1952
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From top to bottom, left to right: Elizabeth II becomes queen of the United Kingdom; the Ivy Mike nuclear test succeeds in Enewetak Atoll; the 1952 Summer Olympics take place in Helsinki, Finland; the 1952 Egyptian Revolution establishes a republic; the Reparations Agreement between Israel and the Federal Republic of Germany is signed; the Great Smog of London causes widespread illness; the Catalina affair escalates Cold War tensions; the Bolivian National Revolution enacts major reforms; and the 1952 Severo-Kurilsk earthquake kills thousands in Sakhalin.
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1952 (MCMLII) was a leap year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1952nd year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 952nd year of the 2nd millennium, the 52nd year of the 20th century, and the 3rd year of the 1950s decade.
Events
[edit]January–February
[edit]- January 26 – Black Saturday in Egypt: Rioters burn Cairo's central business district, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses.
- February 6
- Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh, becomes monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the British Dominions: Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Pakistan and Ceylon. The princess, who is on a visit to Kenya when she hears of the death of her father, King George VI, aged 56, takes the regnal name Elizabeth II.[1]
- In the United States, a mechanical heart is used for the first time in a human patient.
- February 7 – New York City announces its first crosswalk devices to be installed.[2]
- February 14–25 – The Winter Olympics are held in Oslo, Norway.[3]
- February 15 – The State Funeral of King George VI of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the British Dominions and the last Emperor of India, takes place. George VI's coffin is brought in procession through London to Paddington Station where a royal train brings the King to Windsor, where his funeral and burial take place at St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle.
- February 18 – Greece and Turkey join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
- February 21 – In Dhaka, East Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh) police open fire on a procession of students, killing 4 people and starting a country-wide protest, which leads to the recognition of Bengali as one of the national languages of Pakistan. The day is later declared "International Mother Language Day" by UNESCO.
- February 25 – The Parícutin active volcano in Michoacán, west central Mexico, ceases its discontinuous eruption after spewing forth a gigaton of lava, and burying San Juan Parangaricutiro.
- February 26 – Vincent Massey is sworn in, becoming the first Canadian-born Governor General of Canada.
March–April
[edit]- March 10 – General Fulgencio Batista re-takes power in Cuba in a coup.[4]
- March 15–16 – 73 inches (1,870 mm) of rain falls in Cilaos, Réunion, the most rainfall in one day up to that time.
- March 20 – The United States Senate ratifies a peace treaty with Japan.[5]
- March 21
- The last two executions in the Netherlands take place.
- Kwame Nkrumah is elected Prime Minister of the Gold Coast.
- Tornadoes ravage the lower Mississippi River Valley, leaving 208 dead, through March 22.
- March 22 – Wernher von Braun publishes the first in his series of articles titled Man Will Conquer Space Soon!, including ideas for crewed flights to Mars and the Moon.
- March 27
- Konrad Adenauer survives an assassination attempt.
- A legislative Assembly election is held in Coorg.
- April 1
- April 4
- In the Hague Tribunal, Israel demands reparations worth $3 billion from Germany.
- West Ice accidents: During a severe storm in the West Ice, east of Greenland, 78 seal hunters on 5 Norwegian seal hunting vessels vanish without a trace.
- April 7 – The American Research Bureau reports that the I Love Lucy episode "The Marriage License" was the first TV show in history to be seen in around 10,000,000 homes, the evening the episode aired.
- April 8 – Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer: The U.S. Supreme Court limits the power of the President to seize private business, after President Harry S. Truman nationalizes all steel mills in the United States, just before the 1952 steel strike begins.
- April 9
- Hugo Ballivián's government is overthrown by the Bolivian National Revolution, which starts a period of agrarian reform, universal suffrage and the nationalization of tin mines.
- Santa Teresa Church tragedy: 50 people are trampled to death in the Basilica of St. Teresa, Caracas, Venezuela, after someone shouts "Fire!"; 40 people are arrested in connection with the crush.[6][7][8]
- April 11
- Battle of Nanri Island: The Republic of China seizes the island from the People's Republic of China.
- Bolivian National Revolution: Rebels take over Palacio Quemado.[9]
- April 18
- Bolivia National Revolution: A universal vote enables indigenous peoples and women to vote, nationalizes mines and enacts agrarian reform.
- West Germany and Japan form diplomatic relations.
