1951 in the United States

1951 in the United States
Events from the year 1951 in the United States.
Incumbents
Federal government
President: Harry S. Truman (D-Missouri)
Vice President: Alben W. Barkley (D-Kentucky)
Chief Justice: Fred M. Vinson (Kentucky)
Speaker of the House of Representatives: Sam Rayburn (D-Texas)
Senate Majority Leader: Scott W. Lucas (D-Illinois) (until January 3), Ernest McFarland (D-Arizona) (starting January 3)
Congress: 81st (until January 3), 82nd (starting January 3)
Events
January–March
January 1 – First week of Patti Page's hit song "Tennessee Waltz" as No. 1 single on Billboard and Cashbox charts.
January 10 – The new United Nations headquarters officially opens in New York City.
January 17 – Korean War: Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul.
January 27 – Nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site begins with a 1-kiloton bomb dropped on Frenchman Flat, northwest of Las Vegas.
January 31 – The last daily narrow gauge passenger train, the San Juan Express, is retired by the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad.
February 21 – The Jack in the Box fast-food restaurant chain is founded by Robert O. Peterson in San Diego, California.
February 27 – The Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution, limiting presidents to two terms, is ratified.
March 2 – The first NBA All-Star Game of basketball is played in the Boston Garden.
March 3 or 5 – Jackie Brenston "and His Delta Cats" (actually Ike Turner's Kings of Rhythm) record "Rocket 88" at Sam Phillips' Sun Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, a candidate for the first rock and roll record (released in April). It is covered on June 14 by Bill Haley and His Saddlemen.
March 12 – Hank Ketcham's best-selling comic strip Dennis the Menace appears in newspapers across the U.S. for the first time.
March 14 – Korean War: For the second time, United Nations troops recapture Seoul.
March 29
Ethel and Julius Rosenberg are convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage. On April 5 they are sentenced to receive the death penalty.
Rodgers and Hammerstein's The King and I opens on Broadway and runs for three years. It is the first Rodgers & Hammerstein musical specifically written for an actress (Gertrude Lawrence). Lawrence is stricken with cancer during the run of the show and dies halfway through its run a year later. The show makes a star of Yul Brynner.
The 23rd Academy Awards ceremony, hosted by Fred Astaire, is held at RKO Pantages Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles. Joseph L. Mankiewicz's All About Eve wins six awards, including Best Motion Picture and Mankiewicz's second consecutive Best Director win. The film is also nominated for 14 awards overall, breaking the record of 13 set by 1939's Gone with the Wind.
March 31 – Remington Rand delivers the first UNIVAC I computer to the United States Census Bureau.
April–June
April 7 – Operation Greenhouse: The first thermonuclear burn is carried out on Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands of the Pacific by the U.S. Three further tests in this series take place up to May 24.
April 11 – U.S. President Harry S. Truman relieves General Douglas MacArthur of his Far Eastern commands.
April 27 – RKO releases the Howard Hawks sci-fi film The Thing from Another World.
May 3 – The U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services and U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations begins its closed door hearings into the dismissal of General Douglas MacArthur by U.S. President Harry S. Truman.
May 21 – The Ninth Street Show, formally known as the 9th Street Art Exhibition, a gathering of a number of notable artists, marks the stepping-out of the post war New York avant-garde, collectively known as the New York School.
June 14 – The UNIVAC I computer is dedicated by the U.S. Census Bureau.
June 15–July 1 – In New Mexico, Arizona, California, Oregon, Washington and British Columbia, thousands of hectares of forests are destroyed in fires.
June 18 – Battle Ground, Washington is incorporated.
July–September
July 10 – Korean War: Armistice negotiations begin at Kaesong.
July 11–12 – Cicero race riot of 1951: A mob of 4,000 whites attack an apartment building housing a single black family in a neighborhood in Cicero, Illinois.
July 13
The Great Flood of 1951 reaches its highest point in Northeast Kansas, culminating in the greatest flood damage to date in the Midwestern United States.
MGM's Technicolor film version of Show Boat, starring Kathryn Grayson, Ava Gardner, and Howard Keel, premieres at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. The musical brings overnight fame to African American bass-baritone William Warfield (who sings Ol' Man River in the film).
July 14 – In Joplin, Missouri, the George Washington Carver National Monument becomes the first United States National Monument to honor an African American.
July 16 – J. D. Salinger's coming-of-age story The Catcher in the Rye is published by Little, Brown and Company in New York City.
