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Top Song(s)
• Frankie Laine - Jezebel
• Nat King Cole - Unforgettable
• Johnnie Ray - Cry
• Tony Bennett - Because of You
• Mario Lanza - Be My Love
Top Film(s)
• Strangers on a Train
• Ace in the Hole
• A Streetcar Named Desire
• The African Queen
• A Place in the Sun
Best Selling Book(s)
• The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
• Foundation - Isaac Asimov
• The Illustrated Man - Ray Bradbury
• The End of the Affair - Graham Greene
• The Caine Mutiny - Herman Wouk
Famous Deaths
• January 10 – Sinclair Lewis, American writer, Nobel Prize laureate
• March 2 - Cassiano Conzatti, Italian botanist, explorer and pteridologist
• April 18 – Oscar Carmona, 96th Prime Minister of Portugal and 11th President of Portugal
• June 21 - Charles Dillon Perrine, American astronomer, discovered two moons of Jupiter
• July 23 - Philippe Pétain, French World War I marshal, leader of Vichy France
• August 15 – Artur Schnabel, Austrian-born Jewish classical pianist
• September 27 – Augusto de Vasconcelos, Portuguese surgeon, politician and diplomat
• October 6 - Will Keith Kellogg, American industrialist, founder of the Kellogg Company
• November 25 - Istvan Friedrich, 24th Prime Minister of Hungary
• December 20 – Anton Durcovici, Austro-Hungarian born Romanian Roman Catholic bishop
Medical/Science/Technology
• Oliver H. Lowry submits his Lowry protein assay procedure for publication.
• Ferranti deliver their first Mark 1 computer to the University of Manchester.
• Maurice Wilkes introduces the concept of microprogramming.
• The term "Industrial archaeology" is first used in print in Britain.
• Carl A. Wiley invents synthetic aperture radar.
• Karl Huber's biography of Leibniz is published posthumously.
• Pont-Saint-Esprit mass poisoning, a fatal outbreak, probably of ergotism, in southern France.
• Richard Asher describes Munchausen syndrome.
• Carl A. Wiley publishes the concept of the solar sail.
• George Downing builds "The Rocket", the first surfboard with a removable fin.
Political
• January 2 – U.S. Secretary of State John Hay announces the Open Door Policy to promote American trade with China.
• January 10 – The new United Nations headquarters officially opens in New York City.
• February 27 – The Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution, is ratified.
• April 11 – U.S. President Harry S. Truman relieves General Douglas MacArthur of his Far Eastern commands.
• June 4 – The Foley Square trial concludes review in the U.S. Supreme Court as Dennis v. United States.
• May 3 – The U.S. Senate Committees on Armed Services and Foreign Relations begins its closed door hearings.
• July 14 – The George Washington Carver National Monument becomes the first National Monument to honor an African American.
• September 8 - In San Francisco, 48 nations sign a peace treaty with Japan to formally end the Pacific War.
• October 24 – U.S. President Harry Truman declares an official end to war with Germany.
• December 31 – The Marshall Plan expires after distributing more than US$13.3 billion in foreign aid to rebuild Europe.
National
• January 27 – Nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site begins with a 1-kiloton bomb.
• February 21 – The Jack in the Box fast-food restaurant chain is founded by Robert O. Peterson in San Diego, California.
• March 12 – Hank Ketcham's best-selling comic strip Dennis the Menace appears in newspapers across the U.S.
• April 27 – RKO releases the Howard Hawks sci-fi film The Thing from Another World.
• June 18 – Battle Ground, Washington is incorporated.
• July 13 - The Great Flood of 1951 reaches its highest point in Northeast Kansas.
• September 18 - 20th Century Fox's Robert Wise science fiction film The Day the Earth Stood Still is released.
• October 15 – I Love Lucy, starring Lucille Ball and her husband Desi Arnaz, makes its television debut on CBS.
• 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.
Worldwide
• January 6 – Boers attempt to end the Siege of Ladysmith, which leads to the Battle of Platrand.
• January 17 – Korean War: Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul.
• February 27 - The British Labour Party is officially established, at a meeting in the Congregational Memorial Hall in London.
• April 14 – The Exposition Universelle, a world's fair, opens in Paris.
• May 18 – The United Kingdom proclaims a protectorate over Tonga.
• July 26 – Walt Disney's 13th animated feature film, Alice in Wonderland, premieres in London, United Kingdom.
• September 12 – Admiral Fredrik von Otter becomes Prime Minister of Sweden.
• September 20 – NATO accepts Greece and Turkey as members.
• October 9 – The Cook Islands become a territory of the United Kingdom.
• November 10 – Direct dial coast-to-coast telephone service begins.