Explore 3918 historical events from 1950–1959.
The Cold War was a period of international geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc …
Cold War: Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are executed at Sing Sing, in New York
Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria was a Soviet politician and one of the longest-serving and most influential of Joseph Stalin's secret police chiefs, serving as head of the NKVD from 1938…
Lavrentiy Beria, head of MVD, is arrested by Nikita Khrushchev and other members of the Politburo
The Chevrolet Corvette is a line of American two-door, two-seater sports cars manufactured and marketed by General Motors under the Chevrolet marque since 1953. Throughout eight ge…
The first Chevrolet Corvette rolls off the assembly line in Flint, Michigan
Ernesto "Che" Guevara de la Serna was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, author, guerrilla leader, diplomat, politician, and military theorist. A major figure of the Cuban Revolut…
Ernesto "Che" Guevara sets out on a trip through Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, and…
A midshipman is an officer of the lowest rank in the Royal Navy, United States Navy, and many Commonwealth navies. Commonwealth countries which use the rank include Canada, Austral…
The largest number of United States midshipman casualties in a single event results from an aircraft crash in Florida,…
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz was a Cuban communist revolutionary and statesman who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2011. He served as prime minister from 1959 to 1976, president …
Cold War: Fidel Castro leads an unsuccessful attack on the Moncada Barracks, thus beginning the Cuban Revolution. The…
Jamaal Abdul-Lateef, better known as Jamaal Wilkes, is an American former basketball player who was a small forward in the National Basketball Association (NBA). A three-time NBA A…
Jamaal Wilkes, American basketball player
Pia Zadora is an American actress and singer. She debuted as a child actress on Broadway, in regional theater, and in the film Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964). She came to…
Pia Zadora, American actress and singer
Aleksandr Fyodorovich Akimov was a Soviet engineer who was the supervisor of the shift that worked at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Reactor Unit 4 on the night of the Chernobyl…
Alexander Akimov, Ukrainian Chernobyl worker (died 1986)
Arizona is a landlocked state in the Southwestern United States, sharing the Four Corners region with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the northwest and Ca…
Arizona Governor John Howard Pyle orders an anti-polygamy law enforcement crackdown on residents of Short Creek,…
The 2nd Battalion (Amphibious), The Royal Australian Regiment is an amphibious reconnaissance battalion of the Australian Army part of the 1st Division Amphibious Task Group based …
Soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment repel a number of Chinese assaults against a key position…
The Korean War was an armed conflict fought on the Korean Peninsula between North Korea and South Korea and their allies. North Korea was supported by China and the Soviet Union, w…
Korean War: Cessation of hostilities is achieved when the United States, China, and North Korea sign an armistice…
The First Indochina War, known alternatively internationally as the French Indochina War, was fought in French Indochina between France and the Viet Minh and their respective allie…
First Indochina War: The French Union withdraws its forces from Operation Camargue against the Viet Minh in central…
Nuclear weapons tests are experiments carried out to determine the performance of nuclear weapons and the effects of their explosion. Over 2,000 nuclear weapons tests have been car…
Thermonuclear bomb testing: The Soviet atomic bomb project continues with the detonation of "RDS-6s" (Joe 4) using a…
The 1953 Ionian earthquake struck the southern Ionian Islands in Greece on August 12. In mid-August, there were over 113 recorded earthquakes in the region between Kefalonia and Za…
The 7.2 Ms Ionian earthquake shakes the southern Ionian Islands with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme).…
Graeme James Souness is a Scottish former professional football player, manager and television pundit.
Graeme Souness, Scottish international footballer and manager
Alexander Arthur Van Halen is an American musician who was the drummer and a co-founder of the rock band Van Halen, which was formed in 1972 by Van Halen and his younger brother Ed…
Alex Van Halen, Dutch-American drummer
Thomas William Cochrane is a Canadian musician best known as the frontman of rock band Red Rider and for his work as a solo singer-songwriter. Cochrane has won eight Juno Awards. H…
Tom Cochrane, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist
The Cold War was a period of international geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc …
Cold War: The CIA and MI6 help to overthrow the government of Mohammad Mosaddegh in Iran and reinstate the Shah…
A penal colony or exile colony is a settlement used to exile prisoners and separate them from the general population by placing them in a remote location, often an island or distan…
The penal colony on Devil's Island is permanently closed.
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and the Chairman of the Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964. A…
Nikita Khrushchev is elected first secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy, also known as JFK, was the 35th president of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. He was the youngest person elected presi…
U.S. Senator and future President John Fitzgerald Kennedy marries Jacqueline Lee Bouvier at St. Mary's Church in…
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and the Chairman of the Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964. A…
Nikita Khrushchev is appointed General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
George Howard Brett is an American former professional baseball third baseman, designated hitter, and first baseman who played 21 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Kan…
George Brett, American baseball player and coach