsy jazz guitarist, died in France. In 2004 Michael Dregni
authored “Django: The Life and Music of a Gypsy Legend.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Django_Reinhardt)(WSJ,
10/23/98, p.W12)
1953 May 18, Jacqueline Cochran
became the first woman to break the sound barrier as she piloted a
North American F-86 Canadair over Rogers Dry Lake, Calif.
(AP, 5/18/97)
1953 May 23, Schools 1st used
Cliff's Notes.
(MC, 5/23/02)
1953 May 25, Jane Priest, Prince
Charles' lover, was born in Perth, Australia.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1953 May 25, Rich Alves, singer
(Pirates of the Mississippi-Fred Jake), was born in Pleasanton,
CA.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1953 May 25, 1st non-commercial
educational television station began in Houston, TX.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1953 May 25, The first atomic
cannon was fired at Frenchman Flat, Nevada.
(HN, 5/25/98)(SC, 5/25/02)
1953 May 28, Arto Lindsay, rocker,
actor (Cookie, Desperately Seeking Susan), was born.
(www.nndb.com/people/787/000041664/)
1953 May 28, Premier of first
animated 3-D cartoon in Technicolor, "Melody".
(HN, 5/28/98)
1953 May 29, Danny Elfman,
composer (Simpson Show Theme), was born in Los Angeles, CA.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1953 May 29, Rick Henderson,
singer (Mason Dixon-Karen Comes Around), was born in Beaumont, TX.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1953 May 29, Mount Everest was
conquered as Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tensing Norgay, A Sherpa
of Nepal, became the first climbers to reach the summit. The expedition
was led by John Hunt (d.1998 at 88). Tenzing Norgay later authored the
autobiography "Man of Everest."
(AP, 5/29/97)(SFEC, 6/1/97, p.T5)(HN, 5/29/98)(SFEC,
11/8/98, p.A23)(WSJ, 6/4/01, p.A20)
1953 May 31, V.I. Tatlin (b.1885),
Ukrainian-born painter and sculptor, died in Moscow.
(www.artnet.com/library/08/0834/T083448.asp)
1953 Jun 2, Queen Elizabeth II of
Britain was crowned in Westminster Abbey, 16 months after the death of
her father, King George VI.
(TMC, 1994, p.1953)(WUD, 1994, p.1684)(AP, 6/2/97)
1953 Jun 4, An atomic bomb test
explosion took place at Yucca Flats, Nevada, equivalent to 50,000 tons
of TNT. This was double the 1945 blast over Hiroshima.
(SFC, 5/30/03, p.E7)
1953 Jun 4, North Koreans accepted
U.N. proposals in all major respects.
(HN, 6/4/98)
1953 Jun 7, Pres. Eisenhower
announced that proposals for a Korean truce are acceptable to the US
and appealed to South Korea to accept terms to stop the war.
(SFC, 6/6/03, p.E2)
1953 Jun 7, The 1st color network
telecast in compatible color was in Boston, Mass.
(SC, 6/7/02)
1953 Jun 8, The Supreme Court
ruled that restaurants in Washington, D.C. could not refuse to serve
blacks.
(AP, 6/8/97)(HN, 6/8/98)
1953 Jun 8, A killer tornado hit
Flint, Mich. It killed 116 people and injured more than 850 in Ohio and
Michigan.
(SSFC, 5/11/03, Par p.A11)(Hartford Courant, 6/9/63,
p.23A)
1953 Jun 9, About 100 people died
when a tornado struck Worcester, Mass. The tornado from the Midwest
roared into Massachusetts. By the time it left, 94 people were dead,
and more than $58 million in property damage occurred. It was the worst
tornado in New England history.
(AP, 6/9/97)(http://tinyurl.com/yg8dhcd)
1953 Jun 10, John R. Edwards, US
Senator, was born Seneca, South Carolina. In 2004 he ran as a Democrat
presidential candidate and then agreed to run for the vice-presidency
under Sen. John Kerry.
(SSFC, 2/29/04, p.D2)(SFC, 7/7/04, p.A9)
1953 Jun 17, Supreme Court Justice
William O. Douglas stayed the executions of spies Julius & Ethel
Rosenberg scheduled for next day, their 14th wedding anniversary. They
were put to death June 19.
(MC, 6/17/02)(AP, 6/17/03)
1953 Jun 17, The East Germans
threw stones at Russian tanks and were quickly subjugated. Eric
Honecker threatened demonstrators with a "Peking Solution." Soviet
tanks fought thousands of Berlin workers rioting against the East
German government.
(TMC, 1994, p.1953)(WSJ, 10/18/96, p.A13)(HN,
6/17/98)
1953 Jun 18, Egypt was declared a
republic, and the monarchy was abolished, ending the rule of Muhammad
Ali's dynasty. Naguib became the first president and also prime
minister. Nasser became deputy prime minister and minister of interior.
(http://countrystudies.us/egypt/32.htm)
1953 Jun 19, Julius (b.5/12/1918)
and Ethel Rosenberg (b.9/28/1915), convicted of passing U.S. atomic
secrets to the Soviet Union during World War II, were executed at Sing
Sing Prison in Ossining, New York. The Supreme Court had vacated a stay
granted by Justice William O. Douglas and President Eisenhower refused
to intervene, despite a massive worldwide campaign to free them. In
1983 Ronald Radosh and Joyce Milton authored “The Rosenberg File.” In
2001 Sam Roberts authored “The Brother,” an account of David
Greenglass, the younger brother of Ethel Rosenberg and star witness
against her and Julius. In 2008 Morton Sobell (91), a former Soviet spy
who had spent nearly 20 years in Alcatraz, fingered Julius Rosenberg as
a fellow Soviet spy, but not Ethel.
(TL, 1988, p.114)(BEP, 1994)(WSJ, 10/1/01,
p.A22)(WSJ, 9/25/08, p.A19)
1953 Jun 19, Egypt was proclaimed
a republic. Lieutenant Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser became premier.
(WUD, 1994, p.1685)
1953 Jun 24, John F. Kennedy and
Jacqueline Bouvier announced their engagement.
(HN, 6/24/98)
1953 Jun 24, The 6th annual World
Trade Fair opened in San Francisco at the Palace Hotel with products
imported from 21 nations.
(SFC, 6/20/03, p.E2)
1953 Jun 26, Lavrenti Beria,
Russian vice-premier, interior minister, intelligence chief, was
arrested. [see Jul 10]
(MC, 6/26/02)
1953 Jun 27, Alice McDermott,
writer (That Night, At Weddings and Wakes), was born.
(HN, 6/27/01)
1953 Jun 30, The first Corvette
rolled off the Chevrolet assembly line in Flint, MI. The brainchild of
designer Harvey J. Earl sold for $3,250. GM made 300 Corvettes in 1953
and moved production to St. Louis for 1954.
(http://auto.howstuffworks.com/1953-corvette.htm)(WSJ, 7/12/02, p.W12)
1953 Jun, In response to
Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy‘s tactics against alleged Communists
and un-American activities, Republican President Eisenhower spoke out
against "book burners" in June 1953 and "demagogues thirsty for
personal power and public notice" in May 1954. Eisenhower also asserted
the right of everybody to meet his "accuser face to face." [see Nov 23]
(HNQ, 6/18/98)(HNQ, 11/2/99)
1953 Jul 4, Imre Nagy succeeded
Matyas Rkosi as premier of Hungary.
(Maggio)
1953 Jul 8, Anna Quindlen,
novelist, was born.
(HN, 7/8/01)
1953 Jul 9, The 1st helicopter
passenger service began in NYC.
(MC, 7/9/02)
1953 Jul 10, American forces
withdrew from Pork Chop Hill in Korea after heavy fighting.
(HN, 7/10/98)
1953 Jul 10, In San Francisco The
Chronicle newspaper began calling itself “The Voice of the West” on its
editorial pages. It adopted the name for Page One on August 9, 1953.
(SSFC, 6/7/09, p.W3)
1953 Jul 10, Pravda reported that
Lavrenti P. Beria, Stalin's ruthless chief of intelligence and member
of the Soviet Presidium (1899-1953), had been ousted and arrested. [see
Jun 26]
(WUD, 1994, p.1685)(MC, 7/10/02)
1953 Jul 11, Leon Spinks, world
heavyweight boxing champ (1978) , was born.
(PGA, 12/9/98)
1953 Jul 11, "Amos 'n Andy," TV
Comedy, also radio from '29; last aired on CBS.
(MC, 7/11/02)
1953 Jul 13, The 1st Shakespeare
Festival in Stratford, Ontario, organized by Tom Patterson, opened with
Alec Guiness in Richard III.
