World War 1 and 2

Years: 1954 1955 1956 - 1957 - 1958 1959 1960
Decades: 1920s 1930s 1940s - 1950s - 1960s 1970s 1980s
Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century

1957 was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar).

Events

The Africanized bee is accidentally released in Brazil
The Asian Flu pandemic begins in China
March 10 - Floodgates of The Dalles Dam are closed inundating Celilo Falls and ancient indian fisheries along the Columbia River in Oregon.
November 13 - Flooding in the Po River valley of Italy leads to the flooding also in Venice

Consumers' Association founded (UK)
Project Orion begins, a U.S. program to build a spacecraft powered by nuclear explosions.
Civil Rights Commission established under the Civil Rights Act of 1957
IBM makes FORTRAN scientific programming language available to customers. It becomes the most widely used computer language for technical work.

January 2 - San Francisco and Los Angeles stock exchanges merge.
January 3 - Hamilton Watch Company introduces the first electric watch
January 4 - After 69 years the last issue of Colliers magazine is published
January 5 - Russell Endean becomes the first batsman to be dismissed handled the ball in test match cricket
January 10 - Harold Macmillan becomes the prime minister of the United Kingdom
January 13 - Wham-O Company produces the first Frisbee
January 16 - The Cavern Club opens in Liverpool
January 22 - Israel withdraws from the Sinai Peninsula (they invaded Egypt on October 29, 1956)
January 22 - The New York City "Mad Bomber," George P. Metesky, is arrested in Waterbury, Connecticut and is charged with planting more than 30 bombs.
January 23 - Ku Klux Klan members force a truck driver Willie Edwards to jump off a bridge into an Alabama River - he drowns.

Flag of Ghana, the first country in colonial Africa to gain independence

March 1 - U Nu becomes Prime Minister of Burma
March 1 - Arturo Lezama becomes President of the National Council of Government of Uruguay
March 1 - Sud Aviation forms from a merger between SNCASE (Société Nationale de Constructions Aéronautiques du Sud Est) and SNCASO (Société Nationale de Constructions Aéronautiques du Sud Ouest)
March 6 - United Kingdom colonies Gold Coast and British Togoland become the independent Republic of Ghana
March 8 - Egypt re-opens the Suez Canal
March 13 - The FBI arrests Jimmy Hoffa and charges him with bribery
March 14 - President Sukarno declares martial law in Indonesia
March 20 - French newspaper L'Express reveals that French army tortures Algerian prisoners
March 25 - Treaty of Rome (patto di Roma) establishes the European Economic Community (EEC); see EU

April 1 - The first new conscripts join the Bundeswehr
April 5 - First elected government of Kerala. CPI won the elections and E. M. S. Namboodiripad became the first chief minister of united Kerala
April 12 - United Kingdom announces that Singapore will gain self rule January 1 1958
April 12 - Allen Ginsberg's poem Howl, printed in England, is seized by U.S. customs officials on the grounds of obscenity

July - International Geophysical Year begins
July 16 - United States Marine Major John Glenn flies an F8U supersonic jet from California to New York in 3 hours, 23 minutes and 8 seconds setting a new transcontinental speed record
July 25 - Tunisia becomes a republic
July 29 - The International Atomic Energy Agency is established.

August 4 - Juan Manuel Fangio, driving for Maserati, wins the Formula One German Grand Prix, clinching (with 4 wins that season) his record fifth world drivers championship, including his fourth consecutive championship (also a record); these two records would endure for nearly half a century.
August 31 - The Federation of Malaya, which does not include Singapore, gains independence from the United Kingdom. Tuanku Abdul Rahman ibni Almarhum Tuanku Muhammad, Yang di-Pertuan Besar of Negeri Sembilan becomes the first Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia.

October 4 - launch of Sputnik I, the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth.
October 9 - Neil H. McElroy was sworn in as the 6th Secretary of Defense of United States.
October 10 - US President Dwight D. Eisenhower apologizes to the finance minister of Ghana, Komla Agbeli Gbdemah, after he was refused service in a Dover, Delaware restaurant
October 11 - Radio telescope of Jodrell Bank, Cheshire, UK, opened
October 23 - Morocco begins its invasion of Ifni
October 25 - Assassination of a Mafia boss Albert Anastasia in a barber shop in Park Sheraton Hotel

November 1 - Michigan's Mackinac Bridge opened.
November 3 - Sputnik program: The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 2. On board is the first animal to enter space - a dog named Laika (she was kept alive for several days in space with a sophisticated life-support system )
November 7 - Cold War: In the United States, the Gaither Report calls for more American missiles and fallout shelters
November 14 - Apalachin Meeting - The leaders of the American Mafia meet at a convention in Apalachin, New York at the house of Joseph Barbara. It is broken up by a curious patrolman.
November 15 - Plane crash in the Isle of Wight - 43 dead
November 16 - Serial killer Edward Gein murders Bernice Worden of Plainfield, Wisconsin (this was his last murder)
November 30 - Grenade attack against Indonesian president Sukarno in Cikini School in Jakarta. Six children killed, Sukarno survives unscathed

December 4 - Lewisham train disaster in Britain - 92 dead
December 5 - All Dutch nationals expelled from Indonesia
December 6 - First US attempt to launch a satellite fails, blowing up on the launchpad