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News and Events of 1957

Year by Year: 1900-2012 View a 1957 calendar

World Events

World Statistics

Population: 2.888 billion
population by decade

Nobel Peace Prize:
Lester B. Pearson (Canada)

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Anthony Eden resigns (Jan. 9); MacMillan becomes British Prime Minister.
Russia launches Sputnik I, first earth-orbiting satellite—the Space Age begins (Oct. 4).
The USSR tests its first successful ICBM.

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U.S. Events

U.S. Statistics

President: Dwight D. Eisenhower
Vice President: Richard M. Nixon
Population: 171,984,130
Life expectancy: 69.5 years
Homicide Rate (per 100,000): 4.5

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Eisenhower Doctrine calls for aid to Mideast countries that resist armed aggression from Communist-controlled nations (Jan. 5).
The "Little Rock Nine" integrate Arkansas high school. Eisenhower sends troops to quell mob and protect the students after Gov. Orval Faubus defies federal order (Sept. 24).

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Economics

US GDP (1998 dollars):   $461 billion
Federal spending:   $76.58 billion
Federal debt:   $272.3 billion
Consumer Price Index:   28.1
Unemployment:   4.1%
Cost of a first-class stamp:   $0.03

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Sports

Sports Links

Pro Football Summary

Pro Basketball Summary

Pro Baseball Summary

World Series

Milwaukee Braves d. NY Yankees (4-3)

NBA Championship

Boston d. St. Louis Hawks (4-3)

Stanley Cup

Montreal d. Boston (4-1)

Wimbledon

Women: Althea Gibson d. D. Hard (6-3 6-2)
Men: Lew Hoad d. A. Cooper (6-2 6-1 6-2)

Kentucky Derby Champion

Iron Liege

NCAA Basketball Championship

North Carolina d. Kansas (54-53 3OT)

NCAA Football Champions

Auburn (AP) (10-0-0) & Ohio St. (UP, FW, INS) (9-1-0)

Entertainment

Entertainment Awards

Pulitzer Prizes
Fiction: No award
Music: Meditations on Ecclesiastes, Norman Dello Joio
Drama: Long Day's Journey Into Night, Eugene O'Neill

Oscars awarded in 1957
Academy Award, Best Picture: Around the World in 80 Days, Michael Todd, producer (United Artists)

Nobel Prize for Literature: Albert Camus (France)

1957 Emmy Awards

1957 Tony Awards

Miss America: Marian McKnight (SC)

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Events

Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story debuts on Broadway and brings violence to the stage.
Eugene O'Neill's A Long Day's Journey Into Night is produced posthumously and wins both the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize.
Columbia University professor Charles Van Doren becomes a media sensation by winning $129,000 on the quiz show Twenty One.
Leave It to Beaver premieres on CBS, ushering in an era of television shows that depict the ideal American.

Movies

The Bridge on the River Kwai, Twelve Angry Men, Sayonara, Peyton Place, Witness for the Prosecution

Books

James Agee, A Death in the Family
John Cheever, The Wapshot Chronicle
Noam Chomsky, Syntactic Structures
Lawrence Durrell, Justine
Jack Kerouac, On the Road
Denise Levertov, Here and Now
Bernard Malamud, The Assistant
Robert Penn Warren, Promises: Poems 1954—56

Theater

West Side Story

Science

Nobel Prizes in Science

Chemistry: Sir Alexander Todd (UK), for research with chemical compounds that are factors in heredity

Physics: Tsung Dao Lee and Chen Ning Yang (China), for disproving principle of conservation of parity

Physiology or Medicine: Daniel Bovet (Italy), for development of drugs to relieve allergies and relax muscles during surgery

Temporary artificial heart invented by Willem Kolff.
Interferon invented by Alick Isaacs and Jean Lindemann (England and Switzerland).
Clarence W. Lillehie and Earl Bakk (US) invent the internal pacemaker. Background: Health & Nutrition
Bardeen, Cooper, and Scheiffer (US) propose a theory of superconductivity.
First round-the-world nonstop jet plane flight. Maj. Gen. Archie J. Old, Jr. (USAF) led a flight of three Boeing B-52 bombers around the world in 45 hours, 19 minutes (completed Jan. 18). Background: Famous Firsts in Aviation