1953 is a common year starting on Thursday.

Events

January

• January 7 - President Harry S. Truman announces the United States has developed a hydrogen bomb.
• January 13 - Marshal Josip Broz Tito chosen President of Yugoslavia
• January 20 - Change of US presidency from Harry S. Truman (1945-1953) to Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953-1961).
• January 22 - The Crucible, a drama by Arthur Miller, opens on Broadway
• January 24 – Mau Mau rebels in Kenya kill Ruck family – father, mother and a 6-year-old son
• January 28 - Derek Bentley is executed for murder in Wandsworth Prison
• January 31, February 1 - North Sea Flood of 1953 flood kills 1,835 people in the southwestern Netherlands, 307 in the United Kingdom and several hundred at sea, including 134 on the Princess Victoria.

February

• February 1 - Severe storms and spring tide flooding cause severe damage to the coasts of Belgium and the Netherlands with severe flooding in Zeeland - North Sea Flood of 1953.
• February 5 - The movie Peter Pan premieres (Roxy Theatre, New York City).
• February 11 - President Eisenhower refuses clemency appeal for Ethel and Julius Rosenberg.
• February 11 - The Soviet Union breaks diplomatic relations with Israel.
• February 18 - The first 3D film, Bwana Devil opens.
• February 19 - Censorship: Georgia approves the first literature censorship board in the United States
• February 28 - James D. Watson and Francis Crick announce that they have determined the chemical structure of DNA.

March

• March 1 - After an all-night dinner with interior minister Lavrenty Beria and future premiers Georgi Malenkov, Nikolai Bulganin and Nikita Khrushchev, Joseph Stalin collapses, having suffered a stroke that paralyzed the right side of his body.
• March 1 - Bernard Freyberg, 1st Baron Freyberg made the deputy constable and lieutenant governor of Windsor Castle
• March 5 - After 29 years of ruling the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin dies.
• March 6 - Georgy Maksimilianovich Malenkov succeeds Josef Stalin as Premier and First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
• March 18 - An earthquake hits western Turkey killing 250.
• March 25-26 – Lari Massacre in Kenya – Mau Mau rebels kill up to 150 kikuyu
• March 26 - Jonas Salk announces his polio vaccine.

April

• April 7 - Dag Hammarskjöld is elected United Nations Secretary General.
• April 8 – Jomo Kenyatta is sentenced for seven years in prison for alleged organization of Mau Mau Rebellion
• April 25 - Francis Crick and James D. Watson publish their description of the double helix structure of DNA.

Watson, J. D. and Crick, F. H. C. (1953). Molecular structure of nucleic acids: a structure for deoxyribose nucleic acid. Nature 171, 737-738.

May

• May 9 – France agrees to the provisional independence of Cambodia with the king Norodom Sihanouk
• May 11 - The Waco Tornado: A F5 tornado hits in the downtown section of Waco, Texas killing 114.
• May 18 - At Rogers Dry Lake , California Jackie Cochran becomes the first woman to break the sound barrier (she flew in a F-86 Sabrejet at an average speed of 652.337 miles-per-hour).
• May 25 - Nuclear testing: At the Nevada Test Site, the United States conducts its first and only nuclear artillery test.
• May 29 - Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay perform the first successful ascent to the summit of Mount Everest.

June

Queen Elizabeth II in her coronation robes

• June 2 - Coronation of Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom at Westminster Abbey.
• June 8 - Flint-Worcester Tornadoes: A tornado hits in Flint, Michigan and kills 115. This is the last tornado to claim more than 100 lives.
• June 9 - Flint-Worcester Tornadoes: A tornado spawned from the same storm system as the Flint tornado hits in Worcester, Massachusetts killing 94.
• June 13 - Hungarian Prime Minister Mátyás Rákosi is replaced by Imre Nagy.
• June 17 - Workers Uprising: In East Germany, the Soviet Union orders a division of troops into East Berlin to quell a rebellion.
• June 18 - Egypt declares a republic
• June 19 - Execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
• June 30 - The first Chevrolet Corvette is built at Flint (Michigan)

July

• July 10 – Soviet official paper Pravda announces that Lavrenti Beria has been deposed from his positions as a head of NKVD
• July 26 - Fidel Castro leads a disastrous assault on the Moncada Barracks, sparking the Cuban Revolution.
• July 27 - Korean War ends: The United States, People's Republic of China, North Korea, and South Korea sign an armistice agreement.

