Wikipedia / 1953
Wikipedia / 1953
Events
January
January 6 The Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma.
January 12 Estonian émigrés found a government-in-exile in Oslo.
At a magistrate's Court in West Virginia, 47-year-old "turned himself into a "human bomb" with sticks of dynamite strapped to his waist. He killed himself and injured his ex-wife and her lawyer.
Marshal Josip Broz Tito is chosen President of Yugoslavia.
The CIA-sponsored Robertson Panel first meets to discuss the UFO phenomenon.
Georg Dertinger, foreign minister of East Germany, is arrested for spying.
British security forces in West Germany arrest 7 members of the Naumann Circle, a clandestine Neo-Nazi organization.
January 19 71.1% of all television sets in the United States are tuned into I Love Lucy, to watch Lucy give birth to Little Ricky, which is more people than those who tune into Dwight Eisenhower's inauguration the next day.
Mau Mau Uprising: Rebels in Kenya kill the Ruck family (father, mother, and six-year-old son).
Leader of East Germany Walter Ulbricht announces that agriculture will be collectivized in East Germany.
January 31–February 1 The North Sea flood of 1953 kills 1,836 people in the southwestern Netherlands (especially Zeeland), 307 in the United Kingdom, and several hundred at sea, including 133 on the ferry in the Irish Sea.
February
February 1 The surge of the North Sea flood continues from the previous day.
February 3 Batepá massacre: Hundreds of native creoless, known as forros, are massacred in São Tomé, by the colonial administration and Portuguese landowners.
United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower refuses a clemency appeal for Ethel and Julius Rosenberg.
The Soviet Union breaks diplomatic relations with Israel, after a bomb explodes at the Soviet Embassy, in reaction to the 'Doctors' plot'.
February 12 The Nordic Council is inaugurated.
February 13 Transsexual Christine Jorgensen returns to New York after successful sex reassignment surgery in Denmark.
February 19 Georgia approves the first literature censorship board in the United States.
James Watson and Francis Crick of Britain's University of Cambridge announce their discovery of the structure of the DNA molecule.
Greece, Turkey, and Yugoslavia sign the Balkan Pact.
March
Joseph Stalin suffers a stroke, after an all-night dinner with Soviet Union interior minister Lavrentiy Beria and future premiers Georgy Malenkov, Nikolai Bulganin, and Nikita Khrushchev. The stroke paralyzes the right side of his body and renders him unconscious until his death on March 5.
Bernard Freyberg, 1st Baron Freyberg is made deputy constable and lieutenant governor of Windsor Castle.
March 6 Georgy Malenkov succeeds Joseph Stalin, as Premier and First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
March 8 The Thieves World, which has been transformed into the Russian mafia, are freed from prisons by the Malenkov regime, ending the Bitch Wars.
March 13 The United Nations Security Council nominates Dag Hammarskjöld from Sweden as United Nations Secretary General.
March 17 The first nuclear test of Operation Upshot–Knothole is conducted in Nevada, with 1,620 spectators at .
March 18 The Yenice–Gönen earthquake affects western Turkey, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (violent), causing at least 1,070 deaths, and $3.57 million in damage.
March 19 The 25th Academy Awards Ceremony is held (the first one broadcast on television).
March 25–26 Lari Massacre in Kenya: Mau Mau rebels kill up to 150 Kikuyu natives.
March 26 Jonas Salk announces his polio vaccine.
March 29 A fire at the Littlefield Nursing Home in Largo, Florida, kills 33 persons, including singer-songwriter Arthur Fields.
April
April 7 Dag Hammarskjöld is elected Secretary-General of the United Nations.
April 8 Jomo Kenyatta is sentenced to 7 years in prison for the alleged organization of the Mau Mau Uprising in the British Kenya Colony.
President Eisenhower delivers his "Chance for Peace" speech, to the National Association of Newspaper Editors.
The Habar Corporation's building in Chicago, United States, catches fire, killing 35 employees.
April 25 Francis Crick and James Watson publish "Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid", their description of the double helix structure of DNA.
May
May 2 Hussein is crowned King of Jordan.
May 5 Aldous Huxley first tries the psychedelic hallucinogen mescaline, inspiring his book The Doors of Perception.
France agrees to the provisional independence of Cambodia, with King Norodom Sihanouk.
Australian Senate election, 1953: The Liberal/Country Coalition Government, led by Prime Minister Robert Menzies, holds their Senate majority, despite gains made by the Labor Party, led by H. V. Evatt. This is the first occasion where a Senate election is held without an accompanying House of Representatives election.
May 11 Waco tornado outbreak: An F5 tornado hits in the downtown section of Waco, Texas, killing 114.
May 15 The Standards And Recommended Practices (SARPS) for Aeronautical Information Service (AIS) are adopted by the ICAO Council. These SARPS are in Annex 15 to the Chicago Convention, and 15 May is celebrated by the AIS community as "World AIS Day".
May 18 At Rogers Dry Lake, Californian Jackie Cochran becomes the first woman to exceed Mach 1, in a North American F-86 Sabre at .
