1951

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	19th century 20th century 21st century
Decades:	1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s
Years:	1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954

Template:C20YearInTopicX Year 1951 (MCMLI) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. Template:C20YearTOCship

Events of 1951

January

• January 9 - United Nations headquarters officially opens (New York City).

January 9: United Nations headquarters opened.

• January 15 - Ilse Koch, The "Witch of Buchenwald," wife of the Commandant of the Buchenwald concentration camp, is sentenced to life imprisonment in a court in West Germany.
• January 17 - Korean War: Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul.
• January 20 - Avalanches in the Alps - 240 die and 45,000 are buried for a time in Switzerland, Austria and Italy.
• January 27 - Nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site begins with a one-kiloton bomb dropped on Frenchman Flats, northwest of Las Vegas, Nevada.

February

• February 1 - United Nations General Assembly declares that China is the aggressor in the Korean War.
• February 4-8 - Surgeons remove an ovarian cyst from Gertrude Levandowski in 96-hour long operation in Chicago. She loses almost half of her weight and emerges weighing 140 kg / 308 lb.
• February 6
  • A Pennsylvania Railroad passenger train derails near Woodbridge Township, New Jersey, killing 85 people and injuring over 500 - one of the worst rail disasters in American history.
  • Paul Harvey arrested for trying to break into Argonne National Laboratory.
• February 12 - Marriage of Muhammad Reza Shah to Soraya Esfandiary Bakhtiari.
• February 19- Jean Lee becomes the last woman hanged in Australia, when Lee and her two pimps are hanged for the murder and torture of a 73 year old bookmaker.
• February 27 - The Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution, limiting Presidents to two terms, is ratified.
• February 28 - Linus Pauling, Robert Corey, and Herman Branson publish the findings of the α-helix and the β-sheet.

March

March 29: Rosenbergs.

• March 6 - The trial of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg begins.
• March 7 - Korean War: Operation Ripper - In Korea, United Nations troops led by General Matthew Ridgeway begin an assault against the Chinese "volunteers".
• March 12 - The Dennis the Menace comic strip appears in newspapers across the U.S. for the first time.
• March 14
  • Korean War: For the second time, United Nations troops recapture Seoul.
  • West Germany joins UNESCO.
• March 29 - Red Scare: Ethel and Julius Rosenberg are convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage. On April 5 they are sentenced to receive the death penalty.
• March 29 - Rodgers and Hammerstein's The King and I opens on Broadway and runs for three years. It is the first Rodgers and Hammerstein show specifically written for someone - actress Gertrude Lawrence. Lawrence is stricken with cancer during the run of the show and dies halfway through its run. The show makes a star of Yul Brynner.
• March 31 - Remington Rand delivers the first UNIVAC I computer to the United States Census Bureau. The system was later demonstrated to reporter Walter Cronkite.

March 30: UNIVAC I.

April

• April 1 - Female suffrage begins in Greece.
• April 11 - President Truman relieves General MacArthur of his Far Eastern commands.
• April 18 - Treaty of Paris (1951) adopted, establishing European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC); see EU.
• April 21 - The National Olympic Committee of the USSR is formed. The USSR first participates in the Olympic Games at Helsinki, Finland, in 1952.
• April 24 - In Yokohama, Japan a fire on a train leaves more than 100 dead.
• April 28 - Robert Menzies' Liberal Party government in Australia is re-elected for a second term.

May

• May 1 - Opera house of Geneva, Switzerland is almost destroyed in a fire.
• May 3
  • HM King George VI opens London's Royal Festival Hall as patron.
  • Opening of the Festival of Britain
  • The U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services and U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations begins its closed door hearings into the dismissal of General Douglas MacArthur by U.S. President Harry S. Truman.
• May 9 - The first test of a nuclear weapon with thermonuclear materials, the "George" test on Enewetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands, by the United States.
• May 14 - First volunteer-run passenger trains run on Talyllyn Railway, Wales.
• May 15 - Military coup in Bolivia
• May 21 - Ninth Street Show otherwise known as the 9th Street Art Exhibition was a gathering of a number of notable artists, and it was the stepping-out of the post war New York avant-garde, collectively known as the New York School.
• May 25 - The first test of an atomic bomb "boosted" by the inclusion of thermonuclear materials, in the "Item" test on Enewetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands by the U.S.A.

June

• June 14 - UNIVAC I is dedicated by U.S. Census Bureau.[1]
• June 15 - July 1- In New Mexico, Arizona, California, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia, thousands of hectares (many square miles) of forests were destroyed in fires.