August

• August 5 - Operation Big Switch , operation to repatriate prisoners of war after the Korean War
• August 7 - Ohio admitted to the union, retroactive to 1803.
• August 17 - Addiction: First meeting of Narcotics Anonymous in Southern California, see October 5.
• August 19 - Cold War: The CIA helps to overthrow the government of Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran and retain Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi on the throne (see: Operation Ajax).

September

• September 7 - Nikita Khrushchev becomes head of the Soviet Central Committee.
• September 26 - Rationing of sugar ends in the United Kingdom

October

• October - The UNIVAC 1103 is the first commercial computer to use random access memory.
• October 5 - First meeting of Narcotics Anonymous (first planning session was held August 17)
• October 12 - "The Caine Mutiny Court Martial " opens at Plymouth Theatre , New York.
• October 30 - Cold War: US President Dwight D. Eisenhower formally approves the top secret document National Security Council Paper No. 162/2 , which states that the United States' arsenal of nuclear weapons must be maintained and expanded to counter the communist threat.

November

David Ben-Gurion resigns

• November 5 - David Ben Gurion resigns as a prime minister of Israel
• November 9 - Cambodia becomes independent from France.
• November 21 - Authorities at the British Natural History Museum announce that the skull of the "Piltdown Man", held to be one of the most famous fossil skulls in the world, is a hoax.
• November 25 - England lose 6-3 to Hungary at Wembley Stadium, their first ever loss to a continental team at home
• November 29 - French paratroopers take Dien Bien Phu

December

• December 23 – Soviet Union announces officially that Lavrenti Beria has been executed
• December 24 - 153 people die as a result of the Tangiwai disaster when the railway bridge collapses at Tangiwai, New Zealand sending a fully loaded passenger train into the Whangaehu River
• December 30 - The first color television sets go on sale for about $1,175 (American dollars).

Year in topic

• 1953 in film
  • From Here to Eternity
  • Julius Caesar
  • The Robe
• 1953 in literature
  • Casino Royale, the first James Bond novel published
  • Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
• 1953 in music
  • Elvis Presley records for the first time
• 1953 in rail transport
  • The first Trailer-On-Flat-Car (TOFC, or "piggyback") equipment enters service on the Southern Pacific Railroad.
• 1953 in sports
  • April 16th - Montreal Canadiens win the Stanley Cup, defeating Boston Bruins winning the series 4 games to 1, with a score of 1-0, in the first overtime at 1:22 (minutes:seconds)
• 1953 in television
  • January 19 - 68% of all United States television sets were tuned in to I Love Lucy to watch Lucy give birth
  • February 18 - Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz sign an $8,000,000 contract to continue the I Love Lucy television series through 1955.
  • March 25 - CBS concedes victory to RCA in the war over color television standards.
  • April 3 - TV Guide is published for the first time, with 10 editions and a circulation of 1,562,000
  • May 25 - KUHT in Houston, becomes the first non-commercial educational TV station
  • The Tonight Show begins as a local New York variety show.
  • August 30 - The first publicly announced experimental broadcast in compatible color is presented: NBC's Kukla, Fran and Ollie.
  • October 19 - Arthur Godfrey fires Julius La Rosa on the air.
  • November 22 - RCA airs the first commercial program in compatible color: The Colgate Comedy Hour with Donald O'Connor, by special permission of the FCC.
  • December 24 - NBC's Dragnet becomes the first network-sponsored television program.
  • December 17 - The FCC reverses its 1951 decision and approves the RCA/NTSC color system
  • Japanese television goes on the air for the first time
• 1953 in theater
  • July 13 - First lines of the first play produced by the Stratford Shakespeare Festival (Richard III) are spoken.

Births

January

• January 8 - Bruce Sutter, baseball relief pitcher
• January 10 - Pat Benatar, singer
• January 10 - Bobby Rahal, automobile racer
• January 19 - Desi Arnaz Jr., actor
• January 21 - Paul Allen, entrepreneur
• January 22 - Jim Jarmusch, director
• January 26 - Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Prime Minister of Denmark

February

• February 7 - Lige Curry , musician (P Funk)
• February 7 - Dan Quisenberry, baseball pitcher (d. 1998)
• February 8 - Mary Steenburgen, actress
• February 11 - Philip Anglim, actor
• February 11 - Alan Rubin, music figure
• February 11 - Stephen D. Thorne , astronaut
• February 17 - Norman Pace , actor, comic
• February 21 - William Petersen, actor
• February 25 - José María Aznar, Spanish politician

