1952

Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s - 1950s - 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s

1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 - 1952 - 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957

Events

• January 8 - West Germany has 8 million refugees inside its borders.
• January 24 - -Sudden heavy snowfall in Algeria
• January 24 - Vincent Massey sworn in as first Canada-born Governor-General of Canada

• February 6 - Elizabeth II becomes Queen upon the death of her father George VI. In Britain, Prime Minister Winston Churchill disclosed that Britain had developed an atomic bomb which was to be tested off the coast of Australia. Meanwhile in the United States, a mechanical heart was used for the first time in a human patient.
• February 14 - - February 25 - Winter Olympics in Oslo
• February 15 - The Funeral of King George VI
• February 20 - Emmett L. Ashford becomes the first African-American umpire in organized baseball by being authorized to be a substitute umpire in the Southwestern International League.
• February 26 - United Kingdom Prime Minister Winston Churchill announces that his nation has an atomic bomb
• March 10 -- General Fulgencio Batista takes power in Cuba - again
• March 20 - The United States Senate ratifies a peace treaty with Japan.
• March 27 - - Failed assassination attempt against Konrad Adenauer
• April 4 -- In Hague tribunal, Israel demands reparations worth 3 billion dollars from Germany
• April 18 - -West Germany and Japan form diplomatic relations
• April 23 - Nuclear test in Nevada desert.
• April 28 - the Treaty of San Francisco went into effect : the occupation of Japan ended formally.
• April 29 - -Japan regains official independence. This ends the period of Occupied Japan and marks the birth of Modern Japan.
• April 29 - -Two Soviet fighters fire on French passenger plane over Germany
• Australia,_New_Zealand,_United_States_security_treaty_comes_into_force./">- Australia, New Zealand, United States security treaty comes into force.
• May 1 - - East Germany threatens to form its own army.
• May 2 - First passenger jet flight route between London and Johannesburg
• May 6 - Farouk of Egypt had himself announced as a descendant of prophet Mohammed.
• May 13 - Pandit Nehru forms his first government
• May 15 - Flash flood in Lymouth, Britain - 35 dead
• June 1 - Catholic church bans books of Andre Gide
• June 5 - Remains of a viking ship found near Boston
• June 21 - USA launches the first nuclear submarine USS Nautilus
• June 29 - Finnish Armi Kuusela wins the title of Miss Universe
• June 30 - Marshall Aid ends
• July 13 - East Germany annouces formation of its people's army.
• July 19 to August 3 - The Summer Olympic Games are held in Helsinki.
• July 23 - General Mohammed Naguib leads The Free Officers (formed by Gamal Abdel Nasser - the real power behind the coup) in the overthrow of King Farouk of Egypt.
• July 25 - Puerto Rico becomes a self-governing commonwealth of the United States.
• July 26 - Military coup in Egypt ousts King Faruk
• August 2 -- West Germany joins IMF
• August 10 - Establishment of the European Coal and Steel community
• August 11 - Jordanian army forces king Talal to resign - his successor is his son Hussein of Jordan
• August 14 - West Germany joins World Bank
• August 16 - Lynmouth in North Devon is devastated by floods, death toll of 31
• August 26 - British passenger jet flies twice over Atlantic in the same day
• August 27 - Reparation negotiations between West Germany and Israel end in Luxembourg - Germany will pay 3 billion D-marks.
• August 29 - Premiere of John Cage's 4' 33" in Woodstock, New York
• August 30 - Last Finnish war reparations to Soviet Union
• September 4 -- September 9 - Thick smog in London causes 4,000 fatalities
• September 18 - Soviet Union vetoes Japan's application for membership of United Nations
• October 8 - Negotiations of ceasefire in Korea are postponed
• October 8 - Three-train crash in Harrow railway station in England - 110 dead
• October 14 - United Nations begins work in the new United Nations building in New York City
• October 20 -- Martial Law in Kenya due to Mau Mau uprising
• November 1 - Nuclear testing: Operation Ivy - The United States successfully detonates the first hydrogen bomb, codenamed "Mike" ["m" for megaton], at Eniwetok island in the Bikini atoll located in the Pacific Ocean.
• November 4 - 8.25 Richter scale earthquake in Kamchatka
• November 4 - U.S. presidential election, 1952: Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower defeats Democrat Adlai Stevenson (correctly predicted by UNIVAC computer).
• November 18 - Jomo Kenyatta is arrested in Kenya for alleged connection to Mau Mau uprising
• November 20 - Fireball crashes in a backyard in Havelock North, New Zealand
• November 20 - First official passenger flight over the North Pole from Los Angeles to Copenhagen
• November 21 - Show trial in Czechoslovakia sentences 11 ex-communist officials to death - all of them Jews.
• November 25 - Agatha Christie's murder-mystery play The Mousetrap opens at the Ambassadors Theatre in London; as of 2004, it continues, next door at the St. Martin's Theatre, and remains the longest continuously running production of a play in history.
• November 29 - Korean War: Newly-elected US President Dwight D. Eisenhower fulfills a campaign promise by traveling to Korea to find out what can be done to end the conflict.
• December 1 - The New York Daily News carries a front page story announcing that Christine Jorgensen, a transsexual woman in Denmark became the recipient of the first successful sexual reassignment operation.
• December 4 - Great Smog of 1952: A "killer fog" descends on London ("Smog" for "smoke" and "fog" becomes a word).
• December 14 - First successful surgical separation of siamese twins in Mount Sinai hospital, Ohio.
• December 25 - Shooting incident in West Berlin - one West German soldier is killed

