1953

• 1953 in art
• 1953 in aviation
• 1953 in film
• 1953 in literature
• 1953 in music
• 1953 in radio
• 1953 in science
• 1953 in sports
• 1953 in television

• January 7 - President Harry S. Truman announces the United States has developed a hydrogen bomb.
• January 13 - Marshal Josip Broz Tito chosen President of Yugoslavia.
• January 20 - Change of US presidency from Harry S. Truman (1945-1953) to Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953-1961).
• January 22 - The Crucible, a drama by Arthur Miller, opens on Broadway.
• January 31, February 1 - North Sea flood kills 1,835 people in the southwestern Netherlands and 307 in the United Kingdom.
• February 5 - The movie Peter Pan premieres (Roxy Theatre, New York City).
• February 11 - President Eisenhower refuses clemency appeal for Ethel and Julius Rosenberg.
• February 11 - The Soviet Union breaks diplomatic relations with Israel.
• February 18 - The first 3D film, Bwana Devil opens.
• February 19 - Censorship: Georgia approves the first literature censorship board in the United States.
• February 28 - James D. Watson and Francis Crick announce that they have determined the chemical structure of DNA.
• March 5 - After 29 years of ruling the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin dies.
• March 6 - Georgy Maksimilianovich Malenkov succeeds Josef Stalin as Premier and First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
• March 18 - An earthquake hits western Turkey killing 250.
• March 26 - Jonas Salk announces his polio vaccine.
• April 7 - Dag Hammarskjöld is elected United Nations Secretary General.
• April 25 - Francis Crick and James D. Watson publish Molecular structure of nucleic acids: a structure for deoxyribose nucleic acid describing the double helix structure of DNA.
• May 11 - The Waco Tornado: A F5 tornado hits in the downtown section of Waco, Texas killing 114.
• May 18 - At Rogers Dry Lake, California Jacqueline 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).
• May 25 - Nuclear testing: At the Nevada Test Site, the United States conducts its first and only nuclear artillery test.
• May 29 - Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay perform the first successful ascent to the summit of Mount Everest.
• June 2 - Coronation of Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom at Westminster Abbey.
• June 8 - The Flint-Worcester Tornado: A tornado hits in Flint, Michigan killing 115. This is the last tornado in U.S. history to claim more than 100 lives.
• June 9 - The Flint-Worcester Tornado: New England's first F5 tornado hit in Worcester, Massachusetts killing 94.
• June 17 - Workers Uprising in East Germany.
• July 26 - Fidel Castro leads an unsuccessful attack on the Moncada Barracks sparking the Cuban Revolution.
• July 27 - Korean War ends: The United States, People's Republic of China, North Korea, and South Korea sign an armistice agreement.
• August 7 - Ohio admitted to the union, retroactive to 1803.
• August 19 - Cold War: The CIA helps to overthrow the government of Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran and reinstate the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (see: Operation Ajax).
• September 7 - Nikita Khrushchev becomes head of the Soviet Central Committee.
• October 12 - "The Caine Mutiny Court Martial" opens at Plymouth Theatre, New York.
• October 30 - Cold War: US President Dwight D. Eisenhower formally approves the top secret document National Security Council Paper No. 162/2, which states that the United States' arsenal of nuclear weapons must be maintained and expanded to counter the communist threat.
• October - The UNIVAC 1103 is the first commercial computer to use random access memory.
• November 9 - Cambodia becomes independent from France.
• November 21 - Authorities at the British Natural History Museum announce that the skull of the "Piltdown Man", held to be one of the most famous fossil skulls in the world, was a hoax.
• December 24 - 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
• December 30 - The first color television sets go on sale for about $1,175 (American dollars).

• 1953 in film
  • From Here to Eternity
  • Julius Caesar
  • The Robe
• 1953 in literature
  • Casino Royale, the first James Bond novel published
• 1953 in music
  • Elvis Presley records for the first time
• 1953 in sports
  • April 16th - Montreal Canadiens win the Stanley Cup, defeating Boston Bruins winning the series 4 games to 1, with a score of 1-0, in the first overtime at 1:22 (minutes:seconds)
• 1953 in television
  • January 19 - 68% of all United States television sets were tuned in to I Love Lucy to watch Lucy give birth
  • February 18 - Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz sign an $8,000,000 contract to continue the I Love Lucy television series through 1955.
  • March 25 - CBS concedes victory to RCA in the war over color television standards.
  • April 3 - TV Guide is published for the first time, with 10 editions and a circulation of 1,562,000
  • May 25 - KUHT in Houston, becomes the first non-commercial educational TV station
  • The Tonight Show begins as a local New York variety show.
  • August 30 - NBC's Kukla, Fran, and Ollie Show is broadcast in color
  • October 19 - Arthur Godfrey fires Julius La Rosa on the air.
  • November - RCA tests its compatible color TV system on the air for the first time with a telecast of the Colgate Comedy Hour.
  • December 24 - NBC's Dragnet becomes the first network-sponsored television program.
  • December 17 - The FCC reverses its 1951 decision and approves the RCA/NTSC color system
  • Japanese television goes on the air for the first time
• 1953 in theater
  • July 13 - First lines of the first play produced by the Stratford Shakespeare Festival (Richard III) are spoken.

