1951

Published on Wednesday, April 23rd 2008. Edited by Sob Fibrugtag, Chongqing, China.

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

Decades: 1920s 1930s 1940s – 1950s – 1960s 1970s 1980s

Years: 1948 1949 1950 – 1951 – 1952 1953 1954

Year 1951 (MCMLI) was a common year starting on Monday.

Events of 1951

January

January 9 – United Nations headquarters officially opens in New York City.

January 9: United Nations headquarters opened.

January 15 – Ilse Koch, The “Witch of Buchenwald,” wife of the Commandant of the Buchenwald concentration camp, is sentenced to life imprisonment in a court in West Germany.
January 17 – Korean War: Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul.
January 20 – Avalanches in the Alps – 240 die and 45,000 are buried for a time in Switzerland, Austria and Italy.
January 27 – Nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site begins with a one-kiloton bomb dropped on Frenchman Flats, northwest of Las Vegas, Nevada.

February

February 1 – United Nations General Assembly declares that China is the aggressor in the Korean War.
February 4-8 – Surgeons remove an ovarian cyst from Gertrude Levandowski in 96-hour long operation in Chicago. She loses almost half of her weight and emerges weighing 140 kg.
February 6
A Pennsylvania Railroad passenger train derails near Woodbridge Township, New Jersey, killing 85 people and injuring over 500 – one of the worst rail disasters in American history.
February 12 – Marriage of Muhammad Reza Shah to Soraya Esfandiary Bakhtiari.
February 19- Jean Lee becomes the last woman hung in Australia, when Lee and her two pimps are hung for the murder and torture of a 73 year old bookmaker.
February 27 – The Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution, limiting Presidents to two terms, is ratified.
February 28 – Linus Pauling, Robert Corey, and Herman Branson publish the findings of the α-helix and the β-sheet.

March

March 29: Rosenbergs.

March 6 – The trial of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg begins.
March 7 – Korean War: Operation Ripper – In Korea, United Nations troops led by General Matthew Ridgeway begin an assault against the Chinese “volunteers”.
March 12 – The Dennis the Menace comic strip appears in newspapers across the U.S. for the first time.
March 14
Korean War: For the second time, United Nations troops recapture Seoul.
West Germany joins UNESCO.
March 29
Second Red Scare: 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 and Hammerstein show specifically written for someone – actress Gertrude Lawrence. Lawrence is stricken with cancer during the run of the show and dies halfway through its run. The show makes a star of Yul Brynner.
23rd Academy Awards ceremony
March 31 – Remington Rand delivers the first UNIVAC I computer to the United States Census Bureau.

March 31: UNIVAC I.

April

April 1 – Female suffrage begins in Greece.
April 11 – U.S. President Harry S. Truman relieves General Douglas MacArthur of his Far Eastern commands.
April 18 – Treaty of Paris (1951) adopted, establishing European Coal and Steel Community.
April 21 – The National Olympic Committee of the Soviet Union is formed. The USSR first participates in the Olympic Games at Helsinki, Finland, in 1952.
April 24 – In Yokohama, Japan a fire on a train leaves more than 100 dead.
April 28 – Robert Menzies' Liberal Party government in Australia is re-elected for a second term.

May

May 1 – Opera house of Geneva, Switzerland is almost destroyed in a fire.
May 3
HM King George VI opens London’s Royal Festival Hall as patron.
Opening of the Festival of Britain
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 9 – The first test of a nuclear weapon with thermonuclear materials, the “George” test on Enewetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands, by the United States.
May 14 – First volunteer-run passenger trains run on Talyllyn Railway, Wales.
May 15 – Military coup in Bolivia
May 21 – Ninth Street Show, otherwise known as the 9th Street Art Exhibition, was a gathering of a number of notable artists, and it was the stepping-out of the post war New York avant-garde, collectively known as the New York School.
May 23 – Tibetans were forced to sign the Seventeen Point Agreement for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet with the People’s Republic of China.
May 25 – The first test of an atomic bomb “boosted” by the inclusion of thermonuclear materials, in the “Item” test on Enewetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands by the U.S.

