1957

Events from the year **1957 in the United States**.

Governors
* Governor of Alabama: Jim Folsom (Democratic)
* Governor of Arizona: Ernest McFarland (Democratic)
* Governor of Arkansas: Orval Faubus (Democratic)
* Governor of California: Goodwin Jess Knight (Republican)
* Governor of Colorado: Edwin C. Johnson (Democratic) (until January 8), Stephen L. R. McNichols (Democratic) (starting January 8)
* Governor of Connecticut: Abraham A. Ribicoff (Democratic)
* Governor of Delaware: J. Caleb Boggs (Republican)
* Governor of Florida: LeRoy Collins (Democratic)
* Governor of Georgia: Marvin Griffin (Democratic)
* Governor of Idaho: Robert E. Smylie (Republican)
* Governor of Illinois: William G. Stratton (Republican)
* Governor of Indiana: George N. Craig (Republican) (until January 14), Harold W. Handley (Republican) (starting January 14)
* Governor of Iowa: Leo A. Hoegh (Republican) (until January 17), Herschel C. Loveless (Democratic) (starting January 17)
* Governor of Kansas:
	+ until January 3: Fred Hall (Republican)
	+ January 3 – January 14: John McCuish (Republican)
	+ starting January 14: George Docking (Democratic)
* Governor of Kentucky: Happy Chandler (Democratic)
* Governor of Louisiana: Earl K. Long (Democratic)
* Governor of Maine: Edmund Muskie (Democratic)
* Governor of Maryland: Theodore R. McKeldin (Republican)
* Governor of Massachusetts: Christian A. Herter (Republican) (until January 3), Foster Furcolo (Democratic) (starting January 3)
* Governor of Michigan: G. Mennen Williams (Democratic)
* Governor of Minnesota: Orville L. Freeman (Democratic)
* Governor of Mississippi: James P. Coleman (Democratic)
* Governor of Missouri: Phil M. Donnelly (Democratic) (until January 14), James T. Blair Jr. (Democratic) (starting January 14)
* Governor of Montana: J. Hugo Aronson (Republican)
* Governor of Nebraska: Victor E. Anderson (Republican)
* Governor of Nevada: Charles H. Russell (Republican)
* Governor of New Hampshire: Lane Dwinell (Republican)
* Governor of New Jersey: Robert B. Meyner (Democratic)
* Governor of New Mexico: John F. Simms (Democratic) (until January 1), Edwin L. Mechem (Republican) (starting January 1)
* Governor of New York: W. Averell Harriman (Democratic)
* Governor of North Carolina: Luther H. Hodges (Democratic)
* Governor of North Dakota: Clarence Norman Brunsdale (Republican) (until January 3), John E. Davis (Republican) (starting January 3)
* Governor of Ohio:
	+ until January 3: Frank J. Lausche (Democratic)
	+ January 3 – January 14: John William Brown (Republican)
	+ starting January 14: C. William O'Neill (Republican)
* Governor of Oklahoma: Raymond D. Gary (Democratic)
* Governor of Oregon: Elmo Smith (Republican) (until January 14), Robert D. Holmes (Democratic) (starting January 14)
* Governor of Pennsylvania: George M. Leader (Democratic)
* Governor of Rhode Island: Dennis J. Roberts (Democratic)
* Governor of South Carolina: George Bell Timmerman Jr. (Democratic)
* Governor of South Dakota: Joe Foss (Republican)
* Governor of Tennessee: Frank G. Clement (Democratic)
* Governor of Texas: Allan Shivers (Democratic) (until January 15), Price Daniel (Democratic) (starting January 15)
* Governor of Utah: J. Bracken Lee (Republican) (until January 7), George Dewey Clyde (Republican) (starting January 7)
* Governor of Vermont: Joseph B. Johnson (Republican)
* Governor of Virginia: Thomas Bahnson Stanley (Democratic)
* Governor of Washington: Arthur B. Langlie (Republican) (until January 14), Albert D. Rosellini (Democratic) (starting January 14)
* Governor of West Virginia: William C. Marland (Democratic) (until January 14), Cecil H. Underwood (Republican) (starting January 14)
* Governor of Wisconsin: Walter J. Kohler Jr. (Republican) (until January 7), Vernon W. Thomson (Republican) (starting January 7)
* Governor of Wyoming: Milward L. Simpson (Republican)