May 20–21 A tornado outbreak tears through Port Huron, Michigan and Sarnia, Ontario, leaving eight people dead and 123 people injured.
May 25 Nuclear testing: At the Nevada Test Site, the United States conducts its only nuclear artillery test: Upshot-Knothole Grable.
May 29 1953 British Mount Everest expedition: Sir Edmund Hillary from New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay from Nepal become the first men to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
June
June 1 Uprising in Plzeň: Currency reform causes riots in Czechoslovakia.
June 2 Elizabeth II is crowned Queen of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms, at Westminster Abbey.
June 7 Italian general election: the Christian Democracy party wins a plurality in both legislative houses.
June 7–9 Flint–Worcester tornado outbreak sequence: A single storm-system spawns 46 tornadoes of various sizes, in 10 states from Colorado to Massachusetts, over 3 days, killing 246.
On the second day of the Flint–Worcester tornado outbreak sequence, a tornado kills 116 in Flint, Michigan; it will be the last to claim more than 100 lives, until the 2011 Joplin tornado.
Austria and the Soviet Union open diplomatic relations.
On the third day of the Flint–Worcester tornado outbreak sequence, a tornado spawned from the same storm system as the Flint tornado the day before hits in Worcester, Massachusetts, killing 94.
CIA Technical Services Staff head Sidney Gottlieb approves of the use of LSD in an MKUltra subproject.
June 13 Hungarian Prime Minister Mátyás Rákosi is replaced by Imre Nagy.
June 17 Workers' Uprising in East Germany: The Soviet Union orders a Division of troops into East Berlin to quell a rebellion.
Tachikawa air disaster: A United States Air Force Douglas C-124 Globemaster II crashes just after takeoff from Tachikawa Airfield near Tokyo, Japan, killing all 129 people on board in the worst air crash in history up to this time, and the first with a confirmed death toll exceeding 100.
June 30 The first roll-on/roll-off ferry crossing of the English Channel, DoverBoulogne, takes place.
July
July 3 The first ascent of Nanga Parbat in the Pakistan Himalayas, the world's ninth highest mountain, is made by Austrian climber Hermann Buhl alone on a German–Austrian expedition.
The U.S. Treasury formally renames the Bureau of Internal Revenue; the new name (which had previously been used informally) is the Internal Revenue Service.
Inauguration of the south lane of the Rodovia Anchieta.
July 10 The Soviet official newspaper Pravda announces that Lavrentiy Beria has been deposed as head of the NKVD.
July 17 The greatest recorded loss of United States midshipmen in a single event results from an aircraft crash near NAS Whiting Field.
July 26 Fidel Castro and his brother lead a disastrous assault on the Moncada Barracks, preliminary to the Cuban Revolution.
July 27 The Korean War ends, with the Korean Armistice Agreement: The United Nations Command (Korea) (United States), China and North Korea sign an armistice agreement at Panmunjom, and the north remains communist, while the south remains capitalist. No formal peace treaty is ever signed.
August
August 5 Operation Big Switch: Prisoners of war are repatriated to the United States after the Korean War.
August 8 Soviet prime minister Georgi Malenkov announces that the Soviet Union has a hydrogen bomb.
The 1953 Ionian earthquake of magnitude 7.2 totally devastates Cephalonia and most of the other Ionian Islands, in Greece's worst natural disaster in centuries.
Soviet atomic bomb project: "Joe 4", the first Soviet thermonuclear weapon, is detonated at Semipalatinsk Test Site, Kazakh SSR.
August 13 Four million workers go on strike in France to protest against austerity measures.
August 15–19 Cold War: 1953 Iranian coup d'état Overthrow of the democratically elected Prime Minister of Iran, Mohammad Mosaddegh, by Iranian military in favour of strengthening the monarchical rule of the Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, with the support of the United States Central Intelligence Agency (as "Operation Ajax") and the United Kingdom.
August 17 The first planning session of Narcotics Anonymous is held in Southern California (see October 5).
August 20 The French government ousts King Mohammed V of Morocco, and exiles him to Corsica.
August 22 The last prisoners are repatriated from Devil's Island to France.
August 25 The French general strike ends.
August High Arctic relocation of Inuit families by the Government of Canada.
September
September 4 The discovery of REM sleep is first published, by researchers Eugene Aserinsky and Nathaniel Kleitman.
September 5 The United Nations rejects the Soviet Union's suggestion to accept China as a member.
September 7 Nikita Khrushchev becomes head of the Soviet Central Committee.
September 23 The Pact of Madrid is signed by Francoist Spain and the United States of America, ending a period of virtual isolation for Spain.
September 25 The first German prisoners of war return from the Soviet Union to West Germany.
September 26 Rationing of sugar ends in the UK.
October
October The UNIVAC 1103 is the first commercial computer to use random-access memory.
October 1 The Mutual Defense Treaty Between the United States and the Republic of Korea is concluded in Washington, D.C.
Earl Warren is appointed Chief Justice of the United States, by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
The first meeting of Narcotics Anonymous is held (the first planning session was held August 17).