July

• July 1 - Judy Garland opens the first of 14 concerts in Dublin, Ireland at the Theatre Royal.
• July 5 - William Shockley, John Bardeen, and Walter Brattain announce the invention of the junction transistor.
• July 10 - Korean War: At Kaesong, armistice negotiations begin.
• July 13
  • The Great Flood of 1951 reaches its highest point in Northeast Kansas, culminating in the greatest flood damage to date in the Midwestern United States.
  • MGM's Technicolor film version of Show Boat, starring Kathryn Grayson, Ava Gardner, and Howard Keel, premieres at Radio City Music Hall, the same theatre in which the 1936 film version premiered. The 1951 film introduces bass-baritone William Warfield (singing Ol' Man River) and makes him nationally famous overnight.
• July 14 - In Joplin, Missouri, the George Washington Carver National Monument becomes the first United States National Monument in honor of an African American.
• July 16 - King Léopold III of Belgium signs the act of abdication in favour of his son Baudouin.
• July 17
  • Baudouin takes the oath as king of Belgium, after his father abdicated the day before.
  • Western New England College in Springfield, Massachusetts is chartered.
• July 20 - King Abdullah I of Jordan is assassinated by a Palestinian while attending Friday prayers in Jerusalem.
• July 30 - David Lean's Oliver Twist is finally shown in the United States, after ten minutes of supposedly anti-Semitic references and closeups of Alec Guinness as Fagin are cut. The film is a critical success, but a financial flop in the United States, and receives few bookings in U.S. theatres, mostly due to the anti-Semitic charges leveled against it. The film is not shown uncut in the U.S. until 1970.

August

• August 11 - René Pleven becomes Prime Minister of France.
• August 20- Edna Nerney gives birth to Colin Nerney.

September

• September 1 - The United States, Australia and New Zealand all sign a mutual defense pact, called the ANZUS Treaty (for "Australia, New Zealand, United States").
• September 8 - Treaty of San Francisco: In San Francisco, California, 48 nations sign a peace treaty with Japan in formal recognition of the end of the Pacific War.
• September 9 - Chinese communist forces move into Lhasa, the capital of Tibet.
• September 10 - The United Kingdom begins an economic boycott of Iran.
• September 18 - The film A Streetcar Named Desire, with Vivien Leigh as Blanche DuBois and Marlon Brando playing Stanley Kowalski, arguably his most famous role ("Hey, Stella!"), premieres and becomes a critical and box-office smash. Vivien Leigh wins her second Oscar for her performance.
• September 20 - NATO accepts Greece and Turkey as members.
• September 26-28 - Blue sun seen over Europe: the effect is due to ash coming from the Canadian forest fires four months previously.

October

• October 3 - "Shot Heard 'Round the World" One of the greatest moments in Major League Baseball history occurs when the New York Giants Bobby Thomson hits a game winning home run in the bottom of the ninth inning off of the Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Ralph Branca, to win the National League pennant after being down 14 games.
• October 3 - Real Estate Mogul Gordon Halteman born in Oslo, Norway. The 1st son of the King Helgo Halteman and Queen Ezmerelda Halteman. He would later lose his title as Prince when caught sleeping with a chamber maid.
• October 4
  • The Gene Kelly film An American in Paris premieres in New York. It will eventually receive the Oscar for Best Picture of 1951.
  • Henrietta Lacks dies of cervical cancer at Johns Hopkins University Hospital in Baltimore. The cancer cells, named HeLa, became an important immortal cell line for cancer research.
• Shoppers World opens in Framingham, Massachusetts. It is one the first shopping malls in the U.S.
• October 7 - Malayan Emergency - communist insurgents kill British commander Sir Henry Gurney
• October 15
  • First oral contraceptive invented by Luis E. Miramontes
  • I Love Lucy debuts on CBS.
• October 16
  • Judy Garland begins her legendary concerts in New York's Palace Theatre
  • Assassination of Liaquat Ali Khan, Prime Minister of Pakistan
• October 20 - The "Johnny Bright Incident" occurred in Stillwater, Oklahoma
• October 21 - Storm in southern Italy - over 100 dead
• October 24 - President Truman declares official end to war with Germany.
• October 26 - Winston Churchill re-elected British Prime Minister; his foreign minister is Anthony Eden
• October 27 - Farouk of Egypt declares himself also as a king of Sudan - no support
• October 31 - The 1951 version of Scrooge, starring Alastair Sim, opens in England. In this version, unlike the 1935 one, the ghosts are vividly shown.