• January 10 - Pat Benatar, singer
• January 10 - Bobby Rahal, automobile racer
• January 19 - Desi Arnaz Jr., actor
• January 21 - Paul Allen, entrepreneur
• January 22 - Jim Jarmusch, director
• January 26 - Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Prime Minister of Denmark
• February 7 - Lige Curry, musician (P Funk)
• February 8 - Mary Steenburgen, actress
• February 11 - Philip Anglim, actor
• February 11 - Stephen D. Thorne, astronaut
• February 11 - Alan Rubin, music figure
• February 17 - Norman Pace, actor, comic
• February 21 - William Petersen, actor
• February 25 - José María Aznar, Spanish politician
• March 12 - Ron Jeremy, pornographic film actor
• March 12 - Carl Hiaasen, author
• March 16 - Richard Stallman, Free software proponent
• March 16 - Isabelle Huppert, actress
• March 23 - Chaka Khan, singer
• March 26 - Elaine Chao, U.S. Secretary of Labor
• April 1 - Barry Sonnenfeld, producer, director
• April 11 - Guy Verhofstadt, Prime Minister of Belgium
• April 22 - Frank Netzel, Political activist
• May 6 - Tony Blair, Prime Minister of United Kingdom
• May 15 - Mike Oldfield, composer
• May 16 - Pierce Brosnan, actor
• May 19 - Victoria Wood, British comic actress
• May 24 - Alfred Molina, actor
• May 26 - Michael Portillo, politician
• May 29 - Danny Elfman, (composer)
• May 30 - Colm Meaney, actor
• June 8 - Bonnie Tyler, singer
• June 13 - Tim Allen, actor
• July 15 - Mila Pivnicki, First Lady of Canada
• July 15 - Jean-Bertrand Aristide, former president of Haiti
• July 29 - Geddy Lee, musician with Rush
• August 11 - Hulk Hogan, American professional wrestler
• August 19 - Benoît Régent, French film actor
• October 9 - Tony Shalhoub, actor
• October 12 - Serge Lepeltier, French politician
• October 16 - Terrence John Mason, American violinist
• October 22 - Jeff Goldblum, actor
• October 31 - Michael J. Anderson, American actor
• November 18 - Alan Moore, comic book writer, writer, performer, magician
• November 29 - Alex Grey, artist
• December 8 - Kim Basinger, actress and Oscar winner

• January 28 - James Scullin, ninth Prime Minister of Australia
• March 2 - Jim Lightbody, American middle-distance runner
• March 5 - Herman J. Mankiewicz, writer, producer
• March 5 - Sergei Prokofiev, Soviet composer
• March 5 - Joseph Stalin, Soviet leader
• March 24 - Queen Mary the Dowager Queen Mother, formerly Mary of Teck, widow of King George V of the United Kingdom
• March 28 - Jim Thorpe, athlete (b. 1887)
• May 29 - Man Mountain Dean, professional wrestler
• July 29 - Richard William Pearse, New Zealander airplane pioneer.
• September 2 - General Jonathan Wainwright, U.S. Medal of Honor recipient
• October 3 - Arnold Bax, composer
• November 8 - John van Melle, South African author
• November 9 - Dylan Thomas, poet and author
• November 21 - Larry Shields, jazz musician (b. 1893)
• November 27 - Eugene O'Neill, playwright
• November 29 - Sam De Grasse, pioneer Hollywood actor
• November 30 - Francis Picabia, painter, poet

• Physics - Frits (Frederik) Zernike
• Chemistry - Hermann Staudinger
• Medicine - Hans Adolf Krebs, Fritz Albert Lipmann
• Literature - Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill
• Peace - George Catlett Marshall

• Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury