1952
1952 (
MCMLII) was a
Leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar).
January
*
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
*
February 2 - A
tropical storm forms just north of
Cuba moving northeast. The storm makes landfall in southern
Florida the next day. It is the earliest reported landfall from a tropical storm, and the earliest formation of a tropical storm on record in the
Atlantic basin.
*
February 6 -
Elizabeth II becomes
Queen upon the death of her father
George VI.
*
February 6 - In the
United States, a
mechanical heart is used for the first time in a human patient.
*
February 14 to
February 25 -
Winter Olympics in
Oslo*
February 15 - Funeral of
King George VI takes place at
St George's Chapel,
Windsor Castle.
*
February 16 - Roman Catholic
Diocese of Baker formed in Eastern
Oregon.
*
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 21 -
Winston Churchill scraps
UK compulsory national
Identity Cards*
February 26 -
United Kingdom Prime Minister Winston Churchill announces that his nation has an
atomic bomb.
March
*
March 4 -
Ronald Reagan marries
Nancy Davis.
*
March 10 - General
Fulgencio Batista takes power in
Cuba - again
*
March 15 to
March 16 - 73 inches (1,870mm) of
rain falls in
Cilaos,
Réunion, the most
rainfall ever in one day
*
March 20 - The
United States Senate ratifies a
peace treaty with
Japan.
*
March 21 - The last two
executions in
the Netherlands take place.
*
March 21 - Dr
Kwame Nkrumah elected the Prime Minister of the
Gold Coast*
March 27 - Failed
assassination attempt against
Konrad AdenauerApril
*
April 4 - In
Hague tribunal,
Israel demands
reparations worth 3 billion dollars from
Germany.
*
April 18 -
Bolivia National Revolution: universal vote enables indigenous and women to vote,
nationalisation of mines and agrarian reform.
*
April 18 -
West Germany and
Japan form
diplomatic relations.
*
April 23 -
Nuclear test in
Nevada desert.
*
April 28 - The
Treaty of San Francisco goes into effect, formally ending the
occupation of
Japan.
*
April 28 -
Treaty of Taipei (Treaty of Peace between
Japan and the Republic of China)
May
*
May 1 -
East Germany threatens to form its own army.
*
May 2 - First passenger jet flight route between
London and
Johannesburg*
May 3 -
U.S. lieutenant colonels
Joseph O. Fletcher and
William P. Benedict land a plane at the
geographic North Pole.
*
May 6 -
Farouk of Egypt had himself announced as a descendant of
prophet Muhammad.
*
May 13 -
Pandit Nehru forms his first government
*
May 15 -
Diplomatic relations established between the governments of
Israel and
Japan at the level of
Legations.
June
*
June 1 -
Catholic church bans books of
André Gide.
*
June 5 - Remains of a
Viking ship found near
Boston, Massachusetts.
*
June 14 - The
keel is laid for the
U.S. nuclear submarine
USS Nautilus.
*
June 15 - The Diary of
Anne Frank published.
*
June 29 -
Finnish Armi Kuusela wins the title of
Miss Universe.
*
June 30 -
Marshall Aid ends.
July
*
July 13 -
East Germany announces formation of its people's army.
*
July 19 to
August 3 - The
Summer Olympic Games are held in
Helsinki.
*
July 19 to
July 26 - Washington D.C. "buzzed" by several
UFOs tracked on multiple radars. Jets scrambled on several occasions and objects took evasive action only to return after the jets left the area.
*
July 21 - A magnitude 7.5
earthquake (
richter scale) strikes
Tehachapi, California, destroying unreinforced brick buildings.
*
July 23 - Establishment of the
European Coal and Steel community.
*
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
Farouk.
August
*
August 11 -
Jordanian army forces
king Talal to resign due to mental illness - his successor is his son
Hussein of Jordan.
*
August 13 -
Japan joins
IMF.
*
August 14 -
West Germany joins
IMF.
*
August 14 -
West Germany joins
World Bank.
