1953

Year 1953 (MCMLIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar.

January

 * January 7 - President Harry S. Truman announces the United States has developed a hydrogen bomb.
 * January 12 - Estonian émigrés found a government in exile in Oslo.
 * January 14
 * Marshal Josip Broz Tito chosen President of Yugoslavia.
 * CIA-sponsored Robertson Panel first meets to discuss the UFO phenomenon.
 * January 15 - Georg Dertinger, foreign minister of East Germany, is arrested for spying.
 * January 19 - 68% of all television sets in the United States are tuned in to I Love Lucy to watch Lucy give birth.
 * January 20 - Change of US presidency from Harry S. Truman (1945-1953) to Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953-1961).
 * January 22 - The Crucible, a drama by Arthur Miller, opens on Broadway.
 * January 24 – Mau Mau rebels in Kenya kill Ruck family – father, mother and a 6-year-old son.
 * January 26 - Walter Ulbricht announces that the agriculture will be collectivized in East Germany.
 * January 28 - Derek Bentley is executed for murder in Wandsworth Prison.
 * January 31-February 1 - North Sea flood of 1953 kills 1,835 people in the southwestern Netherlands (especially Zeeland), 307 in the United Kingdom and several hundred at sea, including 132 on the ferry Princess Victoria in the Irish Sea.

February

 * February 1 - Surge of North Sea Flood of 1953 continues from the previous day.
 * February 5 - The movie Peter Pan premieres (Roxy Theatre, New York City).
 * February 11
 * President Eisenhower refuses clemency appeal for Ethel and Julius Rosenberg.
 * The Soviet Union breaks diplomatic relations with Israel.
 * February 13 - Transsexual Christine Jorgenson returns to New York after successful sexual reassignment surgery in Denmark.
 * February 16 - Pakistan Academy of Sciences established in Pakistan.
 * February 18 - The first 3D film, Bwana Devil opens.
 * February 19 - Censorship: Georgia approves the first literature censorship board in the United States.
 * February 28
 * James D. Watson and Francis Crick announce that they have discovered the structure of the DNA molecule.
 * Greece, Turkey, and Yugoslavia have signed the Balkan Pact.

March

 * March 1
 * Joseph Stalin suffers a stroke and collapses after an all-night dinner with Soviet Union interior minister Lavrenty Beria and future premiers Georgi Malenkov, Nikolai Bulganin and Nikita Khrushchev. The stroke paralyzed the right side of his body.
 * Bernard Freyberg, 1st Baron Freyberg made the deputy constable and lieutenant governor of Windsor Castle.
 * March 5 - Joseph Stalin dies after 26 years of ruling the Soviet Union. Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev also dies on this day.
 * March 6 - Georgy Maksimilianovich Malenkov succeeds Joseph Stalin as Premier and First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
 * March 13 - United Nations Security Council nominates Dag Hammarskjöld as United Nations Secretary General
 * March 14 - Nikita Khruschev selected general secretary of the Soviet communist party.
 * March 17 - Nuclear test in Nevada - with 1620 spectators at 3.4 km (2.1 miles).
 * March 18 - An earthquake hits western Turkey killing 250.
 * March 19 - 25th Academy Awards ceremony
 * March 24 - Death of Queen Mary
 * March 25 - 26 - Lari Massacre in Kenya - Mau Mau rebels kill up to 150 kikuyu natives.
 * March 26 - Jonas Salk announces his polio vaccine.

April

 * April 7 - Dag Hammarskjöld is elected United Nations Secretary General.
 * April 8 – Jomo Kenyatta is sentenced for seven years in prison for alleged organization of Mau Mau Rebellion.
 * April 10 – Melbourne Knights is founded as Croatia SC in Melbourne
 * April 13 - Ian Fleming publishes his first James Bond novel, Casino Royale in the United Kingdom.
 * April 25 - Francis Crick and James D. Watson publish their description of the double helix structure of DNA.(::Watson, J. D. and Crick, F. H. C. (1953). Molecular structure of nucleic acids: a structure for deoxyribose nucleic acid. Nature 171, 737-738.)

