1952
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Year 1952 (MCMLII) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar.

Events of 1952

January

• January 8 - West Germany has 8 million refugees inside its borders.
• January 14 - The Today Show premieres on NBC.
• January 16 - Heir to the throne of Egypt & Sudan H.R.H. Prince Ahmed Fuad Farouk is born, later to become H.M. Fuad II the last King of Egypt & Sudan, Nubia, Kordofan and Darfur.
• January 24
  • Sudden heavy snowfall in Algeria.
  • Vincent Massey sworn in as first Canada-born Governor-General of Canada.

February

The 3 Queens in mourning- Queen Elizabeth II, her grandmother Queen Mary and mother Queen Elizabeth at the funeral of King George VI.

• February 2 - A tropical storm forms just north of Cuba moving northeast. The storm makes landfall in southern Florida the next day. It is the earliest reported landfall from a tropical storm, and the earliest formation of a tropical storm on record in the Atlantic basin.
• February 6
  • Elizabeth II becomes Queen upon the death of her father George VI. She is simultaneously proclaimed Queen of Canada at Rideau Hall, Ottawa, Ontario.
  • In the United States, a mechanical heart is used for the first time in a human patient.
• February 7 - Elizabeth II is proclaimed Queen of the United Kingdom at St. James's Palace, London, England.
• February 14 to February 25 - Winter Olympics in Oslo.
• February 15 - Funeral of King George VI takes place at St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle.
• February 20
  • Emmett Ashford becomes the first African-American umpire in organized baseball by being authorized to be a substitute umpire in the Southwestern International League.
  • Winston Churchill scraps UK compulsory national Identity Cards.
• February 21 - In Dhaka, East Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh) police open fire on a procession of students, killing four people and starting a country-wide protest which leads to the recognition of Bengali as one of the national languages of Pakistan. The day was later declared as "International Mother Language Day" by UNESCO.
• February 26 - United Kingdom Prime Minister Winston Churchill announces that his nation has an atomic bomb.

March

• March 10 - General Fulgencio Batista re-takes power in Cuba.
• March 15 to March 16 - 73 inches (1,870mm) of rain falls in Cilaos, Réunion, the most rainfall ever in one day.
• March 20 - The United States Senate ratifies a peace treaty with Japan.
• March 21
  • The last two executions in the Netherlands take place.
  • Dr. Kwame Nkrumah is elected Prime Minister of the Gold Coast.
  • Tornadoes ravage the lower Mississippi River Valley, leaving 208 dead, through March 22.
• March 27 - Failed assassination attempt against Konrad Adenauer.
• March 29 - U.S. President Harry S. Truman announces that he will not seek reelection.

April

• April 4 - In Hague tribunal, Israel demands reparations worth 3 billion dollars from Germany.
• c. April 4 - During a severe storm in the West Ice, east of Greenland, five Norwegian seal hunting vessels with a crew of 78 seal hunters perish without a trace in what is known as the West Ice accidents.
• April 8 - Hours before the 1952 steel strike is to begin, President Harry S. Truman nationalizes all steel mills in the United States—creating a dispute which led to landmark legal ruling in Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer.
• April 9 - Hugo Ballivián's government is overthrown by the Bolivian National Revolution, starting a period of agrarian reform, universal suffrage and the nationalisation of tin mines.
• April 11 - Battle of Nanri island took place.
• April 15 - The B-52 Stratofortress flies for the first time.
• April 18
  • Bolivia National Revolution: universal vote enables indigenous and women to vote, nationalization of mines and agrarian reform.
  • West Germany and Japan form diplomatic relations.
• April 23 - Nuclear test in Nevada desert.
• April 28
  • The Treaty of San Francisco goes into effect, formally ending the occupation of Japan.
  • Treaty of Taipei (Treaty of Peace between Japan and the Republic of China).
• April 29 - Lever House officially opens in New York City, heralding a new age of commercial architecture in the United States.

