Events Date 1953 | History by KabAstro

Events 1 - 200 of 521

"Suite Hebraique"

Jan 1 Ernest Blochs's work for viola and piano "Suite Hebraique,", part of his "Jewish Cycle", premieres in Chicago

Jan 1 The Bantu Education Act (later renamed the Black Education Act) commenced, providing the legal underpinning of several aspects of the apartheid system, most importantly in education
Jan 1 The first TV detector van, used to track down users of unlicensed television sets, begins operation in the UK
Jan 1 WBRE TV channel 28 in Wilkes-Barre Scranton, PA (NBC) 1st broadcast
Jan 2 NBA Baltimore Bullets begin a record 32 game road losing streak (12 games in 1952-53; 20 games in 1953-54) with a 73-66 defeat at the Indianapolis Olympians
Jan 3 Frances Bolton and her son, Oliver become the first mother and son to serve simultaneously in the U.S. Congress, both representing Ohio
Jan 4 KTSM TV channel 9 in El Paso, TX (NBC) begins broadcasting

"Waiting for Godot"

Jan 5 Samuel Beckett's French-language play "En Attendant Godot (Waiting for Godot)" premieres in Paris

Playwright, Novelist and Poet Samuel Beckett

Jan 6 Dutch passenger ships Willem Ruys and Oranje collide in the Red Sea near Port Sudan, seriously damaging both vessels without injuring the 1,750 passengers
Jan 6 The first Asian Socialist Conference opens in Burma
Jan 6 WKBN TV channel 27 in Youngstown, Ohio (CBS) begins broadcasting - without sound, until January 11 [1]

Truman Announces Hydrogen Bomb

Jan 7 US President Harry Truman announces American development of the hydrogen bomb

Jan 8 Indians bar night games with Browns (who refuse to share TV receipts)
Jan 8 René Mayer forms French government
Jan 9 Korean ferryboat "Chang Tyong-Ho" sank off Pusan killing 249

MacLeish Wins Bollingen Prize

Jan 10 Bollingen Prize for poetry awarded to Archibald MacLeish

Hoover Declines Offer

Jan 11 J. Edgar Hoover declines 6 figure offer to become president of International Boxing Club

First Director of the FBI J. Edgar Hoover

Jan 12 9 "Jewish" physicians arrested for "terrorist activities" in Moscow
Jan 13 Gas explosion in Belgium coal mine kills 14
Jan 13 KOLD TV channel 13 in Tucson, AZ (CBS) begins broadcasting

President Tito

Jan 13 Marshal Josip Tito chosen president of Yugoslavia

President of Yugoslavia and Revolutionary Josip Broz Tito

Jan 14 Vaughan William's "Sinfonia Antartica" premieres in Manchester
Jan 14 WALA TV channel 10 in Mobile, AL (NBC) begins broadcasting
Jan 14 Yugoslavia elects its 1st president, Marshal Tito
Jan 15 16 car Federal Express train loses brakes & crashes in Washington, D.C. station
Jan 15 East Germany's first Minister of Foreign Affairs, Georg Dertingen arrested for "espionage", beginning a purge of senior officials, accused of spying for 'imperialistic powers' and plotting against the state
Jan 16 Egyptian Premier General Naguib disbands all political parties
Jan 16 KXLY TV channel 4 in Spokane, Washington (ABC/CBS) begins broadcasting

Owens Athletic Commission Secretary

Jan 19 American track and field olympian Jesse Owens named Illinois Athletic Commission secretary

1st Live Inauguration

Jan 20 1st live US coast-to-coast inauguration address (Eisenhower)

34th US President and WWII General Dwight D. Eisenhower

Jan 20 1st US telecast transmitted to Canada from Buffalo, New York

Dulles US Secretary of State

Jan 21 John Foster Dulles appointed as US Secretary of State

US Secretary of State John Foster Dulles

Jan 22 1953 NFL Draft: Harry Babcock from University of Georgia first pick by San Francisco 49ers

