January
January 1 – First week as No. 1 single on Billboard and Cashbox charts of Patti Page hit song "Tennessee Waltz".
January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul: Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (they had lost Seoul in the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950).
January 9 – The Government of the United Kingdom announces abandonment of the Tanganyika groundnut scheme for the cultivation of peanuts in the Tanganyika Territory with the writing off of £36.5M debt.[1]
January 15 – In a court in West Germany, Ilse Koch, The "Witch of Buchenwald", wife of the commandant of the Buchenwald concentration camp, is sentenced to life imprisonment.
January 20 – Avalanches in the Alps kill 240 and bury 45,000 for a time in Switzerland, Austria and Italy.
January 25 – Dutch author Anne de Vries releases the first volume of her novel Journey Through the Night (Reis door de nacht) set during World War II.
January 27 – Nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site begins with a 1-kiloton bomb dropped on Frenchman Flat, northwest of Las Vegas.
February
February – Convention People's Party wins national elections in Gold Coast (British colony).
February 1 – The United Nations General Assembly declares that China is an aggressor in the Korean War in United Nations General Assembly Resolution 498.
February 4–February 8 – Surgeons remove an ovarian cyst from Gertrude Levandowski in a 96-hour long operation in Chicago. She loses almost half of her weight and emerges weighing 140 kg.[2]
February 6 – A Pennsylvania Railroad passenger train derails near Woodbridge Township, New Jersey, killing 85 people and injuring over 500, in one of the worst rail disasters in American history.
February 12 – Muhammad Reza Shah marries Soraya Esfandiary-Bakhtiari.
February 15 – Start of the 1951 New Zealand waterfront dispute, which lasts for 151 days.
February 19 – Jean Lee becomes the last woman hanged in Australia, when Lee and her 2 pimps are hanged for the murder and torture of a 73-year-old bookmaker.
February 27 – The Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution, limiting Presidents to two terms, is ratified.
March
March 29: The Rosenbergs sentenced to death.
March 31: Remington Rand delivers the first UNIVAC I computer.
March 2 – The first NBA All-Star game was played in the Boston Garden.
March 6 – The trial of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg begins.
March 9 – United Artists releases sci-fi film The Man from Planet X.
March 12 – Hank Ketcham's best-selling comic strip Dennis the Menace appeared in newspapers across the U.S. for the first time.
March 14
Korean War: For the second time, United Nations troops recapture Seoul during Operation Ripper.
West Germany joins UNESCO.
March 29
Second Red Scare: Ethel and Julius Rosenberg are convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage. On April 5 they are sentenced to receive the death penalty.
Rodgers and Hammerstein's The King and I opens on Broadway and runs for three years. It is the first Rodgers & Hammerstein musical specifically written for an actress (Gertrude Lawrence). Lawrence is stricken with cancer during the run of the show and dies halfway through its run a year later. The show makes a star of Yul Brynner.
The 23rd Academy Awards ceremony is held; All About Eve wins the Best Picture award and four others.
March 31 – Remington Rand delivers the first UNIVAC I computer to the United States Census Bureau.
April
April 1 – Female suffrage begins in Greece.
April 11
U.S. President Harry S Truman relieves General Douglas MacArthur of his Far Eastern commands.
After its removal from Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day, 1950, the Stone of Scone resurfaces on the altar of Arbroath Abbey.
April 18 – The Treaty of Paris (1951) is adopted, establishing the European Coal and Steel Community.
April 21 – The National Olympic Committee of the Soviet Union is formed. The USSR first participates in the Olympic Games at Helsinki, Finland in 1952.
April 24 – In Yokohama, Japan, a fire on a train kills more than 100.
April 28 – Robert Menzies' Liberal Party government in Australia is re-elected for a second term.
April 29 – RKO releases the Howard Hawks sci-fi film, The Thing (From Another World).
May
May 1 – The opera house of Geneva, Switzerland is almost destroyed in a fire.
