January 20 - General Dwight D. Eisenhower is inaugurated as President of the United States.
March 5 - Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union, dies of a stroke at the age of 73. Stalin is succeeded by Nikita Khrushchev.
April 10 - Dag Hammarskjöld begins term as UN secretary-general.
April-May - James Watson and Francis Crick publish their discovery of the molecular model of DNA
May 25 - North American aviation test pilot George Welsh flies the YF Super Sabre, breaking the sound barrier.
May 29 - Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay of Nepal reach the top of Mt. Everest.
June 17 - East Berliners rise against Communist rule; tanks put a halt to the uprising.
June 19 - Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are executed in Sing Sing prison. They are the first civilians executed under the Espionage Act of 1917.
July 27 - The Korean War officially ends. The United States suffered 33,327 deaths and 102,000 wounded. The cost of the war was over $18 billion.
August 20 - Moscow announces explosion of hydrogen bomb.
Ernest Hemmingway wins Pulitzer for The Old Man and the Sea.
 Robert Dufner |
 Jerome Finnigan |
 Robert Foley |
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Linten Lang |
Godfrey Martin |
William Stemple |
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Richard Warren |
E. Dale Waters |
Franklin Wheelock |
