Jan 3, Mel Gibson, Academy Award-winning director, was born.: Braveheart [1995]; actor: Braveheart, Maverick, The Man Without a Face, Lethal Weapon series, Forever Young, Hamlet, Bird on a Wire, Tequila Sunrise, Mad Max series, Mrs. Soffel, The Road Warrior, The Year of Living Dangerously, Summer City.
  
Jan 4, During the Korean conflict, North Korean and Communist Chinese forces captured the city of Seoul.
    
Jan 5, Inchon, South Korea, the sight of General Douglas MacArthur's amphibious flanking maneuver, was abandoned by United Nations force to the advancing Chinese Army.
    
Jan 8, A cahow, thought extinct since 1615, was rediscovered in Bermuda.
    
Jan 10, [Harry] Sinclair Lewis (65), American author of 23 novels and 3 plays (Nobel 1930), died in Rome of a nervous disorder. In 2002 Richard Lingeman authored "Sinclair Lewis: Rebel from Main Street."
  
Jan 15, Supreme Court ruled that the "clear and present danger" of incitement to riot is not protected speech and can be a cause for arrest.
    
Jan 15, In South Korea American bombing and strafing killed Korean refugees  at Yong-in.
  
Jan 16, World's largest gas pipeline opened from Brownsville Tx, to 134th St, NYC.
  
Jan 16, The Viet Minh launched an offensive against Hanoi.
  
Jan 17, China refused a cease-fire in Korea.
    
Jan 20, In South Korea American bombing and strafing killed about 300 Korean refugees at Youngchoon. Korean witnesses later said 300 people were trapped and suffocated in a cavern near Youngchoon.
    
Jan 21, Communist troops forced the UN army out of Inchon, Korea after a 12-hour attack.
    
Jan 22, Fidel Castro, as a baseball pitcher, was ejected from a Winter League game after beaning a batter.
    
Jan 23, President Truman created the Commission on Internal Security and Individual Rights, to monitor the anti-Communist campaign.
    
Jan 24, Indian leader Nehru assailed the U.S. and demanded the UN to name Peking as an aggressor in Korea.
  
Jan 25, The U.S. Eighth Army in Korea launched Operation Thunderbolt, a counter attack to push the Chinese Army north of the Han River.
    
Jan 27, "Peter Pan" closed at Imperial Theater NYC after 320 performances.
    
Jan 27, An era of atomic testing in the Nevada desert began as an Air Force plane dropped a one-kiloton bomb on Frenchman Flats, in Clark County.
    
Jan 29, Liz Taylor's 1st divorce was from Conrad Hilton Jr.
    
Jan 30, Ferdinand Porsche (75), German car inventor (Porsche), died.
    
Feb 1, The third A-bomb tests were telecast for the 1st time and completed in the desert of Nevada.
    
Feb 1, The 1st X-ray moving picture process demonstrated.
    
Feb 1, Alfred Krupp & 28 other German war criminals were freed.
  
Feb 1, The UN condemned the People's Republic of China as aggressor in Korea.
    
Feb 3, "Victor Borge Show," debuted on NBC TV.
    
Feb 9, St. Louis Browns signed baseball pitcher Satchel Paige (45).
  
Feb 9, Actress Greta Garbo got U.S. citizenship.
 
Feb 10, "John & Marsha" by Stan Freberg peaked at #21.
  
Feb 11, U.N. forces pushed north across the 38th parallel once again. Forty-five years after shipping out to fight in Korea, Col. Harry Summers, Jr., got new insight into what the war had been all about.
  
Feb 12, In Iran Shah Pahlavi married Princess Soraya Esfandiari Bakhtiari (d.2001 at 69). They divorced in 1958. In 1991 Soraya authored her autobiography "Le Palais des Solitudes" (The Palace of Solitudes).
  
Feb 13, At the Battle of Chipyong-ni, in Korea, U.N. troops contained the Chinese forces' offensive in a two-day battle.
    
Feb 16, NYC passed a bill prohibiting racism in city-assisted housing.
  
Feb 16, Stalin contended that the U.N. was becoming the weapon of aggressive war.
  
Feb 17, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover initiated a secret nationwide program intended to remove politically suspect employees from their jobs. Congress never authorized the "Responsibilities Program" and over 4 years it provided governors of nearly every state verbal reports on the political backgrounds of 908 employees.
  
Feb 17, Packard introduced its "250" Chassis Convertible.
  
Feb 21, SC House urged that "Shoeless Joe" Jackson be reinstated.
    