May 3
King George VI opens London's Royal Festival Hall as a patron.
The Festival of Britain opens.
The U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services and U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations begins its closed door hearings into the dismissal of General Douglas MacArthur by U.S. President Harry S Truman.
May 9 – Operation Greenhouse: The first thermonuclear weapon is tested on Enewetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands, by the United States.
May 14 – The first volunteer-run passenger trains run on Talyllyn Railway, Wales.
May 15 – A military coup occurs in Bolivia.
May 21 – The Ninth Street Show, otherwise known as the 9th Street Art Exhibition, a gathering of a number of notable artists, marks the stepping-out of the post war New York avant-garde, collectively known as the New York School.
May 23 – The Tibetan government signs the Seventeen Point Agreement for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet with the People's Republic of China.
May 25 – The first atomic bomb "boosted" by the inclusion of thermonuclear materials, is tested in the "Item" test on Enewetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands by the U.S.
May 28 – The Goon Show is first broadcast on BBC Home Service; the first series was entitled "Crazy People".
June
June 4 – Foley Square trial concludes review in U.S. Supreme Court as Dennis v. United States, with a ruling against the defendants (overturned by Yates v. United States in 1957)
June 14 – UNIVAC I is dedicated by the U.S. Census Bureau.[3]
June 15 – July 1- In New Mexico, Arizona, California, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia, thousands of acres of forests are destroyed in fires.
July
July 1
Colombo Plan operations commence.
Judy Garland opens the first of 14 concerts in Dublin, Ireland at the Theatre Royal.
July 5 – William Shockley, John Bardeen, and Walter Brattain announce the invention of the junction transistor.
July 10 – Korean War: Armistice negotiations begin at Kaesong.
July 13
The Great Flood of 1951 reaches its highest point in Northeast Kansas, culminating in the greatest flood damage to date in the Midwestern United States.
MGM's Technicolor film version of Show Boat, starring Kathryn Grayson, Ava Gardner, and Howard Keel, premieres at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. The musical brings overnight fame to bass-baritone William Warfield (who sings Ol' Man River in the film).
July 14 – In Joplin, Missouri, the George Washington Carver National Monument becomes the first United States National Monument to honor an African American.
July 16 – King Léopold III of Belgium abdicates in favour of his son Baudouin.
July 17 – King Baudouin takes the oath as king of Belgium.
July 20 – King Abdullah I of Jordan is assassinated by a Palestinian while attending Friday prayers in Jerusalem.
July 26 – Walt Disney's 13th animated film, Alice in Wonderland, premieres in London, United Kingdom.
July 30 – David Lean's Oliver Twist is finally shown in the United States, after 10 minutes of supposedly anti-Semitic references and closeups of Alec Guinness as Fagin are cut. It will not be shown uncut in the U.S. until 1970.
August
August – Paramount Pictures releases George Pal science fiction film When Worlds Collide.
August 11 – René Pleven becomes Prime Minister of France.
August 12 – The Catcher in the Rye is first published by J. D. Salinger.
August 31 –The first Volkswagen Beetle rolls off the plant in Uitenhage South Africa.
September
September 1 – The United States, Australia and New Zealand all sign a mutual defense pact, called the ANZUS Treaty.
September 3 – The American soap opera Search for Tomorrow debuts on CBS.
September 8
Treaty of San Francisco: In San Francisco, 48 nations sign a peace treaty with Japan to formally end the Pacific War.
Japan-U.S. Security Treaty, which allows United States Armed Forces being stationed in Japan after the occupation of Japan, is signed by Japan and the United States.
September 9 – Chinese communist forces move into Lhasa, the capital of Tibet.
September 10 – The United Kingdom begins an economic boycott of Iran.
September 18 – Tennessee Williams's adaptation of A Streetcar Named Desire premieres, becoming a critical and box-office smash.
September 20 – NATO accepts Greece and Turkey as members.
