1953 (MCMLIII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1953rd year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 953rd year of the 2nd millennium, the 53rd year of the 20th century, and the 4th year of the 1950s decade.
Contents
Events
January
January 6 – The Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma.
January 12 – Estonian émigrés found a government-in-exile in Oslo.
January 13
At a magistrate's Court in West Virginia, 47-year-old Donzel McCray "turned himself into a "human bomb" with sticks of dynamite strapped to his waist. He killed himself and injured his ex-wife and her lawyer.
January 14
Marshal Josip Broz Tito is chosen President of Yugoslavia.
The CIA-sponsored Robertson Panel first meets to discuss the UFO phenomenon.
January 15
Georg Dertinger, foreign minister of East Germany, is arrested for spying.
British security forces in West Germany arrest 7 members of the Naumann Circle, a clandestine Neo-Nazi organization.
January 19 – 71.1% of all television sets in the United States are tuned into I Love Lucy, to watch Lucy give birth to Little Ricky, which is more people than those who tune into Dwight Eisenhower's inauguration the next day.
January 24
Mau Mau Uprising: Rebels in Kenya kill the Ruck family (father, mother, and six-year-old son).
Leader of East Germany Walter Ulbricht announces that agriculture will be collectivized in East Germany.
January 31–February 1 – The North Sea flood of 1953 kills 1,836 people in the southwestern Netherlands (especially Zeeland), 307 in the United Kingdom, and several hundred at sea, including 133 on the ferry MV Princess Victoria in the Irish Sea.
February
February 1 – The surge of the North Sea flood continues from the previous day.
February 3 – Batepá massacre: Hundreds of native creoles, known as forros, are massacred in São Tomé, by the colonial administration and Portuguese landowners.
February 11
United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower refuses a clemency appeal for Ethel and Julius Rosenberg.
The Soviet Union breaks diplomatic relations with Israel, after a bomb explodes at the Soviet Embassy, in reaction to the 'Doctors' plot'.
February 12 – The Nordic Council is inaugurated.
February 13 – Transsexual Christine Jorgensen returns to New York after successful sex reassignment surgery in Denmark.
February 19 – Georgia approves the first literature censorship board in the United States.
February 28
James Watson and Francis Crick of Britain's University of Cambridge announce their discovery of the structure of the DNA molecule.
Greece, Turkey, and Yugoslavia sign the Balkan Pact.
March
March 1
Joseph Stalin suffers a stroke, after an all-night dinner with Soviet Union interior minister Lavrentiy Beria and future premiers Georgy Malenkov, Nikolai Bulganin, and Nikita Khrushchev. The stroke paralyzes the right side of his body and renders him unconscious until his death on March 5.
Bernard Freyberg, 1st Baron Freyberg is made deputy constable and lieutenant governor of Windsor Castle.
March 6 – Georgy Malenkov succeeds Joseph Stalin, as Premier and First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
March 8 – The Thieves World, which has been transformed into the Russian mafia, are freed from prisons by the Malenkov regime, ending the Bitch Wars.
March 13 – The United Nations Security Council nominates Dag Hammarskjöld from Sweden as United Nations Secretary General.
March 17 – The first nuclear test of Operation Upshot–Knothole is conducted in Nevada, with 1,620 spectators at 3.4 km (2.1 mi).
March 18 – The Yenice–Gönen earthquake affects western Turkey, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (violent), causing at least 1,070 deaths, and $3.57 million in damage.
March 19 – The 25th Academy Awards Ceremony is held (the first one broadcast on television).
March 25–26 – Lari Massacre in Kenya: Mau Mau rebels kill up to 150 Kikuyu natives.
March 26 – Jonas Salk announces his polio vaccine.
March 29 – A fire at the Littlefield Nursing Home in Largo, Florida, kills 33 persons, including singer-songwriter Arthur Fields.
April
April 7 – Dag Hammarskjöld is elected Secretary-General of the United Nations.
April 8 – Jomo Kenyatta is sentenced to 7 years in prison for the alleged organization of the Mau Mau Uprising in the British Kenya Colony.
April 16
President Eisenhower delivers his "Chance for Peace" speech, to the National Association of Newspaper Editors.
The Habar Corporation's building in Chicago, United States, catches fire, killing 35 employees.
