1950s
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See also: Timeline of events in the Cold War |
1950
- January 26: The Constitution of India comes into effect.
- February 15: Release date of Disney's Cinderella.
- June 25: North Korean invasion of South Korea begins the Korean War.
- June – September: The Bodo League Massacre of prisoners during the Korean War.
- August – September: North Korean forces capture most of Korea, to the Pusan Perimeter.
- August 25: Bertie the Brain, one of the first computer games, is released.
- September – November: UN forces reclaim Seoul and invade North Korea.
- October: Alan Turing publishes the Turing test, one of the most influential yet controversial concepts in artificial intelligence research.
- November 17: Lhamo Dondrub assumes full political powers as the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet.
- Communist victory in the Landing Operation on Hainan Island (March–May) and Wanshan Archipelago Campaign end the Chinese Civil War (May–August).
1951
- July 1: Colombo Plan, a regional organisation of 27 countries designed to strengthen economic and social development of member countries in the Asia-Pacific region, commences.
- September 8: The Treaty of San Francisco ends the Occupation of Japan and formally concludes hostilities between Japan and the US.
- September 18: Release date of the acclaimed science fiction film The Day the Earth Stood Still.
- October 26: Winston Churchill becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
1952
- February 6: Queen Elizabeth II becomes Monarch of the Commonwealth realms.
- May: Bonn–Paris conventions end allied occupation of West Germany.
- May 2: The first passenger jet flight route opens between London and Johannesburg.
- June 28: Establishment of Miss Universe.
- July 23: Egyptian Revolution under Gamal Abdel Nasser overthrows King Farouk and ends British occupation.
- July 26: Death of Eva Perón.
- November 1: The United States successfully detonates the first hydrogen bomb, codenamed "Ivy Mike", at Eniwetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands in the central Pacific Ocean, with a yield of 10.4 megatons.
- Development of the first effective polio vaccine by Jonas Salk.
- The Mau Mau Uprising begins in Kenya.
- The Slansky Trial in Czechoslovakia.
1953
- January 20: Dwight D. Eisenhower is inaugurated as President of the United States.
- March 5: Death of Stalin.
- April 25: Discovery of the three-dimensional structure of DNA.
- May 29: First ascent of Mount Everest.
- June 2: Coronation of Elizabeth II.
- June 16 – 17: An East German Uprising leads to the arrest and execution of Lavrentiy Beria; power struggle begins between Georgy Malenkov and Nikita Khrushchev.
- July 27: End of the Korean War.
- August 19: Mohammed Mossadeq deposed in Iran.
- October 23: ABS-CBN first began broadcasting.
- November 9: Independence of Cambodia.
- The first color television is produced.
1954
- April 12: The song Rock Around the Clock, by Bill Haley and His Comets, brings rock and roll to the American mainstream.
- May 17: The Supreme Court of the United States decides Brown v. Board of Education, ordering an end to racial segregation in public schools.
- July 29: J. R. R. Tolkien publishes The Fellowship of the Ring, the first volume of The Lord of the Rings.
- August 1: First Indochina War ends.
- September 3: First Taiwan Strait Crisis begins.
- September 14: The Soviet Union generates first electricity by nuclear power.
- October 23: The Western European Union is established.
- November 1: Algerian War begins.
- November 3: Godzilla is released in Japan.
- Two Miami-based franchisees, David Edgerton and James McLamore, purchase the company "Insta-Burger King" and rename it "Burger King".
1955
- February 24: Formation of the Central Treaty Organization.
- April 12: The Salk polio vaccine having passed large-scale trials earlier in the United States, receives full approval by the Food and Drug Administration.
- April 18: Death of Albert Einstein.
- April 18 – 24: Bandung Conference.
- May 1: First Taiwan Strait Crisis ends.
- May 9: The first Eurovision is held in Switzerland.
- May 14: Signing of the Warsaw Pact.
- August 18: First Sudanese Civil War begins.
- After winning the power struggle that followed Stalin's death two years earlier, Nikita Khrushchev assumes control of the Soviet Union.
- Antimatter first produced.
1956
- January 1: Independence of Sudan from Britain.
- March 7: The United States recognises Moroccos independence from France
- March 20: Independence of Tunisia from France.
- March 23: Pakistan becomes a republic.
- May 9: The first Eurovision is held in Switzerland.
- October 29 – November 7: Nasser's nationalisation of the Suez Canal triggers the Suez crisis.
- November 11: The Hungarian Uprising crushed by Soviet troops.
- Construction of Brasília, the new capital of Brazil to replace Rio de Janeiro, begins.
1957
- January 10: Harold Macmillan becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
- March 6: Independence of Ghana from Britain.
- March 17: Philippine President Ramon Magsaysay and 24 others are killed in a plane crash.
- March 25: Treaty of Rome, which would eventually lead to the European Union.
- August 31: Independence of the Federation of Malaya.
- October 4: Launch of Sputnik 1 and the beginning of the Space Age.
- November 3: Laika becomes the first animal launched into Earth orbit.
- December 20: First flight of the Boeing 707.
- First prescription of the combined oral contraceptive pill.
- Beginning of the Asian flu in China, leading to a worldwide pandemic that lasts until the following year.
1958
- May 31: Pizza Hut founded.
- May: May 1958 crisis in France.
- July 29: NASA formed.
- July – October: 1958 Lebanon crisis.
- August 23: Federal Aviation Administration formed.
- August – September: Second Taiwan Strait Crisis.
- October 2: Guinea gains independence from France.
- October 4: French Fifth Republic established, with Charles de Gaulle as its first President.
- October 28: John XXIII becomes Pope.
- November: Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) founded. CND's symbol, the peace sign, is first used.
- Invention of the optical disc and the cassette tape.
- Start of the great leap forward in China.
1959
- January 1: Cuban Revolution ends.
- January 3: Admission of Alaska, the 49th state, into the United States.
- March 9: Mattel's Barbie doll debuts in the United States.
- February 19: Independence of Cyprus.
- March 10 – 23: Uprising in Tibet against China leads to the exile of the Dalai Lama.
- August 21: Admission of Hawaii, the 50th state, into the United States.
- October 7: The USSR probe Luna 3 sends back the first ever photos of the far side of the Moon.
- November 1: Beginning of the Vietnam War, which lasts until 1975.
- World population reaches three billion.
- Laotian Civil War begins.
- Great Chinese Famine begins in China.
- First documented AIDS cases.
- By this time, the GULAG has been effectively disbanded, after over a million recorded deaths.
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