*
August 16 -
Lynmouth in North
Devon England is devastated by
floods, death toll of 34.
*
August 26 -
British passenger jet flies twice over
Atlantic Ocean in the same day.
*
August 27 -
Reparation negotiations between
West Germany and
Israel end in
Luxembourg - Germany will pay 3 billion
Deutsche Marks.
*
August 29 - Premiere of
John Cage's
4' 33" in
Woodstock, New York.
*
August 30 - Last
Finnish war reparations to
Soviet Union.
September
*
September 2 - Dr.
C. Walton Lillehei and Dr.
F. John Lewis perform first open-
heart surgery at the
University of Minnesota.
*
September 4 -
September 9 - Thick
smog in
London, England causes 4,000 fatalities.
*
September 6 -
TV debuts in
Canada as the
CBC in
Montreal, Quebec airs.
*
September 8 - CBC
Toronto debuts.
*
September 18 -
Soviet Union vetoes
Japan's application for membership in the
United Nations.
October
*
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 19 -
Alain Bombard begins to sail from
Canary Islands to
Barbados in 65 days; he reaches them
December 23*
October 20 -
Martial law in
Kenya due to
Mau Mau uprising.
November
*
November 1 -
Nuclear testing:
Operation Ivy - The
United States successfully
detonates the first
hydrogen bomb, codenamed "Mike", at
Eniwetok Atoll in the
Marshall Islands in the central
Pacific Ocean, with a
yield of 10.4
megatons.
*
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 the
UNIVAC computer).
*
November 18 -
Jomo Kenyatta is arrested in
Kenya for alleged connection to
Mau Mau uprising
*
November 20 -
Slánský trials - series of Stalinist and largely anti-Semitic show trials in Czechoslovakia.
*
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:
U.S. President-elect
Dwight D. Eisenhower fulfills a
political campaign promise by traveling to
Korea to find out what can be done to end the conflict.
December
*
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 20 - Crash of U.S. Air Force C-124 Globemaster at Moses Lake, WA kills 86 servicemen
*
December 25 - Shooting incident in
West Berlin - one
West German soldier is killed
*
December 26 -
Joseph Ivor Linton, first
Israeli Minister Plenipotentiary in
Japan, presents his
credentials to the
Japanese Emperor.
Undated events
*3300 die of
polio in
U.S.; 57,000 children are
paralyzed*
National Security Agency founded
*
Cold War over
Germany's frontiers intensify
*
Charles Chaplin expelled from
U.S.*
Cheez Whiz introduced
*
Traffic lights in
New York City*
Wernher von Braun talks about a manned flight to
Mars.
*
Nordic Council agrees free transport of people, goods and services throughout the
Nordic Countries.
*
National Prohibition Foundation incorporated.
*
World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) Founded .
February
*
February 1 -
Stan Kasten, baseball executive, currently President of the
Washington Nationals*
February 3 -
Dermot Morgan, Irish actor and comedian (d.
1998)
*
February 21 -
Bruno Bertone, Italian guitarist and teacher
*
February 22 -
William Frist, heart surgeon and U.S. Senator
*
February 25 -
Joey Dunlop, Northern Irish motorcycle racer (d.
2000)
*
February 29 -
Gary The Retard, member of
The Wack Pack from radio's
The Howard Stern ShowMarch
*
March 1 -
Steven Barnes, American author
*
March 1 -
Martin O'Neill, Northern Irish footballer and football manager
*
March 2 -
Laraine Newman, American comedian
*
March 4 -
Umberto Tozzi, Italian singer
*
March 4 -
Ronn Moss, American actor
*
March 4 -
Scott Hicks, Australian movie director
*
March 7 -
Viv Richards, West Indian cricket captain
*
March 11 -
Douglas Adams, English author (d.