April 25 – Francis Crick and James Watson publish "Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid", their description of the double helix structure of DNA.
May
May 2 – Hussein is crowned King of Jordan.
May 5 – Aldous Huxley first tries the psychedelic hallucinogen mescaline, inspiring his book The Doors of Perception.
May 9
France agrees to the provisional independence of Cambodia, with King Norodom Sihanouk.
Australian Senate election, 1953: The Liberal/Country Coalition Government, led by Prime Minister Robert Menzies, holds their Senate majority, despite gains made by the Labor Party, led by H. V. Evatt. This is the first occasion where a Senate election is held without an accompanying House of Representatives election.
May 11 – Waco tornado outbreak: An F5 tornado hits in the downtown section of Waco, Texas, killing 114.
May 15 – The Standards And Recommended Practices (SARPS) for Aeronautical Information Service (AIS) are adopted by the ICAO Council. These SARPS are in Annex 15 to the Chicago Convention, and 15 May is celebrated by the AIS community as "World AIS Day".
May 18 – At Rogers Dry Lake, Californian Jackie Cochran becomes the first woman to exceed Mach 1, in a North American F-86 Sabre at 652.337 mph (566.865 kn; 1,049.835 km/h).
May 20–21 – A tornado outbreak tears through Port Huron, Michigan and Sarnia, Ontario, leaving eight people dead and 123 people injured.
May 25 – Nuclear testing: At the Nevada Test Site, the United States conducts its only nuclear artillery test: Upshot-Knothole Grable.
May 29 – 1953 British Mount Everest expedition: Sir Edmund Hillary from New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay from Nepal become the first men to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
June
June 1 – Uprising in Plzeň: Currency reform causes riots in Czechoslovakia.
June 2 – Elizabeth II is crowned Queen of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms, at Westminster Abbey.
June 7 – Italian general election: the Christian Democracy party wins a plurality in both legislative houses.
June 7–9 – Flint–Worcester tornado outbreak sequence: A single storm-system spawns 46 tornadoes of various sizes, in 10 states from Colorado to Massachusetts, over 3 days, killing 246.
June 8
On the second day of the Flint–Worcester tornado outbreak sequence, a tornado kills 116 in Flint, Michigan; it will be the last to claim more than 100 lives, until the 2011 Joplin tornado.
Austria and the Soviet Union open diplomatic relations.
June 9
On the third day of the Flint–Worcester tornado outbreak sequence, a tornado spawned from the same storm system as the Flint tornado the day before hits in Worcester, Massachusetts, killing 94.
CIA Technical Services Staff head Sidney Gottlieb approves of the use of LSD in an MKUltra subproject.
June 13 – Hungarian Prime Minister Mátyás Rákosi is replaced by Imre Nagy.
June 17 – Workers' Uprising in East Germany: The Soviet Union orders a Division of troops into East Berlin to quell a rebellion.
June 18
Egypt declares itself a republic.
July
July 3 – The first ascent of Nanga Parbat in the Pakistan Himalayas, the world's ninth highest mountain, is made by Austrian climber Hermann Buhl alone on a German–Austrian expedition.
July 9
The U.S. Treasury formally renames the Bureau of Internal Revenue; the new name (which had previously been used informally) is the Internal Revenue Service.
Inauguration of the south lane of the Rodovia Anchieta.
July 10 – The Soviet official newspaper Pravda announces that Lavrentiy Beria has been deposed as head of the NKVD.
July 17 – The greatest recorded loss of United States midshipmen in a single event results from an aircraft crash near NAS Whiting Field.
July 26 – Fidel Castro and his brother lead a disastrous assault on the Moncada Barracks, preliminary to the Cuban Revolution.
July 27 – The Korean War ends, with the Korean Armistice Agreement: The United Nations Command (Korea) (United States), China and North Korea sign an armistice agreement at Panmunjom, and the north remains communist, while the south remains capitalist. No formal peace treaty is ever signed.
August
August 5 – Operation Big Switch: Prisoners of war are repatriated to the United States after the Korean War.
August 8 – Soviet prime minister Georgi Malenkov announces that the Soviet Union has a hydrogen bomb.
August 12
The 1953 Ionian earthquake of magnitude 7.2 totally devastates Cephalonia and most of the other Ionian Islands, in Greece's worst natural disaster in centuries.