October 6 UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund, is made a permanent specialized agency of the United Nations.
West German federal election, 1953: Konrad Adenauer is re-elected as German chancellor.
Fearing communist influence in British Guiana, the British Government suspends the constitution, declares a state of emergency, and militarily occupies the colony.
October 10 Roland (Monty) Burton wins the 1953 London to Christchurch air race, in under 23 hours flying time.
October 12 The play The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial opens at the Plymouth Theatre, New York.
October 22 Laos becomes independent from France.
October 23 Alto Broadcasting System (ABS) in the Philippines makes the first television broadcast in southeast Asia, through DZAQ-TV. Alto Broadcasting System is the predecessor of what will later become ABS-CBN Corporation.
October 30 Cold War: U.S. 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.
November
November 5 David Ben-Gurion resigns as prime minister of Israel.
Cambodia becomes independent from France.
The Laotian Civil War begins between the Kingdom of Laos and the Pathet Lao, all the while resuming the First Indochina War against the French Army in a Two-front war.
The Douglas D-558-2 Skyrocket, piloted by Scott Crossfield, becomes the first manned aircraft to reach Mach 2.
Authorities at the Natural History Museum, London announce that the skull of Piltdown Man (allegedly an early human discovered in 1912) is a hoax.
November 2022 First Indochina War: Operation Castor In a massive airborne operation in Vietnam, French forces establish a base at Điện Biên Phủ.
November 21 Puerto Williams is founded in Chile, as the southernmost settlement of the world.
November 25 Match of the Century (1953 England v Hungary football match): The England national football team loses 6–3 to Hungary at Wembley Stadium, their first ever loss to a continental team at home.
November 29 First Indochina War: Battle of Dien Bien Phu French paratroopers consolidate their position at Điện Biên Phủ.
November 30 Kabaka crisis: Edward Mutesa II, the kabaka (king) of Buganda, is deposed and exiled to London by Sir Andrew Benjamin Cohen, Governor of Uganda.
December
December 2 The United Kingdom and Iran reform diplomatic relations.
December 6 With the NBC Symphony Orchestra, conductor Arturo Toscanini performs what he claims is his favorite Beethoven symphony, Eroica, for the last time. The live performance is broadcast across the United States on radio, and later released on records and CD.
December 7 A visit to Iran by American Vice President Richard Nixon sparks several days of riots, as a reaction to the August 19 overthrow of the government of Mohammed Mossadegh by the U.S.-backed Shah. Three students are shot dead by police in Tehran. This event becomes an annual commemoration.
December 8 U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivers his Atoms for Peace address, to the United Nations General Assembly.
December 17 The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approves color television (using the NTSC standard).
December 23 The Soviet Union announces officially that Lavrentiy Beria has been executed.
December 24 Tangiwai disaster: A railway bridge collapses at Tangiwai, New Zealand, sending a fully loaded passenger train into the Whangaehu River; 151 are killed.
December 25 The Amami Islands are returned to Japan, after 8 years of United States military occupation.
December 30 Ramon Magsaysay becomes the 7th President of the Philippines.
Date unknown
Global meat packing industry JBS is founded in Anapolis, Goias, Brazil.
China First Building Corporation, a partial predecessor of China State Construction Engineering, is founded in Beijing.
Births
January
January 1 Gary Johnson, American businessman, politician and 29th Governor of New Mexico
January 4 George Tenet, American Central Intelligence Agency director
Pamela Sue Martin, American actress
Mike Rann, Australian politician
January 6 Malcolm Young, Australian musician (d. 2017)
January 7 Dionne Brand, Canadian writer and documentarian
January 9 Javad Alizadeh, Iranian cartoonist
Pat Benatar, American rock singer
Bobby Rahal, American race car driver
Karl Bohnak, American politician and member of the Michigan House of Representatives since 2025
January 11 Eduard Kučera, Czech businessman, co-founder of Avast Software
January 13 John Wake, English cricketer
January 16 Robert Jay Mathews, American neo-Nazi, founder of the terrorist group The Order (d. 1984)
January 19 Richard Legendre, Canadian tennis player, politician
January 20 Jeffrey Epstein, American financier and sex offender (d. 2019)
January 21 Paul Allen, American entrepreneur, co-founder of Microsoft (d. 2018)
Myung-whun Chung, South Korean conductor, pianist
Jim Jarmusch, American director
Dušan Nikolić, Yugoslav footballer (d. 2018)
Eliza Roberts, American actress, producer and casting director
January 24 Moon Jae-in, 19th President of South Korea
Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Prime Minister of Denmark, Secretary General of NATO
Lucinda Williams, American singer-songwriter
January 28 Colin Campbell, Canadian ice hockey player, executive
Peter Baumann, German keyboard player, songwriter (Tangerine Dream)
Paulin Bordeleau, Canadian ice hockey player
Lynne McGranger, Australian actress
Juan Paredes, Mexican boxer
Louie Pérez, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
Fred Riebeling, Australian politician
Grażyna Szmacińska, Polish chess player
Teresa Teng, Taiwanese singer (d. 1995)
Yorie Terauchi, Japanese actress
Hwang Woo-suk, South Korean veterinarian, academic
January 31 Sergei Ivanov, Russian first deputy prime minister and minister of defense (d. 2026)
February
February 2 Duane Chapman, American bounty hunter
February 4 Kitarō, Japanese New Age musician
February 7 Dan Quisenberry, American baseball player (d. 1998)
February 8 Mary Steenburgen, American actress
Ciarán Hinds, Irish actor
Rick Wagoner, American automotive executive
February 10 June Jones, American quarterback, current NCAA Football head coach at Southern Methodist University
February 11 – Jeb Bush, American politician, 43rd Governor of Florida
Bernard Sabrier, Swiss financial entrepreneur
Nabil Shaban, Jordanian-British actor and writer
February 14 Sergey Mironov, Russian statesman, Speaker of the Federation Council
Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, Argentine lawyer and politician, President of Argentina and Vice President of Argentina
Massimo Troisi, Italian actor, film director (d. 1994)
February 20 Riccardo Chailly, Italian orchestral conductor
February 21 William Petersen, American actor
February 22 Geoffrey Perkins, British comedy producer, writer and actor (d. 2008)
February 24 Sarath Chandrasiri Muthukumarana, Sri Lankan politician, MP (2010–2024) (d. 2025)
Martin Kippenberger, German artist
February 26 Michael Bolton, American singer
Yolande Moreau, Belgian actress, writer and director
Paul Krugman, American economist
Ricky Steamboat, American professional wrestler
Osmo Vänskä, Finnish orchestral conductor
March
Richard Bruton, Irish politician, economist
M. K. Stalin, Indian politician
Arthur Antunes Coimbra, Brazilian footballer, manager
Robyn Hitchcock, British singer-songwriter
Agustí Villaronga, Spanish filmmaker
Emilio Estefan, Cuban percussionist
Scott Hicks, Australian film director
Rose Laurens, French singer-songwriter (d. 2018)
Kay Lenz, American actress
March 5 Tokyo Sexwale, South African businessman, politician, anti-apartheid activist and political prisoner
March 6 Jan Kjærstad, Norwegian author
March 10 Debbie Brill, Canadian high jumper
László Bölöni, Romanian footballer
Bernie LaBarge, Canadian guitarist/vocalist
Carl Hiaasen, American author
Ron Jeremy, American pornographic film actor, filmmaker and stand-up comedian
Madhav Kumar Nepal, Nepalese politician
March 14 Johan Ullman, Swedish medical doctor, physicist and inventor
March 15 Kumba Iala, Guinea-Bissauan politician, 3rd President of Guinea-Bissau (d. 2014)
Bryan Duncan, American Christian musician
Isabelle Huppert, French actress
Richard Stallman, American free software proponent
March 17 Filemon Lagman, Filipino revolutionary (d. 2001)
March 18 Takashi Yoshimatsu, Japanese composer
Jon Haukeland Norwegian ice hockey coach and administrator
March 19 Lenín Moreno, Ecuadorian politician, 44th President of Ecuador
March 20 Sándor Csányi, Hungarian business executive, banker
March 23 Chaka Khan, African-American soul singer
March 24 Mathias Richling, German comedian
Lincoln Chafee, American politician
Elaine Chao, American politician, wife of Senator Mitch McConnell
March 28 Melchior Ndadaye, 4th President of Burundi (d. 1993)
April
April 2 Jim Allister, Irish politician
Sandra Boynton, American author, songwriter and illustrator
Russ Francis, American football player
April 4 Robert Bertrand, Canadian politician
April 6 Andy Hertzfeld, American computer programmer
April 9 John Howard, English singer-songwriter
April 10 Heiner Lauterbach, German actor
Andrew Wiles, British-born mathematician
April 13 Stephen Byers, English Labour Party politician, Secretary of State for Transport
April 14 Eric Tsang, Hong Kong actor
Peter Garrett, Australian musician, politician
J. Neil Schulman, American writer, activist
April 17 Linda Martin, Irish singer, television presenter and Eurovision Song Contest 1992 winner
Rick Moranis, Canadian actor
Sk. Mujibur Rahman, Bengali politician
Sara Simeoni, Italian high jumper
Ruby Wax, American-born British-based performer
April 20 Sebastian Faulks, British novelist
April 24 Eric Bogosian, American actor, playwright, monologist and novelist
April 25 Ron Clements, American animation director, producer
Roberto Bolaño, Chilean author (d. 2003)
Kim Gordon, American rock musician
Nikolai Budarin, Russian cosmonaut
Bill Drummond, South African-born British artist and musician (The KLF, K Foundation etc.)
