MultiEducator · The 20th Century Almanac
HistoryCentral Est. 1996
5220th C.
1952
The 20th Century Almanac · The Fifties

1952

Major Events · Sports · Music · Screen · Prizes

Britain crowned a new era as King George VI died and Elizabeth II ascended the throne, while Eisenhower won the White House. The United States detonated the first hydrogen bomb at Enewetak, and Cecil B. DeMille's The Greatest Show on Earth took the Oscar.

A Year in Review
Best Picture
The Greatest Show on Earth
Nobel · Literature
Mauriac
World Series
No. 1 Song
Top TV
Academy · Actor
Gary Cooper

Screen & Television

At the box office & on the air

Top Movies

  1. The Greatest Show on Earth
  2. Quo Vadis
  3. Ivanhoe
  4. The Snows of Kilimanjaro
  5. Sailor Beware
  6. The African Queen
  7. Jumping Jacks
  8. High Noon
  9. Son of Paleface
  10. Singin' in the Rain (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); © 1996-2025

Academy Awards

Honoring 1952
Best Picture
The Greatest Show on Earth
Best Director
John Ford
The Quiet Man
Best Actor
Gary Cooper
High Noon
Best Actress
Shirley Booth
Come Back, Little Sheba

Nobel & Pulitzer Prizes

The year in letters & science

Nobel Prizes

Chemistry
The prize was awarded jointly to: MARTIN, ARCHER JOHN PORTER, Great Britain, National Institute for Medical Research, London, b. 1910; and SYNGE, RICHARD LAURENCE MILLINGTON, Great Britain, Rowett Research Institute, Bucksburn (Scotland), b
Literature
MAURIAC, FRAN‚OIS, France, b. 1885, d. 1970: "for the deep spiritual insight and the artistic intensity with which he has in his novels penetrated the drama of human life"
Peace
SCHWEITZER, ALBERT, France, b. 1875, d. 1965: Missionary surgeon, Founder LambarŽnŽ Hospital in RŽpublique du Gabon
Physiology or Medicine
WAKSMAN, SELMAN ABRAHAM, U.S.A., Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, b. 1888, (in Priluka, Ukraine, Russia), d. 1973: "for his discovery of streptomycin, the first antibiotic effective against tuberculosis"
Physics
The prize was awarded jointly to: BLOCH, FELIX, U.S.A., Stanford University, Stanford, CA, b. 1905 (in Zurich, Switzerland), d. 1983; and PURCELL, EDWARD MILLS, U.S.A., Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, b. 1912, d. 1997: "for their develop