Lieutenant Governors
* Lieutenant Governor of Alabama: William G. Hardwick (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Arkansas: Nathan Green Gordon (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of California: Harold J. Powers (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Colorado: Stephen L. R. McNichols (Democratic) (until January 8), Frank L. Hays (Republican) (starting January 8)
* Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut: Charles W. Jewett (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Delaware: John W. Rollins (Democratic) (until January 15), David P. Buckson (Republican) (starting January 15)
* Lieutenant Governor of Georgia: S. Ernest Vandiver (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Idaho: J. Berkeley Larsen (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Illinois: John William Chapman (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Indiana: Harold W. Handley (Republican) (until January 15), Crawford F. Parker (Republican) (starting January 15)
* Lieutenant Governor of Iowa: Leo Elthon (Republican) (until January 17), William H. Nicholas (Republican) (starting January 17)
* Lieutenant Governor of Kansas: John McCuish (Republican) (until January 8), Joseph W. Henkle Sr. (Democratic) (starting January 8)
* Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky: Harry Lee Waterfield (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana: Lether Frazar (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts: Sumner G. Whittier (Republican) (until January 3), Robert F. Murphy (Democratic) (starting January 3)
* Lieutenant Governor of Michigan: Philip A. Hart (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota: Karl Rolvaag (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi: Carroll Gartin (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Missouri: James T. Blair Jr. (Democratic) (until January 14), Edward V. Long (Democratic) (starting January 14)
* Lieutenant Governor of Montana: George M. Gosman (Republican) (until month and day unknown), Paul Cannon (Democratic) (starting month and day unknown)
* Lieutenant Governor of Nebraska: vacant (until January 10), Dwight W. Burney (Republican) (starting January 10)
* Lieutenant Governor of Nevada: Rex Bell (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of New Mexico: Joseph Montoya (Democratic) (until April), vacant (starting April)
* Lieutenant Governor of New York: George DeLuca (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina: vacant (until month and day unknown), Luther E. Barnhardt (Democratic) (starting month and day unknown)
* Lieutenant Governor of North Dakota: Clarence P. Dahl (Republican) (until January 9), Francis Clyde Duffy (Republican) (starting January 9)
* Lieutenant Governor of Ohio:
	+ until January 3: John William Brown (Republican)
	+ January 3 – January 14: vacant
	+ starting January 14: Paul M. Herbert (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Oklahoma: Cowboy Pink Williams (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania: Roy E. Furman (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island: vacant (until month and day unknown), Armand H. Cote (Democratic) (starting month and day unknown)
* Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina: Ernest Hollings (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of South Dakota: L. Roy Houck (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Tennessee: Jared Maddux (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Texas: Ben Ramsey (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Vermont: Consuelo N. Bailey (Republican) (until January 10), Robert T. Stafford (Republican) (starting January 10)
* Lieutenant Governor of Virginia: Allie Edward Stokes Stephens (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Washington: Emmett T. Anderson (Republican) (until January 14), John Cherberg (Democratic) (starting January 14)
* Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin: Warren P. Knowles (Republican)

## Events

### January

* January 2 – The San Francisco and Los Angeles stock exchanges merge to form the Pacific Coast Stock Exchange.
* January 6 – Elvis Presley appears on *The Ed Sullivan Show* for the third and final time. He is only shown from the waist up, even during the gospel segment, singing "Peace In The Valley". Ed Sullivan describes Elvis thus: "This is a real decent, fine boy. We've never had a pleasanter experience on our show with a big name than we've had with you. You're thoroughly alright."
* January 20 – Dwight D. Eisenhower and Richard Nixon are inaugurated for a second term as President of the United States and Vice President of the United States respectively.
* January 22 – The New York City "Mad Bomber", George Metesky, is arrested in Waterbury, Connecticut, and charged with planting more than 30 bombs.
* January 23 – Ku Klux Klan members force truck driver Willie Edwards to jump off a bridge into the Alabama River; he drowns as a result.
* January 31 – Pacoima aircraft accident: Three students on a junior high school playground in Pacoima, California, are among the 8 persons killed following a mid-air collision between a Douglas DC-7 airliner and a Northrop F-89 Scorpion fighter jet, in the skies above the San Fernando Valley section of Los Angeles.

