1951 in History

Events 1 - 100 of 251

• Jan 1 Massive Chinese/North Korean assault on UN-lines
• Jan 2 Philip Barry's "Second Threshold," premieres in NYC
• Jan 3 9 Jewish Kremlin physicians "exposed" as British/US agents
• Jan 4 Korean War: Chinese forces recapture Seoul
• Jan 6 Ganghwa massacre: Hundreds of South Korean communist sympathisers are slaughtered
• Jan 8 Thought extinct since 1615, a Cahow (the Bermuda petrel) is rediscovered in Bermuda
• Jan 9 "Life After Tomorrow", 1st film to receive an "X" rating, premieres
• Jan 10 1st jet passenger trip made
• Jan 10 UN headquarters opens in Manhattan NY
• Jan 13 German general Christian Hansen freed early from Dutch prison
• Jan 15 "Cloud of Death" rolls down Mount Lamington, New Guinea kills 3-5,000
• Jan 15 Supreme Court rule "clear & present danger" of incitement to riot is not protected speech & can be a cause for arrest
• Jan 15 Ilse Koch, also known as "The Bitch of Buchenwald", is sentenced to life imprisonment by a West German court
• Jan 16 Viet Minh offensive against Hanoi
• Jan 16 World's largest gas pipeline opens (Brownsville Texas, to 134th St, New York City)
• Jan 17 China refuses ceases-fire in Korea


• Jan 18 1st use of lie detector in Netherlands
• Jan 18 Hermann Flake sentenced to death due to "hate campaign against GDR"
• Jan 18 Mount Lamington in Papua New Guinea erupts, killing 2,942 people
• Jan 22 Bollingen Prize for poetry awarded to Johncrowe Ransom
• Jan 22 Fidel Castro is ejected from a Winter League baseball game after hitting a batter
• Jan 24 Dutch government Drees-van Schaik resigns
• Jan 27 US begins 126 nuclear tests at Nevada Test Site
• Jan 28 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
• Jan 29 Baseball signs 6 year All-Star pact for TV-radio rights for $6 million
• Jan 30 Belgium refuses to allow communists to make speeches on radio
• Feb 1 -50°F (-46°C), Gavilan, New Mexico (state record)
• Feb 1 1st X-ray moving picture process demonstrated
• Feb 1 1st telecast of an atomic explosion
• Feb 1 Alfred Krupp & 28 other German war criminals freed
• Feb 1 UN condemns People's Republic of China as aggressor in Korea
• Feb 1 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
• Feb 2 -35°F (-37°C), Greensburg, Indiana (state record until 1994)
• Feb 2 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
• Feb 3 Dick Button wins US skating title for 6th time

• Feb 4 US female Figure Skating championship won by Sonya Klopfer
• Feb 4 US male Figure Skating championship won by Richard Button
• Feb 6 "Broker Special" train crashes in Woodbridge NJ, killing 84

• Feb 6 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site Argonne Atomic Lab (Ill), to demonstrate lax in security

• Feb 16 NYC passes bill prohibiting racism in city-assisted housing
• Feb 16 San Francisco City Hall dome fire
• Feb 18 Nepal becomes a constitutional monarchy
• Feb 18 Netherlands Radio School forms
• Feb 21 SC House urges "Shoeless Joe" Jackson be reinstated
• Feb 24 Ice Pairs Championship at Milan won by Ria Baran & Paul Falk of GER
• Feb 24 Ladies' Figure Skating Champion in Milan won by Jeanette Altwegg of Great Britain
• Feb 24 Men's Figure Skating Championship in Milan won by Richard Button of USA
• Feb 25 1st Pan American Games opens (Buenos Aires Argentina)
• Feb 26 Bread rationing in Czechoslovakia begins
• Feb 27 22nd amendment ratified, limiting US Presidents to 2 terms
• Feb 28 French government of Pleven dissolves
• Feb 28 Senate committee reports of at least 2 major US crime syndicates
• Mar 6 Belgium extends conscription to 24 months

