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| | Home | The 1950's | 1957 |
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1957 A brief history of the events that shaped 1957. |
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| January |
| 1st |
Saarland joins West Germany |
| 1st |
The Irish Republican Army attack on Brookeborough police barracks leads to the deaths of Seán South and Fergal O'Hanlon |
| 1st |
Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini suffers the stroke that will lead to his death a little over two weeks later |
| 3rd |
Hamilton Watch Company introduces the first electric watch |
| 6th |
Elvis Presley appears on The Ed Sullivan Show for the 3rd and final time. He is only shown from the waist up, even during the gospel segment, singing "Peace In The Valley". Ed Sullivan describes Elvis thus: "This is a real decent, fine boy. We've never had a pleasanter experience on our show with a big name than we've had with you. You're thoroughly all right." |
| 9th |
Anthony Eden resigns as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom |
| 10th |
Harold Macmillan becomes the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom |
| 13th |
Wham-O Company produces the first Frisbee |
| 16th |
The Cavern Club opens in Liverpool |
| 22nd |
The New York City "Mad Bomber," George P. Metesky, is arrested in Waterbury, Connecticut and is charged with planting more than 30 bombs |
| 23rd |
Ku Klux Klan members force truck driver Willie Edwards to jump off a bridge into the Alabama River: He drowns as a result |
| 31st |
Three students on a junior high school playground in Pacoima, California are among the eight persons killed following the mid-air collision between a Douglas DC-7 airliner and a Northrop F-89 Scorpion fighter jet in the skies above the San Fernando Valley section of Los Angeles |
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| February |
| 2nd |
President Iskander Mirza of Pakistan lays the foundation-stone of the Guddu Barrage across river Indus near Sukkur |
| 16th |
The "Toddlers' Truce", a controversial television closedown between 6.00 p.m. and 7.00 p.m. was abolished in the United Kingdom |
| 17th |
A fire at a home for the elderly in Warrenton, Missouri kills 72 people |
| 18th |
Dedan Kimathi, a Kenyan rebel leader is executed by the British colonial government |
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| March |
| 1st |
Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat is published |
| 3rd |
Net als toen by Corry Brokken (music by Guus Jansen, text by Willy van Hemert) wins Eurovision Song Contest 1957 for Netherlands |
| 6th |
United Kingdom colonies Gold Coast and British Togoland become the independent nation of Ghana |
| 8th |
Egypt re-opens the Suez Canal |
| 13th |
The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation arrests Jimmy Hoffa and charges him with bribery |
| 14th |
President Sukarno declares martial law in Indonesia |
| 17th |
Philippine President Ramon Magsaysay and 24 others are killed in a plane crash |
| 20th |
French newspaper L'Express reveals that the French army tortures Algerian prisoners |
| 25th |
Treaty of Rome (patto di Roma) establishes the European Economic Community (EEC) |
| 26th |
22-year-old Elvis Presley buys Graceland on 3734 Bellevue Boulevard (Highway 51 South) for $100,000. He and his family move from the house on 1034 Audubon Drive |
| 27th |
The 29th Academy Awards ceremony takes place in Los Angeles, California |
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| April |
| 12th |
United Kingdom announces that Singapore will gain self rule January 1, 1958 |
| 12th |
Allen Ginsberg's poem Howl, printed in England, is seized by U.S. customs officials on the grounds of obscenity |
| 15th |
Popular mexican singer and actor, Pedro Infante dies in a plane accident |
| 17th |
Suspected serial killer John Bodkin Adams is found not guilty of murder at the Old Bailey |
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| May |
| 2nd |
Vincent Gigante fails to assassinate mafioso Frank Costello |
| 10th |
Aston Villa win the FA Cup |
| 15th |
At Malden Island in the Pacific, Britain tests its first hydrogen bomb in Operation Grapple. The device fails to detonate properly |
| 15th |
Stanley Matthews plays his final international game, ending an English record international career of almost 23 years |
| 16th |
Paul-Henri Spaak becomes the new Secretary General of NATO |
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| June |
| 21st |
John Diefenbaker becomes Canada's thirteenth prime minister |
| 24th |
