1957 - Definition and Overview

Events

Undated

• The Asian Flu pandemic begins in China
• Consumers' Association founded (UK)

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 Colliers magazine is published
• January 5 - Russell Endean becomes the first batsman to be dismissed handled the ball in test match cricket
• 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.
• January 23 - Ku Klux Klan members force a truck driver Willie Edwards to jump off a bridge into an Alabama River - he drowns.

February

• February 4 - France prohibits UN involvement in Algeria

March-July

• March 1 - U Nu becomes Prime Minister of Burma
• March 1 - Arturo Lezama becomes President of the National Council of Government of Uruguay
• March 1 - Sud Aviation forms from a merger between SNCASE (Société Nationale de Constructions Aéronautiques du Sud Est) and SNCASO (Société Nationale de Constructions Aéronautiques du Sud Ouest)
• March 6 - United Kingdom colonies Gold Coast and British 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 14 - President Sukarno declares martial law in Indonesia
• March 20 - French newspaper L'Express reveals that French army tortures Algerian prisoners
• March 25 - Treaty of Rome (patto di Roma) establishes the European Economic Community (EEC); see EU
• April 1 - The first new conscripts join the Bundeswehr
• April 5 - First elected government of Kerala. CPI won the elections and E. M. S. Namboodiripad became the first chief minister of united Kerala
• April 12 - United Kingdom announces that Singapore will gain self rule January 1 1958
• May 16 - Paul-Henri Spaak becomes the new secretary-general of NATO.
• June 9 - First ascent of Broad Peak
• June 15 - Eindhoven University of Technology is founded.
• June 21 - John Diefenbaker becomes Canada's thirteenth prime minister.
• July - International Geophysical Year begins
• July 16 - United States Marine Major John Glenn flies an F8U supersonic jet from California to New York in 3 hours, 23 minutes and 8 seconds setting a new transcontinental speed record
• July 25 - Tunisia becomes a republic
• July 29 - The International Atomic Energy Agency is established.

ya

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
• October 11 - Radio telescope of Jodrell Bank, Cheshire, UK, opened
• October 23 - Morocco begins its invasion of Ifni
• October 25 - Assassination of a Mafia boss Albert Anastasia in a barber shop in Park Sheraton Hotel

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 13 - Flooding in the Po River valley of Italy leads to the flooding also in Venice
• November 14 - Apalachian Conference - At least 60 Mafiosi meet in a convention in Apalachin, New York at the house of Joseph Barbara. FBI intrudes and many of the mobsters try to escape
• November 15 - Plane crash in the Isle of Wight - 43 dead
• November 16 - Serial killer Edward Gein murders Bernice Worden of Plainfield, Wisconsin (this was his last murder)
• November 30 - Grenade attack against Indonesian president Sukarno in Cikini School in Jakarta. Six children killed, Sukarno survives unscathed
• December 4 - Lewisham train disaster in Britain - 92 dead
• December 5 - All Dutch nationals expelled from Indonesia
• 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 of 1957
• 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 rail transport
• 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 - Nicholson Baker, novelist
• January 7 - Katie Couric, television host
• January 7 - Julian Solis, world champion boxer
• January 11 - Robert Earl Keen, musician, singer
• January 15 - Mario Van Peebles, actor, director
• January 15 - Julian Sands, actor
• January 19 - Katey Sagal, actress, singer & writer
• 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 (Reading Rainbow, Star Trek: The Next Generation)
• February 16 - James Ingram, singer
• February 18 - Vanna White, game show presenter
• February 19 - Falco, singer (d. 1998)
• February 27 - Viktor Markin, Soviet athlete

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 - Christophe Lambert, actor
• March 30 - Paul Reiser, actor
• April 4 - Aki Kaurismäki, Finnish film director
• April 5 - Ivan Corea, Sri Lankan autism campaigner
• 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 22 - Gary Sweet, actor
• May 26 - Margaret Colin, actress
• May 27 - Siouxsie Sioux, lead singer of Siouxsie and the Banshees
• May 28 - Kirk Gibson, baseball player
• May 29 - Jeb Hensarling, American politician
• 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)
• July 13 - Cameron Crowe, writer and film director
• July 26 - Nana Visitor, actress (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)
• August 9 - Melanie Griffith, actress (Working Girl, The Bonfire of the Vanities)
• 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

• October 14 - Kenny Neal, blues musician, guitarist
• October 26 - Bob Golic, American football player
• November 7 - Christopher Knight, actor (The Brady Bunch)
• November 15 - Kevin Eubanks, musician
• November 24 - Denise Crosby, actress (Star Trek: The Next Generation)
• December 8 - Phil Collen, singer/guitarist (Def Leppard)
• December 9 - Donny Osmond, singer
• December 10 - Michael Clarke Duncan, actor (Armageddon, The Green Mile)
• December 13 - Steve Buscemi, actor (Reservoir Dogs, Fargo, The Sopranos)
• December 13 - Jean-Marie Messier, French businessman
• December 20 - Billy Bragg, singer
• December 21 - Tom Henke, baseball relief pitcher
• December 21 - Ray Romano, actor, comedian (Everybody Loves Raymond)
• December 30 - Matt Lauer, NBC newscaster

Unknown date

• Walter Moers - German comic artist and writer
• Eugene Spafford - American computer scientist

Deaths

January-August

• January 14 - Humphrey Bogart, actor (b. 1899)
• January 16 - Arturo Toscanini, Italian conductor (b. 1867)
• February 8 - John von Neumann, Hungarian-American mathematician (b. 1903)
• February 9 - Miklós 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 Ophüls, director, writer
• March 29 - Joyce Cary, author
• May 2 - Joseph McCarthy, US senator
• May 9 - Ezio Pinza, Italian bass (b. 1892)
• May 14 - Marie Vassilieff, artist
• May 16 - Eliot Ness, federal agent
• May 31 - Leopold Staff, Polish poet (b. 1878)
• June 27 - Malcolm Lowry, novelist (b. 1909)
• July 4 – Judy Tyler, actress
• July 24 - Sacha Guitry, French playright, actor and director
• July 28 - Edith Abbott, social worker, educator, and author (b. 1876)
• August 7 - Oliver Hardy, American actor
• August 19 - David Bomberg, painter

September-December

• September 1 - Dennis Brain, English French horn player (b. 1921)
• 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 4 - Laika, female Samoyed Terrier dog from Moscow, first living passenger to enter orbit.
• November 24 - Diego Rivera, painter
• November 30 - Beniamino Gigli, tenor

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

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