May

• May 1 - East Germany threatens to form its own army.
• May 2 - First passenger jet flight route between London and Johannesburg.
• May 3 - U.S. lieutenant colonels Joseph O. Fletcher and William P. Benedict land a plane at the geographic North Pole.
• May 6 - Farouk of Egypt had himself announced as a descendant of prophet Muhammad.
• May 13 - Pandit Nehru forms his first government.
• May 15 - Diplomatic relations established between the governments of Israel and Japan at the level of Legations.
• May 18 - Ann Davison became the first woman to single-handedly sail the Atlantic Ocean.

June

• June 1
  • Roman Catholic church bans books of André Gide.
  • Navigation opens on the Volga-Don Canal, connecting the Caspian Sea basin with that of the Black Sea.
• June 5 - Remains of a Viking ship found near Boston, Massachusetts.
• June 14 - The keel is laid for the U.S. nuclear submarine USS Nautilus.
• June 15 - The Diary of Anne Frank published.
• June 21 - Philippine School of Commerce, through a republic act, was converted to Philippine College of Commerce; later to be the Polytechnic University of the Philippines.
• June 29 - Finnish Armi Kuusela wins the title of Miss Universe.
• June 30 - Marshall Aid ends.

July

France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands form the European Coal and Steel community, the foundation organisation which would become the European Union.

• July 13 - East Germany announced formation of its National People's Army.
• July 19 to August 3 - The Summer Olympic Games are held in Helsinki.
• July 19 to July 26 - Washington D.C. "buzzed" by several UFOs tracked on multiple radars. Jets scrambled on several occasions and objects took evasive action only to return after the jets left the area.^[1]
• July 21 - A magnitude 7.5 earthquake (Richter scale) strikes Tehachapi, California, destroying unreinforced brick buildings.
• July 23
  • Establishment of the European Coal and Steel community.
  • General Mohammed Naguib leads The Free Officers (formed by Gamal Abdel Nasser - the real power behind the coup) in the overthrow of King Farouk of Egypt.
• July 25 - Puerto Rico becomes a self-governing commonwealth of the United States.
• July 26 - Military coup in Egypt ousts King Farouk.

August

• August 11 - Jordanian army forces King Talal to resign due to mental illness - his successor is his son Hussein of Jordan.
• August 13 - Japan joins IMF.
• August 14 - West Germany joins the IMF and the World Bank.
• August 16 - Lynmouth in North Devon England is devastated by floods, death toll of 34.
• August 26 - British passenger jet flies twice over Atlantic Ocean in the same day.
• August 27 - Reparation negotiations between West Germany and Israel end in Luxembourg - Germany will pay 3 billion Deutsche Marks.
• August 29 - Premiere of John Cage's 4' 33" in Woodstock, New York.
• August 30 - Last Finnish war reparations to Soviet Union.
• August 31 - Closure of the Grenzlandring racetrack in Wegberg, Germany.

September

• September 2 - Dr. C. Walton Lillehei and Dr. F. John Lewis perform first open-heart surgery at the University of Minnesota.
• September 4 - September 9 - Thick smog in London, England causes 4,000 fatalities.
• September 6 - TV debuts in Canada as the CBC in Montreal, Quebec airs.
• September 8 - CBC Toronto debuts.
• September 18 - Soviet Union vetoes Japan's application for membership in the United Nations.

October

• October 8
  • Negotiations for a ceasefire in Korea are postponed.
  • Three-train crash in Harrow railway station in England - 112 dead.
• October 12 - Gamma Sigma Sigma National Service Sorority was founded in New York City at Panhellenic Tower.
• October 14 - United Nations begins work in the new United Nations building in New York City.
• October 17 - Indonesian troops led by Nasution surround the presidential palace, seeking the dismissal of the People's Representative Council; Sukarno avoids confrontation.
• October 19
  • Alain Bombard begins to sail from Canary Islands to Barbados in 65 days; he reaches them December 23.
  • John Bamford, aged 15, rescues victims of a house fire and becomes the youngest person to have been awarded the George Cross.
• October 20 - Martial law in Kenya due to Mau Mau uprising.

