1953 in the United States explained
Events from the year 1953 in the United States.
Incumbents
Harry S. Truman (D-Missouri) (until January 20)
Dwight D. Eisenhower (R-Kansas/New York) (starting January 20)
Alben W. Barkley (D-Kentucky) (until January 20)
Richard Nixon (R-California) (starting January 20)
Fred M. Vinson (Kentucky) (died September 8)
Earl Warren (California) (starting October 5)
- Speaker of the House of Representatives:
Sam Rayburn (D-Texas) (until January 3)
Joseph William Martin, Jr. (R-Massachusetts) (starting January 3)
Ernest McFarland (D-Arizona) (until January 3)
Robert A. Taft (R-Ohio) (January 3 – July 31)
William F. Knowland (R-California) (starting August 3)
Events
January–March
- January 7 – President Harry S. Truman announces the United States has developed a hydrogen bomb.[1]
- January 14 – The CIA-sponsored Robertson Panel first meets to discuss the UFO phenomenon.
- January 19 – 68% of all television sets in the United States are tuned into I Love Lucy to watch Lucille Ball give birth.
- January 20 – Dwight D. Eisenhower is sworn in as the 34th president of the United States, and Richard Nixon is sworn in as the 36th vice president.
- January 22 – The Crucible, a historical drama by Arthur Miller written as an allegory of McCarthyism, opens on Broadway.
- February 1 – WEEK-TV begins broadcasting in Peoria, Illinois.
- February 5 – Walt Disney's 14th animated film, Peter Pan, premieres in Chicago. It is Disney's final film to be distributed by RKO.
- February 11 – President Dwight D. Eisenhower refuses a clemency appeal for Ethel and Julius Rosenberg.
- February 13 – Transsexual Christine Jorgensen returns to New York after successful sexual reassignment surgery in Denmark.
- February 19 – Georgia approves the first literature censorship board in the U.S.
- March 17 – The first nuclear test of Operation Upshot–Knothole is conducted in Nevada, with 1,620 spectators at 3.4km (02.1miles).
- March 19 – The 25th Academy Awards ceremony, emceed by Conrad Nagel, is simultaneously held at RKO Pantages Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles (hosted by Bob Hope) and at NBC International Theatre in New York (hosted by Fredric March). It is the first ceremony to be televised. Cecil B. DeMille's The Greatest Show on Earth wins Best Motion Picture, while Fred Zinnemann's High Noon, John Huston's Moulin Rouge and John Ford's The Quiet Man all receive the most nominations with seven, with Ford receiving his third Best Director win. Vincente Minnelli's The Bad and the Beautiful wins the most awards with five.
- March 31 – Due to increasingly lower ridership, Staten Island Rapid Transit closes two of its three-passenger lines (South Beach & North Shore).
April–June
a tornado spawned from the same storm system as the Flint tornado hits in Worcester, Massachusetts, killing 94.
July–September
- July 18 – Howard Hawks's musical film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, starring Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell, is released by 20th Century Fox.
- July 26 – The Short Creek raid is carried out on a polygynous Mormon sect in Arizona.
- July 27 – The Korean War ends: The United States, the People's Republic of China, North Korea and South Korea sign an armistice agreement.
- July 28 – Burger King opens its first restaurant in Jacksonville, Florida.
- August 5 – Operation Big Switch: U.S. prisoners of war are repatriated after the Korean War.
- August 17 – The first planning session of Narcotics Anonymous is held in Southern California. Its first meeting is held October 5.
- August 18 – The second Kinsey Report, Sexual Behavior in the Human Female, on American sexual habits, is issued.
- August 19 – Cold War: 1953 Iranian coup d'état ("Operation Ajax") – The CIA helps to overthrow the democratic government of Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran and retain Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi on the throne.
- August 20 – The U.S. returns to West Germany 382 ships it had captured during World War II.
- September 9 – The Supreme Court decision in Rumely v. United States affirms that indirect lobbying in the U.S. by distribution of books intended to influence opinion is a public good and not subject to regulation by Congress.[3]
- September 12 – U.S. Senator John Fitzgerald Kennedy marries Jacqueline Lee Bouvier at St. Mary's Church in Newport, Rhode Island.
- September 28 – Six year old boy Bobby Greenlease is kidnapped in Kansas City, Missouri and murdered in Lenexa, Kansas, despite his father paying the largest ever ransom payment in American history at the time.[4]
October–December
- October 5
- October 10 – Mutual Defense Treaty Between the United States and the Republic of Korea is concluded in Washington D.C.
