1951 in the United States

1951 in the United States
Decades:	1930s 1940s – 1950s – 1960s 1970s
Years:	1948 1949 1950 – 1951 – 1952 1953 1954
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48 stars (1912 – 1959)
Timeline of United States history History of the United States (1945–1964)

Events from the year 1951 in the United States.

Incumbents

• President: Harry S. Truman (Democratic)
• Vice President: Alben W. Barkley (Democratic)
• Chief Justice: Fred M. Vinson
• Speaker of the House of Representatives: Sam Rayburn (D-Texas)
• Senate Majority Leader: Scott W. Lucas (D-Illinois) (until January 3), Ernest McFarland (D-Arizona) (starting January 3)
• Congress: 81st (until January 3), 82nd (starting January 3)

Events

January–March

March 29: Ethel and Julius Rosenberg convicted

• January 10 – The new United Nations headquarters officially opens in New York City.
• January 17 – Korean War: Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul.
• January 27 – Nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site begins with a 1-kiloton bomb dropped on Frenchman Flat, northwest of Las Vegas, Nevada.
• February 4–8 – Surgeons remove an ovarian cyst from Gertrude Levandowski in a 96-hour long operation in Chicago. She loses almost half of her weight and emerges weighing 140 kg.
• February 6 – A Pennsylvania Railroad passenger train derails near Woodbridge Township, New Jersey, killing 85 people and injuring over 500, in one of the worst rail disasters in American history.
• February 27 – The Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution, limiting Presidents to two terms, is ratified.
• March 6 – Second Red Scare: Ethel and Julius Rosenberg stand trial facing charges of conspiracy to commit espionage.
• March 7 – Korean War – Operation Ripper: In Korea, United Nations troops led by General Matthew Ridgeway begin an assault against the Chinese "volunteers".
• March 12 – Hank Ketcham's best-selling comic strip Dennis the Menace, appeared in newspapers across the U.S. for the first time.
• March 14 – Korean War: For the second time, United Nations troops recapture Seoul.
• March 29 – Second Red Scare: Ethel and Julius Rosenberg are convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage. On April 5 they are sentenced to receive the death penalty.
• March 29 – Rodgers and Hammerstein's The King and I opens on Broadway and runs for 3 years. It's the first Rodgers & Hammerstein musical specifically written for an actress (Gertrude Lawrence). Lawrence is stricken with cancer during the run of the show and dies halfway through its run a year later. The show makes a star of Yul Brynner.
• March 29 – The 23rd Academy Awards ceremony is held; All About Eve wins Best Picture and four others.
• March 31 – Remington Rand delivers the first UNIVAC I computer to the United States Census Bureau.

April–June

July 13: The Great Flood of 1951 reaches its peak

• April 11 – U.S. President Harry S. Truman relieves General Douglas MacArthur of his Far Eastern commands.
• May 3 – The U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services and U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations begins its closed door hearings into the dismissal of General Douglas MacArthur by U.S. President Harry S. Truman.
• May 9 – Operation Greenhouse: The first thermonuclear weapon is tested on Enewetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands, by the United States.
• May 21 – The Ninth Street Show, otherwise known as the 9th Street Art Exhibition, a gathering of a number of notable artists, marks the stepping-out of the post war New York avant-garde, collectively known as the New York School.
• May 25 – The first atomic bomb "boosted" by the inclusion of thermonuclear materials, is tested in the "Item" test on Enewetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands by the U.S.
• June 14 – UNIVAC I is dedicated by the U.S. Census Bureau.^[1]
• June 15–July 1 – In New Mexico, Arizona, California, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia, thousands of hectares of forests are destroyed in fires.
• June 18 – Battle Ground, Washington is incorporated.