The Crucible

Jan 22 Arthur Miller's play "The Crucible" premieres at the Martin Beck Theater on Broadway in NYC (1953 Tony for Best Play)

Jan 23 NFL Dallas Texans become Baltimore Colts (now Indianapolis Colts)
Jan 23 NFL's National & American conference become Eastern & Western conference
Jan 25 WABI TV channel 5 in Bangor, ME (CBS) begins broadcasting
Jan 25 Yuri Sergejev skates world record 500m in 40.9 sec
Jan 27 Netherlands end Marshall aid
Jan 28 19-year old Derek Bentley is hanged in Wandsworth Prison, London, controversially convicted of the murder of a police officer. He was pardoned on 30th July 1998.
Jan 28 WJTV TV channel 12 in Jackson, MS (CBS) begins broadcasting
Jan 31 "Princess Victoria" capsized off Stanraer Scotland; 133 die
Jan 31 Hurricane-like winds flood Netherlands, drowning 1,835

Retaliation Against Veeck

Jan 31 MLB New York Yankees, Cleveland Indians, & Boston Red Sox retaliate against St. Louis Browns Bill Veeck for trying to relocate the team, scheduling the Browns to play afternoon games to avoid sharing TV revenues

Feb 1 "General Electric Theater" premieres on CBS TV; Ronald Reagan later hosts

"You Are There"

Feb 1 "You Are There" with Walter Cronkite premieres on CBS television

Feb 1 Dr A de Waal appointed as Netherlands' first female assistant secretary of state
Feb 1 Flooding in Netherlands kills 1,835
Feb 1 WEEK TV channel 25 in Peoria, IL (NBC) begins broadcasting
Feb 3 J Fred Muggs, a chimpanzee, becomes a regular on NBC's Today Show
Feb 5 "Peter Pan", animated film by Walt Disney opens at Roxy Theater, NYC

5th Emmy Awards

Feb 5 5th Emmy Awards: I Love Lucy, Thomas Mitchell and Helen Hayes win

Feb 5 Sweet rationing imposed in WWII ends in Britain
Feb 6 Ian Craig makes Test Cricket debut at 17 yrs 239 days, youngest Aussie
Feb 6 US controls on wages & some consumer goods lifted
Feb 8 WLVA (now WSET) TV channel 13 in Lynchburg-Roanoke, VA (ABC) begins

CIA Director Dulles

Feb 9 General Walter Bedell Smith ends term as 4th Director of Central Intelligence Agency; Allen Dulles becomes Acting Director

Feb 9 WNEP TV channel 16 in Scranton Wilkes-Barre, PA (ABC) 1st broadcast
Feb 10 Ice Dance Championship at Davos won by Westwood & Demmy GRB
Feb 10 Ice Pairs Championship at Davos won by Jennifer & John Nicks of GRB
Feb 10 Men's Figure Skating Champion in Davos won by Hayes Alan Jenkins USA
Feb 11 President Eisenhower refuses clemency appeal for Rosenberg couple
Feb 11 USSR breaks diplomatic relations with Israel
Feb 12 USSR breaks relations with Israel
Feb 13 Philadelphia A's change name of Shibe Park to Connie Mack Stadium
Feb 14 "Trionfo di Afrodite (Triumph of Aphrodite)", the final work of Carl Orff's Trionfi trilogy premieres at La Scala in Milan, Italy

Sports History

Feb 16 Ted Williams safely crash-lands his damaged Panther jet, later awarded the Air medal

Feb 17 DSB soccer team forms in Eindhoven (now PSV Eindhoven), Netherlands
Feb 18 KOLN TV channel 10 in Lincoln, NB (CBS) begins broadcasting
Feb 19 Georgia approves US 1st literature censorship board
Feb 19 William Inge's "Picnic" premieres in NYC
Feb 20 August A. Busch buys St. Louis Cardinals MLB club from Fred Saigh for $3.75 million; pledges not to move the team from St. Louis, Missouri
Feb 20 US Court of Appeals rules that Organized Baseball is a sport & not a business, affirming the 25-year-old Supreme Court ruling
Feb 21 Longest collegiate basketball game (6 OTs) Niagara beats Siena 88-81
Feb 26 Allen Dulles officially promoted from deputy director to become the 5th Director of the Central Intelligence Agency

