World Statistics
Population: 2.635 billion
Nobel Peace Prize:
Albert Schweitzer (French Equatorial Africa)
George VI of England dies; his daughter
becomes Elizabeth II (Feb. 6).
NATO conference approves European army (Feb.).
King Farouk of Egypt is ousted by a military coup (July 23).
General Mohammed Naguib assumes power.
Britain announces its development of atomic weapons (Oct.).
Greece and Turkey join NATO.
President: Harry S Truman
Vice President: Alben W. Barkley
Population: 157,552,740
Life expectancy: 68.6 years
Homicide Rate (per 100,000): 5.2
US explodes first thermonuclear bomb at
Enewetak Island (Nov. 1).
President-elect Dwight Eisenhower follows through with his
campaign promise to visit Korea (Dec. 2).
56 million watch Richard Nixon's "Checker's speech" on TV.
Economics
US GDP (1998 dollars): $358.6 billion
Federal spending: $67.69 billion
Federal debt: $259.1 billion
Consumer Price Index: 26.5
Unemployment: 3.3%
Cost of a first-class stamp: $0.03
Sports
World Series
NY Yankees d. Brooklyn Dodgers (4-3)
NBA Championship
Minneapolis Lakers d. New York (4-3)
Stanley Cup
Detroit d. Montreal (4-0)
Wimbledon
Women: Maureen Connolly d. L. Brough (7-5 6-3)
Men: Frank Sedgman d. J. Drobny (4-6 6-2 6-3 6-2)
Kentucky Derby Champion
Hill Gail
NCAA Basketball Championship
Kansas d. St. John's (80-63)
NCAA Football Champions
Michigan St. (AP, UP) (9-0-0) & Georgia Tech (INS) (12-0-0)
Pulitzer Prizes
Fiction: The Caine Mutiny, Herman Wouk
Music: Symphony Concertante, Gail Kubik
Drama: The Shrike, Joseph Kramm
Oscars awarded in 1952
Academy Award, Best Picture: An American in Paris, Arthur Freed,
producer (MGM)
Nobel Prize for Literature: François Mauriac (France)
Miss America: Coleen Kay Hutchins (UT)
Events
Jose Quintero's revival of Tennessee Williams's Summer and Smoke
premieres at Broadway's Circle in the Square Theatre and is the
first major Off-Broadway success.
Television's first magazine-format program, the Today Show, debuts
on NBC with Dave Garroway hosting.
The Jackie Gleason Show (The Honeymooners) debuts on CBS,
beginning a two-decade run.
Merce Cunningham forms his own dance company.
Movies
Singin' in the Rain, High Noon, The Greatest Show on Earth, Moulin
Rouge
Books
Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man
Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea
Bernard Malamud, The Natural
Flannery O'Connor, Wise Blood
Science
Nobel Prizes in Science
Chemistry: Archer John Porter Martin and Richard Laurence Millington
Synge (both UK), for development of partition chromatography
Physics: Edward Mills Purcell and Felix Bloch (US), for work in
measurement of magnetic fields in atomic nuclei
Physiology or Medicine: Selman A. Waksman (US), for co-discovery of
streptomycin
G.W.A. Dummer (England) proposes the theoretical basis
for the integrated circuit.
Jonas E. Salk (US) develops the first experimentally safe
dead-virus polio vaccine.
The first plastic artificial heart valve is developed at
Georgetown Medical Center.
First jetliner service inaugurated by BOAC between London and
Johannesburg, South Africa (May 2).
Capt. Vincent H. McGovern and 1st Lt. Harold W. Moore make first
transatlantic helicopter flight (July 15–31).
Deaths
John Dewey
Hattie McDaniel
Maria Montessori