Feb 21, The U. S. Eighth Army launched Operation Killer, a counterattack to push Chinese forces north of the Han River in Korea.
    
Feb 22, The Atomic Energy Commission disclosed information about the first atom-powered airplane.
    
Feb 26, In the US the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution, limiting a president to two terms of office, was ratified. It was a reaction to the 4 terms of Franklin Roosevelt.
    
Feb 26, Bread rationing began in Czechoslovakia.
  
Feb 27, Lee Atwater, Republican National Committee Chairman (1989-91), was born.
    
Feb 27, The 22nd amendment was ratified, limiting president to 2 terms.
  
Feb 28, The Senate committee headed by Estes Kefauver, D-Tenn., Issued a preliminary report saying at least two major crime syndicates were operating in the United States.
    
Mar 2, In the 1st NBA All-Star Game: East beat West 111-94 at Boston.
    
Mar 2, The U.S. Navy launched the K-1, the first modern submarine designed to hunt enemy submarines.
     
Mar 7, U.N. forces in Korea under General Matthew Ridgeway launched Operation Ripper, an offensive to straighten out the U.N. front lines against the Chinese.
 
Mar 7, Shah Ali Razmara of Iran was assassinated.
    
Mar 8, The Int’l. Table Tennis Federation banned Egypt for refusing to play Israel.
  
Mar 10, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover declined the post of baseball commissioner.
  
Mar 12, "Dennis the Menace," created by cartoonist Hank Ketcham, made its syndicated debut in 16 newspapers.
  
Mar 12, Communist troops were driven out of Seoul.
 
Mar 13, Israel demanded DM 6.2 billion ($1.5 billion) in German reparations for the cost of caring for war refugees.
  
Mar 13, Alfred Hugenberg, German RC pres-dir of Krupp, media magnate, died.
  
Mar 14, During the Korean War, United Nations forces recaptured Seoul.
  
Mar 15, General de Lattre demanded that Paris send him more troops for the fight in Vietnam.
    
Mar 15, Persia nationalized the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company.
 
Mar 19, Herman Wouk’s war novel "The Caine Mutiny" was first published.
  
Mar 21, Chief of Staff General George C. Marshall reports that the U.S. military has doubled to 2.9 million since the start of the Korean War.
 
Mar 23, U.S. paratroopers descended from flying boxcars in a surprise attack in Korea.
  
Mar 23, Wages in France increased 11%.
 
Mar 24, MacArthur threatened the Chinese with an extension of the Korean War if the proposed truce was not accepted.
 
Mar 26, The United States Air Force flag design was approved.
  
Mar 29, Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical "The King and I" starring Gertrude Lawrence and Yul Brynner opened at the St James Theater on Broadway and ran for 1246 performances.
  
Mar 29, In the 23rd Academy Awards "All About Eve" won for best picture; its director, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, received his second set of consecutive Oscars for direction and screenplay. He’d won the previous year for "A Letter to Three Wives." Judy Holliday won best actress for "Born Yesterday" while Jose Ferrer was honored as best actor for "Cyrano de Bergerac."
  
Mar 29, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage. They were executed in June 1953. Morton Sobell was convicted of conspiracy in the case and served 18 ½ years in prison. Ronald Radosh and Joyce Milton later wrote "The Rosenberg File."
  
Mar 29, The Chinese rejected MacArthur’s offer for a truce in Korea.
 
Apr 1, U.N. forces again crossed the 38th Parallel in Korea.

Apr 5, Husband and wife Julius and Ethel Rosenberg of New York City were sentenced to death by Judge Irving R. Kaufman on charges of selling US atomic secrets to the Soviet Union, enabling the Soviets to detonate their first nuclear weapon in 1949. Although the couple consistently claimed to be innocent, a jury of 11 men and one woman found them guilty on March 30 on the evidence provided by key government witness David Greenglass, Ethel Rosenberg's brother. Co-defendant Morton Sobell was sentenced to 30 years in prison. He was released in 1969. The Rosenbergs were electrocuted on June 19, 1953, leaving behind two young sons.
 
Apr 11, President Truman relieved Gen. Douglas MacArthur of his commands in the Far East. President Truman fired General Douglas MacArthur.
    
Apr 12, Israeli Knesset officially designated April 13 as Holocaust Day.
    
Apr 17, Olivia Hussey, actress (Romeo and Juliet, Death on Nile), was born in Buenos Aires.
    
Apr 17, Mickey Mantle played his 1st game as a NY Yankee and went 1 for 4.
    
Apr 19, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, relieved of his command by President Truman, bid farewell to Congress, quoting a line from a ballad: "Old soldiers never die; they just fade away."
  