(WSJ, 7/18/02, p.D10)
1953 Jul 14, The freighter Jacob
Luckenbach from SF rammed the Matson freighter Hawaiian Pilot near
Point Montara, 17 miles from the Golden Gate. The Luckenbach sank while
the Hawaiian Pilot limped to SF. Oil leaked from the Luckenback later
killed numerous birds. In 2002 a $3.5 million plan for cleanup was
begun. A $19 million cleanup ended in Sep.
(Ind, 3/31/01, 5A)(SFC, 2/5/02, p.A15)(SFC, 5/8/02,
p.A22)(SFC, 10/1/02, p.A13)
1953 Jul 14, There was a Communist
offensive in Korea.
(MC, 7/14/02)
1953 Jul 15, Jean-Bertrand
Aristide, president of Haiti (1991, 1994-1995 ), was born.
(MC, 7/15/02)
1953 Jul 16, Joseph Hilaire Pierre
Belloc (82), author (Path to Rome), died.
(MC, 7/16/02)
1953 Jul 17, Pres.
Eisenhower proclaimed Captive Nations Week following US Senate
resolution on July 6 and US House resolution on July 8. It aimed at
raising public awareness of the oppression of nations under the control
of Communist and other non-democratic governments. It became public law
in 1959.
(www.jstor.org/pss/2195306)
1953 Jul 20, USSR and Israel
recovered diplomatic relations.
(MC, 7/20/02)
1953 Jul 25, A truce ended the
Korean War. S.L.A. Marshall later authored "The River and the
Gauntlet," a description of the slaughter the war brought to both
sides. Clay Blair later authored "Forgotten War," and Roy Appelman
wrote "East of Chosin" and "Disaster in Korea."
(SFEC, 5/16/99, Z1 p.4)(WSJ, 8/6/99, p.W7)
1953 Jul 25, NYC transit fare rose
from 10 to 15 cents and 1st use of subway tokens began.
(SC, 7/25/02)
1953 Jul 26, A band of
anti-Batistas revolted against Pres. Fulgencio Batista with an
unsuccessful attack on the Moncada army barracks in eastern Cuba.
Castro was among the moncadistas and ousted Batista six years later.
Castro was imprisoned on the Isle of Pines after the attack at Moncada.
(AP, 7/26/97)(SFEC, 8/23/98, BR p.5)(WSJ, 7/10/02,
p.D8)
1953 Jul 27, An
armistice ending fighting in the three-year Korean War was signed by
representatives of the United Nations, Korea and China in Panmunjom.
Lt. Gen. William K. Harrison represented the UN and Gen. Nam Il
represented North Korea. General Mark Clark, commander of the UN
forces, added his signature to the armistice agreement. Armistice
negotiations had begun in July 1951, when the outlook for reunifying
North and South Korea became bleak, and fighting continued. The
cease-fire provided for an exchange of prisoners of war and established
a 2 ½ mile wide demilitarized zone and a demarcation line at the
38th parallel. Not all aspects of the agreement, however, were
finalized—the UN Commission for the Unification and Rehabilitation of
Korea was not suspended until 1977. N. Korea measures 46,540 sq. miles,
its population in 1974 was ~15 million people. 33,651 Americans had
died and 8,000 were still missing in 2000.
(NG, 8/74, p.255)(TMC, 1994, p.1953)(WSJ, 6/24/96,
C1)(WUD, 1994, p.1685)(HNPD, 7/27/98)(HN, 7/27/98)(SFEC, 5/9/99,
p.T10)(SFEC, 6/25/00, Par p.5)(SFC, 7/25/03, p.E6)
1953 Jul 27, Vatican disallowed
priests holiday work in factories.
(MC, 7/27/02)
1953 Jul 29, Ken Burns, epic
documentary maker (Civil War, Baseball), was born.
(MC, 7/29/02)
1953 Jul 31, Sen. Robert A. Taft
of Ohio (63), known as "Mr. Republican," died in New York. His
successor was named by a Democratic governor.
(AP, 7/31/97)(WSJ, 5/25/01, p.A14)
1953 Aug 1, Fidel Castro was
arrested in Cuba. [see Jul 26]
(MC, 8/1/02)
1953 Aug 3, Ian Bairnson,
guitarist (Alan Parsons Project, Pilot), was born in Shetland Isles,
Scotland.
(SC, 8/3/02)
1953 Aug 3, Pres. Eisenhower
created the US Information Agency to communicate with foreign nations
and counter Soviet propaganda. "The USIA explains and supports American
foreign policy and promotes US national interests through a wide range
of overseas information programs." Theodore Streibert served as its
first director. The agency was dissolved in 1999. In 2008 Nicholas J.
Cull authored “The Cold War and the United States Information Agency.”
(WSJ, 7/23/08,
p.A13)(http://dosfan.lib.uic.edu/usia/abtusia/commins.pdf)
1953 Aug 3, Frank Blair became the
news anchor of the Today Show.
(SC, 8/3/02)
1953 Aug 4, Black families moved
into the Trumbull Park housing project in Chicago.
(MC, 8/4/02)
1953 Aug 5, Operation "Big Switch"
was under way as prisoners taken during the Korean conflict were
exchanged at Panmunjom.
(AP, 8/5/03)
1953 Aug 7, Eastern Airlines
entered the jet age with the Electra prop-jet.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1953 Aug 8, The song “Vaya con
Dios” recorded by Les Paul and his wife Mary Ford reached number one on
the Billboard magazine Best Seller Chart and stayed there for 9 weeks.
(SFC, 8/14/09, p.D6)
1953 Aug 8, The United States and
South Korea initialed a mutual security pact.
(AP, 8/8/99)
1953 Aug 8, In Russia Georgi
Malenkov reported the possession of hydrogen bomb.
(MC, 8/8/02)
1953 Aug 12, Ann Davidson, the 1st
woman to sail solo across Atlantic, arrived Miami.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1953 Aug 12, The Soviet Union
conducted a secret test of its first hydrogen bomb.
(TL, 1988, p.114)(TMC, 1994, p.1953)(AP, 8/12/97)
1953 Aug 13, 4-5 million French
went on strike against economizations.
(MC, 8/13/02)
1953 Aug 16, Shah Pahlavi of
Persia and princess Soraya fled to Baghdad and then Rome.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1953 Aug 17, Kevin Rowlands,
rocker (Dexy's Midnight Runners-Come on Eileen), was born.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1953 Aug 19, Gen'l. Zahedi ousted
PM Mossadegh and became the Premier of Iran in a bloody coup that left
300 dead. Britain and the US CIA under Allen Dulles planned a secret
mission to overthrow the government. PM Mossadeq had sought to
nationalize the Anglo-Persian Oil Co. The US government made a formal
apology for the coup in 2000. A 1954 CIA description of the coup was
made public in 2000. In 1979 Kermit Roosevelt (d.2000) published
“Countercoup: The Struggle for the Control of Iran,” an account of his
role in the coup.
(SFC, 11/20/53, p.A1)(SFC, 11/15/99, p.E6)(SFC,
5/29/97, p.A4)(WSJ, 3/20/00, p.A1)(SFEC, 4/16/00, p.A18)(SFEC, 6/11/00,
p.D6)(WSJ, 4/2/07, p.A6)
1953 Aug 20, The Soviet Union
publicly acknowledged it had tested a hydrogen bomb.
(AP, 8/20/97)
1953 Aug 21, Joe Strummer [John
Mellor], rocker (Clash-Rock the Casbah), was born.
(SC, 8/21/02)
1953 Aug 21, Marion Carl in
Douglas Skyrocket reached a record 25,370 m.
(SC, 8/21/02)
1953 Aug 22, France closed the
penal colony on Devil's Island.
(MC, 8/22/02)
1953 Aug 22, Shah of Persia
returned to Teheran.
(MC, 8/22/02)
1953 Aug 30, The first
publicly announced experimental TV broadcast of a network program in
compatible color was presented by NBC: St. George and the Dragon,
starring Burr Tillstrom's Kukla, Fran and Ollie.
(http://kukla.tv/colortest.html)
1953 Aug, Canadian officials took
34 Inuit from Port Harrison (later known as Inukjuak) in Hudson Bay and
put them on a boat north. One month and 1,390 miles later, the group
was split in two and deposited on two remote islands, Resolute Bay and
Grise Fiord. The Inuit later said the government used them to assert
Canadian sovereignty in the Arctic at a time when Ottawa was worried
about excessive US influence in the region.
(Reuters, 4/20/06)
1953 Sep 5, The 1st privately
operated atomic reactor opened in Raleigh NC.
(MC, 9/5/01)
1953 Sep 5, US gave Persian
premier Zahedi $45 million aid.
(MC, 9/5/01)
1953 Sep 6, The last American and
Korean prisoners were exchanged in Operation Big Switch, the last
official act of the Korean War.
(HN, 9/6/98)
1953 Sep 6, Adenauer's CDU won
elections in German FR.
(MC, 9/6/01)
1953 Sep 12, Senator John
Fitzgerald Kennedy (36) of Massachusetts married Jacqueline Lee Bouvier
(24).