• Mar 7 Lillian Hellman's "Autumn Garden" premieres in NYC
• Mar 8 Intl Table Tennis Federation bans Egypt (for refusing to play Israel)

• Mar 12 Baseball Commish Happy Chandler loses fight (9-7) to stay in office
• Mar 12 Communist troops driven out of Seoul
• Mar 12 Comic strip "Dennis the Menace," 1st appears in the British comic magazine The Beano'
• Mar 13 2nd Dutch government of Drees forms
• Mar 13 Israel demands DM 6.2 billion compensation from Germany
• Mar 14 Earthquake at Euskirchen, Germany
• Mar 15 UN forces recapture Seoul, the fourth and final time the city changes hands in the Korean War
• Mar 15 Persia nationalizes Anglo-Iranian Oil Company
• Mar 17 Government of Drees takes power
• Mar 19 Herman Wouk's "Caine Mutiny" published
• Mar 20 Indonesian army offensive against Darul Islam on Java
• Mar 20 Fujiyoshida, a city located in Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan, in the center of the Japanese main island of Honshū is founded
• Mar 21 2,900,000 US soldiers in Korea
• Mar 23 Wages in France increase 11%
• Mar 25 E Purcell & EM Ewen detect 21-cm radiation at Harvard physics lab

• Mar 31 US tanks exceed 38° of latitude in Korea
• Apr 3 Christopher Fry's "Sleep of Prisoners" premieres in Oxford

• Apr 5 Julius & Ethel Rosenberg, atomic spies, sentenced to death
• Apr 7 American Bowling Congress begins 1st masters tournament
• Apr 7 US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Enwetak
• Apr 11 US President Harry Truman relieves General Douglas McArthur of command in Korea
• Apr 12 Israeli Knesset officially designated April 13 as Holocaust Day
• Apr 15 Michael Gorsira is 1st person in charge of Curacao
• Apr 16 British submarine Affray sank in English Channel, killing 75
• Apr 18 Dutch Antilles government of Da Costa Gomez forms
• Apr 18 France, West Germany & Benelux form European Steel & Coal Community

• Apr 20 US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Enwetak
• Apr 20 Velsen city council demands investigation of police collaborators
• Apr 22 Ticker-tape parade for General MacArthur in NYC
• Apr 26 Queen Juliana opens Brielsche Mausoleum

• Apr 29 China seizes the assets of the Asiatic Petroleum Company, a joint venture between the Shell and Royal Dutch oil companies in retaliation for the Hong Kong Government's requisitioning of the tanker Yung Hao
• May 1 600,000 march for peace & freedom in Germany
• May 1 Dutch Reformed Church introduces new church choir
• May 3 Royal Festival Hall opens in London

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Birthdays 1 - 100 of 222

• Jan 1 Frans Kellendonk, author (Ruin, The Good for Nothing)
• Jan 1 Ashfaq Hussain, Urdu poet
• Jan 2 Alexander Pogrebinsky, Russian painter
• Jan 3 Frank Chikane, Secretary-General of South African Council of Churches
• Jan 3 Gary Nairn, Australian politician
• Jan 7 Talgat Amangeldyyevich Musabayev, Russian mjr/cosmonaut (TM-19, TM-27)
• Jan 7 Mike Ward, Democratic Congressman for Kentucky & radio talk show host
• Jan 8 Kenny Anthony, Saint Lucian politician
• Jan 12 Rush Limbaugh, Girardeau Missouri, American right wing radio personality
• Jan 12 Ann Althouse, American law professor
• Jan 18 Bram Behr, Surinamese journalist (d. 1982)
• Jan 20 Magomed Omarovich Tolboyev, Russian cosmonaut

