istoryworld
All Events
English author John Braine publishes his first novel, Room at the Top
US paratroops enforce desegregation in Little Rock, the capital of Arkansas
A country doctor, François Duvalier, is elected president of Haiti on a massive popular vote
English author Stevie Smith publishes her collection of poems Not Waving but Drowning
Laurence Olivier brings the music-hall artist Archie Rice vibrantly to life in John Osborne's The Entertainer
The USSR launches Sputnik, the world's first artificial satellite
The success of the USSR in launching Sputnik prompts the establishment of NASA in the USA
Leonard Bernstein, Jerome Robbins and Stephen Sondheim create the Broadway musical West Side Story
Swedish director Ingmar Bergman's film The Seventh Seal wins the Jury Prize at Cannes
Christian Dior dies and is followed by Yves St Laurent as head designer at the famous fashion house
German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen uses three separate orchestras to achieve acoustic space in Gruppen
Boris Pasternak's only novel, Doctor Zhivago, is first published in an Italian translation
Oscar Niemeyer is appointed chief architect for his country's new capital, Brasilia
The Russian spacecraft Sputnik II puts into space a living creature, the dog Laika
Latvian-Canadian dancer Ludmilla Chiriaeff founds the Grands Ballets Canadiens in Montreal
Tunku Abdul Rahman becomes the first prime minister of independent Malaya
Harold Macmillan's chancellor, Peter Thoneycroft, and his entire treasury team resign when he overrules them on economic policy
The cartoonist Vicky depicts Harold Macmillan as Supermac in London's Evening Standard
Egypt and Syria merge as the United Arab Republic (but disengage three years later)
Eight members of the Manchester United football team die in an air crash when flying back to England from Belgrade via Munich
The Venezuelan dictator Marcos Jiménez escapes to the USA with an estimated fortune of $200 million
Lynn Seymour creates the first of many roles for MacMillan, dancing the Adolescent in The Burrow
A Commonwealth team, led by Vivian Fuchs, completes the first overland crossing of Antarctica
Irish dramatist Brendan Behan's play The Hostage is produced in Dublin
Experiments by Matthew Meselson and Franklin Stahl confirm the semiconservative hypothesis by Watson and Crick with regard to DNA replication
