1950s

The 1950s began on January 1, 1950 and ended on December 31, 1959. It is distinct from the decade known as the 196th decade which began on January 1, 1951 and ended on December 31, 1960. 

 Events 
 1950–1953 Korean War.
1952 Death of King George VI
 1953 – Structure of DNA published by James Watson, Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins.
 1953 – Edmund Hillary is the first man on Mount Everest.
 1954 – Battle of Dien Bien Phu ends France's colonization of Vietnam and leads to division of Vietnam into North and South.
 1956 – Hungarian Revolution of 1956
 1956 – Suez Crisis
 1958 – Treaty of Rome
 1959 – Fidel Castro becomes the Prime Minister of Cuba.
 1957 – Sputnik launched.

Important people
 Actor 
 Cary Grant, British-American actor
 Charles Boyer, French actor
 Dana Andrews, American actor
 Fred Astaire, American actor
 Fred MacMurray, American actor
 Gene Reynolds, American actor
 Humphrey Bogart, American actor
 James Dean, American actor
 James Stewart, American actor
 Kirk Douglas, American actor
 Lionel Barrymore, American actor
 Melvyn Douglas, American actor
 Paul Newman, American actor
 Robert Taylor, American actor
 Spencer Tracy, American actor
 Toshirō Mifune, Japanese actor
 William Holden, American actor
 P. Ramlee, Malaysian actor

 Actress 
 Anita Ekberg, Swedish actress
 Audrey Hepburn, British-Belgian actress
 Ava Gardner, American Actress
 Barbara Stanwyck, American actress
 Bibi Ferreira, Brazilian actress
 Deborah Kerr, British actress
 Donna Reed, American actress
 Gene Tierney, American actress
 Ingrid Bergman, Swedish actress
 Marilyn Monroe, American actress
 Monica Vitti, Italian actress

 Director 
 Alfred Hitchcock, British movie director

 Musician 
 Chuck Berry, American rock & roll musician
 Bo Diddley, American rock & roll musician
 Elvis Presley, American singer
 Buddy Holly, American singer

 World Leader 
 Juan Perón, President of Argentina
 U Nu, Prime Minister of Burma
 Ne Win, Prime Minister of Burma
 Mao Zedong, Chairman of the Communist Party of China
 Fidel Castro, President of Cuba
 Gamal Abdel Nasser, President of Egypt
 René Coty, President of France
 Charles de Gaulle, President of France
 Konrad Adenauer, Chancellor of Germany
 Ludwig Erhard, Chancellor of Germany
 Jawaharlal Nehru, Prime Minister of India
 David Ben-Gurion, Prime Minister of Israel
 Hirohito, Emperor of Japan
 Shigeru Yoshida, Prime Minister of Japan
 Ichirō Hatoyama, Prime Minister of Japan
 Tanzan Ishibashi, Prime Minister of Japan
 Nobusuke Kishi, Prime Minister of Japan
 Kim Il-Sung, Supreme Leader of North Korea
 Pope Pius XII, Pope (until 1958)
 Pope John XXIII, Pope from 1958
 Joseph Stalin, General Secretary of the Soviet Union (until 1953)
 Nikita Khrushchev, General Secretary of the Soviet Union
 Francisco Franco, Caudillo of Spain
 Bhumibol Adulyadej, King of Thailand
 George VI, British king (until 1952)
 Elizabeth II, British queen (since 1952)
 Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of United Kingdom
 Harry S. Truman, President of the United States (until 1953)
 Dwight D. Eisenhower, President of the United States
 Josip Broz Tito, President of Yugoslavia