• Jan 28 Gordon Prentice, British MP
• Jan 28 Leonid Konstantinovich Kadenyuk, Kkishkov Ukraine, astronaut (STS 87)
• Jan 28 Brian Bilbray, American politician
• Jan 31 Presiley Baxendale, British QC
• Feb 1 Andrew Smith, British MP
• Feb 6 Maria Christina, Belgian princess/daughter of Leopold III
• Feb 8 Z'EV, American text/sound artist (born Stefan Weisser)
• Feb 9 Jay Inslee, (Rep-D-Washington)
• Feb 10 Roxanne Pulitzer, author (Prize Pulitzer), born in Glendale, California
• Feb 10 Zeudi Araya, Asmara Ethiopia, Miss Ethiopia (1969)
• Feb 12 Steven Parent, Manson murder victim (d. 1969)
• Feb 13 Greg Fulginiti, American mastering engineer
• Feb 18 Isabel Preysler, Philippines-born Spanish socialite
• Feb 19 Shaykh-ul-Islam Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri (Db), Pakistani Islamic Sufi Scholar

• Feb 22 Harley O Staggers Jr, (Rep-D-WV, 1983- )
• Feb 23 Nicholas Kenyon, controller (BBC Radio 3)
• Feb 27 Lee Atwater, Republican National Committee Chairman (1989-91)
• Mar 1 Barbara DeAngelis, talk show hostess (Barbara DeAngelis Show)
• Mar 3 Sergei Aleksandrovich Yemelyanov, Russian cosmonaut
• Mar 4 Edelgard Bulmahn, German politician
• Mar 4 Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, American novelist (d. 1982)
• Mar 9 Michael Kinsley, American journalist and editor, born in Detroit, Michigan
• Mar 9 Helen Zille, South African politician, born in Johannesburg
• Mar 14 Jerry Greenfield, American businessman and co-founder of Ben & Jerry's ice cream, born in Brooklyn, New York
• Mar 17 Donald Findlay, Scottish lawyer
• Mar 18 Ben Cohen, American co-founder of Ben & Jerry's ice cream
• Mar 20 Curt Smith, American author and media host
• Mar 22 Musa Khiramanovich Manarov, USSR, cosmonaut (Soyuz TM-4, TM-11)
• Mar 24 Kenneth S Reightler Jr, Patuxent R Md, Cmdr USN/astro (STS 48, 60)
• Mar 24 Tommy Hilfiger, American fashion designer, born in Elmira, New York
• Mar 30 Yves Séguin, Quebec politician
• Apr 1 John Philip Abizaid, U.S. Army General, former CENTCOM commander
• Apr 2 Moriteru Ueshiba, Japanese martial artist, born in Tokyo
• Apr 4 Hun Sen, Prime Minister of Cambodia, born in Kampong Cham, Cambodia
• Apr 5 Roosevel Ferguson, Arkansas, murderer (FBI Most Wanted List)
• Apr 5 Dean Kamen, American engineer and inventor (Segway), born in Long Island, New York
• Apr 10 Mark Roth, American professional bowler (4-time PBA Player of Year), born in Brooklyn, New York
• Apr 10 David Helvarg, American journalist and environmental activist, born in Long Island, New York
• Apr 11 Doris Angleton, American socialite and murder victim (d. 1997)
• Apr 11 James Patrick Kelly, American sci-fi author (Think Like a Dinosaur), born in Mineola, New York
• Apr 13 Jack Quinn, (Rep-R-New York)
• Apr 14 Gregory [Greg] Winter, British Chemist (Nobel Prize for Chemistry 2018), born in Leicester, England
• Apr 15 Hansel, Cuba, spanish personality
• Apr 15 Heloise II, columnist (Heloise's Helpful Hints)
• Apr 15 John L Phillips, Ft Belvoir Va, PhD/astronaut
• Apr 15 Marsha S Ivins, astronaut (STS 32, 46, 62, 81), born in Baltimore, Maryland
• Apr 16 Pierre Toutain-Dorbec, French photographer
• Apr 16 Ioan Mihai Cochinescu, Romanian writer and photographer
• Apr 18 Pierre Pettigrew, Canadian politician
• Apr 19 Jóannes Eidesgaard, Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands
• Apr 21 Aleksandr Ivanovich Laveykin, Russian cosmonaut (Soyuz TM-2)
• Apr 21 Tony Danza, (Tony Banta-Taxi, Tony Micelli-Who's the Boss), born in Brooklyn, New York
• Apr 21 Michael Hartley Freedman, American mathematician
• Apr 22 Ana María Shua, Argentine poet
• Apr 24 Andrew John Fairclough, trade union educator
• Apr 25 Ian McCartney, Kirkintilloch, United Kingdom, British MP (1987-2010)
• Apr 25 Linda Stone, pharmacist
• May 1 Antony Worrall Thompson, English celebrity chef
• May 3 Tatyana Tolstaya, Russian writer, born in St Petersburg, Russia
• May 6 Samuel Doe, President of Liberia (d. 1990)
• May 7 Mic Gillette, American brass player (Tower of Power, Cold Blood, The Sons of Champlin), born in Oakland, California (d. 2016)
• May 10 Steve Gunderson, (Rep-R-WI, 1981- )
• May 13 Jim Douglas, American politician, governor of Vermont
• May 15 Frank Wilczek, American Physicist (2004 Nobel Prize), born in Mineola, New York
• May 16 Christian Lacroix, French fashion designer, born in Arles
• May 17 I R Evans, CEO (Hyder, Welsh Water)
• May 17 Simon Hughes, British politician and government minister (SD)
• May 20 Michael D Crapo, (Rep-R-Idaho)
• May 20 Thomas D Akers, American former astronaut (STS 41, 49, 61, 79), born in St. Louis, Missouri
• May 23 Antonis Samaras, Greek politician
• May 24 Ronald A Parise, Warren Ohio, PhD/astronaut (STS 35, STS 67)
• May 26 Muhammed Ahmad Faris, Syria, cosmonaut (Soyuz TM-3)
• May 26 Madeleine Taylor-Quinn, Irish politician

