Dwight D. Eisenhower, the President of the United States, began his second term on January 20
January 2 – The San Francisco and Los Angeles stock exchanges merge to form the Pacific Coast Stock Exchange.
January 6 – Elvis Presley appears on The Ed Sullivan Show for the third and final time. He is only shown from the waist up, even during the gospel segment, singing "Peace In The Valley". Ed Sullivan describes Elvis thus: "This is a real decent, fine boy. We've never had a pleasanter experience on our show with a big name than we've had with you. You're thoroughly alright."
January 20 – Dwight D. Eisenhower and Richard Nixon are inaugurated for a second term as President of the United States and Vice President of the United States respectively.
January 22 – The New York City "Mad Bomber", George Metesky, is arrested in Waterbury, Connecticut, and charged with planting more than 30 bombs.
January 23 – Ku Klux Klan members force truck driver Willie Edwards to jump off a bridge into the Alabama River; he drowns as a result.
January 31 – Pacoima aircraft accident: Three students on a junior high school playground in Pacoima, California, are among the 8 persons killed following a mid-air collision between a Douglas DC-7 airliner and a NorthropF-89 Scorpion fighter jet, in the skies above the San Fernando Valley section of Los Angeles.
February[]
February 4 – The first nuclear-poweredsubmarine, USS Nautilus(SSN-571), logs its 60,000th nautical mile, matching the endurance of the fictional Nautilus described in Jules Verne's novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.
February 25 – The "Boy In The Box" is discovered along a sidewalk in Philadelphia. The murder victim is described as Caucasian in appearance and 4 to 6 years old; the case was never solved.
March[]
March 26: Elvis Presley buys Graceland
March 7 – The United States Congress approves the Eisenhower Doctrine.
March 10 – Floodgates of The Dalles Dam are closed, inundating Celilo Falls and ancient Native American fisheries along the Columbia River in Oregon.
March 13 – The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation arrests Jimmy Hoffa and charges him with bribery.
March 22 – The 5.7 MwSan Francisco earthquake shook the Bay Area in California with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VII (Very strong), causing $1 million in losses, one death and forty injuries.
March 26 – 22-year-old Elvis Presley buys Graceland on 3734 Bellevue Boulevard (Highway 51 South) for $100,000. He and his family move from the house on 1034 Audubon Drive.
March 27 – The 29th Academy Awards ceremony, hosted by Jerry Lewis and Celeste Holm, is held at RKO Pantages Theatre in Hollywood. The ceremony started a trend toward blockbusters and colorful spectaculars, with Michael Anderson's Around the World in 80 Days winning Best Motion Picture chief among them. The film is tied with Walter Lang's The King and I for the most awards with five, while George Stevens' Giant receives the most nominations with ten, including Stevens' second Best Director win.
March 31 – Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella, the team's only musical written especially for television, is telecast live and in color by CBS, starring Julie Andrews in the title role. The production is seen by millions, but this 1957 version is not telecast again for more than 40 years, when a kinescope of it is shown.
April[]
April 12 – Allen Ginsberg's poem Howl, printed in the United Kingdom, is seized by U.S. customs officials on the grounds of obscenity.
May[]
May 2 – Vincent Gigante fails to assassinatemafiosoFrank Costello in Manhattan.
May 3 – Brooklyn Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley agrees to move the team from Brooklyn, to Los Angeles.
May 16 – Walt Whitman Bridge opens between Philadelphia and New Jersey.
June[]
June 15 – Oklahoma celebrates its semi-centennial statehood. A brand new 1957 Plymouth Belvedere is buried in a time capsule (to be opened 50 years later on June 15, 2007).
July 9 – Elvis Presley's Loving You opens in movie theaters.
July 16 – United States Marine Major John Glenn flies an F8Usupersonic jet from California to New York in 3 hours, 23 minutes and 8 seconds, setting a new transcontinental speed record.
August[]
August 5 – American Bandstand, a local dance show produced by WFIL-TV in Philadelphia, joins the ABC Television Network.
August 21 – U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces a 2-year suspension of nuclear testing.
August 28 – United States Senator Strom Thurmond (D-SC) sets the record for the longest filibuster with his 24-hour, 18-minute speech railing against a civil rights bill.
