The Fifties

January 7– President Harry S. Truman announced that the United States had developed a hydrogen bomb.
January 19 – 68 per cent of all television sets in the United States were tuned in to I Love Lucy to watch Lucy give birth.
January 20 – Dwight D Eisenhower succeeded Harry S Truman as President of the United States.
January 28 – Derek Bentley was executed for murder in HM Prison Wandsworth.
January 31 – February 1 – The North Sea flood killed 1,835 people in the southwestern Netherlands (especially Zeeland), 307 in the United Kingdom and several hundred at sea.
February 18 – The first 3-D film, Bwana Devil, opened.
March 1 – Joseph Stalin (pictured) suffered a stroke and collapsed after an all-night dinner. The stroke paralysed the right side of his body, and he died a few days later after 31 years as Russian leader.
March 14 – Nikita Khruschev was selected First Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party.
March 26 – Jonas Salk announced his polio vaccine.
April 13- Ian Fleming published his first James Bond novel, Casino Royale.
May 29 – Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first men to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
June 2  – Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II at Westminster Abbey.
August 8 – Soviet prime minister  Georgi Malenkov announced that the Soviet Union had a hydrogen bomb.
November 25 – England lost 6-3 to Hungary at Wembley Stadium, their first ever loss to a continental team at home.
December 1 – Hugh Hefner published the first issue of Playboy Magazine; it sold  54,175 copies.

Births
January 10  -Pat Benatar, rock singer
February 26 – Michael Bolton, pop singer
March 23 – Chaka Khan, soul singer
April 19 – Ruby Wax, comedienne
May 6 – Tony Blair
May 15 – Mike Oldfield, composer
May 16 – Pierce Brosnan, Irish actor
May 19 – Victoria Wood, actress
June 22 – Cyndi Lauper, singer
August 11 – Hulk Hogan, professional wrestler
August 15 – Carol Thatcher, television personality, daughter of Margaret Thatcher. Mark Thatcher, British businessman, son of Margaret Thatcher

Deaths
January 1 – Hank Williams, musician (b. 1923)
June 1 – Alex James, Scottish football player (b. 1901)
June 19  – Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, American communist spies (b. 1918 and 1915) (executed)
October 8 – Nigel Bruce, character actor (b. 1895)
October 8 – Kathleen Ferrier, contralto (b. 1912)

Top hits of 1953
Answer Me, O Lord – Frankie Laine
Bye Bye Blues – Les Paul and Mary Ford
Changing Partners – Patti Page
The Gang That Sang Heart Of My Heart – The Four Aces featuring Al Alberts
The Kid’s Last Fight – Frankie Laine
Secret Love – Doris Day (pictured)
That’s Amore – Dean Martin
Three Coins In The Fountain – Frank Sinatra

January 9: United Nations headquarters opened in New York.
January 15 – Ilse Koch, The “Witch of Buchenwald” (pictured), wife of the commandant of the Buchenwald concentration camp, was sentenced to life imprisonment in a court in West Germany.
March 7 –In Korea, United Nations troops led by General Matthew Ridgeway began an assault against the Chinese “volunteers.”
March 29 – Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage. On April 5 they were sentenced to receive the death penalty.
March 29 – Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The King and I opened on Broadway and ran for three years. The show made a star of Yul Brynner.
April 11- After its removal from Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day, 1950, the Stone of Scone resurfaced on the altar of Arbroath Abbey.
May 3 – King George VI opened London’s Royal Festival Hall. The Festival of Britain opened.
May 25 – The first atomic bomb “boosted” by the inclusion of thermonuclear materials, was tested on Enewetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands by the US.
July 26 – Walt Disney’s 13th animated film, Alice in Wonderland, premiered in London.
September 8 -In San Francisco 48 nations signed a peace treaty with Japan to formally end the Pacific War.
September 10 – The United Kingdom began an economic boycott of Iran.
October 15 – I Love Lucy made its television debut in America.
December 24 – Libya became independent from Italy.

Births
January 30 – Phil Collins,  rock musician and producer (Genesis)
February 14 – Kevin Keegan, footballer and football manager
February 15 – Jane Seymour, actress
February 20 – Gordon Brown, Prime Minister.
March 4 – Kenny Dalglish, footballer and football manager
April 13 – Peter Davison, actor
June 8 – Bonnie Tyler, singer
June 14 – Paul Boateng,  politician
July 8 – Anjelica Huston, actress
September 5 – Michael Keaton,  actor (Batman)
September 7 – Chrissie Hynde, rock singer (The Pretenders)
November 19 – Lord Falconer of Thoroton,  politician
December 8 – Bill Bryson, author

Deaths
March 6 – Ivor Novello, actor, musician, and composer (b. 1893)
April 14 – Ernest Bevin, politician, and statesman (b. 1881)
August 14 – William Randolph Hearst, American newspaper publisher (b. 1863)

Top hits
If – Perry Como
Be My Love – Mario Lanza
How High the Moon – Les Paul and Mary Ford
Too Young – Nat King Cole
Come On-a My House – Rosemary Clooney
Because of You -Tony Bennett
Cold, Cold Heart – Tony Bennett
(It’s No) Sin – Eddy Howard
Cry – Johnnie Ray (pictured)