1957

1957 (MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1957th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 957th year of the 2nd millennium, the 57th year of the 20th century, and the 8th year of the 1950s decade.

Events

January

January 1 – The Saarland joins West Germany.
January 3 – Hamilton Watch Company introduces the first electric watch.
January 5 – South African player Russell Endean becomes the first batsman to be dismissed for having handled the ball, in Test cricket.
January 9 – British Prime Minister Anthony Eden resigns.
January 10 – Harold Macmillan becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
January 11 – The African Convention is founded in Dakar.
January 14 – Kripalu Maharaj is named fifth Jagadguru (world teacher), after giving seven days of speeches before 500 Hindu scholars.
January 15 – The film Throne of Blood, Akira Kurosawa's reworking of Macbeth, is released in Japan.
January 20
- Israel withdraws from the Sinai Peninsula (captured from Egypt on October 29, 1956).
January 26 – The Ibirapuera Planetarium (the first in the Southern Hemisphere) is inaugurated in the city of São Paulo, Brazil.

February

February 2 – President Iskander Mirza of Pakistan lays the foundation-stone of the Guddu Barrage across the Indus River, near Sukkur.
February 4
- France prohibits U.N. involvement in Algeria.
- The first nuclear-powered submarine, USS Nautilus, logs its 60,000th nautical mile, matching the endurance of the fictional Nautilus described in Jules Verne's 1870 novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas. It is decommissioned on March 3, 1980.
- A coal gas explosion at the giant Bishop Coal Mine in Bishop, Virginia, United States, kills 37 men.
February 6 – The Soviet Union announces that Swedish envoy Raoul Wallenberg had died in a Soviet prison ("possibly of a heart attack"), on July 17, 1947
February 10 – The Confederation of African Football is founded, at a meeting in Khartoum.
February 15 – Andrei Gromyko becomes foreign minister of the Soviet Union.
February 16 – Ingmar Bergman's film The Seventh Seal opens at cinemas in Sweden.
February 17 – A fire at a home for the elderly in Warrenton, Missouri, United States, kills 72 people.
February 18
- Kenyan rebel leader Dedan Kimathi is executed by the British colonial government.
- The last person to be executed in New Zealand, Walter James Bolton, is hanged at Mount Eden Prison for poisoning his wife.
February 23 – The founding congress of the Senegalese Popular Bloc opens in Dakar.

March

March 1
- U Nu becomes Prime Minister of Burma.
- Arturo Lezama becomes President of the National Council of Government of Uruguay.
- 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 3 – Net als toen, sung by Corry Brokken (music by Guus Jansen, lyrics by Willy van Hemert), wins the Eurovision Song Contest 1957 (held at Frankfurt), for the Netherlands.
March 6
- United Kingdom colonies Gold Coast and British Togoland become the independent nation of Ghana.
- Zodi Ikhia founds the Nigerien Democratic Front (FDN) in Niger.
March 8 – Egypt re-opens the Suez Canal.
March 14 – President Sukarno declares martial law in Indonesia.
March 17 – 1957 Cebu Douglas C-47 crash: Philippine President Ramon Magsaysay and 24 others are killed in a plane crash.
March 20 – The French news magazine L'Express reveals that the French army tortures Algerian prisoners.
March 25 – The Treaty of Rome (Patto di Roma) establishes the European Economic Community (EEC; predecessor of the European Union) between Italy, France, West Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.
March 27 – The 29th Academy Awards Ceremony is held in Hollywood. Around the World in 80 Days wins Best Picture.

April

April – IBM sells the first compiler for the Fortran scientific programming language.
April 1 – The first new conscripts join the Bundeswehr.
April 5 – The Communist Party of India wins the elections in Kerala, making E. M. S. Namboodiripad its first chief minister.
April 9 – Egypt reopens the Suez Canal to all shipping.
April 12 – The United Kingdom announces that Singapore will gain self-rule on January 1, 1958.
April 13 – The 1957 alleged Jordanian military coup attempt against Hussein Bin Talal is made by Ali Abu Nuwar.
April 15
- The Distant Early Warning Line is handed over by contractors to the U.S. and Canadian military.
- White Rock secedes from Surrey, British Columbia, following a referendum.
April 17 – Suspected English serial killer Dr John Bodkin Adams is found not guilty of murder, at the Old Bailey.
April 24–25 – The 1957 Fethiye earthquakes occur on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey.
April 30 – The solar eclipse of April 30, 1957, a non-central annular solar eclipse that does not have a northern path limit, takes place. This is the last of 57 umbral solar eclipses of Solar Saros 118.

May

May 2 – "Die Stem van Suid-Afrika", written by Cornelis Jacobus Langenhoven, becomes the South African national anthem, replacing "God Save the Queen", which is retained as a royal anthem.
May 8 – South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem begins a state visit to the United States, his regime's main sponsor.
May 15
- Operation Grapple: At Malden Island in the Pacific, Britain tests its first hydrogen bomb, which fails to detonate properly.
- Stanley Matthews plays his final international game, ending an English record international career of almost 23 years.
May 16 – Paul-Henri Spaak becomes the new Secretary General of NATO.
May 24 – May 24 incident: Anti-American riots erupt in Taipei, Taiwan.
May 30 – Real Madrid beats Fiorentina 2–0 at Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, Madrid, to win the 1956–57 European Cup (football).

June

June 9 – Broad Peak, on the China-Pakistan border, is first ascended.
June 21 – John Diefenbaker becomes the 13th Prime Minister of Canada.
June 27 – Hurricane Audrey demolishes Cameron, Louisiana, U.S., killing 400 people.

