What happened in 1952

37 events　World 5, North America 11, Europe 10, USSR / Russia 2, Asia 2, Middle East 1, Latin America 3, Africa 3

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Highlights of 1952

World5

  • Jun 28The First Miss Universe pageant is held. Armi Kuusela from Finland wins the title of Miss Universe 1952.
  • Jul 23The European Coal and Steel Community is established.
  • Aug 5The Treaty of Taipei between Japan and the Republic of China goes into effect, officially ending the Second Sino-Japanese War.
  • Aug 12Night of the Murdered Poets: 13 Soviet Jewish poets are executed.
  • Aug 27Reparation negotiations between West Germany and Israel end in Luxembourg: Germany will pay 3 billion Deutsche Marks.

North America11

  • Mar 20The United States Senate ratifies a peace treaty with Japan.
  • Apr 7The I Love Lucy episode "The Marriage License", aired this evening in the United States, is the first television show in history to be seen in around 10,000,000 homes, according to the American Research Bureau.
  • Apr 11Pan Am Flight 526A, Douglas DC-4 Clipper Endeavor, suffers failure of two engines and ditches in rough seas 11.3 miles (18 km) northwest of San Juan, Puerto Rico in the Atlantic Ocean, sinking in minutes; 52 of the 69 people on board die. After this accident the implementation of pre-flight safety demonstrations is recommended. The aircraft's wreckage will be discovered in 2026.
  • Apr 28The Treaty of San Francisco goes into effect, formally ending the war between Japan and the Allies, and simultaneously ending the occupation of the four main Japanese islands by the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers.
  • Jun 19The Special Forces (United States Army) are created.
  • Jul 3The SS United States Has Her maiden voyage en route from New York To Southampton And wins the Blue Riband
  • Jul 21The 7.3 Kern County earthquake strikes California's southern Central Valley with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme), killing 12 and injuring hundreds.
  • Aug 22The most damaging aftershock of the 1952 Kern County earthquake sequence strikes with a moment magnitude of 5.8, and a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe). This event damages several hundred buildings in Bakersfield, California, with total additional losses of $10 million, with two associated deaths and some injuries.
  • Aug 29Composer John Cage's 4′33″, during which the performer does not play, premieres in Woodstock, New York.
  • Oct 14The United Nations begins work in the new United Nations building in New York City, designed by Le Corbusier and Oscar Niemeyer.
  • Nov 41952 United States presidential election: Republican General Dwight D. Eisenhower defeats Democratic Governor of Illinois Adlai Stevenson (correctly predicted by the UNIVAC computer).

Europe10

  • Feb 6Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh, becomes monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the British Dominions: Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Pakistan and Ceylon. The princess, who is on a visit to Kenya when she hears of the death of her father, King George VI, aged 56, takes the regnal name Elizabeth II.
  • Feb 14The Winter Olympics are held in Oslo, Norway.
  • Feb 15The State Funeral of King George VI of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the British Dominions and the last Emperor of India, takes place. George VI's coffin is brought in procession through London to Paddington Station where a royal train brings the King to Windsor, where his funeral and burial take place at St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle.
  • Apr 4At a tribunal in The Hague, Israel demands reparations worth $3 billion from West Germany.
  • Apr 4West Ice accidents: During a severe storm in the West Ice, east of Greenland, 78 seal hunters on 5 Norwegian seal hunting vessels vanish without a trace.
  • Jun 13"Catalina affair": Soviet MiG-15 fighter planes shoot down a Swedish military Douglas C-47 Skytrain, carrying out signals intelligence gathering operations over the Baltic Sea, killing all 8 crew; three days later they shoot down a Catalina flying boat, searching for possible survivors.
  • Jul 19The 1952 Summer Olympics are held in Helsinki, Finland.
  • Oct 8Three trains collide in the Harrow and Wealdstone rail crash near London, England, killing 112 people and injuring 340 people, making it the worst rail disaster in the UK since the 1915 Quintinshill rail disaster.
  • Oct 23The West German Federal Constitutional Court bans the Socialist Reich Party as unconstitutional for being a Nazi Party successor organization.
  • The Nordic Council agrees to the unrestricted transport of people, goods and services throughout the Nordic Countries.

USSR / Russia2

  • Jun 1Navigation opens on the Volga–Don Canal, connecting the Caspian Sea basin with that of the Black Sea.
  • Nov 5The 9.0 Severo-Kurilsk earthquake hits the Kamchatka Peninsula of the Soviet Union with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme). A tsunami took the lives of more than 2,300 people.

Asia2

  • Apr 11Battle of Nanri Island: The Republic of China seizes the island from the People's Republic of China.
  • Jun 26The Pan-Malayan Labour Party is founded in Malaya, as a union of statewide labour parties.

Middle East1

  • Jan 26Black Saturday in Egypt: Rioters burn Cairo's central business district, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses.

Latin America3

  • Apr 11Bolivian National Revolution: Rebels take over Palacio Quemado.
  • Jun 27Decree 900 in Guatemala orders the redistribution of uncultivated land.
  • Jul 26Maria Eva Duarte De Peron, known as "Evita", Argentina's first lady, dies aged 33 of cancer in Buenos Aires. The Argentine government's declaration of national mourning causes all business, entertainment, leisure and work to a standstill.

Africa3

  • Oct 20Martial law is declared in Kenya, in the face of the Mau Mau uprising.
  • Nov 18Jomo Kenyatta is arrested in Kenya, for an alleged connection to the Mau Mau Uprising.
  • During the Mau Mau Uprising, the poisonous latex of the African milk bush is used to kill cattle, in an incident of Biological warfare.