November

• November 1 - Nuclear testing: Operation Ivy - The United States successfully detonates the first hydrogen bomb, codenamed "Mike", at Eniwetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands in the central Pacific Ocean, with a yield of 10.4 megatons.
• November 4
  • 8.25 Richter scale earthquake in Kamchatka.
  • United States presidential election, 1952: Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower defeats Democrat Adlai Stevenson (correctly predicted by the UNIVAC computer).
  • The US National Security Agency is founded.
• November 18 - Jomo Kenyatta is arrested in Kenya for alleged connection to Mau Mau uprising
• November 20
  • Slánský trials - series of Stalinist and largely anti-Semitic show trials in Czechoslovakia.
  • Fireball crashes in a backyard in Havelock North, New Zealand^{citation needed}.
  • 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.
• November 25 - Agatha Christie's murder-mystery play The Mousetrap opens at the Ambassadors Theatre in London; as of 2007 , it continues, next door at the St. Martin's Theatre, and remains the longest continuously running production of a play in history.
• November 29 - Korean War: U.S. President-elect Dwight D. Eisenhower fulfills a political campaign promise by traveling to Korea to find out what can be done to end the conflict.

December

• December 1 - The New York Daily News carries a front page story announcing that Christine Jorgensen, a transsexual woman in Denmark became the recipient of the first successful sexual reassignment operation.
• December 4 - Great Smog of 1952: A "killer fog" descends on London (In the process coining the word "Smog", for "smoke" and "fog").
• December 14 - First successful surgical separation of Siamese twins in Mount Sinai Hospital, Ohio.
• December 20 - Crash of U.S. Air Force C-124 Globemaster at Moses Lake, WA kills 86 servicemen.
• December 25 - Shooting incident in West Berlin - one West German soldier is killed.
• December 26 - Joseph Ivor Linton, first Israeli Minister Plenipotentiary in Japan, presents his credentials to the Japanese Emperor.

Undated

• Nearly 58,000 cases of polio are reported in the U.S.– 3,145 died and 21,269 were left with mild to disabling paralysis.^[2]
• Charles Chaplin is expelled from the U.S..
• Wernher von Braun publishes his ideas for a manned flight to Mars in The Mars Project.
• Nordic Council agrees free transport of people, goods and services throughout the Nordic Countries.
• National Prohibition Foundation incorporated in Indiana.
• American Embassy School of New Delhi founded.
• Fallskärmsjägarna - Swedish paratrooper training school (FJS) created.
• World Wrestling Entertainment - Professional Wrestling Promotion was founded by Vince McMahon Sr.

Ongoing

• Cold War
• First Indochina War
• Marshall Plan

Fictional

The following are references to year 1952 in fiction: (unknown).

Births

January-February

• January 1 - Jury Zacharanka, Belarusian politician abducted and probably killed in 1999
• January 3 - Jim Ross, American wrestling announcer
• January 12 - Charles Faulkner - life coach, motivational speaker, trader and author
• January 12 - Walter Mosley, American author
• January 14 - Maureen Dowd, American writer
• January 15 - Boris Blank (musician), Swiss musician
• January 17 - Ryuichi Sakamoto, Japanese musician, composer, producer, and actor (Yellow Magic Orchestra)
• January 21
  • Marco Camenisch, Swiss environmental activist
  • Louis Menand, American writer and critic
• January 22 - Ace Vergel, Filipino actor, cardiac arrest. (d. 2007)
  • Teddy Gentry, vocals and bass guitar for Alabama
• January 25
  • Edward Fialkowski, political activist
  • Sara Mandiano, French singer and songwriter
• February 1 - Stan Kasten, baseball executive, currently President of the Washington Nationals
• February 3 - Dermot Morgan, Irish actor and comedian (d. 1998)
• February 14 - Nancy Keenan, current president of NARAL
• February 22 - William Frist, heart surgeon and U.S. Senator
• February 25
  • Jerry Chamberlain, American musician
  • Joey Dunlop, Northern Irish motorcycle racer (d. 2000)
• February 29 - Gary The Retard, member of The Wack Pack from radio's The Howard Stern Show
• February 29 - Sharon Dahlonega Raiford Bush, American television's first primetime weather anchor

