August 1953

August 1, 1953 (Saturday)

August 2, 1953 (Sunday)

August 3, 1953 (Monday)

August 4, 1953 (Tuesday)

August 5, 1953 (Wednesday)

• Operation Big Switch: Prisoners of war are repatriated after the Korean War.

  August 6, 1953 (Thursday)

August 7, 1953 (Friday)

August 8, 1953 (Saturday)

• Soviet prime minister Georgi Malenkov announces that the Soviet Union has a hydrogen bomb.
• London Agreement on German External Debts concluded, writing off 50% of repayable war debt by the Federal Republic of Germany to its creditors.

  August 9, 1953 (Sunday)

August 10, 1953 (Monday)

• Pete Schoening saves members of the American K2 expedition, one of the most famous events in mountaineering history.

  August 11, 1953 (Tuesday)

August 12, 1953 (Wednesday)

• A magnitude 7.2 earthquake devastates most of the Ionian Sea islands in Greece's worst natural disaster in centuries.
• Soviet atomic bomb project: "Joe 4" - The first Soviet thermonuclear weapon is detonated at Semipalatinsk Test Site, Kazakh SSR.

  August 13, 1953 (Thursday)

• Four million workers go on strike in France to protest against austerity measures.

  August 14, 1953 (Friday)

August 15, 1953 (Saturday)

August 16, 1953 (Sunday)

August 17, 1953 (Monday)

• The first planning session of Narcotics Anonymous is held in Southern California.

  August 18, 1953 (Tuesday)

August 19, 1953 (Wednesday)

• Cold War: The CIA helps to overthrow the government of Mohammad Mosaddegh in Iran, and retain Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi on the throne.

  August 20, 1953 (Thursday)

• The French government ousts King Mohammed V of Morocco and exiles him to Corsica.
• The United States returns to West Germany 382 ships it had captured during World War II.

  August 21, 1953 (Friday)

August 22, 1953 (Saturday)

August 23, 1953 (Sunday)

August 24, 1953 (Monday)

August 25, 1953 (Tuesday)

• The general strike ends in France.

  August 26, 1953 (Wednesday)

August 27, 1953 (Thursday)

August 28, 1953 (Friday)

• Nippon TV launches, becoming Japan's First Commercial Television Channel.

  August 29, 1953 (Saturday)

August 30, 1953 (Sunday)

• Died:
• *Gaetano Merola, Italian conductor
• *Maurice Nicoll, British psychiatrist

  August 31, 1953 (Monday)