What Happened in 1951?

MAJOR EVENTS:

• North Korean offensive pushes beyond the 38th parallel; truce negotiations fail
• Congress passes 22nd Amendment, limiting a President to two terms
• Stalin claims the Soviet Union has the atomic bomb
• Julius and Ethel Rosenberg convicted of passing U.S. nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union; both are sentenced to death
• General Douglas MacArthur relieved of command in Korea
• Sen. Estes Kefauver begins investigation of gambling and organized crime

BUSINESS & ECONOMY:

• Businessman J.S. Coxey leads unemployment protest in Washington

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY:

• Mass production of penicillin and streptomycin reaches records
• Electricity generated from nuclear power for the first time

SPORTS:

• World Series: New York Yankees over New York Giants, 4-2
• Joe DiMaggio announces his retirement from baseball

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT:

• Movies: The African Queen, An American in Paris, Strangers on a Train, A Streetcar Named Desire
• Songs: Hello Young Lovers, Getting to Know You, Cry, Kisses Sweeter than Wine, In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening
• TV Shows: I Love Lucy, Adventures of Ellery Queen, Captain Video, What’s My Line
• Books: A Man Called Peter, Catherine Marshall; Lie Down in Darkness, William Styron; Desirée, Annemarie Selinko; From Here to Eternity, James Jones; The Caine Mutiny, Herman Woulk; The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger
• Color television introduced; first color broadcast transmitted from CBS in New York
• The King and I opens on Broadway
• Robert Frost and Carl Sandberg both publish collections of poetry titled Complete Poems

EVERYDAY LIFE:

• In response to the growing popularity of television, movie theatres experiment with a variety of attractions, including wide-screen projection and 3-D effects
• Cost of a gallon of gas was 19 cents

FUN FACTS:

• Sting, Sally Ride and Robin Williams were born