Spring 1953: the structure of DNA was published on 25 April, and on 29 May Hillary and Tenzing reached the top of Everest.
The events
- First ascent of Everest1953 · Mount Everest, Nepal–Tibet border. On 29 May 1953 the New Zealander Edmund Hillary and the Sherpa Tenzing Norgay of John Hunt's British expedition became the first to stand on the world's highest summit. They spent about fifteen minutes on top; Tenzing left offerings to the gods in the snow. The news reached London on the day of Elizabeth II's coronation.
- Discovery of the DNA double helix1953 · Cambridge. In April 1953 James Watson and Francis Crick published their double-helix model of DNA in Nature, drawing on X-ray images by Rosalind Franklin. It revealed how heredity works and gave birth to molecular biology.
More amazing facts
- 1938 Three months after the Munich Agreement, Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann in Berlin discovered the fission of uranium.
- 1956 In autumn 1956 the world watched two crises at once: the Anglo-French landing at the Suez Canal and Soviet tanks in Budapest.
- 1957 1957: the USSR launched the first satellite, and six countries signed the Treaty of Rome, the seed of the future EU.
- 1957 1957: Ghana became one of the first countries in sub-Saharan Africa to throw off colonial rule, and the USSR launched the first satellite.
- 1960 In 1960, 17 African countries gained independence — more than in any other single year in history.
- 1961 Gagarin flew into space in April 1961; that August, the Berlin Wall went up.