2001)
*
March 13 -
Wolfgang Rihm, German composer
*
March 22 -
Bob Costas, American sports announcer
*
March 23 -
Kim Stanley Robinson, American author
*
March 25 -
Jung Chang, Chinese-born author and historian
*
March 25 -
Antanas Mockus, Colombian mathematician and politician
*
March 29 -
Teofilo Stevenson, Cuban boxer
*
March 30 -
Peter Knights, Australian footballer and coach
April
*
April 4 -
Rosemarie Ackermann, German athlete
*
April 11 -
Peter Windsor, British sports reporter
*
April 12 -
Ralph Wiley, American sports journalist (d.
2004)
*
April 16 -
Billy West, American voice actor
*
April 17 -
Željko Ražnatović, Serbian mobster and paramilitary leader (d.
2000)
*
April 22 -
Marilyn Chambers, American actress
*
April 25 -
Ketil Bjørnstad, Norwegian pianist
*
April 28 -
Mary McDonnell, American actress
May
*
May 2 -
Campbell McComas, Australian impersonator and broadcaster
*
May 2 -
Isla St Clair, Scottish singer
*
May 3 -
Allan Wells, Scottish athlete
*
May 3 -
Leonid Khachiyan, Russian-born mathematician
*
May 4 -
Michael Barrymore, British comedian and TV presenter
*
May 6 -
Michael O'Hare, American actor
*
May 10 -
Thomas Paty Stamps, American bankruptcy attorney and historian
*
May 11 -
Renaud Séchan, French composer
*
May 11 -
Mike Lupica, American sports journalist
*
May 14 -
David Byrne, Scottish-born singer, songwriter, and guitarist (
Talking Heads)
*
May 14 -
Robert Zemeckis, American director
*
May 18 -
George Strait, American musician
*
May 18 -
Diane Duane, American writer
*
May 19 -
Bert van Marwijk, Dutch football manager
*
May 20 -
Roger Milla, Cameroonian footballer
*
May 21 -
Mr. T, American actor
*
May 28 -
Victoria Cunningham, American actress and Playmate
June
*
June 7 -
Liam Neeson, Northern Irish actor
*
June 16 -
Georgios Papandreou, Greek politician
*
June 20 -
John Goodman, American actor
*
June 20 -
Vikram Seth, Indian novelist
*
June 21 -
Jeremy Coney,
New Zealand cricket captains*
June 21 -
Kôichi Mashimo, Japanese anime director
*
June 22 -
Graham Greene (actor), American actor
*
June 24 -
Stephen Pusey, British-born artist
*
June 28 -
Pietro Mennea, Italian athlete
*
June 28 -
David Miner, Musician & Record producer
July
*
July 1 -
Dan Aykroyd, Canadian actor
*
July 9 -
John Tesh, American composer, musician, and television host
*
July 12 -
Voja Antonić,
Serbian inventor and writer
*
July 31 -
João Barreiros, Portuguese author
August
*
August 1 -
Zoran Djindjic,
Prime Minister of Serbia (d.
2003)
*
August 3 -
Osvaldo Ardiles, Argentine footballer
*
August 4 -
James Arbuthnot, British politician
*
August 8 -
Jostein Gaarder, Norwegian author
*
August 8 -
Robin Quivers, American radio personality
*
August 9 -
Vicki Morgan, American model (d.
1983)
*
August 10 -
Daniel Hugh Kelly, American actor
*
August 13 -
Herb Ritts, American photographer
*
August 14 -
Carl Lumbly, American actor
*
August 16 -
Reginald VelJohnson, American actor
*
August 19 -
Jonathan Frakes, American actor
*
August 21 -
Joe Strummer, British musician (
The Clash) (d.
2002)
*
August 24 -
Linton Kwesi Johnson, Jamaican-born musician
*
August 28 -
Wendelin Wiedeking, German businessman
September
*
September 4 -
Joseph Patrick Kennedy II, son of
Robert F Kennedy and
Ethel Skakel Kennedy and nephew of U.S president
John F Kennedy and
Edward M Kennedy*
September 18 -
Dee Dee Ramone, American bassist (
The Ramones) (d.