November

• November 1 - First military exercises for nuclear war, with infantry troops included, in the Nevada desert
• November 10 - Direct dial coast-to-coast telephone service begins in the United States.
• November 11 - Juan Peron re-elected president of Argentina
• November 12 - The National Ballet of Canada performs for the first time on the Eaton Auditorium
• November 20 - Po river floods in northern Italy
• November 24 - The Broadway play Gigi opens starring little known actress Audrey Hepburn playing the lead character. This version is not a musical.
• November 28 - Scrooge, starring Alastair Sim, opens in the United States under the title of Charles Dickens's original novel, A Christmas Carol. Virtually unnoticed then, except for a favorable review in the New York Times, the film will become a classic upon its first television showings on local PBS stations in the early 1970s.

December

• December 3 - The Lebanese University is founded in Lebanon
• December 6 - State of emergency in Egypt due to increasing riots
• December 13 - Water storage tank collapses in Tucumcari, New Mexico - 4 dead, 200 buildings destroyed
• December 16 - Salar Jung Museum is opened to the public by the Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru
• December 20
  • EBR-1, World's first (experimental) nuclear power plant
  • A chartered C46 Curtis Commando crash lands in Cobourg, Ontario Canada - all on board survived.
• December 23 - The film The African Queen, starring Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn, premieres in Hollywood. Bogart will win a Best Actor Oscar for his performance.
• December 24
  • Libya becomes independent from Italy
  • Gian-Carlo Menotti's 45-minute opera, Amahl and the Night Visitors, premieres live on NBC, becoming the first opera written especially for television. It is a great success, repeated annually every year for the next fourteen years.

Undated

• A fourth, and final, forest fire starts in the Tillamook Burn; but unlike earlier fires this one only burns 32,700 acres (132 km²), and within area already affected by the earlier fires.
• The most complete recording of Gershwin's opera Porgy and Bess made until then, a 3-LP Columbia Masterworks Records 129-minute album in mono, is released to great critical acclaim. There will be no truly complete recording of Porgy and Bess until 1976.
• A research team publishes the Interlingua-English Dictionary.
• IBM United Kingdom is formed.
• 1951 New Zealand waterfront dispute lasts for 151 days.
• Munich Germany – A collection of mementos and personal papers belonging to Adolf Hitler are turned over to Bayerische Landesbank for authentication and eventual sale. Among the documents are his appointment as Chancellor signed by President von Hindenburg, his Austrian passport, as well as an assortment of swastika insignia pins and medals. An initial offer of $200,000.00 was made for the collection.
• Stockholm, Sweden – An 18-year-old sailor is fined for kissing in public. The court calls his actions “obnoxious behavior repulsive to the public morals.”

Ongoing

• Marshall Plan

Births

1951 in various calendars

Gregorian calendar	1951 MCMLI
Ab urbe condita	2704
Armenian calendar	1400 ԹՎ ՌՆ
Assyrian calendar	6701
Baháʼí calendar	107–108
Balinese saka calendar	1872–1873
Bengali calendar	1358
Berber calendar	2901
British Regnal year	15 Geo. 6 – 16 Geo. 6
Buddhist calendar	2495
Burmese calendar	1313
Byzantine calendar	7459–7460
Chinese calendar	庚寅年 (Metal Tiger) 4648 or 4441     — to — 辛卯年 (Metal Rabbit) 4649 or 4442
Coptic calendar	1667–1668
Discordian calendar	3117
Ethiopian calendar	1943–1944
Hebrew calendar	5711–5712
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	2007–2008
- Shaka Samvat	1872–1873
- Kali Yuga	5051–5052
Holocene calendar	11951
Igbo calendar	951–952
Iranian calendar	1329–1330
Islamic calendar	1370–1371
Japanese calendar	Shōwa 26 (昭和２６年)
Javanese calendar	1882–1883
Juche calendar	40
Julian calendar	Gregorian minus 13 days
Korean calendar	4284
Minguo calendar	ROC 40 民國40年
Nanakshahi calendar	483
Thai solar calendar	2494
Tibetan calendar	阳金虎年 (male Iron-Tiger) 2077 or 1696 or 924     — to — 阴金兔年 (female Iron-Rabbit) 2078 or 1697 or 925