July 17 – Western New England College in Springfield, Massachusetts is chartered.
July 26 – Walt Disney's 13th animated feature film, Alice in Wonderland, premieres in London, United Kingdom. Though the film is not well received critically upon release, it later garners more acclaim from the psychedelic era onwards as a cult classic.
July 30 – David Lean's Oliver Twist is finally shown in the United States, after 10 minutes of supposedly anti-Semitic references and closeups of Alec Guinness as Fagin are cut. It will not be shown uncut in the U.S. until 1970.
August 12 – J. D. Salinger's coming-of-age story The Catcher in the Rye is first published in the United States.
September 1 – The United States, Australia and New Zealand all sign a mutual defense pact, called the ANZUS Treaty.
September 3 – The American soap opera Search for Tomorrow debuts on CBS. The show switches to NBC on March 26, 1982 and airs its final episode on December 26, 1986.
September 8
Treaty of San Francisco: In San Francisco, 48 nations sign a peace treaty with Japan to formally end the Pacific War.
Japan-U.S. Security Treaty, which allows United States Armed Forces being stationed in Japan after the occupation of Japan, is signed by Japan and the United States.
September 18 –
20th Century Fox's Robert Wise science fiction film The Day the Earth Stood Still is released.
Elia Kazan's adaptation of the Tennessee Williams play A Streetcar Named Desire premieres, becoming a critical and box-office smash.
September 20 – NATO accepts Greece and Turkey as members.
September 24 – MGM releases the musical Show Boat.
October–December
October 3 – "Shot Heard 'Round the World": One of the greatest moments in Major League Baseball history occurs when the New York Giants' Bobby Thomson hits a game winning home run in the bottom of the 9th inning off of Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Ralph Branca, to win the National League pennant after being down 14 games.
October 4
MGM's Technicolor musical film, An American in Paris, starring Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron and directed by Vincente Minnelli, premieres in New York. It will go on to win six Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
Shoppers World (one of the first shopping malls in the U.S.) opens in Framingham, Massachusetts.
October 10 – The New York Yankees defeat the New York Giants (baseball), 4 games to 2, to win the 14th World Series Title.
October 15 – Sitcom I Love Lucy, starring Lucille Ball and her husband Desi Arnaz, makes its television debut on CBS.
October 16 – Judy Garland begins her legendary concerts in New York's Palace Theatre (Broadway).
October 17 – CBS' Eye logo premieres on television.
October 20 – The "Johnny Bright incident", an assault on an African American player, occurs in a college football game at Stillwater, Oklahoma.
October 24 – U.S. President Harry Truman declares an official end to war with Germany.
November 1 – The first military exercises for nuclear warfare, with infantry troops included, are held in the Nevada desert.
November 10 – Direct dial coast-to-coast telephone service begins.
November 11 – Monogram Pictures releases the sci-fi film Flight to Mars in the United States.
November 22 – Paramount Pictures releases George Pal science fiction film When Worlds Collide.
November 24 – The Broadway play Gigi opens, starring little known actress Audrey Hepburn as the lead character.
November 28 – The film Scrooge, starring Alastair Sim, premieres in the U.S. under the title of Charles Dickens's original novel, A Christmas Carol.
c. December – The Institute of War and Peace Studies is established by Dwight D. Eisenhower at Columbia University in New York (of which he is president) with William T. R. Fox as first director.
December 13 – A water storage tank collapses in Tucumcari, New Mexico, resulting in 4 deaths and 200 buildings destroyed.
December 17 – "We Charge Genocide", a petition describing genocide by the U.S. government against African Americans, is delivered to the United Nations.
December 20 – Experimental Breeder Reactor I (EBR-1), the world's first (experimental) nuclear power plant, opens in Idaho.
December 23 – John Huston's drama film, The African Queen, starring Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn, premieres in Hollywood.
December 24 – Gian Carlo Menotti's 45-minute opera Amahl and the Night Visitors premieres live on NBC, becoming the first opera written especially for television.
December 31 – The Marshall Plan expires after distributing more than US$13.3 billion in foreign aid to rebuild Europe.
Ongoing
Cold War (1947–1991)
Second Red Scare (1947–1957)
Marshall Plan (1948–1951)
Korean War (1950–1953)
Unknown
"Vegas Vic" is added to the Pioneer Club, in Las Vegas.