• May 27 Norma Jean Almodovar, American author (Cop to Call Girl) and sex worker activist, born in Binghampton, New York
• May 29 Peter Chernin, President of News Corporation
• May 30 Fernando Lugo, Paraguayan politician
• Jun 2 Gilbert Baker, American gay activist, designed the rainbow flag, born in Canute, Kansas (d. 2017)
• Jun 4 Yvonne MCT van Rooy, Dutch Secretary of State Secretary (CDA)
• Jun 4 Charles Dickinson, American author
• Jun 4 Wendy Pini, American comic book writer and artist
• Jun 11 Mark D. Siljander, American politician, U.S. House of Representatives from Michigan (1981-87), born in Chicago, Illinois
• Jun 11 Yasumasa Morimura, Japanese appropriation artist, born in Osaka, Japan
• Jun 12 Andranik Margaryan, 14th Prime Minister of Armenia (2000-07), born in Yerevan, Armenia (d. 2007)
• Jun 14 Paul Boateng, British politician

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• Jan 2 Sir William Campion, Governor of Western Australia (b. 1870)
• Jan 5 Andrei P Platonov, Russian author (Prok, Kotlovan), dies at 51
• Jan 7 Johanna C H "Nelly" Bodenheim, painter (Luilekkerland), dies at 76
• Jan 7 René Guénon, French-Egyptian author (b. 1886)
• Jan 10 [Harry] Sinclair Lewis, American writer (Nobel Prize in Literature 1930), dies from advanced alcoholism at 65
• Jan 10 Yoshio Nishina, Japanese physicist (b. 1890)
• Jan 18 Robert Mark, US chairman (Caste World Congress), dies at 41
• Jan 22 Karl Nessler, inventor of the perm (b. 1872)
• Jan 28 Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim, president of Finland (b.1867)
• Jan 29 James Bridie, [Osborne Henry Mavor], dramatist, dies
• Jan 30 Ferdinand Porsche, German automotive engineer (Volkswagen Beetle, Mercedes-Benz SS) and founder of the Porsche car company, dies at 75
• Feb 12 Choudhary Rehmat Ali, Pakistani nationalist (b. 1897)
• Feb 13 Lloyd C. Douglas, American novelist (The Big Fisherman), dies at 73
• Feb 16 Henri Velge, 1st chairman (Belgian Council of State), dies at 65
• Feb 18 Piet A W Hopmans, bishop of Breda (Crusade), dies at 85

