World Statistics
Population: 2.681 billion
Nobel Peace Prize:
George C. Marshall (US)
Joseph Stalin dies (March 5). Georgi
Malenkov becomes Soviet Premier; Lavrenti Beria, Minister of
Interior; Vyacheslav Molotov, Foreign Minister (March 6).
East Berliners rise against Communist rule; quelled by tanks (June
17).
Korean armistice signed (July 27).
Moscow announces explosion of hydrogen bomb (Aug. 20).
Tito becomes president of Yugoslavia.
President: Dwight D. Eisenhower
Vice President: Richard M. Nixon
Population: 160,184,192
Life expectancy: 68.8 years
Homicide Rate (per 100,000): 4.8
Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower inaugurated
President of United States (Jan. 20).
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg executed in Sing Sing prison (June 19).
Alleged Communist Charlie Chaplin leaves U.S. for good. Justice
Dept. warns him any attempt to reenter the country will be
challenged.
Economics
US GDP (1998 dollars): $379.7 billion
Federal spending: $76.10 billion
Federal debt: $266.0 billion
Consumer Price Index: 26.7
Unemployment: 3.0%
Cost of a first-class stamp: $0.03
World Series
NY Yankees d. Brooklyn Dodgers (4-2)
NBA Championship
Minneapolis Lakers d. New York (4-1)
Stanley Cup
Montreal d. Boston (4-1)
Wimbledon
Women: Maureen Connolly d. D. Hart (8-6 7-5)
Men: Vic Seixas d. K. Nielsen (9-7 6-3 6-4)
Kentucky Derby Champion
Dark Star
NCAA Basketball Championship
Indiana d. Kansas (69-68)
NCAA Football Champions
Maryland (10-1-0)
Pulitzer Prizes
Fiction: The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway
Drama: Picnic, William Inge
Oscars awarded in 1953
Academy Award, Best Picture: The Greatest Show on Earth, Cecil B.
DeMille, producer (Paramount)
Nobel Prize for Literature: Sir Winston Churchill (UK)
Miss America: Neva Jane Langley (GA)
Events
The first issue of TV Guide magazine hits the newsstands on April
3 in 10 cities with a circulation of 1,560,000.
To counteract the threat of television, Hollywood thinks big and
develops wide-screen processes such as CinemaScope, first seen in
The Robe.
Loretta Young abandons Hollywood for her stylish debut on the
small screen.
Lucille Ball gives birth to Desi Arnaz, Jr. on same day the
fictional Little Ricky is born on I Love Lucy.
Playboy magazine hits newsstands. A nude Marilyn Monroe graces the
cover.
Movies
The Robe,
From Here to Eternity,
Shane,
Roman Holiday
Books
James Baldwin, Go Tell It on the Mountain
Saul Bellow, The Adventures of Augie March
William Burroughs, Junkie
Randall Jarrell, Poetry and the Age
Henry Miller, Plexus
Alain Robbe-Grillet, The Erasers
Jean Stafford, Children are Bored on Sunday
Science
Nobel Prizes in Science
Chemistry: Hermann Staudinger (Germany), for research in giant
molecules
Physics: Fritz Zernike (Netherlands), for development of ""phase
contrast"" microscope
Physiology or Medicine: Fritz A. Lipmann (Germany-US) and Hans
Adolph Krebs (Germany-UK), for studies of living cells
Rosalind
Franklin (England), Francis Crick (England), and James Watson (US)
discover the double-helical structure of DNA.
Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay of Nepal reach
the top of Mt. Everest (May 29).
First successful open-heart surgery is performed in Philadelphia.
Deaths
Queen Mary
Eugene O'Neill
Jacques Thiabaud