1950s

January 01 - Radio Beijing announces that Tibet will shortly be "liberated". 03 - Wafd Party wins Egyptian elections. 04 - Britain asks the US for a...

January 01 - Chinese and North Korean forces advance across the 38th Parallel and through UN lines. 01 - First episode of The Archers is broadcast nationally...

January 05 - Winston Churchill arrives in Washington for talks with Truman. 07 - General Dwight D Eisenhower says he will run for US President. 12 - The prototype Vickers Valiant, Britain's...

January 01 - The Maldive Islands become a republic. 01 - Arthur 'Bomber' Harris is knighted in the New Year Honours list. 01 - Hank Williams dies. 02...

January 01 - Flashing indicator lights become legal on motor vehicles in Britain. 10 - A BOAC Comet jet airliner on its way from Singapore to...

January 01 - The US gives $216 million in aid to South Vietnam. 01 - The 1955 Cotton Bowl Classic American football game is won by...

January 01 - Sudan becomes an independent Republic. 03 - USSR gives technical aid to China. 03 - Movie star Mel Gibson is born in New York. 05...

January 01 - Grandmaster Flash (Joseph Saddler) born. 04 - A London man upset with the shape of his nose is jailed for ten years for...

January 01 - Albanian fighters shoot down a British freight plane that allegedly strayed into Albanian airspace. 01 - The European Economic Community (the "common market")...

January 01 - The dictator of Cuba, Fulgencio Batista, is overthrown by Fidel Castro's guerrillas and flees to the Dominican Republic. 02 - Fidel Castro proclaims...

The Second World War was over. In Britain, the National Health Service was newly created (1948) and the coal industry and the railways were...