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| | Home | The 1950's | 1952 |
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1952 A brief history of the events that shaped 1952. |
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| January |
| 16th |
Heir to the throne of Egypt & Sudan H.R.H. Prince Ahmed Fuad Farouk is born, later to become H.M. Fuad II the last King of Egypt & Sudan, Nubia, Kordofan and Darfur |
| 24th |
Sudden heavy snowfall hits Algeria |
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| February |
| 2nd |
A tropical storm forms just north of Cuba moving northeast. The storm makes landfall in southern Florida the next day. It is the earliest reported landfall from a tropical storm, and the earliest formation of a tropical storm on record in the Atlantic basin |
| 6th |
Elizabeth II becomes Queen upon the death of her father George VI. She is simultaneously proclaimed Queen of Canada at Rideau Hall, Ottawa, Ontario |
| 7th |
Elizabeth II is proclaimed Queen of the United Kingdom at St. James's Palace, London, England |
| 14th |
Winter Olympics open in Oslo, Norway |
| 15th |
Funeral of King George VI takes place at St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle |
| 20th |
Winston Churchill scraps UK compulsory national Identity Cards |
| 21st |
In Dhaka, East Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh) police open fire on a procession of students, killing four people and starting a country-wide protest which leads to the recognition of Bengali as one of the national languages of Pakistan. The day was later declared as "International Mother Language Day" by UNESCO |
| 26th |
United Kingdom Prime Minister Winston Churchill announces that his nation has an atomic bomb |
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| March |
| 10th |
General Fulgencio Batista re-takes power in Cuba |
| 15th |
73 inches (1,870mm) of rain falls in Cilaos, Réunion, the most rainfall ever in one day |
| 20th |
The United States Senate ratifies a peace treaty with Japan |
| 21st |
The last two executions in the Netherlands take place |
| 21st |
Tornadoes ravage the lower Mississippi River Valley, leaving 208 dead, through March 22 |
| 29th |
U.S. President Harry S. Truman announces that he will not seek reelection |
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| April |
| 4th |
In Hague tribunal, Israel demands reparations worth 3 billion dollars from Germany |
| 4th |
During a severe storm in the West Ice, east of Greenland, five Norwegian seal hunting vessels with a crew of 78 seal hunters perish without a trace in what is known as the West Ice accidents |
| 9th |
Hugo Ballivián's government is overthrown by the Bolivian National Revolution, starting a period of agrarian reform, universal suffrage and the nationalisation of tin mines |
| 15th |
The B-52 Stratofortress flies for the first time |
| 18th |
West Germany and Japan form diplomatic relations |
| 23rd |
A Nuclear test takes place in the Nevada desert |
| 28th |
The Treaty of San Francisco goes into effect, formally ending the occupation of Japan |
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| May |
| 1st |
East Germany threatens to form its own army |
| 2nd |
First passenger jet flight route between London and Johannesburg |
| 3rd |
U.S. lieutenant colonels Joseph O. Fletcher and William P. Benedict land a plane at the geographic North Pole |
| 10th |
Newcastle United won The FA cup for the 2nd year running |
| 15th |
Diplomatic relations established between the governments of Israel and Japan at the level of Legations |
| 18th |
Ann Davison becomes the first woman to single-handedly sail the Atlantic Ocean |
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| June |
| 1st |
The Roman Catholic church bans books of André Gide |
| 15th |
The Diary of Anne Frank published |
| 29th |
Finnish Armi Kuusela wins the title of Miss Universe |
| 30th |
The Marshall Aid programme ends |
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| July |
| 13th |
East Germany announced formation of its National People's Army |
| 19th |
The Summer Olympic Games are opened in Helsinki, Finland |
| 19th |
Washington D.C. "buzzed" by several alleged UFOs tracked on multiple radars. Jets scrambled on several occasions and objects took evasive action only to return after the jets left the area |
| 21st |
A magnitude 7.5 earthquake (Richter scale) strikes Tehachapi, California, destroying unreinforced brick buildings |
| 25th |
Puerto Rico becomes a self-governing commonwealth of the United States |
| 26th |
Military coup in Egypt ousts King Farouk |
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| August |
| 11th |
Jordanian army forces King Talal to resign due to mental illness. His successor is his son Hussein of Jordan |
| 16th |
Lynmouth in North Devon England is devastated by floods, death toll of 34 |
| 26th |
British passenger jet flies twice over Atlantic Ocean in the same day |
| 27th |
Reparation negotiations between West Germany and Israel end in Luxembourg. Germany will pay 3 billion Deutsche Marks |
| 29th |
Premiere of John Cage's 4' 33" in Woodstock, New York |
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| September |
| 2nd |
Dr. C. Walton Lillehei and Dr. F. John Lewis perform first open-heart surgery at the University of Minnesota |
| 6th |
TV debuts in Canada as the CBC in Montreal, Quebec airs |
| 18th |
Soviet Union vetoes Japan's application for membership in the United Nations |
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| October |
| 8th |
A three train crash in Harrow railway station in England leaves 112 dead |
| 14th |
United Nations begins work in the new United Nations building in New York City |
| 19th |
Alain Bombard begins to sail from Canary Islands to Barbados in 65 days; he reaches them December 23 |
| 19th |
John Bamford, aged 15, rescues victims of a house fire and becomes the youngest person to have been awarded the George Cross |
| 20th |
Martial law is imposed in Kenya due to Mau Mau uprising |
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| November |
| 1st |
The United States successfully detonates the first hydrogen bomb, codenamed "Mike", at Eniwetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands in the central Pacific Ocean, with a yield of 10.4 megatons |
| 4th |
United States presidential election, 1952: Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower defeats Democrat Adlai Stevenson (correctly predicted by the UNIVAC computer) |
| 18th |
Jomo Kenyatta is arrested in Kenya for alleged connection to Mau Mau uprising |
| 20th |
Slánský trials - series of Stalinist and largely anti-Semitic show trials in Czechoslovakia |
| 20th |
First official passenger flight over the North Pole from Los Angeles to Copenhagen |
| 21st |
Show trial in Czechoslovakia sentences 11 ex-communist officials to death - all of them Jews |
| 25th |
Agatha Christie's murder-mystery play The Mousetrap opens at the Ambassadors Theatre in London, and remains the longest continuously running production of a play in history |
| 29th |
U.S. President-elect Dwight D. Eisenhower fulfills a political campaign promise by traveling to Korea to find out what can be done to end the conflict |
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| December |
| 1st |
Adolfo Ruiz Cortines takes office as President of Mexico |
| 1st |
Christine Jorgensen, a transsexual woman in Denmark became the recipient of the first successful sexual reassignment operation |
| 4th |
The Great Smog of 1952: A "killer fog" descends on London (In the process coining the word "Smog", for "smoke" and "fog") |
| 14th |
First successful surgical separation of Siamese twins in Mount Sinai Hospital, Ohio |
| 20th |
Crash of U.S. Air Force C-124 Globemaster at Moses Lake, WA kills 86 servicemen |
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