8. January – According to the national statistics agency, 9.6 million refugees are living in Germany, corresponding to 20% of the country’s population.
9. January – With Empress Soraya as patron, Iranian women establish an “Anti Nylon Stocking League” to save foreign exchange.
February 1952
6. February – George VI., King of England, dies at the age of 57. His 25-year-old daughter Elizabeth is proclaimed Queen a few hours later.
14. February – The VIth Winter Olympics are opened in the Norwegian capital of Oslo (and end on 25.2.). The first Winter Olympics since the end of the Second World War in which Germany participates.
18. February – At the NATO Conference in Lisbon, the delegates decide to include Greece and Turkey in the North Atlantic Defence Alliance.
21. February – The American film star Elizabeth Taylor marries the British actor Michael Wilding on Crete.
28. February – Japan and the USA decide to extend the stationing of US forces for an indefinite period of time.
29. February – A television set manufactured by Philips costs DEM 1,500. A table-top set made by Blaupunkt costs DEM 1,595. They are produced manually rather than in series.
March 1952
10. March – The USSR proposes negotiations about a peace treaty to the global powers USA, England and France. The German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer and the Western allies reject the proposal, because the memorandum from the Kremlin demands the removal of all occupation troops from Germany.
20. March – South Africa repeals the country’s racial legislation that prohibits blacks from voting because it is unconstitutional. On the same day, Humphrey Bogart wins the Oscar for his role in the drama “African Queen”.
28. March – Although the price of a pair of perlon stockings in Germany (DEM 5.90 – 12.90) is considerably lower than the previous year, “perlons” (= “nylons”) continue to be sheer luxury for women in the Federal Republic of Germany in view of the fact that average hourly wages are DEM 1.50.
April 1952
18. April – The newly established company Agfa AG is equipped to produce photos in a building owned by Farbenfabriken Bayer in Leverkusen.
22. April – US television broadcasts the detonation of an atomic bomb live for the first time. It was dropped from 10 km above the Nevada desert.
28. April – The USA officially declare the war with Japan ended.
28. April – The USSR transfers 66 plants owned by the Soviet Aktiengesellschaft (SAG) to the German Democratic Republic. What are involved are machines and processing factories that are converted into state-owned companies.
May 1952
1. May – International airlines introduce tourist class seats. The new system reduces the costs of 2nd class flights and is designed to make flying on holiday more attractive to people with average incomes.
2. May – The British deploy jet airplanes for civil aviation purposes. The battle for records begins in the air transport field.
15. May – Rocket scientist Wernher von Braun presents the project for a manned expedition to Mars. In the past, scientists have not even considered it possible to land on the moon.
24. May – The French scientist Alain Bombard leaves Monaco for Gibraltar and then across the Atlantic towards the West Indies on a rubber boat without any provisions.
June 1952
22. June – The body of Louis Brailles, the inventor of the tactile alphabet named after him, is moved to the Pantheon in Paris.
30. June – The “Marshall Plan” takes effect – the aim is for US money to help European countries to achieve economic independence.
July 1952
5. July – The last trams in London are replaced by the double-decker buses that are still familiar today.
11. July – Large-scale US bombing of North Korea’s industrial sites.
19. July – The XVth Summer Olympics start in Helsinki with participants from 69 different countries.
25. July – The European Coal and Steel Community Treaty comes into force.
26. July – The Argentinian politician Eva “Evita” Duarte de Peron dies of cervical cancer at the age of 33.
August 1952
5. August – Sabor, the first robot remotely controlled by the radar principle, is presented. Sabor can travel 15 km without a human escort.
September 1952
4. September – The Old Man and The Sea, a new US book, is considered the literary sensation of the year.
6. September – Space research scientists meet in Stuttgart, subject: manned rocket flight to the moon.
October 1952
11. October – The first plastics trade fair opens in Düsseldorf.
12. October – The first 3D cinema is opened in the USA.
19. October – The plastics trade fair ends in Düsseldorf. “The plastics trade fair in Düsseldorf ends after a week. The organiser of the trade fair is the Association of the German Plastics Processing Industry. The first major showcase of this kind in the Federal Republic of Germany presents the many different uses for plastic in everyday and professional life. According to the organisers, what the visitors to the trade fair find particularly attractive are the unbreakable plastic bottle, a rain cape that takes up very little space when folded up and plastic tiles for the bathroom and kitchen. Especially large crowds gather outside the stands of the perlon clothing manufacturers too on the last day of the exhibition. The wide range of different applications synthetic material has to offer clothing, upholstery and decoration companies is demonstrated on these stands. Simple cleaning of the material and its resilience make it attractive to use plastic textiles in day-to-day life.
24. October – Dunlop presents M&S tyres, which are supposed to make snow chains superfluous in winter.
31. October – At the European Conference of the Association of German Industry in Trier, representatives of the industrial community from six countries support the establishment of the European Coal and Steel Community. At the same time, they issue a warning about the dangers of centralism and the adherence to national sovereignty laws.
November 1952
1. November – The first hydrogen bomb is detonated in the Pacific (Eniwetol Atoll) by the USA.
4. November – Dwight D. Eisenhower is elected President of the United States. This makes him the first Republican US President for 20 years.
7. November – Nobel Prizes: physics: Felix Bloch and Edward Mills Purcell; chemistry: Archer Martin and Richard Synge (biochemists); literature: Francois Mauriac; Albert Schweitzer is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize retrospectively in 1953 in recognition of his commitment to Africa or, more precisely, of his humanitarian work in the tropical hospital he himself established in Lambarene, Africa, in 1913.
December 1952
8. December – Customs investigators from Lübeck uncover a smuggling ring, which has supplied German retailers with about 400,000 pairs of illegal nylon stockings.
9. December – Smog in England. 4,000 people die of the consequences in the following 14 days.
30. December – Time Magazine from the USA chooses Elizabeth, who was proclaimed Queen in February, to be Woman of the Year in 1952.
Source
Stephan Schulte / Karen Watermann, Chronik 1952, Tag für Tag in Wort und Bild, 2. überarbeitete Auflage, Chronik Verlag 1992
