Top News Stories from 1951

World Events

World Statistics

Population: 4.378 billion
population by decade
Nobel Peace Prize: Léon Jouhaux (France)
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  • Seoul falls first to Communist forces (Jan. 4), then to US-led UN troops (Mar. 14). Despite peace talks in July and October, the Korean War continues.
  • Six nations agree to Schuman Plan to pool European coal and steel (March 19; in effect Feb. 10, 1953).
  • Japanese peace treaty signed in San Francisco by 49 nations (Sept. 8).
  • Libya gains independence from Italy (Dec. 24).

U.S. Events

U.S. Statistics

President: Harry S Truman
Vice President: Alben W. Barkley
Population: 154,877,889
Life expectancy: 68.4 years
Homicide Rate (per 100,000): 4.9
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Economics

US GDP (1998 dollars): $339.7 billion
Federal spending: $45.51 billion
Federal debt $255.3 billion
Consumer Price Index: $26
Unemployment: 5.3%
Cost of a first-class stamp: $0.03

Sports

World Series
NY Yankees d. NY Giants (4-2)
NBA Championship
Rochester d. New York
Stanley Cup
Toronto d. Montreal
Wimbledon
Women: Doris Hart d. S. Fry (6-1 6-0)
Men: Dick Savitt d. K. McGregor (6-4 6-4 6-4)
Kentucky Derby Champion
Count Turf
NCAA Basketball Championship
Kentucky d. Kansas St. (68-58)
NCAA Football Champions
Tennessee (10-0-0)

Entertainment

Entertainment Awards

Pulitzer Prizes
Fiction: The Town, Conrad Richter
Music: Music for opera Giants in the Earth, Douglas Stuart Moore
Academy Award, Best Picture: All About Eve (Twentieth Century-Fox)
Nobel Prize for Literature: Pär Lagerkvist (Sweden)
Miss America: Yolande Betbeze (AL)
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Events

  • Yul Brynner makes his first appearance as the king of Siam in Rodgers and Hammerstein's The King and I. Gertrude Lawrence costars (March 29).
  • Color television introduced in the U.S.
  • In an effort to introduce rhythm and blues to a broader white audience, which was hesitant to embrace "black music," disc jockey Alan Freed uses the term rock 'n' roll to describe R&B.
  • In the first broadcast of Edward R. Murrow's See It Now series, Murrow shows the split-screen image of the Golden Gate and Brooklyn bridges and tells viewers it is the first time to see the Atlantic and Pacific oceans simultaneously.

Movies

  • The African Queen, A Streetcar Named Desire, An American in Paris, A Place in the Sun

Music

  • Elliott Carter, String Quartet No. 1

Books

Science

Nobel Prizes in Science

Chemistry: Glenn T. Seaborg and Edwin H. McMillan (both US), for discovery of plutonium
Physics: Sir John Douglas Cockcroft (UK) and Ernest T. S. Walton (Ireland), for work in 1932 on transmutation of atomic nuclei
Physiology or Medicine: Max Theiler (South Africa), for development of anti-yellow-fever vaccine
More Nobel Prizes in 1998...

Death

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