July

July 1
- The International Geophysical Year begins.
- The University of Waterloo is founded in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
- Hugh Everett III publishes the first scientifically founded many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics.
- Production of the Citroën Traction Avant automobile, begun in 1934, ceases.
July 6 – At the age of fifteen, Paul McCartney meets John Lennon and his band, the Quarrymen, at the St Peter's Church Hall fête in Woolton.
July 11 – His Highness Prince Karim Aga Khan IV becomes the 49th Imam of the Shia Ismaili Muslims at age 20. His grandfather Sir Sultan Mohammed Shah Aga Khan III appoints Prince Karim in his will.
July 14 – Rawya Ateya takes her seat in the National Assembly of Egypt, thereby becoming the first female parliamentarian in the Arab world.
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 23 – Asghar Khan becomes the first native Commander-in-Chief of the Pakistan Air Force and the world's youngest Air Vice Marshal at 36 years old.
July 25 – Tunisia becomes a republic, with Habib Bourguiba as its first president.
July 28
- The 6th World Festival of Youth and Students, a high point of the Khrushchev Thaw, opens in Moscow.
- Heavy rains and mudslides at Isahaya, western Kyūshū, Japan, kill 992.
July 29 – The International Atomic Energy Agency is established.

August

August 4 – Juan Manuel Fangio, driving for Maserati, wins the Formula One German Grand Prix, clinching (with 4 wins this season) his record 5th world drivers championship, including his 4th consecutive championship (also a record); these 2 records endure for nearly half a century.
August 31 – The Federation of Malaya gains independence from the United Kingdom, subsequently celebrated as Malaysia's National Day. Abdul Rahman of Negeri Sembilan, Yang di-Pertuan Besar of Negeri Sembilan, becomes the first Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaya. The country's new Constitution had come into force on August 27. The Alliance Party and its successor are the ruling coalition until 2018.

September

September 5 – Cuban Revolution: Fulgencio Batista’s forces bomb anti-government riots in Cienfuegos.
September 9 – The Civil Rights Act of 1957 is enacted, establishing the United States Commission on Civil Rights.
September 21
- Olav V becomes King of Norway on the death of his father Haakon VII.
- The sailing ship Pamir sinks off the Azores in a hurricane.
September 24 – Camp Nou, home stadium of FC Barcelona, officially opens in Barcelona, Spain.
September 29 – The Kyshtym disaster occurs at the Mayak nuclear reprocessing plant in Russia.

October

October 1 – The Africanized bee is accidentally released in Brazil.
October 4
- Space Age – Sputnik program: The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth.
- The Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow delta wing interceptor aircraft is unveiled.
October 9 – The Jodrell Bank radio telescope in Cheshire, England, is controlled from its control room for the first time.
October 10 – Windscale fire: Fire at the Windscale nuclear reactor on the north-west coast of England releases radioactive material into the surrounding environment, including iodine-131.
October 11 – The orbit of the last stage of the R-7 Semyorka rocket (carrying Sputnik I) is first successfully calculated on an IBM 704 computer at the MIT Computation Center as part of Operation Moonwatch, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
October 20 – Two trains collide at Yarımburgaz in Turkey; 95 die.
October 23 – Morocco begins its invasion of Ifni.
October 27 – Celâl Bayar is re-elected president of Turkey.

November

November 1 – The Mackinac Bridge, the world's longest suspension bridge between anchorages at this time, opens in the United States, to connect Michigan's two peninsulas.
November 3 – Sputnik program: The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 2, with the first animal to orbit the Earth, a dog named Laika, on board. There is no technology available to return her to Earth.
November 13
- Flooding in the Po Valley of Italy leads to flooding also in Venice.
- Gordon Gould invents the laser.
November 15
- Yugoslavia announces the end of an economic boycott of Francoist Spain (although it does not reinstitute diplomatic relations).
- 1957 Aquila Airways Solent crash: A flying boat crash on the Isle of Wight leaves 45 dead.
November 16 – Adnan Menderes of the Democrat Party forms the new government of Turkey (23rd government, last government formed by DP and Menderes).
November 30
- Indonesian president Sukarno survives a grenade attack at the Cikini School in Jakarta, but six children are killed.
- 1957 New Zealand general election: The Labour Party defeats the governing National Party, with Walter Nash succeeding Keith Holyoake as Prime Minister.

December

December 1 – In Indonesia, Sukarno announces the nationalization of 246 Dutch businesses.
December 4
- The Lewisham rail crash in London, UK, leaves 92 people dead.
- 1957 Bayankhongor Earthquake in Mongolia kills 30+ people
December 5 – All 326,000 Dutch nationals are expelled from Indonesia.
December 6 – The first U.S. attempt to launch a satellite fails, when the Vanguard rocket blows up on the launch pad.
December 10 – Canadian diplomat Lester B. Pearson receives the Nobel Peace Prize, for his peacekeeping efforts in the United Nations.
December 18 – A violent F5 tornado wipes out the entire community of Sunfield, Illinois.
December 20 – The Boeing 707 airliner flies for the first time.^{[self-published source?]}

Date unknown

Mao Zedong admits that 800,000 "class enemies" had been summarily liquidated in China between 1949 and 1954.
Gruppe SPUR, an artistic collaboration, is founded in Germany.
Raja Fashions, a tailoring business, is founded in Hong Kong.
The so-called 'mound of Midas', the Great Tumulus near Gordium, is excavated.
Three new neo-grotesque sans-serif typefaces are released: Folio (designed by Konrad Bauer and Walter Baum), Neue Haas Grotesk (designed by Max Miedinger) and Univers (designed by Adrian Frutiger); all will be influential in the International Typographic Style of graphic design.

Births