Apr 20, Gen. MacArthur addressed a joint session of Congress after being relieved by President Truman.
 
Apr 22, There was a ticker-tape parade for General MacArthur in NYC.
 
Apr 22-25, The Battle of Imjin River in the Korean War. The 1st Battalion of the "Glorious" Gloucestershire Regiment made a remarkable last ditch stand to allow the British 29th Brigade to withdraw in the face of the oncoming Chinese army.
    
Apr 25, After a three day fight in the Battle of Imjim River against Chinese Communist Forces, the Gloucestershire Regiment was annihilated on "Gloucester Hill," in Korea.
  
Apr, In China Monsignor Eugene Fahy (1912-1996), missionary, was named prefect apostolic for Yangzhou.
  
May 1, Mickey Mantle hit his 1st HR.
    
May 1, Some 600,000 marched for peace and freedom in Germany.
  
May 7, A Pulitzer prize was awarded to Conrad Richter (The Town).
    
May 8, Dacron men's suits were introduced.
 
May 9, The U.S. Far East Air Force launched a strike on Sinuiju, North Korea, on the Yalu River.
 
May 11, Jay Forrester patented computer core memory.
    
May 12, The 1st H Bomb test was on Eniwetok Atoll. [see Oct 31, 1952]
  
May 14, The Ernie Kovacs Show, TV Variety "Ernie in Kovacsland," debuted on NBC.
  
May 16, Chinese Communist Forces launched a second step, fifth-phase offensive [in Korea] and gained up to 20 miles of territory.
 
May 18, US General Collins predicted the use of atom bomb in Korea.

May 18, The United Nations moved out of its temporary headquarters in Lake Success, N.Y., for its permanent home in Manhattan.
 
May 19, UN began a counter offensive in Korea.
  
May 20, During the Korean War, U.S. Air Force Captain James Jabara, flying an F-28 Saberjet, became the first jet air ace in history.
 
May 23, Anatoli Karpov, world chess champion (1975-85), was born in the USSR.
 
May 23, Peter Ustinov's "Love of Four Colonels," premiered in London.
    
May 24, Willie Mays at 20 began playing for the New York Giants.
 
May 24, Racial segregation in Washington D.C. restaurants was ruled illegal.
    
May 25, New York Giant Willie Mays went 0 for 5 in his 1st major league game.
  
May 26, Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, was born in LA, Calif. She flew on the Space Shuttle Challenger.
    
May 27, Chinese Communists forced the Dalai Lama to surrender his army to Beijing.
  
May 29, C. F. Blair became the 1st man to fly over the North Pole flight in single engine plane.
  
May 29, Fanny Brice (59), Ziegfeld Girl (Baby Snooks Show), died.

May, "Crazy People" premiered on the BBC Home Service. It starred Peter Sellers, Spike Mulligan, Harry Secombe and Michael Bentine (1924-1996). In 1952 it became "The Goon Show."
    
May, Richard L. Garwin (23) arrived at Los Alamos, N.M., to work on the hydrogen bomb. By July he had developed a preliminary H-bomb design for Edward Teller.
  
May, Kid Gavilan (d.2003), born as Gerardo Gonzalez in Cuba (1926), won the US boxing welter-weight title in a 15-round decision over Johnny Bratton.
  
Jun 1, The first self-contained titanium plant opened in Henderson Nevada.
 
Jun 8, Paul Bobel, Werner Braune, Erich Naumann, Otto Ohlendorf, Oswald Pohl, W. Schallenmair & Otto Schmidt, last Nazi war criminals, were hanged by Americans at Landsberg Fortress.
    
Jun 9, After several unsuccessful attacks on French colonial troops, North Vietnam’s General Giap ordered Viet Minh to withdraw from the Red River Delta.
 
Jun 11, Mozambique became an oversea province of Portugal.
 
Jun 13, U.N. troops seized Pyongyang, North Korea.
  
Jun 14, UNIVAC, the first computer built for commercial purposes, was demonstrated in Philadelphia by Dr. John W. Mauchly and J. Prosper Eckert, Jr.
    
Jun 15, 1st commercial electronic computer was dedicated in Philadelphia.
    
Jun 16, CIO maritime workers called a national strike. Only essential military cargoes were exempt from the work stoppage.

Jun 19, President Harry S. Truman signed the Universal Military Training and Service Act, which extended Selective Service until July 1, 1955 and lowered the draft age to 18.
    
Jun 23, British diplomats and Soviet spies Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean fled to the USSR.
 