July–September

September 1: ANZUS Treaty

• July 10 – Korean War: Armistice negotiations begin at Kaesong.
• July 13 – The Great Flood of 1951 reaches its highest point in Northeast Kansas, culminating in the greatest flood damage to date in the Midwestern United States.
• July 13 – MGM's Technicolor film version of Show Boat, starring Kathryn Grayson, Ava Gardner, and Howard Keel, premieres at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. The musical brings overnight fame to bass-baritone William Warfield (who sings Ol' Man River in the film).
• July 14 – In Joplin, Missouri, the George Washington Carver National Monument becomes the first United States National Monument to honor an African American.
• July 17 – Western New England College in Springfield, Massachusetts is chartered.
• July 26 – Walt Disney's 13th animated film, Alice in Wonderland, premieres in London, United Kingdom.
• July 30 – David Lean's Oliver Twist is finally shown in the United States, after 10 minutes of supposedly anti-Semitic references and closeups of Alec Guinness as Fagin are cut. It will not be shown uncut in the U.S. until 1970.
• September 1 – The United States, Australia and New Zealand all sign a mutual defense pact, called the ANZUS Treaty.
• September 3 – The American soap opera Search for Tomorrow debuts on CBS. After over 30 years, the show switches to NBC on March 26, 1982. Search for Tomorrow airs its final episode on December 26, 1986.
• September 8 – Treaty of San Francisco: In San Francisco, California, 48 nations sign a peace treaty with Japan to formally end the Pacific War.
• September 8 – Japan-U.S. Security Treaty, which allows United States Armed Forces being stationed in Japan after the occupation of Japan, is signed by Japan and the United States.
• September 18 – Tennessee Williams's adaptation of A Streetcar Named Desire premieres, becoming a critical and box-office smash.
• September 20 – NATO accepts Greece and Turkey as members.

October–December

September 8: Treaty of San Francisco officially ends war with Japan

• October 3 – "Shot Heard 'Round the World": One of the greatest moments in Major League Baseball history occurs when the New York Giants' Bobby Thomson hits a game winning home run in the bottom of the 9th inning off of Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Ralph Branca, to win the National League pennant after being down 14 games.
• October 4 – MGM's Technicolor musical film, An American in Paris, starring Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron, premieres in New York. It was directed by Vincente Minnelli. It would go on to win 6 Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
• October 4 – Shoppers World (one the first shopping malls in the U.S.) opens in Framingham, Massachusetts.
• October 15 – I Love Lucy made its television debut on CBS.
• October 16 – Judy Garland begins her legendary concerts in New York's Palace Theatre.
• October 17 – CBS' Eye logo premieres on TV.
• October 20 – The Johnny Bright Incident occurs in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
• October 24 – U.S. President Harry Truman declares an official end to war with Germany.^[2]
• November 1 – The first military exercises for nuclear war, with infantry troops included, are held in the Nevada desert.
• November 10 – Direct dial coast-to-coast telephone service begins in the United States.
• November 24 – The Broadway play Gigi opens, starring little known actress Audrey Hepburn as the lead character.
• November 28 – Scrooge, starring Alastair Sim, premieres in the United States under the title of Charles Dickens's original novel, A Christmas Carol.
• December 13 – A water storage tank collapses in Tucumcari, New Mexico, resulting in 4 deaths, and 200 buildings destroyed.
• December 23 – John Huston's drama film, The African Queen, starring Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn, premieres in Hollywood.
• December 24 – Gian-Carlo Menotti's 45-minute opera, Amahl and the Night Visitors, premieres live on NBC, becoming the first opera written especially for television.
• December 31 – The Marshall Plan expires after distributing more than $13.3 billion USD in foreign aid to rebuild Europe.^[3]

Ongoing

• Cold War (1945–1991)
• Second Red Scare (1947–1957)
• Marshall Plan (1948–1951)
• Korean War (1950–1953)

Births

This section requires expansion.

• January 12 – Kristie Alley, actress
• January 30 – Charles Dutton, actor
• March 24 – Tommy Hilfiger, fashion designer
• April 21 – Tony Danza, actor
• May 4 – Colleen Hanabusa, congresswoman
• May 9 – Jorie Graham, poet
• May 9 – Joy Harjo, poet
• June 5 – Suze Orman, author
• July 8 – Alan Ashby, baseball player
• July 8 – Angelica Huston, actress
• July 24 – Lynda Carter, actress
• August 24 – Orson Scott Card, novelist
• September 2 – Mark Harmon, actor
• September 9 – Tom Wopat, actor
• September 25 – Mark Hamill, actor
• October 18 – Terry McMillan, novelist
• November 11 – Kim Peek, savant (died 2009)
• November 27 – Kathryn Bigelow, film director

Deaths

This section requires expansion.

References

External links

• Media related to 1951 in the United States at Wikimedia Commons