(AP, 9/12/03)
1953 Sep 12, Nikita Khrushchev
became the 1st Secretary of USSR Communist Party. His glass and marble
Palace of Congresses obliterated the last vestiges of the 17th century
palace of Tsarina Natalie Kirilovna Naryshkina, the mother of Peter the
Great. [see Sep 13]
(MC, 9/12/01)(AM, Jul/Aug ‘97 p.33)
1953 Sep 13, Nikita Khrushchev
(b.1894) was elected First Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party’s
Central Committee. [see Sep 12]
(WUD, 1994, p.1685)
1953 Sep 15, Eric Mendelsohn
(b.1887), German-born Jewish expressionist architect, died. From 1941
he lived in the US and established himself in San Francisco. The
Russell at 3778 Washington St. in SF is the only house he designed in
SF.
(SSFC, 3/8/09, p.B2)
1953 Sep 16, "The Robe," the first
movie filmed in the widescreen process CinemaScope, had its world
premiere at the Roxy Theater in New York.
(AP, 9/16/98)
1953 Sep 17, The 1st successful
separation of Siamese twins was performed.
(MC, 9/17/01)
1953 Sep 20, Jimmy Stewart debuted
in "The Six Shooter" on NBC.
(MC, 9/20/01)
1953 Sep 20, The "Loretta Young
Show" (A Letter to Loretta) premiered on NBC TV and ran for 8 years.
(SFEC, 8/13/00, p.B10)
1953 Sep 21, North Korean pilot
Lieutenant Ro Kim Suk landed his aircraft at Kimpo airfield outside
Seoul. Although Ro denied any knowledge of the bounty, he collected the
reward, and American scientists were able to examine the MiG-15. The
Soviet Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15, powered by a jet engine superior to
those then used in American fighter planes, first saw combat in Korea
during November 1950, where its performance shifted the balance of air
power to Russian-backed North Korea.
(HNPD, 9/28/98)
1953 Sep 22, An Islamic uprising
took place in Atjeh, Indonesia.
(MC, 9/22/01)
1953 Sep 23, The 20th-Century Fox
film "The Robe," the first movie filmed in the CinemaScope widescreen
process, premiered in Hollywood, a week after opening in New York.
(AP, 9/23/03)
1953 Sep 26, US and Spain signed a
defense treaty with 4 US bases to be set in Spain .
(MC, 9/26/01)
1953 Sep 26, Polish government
fired and imprisoned Cardinal Wyszynski.
(MC, 9/26/01)
1953 Sep 27, A typhoon destroyed
1/3 of Nagoya, Japan.
(MC, 9/27/01)
1953 Sep 28, The "Bob & Ray
Show," TV Variety, last aired on NBC.
(MC, 9/28/01)
1953 Sep 28, Edwin P. Hubble
(b.1889), astronomer, died at age 63. He discovered that the more
distant a galaxy seemed to be, the more its light was shifted toward
the lower frequencies. This is know as the Doppler redshift, named
after C.J. Doppler, an Austrian Physicist (1803-1853).
(WUB, 1995, p.426)(MC, 9/28/01)
1953 Sep 29, The family comedy
"Make Room for Daddy," starring Danny Thomas, premiered on ABC.
(AP, 9/29/03)
1953 Sep 30, Robert Anderson's
"Tea & Sympathy," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 9/30/01)
1953 Sep 30, Pres. Eisenhower
named California Gov. Earl Warren (62) as Chief Justice of the US
Supreme Court. Lt. Gov. Goodwin J. Knight succeeded Warren.
(SFC, 9/26/03, p.E8)
1953 Sep 30, Auguste and Jacques
Piccard dove with their bathosphere to a record 3150 m.
(MC, 9/30/01)
1953 Oct 2, Victor Borge (d.2000
at 91), musical humorist, opened his "Comedy in Music" at the Golden
Theater on Broadway. It ran for 849 performances .
(SSFC, 12/24/00, p.B5)
1953 Oct 3, Arnold Edward Trevor
Bax, British composer (Coronation March), died at 69.
(MC, 10/3/01)
1953 Oct 5, California Gov. Earl
Warren (1891-1974) was sworn in as the 14th chief justice of the United
States, succeeding Fred M. Vinson. He was named by Pres. Eisenhower as
chief justice of the US. Warren retired in 1969. In 2000 Lucas A. Powe,
Jr., authored "The Warren Court and American Politics."
(SFEC, 6/8/97, BR p.1)(AP,
10/5/97)(www.oyez.org/oyez/resource/legal_entity/88/)
1953 Oct 8, Birmingham, Alabama,
barred Jackie Robinson's Negro-White All-Stars from playing there.
Robinson gave in and dropped white players from his group.
(MC, 10/8/01)
1953 Oct 9, Conrad Adenauer was
elected West German chancellor.
(MC, 10/9/01)
1953 Oct 12, US and Greece signed
a peace treaty that included US bases.
(MC, 10/12/01)
1953 Oct 13, A burglar alarm using
ultrasonic or radio waves was patented by Samuel Bagno.
(MC, 10/13/01)
1953 Oct 14, Ike promised to fire
as communists any federal workers taking the 5th amendment.
(MC, 10/14/01)
1953 Oct 14, Ariel Sharon, who had
formed the elite Israeli commando unit "101" to fight Palestinian
guerrillas, led it in a raid against the Jordanian village of Qibya
killing some 70 civilians.
(SFC, 10/10/98, p.A8)(Econ, 12/16/06,
p.85)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qibya_massacre)
1953 Oct 15, John Patrick's
"Teahouse of the August Moon," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 10/15/01)
1953 Oct 16, Fidel Castro in
Havana was sentenced to 15 years.
(MC, 10/16/01)
1953 Oct 19, Singer Julius LaRosa,
a regular on the CBS program "Arthur Godfrey Time," was fired on the
air by Godfrey, who accused him of lacking humility.
(AP, 10/19/98)
1953 Oct 19, America's
first ever non-stop transcontinental service began with flights by
American Airlines using DC-7 aircraft.
(www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Commercial_Aviation/Opening_of_Jet_era/Tran6.htm)
1953 Oct 20, Edward R. Murrow on
his TV show “See It Now” brought public attention to the abuses of
power in the era of Sen. McCarthy’s anti-communist crusade. Milo
Radulovich (1926-2007), a US Air Force Reserve officer, had been
stripped of his commission for refusing to denounce his family, which
subscribed to several Serbian newspapers. His commission was later
restored. Murrow took up the case and set the turning point to
discredit McCarthyism.
(SFC, 11/26/07, p.D3)(Econ, 12/1/07, p.102)
1953 Oct 22, Laos gained full
independence from France. [see Oct 23]
(MC, 10/22/01)
1953 Oct 23, France granted
sovereignty to Laos. [see Oct 22]
(MC, 10/23/01)
1953 Oct 28, Red Barber resigned
as Dodger sportscaster to join Yankees.
(MC, 10/28/01)
1953 Oct 29, Harry Clement Stubbs
(d.2003), science fiction writer, authored "Mission of Gravity." It was
serialized in Astounding Science Fiction magazine.
(SFC, 11/1/03, p.A21)
1953 Oct 29, A British airliner
with 11 passengers and 8 crew crashed into Kings Mountain, 10 miles
west of Redwood City, Ca., and all aboard were killed. William Kapell
(b.1922), genius pianist, died in the crash. He was returning from a
tour in Australia when his airplane crashed into a mountain outside San
Francisco. A set of his 1944-1953 recordings was released in 1998 by
RCA. In 1999 BMG released "The William Kapell Edition," a nine-disk set.
(SFC, 10/24/03, p.E10)(SFEC, 11/29/98, DB p.44)(WSJ,
2/1/99, p.A19)(WSJ, 5/24/08, p.W12)
1953 Oct 30, Gen. George C.
Marshall (1880-1959) was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Dr. Albert
Schweitzer received his 1952 Peace Prize.
(AP, 10/30/97)
1953 Oct 31, Alice Eastwood (94),
curator of botany at the California Academy of Sciences in SF, died.
(SFC, 10/31/03, p.E2)
1953 Oct, In the US a landmark
antitrust complaint, filed against Morgan Stanley and 16 other
investment banking houses, was dismissed.
(WSJ, 10/9/97, p.A16)
1953 Oct, British troops in Guyana
deposed Dr. Jagan and charged that he and his party "were under the
complete control of a communist clique." Dr. Jagan responded with a
civil disobedience campaign and was quickly jailed for 6 months.
(SFC, 3/7/96, p.A24)
1953 Oct, Universal Children’s Day
was first observed in India. It was adopted by the UN General Assembly
in 1954. It became observed on different days in different ways in more
than 120 nations. In India, Children’s Day is celebrated on 14th
November, the birth anniversary of PM Jawaharlal Nehru.
