January: Armed robbers steal over $2.5m in cash & securities from the Brink's armored car company HQ in Boston, Massachusetts.

February: First credit card charge is made by Frank McNamara, Ralph Schneider & Matty Simmons founders of the Diners Club.

March: Volkswagen introduce a new panel van named 'Type 2'. It their second car model, the first being the 'Type 1' Beetle.

April: British comic 'The Eagle' is founded by vicar Marcus Morris. It features Frank Hampson's 'Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future'.

May: The mummified corpse of a man from the 4th century BC is found in a Danish peat bog. It is believed he was a sacrifice.

June: North Korean troops cross the 38th parallel into South Korea & soon capture Seoul. This action starts the Korean War.

July: Entrepreneur Richard Branson is born. Despite his dyslexia he will found the Virgin Group & become a multi-billionaire.

August: Paul Robeson, whose passport was revoked due to alleged Communist sympathies, fails to persuade officials to reinstate it.

September: After a single outing in 1941, radio game show 'Truth or Consequences' hosted by Ralph Edwards premieres on television.

October: The People's Liberation Army cross the Jinsha River & invade Tibet. It will become an Autonomous Region of China.

November: A group led by Harry Hay found 'The Mattachine Society' in Los Angeles, one of the first gay-liberation organizations.

December: Bertrand Russell wins Nobel Prize in Literature for 'his varied & significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals & freedom of thought'.