Soviet atomic bomb project: "Joe 4", the first Soviet thermonuclear weapon, is detonated at Semipalatinsk Test Site, Kazakh SSR.
August 13 – Four million workers go on strike in France to protest against austerity measures.
August 15–19 – Cold War: 1953 Iranian coup d'état – Overthrow of the democratically elected Prime Minister of Iran, Mohammad Mosaddegh, by Iranian military in favour of strengthening the monarchical rule of the Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, with the support of the United States Central Intelligence Agency (as "Operation Ajax") and the United Kingdom.
August 17 – The first planning session of Narcotics Anonymous is held in Southern California (see October 5).
August 20 – The French government ousts King Mohammed V of Morocco, and exiles him to Corsica.
August 22 – The last prisoners are repatriated from Devil's Island to France.
August 25 – The French general strike ends.
August – High Arctic relocation of Inuit families by the Government of Canada.
September
September 4 – The discovery of REM sleep is first published, by researchers Eugene Aserinsky and Nathaniel Kleitman.
September 5 – The United Nations rejects the Soviet Union's suggestion to accept China as a member.
September 7 – Nikita Khrushchev becomes head of the Soviet Central Committee.
September 23 – The Pact of Madrid is signed by Francoist Spain and the United States of America, ending a period of virtual isolation for Spain.
September 25 – The first German prisoners of war return from the Soviet Union to West Germany.
September 26 – Rationing of sugar ends in the UK.
October
October – The UNIVAC 1103 is the first commercial computer to use random-access memory.
October 1 – The Mutual Defense Treaty Between the United States and the Republic of Korea is concluded in Washington, D.C.
October 5
Earl Warren is appointed Chief Justice of the United States, by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
The first meeting of Narcotics Anonymous is held (the first planning session was held August 17).
October 6 – UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund, is made a permanent specialized agency of the United Nations.
October 9
West German federal election, 1953: Konrad Adenauer is re-elected as German chancellor.
Fearing communist influence in British Guiana, the British Government suspends the constitution, declares a state of emergency, and militarily occupies the colony.
October 10 – Roland (Monty) Burton wins the 1953 London to Christchurch air race, in under 23 hours flying time.
October 12 – The play The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial opens at the Plymouth Theatre, New York.
October 22 – Laos becomes independent from France.
October 23 – Alto Broadcasting System (ABS) in the Philippines makes the first television broadcast in southeast Asia, through DZAQ-TV. Alto Broadcasting System is the predecessor of what will later become ABS-CBN Corporation.
November
November 5 – David Ben-Gurion resigns as prime minister of Israel.
November 9
Cambodia becomes independent from France.
The Laotian Civil War begins between the Kingdom of Laos and the Pathet Lao, all the while resuming the First Indochina War against the French Army in a Two-front war.
King Abdulaziz Al Saud passed away at the age of 77, at his palace in the Taif Governorate, Makkah Region.
November 20
The Douglas D-558-2 Skyrocket, piloted by Scott Crossfield, becomes the first manned aircraft to reach Mach 2.
Authorities at the Natural History Museum, London announce that the skull of Piltdown Man (allegedly an early human discovered in 1912) is a hoax.
November 20–22 – First Indochina War: Operation Castor – In a massive airborne operation in Vietnam, French forces establish a base at Điện Biên Phủ.
November 21 – Puerto Williams is founded in Chile, as the southernmost settlement of the world.
November 25 – Match of the Century (1953 England v Hungary football match): The England national football team loses 6–3 to Hungary at Wembley Stadium, their first ever loss to a continental team at home.
November 29 – First Indochina War: Battle of Dien Bien Phu – French paratroopers consolidate their position at Điện Biên Phủ.
November 30 – Kabaka crisis: Edward Mutesa II, the kabaka (king) of Buganda, is deposed and exiled to London by Sir Andrew Benjamin Cohen, Governor of Uganda.
December
December 2 – The United Kingdom and Iran reform diplomatic relations.
December 6 – With the NBC Symphony Orchestra, conductor Arturo Toscanini performs what he claims is his favorite Beethoven symphony, Eroica, for the last time. The live performance is broadcast across the United States on radio, and later released on records and CD.
