1951

Years: 1948 1949 1950 - 1951 - 1952 1953 1954
Decades: 1920s 1930s 1940s - 1950s - 1960s 1970s 1980s
Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century

1951 was a common year starting on Monday; see its calendar.

Events

January

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 17 - Korean War: Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul.
January 20 - Avalanches in the Alps - 240 die and 45.000 are buried for a time in Switzerland, Austria and Italy
January 27 - Nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site begins with a one-kiloton bomb dropped on Frenchman Flats, northwest of Las Vegas, Nevada.

February

February 1 - United Nations General Assembly declares that China is the aggressor in the Korean War
February 12 - Marriage of Muhammad Reza Shah to Soraya Esfandiary Bakhtiari
February 19- Jean Lee becomes the last woman hanged in Australia. When,Lee and her two pimps are hanged for the murder and tourture of a 73 year old bookmaker.
February 24 - Nestor is born at St. Boniface Hospital in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
February 27 - The Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution, limiting Presidents to two terms, is ratified.

March

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 14 - West Germany joins UNESCO
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

April 1 - Australia, New Zealand, United States security treaty signed in San Francisco.
April 1 - Female suffrage in Greece
April 11 - Stone of Scone found in Scottish church
April 18 - Treaty of Paris (1951) adopted, establishing European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC); see EU.
April 21 - The National Olympic Committee of the USSR is formed
April 28 - Menzies Govt Re-elected for 2nd term

May

May 1 - Opera house of Geneva almost destroyed in a fire
May 14 - First volunteer-run passenger trains on Talyllyn Railway, Wales.
May 15 - Military coup in Bolivia

June

June 14 - UNIVAC I is dedicated by U.S. Census Bureau.[1]
June 15 - July 1- In New Mexico, Arizona, California, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia, thousands of acres (several km²) of forests were destroyed in fires.

July

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 16 - King Leopold III of Belgium signs the act of abdication in favour of his son Baudouin.
July 17 - Baudouin takes the oath as king of Belgium, after his father abdicated the day before.
July 20 - King Abdullah I of Jordan is assassinated while attending Friday prayers in Jerusalem.

September

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 - The United Kingdom begins an economic boycott of Iran.
September 20 - NATO accepts Greece and Turkey as members
September 26-28 - Blue sun seen over Europe; effect is due to ash coming from the Canadian forest fires four months previously

October

October 7 - Malayan Emergency - communist insurgents kill British commander Sir Henry Gurney
October 16 - Assassination of Liaquat Ali Khan, president of Pakistan
October 21 - Storm in southern Italy - over 100 dead
October 26 - Winston Churchill re-elected British Prime Minister; his foreign minister is Anthony Eden
October 27 - Farouk of Egypt declares himself also as a king of Sudan - no support

November

November 1 - First military exercises for nuclear war, with infantry troops included, in the Nevada desert
November 11 - Juan Peron re-elected president of Argentina
November 20 - Po river floods in northern Italy
November 10 - Direct-dial coast-to-coast telephone service begins in the United States.
November 24 - The Broadway play Gigi opens starring little known actress Audrey Hepburn playing the lead character.

December

December 6 - State of emergency in Egypt due to increasing riots
December 13 - Water tank collapses in Tucamcari, New Mexico - 4 dead, 200 buildings destroyed
December 16 - Salar Jung Museum is opened to the public by the Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru.
December 24 - Libya becomes independent from Italy

Undated

A fourth, and final, forest fire starts in the Tillamook Burn; but unlike earlier fires this one only burns 32,700 acres (132 km²), and within area already affected by the earlier fires.
IBM United Kingdom formed

Year in topic

1951 in film
- An American in Paris
- The African Queen, starring Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn
- A Streetcar Named Desire
- Flying Leathernecks starring John Wayne
1951 in literature
- The Catcher in the Rye
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 rail transport
- Southern Pacific Railroad subsidiary Sud Pacifico de Mexico (predecessor of Ferrocarriles Nacionales de Mexico ) is sold to the Mexican government.
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-March

January 6 - Kim Wilson, blues singer and harmonica player
January 12 - Kirstie Alley, actress
January 12 - Rush Limbaugh, radio personality
January 30 - Phil Collins, musician
February 6 - Princess Daphné of Belgium
February 14 - Kevin Keegan, footballer and football manager
February 15 - Melissa Manchester, singer
February 15 - Jane Seymour, actress
February 20 - Gordon Brown, British politician
February 25 - Don Quarrie, Jamaican sprinter
March 4 - Kenny Dalglish footballer and football manager
March 4 - Chris Rea, British singer and musician
March 8 - Karen Kain, Canadian ballerina
March 17 - Kurt Russell, actor
March 24 - Tommy Hilfiger, fashion designer

Deaths

January-March

January 10 - Sinclair Lewis, writer
January 29 - Frank Tarrant, Australian all-rounder and one of the best cricketers never to play a Test match (b. 1880).
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
February 21 - Choudhary Rahmat Ali, founding father of Pakistan (b. 1895)
March 6 - Ivor Novello, actor, musician, composer
March 10 - Shidehara Kijuro, Japanese prime minister
March 21 - Willem Mengelberg, Dutch conductor (b. 1871)
March 25 - Eddie Collins, Baseball Hall of Famer (b. 1887)
March 25 - Oscar Micheaux, pioneer African-American, filmmaker/author

April-June

April 4 - Al Christie, early Hollywood director/producer
April 6 - Robert Broom, paleontologist
April 22 - Horace Donisthorpe, myrmecologist
April 23 - Charles G. Dawes, former U.S. vice-president
May 7 - Warner Baxter, actor
May 30 - Hermann Broch, Austrian author
June 4 - Serge Koussevitzky, Russian conductor (b. 1874)
June 13 - Ben Chifley, Australian Prime Minister
June 21 - Charles Dillon Perrine, astronomer (b. 1867)

July-September

July 9 - Harry Heilmann, Baseball Hall of Famer (b. 1894)
July 13 - Arnold Schoenberg, Austrian composer
July 20 - King Abdullah, King of Jordan
July 23 - Robert J. Flaherty, filmmaker
July 29 - Hozumi Shigeto, Japanese author
August 14 - William Randolph Hearst, American newspaper publisher
August 15 - Artur Schnabel, Polish pianist (b. 1882)
August 21 - Constant Lambert, composer

October-December

October 16 - Liaquat Ali Khan, first Prime Minister of Pakistan
November 5 - Reggie Walker, South African athlete
November 9 - Sigmund Romberg, composer
November 13 - Nikolai Medtner, Russian pianist/composer

Nobel Prizes

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1951

Events

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

September

October

November

December

Undated

Year in topic

Births

January-March

April-June

July-September

October-December

Deaths

January-March

April-June

July-September

October-December

Nobel Prizes