March-April

• March 1
  • Steven Barnes, American author
  • Martin O'Neill, Northern Irish footballer and football manager
• March 2 - Laraine Newman, American comedian
• March 4 - Scott Hicks, Australian movie director
• March 4
  • Ronn Moss, American actor
  • Umberto Tozzi, Italian singer
• March 7 - Viv Richards, West Indian cricket captain
• March 11 - Douglas Adams, English author (d. 2001)
• March 12 - Eliézer Niyitegeka, Rwandan journalist, politician, and genocidaire
• March 13 - Wolfgang Rihm, German composer
• March 13 - Agnes Rapai, Hungarian writer
• March 22 - Bob Costas, American sports announcer
• March 22 - Jay Dee Daugherty, American drummer
• March 23 - Kim Stanley Robinson, American author
• March 25 - Jung Chang, Chinese-born author and historian
• March 25 - Antanas Mockus, Colombian mathematician and politician
• March 29 - Teofilo Stevenson, Cuban boxer
• March 30 - Peter Knights, Australian footballer and coach
• March 31 - Vanessa del Rio, American actress
• April 1 - Bernard Stiegler, French philosopher
• April 4 - Rosemarie Ackermann, German athlete
• April 5 - Mitch Pileggi, American actor
• April 6 - Marilu Henner, American actress, author
• April 7 - Nichita Danilov, Romanian writer
• April 11 - Peter Windsor, British sports reporter
• April 12 - Ralph Wiley, American sports journalist (d. 2004)
• April 14 - Mickey O'Sullivan, Irish sportsman
• April 16
  • Billy West, American voice actor
  • Bill Belichick, American football coach
• April 17 - Željko Ražnatović, Serbian mobster and paramilitary leader (d. 2000)
• April 22 - Marilyn Chambers, American actress
• April 25 - Ketil Bjørnstad, Norwegian pianist
• April 28 - Mary McDonnell, American actress

May-June

• May 2
  • Campbell McComas, Australian impersonator and broadcaster
  • Isla St Clair, Scottish singer
• May 3
  • Allan Wells, Scottish athlete
  • Leonid Khachiyan, Russian-born mathematician
• May 4 - Michael Barrymore, British comedian and TV presenter
• May 6 - Michael O'Hare, American actor
• May 10 - Thomas Paty Stamps, American bankruptcy attorney and historian
• May 11
  • Renaud Séchan, French composer
  • Shohreh Aghdashloo, Iranian actress
  • Mike Lupica, American sports journalist
• May 14
  • David Byrne, Scottish-born singer, songwriter, and guitarist (Talking Heads)
  • Robert Zemeckis, American director
• May 16 - James Herndon, American media psychologist
• May 18
  • George Strait, American musician
  • Diane Duane, American writer
• May 19 - Bert van Marwijk, Dutch football manager
• May 20 - Roger Milla, Cameroonian footballer
• May 21 - Mr. T, American actor
• May 26 - David Meece, American musician
• May 28 - Victoria Cunningham, American actress and Playmate
• June 7
  • Hubert Auriol, French racing driver
  • Orhan Pamuk, Turkish writer, Nobel prize.
  • Liam Neeson, Northern Irish actor
• June 9 - Yukihiro Takahashi, Japanese musician and singer (Yellow Magic Orchestra)
• June 16 - Georgios Papandreou, Greek politician
• June 17 - Mike Milbury, American ice hockey player, coach and executive
• June 18 - Isabella Rossellini, Italian actress
• June 20
  • John Goodman, American actor
  • Vikram Seth, Indian novelist
• June 21
  • Jeremy Coney, New Zealand cricket captains
  • Kôichi Mashimo, Japanese anime director
• June 22
  • Alastair Stewart, British newsreader
  • Graham Greene (actor), Canadian (First Nations) actor
• June 24 - Stephen Pusey, British-born artist
• June 25 - Tim Finn, New Zealand singer-songwriter
• June 27 - Douglas Unger, American novelist
  • Madan Kumar Bhandari, Nepalese politician (d. 1993)
• June 28 - Pietro Mennea, Italian athlete
• June 29 - Joe Johnson, English snooker player