June

June 14 – UNIVAC I is dedicated by U.S. Census Bureau.
June 15 – July 1- In New Mexico, Arizona, California, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia, thousands of hectares of forests were destroyed in fires.

July

July 1 – Judy Garland opens the first of 14 concerts in Dublin, Ireland at the Theatre Royal.
July 5 – William Shockley, John Bardeen, and Walter Brattain announce the invention of the junction transistor.
July 10 – Korean War: At Kaesong, armistice negotiations begin.
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. The 1951 film introduces bass-baritone William Warfield (singing Ol' Man River) and makes him nationally famous overnight.
July 14 – In Joplin, Missouri, the George Washington Carver National Monument becomes the first United States National Monument in honour of an African American.
July 16 – King Léopold III of Belgium signs the act of abdication in favour of his son Baudouin.
July 17
Baudouin takes the oath as king of Belgium, after his father abdicated the day before.
Western New England College in Springfield, Massachusetts is chartered.
July 20 – King Abdullah I of Jordan is assassinated by a Palestinian while attending Friday prayers in Jerusalem.
July 30 – David Lean’s Oliver Twist is finally shown in the United States, after ten minutes of supposedly anti-Semitic references and closeups of Alec Guinness as Fagin are cut. The film is a critical success, but a financial flop in the United States, and receives few bookings in U.S. theatres, mostly due to the anti-Semitic charges leveled against it. The film is not shown uncut in the U.S. until 1970.

August

August 11 – René Pleven becomes Prime Minister of France.

September

September 1 – The United States, Australia and New Zealand all sign a mutual defense pact, called the ANZUS Treaty.
September 8 – Treaty of San Francisco: In San Francisco, California, 48 nations sign a peace treaty with Japan in formal recognition of the end of the Pacific War.
September 9 – Chinese communist forces move into Lhasa, the capital of Tibet.
September 10 – The United Kingdom begins an economic boycott of Iran.
September 18 – The film A Streetcar Named Desire premieres and becomes a critical and box-office smash.
September 20 – NATO accepts Greece and Turkey as members.
September 26-28 – Blue sun seen over Europe: the effect is due to ash coming from the Canadian forest fires four months previously.

October

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 ninth inning off of the Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Ralph Branca, to win the National League pennant after being down 14 games.
October 4
The Gene Kelly film An American in Paris premieres in New York.
Shoppers World opens in Framingham, Massachusetts. It is one the first shopping malls in the U.S.
October 7 – Malayan Emergency – communist insurgents kill British commander Sir Henry Gurney
October 15
First oral contraceptive invented by Luis E. Miramontes
I Love Lucy debuts on CBS.
October 16
Judy Garland begins her legendary concerts in New York’s Palace Theatre
Assassination of Liaquat Ali Khan, Prime Minister of Pakistan
October 20 – The “Johnny Bright Incident” occurred in Stillwater, Oklahoma
October 21 – Storm in southern Italy – over 100 dead
October 22 – William David “Dave” Sanders – a victim of the Columbine High School massacre
October 24 – U.S. President Harry Truman declares official end to war with Germany.
October 26 – Winston Churchill re-elected Prime Minister of the United Kingdom; his foreign minister is Anthony Eden
October 27 – Farouk of Egypt declares himself king of Sudan, with no support.
October 31 – Scrooge, starring Alastair Sim, opens in England.

November

November 1 – First military exercises for nuclear war, with infantry troops included, in the Nevada desert
November 10 – Direct dial coast-to-coast telephone service begins in the United States.
November 11 – Juan Peron re-elected president of Argentina
November 12 – The National Ballet of Canada performs for the first time on the Eaton Auditorium
November 20 – Po river floods in northern Italy.
November 24 – The Broadway play Gigi opens starring little known actress Audrey Hepburn playing the lead character.
November 28 – Scrooge, starring Alastair Sim, opens in the United States under the title of Charles Dickens’s original novel, A Christmas Carol.