Jun 23, Soviet U.N. delegate Jacob Malik proposed cease-fire discussions in the Korean War.
 
Jun 24, Persian army took over nationalized oil installations.
 
Jun 25, The first commercial color telecast took place as CBS transmitted a one-hour special from New York to four other cities.
  
Jun 26, The Soviet Union proposed a cease-fire in the Korean War.
 
Jun 28, A TV version of the radio program "Amos ‘N’ Andy" premiered on CBS. Although criticized for racial stereotyping, it was the first network TV series to feature an all-black cast.
    
Jun 29, The United States invited the Soviet Union to the Korean peace talks on a ship in Wonson Harbor.
  
Jun 30, On orders from Washington, General Matthew Ridgeway broadcast that the United Nations was willing to discuss an armistice with North Korea. In 1950, as U.S. Marines tried to fight their way out of a Chinese trap, Korea suffered its worst winter of the century.
 
Jul 4, The "Capital Times" in Madison, Wisconsin, reported that one of its reporters was turned down by 99 out of 100 people he asked to sign a petition made up of quotations from the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. Many said the petition was subversive.
  
Jul 5, Dr. William Shockley invented junction transistor at Murray Hill, NJ.
  
Jul 9, President Truman asked Congress to formally end the state of war between the United States and Germany.
  
Jul 10, In San Francisco Dashiell Hammett, mystery writer, was sentenced to 6 months in prison for refusing to tell where the Communist party got its bail money.
  
Jul 10, Armistice talks aimed at ending the Korean conflict began at Kaesong.
 
Jul 12, A mob tried to keep a black family from moving into all-white Cicero, Ill.
   
Jul 14, The George Washington Carver National Monument in Joplin, Missouri became the first national park honoring an African American.

Jul 17, Lucie Arnaz (actress and Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz' daughter), was born.
 
Jul 18, Pope Pius XII established the Archdiocese of Seattle and named Rev. Thomas A. Connolly as its 1st archbishop.
 
Jul 19, In Omaha, Neb., a trenching machine sliced through the main transcontinental telephone cable and disrupted coast-to-coast communication.
 
Jul 20, Jordan's King Abdullah Ibn Hussein was assassinated in Jerusalem by a  Palestinian extremist. Prince Hussein (15) witnessed the murder.
    
Jul 21, Dalai Lama returned to Tibet.
 
Jul 23, French Marshal Henri Petain, who had headed the Vichy government during World War Two, was shot by firing squad.

Jul, Monsignor Eugene Fahy (1912-1996), missionary, was seized by the Chinese Communists and jailed.
 
Aug 5, The United Nations Command suspended armistice talks with the North Koreans when armed troops are spotted in neutral areas.
 
Aug 6, Typhoon floods killed 4,800 in Manchuria.
 
Aug 11, The Mississippi River flooded some 100,000 acres in Ks, Okla, Mo and Ill.
 
Aug 14, Newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst died in Beverly Hills, Calif. at age 88. In 2000 David Nasaw authored "The Chief: The Life of William Randolph Hearst." W.A. Swanberg was the author of the biography "Citizen Hearst." In 2002 Louis Pizzitola authored "Hearst Over Hollywood: Power, Passion and Propaganda in the Movies."
 
Aug 17, Hurricane winds drove 6 ships ashore at Kingston, Jamaica.
 
Aug 18, The 1st transcontinental wireless phone call was made from SF to NYC by Mark Sullivan, president of PT&T, and H.T. Killingworth of AT&T.
 
Aug 21, Harry Smith, TV host (CBS Morning Show), was born in Indiana.
    
Aug 22, Harlem Globetrotters played in Olympic Stadium at Berlin before 75,052.
 
1951        Aug 31, The former enemies of the world war reconvened in San Francisco to finalize negotiations on the peace treaty to formally end WW II. Japan agreed to pay the Int’l. Red Cross about $15 per POW while the allies agreed not to bring charges against it.
    
Aug 31, The 1st Marine Division began its attack on Bloody Ridge in Korea. The four-day battle resulted in 2,700 Marine casualties.
    
Aug 31, The 1st 33 1/3 (LP) album was introduced in Dusseldorf.
 
Sep 1, At the Presidio in San Francisco, the US, Australia, and New Zealand signed the Anzus Pact, a joint security alliance to govern their relations.
  
Sep 1, PM Ben-Gurion ordered the establishment of Mossad, the Israeli secret service.
 
Sep 2, Mark Harmon (actor Wyatt Earp, Till There Was You, Reasonable Doubts, People magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive [1986]), was born.
 
