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.