1952

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• United States' occupation of Japan ends.

• On 6 February in Britain, George VI dies and is succeeded by his daughter Elizabeth II.

• On 26 February, prime minister Winston Churchill announces that Britain has produced its own atomic bomb.

• On 29 March, Harry Truman announces that he will not seek re-election as US president.

• Dr Victor Paz Estenssoro becomes president of Bolivia after a successful revolution in April.

• In Egypt on 23 July, a revolution ends the monarchy of King Farouk. A republic is proclaimed on 18 July 1953, headed by General Muhammad Neguib.

• On 26 July, Eva ('Evita') Perón, wife of the president of Argentina, dies of cancer. Her death signals the beginning of the decline of his appeal.

• On 20 October, the British colonial powers declare a state of emergency as the Mau Mau rebellion starts in Kenya among the Kikuyu people in protest against British colonial land policies.

• On 4 November, the Republican candidate, former general Dwight D Eisenhower, wins a landslide victory in the US presidential election, over Democrat Adlai Stevenson.

• On 6 November, the United States tests the first hydrogen bomb.

• First nuclear power plant accident occurs at Chalk River in Canada. There are no casualties.

• Robert Wallace Wilkins develops the first tranquillisers.

• George (Christine) Jorgensen undergoes the first sex-change operation.

• In Paris, Irish playwright Samuel Beckett's radical play, En attendant Godot (Waiting for Godot), is first performed.

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