Births
January–March
January 1 – Martha P. Haynes, astronomer and academic
January 2 – Jim Essian, baseball player and coach
January 4
Bob Black, author and activist
Barbara Cochran, skier
January 6 – Kim Wilson, singer, harmonica player
January 8 – John McTiernan, director, producer and writer
January 9 – John Prados, historian and war gamer designer (d. 2022)
January 10 – Tim Seelig, composer
January 11 – Carol Leigh, author and sex workers' rights activist (d. 2022)
January 12
Kirstie Alley, actress (d. 2022)
Chris Bell, guitarist and singer-songwriter (d. 1978)
Rush Limbaugh, conservative radio personality (d. 2021)
January 18 – Elijah Cummings, African American politician (d. 2019)
January 21 – Eric Holder, African American politician, 82nd United States Attorney General
January 22
Alveda King, activist, minister, author and politician
Leon Roberts, baseball player
January 23
Margaret Bailes, sprinter
Michael R. Matz, horse rider and trainer
Sully Sullenberger, airline captain
January 25 – Steve Prefontaine, runner (d. 1975)
January 27
Seth Justman, rock keyboardist (The J. Geils Band)
Ken Timbs, wrestler (d. 2004)
January 30 – Charles S. Dutton, African American actor
January 31
Dave Benton, Aruban-born American singer
Harry Wayne Casey, musician, songwriter and producer
February 4 – Phil Ehart, drummer (Kansas)
February 5 – O'Neal Compton, actor and director (d. 2019)
February 7 – Kim Milford, actor and singer (d. 1988)
February 9 – Jay Inslee, politician
February 10 – Bob Iger, CEO of The Walt Disney Company
February 12 – Cory Lerios, pianist and vocalist
February 13 – David Naughton, actor (Makin' It) ***
February 15 – Melissa Manchester, pop singer
February 16
Mike Flanagan, baseball pitcher (died 2011)
William Katt, film, television actor (The Greatest American Hero)
February 19 – Alan Merrill, musician (died 2020)
February 20 – Edward Albert, film and television actor (died 2006)
February 22 – Ellen Greene, actress
February 23 – Patricia Richardson, actress
February 24 – Debra Jo Rupp, actress (That 70's Show)
February 27 – Lee Atwater, political activist, campaign strategist and presidential advisor (d. 1991)
March 1 – Deb Fischer, politician
March 4
Mike Quarry, light-heavyweight boxer (died 2006)
Gwen Welles, actress (died 1993)
March 8 – Dianne Walker, tap dancer
March 14 – Jerry Greenfield, co-founder of Ben & Jerry's ice cream
March 17 – Kurt Russell, actor
March 18
Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry's ice cream
B. E. Taylor, singer (d. 2016)
March 19 – Fred Berry, actor (d. 2003)
March 24 – Tommy Hilfiger, fashion designer
March 26 – Carl Wieman, physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
April–June
April 1
Tim Bassett, basketball player (died 2018)
Frederic Schwartz, American architect, co-designed Empty Sky (died 2014)
April 5 – Dean Kamen, inventor, entrepreneur
April 7 – Janis Ian, folk singer-songwriter
April 8 – Phil Schaap, radio host (d. 2021)
April 10 – David Helvarg, journalist, activist
April 11 – Doris Angleton, socialite, murder victim (d. 1997)
April 12
Alex Briley, disco singer
Tom Noonan, film actor
April 13
Peabo Bryson, African American R&B singer-songwriter
John Furey, screen actor
Max Weinberg, rock drummer
April 16
Mordechai Ben David, Hasidic Jewish singer
Bill Walker, 13th Governor of Alaska
April 20 – Luther Vandross, African American R&B, soul singer-songwriter (d. 2005)
April 21
Tony Danza, actor, comedian (Who's the Boss?)