September 24 – MGM releases the musical Show Boat.
September 26–September 28 – A blue sun is seen over Europe: the effect is due to ash coming from the Canadian forest fires 4 months previously.
September 28 – 20th Century Fox releases the Robert Wise science fiction film, The Day the Earth Stood Still.
October
October 3 – "Shot Heard 'Round the World": One of the greatest moments in Major League Baseball history occurs when the New York Giants' Bobby Thomson hits a game winning home run in the bottom of the 9th inning off of Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Ralph Branca, to win the National League pennant after being down 14 games.
October 4
MGM's Technicolor musical film, An American in Paris, starring Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron, premieres in New York. It was directed by Vincente Minnelli. It would go on to win 6 Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
Shoppers World (one of the first shopping malls in the U.S.) opens in Framingham, Massachusetts.
October 6 – Malayan Emergency: Communist insurgents kill British commander Sir Henry Gurney.
October 14 – Organization of Central American States (ODECA) (Organización de Estados Centroamericanos) formed.
October 15
Norethindrone, the progestin used in the oral contraceptive is synthesized by Luis E. Miramontes.
I Love Lucy makes its television debut on CBS.
October 16
Judy Garland begins her legendary concerts in New York's Palace Theatre.
Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan of Pakistan is assassinated.
East China Normal University is founded in Shanghai, China.
October 17 – CBS' Eye logo premieres on TV.
October 20 – The Johnny Bright Incident occurs in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
October 21 – A storm in southern Italy kills over 100.
October 24 – U.S. President Harry Truman declares an official end to war with Germany.
October 26 – Winston Churchill is re-elected Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in a general election which sees the defeat of Clement Attlee's Labour government after six years in power.[4]
October 27 – Farouk of Egypt declares himself king of Sudan, with no support.
October 31 – Scrooge, starring Alastair Sim, opens in England.
November
November 1 – The first military exercises for nuclear war, with infantry troops included, are held in the Nevada desert.
November 10 – Direct dial coast-to-coast telephone service begins in the United States.
November 11
Juan Peron is re-elected president of Argentina.
Monogram Pictures releases sci-fi film Flight to Mars.
November 12 – The National Ballet of Canada performs for the first time in Eaton Auditorium.
November 20 – The Po River floods in northern Italy.
November 24 – The Broadway play Gigi opens, starring Audrey Hepburn as the lead character.
November 28 – Scrooge, starring Alastair Sim, premieres in the United States under the title of Charles Dickens's original novel, A Christmas Carol.
December
c. December – The Institute of War and Peace Studies is established by Dwight D. Eisenhower at Columbia University in New York (of which he is President) with William T. R. Fox as first director.[5]
December 3 – The Lebanese University is founded in Lebanon.
December 5 – Provisional Intergovernmental Committee for the Movement of Migrants from Europe.
December 6 – A state of emergency is declared in Egypt due to increasing riots.
December 13 – A water storage tank collapses in Tucumcari, New Mexico, resulting in 4 deaths, and 200 buildings destroyed.
December 16 – Salar Jung Museum is opened to the public by Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru.
December 17 – "We Charge Genocide", a petition describing genocide against African Americans, is delivered to the United Nations.
December 20
EBR-1, the world's first (experimental) nuclear power plant, opens.
A chartered Curtiss C-46 Commando crash-lands in Cobourg, Ontario Canada; all on board survive.
The World Meteorological Organization becomes a specialized agency of the United Nations.
December 22 – The Selangor Labour Party is founded in Selangor, Malaya.
December 23 – John Huston's drama film The African Queen, starring Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn, premieres in Hollywood.
December 24
Libya becomes independent from Italy.
Gian-Carlo Menotti's 45-minute opera, Amahl and the Night Visitors, premieres live on NBC, becoming the first opera written especially for television.
