1952

Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century

Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s - 1950s - 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s

1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 - 1952 - 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957

Events:

January 8 – West Germany has 8 million refugees inside its borders.
January 11 - Unexplained blast shakes part of Southern California coastline from Venice to San Diego for 8 hours
January 24 – Sudden heavy snowfall in Algeria
February 14 – February 25 – Winter Olympics in Oslo
February 15 - The Funeral of King George VI
March 10 – General Fulgencia Batista takes the power in Cuba - again
March 27 – Failed assassination attempt against Konrad Adenauer
April 4 – In Hague tribunal, Israel demands reparations worth 3 billion dollars from Germany
April 18 – West Germany and Japan form diplomatic relations
April 23 – Nuclear test in Nevada desert
April 29 – Japan regains official independence
April 29 – Two Soviet fighters fires at French passenger plane over Germany
April 29 - Australia, New Zealand, United States security treaty comes into force.
May 1 – East Germany threatens to form its own army
May 2 – First passenger jet flight route between London and Johannesburg
May 6 – King Faruk of Egypt had himsefl announced as a descendant of prophet Mohammed.
May 13 – Pandit Nehru forms his first government
May 15 – Flash flood in Lymouth, Britain – 35 dead
June 1 – Catholic church bans books of Andre Gide
June 5 – Remains of a viking ship found near Boston
June 21 - USA launches the first nuclear submarine USS Nautilus
June 29 – Finnish Armi Kuusela wins the title of Miss Universum
June 30 – Marshall Aid ends
July 13 – East Germany annouces formation of its people’s army.
July 19–August 3 - The Summer Olympic Games are held in Helsinki.
July 26 – Military coup in Egypt ousts King Faruk
August 2 – West Germany joins IMF
August 10 - Establishment of the European Coal and Steel community
August 11 – Jordanian army forces king Taal to resign – his successor is his son Hussein II
August 14 – West Germany joins World Bank
August 16 – Lynmouth in North Devon is devastated by floods, death toll of 31
August 26 – British passenger jet flies twice over Atlantic in the same day
August 27 – Reparation negotiations between West Germany and Israel end in Luxenbourg – Germany will pay 3 billion D-marks.
August 30 – Last Finnish war reparations to Soviet Union
August 29 - Premiere of John Cage's 4' 33" in Woodstock, New York
September 18 – Soviet Union vetoes Japan’s apply for membership of United Nations
October 8 – Negotiations of ceasefire in Korea are postponed
October 8 – Three-train crash in Harrow railway station in England - 110 dead
October 14 – United Nations begins work in the new United Nations building in New York City
October 20– Martial Law in Kenya due to Mau Mau uprising
November 1 - The first hydrogen bomb is exploded by the United States on the island of Enewetak in the Bikini Atoll.
November 4 - Dwight D. Eisenhower defeats Adlai Stevenson in the U.S. presidential election (correctly predicted by UNIVAC computer)
November 4 – 8,25 Richter scale earthquake in Kamchatka
November 18 – Jomo Kenyatta is arrested in Kenya for alleged connection to Mau Mau uprising
November 20 - Fireball crashes in a backyard in Havelock North, New Zealand
November 20 – First official passenger flight over the North Pole from Los Angeles to Copenhagen
November 21 – Show trial in Czechoslovakia sentences 11 ex-communist officials to death – all of them Jews.
September 4–September 9 – Thick smog in London causes 4000 fatalities
December 14 – First successful surgical separation of siamese twins in Mount Sinai hospital, Ohio.
December 25 – Shooting incident in West Berlin – one West german soldier is killed

National Security Agency founded
Queen Elizabeth II comes to the throne of the United Kingdom
Cold War over Germany’s frontiers intensify
Sister Theresa becomes Mother Theresa and begins her charity work in Calcutta
Charles Chaplin expelled from USA
3300 die of polio in USA, 57.000 children are paralyzed
Traffic lights in New York City
Werner von Braun talks about a manned flight to Mars.

Art, Culture & Fashion

1952 in film
- Cinerama-system
1952 in literature
- The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C. S. Lewis
- The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
- Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
- Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
- November 25 - Agatha Christie's play The Mousetrap opens in London
1952 in music
- "Hound Dog" - Big Mama Thornton
1952 in sports
- July 27 – Emil Zatopek wins marathon in Helsinki Olympic games
1952 in television
- January 14 - The Today show premieres on NBC.
- September – The first UHF television station, KLOR begins broadcasting in Portland, Oregon.
- The first political advertisements appear on U.S. television. Democrats buy a 30 minute slot for their candidate, Adlai Stevenson. Stevenson is bombarded with hate mail for interfering with a broadcast of I Love Lucy. Dwight Eisenhower buys 20 second commercial spots and wins the election.
- The Ernie Kovacs Show premieres. Kovacs pushes the limits of television technology with his use of camera tricks and special effects.
- The first telecast of an atomic bomb detonation (KTLA)

Births:

March 11 - Douglas Adams, science fiction author
March 22 - Bob Costas, sports announcer
May 21 - Mr. T, American actor, is born Laurence Tureaud, in Chicago
June 7 - Liam Neeson, actor
August 3 - Osvaldo Ardiles, Argentinian footballer
August 13 - Herb Ritts, celebrity photographer
August 24 - Joe Strummer, musician
October 7- Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin

Deaths:

February 6 - King George VI of the United Kingdom
April 3 – Miina Sillanpää, Finnish left-wing trade union activist
May 6 - Maria Montessori founder of the Montessori teaching method and schools; cerebral haemorraghae
May 8 – Walter Fox, US movie producer
July 26 – Eva Peron, “Evita”, wife of Juan Peron
February 22 – Kaarlo Juho Ståhlberg, first president of Finland
September 29 – George Santayana, writer
November 23 – Aaro Hellaakoski, Finnish poet
Chaim Weizman, zionist

Nobel Prizes: