1957

Events

January

• January 2 - San Francisco and Los Angeles stock exchanges merge.
• January 3 - Hamilton Watch Company introduces the first electric watch.
• January 4 - After 69 years the last issue of Collier's magazine is published.
• January 10 - Harold Macmillan becomes the prime minister of the United Kingdom.
• January 13 - Wham-O Company produces the first Frisbee
• January 16 - The Cavern Club opens in Liverpool
• January 22 - Israel withdraws from the Sinai Peninsula (they invaded Egypt on October 29, 1956)
• January 22 - The New York City "Mad Bomber," George P. Metesky, is arrested in Waterbury, Connecticut and is charged with planting more than 30 bombs.

March-July

• March 6 - United Kingdom colonies Gold Coast and British Togoland become the independent Republic of Ghana.
• March 8 - Egypt re-opens the Suez Canal
• March 13 - The FBI arrests Jimmy Hoffa and charges him with bribery.
• March 25 - Treaty of Rome (patto di Roma) establishes the European Economic Community (EEC); see EU
• April 5 - First elected government of Kerala. CPI won the elections and E. M. S. Namboodiripad became the first chief minister of united Kerala.
• June 9 - First ascent of Broad Peak
• June 15 - Eindhoven University of Technology is founded.
• June 21 - John Diefenbaker becomes Canada's thirteenth prime minister.
• July - International Geophysical Year begins
• July 16 - United States Marine Major John Glenn flies an F8U supersonic jet from California to New York in 3 hours, 23 minutes and 8 seconds setting a new transcontinental speed record.
• July 29 - The International Atomic Energy Agency is established.

August

• August 31 - The Federation of Malaya gains independence from the United Kingdom. Tuanku Abdul Rahman ibni Almarhum Tuanku Muhammad, Yang di-Pertuan Besar of Negeri Sembilan becomes the first Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia.

September-October

• September 4 - American Civil Rights Movement: Little Rock Crisis - Orville Faubus, governor of Arkansas, calls out the National Guard to prevent black students from enrolling in Central High School in Little Rock.
• September 4 - Ford Motor Company introduces the Edsel.
• October 4 - launch of Sputnik I, the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth.
• October 9 - Neil H. McElroy was sworn in as the 6th Secretary of Defense of United States.
• October 10 - US President Dwight D. Eisenhower apologizes to the finance minister of Ghana, Komla Agbeli Gbdemah, after he was refused service in a Dover, Delaware restaurant.

November-December

• November 1 - Michigan's Mackinac Bridge opened.
• November 3 - Sputnik program: The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 2. On board is the first animal to enter space - a dog named Laika (she was kept alive for several days in space with a sophisticated life-support system).
• November 7 - Cold War: In the United States, the Gaither Report calls for more American missiles and fallout shelters.
• November 16 - Serial killer Edward Gein murders Bernice Worden of Plainfield, Wisconsin (this was his last murder).
• December 6 - First US attempt to launch a satellite fails, blowing up on the launchpad

• Project Orion begins, a U.S. program to build a spacecraft powered by nuclear explosions.
• Civil Rights Commission established under the Civil Rights Act of 1957
• IBM makes FORTRAN scientific programming language available to customers. It becomes the most widely used computer language for technical work.

Year in topic

• 1957 in film
  • The Bridge on the River Kwai
  • Peyton Place
• 1957 in literature
  • The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss
• 1957 in music
  • Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel name themselves Tom and Jerry and begin their recording career, signing with Sid Prosen of Big Records. Their first single, "Hey, Schoolgirl," backed with "Dancin' Wild," hit #49 on the Billboard pop charts.
• 1957 in sports
  • July 6 - Althea Gibson wins the Wimbledon championships becoming the first black athlete to do so.
• 1957 in television
  • Jack Paar becomes the permanent host for NBC's Tonight Show

Births

January-February

• January 6 - Nancy Lopez, golfer
• January 7 - Nicholson Baker, novelist
• January 7 - Katie Couric, television host
• January 7 - Julian Solis, world champion boxer
• January 15 - Mario Van Peebles, actor, director
• January 15 - Julian Sands, actor
• January 22 - Mike Bossy, ice hockey player
• January 23 - Earl Falconer, bassist
• January 23 - Princess Caroline of Monaco
• February 6 - Kathy Najimy, actress, comedian
• February 6 - Robert Townsend, comedian, actor, director, producer
• February 8 - Cindy Wilson, singer, of The B-52's
• February 16 - LeVar Burton, actor (Reading Rainbow, Star Trek: The Next Generation)
• February 16 - James Ingram, singer
• February 18 - Vanna White, game show presenter
• February 19 - Falco, singer (d. 1998)
• February 27 - Viktor Markin, Soviet athlete

