Indian Airlines, based in
Delhi, began operations, having been set up under the Air Corporations Act, 1953, by a merger of several domestic airlines.[2]
Operation Big Switch began: The
United Nations Command (UNC) repatriated over 75,823 prisoners of war (70,183 North Koreans and 5,640 Chinese), whilst the PVA/KPA repatriated 12,773 UNC POWs.[6][7]
The US Navy vessel Staten Island, in the southern Davis Strait, near Baffin Island, launched the first of six 1953 NRL flights, three of which reached altitude and returned data.
37 people were injured when a northbound
Royal Scot train was derailed near
Abington,
Scotland, UK, on its way down from
Beattock Summit; the track had buckled as a result of unusually high temperatures.[13]
A US-registered
scow, the 28-ton Sacco No. 3, was stranded 2.5 nautical miles (4.6 km) southeast of Ocean Cape in the
Territory of Alaska and lost.[22]
1953 Ceylonese Hartal: A country-wide demonstration of civil disobedience and strikes, in protest against government policy, was organised by the
Lanka Sama Samaja Party in
Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). It was the first such protest in the country since independence.[23]
The
United States Army test-fired the first
Redstone missile at
Cape Canaveral,
Florida. The Redstone, on which research and development had begun in 1950, was later used as a launch vehicle in the crewed suborbital flights and in other development flights in
Project Mercury.[35]
^Giles, Geoffrey J.; Bullivant, Keith; Pape, Walter, eds. (1999). Germany and Eastern Europe: Cultural Identities and Cultural Differences.
Rodopi. p. 364.
ISBN9789042006881.
^Knaack, Marcelle Size (1978). Encyclopedia of US Air Force Aircraft and Missile Systems. Vol. 1 Post-World War II Fighters 1945–1973.
Washington, D.C.: Office of Air Force History. p. 35.
ISBN0-912799-59-5.
^Mitchell, W.H.; Sawyer, L.A. (1995). The Empire Ships. London, New York, Hamburg, Hong Kong: Lloyd's of London Press Ltd. p. not cited.
ISBN1-85044-275-4.