- April 26 – United States Navy aircraft carrier Wasp collides with destroyer Hobson while on exercises in the Atlantic Ocean, killing 175 men.[10]
- April 28 – The Treaty of San Francisco goes into effect, formally ending the war between Japan and the Allies, and simultaneously ending the occupation of the four main Japanese islands by the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers.
May–June
[edit]- May 1 – East Germany threatens to form its own army.
- 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 has himself announced as a descendant of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad.
- May 13 – Pandit Nehru forms his first government in India.
- May 15 – Diplomatic relations are established between Israel and Japan at the level of legations.
- May 18 – Ann Davison becomes the first woman to single-handedly sail the Atlantic Ocean.
- June 1
- The Roman Catholic Church bans the books of André Gide.
- Navigation opens on the Volga–Don Canal, connecting the Caspian Sea basin with that of the Black Sea.
- June 10 – 1952 San Juan earthquake. A magnitude 6.8 earthquake kills five people on Argentina's San Juan Province.
- June 13
- "Catalina affair": Soviet MiG-15 fighter planes shoot down a Swedish military Douglas C-47 Skytrain, carrying out signals intelligence gathering operations over the Baltic Sea, killing all 8 crew; three days later they shoot down a Catalina flying boat, searching for possible survivors.
- Polttoainehankinta, a secret Finnish Defence Forces operations order is approved.[11]
- June 14 – Myxomatosis is introduced to Europe, on the French estate of Paul-Félix Armand-Delille.
- June 15 – Anne Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl is published in English-language translation.
- June 19 – The Special Forces (United States Army) are created.
- June 26 – The Pan-Malayan Labour Party is founded in Malaya, as a union of statewide labour parties.
- June 27 – Decree 900 in Guatemala orders the redistribution of uncultivated land.
- June 28 – The First Miss Universe pageant is held. Armi Kuusela from Finland wins the title of Miss Universe 1952.
July–August
[edit]- July 13 – East Germany announces the formation of its National People's Army.
- July 19–August 3 – The 1952 Summer Olympics are held in Helsinki, Finland.
- July 21 – The 7.3 Mw Kern County earthquake strikes California's southern Central Valley with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme), killing 12 and injuring hundreds.
- July 23
- The European Coal and Steel Community is established.
- 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 26
- King Farouk of Egypt abdicates in favour of Fuad II.
- Maria Eva Duarte De Peron known as "Evita" Argentina's first lady dies of cancer. The Argentine government's declaration of national mourning causes all business, entertainment, leisure, and work to a standstill.
- August 5 – The Treaty of Taipei between Japan and the Republic of China goes into effect, to officially end the Second Sino-Japanese War.
- August 11 – The Jordanian Parliament forces King Talal of Jordan to abdicate due to mental illness; he is succeeded by his son King Hussein.
- August 12 – Night of the Murdered Poets: 13 Soviet Jewish poets are executed.
- August 13 – Japan joins the IMF.
- August 14 – West Germany joins the IMF and the World Bank.
- August 16 – Lynmouth, North Devon, England is devastated by floods; 34 die.
- August 18 – A 7.5 earthquake shakes the Tibet region leaving a balance of 54 fatalities.
- August 22 – The most damaging aftershock of the 1952 Kern County earthquake sequence strikes with a moment magnitude of 5.8, and a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe). This event damages several hundred buildings in Bakersfield, California, with total additional losses of $10 million, with two associated deaths and some injuries.
- August 26 – A British passenger jet makes a return crossing of the 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 – Composer John Cage's 4′33″, during which the performer does not play, premieres in Woodstock, New York.
- August 30 – The last Finnish war reparations are sent to the Soviet Union.
- August 31 – The Grenzlandring racetrack closes in Wegberg, Germany.
September–October
[edit]- September 2 – C. Walton Lillehei and F. John Lewis perform the first open-heart surgery, at the University of Minnesota.
- September 6 – The CBC in Montreal, Quebec, goes on air launching television in Canada.
- September 10 – The European Parliamentary Assembly (from March 1962, the European Parliament) opens.
- September 15 – The United Nations cedes Eritrea to Ethiopia.
- September 18 – The Soviet Union vetoes Japan's application for membership in the United Nations.
- September 30 – The Revised Standard Version of the Bible is published.
- October 14 – The United Nations begins work in the new United Nations building in New York City, designed by Le Corbusier and Oscar Niemeyer.
- October 17 – 17 October affair: Indonesian troops led by General 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 the Canary Islands to Barbados in 65 days; he reaches them December 23.
- October 20 – Martial law is declared in Kenya, in the face of the Mau Mau uprising.