### February

* February 4 – The first nuclear-powered submarine, USS *Nautilus* (SSN-571), logs its 60,000th nautical mile, matching the endurance of the fictional *Nautilus* described in Jules Verne's novel *Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea*.
* February 17 – The Warrenton Nursing Home fire in Missouri kills 72 people.
* February 25 – The "Boy In The Box" is discovered along a sidewalk in Philadelphia. The murder victim is described as Caucasian in appearance and 4 to 6 years old; the case was never solved.

### March

* March 4 – Standard & Poor's first publishes the S&P 500 Index in the United States.
* March 7 – The United States Congress approves the Eisenhower Doctrine on assistance to Communist-threatened foreign regimes.
* March 10 – Floodgates of The Dalles Dam are closed, inundating Celilo Falls and ancient Native American fisheries along the Columbia River in Oregon.
* March 13 – The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation arrests Jimmy Hoffa and charges him with bribery.
* March 22 – The 5.7 Mw San Francisco earthquake shook the Bay Area in California with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VII (*Very strong*), causing $1 million in losses, one death and forty injuries.
* March 25 – Copies of Allen Ginsberg's *Howl and Other Poems* (first published November 1, 1956), printed in the UK, are seized by United States Customs Service officials in San Francisco, on the grounds of obscenity. On October 3, in *People v. Ferlinghetti*, a subsequent prosecution of publisher Lawrence Ferlinghetti, the work is ruled not to be obscene.
* March 26 – 22-year-old Elvis Presley buys Graceland on 3734 Bellevue Boulevard (Highway 51 South) for $100,000. He and his family move from the house on 1034 Audubon Drive.
* March 27 – The 29th Academy Awards ceremony, hosted by Jerry Lewis and Celeste Holm, is held at RKO Pantages Theatre in Hollywood. The ceremony started a trend toward blockbusters and colorful spectaculars, with Michael Anderson's *Around the World in 80 Days* winning Best Motion Picture chief among them. The film is tied with Walter Lang's *The King and I* for the most awards with five, while George Stevens' *Giant* receives the most nominations with ten, including Stevens' second Best Director win.
* March 31 – Rodgers and Hammerstein's *Cinderella*, the team's only musical written especially for television, is telecast live and in color by CBS, starring Julie Andrews in the title role. The production is seen by millions, but this 1957 version is not telecast again for more than 40 years, when a kinescope of it is shown.

### April

* April 12 – Allen Ginsberg's poem *Howl*, printed in the United Kingdom, is seized by U.S. customs officials on the grounds of obscenity.

### May

* May 2
	+ Iron Liege, at 8–1, wins the Kentucky Derby in one of the most eventful Derbys ever.
	+ Vincent Gigante fails to assassinate mafioso Frank Costello in Manhattan.
* May 3 – Brooklyn Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley agrees to move the team from Brooklyn, to Los Angeles.
* May 16 – Walt Whitman Bridge opens between Philadelphia and New Jersey.

### June

* June 1 – Three-year-old thoroughbred Gallant Man wins the Peter Pan Stakes, at Belmont Park.
* June 15 – Oklahoma celebrates its semi-centennial statehood. A brand new 1957 Plymouth Belvedere is buried in a time capsule (to be opened 50 years later on June 15, 2007).
* June 20 – 1957 Fargo Tornado starts at 7:30 pm.
* June 23 – Royal Ice Cream sit-in
* June 25 – The United Church of Christ is formed in Cleveland, Ohio, by the merger of the Congregational Christian Churches and the Evangelical and Reformed Church.
* June 27 – Hurricane Audrey demolishes Cameron, Louisiana, killing 400 people.

