1952 in the United States

Incumbents

Federal Government">Federal government of the United States">Federal Government

• President: Harry S. Truman
• Vice President: Alben W. Barkley
• Chief Justice: Fred M. Vinson
• Speaker of the House of Representatives: Sam Rayburn
• Senate Majority Leader: Ernest McFarland
• Congress: 82nd

  Governors

Lieutenant Governors

Events

January

• January 14 - The Today Show premieres on NBC, becoming one of the longest-running television series in America.

  February

• February 2 - A tropical storm forms just north of Cuba moving northeast. The storm makes landfall in southern Florida the next day. It is the earliest reported landfall from a tropical storm, and the earliest formation of a tropical storm on record in the Atlantic basin.
• February 6 – In the United States, a mechanical heart is used for the first time in a human patient.
• February 20 - Emmett Ashford becomes the first African-American umpire in organized baseball, by being authorized to be a substitute umpire in the Southwestern International League.

  March

• March 20 - The United States Senate ratifies a peace treaty with Japan.
• March 21 – Tornadoes ravage the lower Mississippi River Valley, leaving 208 dead, through March 22.
• March 22 – Wernher von Braun publishes the first in his series of articles entitled Man Will Conquer Space Soon!, including ideas for manned flights to Mars and the Moon.
• March 29 - U.S. President Harry S. Truman announces that he will not seek reelection.

  April

• April 8 - Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer: The U.S. Supreme Court limits the power of the President to seize private business, after President Harry S. Truman nationalizes all steel mills in the United States, just before the 1952 steel strike begins.
• April 15 - The United States B-52 Stratofortress flies for the first time.
• April 23 - A nuclear test is held in the Nevada desert.
• April 28 – The Treaty of San Francisco goes into effect, formally ending the occupation of Japan.
• April 29 - Lever House officially opens in New York City, heralding a new age of commercial architecture in the United States.

  May

• May 3 - U.S. lieutenant colonels Joseph O. Fletcher and William P. Benedict land a plane at the geographic North Pole.

  June

• June 14 - The keel is laid for the U.S. nuclear submarine USS Nautilus.
• June 19 - ''The United States Army Special Forces is created.

  July

• July 19–26 - Washington D.C. UFO incident. Several alleged UFOs tracked on multiple radars. Jets scramble on several occasions and the objects take evasive action, only to return after the jets leave the area.
• July 21 - The 7.3 Kern County earthquake strikes Southern California with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI, killing 12 and injuring hundreds.
• July 25 - Puerto Rico becomes a self-governing commonwealth of the United States.

  August

• August 22 - A 5.8 aftershock affects Bakersfield with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII, killing two and causing an additional $10 million in damage.
• August 29 - John Cage's 4' 33" premieres in Woodstock, New York.

  September

• September 2 - Dr. C. Walton Lillehei and Dr. F. John Lewis perform the first open-heart surgery at the University of Minnesota.
• September 23 - Republican vice presidential candidate Richard Nixon gives his Checkers speech.

  October

• October 7 - The New York Yankees defeat the Brooklyn Dodgers, 4 games to 3, to win their 15th World Series Title.
• October 12 - The Gamma Sigma Sigma National Service Sorority is founded in New York City at Panhellenic Tower.
• October 14 - The United Nations begins work in the new headquarters of the United Nations in New York City.
• October 16 - Limelight opens in London; writer/actor/director/producer Charlie Chaplin arrives by ocean liner; in transit his re-entry permit to the USA is revoked by J. Edgar Hoover.
• October 1 to 31 - With an average coast-to-coast precipitation of, this is easily the driest month over the contiguous United States since reliable records began in 1895

  November

• November 1 - Nuclear testing: Operation Ivy: The United States successfully detonates the first hydrogen bomb, codenamed "Mike", at Eniwetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands in the central Pacific Ocean, with a yield of 10.4 megatons.
• November 4
• *1952 United States presidential election: Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower defeats Democratic Governor of Illinois Adlai Stevenson. The Constitution Party nominates candidates.
• *The U.S. National Security Agency is founded.
• November 20 – The first official passenger flight over the North Pole is made from Los Angeles to Copenhagen.
• November 29 - Korean War: U.S. President-elect Dwight D. Eisenhower fulfills a political campaign promise, by traveling to Korea to find out what can be done to end the conflict.

  December

• December 1 – The New York Daily News carries a front-page story announcing that Christine Jorgensen, a transsexual woman in Denmark, has become the recipient of the first successful sexual reassignment operation.
• December 14 - The first successful surgical separation of Siamese twins is conducted in Mount Sinai Hospital, Cleveland, Ohio.
• December 20 - The crash of a U.S. Air Force C-124 Globemaster at Moses Lake, Washington kills 86 servicemen.

  Undated

• Nearly 58,000 cases of polio are reported in the U.S.; 3,145 die and 21,269 are left with mild to disabling paralysis.
• The National Prohibition Foundation is incorporated in Indiana.