April 30 Merrill Osmond, American pop singer
May
Valery Gergiev, Russian-Ossetian conductor
Jamaal Wilkes, American basketball player
Salman Hashimikov, Soviet heavyweight wrestler
Gary Young, American musician (Pavement, Gary Young's Hospital)
Ibrahim Zakzaky, Nigerian Shia-Islam cleric
Dieter Zetsche, German auto executive
Aleksandr Akimov, Soviet engineer who was the shift supervisor during the events of the Chernobyl disaster (d. 1986)
Graeme Souness, Scottish footballer, manager
Lynn Whitfield, African-American actress
Billy Burnette, American musician
Alex Van Halen, Dutch-born American rock musician
May 11 David Gest, American entertainer, producer and television personality (d. 2016)
Michael Hebranko, American exemplar of morbid/mortal obesity (d. 2013)
Norodom Sihamoni, King of Cambodia
George Brett, American Major League Baseball player
Mike Oldfield, English composer (Tubular Bells)
Pierce Brosnan, Irish actor
Richard Page, American musician
May 17 Luca Prodan, Italian–Scottish musician and singer (d. 1987)
May 19 Victoria Wood, English comic performer (d. 2016)
May 20 Robert Doyle, Australian politician
May 21 Jim Devine, British politician
May 23 Agathe Uwilingiyimana, 4th Prime Minister of Rwanda (d. 1994)
May 24 Alfred Molina, English actor
Kay Hagan, American lawyer, banking executive and politician (d. 2019)
Michael Portillo, English politician
Aleksandr Abdulov, Russian actor (d. 2008)
Danny Elfman, American composer
May 30 Colm Meaney, Irish actor
May 31 Kathie Sullivan, American singer
June
David Berkowitz, American serial killer
Diana Canova, American actress, adjunct professor
Keith Allen, British actor
Cornel West, African-American philosopher, political activist, social critic, author
June 3 Erland Van Lidth De Jeude, Dutch-born wrestler, opera singer and actor (d. 1987)
Paul De Meo, American screenwriter, producer (d. 2018)
Susumu Ojima, Japanese entrepreneur
June 5 Kathleen Kennedy, American film producer
Johnny Clegg, South African Zulu musician and anthropologist (d. 2019)
Dougie Donnelly, Scottish television broadcaster
June 10 John Edwards, American politician
Peter Bergman, American actor
Barbara Minty, American model
June 12 Michael Donovan, Canadian voice actor
Atso Almila, Finnish conductor, composer
Antonia Rados, Austrian television journalist
Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, Paramount leader of China
June 20 Ulrich Mühe, German actor (d. 2007)
June 21 Benazir Bhutto, Prime Minister of Pakistan (d. 2007)
Wim Eijk, Dutch archbishop
Cyndi Lauper, American singer
Vincenzo Di Nicola, Italian-Canadian psychologist, psychiatrist and philosopher
Don Dokken, American rock singer, musician
Colin Hay, Scottish-born Australian singer-songwriter (Men at Work)
Ingo Kühl, German painter, sculptor and architect
July
Jadranka Kosor, Croatian politician
Nasir Ali Mamun, Bengali portrait photographer
Sangay Ngedup, Prime Minister of Bhutan
July 2 Nacer Sandjak, Algerian footballer and manager
Ana Botella, Spanish politician
Lotta Sollander, Swedish alpine skier
Les Strong, English association footballer
Angélica Aragón, Mexican actress
Leon Spinks, African-American boxer (d. 2021)
Mindy Sterling, American actress
Raisul Islam Asad, Bangladeshi actor
Shōichi Nakagawa, Japanese politician (d. 2009)
Jeff Fatt, Australian musician, former member of The Wiggles
Sylvia Chang, Taiwanese actress
Tadashi Kawamata, Japanese contemporary artist
Claire McCaskill, U.S. Senator
July 27 Yahoo Serious, Australian filmmaker
Ken Burns, American documentary filmmaker
Patti Scialfa, American singer and guitarist
Tōru Furuya, Japanese voice actor
James Read, American actor
August
Robert Cray, American musician
Steven Krasner, American sportswriter
August 2 Butch Patrick, American child actor and musician
August 4 Antonio Tajani, Italian politician, President of the European Parliament
András Ligeti, Hungarian violinist and conductor (d. 2021)
Rick Mahler, American baseball player (d. 2005)
Nigel Mansell, English 1992 Formula 1 world champion
August 9 Jean Tirole, French Nobel Prize-winning economist
August 11 Hulk Hogan, American professional wrestler (d. 2025)
Teddi Siddall, American actress (d. 2018)
Cliff Johnson, American game designer
James Horner, American film composer (d. 2015)
August 16 Kathie Lee Gifford, American singer and actress
August 17 Herta Müller, German Nobel Prize-winning writer
August 18 Louie Gohmert, American politician
August 19 Benoît Régent, French actor (d. 1994)
Peter Horton, American actor and director
Mike Jackson, member of the Texas Senate
August 21 Géza Szőcs, Hungarian poet and politician (d. 2020)
August 24 Ron Holloway, American tenor saxophonist