Sep 3, The television soap opera "Search for Tomorrow" made its debut on CBS.
  
Sep 4, President Truman addressed the nation from the Japanese peace treaty conference in San Francisco in the first live, coast-to-coast television broadcast. The broadcast was carried by 94 stations.
 
Sep 6, William Burroughs (1914-1997), writer, shot and killed his wife Joan Vollmer (27) in Mexico City. He claimed to be trying to shoot a glass off her head, a la William Tell, during a day of drinking and drugs but shot her in the head.
    
Sep 8, A formal Treaty of Peace was signed by 48 nations of the United Nations and Japan at the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco. On the same day the US and Japan signed a Joint Security Pact at the Presidio. The Soviet delegation refused to sign and said the deal provided for the exclusive existence of American military bases in Japan.
  
Sep 8, Jurgen Stroop, Nazi exterminator of Warsaw Ghetto, was hanged on site of the ghetto.
  
Sep 11, Stravinsky's opera "Rake's Progress," premiered in Venice.
 
Sep 11, Florence Chadwick became the 1st woman to swim English Channel from England to France. It took 16 hours & 19 minutes.
  
Sep 13, In Korea, U.S. Army troops began their assault in Heartbreak Ridge. The month-long struggle would cost 3,700 casualties.
  
Sep 13, Lt. Daniel J. Marini led 40 marines to capture Hill 712 in Korea near Imjin River. He received a Silver Star in 1997.
  
Sep 15, "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" closed at Ziegfeld NYC after 740 performances.
  
Sep 17, Romanian bishop A. Pacha of Timisoara was sentenced to 18 years.
 
Sep 18, Dr. Benjamin Solomon Carson, Sr., African-American neurosurgeon, was born.
 
Sep 19, Italian civil servants struck for a pay increase.
 
Sep 20, Swiss males voted against female suffrage.
 
Sep 26, Prof. Youngblood demonstrated an artificial heart in Paris.
 
Sep 27, Persian troops occupied oil refinery at Abadan.
  
Sep, Some 90 US Marines were killed taking a North Korea ridge called Hill 749.
  
Oct 1, 1st treaty signed by woman ambassador, Eugenie Anderson.
  
Oct 1, The US 24th Infantry Regiment, last all-black military unit, was deactivated.
    
Oct 3, Bobby Thompson won the pennant for the New York Giants by hitting a home run off of Ralph Branca of the Brooklyn Dodgers at the New York Polo Grounds before 20,000 empty seats. A "shot is heard around the world" when New York Giants outfielder Bobby Thomson hit a home run in the bottom of the ninth inning, beating the Brooklyn Dodgers to win the National League pennant.
    
Oct 5, The World Series was telecast on the West Coast. The NY Giants defeated the NY Yankees 5-1.
 
Oct 6, Stalin proclaimed Russia has an atom bomb.
  
Oct 7, David Ben-Gurion formed Israeli government.
  
Oct 14, The Organization of Central American States formed.
  
Oct 15, The situation comedy "I Love Lucy" premiered on CBS. It ran through to 1961. Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz bought their television studio, Desilu, from Howard Hughes.
  
Oct 15, Dr. Carl Djerassi (27), Prof. of chemistry at Stanford Univ., developed the birth control pill in Mexico City while working for Palo Alto based Syntex Corp. He synthesized norethindrone, a steroid oral contraceptive. In 2001 Carl Djerassi authored "This Man’s Pill: Reflections on the 50th Birthday of the Pill." Djerassi synthesized a key hormone in the pill in Mexico City in 1951. Serle won FDA ok to market the pill May 11, 1960.
    
Oct 17, The Egyptian army fired on British troops.
 
Oct 19, President Truman signed an act formally ending the state of war with Germany.
 
Oct 22, An earthquake hit Formosa and 100 people were killed.
    
Oct 24, Jan de Hartog's "4 Poster," premiered in NYC.
 
Oct 24, Dr. Albert W. Bellamy, chief of Radiological Services for the California State Civil Defense, held a press conference to assure state residents that there would be no ill effects from the atomic test explosions near Las Vegas.
   
Oct 25, In a general election, England’s Labour Party lost to Conservatives. Winston Churchill became prime minister, and Anthony Eden became foreign secretary.
    
Oct 25, Peace talks aimed at ending the Korean Conflict resumed in Panmunjom after 63 days.
 
Oct 26, Rocky Marciano defeated Joe Louis at Madison Square Garden.
  
