Timeline May 1951

Events in May 1951 11

• 1889 – 1951 Warner Baxter (1889-1951) American actor, the second Best Actor Oscar winner, for In Old Arizona.
• 1891 – 1951 Fanny Brice (1891-1951) Died 29 May 1951, aged 59 Brice was an American comedienne and singer best known for her work in the Ziegfeld Follies and as the radio character Baby Snooks. Her life later formed the basis of the musical and film Funny Girl. She died in Los Angeles after a cerebral hemorrhage.
• 1951 Iran Nationalizes Its Oil Industry Mossadegh government seizes Anglo-Iranian Oil Company assets Iran's parliament, driven by Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh, voted to nationalize the British-controlled Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. The move triggered an international crisis and a British-led boycott of Iranian oil. The dispute culminated in the 1953 coup that removed Mossadegh from power.
• 1951 Festival of Britain Opens National exhibition celebrates postwar recovery and British achievement The Festival of Britain opened on London's South Bank as a nationwide exhibition marking the centenary of the Great Exhibition of 1851. Organized amid postwar austerity, it showcased British achievements in science, technology, industrial design, and the arts. The festival drew over eight million visitors before closing that September.
• 1951 Warner Baxter dies in Beverly Hills Warner Baxter dies aged 62.
• 1951 – 2001 Joey Ramone (1951-2001) Died 15 April 2001, aged 49 Joey Ramone, born Jeffry Hyman, was the singer of the Ramones, the New York band widely credited with launching punk rock. His deadpan delivery fronted fast, short songs such as Blitzkrieg Bop. He died of lymphoma shortly before the band entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
• 1951 James Jabara becomes the first jet ace Fifth and sixth MiG kills Flying an F-86, Captain James Jabara downs his fifth and sixth MiG-15s to become the world's first jet-versus-jet ace.
• 1951 – present Anatoly Karpov Positional World Chess Champion Anatoly Karpov dominated world chess during the 1970s and 1980s through precise positional style and strategic mastery.
• 1951 Tibet Signs the Seventeen Point Agreement with China Agreement formalizes Chinese sovereignty over Tibet Representatives of the Dalai Lama's government signed an agreement in Beijing accepting Chinese sovereignty over Tibet in exchange for promises of autonomy and religious freedom. The agreement was signed under military pressure following the People's Liberation Army's advance into Tibet in 1950. Tibetans later disputed its legitimacy, and it remains a central grievance in the Tibet-China dispute.
• 1951 – 2024 Muhammed Faris (1951-2024) Died 19 April 2024, aged 72 Syrian pilot and air force officer, the first Syrian citizen to travel into space.
• 1951 – 2012 Sally Ride (1951-2012) Died 23 July 2012, aged 61 American astronaut and physicist who became the first American woman in space aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger in 1983. She died of pancreatic cancer.