December

December 3 – The Lebanese University is founded in Lebanon.
December 6 – State of emergency declared in Egypt due to increasing riots.
December 13 – Water storage tank collapses in Tucumcari, New Mexico – 4 dead, 200 buildings destroyed.
December 16 – Salar Jung Museum is opened to the public by the Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru.
December 20
EBR-1, World’s first (experimental) nuclear power plant opened.
A chartered C46 Curtis Commando crash lands in Cobourg, Ontario Canada – all on board survived.
December 23 – The film The African Queen, starring Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn, premieres in Hollywood.
December 24
Libya becomes independent from Italy.
Gian-Carlo Menotti’s 45-minute opera Amahl and the Night Visitors, premieres live on NBC, becoming the first opera written especially for television.

Undated

A fourth, and final, forest fire starts in the Tillamook Burn; but unlike earlier fires this one only burns 32,700 acres, and within area already affected by the earlier fires.
The most complete recording of Gershwin’s opera Porgy and Bess made until then, a 3-LP Columbia Masterworks Records 129-minute album in mono, is released to great critical acclaim. There will be no truly complete recording of Porgy and Bess until 1976.
A research team publishes the Interlingua-English Dictionary.
IBM United Kingdom is formed.
1951 New Zealand waterfront dispute lasts for 151 days.
Munich Germany – A collection of mementos and personal papers belonging to Adolf Hitler are turned over to Bayerische Landesbank for authentication and eventual sale. Among the documents are his appointment as Chancellor signed by President Paul von Hindenburg, his Austrian passport, as well as an assortment of swastika insignia pins and medals. An initial offer of $200,000.00 was made for the collection.
Lotti and Rosemarie Knaack are born joined at the tops of their heads in Germany.

Ongoing

Marshall Plan

Births

1951 in other calendars

Gregorian calendar 1951 MCMLI

Ab urbe condita 2704

Armenian calendar 1400 ԹՎ ՌՆ

Bahá'í calendar 107 – 108

Berber calendar 2901

Buddhist calendar 2495

Burmese calendar 1313

Chinese calendar 4587/4647-11-24 (庚寅年十一月廿四日)

— to —

4588/4648-12-4 (辛卯年十二月初四日)

Coptic calendar 1667 – 1668

Ethiopian calendar 1943 – 1944

Hebrew calendar 5711 – 5712

Hindu calendars

- Vikram Samvat 2006 – 2007

- Shaka Samvat 1873 – 1874

- Kali Yuga 5052 – 5053

Holocene calendar 11951

Iranian calendar 1329 – 1330

Islamic calendar 1370 – 1371

Japanese calendar Shōwa 26 (昭和26年)

Korean calendar 4284

Thai solar calendar 2494

January-February

January 1
Álvaro Magalhães, Portuguese writer
Ashfaq Hussain, Urdu poet
January 2 – Valdir Peres, Brazilian footballer
January 5 – Steve Arnold, English footballer
January 6 – Kim Wilson, American singer and harmonica player
January 8
Kenny Anthony, Prime Minister of Saint Lucia
John McTiernan, American director, producer, and writer
January 12
Kirstie Alley, American actress
Rush Limbaugh, American radio personality
January 20 – Ian Hill, English bassist (Judas Priest)
January 25 – Steve Prefontaine, American runner (d. 1975)
January 30 – Phil Collins, English musician and producer
January 31 – Harry Wayne Casey, American musician, songwriter, and producer
January 13 – Phil Manzanera, British rock musician
February 3 – Eugenijus Riabovas, Lithuanian football manager
February 14 – Kevin Keegan, English footballer and football manager
February 15
Melissa Manchester, American singer
Jane Seymour, English actress
February 19 – Tahir-ul-Qadri, Islamic scholar and leader
February 20
Gordon Brown, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Edward Albert, American actor (d. 2006)
February 25 – Don Quarrie, Jamaican sprinter
February 27 – Steve Harley, British musician (Cockney Rebel)
February 16 – Mike Flanagan, baseball pitcher

