Explore 3255 historical events from 1950–1959.
Wallace Stevens was an American modernist poet. He was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, educated at Harvard and then New York Law School, and spent most of his life working as an exe…
Wallace Stevens, American poet and educator (born 1879)
Maria do Carmo Miranda da Cunha, known professionally as Carmen Miranda, was a Portuguese-Brazilian singer, dancer, and actress. Nicknamed "the Brazilian Bombshell," she was known …
Carmen Miranda, Portuguese-Brazilian actress and singer (born 1909)
James Batcheller Sumner was an American biochemist. He discovered that enzymes can be crystallized, for which he shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1946 with John Howard Northr…
James B. Sumner, American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1887)
Paul Thomas Mann was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic and ironic…
Thomas Mann, German author and critic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1875)
George Herbert Putnam was an American librarian. He was the eighth Librarian of Congress from 1899 to 1939. He implemented his vision of a universal collection with strengths in ma…
Herbert Putnam, American lawyer and publisher, Librarian of Congress (born 1861)
Emmett Louis Till was an African-American boy who, at 14 years old, was abducted and lynched in Mississippi in 1955. The brutality of his murder and the acquittal of his killers dr…
Emmett Till, African-American kidnapping and lynching victim (born 1941)
Joseph Brown was an English mountaineer who was regarded as an outstanding pioneer of rock climbing during the 1950s and early 1960s. Together with his early climbing partner, Don …
Joe Brown and George Band, members of the British Kangchenjunga expedition, made the first ascent of the world's third-
The Belgrade declaration is a document signed by President of Yugoslavia Josip Broz Tito and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev on 2 June 1955 that brought about a short reconciliatio…
The USSR and Yugoslavia sign the Belgrade declaration, legitimising different interpretations of Marxism in non-Soviet c
Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist best known for developing the known theory of relativity. Einstein also made important contributions to quantum theory. His …
Albert Einstein, Bertrand Russell (pictured) and nine other preeminent intellectuals and scientists issued the…
El Al Flight 402 was an international passenger flight from London to Tel Aviv via Vienna and Istanbul. On 27 July 1955, the flight, operated by a Lockheed Constellation registered…
After straying into Bulgarian airspace, El Al Flight 402 was shot down by two MiG-15 fighter jets, resulting in the…
The Austrian State Treaty or Austrian Independence Treaty established Austria as a sovereign state. It was signed on 15 May 1955 in Vienna, at the Schloss Belvedere among the Allie…
The Austrian State Treaty came into effect, ending the Allied occupation of Austria, although the country was not free…
Hurricane Diane was the first Atlantic hurricane to cause more than an estimated $1 billion in damage, including direct costs and the loss of business and personal revenue. It form…
Hurricane Diane, the first Atlantic hurricane to cause more than $1 billion in damages, formed between the Lesser…
Pather Panchali is a 1955 Indian drama film written and directed by Satyajit Ray in his directorial debut. It is an adaptation of Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay's 1929 Bengali novel …
Pather Panchali, the first film in The Apu Trilogy by Satyajit Ray, was released and went on to win many Indian and…
Guinness World Records, known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as The Guinness Book of Records and in previous United States editions as The Guinness Book of World Records, is…
The first edition of the Guinness Book of Records was published.
Emmett Louis Till was an African-American boy who, at 14 years old, was abducted and lynched in Mississippi in 1955. The brutality of his murder and the acquittal of his killers dr…
African-American teenager Emmett Till was lynched near Money, Mississippi, for allegedly flirting with a white woman,…
Jonas Edward Salk was an American virologist and medical researcher who developed one of the first successful polio vaccines. He was born in New York City and attended the City Col…
The first clinical trials of Jonas Salk's polio vaccine begin in Fairfax County, Virginia
Sir Roger Gilbert Bannister was an English neurologist and middle-distance athlete who ran the first sub-4-minute mile.
Roger Bannister becomes the first person to run the mile in under four minutes
The Kengir uprising was a prisoner rebellion that occurred in Kengir (Steplag), a Soviet MVD special camp for political prisoners, during May and June 1954. Its duration and intens…
Beginning of the Kengir uprising in the Gulag
Dwight David Eisenhower, also known as Ike, was the 34th president of the United States, serving from 1953 to 1961. A General of the Army, Eisenhower was the supreme commander of t…
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Rationing was introduced temporarily by the British government several times during the 20th century, during and immediately after a war.
Food rationing in Great Britain ends, with the lifting of restrictions on sale and purchase of meat, 14 years after it…
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster that serves as the primary national public broadcasting company of the United Kingdom, headquarte…
The BBC broadcasts its first daily television news bulletin.
The Boeing 367-80, also known as the Dash 80, is a retired American four-engined prototype jet aircraft by Boeing to demonstrate the advantages of jet propulsion for commercial avi…
The Boeing 367-80, the prototype for both the Boeing 707 and C-135 series, takes its first flight.
The First Indochina War, known alternatively internationally as the French Indochina War, was fought in French Indochina between France and the Viet Minh and their respective allie…
First Indochina War: The Geneva Conference partitions Vietnam into North Vietnam and South Vietnam.
Massena is a town in St. Lawrence County, New York, United States. Massena is along the county's northern border, just south of the St. Lawrence River and the Three Nations Crossin…
At Massena, New York, the groundbreaking ceremony for the Saint Lawrence Seaway is held.