Oct 26, Winston Churchill was re-elected British PM. [see Oct 25]
 
Nov 1, Johnny Mercer's "Top Banana," premiered in NYC.
 
Nov 1, A new US federal law took effect that required bookies, lottery operators and punchboard dealers to purchase a $50 gambling stamp.
  
Nov 1, The 1st atomic explosion, witnessed by troops, was at Yucca Flat, Nevada. Members of the 1st Battalion, 188th Airborne Infantry Regiment from Ft. Campbell, Kentucky, were the first unwitting test participants to be sent to that facility by the Atomic Energy Commission and The Department of Defense in a series of nuclear tests, code named "Buster-Jangle."
 
Nov 1, The Algerian National Liberation Front began guerrilla warfare against the French.
 
Nov 10, Direct-dial, coast-to-coast telephone service began as Mayor M. Leslie Denning of Englewood, N.J., called his counterpart in Alameda, Calif.
 
Nov 12, "Paint Your Wagon" opened at Shubert Theater NYC for 289 performances.
  
Nov 12, The U.S. Eighth Army in Korea was ordered to cease offensive operations and begin an active defense.
 
Nov 14, United States and Yugoslavia signed a military aid pact.
  
Nov 14, French paratroopers captured Hoa Binh, Vietnam.
  
Nov 16, Glenn T. Seaborg and Edwin McMillan of UC shared the Nobel Prize with for discovering (plutonium) the first elements ever known to be heavier than uranium. In 1974 Seaborg co-discovered element 106, named seaborgium.
    
Nov 17, The UC Board of Regents voted to drop the special loyalty oath required of all employees since April 1950.
  
Nov 17, Britain reported the development of world’s first nuclear-powered heating system.
 
Nov 18, "See it Now" premiered on TV.
 
Nov 18, Chuck Connors, former Cubs 1st baseman and future TV star of Rifleman, became the 1st player to oppose the major league draft.
 
Nov 18, Two 4-engine Korean airlift planes collided above Oakland Municipal Airport. One plane crashed and the crew of 3 were killed. The other made an emergency landing at SFO.
  
Nov 18, British troops occupied Ismailiya, Egypt.
  
Nov 25, Truce line mapped at talks in Panmunjom, Korea.
 
Nov 27, 1st rocket to intercept an airplane was fired at White Sands, NM.
    
Nov 27, Cease-fire and demarcation zone accord was signed in Panmunjom, Korea.
  
Nov 28, John Van Druten's "I am a Camera," premiered in NYC.
 
Dec 4, Copland-Robbins' "Pied Piper," premiered in NYC.
  
Dec 4, Superheated gases rolled down Mount Catarman (Philippines), killing 500.
 
Dec 5, "Dragnet" premiered on TV.
 
Dec 5, "Shoeless" Joe Jackson, of baseball's "Black Sox" scandal, died.
 
Dec 8, "Tree Grows in Brooklyn" closed at Alvin Theater, NYC, after 267 performances.
 
Dec 11, Joe DiMaggio announced his retirement from baseball.

Dec 13, After meeting with FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, President Harry S. Truman vowed to purge all disloyal government workers.
 
Dec 17, Raul and Carlos Salinas, aged 5 and 3, played with their friend Gustavo Zapata at their home in Mexico City. While playing they snatched a rifle from a closet and shot a servant just below the eye, killed her and continued playing. Newspaper reports of the time indicated that Carlos pulled the trigger.
 
Dec 18, North Koreans gave the Allies a list of 3,100 POWs.

Dec 24, Gian Carlo Menotti’s "Amahl and the Night Visitors," the first opera written specifically for television, was first broadcast by NBC.
 
Dec 28, The U.S. paid $120,000 to free four fliers convicted of espionage in Hungary.
 
Dec 30, The half-hour Roy Rogers Show premiered on NBC. Production ended in 1957 after some 100 episodes. Roy and Dale Evans ended every show with the song "Happy Trails To You."
  
Dec 31, The 1st battery to convert radioactive energy to electrical was announced.
 
John Steinbeck authored "The Log from the Sea of Cortez" based on a 1940 trip he made there with marine biologist Doc Ricketts (d.1948). He also wrote most of "East of Eden" in his Manhattan townhouse and Long Island beach retreat.
 
Eric Hoofer (d.1983), San Francisco longshoreman-philosopher, wrote "The True Believer,"  a critical view of mass movements. It was later considered a classic of social philosophy.
 
"From Here to Eternity" by James Jones was published. It was made into a film in 1953. The 1998 film "A Soldier’s Daughter Never Cries" was based on an autobiography by his daughter.
 
