Directory

1951 CE

The Julius and Ethel Rosenberg espionage trial unfolds in the United States; the Treaty of San Francisco ends World War II and restores Japan’s sovereignty; the nationalization of the Iranian oil industry under Mohammad Mosaddegh challenges Western influence; the 1951 New Zealand waterfront dispute becomes a major labor conflict; the 1951 eruption of Mount Lamington kills thousands; The King and I premieres to major acclaim; UNIVAC I becomes the first U.S. commercial computer; the 1951 Nepalese revolution ends Rana rule; and the Sakuragichō train fire kills over 100 passengers in Yokohama.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • February 1–2 – The 1951 Nepalese revolution leads to agreement for a democratic constitution.source
  • February 12 – The seven-nation Commonwealth Consultative Committee meets to discuss the Colombo Plan for south and south-east Asia.source
  • February 27 – The Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution, limiting Presidents to two terms, is ratified.source
  • February – The Convention People's Party wins national elections in Gold Coast (British colony).source
  • April 11 – U.S. President Harry S. Truman relieves General Douglas MacArthur of his Far Eastern commands.source
  • April 18 – The Treaty of Paris (1951) is adopted, establishing the European Coal and Steel Community.source
  • May 3 – The U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services and U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations begin their closed door hearings into the dismissal of General Douglas MacArthur by U.S. President Harry S Truman.source
  • May 23 – The Tibetan government signs the Seventeen Point Agreement for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet with the People's Republic of China.source
  • July 10 – A formal peace agreement between Canada and Germany is signed.source
  • July 16 – King Leopold III of Belgium abdicates in favour of his son Baudouin, who on July 17 takes the oath as king of Belgium.source
  • July 28 – Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, a multilateral treaty of the United Nations, is signed at a special conference in Geneva, defining the status of refugees and setting out the basis for granting right of asylum, coming into force on 22 April 1954.source
  • August 11 – René Pleven becomes Prime Minister of France.source
  • September 1 – The United States, Australia and New Zealand all sign a mutual defense pact, the ANZUS Treaty.source
  • September 2 – The Sri Lanka Freedom Party is founded by S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike.source
  • September 8 – The U.S.-Japan Security Treaty, which allows United States Armed Forces to be stationed in Japan even after the end of the occupation of Japan, is signed by Japan and the United States.source
  • September 8 – Treaty of San Francisco: In San Francisco, 48 representatives out of 51 attending sign a peace treaty with Japan, formally ending the Pacific War; the delegations of the Soviet Union, Poland and Czechoslovakia do not sign the treaty, instead favoring separate treaties.source
  • September 20 – NATO accepts Greece and Turkey as members.source
  • October 14 – The Organization of Central American States (Organización de Estados Centroamericanos, ODECA) is formed.source
  • October 19 – The state of war between the United States and Germany is officially ended.source
  • October 24 – U.S. President Harry Truman declares an official end to war with Germany.source
  • October 26 – Winston Churchill is re-elected Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (a month before his 77th birthday) in a general election which sees the defeat of Clement Attlee's Labour government, after 6 years in power.source
  • October 27 – King Farouk I of Egypt declares himself king of the Sudan, with no international recognition or support.source
  • November 11 – Juan Perón is re-elected president of Argentina.source
  • December 24 – Libya becomes independent from Britain and France; Idris I is proclaimed King.source

Conflict & Security

  • January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul – Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (having lost the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950).source
  • January 11 – In the U.S., a top secret report is delivered to U.S. President Truman by his National Security Resources Board, urging Truman to expand the Korean War by launching "a global offensive against communism" with sustained bombing of Red China and diplomatic moves to establish "moral justification" for a U.S. nuclear attack on the Soviet Union. The report will not be declassified until 1978.source
  • February 1 – The United Nations General Assembly declares that China is an aggressor in the Korean War, in United Nations General Assembly Resolution 498.source
  • March 14 – Korean War: Operation Ripper – For the second time, United Nations troops recapture Seoul.source
  • March – The Israeli government organizes Operation Ezra and Nehemiah, a mass airlift of Jews out of Iraq.source
  • May 15 – A military coup occurs in Bolivia.source
  • May 25–26 – British spies Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean leave the United Kingdom to defect to the Soviet Union.source
  • July 2 — The cremated remains of Mary Reeser are found at her home in Saint Petersburg, Florida. She is believed to have been a victim of spontaneous human combustion. The FBI believes that the near total consumption of her body by the fire was caused by the Wick effect.source
  • July 10 – Korean War: Armistice negotiations begin at Kaesong.source
  • July 20 – King Abdullah I of Jordan is assassinated by a Palestinian while attending Friday prayers in Jerusalem. He is succeeded by his son, King Talal.source
  • September 9 – Chinese Communist forces move into Lhasa, the capital of Tibet.source
  • September 10 – The United Kingdom begins an economic boycott of Iran.source
  • October 3–8 – Korean War: First Battle of Maryang-san – United Nations (primarily Australian) forces drive back the Chinese.source
  • October 6 – Malayan Emergency: Communist insurgents kill British commander Sir Henry Gurney.source
  • October 16 – Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan of Pakistan is assassinated.source
  • November 1 – Desert Rock exercises, the first military exercises for nuclear war, with infantry troops included, are held in the Nevada desert.source
  • December 6 – A state of emergency is declared in Egypt, due to increasing riots.source

