1953 Events & Facts

What Happened in 1953?

MAJOR EVENTS:

  • Nikita Khrushchev wins power struggle in Soviet Union after the death of Josef Stalin
  • Josef Broz Tito elected president of Yugoslavia
  • Convicted spies Julius and Ethel Rosenberg executed
  • Korean armistice signed
  • U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare (now Health and Human Services) created
  • Soviet Union detonates its first hydrogen bomb

BUSINESS & ECONOMY:

  • President Eisenhower ends all wage, salary and price controls
  • Growth of the buy now pay later mentality

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY:

  • U.S. Air Force test pilot Chuck Yeager sets speed record in X-1 rocket plane
  • An expedition led by Sir Edmund Hillary is the first to reach the summit of Mount Everest
  • James Watson and Francis Crick determine the structure of DNA
  • Alfred Kinsey publishes Sexual Behavior in the Human Female
  • First clear evidence linking lung cancer to cigarette smoking

SPORTS:

  • World Series: New York Yankees over Brooklyn, 4-2 (fifth consecutive win)
  • St. Louis Browns move to Baltimore to become the Orioles
  • Boston Braves move to Milwaukee
  • US Supreme Court rules (7-2) baseball is a sport not a business

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT:

  • Movies: Roman Holiday, From Here to Eternity, The Robe (first major motion picture filmed in wide-screen CinemaScope)
  • Songs: Doggie in the Window, I Believe, Stranger in Paradise, I Love Paris
  • TV Shows: Twenty Questions, Red Skelton Show, GE Theatre, Make Room for Dauly
  • Books: Casino Royale, Ian Fleming; Battle Cry, Leon Uris

EVERYDAY LIFE:

  • TV Guide debuts; on the cover of the first issue are Lucille Ball and her newborn son, Desi Arnaz IV
  • The first color television sets appear selling for $1,175
  • Transistor radios start to appear for sale

FUN FACTS:

  • Pierce Brosnan, Tim Allen, and Hulk Hogan were born



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