Bob Varsha, sportscaster
April 23 – Allison Krause, Kent State University shooting victim (d. 1970)
April 27 – Ace Frehley, rock guitarist (Kiss)
April 29 – Dale Earnhardt, race car driver (d. 2001 in auto racing accident)
May 3
Christopher Cross, pop rock singer-songwriter ("Sailing")
Stewart F. Lane, Broadway producer, director, playwright and actor
May 4 – Jackie Jackson, African American pop singer (The Jackson 5)
May 9 – Joy Harjo, Native American poet
May 12 – Joe Nolan, baseball player
May 13
Sharon Sayles Belton, Mayor of Minneapolis
Guy Morriss, American football coach and player (d. 2022)
May 15
Jonathan Richman, proto-punk singer-songwriter and guitarist
Frank Wilczek, physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
May 19
Joey Ramone, rock musician (Ramones) (d. 2001)
Dick Slater, professional wrestler (d. 2018)
May 20 – Mike Crapo, U.S. Senator from Idaho from 1999
May 21
Al Franken, comedian (Saturday Night Live) and U.S. Senator from Minnesota from 2009 to 2018
Bob Gale, film screenwriter, producer and director
May 23 – Jill E. Barad, businessperson
May 26 – Sally Ride, First American woman astronaut (d. 2012)
May 28 – JoAnne A. Epps, legal scholar and academic (d. 2023)
May 30
Garrett Hongo, poet
Stephen Tobolowsky, screen actor
May 31 – Jimmy Nalls, jazz fusion guitarist (Sea Level) (d. 2017)
June 2
Gilbert Baker, artist and activist, creator of the Rainbow flag in 1978 (d. 2017)
Jeanine Pirro, attorney, politician and conservative political commentator
June 3
Jill Biden, First Lady of the United States
Deniece Williams, African-American singer
June 5 – Suze Orman, financial advisor, writer and television personality
June 8 – Tony Rice, bluegrass musician (d. 2020)
June 9
Bruce Duffy, author (d. 2022)
James Newton Howard, film composer
June 12 – Brad Delp, rock vocalist (Boston) (d. 2007)
June 13 – Richard Thomas, television actor (The Waltons)
June 15 – Jane Amsterdam, magazine editor
June 16 – Charlie Dominici, progressive metal singer
June 18 – Steve Miner, screen director and producer
June 20 – Tress MacNeille, voice actress
June 21 – Nils Lofgren, rock musician
June 24
Leslie Cochran, homeless activist and Austin icon (d. 2012)
Ken Reitz, baseball player (d. 2021)
June 27
Julia Duffy, actress
K. L. Brown, Alabaman politician
June 28 – Lloyd Maines, country musician, record producer
June 29
Keno Don Rosa, comic book author
Craig Sager, sports commentator (d. 2016)
June 30 – Stanley Clarke, jazz fusion bass guitarist
July–September
July 1
Daryl Anderson, television actor
Anne Feeney, folk singer (d. 2021)
Terrence Mann, actor and dancer
July 2
Anne Garrels, journalist (d. 2022)
Keith Marshall, baseball player
Sylvia Rivera, transgender activist (d. 2002)
Stevie Woods, R&B singer (d. 2014)
July 3 – Bob Rigby, soccer goalkeeper
July 4 – Vincent Marzello, screen actor (d. 2020)
July 5
Goose Gossage, baseball player
Roger Wicker, politician
July 7 – Roz Ryan, actress and voice actress
July 8 – Anjelica Huston, screen actress
July 9 – Chris Cooper, screen actor
July 10
Phyllis Smith, screen and voice actress
Cheryl Wheeler, folk singer-songwriter
July 11 – Yechiel Eckstein, rabbi (d. 2019)
July 12 – Cheryl Ladd, actress and singer
July 17 – Lucie Arnaz, actress and singer
July 21 – Robin Williams, actor and comedian (d. 2014)
July 22 – Tisa Farrow, film actress
July 23 – Michael McConnohie, voice actor
July 24 – Lynda Carter, actress and singer
July 25 – Angela Jackson, African American poet and playwright
July 28
Doug Collins, basketball player, coach and analyst
Garrett Hongo, poet
July 31 – Barry Van Dyke, actor, writer, director and presenter
August 2 – Andrew Gold, pop singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist (10cc, Wax) (d. 2011)
August 3 – Jay North, child and adult television and voice actor
August 6 – Catherine Hicks, television actress
August 8 – Randy Shilts, journalist and author (d. 1994)
August 12 – Willie Horton, criminal
August 13 – Dan Fogelberg, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist (d. 2007)
August 14 – Carl Lumbly, African American screen and voice actor
August 15 – Bobby Caldwell, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist (d. 2023)