December 7 – A visit to Iran by American Vice President Richard Nixon sparks several days of riots, as a reaction to the August 19 overthrow of the government of Mohammed Mossadegh by the U.S.-backed Shah. Three students are shot dead by police in Tehran. This event becomes an annual commemoration.
December 8 – U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivers his Atoms for Peace address, to the United Nations General Assembly.
December 17 – The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approves color television (using the NTSC standard).
December 23 – The Soviet Union announces officially that Lavrentiy Beria has been executed.
December 24 – Tangiwai disaster: A railway bridge collapses at Tangiwai, New Zealand, sending a fully loaded passenger train into the Whangaehu River; 151 are killed.
December 25 – The Amami Islands are returned to Japan, after 8 years of United States military occupation.
December 30 – Ramon Magsaysay becomes the 7th President of the Philippines.
Date unknown
Global meat packing industry JBS is founded in Anapolis, Goias, Brazil.
China First Building Corporation, a partial predecessor of China State Construction Engineering, is founded in Beijing.
Births
January
January 1 – Gary Johnson, American businessman, politician and 29th Governor of New Mexico
January 4 – George Tenet, American Central Intelligence Agency director
January 5
Pamela Sue Martin, American actress
Mike Rann, Australian politician
January 6 – Malcolm Young, Australian musician (d. 2017)
January 7 – Dionne Brand, Canadian writer and documentarian
January 9 – Javad Alizadeh, Iranian cartoonist
January 10
Pat Benatar, American rock singer
Bobby Rahal, American race car driver
Karl Bohnak, American politician and member of the Michigan House of Representatives since 2025
January 11 – Eduard Kučera, Czech businessman, co-founder of Avast Software
January 13 – John Wake, English cricketer
January 16 – Robert Jay Mathews, American neo-Nazi, founder of the terrorist group The Order (d. 1984)
January 19 – Richard Legendre, Canadian tennis player, politician
January 20 – Jeffrey Epstein, American financier and sex offender (d. 2019)
February
February 2 – Duane Chapman, American bounty hunter
February 4 – Kitarō, Japanese New Age musician
February 7 – Dan Quisenberry, American baseball player (d. 1998)
February 8 – Mary Steenburgen, American actress
February 9
Ciarán Hinds, Irish actor
Rick Wagoner, American automotive executive
February 10 – June Jones, American quarterback, current NCAA Football head coach at Southern Methodist University
February 11 – Jeb Bush, American politician, 43rd Governor of Florida
February 12
Bernard Sabrier, Swiss financial entrepreneur
Nabil Shaban, Jordanian-British actor and writer
February 14 – Sergey Mironov, Russian statesman, Speaker of the Federation Council
February 19
Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, Argentine lawyer and politician, President of Argentina and Vice President of Argentina
Massimo Troisi, Italian actor, film director (d. 1994)
February 20 – Riccardo Chailly, Italian orchestral conductor
February 21 – William Petersen, American actor
March
March 1
Richard Bruton, Irish politician, economist
M. K. Stalin, Indian politician
March 3
Arthur Antunes Coimbra, Brazilian footballer, manager
Robyn Hitchcock, British singer-songwriter
Agustí Villaronga, Spanish filmmaker
March 4
Emilio Estefan, Cuban percussionist
Scott Hicks, Australian film director
Rose Laurens, French singer-songwriter (d. 2018)
Kay Lenz, American actress
March 5 – Tokyo Sexwale, South African businessman, politician, anti-apartheid activist and political prisoner
March 6 – Jan Kjærstad, Norwegian author
March 10 – Debbie Brill, Canadian high jumper
March 11
László Bölöni, Romanian footballer
Bernie LaBarge, Canadian guitarist/vocalist
March 12
Carl Hiaasen, American author
Ron Jeremy, American pornographic film actor, filmmaker and stand-up comedian
April
April 2 – Jim Allister, Irish politician