May

 * May 1 Guy Degrenne's timeless teapot Salam is designed.
 * May 2
 * Hussein is crowned King of Jordan.
 * 38-year-old Stanley Matthews is finally on the winning side in the FA Cup, in his third final.
 * 5 May - Aldous Huxley first tries the psychedelic hallucinogen mescaline, inspiring his book The Doors of Perception.
 * May 9 – France agrees to the provisional independence of Cambodia with the king Norodom Sihanouk.
 * May 10 - Town of Chemnitz in East Germany becomes Karl Marx Stadt.
 * May 11 - The 1953 Waco tornado outbreak: A F5 tornado hits in the downtown section of Waco, Texas killing 114.
 * May 18 - At Rogers Dry Lake, California Jackie Cochran becomes the first woman to break the sound barrier (she flew in a F-86 Sabrejet at an average speed of 652.337 miles-per-hour).
 * May 25 - Nuclear testing: At the Nevada Test Site, the United States conducts its first and only nuclear artillery test.
 * May 29 - Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay perform the first successful ascent to the summit of Mount Everest.

June

 * June 2 - Coronation of Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom at Westminster Abbey.
 * June 7 - General election in Italy.
 * June 8
 * Flint-Worcester tornado outbreak sequence: A tornado hits in Flint, Michigan and kills 115. This is the last tornado to claim more than 100 lives.
 * Austria and Soviet Union form diplomatic relations.
 * June 9
 * CIA Technical Services Staff head Sidney Gottlieb approves of the use of LSD in a MKULTRA subproject.
 * Flint-Worcester Tornadoes: A tornado spawned from the same storm system as the Flint tornado hits in Worcester, Massachusetts killing 94.
 * June 12 - Currency reform causes riots in Czechoslovakia.
 * June 13 - Hungarian Prime Minister Mátyás Rákosi is replaced by Imre Nagy.
 * June 16 - Soviet Union and Yugoslavia form diplomatic relations.
 * June 17 - Workers Uprising: In East Germany, the Soviet Union orders a division of troops into East Berlin to quell a rebellion.
 * June 18 - Egypt declares a republic.
 * June 19 - Execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.
 * June 30 - The first Chevrolet Corvette is built at Flint (Michigan).

July

 * July 4 - Strikes and riots in coal mining regions in Poland
 * July 5 - First meeting of the assembly of the European Economic Community in Strasbourg, France.
 * July 10 – Soviet official paper Pravda announces that Lavrenti Beria has been deposed from his positions as a head of NKVD.
 * July 26 - Fidel Castro and his brother lead a disastrous assault on the Moncada Barracks - preliminary to the Cuban Revolution.
 * July 26 - Short Creek Raid on polygynous Mormon sect
 * July 27 - Korean War ends: The United States, People's Republic of China, North Korea, and South Korea sign an armistice agreement.

August

 * August 5 - Operation Big Switch, operation to repatriate prisoners of war after the Korean War.
 * August 7 - Ohio admitted as a U. S. state, retroactive to 1803.
 * August 8 - Soviet prime minister Georgi Malenkov announces that Soviet Union has a hydrogen bomb.
 * August 11 - A magnitude 7.2 earthquake totally devastates most of the Ionian Sea islands in Greece's worst natural disaster in centuries.
 * August 13 - 4 million workers go on strike in France to protest austerity measures.
 * August 17 - Addiction: First meeting of Narcotics Anonymous in Southern California, see October 5.
 * August 18 - Kinsey report is issued.
 * August 19 - Cold War: The CIA helps to overthrow the government of Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran and retain Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi on the throne (see: Operation Ajax).
 * August 20
 * French government oust the sultan of Morocco and exiles him to Corsica.
 * The United States gives West Germany 382 ships it had captured during World War II.
 * August 25 - General strike ends in France.

September

 * September 5 - United Nations does not accept Soviet Union's suggestion to accept China as a member.
 * September 7 - Nikita Khrushchev becomes head of the Soviet Central Committee.
 * September 25
 * Hurricane in South-East Asia: over 1000 dead.
 * First German prisoners of war return from Soviet Union to West Germany.
 * September 26 - Rationing of cane sugar ends in the UK.