August 17 – Richard Hunt, puppeteer (d. 1992)
August 20 – Greg Bear, science fiction author
August 21
Chesley V. Morton, politician and securities arbitrator
Harry Smith, television journalist and editor
John Stearns, baseball player (d. 2022)
August 23
Allan Bristow, basketball player and coach
Mark Hudson, record producer
Jimi Jamison, rock singer-songwriter (Survivor) (d. 2014)
Susan L. Solomon, executive and lawyer (d. 2022)
August 24
Orson Scott Card, science fiction author
Bill C. Davis, playwright and actor (d. 2021)
August 26 – Edward Witten, mathematician, Fields medalist
August 27
Mack Brown, college football coach
Robert Torricelli, U.S. Senator from New Jersey from 1997 to 2003
August 28
Barbara Hambly, novelist and screenwriter
Wayne Osmond, pop singer
August 30 – Timothy Bottoms, film actor
September 2
Jim DeMint, U.S. Senator from South Carolina
Mark Harmon, screen actor
September 4 – Judith Ivey, stage actress and director
September 5 – Michael Keaton, screen actor and director
September 7
Chrissie Hynde, rock singer
Bert Jones, football player
September 11 – Mr. Butch, homeless person and Boston icon (d. 2007)
September 12 – Joe Pantoliano, screen character actor
September 13
Suzanne Lummis, poet
Jean Smart, actress (Designing Women)
Linda Wong, pornographic film actress (d. 1987)
September 15
Pete Carroll, football coach
Jared Taylor, author and journalist
Fred Seibert, screen producer, Frederator Studios founder
September 17 – Cassandra Peterson, screen actress (Elvira, Mistress of the Dark)
September 18
Ben Carson, African American politician, author and neurosurgeon
Dee Dee Ramone, rock bass guitarist (Ramones) (d. 2002)
Darryl Stingley, American football player (New England Patriots) (d. 2007)
September 22 – Amanda Mackey, casting director (d. 2022)
September 25
Pedro Almodóvar, filmmaker
Mark Hamill, film and voice actor (Star Wars)
September 27
Jim Shooter, and illustrator
David Starobin, guitarist, producer, and director
October–December
October 3
Bernard Cooper, fiction writer
Harold McGee, writer on food science and history
Keb' Mo', African American blues musician
Kathryn D. Sullivan, astronaut
Dave Winfield, baseball player
October 7 – John Mellencamp, heartland rock singer-songwriter and instrumentalist
October 11 – Jon Miller, sports announcer
October 18
Mike Antonovich, ice hockey player and executive
Pam Dawber, screen actress
Terry McMillan, novelist
October 25 – Richard Lloyd, rock guitarist
October 26 – Bootsy Collins, African American funk singer-songwriter and bass guitarist
October 28 – Ronnie and Donnie Galyon, conjoined twins (d. 2020)
October 30 – Harry Hamlin, screen actor
November 1 – Ronald Bell, musician (Kool & the Gang) (d. 2020)
November 2 – Thomas Mallon, novelist and critic
November 3 – Ed Murawinski, cartoonist (New York Daily News)
November 9 – Lou Ferrigno, film actor and bodybuilder
November 11 – Marc Summers, television host
November 14
Frankie Banali, rock drummer (d. 2020)
Stephen Bishop, singer-songwriter, guitarist and actor
November 15 – Beverly D'Angelo, actress and singer
November 16
Miguel Sandoval, screen actor
Paula Vogel, playwright
November 17
Butch Davis, American football head coach
Dean Paul Martin, pop singer and screen actor (d. 1987)
Stephen Root, screen and voice actor
November 18 – Justin Raimondo, political activist (d. 2019)
November 20 – Rodger Bumpass, voice actor (Squidward Tentacles on SpongeBob SquarePants)
November 21 – John Kennedy, Junior senator from Louisiana
November 24
Chet Edwards, politician
Robin Herman, writer and journalist (d. 2022)
November 27 – Teri DeSario, disco singer-songwriter
November 29
Kathryn Bigelow, film director
Roger Troutman, funk singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist (d. 1999)
December 1
Sherry Aldridge, singer
Obba Babatundé, actor
Jaco Pastorius, jazz fusion bass guitarist (d. 1987)
Treat Williams, actor, writer and aviator (d. 2023)
December 2 – Adrian Devine, baseball pitcher (d. 2020)
December 4
Gary Rossington, guitarist and songwriter (d. 2023)
Patricia Wettig, screen actress
December 8 – Bill Bryson, non-fiction author