Religion & Belief

  • April 11 – After its clandestine removal from Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day, 1950, the Stone of Scone resurfaces at Arbroath Abbey in Scotland.source

Economy & Finance

  • January 9 – The Government of the United Kingdom announces abandonment of the Tanganyika groundnut scheme for the cultivation of peanuts in the Tanganyika Territory, with the writing off of £36.5M debt.source
  • December 22 – The Selangor Labour Party is founded in Selangor, Malaya.source
  • December 31 – The Marshall Plan expires, after distributing more than $13.3 billion US in foreign aid to rebuild Europe.source
  • IBM (United Kingdom) is formed.source

Technology & Infrastructure

  • March 31 – Remington Rand delivers the first UNIVAC I computer to the United States Census Bureau.source
  • May 8 – Operation Greenhouse: The first thermonuclear weapon is tested in the "George" test on Enewetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands by the United States.source
  • May 24 – Operation Greenhouse: The first atomic bomb "boosted" by the inclusion of tritium is tested in the "Item" test on Enewetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands by the United States.source
  • July 4 – William Shockley of Bell Labs in the United States announces the invention jointly with John Bardeen and Walter Brattain of the grown-junction transistor. Also this year, General Electric and RCA develop the alloy-junction transistor.source
  • July 13 – Vuoristorata, one of the oldest still-operating wooden roller coasters in Europe, is opened at the Linnanmäki amusement park in Helsinki, Finland.source
  • August 31 – The first Volkswagen Type 1 rolls off the production line in Uitenhage, South Africa.source
  • October 2 – Television in the Netherlands commences with the first broadcast from NTS; also television in Denmark from DR1.source
  • October 15 – On television, the situation comedy I Love Lucy airs its first episode on CBS in the U.S.source
  • November 2 – 6,000 British troops are flown into Egypt to quell unrest in the Suez Canal zone.source
  • November 10 – Direct dial coast-to-coast telephone service begins in the United States.source
  • November 29 – LEO runs the world's first commercial computer program, bakery valuations, for J. Lyons and Co.'s tea shops in the U.K.source
  • December 20 – Experimental Breeder Reactor I (EBR-1), the world's first (experimental) nuclear power plant, opens in Idaho, United States.source

Science & Discovery

  • July 22 – Soviet space dogs Dezik and Tsygan become the first to enter space, in a 15-minute sub-orbital spaceflight in an R-1 rocket, being safely parachuted back to earth.source
  • September 26–28 – A blue sun is seen over Europe: the effect is due to ash coming from the Canadian forest fires 4 months previously.source
  • December 20 – The World Meteorological Organization becomes a specialized agency of the United Nations.source

Health & Medicine

  • October 15 – Norethisterone, the progestin used in the combined oral contraceptive pill, is synthesized by Luis E. Miramontes in Mexico.source
  • October 21 – A storm in southern Italy kills over 100.source
  • The continental United States becomes malaria-free.source

Crime & Justice

  • January 15 – In a criminal court in West Germany, Ilse Koch, The "Witch of Buchenwald", wife of the commandant of the Buchenwald concentration camp, is sentenced to life imprisonment.source
  • February 19 – Jean Lee becomes the last woman hanged in Australia, when she and her two pimps are hanged for the murder and torture of a 73-year-old bookmaker.source
  • March 6 – The trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg for conspiracy to commit espionage begins in the United States.source
  • March 29 – Second Red Scare: In the United States, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage. On April 5 they are sentenced to death.source
  • June 7 – Nazi war criminal Otto Ohlendorf is hanged at Landsberg Prison, Bavaria.source
  • July 26 – The first birch bark manuscript is discovered in Novgorod.source

Disasters & Accidents

  • February 6 – Woodbridge train wreck: A Pennsylvania Railroad passenger train derails near Woodbridge Township, New Jersey, killing 85 people and injuring over 500, in one of the worst rail disasters in American history.source
  • April 24 – Sakuragichō train fire: in Yokohama, Japan, a fire on a train kills more than 100.source
  • June 15–July 1 – In New Mexico, Arizona, California, Oregon, Washington and British Columbia, thousands of acres of forests are destroyed in fires.source
  • December 13 – A water storage tank collapses in Tucumcari, New Mexico, United States, resulting in 4 deaths and 200 buildings destroyed.source
  • December 20 – A chartered Curtiss C-46 Commando crash-lands in Cobourg, Ontario Canada; all on board survive.source

Climate & Environment

  • January 20 – Winter of Terror: Avalanches in the Alps kill 240 and bury 45,000 for a time, in Switzerland, Austria and Italy.source
  • January 21 – Mount Lamington in Papua New Guinea erupts catastrophically, killing nearly 3,000 people and causing great devastation in Oro Province.source
  • November 20 – The Po River floods in northern Italy.source
  • December 17 – We Charge Genocide, a petition describing genocide against African Americans, is delivered to the United Nations.source