October

 * October
 * The UNIVAC 1103 is the first commercial computer to use random access memory.
 * United States tests H-Bomb.
 * October 5 - First meeting of Narcotics Anonymous (first planning session was held August 17).
 * October 9
 * Konrad Adenauer is re-elected as German chancellor.
 * Guyanese constitution suspended.
 * October 12 - "The Caine Mutiny Court Martial" opens at Plymouth Theatre, New York.
 * October 23 - Philippines' DZAQ-TV3 (now ABS-CBN) made its initial telecast, becoming Asia's first commercial television broadcaster.
 * October 30 - Cold War: US President Dwight D. Eisenhower formally approves the top secret document of the United Stats National Security Council NSC 162/2, which states that the United States' arsenal of nuclear weapons must be maintained and expanded to counter the communist threat.

November

 * November 5 - David Ben Gurion resigns as a prime minister of Israel.
 * November 9 - Cambodia becomes independent from France.
 * November 21
 * Puerto Williams is founded in Chile as the southernmost settlement of the world.
 * Authorities at the British Natural History Museum announce that the skull of the "Piltdown Man", one of the most famous fossil skulls in the world, is a hoax.
 * November 25 - England lose 6-3 to Hungary at Wembley Stadium, their first ever loss to a continental team at home.
 * November 29 - French paratroopers take Dien Bien Phu.
 * November 30 - Edward Mutesa II, the kabaka (king) of Buganda is deposed and exiled to London by Sir Andrew Benjamin Cohen, Governor of Uganda.

December

 * Hugh Hefner published the first issue of Playboy Magazine selling 54,175 copies at $.50 each.
 * December 2 - United Kingdom and Iran reform diplomatic relations.
 * December 8 - US president Dwight D. Eisenhower delivers his Atoms for Peace address to the UN General Assembly in New York City.
 * December 10 - Albert Schweitzer was given the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize.
 * December 17 - The FCC approves color television.
 * December 23 - Soviet Union announces officially that Lavrenti Beria has been executed.
 * December 24 - 153 people die as a result of the Tangiwai disaster when the railway bridge collapses at Tangiwai, New Zealand sending a fully loaded passenger train into the Whangaehu River.
 * December 30 - The first color television sets go on sale for about $1,175 (American dollars).

Undated

 * The Japanese 10 yen coin was issued with serrated edges for a five year period beginning in 1953. All 10 yen coins since and before had smooth edges.
 * Heavy massive rain, landslide, flood occurred western and southwestern Japan. Japanese official estimated 2,566 dead, 9,433 injured, mainly damarged at Kizugawa, Wakayama, Kumamoto and Kitakyushu. (June-August)
 * The videogame Portal's (Valve, 2007) fictional company Aperture Science is founded

Ongoing

 * Marshall Plan

January-February

 * January 4 - George Tenet, American Central Intelligence Agency director
 * January 6 - Malcolm Young, Australian musician
 * January 8 - Bruce Sutter, baseball player
 * January 10
 * Pat Benatar, American singer
 * Dennis Cooper, American author
 * Bobby Rahal, American race car driver
 * January 15 - Kent Hovind, creation science evangelist
 * January 19
 * Desi Arnaz Jr., American actor
 * Richard Legendre, Canadian tennis player and politician
 * January 21 - Paul Allen, American entrepreneur
 * January 22 - Jim Jarmusch, American director
 * January 26 - Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Prime Minister of Denmark
 * January 28 - Colin Campbell, Canadian ice hockey player and executive
 * January 29 - Teresa Teng, Chinese singer
 * January 31 - Sergei Ivanov, first deputy prime minister of Russia and former minister of defense of Russia
 * February 2 - Duane Chapman, American bounty hunter
 * February 7 - Dan Quisenberry, former Major League Baseball Player (d. 1998)
 * February 8 - Mary Steenburgen, American actress
 * February 9
 * Ciarán Hinds, Irish actor
 * Rick Wagoner, American automotive executive
 * February 10 - June Jones, former National Football League quarterback and current NCAA Football Head Coach at Southern Methodist University.
 * February 11
 * Philip Anglim, American actor
 * Jeb Bush, American politician
 * Alan Rubin, American musician
 * February 17
 * Janice Dickinson, American model
 * Norman Pace, British actor and comedian
 * February 20 - Riccardo Chailly, Italian conductor
 * February 21 - William Petersen, American actor
 * February 23 - Paul Krugman, American economist
 * February 25
 * José María Aznar, Spanish politician
 * Martin Kippenberger, German artist
 * February 26 - Michael Bolton, American singer

