page_title: 1953
section_title: May
hierarchical_section_title: 1953 / Events / May
context_page_description: 1953 was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1953rd year of the Common Era and Anno Domini designations, the 953rd year of the 2nd millennium, the 53rd year of the 20th century, and the 4th year of the 1950s decade.
context_section_description: May 2 – Hussein is crowned King of Jordan.
  May 5 – Aldous Huxley first tries the psychedelic hallucinogen mescaline, inspiring his book The Doors of Perception.
  May 9
  France agrees to the provisional independence of Cambodia, with King Norodom Sihanouk.
  Australian Senate election, 1953: The Liberal/Country Coalition Government, led by Prime Minister Robert Menzies, holds their Senate majority, despite gains made by the Labor Party, led by H. V. Evatt. This is the first occasion where a Senate election is held without an accompanying House Of Representatives election.
  May 10 – The town of Chemnitz, East Germany becomes Karl Marx Stadt.
  May 11 – Waco tornado outbreak: An F5 tornado hits in the downtown section of Waco, Texas, killing 114.
  May 15 – The Standards And Recommended Practices (SARPS) for Aeronautical Information Service (AIS) are adopted by the ICAO Council. These SARPS are in Annex 15 to the Chicago Convention, and 15 May is celebrated by the AIS community as “World AIS Day”.
  May 18 – At Rogers Dry Lake, Californian Jackie Cochran becomes the first woman to exceed Mach 1, in a North American F-86 Sabre at 652.337 mph (566.865 kn; 1,049.835 km/h).
  May 25 – Nuclear testing: At the Nevada Test Site, the United States conducts its only nuclear artillery test: Upshot-Knothole Grable.
  May 29 – 1953 British Mount Everest expedition: Sir Edmund Hillary from New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay from Nepal become the first men to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
caption: May 29: Mount Everest conquered.
exif: {}