(www.indianchild.com/childrens_day_india.htm)
1953 Nov 2, Pakistan became an
Islamic republic.
(MC, 11/2/01)
1953 Nov 4, Elizabeth Sprague
Coolidge (89), composer, died.
(MC, 11/4/01)
1953 Nov 8, Salazar's party won
all parliament seats in Portugal.
(MC, 11/8/01)
1953 Nov 9, The Supreme Court
upheld a 1922 ruling that major league baseball did not come within the
scope of federal antitrust laws. President Clinton later signed a bill
overturning the labor relations aspect of the antitrust exemption.
(AP, 11/9/03)
1953 Nov 9, Welsh author-poet
Dylan Thomas died in New York at age 39 during his poetry-reading blitz
of the US. In 1955 John Malcolm Brinnin (d.1998 at 81), the man who
brought Thomas to America, published "Dylan Thomas in America."
(SFEC, 5/25/97, p.T5)(AP, 11/9/97)(SFC, 6/29/98,
p.A19)
1953 Nov 11, The Polio virus was
identified and photographed for the first time in Cambridge,
Massachusetts.
(HN, 11/11/98)
1953 Nov 12, US district Judge
Grim ruled the NFL can black out TV home games.
(MC, 11/12/01)
1953 Nov 12, David Ben-Gurion,
resigned as premier of Israel.
(MC, 11/12/01)
1953 Nov 16, The US joined in the
condemnation of Israel for its raid on Jordan.
(HN, 11/16/98)
1953 Nov 19, US Supreme Court
rules (7-2) that baseball is a sport not a business.
(MC, 11/19/01)
1953 Nov 19, US VP Richard Nixon
visited Hanoi in Vietnam.
(MC, 11/19/01)
1953 Nov 20, Scott Crossfield
(1921-2006), test pilot for the National Advisory Committee for
Aeronautics (NACA), flew a D-558-II Skyrocket to a record speed of over
1,320 mph.
(SFC, 4/21/06, p.B9)
1953 Nov 21, The "Piltdown Man,"
discovered in 1912, was proved to be a hoax. Paleontologist Kenneth
Oakley and anatomists Joseph S. Weiner and Wilfred Le Gros Clark
reexamined the bones from the 1912 Piltdown man and found unmistakable
signs of forgery.
(MC, 11/21/01)(PacDisc. Spring/’96, p.16)
1953 Nov 23, While receiving an
award for his contributions to civil rights from the B’Nai Brith’s
Anti-Defamation League, President Dwight Eisenhower spontaneously
denounced the tactics of fellow Republican Joseph McCarthy, asserting
the right of everyone to meet his "accuser face to face." A vehement
anti-Communist, Senator McCarthy led a long series of secret and public
hearings on the role of Communism in the American government and
society, frequently making unsubstantiated charges against individual
citizens.
(HNQ, 6/18/98)
1953 Nov 25, "Guys & Dolls"
closed at 46th St Theater NYC after 1200 performances.
(MC, 11/25/01)
1953 Nov 27, Playwright Eugene
O’Neill died in Boston at age 65. Prof. John H. Raleigh (d.2001 at 81)
later authored "The Plays of Eugene O’Neill."
(AP, 11/27/97)(SFC, 1/11/02, p.A20)
1953 Nov 28, "Wish You Were Here"
closed at Imperial Theater NYC after 597 performances.
(MC, 11/28/01)
1953 Nov 28, New York City began
11 days without newspapers when a strike of photoengravers shut down
publication. Sales increased for magazines and paperback books.
(DT, 11/28/97)
1953 Nov 29, American Airlines
began 1st regular commercial NY-LA air service.
(MC, 11/29/01)
1953 Nov 30, French parachutists
under Col. De Castries attacked Dien Bien Phu. The French expeditionary
force was under the direction of Gen. Henri Navarre. In 2004 martin
windrow authored “The Last Valley: Dien Bien Phu and the French Defeat
in Vietnam.”
(Econ, 4/3/04, p.86)
1953 Dec 3, The musical "Kismet"
opened on Broadway at the Ziegfeld Theater for 583 performances.
(AP, 12/3/99)(MC, 12/3/01)
1953 Dec 3, Eisenhower criticized
McCarthy for saying communists are in Republican party.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1953 Dec 5, Italy and Yugoslavia
agreed to pull troops out of the disputed Trieste border.
(HN, 12/5/98)
1953 Dec 6, Thomas Hulce, actor
(Amadeus, Equus, Echo Park), was born Plymouth, Mi.
(MC, 12/6/01)
1953 Dec 7, Audrey Hepburn was
featured on the cover of Life Magazine.
(SFC, 11/8/96, p.C6)
1953 Dec 7, Israel's PM Ben-Gurion
retired.
(MC, 12/7/01)
1953 Dec 8, Pres. Eisenhower
delivered his "Atoms for Peace" address to the UN. He called on both
the US and Soviet Union to abandon their nuclear arsenals. The "Atoms
for Peace" program spread nuclear technology to nations that agreed not
to use it for military purposes.
(SFC, 5/28/98, p.A9)(SFC, 12/9/03, p.A10)
1953 Dec 9, John Malkovich, actor
and director (Killing Fields), was born in Christopher, Ill.
(MC, 12/9/01)
1953 Dec 9, General Electric
announced all Communist employees would be fired.
(MC, 12/9/01)
1953 Dec 12, Chuck Yeager, test
pilot for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA),
reached Mach 2.43 in Bell X-1A rocket plane.
(SFC, 4/21/06, p.B9)
1953 Dec 13, Ben Bernanke, later
head of the US Federal Reserve (2006), was born in Augusta, Ga.
(SSFC, 1/29/06, p.J1)
1953 Dec 16, Pres. Eisenhower held
the 1st White House Press Conference before 161 reporters.
(MC, 12/16/01)
1953 Dec 16, Charles E. Yeager
flew 2,575 kph in Bell X-1A.
(MC, 12/16/01)
1953 Dec 17, FCC approved RCA's
black & white-compatible color TV specifications. Temporary
approval of the mechanical CBS color model was rescinded.
(MC, 12/17/01)(SFC, 3/18/04, p.E1)
1953 Dec 19, Robert A. Millikan
(85), US physicist (Nobel 1923), died.
(MC, 12/19/01)
1953 Dec 23, Lavrenti P. Beria
(1899-1953), Soviet minister of internal security, was executed.
(WUD, 1994, p.1684)(MC, 12/23/01)
1953 Dec 24, Pierre Salinger, SF
Chronicle reporter, won the 1953 McQuade Memorial Award for his
articles on poor conditions in California county jails. He had himself
arrested under an alias in Bakersfield and Stockton for an inside look.
(SFC, 12/19/03, p.E3)
1953 Dec 24, 2 speeding express
trains crashed head-on killing 103 in Czechoslovakia.
(MC, 12/24/01)
1953 Dec 26, U.S. was to withdraw
two divisions from Korea.
(HN, 12/26/98)
1953 Dec 30, The first color TV
sets went on sale. An Admiral color set was priced about $1,175 in 1953
dollars! Color TV sets did not become affordable to the masses until
the late 1960s.
(TMC, 1994, p.1953)(MC, 12/30/01)
1953 Dec, Hugh Hefner’s Playboy
Magazine featured Marilyn Monroe as its first cover girl and nude
centerfold in the premiere issue published by Hugh Hefner.
(SFC, 11/7/96,
p.E12)(www.playboy.com/worldofplayboy/faq/firstissue.html)
1953 Dec, In 1996 it was revealed
that the Pentagon knew that more than 900 American troops were alive
but not released by the North Koreans.
(SFC, 9/17/96, p.A10)
1953 Dec, Swanson and Sons
introduced the TV Dinner. The turkey, sweet potatoes and peas package
was priced at 98 cents and could be cooked in 25 minutes. It was
invented by Gerry Thomas (d.2005), a salesman for Nebraska based C.A.
Swanson, following an oversupply of turkey from the 1953 Thanksgiving
holiday season. Campbell Soup acquired control of Swanson’s in 1955.
(PC, 1992 ed, p.943,952)(WSJ, 1/7/04, p.B1)(SFC,
7/21/05, p.B7)
1953 Dec, Ornithologist E. Thomas
Gilliard (d.1965 at age 52) and his wife, Margaret, arrived in New
Guinea to study birds in the Viktor Emanuel Range. Police activities
forced them to remake plans and they proceeded to survey the Sepik
River and to photograph the Latmul and Sawos people who lived along its
banks.
(NH, 10/98, p.92)
1953 Don G. Kelley, the first
editor of Pacific Discovery magazine, drew the sketch of the grizzly
bear that was used for the California State flag.
(Pac. Disc., summer, ‘96, p.17)
1953 W. de Kooning (1904-1997)
completed his "Woman V" painting. In 1974 it was acquired by the
Austria National Gallery for $850,000.