March

• March 1 - Richard Bruton, Irish Fine Gael politician and economist
• March 6 - Jan Kjærstad, Norwegian author
• March 12 - Carl Hiaasen, author
• March 12 - Ron Jeremy, pornographic film actor
• March 16 - Isabelle Huppert, actress
• March 16 - Richard Stallman, Free software proponent
• March 23 - Chaka Khan, singer
• March 26 - Elaine Chao, U.S. Secretary of Labor

April

• April 1 - Barry Sonnenfeld, producer, director
• April 11 - Guy Verhofstadt, Prime Minister of Belgium
• April 16 - J. Neil Schulman, Science Fiction writer, Libertarian activist

May

• May 6 - Tony Blair, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
• May 15 - George Brett, Baseball Hall of Famer
• May 15 - Mike Oldfield, composer
• May 16 - Pierce Brosnan, actor (Remington Steele, James Bond)
• May 19 - Victoria Wood, British comic actress
• May 24 - Alfred Molina, actor
• May 26 - Michael Portillo, politician
• May 29 - Danny Elfman, (composer)
• May 30 - Colm Meaney, Irish actor
• May 11 - Rohit Savaram , Guntur/Indian Social Worker

June

• June 6 - Robert Bruce Thompson , American author
• June 8 - Bonnie Tyler, singer
• June 13 - Tim Allen, actor
• June 21 - Benazir Bhutto, Prime Minister of Pakistan (twice), first female Muslim head of government

July

• July 14 - Bebe Buell, model, singer, Playmate of the Month for November, 1974
• July 15 - Jean-Bertrand Aristide, former president of Haiti
• July 15 - Mila Pivnicki, First Lady of Canada
• July 29 - Geddy Lee, musician with Rush

August

• August 5 - Rick Mahler, Major League Baseball player (d. 2005)
• August 11 - Hulk Hogan, American professional wrestler
• August 18 - Louie Gohmert, American politician
• August 19 - Benoît Régent, French film actor
• August 28 - Gates McFadden, actress

October

• October 2 - Brandon Wilson, author, explorer
• October 7 - Christopher Norris, actress
• October 9 - Tony Shalhoub, actor
• October 12 - Serge Lepeltier, French politician
• October 12 - Les Dennis, comedian and television presenter
• October 16 - Terrence John Mason , American violinist
• October 22 - Jeff Goldblum, actor
• October 27 - Robert Picardo, actor
• October 31 - Michael J. Anderson, American actor
• October 31 - John M. Young ,United Kingdom [British] Rehab Therapist

November

• November 18 - Alan Moore, comic book writer, writer, performer, magician
• November 19 - Robert Beltran, actor
• November 28 - Ben Bolt,American Guitarist
• November 29 - Alex Grey, artist

December

• December 6 - Gary Ward, baseball player
• December 8 - Kim Basinger, actress and Oscar winner
• December 13 - Bob Gainey, Hockey Hall of Famer
• December 30 - Meredith Vierra , talk show host

Deaths

January

• January 1 - Hank Williams, American country musician
• January 28 - James Scullin, ninth Prime Minister of Australia

March

• March 2 - Jim Lightbody, American middle-distance runner
• March 5 - Herman J. Mankiewicz, writer, producer
• March 5 - Sergei Prokofiev, Soviet composer
• March 5 - Joseph Stalin, Soviet leader
• March 24 - Queen Mary the Dowager Queen Mother, formerly Mary of Teck, widow of King George V of the United Kingdom
• March 28 - Jim Thorpe, athlete (b. 1887)

May

• May 29 - Man Mountain Dean, professional wrestler

July

• July 29 - Richard William Pearse, New Zealander airplane pioneer

September

• September 2 - General Jonathan Wainwright, U.S. Medal of Honor recipient

October

• October 3 - Arnold Bax, composer
• October 8 - Kathleen Ferrier, American contralto (b. 1912)
• October 25 - Holger Pedersen, Dutch linguist (b. 1867)

November

• November 8 - John van Melle, South African author
• November 9 - Dylan Thomas, poet and author
• November 21 - Larry Shields, jazz musician (b. 1893)
• November 27 - Eugene O'Neill, playwright
• November 29 - Sam De Grasse, pioneer Hollywood actor
• November 30 - Francis Picabia, painter, poet

December

• December 27 - Julian Tuwim, Polish poet (b. 1894)

Unknown date

• T. F. O'Rahilly, Irish academic

Nobel Prizes

• Physics - Frits (Frederik) Zernike
• Chemistry - Hermann Staudinger
• Medicine - Hans Adolf Krebs, Fritz Albert Lipmann
• Literature - Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill
• Peace - George Catlett Marshall