Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi: Sam Lumpkin (Democratic) (until month and day unknown), Carroll Gartin (Democratic) (starting month and day unknown)
January 14 – The Today Show premieres on NBC, becoming one of the longest-running television series in America.
February[]
February 2 – A tropical storm forms just north of Cuba moving northeast. The storm makes landfall in southern Florida the next day. It is the earliest reported landfall from a tropical storm, and the earliest formation of a tropical storm on record in the Atlantic basin.
February 6 – In the United States, a mechanical heart is used for the first time in a human patient.
February 20 – Emmett Ashford becomes the first African-Americanumpire in organized baseball, by being authorized to be a substitute umpire in the Southwestern International League.
March[]
March 20
The United States Senate ratifies a peace treaty with Japan.
The 24th Academy Awards ceremony, hosted by Danny Kaye, is held at RKO Pantages Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles. Vincente Minnelli's An American in Paris and George Stevens' A Place in the Sun both win a respective six awards each, the former winning Best Motion Picture and the latter winning Best Director for Stevens. Elia Kazan's A Streetcar Named Desire receives the most nominations with 12.
March 21 – Tornadoes ravage the lower Mississippi River Valley, leaving 208 dead, through March 22.
March 22 – Wernher von Braun publishes the first in his series of articles entitled Man Will Conquer Space Soon!, including ideas for manned flights to Mars and the Moon.
March 29 – U.S. PresidentHarry S. Truman announces that he will not seek reelection.
April[]
April 8 – Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer: The U.S. Supreme Court limits the power of the President to seize private business, after President Harry S. Truman nationalizes all steel mills in the United States, just before the 1952 steel strike begins.
April 15 – The United States B-52 Stratofortress flies for the first time.
April 23 – A nuclear test is held in the Nevada desert.
April 28 – The Treaty of San Francisco goes into effect, formally ending the occupation of Japan.
April 29 – Lever House officially opens in New York City, heralding a new age of commercial architecture in the United States.
May[]
May 3 – U.S. lieutenant colonelsJoseph O. Fletcher and William P. Benedict land a plane at the geographic North Pole.
June[]
June 14 – The keel is laid for the U.S. nuclear submarine USS Nautilus.
June 19 – The United States Army Special Forces is created.
July[]
July 19–26 – Washington D.C. UFO incident. Several alleged UFOs tracked on multiple radars. Jets scramble on several occasions and the objects take evasive action, only to return after the jets leave the area.
July 21 – The 7.3 MwKern County earthquake strikes Southern California with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme), killing 12 and injuring hundreds.
July 25 – Puerto Rico becomes a self-governing commonwealth of the United States.
August[]
August 22 – A 5.8 Mw aftershock affects Bakersfield with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), killing two and causing an additional $10 million in damage.
August 29 – John Cage's 4' 33" premieres in Woodstock, New York.
September[]
November 1: Ivy Mike
September 2 – Dr. C. Walton Lillehei and Dr. F. John Lewis perform the first open-heart surgery at the University of Minnesota.
September 23 – Republican vice presidential candidate Richard Nixon gives his Checkers speech.
October[]
October 7 – The New York Yankees defeat the Brooklyn Dodgers, 4 games to 3, to win their 15th World Series Title.
October 12 – The Gamma Sigma Sigma National Service Sorority is founded in New York City at Panhellenic Tower.
October 14 – The United Nations begins work in the new headquarters of the United Nations in New York City.
October 16 – Limelight opens in London; writer/actor/director/producer Charlie Chaplin arrives by ocean liner; in transit his re-entry permit to the USA is revoked by J. Edgar Hoover.
October 1 to 31 – With an average coast-to-coast precipitation of 0.54 inches or 13.7 millimetres,[1] this is easily the driest month over the contiguous United States since reliable records began in 1895[2] (The second-driest, November 1917, averaged as much as 0.95 inches or 24.1 millimetres.)
November[]
November 4: Eisenhower elected in a landslide
November 1 – Nuclear testing: Operation Ivy: The United States successfully detonates the first hydrogen bomb, codenamed "Mike", at Eniwetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands in the central Pacific Ocean, with a yield of 10.4 megatons.
November 4
1952 United States presidential election: Republican candidate Dwight D. Eisenhower defeats DemocraticGovernor of IllinoisAdlai Stevenson (correctly predicted by the UNIVAC computer). The Constitution Party nominates candidates.
The U.S. National Security Agency is founded.
November 20 – The first official passenger flight over the North Pole is made from Los Angeles to Copenhagen.
November 29 – Korean War: U.S. President-elect Dwight D. Eisenhower fulfills a political campaign promise, by traveling to Korea to find out what can be done to end the conflict.
December[]
December 1 – The New York Daily News carries a front-page story announcing that Christine Jorgensen, a transsexual woman in Denmark, has become the recipient of the first successful sexual reassignment operation.
December 14 – The first successful surgical separation of Siamese twins is conducted in Mount Sinai Hospital, Cleveland, Ohio.
December 20 – The crash of a U.S. Air Force C-124 Globemaster at Moses Lake, Washington kills 86 servicemen.
Undated[]
Nearly 58,000 cases of polio are reported in the U.S.; 3,145 die and 21,269 are left with mild to disabling paralysis.[3]
The National Prohibition Foundation is incorporated in Indiana.
Johnny Thunders, guitarist and singer, co-founder of the New York Dolls, inspiration for punk and glam metal; also founder of The Heartbreakers (died 1991)
July 17
David Hasselhoff, actor, singer, producer and businessman
^Winston, Jay S.; ‘The Weather and Circulation of October 1952: The Driest Month on Record in the United States’; Monthly Weather Review; 80(10); pp. 190-194