(http://tinyurl.com/3rr4bw)
1953 Artists such as Robert
Rauschenberg, John Cage, Peter Voulkos and others gathered at Black
Mountain College in North Carolina. Voulkos went on to become the "guru
of clay." From 1954-1959 he headed the ceramics dept. at the Otis
College of Art and Design in Los Angeles. In 1959 he joined the faculty
of UC Berkeley and taught until 1985. The colors in his wood-fired work
derive from the fusion of wood ash and clay produced in an
oxygen-reduction atmosphere after the heat has reached 2300’ F.
(WSJ, 5/10/96, p.A-8)
1953 Rene Magritte painted
"Golconde,’ which depicted men raining from the sky in front of a 2-3
story row-house with crossed windows.
(WSJ, 8/4/00, p.W2)
1953 David Park painted his "Pet
Pet."
(SFC, 10/22/98, p.E6)
1953 Robert Rauschenberg painted
his 22-foot-long "Automobile Tire Print" in collaboration with John
Cage. Cage drove a car with a wheel inked by Rauschenberg. He also did
"Erased de Kooning Drawing" this year, based on a crayon-and-ink
drawing by de Kooning.
(WSJ, 9/25/97, p.A20)(SFC, 8/20/98, p.E1)
1953 Ben Shahn painted his "Second
Allegory" and "Bookshop."
(WSJ, 12/1/98, p.A20)
1953 Folk artist Grandma Moses
(d.1961) achieved global fame for her paintings. Her real name was Anna
Mary Robertson. Plates with her scenes were given out as gas station
premiums in 4 limited editions: "Out for the Christmas Tree,"
"Checkered House," "Jack and Jill," and "Catching the Thanksgiving."
(TMC, 1994, p.1953)(SFC, 3/26/97, z1 p.7)
1953 Robert Duncan (d.1988), SF
poet, and his partner Jess (Burgess Collins, d.2004) along with Harry
Jacobus founded the King Ubu Gallery at 3119 Fillmore St. In 1954 a
group of artists took it over and it became the Six Gallery.
(SFC, 5/26/96, Z1 p.3)(SFC, 1/7/04, p.A19)(SSFC,
3/14/04, p.F2)
1953 William Inge’s play,
"Picnic," opened on Broadway. It won a Pulitzer Prize and was made into
a 1955 film. It was about a drifter who shakes up life in a small
Kansas town.
(SFEC, 5/30/99, DB p.37)(WSJ, 4/14/00, p.W14)
1953 The play "Sabrina Fair" by
Samuel Taylor featured Joseph Cotton and Margaret Sullivan. It was made
into a 1954 film.
(SFC, 5/27/00, p.A26)
1953 Eric Ambler wrote his spy
thriller "The Schirmer Inheritance."
(SFC, 10/24/98, p.A22)
1953 Poul Anderson (d.2001 at 74),
authored 2 science fiction novels: "Three Hearts and Three Lions" and
"Brain Wave."
(SFC, 8/3/01, p.A24)
1953 Lars Valerian Ahlfors
(1907-1996), mathematician, published his mathematics textbook "Complex
Analysis. "
(SFC, 10/21/96, p.A17)
1953 Michael Avallone (d.1999 at
74) published "The Tall Dolores," the first of 36 novels
featuring detective Ed Moon.
(SFC, 3/2/99, p.A20)
1953 James Baldwin published his
autobiographical novel "Go Tell It on the Mountain."
(SFC, 12/30/98, p.A2)
1953 Samuel Beckett translated his
"En Attendant Godot" into English as "Waiting for Godot."
(WSJ, 8/5/96, p.A10)
1953 Sybille Bedford (b.1911),
German-born English novelist, published her 1st book, “A Visit to Don
Otavio,” a travelogue of Mexico.
(WSJ, 5/12/05, p.D8)
1953 Saul Bellow authored his
novel "The Adventures of Augie March," in which he defined the
immigrant experience in US literature.
(SFC, 9/15/03, p.D1)
1953 Isaiah Berlin wrote his essay
"The Hedgehog and the Fox." He ruminated on the words of the Greek poet
Archilochus who said: "The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog
knows one big thing.
(SFC,11/6/97, p.A28)
1953 Simone de Bouvier (Beauvoir)
published a British edition of "America Day by Day," a journal of her
travels in America from 1947. Her trip also began a relationship with
Nelson Algren. In 1999 the book "A Transatlantic Love Affair" Letters
to Nelson Algren" was published.
(WSJ, 1/18/98, p.A16)(SFEC, 2/28/99, BR p.4)
1953 Ray Bradbury wrote his novel
"Fahrenheit 451." It was made into a film in 1967 and another version
was planned in 1997.
(SFC, 1/31/97, p.D3)
1953 "Junkie" the first novel by
William Burroughs was published. In it appeared the character Herbert
who was the poet Herbert Huncke (1915-1996), who introduced Burroughs
to heroin.
(SFC, 8/9/96, p.A19)
1953 Herb Caen, SF newspaper
columnist, wrote his 4th book "Don’t Call It Frisco."
(SFEC, 2/2/97, p.A13)
1953 Raymond Chandler wrote the
detective novel "The Long Goodbye." He appears to have been the first
writer to put into print the phrase "You can’t win them all."
(SFC, 3/14/98, p.B7)
1953 Katherine Esau (1898-1997)
published her classic "Plant Anatomy," a leading text on plant
structure.
(SFC, 6/19/97, p.A22)
1953 British writer Ian Fleming
published his first James Bond book, "Casino Royale."
(WSJ, 4/24/98, p.W1)
1953 Rev Billy Graham published
"Peace With God," the first of his 18 books.
(SFEC, 9/21/97, Z1 p.3)
1953 Heinrich Harrer wrote his
memoir "Seven Years in Tibet."
(SFEC,12/14/97, BR p.4)
1953 Robert Heilbroner (1919-2005)
authored the 1st edition of his economics classic “Worldly
Philosophers.”
(WSJ, 1/11/05, p.A1)
1953 Joseph Heller began writing
"Catch-22." The book was initially titled Catch 18 and contracted to
Simon & Schuster in 1957. The agent, Candida Donadio, chose 22, her
birthday was Oct 22, to avoid conflict with Mila 18, a novel by Leon
Uris. Catch 22 was published in 1961. [see Louis Fallstein, 1951, "Face
of a Hero."]
(SFC, 4/28/98, p.A2)(SFC, 1/26/01, p.A21)
1953 Jack Kerouac wrote his book
"The Subterraneans." Though set in San Francisco it was actually about
characters from Fugazi’s Bar of Greenwich Village. Anton Rosenberg
(d.1998 at 71), a hipster painter and musician, was portrayed as Julian
Alexander. The book was not published until 1958.
(SFC, 2/23/98, p.A21)
1953 Alfred Kinsey published
"Sexual Behavior in the Human Female," the 1st major US survey on
women's sexual habits. He found that attitudes did not match behavior.
(NW, 6/30/03, p.44)
1953 "The Conservative Mind" by
Russel Kirk, Michigan-born writer, was first published by Henry Regnery
(1912-1996), the godfather of modern conservatism. "The book recovers a
legacy of conservative ideas and also trumpets a conservative future."
In the book is described an "inclination to cherish the permanent
things in human existence." Kirk believed that "political problems are,
at bottom, religious and moral problems." He lists six canons of
conservatism the first of which is the conviction that "there exists a
transcendent order, or body of natural law, which rules society as well
as conscience. The book was re-issued in 1995 in a 40th anniversary ed.
by Regnery Publ.
(WSJ, 9/28/95, p.A-16)(SFC, 6/24/96, p.A15)
1953 Wolf Mankowitz published
"Wedgewood," the definitive handbook on the subject.
(SFC, 5/29/98, p.D7)
1953 James Michener (d.1997 at 90)
wrote his novel "The Bridges at Toko-Ri."
(SFC,10/17/97, p.A17)
1953 Czeslaw Milosz,
émigré Polish poet, published “The Captive Mind,” in
which he unpicked the mangling effects of communist thought.
(Econ, 8/1/09, p.76)
1953 Iris Murdoch published
"Sartre: Romantic Rationalist."
(SFC, 2/9/99, p.A20)
1953 Robert Musil (d.1942),
Austrian author, got published in short form in English his unfinished
book "The Man Without Qualities" set in Vienna around 1913. A full 2
volume set ($60) was published in 1995.
(WSJ, 4/12/95, A-12)
1953 Eugene (b.1913) and Howard
Odum published "Fundamentals of Ecology," the first textbook on the
subject.
(NH, 10/98, p.8)
1953 Alain Robbe-Grillet authored
"Les Gommes" (The Erasers), a novel about a detective investigating an
apparent murder who ends up killing the victim. It was seen in France
as the debut of the "new novel."