January-February

• January 1 - Ashfaq Hussain, Urdu poet
• January 5 - Steve Arnold, English footballer
• January 6 - Kim Wilson, American singer and harmonica player
• January 8
  • Kenny Anthony, Prime Minister of Saint Lucia
  • John McTiernan, American director, producer, and writer
• January 12
  • Kirstie Alley, American actress
  • Rush Limbaugh, American radio personality
• January 20 - Ian Hill, English bassist (Judas Priest)
• January 25 - Steve Prefontaine, American runner (d. 1975)
• January 30 - Phil Collins, English musician and producer
• January 31 - Harry Wayne Casey, American musician, songwriter, and producer
• February 3 - Eugenijus Riabovas, Lithuanian football manager
• February 14 - Kevin Keegan, English footballer and football manager
• February 15
  • Melissa Manchester, American singer
  • Jane Seymour, English actress
• February 19 - Tahir-ul-Qadri, Islamic scholar and leader
• February 20
  • Gordon Brown, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
  • Edward Albert, American actor (d. 2006)
• February 25 - Don Quarrie, Jamaican sprinter
• February 27 - Steve Harley, British musician (Cockney Rebel)
• February 16 - Mike Flanagan, baseball pitcher

March-April

• March 1 - Mike Read, British television presenter and radio disc jockey
• March 4
  • Edelgard Bulmahn, German politician
  • Kenny Dalglish, Scottish footballer and football manager
  • Mike Quarry, American light heavyweight boxer (d. 2006)
  • Chris Rea, British singer and musician
  • Linda Yamamoto, Japanese pop star
• March 6 - Gerrie Knetemann, Dutch cyclist (d. 2004)
• March 8 - Karen Kain, Canadian ballerina
• March 12 - Susan Musgrave Canadian poet and children's writer
• March 13 - Fred Berry, American actor (d. 2003)
• March 14 - Jerry Greenfield, co-founder of Ben & Jerry's ice cream
• March 17
  • Scott Gorham, American guitarist (Thin Lizzy)
  • Kurt Russell, American actor
• March 18 - Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry's ice cream
• March 24 - Tommy Hilfiger, American fashion designer
• March 26 - Carl Wieman, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
• April 5 - Joe Bowen, Canadian Hockey Broadcaster
  • Dean Kamen, American inventor and entrepreneur
  • Frank Moulaert, Flemish scholar
  • Guy Vanderhaeghe, Canadian author
• April 6 - Bert Blyleven, Dutch Major League Baseball player
• April 7 - Janis Ian, American singer and songwriter
• April 10
  • David Helvarg, American journalist and activist
  • Steven Seagal, American martial artist and actor
• April 11 - Doris McGowen Beck Angleton, American socialite and murder victim (d. 1997)
• April 13
  • Peabo Bryson, American singer
  • Peter Davison, British actor
  • Max Weinberg, American drummer
• April 14 - Julian Lloyd Webber, English cellist and composer
• April 16 - Ioan Mihai Cochinescu, Romanian writer
• April 17 - Olivia Hussey, Argentine-born actress
• April 19 - Jóannes Eidesgaard, Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands
• April 20 - Louise Jameson, British actress
• April 27 - Ace Frehley, Guitarist for the Rock band Kiss
• April 29 - Dale Earnhardt, American race car driver (d. 2001)

May-June

• May 4 - Mick Mars, American musician
• May 9 - Christopher Dewdney, Canadian poet
• May 13 - Sharon Sayles Belton, Mayor of Minneapolis, Minnesota
• May 15
  • Jonathan Richman, American musician
  • Frank Wilczek, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
• May 19 - Joey Ramone, American musician (The Ramones) (d. 2001)
• May 23 - Anatoly Karpov, Russian chess player
• May 26
  • Madeleine Taylor-Quinn, Irish politician
  • Sally Ride, astronaut
• May 30 - Stephen Tobolowsky, American actor
• June 2 - Larry Robinson, Canadian hockey player
• June 5 - Suze Orman, American financial advisor, writer, and television personality
• June 8 - Bonnie Tyler, Welsh singer
• June 12 - Andranik Margaryan, 14th Prime Minister of Armenia (d. 2007)
• June 12 - Brad Delp, lead vocalist of Boston (d. 2007)
• June 14 - Paul Boateng, British politician
• June 16 - Roberto Duran, Panamanian boxer
• June 20 - Tress MacNeille, American voice actress
• June 20 - Paul Muldoon, Irish poet
• June 27 - Mary McAleese, eighth President of Ireland
• June 28 - Lalla Ward, British actress
• June 28 - Lloyd Maines, American musician and record producer
• June 29 - Keno Don Rosa, American comic book author
• June 30 - Stanley Clarke, American bassist