March-April

 * March 1 - Richard Bruton, Irish politician and economist
 * March 4
 * Emilio Estefan, Cuban percussionist
 * Kay Lenz, American actress
 * March 6
 * Jan Kjærstad, Norwegian author
 * Jacklyn Zeman, American actress
 * March 7 - Leon Sylvers III, singer, writer, music producer
 * March 10 - Debbie Brill, Canadian high jumper
 * March 11- Bernie LaBarge, Canadian guitarist/vocalist
 * March 12
 * Madhav Kumar Nepal, Nepalese politician
 * Carl Hiaasen, American author
 * Ron Jeremy, American actor
 * March 16
 * Isabelle Huppert, French actress
 * Richard Stallman, American free software proponent
 * March 17 - Filemon Lagman, Filipino revolutionary (d. 2001)
 * March 18 - Takashi Yoshimatsu, Japanese composer
 * March 23 - Chaka Khan, American singer
 * March 24 - Alfred Molina, English actor
 * March 26 - Elaine Chao, U.S. Secretary of Labor
 * April 1 - Barry Sonnenfeld, American film producer and director
 * April 2 - Jim Allister, Irish politician
 * April 2 - David Robinson, American drummer
 * April 3 - Sandra Boynton, American author, songwriter, and illustrator
 * April 4 - Robert Bertrand, Canadian politician
 * April 6 - Andy Hertzfeld, American computer programmer
 * April 11 - Andrew Wiles, British-born mathematician
 * April 16 - J. Neil Schulman, American writer and activist
 * April 18 - Rick Moranis, Canadian actor
 * April 19 - Ruby Wax, American British based comedian
 * April 20
 * Sebastian Faulks, English novelist
 * Michael Q. Schmidt American actor and model
 * April 22 - Juhani Komulainen, Finnish composer
 * April 29 - Nikolai Budarin, Russian cosmonaut
 * April 30 - Rebecca Fransway, American author

May-June

 * May 5 - Dieter Zetsche, German auto executive
 * May 6 - Tony Blair, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
 * May 7 - Ian McKay, British soldier, (VC recipient) (d. 1982)
 * May 8 - Alex Van Halen, Dutch-born musician
 * May 15 - George Brett, Major League Baseball player
 * May 15 - Mike Oldfield, English composer
 * May 16 - Pierce Brosnan, Irish actor
 * May 19 - Victoria Wood, British actress
 * May 20 - Robert Doyle, Australian politician
 * May 24 - Alfred Molina, English actor
 * May 26 - Michael Portillo, English politician
 * May 29 - Aleksandr Abdulov, Russian actor (d. 2008)
 * - Danny Elfman, American composer
 * May 30 - Colm Meaney, Irish actor
 * May 31 - Kathie Sullivan, American singer
 * June 1 - David Berkowitz, American serial killer
 * June 4 - Susumu Ojima, Japanese entrepreneur
 * June 7 - Dougie Donnelly, Scottish television broadcaster
 * June 10 - John Edwards, American politician
 * June 13 - Tim Allen, American actor
 * June 20 - Ulrich Mühe, German actor (d. 2007)
 * June 21 - Benazir Bhutto, Prime Minister of Pakistan (d. 2007)
 * June 22 - Cyndi Lauper, American singer
 * June 24 - Ivo Lill, Estonian artist