• Feb 27 Henry Louis Smith, American physicist who made the first X-ray photograph, dies at 91
• Feb 28 Vsevolod Vishnevsky, Russian playwright and journalist, dies at 50
• Mar 6 Volodymyr Vynnychenko, Ukrainian politician and statesman, dies at 70
• Mar 7 Haj Ali Razmara, 33rd Prime Minister of Iran (1950-51), assassinated at 49
• Mar 8 Honeymoon Killers, dies in electric chair
• Mar 10 Kijūrō Shidehara, Prime minister of Japan (b. 1872)
• Mar 11 Philippe of Isacker, Belgian minister, dies at 66
• Mar 13 Alfred Hugenberg, German RC pres-dir of Krupp/media magnate, dies
• Mar 13 James I Wedgwood, British theosophist and bishop (Liberal Catholic Church), dies at 67
• Mar 15 John S. Paraskevopoulos, Greek-born astronomer (b. 1889)
• Mar 26 James F. Hinkle, American politician, sixth Governor of New Mexico (d. 1864)
• Apr 3 Johannes C Kielstra, Dut economist/gov (Suriname 1933-44), dies at 72
• Apr 4 George Albert Smith, President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the LDS or Mormon Church) (b. 1870)
• Apr 9 Sadiq Hidajat, Persian writer (Hadji Aga), dies at 48
• Apr 9 Vilhelm F K Bjerknes, Norwegian/US physicist/meteorology, dies at 89
• Apr 16 Emile Erens, Dutch hagiographer (Pastor of Ars), dies at 85
• Apr 18 António Óscar Carmona, 97th Prime Minister of Portugal and 11th President of Portugal (b. 1869)
• Apr 20 Ivanoe Bonomi, Prime Minister of Italy (b. 1873)
• Apr 22 Horace Donisthorpe, British entomologist (b. 1870)
• Apr 23 Charles Gates Dawes, American politician (30th Vice President of the United States) and Nobel laureate (1925), dies at 85
• Apr 23 Charles G. Dawes, Vice President of the United States, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1865)
• Apr 26 Arnold Sommerfeld, German physicist (b. 1868)
• Apr 29 Ludwig Wittgenstein, Austria English philosopher (Philosophical Investigations), dies at 62
• May 6 Élie Cartan, French mathematician (b. 1869)
• May 9 Marie Ault, dies at 80
• May 12 Oscar DePriest, (Rep-D-Ill), dies at 80
• May 13 Marianne [Goudeket-]Philips, author (Issue Beukennoot), dies at 65
• May 25 Paula von Preradović, Croatian-Austrian poet and writer, dies at 63
• May 26 Lincoln Ellsworth, Arctic explorer, dies at 71
• May 27 Thomas Blamey, Australian general (WWI, WWII), dies at 67
• May 30 Hermann Broch, writer, dies at 64
• Jun 1 Rafael Altamira Crevea, Spanish lawyer/historian, dies at 85
• Jun 2 Alain, [Emile-Auguste Chartier], French philosopher, dies at 83
• Jun 7 Bobel, Braune, Naumann, Ohlendorf, Pohl, Schallenmair & Otto Schmidt, Nazi war criminals, hanged
• Jun 8 Eugène Fiset, French Canadian military officer and politician (b. 1874)
• Jun 14 Hendrik Baels, Belgian politician, dies at 73
• Jun 19 Angelos Sikelianos, Greek poet (b. 1884)
• Jun 21 Charles Dillon Perrine, American-born astronomer, dies at 83
• Jul 2 Earnest F Sauerbruch, German nazi/surgeon, dies at 75
• Jul 2 Ernst Ferdinand Sauerbruch, German surgeon, dies at 75
• Jul 20 Abdullah Ibn Hussein, Jordan's King (1946-51), killed in Jerusalem
• Jul 20 Mustafa Shuqri Ashu, tailor/murderer of king Abdullah, shot to death
• Jul 20 Friedrich Wilhelm Hohenzollern, Crown Prince of Germany (b. 1882)