Edward Lowassa, 8th Prime Minister of Tanzania (d. 2024)
Pat Sharkey, Irish footballer
Tamser Ali, member of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly
Alex Lifeson, Canadian rock musician (Rush)
August 29 James Quesada, Nicaraguan-born anthropologist
August 30 Robert Parish, American basketball player
August 31 György Károly, Hungarian author (d. 2018)
September
September 2 John Zorn, American musician
September 4 Fatih Terim, Turkish footballer and manager
September 6 Princess Sinaitakala ʻOfeina ʻe he Langi, Tongan royalty
September 8 Stu Ungar, American poker player (d. 1998)
Simon Warr, British broadcaster (BBC) and actor (That'll Teach 'Em) (d. 2020)
Janet Fielding, Australian actress
September 10 Amy Irving, American actress
Nan Goldin, American photographer
Stephen Sprouse, American fashion designer, artist and photographer (d. 2004)
September 13 Ann Dusenberry, American film actress
September 16 - Colin Sinclair, Scottish Church Minister
September 19 Probal Dasgupta, Indian linguist and Esperantist
Kaba Rougui Barry, Guinean politician
Alexey Maslov, commander-in-chief of the Russian Ground Forces
Greg Ham, Australian rock musician (Men at Work) (d. 2012)
September 29 Denis Potvin, Canadian Hall of Fame hockey player
October
Grete Waitz, Norwegian athlete (d. 2011)
Klaus Wowereit, German politician
October 2 Brandon Wilson, American author and explorer
October 3 Karen Bass, American politician, 43rd Mayor of Los Angeles
October 4 Kerry Sherman, American actress
October 9 Tony Shalhoub, American actor
Les Dennis, British comedian and television presenter
Serge Lepeltier, French politician
Greg Evigan, American actor
Shelley Ackerman, American astrologer, actress, writer (d. 2020)
Tito Jackson, African-American singer and guitarist (The Jackson 5) (d. 2024)
Larry Miller, American actor and comedian
October 16 Martha Smith, American model and actress
October 20 – Bill Nunn, American actor (d. 2016)
Keith Green, American-born Christian piano player (d. 1982)
Peter Mandelson, British politician and member of the Labour Party
Hugh Wolff, American orchestral conductor
October 22 Loyiso Nongxa, South African mathematician
Christoph Daum, German footballer and manager (d. 2024)
Steven Hatfill, American physician, virologist and bio-weapons expert
David Wright, British composer and producer, co-founder of AD Music
October 26 Keith Strickland, American musician (The B-52's)
Paul Alcock, English football referee (d. 2018)
Peter Firth, British actor
Robert Picardo, American actor
October 29 Lorelei King, American-born actress
October 31 Michael J. Anderson, American actor
November
November 1 Susan Tse, Hong Kong actress and opera singer
Koji Horaguchi, Japanese rugby union player (d. 1999)
Dennis Miller, American comedian and radio host
Kate Capshaw, American actress
Carlos Gutierrez, American politician
Van Stephenson, American singer-songwriter (d. 2001)
Florentino V. Floro, Filipino dwarf judge
Lisl Wagner-Bacher, Austrian cook
November 7 Ottfried Fischer, German actor and Kabarett artist
November 8 John Musker, American animation director
Andy Partridge, British musician and frontman of the band XTC
Andrés Manuel López Obrador, President of Mexico (2018–2024)
Waswo X. Waswo, American photographer
Diana Weston, Canadian-born English screen actress
Mokhtar Dahari, Malaysian footballer (d. 1991)
November 15 Alexander O'Neal, American singer
November 16 Griff Rhys Jones, Welsh comedian, writer, actor and television presenter
Alan Moore, English writer and magician
Kevin Nealon, American actor and comedian
Kath Soucie, American voice actress
Robert Beltran, American actor
Tom Villard, American actor (d. 1994)
November 23 Francis Cabrel, French singer
Glenn Withrow, American actress
Tod Machover, American composer
November 25 Graham Eadie, Australian rugby league player
November 26 Shelley Moore Capito, US Senator
Steve Bannon, American political figure
Boris Grebenshchikov, Soviet and Russian rock musician
Curtis Armstrong, American actor
November 28 Pamela Hayden, American voice actress
Taeko Onuki Japanese Songwriter
Alex Grey, American artist
Vlado Kreslin, Slovenian singer
Christine Pascal, French actress, director and screenwriter (d. 1996)
Rosemary West, British serial killer
November 30 June Pointer, American singer (The Pointer Sisters) (d. 2006)
December
Joel Fuhrman, American certified family physician
Pertti Sveholm, Finnish actor
Geoff Hoon, British Labour Party politician
Tom Hulce, American actor and theater producer
Gary Ward, American baseball player
Kim Basinger, American actress and fashion model
Norman G. Finkelstein, American political scientist