- October 23 – The West German Federal Constitutional Court bans the Socialist Reich Party as unconstitutional for being a Nazi Party successor organization.
November–December
[edit]- November 1 – Nuclear testing and 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
- 1952 United States presidential election: Republican General Dwight D. Eisenhower defeats Democratic Governor of Illinois Adlai Stevenson (correctly predicted by the UNIVAC computer).
- Pace-Finletter MOU 1952: A Memorandum of understanding is signed between "...Air Force Secretary Finletter and Army Secretary Pace that established a fixed wing weight limit [for the Army] of five thousand pounds empty, but weight restrictions on helicopters were eliminated..."[12]
- November 5 – The 9.0 Mw Severo-Kurilsk earthquake hits the Kamchatka Peninsula of the Soviet Union with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme). A tsunami took the lives of more than 2,300 people.
- November 18 – Jomo Kenyatta is arrested in Kenya, for an alleged connection to the Mau Mau Uprising.
- November 20
- The first official passenger flight over the North Pole is made, from Los Angeles to Copenhagen.
- One of the first successful gender-affirming surgeries is performed in Copenhagen on Christine Jorgensen.
- 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 1 – Adolfo Ruiz Cortines takes office as President of Mexico.
- December 10 – Albert Schweitzer is given the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize.
- December 14 – The first successful surgical separation of Siamese twins is conducted in Mount Sinai Hospital, Cleveland, Ohio.
- December 20 – The crash of a United States Air Force C-124 Globemaster at Moses Lake, WA kills 86 servicemen.
- December 25 – One West German soldier is killed in a shooting incident in West Berlin.
- December 26 – Joseph Ivor Linton, the first Israeli Minister Plenipotentiary in Japan, presents his credentials to the Emperor of Japan.
Date unknown
[edit]- The Nordic Council agrees to the unrestricted transport of people, goods and services throughout the Nordic Countries.
- Supramar launches the first commercial high-speed craft, a hydrofoil.
- During the Mau Mau Uprising, the poisonous latex of the African milk bush is used to kill cattle, in an incident of Biological warfare.[13]
- Slavery in Qatar is abolished.
Births and deaths
[edit]|Category:1952 births|Deaths in 1952}}
Nobel Prizes
[edit]
- 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
References
[edit]
- ^ "The moment a princess became a queen". BBC News. February 6, 2012. Retrieved June 13, 2021.
- ^ Ingraham, Joseph C. (February 7, 1952). "1-Way Traffic Signs Due Soon in Times Sq.; One-Way Signs Due in Times Sq.; 'Walk' Flashers to Aid Pedestrians". The New York Times.
- ^ "Olympedia – 1952 Winter Olympics Overview". olympedia.org. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
- ^ Suchlicki, Jaime (March 10, 2018). "This Day in Cuban History - March 10, 1952. Fulgencio Batista overthrew President Carlos Prío's regime in a bloodless and masterfully executed coup d'état". Cuban Studies Institute (in Spanish). Retrieved September 2, 2025.
- ^ "Historical Documents - Office of the Historian". history.state.gov. Retrieved September 12, 2025.
- ^ "53 Killed in Church Panic". Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate. April 12, 1952. p. 3. Retrieved November 21, 2017 – via Trove.
- ^ Stampede In Church Planned? 13 April 1952
- ^ "40 Arrests in Sequel to Deaths". West Australian. April 15, 1952. p. 6. Retrieved November 21, 2017 – via Trove.
- ^ "The 1952 Bolivian Revolution – IWL-FI" (in Spanish). November 13, 2019. Retrieved February 26, 2022.
- ^ "Hobson | The United States Navy Memorial". navylog.navymemorial.org. Retrieved September 27, 2025.
- ^ Junttila, Paavo (2015). Taistelutehon laskemiseen vaikuttaneet tekijät sodan 1941–44 aikana ja siitä tehtävät johtopäätökset [Factors Effecting the Reduction in Combat Power During the War of 1941–44 with Conclusions] (PDF). Suomalaisen sotataidon klassikot (in Finnish). National Defence University. ISBN 978-951-25-2723-6
- ^ Pattillo, Donald M. (February 1, 2001). Pushing the Envelope: The American Aircraft Industry. University of Michigan Press. ISBN 0472086715.
- ^ Verdourt, Bernard; Trump, E.C. & Church, M.E. (1969). Common poisonous plants of East Africa. London: Collins. p. 254.
