January
9th	United Nations headquarters officially opens in New York City
15th	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
17th	Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul
20th	Avalanches in the Alps - 240 die and 45,000 are buried for a time in Switzerland, Austria and Italy
27th	Nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site begins with a one-kiloton bomb dropped on Frenchman Flats, northwest of Las Vegas, Nevada

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February
1st	United Nations General Assembly declares that China is the aggressor in the Korean War
4th	Surgeons remove an ovarian cyst from Gertrude Levandowski in 96-hour long operation in Chicago. She loses almost half of her weight and emerges weighing 140 kg
6th	A Pennsylvania Railroad passenger train derails near Woodbridge Township, New Jersey, killing 85 people and injuring over 500 - one of the worst rail disasters in American history
19th	Jean Lee becomes the last woman hung in Australia, when Lee and her two pimps are hung for the murder and torture of a 73 year old bookmaker
27th	The Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution, limiting Presidents to two terms, is ratified

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March
7th	In Korea, United Nations troops led by General Matthew Ridgeway begin an assault against the Chinese "volunteers"
12th	The Dennis the Menace comic strip appears in newspapers across the U.S. for the first time
14th	For the second time, United Nations troops recapture Seoul
29th	Ethel and Julius Rosenberg are convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage. On April 5 they are sentenced to receive the death penalty
29th	Rodgers and Hammerstein's The King and I opens on Broadway and runs for three years. It is the first Rodgers and Hammerstein show specifically written for someone - actress Gertrude Lawrence. Lawrence is stricken with cancer during the run of the show and dies halfway through its run. The show makes a star of Yul Brynner
29th	The 23rd Academy Awards ceremony takes place in Los Angeles, California

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April
1st	Female suffrage begins in Greece
11th	U.S. President Harry S. Truman relieves General Douglas MacArthur of his Far Eastern commands
11th	After its removal from Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day, 1950, the Stone of Scone resurfaces on the altar of Arbroath Abbey
21st	The National Olympic Committee of the Soviet Union is formed. The USSR first participates in the Olympic Games at Helsinki, Finland, in 1952
24th	In Yokohama, Japan a fire on a train leaves more than 100 dead
28th	Robert Menzies' Liberal Party government in Australia is re-elected for a second term

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May
3rd	King George VI opens London's Royal Festival Hall as patron
3rd	Opening of the Festival of Britain
9th	The first test of a nuclear weapon with thermonuclear materials, the "George" test on Enewetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands, by the United States
10th	Newcastle United win The FA Cup
23rd	Tibetans are forced to sign the Seventeen Point Agreement for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet with the People's Republic of China
25th	The first test of an atomic bomb "boosted" by the inclusion of thermonuclear materials, in the "Item" test on Enewetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands by the U.S.

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June
15th	A series of forest fires destroy thousands of hectares of forest in the south and eastern states of America and Canada

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July
1st	Judy Garland opens the first of 14 concerts in Dublin, Ireland at the Theatre Royal
5th	William Shockley, John Bardeen, and Walter Brattain announce the invention of the junction transistor
13th	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
13th	MGM's Technicolor film version of Show Boat, starring Kathryn Grayson, Ava Gardner, and Howard Keel, premieres at Radio City Music Hall. The 1951 film introduces bass-baritone William Warfield (singing Ol' Man River) and makes him nationally famous overnight
20th	King Abdullah I of Jordan is assassinated by a Palestinian while attending Friday prayers in Jerusalem

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August
11th	René Pleven becomes Prime Minister of France
12th	JD Salinger's classic, The Catcher in the Rye is first published

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September
1st	The United States, Australia and New Zealand all sign a mutual defense pact, called the ANZUS Treaty
8th	Treaty of San Francisco: In San Francisco, California, 48 nations sign a peace treaty with Japan in formal recognition of the end of the Pacific War
9th	Chinese communist forces move into Lhasa, the capital of Tibet
10th	The United Kingdom begins an economic boycott of Iran
18th	The film, "A Streetcar Named Desire" premieres and becomes a critical and box-office smash
20th	NATO accepts Greece and Turkey as members
26th	A "Blue sun" is seen over Europe. The effect is due to ash coming from the Canadian forest fires four months previously

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October
15th	First oral contraceptive invented by Luis E. Miramontes
16th	Assassination of Liaquat Ali Khan, Prime Minister of Pakistan
16th	Liaquat Ali Khan, first Prime Minister of Pakistan assassinated in Rawalpindi
18th	Yitzhak Bezner (Israeli official) meets leading Japanese industrialists as part of a mission to establish Israeli-Japanese economic ties
24th	U.S. President Harry Truman declares official end to war with Germany
26th	Winston Churchill Wins General Election for the Conservative Party
27th	Farouk of Egypt declares himself king of Sudan, with no support
31st	Scrooge, starring Alastair Sim, opens in England

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November
10th	Direct dial coast-to-coast telephone service begins in the United States
11th	Juan Peron re-elected president of Argentina
20th	The Po river floods in northern Italy
24th	The Broadway play Gigi opens starring little known actress Audrey Hepburn playing the lead character

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December
6th	A State of emergency declared in Egypt due to increasing riots
16th	Salar Jung Museum is opened to the public by the Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru
20th	EBR-1, World's first (experimental) nuclear power plant opened
23rd	The film The African Queen, starring Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn, premieres in Hollywood
24th	Libya becomes independent from Italy