Jump on our Virtual Newsstand as we journey back to 1953. See and read the comic books on sale month by month, and find out the major news of the day.

January: The Robertson Panel, a scientific committee sponsored by the CIA meets. It has been formed to discuss recent UFO sightings.

February: James D. Watson & Francis Crick announce discovery of the structure of DNA. It holds the genetic code for all living organisms.

March: Joseph Stalin, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union suffers a stroke & dies after a dinner with ministers.

April: Casino Royale written by Ian Fleming is published by Jonathan Cape. It introduces James Bond (Agent 007) to the world.

May: Edmund Hillary & Tenzing Norgay become the first men to reach the summit of Mount Everest, the highest point on earth.

June: Julius & Ethel Rosenberg are executed for passing information about the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union.

July: An armistice agreement signed at Panmunjom ends the Korean War. North & South Korea are divided on the 38th parallel.

August: Operation Big Switch begins to repatriate Korean War prisoners. 75,823 Communist & 12,773 UN prisoners will be freed.

September: Future US President John F Kennedy marries Jacqueline Lee Bouvier at St. Mary's Church in Newport, Rhode Island.

October: The UNIVAC 1103 replaces the UNIVAC 1101. It is the first commercial computer using random access memory.

November: The British Natural History Museum announce that, as long suspected, the skull of the Piltdown Man is in fact a hoax.

December: The first issue of Playboy magazine is published by Hugh Hefner. The centerfold nude is Marilyn Monroe. It sells 54,175 copies.