Year retrospective · 1950s

1957

1957 (MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1957th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 957th year of the 2nd millennium, the 57th year of the 20th century, and the 8th year of the 1950s decade.

Recorded events

10

top entries

Notable births

30

Notable deaths

30

Decade

1950s

Timeline

Defining events of 1957

  1. 1957 United Kingdom agrees to Singaporean self-rule.

    Island country in Southeast Asia

    Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. Its territory comprises a main island, over 60 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. The country is about one degree of latitude north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bordering the Strait of Malacca to the west, the Singapore Strait to the south along with the Riau Islands in Indonesia, the South China Sea to the east and the Straits of Johor along with the State of Johor in Malaysia to the north.

  2. 1957 Suez Crisis: The Suez Canal is reopened following the introduction of UNEF peacekeepers to the region.

    1956 British–French–Israeli invasion of Egypt

    The Suez Crisis, also known as the second Arab–Israeli war, the Tripartite Aggression in the Arab world and the Sinai War in Israel, was a British–French–Israeli invasion of Egypt in 1956. Israel invaded on 29 October, with the primary objective of re-opening the Straits of Tiran and the Gulf of Aqaba as the recent tightening of the eight-year-long Egyptian blockade further prevented Israeli passage. After issuing a joint ultimatum for a ceasefire, the United Kingdom and France joined the Israelis on 31 October, seeking to depose Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser and regain control of the Suez Canal, which Nasser had nationalised earlier in the year.

  3. 1957 Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery enters into force.

    1956 United Nations treaty which builds upon the 1926 Slavery Convention

    The Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the full title of which is the Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery, is a 1956 United Nations treaty which builds upon the 1926 Slavery Convention, which is still operative and which proposed to secure the abolition of slavery and of the slave trade, and the Forced Labour Convention of 1930, which banned forced or compulsory labour, by banning debt bondage, serfdom, child marriage, servile marriage, and child servitude.

  4. 1957 The flag carrier airline of Greece for decades, Olympic Airways, is founded by Aristotle Onassis following the acquisition of "TAE - Greek National Airlines".

    Country in Southeast Europe

    Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to the east. The Aegean Sea lies to the east of the mainland, the Ionian Sea to the west, and the Sea of Crete and the Mediterranean Sea to the south.

  5. 1957 The Suez Canal in Egypt is cleared and opens to shipping following the Suez Crisis.

    Artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt

    The Suez Canal is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia. It is the border between Africa and Asia. 11 mi) canal is a key trade route between Europe and Asia.

  6. 1957 The United States and Canada form the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD).

    Bi-national military alliance

    The North American Aerospace Defense Command is a bi-national mutual defense organization in Canada and the United States. Established 12 September 1957 as the North American Air Defense Command, NORAD is headquartered at Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado, which also serves as the headquarters of United States Northern Command (USNORTHCOM).

  7. 1957 The Soviet Union successfully conducts a long-range test flight of the R-7 Semyorka, the first intercontinental ballistic missile.
  8. 1957 U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond begins a filibuster to prevent the United States Senate from voting on the Civil Rights Act of 1957; he stopped speaking 24 hours and 18 minutes later. This would remain the longest speech ever conducted by a single Senator until Cory Booker spoke for 25 hours and five minutes, beginning on March 31, 2025.
  9. 1957 The Federation of Malaya (now Malaysia) gains its independence from the United Kingdom.
  10. 1957 American Bandstand, a show dedicated to the teenage "baby-boomers" by playing the songs and showing popular dances of the time, debuts on the ABC television network.

Arrivals

Born in 1957

Mukesh Ambani 1957– Indian businessman (born 1957)
Hervé Le Tellier 1957– French author; winner of the 2020 Prix Goncourt
Herbert Wetterauer 1957– German painter and author
Donald Tusk 1957– Prime Minister of Poland (2007–2014; since 2023)
Bob Horner 1957– American baseball player (born 1957)
Steve Buscemi 1957– American actor and director (born 1957)
Morris Day 1957– American singer (born 1956)
Matthew Cobb 1957– British Professor of Zoology at the University of Manchester
Juan Luis Guerra 1957– Dominican musician (born 1957)
Scott Adams 1957– American cartoonist and author (1957–2026)
Sid Vicious 1957– English bassist (1957–1979)
Lou Whitaker 1957– American baseball player (born 1957)

Farewells

Died in 1957

David Bomberg British painter (1890–1957)
John Cain Sr. Australian politician (1882–1957)
Eric Coates English composer (1886–1957)
Laura Ingalls Wilder American teacher and writer (1867–1957)
Mark Aldanov Russian writer and critic
Bugs Moran American criminal (1893–1957)
Anugrah Narayan Sinha Indian politician (1887–1957)
Richard E. Byrd American naval officer, explorer (1888–1957)
Josephine Hull American stage and film actress (1877–1957)
Evagoras Pallikarides Greek-Cypriot revolutionary (1938–1957)
Selim Sırrı Tarcan Turkish sports official (1874–1957)
Wyndham Lewis English painter and writer (1882–1957)

By month

Across the calendar of 1957

Step through

Adjacent years

Keep going

More to explore