2002)
*
September 22 -
Bob Goodlatte, U.S. Congressman from Virginia
*
September 24 -
Mark Sandman, American musician and artist (
Morphine) (d.
1999)
*
September 25 -
Christopher Reeve, American actor and activist (d.
2004)
*
September 29 -
Max Sandlin, American politician
October
*
October 5 -
Duncan Regehr, Canadian actor
*
October 7 -
Vladimir Putin, Russian president
*
October 9 -
Sharon Osbourne, wife and manager of
Ozzy Osbourne*
October 14 -
Nikolai Andrianov, Soviet gymnast
*
October 16 -
Ron Taylor, American actor (died
2002)
*
October 26 -
Andrew Motion, English poet
*
October 28 -
Annie Potts, American actress
November
*
November 5 -
Bill Walton, American basketball player and commentator
*
November 6 -
Michael Cunningham, American writer
*
November 8 -
Jan Raas, Dutch professional cyclist
*
November 15 -
Daniel Barenboim, Israeli pianist and conductor
*
November 16 -
Shigeru Miyamoto, Japanese game designer
*
November 17 -
Ties Kruize, Dutch field hockey player
*
November 25 -
Imran Khan, Pakistani cricketer
*
November 28 -
S. Epatha Merkerson, American actress
December
*
December 6 -
Rick Charlesworth, Australian cricketer, politician, hockey player and coach
*
December 9 -
Michael Dorn, American actor
*
December 14 -
Vicki Michelle, English actress
*
December 15 -
Hwang Woo-Suk,
South Korean biomedical scientist*
December 16 -
Joel Garner, West Indian cricketer
*
December 28 -
Arun Jaitley, Indian politician
*
December 30 -
June Anderson, American soprano
January
*
January 18 -
Curly Howard, American actor and comedian (b.
1903)
February
*
February 6 - King
George VI of the United Kingdom (b.
1895)
*
February 19 -
Knut Hamsun, Norwegian author,
Nobel Prize laureate (b.
1859)
*
February 22 -
Kaarlo Juho Ståhlberg, first
President of Finland (b.
1863)
March
*
March 5 -
Charles Scott Sherrington, English physiologist,
Nobel Prize laureate (b.
1857)
*
March 7 -
Paramahansa Yogananda, Indian guru (b.
1893)
*
March 22 -
Uncle Dave Macon, American musician (b.
1870)
*
March 31 -
Wallace H. White, Jr., U.S. Senator from Maine (b.
1877)
April
*
April 3 -
Miina Sillanpää, Finnish politician (b.
1866)
*
April 21 - Sir
Stafford Cripps, British
Chancellor of the Exchequer (b.
1889)
*
April 23 -
Julius Freed, American inventor and banker (b.
1887)
May
*
May 6 -
Maria Montessori, Italian educator (cerebral hemorrhage) (b.
1870)
*
May 21 -
John Garfield, American actor (b.
1913)
June
*
June 17 -
Krystyna Skarbek, Polish-born British agent in World War II (b.
1915)
July
*
July 26 -
Eva Peron, Argentine wife of
Juan Peron (b.
1919)
September
*
September 29 -
George Santayana, Spanish-born writer (b.
1863)
*
September 30 -
Viscount Waldorf Astor, American-born businessman and politician (b.
1879)
October
*
October 28 -
Billy Hughes, seventh
Prime Minister of Australia (b.
1862)
November
*
November 9 -
Chaim Weizmann, first
President of Israel (b.
1874)
*
November 18 -
Paul Eluard, French poet (b.
1895)
*
November 21 -
William D. Upshaw, American
temperance movement leader (b.
1866)
*
November 26 -
Sven Hedin, Swedish explorer, geographer and geopolitician (b.
1865)
December
*
December 12 -
Bedrich Hrozný, Czech orientalist and linguist (b.
1879)
*
December 28 -
Fletcher Henderson, American musician (b.
1897)
Unknown date
*
Ernst Rüdin, Swiss psychiatrist, geneticist, and eugenicist (b.
1874)
*
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
