Major Events
- Feb 27 Mao Zedong's famous speech to the Supreme State Conference "On Correct Handling of Contradictions Among People" expounding Maoist ideals
- Jul 12 US Surgeon General Leroy Burney connects smoking with lung cancer
- Aug 31 Federation of Malaya gains independence from Great Britain
- Sep 4 Governor of Arkansas, Orval Faubus, calls out National Guard to prevent 9 black students from entering a Little Rock's Central High School
- Sep 23 President Dwight D. Eisenhower orders US troops to support integration of nine black students at Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas
- Oct 4 Soviet Union launches Sputnik I, the 1st artificial Earth satellite into elliptical low Earth orbit
- Oct 10 A fire at the Windscale nuclear plant in Cumbria, England becomes the world's first major nuclear accident
- Nov 3 Soviet Union launches Sputnik 2 with space dog Laika aboard, a mostly-Siberian husky, the 1st animal in space
- Dec 18 World's first full scale nuclear power plant, for peacetime use only, begins to generate electricity at the Shippingport Atomic Power Station in Pennsylvania
- More 1957 Events
1957 in Film & TV
- Mar 11 Charles Van Doren finally loses on US TV game show "Twenty-One" after winning $129,000 - later revealed to be fixed
- Aug 5 "American Bandstand" premieres on network TV (ABC)
- Sep 25 18th Venice Film Festival: Influential Indian film "Aparajito" directed by Satyajit Ray is first film to win the Golden Lion and the Critics Award
- Oct 2 "The Bridge on the River Kwai", directed by David Lean and starring William Holden and Alec Guinness, is released (Academy Awards Best Picture 1958)
1957 in Music
- Feb 25 Buddy Holly and the Crickets record their smash hit "That'll Be the Day" in Clovis, New Mexico
- Jul 6 John Lennon (16) & Paul McCartney (15) meet for 1st time as Lennon's rock group Quarrymen perform at St. Peter's, Woolton's Parish Church in Liverpool, introduced by mutual friend Ivan Vaughn
- Sep 23 "That'll Be the Day" single by Buddy Holly and The Crickets reaches #1 in the US
- Sep 24 "Jailhouse Rock" single released by Elvis Presley (Billboard Song of the Year 1957)
1957 in Sport
- Sep 16 LA City Council approves 300-acre site in Chavez Ravine for Dodgers
- Oct 19 Montreal Canadien Maurice "Rocket" Richard, becomes the 1st NHLer to score 500 goals
Did You Know?
Willem J. Kolff and his team at Ohio's Cleveland Clinic removed the heart from a dog and replaced it with a pneumatic pump which kept the dog alive for 90 minutes, proving the viability of the artificial heart
Osama bin Laden
Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán
Jeffrey Hawkins
Ai Weiwei
Andrew Cuomo
Hamid Karzai
Spike Lee
Daniel Day-Lewis
Frances McDormand
Andrew Dice Clay
Lyle Lovett
Steve Buscemi
Vince Gill
Sid Vicious
Gloria Estefan
Nick Cave
Nancy Lopez
Mike Bossy
Nick Price
Payne Stewart
Nick Faldo
Wayne GradyMore People Born in 1957
Fun Fact About 1957
Baseball player Richie Ashburn fouls and hits fan Alice Roth twice in the same game at bat playing for the Philadelphia Phillies, 1st hit breaks her nose, 2nd one hits her while she is on the stretcher
Friedrich Paulus
Bugs Moran
Richard E. Byrd
Ramon Magsaysay
Christian Dior
Albert Anastasia
Humphrey Bogart
Arturo Toscanini
Oliver Hardy
Louis B. Mayer
Jean SibeliusMore 1957 Deaths
Articles About 1957
The Computer That Came By Truck
It didn't have the sleek lines that Steve Jobs would admire and it needed to be carried on a truck, but the computer age had finally arrived in rural England.April 3
UK Tests a Hydrogen Bomb
The first British hydrogen bomb test, Operation GrappleMay 15
Little Rock Crisis
The 101st Airborne Division escort the nine black students into Little Rock School in ArkansasSeptember 23
The Bridge on the River Kwai
The Bridge on the River Kwai movie posterOctober 2
Jailhouse Rock Premieres
A publicity shot from the film showing Elvis Presley during the dance sequence in Jailhouse RockOctober 17
Space Dog Laika Launched to her Death
Laika, a stray dog picked up on the streets of Moscow, was launched into space on this day – and to her death. Furious worldwide protests ensued, bewildering some.November 3
All Eyes on Birthplace of British Rock 'n' Roll
Tommy Steele, Britain's first rock 'n' roll star, was discovered on this day at a coffee bar in central London, appearing live on the BBC's first pop music show.November 16
Great Balls of Fire! The 'Bride' is 13
Jerry Lee Lewis leapt to fame declaring there was ‘A Whole Lotta Shakin’ Going On’. His fans were certainly shaken when told of his 13-year-old ‘bride’.December 13
Famous Weddings in 1957
- Jan 10 Poet T. S. Eliot (68) marries his 2nd wife editor Esmé Valerie Fletcher (30)
- Jan 12 Aviator Howard Hughes marries 2nd wife actress Jean Peters
- Jan 19 Golfer Gary Player (21) weds Bobby Verwey's sister Vivienne Verwey
Famous Divorces in 1957
- Jan 31 English-American actress Elizabeth Taylor's 2nd divorce from English actor Michael Wilding, after almost 5 years of marriage
- Jul 5 American singer and actor Frank Sinatra (41) and movie star Ava Gardner (32) divorce after 6 years of marriage
- Jul 15 British film director David Lean (49) divorces British actress and producer Ann Todd (48) in London, England- third time for each; after just over 8 years of marriage
More 1957 Weddings
Alec Guinness
Joanne Woodward
Stan Musial
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Mao Zedong
Nikita Khrushchev