July-August

 * July 6 - Nanci Griffith, American folk singer-songwriter
 * July 9 - François Diederich, Luxembourgish chemist
 * July 14 - Bebe Buell, American model and singer
 * July 15
 * Jean-Bertrand Aristide, President of Haiti
 * Mila Pivnicki, wife of Canadian prime minister Brian Mulroney
 * July 22 - Sylvia Chang, Taiwanese actress
 * July 25 - Tim Gunn, American fashion expert
 * July 26 - Robert Phillips, American guitarist
 * July 27 - Yahoo Serious, Australian filmmaker
 * July 29 - Geddy Lee, Canadian musician (Rush)
 * August 5 - Rick Mahler, baseball player (d. 2005)
 * August 7 - Anne Fadiman, American writer, daughter of Clifton Fadiman
 * August 9 - Robert Cray, American musician
 * August 11 - Hulk Hogan, American professional wrestler
 * August 14 - Cliff Johnson, American game designer
 * August 16 - Kathie Lee Gifford, American singer and actress
 * August 18 - Louie Gohmert, American politician
 * August 19 - Benoît Régent, French actor (d. 1994)
 * August 24 - Ron Holloway, American tenor saxophonist
 * August 26 - Pat Sharkey, Irish footballer
 * August 27 - Alex Lifeson, Canadian musician (Rush
 * August 29 - James Quesada, Nicaraguan-born anthropologist
 * August 30 - Robert Parish, former National Basketball League player
 * August 31 - György Károly, Hungarian author

September-October

 * September 2 - John Zorn, American musician
 * September 4 - Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, American actor
 * September 7 - Mammootty, Indian actor
 * September 8 - Stu Unger, American poker player (d. 1998)
 * September 10 - Amy Irving, American actress
 * September 11 - Lesley Visser, American sportscaster and journalist
 * September 12 - Stephen Sprouse, fashion designer, artist, and photographer (d. 2004)
 * September 18 - Betsy Boze, Dean and CEO, Kent State University Stark
 * September 21 - Andrew Heermans, musician, recording engineer, music producer
 * September 22 - Ségolène Royal, French politician
 * September 22 - Geoff Gilpin, American author
 * September 23 - Alexey Maslov, commander-in-chief of the Russian Ground Forces
 * September 27 - Greg Ham, band member of 80's band Men at Work
 * September 29 - Denis Potvin, Canadian Hall of Fame hockey player
 * September 30 - Deborah Allen, American singer
 * October 2 - Brandon Wilson, American author and explorer
 * October 7
 * Christopher Norris, British critical theorist
 * Tico Torres, American musician (Bon Jovi)
 * October 9 - Tony Shalhoub, American actor
 * October 14 - Shelley Ackerman, American astrologer, actress, writer
 * October 12 - Serge Lepeltier, French politician
 * October 12 - Les Dennis, British comedian and television presenter
 * October 27
 * Robert Picardo, American actor
 * Peter Firth, British actor
 * October 31 - Michael J. Anderson, American actor

November-December

 * November 3 - Dennis Miller, American comedian and radio host
 * November 4 - Carlos Gutierrez, American politician
 * November 5 - Florentino V. Floro, Filipino dwarf judge
 * November 11 - Harley Venton, American actor
 * November 14 - Dominique de Villepin, Prime Minister of France
 * November 18 - Alan Moore, English writer and magician
 * November 19
 * Robert Beltran, American actor
 * Tom Villard, American actor (d. 1994)
 * November 23 - Francis Cabrel, French singer
 * November 24 - Tod Machover, American composer
 * November 25 - Graham Eadie, Australian rugby player
 * November 27 - Boris Grebenshchikov, Russian rock musician, one of the "fathers" of Russian rock
 * November 29
 * Alex Grey, American artist
 * Christine Pascal, French actress, director and screenwriter
 * December 6 - Gary Ward, baseball player
 * December 8 - Kim Basinger, American actress
 * December 8 - Norman G. Finkelstein, American political scientist
 * December 13
 * Ben Bernanke, American economist
 * Bob Gainey, former National Hockey League player
 * December 15 - Julie Taymor, American film, theater, and opera director and costume designer
 * December 18 - Khas-Magomed Hadjimuradov, Chechen bard
 * December 21 - András Schiff, Hungarian concert pianist
 * December 29 - Stanley Williams, American gang member (Crips) (d. 2005)
 * December 30 - Harald Schmautz, German journalist
 * December 31 - James Remar, American actor