After a 37-kiloton atomic bomb test explosion, a mushroom cloud is produced by the detonation of XX-10 Priscilla |
| 27th |
Hurricane Audrey demolishes Cameron, Louisiana, killing 400 people |
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| July |
| 6th |
John Lennon and Paul McCartney meet for the very first time, as teenagers at Woolton Fete, three years before forming the Beatles |
| 9th |
Elvis Presley's 2nd film, "Loving You" opens in movie theatres |
| 16th |
United States Marine Major John Glenn flies an F8U supersonic jet from California to New York in 3 hours, 23 minutes and 8 seconds setting a new transcontinental speed record |
| 25th |
Habib Bourguiba becomes the first president of Tunisia as Tunisia becomes a republic |
| 28th |
Heavy rain and mudslide occur at Isahaya, western Kyushu, Japan, 992 killed |
| 29th |
The International Atomic Energy Agency is established |
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| August |
| 4th |
Juan Manuel Fangio, driving for Maserati, wins the Formula One German Grand Prix, clinching (with 4 wins that season) his record fifth world drivers championship, including his fourth consecutive championship (also a record); these two records would endure for nearly half a century |
| 21st |
U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces a 2-year suspension of nuclear testing |
| 28th |
United States Senator Strom Thurmond (D-SC) set the record for the longest filibuster with his 24-hour, 18-minute speech railing against a civil rights bill |
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| September |
| 1st |
175 die in Jamaica's worst railway disaster |
| 4th |
Orville Faubus, governor of Arkansas, calls out the US National Guard to prevent African-American students from enrolling in Central High School in Little Rock |
| 5th |
The first edition of Jack Kerouac's On the Road goes on sale |
| 21st |
Olav V becomes King of Norway on the death of Haakon VII |
| 23rd |
The Academy Award-winning "The Three Faces of Eve" is released |
| 24th |
U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower sends federal troops to Arkansas to provide safe passage into Central High School for the Little Rock Nine |
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| October |
| 2nd |
David Lean's film The Bridge on the River Kwai opens in the UK |
| 4th |
The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite to orbit the earth. On that same day, Canada's Avro Arrow is unveiled to the public |
| 11th |
Radio telescope of Jodrell Bank, Cheshire, UK, opened. On that same day, the Orbit of the last stage of the R-7 Semyorka rocket (carrying Sputnik I) was first successfully calculated on an IBM 704 computer by teams at The M.I.T. Computation Center and Operation Moonwatch, Cambridge, Massachusetts |
| 21st |
95 die as two trains collide in Turkey |
| 21st |
The U.S. military sustains its first combat fatality in Vietnam, Army Capt. Hank Cramer of the 1st Special Forces Group |
| 25th |
The Assassination of a Mafia boss Albert Anastasia takes place in a barber shop in Park Sheraton Hotel |
| 31st |
Toyota begins exporting vehicles to the U.S., beginning with the Toyota Crown and the Toyota Land Cruiser |
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| November |
| 3rd |
The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 2. On board is the first animal to enter space - a dog named Laika |
| 6th |
Jailhouse Rock opens nationally and Elvis Presley continues to gain increasing notoriety |
| 13th |
Flooding in the Po River valley of Italy leads to the flooding also in Venice |
| 14th |
The leaders of the American Mafia meet at a convention in Apalachin, New York at the house of Joseph Barbara. It is broken up by a curious patrolman |
| 15th |
Plane crash in the Isle of Wight leaves 43 dead |
| 16th |
Serial killer Edward Gein murders his last victim, Bernice Worden of Plainfield, Wisconsin |
| 25th |
U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower has a stroke |
| 30th |
Grenade attack against Indonesian president Sukarno in Cikini School in Jakarta. Six children are killed, Sukarno survives unscathed |
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| December |
| 1st |
In Indonesia, Sukarno announces nationalisation of 246 Dutch businesses |
| 4th |
Lewisham train disaster in UK leaves 92 dead |
| 5th |
All 326,000 Dutch nationals are expelled from Indonesia |
| 6th |
First U.S. attempt to launch a satellite fails, the rocket blowing up on the launch pad |
| 19th |
Meredith Willson's classic musical The Music Man, starring Robert Preston, debuts on Broadway |
| 20th |
First flight of the Boeing 707 airliner |
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