- October 12 – The play The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial opens at Plymouth Theatre, New York.
- October 15 – Tito Jackson, member of the Jacksons and brother of Michael Jackson is born.
- October 19 – Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, is published
- October 30 – Cold War: U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower formally approves the top secret document of the United States National Security Council NSC 162/2, which states that the United States' arsenal of nuclear weapons must be maintained and expanded to counter the communist threat.
- December – Hugh Hefner publishes the first issue of Playboy magazine: it sells 54,175 copies at $.50 each.
- December 6 – With the NBC Symphony Orchestra, conductor Arturo Toscanini performs what he claims is his favorite Beethoven symphony, Eroica, for the last time. The live performance is broadcast nationwide on radio, and later released on records and CD.
- December 8 – U.S. president Dwight D. Eisenhower delivers his Atoms for Peace address to the UN General Assembly in New York City.
- December 18 – Carl Hall and Bonnie Brown are both executed in the Missouri gas chamber after pleading guilty to the Murder and kidnapping of six year old Bobby Greenlease;[5] she is the third woman in history (and last until 2021) to be executed by federal authorities.
- December 25 – Amami Islands are returned to Japan after 8 years of United States Military occupation.
Date unknown
Ongoing
Births
January
- January 1
- January 2 – Vincent Racaniello, virologist, author and academic
- January 4 – James Warren, journalist and publisher
- January 5 – Steve Archer, singer-songwriter and producer
- January 6 – Danny Pearson, singer (died 2018)
- January 8 – Bruce Sutter, baseball pitcher (died 2022)
- January 11 – Jim Clendenen, winemaker (died 2021)
- January 13 – Luann Ryon, archer[7]
- January 15
- January 17 – Mark Littell, baseball player (died 2022)[8]
- January 19 – Desi Arnaz Jr., actor and musician
- January 20 – Jeffrey Epstein, financier and sex offender (died 2019)
- January 21
- Paul Allen, entrepreneur and co-founder of Microsoft (died 2018)
- Glenn Kaiser, Christian blues-rock, heavy metal and R&B singer-songwriter and guitarist[9]
- January 23 – Robin Zander, singer and guitarist (Cheap Trick)
- January 24
- January 25 – The Honky Tonk Man, pro wrestler
- January 29
February
March
April
May
June
- June 1 – David Berkowitz, serial killer
- June 2 – Cornel West, philosopher and political activist
- June 10
- John Edwards, U.S. Senator from North Carolina from 1999 to 2005
- Fulton Kuykendall, American football player (died 2024)
- June 11 – Barbara Minty, model
- June 13 – Tim Allen, comedian, actor, voice-over artist and entertainer
- June 18 – Bruce Seals, basketball player (died 2020)
- June 22 – Cyndi Lauper, American singer
July
August
- August 8 – Don Most, actor and director
- August 11 – Hulk Hogan, professional wrestler
- August 17 – Columba Bush, philanthropist
- August 19 – Mary Matalin, political consultant
- August 29 – David Boaz, philosopher (died 2024)
- August 31 – Marcia Clark, prosecutor
September
October
November
- November 3
- Kate Capshaw, American actress
- Dennis Miller, comedian and television host
- November 14 – Phil Baron, voice actor, puppeteer and songwriter
- November 15 – James Widdoes, actor, director and producer
- November 18
- November 25 – Katherine Zappone, human rights activist and independent politician in the Republic of Ireland
- November 27 – Steve Bannon, media executive and political strategist
December
Deaths
- January 1 – Hank Williams, country singer-songwriter (born 1923)
- January 7 – Osa Johnson, adventurer and filmmaker, wife of Martin Johnson (born 1894)
- March 12 – James Hard, last verified living Union combat veteran of the American Civil War (born 1842)
- May 30 – Dooley Wilson, African American actor, singer and drummer (born 1886)
- June 3 – Florence Price, African American classical composer (born 1887)
- June 5
- June 20 – Arthur Caesar, screenwriter (born 1892)
- July 11 – Oliver Campbell, tennis player (born 1871)
- July 22 – Cy Kendall, actor (born 1898)
- August 7 – Abner Powell, Major League Baseball player (born 1860)
- September 2 – Jonathan M. Wainwright, general (born 1883)
- September 5
- September 8 – Fred M. Vinson, Chief Justice of the U.S. (born 1890)
- September 13 – Mary Brewster Hazelton, portrait painter (born 1868)
- September 28 – Edwin Hubble, astronomer (born 1889)
- September 29 – Milt Gross, comic book illustrator and animator (born 1895)
- October 3 – Florence R. Sabin, medical scientist (born 1871)
- October 11 – Pauline Robinson Bush, younger sister of US President George W. Bush (born 1949)
- November 18 – Ruth Crawford Seeger, modernist composer and folk music arranger (born 1901)
- November 21 – Larry Shields, dixieland jazz clarinetist (born 1893)
- November 27 – Eugene O'Neill, playwright (born 1888)
- December 14 – Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, novelist (born 1896)
- December 19 – Robert Andrews Millikan, physicist Nobel Prize laureate (born 1868)
- December 21 – Nicholas H. Heck, geophysicist, oceanographer and surveyor (born 1882)
- December 29 – Violet MacMillan, Broadway theater actress (born 1887)
- Unknown – Edward Joseph Renehan Sr., banker (born 1893)
See also
Notes and References
- Web site: President Truman announces U.S. has developed hydrogen bomb . 2022-06-14 . HISTORY . en.
