1951
Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st centuryDecades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s - 1950s - 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s
Years: 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 - 1951 - 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956
See also:
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2 Year in topic 3 Births 4 Deaths 5 Nobel Prizes |
Events
- January 4 - Korean War: Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul.
- January 9 - United Nations headquarters officially opens (New York City).
- January 15 - Ilse Koch, The "Witch of Buchenwald", wife of the commandant of the Buchenwald concentration camp, is sentenced to life imprisonment in a court in West Germany .
- January 27 - Nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site begins with a one-kiloton bomb dropped on Frenchman Flats.
- February 12 - Marriage of Muhammad Reza Shah to Soraya Esfandiary Bakhtiari
- February 27 - The Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution, limiting Presidents to two terms, is ratified.
- March 6 - The trial of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg begins.
- March 7 - Korean War: Operation Ripper - In Korea, United Nations troops led by General Matthew Ridgeway begin an assault against the Chinese "volunteers".
- March 12 - The Dennis the Menace comic strip appears in newspapers across the U.S. for the first time.
- March 14 - Korean War: For the second time, United Nations troops recapture Seoul.
- March 29 - Red Scare: Ethel and Julius Rosenberg are convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage. On April 5 they are sentenced to receive the death penalty.
- March 30 - Remington Rand delivers the first UNIVAC I computer to the United States Census Bureau.
- April 1 - Australia, New Zealand, United States security treaty signed in San Francisco.
- April 18 - Treaty of Paris (1951) adopted, establishing European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC); see EU.
- July 5 - William Shockley invents the junction transistor.
- July 10 - Korean War: At Kaesong, armistice negotiations begin.
- July 14 - In Joplin, Missouri, George Washington Carver National Monument becomes the first United States National Monument in honor of an African American.
- July 20 - King Abdullah I of Jordan is assassinated while attending Friday prayers in Jerusalem.
- September 1 - The United States, Australia and New Zealand all sign a mutual defense pact, called the ANZUS Treaty (for "Australia, New Zealand, United States").
- September 8 - Treaty of San Francisco: In San Francisco, California, 48 nations sign Sign a peace treaty with Japan in formal recognition of the end of the Pacific War.
- September 10 - Great Britain begins an economic boycott of Iran
- November 10 - Direct-dial coast-to-coast telephone service begins in the United States.
- November 24 - The Broadway play Gigi opens staring little known actress Audrey Hepburn playing the lead character (the play ran for six months and lead to Hepburn's film debut in Roman Holiday).
- December 24 - Libya becomes independent from Italy
- A fourth, and final, forest fire starts in the Tillamook Burn; but unlike earlier fires this one only burns 32,700 acres, and within acreage already affected by the earlier fires.
Year in topic
- 1951 in film
- An American in Paris
- The African Queen, starring Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn
- A Streetcar Named Desire
- Flying Leathernecks starring John Wayne
- 1951 in literature
- 1951 in music
- The release of "Rocket 88", a song by Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats. Some music historians consider this record to be the first rock and roll recording.
- 1951 in sports
- 1951 in television
- January 3 - Dragnet airs on television for the first time (NBC).
- May 28 - The U. S. Supreme Court upholds the FCC's approval of the CBS color television system
- June 25 ? CBS presents its first commercial color telecast with Arthur Godfrey, Ed Sullivan, and Faye Emerson.
- June - RCA demonstrates its new electronic color system.
- August 11 - The first baseball games televised in color, a double-header between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Boston Braves
- September 4 - The first coast-to-coast TV broadcast in the United States, featuring President Truman.
- September 22 - The first live sporting event seen coast-to-coast in the United States, a college football game between Duke and the University of Pittsburgh, is televised on NBC.
- October 3 - The first live coast-to-coast network telecast of a World Series game in the United States
- October 15 - I Love Lucy debuts on CBS.
- December 24 - The first televised opera written for television, Amahl and the Night Visitor, airs on NBC.
- Ernie Kovacs' Time for Ernie and Ernie in Kovacsland television shows premiere. Kovacs pushes the limits of television technology with his use of camera tricks and special effects.
Births
- January 6 - Kim Wilson, rock musician
- January 12 - Rush Limbaugh, radio personality
- January 30 - Phil Collins, musician
- February 6 - Princess Daphné of Belgium
- February 15 - Melissa Manchester, singer
- February 15 - Jane Seymour, actress
- February 20 - Gordon Brown, British politician
- March 4 - Kenny Dalglish footballer and football manager
- March 4 - Chris Rea, British singer and musician
- March 17 - Kurt Russell, actor
- March 24 - Tommy Hilfiger, fashion designer
- April 7 - Janis Ian, singer and songwriter
- April 11 - Doris McGowen Beck Angleton, Houston, Texas socialite (d. 1997)
- April 29 - Dale Earnhardt, stock car racer (NASCAR) (d. 2001)
- May 15 - Jonathan Richman, musician
- May 23 - Anatoly Karpov, chess world champion
- May 26 - Sally Ride, astronaut
- May 30 - Stephen Tobolowsky, actor
- June 14 - Paul Boateng, British politician, first black Cabinet minister
- June 17 - Mary McAleese, eighth President of Ireland
- July 3 - Richard Hadlee, New Zealand cricketer
- July 24 - Chris Smith, British politician, first "out" gay MP
- August 20 - Greg Bear, science fiction author
- August 24 - Orson Scott Card, science fiction author
- October 6 - Manfred Winkelhock, auto racing driver
- November 19 - Lord Falconer, British lawyer and politician
Deaths
- January 10 - Sinclair Lewis, writer
- February 9 - Eddy Duchin, musician
- February 13 - Lloyd C. Douglas, author.
- February 18 - Lyman Gilmore, Choctaw Native American airplane pioneer.
- February 19 - André Gide, author
- March 6 - Ivor Novello, actor, musician, composer
- March 25 - Oscar Micheaux, pioneer African-American, filmmaker/author
- April 4 - Al Christie, early Hollywood director/producer
- April 22 - Horace Donisthorpe, myrmecologist
- May 7 - Warner Baxter, actor
- June 13 - Ben Chifley, Australian Prime Minister
- July 13 - Arnold Schoenberg, Austrian composer
- July 20 - King Abdullah, King of Jordan
- July 29 - Hozumi Shigeto, Japanese author
- August 15 - Artur Schnabel, pianist
- August 21 - Constant Lambert, composer
- November 9 - Sigmund Romberg, composer
- Robert Broom, paleontologist