Sam Kinison, American comedian (d. 1992)
December 9 John Malkovich, American actor and film director
December 12 – Bruce Kulick, American guitarist
Ben Bernanke, American economist, Federal Reserve System chairman
Bob Gainey, Canadian hockey player
December 14 Vangelis Meimarakis, Greek lawyer and politician, 4th Greek Minister for National Defence
December 15 Nawaf Salam, Lebanese politician jurist and academic, Prime Minister of Lebanon (2025–present)
Ikue Mori, Japanese drummer, composer and graphic designer
Bill Pullman, American actor
Kevin Beattie, English footballer (d. 2018)
Khas-Magomed Hadjimuradov, Chechen bard
December 21 András Schiff, Hungarian concert pianist and conductor
December 23 Nuria Bages, Mexican stage and television actress
December 24 Timothy Carhart, American actor
Toomas Hendrik Ilves, Estonian politician, 4th President of Estonia
December 27 Gina Lopez, Filipino environmentalist and philanthropist (d. 2019)
Thomas Bach, 9th President of the International Olympic Committee
Stanley Williams, American reformed murderer (d. 2005)
December 31 James Remar, American actor
Date unknown
Ely Ould Mohamed Vall, 6th President of Mauritania (d. 2017)
Dan Petrescu, Romanian businessman and billionaire
Deaths
January
January 1 Hank Williams, American singer-songwriter and musician (b. 1923)
January 2 Guccio Gucci, founder of Gucci (b. 1881)
Arthur Hoyt, American actor (b. 1874)
Yasuhito, Prince Chichibu, Japanese prince (b. 1902)
January 8 Charles Edward Merriam, American political scientist (b. 1874)
January 28 James Scullin, 9th Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1876)
January 29 Sir Reginald Wingate, British army general and colonial administrator (b. 1861)
January 30 Lionel Belmore, English actor (b. 1867)
February
February 2 Alan Curtis, American actor (b. 1909)
February 5 Iuliu Maniu, 32nd Prime Minister of Romania (b. 1873)
February 9 Cecil Hepworth, English director (b. 1874)
February 12 Hal Colebatch, Australian politician (b. 1872)
February 16 James L. Kraft, Canadian-American entrepreneur, inventor (b. 1874)
February 19 Nobutake Kondō, Japanese admiral (b. 1886)
February 20 Francesco Saverio Nitti, Italian economist and political figure, 24th Prime Minister of Italy (b. 1868)
February 21 Konrad Krafft von Dellmensingen, Bavarian general (b. 1862)
February 24 Gerd von Rundstedt, German field marshal (b. 1875)
February 25 Sergei Winogradsky, Russian scientist (b. 1856)
February 27 Paul Hurst, American actor (b. 1888)
March
March 2 Jim Lightbody, American middle-distance runner (b. 1882)
March 3 James J. Jeffries, American boxing champion (b. 1875)
Herman J. Mankiewicz, American writer and producer (b. 1897)
Sergei Prokofiev, Soviet and Russian composer (b. 1891)
Joseph Stalin, Soviet leader (b. 1878)
March 7 Edward Sedgwick, American director (b. 1892)
March 13 Johan Laidoner, Commander-in-chief of the Estonian Army (b. 1884)
March 14 Klement Gottwald, 5th President of Czechoslovakia (b. 1896)
March 15 Carl Stockdale, American actor (b. 1874)
March 17 - Pauline Ramart, French chemist and politician (b. 1880)
March 20 Graciliano Ramos, Brazilian writer (b. 1892)
March 21 Toni Wolff, Swiss psychoanalyst (b. 1888)
March 22 Gustav Herglotz, German mathematician (b. 1881)
Raoul Dufy, French painter (b. 1875)
Oskar Luts, Estonian writer and playwright (b. 1887)
Mary of Teck, consort of George V of the United Kingdom (b. 1867)
Paul Couturier, French priest (b. 1881)
March 28 Jim Thorpe, Native-American athlete, Olympic medalist and professional baseball player (b. 1887)
March 31 Ivan Lebedeff, Russian actor (b. 1895)
April
Jean Epstein, French film director (b. 1897)
Hugo Sperrle, German field marshal (b. 1885)
King Carol II of Romania (b. 1893)
Hans Reichenbach, German philosopher (b. 1891)
Stanisław Wojciechowski, 2nd President of the Republic of Poland (b. 1869)
Boris Kidrič, 1st Prime Minister of Slovenia (b. 1912)
Timothy Detudamo, Nauruan Head Chief (b. 1888)
April 12 Lionel Logue, Australian speech and language therapist (b. 1880)
April 27 Maud Gonne, English-born Irish republican revolutionary, memoirist; spouse of John MacBride (b. 1866)
April 29 Alice Prin, French artists' model (b. 1901)
May
May 1 Everett Shinn, American painter (b. 1876)
May 5 – R. K. Shanmukham Chetty, Indian jurist, economist (b. 1892)
Nicolae Rădescu, Romanian military officer and statesman, 45th Prime Minister of Romania (b. 1874)
Django Reinhardt, Belgian jazz musician (b. 1910)
May 19 Dámaso Berenguer, Spanish general and prime minister (b. 1873)
May 21 Ernst Zermelo, German logician and mathematician (b. 1871)
May 30 Dooley Wilson, American actor (b. 1886)
