 The AARP Class of 2003 (Celebrity Birthdays) |  PRICES for 1953 | 1953 What A Year It Was Book | Turning 50? Know somebody who is? CLICK HERE for some books on being 50. |
Note: Music History and Song Lists for 1953 are located HERE
 | Chevrolet begins to roll out plastic-bodied Corvettes. Read MoreBook – Corvette Fifty Years |
 | Dr. John H. Gibbon performs the first successful open heart surgery in which the blood is artificially circulated and oxygenated by a heart-lung machine |
| New York adopts three color traffic lights. |
| Edmund Hilary and Tenzing Norgay become the first humans to reach the summit of Mount Everest. |
| Playboy Magazine begins publication, featuring nudes of Marilyn Monroe in its first issue |
| The Church of Scientology is founded by L. Ron Hubbard, a science-fiction writer. |
| University of Minnesota physiologist Ancel Keys points out a correlation between coronary heart disease and diets high in animal fats. Also know as “The Day the Pork Rines Died.” |
| TV Guide is born. A pictoral essay of Year 1. |
| Sugar Smacks, 56 percent sugar, is introduced by Kelloggs. |
| East Berliners rise against Communist rule. The Soviets roll tanks into city. End of discussion. |
| On the Air! You’d find 2,357 AM radio, 616 FM radio and 125 TV Stations. |
| Tito becomes president of Yugoslavia. |
| Joseph Stalin dies at the age of 73. He will not be missed. |
| Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, convicted in 1951 of selling American atomic secrets to the Soviet Union, are executed June 9. |
| The first 3-D movie is shown: Arch Oboler’s Bwana Devil, starring Robert Stack. Learn More |
| The Academy Awards are televised for the first time. And the winner is…Oscar stuff. |
| Francis Crick and James Watson discover the “double helix” of DNA. |
| 46.4% of all domestic passenger travel was by railroad; 28.9% by bus; and 21.6% by air. |
| Con-Tact paper! |
| The French Sardine Co. (in existence since 1917) becomes Star-Kist Foods. Charlie will appear in 1961. |
| In Sports… |
| Baseball star/pilot Ted Williams uninjured as plane shot down in Koreafor more sports or 1953 in sports |
| Gen George C Marshall wins Nobel Peace Prize |
| Jacqueline Bouvier marries John F Kennedy |
| Dr. Jonas Salk announces discovery of the vaccine for poliomyelitis |
| Ian Fleming publishes the first James Bond novel, Casino Royale. |
| Govenor Earl Warren of California is named Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court, a position he would hold until 1969. |
| The Tuskegee Institute announces that 1953 is the second year in a row in which there were no lynchings. Some statistic. |
| The Department of Health, Education and Welfare is established with Cabinet status. Oveta Culp Hobby is sworn in as Secretary, only the second woman in history to achieve this rank. (Frances Perkins under FDR was the first.) |
| The farm population is down 239,000 over a two year period and now stands at 24,819,000. |
| Dag Hammarskjold chosen as secretary-general of UN |
| Jacqueline Cochrane, USA is the first woman to break sound barrier. You go girl! |
| US district Judge Grim, rules NFL can black out TV home games |
| Supreme Court rules Major League baseball exempt from anti-trust laws (7-2) as it is a sport not a business. On what planet? |
| Walt Disney’s “Peter Pan” released |
| Chuck Yeager reaches Mach 2.43 (2,575 kph) in Bell X-1A rocket plane Buy his Autobiography |
| White Rose Redi-tea is the world’s first instant iced tea. |
| Howdy Doody tumbler from Welch’s More |
| Prime commercial paper (4 to 6 mos) was at 2.52%. In New York City a commercial loan ran 3.47% |
| Irish Coffee is introduced at San Francisco’s Buena Vista Cafe at the foot of Hyde Street Hill on the Beach Street cable line. Want the recipe? |
| Dow Chemical creates Saran Wrap |
| To counteract the threat of television,Hollywood thinks big and develops wide-screen processes such as CinemaScope, first seen in The Robe. |
| There is a 33.2% business failure rate.Chart for 1946-1964 |
| Kraft Cheez Whiz is introduced as a shortcut for homemakers making Welsh rarebit. More |
| There are 26,000,000 TV sets in 28,000,000 homes. |
| “A Stillness at Appomattox” by Bruce Catton is published, along with “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury. |
| There are 37,955 motor vehicle related deaths. While in the air, there were 6 accidents resulting in 88 fatalities. |
| Unemployment is 2.9% |
| US GNP (Gross National Product) is $378.0 billion |
| Although not commercially available until 1958, WD40 was invented for the areospace industry |
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