March-April

March 1 – Mike Read, British television presenter and radio disc jockey
March 4
Edelgard Bulmahn, German politician
Kenny Dalglish, Scottish footballer and football manager
Mike Quarry, American light heavyweight boxer (d. 2006)
Chris Rea, British singer and musician
Linda Yamamoto, Japanese pop star
March 6 – Gerrie Knetemann, Dutch cyclist (d. 2004)
March 8 – Karen Kain, Canadian ballerina
March 12 – Susan Musgrave Canadian poet and children’s writer
March 13 – Fred Berry, American actor (d. 2003)
March 14 – Jerry Greenfield, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream
March 17
Scott Gorham, American guitarist (Thin Lizzy)
Kurt Russell, American actor
March 18 – Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream
March 24 – Tommy Hilfiger, American fashion designer
March 26 – Carl Wieman, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
April 5 – Joe Bowen, Canadian Hockey Broadcaster
Dean Kamen, American inventor and entrepreneur
Frank Moulaert, Flemish scholar
Guy Vanderhaeghe, Canadian author
April 6 – Bert Blyleven, Dutch Major League Baseball player
April 7 – Janis Ian, American singer and songwriter
April 10
David Helvarg, American journalist and activist
Steven Seagal, American martial artist and actor
April 11 – Doris McGowen Beck Angleton, American socialite and murder victim (d. 1997)
April 13
Peabo Bryson, American singer
Peter Davison, British actor
Max Weinberg, American drummer
April 14 – Julian Lloyd Webber, English cellist
April 16 – Ioan Mihai Cochinescu, Romanian writer
April 17 – Olivia Hussey, Argentine-born actress
April 19 – Jóannes Eidesgaard, Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands
April 20 – Louise Jameson, British actress
April 27 – Ace Frehley, Guitarist for the Rock band Kiss
April 29 – Dale Earnhardt, American race car driver (d. 2001)

May-June

May 4 – Mick Mars, American musician
May 9 – Christopher Dewdney, Canadian poet
May 9 – Joy Harjo, Poet
May 13 – Sharon Sayles Belton, Mayor of Minneapolis, Minnesota
May 15
Jonathan Richman, American musician
Frank Wilczek, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
May 19 – Joey Ramone, American musician (The Ramones) (d. 2001)
May 23 – Anatoly Karpov, Russian chess player
May 26
Madeleine Taylor-Quinn, Irish politician
Sally Ride, astronaut
May 30 – Stephen Tobolowsky, American actor
June 2 – Larry Robinson, Canadian hockey player
June 5 – Suze Orman, American financial advisor, writer, and television personality
June 8 – Bonnie Tyler, Welsh singer
June 12 – Andranik Margaryan, 14th Prime Minister of Armenia (d. 2007)
June 12 – Brad Delp, lead vocalist of Boston (d. 2007)
June 14 – Paul Boateng, British politician
June 16 – Roberto Duran, Panamanian boxer
June 20 – Tress MacNeille, American voice actress
June 20 – Paul Muldoon, Irish poet
June 24 – David Rodigan, radio DJ/actor
June 27 – Mary McAleese, eighth President of Ireland
June 28 – Lalla Ward, British actress
June 28 – Lloyd Maines, American musician and record producer
June 29 – Keno Don Rosa, American comic book author
June 30 – Stanley Clarke, American bassist

July-August

July 1 – Terrence Mann, American actor and dancer
July 1 – Anne Feeney, American folk singer
July 3 – Richard Hadlee, New Zealand cricketer
July 5 – Rich “Goose” Gossage, baseball player
July 8 – Anjelica Huston, American actress
July 10 – Cheryl Wheeler, American singer and songwriter
July 14 – Erich Hallhuber, German actor (d. 2003)
July 16 – Stewart Copeland, American drummer
July 16 – Jean-Luc Mongrain, Canadian news anchor and journalist
July 18 – Elio Di Rupo, Belgian politician
July 21 – Robin Williams, American actor
July 23 – Edie McClurg, American Actress
July 23 – Michael McConnohie, American actor
July 24 – Chris Smith, British politician
July 25 – Yuriy Kovalchuk, Russian oligarch
July 28
Garrett Hongo, Japanese-American poet
Doug Collins, American basketball player, coach and analyst
August 3 – Marcel Dionne, Canadian hockey player
August 6 – Daryl Somers, Australian television personality
August 8
Mamoru Oshii, Japanese film director
Randy Shilts, American journalist and author (d. 1994)
August 12 – Willie Horton, American criminal
August 13 – Dan Fogelberg, American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist (d. 2007)
August 16 – Richard Hunt, American puppeteer (d. 1992)
August 19 – John Deacon, English bassist (Queen)
August 20 – Greg Bear, American author
August 21 – Eric Goles, Chilean mathematician and computer scientist
August 22 – Chandra Prakash Mainali, Nepalese politician
August 23
Akhmad Kadyrov, President of Chechnya
Queen Noor of Jordan
August 24 – Orson Scott Card, American writer
August 25 – Rob Halford, English singer (Judas Priest)
August 26 – Edward Witten, American mathematician and Fields medalist

