I World Statistics
Population: 2.593 billion
Nobel Peace Prize:
Léon Jouhaux (France)
Seoul falls first to Communist forces
(Jan. 4), then to US-led UN troops (Mar. 14). Despite peace talks
in July and October, the Korean War continues.
Six nations agree to Schuman Plan to pool European coal and steel
(March 19; in effect Feb. 10, 1953).
Japanese peace treaty signed in San Francisco by 49 nations (Sept.
8).
Libya gains independence from Italy (Dec. 24).
President: Harry S Truman
Vice President: Alben W. Barkley
Population: 154,877,889
Life expectancy: 68.4 years
Homicide Rate (per 100,000): 4.9
22nd Amendment to the US Constitution,
limiting the number of terms a president may serve, is ratified
(Feb. 27).
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg sentenced to death for treason (April
5; executed June 19, 1953).
Economics
US GDP (1998 dollars): $339.7 billion
Federal spending: $45.51 billion
Federal debt: $255.3 billion
Consumer Price Index: 26
Unemployment: 5.3%
Cost of a first-class stamp: $0.03
Sports
World Series
NY Yankees d. NY Giants (4-2)
NBA Championship
Rochester d. New York (4-3)
Stanley Cup
Toronto d. Montreal (4-1)
Wimbledon
Women: Doris Hart d. S. Fry (6-1 6-0)
Men: Dick Savitt d. K. McGregor (6-4 6-4 6-4)
Kentucky Derby Champion
Count Turf
NCAA Basketball Championship
Kentucky d. Kansas St. (68-58)
NCAA Football Champions
Tennessee (10-0-0)
Pulitzer Prizes
Fiction: The Town, Conrad Richter
Music: Music for opera Giants in the Earth, Douglas Stuart Moore
Oscars awarded in 1951
Academy Award, Best Picture: All About Eve (Twentieth Century-Fox)
Nobel Prize for Literature: Pär Lagerkvist (Sweden)
Miss America: Yolande Betbeze (AL)
Events
Yul Brynner makes his first appearance as the king of Siam in
Rodgers and Hammerstein's The King and I. Gertrude Lawrence
costars (March 29).
Color television introduced in the U.S.
In an effort to introduce rhythm and blues to a broader white
audience, which was hesitant to embrace "black music," disc jockey
Alan Freed uses the term rock 'n' roll to describe R&B.
In the first broadcast of Edward R. Murrow's See It Now series,
Murrow shows the split-screen image of the Golden Gate and
Brooklyn bridges and tells viewers it is the first time to see the
Atlantic and Pacific oceans simultaneously.
Movies
The African Queen,
A Streetcar Named Desire,
An American in Paris,
A Place in the Sun
Music
Elliott Carter, String Quartet No. 1
Books
Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism
Hortense Calisher, In the Absence of Angels
Truman Capote, The Grass Harp
Carson McCullers, The Ballad of the Sad Café
Marianne Moore, Collected Poems
Adrienne Rich, A Change of World
J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye
Herman Wouk, The Caine Mutiny
Science
Nobel Prizes in Science
Chemistry: Glenn T. Seaborg and Edwin H. McMillan (both US), for
discovery of plutonium
Physics: Sir John Douglas Cockcroft (UK) and Ernest T. S. Walton
(Ireland), for work in 1932 on transmutation of atomic nuclei
Physiology or Medicine: Max Theiler (South Africa), for development
of anti-yellow-fever vaccineCharles F. Blair, Jr. makes the first
solo flight across North Pole (May 29).
UNIVAC (Universal Automatic Computer), the first business computer
to handle both numeric and alphabetic data, is introduced.
Gregory Pincus, Min Chuch Chang, John Rock, and Carl Djerassi (US)
develop the first oral contraceptive.
The first nuclear power plant is built by the US Atomic Energy
Commission.
Deaths
John Alden Carpenter
Dorothy Dix
André Gide