Contemporary
Klaus Fuchs (1950): The Atomic Spy Who Confessed in Britain
Fuchs confessed, was convicted under the Official Secrets Act on 1 March 1950 and sentenced to 14 years; his confession led the FBI to Harry Gold and the Rosenberg network.
Region
Europe
Contemporary
Schuman Declaration (1950): The Plan That Launched European Unity
France proposed a supranational coal and steel community with West Germany, leading to the Treaty of Paris of 1951 and the start of European integration.
Contemporary
Cambridge Five: Britain's Soviet Spy Ring and Its Defections
Burgess and Maclean fled to Moscow in 1951 and Philby in 1963; Blunt confessed secretly in 1964 and was publicly exposed in 1979; Cairncross was publicly named in 1990.
Contemporary
European Coal and Steel Community (1951): First Step to the EU
Six states created the first supranational European community, which ran a common market for coal and steel from 1952 to 2002 and became the model for the EEC.
Contemporary
Great Smog of London (1952): The Deadly Fog and the Clean Air Act
An estimated 4,000 deaths in the immediate aftermath and perhaps 10,000-12,000 in total; the disaster led to the Clean Air Act 1956.
Contemporary
Death of Joseph Stalin (1953): The Power Struggle That Followed
Stalin died of a stroke; a collective leadership replaced him, Beria was arrested and executed, and Khrushchev emerged as the dominant leader.
Contemporary
East German Uprising of 1953: Workers' Revolt on 17 June
Soviet troops and East German police suppressed the uprising; dozens were killed, thousands arrested, and Walter Ulbricht's regime survived with Soviet support.
Contemporary
Discovery of the DNA Double Helix (1953): Watson and Crick
The double-helix model, published in Nature on 25 April 1953, explained how genetic information is stored and copied and founded molecular biology.
Contemporary
North Sea Flood of 1953: Disaster in the Netherlands and Britain
About 1,836 deaths in the Netherlands, 307 in England, 19 in Scotland and 28 in Belgium; it led to the Delta Works and, later, the Thames Barrier.
Contemporary
Battle of Dien Bien Phu 1954: France's Defeat in Indochina
Decisive Viet Minh victory; the French garrison surrendered and the Geneva Accords ended French rule in Indochina.
Contemporary
Algerian War of Independence 1954-1962: France Loses Algeria
The Évian Accords ended the war; Algeria became independent on 5 July 1962 and most European settlers left.
Contemporary
Warsaw Pact (1955): The Soviet Bloc's Military Alliance
The Soviet Union and seven Eastern European states formed a military alliance that lasted until its dissolution in July 1991.