September[]
September 4
American Civil Rights Movement – Governor Orville Faubus of Arkansas calls out the National Guard of the United States to prevent the "Little Rock Nine" African American students from enrolling in Little Rock Central High School.
The Ford Motor Company introduces the Edsel on what the company proclaims as "E Day".
September 5 – Viking Press publishes On the Road by Jack Kerouac.
September 9
Civil Rights Act of 1957 enacted, setting up the United States Commission on Civil Rights.
Catholic Memorial High School opens its doors for the first time in Boston, Massachusetts.
September 24 – U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower sends federal troops to Arkansas to provide safe passage into Little Rock Central High School for the Little Rock Nine.
September 26 – West Side Story, a new musical by Leonard Bernstein, Jerome Robbins, Arthur Laurents and Stephen Sondheim opens at the Winter Garden Theatre on Broadway.
October[]
October 9 – Neil H. McElroy is sworn in as United States Secretary of Defense.
October 10
U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower apologizes to the finance minister of Ghana, Komla Agbeli Gbdemah, after he is refused service in a restaurant in Dover, Delaware.
Ayn Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged is published.
The Milwaukee Braves defeat the New York Yankees, 4 games to 3, to win their 2nd World Series Title.
October 11 – The orbit of the last stage of the R-7 Semyorka rocket (carrying Sputnik I) is first successfully calculated on an IBM 704 computer during Operation Moonwatch, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
October 21 – The U.S. military sustains its first combat fatality in Vietnam, Army Capt. Hank Cramer of the 1st Special Forces Group.
October 25 – Mafia boss Albert Anastasia is assassinated in a barber shop, at the Park Sheraton Hotel in New York City.
October 31 – Toyota begins exporting vehicles to the U.S., beginning with the Toyota Crown and the Toyota Land Cruiser
November[]
November 1 – The Mackinac Bridge, the world's longest suspension bridge between anchorages at the time, opens to traffic connecting Michigan's two peninsulas.
November 6 – Jailhouse Rock opens nationally and Elvis Presley continues to gain more notoriety.
November 7 – Cold War: In the United States, the Gaither Report calls for more American missiles and fallout shelters.
November 14 – Apalachin Meeting: American Mafia leaders meet in Apalachin, New York, at the house of Joseph Barbara; the meeting is broken up by a curious patrolman.
Oklahoma celebrates its 50th anniversary of statehood.
Notre Dame beats the Oklahoma Sooners 7–0 to end the Sooners record 47 straight college football winning streak.
November 25 – U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower suffers a stroke.
December[]
December 2: Shippingport Reactor goes online
December 2 – Shippingport Atomic Power Station goes onstream; commercial operation begins on May 26, 1958.
December 6 – Vanguard TV3, the first U.S. attempt to launch a satellite, fails with the rocket blowing up on the launch pad.
December 19 – Meredith Willson's classic musical The Music Man, starring Robert Preston, debuts on Broadway.
December 20 – The Boeing 707 airliner flies for the first time.
December 22 – The CBS afternoon anthology series The Seven Lively Arts presents Tchaikovsky's ballet The Nutcracker on U.S. television for the first time.
Undated[]
Operation Dropshot, an all-out U.S. war with the Soviet Union, is expected to be triggered by the Soviet takeover of Western Europe, the Near East and parts of Eastern Asia, as it was anticipated in 1949.
Ongoing[]
Cold War (1947–1991)
Births[]
January[]
Karen Pence
Steve Harvey
January 1
Mark Hurd, American businessman (d. 2019)
Karen Pence, American educator, and teacher, 48th Second Lady of the United States
January 4 – Patty Loveless, American country music singer
January 6
Freddie Glenn, American spree killer and rapist, convicted of murdering the younger sister of actor Kelsey Grammer
Nancy Lopez, American golfer
January 7
Nicholson Baker, American novelist
Katie Couric, American television host
Steve Janaszak, American professional ice hockey player
January 8
Dwight Clark, American football player (d. 2018)
David Lang, American composer
January 12 – John Lasseter, American director, writer and animator
January 13
Claudia Emerson, American poet, Pulitzer Prize winner in 2006 (d. 2014)
Lorrie Moore, American writer
January 15
Turk Schonert, American football player (d. 2019)
Mario Van Peebles, African-American actor and director
January 17 – Steve Harvey, African-American comedian, television host, radio personality and actor[1]