| 20th January 1953 | Dwight D. Eisenhower succeeds Harry S. Truman as President of the United States. |
| 28th January 1953 | Derek Bentley is executed for murder in Wandsworth Prison. The crime was in fact committed by his friend, Chris Craig. |
| 31st January 1953 | The North Sea Flood of 1953 kills 1,835 people in the Netherlands and 307 people in the United Kingdom. Several hundred are also killed out at sea, including 133 passengers on the ‘Princess Victoria’ ferry in the Irish Sea. |
| 18th February 1953 | “Bwana Devil“ opens in cinemas; it is the first ever 3-D.film and provides a welcome boost to dwindling cinema attendance. |
| 5th March 1953 | Joseph Stalin dies after thirty-one years of ruling the Soviet Union. |
| 13th April 1953 | Ian Fleming publishes his first James Bond novel, “Casino Royale”. |
| 2nd May 1953 | Hussein is crowned King of Jordan. |
| 29th May 1953 | Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay complete the first successful ascent to the summit of Mount Everest. |
| 2nd June 1953 | Elizabeth II is officially crowned Queen of England at Westminster Abbey. |
| 5th July 1953 | The European Economic Community holds its first assembly in Strasbourg, France. |
| 12th August 1953 | An earthquake measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale devastates most of the Ionian Sea Islands. It is the worst natural disaster to hit Greece in many centuries. |
| 4th September 1953 | The discovery of Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep is published by researchers Eugene Aserinsky and Nathaniel Kleitman for the very first time. Research continues into our sleep cycles and Psychologists debate the purpose of dreaming. |
| 26th September 1953 | Rationing of cane sugar ends in the United Kingdom. |
| 21st November 1953 | Authorities at the British Natural History Museum announce that the skull of the ‘Piltdown Man‘, one of the most famous fossil skulls in the world, is a hoax. |
| 30th December 1953 | The first colour television sets go on sale in America for around $1,175. |