1952

Pope Pius XII placed André Gide’s works on the Catholic Church’s index of forbidden books. Percy Faith’s Delicado dominated the major charts in the USA and Europe.

United Kingdom and its Dominions, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada, Ceylon, and Pakistan, lost King George VI who died at the age of 56 on February 6, 1952. His daughter Princess Elizabeth, the Duchess of Edinburgh, became queen shortly after the Kings Death while on a visit to Kenya. King George VI funeral took place at St. Georges Chapel in Windsor Castle. Now known as Queen Elizabeth II, she is one of the oldest monarchs in the world.

By the 1950s, the rock and roll genre was taking root in people’s hearts. On March 21, 1952, thousands of people most of them teenagers had lined up outside the Cleveland Arena, top attend the first major rock-and -roll concert. The show dubbed the Moondog Coronation Ball tickets sold out in a single day and set the bar for an ever-growing rock scene.

On December 4, thick smog started to hover over London. At least 4000 people had died by the time it lifted. As per the meteorological reports, high-pressure air mass had stalled over River Thames Valley when cold air came in from the west. This caused the stagnation of the air in London resulting in very low temperatures. The to keep warm the residents burnt extra coal which when coupled with soot, smoke and sulfur oxide from the industries, caused extra thick smog which reduced visibility to a few yards. This went on to cause a train collision, rail accidents, respiratory problems in humans and animals.

Finally, in Science, the Nobel Prize in Medicine went to Selman Abraham Waksman; Physics went to Felix Bloch, Edward Mills Purcell and for Chemistry went to Archer John Porter Martin, Richard Laurence Millington Synge. This was the year that Norman J. Woodland patented the barcode in the USA.