Events from the year 1951 in the United States.
Incumbents
Federal government President: Harry S. Truman (D-Missouri) Vice President: Alben W. Barkley (D-Kentucky) Chief Justice: Fred M. Vinson (Kentucky) 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)
State governments Governors and lieutenant governors Governors
Lieutenant governors
Events
January–March January 1 – First week of Patti Page's hit song "Tennessee Waltz" as No. 1 single on Billboard and Cashbox charts. 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. January 31 – The last daily narrow gauge passenger train, the San Juan Express, is retired by the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad. February 21 – The Jack in the Box fast-food restaurant chain is founded by Robert O. Peterson in San Diego, California. February 27 – The Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution, limiting presidents to two terms, is ratified. March 2 – The first NBA All-Star Game of basketball is played in the Boston Garden. March 3 or 5 – Jackie Brenston "and His Delta Cats" (actually Ike Turner's Kings of Rhythm) record "Rocket 88" at Sam Phillips' Sun Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, a candidate for the first rock and roll record (released in April). It is covered on June 14 by Bill Haley and His Saddlemen. March 12 – Hank Ketcham's best-selling comic strip Dennis the Menace appears 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 Ethel and Julius Rosenberg are convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage. On April 5 they are sentenced to receive the death penalty. Rodgers and Hammerstein's The King and I opens on Broadway and runs for three years. It is 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. The 23rd Academy Awards ceremony, hosted by Fred Astaire, is held at RKO Pantages Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles. Joseph L. Mankiewicz's All About Eve wins six awards, including Best Motion Picture and Mankiewicz's second consecutive Best Director win. The film is also nominated for 14 awards overall, breaking the record of 13 set by 1939's Gone with the Wind. March 31 – Remington Rand delivers the first UNIVAC I computer to the United States Census Bureau.
April–June April 7 – Operation Greenhouse: The first thermonuclear burn is carried out on Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands of the Pacific by the U.S. Three further tests in this series take place up to May 24. April 11 – U.S. President Harry S. Truman relieves General Douglas MacArthur of his Far Eastern commands. April 27 – RKO releases the Howard Hawks sci-fi film The Thing from Another World. 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 8 - Operation Greenhouse George the world's first thermonuclear burn. May 21 – The Ninth Street Show, formally 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. June 4 – The Foley Square trial concludes review in the U.S. Supreme Court as Dennis v. United States, with a ruling against the defendants (overturned by Yates v. United States in 1957). June 14 – The UNIVAC I computer is dedicated by the U.S. Census Bureau. 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
July 10 – Korean War: Armistice negotiations begin at Kaesong. July 11–12 – Cicero race riot of 1951: A mob of 4,000 whites attack an apartment building housing a single black family in a neighborhood in Cicero, Illinois. 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. 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 African American 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 16 – J. D. Salinger's coming-of-age story The Catcher in the Rye is published by Little, Brown and Company in New York City. July 17 – Western New England College in Springfield, Massachusetts is chartered. July 26 – Walt Disney's 13th animated feature film, Alice in Wonderland, premieres in London, United Kingdom. Though the film is not well received critically upon release, it later garners more acclaim from the psychedelic era onwards as a cult classic. 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. The show switches to NBC on March 26, 1982, and airs its final episode on December 26, 1986. September 8 Treaty of San Francisco: In San Francisco, 48 nations sign a peace treaty with Japan to formally end the Pacific War. 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 20th Century Fox's Robert Wise science fiction film The Day the Earth Stood Still is released. Elia Kazan's adaptation of the Tennessee Williams play A Streetcar Named Desire premieres, becoming a critical and box-office smash. September 20 – NATO accepts Greece and Turkey as members. September 24 – MGM releases the musical Show Boat.