December 31 – The Marshall Plan expires after distributing more than $13.3 billion US in foreign aid to rebuild Europe
January 1 – First week as No. 1 single on Billboard and Cashbox charts of Patti Page hit song "Tennessee Waltz".
January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul: Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (they had lost Seoul in the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950).
January 9 – The Government of the United Kingdom announces abandonment of the Tanganyika groundnut scheme for the cultivation of peanuts in the Tanganyika Territory with the writing off of £36.5M debt.[1]
January 15 – In a court in West Germany, Ilse Koch, The "Witch of Buchenwald", wife of the commandant of the Buchenwald concentration camp, is sentenced to life imprisonment.
January 20 – Avalanches in the Alps kill 240 and bury 45,000 for a time in Switzerland, Austria and Italy.
January 25 – Dutch author Anne de Vries releases the first volume of her novel Journey Through the Night (Reis door de nacht) set during World War II.
January 27 – Nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site begins with a 1-kiloton bomb dropped on Frenchman Flat, northwest of Las Vegas.
February
February – Convention People's Party wins national elections in Gold Coast (British colony).
February 1 – The United Nations General Assembly declares that China is an aggressor in the Korean War in United Nations General Assembly Resolution 498.
February 4–February 8 – Surgeons remove an ovarian cyst from Gertrude Levandowski in a 96-hour long operation in Chicago. She loses almost half of her weight and emerges weighing 140 kg.[2]
February 6 – A Pennsylvania Railroad passenger train derails near Woodbridge Township, New Jersey, killing 85 people and injuring over 500, in one of the worst rail disasters in American history.
February 12 – Muhammad Reza Shah marries Soraya Esfandiary-Bakhtiari.
February 15 – Start of the 1951 New Zealand waterfront dispute, which lasts for 151 days.
February 19 – Jean Lee becomes the last woman hanged in Australia, when Lee and her 2 pimps are hanged for the murder and torture of a 73-year-old bookmaker.
February 27 – The Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution, limiting Presidents to two terms, is ratified.
March
March 29: The Rosenbergs sentenced to death.
March 31: Remington Rand delivers the first UNIVAC I computer.
March 2 – The first NBA All-Star game was played in the Boston Garden.
March 6 – The trial of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg begins.
March 9 – United Artists releases sci-fi film The Man from Planet X.
March 12 – Hank Ketcham's best-selling comic strip Dennis the Menace appeared in newspapers across the U.S. for the first time.
March 14
Korean War: For the second time, United Nations troops recapture Seoul during Operation Ripper.
West Germany joins UNESCO.
March 29
Second Red Scare: Ethel and Julius Rosenberg are convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage. On April 5 they are sentenced to receive the death penalty.
Rodgers and Hammerstein's The King and I opens on Broadway and runs for three years. It is the first Rodgers & Hammerstein musical specifically written for an actress (Gertrude Lawrence). Lawrence is stricken with cancer during the run of the show and dies halfway through its run a year later. The show makes a star of Yul Brynner.
The 23rd Academy Awards ceremony is held; All About Eve wins the Best Picture award and four others.
March 31 – Remington Rand delivers the first UNIVAC I computer to the United States Census Bureau.
April
April 1 – Female suffrage begins in Greece.
April 11
U.S. President Harry S Truman relieves General Douglas MacArthur of his Far Eastern commands.
After its removal from Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day, 1950, the Stone of Scone resurfaces on the altar of Arbroath Abbey.
April 18 – The Treaty of Paris (1951) is adopted, establishing the European Coal and Steel Community.
April 21 – The National Olympic Committee of the Soviet Union is formed. The USSR first participates in the Olympic Games at Helsinki, Finland in 1952.
April 24 – In Yokohama, Japan, a fire on a train kills more than 100.
April 28 – Robert Menzies' Liberal Party government in Australia is re-elected for a second term.
April 29 – RKO releases the Howard Hawks sci-fi film, The Thing (From Another World).
May
May 1 – The opera house of Geneva, Switzerland is almost destroyed in a fire.
