January
7th	President Harry S. Truman announces the United States has developed a hydrogen bomb
14th	Marshal Josip Broz Tito chosen President of Yugoslavia
19th	68% of all television sets in the United States are tuned in to I Love Lucy to watch Lucy give birth
20th	Change of US presidency from Harry S. Truman to Dwight D. Eisenhower
22nd	The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, opens on Broadway
26th	Walter Ulbricht announces that the agriculture will be collectivised in East Germany
28th	Derek Bentley is executed for murder in Wandsworth Prison. The events leading up to this execution are recounted in the 1991 movie, "Let Him Have It"
31st	North Sea flood of 1953 kills 1,835 people in the southwestern Netherlands (especially Zeeland), 307 in the United Kingdom and several hundred at sea, including 133 on the ferry Princess Victoria in the Irish Sea

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February
1st	Surge of North Sea Flood of 1953 continues from the previous day
5th	The movie Peter Pan premieres in New York
11th	President Eisenhower refuses clemency appeal for Ethel and Julius Rosenberg
11th	The Soviet Union breaks diplomatic relations with Israel
28th	James D. Watson and Francis Crick announce that they have discovered the structure of the DNA molecule
28th	Greece, Turkey, and Yugoslavia sign the Balkan Pact

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March
1st	Joseph Stalin suffers a stroke and collapses after an all-night dinner with Soviet Union interior minister Lavrenty Beria and future premiers Georgi Malenkov, Nikolai Bulganin and Nikita Khrushchev. The stroke paralyzed the right side of his body
5th	Joseph Stalin dies after 31 years of ruling the Soviet Union. Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev also dies on this day
13th	United Nations Security Council nominates Dag Hammarskjöld as United Nations Secretary General
14th	Nikita Khruschev selected First Secretary of the Soviet communist party
17th	Nuclear test carried out in Nevada with 1620 spectators at a range of 3.4 km (2.1 miles) from the blast
18th	An earthquake hits western Turkey killing 250
19th	The 25th Academy Awards ceremony takes place; the first one broadcast on television
24th	Queen Mary, consort to George V dies
26th	Jonas Salk announces his polio vaccine

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April
7th	Dag Hammarskjöld is elected United Nations Secretary General
8th	Jomo Kenyatta is sentenced to seven years in prison for alleged organization of Mau Mau Rebellion
13th	Ian Fleming publishes his first James Bond novel, Casino Royale in the United Kingdom
25th	Francis Crick and James D. Watson publish their description of the double helix structure of DNA

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May
2nd	Hussein is crowned King of Jordan
2nd	38-year-old Stanley Matthews is finally on the winning side in the FA Cup, in his third final, lifting the trophy for Blackpool
5th	Aldous Huxley first tries the psychedelic hallucinogen mescaline, inspiring his book "The Doors of Perception"
10th	The Town of Chemnitz in East Germany becomes Karl Marx Stadt
11th	The 1953 Waco tornado outbreak: A F5 tornado hits in the downtown section of Waco, Texas killing 114
18th	At Rogers Dry Lake, California Jackie Cochran becomes the first woman to break the sound barrier (she flew in a F-86 Sabrejet at an average speed of 652.337 miles-per-hour)
25th	At the Nevada Test Site, the United States conducts its first and only nuclear artillery test
29th	Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay perform the first successful ascent to the summit of Mount Everest

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June
2nd	The Coronation of Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom takes place at Westminster Abbey
7th	General elections are held in Italy
8th	A tornado hits in Flint, Michigan and kills 115. This is the last tornado to claim more than 100 lives in America
9th	CIA Technical Services Staff head Sidney Gottlieb approves of the use of LSD in a MKULTRA subproject
9th	A tornado spawned from the same storm system as the Flint tornado hits in Worcester, Massachusetts killing 94
12th	Currency reform causes riots in Czechoslovakia
17th	In East Germany, the Soviet Union orders a division of troops into East Berlin to quell a rebellion
18th	Egypt declares a republic
19th	The execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg (by electric chair) takes place at Sing Sing Prison
30th	The first Chevrolet Corvette is built at Flint (Michigan)

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July
5th	First meeting of the assembly of the European Economic Community (EEC) in Strasbourg, France
26th	Fidel Castro and his brother lead a disastrous assault on the Moncada Barracks which serves as a preliminary to the Cuban Revolution
27th	The United States, People's Republic of China, North Korea, and South Korea sign an armistice agreement bringing to an end the Korean War

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August
5th	Operation Big Switch, operation to repatriate prisoners of war after the Korean War
7th	Ohio admitted as a U. S. state, retroactive to 1803
8th	Soviet prime minister Georgi Malenkov announces that Soviet Union has a hydrogen bomb
12th	A magnitude 7.2 earthquake totally devastates most of the Ionian Sea islands in Greece's worst natural disaster in centuries
13th	4 million workers go on strike in France to protest austerity measures
19th	The CIA helps to overthrow the government of Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran and retain Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi on the throne (see: Operation Ajax)
20th	The United States gives West Germany 382 ships it had captured during World War II
25th	The General strike ends in France

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September
4th	Discovery of REM sleep is first published by researchers Eugene Aserinsky and Nathaniel Kleitman
5th	United Nations does not accept Soviet Union's suggestion to accept China as a member
7th	Nikita Khrushchev becomes head of the Soviet Central Committee
26th	The rationing of cane sugar ends in the UK

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October
1st	The UNIVAC 1103 is the first commercial computer to use random access memory
9th	Konrad Adenauer is re-elected as German chancellor
12th	The play "The Caine Mutiny Court Martial" opens at Plymouth Theatre, New York
23rd	Philippines' DZAQ-TV3 (now ABS-CBN) made its initial telecast, becoming Asia's first commercial television broadcaster
30th	US President Dwight D. Eisenhower formally approves the top secret document of the United States National Security Council NSC 162/2, which states that the United States' arsenal of nuclear weapons must be maintained and expanded to counter the communist threat

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November
5th	David Ben-Gurion resigns as a prime minister of Israel
9th	Cambodia becomes independent from France
21st	Puerto Williams is founded in Chile as the southernmost settlement of the world
21st	Authorities at the British Natural History Museum announce that the skull of the "Piltdown Man", one of the most famous fossil skulls in the world, is a hoax
25th	England lose 6-3 to Hungary at Wembley Stadium, their first ever loss to a continental team at home
30th	Edward Mutesa II, the kabaka (king) of Buganda is deposed and exiled to London by Sir Andrew Benjamin Cohen, Governor of Uganda

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December
1st	Hugh Hefner publishes the first issue of Playboy Magazine, selling 54,175 copies at $0.50 each
2nd	United Kingdom and Iran reform diplomatic relations
8th	US president Dwight D. Eisenhower delivers his Atoms for Peace address to the UN General Assembly in New York City
10th	Albert Schweitzer is awarded the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize
24th	153 people die as a result of the Tangiwai disaster when the railway bridge collapses at Tangiwai, New Zealand sending a fully loaded passenger train into the Whangaehu River
30th	The first colour television sets go on sale in America for about $1,175 (American dollars)