1957

Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century

Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s - 1950s - 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s

Years: 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 - 1957 - 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962

See also:

Table of contents

1 Events

1.1 January
1.2 March-July
1.3 August
1.4 September-October
1.5 November-December

2 Year in topic
3 Births

3.6 January-February
3.7 March-September
3.8 October-December

4 Deaths

4.9 January-August
4.10 September-December

5 Incumbents

5.11 Religious leaders
5.12 National Leaders

6 Awards/Prizes

Events

January

January 2 - San Francisco and Los Angeles stock exchanges merge.
January 3 - Hamilton Watch Company introduces the first electric watch.
January 4 - After 69 years the last issue of Collier's magazine is published.
January 10 - Harold Macmillan becomes the prime minister of the United Kingdom.
January 13 - Wham-O Company produces the first Frisbee
January 16 - The Cavern Club opens in Liverpool
January 22 - Israel withdraws from the Sinai Peninsula (they invaded Egypt on October 29, 1956)
January 22 - The New York City "Mad Bomber," George P. Metesky, is arrested in Waterbury, Connecticut and is charged with planting more than 30 bombs.

March-July

March 6 - United Kingdom colonies Gold Coast and Togoland become the independent Republic of Ghana.
March 8 - Egypt re-opens the Suez Canal
March 13 - The FBI arrests Jimmy Hoffa and charges him with bribery.
March 25 - Treaty of Rome (patto di Roma) establishes the European Economic Community (EEC); see EU
April 5 - First elected government of Kerala. CPI won the elections and E. M. S. Namboodiripad became the first chief minister of united Kerala.
June 9 - First ascent of Broad Peak
June 21 - John Diefenbaker becomes Canada's thirteenth prime minister.
July - International Geophysical Year begins
July 16 - United States Marine Major John Glenn flies a F8U supersonic jet from California to New York in 3 hours, 23 minutes and 8 seconds setting a new transcontinental speed record.
July 29 - The International Atomic Energy Agency is established.

August

August 31 - The Federation of Malaya gains independence from the United Kingdom. Tuanku Abdul Rahman ibni Almarhum Tuanku Muhammad, Yang di-Pertuan Besar of Negeri Sembilan becomes the first Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia.

September-October

September 4 - American Civil Rights Movement: Little Rock Crisis - Orville Faubus, governor of Arkansas, calls out the National Guard to prevent black students from enrolling in Central High School in Little Rock.
September 4 - Ford Motor Company introduces the Edsel.
October 4 - launch of Sputnik I, the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth.
October 9 - Neil H. McElroy was sworn in as the 6th Secretary of Defense of United States.
October 10 - US President Dwight D. Eisenhower apologizes to the finance minister of Ghana, Komla Agbeli Gbdemah, after he was refused service in a Dover, Delaware restaurant.

November-December

November 1 - Michigan's Mackinac Bridge opened.
November 3 - Sputnik program: The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 2. On board is the first animal to enter space - a dog named Laika (she was kept alive for several days in space with a sophisticated life-support system).
November 7 - Cold War: In the United States, the Gaither Report calls for more American missiles and fallout shelters.
November 16 - Serial killer Edward Gein murders Bernice Worden of Plainfield, Wisconsin (this was his last murder).
December 6 - First US attempt to launch a satellite fails, blowing up on the launchpad
Project Orion begins, a U.S. program to build a spacecraft powered by nuclear explosions.
Civil Rights Commission established under the Civil Rights Act
IBM makes FORTRAN scientific programming language available to customers. It becomes the most widely used computer language for technical work.

Year in topic

1957 in film
- The Bridge on the River Kwai
- Peyton Place
1957 in literature
- The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss
1957 in music
- Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel name themselves Tom and Jerry and begin their recording career, signing with Sid Prosen of Big Records. Their first single, "Hey, Schoolgirl," backed with "Dancin' Wild," hit #49 on the Billboard pop charts.
1957 in sports
- July 6 - Althea Gibson wins the Wimbledon championships becoming the first black athlete to do so.
1957 in television
- Jack Paar becomes the permanent host for NBC's Tonight Show

Births

January-February

January 6 - Nancy Lopez, golfer
January 7 - Katie Couric, television host
January 15 - Mario Van Peebles, actor, director
January 15 - Julian Sands, actor
January 22 - Mike Bossy, ice hockey player
January 23 - Earl Falconer, bassist
January 23 - Princess Caroline of Monaco
February 6 - Kathy Najimy, actress, comedian
February 6 - Robert Townsend, comedian, actor, director, producer
February 8 - Cindy Wilson, singer, of The B-52's
February 16 - LeVar Burton, actor
February 16 - James Ingram, singer
February 18 - Vanna White, game show presenter
February 19 - Falco, singer (d. 1998)