July-August

• July 1 - Dan Aykroyd, Canadian actor
• July 9 - John Tesh, American composer, musician, and television host
• July 12 - Philip Taylor Kramer, Bass Guitar Player (d. 1995)
• July 12 - Voja Antonić, Serbian inventor and writer
• July 14 - Franklin Graham, American evangelist
• July 19 - Allen Collins, American musician and band member of Lynyrd Skynyrd
• July 20 - Keiko Matsuzaka, Japanese actress
• July 24 - Gus Van Sant, American Film Director
• July 27 - Hannu-Pekka Hänninen, Finnish sports commentator
• July 31
  • Chris Ahrens, American ice hockey player
  • João Barreiros, Portuguese author
• August 1 - Zoran Djindjic, Prime Minister of Serbia (d. 2003)
• August 3 - Osvaldo Ardiles, Argentine footballer
• August 4
  • James Arbuthnot, British politician
  • Moya Brennan, Irish singer
• August 5 - Louis Walsh, music producer and reality TV show judge
• August 7 - Alexei Sayle, English actor
• August 8 - Jostein Gaarder, Norwegian author
• August 8 - Robin Quivers, American radio personality
• August 9 - Vicki Morgan, American model (d. 1983)
• August 10 - Daniel Hugh Kelly, American actor
• August 13 - Herb Ritts, American photographer
• August 14 - Carl Lumbly, American actor
• August 16 - Reginald VelJohnson, American actor
• August 19 - Jonathan Frakes, American actor
• August 21 - Joe Strummer, British musician (The Clash) (d. 2002)
• August 24 - Linton Kwesi Johnson, Jamaican-born musician
• August 26 - Bryon Baltimore, Canadian ice hockey player
• August 27 - Paul Reubens, American actor, writer and comedian
• August 28 - Wendelin Wiedeking, German businessman
• August 29 - Karen Hesse, American children's writer
• August 29 - Jimmy Connors, tennis player

September-October

• September 12
  • Sergei Karaganov, Russian political scientist
  • Neil Peart, drummer for the band Rush
• September 16 - Fatos Nano, Albanian Prime Minister
• September 18 - Dee Dee Ramone, American bassist (The Ramones) (d. 2002)
• September 22 - Bob Goodlatte, U.S. Congressman from Virginia
• September 24
  • Mark Sandman, American musician and artist (Morphine) (d. 1999)
  • Joseph Patrick Kennedy II, son of Robert F Kennedy and Ethel Skakel Kennedy and nephew of U.S president John F Kennedy and Edward M Kennedy
• September 25 - Christopher Reeve, American actor and activist (d. 2004)
• September 26 - Predrag Miletić, Serbian actor from Nis
• September 27 - Didier Dubois, French mathematician
• September 29 - Max Sandlin, American politician
• September 30 - Jack Wild, English actor (d. 2006)
• October 5
  • Duncan Regehr, Canadian actor
  • Clive Barker, British author
• October 7 - Vladimir Putin, Russian president
• October 9 - Sharon Osbourne, wife and manager of Ozzy Osbourne
• October 13 - John Lone, Hong Kong actor
• October 14 - Nikolai Andrianov, Soviet gymnast
• October 16 - Ron Taylor, American actor (died 2002)
• October 19 - Floyd Mayweather Sr., former professional boxer and trainer
• October 22 - Jeff Goldblum, American actor
• October 26 - Andrew Motion, English poet
• October 28 - Annie Potts, American actress

November-December

• November 3 - Roseanne Barr, American actress and comedian
• November 3 - David Ho, Taiwanese-American AIDS researcher
• November 5 - Bill Walton, American basketball player and commentator
• November 6 - Michael Cunningham, American writer
• November 8 - Jan Raas, Dutch professional cyclist
• November 13 - Art Malik, Pakistani-born British actor
• November 16 - Shigeru Miyamoto, Japanese game designer
• November 17 - Ties Kruize, Dutch field hockey player
• November 25 - Imran Khan, Pakistani cricketer
• November 28 - S. Epatha Merkerson, American actress
• November 30 - Keith Giffen, American comic book writer and artist
• December 6 - Rick Charlesworth, Australian cricketer, politician, hockey player and coach
• December 9 - Michael Dorn, American actor
• December 12 - Harbance Singh (Herb) Dhaliwal, Canadian politician
• December 15 - Hwang Woo-Suk, South Korean biomedical scientist
• December 16 - Joel Garner, West Indian cricketer
• December 27 - Jay Hill, Canadian politician
• December 28 - Arun Jaitley, Indian politician
• December 30 - June Anderson, American soprano

