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