April 3
Sandra Boynton, American author, songwriter and illustrator
Russ Francis, American football player
April 4 – Robert Bertrand, Canadian politician
April 6 – Andy Hertzfeld, American computer programmer
April 9 – John Howard, English singer-songwriter
April 10 – Heiner Lauterbach, German actor
April 11
Guy Verhofstadt, Prime Minister of Belgium
Andrew Wiles, British-born mathematician
April 13 – Stephen Byers, English Labour Party politician, Secretary of State for Transport
April 14 – Eric Tsang, Hong Kong actor
April 16
Peter Garrett, Australian musician, politician
J. Neil Schulman, American writer, activist
April 17 – Linda Martin, Irish singer, television presenter and Eurovision Song Contest 1992 winner
April 18
Rick Moranis, Canadian actor
Sk. Mujibur Rahman, Bengali politician
May
May 2
Valery Gergiev, Russian-Ossetian conductor
Jamaal Wilkes, American basketball player
May 3
Salman Hashimikov, Soviet heavyweight wrestler
Gary Young, American musician (Pavement, Gary Young's Hospital)
May 5
Ibrahim Zakzaky, Nigerian Shia-Islam cleric
Dieter Zetsche, German auto executive
May 6
Aleksandr Akimov, Soviet engineer who was the shift supervisor during the events of the Chernobyl disaster (d. 1986)
Tony Blair, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Graeme Souness, Scottish footballer, manager
Lynn Whitfield, African-American actress
May 7 – Ian McKay, British soldier (VC recipient) (d. 1982)
May 8
Billy Burnette, American musician
Alex Van Halen, Dutch-born American rock musician
May 9 – Amy Hill, American actress and comedian
May 11 – David Gest, American entertainer, producer and television personality (d. 2016)
June
June 1
David Berkowitz, American serial killer
Diana Canova, American actress, adjunct professor
June 2
Keith Allen, British actor
Cornel West, African-American philosopher, political activist, social critic, author
June 3 – Erland Van Lidth De Jeude, Dutch-born wrestler, opera singer and actor (d. 1987)
June 4
Paul De Meo, American screenwriter, producer (d. 2018)
Susumu Ojima, Japanese entrepreneur
June 5 – Kathleen Kennedy, American film producer
June 7
Johnny Clegg, South African Zulu musician and anthropologist (d. 2019)
Dougie Donnelly, Scottish television broadcaster
June 8 – Ivo Sanader, 8th Prime Minister of Croatia
June 10 – John Edwards, American politician
June 11
Peter Bergman, American actor
Barbara Minty, American model
June 12 – Michael Donovan, Canadian voice actor
June 13
July
July 1
Lawrence Gonzi, 11th Prime Minister of Malta
Jadranka Kosor, Croatian politician
Nasir Ali Mamun, Bengali portrait photographer
Sangay Ngedup, Prime Minister of Bhutan
July 2 – Nacer Sandjak, Algerian footballer and manager
July 3
Ana Botella, Spanish politician
Lotta Sollander, Swedish alpine skier
Les Strong, English association footballer
July 11
Angélica Aragón, Mexican actress
Leon Spinks, African-American boxer (d. 2021)
Mindy Sterling, American actress
July 15
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, President of Haiti
Raisul Islam Asad, Bangladeshi actor
July 19
Shōichi Nakagawa, Japanese politician (d. 2009)
July 21
Jeff Fatt, Australian musician, former member of The Wiggles
Sylvia Chang, Taiwanese actress
July 23 – Najib Razak, 6th Prime Minister of Malaysia
August
August 1
Robert Cray, American blues guitarist and singer
Steven Krasner, American sportswriter
August 2 – Butch Patrick, American child actor and musician
August 4 – Antonio Tajani, Italian politician, President of the European Parliament
August 5
András Ligeti, Hungarian violinist and conductor (d. 2021)
Rick Mahler, American baseball player (d. 2005)
August 8
Lloyd Austin, 28th United States Secretary of Defense
Nigel Mansell, English 1992 Formula 1 world champion
August 9 – Jean Tirole, French Nobel Prize-winning economist
August 11 – Hulk Hogan, American professional wrestler (d. 2025)
August 12
Carlos Mesa, President of Bolivia
Teddi Siddall, American actress (d. 2018)
August 14
Cliff Johnson, American game designer
