70 Years Ago This Season
July 3 – The ocean liner SS
United States makes her maiden crossing of the Atlantic.
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On July 5,
"Delicado" by Percy Faith and His Orchestra tops the
Billboard Best Sellers in Stores chart.
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July 7 – Turkey's first television station was opened ITU TV.
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On July 12,
"Auf Wiederseh'n, Sweetheart" by Vera Lynn tops the
Billboard Best Sellers in Stores chart.
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July 13 – East Germany announces the formation of its National People's Army.
July 14 – In Charles M. Schulz'
Peanuts Linus van Pelt makes his debut, though he only appears on screen on 19 September. [Shouldn't that be "on panel"?]
July 19 – August 3 – The 1952 Summer Olympics are held in Helsinki, Finland.
July 21 – The 7.3 Mw Kern County earthquake strikes California's southern Central Valley with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme), killing 12 and injuring hundreds.
July 23 – General Mohammed Naguib leads The Free Officers (formed by Gamal Abdel Nasser – the real power behind the coup) in the overthrow of King Farouk of Egypt.
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On July 24,
High Noon, starring Gary Cooper, premieres in New York.
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July 25 – Puerto Rico becomes a self-governing commonwealth of the United States.
July 26
- Argentine First Lady Eva Perón dies of cancer at age 33 and goes on to achieve saintly status in Argentina.
- Farouk of Egypt abdicates to Fuad II
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On July 31,
Ivanhoe, starring Robert Taylor, Elizabeth Taylor, Joan Fontaine, and George Sanders, premieres in New York.
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Also in July, "Rock Me All Night Long" by The Ravens (#4 R&B) is released.
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August 1 – First TV broadcast in the Dominican Republic by La Voz Dominicana, a TV station based on the radio station of the same name.
August 5 – The Treaty of Taipei between Japan and the Republic of China goes into effect, to officially end the Second Sino-Japanese War.
August 11 – The Jordanian Parliament forces King Talal of Jordan to abdicate due to mental illness; he is succeeded by his son King Hussein.
August 12 – Night of the Murdered Poets: 13 Soviet Jewish poets are executed.
August 13 – Japan joins the IMF.
August 14 – West Germany joins the IMF and the World Bank.
August 16 – Lynmouth, North Devon, England is devastated by floods; 34 die.
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On August 21,
The Quiet Man, starring John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara, and Barry Fitzgerald, premieres in New York.
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August 22 – The most damaging shock of the 1952 Kern County earthquake sequence strikes with a moment magnitude of 5.8, and a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe). This event damages several hundred buildings in Bakersfield, California, with total additional losses of $10 million, with two associated deaths and some injuries.
August 23 – Kitty Wells becomes the first woman to score a number 1 hit on the American country charts, with the song
"It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels".
August 26 – A British passenger jet makes a return crossing of the Atlantic Ocean in the same day.
August 27 – Reparation negotiations between West Germany and Israel end in Luxembourg: Germany will pay 3 billion Deutsche Marks.
August 29 – David Tudor gives the premiere of John Cage's
4′33″, during which the performer does not play, in Woodstock, New York.
August 30 – The last Finnish war reparations are sent to the Soviet Union.
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Also in August, "Juke" by Little Walter & His Night Cats (#1 R&B) is released.
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September – Bill Haley and His Saddlemen change their image to become Bill Haley & His Comets.
September 2 – Dr. C. Walton Lillehei and Dr. F. John Lewis perform the first open-heart surgery, at the University of Minnesota.
September 6 – Television debuts in Canada with the initiation of CBFT in Montreal, Quebec.
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On September 6,
"Jambalaya (On the Bayou)" by Hank Williams charts (#20 US; #1 Country).
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September 8 – CBLT in Toronto, Ontario begins broadcasting as Canada's second TV station.
September 10 – The European Parliamentary Assembly (from March 1962, the European Parliament) opens.
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On September 13,
"You Belong to Me" by Jo Stafford tops the
Billboard Best Sellers in Stores chart.
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September 18 – The Soviet Union vetoes Japan's application for membership in the United Nations.
September 19
- While Charlie Chaplin is at sea on his way to the United Kingdom, the United States Attorney-General, James P. McGranery, announces plans to review his right to return to the US.
- In Charles M. Schulz' Peanuts Linus van Pelt is first seen by readers, after being mentioned two months earlier.
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Also on September 19, George Reeves's Man of Steel flies into American households:
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September 20 – The first commercial Ultra High Frequency (UHF) television station in the world, KPTV (now a Fox company affiliate), begins broadcasting in Portland, Oregon on channel 27.
September 30
- The Revised Standard Version of the Bible is published.
- The Cinerama multiple-projection widescreen system, invented by Fred Waller, makes its début in New York with the film This Is Cinerama.
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Timeline entries are quoted from the Wiki pages for the year, as well as the year in film, music, television, and comics. Sections separated from timeline entries are mine.
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Good one, although my favorite Bowie period is still a couple of years off.
Ziggy Stardust is another album on the list that I may or may not be getting to in an untimely manner.
I vaguely remember this one. Meh.
Not terribly distinctive.
He's really not much without Jack Kirby.
He's got a distinctive voice, at least.
Oh, man, I certainly remember this.
Not only was it omnipresent and infectious, but it was used on station promos for Channel 56.
I assume that the synthiness of it was a novelty at the time...that aged quickly.
Good old Al Green. He never fails to be Al Green.
Not one of his hotter ones, but it's still Al Green.