• Jul 31 J of Oudshoorn, [John K Feylbrief], writer (Maze of Sentences), dies

• Sep 1 Wolfgang Schulze, [Wols], German drawer/painter, dies at 38
• Sep 6 James W. Gerard, American jurist and diplomat, dies at 84
• Sep 7 John French Sloan, American painter and etcher, dies at 80
• Sep 8 Jürgen Stroop, SS General during World War II and commander of Nazi forces during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, executed by hanging for crimes against humanity at 56
• Sep 18 John Douglas Cockcroft, physicist, dies
• Sep 24 Georges Rency, Belgian poet/literature, dies at 75
• Sep 26 Hans Cloos, German geologist (b. 1885)
• Oct 4 Willie Moretti, American gangster (b. 1894)
• Oct 4 Henrietta Lacks [Loretta Pleasant], African-American tobacco farmer whose cancer cells are the source of the HeLa cell line, extensively used in medical research since the 1950s (1st immortalised cell line),dies of cervical cancer at 31
• Oct 6 Henry Gurney, British high commissioner to Malaya, assassinated
• Oct 6 Otto Fritz Meyerhof, German-born physician and biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1884)
• Oct 6 Will Keith Kellogg, American cereal manufacturer (Kellogg's cereal brand), dies at 91
• Oct 6 Otto Meyerhof, German psychologist and biochemist (Nobel 1922), dies at 67
• Oct 7 Anton Philips, Co-Founder of Royal Philips Electronics N.V., dies at 77
• Oct 12 Simon Kimbangu/Kibangu, Congolese religious leader and founder of Kimbanguism, dies in captivity at 62
• Oct 16 Liaquat Ali Khan,1st Prime Minister of Pakistan (1947-51), assassinated by Said Akbar at 56
• Oct 25 Amélie of Orléans, Queen of Portugal, wife of Carlos I, dies at 86
• Oct 29 De Raymond, French High Director of Cambodia, murdered
• Oct 29 Robert G Aitken, US astronomer (New General Catalogue), dies at 86
• Nov 18 Johan van Maarseveen, Dutch Minister of Justice and Internal minister, dies at 57
• Nov 20 Thomas Quinlan (impresario) (b. 1881)
• Nov 25 Raden Mas Noto Soeroto, Javanese poet (Wayang Songs), dies at 63
• Dec 4 Pedro Salinas, Spanish writer (Generation of 1927), dies at 61
• Dec 5 Abanindranath Tagore, Indian writer (b. 1871)
• Dec 6 Harold Ross, American magazine editor and co-founded The New Yorker, dies at 59
• Dec 10 Algernon Blackwood, English novelist (The Willows), dies at 82
• Dec 15 Eric Drummond, British 1st Secretary-General of the League of Nations (1919-33), dies at 75
• Dec 23 Benito Lynch, Irish-Argentine writer (Palo Verde), dies at 66
• Dec 25 Harry T Moore, Florida NAACP official, killed by bomb
• Dec 31 Maxim M Litvinov, [Meyer H Wallach], Russian diplomat, dies at 75
• Dec 31 Philipp A Kohnstamm, Dutch philosopher/physicist, dies at 76

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