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 in topic: Lists of leaders: | |
1951 was a common year starting on Monday; see its calendar.
| Contents |
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 6 - A Pennsylvania Railroad passenger train derails near Woodbridge, New Jersey. The accident kills 85 people and injures over 500 more; one of the worst rail disasters in American history.
- 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 3 - London's Royal Festival Hall opens.
- May 3 - The United States Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committees begin their closed door hearings into the dismissal of General Douglas MacArthur by U.S. President Harry S. Truman.
- 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
Á===October===
- October 3 - "Shot Heard 'Round the World" One of the greatest moments in baseball history occurs when the NY Giants Bobby Thomson hits a game winning home run in the bottom of the ninth off of the Brooklyn Dodgers Ralph Branca,to win the pennant after being down 14 games.
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
- 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
- Rush Limbaugh, radio personality
- January 30 - Phil Collins, English musician
- February 6 - Princess Daphné of Belgium
- February 14 - Kevin Keegan, English footballer and football manager
- February 15 - Melissa Manchester, singer
- February 15 - Jane Seymour, actress
- February 18 - Dale Earnhardt, American racing car driver (d. 2001)
- February 19 - Tahir-ul-Qadri, Islamic scholar and leader
- February 20 - Gordon Brown, Scottish politician
- February 25 - Don Quarrie, Jamaican sprinter
- March 4 - Kenny Dalglish Scottish 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
April-June
- April 6 - Bert Blyleven, baseball pitcher
- April 7 - Janis Ian, singer and songwriter
- April 10 - Steven Seagal, actor
- April 11 - Doris McGowen Beck Angleton, American socialite and murder victim (d. 1997)
- April 13 - Peabo Bryson, pop singer
- Peter Davison, actor and the fifth Doctor Who
- Max Weinberg, drummer
- April 29 - Dale Earnhardt, stock car racer (NASCAR) (d. 2001)
- May 10 - Michael Tarn, actor
- May 13 - Sharon Sayles Belton, mayor of Minneapolis, Minnesota
- May 15 - Jonathan Richman, musician
- May 19 - Joey Ramone (Jeffrey Hyman), American musician, vocalist with The Ramones (d. 2001)
- May 23 - Anatoly Karpov, chess world champion
- May 26 - Sally Ride, astronaut
- May 30 - Stephen Tobolowsky, actor
- June 2 - Larry Robinson, Hockey Hall of Fame defenseman
- June 14 - Paul Boateng, British politician, first black Cabinet minister
- June 17 - Mary McAleese, eighth President of Ireland
- June 20 - Tress MacNeille, voice actress
July-September
- July 3 - Richard Hadlee, New Zealand cricketer
- July 5 - Rich "Goose" Gossage, baseball pitcher
- July 8 - Anjelica Huston, actress
- July 10 - Cheryl Wheeler, singer/songwriter
- June 28 - Lloyd Maines, country music musician and record producer
- July 24 - Chris Smith, British politician, first "out" gay MP
- August 3 - Marcel Dionne, Hockey Hall of Famer
- August 6 - Daryl Somers, Australian television personality
- August 20 - Greg Bear, science fiction author
- August 23 - Akhmad Kadyrov, President of Chechnya
- August 23 - Queen Noor of Jordan
- August 24 - Orson Scott Card, science fiction author
- September 7 - Julie Kavner, voice actress
- September 12 - Joe Pantoliano, actor
- September 22 - David Coverdale, singer
- September 25 - Mark Hamill, actor
- September 29 - Andrés Caicedo, Colombian writer (d. 1977)
- September 29 - Maureen Caird, Australian hurdler
October-December
- October 3 - Dave Winfield, Baseball Hall of Famer
- October 3 - Keb Mo', blues musician
- October 6 - Manfred Winkelhock, auto racing driver
- October 7 - John Mellencamp, musician/songwriter
- October 10 - Ratu Epeli Ganilau, Fijian soldier and statesman
- October 11 - Jean-Jacques Goldman, French pop singer, songwriter
- October 26 - Bootsy Collins, funk musician, singer, songwriter
- October 30 - Harry Hamlin, actor
- November 11 - Marc Summers, television host
- November 15 - Alamgir Hashmi, poet, scholar, professor
- November 19 - Lord Falconer, British lawyer and politician
- November 24 - Chet Edwards, American politician
- November 26 - Ilona Staller, aka Cicciolina, pornographic film actress, politician
- November 30 - Christian Bernard, F.R.C., Rosicrucian, Imperator of AMORC
- December 12 - Wau Holland, German hacker (d. 2001)
- December 17 - Ken Hitchcock, NHL coach
- December 30 - Meredith Viera, television host
Deaths
January-March
- January 7 - René Guénon, French-Egyptian author (b. 1886)
- January 10 - Sinclair Lewis, writer
- January 29 - Frank Tarrant, Australian cricketer (b. 1880).
- February 9 - Eddy Duchin, musician
- February 13 - Lloyd C. Douglas, author
- February 18 - Lyman Gilmore, American aviation pioneer
- February 19 - André Gide, French writer (b. 1869)
- 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, American filmmaker
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
- Physics - John Cockcroft, Ernest Walton
- Chemistry - Edwin McMillan, Glenn T. Seaborg
- Medicine - Max Theiler
- Literature - Pär Lagerkvist
- Peace - Léon Jouhaux