Dashed left edge = started before January 1951 ·
Dashed right edge = ongoing beyond January 1951
Events in January 1951 11
1867 – 1951Carl Gustaf Emil MannerheimMarshal of FinlandThe military leader and statesman who led Finland through the Civil War and World War II. Widely considered the greatest Finn.
1875 – 1951Ferdinand Porsche (1875-1951)Died 30 January 1951, aged 75Porsche was an Austrian-German automotive engineer who designed the original Volkswagen Beetle and founded the Porsche car company. His engineering work spanned racing cars, tanks, and mass-market vehicles across both World Wars. He died in Stuttgart, West Germany.
1885 – 1951Sinclair Lewis (1885-1951)Died 10 January 1951, aged 65Lewis was an American novelist and the first writer from the United States to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, awarded in 1930. His satirical novels, including Main Street, Babbitt, and Elmer Gantry, critiqued American middle-class conformity and hypocrisy. He died in Rome of complications from alcoholism.
1951Australian Open 1951Men: Richard Savitt · Women: Nancye Wynne Bolton
1951Joins the MRC Biophysics Unit at King's College LondonRecruited by John Randall to apply X-ray diffraction to biological fibresIn January 1951 Franklin joined the Medical Research Council's Biophysics Unit at King's College London, recruited by director John Randall to set up and improve X-ray diffraction studies of DNA fibres. She brought with her the rigorous crystallographic techniques honed in Paris, quickly improving the quality and resolution of DNA diffraction images produced in the lab. The move placed her at the center of the emerging race to determine the molecular structure of DNA.
19511951: Juan Manuel FangioAlfa RomeoArgentine legend Fangio claimed the first of his five world titles, beginning one of the most dominant careers in motorsport history.
1951 – 1964Brooklyn PolytechnicJoined the faculty of Brooklyn Polytechnic (now NYU Tandon) in New York, where he would develop Marcus theory. During one intense month in the mid-1950s, he worked out the key equations for electron transfer rates.
1951 – 2021Rush Limbaugh (1951-2021)Died 17 February 2021, aged 70American broadcaster whose programme reshaped talk radio and American conservative politics.
1951 – 2019Elijah Cummings (1951-2019)Died 17 October 2019, aged 68Elijah Cummings was a US congressman representing Maryland and chairman of the House Oversight Committee, where he led investigations into the Trump administration. He was a prominent voice on civil rights and government accountability during his more than two decades in Congress. He died in Baltimore from complications of longstanding health issues.
1951 – presentPhil CollinsEnglish drummer, singer & songwriterPhil Collins (born 1951) is an English drummer, singer, songwriter and actor — drummer and later lead singer of Genesis, and one of the best-selling solo artists of the 1980s with hits including "In the Air Tonight", "Against All Odds" and "Sussudio". A double Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, with Genesis (2010) and as a solo artist (2026).
1951Phil Collins born in Chiswick, London30 January 1951Philip David Charles Collins was born on 30 January 1951 in Chiswick, west London (some sources say Putney). He began playing drums at the age of five, practising along to music on the radio and television.