July-August

• July 3 - Richard Hadlee, New Zealand cricketer
• July 5 - Rich "Goose" Gossage, baseball player
• July 8 - Anjelica Huston, American actress
• July 10 - Cheryl Wheeler, American singer and songwriter
• July 14 - Erich Hallhuber, German actor (d. 2003)
• July 16 - Stewart Copeland, American drummer
• July 18 - Elio Di Rupo, Belgian politician
• July 19 - Joseph Pally, Indian Software Scientist
• July 21 - Robin Williams, American actor
• July 23 - Michael McConnohie, American actor
• July 24 - Chris Smith, British politician
• July 25 - Yuriy Kovalchuk, Russian oligarch
• August 3 - Marcel Dionne, Canadian hockey player
• August 6 - Daryl Somers, Australian television personality
• August 8
  • Mamoru Oshii, Japanese film director
  • Randy Shilts, American journalist and author (d. 1994)
• August 12 - Willie Horton, American criminal
• August 16 - Richard Hunt, American puppeteer (d. 1992)
• August 19 - John Deacon, English bassist (Queen)
• August 20 - Greg Bear, American author
• August 21 - Eric Goles, Chilean mathematician and computer scientist
• August 23
  • Akhmad Kadyrov, President of Chechnya
  • Queen Noor of Jordan
• August 24 - Orson Scott Card, American writer
• August 25 - Rob Halford, English singer (Judas Priest)
• August 26 - Edward Witten, American mathematician and Fields medalist

September-October

• September 5 - Michael Keaton, American actor
• September 7
  • Julie Kavner, American actress
  • Chrissie Hynde, American singer
• September 12 - Joe Pantoliano, American actor
• September 13 - Linda Wong, pornstar (d. 1987)
• September 18 - Darryl Stingley, Former American football player for the NFL New England Patriots (d. 2007)
• September 21 - Aslan Maskhadov, President of Chechnya
• September 22 - David Coverdale, English singer
• September 25 - Mark Hamill, American actor
• September 26 - Stuart Tosh, Scottish musician
• September 27 - Paul Craig, English professor of law
• September 29
  • Michelle Bachelet, President of Chile
  • Andrés Caicedo, Colombian writer (d. 1977)
  • Maureen Caird, Australian hurdler
• September 30 - Barry Marshall, Australian physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine
• October 2 - Sting, British musician
• October 3
  • Bernard Cooper, American writer
  • Dave Winfield, baseball player
  • Keb Mo', American musician
• October 4 - Bakhytzhan Kanapyanov, Kazakh poet
• October 5 - Bob Geldof, Irish musician (The Boomtown Rats)
• October 6 - Manfred Winkelhock, German race car driver
• October 7 - John Mellencamp, American musician and songwriter
• October 10 - Epeli Ganilau, Fiji soldier and statesman
• October 11 - Jean-Jacques Goldman, French singer and songwriter
• October 18
  • Mike Antonovich, American ice hockey player and executive
  • Terry McMillan, American author
• October 25 - Richard Lloyd, American guitarist of Television
• October 26 - Bootsy Collins, American musician, singer, and songwriter
• October 27 - K. K. Downing, English guitarist (Judas Priest)
• October 30 - Harry Hamlin, American actor

November-December

• November 2 - Thomas Mallon, American author and critic
• November 3 - Diego Traibel, Uruguayan politician
• November 11 - Marc Summers, American television host
• November 15 - Alamgir Hashmi, English poet
• November 16
  • Paula Vogel, American playwright
  • Miguel Sandoval, American actor
• November 18 - Justin Raimondo, American author
• November 19 - Lord Falconer of Thoroton, British politician
• November 24 - Chet Edwards, American politician
• November 26 - Cicciolina, Italian actress and politician
• November 30 - Christian Bernard, French-born mystic
• December 1
  • Sherry Aldridge, American singer, The Aldridge Sisters
  • Jaco Pastorius, American bassist
  • Treat Williams, American actor
• December 2 - Adrian Devine, American baseball pitcher
• December 6 - Tomson Highway, Canadian writer
• December 8
  • Bill Bryson, American-born British author
  • Jan Eggum, Norwegian singer and songwriter
• December 10 - Doug Allder, English footballer
• December 12 - Wau Holland, German hacker (d. 2001)
• December 14 - Jan Timman, Dutch chess player
• December 17 - Ken Hitchcock, Canadian hockey coach
• December 20 - Peter May, Scottish novelist and television dramatist
• December 30 - Meredith Vieira, American television host

