Events of this Coronation year in the Illustrated London News

• January - A car ferry sinks in the Irish sea with more than 100 people drowned
• John Christie confessed to the multiple murders at 10 Rillington Place including those for which Timothy Evans had already been hanged.
• February 3rd - Gales and floods cause havoc along Britain's east coast
• March 5th - Death of Joseph Stalin, Soviet leader for more than 29 years
• April 25th - Francis Crick and James Watson proposed double helix structure for DNA (Dioxyribonucleic Acid
• May - Blackpool beat Bolton in the FA Cup Final at Wembley by 4 goals to 3
• May 22nd - Mrs Ann Davison, the 39 year old English woman from Gloucestershire arrived in Nassau after sailing the Atlantic alone from Plymouth England to Portsmouth, Dominica in her ketch Felicity Ann in 254 days
• May 29th - Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tensing reached the summit of Mt. Everest
• June 2nd - Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in Westminster Abbey. At 10.26 am the Queen formally took possesion of her sovereignty over the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland. It was a dull wet day and it was estimated that more than 20 million people watched on Television, many having bought one for the occasion
• June 6th - Sir Gordon Richards win the Derby on 5-1 Pinza from the Queens horse Aureole by 4 lengths, for the first time in his career
• June 16th - At 1pm today about 2500 East German building workers engaged on the Stalinhallee housing project laid down their tools and marched to the government offices in Leipzigerstasse to protest against the "new work" norms, where workers are required to do 10% more work for the same wages or suffer a 10% cut in wages.
• June 17th - Russia sends T-34 tanks and 10,000 Peoples Police in to East Berlin to quell the riots
• June 25th - John Reginald Christie was sentenced to death for four murders
• July 15th - John Reginald Christie was executed for the murders at Rillington Place
• July 27th - The Korean War ended with an Armistice signed at Panmunjom. The war had lasted 3 years and claimed 2 million lives
• August - Britain retained the Ashes for the first time since 1933 winning by eight wickets after 4 drawn test matches
• September 12th - Senator John F Kennedy married Jacqueline Bouvier, and Nikita Khrushchev became first secretary of the Soviet Communist party to succeed Stalin
• November 9th - Welsh poet Dylan Thomas died , aged 39, in a New York Hotel
• December 10th - Winston Churchill was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for his many historical works
• The UK government approved commercial TV
• Nuclear weapons were tested by the USA in the Nevada Desert
• The third series of the Goon Show was broadcast
• Sweet rationing came to an end
• British films Genevieve and the Titfield Thunderbolt were on in British cinemas
• Hungary became the first overseas national team to beat England football team at Wembley 6 goals to 3
• Dag Hammarskjöld was elected the United Nations Secretary General

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A special commemorative issue was printed with 16 coloured plates including the Coronation coach and 594 portraits and illustrations in photogravure; together with articles dealing with every aspect of the Coronation of our Gracious Queen, the story of her life, and that of her Consort, H.R.H. The Duke of Edinburgh. (size is approx. 14.50 x 10.50 in)

January 10th

• Coronation dress for Peers and Peeresses (photo spread)
• COELACANTH FISH (link with the dinosaurs)
• Norfolk Island.
• English women of Shakespeare's day by Sir John Squire + THE CORONATION CROWN PIECE.
• English Garden & The Coronation by Clarence Elliott
• Window on the world: 1919 Junior staff officer in Germany by CYRIL FALLS.
• Illustration of submarine & new marker buoy for distress signal
• C. E. Turner double page drawing illustration of The Bristol Britania a new 100 seat airliner for BOAC
• Bryan De Grineau 4 full page illustrations of the minting of coin for the new realm.
• Page for Collectors: Two Books about Drawings
• World of Science: War On Locusts.
• Full Page Ads (color and black & white): BOAC, PLAYER'S NAVY CUT CIGARETTE AND TOBACCO, JOHNNIE WALKER SCOTCH WHISKY (GOLFING AD!).
• Partial Page Adverts: (colour and Black & white): CHERRY HEERING, CHAPLIN SHERRY, STATE EXPRESS 55 CIGARETTE, HIGHLAND QUEEN, ROLLS-ROYCE, VICHY CELESTINS, CINZANO, EXPORT CIGARETTES and more

March 14th

• Five pages dedicated to the Death of Stalin including photographs
• Also in this ssue - The RA Coronation Exhibition of Royal Portaits
• Coronation Maids of Honour
• The Runnymede Memorial
• Animal Artists From 20,000 Years Ago : New Discoveries form Northern Spain

The 1953 Christmas Number