Deaths

January - June

• January 11 - Jean de Lattre de Tassigny, French general, posthumous Marshal of France (b. 1889)
• January 18 - Curly Howard, American actor and comedian (b. 1903)
• February 6 - King George VI of the United Kingdom (b. 1895)
• February 19 - Knut Hamsun, Norwegian author, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1859)
• February 22 - Kaarlo Juho Ståhlberg, first President of Finland (b. 1863)
• March 5 - Charles Scott Sherrington, English physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1857)
• March 7 - Paramahansa Yogananda, Indian guru (b. 1893)
• March 9 - Alexandra Kollontai, Russian revolutionary (b.1872)
• March 22 - Uncle Dave Macon, American musician (b. 1870)
• March 31
  • Wallace H. White, Jr., U.S. Senator from Maine (b. 1877)
  • Walter Schellenberg (b. 1910)
• April 3 - Miina Sillanpää, Finnish politician (b. 1866)
• April 5 - Fala, Scottish Terrior to President Roosevelt (b. 1940)
• April 5 - Charles Collett, Great Western Railway chief mechanical engineer (b. 1871)
• April 21 - Sir Stafford Cripps, British Chancellor of the Exchequer (b. 1889)
• April 23 - Julius Freed, American inventor and banker (b. 1887)
• May 6 - Maria Montessori, Italian educator (cerebral hemorrhage) (b. 1870)
• May 21 - John Garfield, American actor (b. 1913)
• June 1 - John Dewey, American philosopher (b. 1859)
• June 17 - Krystyna Skarbek, Polish-born British agent in World War II (b. 1915)
• June 19 - Heinrich Schlusnus, German baritone (b. 1888)

July - December

• July 26 - Eva Perón, Spiritual Leader of the Argentine Nation, prominent political leader, and First Lady to and partner in power of President Juan Perón (b. 1919)
• September 29 - George Santayana, Spanish-born writer (b. 1863)
• September 30 - Viscount Waldorf Astor, American-born businessman and politician (b. 1879)
• October 22 - Ernst Rüdin, Swiss psychiatrist, geneticist, and eugenicist (b. 1874)
• October 28 - Billy Hughes, seventh Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1862)
• November 3 - Louis Verneuil, French playwright, screenwriter (b. 1893)
• November 8 - Harold Innis, Canadian communications scholar (b. 1894)
• November 9 - Chaim Weizmann, first President of Israel (b. 1874)
• November 18 - Paul Eluard, French poet (b. 1895)
• November 20 - Benedetto Croce, Italian critic, philosopher, and politician (b. 1866)
• November 21 - William D. Upshaw, American temperance movement leader (b. 1866)
• November 26 - Sven Hedin, Swedish explorer, geographer and geopolitician (b. 1865)
• December 12 - Bedrich Hrozný, Czech orientalist and linguist (b. 1879)
• December 19 - Pehr G. Holmes, American Politician
• December 28 - Alexandrine of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Queen consort of Christian X of Denmark (b. 1879)
• December 28 - Fletcher Henderson, American musician (b. 1897)

Nobel prizes

• Physics - Felix Bloch, Edward Mills Purcell
• Chemistry - Archer John Porter Martin, Richard Laurence Millington Synge
• Medicine - Selman Abraham Waksman
• Literature - François Mauriac
• Peace - Albert Schweitzer

Ship events

• List of ship commissionings in 1952
• List of ship decommissionings in 1952

Notes

1. ^ Gross, Patrick (2005-06-09). "The Washington D.C UFO flap of 1952". Retrieved on 2007-10-13.
2. ^ Zamula, Evelyn (1991). "A New Challenge for Former Polio Patients". FDA Consumer 25 (5). 

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1952

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