September-October

September 5 – Michael Keaton, American actor
September 7
Julie Kavner, American actress
Chrissie Hynde, American singer
Bert Jones, Baltimore Colts Quarterback
September 12 – Joe Pantoliano, American actor
September 13 – Linda Wong, pornstar (d. 1987)
September 18 – Darryl Stingley, Former American football player for the NFL New England Patriots (d. 2007)
September 21 – Aslan Maskhadov, President of Chechnya
September 22 – David Coverdale, English singer
September 25 – Mark Hamill, American actor
September 26 – Stuart Tosh, Scottish musician
September 27 – Paul Craig, English professor of law
September 29
Michelle Bachelet, President of Chile
Andrés Caicedo, Colombian writer (d. 1977)
Maureen Caird, Australian hurdler
September 30 – Barry Marshall, Australian physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine
October 2 – Sting, British musician
October 3
Bernard Cooper, American writer
Dave Winfield, baseball player
Keb Mo', American musician
October 4 – Bakhytzhan Kanapyanov, Kazakh poet
October 5 – Bob Geldof, Irish musician (The Boomtown Rats)
October 6 – Manfred Winkelhock, German race car driver
October 7 – John Mellencamp, American musician and songwriter
October 10 – Epeli Ganilau, Fiji soldier and statesman
October 11 – Jean-Jacques Goldman, French singer and songwriter
October 18
Mike Antonovich, American ice hockey player and executive
Terry McMillan, American author
October 25 – Richard Lloyd, American guitarist of Television
October 26
Bootsy Collins, American musician, singer, and songwriter
Willie P. Bennett, Canadian songwriter and singer (d. 2008)
October 27 – K. K. Downing, English guitarist (Judas Priest)
October 30 – Harry Hamlin, American actor

November-December

November 2 – Thomas Mallon, American author and critic
November 3 – Diego Traibel, Uruguayan politician
November 3 – Ed Murawinski, American cartoonist, New York Daily News
November 11 – Marc Summers, American television host
November 15 – Alamgir Hashmi, English poet
November 16
Paula Vogel, American playwright
Miguel Sandoval, American actor
November 18 – Justin Raimondo, American author
November 19 – Lord Falconer of Thoroton, British politician
November 24 – Chet Edwards, American politician
November 26 – Cicciolina, Italian actress and politician
November 29 – Roger Troutman, Funk musician who is the master of the talkbox. (d. 1999)
November 30 – Christian Bernard, French-born mystic
December 1
Sherry Aldridge, American singer, The Aldridge Sisters
Jaco Pastorius, American bassist
Treat Williams, American actor
December 2 – Adrian Devine, American baseball pitcher
December 6 – Tomson Highway, Canadian writer
December 8
Bill Bryson, American-born British author
Jan Eggum, Norwegian singer and songwriter
December 10 – Doug Allder, English footballer
December 11 – Peter T. Daniels, American scholar
December 12 – Wau Holland, German hacker (d. 2001)
December 14 – Jan Timman, Dutch chess player
December 17 – Ken Hitchcock, Canadian hockey coach
December 20 – Peter May, Scottish novelist and television dramatist
December 29 – Georges Thurston, Canadian singer (d. 2007)
December 30 – Meredith Vieira, American television host

Unknown dates

Matt Cates, American voice actor
Brian Keenan, Irish writer and hostage in Lebanon
John Kindness, Irish artist
Mr. Butch, homeless person and icon (d. 2007)