- Web site: Workers assemble first Corvette in Flint, Michigan . 2022-06-14 . HISTORY . en.
- 345 U.S. 41 (1953).
- Web site: A Byte Out of History: The Bobby Greenlease Kidnapping. Federal Bureau of Investigation.
- Web site: Kidnap Killers Die Side by side Amid Swirling Clouds of Cyanide. Jefferson City Post-Tribune. Jefferson City, Missouri. 1953-12-18. 1. Newspapers.com.
- Web site: About Us. Denny's. 2017-06-16.
- Web site: Luann Marie RYON - Olympic Archery United States of America . International Olympic Committee . 23 April 2019 . en . 14 June 2016.
- Web site: Former MLB pitcher Mark Littell dead at 69 . 2022-09-07 . . https://web.archive.org/web/20230608000041/https://nypost.com/2022/09/07/former-mlb-pitcher-mark-littell-dead-at-69/ . 2023-06-08 . live .
- Web site: Resurrection Band Website biographies . March 23, 2007.
- Web site: THE INNOCENT MAN -THE STORY OF RONALD WILLIAMSON. June 6, 2015.
- https://www.fox29.com/news/our-city-lost-a-true-friend-former-eagles-running-back-rev-herbert-lusk-dies-at-69 'Our city lost a true friend': Former Eagles running back Rev. Herbert Lusk dies at 69
- https://variety.com/2023/music/news/pavement-drummer-gary-young-dead-1235699579/ Original Pavement Drummer Gary Young Dies at 70
- https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2023/09/15/lisa-lyon-dead/ Lisa Lyon, pioneering bodybuilder and performance artist, dies at 70
- https://eu.detroitnews.com/story/sports/college/university-michigan/2021/10/18/dennis-franks-former-michigan-wolverines-lions-center-dies-68/8516662002/ Dennis Franks, former Michigan, Lions center, dies at age 68
- https://www.inquirer.com/news/wip-big-daddy-graham-philadelphia-radio-obituary-20210909.html Longtime WIP host Big Daddy Graham dies at 68
- Book: Frasier, David K.. Murder Cases of the Twentieth Century: Biographies and Bibliographies of 280 Convicted Or Accused Killers. November 9, 1996. McFarland & Company. 9780786401840. Google Books.
- Web site: August 8, 2015 . Comments by and info about Iyanla Vanzant . 2024-05-21 . Detroit Free Press . en-US.
- Web site: Kilian . Jennifer M. . The Paintings of Karel du Jardin (1626–1678) . John Benjamins Publishing Company . 2 June 2021 . English. Publisher's website
- Book: The Encyclopedia of Country Music. February 1, 2012. Oxford University Press. 978-0-19-992083-9. 9.
- Book: Chase's Annual Events. 1994. Contemporary Books. 978-0-8092-3732-6. 413.
- https://sports.yahoo.com/longtime-royals-infielder-ul-washington-dies-at-70-after-battle-with-cancer-204616060.html Longtime Royals infielder U.L. Washington dies at 70 after battle with cancer
- https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/name/glenn-bujnoch-obituary?id=53245499 Glenn D Bujnoch
- Web site: Sheila Dixon -.