James Michener (d.1997 at 90) wrote his novel "Return to Paradise."
 
"The Rose Tattoo," originally titled "The Eclipse of May 29, 1919." by Tennessee Williams premiered.
 
The Broadway show "Top Banana" played with burlesque star Joey Faye (d.1997).
 
The Broadway show "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" was based on a novel by Betty Smith. It starred Shirley Booth with a score written by Arthur Schwartz and Dorothy Fields. It was Robert Fryer’s (d.2000 at 79) 1st production.
 
The ballet "The Cage" by Jerome Robbins was a tale of women on the verge of the ultimate revenge.
  
L. Ron Hubbard published his first book on Scientology.

"The Honeymooners" first appeared as a TV sketch featuring Jackie Gleason on the DuMont Network's Cavalcade of Stars. It was written by Harry Crane (d.1999 at 85).
    
Jack Leanne (b.1914) began his TV exercise show in San Francisco.
  
The TV show "See It Now" was co-produced by Edward R. Murrow and Fred W. Friendly (d.1998 at 82). Murrow was on camera and Friendly was behind-the-scenes. The show was cancelled in 1958.
 
"Superman and the Mole Men," starred George Reeves in the first Superman TV episode.
  
Ludwig Miles van deer Roche designed the modernist Farnsworth House in Plano, Ill. The one-story space was walled on all sides by glass and is considered one of the greatest private houses of the 20th century. In 2003 it was purchased by preservationists at auction for $7.5 million.
  
William R. Bright (d.2003 at 81) founded Campus Crusade to spread Christianity to students at UCLA. By 2003 the organization had a staff of 26,000 with revenues of $374 million.
 
Frank Sinatra married Ava Gardner.

American writer Dashiell Hammett, creator of the hardboiled school of detective fiction, was jailed for six months in 1951 for refusing to reveal the names of contributors to the bail bond fund of the Civil Rights Congress. Hammett, who was born in Maryland in 1894, was a Pinkerton detective for eight years and served in the Ambulance Corps in World War I before he began his writing career. Author of The Maltese Falcon (1930) and The Thin Man (1932), Hammett became heavily involved in left-wing political activity in 1934. He was later a trustee of the Civil Rights Congress. Hammett died in 1961.
 
The 8-inch Ginny dolls were introduced by Vogue Dolls Inc. of Bedford, Mass.
  
John "Brick" Jackson (1910-1996) founded the magazine "Landscape." He established the vernacular landscape, the geography of everyday places and plain-folks architecture. He also wrote "American Space" (1972), "Landscapes" (1970), "The Necessity for Ruins" (1980), and "Discovering the Vernacular Landscape" (1984).
    
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Apia) was founded. It was the only US registered Jewish lobby and was dedicated to nurturing and preserving the American-Israeli relationship regardless of the government in Washington or Israel.
  
The Conference on Jewish Material Claims against Germany was founded.
 
Wallis Simpson (1896-1986), the Duchess of Windsor, for whom King Edward VIII gave up the British throne, engaged in an affair with playboy Jimmy Donahue. In 2000 Christopher Wilson authored "Dancing with the Devil: The Windsor’s and Jimmy Donahue."
  
Martin Saver (d.1997 at 80) was awarded the Silver Beaver, Shooting’s highest honor, for his work in Japan. He had assisted Viscount Mishear Mishima, head of the Japanese boy scouts, to reorganize from a militaristic youth group back to a peaceful civilian organization.
    
Maggie Higgins was the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting for her work in Korean war zones.
    
Melvin Calvin of UC Berkeley won the Nobel Prize for his work on how light and carbon dioxide are converted to energy.
 
Jersey Joe Walcott won the heavyweight boxing title.
    
The world’s first skydiving championships were held in Yugoslavia.
 
The US Senate Kefauver Committee held hearings on organized crime.
 
The US Treasury and Federal Reserve reached an accord. In 2001 Martin Mayer authored "The Fed: The Inside Story of How the World’s Most Powerful Financial Institution Drives the Markets."
  
The US Mutual Defense Assistance Control Act, also called the Battle Act, was passed. It blocked the US from giving aid to countries that shipped goods of strategic importance to the Soviet Union or Eastern Europe. It also gave the president the authority to waive the ban.
  
Back-yard shelters against the A-bomb began to proliferate.
 
The US Uniform Code of Military Justice was enacted by Congress. It included a provision against sodomy.
  
Switzerland and the US signed an accord on income tax that dealt with issues of bank secrecy and exchange of sensitive information. The accord was renegotiated in 1996.
  