(AP, 2/18/08)
1953 Eleanor O’Leary (1916-2008)
authored “The Prince of Players: the Life of Edwin Booth” (1833-1893).
Edwin was the founder of the NYC club called The Player’s (1888) and
the brother of John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of Pres. Lincoln.
(SFC, 7/22/08,
p.B5)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Players'_Club)
1953 Jim Thompson authored the
classic noir thriller “The Killer Inside Me.”
(SSFC, 9/17/06, p.D7)
1953 Leon Uris (d.2003) authored
the novel "Battle Cry."
(AP, 6/24/03)(SFC, 6/25/03, p.A25)
1953 John Werthan authored
"Seduction of the Innocent," which linked comic books to juvenile
delinquency. This led to the creation of the Comics Code Authority. EC
Comics withdrew "Tales From the crypt" and many other titles.
(SFC, 1/21/04, p.D2)
1953 Richard Wright (d.1960)
authored the novel: "The Outsider."
(WSJ, 9/4/01, p.A20)
1953 Thomas Guinzburg, Donald
Hall, Harold Humes, Peter Matthiessen and George Plimpton founded the
Paris Review. William Styron (1925-2006) helped establish the Paris
Review.
(SFC, 9/27/03, p.A2)(Econ, 11/11/06, p.95)
1953 Speedy Gonzalez, a cartoon
mouse with a Mexican accent, debuted in the US.
(AP, 6/30/05)
1953 Merce Cunningham, dance group
leader, created the Septet. He set steps to the "Trois Morceaux en
forme de poire" music of Eric Satie.
(WSJ, 4/10/96, p.A-14)
1953 The Broadway musical "Kismet"
was produced. It starred Alfred Drake and featured the music of Russian
composer Borodin. The songs "Stranger in Paradise" and "Baubles,
Bangles and Beads" were written by George Forrest (d.1999 at 84) and
Robert Wright.
(SFEC, 8/11/96, DB, p.45)(SFEC, 4/6/97, DB p.7)(SFC,
10/13/99, p.C2)
1953 The Broadway play "The
Teahouse of the August Moon" was directed by Robert Lewis.
(SFC,11/25/97, p.A22)
1953 Bud Browne (1912-2008),
completed his first surf film, “Hawaiian Surfing Movies,” in Santa
Monica, Ca. He was later considered the father of surf films.
(AP, 7/29/08)
1953 Peter Graves starred in the
TV series "Stalag 17."
(SFC, 5/19/96, BR, p.30)
1953 The weekly "General Electric
Theater" began on TV.
(SFC, 11/24/00, p.D11)
1953 "The Life of Riley" featured
William Bendix and Marjorie Reynolds (1917-1997) as Peg Riley. It ran
until 1958.
(SFC, 2/13/97, p.C4)
1953 Vito Scotti (1918-1996)
replaced J. Carrol Naish as the Italian immigrant Luigi Basco in the TV
show "Life with Luigi."
(SFC, 6/12/96, p.C2)
1953 The Romper Room TV show for
children began in Baltimore on station WBAL. It featured Nancy Claster
(d.1997 at 82) as Miss Nancy who stayed on until 1964 when her
daughter, Sally, took over for the next 16 years. Locally produced
shows aired in 150 cities. Her "magic mirror" gave the names of
children watching at home, names that parents had sent in.
(SFC, 4/26/97, p.A22)
1953 Steve Allen (d.2000) created
and hosted the Tonight Show in NYC. It went national in 1954. Allen
remained host until 1957.
(SFC, 11/1/00, p.A19)(SSFC, 5/2/04, Par. p.4)
1953 The CBS musical series
“Summertime USA” was set in various resorts from Havana to Atlantic
City. It featured Teresa Brewer and Mel Torme.
(SFC, 10/19/07, p.A11)
1953 The TV show "Winky Dink and
You" premiered as the 1st interactive kids’ show.
(NW, 11/11/02, p.54)
1953 Nat Hentoff became the NYC
editor of Down Beat. Willie "the Lion" Smith, Harlem stride pianist,
soon became his mentor.
(WSJ, 12/30/03, p.D8)
1953 Jimmy Boyd sang "Santa Got
Stuck in the Chimney." It was written by Hy Heath and Fred Rose, who
also wrote "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain." It raised a ruckus in the
96-97 holiday season when another version was contested between a
51-year-old composer and 5-year-old singer.
(WSJ, 1/8/97, p.A6)
1953 Jimmy Forrest composed the
jazz tune "Night Train."
(SI-WPC, 1997)
1953 James Myers (d.2001) and Max
Freedman wrote the song "Rock Around the Clock." It was first recorded
by Sunny Dae and His Knights. Bill Haley and the Comets recorded it in
1954. It became popular in 1955 following its use in the film
"Blackboard Jungle."
(SSFC, 5/13/01, p.A27)
1953 The Platters singing group
was formed with Joe Jefferson, Cornell Gunther, Alex Hodge and Herb
Reed on lead vocals. The group went on to appear in 27 movies.
(SFEC, 5/23/99, DB p.67)
1953 In Los Angeles The Hi-Lo’s, a
vocal quartet, formed with Gene Puerling (1929-2008) singing
bass-baritone. The group became the most popular jazz-based vocal group
of the period.
(SFC, 4/3/08, p.B5)
1953 The Wagner opera “Tristan und
Isolde” was recorded for the 1st time on 33-rpm long-playing record.
The performance was conducted by Wilhelm Furtwangler with Kirsten
Flagstad of Norway as Isolde. In 2005 a new recording was completed
featuring Placido Domingo.
(Econ, 8/6/05, p.67)
1953 The Batsheva de Rothschild
Foundation, founded by Baroness Batsheva de Rothschild (d.1999 at 84),
sponsored a 2-week festival of American modern dance on Broadway.
(SFC, 4/23/99, p.D8)
1953 The Milwaukee County Baseball
Stadium was built.
(SFC, 7/21/96, zone 1 p.6)
1953 J.F. Kennedy married
Jacqueline Bouvier, a society girl turned reporter.
(TMC, 1994, p.1953)
1953 Elizabeth Bottomley
(1931-1996) married Robert Noyce, the co-inventor of the integrated
circuit chip and founder of Intel and Fairchild Semiconductor. After
her divorce in 1975, she donated millions of dollars to the Portland
Museum of Art, Maine maritime Museum and the Univ. of Maine.
(SFC, 9/19/96, p.A17)
1953 The American Museum of
Natural History created Discovery Tours, the first museum educational
travel program in the US.
(AMNHDT, 5/98)
1953 John F. Kennedy was seeing
Audrey Hepburn while dating Jackie Onassis. So it says in the 1996 book
"Jack and Jackie" by Christopher Anderson
(USAT, 6/19/96, p.2D)
1953 Lawrence Ferlinghetti and
Peter D. Martin opened City Lights Bookstore, the 1st all-paperback
bookstore in the US, opened in San Francisco's North Beach. In 1993 it
was designated a national literary landmark.
(SFEC, 4/6/97, p.C4)(SFC, 6/5/03, p.F11)
1953 Publishers Clearinghouse was
founded by Harold and LuEsther Mertz and their daughter Joyce. In 1997
it received more than $100 million in annual sales.
(SFEC, 2/23/97, Par p.2)
1953 Toni Stone (1921-1996),
female 2nd baseman for the Negro League Indianapolis Clowns, batted
.243. She was one of the first women in professional baseball.
(SFC, 11/6/96, p.B3)
1953 Helenor Foerster (d.1998 at
103) was named "Woman of the Year for Science" by the Women’s National
Press Club. She co-authored the "Atlas and Textbook of Ophthalmic
Pathology," and discovered that toxoplasma was the cause of a widely
spread eye disease that led to blindness.
(SFC, 9/23/98, p.C2)
1953 Pres. Eisenhower issued an
executive order that required the dismissal of all homosexual employees
in the government.
(SFC, 9/7/96, p.A2)
1953 Eisenhower appointed the
staunch anti-Communist John Foster Dulles as Secretary of State.
(TL, 1988, p.114)
1953 Eisenhower appointed Ezra
Taft Benson, a prominent Mormon from Idaho, as his agricultural sec.
(WSJ, 10/22/96, p.A20)
1953 Pres. Eisenhower suspended
the security clearance of physicist Robert Oppenheimer.
(SSFC, 4/10/05, p.B2)
1953 The Eisenhower administration
established the Small Business Administration to work with private
lenders to make loans for various entrepreneurial uses.
(WSJ, 11/29/04, p.R8)
1953 The House Committee on
Un-American Activities (HUAC) held hearings in the Bay Area. Paul
Sidney Chown (d.1997 at 80), a supporter of the old Independent
Progressive Party, defied the committee and described its witnesses as
"paid, professional, hopped-up informers."