James Horner, American film composer (d. 2015)
August 16 – Kathie Lee Gifford, American singer and actress
September
September 2 – John Zorn, American musician
September 4 – Fatih Terim, Turkish footballer and manager
September 6 – Princess Sinaitakala ʻOfeina ʻe he Langi, Tongan royalty
September 8 – Stu Ungar, American poker player (d. 1998)
September 9
Simon Warr, British broadcaster (BBC) and actor (That'll Teach 'Em) (d. 2020)
Janet Fielding, Australian actress
September 10 – Amy Irving, American actress
September 12
Nan Goldin, American photographer
Stephen Sprouse, American fashion designer, artist and photographer (d. 2004)
September 13 – Ann Dusenberry, American film actress
September 16 - Colin Sinclair, Scottish Church Minister
September 19 – Probal Dasgupta, Indian linguist and Esperantist
September 23
Kaba Rougui Barry, Guinean politician
Alexey Maslov, commander-in-chief of the Russian Ground Forces
September 27
Greg Ham, Australian rock musician (Men at Work) (d. 2012)
October
October 1
Grete Waitz, Norwegian athlete (d. 2011)
Klaus Wowereit, German politician
October 2 – Brandon Wilson, American author and explorer
October 3 – Karen Bass, American politician, 43rd Mayor of Los Angeles
October 4 – Kerry Sherman, American actress
October 9 – Tony Shalhoub, American actor
October 12
Les Dennis, British comedian and television presenter
Serge Lepeltier, French politician
October 14
Greg Evigan, American actor
Shelley Ackerman, American astrologer, actress, writer (d. 2020)
October 15
Tito Jackson, African-American singer and guitarist (The Jackson 5) (d. 2024)
Larry Miller, American actor and comedian
October 16 – Martha Smith, American model and actress
October 20 – Bill Nunn, American actor (d. 2016)
October 21
Keith Green, American-born Christian piano player (d. 1982)
November
November 1 – Susan Tse, Hong Kong actress and opera singer
November 3
Koji Horaguchi, Japanese rugby union player (d. 1999)
Dennis Miller, American comedian and radio host
Kate Capshaw, American actress
November 4
Carlos Gutierrez, American politician
Van Stephenson, American singer-songwriter (d. 2001)
November 5
Florentino V. Floro, Filipino dwarf judge
Lisl Wagner-Bacher, Austrian cook
November 7 – Ottfried Fischer, German actor and Kabarett artist
November 8 – John Musker, American animation director
November 11
Andy Partridge, British musician and frontman of the band XTC
November 13
Andrés Manuel López Obrador, President of Mexico (2018–2024)
Waswo X. Waswo, American photographer
Diana Weston, Canadian-born English screen actress
Mokhtar Dahari, Malaysian footballer (d. 1991)
December
December 2
Joel Fuhrman, American certified family physician
Pertti Sveholm, Finnish actor
December 6
Geoff Hoon, British Labour Party politician
Tom Hulce, American actor and theater producer
Gary Ward, American baseball player
December 8
Kim Basinger, American actress and fashion model
Norman G. Finkelstein, American political scientist
Sam Kinison, American comedian (d. 1992)
December 9 – John Malkovich, American actor and film director
December 12 – Bruce Kulick, American guitarist
December 13
Ben Bernanke, American economist, Federal Reserve System chairman
Bob Gainey, Canadian hockey player
December 14 – Vangelis Meimarakis, Greek lawyer and politician, 4th Greek Minister for National Defence
December 15 – Nawaf Salam, Lebanese politician jurist and academic, Prime Minister of Lebanon (2025–present)
December 17
Ikue Mori, Japanese drummer, composer and graphic designer
Date unknown
Ely Ould Mohamed Vall, 6th President of Mauritania (d. 2017)
Dan Petrescu, Romanian businessman and billionaire
Deaths
January
January 1 – Hank Williams, American singer-songwriter and musician (b. 1923)
January 2 – Guccio Gucci, founder of Gucci (b. 1881)
January 4
Arthur Hoyt, American actor (b. 1874)
Yasuhito, Prince Chichibu, Japanese prince (b. 1902)
January 8 – Charles Edward Merriam, American political scientist (b. 1874)
January 28 – James Scullin, 9th Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1876)
