West Germany's Bundestag approved 14 constitutional amendments which allowed for rearmament and civilian control over the armed forces, re-introducing conscription.
A Fairey Delta 2 research aircraft, developed by the Fairey Aviation Company, broke the World Air Speed Record, achieving a speed of 1,132mph (1,822km/h) as 300mph (480km/h) over the previous record. It became the first aircraft to exceed 1,000mph (1,600km/h) in level flight, with permission, but no active support, from the British government.
The Belgian ship MV Prince de Liege caught fire off the coast of Spain and was abandoned by its crew. The ship was towed by a Spanish naval tug, then by the Swedish salvage ship Herakles to Gibraltar.
Died:David Browning, 24, 1952 Olympic diving gold medalist from the United States, died in a jet fighter crash near Rantoul, Kansas during a training flight.
A general election was held in Nyasaland (later Malawi) for the first time ever. The newly elected Legislative Council consisted of eleven officials (five indirectly-elected seats for Africans and six elected seats for non-Africans).
The South African government passed the Riotous Assemblies Act no. 17, prohibiting any outside gathering that the Minister of Justice considered a threat to public peace. Nelson Mandela would later become one of many charged with offences under the Act.
In the early hours of the morning, US singer Carl Perkins was injured in a car accident near Wilmington, Delaware, on his way to New York City to make an appearance on The Perry Como Show. Perkins suffered three fractured vertebrae in his neck, a severe concussion, a broken collar bone, and multiple lacerations; he remained unconscious for an entire day.
In the UK's Grand National steeplechase, Devon Loch, a horse owned by Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and ridden by Dick Francis, inexplicably collapsed 50 yards (45 m) from the finish while leading the race. The jockey later suggested that the horse was distracted by the cheers of the crowd.
The United States Internal Revenue Service raided the offices of the Communist newspaper The Daily Worker in New York and other locations, for non-payment of taxes. The editor claimed that the paper lost $200,000 in the previous year and therefore owed no taxes.
Four Israeli soldiers captured by Syria in the Golan Heights in 1954 were returned to Israel, in exchange for forty Syrian soldiers captured during Operation Olive Leaves.
12Kozlov, Vladimir A (2002). Mass Uprisings in the USSR: Protest and Rebellion in the Post-Stalin Years. Translated by MacKinnon, Elaine McClarnand. M.E. Sharpe. pp.112–136. ISBN0-7656-0668-2.