• National Security Agency founded
• Churchill scraps UK compulsory national Identity Cards
• Cold War over Germany's frontiers intensify
• Sister Theresa becomes Mother Theresa and begins her charity work in Calcutta
• Charles Chaplin expelled from USA
• 3,300 die of polio in USA, 57,000 children are paralyzed
• Traffic lights in New York City
• Wernher von Braun talks about a manned flight to Mars.

Year in topic

• 1952 in film
  • February 20 - The film The African Queen opens (Capitol Theatre in New York City).
  • Cinerama-system
• 1952 in literature
• 1952 in music
  • "Hound Dog" - Big Mama Thornton
• 1952 in sports
• 1952 in television
  • January 14 - The Today show premieres on NBC.
  • September - The first UHF television station, KLOR begins broadcasting in Portland, Oregon.
  • The first political advertisements appear on U.S. television. Democrats buy a 30 minute slot for their candidate, Adlai Stevenson. Stevenson is bombarded with hate mail for interfering with a broadcast of I Love Lucy. Dwight Eisenhower buys 20 second commercial spots and wins the election.
  • The Ernie Kovacs Show premieres. Kovacs pushes the limits of television technology with his use of camera tricks and special effects.
  • The first telecast of an atomic bomb detonation (KTLA)
• 1952 in theater
  • October 31 - Stratford Shakespeare Festival of Canada becomes a legal entity.

Births

• January 11 - Lee Ritenour, musician, composer
• January 11 - Ben Crenshaw, golfer
• January 12 - Ricky Van Shelton, country musician
• January 20 - Paul Stanley, musician, of the rock band KISS
• February 1 - Rick James, musician
• February 18 - Juice Newton, country music entertainer
• February 19 - Amy Tan, novelist
• March 2 - Laraine Newman, comedian
• March 11 - Douglas Adams, science fiction author
• March 13 - Wolfgang Rihm, composer
• March 22 - Bob Costas, sports announcer
• March 23 - Kim Stanley Robinson, science fiction author
• March 29 - Teofilo Stevenson, boxer
• April 22 - Marilyn Chambers, erotic actress
• May 11 - Renaud Séchan, French composer
• May 11 - Mike Lupica, sports journalist
• May 11 - Frances Farmer, actress
• May 14 - David Byrne, singer, songwriter, guitarist
• May 14 - Robert Zemeckis, director
• May 18 - George Strait, country musician
• May 19 - Joey Ramone, singer (d. 2001)
• May 20 - Roger Milla, Cameroonian footballer
• May 21 - Mr. T, American actor, is born Laurence Tureaud, in Chicago
• May 23 - Marvelous Marvin Hagler, boxer
• June 7 - Liam Neeson, actor
• June 16 - Georgios Papandreou, Greek politician
• August 3 - Osvaldo Ardiles, Argentinian footballer
• August 13 - Herb Ritts, celebrity photographer
• August 24 - Joe Strummer, musician
• October 7- Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin
• November 25 - Imran Khan, Pakistani cricketer
• December 16 - Joel Garner, West Indian cricketer
• December 28 - Arun Jaitley, politician, India

Deaths

• January 18 - Curly Howard, actor, comedian, member of the Three Stooges
• February 6 - King George VI of the United Kingdom
• February 19 - Knut Hamsun, author
• March 7 - Paramahansa Yogananda, Indian guru
• March 22 - Uncle Dave Macon, country music performer
• April 3 - Miina Sillanpää, Finnish left-wing trade union activist
• April 21 - Sir Stafford Cripps, British politician, Chancellor of the Exchequer 1947-1950
• May 6 - Maria Montessori founder of the Montessori teaching method and schools; cerebral haemorraghae
• May 8 - Walter Fox, US movie producer
• May 21 - John Garfield, actor
• June 17 - Krystyna Skarbek SOE agent, heroine of WW II
• July 26 - Eva Peron, "Evita", wife of Juan Peron
• February 22 - Kaarlo Juho Ståhlberg, first president of Finland
• September 29 - George Santayana, writer
• November 23 - Aaro Hellaakoski, Finnish poet
• Chaim Weizmann, first president of Israel

Nobel Prizes

• Physics - Felix Bloch, - Edward Mills Purcell
• Chemistry - Archer John Porter Martin, Richard Laurence Millington Synge
• Medicine - Selman Abraham Waksman
• Literature - François Mauriac
• Peace - Albert Schweitzer

Referenced By