1953

Events

• January 14 - Josip Broz Tito is named President of Yugoslavia.
• February 3 - The Batepá Massacre takes place.
• June 13 - Gustavo Rojas Pinilla leads a successful coup, overthrowing Laureano Gómez Castro and declaring himself President of Colombia.
• July 26 - Fidel Castro and Che Guevara launch the Cuban Revolution.
• July 27 - The Korean War ends in a stalemate.
• August 15 to 19 - Operation Ajax: Mohammad Mosaddegh is overthrown as Prime Minister of Iran, returning centralized power to Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
• September 14 - Nikita Khrushchev is named First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. He soon begins the process of "De-Stalinization".
• October 14 - The Qibya Massacre takes place.
• October 29 - Frank Costello is released from prison, following his arrest for contempt of court during the Kefauver Committee the previous year.
• December - The Church of Scientology is founded.
• Unknown - Hizb ut-Tahrir is founded.

Births

Villain births

• January 1 - Afonso Dhlakama
• January 15 - Robert Alton Harris
• January 16 - Robert Jay Mathews
• January 20 - Jeffrey Epstein
• March 3 - Jean de Dieu Kamuhanda
• March 12 - Ron Jeremy
• April 9 - Stephen Paddock
• April 29 - Midhat Mursi
• May 10 - Earl Bradley
• May 27 - Gheorghe Dincă
• June 1 - David Berkowitz
• June 15 - Xi Jinping
• July 23 - Najib Razak
• July 28 - Don Black
• August 21 - David Alan Gore
• October 14 - Bobby Joe Long
• October 18 - Brian David Mitchell
• November 7 - Carl Eugene Watts
• November 29 - Rosemary West
• Unknown - Jean-Paul Akayesu
• Unknown - Jean-Baptiste Gatete
• Unknown - John Bingham
• Unknown - Callixte Nzabonimana

Victim births

• January 27 - Blaine Hodges
• March 28 - Melchior Ndadaye
• May 23 - Agathe Uwilingiyimana

Deaths

Villain deaths

• March 5 - Joseph Stalin
• March 14 - Klement Gottwald
• June 19 - Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
• July 15 - John Christie
• September 5 - Richard Walther Darré
• September 27 - Hans Fritzsche
• December 23 - Lavrentiy Beria

Victim deaths

• September 28 - Bobby Greenlease, Jr.