March-September

• March 10 - Osama bin Laden, terrorist
• March 12 - Steve Harris, bassist/leader of Iron Maiden
• March 20 - Spike Lee, film director, actor
• March 29 - Christophe Lambert, actor
• March 30 - Paul Reiser, actor
• April 4 - Aki Kaurismäki, Finnish film director
• April 9 - Seve Ballesteros, Spanish golfer
• April 29 - Daniel Day-Lewis, actor
• May 7 - Sinjin Smith, volleyball player
• May 10 - Sid Vicious, bassist of The Sex Pistols (d. 1979)
• May 26 - Margaret Colin, actress
• May 27 - Siouxsie Sioux, lead singer of Siouxsie and the Banshees
• May 28 - Kirk Gibson, baseball player
• June 8 - Scott Adams, cartoonist, creator of Dilbert
• June 11 - Jamaaladeen Tacuma, jazz musician
• June 12 - Javed Miandad, cricketer
• June 19 - Anna Lindh, Swedish politician and minister of foreign affairs (d. 2003)
• July 26 - Nana Visitor, actress (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)
• August 9 - Melanie Griffith, actress (Working Girl, The Bonfire of the Vanities)
• August 24 - Stephen Fry, English comedian, author, and actor
• August 27 - Bernhard Langer, German golfer
• August 28 - Daniel Stern, actor
• September 1 - Gloria Estefan, singer
• September 12 - Rachel Ward, actress

October-December

• November 7 - Christopher Knight, actor (The Brady Bunch)
• November 15 - Kevin Eubanks, musician
• November 24 - Denise Crosby, actress (Star Trek: The Next Generation)
• December 9 - Donny Osmond, singer
• December 10 - Michael Clarke Duncan, actor (Armageddon, The Green Mile)
• December 13 - Steve Buscemi, actor (Reservoir Dogs, Fargo, The Sopranos)
• December 20 - Billy Bragg, singer
• December 21 - Tom Henke, baseball relief pitcher
• December 21 - Ray Romano, actor, comedian (Everybody Loves Raymond)
• December 30 - Matt Lauer, NBC newscaster

Walter Moers - German comic artist and writer

Deaths

January-August

• January 14 - Humphrey Bogart, actor (b. 1899)
• February 8 - John von Neumann, Hungarian-American mathematician (b. 1903)
• February 9 - Miklós Horthy, Hungarian admiral and longtime Regent (b. 1868)
• February 10 - Laura Ingalls Wilder, author (b. 1867)
• February 18 - Henry Norris Russell, astronomer
• February 25 - George "Bugs" Moran, Chicago gangster
• March 11 - Admiral Richard E. Byrd, explorer
• March 16 - Constantin Brancusi, sculptor
• March 17 - Ramon Magsaysay, President of the Philippines
• March 25 - Max Ophüls, director, writer
• May 2 - Joseph McCarthy, US senator
• May 9 - Ezio Pinza, opera singer
• May 14 - Marie Vassilieff, artist
• May 16 - Eliot Ness, federal agent
• June 27 - Malcolm Lowry, novelist (b. 1909)
• July 24 - Sacha Guitry, French playright, actor and director
• August 7 - Oliver Hardy, American actor
• August 19 - David Bomberg, painter

September-December

• September 1 - Dennis Brain, French horn player
• September 20 - Jean Sibelius, composer
• September 21 - Haakon VII of Norway
• September 22 - Toyoda Soemu, Japanese admiral in World War II
• October 25 - Edward Plunkett, Baron Dunsany, Irish author
• November 24 - Diego Rivera, painter
• November 30 - Beniamino Gigli, tenor
• Joyce Cary, author

Incumbents

Religious leaders

• Archbishop of Canterbury - Geoffrey Francis Fisher
• Coptic Pope - see vacant
• Dalai Lama - Tenzin Gyatso
• Patriarch of Constantinople - Athenagoras
• Patriarch of Moscow - Patriarch Alexius I
• Pope - Pope Pius XII
• President of the LDS Church - David O. McKay

Awards/Prizes

Winner of Eurovision Song Contest 1957: Corry Brokken with Net Als Toen

Nobel Prizes:

• Physics - Chen Ning Yang and Tsung-Dao Lee
• Chemistry- Lord Alexander R. Todd
• Medicine - Daniel Bovet
• Literature - Albert Camus
• Peace - Lester Bowles Pearson