- MAJOR EVENTS:
- Communists forces gain power in China; nationalists flee to Taiwan
- North Atlantic Treaty Organization established
- Soviet Union detonates its first atomic bomb
- Israel admitted to U.N.
- Soviet Union lifts Berlin blockade; Berlin airlift ends
- Apartheid becomes official government policy in South Africa
- West Germany, East Germany formally established as nations
- Vietnam, Indonesia gain sovereignty
- Nearly 500,000 steel workers strike
BUSINESS & ECONOMY:
- U.S. Air Force’s Lucky Lady completes first non-stop around-the-world flight
- Electron microscopy developed
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY:
- World Series: New York Yankees over Brooklyn, 4-1
SPORTS:
- Movies:The Third Man, All the King’s Men
- Songs: So In Love, Riders in the Sky, Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Some Enchanted Evening
- TV Shows: Texaco Star Theatre, Candid Camera, Colgate Theatre, Kukla Fran & Ollie
- Books: The Man with the Golden Arm, Nelson Algren; The Jacaranda Tree, H.E. Bates; Guard of Honor, James Gould Cozzens; Love in a Cold Climate, Nancy Mitford; 1984, George Orwell; This I Remember, Eleanor Roosevelt
- South Pacific opens on Broadway
- Arthur Miller’s play Death of a Salesman wins Pulitzer Prize
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT:
- Americans buy 100,000 television sets a week
- "Pyramid clubs" in which participants send each other money in hopes of receiving large amounts of money themselves, become a fad
- Editor Russel Lyons coins the terms "highbrow," "miullebrow" and "lowbrow."
EVERYDAY LIFE:
- "Silly Putty" introduced
