Famous Weddings & Divorces in 1951

Jan 8 American actor Burgess Meredith (43) weds (his 4th and final time) Swedish-American ballerina Kaja Sundsten (21), until his death in 1997

Feb 10 Shah of Persia Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (31) marries actress Soraya Esfandiary-Bakhtiary (19)

Feb 27 American civil rights activist W.E.B. Du Bois (83) weds award-winning author Shirley Graham (54) in Queens, New York

Apr 3 Actress and singer Doris Day (29) marries producer Martin Melcher (35) in Burbank, California

Apr 10 American industrialist Henry J. Kaiser (68) weds nurse Alyce Chester

Apr 18 Cartoonist Charles M. Schulz (28) weds Joyce Halverson; divorce in 1972

Jun 2 "The Thin Man" actress Myrna Loy (45) weds UNESCO delegate Howland H. Sargeant

Jul 3 Author Maya Angelou (23) weds Thomas J. Angelos

Jul 31 American musician Ray Charles (20) weds Eileen Williams in Georgia; divorce in 1952

Aug 1 Actor Max Von Sydow (22) weds actress Christina Olin

Sep 9 American conductor Leonard Bernstein (33) weds Costa Rican actress Felicia Montealegre (29), at Temple Mishkan Tefila in Roxbury, Massachusetts, until her death in 1978

Sep 15 Actor Peter Sellers (26) weds actress Anne Howe in London, England

Nov 14 American swing musician Louis Jordan (43) weds dancer Vicky Hayes

Dec 13 Future British PM Margaret Roberts (26) weds businessman Denis Thatcher (36) at Wesley's Chapel in City Road, London

Dec 23 MLB centerfielder Mickey Mantle (20) weds author Merlyn Mantle (19) in Commerce, Oklahoma

Jan 29 English-American actress Elizabeth Taylor's 1st divorce from American hotel heir Conrad Hilton Jr. after nearly 9 months of marriage

Sep 20 Actor Jackie Coogan (36) divorces Ann McCormack after 5 years of marriage

Oct 29 Singer and actor Frank Sinatra (35) and 1st wife Nancy (Barbato) (33) divorce due to infidelity after 12 years of marriage