### July

* July 9 – Elvis Presley's *Loving You* opens in movie theaters.
* July 16 – United States Marine Major John Glenn flies an F8U supersonic jet from California to New York in 3 hours, 23 minutes and 8 seconds, setting a new transcontinental speed record.

### August

* August 5 – *American Bandstand*, a local dance show produced by WFIL-TV in Philadelphia, joins the ABC Television Network.
* August 21 – U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces a 2-year suspension of nuclear testing.
* August 28 – United States Senator Strom Thurmond (D-SC) sets the record for the longest filibuster with his 24-hour, 18-minute speech railing against a civil rights bill.

### September

* September 4
	+ American Civil Rights Movement – Governor Orville Faubus of Arkansas calls out the National Guard of the United States to prevent the "Little Rock Nine" African American students from enrolling in Little Rock Central High School.
	+ The Ford Motor Company introduces the Edsel on what the company proclaims as "E Day".
* September 5 – Viking Press publishes *On the Road* by Jack Kerouac.
* September 9
	+ Civil Rights Act of 1957 enacted, setting up the United States Commission on Civil Rights.
	+ Catholic Memorial High School opens its doors for the first time in Boston, Massachusetts.
* September 23 – The Academy Award-winning movie *The Three Faces of Eve* is released.
* September 24 – U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower sends federal troops to Arkansas to provide safe passage into Little Rock Central High School for the Little Rock Nine.
* September 26 – *West Side Story*, a new musical by Leonard Bernstein, Jerome Robbins, Arthur Laurents and Stephen Sondheim opens at the Winter Garden Theatre on Broadway.

### October

* October 4 – The sitcom *Leave It to Beaver* premieres on CBS.
* October 9 – Neil H. McElroy is sworn in as United States Secretary of Defense.
* October 10
	+ U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower apologizes to the finance minister of Ghana, Komla Agbeli Gbdemah, after he is refused service in a restaurant in Dover, Delaware.
	+ Ayn Rand's novel *Atlas Shrugged* is published.
	+ The Milwaukee Braves defeat the New York Yankees, 4 games to 3, to win their 2nd World Series Title.
* October 11 – The orbit of the last stage of the R-7 Semyorka rocket (carrying Sputnik I) is first successfully calculated on an IBM 704 computer during Operation Moonwatch, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
* October 21 – The U.S. military sustains its first combat fatality in Vietnam, Army Capt. Hank Cramer of the 1st Special Forces Group.
* October 25 – Mafia boss Albert Anastasia is assassinated in a barber shop, at the Park Sheraton Hotel in New York City.
* October 31 – Toyota begins exporting vehicles to the U.S., beginning with the Toyota Crown and the Toyota Land Cruiser

### November

* November 1
	+ The Mackinac Bridge, the world's longest suspension bridge between anchorages at the time, opens to traffic connecting Michigan's two peninsulas.
	+ The first (westbound) tube of the Hampton Roads Bridge–Tunnel, linking Norfolk and Hampton, Virginia, opens at a cost of $44 million.
* November 6 – *Jailhouse Rock* opens nationally and Elvis Presley continues to gain more notoriety.
* November 7 – Cold War: In the United States, the Gaither Report calls for more American missiles and fallout shelters.
* November 8 – The film *Jailhouse Rock* opens across the U.S. to reach #3, and Elvis Presley continues to gain more notoriety.
* November 14 – Apalachin Meeting: American Mafia leaders meet in Apalachin, New York, at the house of Joseph Barbara; the meeting is broken up by a curious patrolman.
* November 16
	+ Edward Gein murders his last victim, Bernice Worden of Plainfield, Wisconsin.
	+ Oklahoma celebrates its 50th anniversary of statehood.
	+ Notre Dame beats the Oklahoma Sooners 7–0 to end the Sooners record 47 straight college football winning streak.
* November 25 – U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower suffers a stroke.