 * date unknown
 * Peter Lord, British film producer and director
 * Ikue Mori, drummer, composer, and graphic designer

January - June

 * January 1 - Hank Williams, American musician (b. 1923)
 * January 28 - James Scullin, ninth Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1876)
 * February 5 - Iuliu Maniu, Romanian politician (b. 1873)
 * February 25 - Sergei Winogradsky, Russian scientist (b. 1856)
 * March 2 - Jim Lightbody, American runner (b. 1882)
 * March 5
 * Herman J. Mankiewicz, American writer and producer (b. 1897)
 * Sergei Prokofiev, Russian composer (b. 1891)
 * Joseph Stalin, Soviet leader (b. 1879)
 * March 24 - Mary of Teck, consort of George V of the United Kingdom (b. 1867)
 * March 24 - Paul Couturier, architect of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity(b. 1881)
 * March 28 - Jim Thorpe, American athlete (b. 1887)
 * April 20 - Erich Weinert, German writer, Communist, and member of the KPD. (b. 1890)
 * May 16 - Django Reinhardt, Belgian musician (b. 1910)
 * May 29 - Man Mountain Dean, American professional wrestler (b. 1891)
 * June 1 - Alex James, Scottish football (soccer) player (b. 1901)
 * June 26 - Lavrentiy Beria, Soviet politician (b.1899)

July - December

 * July 26 - Nikolaos Plastiras, Greek general and politician (b. 1883)
 * July 29 - Richard William Pearse, New Zealand airplane pioneer (b. 1877)
 * August 11 - Tazio Nuvolari, Italian racing driver (b. 1892)
 * August 15 - Ludwig Prandtl, German physicist (b. 1875)
 * August 22 - Jim Tabor, baseball player (b. 1916)
 * August 25 - Jessie Aspinall, Australian doctor, first female junior medical resident at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital (b. 1880)
 * September 2 - General Jonathan Wainwright, U.S. Medal of Honor recipient (b. 1883)
 * September 8 - Fred M. Vinson, Chief Justice of the United States (b. 1890)
 * September 12 - Hugo Schmeisser, German weapons designer (b. 1884)
 * September 26 - Xu Beihong, Chinese painter (b. 1895)
 * September 28 - Edwin Hubble, American astronomer (b. 1889)
 * October 3 - Arnold Bax, English composer (b. 1887)
 * October 8 - Kathleen Ferrier, British contralto (b. 1912)
 * October 11 - Robin Bush, younger sister of President George Walker Bush (b. 1949)
 * October 25 - Holger Pedersen, Dutch linguist (b. 1867)
 * October 27 - Thomas Wass, English cricketer (b. 1873)
 * November 8 - Ivan Alekseyevich Bunin, Russian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1870)
 * November 8 - John van Melle, Dutch-born author (b. 1883)
 * November 9
 * Dylan Thomas, Welsh poet and author (b. 1914)
 * King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia (b. 1880)
 * November 21 - Larry Shields, American musician (b. 1893)
 * November 27 - Eugene O'Neill, American writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1888)
 * November 29
 * Sam De Grasse, Canadian actor (b. 1875)
 * Milt Gross, American comic book illustrator and animator (b. 1895)
 * November 30 - Francis Picabia, French painter and poet (b. 1879)
 * December 18 - Robert Millikan, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1868)
 * December 27 - Julian Tuwim, Polish poet (b. 1894)
 * December 31 - Albert Plesman, Dutch aviation pioneer (b. 1889)

Nobel prizes

 * Physics - Frits (Frederik) Zernike
 * Chemistry - Hermann Staudinger
 * Medicine - Hans Adolf Krebs, Fritz Albert Lipmann
 * Literature - Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill
 * Peace - George Catlett Marshall

Ship events

 * List of ship launches in 1953
 * List of ship commissionings in 1953