BRITAIN AND THE WORLD SINCE 1953
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| Jan10 | Antony Eden resigns as Prime Minister and is replaced by Harold Macmillan |
| Jan13 | People who enjoy throwing objects to one another in public parks were in for a treat as the first Frisbee rolled off the production line of the Wham-O factory |
| Jan14 | Humphrey Bogart dies of throat cancer aged 56 |
| Jan16 | The Cavern Club in Mathews Street Liverpool is opened |
| Jan23 | The Klu Klux Klan force a truck driver Willie Edwards to jump off a bridge into an Alabama river for making a slight remark to a white woman. The accusation was unfounded but Willie was drowned |
| Feb4 | France prohibits UN involvement in Algeria. A month later on 20March the French newspaper L'Express reveals the torture by the French Army of their Algerian prisoners |
| Feb7 | Soviet Union claims that the vanished Swedish Diplomat Raoul Wallenberg died on July 17th 1947 |
| Feb8 | The Saudi-Arabian King visits USA and receives promises of substantial military aid in return for US access to Saudi-arabia |
| Mar6 | The Gold Coast achieves independence from Britain and is renamed Ghana |
| Mar14 | Sukarno declares martial law in Indonesia |
| Mar15 | Britain becomes the third nation to detonate a hydrogen bomb on Christmas Island. five days later the World Health Organisation issues a warning about the devastating genetic effects that nuclear radiation can have |
| Mar25 | Treaty of Rome leads to formation of European Common Market |
| Apr1 | The first new conscripts start service in the Bundeswehr |
| Apr9 | The clean up operation of the Suez canal is finished and the Canal re-opens |
| Apr12 | Britain announces that Singapore will have self rule from Jan 1 1958 |
| Apr24 | BBC introduce the first edition of "The Sky At Night" with Patrick Moore as the presenter |
| May1 | 31 people die when a troop plane crashes at Blackbush Airport in Hampshire |
| May2 | Senator J. McCarthy dies. He was instumental in destroying the lives of many honest decent and innocent people |
| May15 | Britain becomes the third nation to detonate a hydrogen bomb on Christmas Island. five days later the World Health Organisation issues a warning about the devastating genetic effects that nuclear radiation can have |
| Jun1 | The first Premium Bond prizes are drawn by ERNIE. The first prize was £5000 |
| Jul2 | An earthquake in iran leads to the death of 2000 people |
| Jul6 | Althea Gibson won the Wimbledon women's singles tennis title - the first black person to win the event. |
| Jul15 | John Lennon (15) & Paul McCartney (13) meet for the first time as Lennon's rock group The Quarrymen perform at St Peters Church Woolton Liverpool |
| Jul20 | "Let us be frank about it.Most of our people have never had it so good" - Harold Macmillan in an election speech in Bradford |
| July25 | After 250 years of being a monarchy, Tunisia becomes a Republic |
| Sep4 | Lord Wolfenden introduces his report on the reform of the U.Ks Homosexuality laws |
| Race riots occur in Little Rock Arkansas. Eisenhower sends in paratroopers to restore order after the National Guard refuse to let coloured pupils into state schools in order that they can maintain the segregationist policies | |
| Sep10 | Australia announces that it will no longer tolerate British nuclear testing in the South Pacific. On the same day the nuclear plant at Windscale releases radiation into the atmosphere |
| Sep20 | The Finnish composer Jean Sibelius dies |
| Oct4 | An unmanned artificial satellite Sputnik 1 was launched by the Soviet Union inaugurating the Space Race |
| Oct11 | The world's largest radio telescope is opened at Jodrell Bank Cheshire U.K. |
| Nov3 | Soviet Union launched the first inhabited space capsule,Sputnik II, carrying a dog named Laika. She was the first living creature to go into space.She suffered no ill efects from weightlessness but die when the oxygen ran out in a capsule that was not designed to return to earth |
| Nov13 | Massive flooding occurs in the Po valley of Italy and leads to the widespread flooding of Venice |
| Nov15 | 43 people die when a plane crashes in the Isle of Wight |
| Nov16 | Ed Gein "The Butcher of Plainsfield"murders his last victim. The murders provide the basis for Robert Bloch's book "Psycho" and its film adaptation of the same name directed byAlfred Hitchcock |
| Nov30 | President Sukarno of Indonesia is subjected to a grenade attack whilst visiting Cikini School in Jakarta. Sukarno is practically unharmed but six children are killed and over one hundred injured. The following day he nationalises 246 Dutch businesses and on Dec 5th he expels all Dutch nationals from Indonesia |
| Dec4 | The Lewisham train disaster killed 92 people. |
| Dec17 | The crime novelist Dorothy L Sayers dies |
| Dec20 | At the height of his career, Elvis Presley receives his call-up papers from the US Government. On Sep1 1958 he is sent to Germany and a month later is stationed in Bremenhaven |
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Last Updated 23/04/07 12:28