First publication of parts of Witold Gombrowicz’s Diary. “American” issue of Kultura published (July, no. 69–70).
Giedroyc initiates the Biblioteka Kultury (Kultura Library). Its first titles are:
Trans-Atlantyk and Ślub (The Wedding) by Witold Gombrowicz, 1984 by George Orwell, Zniewolony umysł (The Captive Mind) and Światło dzienne (The Light of Day) by Czesław Miłosz, Passive Resistance or Liberation? by John Burnham, and Turyści z bocianich gniazd (Stork-nest Tourists) by Czesław Straszewicz.
POLAND
The city of Katowice is renamed Stalinogród.
Stefan Cardinal Wyszyński, primate of Poland, is placed under house arrest. Tygodnik Powszechny (Catholic Weekly) is closed down for three years for refusal to publish an obituary of Stalin.
WORLD
Stalin dies of a cerebral haemorrhage. Khrushchev becomes USSR first secretary.
Workers’ uprising breaks out in East Berlin, shakes East Germany.
Shah returns to Iran after coup.
General Eisenhower becomes US president.
Francis Crick, James Watson, and Rosalind Franklin discover the structure of DNA. Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay conquer Everest.