May 3
King George VI opens London's Royal Festival Hall as a patron.
The Festival of Britain opens.
The U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services and U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations begins its closed door hearings into the dismissal of General Douglas MacArthur by U.S. President Harry S Truman.
May 9 – Operation Greenhouse: The first thermonuclear weapon is tested on Enewetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands, by the United States.
May 14 – The first volunteer-run passenger trains run on Talyllyn Railway, Wales.
May 15 – A military coup occurs in Bolivia.
May 21 – The Ninth Street Show, otherwise known as the 9th Street Art Exhibition, a gathering of a number of notable artists, marks the stepping-out of the post war New York avant-garde, collectively known as the New York School.
May 23 – The Tibetan government signs the Seventeen Point Agreement for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet with the People's Republic of China.
May 25 – The first atomic bomb "boosted" by the inclusion of thermonuclear materials, is tested in the "Item" test on Enewetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands by the U.S.
May 28 – The Goon Show is first broadcast on BBC Home Service; the first series was entitled "Crazy People".
June
June 4 – Foley Square trial concludes review in U.S. Supreme Court as Dennis v. United States, with a ruling against the defendants (overturned by Yates v. United States in 1957)
June 14 – UNIVAC I is dedicated by the U.S. Census Bureau.[3]
June 15 – July 1- In New Mexico, Arizona, California, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia, thousands of acres of forests are destroyed in fires.
July
July 1
Colombo Plan operations commence.
Judy Garland opens the first of 14 concerts in Dublin, Ireland at the Theatre Royal.
July 5 – William Shockley, John Bardeen, and Walter Brattain announce the invention of the junction transistor.
July 10 – Korean War: Armistice negotiations begin at Kaesong.
July 13
The Great Flood of 1951 reaches its highest point in Northeast Kansas, culminating in the greatest flood damage to date in the Midwestern United States.
MGM's Technicolor film version of Show Boat, starring Kathryn Grayson, Ava Gardner, and Howard Keel, premieres at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. The musical brings overnight fame to bass-baritone William Warfield (who sings Ol' Man River in the film).
July 14 – In Joplin, Missouri, the George Washington Carver National Monument becomes the first United States National Monument to honor an African American.
July 16 – King Léopold III of Belgium abdicates in favour of his son Baudouin.
July 17 – King Baudouin takes the oath as king of Belgium.
July 20 – King Abdullah I of Jordan is assassinated by a Palestinian while attending Friday prayers in Jerusalem.
July 26 – Walt Disney's 13th animated film, Alice in Wonderland, premieres in London, United Kingdom.
July 30 – David Lean's Oliver Twist is finally shown in the United States, after 10 minutes of supposedly anti-Semitic references and closeups of Alec Guinness as Fagin are cut. It will not be shown uncut in the U.S. until 1970.
August
August – Paramount Pictures releases George Pal science fiction film When Worlds Collide.
August 11 – René Pleven becomes Prime Minister of France.
August 12 – The Catcher in the Rye is first published by J. D. Salinger.
August 31 –The first Volkswagen Beetle rolls off the plant in Uitenhage South Africa.
September
September 1 – The United States, Australia and New Zealand all sign a mutual defense pact, called the ANZUS Treaty.
September 3 – The American soap opera Search for Tomorrow debuts on CBS.
September 8
Treaty of San Francisco: In San Francisco, 48 nations sign a peace treaty with Japan to formally end the Pacific War.
Japan-U.S. Security Treaty, which allows United States Armed Forces being stationed in Japan after the occupation of Japan, is signed by Japan and the United States.
September 9 – Chinese communist forces move into Lhasa, the capital of Tibet.
September 10 – The United Kingdom begins an economic boycott of Iran.
September 18 – Tennessee Williams's adaptation of A Streetcar Named Desire premieres, becoming a critical and box-office smash.
September 20 – NATO accepts Greece and Turkey as members.
