- January 16
- New Dutch bible translation finished. [1]
- January 20
- British army occupies Ismailiya, Suez Canal Zone. [1]
- January 21
- Nehru's Congress party wins general election in India. [1]
- January 22
- The first Jet airliner (the de Havilland Comet) enters service for BOAC. [5]
- January 24
- Fire in main building of French Port Martin Antarctic base. [1]
- January 30
- Lehmer verifies 2^521-1 and 2^607-1 (183 ciphers) Mersenne-prime numbers. [1]
- January 31
- Dutch Lutheran Church reunites after 150 years. [1]
- February 1
- General strike against French colonial management in Tunisia. [1]
- February 6
- King George VI of Great Britain and Northern Ireland dies of lung cancer in his sleep at the royal estate at Sandringham at age 56. 25-year-old daughter becomes Queen Elizabeth II. [1] [129] [1126.136] [1452.46]
- February 19
- French offensive at Hanoi, Vietnam. [1]
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- February 21
- Bangladesh Martyrs Day (martyrs of Bengali Language Movement). [1]
- February 26
- Netherlands-Indonesian Unity conference. [1]
- Prime Minister Winston Churchill announces that Britain has its own atomic bomb. [1] [5]
- March 1
- Egyptian government-Ali Maher Pasja resigns. [1]
- Heligoland, in North Sea, returned to Federal Republic of Germany by Britain. [1]
- March 3
- Puerto Rico approves their first self-written constitution. [1]
- March 8
- Antoine Pinay forms French government. [1]
- March 10
- Military coup by General Fulgencio Batista in Cuba. [1]
- March 16
- Greatest 24-hour rainfall: 187 cm in Cilaos, Réunion, in the Indian Ocean. [1]
- March 18
- First plastic lens for cataract patients fitted (Philadelphia). [1]
- Communist offensive in Korea. [1]
- March 20
- US Senate's final ratification of peace treaty restoring sovereignty to Japan. [1]
- March 21
- A J Pieters, SS-Untersturmführer, is executed. [1]
- Alan Freed presents Moondog Coronation Ball at old Cleveland Arena, 25,000 attend first rock and roll concert ever. [1]
- Tornadoes in Arkansas, Tennessee, Missouri, Mississippi, Alabama and Kentucky cause 343 deaths. [1]
- Wilhelm Albrecht, German SD-chief, is executed. [1]
- March 22
- Dutch DC-6 crashes near Frankfurt, Germany, killing 44. [1]
- March 24
- Great demonstrations against apartheid in South Africa. [1]
- March 27
- Failed assassination attempt of German Chancellor Adenauer. [1]
- April 1
- Big Bang theory proposed in Physical Review by Alpher, Bethe and Gamow. [1]
- April 3
- Dutch Queen Juliana speaks to US Congress. [1]
- April 9
- Popular uprising in Bolivia. [1]
- April 12
- Salaheddine Baccouche forms Tunisian government. [1]
- April 15
- Franklin National Bank issues first bank credit card. [1]
- US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site. [1]
- April 21
- BOAC (British Overseas Airways Corporation) begins first passenger service with jets (London-Rome route). [1]
- April 22
- First atomic explosion on network news, Nob Nevada. [1] [1488.17]
- April 23
- Oil pipeline from Kirkuk to Banias completed. [1]
- April 25
- German "Country" Bathe-Württemberg forms. [1]
- April 26
- US minesweeper Hobson rams aircraft carrier Wasp, killing 176. [1]
- April 28
- Japan and the United States sign a formal peace treaty. [1] [10]
- May 1
- US Marines take part in an atomic explosion training in Nevada. [1]
- "Mr Potato Head" toy is introduced; first toy advertised on television. [1]
- May 2
- The world's first-ever jet airliner (the BOAC De Havilland Comet 1) makes its maiden voyage, flying from London to Johannesburg. [1] [5]
- May 3
- First landing by an airplane at geographic North Pole. [1]
- May 5
- Pulitzer prize awarded to Herman Wouk (The Caine Mutiny). [1]
- May 8
- May 13
- Pandit Nehru becomes premier of India. [1]
- May 18
- Professor WF Libby says Stonehenge dates back to 1848 BCE. [1]
- May 21
- Dutch Queen Juliana opens Amsterdam-Rhine Canal. [1]
- May 27
- European Defense Community forms. [1]
- May 28
- The women of Greece are given sufferage. [5]
- May 29
- Second Round Conference between Dutch Antilles and Suriname ends. [1]
- June 13
- A DC-3 plane takes off from Bromma airport in Sweden, to gather Russian intelligence over the Baltic Sea for the British. At about 108 miles southeast of Stockholm, a Soviet Mig 15 plane shoots it down over international waters. (The plane and eight Swedes on board are never found, and the Soviet Union denies involvement until 1991. The plane is located in June 2003.) [7]