October–December
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 and directed by Vincente Minnelli, premieres in New York. It will go on to win six Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Shoppers World (one of the first shopping malls in the U.S.) opens in Framingham, Massachusetts. October 10 – The New York Yankees defeat the New York Giants (baseball), 4 games to 2, to win the 14th World Series Title. October 15 – Sitcom I Love Lucy, starring Lucille Ball and her husband Desi Arnaz, makes its television debut on CBS. October 16 – Judy Garland begins her legendary concerts in New York's Palace Theatre (Broadway). October 17 – CBS' Eye logo premieres on television. October 20 – The "Johnny Bright incident", an assault on an African American player, occurs in a college football game at Stillwater, Oklahoma. October 24 – U.S. President Harry Truman declares an official end to war with Germany. November 1 – The first military exercises for nuclear warfare, with infantry troops included, are held in the Nevada desert. November 5 – The New Jersey Turnpike is opened. November 10 – Direct dial coast-to-coast telephone service begins. November 11 – Monogram Pictures releases the sci-fi film Flight to Mars in the United States. November 22 – Paramount Pictures releases George Pal science fiction film When Worlds Collide. November 24 – The Broadway play Gigi opens, starring little known actress Audrey Hepburn as the lead character. November 28 – The film Scrooge, starring Alastair Sim, premieres in the U.S. under the title of Charles Dickens's original novel, A Christmas Carol. c. December – The Institute of War and Peace Studies is established by Dwight D. Eisenhower at Columbia University in New York (of which he is president) with William T. R. Fox as first director. December 13 – A water storage tank collapses in Tucumcari, New Mexico, resulting in 4 deaths and 200 buildings destroyed. December 17 – "We Charge Genocide", a petition describing genocide by the U.S. government against African Americans, is delivered to the United Nations. December 20 – Experimental Breeder Reactor I (EBR-1), the world's first (experimental) nuclear power plant, opens in Idaho. 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 US$13.3 billion in foreign aid to rebuild Europe.
Ongoing Cold War (1947–1991) Second Red Scare (1947–1957) Marshall Plan (1948–1951) Korean War (1950–1953)
Unknown "Vegas Vic" is added to the Pioneer Club, in Las Vegas.
Births
January–March
January 2 – Jim Essian, baseball player and coach January 4 Bob Black, author and activist Barbara Cochran, skier January 6 Don Gullett, baseball player and coach (d. 2024)Former pitcher Don Gullett, a World Series champion with the Reds and Yankees, dies at 73 Kim Wilson, singer, harmonica player January 8 – John McTiernan, director, producer and writer January 9 – John Prados, historian and war gamer designer (d. 2022)John Prados, Master of Uncovering Government Secrets, Dies at 71 January 10 – Tim Seelig, composer January 11 – Carol Leigh, author and sex workers' rights activist (d. 2022)Carol Leigh, activist who coined the term ‘sex work’, dies at 71 January 12 Kirstie Alley, actress (d. 2022) Chris Bell, guitarist and singer-songwriter (d. 1978) Rush Limbaugh, conservative radio personality (d. 2021) January 18 – Elijah Cummings, African American politician (d. 2019) January 21 – Eric Holder, African-American politician, 82nd United States Attorney General January 22 Alveda King, activist, minister, author and politician Leon Roberts, baseball player January 23 Margaret Bailes, sprinter Michael R. Matz, horse rider and trainer Sully Sullenberger, airline captain January 25 Steve Prefontaine, runner (d. 1975) Bill Viola, video artist (d. 2024) January 27 Seth Justman, rock keyboardist (The J. Geils Band) Ken Timbs, wrestler (d. 2004) January 28 – Billy Bass Nelson, musician (d. 2026) January 30 – Charles S. Dutton, African American actor January 31 Dave Benton, Aruban-born American singer Harry Wayne Casey, musician, songwriter and producer
February 4 – Phil Ehart, drummer (Kansas) February 5 – O'Neal Compton, actor and director (d. 2019) February 7 – Kim Milford, actor and singer (d. 1988) February 9 Jay Inslee, politician David Pomeranz, singer February 10 – Bob Iger, CEO of The Walt Disney Company February 12 Cory Lerios, pianist and vocalist Susan Page, journalist and political commentator