### December

* December 2 – Shippingport Atomic Power Station goes onstream; commercial operation begins on May 26, 1958.
* December 6 – Vanguard TV3, the first U.S. attempt to launch a satellite, fails with the rocket blowing up on the launch pad.
* December 18 – *The Bridge on the River Kwai* is released in the U.S. It goes on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Additional Oscars go to Alec Guinness (Best Actor) and David Lean (Best Director), among others. This is Lean's first Oscar for directing.
* December 19 – Meredith Willson's classic musical *The Music Man*, starring Robert Preston, is premièred on Broadway.
* December 20 – The Boeing 707 airliner flies for the first time.
* December 22 – The CBS afternoon anthology series *The Seven Lively Arts* presents Tchaikovsky's ballet *The Nutcracker* on U.S. television for the first time.

## Memoriam

* January 1 – James W. Ford, activist and politician (aged 64; NY, USA)
* January 14 – Humphrey Bogart, film actor (aged 57; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* January 16 – Arturo Toscanini, Italian-born orchestral conductor (aged 89; New York City, NY, USA)
* January 26 – Enoch J. Rector, cinema technician, inventor, and film director (aged 93; New York City, NY, USA)
* February 2 – Marian Cruger Coffin, landscape architect (aged 80; New Haven, CT, USA)
* February 10 – Laura Ingalls Wilder, author (aged 90; Mansfield, MO, USA)
* February 16 – William M. Acton, lawyer and politician (aged 80; Danville, IL, USA)
* February 25
	+ Bugs Moran, gangster (aged 63; Leavenworth, KS, USA)
	+ B. P. Schulberg, film producer (aged 65; Key Biscayne, FL, USA)
* March 11 – Richard E. Byrd, explorer (aged 68; Boston, MA, USA)
* March 29 – Laura Bowman, actress and singer (aged 75; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* May 2 – Joseph McCarthy, U.S. Senator from 1947 to 1957 (aged 48; Bethesda, MA, USA)
* May 10 – Annie Turnbo Malone, African American millionaire businesswoman, inventor and philanthropist (aged 79; Chicago, IL, USA)
* May 13 – Robert Alfred Theobald, admiral (aged 69; Boston, MA, USA)
* May 16 – Eliot Ness, Prohibition agent (aged 54; Coudersport, PA, USA)
* June 1 – Russell Hicks, actor (aged 61; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* June 4 – Mary Hay, actress and dancer (aged 55; Inverness, CA, USA)
* June 12 – Jimmy Dorsey, big band leader (aged 53; New York City, NY, USA)
* June 13 – Bruno Albert Forsterer, Marine Sergeant, Medal of Honor recipient (aged 87; Oakland, CA, USA)
* July 8 – Grace Coolidge, First Lady of the United States, Second Lady of the United States, as wife of Calvin Coolidge (aged 78; Northampton, MA, USA)
* July 10 – Julia Boynton Green, poet (aged 96; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* July 15 – James M. Cox, 46th and 48th Governor of Ohio (aged 87; Kettering, OH, USA)
* July 24 – Frank Fenton, actor (aged 51; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* August 7 – Oliver Hardy, comic film actor (aged 65; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* September 2 – Bobby Myers, race car driver (killed in racetrack accident) (aged 30; Darlington, SC, USA)
* September 21
	+ Margaret Ashmore Sudduth, educator, editor and temperance advocate (aged 98; Los Angeles County, CA, USA)
	+ Henry E. Warren, inventor (aged 85; Ashland, MA, USA)
* October 13 – Erich Auerbach, German philologist, literary critic and comparative scholar (aged 64; Wallingford, CT, USA)
* October 25 – Albert Anastasia, Italian American gangster (aged 55; New York City, NY, USA)
* October 29 – Louis B. Mayer, Belarusian-born film studio head (aged 73; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* November 1 – Charlie Caldwell, sports player and coach (aged 56; Princeton, NJ, USA)
* November 21 – Francis Burton Harrison, statesman (aged 83; Flemington, NJ, USA)
* November 29 – Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Austrian-born composer (aged 60; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* December 3 – Frank Gannett, publisher (aged 81; Rochester, NY, USA)
* December 10 – Maurice McLoughlin, tennis player (aged 67; Hermosa Beach, CA, USA)
* December 24 – Norma Talmadge, silent film actress (aged 63; Las Vegas, NV, USA)