Top News Stories from 1951
World Events
World Statistics
Population: 4.378 billion
population by decade Nobel Peace Prize: Léon Jouhaux (France)
More World Statistics... - Seoul falls first to Communist forces (Jan. 4), then to US-led UN troops (Mar. 14). Despite peace talks in July and October, the Korean War continues.
- Six nations agree to Schuman Plan to pool European coal and steel (March 19; in effect Feb. 10, 1953).
- Japanese peace treaty signed in San Francisco by 49 nations (Sept. 8).
- Libya gains independence from Italy (Dec. 24).
U.S. Events
U.S. Statistics
President: Harry S Truman
Vice President: Alben W. Barkley
Population: 154,877,889
Life expectancy: 68.4 years
Homicide Rate (per 100,000): 4.9
More U.S. Statistics... - 22nd Amendment to the US Constitution, limiting the number of terms a president may serve, is ratified (Feb. 27).
- Julius and Ethel Rosenberg sentenced to death for treason (April 5; executed June 19, 1953).
Economics
US GDP (1998 dollars): $339.7 billion
Federal spending: $45.51 billion
Federal debt $255.3 billion
Consumer Price Index: $26
Unemployment: 5.3%
Cost of a first-class stamp: $0.03
Sports
World Series
NY Yankees d. NY Giants (4-2)NBA Championship
Rochester d. New YorkStanley Cup
Toronto d. MontrealWimbledon
Women: Doris Hart d. S. Fry (6-1 6-0)Men: Dick Savitt d. K. McGregor (6-4 6-4 6-4)
Kentucky Derby Champion
Count TurfNCAA Basketball Championship
Kentucky d. Kansas St. (68-58)NCAA Football Champions
Tennessee (10-0-0)Entertainment
Entertainment Awards
Pulitzer Prizes Fiction:
The Town, Conrad Richter
Music: Music for opera Giants in the Earth, Douglas Stuart Moore
Academy Award, Best Picture: All About Eve (Twentieth Century-Fox)
Nobel Prize for Literature: Pär Lagerkvist (Sweden)
Miss America: Yolande Betbeze (AL)
More Entertainment Awards... Events
- Yul Brynner makes his first appearance as the king of Siam in Rodgers and Hammerstein's The King and I. Gertrude Lawrence costars (March 29).
- Color television introduced in the U.S.
- In an effort to introduce rhythm and blues to a broader white audience, which was hesitant to embrace "black music," disc jockey Alan Freed uses the term rock 'n' roll to describe R&B.
- In the first broadcast of Edward R. Murrow's See It Now series, Murrow shows the split-screen image of the Golden Gate and Brooklyn bridges and tells viewers it is the first time to see the Atlantic and Pacific oceans simultaneously.
Movies
- The African Queen, A Streetcar Named Desire, An American in Paris, A Place in the Sun
Music
- Elliott Carter, String Quartet No. 1
Books
- Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism
- Hortense Calisher, In the Absence of Angels
- Truman Capote, The Grass Harp
- Carson McCullers, The Ballad of the Sad Café
- Marianne Moore, Collected Poems
- Adrienne Rich, A Change of World
- J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye
- Herman Wouk, The Caine Mutiny
Science
Nobel Prizes in Science
Chemistry: Glenn T. Seaborg and Edwin H. McMillan (both US), for discovery of plutonium
Physics: Sir John Douglas Cockcroft (UK) and Ernest T. S. Walton (Ireland), for work in 1932 on transmutation of atomic nuclei
Physiology or Medicine: Max Theiler (South Africa), for development of anti-yellow-fever vaccine
More Nobel Prizes in 1998... - Charles F. Blair, Jr. makes the first solo flight across North Pole (May 29). Background: Famous Firsts in Aviation
- UNIVAC (Universal Automatic Computer), the first business computer to handle both numeric and alphabetic data, is introduced. Background: Computers and Internet
- Gregory Pincus, Min Chuch Chang, John Rock, and Carl Djerassi (US) develop the first oral contraceptive. Background: Contraceptive Use, World; Contraceptive Use, U.S.
- The first nuclear power plant is built by the US Atomic Energy Commission. Background: Nuclear Energy
Death
- John Alden Carpenter
- Dorothy Dix
- André Gide