Discovery of the DNA Double Helix

Feb 28 Francis Crick and James Watson discover the chemical structure of DNA-molecule (double-helix polymer) using studies of x-ray diffraction developed by Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins

Chemist and Molecular Biologist Rosalind Franklin

Stalin's Stroke

Mar 1 After an all-night movie and dinner session with his top advisers, Joseph Stalin suffers a stroke and collapses. He dies four days later.

Golf Tournament

Mar 1 American golfer Babe Zaharias wins a controversial Sarasota Women's Open by 7 strokes as playing partner Louise Suggs refuses to sign the scorecard after Zaharias given a beneficial ruling

Golfer and Co-Founder of the LPGA Louise Suggs

Mar 1 KAUZ TV channel 6 in Wichita Falls, TX (CBS) begins broadcasting
Mar 1 KTNT (now KSTW) TV channel 11 in Tacoma-Seattle, WA (IND) begins
Mar 1 WFBG TV (later WTAJ) channel 10 in Altoona, PA (CBS) begins broadcasting
Mar 1 WJZ-AM in NYC becomes WABC; WJZ-TV in Baltimore final transmission
Mar 3 Boston Braves, who own Milwaukee minor league franchise, block St Louis Browns attempt to shift their franchise to Milwaukee
Mar 3 Canadian Comet crashes at Karachi, 11 killed

Soviet History

Mar 6 Malenkov becomes chairman of the USSR

Mar 7 South African cricket opening batsman Jackie McGlew scores an unbeaten 255 in 1st Test win against New Zealand in Wellington
Mar 8 Census indicates 239,000 farmers gave up farming in last 2 years in US
Mar 8 KSWO TV channel 7 in Lawton, Oklahoma (ABC) begins broadcasting
Mar 8 WFMJ TV channel 21 in Youngstown, Ohio (NBC) begins broadcasting
Mar 9 Joseph Stalin's funeral is held in Moscow after four days of national mourning
Mar 11 1st woman army doctor commissioned (FM Adams)
Mar 14 KOLR TV channel 10 in Springfield, MO (CBS) begins broadcasting
Mar 15 LPGA Titleholders Championship Women's Golf, Augusta CC: Patty Berg wins her 5th Titleholders title by 9 strokes from Betsy Rawls
Mar 15 West Germany loses in soccer to Netherlands, 2-1
Mar 16 AL rejects St Louis Browns owner Bill Veeck's request to move his team to Baltimore
Mar 17 Bill Veeck says he will sell his 80% of St Louis Browns for $2,475M
Mar 17 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
Mar 17 WBAY TV channel 2 in Green Bay, WI (CBS) begins broadcasting
Mar 17 WWLP TV channel 22 in Springfield, MA (NBC) begins broadcasting
Mar 18 7.5 magnitude earthquake strikes Yenice–Gönen in western Turkey, 1070 die
Mar 18 KGNC (now KAMR) TV channel 4 in Amarillo, TX (NBC) begins broadcasting
Mar 18 MLB National League approves Boston Braves move to Milwaukee (1st shift since 1903)

Academy Awards

Mar 19 25th Academy Awards: "Greatest Show on Earth", Gary Cooper & Shirley Booth win (1st time televised)

Event of Interest

Mar 19 Tennessee Williams' "Camino Real" premieres in NYC

Mar 21 NBA record 106 fouls & 12 players foul out (Boston-Syracuse)
Mar 22 Antonín Zápotocký chosen as President of Czechoslovakia
Mar 24 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
Mar 26 "Ugetsu", Japanese film directed by Kenji Mizoguchi, starring Masayuki Mori, Machiko Kyō and Kinuyo Tanaka, is released

Vaccine for Polio

Mar 26 Dr. Jonas Salk announces that he has successfully tested a vaccine to prevent polio, clinical trials began the next year

Children with polio in a US hospital, inside an iron lung. In about 0.5% of cases, patients suffered from paralysis, sometimes resulting in the inability to breathe. More often, limbs would be paralyzed.

Mar 27 21 die in a train crash in Conneaut, Ohio
Mar 28 "Stock exchanges open, dikes closed" raises 5,200,000 guilders
Mar 28 7th Tony Awards: "The Crucible" (Outstanding Play) & "Wonderful Town" (Outstanding Musical) win
Mar 28 KCAU TV channel 9 in Sioux City, IA (ABC) begins broadcasting

Event of Interest

Mar 30 Albert Einstein announces revised unified field theory

Dag Hammarskjöld

Mar 31 UN Security Council nominates Dag Hammarskjöld for Secretary-General

Mar 31 US Department of Health, Education & Welfare established
Apr 1 J van Bale appointed governor of New Guinea
Apr 1 KXMC TV channel 13 in Minot, ND (CBS/ABC) begins broadcasting

Three West Indian Centuries

Apr 1 West Indian cricket batsmen Frank Worrell (237), Clyde Walcott (118) and Everton Weekes (109) all make centuries in 1st innings of drawn 5th Test v India in Kingston, Jamaica

Apr 2 Raab forms his 1st government in Austria

TV Guide

Apr 3 American magazine "TV Guide" publishes 1st issue; cover features photo of Lucille Ball's new born baby boy, Desiderio Alberto Arnaz IV (later professionally known as Desi Arnaz, Jr.)

Apr 4 KFDA TV channel 10 in Amarillo, TX (CBS) begins broadcasting
Apr 5 WEYI TV channel 25 in Saginaw, MI (CBS) begins broadcasting
Apr 7 1st west-to-east jet transatlantic nonstop flight
Apr 7 UN General Assembly begins session that will elect Dag Hammarskjöld of Sweden as Secretary-General

Jomo Kenyatta

Apr 8 Jomo Kenyatta convicted of involvement with the Mau Mau rebellion and sentenced to 7 years jail in Kenya

Apr 10 "House of Wax" 1st color 3-D movie, premieres in New York
Apr 10 Dag Hammarskjöld becomes the 2nd Secretary-General of the United Nations
Apr 11 Oveta Culp Hobby becomes 1st at Health, Education, & Welfare
Apr 11 US Department of Health, Education and Welfare created
Apr 12 Keizo Yamada runs fastest marathon to date, at Boston
Apr 12 KFDX TV channel 3 in Wichita Falls, TX (NBC) begins broadcasting

British Expedition to Mount Everest

Apr 12 Leading icefall party of the British expedition to climb Mount Everest reaches Base Camp at 17,900 ft (5455 m)

Tenzing Norgay brandishes his ice axe on the summit of Mount Everest

Apr 13 1st game of Milwaukee Braves, they beat Cincinnati Reds 2-0
Apr 14 Viet-Minh offensive in Laos
Apr 14 WHYN (now WGGB) TV channel 40 in Springfield-Holyoke, MA (ABC) begins
Apr 15 Malans National Party wins South African elections
Apr 15 WHP TV channel 21 in Harrisburg, PA (CBS) begins broadcasting

Event of Interest

Apr 16 British royal yacht Britannia launched by Queen Elizabeth II

Queen of the United Kingdom Elizabeth II

Apr 16 Philadelphia Phillies second baseman Connie Ryan bats 6 from 6 in a 14-12 defeat against the Pirates at Forbes Field, Pittsburgh
Apr 16 Stanley Cup Final, Montreal Forum, Montreal, Quebec: Montreal Canadiens beat Boston Bruins, 1-0 for a 4-1 series win
Apr 16 WAND TV channel 17 in Decatur, IL (ABC) begins broadcasting

Sports History

Apr 17 Mickey Mantle hits a 565' (172 m) HR in Washington, D.C.'s Griffith Stadium