(SFC, 6/23/97, p.A22)
1953 Federal regulators forced the
Bank of America under S.H. Amacost into a cost cutting campaign that
included the sale of the B of A headquarters, the closure of 187
branches and the company’s first layoffs.
(SFC, 4/14/98, p.B4)
1953 Congress formally ratified
Ohio statehood. Congress had initially voted to accept Ohio’s borders
and constitution on Feb 19, 1803.
(AP, 2/19/98)
1953 The first issue of the US CIA
sponsored British magazine "Encounter" was published under Irving
Kristol and Stephen Spender. It became the West's most important
vehicle for highbrow anti-Marxist commentary. The funding source did
not become known until 1966/7.
(WSJ, 3/27/00, p.A46)(Econ, 6/19/04, p.81)
1953 The US military opened the
Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, its largest medical facility outside
the US, in Landstuhl, Germany.
(SFC, 1/9/04, p.A14)
1953 In Colorado City, Arizona, a
mass police raid against members of the Fundamentalist Church of the
Latter Day Saints (FLDS) led to the arrest of scores of men and the
separation of children from their families. FLDS members were avowed
polygamists.
(Econ, 10/15/05, p.33)
1953 Rev. T.J. Jemison organized a
bus boycott in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It was the 1st of its kind a
became a model for the 1955 Martin Luther King rebellion in Montgomery,
Ala.
(NW, 6/9/03, p/14)
1953 Augie Hiebert (1916-2007)
opened Alaska’s first television station in Anchorage.
(WSJ, 9/22/07, p.A8)
1953 The Colgate-Palmolive-Peet
Co. became Colgate-Palmolive Co.
(SFC, 5/24/06, p.G3)
1953 Dow Jones & Co. ceased
the publication of its Saturday Wall Street Journal after the NYSE
ended Saturday trading.
(WSJ, 8/1/07, p.B6)
1953 Leonard H. Goldenson (d.1999
at 94), chief executive of United Paramount Theaters, bought the
near-bankrupt ABC broadcasting network. ABC had 14 stations and trailed
behind CBS, NBC and DuMont Network. In 1986 Goldenson oversaw the ABC
merger with Capital Cities Broadcasting, which was bought by Disney in
1996 for $19 billion.
(SFC, 12/28/99, p.B3)
1953 General Foods acquired the
Perkins Products Co. which included "Kool-Aid."
(SFC, 4/9/96, z1 p.5)
1953 The Hearst Corp. acquired
Sports Afield magazine.
(SFC, 8/7/99, p.A9)
1953 Jim Beam began selling
special decanters filled with Kentucky Straight Bourbon. Political
bottles were produced from 1956 to 1988.
(SFC, 4/5/06, p.G8)
1953 John Mitchell (d.2007 at 89),
his younger brother Larry, and brother-in-law Bob Davis turned an old
liquor store in the SF Mission District into Mitchell’s Ice Cream
parlor, which became a Bay Area tradition.
(SFC, 6/16/07, p.B6)
1953 Air conditioning units became
widely available on American cars.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl.)
1953 Naugahyde, an imitation
leather made from plastic, was sold by Uniroyal Technology to the auto
industry for upholstery. It soon came to be used for office seating
units and for some residential furniture.
(SFC, 3/5/08, p.G4)
1953 Industry experts in 1996
picked the 1953 Studebaker Starlight as the number 4 favorite car.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1953 Howard Hughes launched the
Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) in Chevy Chase, Md. The sale of
Hughes Aircraft to General Motors in 1985 added $5 billion to the
coffers of the institute.
(WSJ, 9/22/06, p.B1)
1953 Remington-Rand developed the
1st high-speed printer for use on the Univac mainframe computer.
(SFC, 7/26/04, p.F4)
1953 Thompson Products developed
the first automotive ball joint suspension systems.
(F, 10/7/96, p.69)
1953 An aerospace chemist invented
WD-40. Rocket Chemical Company sold the product to coat missiles and
prevent rust. Consumers later discovered its use as a lubricant. In
1969 John Barry (1925-2000) became head of the company and soon renamed
the firm after the product.
(SFC, 7/14/99, p.8)(SFC, 7/22/09, p.D5)
1953 Doctors attributed lung
cancer for the first time to cigarette smoking.
(TL, 1988, p.114)
1953 The first human transplant, a
kidney from mother to son, was performed in Paris.
(TL, 1988, p.114)
1953 Dr. Maurice M. Black
(1918-1996) predicted that "the use of ultra-radical surgical attempts
to cure breast cancer are not consistent with the biology of the
disease."
(SFC, 9/16/96, p.A15)
1953 Donald Ewen Cameron
(1901-1967), professor of neurology and psychology at Albany State
Medical School, developed what he called "psychic driving". He
developed the theory that mental patients could be cured by treatment
that erased existing memories and by rebuilding the psyche completely.
(www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKcameronDE.htm)
1953 At the Univ. of Chicago
Nathaniel Kleitman and his students at the world’s first sleep
laboratory first observed and studied rapid eye movement, aka REM.
(PacDis, Summer ’97, p.2)
1953 Robert F. Borkenstein
(d.2002) invented a Breathalyzer to test drivers for alcohol content.
It stemmed from his work with Dr. R.N. Harger of the Indiana School of
Medicine to make the Drunkometer.
(SFC, 8/19/02, p.B6)
1953 While researching silicon for
its possible applications in electronics, Gerald Pearson, an empirical
physicist at Bell Laboratories, inadvertently made a solar cell that
was far more efficient than solar cells made from selenium. Two other
Bell scientists, Daryl Chapin and Calvin Fuller, refined Pearson's
discovery came up with the first solar cell capable of converting
enough of the sun's energy into power to run everyday electrical
equipment.
(www.californiasolarcenter.org/history_pv.html)
1953 Dr. Daniel Fox, a chemist at
GE, invented Lexan polycarbonate resin, a hard plastic.
(WSJ, 1/10/07, p.B2)
1953 Stanley L. Miller
(1930-2007), a chemist at the Univ. of Chicago, conducted an experiment
that showed a whole range of organic compounds synthesized when an
electric spark was passed through a mixture of methane, ammonia, and
water vapor. These compounds combined to produce urea and several
amino-acids. His resulting paper was titled “Production of amino acids
under possible primitive Earth conditions.”
(Econ, 2/18/06, p.75)(Econ, 6/2/07, p.95)
1953 A chemist working for J.R.
Simplot, Idaho potato mogul, perfected a technique of freezing chipped
potatoes. By the late 1960s Jack Simplot was the largest supplier of
French fries to McDonald’s.
(Econ, 6/14/08, p.105)
1953 Meta Neumann (1896-1996),
neuropathologist, established that Alzheimer’s disease is a metabolic
disorder rather than a function of old age. In the mid 1960s she
uncovered the rare degenerative brain condition known as Neumann’s
disease.
(SFC, 12/2/96, p.D2)
1953 McGeorge Bundy at 34 became
the dean of the faculty of arts and sciences at Harvard.
(SFC, 9/17/96, p.A22)
1953 This was the peak year for
accordion imports to the US. 200,000 instruments were imported from
Italy, and another 200,000 come in from Germany.
(WWofA, Baldoni)
1953 Mt. Everest was climbed by
Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norkay, a Sherpa.
(TL, 1988, p.114)(TMC, 1994, p.1953)
1953 The first attempt to scale
K2, the world’s 2nd tallest mountain, was made by 7 Americans led by
Charles Houston and Robert Bates. The mountain straddled China and
Pakistan. In 1954 they authored “K2: The Savage Mountain.
(WSJ, 4/28/07, p.P8)
1953 Revitalized grasslands of the
US western plains were transferred to various federal and state
agencies.
(NH, 5/96, p.64)
1953 In California Roberts
Regional Recreation Area opened in the Oakland Hills.
(SFC, 6/1/07, p.B9)
1953 W.W. Dixon (b.1883),
storybook home architect, died. Most of his homes were built in the
East Bay of the SF Bay Area.
(SFC, 8/20/05, p.F1)
1953 Florida Gov. Daniel McCarty
died while in office.
(SFEC, 12/13/98, p.C14)
1953 Frank Olson, US Army chemist,
jumped to his death from a hotel window while under the influence of
LSD. He was an unwitting subject in the CIA MKULTRA mind-control
project. In 1976 Congress approved a $760,000 payment to his widow.
(SSFC, 7/14/02, p.A4)
1953 Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
(b.1896), author of “The Yearling,” died. In 2005 Rodger L. Tarr edited
a collection of her letters to her husband, Norton S. Baskin: “The
Private Marjorie.”
(WSJ, 2/25/05, p.W8)
1953 Jim Thorpe, star athlete,
died. He was the first president of the National Football League.
(HT, 4/97, p.18)(SFC, 7/11/98, p.B3)
1953 Bolivia’s agrarian reform of
1953, born of the1952 revolution, was adversely affected by corruption
and pressure groups. By 1996, 55 million hectares had been handed over
to large landholders, and 45 million hectares to small farmers.