The Bracero Program was formalized. It allowed about 350,000 Mexican workers to enter the US each year until 1964. It also allowed harvest workers to enter on a temporary basis.
 
In Delaware Louis Redding worked on a suit filed on behalf of black schoolchildren in Delaware who had not been allowed to enroll in white public schools. A court ruled in favor of the suit in 1952 but the state appealed and the suit became part of Brown vs. Board of Education Supreme Court suit of 1954.
    
South Carolina passed an anti-lynching law in response to the mob murder of Willie Earle, who was dragged from jail and gunned down in retaliation for the death of a cabbie.
 
Alfred Bader founded the Aldrich Chemical Co. It was later succeeded by the Sigma Aldrich Corp. He later became a collector of art and spent millions for works by artists such as Rembrandt and Rubens.
  
Benny Bunion, a former bootlegger and numbers runner from Dallas, went to Las Vegas and bought the El Dorado casino and hotel. He renamed it The Horseshoe and promised to take any bet, no matter how high. In 1953 he was put into prison for income tax evasion and served 3 years and 3 months.
    
CBS tried a version of color TV with a design that featured a mechanical rotating color wheel.
 
Chrysler introduced Hydraguide power steering. Thompson Products helped to pioneer the innovation. Chrysler also debuted hemispherical combustion heads above the cylinders of its V-8 engines.
    
United Artists film productions was going under and offered a 5-partner team 50% of the company if profitability were restored in 3 years. Max Young stein (d.1997 at 84), one of the team, was head of production and marketing.
    
Physicist Richard Feynman at 33 published his final paper on quantum electrodynamics
  

Munchausen’s syndrome was first recognized. Named for Baron Karl Fresher von Munchausen, an 18th century German cavalry officer famed for fabricating colorful tales about his exploits. The medical syndrome describes people who travel from doctor to doctor claiming symptoms of a feigned ailment to get attention for themselves.
    
Michigan State College (later Univ.) began to offer a professorship in driver-training.
 
Dr. Albert C. Barnes, eccentric collector of impressionist art, was killed in an automobile crash.

In Britain J. Lyons & Co. used the world's first business computer to calculate payrolls and optimum mixes for tea blending.
    
Mayor Chen Yi of Shanghai, China, began the Shanghai Museum.
  
In China Peng Zhen began his 15-year mayor ship of Beijing.
    
China and the Vatican broke formal relations after missionaries were kicked out and Catholics were forced to sever ties with Rome.
 
Chinese forces "liberated" Tibet.

In Croatia Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac was released under house arrest.
  
Jean Monnet, French civil servant, and Robert Schuman, French foreign minister, helped found the European Union with agreements between 6 countries on the pooling of coal and steel resources.
 
In Iran there was a struggle to nationalize Iranian oil. The story told by Manucher and Roxanne (daughter) Farman farmaian in their 1997 book "Blood and Oil."
    
In Israel the Work and Rest Hours Act was passed. The law prohibited companies from employing workers on their religious days of rest.
  
In Papua New Guinea the Lamington volcano erupted and 2,942 people were killed.
 
In Russia the nuclear weapons research facility near Nizhzny Novgorod was established by Yuli Khariton (1904-1996).
 
1951-1952  Godfrey’s Talent Scouts was the top ranking network show on television with a ranking of 53.8%.
 
1951-1952  Francis Gabreski (d.2002 at 83), US fighter pilot, shot down 6½ MiGs during the Korean War. During WW II he was credited with 37½ kills. He later authored the autobiography: "Gabby: A Fighter Pilot’s Life."
 
1951-1954    Jacobo Guzman Arbenz (1913-1971) served as president of Guatemala. Arbenz became president with the support of army and leftists, including the Communist Party. Jacobo Arbenz Guzman, aroused rightist opposition by allowing Communists in positions of power among peasants, labor unions, even the government itself. His radical policies-especially regarding expropriation of portions of the United Fruit Company holdings-led to a U.S. backed coup in 1954 and his fleeing to Mexico.
    
1951-1955  In Britain Winston Churchill served as Prime Minister a 2nd time.
  
1951-1967  Harlan H. Hatcher served as the 8th president of the Univ. of Mich. Under his tenure enrollment grew from 17,000 to 37,000 students. He had previously served as the vice-president of Ohio State Univ.
    
1951-1970  William McChesney Martin (d.1998 at 91) served as the chairman of the US Federal Reserve.
    
1951-1992   US nuclear tests on Western Shoshone land, guaranteed by the 1863 Treaty of Ruby Valley, numbered 934 over this period.