Unknown dates

• Matt Cates, American voice actor
• Brian Keenan, Irish writer and hostage in Lebanon
• John Kindness, Irish artist
• Mr. Butch, homeless person and icon (d. 2007)

Deaths

• Musa Jan Khan, Emir of Ghazni (b. 1868)

January-June

• January 7 - René Guénon, French-born author (b. 1886)
• January 10 - Sinclair Lewis, American writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1885)
• January 18 - Amy Carmichael, Irish missionary to India (b. 1867)
• January 21 - Yuriko Miyamoto, Japanese novelist (b. 1899)
• January 28 - Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim, President of Finland (b. 1867)
• January 29 - Frank Tarrant, Australian cricketer (b. 1880)
• January 30 - Ferdinand Porsche, German engineer (b. 1875)
• February 9 - Eddy Duchin, American pianist and bandleader (b. 1909)
• February 13 - Lloyd C. Douglas, American author (b. 1877)
• February 18 - Lyman Gilmore, American aviation pioneer (b. 1874)
• February 19 - André Gide, French writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1869)
• February 12 - Choudhary Rahmat Ali, one of the founding fathers of Pakistan (b. 1895)
• March 6 - Ivor Novello, Welsh actor, musician, and composer (b. 1893)
• March 10 - Kijūrō Shidehara ("Shidehara Kijūrō"), Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1872)
• March 21 - Willem Mengelberg, Dutch conductor (b. 1871)
• March 25 - Eddie Collins, baseball player (b. 1887)
• March 25 - Oscar Micheaux, American filmmaker (b. 1884)
• April 4
  • Al Christie, Canadian-born film director and producer (b. 1881)
  • George Albert Smith, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (b. 1870)
• April 6 - Robert Broom, Scottish paleontologist (b. 1866)
• April 14 - Ernest Bevin, British labour leader, politician, and statesman (b. 1881)
• April 22 - Horace Donisthorpe, English myrmecologist (b. 1870)
• April 23 - Charles G. Dawes, Vice President of the United States, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1865)
• April 29 - Ludwig Wittgenstein, Austrian philosopher (b.1889)
• May 7 - Warner Baxter, American actor (b. 1889)
• May 27 - Sir Thomas Albert Blamey, Australian soldier (b. 1884)
• May 30 - Hermann Broch, Austrian author (b. 1886)
• June 4 - Serge Koussevitzky, Russian conductor (b. 1874)
• June 13 - Ben Chifley, Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1885)
• June 21 - Charles Dillon Perrine, American-born astronomer (b. 1867)

July - December

• July 9 - Harry Heilmann, baseball player (b. 1894)
• July 13 - Arnold Schoenberg, Austrian composer (b. 1874)
• July 20 - King Abdullah I of Jordan (b. 1882)
• July 23
  • Robert J. Flaherty, American filmmaker (b. 1884)
  • Philippe Pétain, leader of Vichy France (b. 1856)
• July 29 - Hozumi Shigeto, Japanese author (b. 1883)
• August 14 - William Randolph Hearst, American newspaper publisher (b. 1863)
• August 15 - Artur Schnabel, Polish pianist (b. 1882)
• August 21 - Constant Lambert, British composer (b. 1905)
• August 26 - Bill Barilko, Canadian hockey player (b. 1927)
• October 6 - Otto Fritz Meyerhof, German-born physician and biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1884)
• October 16 - Liaquat Ali Khan, first Prime Minister of Pakistan (b. 1896)
• November 5 - Reggie Walker, South African athlete (b. 1889)
• November 9 - Sigmund Romberg, Hungarian-born composer (b. 1887)
• November 13 - Nikolai Medtner, Russian pianist and composer (b. 1880)
• December 5 - Shoeless Joe Jackson, baseball player (b. 1889)
• December 6 - Harold Ross, American editor (b.1892)

Nobel prizes

• Physics - John Cockcroft, Ernest Walton
• Chemistry - Edwin McMillan, Glenn T. Seaborg
• Physiology or Medicine - Max Theiler
• Literature - Pär Lagerkvist
• Peace - Léon Jouhaux

Ship events

• List of ship launches in 1951
• List of ship commissionings in 1951
• List of ship decommissionings in 1951