May 31 Vladimir Tatlin, Soviet and Russian painter and architect (b. 1885)
June
June 1 Alex James, Scottish footballer (b. 1901)
William Farnum, American actor (b. 1876)
Bill Tilden, American tennis champion (b. 1893)
Roland Young, English actor (b. 1887)
June 9 Godfrey Tearle, British actor (b. 1884)
June 18 René Fonck, French aviator, top Allied World War I Flying Ace (b. 1894)
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, American communist spies (b. 1918 and 1915, respectively) (executed on same day)
Norman Ross, American Olympic swimmer (b. 1896)
June 23 Albert Gleizes, French artist and theoretician (b. 1881)
June 25 Francis Méano, French footballer (b. 1931)
Elsa Beskow, Swedish author and illustrator of children's books (b. 1874)
Vsevolod Pudovkin, Soviet film director, screenwriter and actor (b. 1893)
July
July 9 Annie Kenney, British working-class suffragette (b. 1879)
July 11 Oliver Campbell, American tennis player (b. 1871)
July 12 Herbert Rawlinson, English actor (b. 1885)
July 15 John Christie, English serial killer (b. 1899) (hanged)
July 16 Hilaire Belloc, French-born British writer and historian (b. 1870)
July 17 Maude Adams, American actress (b. 1872)
July 20 Dumarsais Estimé, 30th President of Haiti (b. 1900)
July 26 Nikolaos Plastiras, Greek general and Prime Minister (b. 1883)
July 29 Richard Pearse, New Zealand airplane pioneer (b. 1877)
July 31 Robert A. Taft, American politician, United States Senate Majority Leader (b. 1889)
August
August 1 Jānis Mendriks, Soviet Roman Catholic priest (b. 1907)
August 11 Tazio Nuvolari, Italian racing driver (b. 1892)
August 15 Ludwig Prandtl, German physicist (b. 1875)
Gaetano Merola, Italian conductor (b. 1881)
Maurice Nicoll, British psychiatrist (b. 1884)
September
September 2 Jonathan M. Wainwright, American general and Medal of Honor recipient (b. 1883)
Richard Walther Darré, Nazi SS General (b. 1895)
Francis Ford, American actor and director (b. 1881)
September 7 Nobuyuki Abe, Japanese Prime Minister and military leader (b. 1875)
September 8 Fred M. Vinson, Chief Justice of the United States (b. 1890)
Hugo Schmeisser, German weapons designer (b. 1884)
Lewis Stone, American actor (b. 1879)
September 15 Erich Mendelsohn, German architect (b. 1887)
September 24 Jacobo Fitz-James Stuart, 17th Duke of Alba, Spanish aristocrat (born 1878)
September 26 Xu Beihong, Chinese painter (b. 1895)
September 27 Hans Fritzsche, German Nazi senior official, one of only three acquitted at the Nuremberg trials (b. 1900)
September 28 Edwin Hubble, American astronomer (b. 1889)
September 30 – Lewis Fry Richardson, English mathematician, physicist, meteorologist, psychologist and pacifist (b. 1881)
October
October 3 Sir Arnold Bax, English composer (b. 1887)
October 6 Porter Hall, American actor (b. 1888)
Nigel Bruce, British actor (b. 1895)
Kathleen Ferrier, British contralto (b. 1912)
October 12 Hjalmar Hammarskjöld, Swedish politician, 13th Prime Minister of Sweden, one of the leaders of World War I (b. 1862)
October 13 Millard Mitchell, American actor (b. 1903)
October 25 Holger Pedersen, Dutch linguist (b. 1867)
November
November 8 – Ivan Bunin, Russian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1870)
Dylan Thomas, Welsh poet and author (b. 1914)
November 16 T. F. O'Rahilly, Irish academic (b. 1882)
November 18 Ruth Crawford Seeger, American composer (b. 1901)
November 22 Sulaiman Nadvi, Indian/Pakistani historian, biographer, littérateur and scholar of Islam (b. 1884)
November 27 Eugene O'Neill, American writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1888)
November 28 Rudolf Bauer, German-born painter (b. 1889)
Ernest Barnes, English mathematician, scientist and theologian (b. 1874)
Sam De Grasse, Canadian actor (b. 1875)
November 30 Francis Picabia, French painter and poet (b. 1879)
December
December 2 Trần Trọng Kim, Vietnamese historian and Prime Minister of the Empire of Vietnam (b. 1883)
December 5 – Jorge Negrete, Mexican singer and actor (b. 1911)
December 10 Abdullah Yusuf Ali, Indian-born Islamic scholar and translator (b. 1872)
December 14 Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, American writer (b. 1896)
December 19 Robert Andrews Millikan, American physicist Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1868)
December 23 Lavrentiy Beria, Minister of Internal Affairs of the Soviet Union (b. 1899)
Şükrü Saracoğlu, 9th Prime Minister of Turkey (b. 1887)
Julian Tuwim, Polish poet (b. 1894)
December 31 Baldwin Cooke, American actor (b. 1888)
Nobel Prizes
Notes
References
Further reading
Funk & Wagnalls New Standard Encyclopedia Year Book for 1953 (1954) online