January 29 – Sir Reginald Wingate, British army general and colonial administrator (b. 1861)
January 30 – Lionel Belmore, English actor (b. 1867)
February
February 2 – Alan Curtis, American actor (b. 1909)
February 5 – Iuliu Maniu, 32nd Prime Minister of Romania (b. 1873)
February 9 – Cecil Hepworth, English director (b. 1874)
February 12 – Hal Colebatch, Australian politician (b. 1872)
February 16 – James L. Kraft, Canadian-American entrepreneur, inventor (b. 1874)
February 19 – Nobutake Kondō, Japanese admiral (b. 1886)
February 20 – Francesco Saverio Nitti, Italian economist and political figure, 24th Prime Minister of Italy (b. 1868)
February 21 – Konrad Krafft von Dellmensingen, Bavarian general (b. 1862)
February 24 – Gerd von Rundstedt, German field marshal (b. 1875)
February 25 – Sergei Winogradsky, Russian scientist (b. 1856)
February 27 – Paul Hurst, American actor (b. 1888)
March
March 2 – Jim Lightbody, American middle-distance runner (b. 1882)
March 3 – James J. Jeffries, American boxing champion (b. 1875)
March 5
Herman J. Mankiewicz, American writer and producer (b. 1897)
Sergei Prokofiev, Soviet and Russian composer (b. 1891)
Joseph Stalin, Soviet leader (b. 1878)
March 7 – Edward Sedgwick, American director (b. 1892)
March 13 – Johan Laidoner, Commander-in-chief of the Estonian Army (b. 1884)
March 14 – Klement Gottwald, 5th President of Czechoslovakia (b. 1896)
March 15 – Carl Stockdale, American actor (b. 1874)
March 17 - Pauline Ramart, French chemist and politician (b. 1880)
March 20 – Graciliano Ramos, Brazilian writer (b. 1892)
March 21 – Toni Wolff, Swiss psychoanalyst (b. 1888)
March 22 – Gustav Herglotz, German mathematician (b. 1881)
March 23
Raoul Dufy, French painter (b. 1875)
Oskar Luts, Estonian writer and playwright (b. 1887)
March 24
April
April 2
Jean Epstein, French film director (b. 1897)
Hugo Sperrle, German field marshal (b. 1885)
April 4
King Carol II of Romania (b. 1893)
Rachilde, French author (b. 1860)
April 9
Hans Reichenbach, German philosopher (b. 1891)
Stanisław Wojciechowski, 2nd President of the Republic of Poland (b. 1869)
April 11
Boris Kidrič, 1st Prime Minister of Slovenia (b. 1912)
Timothy Detudamo, Nauruan Head Chief (b. 1888)
April 12 – Lionel Logue, Australian speech and language therapist (b. 1880)
April 27 – Maud Gonne, English-born Irish republican revolutionary, memoirist; spouse of John MacBride (b. 1866)
April 29 – Alice Prin, French artists' model (b. 1901)
May
May 1 – Everett Shinn, American painter (b. 1876)
May 5 – R. K. Shanmukham Chetty, Indian jurist, economist (b. 1892)
May 16
Nicolae Rădescu, Romanian military officer and statesman, 45th Prime Minister of Romania (b. 1874)
Django Reinhardt, Belgian jazz musician (b. 1910)
May 19 – Dámaso Berenguer, Spanish general and prime minister (b. 1873)
May 21 – Ernst Zermelo, German logician and mathematician (b. 1871)
May 30 – Dooley Wilson, American actor (b. 1886)
May 31 – Vladimir Tatlin, Soviet and Russian painter and architect (b. 1885)
June
June 1 – Alex James, Scottish footballer (b. 1901)
June 5
William Farnum, American actor (b. 1876)
Bill Tilden, American tennis champion (b. 1893)
Roland Young, English actor (b. 1887)
June 9 – Godfrey Tearle, British actor (b. 1884)
June 18 – René Fonck, French aviator, top Allied World War I Flying Ace (b. 1894)
June 19
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, American communist spies (b. 1918 and 1915, respectively) (executed on same day)
Norman Ross, American Olympic swimmer (b. 1896)
June 23 – Albert Gleizes, French artist and theoretician (b. 1881)
June 25 – Francis Méano, French footballer (b. 1931)
June 30
Elsa Beskow, Swedish author and illustrator of children's books (b. 1874)
Vsevolod Pudovkin, Soviet film director, screenwriter and actor (b. 1893)
July
July 9 – Annie Kenney, British working-class suffragette (b. 1879)
July 11 – Oliver Campbell, American tennis player (b. 1871)
July 12 – Herbert Rawlinson, English actor (b. 1885)