Culture & Society

  • January 25 – Dutch author Anne de Vries releases the first volume of his children's novel Journey Through the Night (Reis door de nacht), set during World War II.source
  • February 12 – Muhammad Reza Shah marries Soraya Esfandiary-Bakhtiari.source
  • February 25 – The first Pan American Games open in Buenos Aires.source
  • March 29 – The 23rd Academy Awards Ceremony is held; All About Eve wins the Best Picture award and five others.source
  • April 21 – The National Olympic Committee of the Soviet Union is formed. The USSR will first participate in the Olympic Games at Helsinki, Finland, in 1952.source
  • May 1 – The opera house of Geneva, Switzerland is almost destroyed in a fire.source
  • May 3 – King George VI opens the Festival of Britain in London, including the Royal Festival Hall.source
  • June 14 – UNIVAC I is dedicated by the U.S. Census Bureau.source
  • September 30 – Charlotte Whitton becomes mayor of Ottawa and Canada's first woman mayor of a major city.source
  • October 16 – East China Normal University is founded in Shanghai, China.source
  • October 16 – Judy Garland begins a series of concerts in New York's Palace Theatre.source
  • November 12 – The National Ballet of Canada performs for the first time in Eaton Auditorium, Toronto.source
  • December 3 – Lebanese University is founded in Lebanon.source
  • December 24 – Gian Carlo Menotti's 45-minute opera, Amahl and the Night Visitors, premieres live on NBC in the United States, becoming the first opera written especially for television.source
  • c. December – The Institute of War and Peace Studies is established by Dwight D. Eisenhower at Columbia University in New York (of which he is President) with William T. R. Fox as first director.source
  • An 18-year-old sailor is fined for kissing in public in Stockholm, Sweden. The law court calls his actions "obnoxious behavior repulsive to the public morals".source

Births

  • January 12 – Rush Limbaugh, American conservative radio personality (d. 2021)source
  • February 20 – Gordon Brown, Scottish-born Prime Minister of the United Kingdomsource
  • April 24 – Enda Kenny, 13th Taoiseach of Irelandsource
  • June 3 – Jill Biden, First Lady of the United Statessource
  • August 8 – Mohamed Morsi, Egyptian politician, 5th President of Egypt (d. 2019)source
  • August 10 – Juan Manuel Santos, President of Colombia and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prizesource
  • September 12 – Bertie Ahern, Taoiseach of Irelandsource
  • September 14 – Volodymyr Melnykov, Ukrainian poet, writer, songwriter and composersource
  • September 23 – Shehbaz Sharif, Pakistani politician and businessman, Prime Minister of Pakistan (2022-present)source
  • September 25 – Mark Hamill, American actor, known for his role in Star Warssource
  • September 29 – Michelle Bachelet, President of Chilesource
  • October 17 – Prabowo Subianto, Indonesian politician, businessman, retired honorary army general, 8th President of Indonesia.source
  • October 22 – William David Sanders, American victim of the Columbine High School massacre (d. 1999)source
  • November 20 – Rodger Bumpass, American voice actor known for his role as Squidward Tentacles on SpongeBob SquarePantssource

Deaths

  • January 10 – Sinclair Lewis, American writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1885)source
  • February 19 – André Gide, French writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1869)source
  • March 12 – Alfred Hugenberg, German businessman and politician (b. 1865)source
  • April 23 – Charles G. Dawes, 30th Vice President of the United States, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1865)source
  • April 29 – Ludwig Wittgenstein, Austrian philosopher (b. 1889)source
  • June 16 – Thomas Alan Goldsborough, American politician, member of the US House of Representatives from 1921 to 1939 and a United States district judge from 1939 to 1951 (b. 1877)source
  • July 9 – Harry Heilmann, American baseball player (Detroit Tigers) and a member of the MLB Hall of Fame (b. 1894)source
  • July 23 – Marshal Philippe Pétain, former Prime Minister and Head of State of France, Chief of State of Vichy France during World War II, hero commander of World War I who led the French Army to victory at the nine-month-long Battle of Verdun, for which he was called "the Lion of Verdun", dies while serving a sentence of life-imprisonment on the island of Île-d'Yeu at 95 years old.source
  • August 14 – William Randolph Hearst, American newspaper publisher (b. 1863)source
  • October 4 – Henrietta Lacks, American originator of the HeLa cell line (b. 1920)source
  • October 6 – Will Keith Kellogg, American industrialist, founder of the Kellogg Company (b. 1860)source
  • October 16 – Liaquat Ali Khan, 1st Prime Minister of Pakistan (assassinated) (b. 1895)source
  • December 20 – Anton Durcovici, Austro-Hungarian born Romanian Roman Catholic bishop and blessed (b. 1888)source
  • December 31 – Maxim Litvinov, Russian revolutionary and Soviet diplomat (b. 1876)source