istoryworld
All Events
US novelist Carson McCullers publishes a collection of stories, The Ballad of the Sad Café
John Huston directs Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn in The African Queen, based on a C.S. Forester story
The Rake's Progress, with music by Igor Stravinsky and libretto by W.H. Auden and Chester Kallman, has its premiere in Venice
British art historian Nikolaus Pevsner undertakes a massive task, a county-by-county description of The Buildings of England
Japanese film director Kurosawa Akira makes an international reputation with Rashomon
Labour loses the general election and Winston Churchill returns to Downing Street as prime minister
The cult of Chairman Mao is officially encouraged in China, partly through steady publication of his works
The first hydrogen bomb is successfully tested by the US at Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands
Argentinian driver Juan Manuel Fangio wins the first of five Grand Prix world championship titles
Libya wins independence from Italy, as a kingdom with Idris I as head of state
George Gey uses cancer cells from Henrietta Lacks to propagate the first human immortal cell line to succeed in vitro, cells which survive still in laboratories all over the world
Henri Matisse completes the Chapel of the Rosary at Vence, with every detail designed by himself
George VI dies and is succeeded by his elder daughter as Elizabeth II
Hans Werner Henze's first full-length opera, Boulevard Solitude, has its premiere in Hanover
US boxer Rocky Marciano becomes world heavyweight champion, defeating 'Jersey Joe' Walcott
A decision by the United Nations makes Eritrea an autonomous federal province within Ethiopia
French economist Jean Monnet becomes the first president of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC)
A left-wing coup brings Paz Estenssoro to power and launches a 12-year revolution in Bolivia
US author Ralph Ellison publishes his first novel, Invisible Man, a Kafkaesque account of a black immigrant's life in New York
X-ray crystallographer Rosalind Franklin, working at King's College in London, photographs DNA
The UK car manufacturers Morris and Austin merge to become the British Motor Corporation
Gene Kelly dances a famous routine with an umbrella in the film Singin' in the Rain
In his first book of Structures, for two pianos, Pierre Boulez provides a classic of serial music
Ernest Hemingway publishes The Old Man and the Sea, about an epic struggle between an aged Cuban fisherman and a gigantic marlin
Grace Kelly has her first starring role in High Noon, with Gary Cooper