March-September

March 10 - Osama bin Laden, terrorist
March 12 - Steve Harris, bassist/leader of Iron Maiden
March 20 - Spike Lee, film director, actor
March 29 - Christopher Lambert, actor
March 30 - Paul Reiser, actor
April 4 - Aki KaurismÃÂÃÂ¤ki, Finnish film director
April 9 - Seve Ballesteros, Spanish golfer
April 29 - Daniel Day-Lewis, actor
May 7 - Sinjin Smith, volleyball player
May 10 - Sid Vicious, bassist of The Sex Pistols (d. 1979)
May 26 - Margaret Colin, actress
May 27 - Siouxsie Sioux, lead singer of Siouxsie and the Banshees
June 8 - Scott Adams, cartoonist, creator of Dilbert
June 11 - Jamaaladeen Tacuma, jazz musician
June 12 - Javed Miandad, cricketer
June 19 - Anna Lindh, Swedish politician and minister of foreign affairs (d. 2003)
August 24 - Stephen Fry, English comedian, author, and actor
August 27 - Bernhard Langer, German golfer
August 28 - Daniel Stern, actor
September 1 - Gloria Estefan, singer
September 12 - Rachel Ward, actress

October-December

November 7 - Christopher Knight, actor, The Brady Bunch
November 15 - Kevin Eubanks, musician
December 9 - Donny Osmond, singer
December 10 - Michael Clarke Duncan, actor
December 13 - Steve Buscemi, actor
December 20 - Billy Bragg, singer
December 30 - Matt Lauer, NBC newscaster

Walter Moers - German comic artist and writer

Deaths

January-August

January 14 - Humphrey Bogart, actor (b. 1899)
February 8 - John von Neumann, Hungarian-American mathematician (b. 1903)
February 9 - MiklÃÂÃÂ³s Horthy, Hungarian admiral and longtime Regent (b. 1868)
February 10 - Laura Ingalls Wilder, author (b. 1867)
February 18 - Henry Norris Russell, astronomer
February 25 - George "Bugs" Moran, Chicago gangster
March 11 - Admiral Richard E. Byrd, explorer
March 16 - Constantin Brancusi, sculptor
March 17 - Ramon Magsaysay, President of the Philippines
March 25 - Max OphÃÂÃÂ¼ls, director, writer
May 2 - Joseph McCarthy, US senator
May 9 - Ezio Pinza, opera singer
May 14 - Marie Vassilieff, artist
May 16 - Eliot Ness, federal agent
June 27 - Malcolm Lowry, novelist (b. 1909)
July 24 - Sacha Guitry, French playright, actor and director
August 7 - Oliver Hardy, American actor
August 19 - David Bomberg, painter

September-December

September 1 - Dennis Brain, French horn player
September 20 - Jean Sibelius, composer
September 21 - Haakon VII of Norway
September 22 - Toyoda Soemu, Japanese admiral in World War II
October 25 - Edward Plunkett, Baron Dunsany, Irish author
November 24 - Diego Rivera, painter
November 30 - Beniamino Gigli, tenor
Joyce Cary, author

Incumbents

Religious leaders

Archbishop of Canterbury - Geoffrey Francis Fisher
Coptic Pope - see vacant
Dalai Lama - Tenzin Gyatso
Patriarch of Constantinople - Athenagoras
Patriarch of Moscow - Patriarch Alexius I
Pope - Pope Pius XII
President of the LDS Church - David O. McKay

National Leaders

Canada
- Governor General - Vincent Massey
- Prime Minister - Louis St. Laurent until June 21 then John George Diefenbaker
- Minister of Finance - Walter Edward Harris, then Donald Methuen Fleming
People's Republic of China - Mao Zedong
Egypt - Gamal Abdel Nasser
France
- President - RenÃÂÃÂ© Coty
- Prime Minister - Guy Mollet, then Maurice BourgÃÂÃÂ¨s-Maunoury, then FÃÂÃÂ©lix Gaillard
India - Jawaharlal Nehru
Israel - David Ben-Gurion
Japan
- Emperor - Hirohito
- Prime Minister - Nobusuke Kishi until February 24 then Hayato Ikeda
Soviet Union - Nikita Khrushchev
United Kingdom
- Queen - Elizabeth II
- Prime Minister - Sir Anthony Eden until January 10 then Harold Macmillan
United States - Dwight Eisenhower
West Germany - Konrad Adenauer

Awards/Prizes

Winner of Eurovision Song Contest 1957: Corry Brokken with Net Als Toen

Nobel Prizes:

Physics - Chen Ning Yang and Tsung-Dao Lee
Chemistry- Lord Alexander R Todd
Medicine - Daniel Bovet
Literature - Albert Camus
Peace - Lester Bowles Pearson