December 10 – Johnny Rodriguez, country singer
December 11 – Peter T. Daniels, writing systems scholar
December 12 – Greg Lee, basketball player (d. 2022)
December 18
Bobby Jones, basketball player
Alvin E. Roth, academic
December 19 – Karl F. Lopker, business executive (d. 2018)
December 31 – Tom Hamilton, hard rock bass guitarist and songwriter
Deaths
January–March
January 2 – Richard Hart, actor (b. 1915)
January 10 – Sinclair Lewis, novelist, recipient of Nobel Prize in Literature (b. 1885)
January 11 – Charles Goddard, playwright and screenwriter (b. 1879)
January 13 – Florence Kahn, Lady Beerbohm, actress, died in Italy (b. 1878)
January 18 – Jack Holt, film actor (b. 1888)
January 22 – Karl Nessler, inventor (b. 1872 in Germany)
January 28 – Dominic Salvatore Gentile, military pilot, killed in aviation accident (b. 1920)
February 9 – Eddy Duchin, jazz pianist and bandleader (b. 1909)
February 13 – Lloyd C. Douglas, novelist (b. 1877)
February 16 – Tommy Gagliano, mobster (b. 1883)
February 18 – Lyman Gilmore, aviation pioneer (b. 1874)
February 22 – Alfred Lindley, Olympic rower (b. 1904)
February 28 – Henry W. Armstrong, boxer and songwriter (b. 1879)
March 2 – Al Taylor, film character actor (b. 1887)
March 8 – Charles Coleman, film character actor (b. 1885 in Australia)
March 14 – Val Lewton, film producer and screenwriter (b. 1904)
March 25
Eddie Collins, baseball player (Chicago White Sox) (b. 1887)
Oscar Micheaux, African American filmmaker (b. 1884)
March 31 – Ralph Forbes, actor (b. 1896 in the United Kingdom)
April–June
April 4 – George Albert Smith, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (b. 1870)
April 11 – Joe King, film actor (b. 183)
April 19 – Frank Hopkins, horseman and soldier (b. 1865)
April 23 – Charles G. Dawes, 30th vice president of the United States, recipient of Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1865)
May 5 – Eddie Dunn, comedy film actor (b. 1896)
May 7 – Warner Baxter, film actor (b. 1889)
May 8 – Pat Hartigan, film actor and director (b. 1881)
May 20 – Marguerite Merington, author (b. 1857 in the United Kingdom)
May 24 – Thomas N. Heffron, silent film director (b. 1872)
May 29 – Fanny Brice, entertainer (b. 1891)
June 4 – Serge Koussevitzky, orchestral conductor (b. 1874 in Russia)
June 9 – Mayo Methot, actress (b. 1904)
June 21 – Charles Dillon Perrine, astronomer, discoverer of two moons of Jupiter (b. 1867)
June 27 – David Warfield, stage actor (b. 1866)
July–September
July 9 – Harry Heilmann, baseball player (Detroit Tigers) (b. 1894)
July 23 – Robert J. Flaherty, filmmaker (b. 1884)
August 3 – Bee Ho Gray, Wild West star, silent film actor and vaudeville performer (b. 1885)
August 6 – Anthony Brancato, criminal (b. 1914)
August 14
Bertha Gifford, serial killer (b. 1871)
William Randolph Hearst, newspaper magnate (b. 1863)
August 28 – Robert Walker, film actor (b. 1918)
September 7 – John Sloan, painter and etcher (b. 1871)
September 17 – Jimmy Yancey, pianist and composer (b. 1898)
September 18 – Gelett Burgess, art critic and humorist (b. 1866)
September 29 – Thomas Cahill, soccer coach (b. 1864)
October–December
October 4 – Henrietta Lacks, African American originator of the HeLa cell line (b. 1920)
October 6 – Otto Fritz Meyerhof, physician and biochemist, recipient of Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1884 in Germany)
October 24
Al Baker, magician (b. 1874)
Clarence Stewart Williams, admiral (b. 1863)
October 26 – William S. Finucane, businessman and politician (b. 1888)
November 3 – Richard Wallace, film director (b. 1894)
November 15 – Robert Elliott, screen character actor (b. 1879)
November 25 – Harry B. Liversedge, general (b. 1894)
December 5 – Shoeless Joe Jackson, baseball player (Chicago White Sox) (b. 1889)
December 6 – Harold Ross, editor, founder of The New Yorker (b. 1892)
December 12 – Bill Patton, film actor (b. 1894)
December 19 – Barton Yarborough, radio actor (b. 1900)
See also
List of American films of 1951
Timeline of United States history (1950–1969)
References
External links
1950s in the United States
United States
United States
Years of the 20th century in the United States