July 15 – John Christie, English serial killer (b. 1899) (hanged)
July 16 – Hilaire Belloc, French-born British writer and historian (b. 1870)
July 17 – Maude Adams, American actress (b. 1872)
July 20 – Dumarsais Estimé, 30th President of Haiti (b. 1900)
July 26 – Nikolaos Plastiras, Greek general and Prime Minister (b. 1883)
July 29 – Richard Pearse, New Zealand airplane pioneer (b. 1877)
July 31 – Robert A. Taft, American politician, United States Senate Majority Leader (b. 1889)
August
August 1 – Jānis Mendriks, Soviet Roman Catholic priest (b. 1907)
August 11 – Tazio Nuvolari, Italian racing driver (b. 1892)
August 15 – Ludwig Prandtl, German physicist (b. 1875)
August 22 – Jim Tabor, American baseball player (b. 1916)
August 30
Gaetano Merola, Italian conductor (b. 1881)
Maurice Nicoll, British psychiatrist (b. 1884)
September
September 2 – Jonathan M. Wainwright, American general and Medal of Honor recipient (b. 1883)
September 5
Richard Walther Darré, Nazi SS General (b. 1895)
Francis Ford, American actor and director (b. 1881)
September 7 – Nobuyuki Abe, Japanese Prime Minister and military leader (b. 1875)
September 8 – Fred M. Vinson, Chief Justice of the United States (b. 1890)
September 12
Hugo Schmeisser, German weapons designer (b. 1884)
Lewis Stone, American actor (b. 1879)
September 15 – Erich Mendelsohn, German architect (b. 1887)
September 24 – Jacobo Fitz-James Stuart, 17th Duke of Alba, Spanish aristocrat (born 1878)
September 26 – Xu Beihong, Chinese painter (b. 1895)
September 27 – Hans Fritzsche, German Nazi senior official, one of only three acquitted at the Nuremberg trials (b. 1900)
September 28 – Edwin Hubble, American astronomer (b. 1889)
September 30 – Lewis Fry Richardson, English mathematician, physicist, meteorologist, psychologist and pacifist (b. 1881)
October
October 3 – Sir Arnold Bax, English composer (b. 1887)
October 6 – Porter Hall, American actor (b. 1888)
October 8
Nigel Bruce, British actor (b. 1895)
Kathleen Ferrier, British contralto (b. 1912)
October 12 – Hjalmar Hammarskjöld, Swedish politician, 13th Prime Minister of Sweden, one of the leaders of World War I (b. 1862)
October 13 – Millard Mitchell, American actor (b. 1903)
October 25 – Holger Pedersen, Dutch linguist (b. 1867)
November
November 8 – Ivan Bunin, Russian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1870)
November 9
King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia (b. 1875)
Dylan Thomas, Welsh poet and author (b. 1914)
November 16 – T. F. O'Rahilly, Irish academic (b. 1882)
November 18 – Ruth Crawford Seeger, American composer (b. 1901)
November 22 – Sulaiman Nadvi, Indian/Pakistani historian, biographer, littérateur and scholar of Islam (b. 1884)
November 27 – Eugene O'Neill, American writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1888)
November 28 – Rudolf Bauer, German-born painter (b. 1889)
November 29
Ernest Barnes, English mathematician, scientist and theologian (b. 1874)
Sam De Grasse, Canadian actor (b. 1875)
November 30 – Francis Picabia, French painter and poet (b. 1879)
December
December 2 – Trần Trọng Kim, Vietnamese historian and Prime Minister of the Empire of Vietnam (b. 1883)
December 5 – Jorge Negrete, Mexican singer and actor (b. 1911)
December 10 – Abdullah Yusuf Ali, Indian-born Islamic scholar and translator (b. 1872)
December 14 – Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, American writer (b. 1896)
December 19 – Robert Andrews Millikan, American physicist Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1868)
December 23 – Lavrentiy Beria, Minister of Internal Affairs of the Soviet Union (b. 1899)
December 27
Şükrü Saracoğlu, 9th Prime Minister of Turkey (b. 1887)
Julian Tuwim, Polish poet (b. 1894)
December 31 – Baldwin Cooke, American actor (b. 1888)
Nobel Prizes
Physics – Frits Zernike
Chemistry – Hermann Staudinger
Medicine – Hans Adolf Krebs, Fritz Albert Lipmann
Literature – Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill
Peace – George Marshall