The world in 1953

Why this year has a page

The year of Cuban Revolution (dated events index, Wikidata).

Names on the map

As the map labels them, largest first by the area of the outline drawn. Areas are of the drawn outline, rounded, and approximate. The record column says which record draws the outline; a Wikidata item is given where the record links one.

What changed since 1949

Names counted are those the records date to the year or the day (CShapes, OpenHistoricalMap, Cliopatria). Outlines filled from the nearest historical-basemaps sheet are counted only when both years are years that sheet was drawn for — otherwise the change would be the switch between two sheets, not a change in the world. Names are compared as written, so a polity a record names differently in the two years (Carthaginian Empire, then Carthage) is in both lists.

← Earlier: 1949Later: 1955 →

Events dated to 1953

Every record of IntMap’s one index of dated events whose date falls in this year: what the border record (CShapes 2.0) states about its own outlines, IntMap’s war record, and the world events Wikidata dates — each with its source and the precision of its date.

1. 1953

   1953 British Mount Everest Expedition

   first successful ascent of Mount Everest

   began 1953-02 · Wikidata Q4567715

2. 1953

   Battle of Pork Chop Hill

   IntMap’s war record — Korean War · 1953-03-23 – 1953-07-16

   On this day →
3. 1953

   Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid

   article published 1953 describing the structure of DNA

   published 1953-04-25 · Wikidata Q1895685

4. 1953

   Battle of Kumsong

   IntMap’s war record — Korean War · 1953-07-13 – 1953-07-27

   On this day →
5. 1953

   Cuban Revolution

   revolution in Cuba starting in 1953 culminating in 1959

   began 1953-07-26 · Wikidata Q11264

6. 1953

   Korean Armistice Agreement

   IntMap’s war record — Korean War · 1953-07-27

   On this day →
7. 1953

   The map begins drawing Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland; the map stops drawing Northern Rhodesia (UK), Southern Rhodesia (UK), Nyasaland (UK)

   the border record (CShapes 2.0) · 1953-08-01

   On this day →
8. 1953

   The map begins drawing Cambodia; the map stops drawing Cambodia (France)

   the border record (CShapes 2.0) · 1953-11-09

   On this day →
9. 1953

   New borders for Japan, Ryukyu Islands (USA)

   the border record (CShapes 2.0) · 1953-12-25

   On this day →

Sources and method

Borders and names: CShapes 2.0 (Schvitz et al. 2022, icr.ethz.ch/data/cshapes) · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 + Cliopatria v0.2.1 (Seshat Global History Databank, github.com/Seshat-Global-History-Databank/cliopatria) · CC BY 4.0 · adapted by IntMap: simplified, BC years made astronomical, and the ground OpenHistoricalMap (1689–1885, and from 1886 where CShapes is silent) and CShapes (1886–2019) state removed on their own dates.

Which years have a page is worked out when the site is built, from three rules applied to the records themselves: every year the historical-basemaps atlas drew a world sheet for; every year whose change from the year before (names the dated records begin or stop drawing) is in the top 5% of all such year-to-year changes since the dated records begin, leaving out the years where one record hands over to another; and every year of a geopolitical, war or revolution event in the dated events index, up to the last year the border records cover (2019).

On each year the map is read on 1 July, the instant the app’s own year links open on. Names are the source’s own, translated where the source or IntMap’s name table has a translation. A name is what a record draws there, not a verdict of history.

World map in 1953 — the map, with the years it stays the same Historical maps by region Countries On this day

All data sources →