September 24 – MGM releases the musical Show Boat.
September 26–September 28 – A blue sun is seen over Europe: the effect is due to ash coming from the Canadian forest fires 4 months previously.
September 28 – 20th Century Fox releases the Robert Wise science fiction film, The Day the Earth Stood Still.
October
October 3 – "Shot Heard 'Round the World": One of the greatest moments in Major League Baseball history occurs when the New York Giants' Bobby Thomson hits a game winning home run in the bottom of the 9th inning off of Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Ralph Branca, to win the National League pennant after being down 14 games.
October 4
MGM's Technicolor musical film, An American in Paris, starring Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron, premieres in New York. It was directed by Vincente Minnelli. It would go on to win 6 Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
Shoppers World (one of the first shopping malls in the U.S.) opens in Framingham, Massachusetts.
October 6 – Malayan Emergency: Communist insurgents kill British commander Sir Henry Gurney.
October 14 – Organization of Central American States (ODECA) (Organización de Estados Centroamericanos) formed.
October 15
Norethindrone, the progestin used in the oral contraceptive is synthesized by Luis E. Miramontes.
I Love Lucy makes its television debut on CBS.
October 16
Judy Garland begins her legendary concerts in New York's Palace Theatre.
Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan of Pakistan is assassinated.
East China Normal University is founded in Shanghai, China.
October 17 – CBS' Eye logo premieres on TV.
October 20 – The Johnny Bright Incident occurs in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
October 21 – A storm in southern Italy kills over 100.
October 24 – U.S. President Harry Truman declares an official end to war with Germany.
October 26 – Winston Churchill is re-elected Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in a general election which sees the defeat of Clement Attlee's Labour government after six years in power.[4]
October 27 – Farouk of Egypt declares himself king of Sudan, with no support.
October 31 – Scrooge, starring Alastair Sim, opens in England.
November
November 1 – The first military exercises for nuclear war, with infantry troops included, are held in the Nevada desert.
November 10 – Direct dial coast-to-coast telephone service begins in the United States.
November 11
Juan Peron is re-elected president of Argentina.
Monogram Pictures releases sci-fi film Flight to Mars.
November 12 – The National Ballet of Canada performs for the first time in Eaton Auditorium.
November 20 – The Po River floods in northern Italy.
November 24 – The Broadway play Gigi opens, starring Audrey Hepburn as the lead character.
November 28 – Scrooge, starring Alastair Sim, premieres in the United States under the title of Charles Dickens's original novel, A Christmas Carol.
December
c. December – The Institute of War and Peace Studies is established by Dwight D. Eisenhower at Columbia University in New York (of which he is President) with William T. R. Fox as first director.[5]
December 3 – The Lebanese University is founded in Lebanon.
December 5 – Provisional Intergovernmental Committee for the Movement of Migrants from Europe.
December 6 – A state of emergency is declared in Egypt due to increasing riots.
December 13 – A water storage tank collapses in Tucumcari, New Mexico, resulting in 4 deaths, and 200 buildings destroyed.
December 16 – Salar Jung Museum is opened to the public by Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru.
December 17 – "We Charge Genocide", a petition describing genocide against African Americans, is delivered to the United Nations.
December 20
EBR-1, the world's first (experimental) nuclear power plant, opens.
A chartered Curtiss C-46 Commando crash-lands in Cobourg, Ontario Canada; all on board survive.
The World Meteorological Organization becomes a specialized agency of the United Nations.
December 22 – The Selangor Labour Party is founded in Selangor, Malaya.
December 23 – John Huston's drama film The African Queen, starring Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn, premieres in Hollywood.
December 24
Libya becomes independent from Italy.
Gian-Carlo Menotti's 45-minute opera, Amahl and the Night Visitors, premieres live on NBC, becoming the first opera written especially for television.
December 31 – The Marshall Plan expires after distributing more than $13.3 billion US in foreign aid to rebuild Europe