- June 29
- First aircraft carrier to sail around Cape Horn - USS Oriskany. [1]
- July 15
- First transatlantic helicopter flight begins. [1]
- July
- The United States Lines' United States ocean liner (53,000 gross tons, 990-foot hull) captures the Blue Ribbon with the fastest crossing of the Atlantic. [260.75] [274.201]
- July 22
- Polish constitution is adopted. [1]
- July 23
- A military junta in Egypt under command of Gamal Abdel Nasser overthrows King Farouk. [405.34] [1516.42] [1842.268]
- July 25
- Puerto Rico officially becomes a U.S commonwealth. [1] [486.94]
- July 29
- First nonstop transpacific flight by a jet. [1]
- August 11
- Hussein proclaimed king of Jordan. [1]
- August 15
- 9 inches of rainfall creates a 20-foot wave in Lynmouth, England, killing 34. [1]
- September 11
- West German Chancellor Adenauer signs a reparation pact for Jews. [1]
- September 15
- United Nations turns over Eritrea to Ethiopia. [1]
- September 24
- Underwater volcano explodes under research vessel Kaiyo-maru-5. [1]
- October 1
- The world's first Ultra High Frequency (UHF) TV station offically begind broadcasting, KPTV in Portland, Oregon, USA. [1] [457]
- October 3
- (9:24am) On Montebello islands off Western Australia, Great Britain detonates its first plutonium nuclear bomb, detonated 3m underwater. Yield is approximately 25 kilotons. The plutonium bomb had been researched since 1941 under code name Tube Alloys. Code name for the detonation is Operation Hurricane. [1426.28] [1433.22]
- First video recording on magnetic tape, Los Angeles, California. [1]
- October 6
- A double collision of trains at Harrow and Wealdstone, England, results in 112 deaths. [720.24]
- October 8
- Two trains collide with a derailed commuter train, kills 112 (England). [1]
- October 23
- German former Army Commander-in-Chief Albert Kesslering is pardoned and freed from British captivity. [10]
- October 24
- Arab Liberation Movement becomes the only party of Syria. [1]
- November 1
- First hydrogen thermonuclear device (10.4 megatons) exploded by US at Eniwetok Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. Code name for the project was Ivy Mike. [1] [1426.48] [1433.22]
- November 4
- A 9.0-magnitude earthquake strikes Kamchatka off the east coast of Russia, causing 30-foot waves in Hawaii. [383.A8]
- Dwight Eisenhower (Republican) elected 34th US President beating Adlai Stevenson (Democrat). [1]
- November 18
- A briefing document is prepared for president-elect Dwight Eisenhower on Operation Majestic 12, top secret research and development and intelligence operation to deal with the UFO issue. [861.164]
- November 25
- Agatha Christie's murder-mystery play The Mousetrap opens at the Ambassadors Theatre in London, England. (It becomes the longest continuously running play in history, with more than ten million people to date (2008) attending its more than 20,000 performances in London's West End.) [1] [129]
- November 29
- US President-elect Dwight Eisenhower visits Korea to assess the war. [1]
- December 2
- First human birth televised to public (KOA-TV Denver, Colorado, USA). [1]
- December 3
- Marcos Perez Jiménez elected President of Venezuela. [1]
- December 4
- Killer fogs begin in London England; "Smog" becomes a word. Over 4000 die. [1]
- Walter P Reuther chosen chairman of CIO. [1]
- December 6
- Czechoslovakian government tells Israeli ambassador he is persona non grata. [1]
- December 8
- French troops shoot on demonstrators at Casablanca, 50 die. [1]
- Isaak Ben-Zwi elected President of Israel. [1]
- December 10
- Yitzhak Ben-Zvi elected second President of Israel. [1]
- December 14
- Uprising of captives in Pongam, South Korea; 82 die. [1]
- December 15
- Christine Jorgenson is first person to undergo a sex-change operation. [1]
- Pope Pius XII publishes encyclical Orientales Ecclesias. [1]
- December 22
- French government of Pinay resigns. [1]
- December 25
- German former army commander Wilhelm List is pardoned and freed from captivity. [10]
- December 29
- First transistorized hearing aid offered for sale (Elmsford, New York). [1]
- December 30
- Tuskegee Institute reports 1952 as first year in 71 years with no lynchings in USA. [1]
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