(http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=32429)
1953 In Brazil Darcy Ribeiro,
anthropologist (1923-1997), founded the Museum of the Indian in Rio de
Janeiro.
(SFC, 2/20/96, p.A20)
1953 Petrobras was founded as
Brazil produced 2,700 barrels of oil per day and consumed 137,000 per
day. In 2006 Brazil became independent from foreign oil.
(AP, 4/22/06)
1953 Volkswagen began
manufacturing cars in Brazil.
(Econ, 11/15/08, SR p.6)
1953 In Britain the Royal Yacht
Britannia was put into service. The yacht was retired in 1997.
(SFC,12/12/97, p.B6)
1953 Britain signed the European
convention, which set out a range of individual rights.
(SFC, 10/2/00, p.A13)
1953 Poppit beads, small plastic
ball-and-socket units, were first created in England. They were later
sold under the names Poppit, Snapit or Lockit and sold as beads for
necklaces.
(SFC, 4/16/08, p.G3)
1953 Canada established the
village of Grise Fiord on Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic by
transplanting Inuit families from the Hudson Bay area.
(NG, 6/1988, 762)
1953 King Norodom Sihanouk gained
independence for Cambodia from France. Pol Pot helped set up the
Communist Party.
(SFC, 6/14/97, p.A15)(SFEC, 3/7/99, p.A17)
1953 In Colombia a domestic spy
agency was created during the government of Gen. Gustavo Rojas Pinilla.
In 1960 it reconstructed as the DAS by President Alberto Lleras Camargo.
(AP, 9/18/09)
1953 In Costa Rica Jose Figueres
Ferrer gained power.
(WSJ, 12/12/97, p.A19)
1953 Ibrahim Ferrer Planas
(d.2005), singer, joined a group called Los Bocucos, led by vocalist
Pacho Alonso in Santiago, Cuba. In 1996 he recorded with Ry Cooder for
the "Buena Vista Social Club" which was followed by his own solo album.
(SFEC, 9/19/99, DB p.37)(SFEM, 10/3/99, p.31)
1953 Klement Gottwald (b.1896),
leader of the Czech Communist Party, died. His embalmed body was placed
in a mausoleum in Prague until 1962, when it was buried.
(SFC, 9/10/08, p.A5)
1953 Yasser Arafat (d.2004), as a
student in Egypt, authored “Don’t Forget Palestine.”
(Econ, 11/13/04, p.95)
1953 In West Germany a restitution
law included compensation for seized life, illness and retirement
policies of Jewish Holocaust victims.
(SFEC, 4/6/97, p.A13)
1953 In West Germany Werner Hoefer
(d.1997 at 84) began his TV roundtable discussion "Der Internationale
Freuschoppen." He led the show until 1987. Revelations of his work as a
Nazi forced the end of his career as the show’s host.
(SFC,11/28/97, p.B8)
1953 In Greenland Inuit
inhabitants were forcibly relocated for the American Thule air base.
650 later sued and won a $71,400 settlement.
(SFC, 11/3/01, p.C1)
1953 In Haiti Felix
Morisseau-Leroy (d.1998 at 86) premiered his play "Antigone" in
Port-au-Prince. It was the first serious play in the native Creole
language.
(SFC, 9/7/98, p.A21)
1953 Italy founded ENIPower, a
state attempt to break the oligopoly of the “Seven Sister,” the major
oil companies of the day.
(Econ, 8/21/04, p.53)(Econ, 7/22/06, p.64)
1953 In Japan a Leprosy Prevention
Law banished lepers to small islands and remote areas. It was repealed
in 1996.
(SFC, 5/24/01, p.C3)(WSJ, 5/24/01, p.A1)
1953 The Kuwait Investment
Authority (KIA) was founded as the world’s first sovereign wealth fund.
In 2008 its assets were estimated at $200 billion.
(WSJ, 1/16/08, p.A10)(Econ, 1/19/08, p.80)
1953 Mexico allowed women the
right to vote.
(SFC, 12/4/97, p.C6)
1953 Ilya Ehrenburg (1891-1967),
Russian writer won the Stalin Peace Prize. He was the Paris
correspondent for Izvestia at the outset of Stalin’s purges in 1932.
His books include: "The Ninth Wave" (1951), "The Thaw," and "People,
Years and Life," his memoirs that began coming out it Novy Mir in 1960.
Joshua Rubenstein wrote his biography in 1996 titled: "Tangled
Loyalties: The Life and Times of Ilya Rubenstein."
(WSJ, 4/2/96, p.A-12)
1953 King Abdul Aziz died. He was
the founder of modern Saudi Arabia and fathered a total of 44 sons
before his death. Aziz was succeeded by King Saud who ruled from
1953-1964.
(WSJ, 1/9/96, p.A-10)(WSJ, 10/22/01, p.A18)
1953 In Russia Nikita Khrushchev
came to power. His glass and marble Palace of Congresses obliterated
the last vestiges of the 17th century palace of Tsarina Natalie
Kirilovna Naryshkina, the mother of Peter the Great.
(AM, Jul/Aug ‘97 p.33)
1953 USSR Lt. Gen’l. Pavel
Sudoplatov, spy, was arrested after the death of Stalin and sent to the
Gulag.
(SFC, 9/28/96, p.A21)
1953 A freedom charter in the
struggle against apartheid was framed in Soweto, South Africa.
(AFP, 5/20/06)
1953-1954 When G. David Schine, assistant to Joseph
McCarthy, was drafted into the Army, their lawyer, Roy Cohn, tried to
get special privileges to stay out and threatened the Army with an
investigation. This prompted an independent investigation and the
Army-McCarthy hearings. The Wisconsin Republican’s abuse of Army
Secretary Robert T. Stevens during the hearings prompted McCarthy’s
condemnation by the Senate.
(SFC, 6/21/96, p.E2)
1953-1954 Members of the Estonian Forest Brothers
resistance movement were killed by Stalin's NKVD secret police.
(SFC, 4/3/04, p.A10)
1953-1955 Bolivia’s President Paz Estenssoro
established universal suffrage. The government reduced the size and
budget of the armed forces. The three major tin companies were
nationalized, to be run by the Mining Corporation of Bolivia (Comibol).
Strongly influenced by peasants, the government enacted sweeping
agrarian reform. Miners organized the Bolivian Labor Federation (COB).
(http://tinyurl.com/s7dzd)
1953-1955 Fidel Castro, a prospective major league
baseball player, was jailed in Cuba.
(EnRoute, 11/’95, p.111)
1953-1956 Gen’l. Alfred M. Gruenther took over a
Supreme Allied Commander in Europe. He succeeded Gen’l. Ridgeway.
(WUD, 1994, p.1684)
1953-1956 Sir Roger Makins (1904-1996) served as the
British ambassador to the US. His wife, Alice Davis, was the daughter
of Dwight Davis, for whom the tennis Davis Cup was named.
(SFC, 11/11/96, p.A26)
1953-1958 The Stanley Brothers, Ralph and Carter,
recorded some of their best songs on the Mercury label.
(WSJ, 10/8/98, p.A16)
1953-1958 In Kenya 1,090 Kikuyu were hanged by
British authorities due to the Mau Mau rebellion.
(Econ, 1/1/05, p.66)
1953-1958 Sir Garfield Todd (d.2002) served as prime
minister of Southern Rhodesia.
(AP, 10/13/02)
1953-1959 Soupy Sales led his Soupy’s On 5-day-a-week
variety show in Detroit on WXYZ-TV. The theme song was Charlie Parker’s
"Yardbird Suite." Many jazz giants played on his show but very little
film footage survived.
(DFP, 7/28/96, p.F1,8)
1953-1961 Dwight D. Eisenhower (b.1890) was the 34th
President of the US.
(A&IP, ESM, p.96b, photo)
1953-1961 Dag Hammarskjöld of Sweden served as
the Secretary-General of the UN.
(SFC, 12/14/96, p.A1)
1953-1970 Albert Gore Sr. (d.1998 at 90) served as US
Senator from Tennessee. He opposed the war in Vietnam while his son
served there as an Army journalist.
(SFEC, 12/6/98, p.C14)
1953-1971 "The Danny Thomas Show" ran on TV.
(SFEC, 1/12/97, p.C10)
1953-1971 Nathan Marsh Pusey (1907-2001), served as
president of Harvard Univ.
(SFC, 11/22/01, p.A29)
1953-1986 Markus Wolf was the head of East Germany’s
int’l. spy network. He planted some 4,000 agents in the West during the
Cold War and managed to steal NATO secrets for the Soviet bloc. In 1997
he published "Man Without a Face," an account of his experiences.
(SFC, 5/28/97, p.A10)(WSJ, 6/02/97, p.A20)
Go to 1954