Deaths

January-June

January 5 – Ken Le Breton, Australian speedway rider (b. 1925)
January 7 – René Guénon, French-born author (b. 1886)
January 10 – Sinclair Lewis, American writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1885)
January 18 – Amy Carmichael, Irish missionary to India (b. 1867)
January 21 – Yuriko Miyamoto, Japanese novelist (b. 1899)
January 28 – Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim, President of Finland (b. 1867)
January 29 – Frank Tarrant, Australian cricketer (b. 1880)
January 30 – Ferdinand Porsche, German engineer (b. 1875)
February 9 – Eddy Duchin, American pianist and bandleader (b. 1909)
February 13 – Lloyd C. Douglas, American author (b. 1877)
February 18 – Lyman Gilmore, American aviation pioneer (b. 1874)
February 19 – André Gide, French writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1869)
February 12 – Choudhary Rahmat Ali, one of the founding fathers of Pakistan (b. 1895)
March 6 – Ivor Novello, Welsh actor, musician, and composer (b. 1893)
March 10 – Kijūrō Shidehara (“Shidehara Kijūrō”), Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1872)
March 21 – Willem Mengelberg, Dutch conductor (b. 1871)
March 25 – Eddie Collins, baseball player (b. 1887)
March 25 – Oscar Micheaux, American filmmaker (b. 1884)
April 4 –
Al Christie, Canadian-born film director and producer (b. 1881)
George Albert Smith, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (b. 1870)
April 6 – Robert Broom, Scottish paleontologist (b. 1866)
April 14 – Ernest Bevin, British labour leader, politician, and statesman (b. 1881)
April 22 – Horace Donisthorpe, English myrmecologist (b. 1870)
April 23 – Charles G. Dawes, Vice President of the United States, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1865)
April 29 – Ludwig Wittgenstein, Austrian philosopher (b.1889)
May 7 – Warner Baxter, American actor (b. 1889)
May 27 – Sir Thomas Albert Blamey, Australian soldier (b. 1884)
May 29 – Fanny Brice, American entertainer (b. 1891)
May 30 – Hermann Broch, Austrian author (b. 1886)
June 4 – Serge Koussevitzky, Russian conductor (b. 1874)
June 7 – Oswald Pohl, German SS officer (b. 1892)
June 13 – Ben Chifley, Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1885)
June 21 – Charles Dillon Perrine, American-born astronomer (b. 1867)

July – December

July 9 – Harry Heilmann, baseball player (b. 1894)
July 13 – Arnold Schoenberg, Austrian composer (b. 1874)
July 20 – King Abdullah I of Jordan (b. 1882)
July 23 –
Robert J. Flaherty, American filmmaker (b. 1884)
Philippe Pétain, leader of Vichy France (b. 1856)
August 14 – William Randolph Hearst, American newspaper publisher (b. 1863)
August 15 – Artur Schnabel, Polish pianist (b. 1882)
August 21 – Constant Lambert, British composer (b. 1905)
August 26 – Bill Barilko, Canadian hockey player (b. 1927)
August 28 – Robert Walker, American actor (b. 1918)
October 6 – Otto Fritz Meyerhof, German-born physician and biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1884)
October 16 – Liaquat Ali Khan, first Prime Minister of Pakistan (b. 1896)
November 5 – Reggie Walker, South African athlete (b. 1889)
November 9 – Sigmund Romberg, Hungarian-born composer (b. 1887)
November 13 – Nikolai Medtner, Russian pianist and composer (b. 1880)
December 5 – Shoeless Joe Jackson, baseball player (b. 1889)
December 6 – Harold Ross, American editor (b.1892)

Nobel prizes

Physics – John Cockcroft, Ernest Walton
Chemistry – Edwin McMillan, Glenn T. Seaborg
Physiology or Medicine – Max Theiler
Literature – Pär Lagerkvist
Peace – Léon Jouhaux

Ship events

List of ship launches in 1951
List of ship commissionings in 1951
List of ship decommissionings in 1951

Retrieved from “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1951”