  Ongoing

• Cold War
• Second Red Scare
• Korean War

  Births

• January 2 - Wendy Phillips, actress
• January 6 - Moondog Spot, wrestler
• January 8 - Mel Reynolds, American academic and politician
• January 20 - Stanley Eisen, co-founder of rock band KISS
• February 2 - John Cornyn, U.S. Senator from Texas from 2002
• February 16 – James Ingram, R&B singer-songwriter, record producer and instrumentalist
• February 22
• *Robert Bauer, attorney
• *Albert Bryant, Jr., general
• *Cyrinda Foxe, model and actress
• *Bill Frist, U.S. Senator from Tennessee from 1995 to 2007
• *Wayne Levi, golfer
• March 8 - George Allen, U.S. Senator from Virginia from 2001 to 2007
• March 22 - Bob Costas, sportscaster
• March 23 - Rex Tillerson, 69th United States Secretary of State, CEO of ExxonMobil
• April 1 - Rey Robinson, sprinter and coach
• April 16
• *David Hann, politician
• *Billy West, voice actor
• May 2 - Christine Baranski, actress
• May 11
• *Warren Littlefield, businessman
• *Mike Lupica, sports journalist
• May 13 - John Kasich, Governor of Ohio
• May 14 - Robert Zemeckis, film director, producer and screenwriter
• May 21 - Mr. T, actor.
• May 25 - Gordon H. Smith, U.S. Senator from Oregon from 1997 to 2009
• June 8 - Dave Jennings, American football player and sportscaster
• June 12 - Spencer Abraham, United States Senator from Michigan from 1995 to 2001
• June 20 - John Goodman, actor
• July 4 - Paul Rogat Loeb, author and activist
• July 8 - Jerry Hertaus, politician and businessman from Minnesota
• July 14 - Ken Hutcherson, American football player
• July 15 - Johnny Thunders, guitarist and singer, co-founder of the New York Dolls, inspiration for Punk rock and Glam metal; also founder of The Heartbreakers, who toured the United Kingdom on the infamous Anarchy Tour
• July 17 - David Hasselhoff, actor, singer, producer and businessman
• July 21 - John Barrasso, U.S. Senator from Wyoming frome 2007
• August 18 - Patrick Swayze, actor
• August 24 - Bob Corker, U.S. Senator from Tennessee from 2007 to 2019
• August 26 - Michael Jeter, actor
• September 25 - Christopher Reeve, actor and activist
• October 22 - Jeff Goldblum, actor, a spouse of actress Geena Davis
• November 3 - Jim Cummings, voice actor
• November 9 - Sherrod Brown, U.S. Senator from Ohio from 2007
• November 12 - Ronald Burkle, entrepreneur
• November 19 - Stephen Soldz, psychoanalyst and activist
• December 2
• *Rob Mounsey, keyboard player, composer and producer
• *Carol Shea-Porter, social worker, academic and politician
• December 7 - Susan Collins, U.S. Senator from Maine from 1997

  Deaths

• January 8 - Antonia Maury, astronomer
• January 18 - Curly Howard, vaudevillian
• January 24 - Duke York, film actor
• January 25 - Polly Moran, actress
• January 26 - André Cheron, film actor
• January 27 - Fannie Ward, actress
• January 28 - Thomas Hicks, marathon runner
• February 7
• * Philip G. Epstein, screenwriter
• * Pete Henry, American football player and coach
• February 14
• * Molly Malone, silent film actress
• * John Sheehan, actor
• February 21 - Francis Xavier Ford, Roman Catholic bishop, missionary, servant of God and reverend
• March 1 - Gregory La Cava, film director
• March 2 - Ole E. Benson, politician
• March 12 - Hugh Herbert, actor and comedian
• March 22 - Uncle Dave Macon, vaudeville banjoist
• March 31
• * Bo McMillin, American football player and coach
• * Roland West, film director
• * Wallace H. White, Jr., U.S. Senator from Maine
• April 23 - Julius Freed, inventor and banker
• May 9 - Canada Lee, African American actor
• May 10 - Clark L. Hull, psychologist
• May 21 - John Garfield, screen actor
• June 1
• * John Dewey, philosopher
• * Malcolm St. Clair, filmmaker
• June 6 - Thomas Walsh, Roman Catholic archbishop and reverend
• June 10 - Frances Theodora Parsons, naturalist
• June 13 - Emma Eames, soprano
• June 17 - Jack Parsons, rocket engineer and occultist
• June 27 - Elmo Lincoln, film actor
• July 1 - A. S. W. Rosenbach, book collector
• July 4 - Walter Long, film character actor
• July 20 - Isabelle LaMal, film actress
• July 22 - Harry Carter, silent film actor
• July 26 - Edward Ellis, actor
• August 1 - Andrew Higgins, boatbuilder and industrialist
• August 2
• * Charles K. French, film actor, director and screenwriter
• * J. Farrell MacDonald, film character actor and director
• August 11 - Riccardo Martin, tenor
• August 16 - Lydia Field Emmet, painter
• August 30 - Arky Vaughan, baseball player
• September 5 - Fernando Luis García, Puerto Rican marine, killed in action
• September 9 - Jonas H. Ingram, admiral
• September 23 - Ray Mala, Nastive American film actor
• September 26 - George Santayana, philosopher, died in Italy
• September 30 - Waldorf Astor, 2nd Viscount Astor, businessman and politician
• October 11 - Jack Conway, film producer and director
• October 17 - Julia Dean, actress
• October 19 - Edward S. Curtis, photographer, ethnologist and film director
• October 23 - Susan Peters, actress
• October 24 - Frederick Jacobi, composer
• October 26
• * Myrtle McAteer, tennis player
• * Hattie McDaniel, African American actress
• November 1 - Dixie Lee, singer
• November 8 - Hugh Prosser, film actor
• November 10 - John Roche, actor
• November 21 - William D. Upshaw, temperance leader
• December 4 - Karen Horney, psychoanalyst
• December 12 - Billy Cook, spree killer, executed
• December 15 - Emmanuel Boleslaus Ledvina, Roman Catholic prelate, bishop and reverend
• December 19 - Pehr G. Holmes, politician
• December 29 - Fletcher Henderson, African American jazz bandleader and pianist
• December 30 - Luke McNamee, admiral and Governor of Guam