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.

• 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.

• 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

• 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

• Alfred Hitchcock, British movie director

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

• 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