August 1953

The following events occurred in August 1953:

August 5, 1953 (Wednesday)

• Operation Big Switch: Prisoners of war are repatriated after the Korean War.

August 8, 1953 (Saturday)

• Soviet prime minister Georgi Malenkov announces that the Soviet Union has a hydrogen bomb.
• London Agreement on German External Debts concluded, writing off 50% of repayable war debt by the Federal Republic of Germany to its creditors.

August 12, 1953 (Wednesday)

• A magnitude 7.2 earthquake devastates most of the Ionian Sea islands in Greece's worst natural disaster in centuries.
• Soviet atomic bomb project: "Joe 4" – The first Soviet thermonuclear weapon is detonated at Semipalatinsk Test Site, Kazakh SSR.

August 13, 1953 (Thursday)

• Four million workers go on strike in France to protest against austerity measures.

August 14, 1953 (Friday)

Born: James Horner, American film composer (d. 2015)

August 17, 1953 (Monday)

• The first planning session of Narcotics Anonymous is held in Southern California (see October 5).

August 18, 1953 (Tuesday)

The second Kinsey Report, Sexual Behavior in the Human Female, is published in the US.

August 19, 1953 (Wednesday)

• Cold War: The CIA helps to overthrow the government of Mohammad Mosaddegh in Iran, and retain Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi on the throne (see Operation Ajax).

August 20, 1953 (Thursday)

• The French government ousts King Mohammed V of Morocco and exiles him to Corsica.
• The United States returns to West Germany 382 ships it had captured during World War II.

August 25, 1953 (Tuesday)

• The general strike ends in France.

August 30, 1953 (Sunday)

• Died:
  • Gaetano Merola, Italian conductor (b. 1881)
  • Maurice Nicoll, British psychiatrist (b. 1884)

References