Apr 19 WAFB TV channel 9 in Baton Rouge, LA (CBS) begins broadcasting
Apr 23 "Shane", directed by George Stevens and based on the 1949 novel by Jack Schaefer, starring Alan Ladd and Jean Arthur premieres
Apr 23 USAF General Charles P. Cabell becomes deputy director of CIA, serves until 1962
Apr 23 WCOV TV channel 20 in Montgomery, Alabama (IND/CBS) begins broadcasting

Winston Churchill Knighted

Apr 24 Winston Churchill knighted by Queen Elizabeth II

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill

Apr 25 Francis Crick and James Watson's discovery of the double helix structure of DNA is published in "Nature" magazine
Apr 27 1st general elections in British Guiana, won by the People's Progressive Party with Cheddi Jagan first person of Indian descent to be elected head of government outside South Asia
Apr 27 Wrestler Freddie Blassie coins term "Pencil neck geek"
Apr 29 6th Cannes Film Festival: "The Wages of Fear" directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot wins the Grand Prix du Festival International du Film
Apr 29 Milwaukee Braves' Joe Adcock is 1st to homer into Polo Grounds center field bleachers
Apr 29 The first U.S. experimental 3D-TV broadcast showed an episode of Space Patrol on Los Angeles ABC affiliate KECA-TV

Sports History

Apr 30 Little-Bigger League changes its name to Babe Ruth League

May 2 Feisal II installed as King of Iraq
May 2 Hussein I installed as King of Jordan
May 2 KYTL (now KPNX) TV channel 12 in Mesa/Phoenix, Arizona AZ (NBC) begins broadcasting with a telethon to benefit United Cerebral Palsy
May 3 Westchester conference of American Library Association proclaims "Freedom to Read"
May 3 WTVO TV channel 17 in Rockford, IL (NBC) begins broadcasting

Pulitzer to Hemingway

May 4 Pulitzer Prize for Literature awarded to Ernest Hemingway for "The Old Man and The Sea"

May 6 MLB St. Louis Browns Alva "Bobo" Holloman, in his first start game as starting pitcher, no-hits visiting Philadelphia A's, 6-0
May 7 Record 537-kg swordfish is caught by LE Marron, in Chile
May 8 WIPB TV channel 49 in Muncie, IN (PBS) begins broadcasting
May 10 KCBD TV channel 11 in Lubbock, TX (NBC) begins broadcasting
May 11 Tornado kills 114 in Waco Texas ($39M damage)
May 11 Winston Churchill criticizes US Secretary of State John Foster Dulles' domino theory
May 12 KUHT TV channel 8 (PBS) in Houston, TX, begins broadcasting

Marciano KOs Walcott

May 15 In his first world heavyweight title defense, Rocky Marciano KOs former champion Jersey Joe Walcott in the 1st round at Chicago Stadium

Heavyweight Boxing Champion Rocky Marciano

Heavyweight Boxing Champion Jersey Joe Walcott

May 15 Osip Zadkine's monument to "The destroyed city" unveiled in Rotterdam
May 15 The Urey-Miller experiment using primordial soup to show how life of earth might have originated, written by Stanley Miller, is published in the journal "Science" [1]
May 16 Philadelphia Phillies Curt Simmons gives up a lead-off single, then retires next 27 in a row in 3-0 win over Braves at County Stadium in Milwaukee
May 17 Yanks & Browns use record 41 players in a game
May 18 American Jacqueline Cochran becomes the first woman to break the sound barrier
May 19 Nuclear explosion in Nevada (fall-out in St George, Utah)
May 19 US House of Representatives votes to ratify the state constitution and admit Ohio to the Union retroactively as of March 1, 1803, 150 years after overlooking the paperwork [1]
May 21 French government of René Mayer resigns
May 22 US President Eisenhower signs Offshore Oil Bill
May 22 Yankee Irv Noren hits into a triple-play, Yanks beat Wash 12-4
May 23 WHIZ TV channel 18 in Zanesville, OH (NBC/ABC) begins broadcasting